Heading to the Celestial Team

Chapter 35: Heading to the Celestial Team

Mind Flayers, also known as Illithids, are a rather unique and powerful species. They possess slender limbs and massive heads, with four long, tough tentacles sprouting from their faces, making them look as if an octopus had been plucked and grafted onto the head of an extremely emaciated human.

Bizarre, yet powerful.

They rarely engage in melee combat and are not adept at using weapons or armor. The facial tentacles they use for feeding might occasionally serve as a defensive measure, but more often than not, they rely on a different kind of power.

Psionics, telekinesis.

Any Mind Flayer can easily command this innate power. They can read the thoughts of mortals at will and manipulate the minds of the weak. They use vast psionic energy to construct barriers or inflict mental lashes. When necessary, they can concentrate the psionic energy within their brains to unleash a Mind Blast with immense destructive power.

They are essentially a superior alternative to the Burrowing Devil Worm; after all, for a psionic race like the Mind Flayer, learning to cast magic is as simple as eating or drinking. Aside from being unable to burrow through the ground or trigger massive earthquakes as easily as the Burrowing Devil Worm, they can perform almost any task better.

So...

"A corpse of an adult Mind Flayer actually costs one thousand reward points."

Si Ming examined the humanoid octopus lying before him, his brows furrowing slightly before relaxing. In terms of raw ingredients, a single Burrowing Devil Worm is worth at least two hundred Mind Flayers. Yet, the unit price of a Mind Flayer is only one-third less than that of a Burrowing Devil Worm.

It is truly not economical at all. Has the Main God never considered that there might be reincarnators with peculiar appetites who quite enjoy consuming fresh Mind Flayer? Or perhaps...

"The brain of a Mind Flayer is quite valuable."

This is a good thing.

It means that as long as the Mind Flayer's brain can be revitalized, its abilities can be replicated to a large extent. And now, it is the perfect time to experiment.

"Awaken."

Necrotic Aura equivalent to ten Skeleton Soldiers was injected into the body, and the dead adult Mind Flayer began to move once more. It braced its body and stood up. However, just like the initial state of previously awakened creatures, it could only wave its slender limbs somewhat clumsily, utilizing muscles that were not its primary strength.

Now, inject Night Battle Qi.

A dark, gloomy radiance lit up. The turbid, dilated eyes became agile once again. The Mind Flayer, which had been standing on the ground in a slightly awkward manner, suddenly became light. Its emaciated body began to float slightly.

The Mind Flayer's brain had been activated. Similar to the previous Burrowing Devil Worm, a psychic link emerged within Si Ming's perception. His awakened servant shared the vast sensory perception brought about by its extraordinary brain. Unlike the Burrowing Devil Worm, which had a noticeable delay in operation, the Mind Flayer's psychic perception was clearly much faster and more agile!

Si Ming moved his thoughts.

"Shield."

An invisible telekinetic shield immediately generated beside Si Ming and his Mind Flayer servant. It was undoubtedly a comprehensive and tough defense. He stepped back, moving outside the shield's protection, and fired various firearms at the shield's surface.

.22LR bullets were as ineffective as dust.

9mm reinforced bullets were like light sand kicked up in the wind.

12.7mm rifle bullets and 12-gauge explosive shotgun shells could barely create ripples on the shield's surface.

Only the more lethal and powerful Fusion Thermal Orbs could cause the Mind Flayer's telekinetic shield to shake incessantly under rapid fire!

But it only shook; it did not collapse.

After the rapid fire ended, the telekinetic shield quickly regained its stability. Aside from a slight sense of hunger transmitted through the psychic link—which could be remedied by feeding or supplying energy—the Mind Flayer had almost no consumption.

The strength is excellent.

But...

"This type of unit... I can control more than one."

A second purchased Mind Flayer appeared beside Si Ming, followed by a third. By the time he felt his mind beginning to swell, a full four Mind Flayers had appeared in his field of vision.

Now, even if he pulled the trigger of his Fusion Gun to the end, he could not shake the telekinetic shield constructed jointly by the four Mind Flayers. And as he pointed forward, a jointly released Mind Blast, in the form of a massive, visible conical shockwave, slammed forward!

Sand and stones flew, and the calm lake water was suddenly split into a massive channel on both sides. This powerful shockwave pushed straight forward for hundreds of meters before it began to disintegrate and fade.

The power is immense. And this is not a force specifically designed for digging holes.

Beyond this, the Mind Flayers' telekinesis can also lift him, allowing him to hover or save some effort for flight powered by Battle Qi bursts.

"...It has reinforced me quite a bit."

But he still had vast reserves of strength to continue growing.

He glanced at his attribute table, which had been upgraded with a BB-rank enhancement and further boosted by the Blood Bodhi, and smiled faintly. Because he still had many reward points left, consuming them all would be enough to push all his parameters into the four-digit range!

"One thousand points per attribute for six attributes... Damn, that's absurd." Si Ming, who was always refined, couldn't help but curse. Even so, he would not resist the plan to make himself stronger. And as those vast, cold reward points were fully converted into warm attribute parameters, he turned his gaze toward the awakened and activated Byakhee.

The feeling of mental pollution was no longer experienced at all. However, he could indeed perceive some strange power radiating from the Byakhee's body, affecting the surroundings.

It looked like a bizarre giant bird, with bat-like wings, a multi-lobed giant mouth resembling both a demon and a spider, and a terrifying chest cavity. A large number of horns, tentacles, and scales covered its entire body. But unlike the thick, lingering stench in the original lore, the necromantically-animated Byakhee did not have that terrifying, almost visible, pungent odor.

Si Ming landed lightly on the Byakhee's back. He knew that this mythical creature, which cost him two thousand reward points, did not actually have many special powers. It had only one talent, one function: to serve as a means of transportation, wandering between different regions, kingdoms, and even planets.

Dimensional teleportation.

Long-range dimensional teleportation.

Thoughts turned, ability activated. The next moment, the Byakhee and Si Ming, who was riding on its back, vanished into thin air, only to reappear in a wilderness one hundred kilometers away, temporarily opened up within his personal space!

His head... felt a bit dizzy.

There was no sensation during the teleportation process, but after it ended, a clear sense of discomfort manifested on his physical shell. Even Si Ming, with all six attributes at one thousand, needed several seconds to return to normal. Yet the Byakhee beneath his feet remained as if nothing had happened.

"It might require some auxiliary measures."

Si Ming knew this. In the rules of the Cthulhu Mythos, ordinary people must drink a special drug called 'Golden Honey Mead' before riding a Byakhee for interstellar travel. Its only effect is to temporarily suspend the rider's body and soul, thereby mitigating the damage caused by interstellar travel—obviously, as a reincarnator who needs to be ready for battle at any time, this drug, which would likely sabotage him, could never enter Si Ming's mouth. This meant that if he wanted to use the Byakhee for high-speed combat, he would have to think of another way.

"Perhaps if I keep fainting, I'll eventually get used to it?"

A good idea, worth a try.

And the facts seemed to be exactly that.

After teleporting ten times, to the point where the Byakhee needed a short rest, that several-second-long paralysis was finally reduced to under a second. And if the body were a bit stronger, or if effective riding techniques were summarized, this flaw would be completely erased.

Very good.

In that case, the shortcoming of having short legs had also been successfully overcome. Now, whether it was attack, defense, survival, endurance, burst, or mobility, Si Ming had already handled every aspect perfectly.

Was there anything else that needed to be checked for omissions?

Si Ming thought about it, feeling that he could perhaps consider clearing out trash mobs a bit more. However, the most convenient and professionally suited plague-type abilities only passed through his mind before he quickly rejected them.

No need.

It was better to be cautious with operations that were so uncontrollable and prone to causing immoral outcomes.

Si Ming knew that in the primordial reincarnation world, there existed something called 'luck.' Doing good deeds had always been more promising than doing bad ones. That was why he chose to leave after confirming he couldn't stand his Japanese teammates in 2007, rather than staying behind to start a farming team. Of course, his own disdain for the farming method was the bigger reason.

Beyond that, operations like spreading plagues, wanton slaughter, or even destroying the world were naturally to be avoided if possible; if they truly couldn't be avoided, they should be kept to a minimum.

So...

Si Ming turned his head and equipped his four Mind Flayer guards with cloaks that possessed camouflage effects. Combined with the simple illusions that the Mind Flayers' own psionic powers could create, they already looked much more decent, at least in terms of appearance.

He practiced for a while longer.

He familiarized himself more with his power—he vaguely remembered that the first-generation Central Continent Team leader had already unlocked the third stage of the Gene Lock when undergoing captain certification, and could even sense non-Devil Team members throughout the reincarnation world, with four having already reached that level. Unfortunately, it seemed he lacked this sensing ability and currently had no idea how far this suspected first-generation reincarnation world had progressed.

--It shouldn't be the late stage; at the very least, it's the early-to-mid stage.

--Second stage plus BB should be enough to ensure self-preservation.

It was about time.

He waved his hand, recalling all his summoned creatures into the summoning space. Eve was already prepared and waiting for him, and he reached out his hand to pass her a scroll.

"Do you remember what I told you before?" Si Ming asked.

"Yes." Eve hugged the scroll and nodded. "If I suddenly appear somewhere outside the personal space, don't worry about anything. Run directly toward the room with your personal mark. If I can't make it to the room in the first instance, use this scroll immediately. And if I can't even use the scroll, let go of my thoughts, trust you with all my heart, and cooperate to trigger the power you left inside me."

She remembered it very clearly, so Si Ming nodded slightly.

These were all insurance policies, and if possible, Si Ming did not want to use them.

Then...

He took a light breath.

"Main God, I agree to become a Celestial Team reincarnator."