I'm a proper student; I only take nine kinds of potions every day.

Chapter 148 I'm Crying! Leave me with your special abilities, and go face the Primal Sage yourself.

Hearing Ivan agree so readily...

Willens said with great pleasure, "I'll take care of suppressing this soul. All you need to do is use this hundred dollars to help me maintain stability for four weeks."

"Once our spiritual connection is established, just follow along with me and recite the mantra."

Ivan nodded: "No problem."

Willens took out another hundred-dollar bill from his pocket.

With a snap of his fingers, the banknote burst into flames, the green flames enveloping the beast-like soul within.

He muttered a few words in a low voice, then waved his hand.

Evan vaguely sensed a special connection between himself and the other person.

This is the effect of the joint ritual; the spiritualities of the two people are temporarily linked together.

Willens picked up the banknote that already contained a soul and continued to absorb souls.

The soul quickly awoke and began to roar and struggle madly, the green flames teetering on the brink of collapse under its struggle.

Willens immediately said, "Now! Repeat after me!"

May the wind of this moonlit night bring you peace.

Ivan immediately said, "I'll help you!"

Then, seemingly without any ulterior motives, she followed along and recited.

When Willens saw that this somewhat mentally unstable witcher was actually chanting incantations with him, a barely perceptible sneer appeared on his lips.

At this moment, he was filled with pride.

Recently, he has built a completely closed hunting ground centered around Ivan.

The trap at the hospital was just one part of the scheme; he had three other backup plans.

The first method is to exploit this guy's greed and use his gloves to make a deal with Ivan.

Then, by exploiting loopholes in the contract terms, they made Evan their debtor.

Once the target becomes in debt, everything he owns will be in Willens' hands.

The core talent of financiers is simple: using money as a weapon or medium.

There are two directions for development.

A method primarily based on physical destruction, which involves converting coins of various denominations into bombs of varying power for attacks.

Another approach, closer to the soul, uses money as a medium to impose various curses, contracts, and restrictions.

The two paths conflict with each other, so financiers generally can only choose one to major in.

Financiers who are short of money generally choose the first option.

But someone like Willens, with his substantial family wealth, naturally chose the second option.

His most prized extraordinary trait is: loan sharking.

He can use money as a medium to sign loan or investment agreements with the other party.

After the contract is completed, the other party will be liable for interest.

The interest accrues so rapidly that if the borrower can't repay the loan, the loan shark can take whatever they want.

Until the other party is completely unable to repay, then this life will belong to him completely.

With his current expert-level abilities, he can only perform physical regeneration on the body.

A lord-level figure like his father, in addition to physical collection methods, could also directly target the other party's extraordinary characteristics and core knowledge as collection objectives.

The bloodthirsty offspring of the Bartrus family was ultimately acquired by the father because of this very trait.

The second move was even more subtle, an unexpected one.

They burned down Ivan's house without a sound.

An accidental fire without any extraordinary traces would be quite easy for him.

Then, the area was rebuilt in the name of charity and public welfare.

During the reconstruction process, some clauses will naturally be added, and these people at the bottom who have no legal knowledge will naturally not understand the hidden costs in the clauses.

The last resort is rather violent, a final measure after all pretense of civility, utilizing his expert-level fusion capabilities: forced acquisition.

Simply throw money at them, crush their rationality, and make them completely embrace the desire for money.

This isn't a physical method; it's about directly using a large amount of money to wear down the other person's spirit.

Of course, the cost is also quite high. It would cost at least ten thousand dollars to grind away all the spirituality of a Witcher apprentice at his current level.

This amount of money was a considerable sum even for him, so it could only be used as a last resort.

Seeing how easily this foolish witcher fell into the trap, Willens couldn't help but hum a little tune to himself.

He was even wondering if, after tonight, his father could move his place in the line of succession forward by one or two positions.

The thought flashed through his mind, and Willens quickly came back to his senses.

Hearing Ivan chanting incantations along with him, he immediately activated his ability.

The extraordinary properties of usury, accompanied by the incantation chanted by the two, quickly spread throughout the area.

Because what he was reciting at this moment was not the ordinary exorcism incantation, but a specially modified version.

This modified incantation is patented and is naturally protected by the relevant judicial system.

If the other party uses it without official permission, they will directly become his debtor.

After all, using a patent without permission will result in penalties.

Just as Willens sensed the ceremony was nearing completion and everything was proceeding smoothly—

He suddenly felt a violent dizziness.

The next moment, for some reason, he started to have wild thoughts.

Eerie whispers and thunderous explosions could be heard in my ears.

Along with these sudden disturbances came a large number of strange and hazy roots.

Those roots directly interrupted his train of thought, and the incantation stopped instantly.

"not good!"

When Willens came to his senses, he was shocked to find that the incantation had stopped for several seconds and the ritual had failed.

The connection of the joint ritual broke, and all the extraordinary powers began to spread rapidly, losing their effect.

Meanwhile, Ivan, looking bewildered, asked, "Was it a success or a failure?"

When Willens saw this, he sneered inwardly, filled with contempt.

"No wonder it's the worst profession among the lowlifes; they can't even distinguish between the success and failure of a ritual."

Although he felt contempt for him, he still tried to comfort him.

"We failed, Arkham, but don't be afraid."

"I am the host of this ceremony, so you won't be held responsible for any consequences."

"Moreover, there are no obvious consequences if such a common exorcism ritual fails."

Ivan looked up, his eyes filled with understanding.

"Oh! Is that so? Today is another day of learning something new!"

Willens spread his arms wide, looking confident.

"when----"

He hadn't finished speaking.

Willens' body suddenly felt as if it had been hit by a heavy hammer, his entire upper body lurched forward, and he nearly fell to the ground.

Then his chest suddenly arched backward, as if something had pierced his chest cavity from behind and then been pulled out.

Ivan, standing to the side, stared wide-eyed, a look of horror on his face. He quickly covered his mouth with both hands, trying to hide his wide grin.

"Here he comes! Here he comes! Old Man Tree is here!"

Willens' eyes widened, and he instinctively looked down.

In his extraordinary vision, an incredibly thick tree root appeared out of nowhere and pierced straight through his chest.

The tree root was about the thickness of an arm, covered with grayish-white bark, and surrounded by rootlets.

This thing is not a physical entity, and it doesn't attack the physical body, but rather the soul.

At this moment, numerous roots began to grow wildly in his soul, frantically absorbing his spirituality.

"Damn it! What the hell is this thing!?"

It was just a regular exorcism ritual; in theory, even if it failed, it would only result in the loss of a little spiritual essence.

At worst, you might be haunted by evil spirits for a few days and lose sleep.

Where did these tree roots that appeared out of nowhere come from?

He hurriedly pulled a wallet from his pocket.

It is entirely black and appears to be made of the leather of some special animal.

It has a flat design and can be folded.

Its surface has no decorative embroidery or patterns, but the overall impression is that it has a life of its own.

The moment Willens opened the wallet, a huge amount of banknotes, far exceeding the wallet's capacity, automatically sprayed out.

The banknotes turned into golden symbols in the air and were instantly absorbed into his body.

The power of money formed two invisible blades within him, precisely and swiftly severing the connection between his internal roots and the external tree roots.

Click.

As the tree roots were severed, the illusions of that extraordinary world vanished.

Willens knelt helplessly on the ground.

His meticulously styled hair was now completely disheveled, his chest heaved violently, and his eyes were filled with lingering fear.

"Damn it! What kind of bastard is this?"

However, before he could catch his breath...

it's dark!

The next instant, Willens found himself standing in a vast, black desert.

Those bright green eyes, filled with dollar signs, looked around in shock.

"What exactly is going on?"

"Weren't those attacks enough of a price to pay?"

"Is this a mental illusion? Or a special realm of existence?"

"Damn it, what's going on? Why is the cost of a failed exorcism ritual so high?"

What was happening at this moment was far beyond his comprehension.

At that moment, he instinctively looked up and saw a big tree.

The tree's trunk stretched from heaven to earth, and its enormous canopy blocked out the sky.

Its terrifying size was so large that it instinctively caused a throbbing pain in one's brain, as if it were being filled.

The moment Willens saw the trees, his eyes widened.

In those emerald green eyes, the dollar sign began to flash wildly, twist, and then suddenly shatter.

A few seconds later, a large amount of blood gushed from his eyes. But he still stared blankly at the tree.

He seemed completely captivated, yet also utterly terrified and unable to move.

Then his head began to swell, and strange gray-white tree roots grew from the top of his head.

At this critical moment, a large amount of US dollars appeared out of thin air around him, forming a temporary barrier.

It seems that some kind of life-saving artifact was triggered during this process.

When the banknotes obscured his vision, Willens finally came to his senses and knelt on the ground, trembling uncontrollably.

At this point, his mental state was on the verge of collapse.

His voice trembled uncontrollably, and his words were devoid of any logic.

"I see it—this is true wisdom—I want to become one of them—"

"Hahahaha—what bullshit capitalists—what bullshit Sap—nothing feels as good as eating shit—"

Even under the protection of the dollar barrier, he still couldn't escape the influence of that tree.

He grabbed handfuls of black quicksand from the ground and frantically stuffed it into his mouth.

After taking two more bites—

boom!

His body exploded, and countless pieces of flesh and blood became part of the black quicksand.

The tree roots that were parasitizing his body seemed to sense the source of the money.

Unable to vent its anger, the tree root then pierced directly into the scattered banknotes and disappeared without a trace.

in reality.

Willens' body fell straight down to the ground at the bottom of the stairs.

His eyes were bloodshot, his pupils were dilated, and he had stopped breathing.

A large number of medical staff and bodyguards had already surrounded him.

Evan mingled in the crowd.

His hand casually brushed against Willens's body.

[The fog-induced brain plague has devoured the roots of the invisible intelligent seed. Progress +3%.]

[The fog-induced brain plague has devoured the roots of the invisible intelligent seed. Progress +3%.]

The notification on the panel started flashing again.

Ivan was secretly overjoyed.

"This was a huge win! I never expected such a severe debuff could be so helpful."

The sin of peeping at the gods reduces the success rate of rituals by 1000%.

This means that any ritual he participates in will fail in a disastrous way.

To dare to cast spells while under such a buff is blasphemous!

Such provocative and continuous acts of blasphemy will naturally invite even more terrifying repercussions.

Willens presided over the ceremony, and Ivan participated in the ceremony.

The ritual failed, and the illusion of the primordial sage, feeling challenged, slapped him down once more.

As the host, Willens bore the brunt of the consequences.

Just moments after Willens was subdued, Evan started shouting again in an attempt to clear himself of suspicion.

"Come quick, help! Something's happened here! Quick, check on Young Master Sap!"

A large number of medical staff and bodyguards immediately surrounded them.

They saw Willens lying there, stiff as a board.

His eyes widened, and his hands instinctively reached for something and stuffed it into his mouth.

Then a large amount of blood spurted from his eyes, and his breath weakened at a visible speed.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Ivan groped his body a few times.

Using the Fog Brain Plague in three separate instances, without any extraordinary fluctuations, it secretly devoured the remaining invisible intelligent seed roots within Willens's body.

Then, on the fourth time, they stole the large, black wallet that could hold a lot of money.

"Mr. Sap! You can't die! You're a truly good man!"

Ivan cried his heart out.

The other person is indeed a good person.

He presided over the ceremony himself, and then the primordial sages targeted him. The tree roots punished him by targeting his body, and he then paid to break those tree roots to show that they were on his side.

He then went so far as to actively confront the illusions of the Primordial Sage.

In the end, Willens left Ivan with no danger, only precious supernatural abilities in his body!

It's so touching!

It can be said that from beginning to end, no one has ever selflessly dedicated so much to Evan.

Willens was the first and only good person willing to give his own life to give Ivan superhuman abilities and keep all risks out of him!

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