Thousand-Faced Dragon

Chapter 168 Miracles and Destiny

The reflection from the holy sword was so clear that, even with Rean's dragon eyes, he could see the ugly tumor on the ogre's face.

At first glance.
"That bone helmet is so cool, it even emits blue flames! Uh, that ogre looks really fierce, isn't it hot?"

A second glance.
"Holy crap, a lich on his head! This guy's still alive?!"

The third eye.
"Uh, something's not right with this lich. The skull has been dismantled down to the top half, and the bottom half is inserted into the ogre's head, and they're actually connected. And the ogre's eyes are weird too."

The ogre wielding the large spiked club, though ugly, appeared remarkably clean (which is highly unusual for a wild ogre).

Beneath his gleaming leather armor, the exposed flesh was still bound with white towels. Most outrageous of all, his eyes, which should have been bloodthirsty and dull, looked at other living beings with surprising calmness!

A cannibal who has controlled his own appetite? Impossible!

"We want money, not our lives! Pay the toll obediently and we'll let you pass. We have no interest in fighting Menzoderka."

The moment those fluent orcish common language were uttered, Rean was completely stunned.

Is a cannibal with no verbal tics, no missing words, and who speaks logically still a cannibal?!

"Kill them! Eat them!"

But the helmet on his head seemed to have a different opinion.

He adjusted his helmet, his eyes becoming even clearer.

"It is my equipment and advisor, but in the end, it is still King Momor who calls the shots. Pay the toll and I will let you pass. You can ask around about my reputation later. If you don't behave, my minions will have an extra meal tonight."

Rean was completely dumbfounded. Was this still the wild cannibal with an intelligence of less than three and whose stomach did not think?

"Interesting. It actually formed a symbiotic relationship with the lich. Heh, did it activate the two-headed ogre trait? It used the half-crippled lich soul to become a second head."

The snake leaped onto the windowsill and swaggered around, but no one knew what was happening.

Even with its countless years of experience, it had never seen such a strange scene before.

How strange! Let me take another look. It's really too strange. Let me take another look.

Rean suddenly understood after hearing Snake's words.

This lich was already incomplete in soul, and ogres are special creatures with the potential for multiple thought processes. In fact, this created a two-headed ogre?!
Thus, the cannibal king, who was fed back, gained the intelligence of a normal human.

"Don't ask me how I did it, I don't know either. It's strange, let me take another look."

Surprisingly, this strange-looking thing actually piqued the snake's interest.

The favor of fate and chance always produce too many things that cannot be explained by theory and logic. These "one-of-a-kind" and "misprinted and out-of-print" items are super collectibles that collectors cannot refuse.

"Uh, I'm starting to think about collecting them. Rean, you keep them intact, and I'll try to create a bug in them and give you a little something in return." This snake made no attempt to hide the fact that he had lied before.

"I think you want me dead."

Rean retorted irritably.

"Ha, indeed, in your current condition, it seems you're doomed."

Both the snake and Rean made the same judgment: the bandits who came to extort money from the caravan were gradually pushing Rean to the brink of despair.

Even with the Mind Flayer's mastermind and the Beast Prince, Rean still had a chance to survive, but now he had no teammates or allies by his side.

"Can I say how much of a chance I have of winning?"

"Zero, a sure thing."

"Tsk, just as I predicted."

Rean sighed, wondering if he should pray to Lady Luck, since he couldn't believe he was encountering such a bizarre thing.

The group hadn't forgotten about the lich, but they all assumed it was no longer important. A lich that had lost its life box was, under normal circumstances, just a walking corpse that was gradually turning into a complete rotting corpse.

The phylactery has become part of the cyborg apprentice Ophelia. Without the phylactery, the lich is like a kite with a broken string, or a motorcycle without an engine. There's no doubt it will die; we'll just have to see how many pieces it crashes into and how many boxes it breaks into.

Without the source of the soul, the broken body will continuously lose its power, and its emotions, reason, and memories will also gradually disappear.

It was destined to perish completely in madness. This was the judgment made by Kuku and Purple Rose, and theoretically, it was not wrong.

But now, it seems that this ogre king has become its source of soul, not only replenishing its natural disappearance but also restoring some of its sanity.

This is terrifying; a high-level lich who has regained some rationality has become the opponent and enemy we are about to face.

"Can you escape?"

"Hiding from a lich who might be a ninth-ringed in this wilderness? Heh, you can try."

The lich, suspected to be a ninth-ring spellcaster, is far beyond Rean's current capabilities to handle.

That was simply not a match for him. Even if Rean's strength had increased several times over, it was still like the despair of encountering a demon king blocking the entrance in a beginner's village. The fact that they could chase each other before was only because Rean had lost his mind; now, he had actually recovered somewhat.

Rean was numb. It was fine for others to pay, but for himself... it would be strange if it didn't kill him.

"Stealth attack." Rean flipped through his mage book and found that it did indeed have a kind of invisibility ability. If he tried to learn it, could he use it to launch a surprise attack?

"Look at the blue flame in its eye sockets, that's the Constant Vision of Truth. Do you think top archmages don't carry invisibility-breaking abilities? Besides, that ogre isn't easy to deal with either." The snake shook its head with a smile, and this wicked smile felt strangely familiar to Rean.

And that's the logic. Liches are often born with supernatural vision (or the ability to see through illusions), and as top-tier spellcasters, they are extremely sensitive to magic. You might walk by without doing anything and be fine, but if you're carrying magic or spells, you'll definitely be watched.

"You can't dodge it, you can't avoid it, you can't beat it, little guy, you're doomed."

The brute force of some people provided an explanation for the snake's judgment.

The caravan's few seemingly fierce dark elf mercenaries probably thought that a few ogres and goblins wouldn't be too difficult to deal with, so they charged forward.

"Disintegrate!" A green light flashed from the "crown," and in an instant, the leading dark elf warrior turned into ashes. The natural magic resistance that their race was so proud of was meaningless in the face of such an opponent.

"Holy crap, an instantaneous sixth-ring disintegration." Okay, forget about it, I definitely can't beat him.

But this is still just the beginning.

"Law: Deterrence!"

When the powerful eight-ringed Bewitching Seal appeared, all the mercenaries were instantly immobilized.

"Death Finger!"

"Death Finger!"

The mad lich crown used precious seventh-circle spells to call out the names of these novice mercenaries one by one.

The four people who rushed forward either turned to ash or became zombies (an additional effect of the Death Finger skill), and the convoy instantly fell silent.

A high-ranking mage above the eighth ring?! Are you crazy to become a bandit? And specifically to rob low-level caravans like us? You could easily become an elder in any family, or a nobleman by joining any city!

"Look, we only want money, otherwise it would be easy to kill you all." The self-proclaimed cannibal king was quite pleased with this futile attempt.

Rean took a deep breath and ultimately gave up.

This is not an opponent I can handle right now.

"Is there a way?" He felt that this was not entirely a coincidence, but he had no evidence.

"Is it yes or no?" the snake asked with a cheerful laugh.

It still didn't care whether Rean lived or died, but if Rean were to die now, it would probably have to go back. It had only been a few days since it started playing, which was a bit of a pity.

I can help you.

"What is the price?"

"No price to pay." The snake, strangely, became quite agreeable.

“State the price, make a promise. I won’t feel at ease without a price.” But Rean responded rather coldly.

He was certain that even the devil was not as cunning as this snake, and that the other party's help must come at a clear price before he could feel a little more at ease, or at least not be ripped off too badly.

"Tsk tsk tsk, I don't believe in good hearts." The snake wagged its tail, but its eyes were looking "in the distance."

"When you arrive in Radiant City, hug the first person you see and lift them high in the air."

"That's it? Okay." Rean agreed.

He knew that this was a classic scam: the initial conditions were easy to meet, making you get used to the transaction, then the prices kept increasing until you lost everything in one go.

But now, seeing the ogres and goblins constantly knocking on the door, Rean had no choice but to back down.

Just once, just once.

At this moment, the snake was laughing happily.

Fate is truly fascinating; the encounters between people always bring new amusement.

Isn't the very reason we stirred up our own destiny and karma to come to this world just to see this?

Rean's guess was actually a bit off. It wasn't that the snake did it on its own initiative. Rather, as long as it existed, fate was naturally full of variables and chances, and countless low-probability events would unfold wildly.

Is this a result of his subconscious craving for more fun? Or is it a special treat where the world tries to satisfy him to prevent him from creating more fun? Even he himself can't say for sure, but it's always been like this.

"Then worship me, believe in me, just like my witches." The path the snake pointed out also seemed fraught with problems.

(End of this chapter)