Lord of Enigma

Inside a dark void, Tang Qi transformed into a golden sun. He emitted seemingly endless light and heat, burning all the monstrosities that surged through an opening into nothingness.

In the past, what he burned was indeed monstrosities.

But after going into meditation in front of the Witch of Misfortune, what he was burning was instead grayish-black whips.

Or to be more accurate, the tips of the whips.

Because the supernatural grades of the two seemed to be the same.

Tang Qi didn't mind though. He continued using his will to sketch the outline of the golden sun stroke by stroke.

He was confident that at the end of the three-minutes time limit, that so-called witch sub-personality's only choice would be to give in.

Tang Qi's premonitions had always been accurate.

Just that this time, it was a little off the mark.

"Phew~"

In the dark dimension, the grayish-black whips suddenly vanished without a trace. What took their place was a familiar figure who stood at the opening that seemed near but was, in actuality, incredibly far away.

Sally?

No, she was likely the Witch of Misfortune instead.

Compared to Sally's physical body in the outside world, this figure here was probably closer to what the Witch of Misfortune looked like.

A black dress that looked a little similar to the goth style shone upon skin that was so fair that it was outrageous, giving off a mysterious and bewitching feel. The black flowers atop her head bloomed and withered constantly. They were breathtakingly beautiful, yet they were full of a sense of foreboding.

She stood at the opening. Grayish-black magic power signifying misfortune spread out into a sea of fog, wrapping her within.

Their physical positions prevented all possibilities of Tang Qi launching an ambush.

The witch sub-personality who had entered Tang Qi's consciousness through some kind of method was completely different from the crazy girl earlier, as if that was merely an illusion. The witch at this moment was practically a mysterious and classic lady. She offered a contract invitation to Tang Qi directly.

"Young child of the furnace, I will not apologize for affronting you earlier. But as compensation, I'm willing to enter into a fair contract with you so that you may mature in advance. It will allow you to gain sufficient power before the Spirit Tide reaches its peak, such that you do not end up a lowly pawn to be easily used by those fellows and then abandoned or killed."

After speaking, something seemed to occur to the witch, and she didn't intend to give Tang Qi any chance to buy time at all. She said, "This is your only chance. If you reject my offer, I will choose to expend most of my magic power of misfortune and extinguish you, a furnace who has only just started to burn, in these dark ruins."

"Perhaps I would be sealed once more, but you shall die a thorough death."

"You only have three seconds to think about it. I'm sure it's more than enough time."

"Three!"

"Two!"

Before the count of "one" rang out, Tang Qi's voice was heard coming from that seemingly eternal sun.

"The content of the contract!"

"I hope that the price I would need to pay is fair in relation to the benefits I receive."

Upon hearing his voice, that stunning and breathtaking smile finally appeared on the witch's face again. At the same time, a ball of tranquil light manifested with a hum between the two of them in that dark void. An object similar to a parchment scroll appeared before their eyes.

The scroll was blank, but under the witch's gaze, it was as if an invisible quill pen was writing. Line after line of small text appeared.

Under the attention of the most venerable fate, the human in front of me and I shall jointly establish a contract.

The content of the contract is as follows:

The human must provide protection for my body when I am sealed even if he must offer up his life during times of crisis!

He must aid me in modifying this body and create the potion of misfortune for me. He must assist her in cultivating the magic of misfortune so that she may become more suitable for the complete descent of the magic power of misfortune!

When I am in hibernation, he shall temporarily act as my eyes and ears and collect information about the supernatural realm on the planet of Origin for me!

He is to establish a church of misfortune for me and aid me in finding three suitable followers!

Within the span of 10 years, the human must find and recover for me the mysterious artifacts of misfortune scattered around various parts of the planet of Origin!

Before I can gain complete control of this body, the human must remove that pair of spectacles at regular intervals and allow me to emerge!

The human mustn't take the virginity of this body. He mustn't blaspheme or toy with her body.

…

Staring at the ever-increasing list of requests, Tang Qi was certain that if he was sporting a human face right now, it would definitely be covered in black lines.

Did this witch think he was a babysitter?

It was only when the very last request disappeared that what appeared next were the benefits that Tang Qi would receive.

Simple and crude, it was just a total of two lines of tiny text.

I promise that I will not kill this human in the future.

I shall bestow upon the human a Mark of Misfortune.

And nothing else!

Tang Qi even specially waited for another second, only to discover that there was no sign of further change on the parchment scroll.

This was the last bit of content.

Although he couldn't express his emotions through his facial expressions, Tang Qi who was in the form of a sun at the moment had an even simpler way to do it. The golden flames that were originally very stable suddenly flared up dramatically at the same time as his fury surged.

Obviously, the Witch of Misfortune also knew that this contract was clearly in no way even close to being fair.

As such, she paused for a moment and slightly lowered her lofty head. In a rare gesture, she offered an explanation. "Just this fact alone, that you were able to keep your life after offending me would give you a great reputation in the supernatural world."

"As for the Mark of Misfortune, isn't the purpose of you subconsciously, or rather, deliberately getting close to this body of mine precisely to draw those inferior monstrosities out with the help of the magic power of misfortune so that you can use them to produce more fuel for your furnace?"

"Bestowing upon you a mark will help you to cut out the troublesome process. You need only to activate the mark, and you'll automatically be able to draw those inferior monstrosities to you."

The moment the witch finished, Tang Qi's voice which still seemed furious could be heard coming from the sun.

"Compared to the price I have to pay, these benefits are far from enough."

"I need more supernatural arts. You need to act as my temporary teacher. I want to know more about the supernatural realm, and I also need to find the rest of the legacy of the child of the furnace. Since your main body is the enemy of the Lord of the Furnace, she must know a lot about it…"

"I can't give these to you at all. It's not that I don't wish to but that I can't. I'm just a sub-personality birthed from a share of the power of misfortune in a human body. There might be tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands, of existences like me. In order to store as much magic power as possible, the main body has only bestowed upon me a minimal amount of knowledge. I don't have any of those things that you need."

"As for the complete legacy of the Lord of the Furnace, even my main body doesn't have it in her possession, much less I, a sub-personality."

"Alright, this is the best condition I can give. You must give me your answer at once."

After speaking, the witch sub-personality didn't give Tang Qi any time to consider at all. She gave the final call right away.

The countdown of three minutes was about to end.

Boom!

Tang Qi felt it right away. A wave of magic power that was much more fearsome than the one before was starting to stir. The moment Tang Qi responded with a rejection, the witch sub-personality would immediately expend most of her magic power and kill Tang Qi on the spot.

The moment of life and death was here before he knew it.

He had clearly transformed into a sun, yet Tang Qi felt a biting chill. The aura of ominous magic power was like a poisonous snake, biting and devouring Tang Qi's spirit madly.

In the last few seconds of the countdown, Tang Qi automatically broke free of the meditative state. His surroundings were also gradually going back to normal. This special fitting room seemed to be going back to the original world. Tang Qi could even see the mild shaking of Hudson's fingers.

In front of him was a floating parchment scroll. The content on it was exactly the same as what was shown in the dark void.

A line was left blank on each respective end.

There was an additional mark on one of the lines.

It wasn't a name but a mark. This was understandable — the one in front of him wasn't the real Witch of Misfortune but just a sub-personality birthed from a share of magic power. She naturally didn't have the authority to sign the contract with the name of the goddess. A mark was sufficient.

Under the mark, a gray line gradually started to extend.

Under the blank space at the other end was a line as well.

The moment Tang Qi signed the contract with his name, the two lines would meet and form the outline of the symbol of "fate". The contract would then be established.

Whoever breached the contract would suffer unimaginable penalties.

"Sign it!"

"Otherwise, you'll die."

Calm words containing terrifying killing intent came out of Sally's mouth.

She seemed to have resumed normalcy at this moment. All the magic power was gone. The black flowers of misfortune had also disappeared. If one didn't look at her eyes which still remained pitch-black, one would probably think that the Witch of Misfortune had already been dragged back into the seal.

Unfortunately, the current situation was that most of the Witch of Misfortune sub-personality had already returned to the "vessel". However, a gap still remained.

If Tang Qi didn't sign the contract immediately, what would happen the next second was that boundless magic power of misfortune would surge out of that gap and rip him into pieces. The witch sub-personality's vitality would be sapped tremendously, and she would return to the seal.

At the very last moment, Tang Qi lifted his head swiftly and looked straight at the witch. Then, his gaze fell solely upon the parchment scroll.

Huff!

Seemingly suffering from humiliation, Tang Qi took a deep breath. He quickly hung his head and said vexedly, "I'll sign it!"

Tang Qi suddenly reached out a finger. The power of the furnace flowed out. Golden strokes gradually formed the two words "Tang Qi".

When the name was complete, in the instant where the two gray lines were about to meet, a crack, like the sound of glass breaking, suddenly resounded. The fitting room that had originally been in a mysterious dimension returned to normal with a loud bang. All signs of anomalies were vanishing. The magic power at the bottom of Sally's eyes was receding while a smile remained on Mrs. Hudson's face.

Right at this moment, Tang Qi suddenly raised his head again. An incredibly bright smile appeared on his face.

And then he moved.