From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 391 Noisy Night
The next morning, Ivy returned to the ground after completing her research on the mind flayer tadpoles in the mind of the Gnoll Overlord and was surprised to see how haggard her companions looked.

Xie Nian was tied to a wooden stake and seemed to have completely transformed into a monster with only the desire to kill.

Sticky saliva flowed from the corners of her mouth, dripping onto the ground along the blood-red tattoos on her face. The whites of her eyes had completely turned black, and her scarlet eyes flashed an ominous light, completely devoid of the silly look of the past.

Even with her hands tightly tied, Xie Nian was restless and kept trying to attack the nearest person with her teeth and legs. But the binder was skilled, and Xie Nian's posture was very awkward. Apart from making some manic shouts, she could not threaten anyone for the time being.

Gale fell to the ground, looking blue, like someone who hadn't slept in days.

Kalak and Laizer were both wrapped in bandages, and Ivy believed that there must be scars underneath.

Will's appearance had completely changed. He looked like any other tiefling. His already dark skin had turned reddish brown, and he had upturned horns growing on his head.

Only Asdaelen and Yingxin looked no different from when they parted yesterday afternoon.

Ivy reached out and caught a piece of purple crystal that flew through the air, then looked at Asdaelon who was sitting by the campfire.

"The gem you requested, bard." Arsdalen sighed, "I only hope you have good news for us."

"I do bring good news." Ivy nodded.

"But there is bad news too?" Ying Xin stood up on the other side. "More things have happened in the past few days than I have encountered in my entire life... Tell me now. I am mentally prepared."

"Well...how about waiting until everyone's condition gets better? After all, all of you have the same symptoms..." Ivy took the lute from behind him and started playing soft music.

A burst of light blue magic aura was shaped into the shape of notes by Ivy's strings and flew into the bodies of the team members one by one.

This is a three-ring evocation spell cast with melody, a mass healing mantra. Ivy has now upgraded his Bard class to level 5, so it's time to consider advancing.

However, there are still too many things to deal with, and now Ivy should pay more attention to these teammates who don't look good.

The amount of healing provided by the Mass Healing Mantra is related to Ivy's spellcasting attribute adjustment value. The additional healing provided by 26 points of Charisma is twice the maximum 1d4 healing dice value inherent in this spell, and in most cases is higher than the amount of healing provided by a bottle of ordinary healing potion.

However, the healing notes that were supposed to restore the team members failed to penetrate everyone's body, and Gale, whose face turned blue, could not be healed.

Ivy couldn't help but ask, "What's going on with Gail?"

Yingxin was silent for a while, then said, "He's dead. He was poisoned."

"Dead again?" Ivy said in astonishment. "Could it be that Xie Nian poisoned him again? Is that why you tied Xie Nian up?"

"No," Asdeln rolled his eyes, "The bizarreness of the incident far exceeds the cheesy drama performed in the Elf Song. Perhaps it can be said that our dear wizard died of his own stupidity."

Leiser nodded: "It turns out that just because a person has a lot of knowledge in his head, it doesn't mean he will be very smart."

"Well... then why not ask the gravekeeper to revive him? It's only two hundred gold coins, we can definitely afford it." Before learning the truth from them, Ivy could only believe that Gale died of "stupidity".

"If we want the gravekeeper to revive him, in addition to two hundred gold coins, we must also have evil thoughts..." Asdelun shrugged, "Because the one who answered the gravekeeper's question was none other than evil thoughts. In other words, we must always carry a captain who may go berserk at any time during the rest of the journey. 'God, how have you treated me?'"

"Okay, okay." Ivy changed the song again, "Let me see if I can bring her back to her senses."

Music is a good medicine that can heal the pain in your heart. Even if you are caught in a state of madness and evil thoughts, you can still feel the beauty of music.

As the music's tempo became faster and faster, and the pitch became higher and higher, Xie Nian became even more hysterical. She kicked the bricks on the square of the abandoned village away piece by piece, and the saliva dripping everywhere mixed with the flying dust, turning Xie Nian's pretty face with a kind of evil charm into a dirty potato.

However, this state did not last long. When Ivy's piano music, which was at its climax, came to an abrupt end, the evil thoughts drooped their heads like a puppet with its strings cut, and became silent.

When she raised her head again, the first thing she did was to spit out the dust in her mouth.

"Puh!" Xie Nian wanted to reach out and wipe his mouth, but he only felt numb and weak hands, as if his original limbs were gone, replaced by two weak leather straps.

The first thing that Xie Nian thought of was that the camp had been raided by someone and everyone was taken prisoner, and he was most likely the only one who survived.

She pursed her lips and blew away the red hair that was stuck to her face and blocked her vision. Then she saw several familiar figures: "Oh my God! You are all okay! Then why did you tie me up?... Is this a betrayal? I thought we were already friends!" "Don't you remember what happened last night?" Yingxin said, "Think carefully."

Xie Nian frowned and tried his best to activate his brain, which was already very little. "Uh... We killed the big spider under the well and were planning to come back to revive Gale... Oh my God! How is Gale?"

"Gail just hasn't resurrected yet. The gravekeeper needs you to give him the money in person." Ivy tilted his head towards Gail who was lying on the ground. "Since Xie Nian has regained consciousness, let's free her."

“Letting a time bomb that could go out of control at any time move freely? Too dangerous!” Laizer objected. “I respect her killing style and strength, but her violence and anger that does not distinguish between friend and foe... Fortunately, she did not become a Ghaik (Githyanki: brain-eating bastard), otherwise I would definitely chop off her head.”

"You can rest assured about this. Evil's out-of-control is not caused by the mind flayer tadpoles, but rather comes from the killing impulse deep in his blood." Ivy took out the book "Worldly Observation: Eyewitness Testimony of the Crisis of Baal's Descendants" found in Yager's Tomb. "Baal, the God of Murder, his descendants will kill for no reason and will kill each other until the last man. Baldur's Gate has experienced the Baal Crisis, and you should know more about the sons of Baal than I do. And our friend Evil is more like the son of Baal who lost in the competition among brothers."

"Betraying one's nature is extremely painful..." Yingxin looked at Xie Nian with compassion. "If you were truly a son of Baal, even if the Mind Flayer Tadpole didn't kill you, the killing urge from the bloodline of the God of Murder would still cause you to fall into the abyss."

"Well, it seems that our happy team has a new person who is related to God." Asdaelon put his hands beside his head and gestured twice, "Why don't we quickly resurrect the magic goddess's old lover and let you reminisce about the past?"

Yingxin walked over to help Xie Nian untie the rope. During this process, she saw Will, who had remained silent all the time.

"Wait! Will! What's wrong with your head? I didn't know you were a tiefling!"

"I'm not a tiefling." Will had a gloomy look on his face. "This is the sect master's punishment for me doing a good thing."

"Who would have thought that someone who disagrees with making a deal with the devil would be the first to exchange power with the devil?" Asdeln's tone is hard to describe. "I have long said that we are a bizarre adventure team."

"Oh my God... so many things happened while I was unconscious..." Xie Nian rubbed his wrist, took his wallet and walked towards the gravekeeper.

After a few brief conversations, the gravekeeper accepted the two hundred gold coins and began to cast his own spell: "In the name of destruction and dusk, I will cross out your name from the archives. Come back!"

Gale's lifeless body disappeared in the blink of an eye, and next to the gravekeeper and Evil Thought, stood a Waterdeep Archmage who was intact.

"Oh my god! I'm resurrected? Again?" Gale's surprised voice sounded, "Have I been dying too often recently?"

"Then you should remember not to drink anything carelessly next time, especially something that belongs to the Red Robe Mage." The evil thought that came with him rolled his eyes, "I can't forget the way you foamed at the mouth because of a bottle of healing potion."

It sounds like Gale's death was caused by the poisonous potion in the red wizard's basement. Although Ivy wanted to find out, she had other things to do now.

"Okay, now that everyone is here, let's sit by the campfire and listen to me tell you about the Mind Flayer tadpoles in your minds." Ivy clapped his hands, attracting everyone's attention.

"From studying the living mind flayer tadpoles in the brains of the werewolves, I have come to a conclusion - you will not become mind flayers just because the metamorphosis period ends." Ivy announced.

"Then do you have a way to remove the Mind Flayer tadpoles in our brains?" Yingxin asked immediately.

"That's exactly what I'm going to say next." Ivy motioned for her to be patient. "The mind flayer tadpoles in the jackal's brain have been subjected to a powerful stasis magic, so that it has matured very well, but has never transformed the host into a mind flayer. Normally, the standard symptoms should have begun on the first day the host was parasitized. Since the tadpoles in your brain can resonate with the true souls belonging to the Supreme God, I have reason to believe that the mind flayer tadpoles from two different sources have the same characteristics."

"This conclusion is too hasty..." Gale couldn't help but say, "There's not even a control group... I suspect that as long as the mastermind gives the order, we will all collectively transform into mind flayers..."

"Two days have passed, and apart from your fear of the Mind Flayer tadpoles, you haven't shown any symptoms of discomfort. Instead, you can use the psychic power it brings. We have reason to suspect that the entire plan of the Supreme God is a huge conspiracy." Ivy continued, "Remember the gnolls who attacked Zariel's lackeys? I think they were assigned by Yeenoghu, the god of gnolls. But the gnoll commander with the Mind Flayer tadpoles in his mind still resisted this order from the racial god, and instead led his team to attack the Zhentarim's spies, and engraved the mark of the Supreme God on the stone wall outside the cave."

"Except that the Supreme God is a mind flayer mastermind, I can't think of any other reason. The mind flayer tadpoles stored in your brains are abnormal and powerful. Logically, you should have become puppets of the Supreme God long ago, but this is not the case. This means that there is an equally powerful psychic force protecting you. It blocks the channel through which the mastermind transmits instructions to the mind flayer tadpoles. In layman's terms, it is like a spell counter or an anti-magic shield...but the target is psychic power. I don't know much about this power, but I can be sure that you are living well under this protection. As for how long you can live, it depends on the mood of the person who controls this power."

"Okay, then we will just believe your conclusion... Can you help us get rid of the Mind Flayer tadpole in our brain?" Xie Nian asked again, "I can't help but tremble when I think of a little bug in my brain."

"Although the stasis magic attached to the Mind Flayer tadpoles prevented you from transforming into Mind Flayers, it did not stop the tadpoles from continuing to develop. They have been deeply integrated with your souls - they not only parasitize your brains, but also your souls." Ivy shook his head, "I don't know much about the soul. I can't perform craniotomy on you and cut off the spiritual connection between you and the Mind Flayer tadpoles at the same time."

Ivy's black magic is better at destroying and torturing other people's souls. To perform such a delicate operation, a large number of bodies are needed for experiments.

"Parasit on our souls?" Yingxin was dumbfounded. "Is this possible?"

"It is indeed possible." Will said, "Remember what Raphael told us in the House of Hope? Our souls are 'worthless' because of the little worm in our brains. It will not only devour our brains and turn us into mind flayers, but it will also devour our souls. The devils call it escaping debts... To them, people parasitized by mind flayers are the worst customers, because the contract may be broken at any time due to the transformation of the mind flayers."

"But Raphael is still eager to make a deal with us. It seems that the mind flayer tadpoles in our minds are indeed related to a conspiracy with huge influence. Even the devils in hell are flocking to us." Gale said sharply, "This is our chance! And Raphael is a Cambion, which means he also has human weaknesses. We can use this to defeat him... Just like Ivy said before, set a trap in the material plane and catch Raphael..."

(End of this chapter)