Old Morgan who finally received a response raised his head, pleasantly surprised. However, as the joy of realizing his long-cherished wish flashed over him, he realized something was wrong.
The sacrificial offering was not enough?
As the initiator of the ceremony, Old Morgan knew that although the demon of adjudication sounded very powerful, it was in fact a low-level or even incompetent demon that was attached to the balance scale. It only had an instinctive need, which was souls.
Hence, when it said that the sacrifices were not enough, it was indeed so. There was no way to communicate or bargain with it, unlike other demons.
Wasn't the delicious soul of a legitimate youth not enough?
This was completely different from what was written in the notes. Did something go wrong?
Old Morgan went through his thoughts quickly, his aged soul operating at maximum capacity.
Unfortunately, at this juncture, he could no longer find another soul to sacrifice to the demon of adjudication.
Oh, wrong. There was still a chance.
Suddenly, old Morgan seemed to realize something. He looked down at himself; he was now also in a soul state.
"Understand? Are you willing or unwilling to do it?"
Tang Qi, who was still hanging on the scale, carefully observed Old Morgan while maintaining the form of a painfully wailing demon of adjudication.
At this moment, the old black man had an interesting and complicated expression.
Old Morgan's physical endowment could not conceal the wrinkles and creases across his face, which was also covered with age spots. His eyes were filled with a strong desire to live as he looked at the comatose youth at the other end of the balance scale with unrestrained jealousy and greed. When he looked at Tang Qi, his eyes contained a yearning to grab the final straw.
When he realized that he had to sacrifice more, his eyes were full of conflict and unwillingness.
All of this clearly fell into the eyes of Tang Qi. Even the constant throbbing of pain could not interrupt Tang Qi's perception at this time. An extremely strange feeling caused Tang Qi to whisper, "Is this the benefit of being a demon? Having an extremely keen perception of human emotions?"
Tang Qi suddenly smiled. Although Old Morgan was still struggling and hesitating, Tang Qi already knew his answer from his keen perception.
Old Morgan did not have any other options.
Sure enough, Tang Qi saw Old Morgan's expression harden as he stood up abruptly, shouting in an obscure language, "Come, I'm willing to offer half of my soul as additional payment for changing my body. Great demon of adjudication, please enjoy."
"Come on, go ahead."
Tang Qi clearly heard the fear beneath Old Morgan's roar. At the same time, an immensely strong impulse surged within his body.
At this moment, Tang Qi was simply like a traveler who had been hungry for a few days in the desert. He was so hungry that he was about to lose his mind. Almost at the instant Old Morgan's voice fell, Tang Qi opened his mouth, with his eyes giving off a faint light. He muttered, "Lowly believer, as you wish."
"Ah ah~"
When Tang Qi opened his mouth and sucked at Old Morgan, he instantly lost half of his aged soul, entering Tang Qi's mouth like threads of hazy smoke. Limitless pain seemed to overwhelm this pitiful man, causing him to scream and roll around wildly at one end of the balance scale.
At this moment, Tang Qi had never felt better.
After eating half of a soul, Tang Qi felt that he could almost fly. Everything was so amazing, feeling like the lingering charm after a climax, floating around leisurely as though one would never land. If Tang Qi was willing, he could maintain this feeling for at least ten breaths.
But at this point, Tang Qi desperately suppressed all of these splendid feelings.
It was because the scale had moved!
The ritual had begun.
Tang Qi did not intend this. Although he was the adjudicating demon, the Balance Scale of Soul Exchange obviously had its own operating rules.
Old Morgan had satisfied Tang Qi's wish, and the balance scale automatically determined that the transaction was successful.
The soul exchange was happening now.
The two ends of the scales that were originally squeaking and swaying had started spinning rapidly. Faint dark smoke began to rise, accompanied by a strange red light as the rune formation beneath the two corpses in the study room glowed with a faint white light. The souls of the youth and Old Morgan at both ends of the balance scale had begun to change.
The soul of the youth was suddenly pierced by many blood-red thorns, and the youth who was in a coma immediately screamed. However, it lasted for less than a second before stopping abruptly. Tang Qi then saw that the soul of the youth seemed to have lost something. He became muddle headed and was not as sharp as before.
"He's dead."
Tang Qi said this because at this moment, he saw that special interface.
Soul: Human
Quality: Ordinary
Status: A transparent soul that has lost its self-consciousness can be swallowed.
Upon seeing this interface, Tang Qi subconsciously looked at Old Morgan.
Sure enough, the interface changed.
Soul: Human
Quality: Inferior
Status: An inferior soul that has lost half of its soul power cannot be swallowed.
[Information Fragment: The soul exchange ritual has started. This soul will enter the new body after three seconds.]
"Hiss." When that piece of information came into view, Tang Qi immediately took a breath. His expression then became unprecedentedly crazed and resolute. The next moment, he made a shocking move without hesitation.
"Ah ah~"
Tang Qi let out a wail more miserable than ever before. The cause of this pain was due to him suddenly pulling both his hands and legs off the blood-drenched nails.
Having done all this, though Tang Qi was almost driven mad by the endless pain, his originally hazy soul had become more transparent. He did not even need to look to know that. At this moment, despite him being in a severely weakened state, he was extremely joyous.
He succeeded. He really made it.
He was able to escape this wretched thing, though he only had three seconds left.
There was no time to struggle and wail. Tang Qi howled madly as he violently turned around. Pushing against the cross that was covered with demonic runes, he forcefully pulled his torso away. The power of the soul which turned into fresh blood contaminated the cross almost completely. The scene was bloody and terrifying.
Old Morgan, who had been immersed in the joy of his soon-to-be-successful soul exchange, finally discovered Tang Qi's crazy behavior. The feeble old man roared with horror and anger, "Shameless lowly demon, what do you want to do? You cannot renege on our contract. You will be struck by the power of the rules into nothingness."
Old Morgan was extremely furious. Being an evil soul, he saw through Tang Qi's plan almost immediately. However, he was unable to stop it. His soul was protected by the rules of the balance scale and was also restrained by it.
He could only watch on powerless as Tang Qi carried on his madness. His eyes were wide open as he cursed and screamed, "Lowly devil, you will not succeed. You will soon dissipate if you leave the balance scale. You wretched disgusting thing."
Tang Qi focused all his attention on his movement. In the process, time seemed to slow down. The curses of Old Morgan exploded in his mind in the form of thought fragments but could not affect him at all.
A dull pooh traveled over as Tang Qi's soul completely freed itself from the five painful nails. The cross was practically drenched in red with his fresh blood. Tang Qi then entered into a state where he felt that he was going to dissipate any moment.
Weakness, so intense that one could hardly think, let alone respond to the Old Morgan's curses.
Tang Qi, who experienced freedom again, laughed wildly. He turned his blood-stained face and sucked at the direction of one end of the balance scale. With a whoosh, the unowned transparent soul on the bronze plate immediately turned into a ball of white light and flew into Tang Qi's mouth.
Boom.
A feeling more marvelous than before submerged Tang Qi like a flood. At the same time, a huge amount of memory fragments gushed forth. Within a panic-stricken glance, Tang Qi seemed to witness the entire life of that youth. The complicated memories and the immense pleasures almost led him to be completely mesmerized.
Fortunately, at this moment, Tang Qi's willpower prevailed. Coupled with the assistance from Old Morgan's roars and curses, Tang Qi tried his best to remain sober. However, his originally painful expression had now become more contorted.
Ignoring the countdown that progressed to "two" in his head, Tang Qi turned his head and sneered at the old black man who was cursing at him. "Old man, I am a demon. Contracts are meant to be broken. Idiot."
The instant Tang Qi opened his mouth, he had already risen into the air. His soul was completely free from the cross and had turned into a stream of light, moving towards a body outside the black bubble.
Unsurprisingly, Tang Qi chose the youth.
"No!"
Old Morgan who was still in the "protection period" ignored his weak soul and got up, screaming wildly. He also tried to break free of the balance scale in order to pursue Tang Qi. However, at this moment, the balance scale, which had been madly spinning, abruptly stopped. Black smoke and the strange red light were all headed towards him.
Dark red thorns extended out from under the bronze tray of the balance scale, piercing the soul of Old Morgan in an instant and dragging him toward the center of the balance scale, to the cross that was completely drenched in blood.
"No, this is not real."
"I am the initiator of the ritual. The one who is changing the body should be me."
"Ah ah~"
The screams stopped abruptly.
Red light gushed forward. The cross that temporarily lost its "master" once again had a pain-filled soul on it.
At this instant, Tang Qi turned around and saw several information fragments flashing by.
The soul exchange ritual was forcefully terminated!
The balance scale has lost its demon of adjudication!
Capture of soul in progress!
Target confirmed!
The newly appointed demon of adjudication has been captured!
Merging…
"I~I succeeded."
As Tang Qi whispered this with a smile, a fresh and quiet juvenile body appeared in front of him. A pulling force traveled over, drawing the soul of Tang Qi who did not put up any resistance.