Lord of Enigma

Tang Qi could see wisps of fog-like grayish-black magic power gushing out of that beautiful figure. They entangled themselves with his soul, dragging him towards that scary world.

It was a world full of ill omens. Inside, there was no light, no vibrancy. Everything was a murky gray. Vortexes spun and swirled, turning the world twisted and even more foreboding, as though the most terrifying of nightmares.

Once entrapped within, one would never be able to break free for eternity.

The only solution was to submit.

"Submit to me, and you shall become a child of misfortune and hold the power of misfortune."

A voice, like that of one sleep talking, echoed within Tang Qi's mind.

An intense urge, flowing through him like deadly poisonous vines, welled up within Tang Qi. It wrapped around his soul, making him want to surrender, to drop onto his knees and offer up eternal loyalty. It made him want to kiss the feet of this beautiful lady in front of him and become one of her lowliest of slaves.

In truth, Tang Qi's form was already gradually bending over from the pressure of the grayish-black magic power.

A scornful and bewitching smile appeared on the perfect face of Sally, who was now a completely different person. The smile could drive countless men crazy for her and make them do anything for her at all costs. It was as if she could already see Tang Qi kissing her feet.

He was just a human teen who had just stepped into the realm of the supernatural. If it weren't for the fact that the Spirit Tide had only just returned, she would have never taken an interest in him.

At an angle she couldn't see, Tang Qi slowly closed his eyes. As information fragment after information fragment streamed past Tang Qi's eyes, he activated his skill and ignited… a sun.

Encounter with the magic power of misfortune!

Transformation into a slave of misfortune in progress!

The target, a supernatural human!

Assessment of magic power grade in progress!

The only magic power, "Power of the Furnace", flowing out!

Assessment passed!

Transformation failed!

…

Boom!

Hiss~

Just like tossing a red hot piece of soldering iron into a thick blanket of snow, the snowfield didn't melt completely. However, all around Tang Qi who had transformed into a golden sun, all the grayish-black wisps of the magic power of misfortune dispersed at an incredibly fearsome speed and disappeared completely.

That laughable look of scorn froze on the countenance of the teenage girl who was like a dark elf, and she started screaming instead. The gray fog that was originally coiling gently instantly transformed into terrifying whips. As the girl screamed at a pitch that could split one's eardrums, the whips also started lashing madly at Tang Qi.

Her screams were filled with a sense of ill omen that easily overpowered the Dugong sea monster's.

"Child of the furnace! The damned legacy of the Lord of the Furnace! Didn't you disgusting fellows die out in the great catastrophe of the previous generation?"

"Why? Why is it that you can still drag out your existence like a rat on the planet of Origin? Lurking by my side so early and even trying to destroy one of my other selves, I won't let you have your way."

"Die, die, all of you."

This sudden change was such that even Tang Qi, the "evil initiator" of all these, couldn't react in a timely manner.

However, it wasn't hard to pick up a few pieces of incredibly shocking information from the words of this witch who had transformed into a crazy girl.

The origin of the Golden Furnace Meditation Method wasn't simple!

There was enmity between it and the witch of the foreign world!

The witch was under the wrong impression that he had a motive for getting close to her!

And lastly, she was scared.

Just like how a beast which felt threatened would try its absolute best to exhibit its strength.

The witch sub-personality couldn't be considered human.

But in this instant, Tang Qi could sense her emotions nonetheless. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do at the moment.

To transform into the golden furnace, he needed to maintain a meditative state.

Tang Qi couldn't be sure whether he would be able to win if he broke out of meditation and used only the power of the furnace to stand against the Witch of Misfortune sub-personality?

He hadn't given it a go yet, but Tang Qi knew that the chances of success weren't high.

Perhaps the power of the furnace and the magic power of misfortune were of the same supernatural grade.

But Tang Qi wasn't a true so-called child of the furnace. He had obtained only the Meditation Method; he didn't hold in his possession the other parts of the legacy that complemented the Meditation Method. Moreover, he hadn't cultivated the Meditation Method for that long either.

His opponent, however, was a pure Witch of Misfortune, a share of magic power split from an actual goddess of a foreign world. Residing within Sally's body, more than ten years of nurturing had birthed a witch sub-personality capable of perfectly wielding that share of magic of misfortune.

Tang Qi suspected that he might just be dismembered instantly should he break out of the Golden Furnace state.

This was something extremely inconceivable, but the two of them had indeed entered a stalemate.

What was even more unbelievable was that Tang Qi knew that if the stalemate were to continue, he would gain the upper hand once more.

Before he had gone into meditation, his special ability had shown him a few information fragments.

One of them went like this:

"When the witch is unable to enslave a suitable slave of misfortune before the expiration of the time limit, she'll be faced with two choices — fusing with the main sub-personality to dissolve the seal even though it would cause unforeseeable results, or being sealed again and waiting for the next suitable opportunity."

"Time Limit: Three minutes."

What this information fragment revealed was that after more than ten years had passed, the object sealing the magic power of misfortune was no longer the spectacles, but the "vessel" Sally herself. As a sub-personality, the Witch of Misfortune only had two choices — destroying the vessel or fusing with the vessel.

As a goddess of a foreign world, she would never allow herself to be assimilated by a human. Therefore, her choice was clear.

As expected, Tang Qi's prediction came true.

The raving mad witch calmed down quickly. Her brows furrowed slightly as she stared at Tang Qi who emitted golden flames, his eyes tightly shut. Black flowers that were even more bewitching and glamorous bloomed on the flower crown atop her head, giving off an even more ominous feeling.

Beside the two of them, the spectacles in Mrs. Hudson's hands vibrated mildly, as if about to fly back onto Sally's nose bridge at any moment.

Whatever Tang Qi knew, she was even more aware.

On the other hand, what Tang Qi didn't know was, for example, the fact that she had a third choice — turning Mrs. Hudson next to her into a slave of misfortune. However, this was similarly risky. Hudson was just an ordinary old lady. It was possible that she would die during the transformation process instead.

At this moment, the Witch of Misfortune was at a disadvantage.

The first choice, which was to fuse with Sally, was something that she would never do. Because this was the first time she was controlling this body as a sub-personality, once she fused with Sally, it was highly likely that she would be directly devoured by Sally, the main personality. When that happened, she would no longer be the Witch of Misfortune, but a witch possessing strong powers of ill omen.

However, the second choice was even more of an impossible one. Returning to a sealed state implied that Tang Qi would survive. When that happened, it was easy to imagine what would come out of a supernatural human dealing with a teenage girl who had no power to defend herself at all.

She was a strong and powerful alter ego birthed from a share of magic power from a goddess of a foreign world!

Yet she was losing to a teenage boy who had only just stepped into the realm of the supernatural?

This was extremely inconceivable, yet it was the truth.

"Misfortune wanders along the same path, befalling upon one occasionally and befalling another occasionally. However, it favors me all the time. Only when the most supreme manifestation of fate reappears will I be able to free myself of their backlash and become the one and only goddess of fate."

"Before I can free myself, since there is no way of fighting against it, then I shall compromise."

"My main self probably wouldn't be able to imagine that I would choose to… negotiate with the child of the furnace."

After reciting a line from a certain fable as if she was sleep talking, the grayish-black fog that filled up the entire fitting room suddenly fluctuated and returned into Sally's body once again. The body under the witch sub-personality's control suddenly took a step forward in this moment. Warm and soft lips pressed directly against Tang Qi's forehead.

A ring of gray fog spread outwards, and a bewitching voice full of ill omens echoed within Tang Qi's mind.