Chapter 374: Killing with Others’ Hands (1)

After killing five Heart Stealers, the moment their souls dissipated or escaped, Donald absorbed them into his Soul Sphere.
“As expected of a soul-absorbing monster with psychic talents— the soul strength of a bronze-level Heart Stealer is comparable to that of at least five demons of the same rank. After all, demons are creatures of the lower realms whose power stems from their souls!”
Seeing his soul energy reserves now exceed 200,000, Donald couldn’t help but feel overjoyed. He called everyone into his demi-plane to take shelter, so that only he would be left to invade the Heart Stealer tribe, making it easier for him to escape!
None of them were foolish; especially facing such a terrifying threat as the incarnation of the Destroyer Lord, every extra person was a burden. Even the strongest demi-god, Amps, couldn’t claim to be of much use.
So everyone entered the demi-plane, leaving only Donald, who rushed full speed toward the direction from which those soul-absorbing monsters came.
These Heart Stealers all possessed the ability to establish psychic connections, especially near their central brain, with their entire territory covered by their psychic network.
Having received warnings from previous hunting parties, they must have set up a thorough trap in their tribe, waiting for him to fall into it. But didn’t Donald also intend to outwit them, using them to hold off that terrifying foe?
As for which plan would succeed, it would depend on their respective tactics. But whether Donald could escape or not, it was clear that after the devastation caused by the incarnation of the Destroyer Lord, that tribe would surely be destroyed!
As soon as he entered a platform beneath the caves in the plain where Scorpion Tail City lay, he was struck by psychic attacks from dozens of Heart Stealers.
These natural psychics sent invisible waves toward Donald’s brain from a distance of dozens of feet!
“Death to those who defy me!”
Rather than wasting time casting spells to fight back, Donald grabbed his blade and charged through the human wall formed by the slave troops ahead, killing several Heart Stealers before breaking into the heart of their tribe.
Without using his unique powers as a Demon Hunter, his physical combat strength far surpassed that of the Golden Sword Saint. How could those rigid Heart Stealer slaves, whose strength was at most silver level, compete with him, even though they had a numerical advantage?
At this point, the strongest Gold-level Heart Stealers in the tribe, including an Elder Soul Devourer, had no choice but to confront him!

Silent mental control and intense mental blasts struck at the same time, yet these had no effect on the invading enemies. Their powerful mental abilities vanished like mud sinking into the sea, with no reaction whatsoever. This filled the elite members of the Mind Stealers with terror!
In typical battles, Mind Stealers preferred to have their slaves charge forward to attack the enemies while they used mental blasts and other mental magic spells from a distance. Once the enemies were paralyzed and unable to move, the Mind Stealers would attach their tentacles to the enemies’ heads to drain their brains.
Mind Stealers regarded all non-spirit-consuming creatures as enemies, believing that all other races were only fit to be their slaves or food. The races they hated the most were undead creatures, as unlike magic constructs and alchemical puppets, which could solve their problems by killing their masters, undead were completely immune to mental influence and paralysis. As a result, most of the Mind Stealers’ mental abilities were useless against them, forcing them to use their slaves to deal with them.
Slaves were the currency and wealth in the Mind Stealers’ society. A strong and healthy slave was not only their protector but also an excellent source for reproducing the next generation!
Apart from constructs, alchemical puppets, and undead, which were completely immune to mental magic, this was the first time they had encountered someone like Donald! A mere human who was completely immune to their mental spells?
“Kill him! This human possesses divinity…”
An ancient voice echoed in the minds of all beings in the tribe—it was the command issued by the tribe’s central brain.
Since mental spells no longer worked against the enemy, the Mind Stealers could only order their slaves to attack the intruder.
But Donald had already located the tribe’s most vital secret location—the brain pool—by following the voice as soon as the central brain gave the order.
The central brain’s desire for divinity was extremely strong. These highly intelligent beings, constrained by their physical form, wanted nothing more than to break free from their brain-based existence, and studying divinity was one of the most promising paths to achieving this goal.
Yet divinity was hard to find, especially for a brain that couldn’t survive outside its pool.

The leader of this tribe was already at the legendary level, but aside from its powerful mental attack ability known as Mind Blast, it could only rely on controlling other Heart Stealers or beings brainwashed by them to protect itself. After all, their main role was to collect the memories of past Heart Stealers and maintain the stable development of the community!
So when Donald managed to walk calmly toward the Brain Pool despite being surrounded by numerous slaves, the leader, which had been shouting demands for violence, suddenly screamed in fear!
The screams that echoed within the mind were incredibly deadly. Although they couldn’t cause any physical harm, Donald found them extremely unpleasant.
“Stop screaming!”
With a single slash, he created the first wound on the surface of that disgusting, giant brain-like entity, and the leader immediately ceased all mental activity as if silenced by fear.
Looking at this leader before him, and taking advantage of the complex terrain in the underground world, which meant the pursuer would take some time to arrive, Donald had some ideas.
“O’Neill, can we obtain the memories from the leader?”
The Soul Devourer in the demi-plane thought for a moment before explaining, “Master, the longer the leader exists, the more memories of the Spirit Siphoners it absorbs. This legendary leader has an extremely large brain capacity. If you were to actively merge with its memories, it would likely burst your brain instantly.”
Despite O’Neill’s warning, Donald wasn’t worried at all.
“So the leader’s memories can be extracted? If we use another method to get them, there won’t be any problems, right?”
“Yes, master! You can force the leader to release all its memories and extract every useful piece of information. A leader that values its own life will surely cooperate fully with you!”
After getting a satisfactory answer from O’Neill, the Heart Stealer spy, Donald immediately raised his blade. The threatened leader, though reluctant, promptly obeyed Donald’s orders.
Seeing that the leader was in the hands of the invaders, the other Heart Stealers didn’t dare act rashly either. They could only order their slaves to tightly encircle the Brain Pool.
The leader was the core of a Spirit Siphon tribe, akin to a supercomputer that controlled everything in a large research institution, recording all its data and information. By taking control of it, ordinary people could almost gain access to everything they needed.

The main brain’s neural trunk is composed of the brain tissue of dead Mind Stealers separated from their bodies; thus, the main brain can be regarded as a collective consciousness formed through the fusion and assimilation of the wills of these entities. Similarly, a being like the main brain functions as a kind of intelligent brain, recording all the knowledge acquired by the Mind Stealers in this tribe over thousands of years, and it can also conduct deductions using its immense computational power. Among legendary-level main brains, there is not only knowledge of various spells, alchemy, martial arts, and other cultivation techniques but also a wide range of subjects such as history and geography. The most important aspect is their understanding of various laws as legendary beings. If Donald could master this knowledge, ascending to the peak of a legendary archmage would be no problem for him, and he might even more easily attain divine mastery, reaching the level of igniting a divine flame! As for how memories are stored, in terms of capacity and capability, the main brain pales in comparison to the Book of Truth—a high-grade artifact specifically designed for recording, analyzing, and deducing. It’s like comparing an old 586 machine to a modern computer with a quad-core CPU; in terms of memory, hard drive, and processing speed, they are entirely on different levels. After ordering the Book of Truth to take over its brain and absorb all the memories transmitted through the mental channel, Donald also seized a quarter of the main brain’s vast soul, converting it into soul power, thus quickly obtaining the soul power of as many as four perfect souls! The remaining majority was the core of the main brain’s soul, so Donald left it alone—he still needed this entity and its tribe’s members to hold off the pursuer behind them! Less than two minutes passed after all this, and Donald immediately jumped away without looking back, leaving the Mind Stealer tribe amidst their confused thoughts. Just as the invaders had left and the Mind Stealers had relaxed their tension and worries, barely relieved that their losses were minimal, a loud rumbling sound approached! “Is it an earthquake?” That was the thought in everyone’s mind. Having lived in the underground world for many years, they occasionally experienced earthquakes, and such natural disturbances usually didn’t affect their caves carved in the solid underground rock formations. But this time seemed different—the shaking was getting louder and louder! “An enemy attack!” The main brain was the first to realize this and screamed loudly through the mental channel to warn the many Mind Stealer members. “Damn it, transfer me quickly…”

But the chaotic Heart Stealer lost its usual composure and intelligence, unable to take any effective action. Sensing that destructive force approaching rapidly, its core was terrified. It had just been forced by a human, forced to give up years of accumulated memories and having a quarter of its soul drained, leaving it severely weakened. Now, another terrifying existence appeared, one that made it impossible even to think of resisting! How could it escape without limbs? Meanwhile, knowing that the Heart Stealer tribe, no matter how powerful, could not hold back the incarnation of the Destroyer King for long, Donald, guided by O’Neill, headed to his second target, aiming to use powerful underground forces to stop the Destroyer King’s rampage and, at the same time, exploit the Destroyer King to eradicate evil forces underground!