Chapter 389: Chapter 388: Eye-Burning
Princess Anna’s gaze swept over the Eastern Monk, as if she were trying to locate the hiding place of the Magic Mirror.
Li Ang, as if having thought of something, clapped his hands and asked with a furrowed brow, "Assuming we take away the Magic Mirror, and the Magic Mirror can extract the Power of Faith to maintain Elsa’s condition..."
"You’re worried that your action of taking away the Magic Mirror caused Elsa’s death?"
Anna propped her hands under her delicate chin and said casually, "You don’t have to worry about that.
Even before you came, Elsa was already at the end of her rope, on the brink of collapse—the Power of Faith was constantly eroding her sanity, crushing her identity.
Your action of taking away the Magic Mirror actually allowed her to hold on for a few more days—but that’s not necessarily a good thing. She was lucid enough to feel the sensation of her personality being replaced, to realize what she had become over the past decade or so.
She was in immense pain and begged me, at the end of her life, to let her leave this world while still of clear mind."
"..."
Li Ang said, "So, you killed her."
Anna sighed, a somewhat complicated smile on her face. "Yes, it’s quite absurd. For the past decade or more, I wanted nothing more than to personally kill the monster that had donned my sister’s skin, but when I looked into her eyes and reached through her chest, crushing her heart, I still felt an unbearable pain. Until the second before she stopped breathing, she was reminding me to be careful not to crush her heart, to remember to leave it intact, as it might be used for the Divine Doctor from the East to perform a transplant. Such a foolish woman..." Her sigh lingered long, merging with the wind and vanishing without a trace.
After a while, Anna’s gaze finally moved away from the ice sculpture and focused on Li Ang. "Transplant the heart for me. If you agree, I can give you everything. Otherwise, go die."
Li Ang fell silent. He looked down at the ice-crystal ground, at the frost shaped like branches and leaves advancing towards him, and took a long breath.
"Why even bother..."
He kicked slightly with the heel of his foot on the ground, and with a BOOM, the thick ice-crystal floor caved in, creating a deep depression. An intricate web of cracks spread rapidly in all directions.
CRACK, CRACK, CRACK, CRACK—
Where the cracks reached, ice crystals burst and splashed. The areas where the frost had been shaped like maple leaves exploded, revealing clusters of ice columns resembling tree branches hidden beneath the surface.
Without any hesitation, all the ice knives suspended in mid-air hurtled towards Li Ang.
Li Ang activated Ripple Energy. The coat he wore on the outside burst open instantly, revealing the Mirage Dragon Red Mane Sweater underneath. At the same time, moving with extreme speed, he drew a Baraklava Type Hood made of Red Mane material (exposing only his eyes and mouth) from his backpack and put it on.
The ice knives struck but failed to penetrate the Red Mane Coat’s defense, falling to the ground with CLICKS AND CLANGS.
It had to be said, although Li Ang’s craftsmanship was quite good—he had often knitted woolen underwear since he was young—this Red Mane Coat looked incredibly ugly. This was because its outer layer used only one color of material (the nylon material was all on the inside, to prevent enemies from spotting any weakness), and to save material, it was also quite tight. It was like a little red version of an alien little green man, so unsightly it reached a new level, a veritable walking source of mental Pollution.
What was even more frustrating was that Li Ang, to prevent leaving any weak points like an Achilles’ heel, had added zippers over the exposed eyes, mouth, and neck area of the hood. If necessary, these could be zipped up, leaving no flaws exposed for a supposedly perfect defense.
However, looking like that, his degree of deviation from normalcy would be tenfold, and he’d likely get snatched off the street for being excessively abnormal.
Li Ang, dressed in the red knitted bodysuit, also felt his current look was quite an eyesore. He stood his ground, hands on hips, and defended himself, "Haha, my red shell might be a bit ugly, but it’s actually a gift from Huanhuan, symbolizing the faster, higher, and stronger Olympic spirit. A superficial person like you, who only focuses on appearances, naturally wouldn’t understand."
The whole process, from Li Ang shattering the ice surface to the surprise attack by the ice knives, and then to Li Ang’s clothes bursting as he transformed into the little red figure, actually happened in the span of a single breath.
Princess Anna couldn’t comprehend what Li Ang was saying at all, still reeling from the shock of his appearance. After all, she was just a native, and in the real world, the Huanhuan reference was an old gag from a decade ago.
"Hahh..."
Anna took a deep breath, pulling herself out of the mental Pollution, and said indifferently, "Why do you refuse me? Logically and emotionally, you should accept the trade I’ve offered."
Li Ang spread his hands. "I certainly don’t feel that way. How could someone like you trust anyone else to mend your heart?"
"Someone like me?"
Anna’s brows furrowed slightly, her pretty face clouded with irritation. "What have I done to give you the wrong impression?"
"No misinterpretations."
Li Ang laughed. "After all, everyone knows Princess Anna is kind and benevolent. Even when forced to employ unforgivable death-row inmates, she ensures they are left with a complete corpse and buries them in the public cemetery—even if doing so poses risks.
But, doing so was also to guard against Elsa, wasn’t it?
Your heart condition is severe, but not so severe that it requires a multitude of death-row inmates.
Those interred bodies were just to hoodwink Elsa, to make her believe your heart malformation was life-threatening.
You have never trusted her."
Anna’s countenance suddenly grew dark. "What right do you have to say that?"
"Aside from those bodies in the South City Cemetery, there are other hidden spots around the city with numerous Spellcasters’ corpses, all dead in the same way, right?
The times of death for these corpses are too close together. They weren’t used to heal a heart condition; you were purely collecting more spellcasting abilities.
You feared that Elsa wasn’t as disengaged from worldly affairs as she appeared. You suspected she had spies throughout the city, ready to topple your reign at any moment.
So you hid those corpses in different places, ready to reveal them as needed, to ’prove’ to Elsa that you indeed required death-row inmates to maintain your heart."
Li Ang continued expressionlessly, "This morning, when you met Elsa, you probably deliberately exaggerated your heart condition, inducing her to willingly give up her own life, letting you drain her life and Energy.
You’re worried that I, the legendary Divine Doctor, could not only cure your heart ailment but also resolve Elsa’s issue, right?
If Elsa were to regain her senses, then control of the world would slip from your hands.
The reason you lured me to the palace is also because Elsa’s power is too enormous. When you tried to absorb it this morning, you couldn’t extract it fully and, in fact, further aggravated your heart condition, forcing you to rest for a while before returning to the palace for a second extraction.
These tree branch-shaped ice blocks underground are extensions of the power you stole from Elsa. Your intent was to make contact with me during our conversation, plunder my abilities, and complete the surgery on the spot.
Even if negotiations fail, it doesn’t matter. You can use Elsa as a power bank, continually providing you with Energy to suppress me, an Advanced Caster, in a fight."