In a space of darkness and nihility, Tang Qi transformed into a golden Sun, releasing endless light and heat, burning clean all the abnormalities seeping through the cracks.
In the past, it was indeed abnormalities that he burnt.
However, after entering meditation in front of the Witch of Misfortune, what he burned were strands of grayish-black whips.
To be precise, the tips of the whips.
Because their Transcendent Levels seemed to be the same.
But Tang Qi didn't care, he still used his will to painstakingly sketch out the golden Sun.
He was confident that, when those three minutes passed, that so-called Witch's alternate personality could only choose to succumb.
Tang Qi's premonitions were always correct.
But this time, it was slightly off course.
"Huh~"
In the dark space, those grayish-black whips suddenly vanished without a trace, replaced by a familiar figure that appeared at that seemingly close yet infinitely distant crack.
Sally?
No, it should be the Witch of Misfortune.
Compared to the external Sally's body, this figure at this moment is probably closer to the Witch of Misfortune.
Some Gothic-style black dress reflected her overly pale skin, both mysterious and charming, while black flowers on her head continuously bloomed and withered. Though breathtakingly beautiful, they were filled with an ominous air.
She stood at the crack, her grayish-black Magic Power of Misfortune unfolded a sea of fog, enveloping her inside.
Their positioning completely ruled out the possibility of Tang Qi launching a surprise attack.
The Witch's alternate personality, which entered Tang Qi's mind by some method, had none of the previous crazed girl's demeanor; it was just an illusion, and now, the Witch seemed like a mysterious and classic lady, directly extending a Contract invitation to Tang Qi.
"Young Son of the Melting Furnace, I will not apologize for the previous offense, but as compensation, I am willing to forge a fair Contract with you, allowing you to grow prematurely. This will grant you sufficient power when the Spiritual Tide reaches its peak, preventing you from becoming a lowly chess piece, easily exploited and then discarded or killed by those people."
Having said these, the Witch, as if remembering something, didn't give Tang Qi any chance to delay, and directly added: "This is your only opportunity, if you refuse me, I will choose to exhaust most of my Doomsday Magic, extinguishing your newly ignited Melting Furnace in these ruins of darkness."
"Perhaps I will be sealed again, but you will be thoroughly dead."
"You have only three seconds to consider, surely that's enough."
"Three!"
"Two!"
Before the count of "one", from that seemingly eternal sun, Tang Qi's voice emerged.
"The contents of the Contract!"
"The cost I need to pay, and the benefits I can receive, I hope it's fair."
Hearing this voice, the Witch's face finally showed that heart-stopping smile again, and in the space between them, a ghostly light with a "buzz" emerged, something resembling a Sheepskin Scroll appearing.
The blank pages, under the Witch's gaze, seemed to conjure a Quill out of thin air, and lines of small text continuously appeared.
Under the watch of the Supreme Divinity of Destiny, I shall forge a Contract with the human before me.
The contents of the Contract are as follows:
The human must shelter my body when I fall into Sealing, even at the risk of his life in times of crisis!
He must help me transform this body, create Misfortune Potions for me, and support my cultivation of Misfortune Magic, making me more suitable for the full descent of Misfortune Magic Power!
While I am asleep, he will temporarily become my eyes and ears, collecting information about the Transcendent Domain of the Origin Star for me!
He shall establish the Church of Disaster for me, and find three suitable Believers!
Within ten years, the human must retrieve the scattered Calamity Artifacts from various places of the Origin Star for me!
Before I completely control this body, the human must periodically remove those glasses, allowing me to manifest!
The human cannot take away the virginity of this body, nor defile or toy with her body.
…
Watching each demand appear one after another, Tang Qi believed, if he had a human face at this moment, it would definitely be covered in a black line.
Is this Witch treating him as a nanny?
It wasn't until the very last demand disappeared that the benefits Tang Qi could receive finally appeared.
Simple and crude, comprised of two lines of small text:
"I guarantee that I will not kill this human in the future."
"I will bestow upon this human a Curse Mark."
"Done!"
Tang Qi deliberately waited for a second but found no further changes in the Sheepskin Scroll.
This was the final content.
Although he couldn't express his emotions through facial expressions, as he had transformed into the Sun, conveying his emotions became simpler. The normally stable golden light flames suddenly surged, pulsing with anger.
It was clear that the Witch of Misfortune was aware that such a contract was far from fair.
To this end, she paused for a moment, her proud head slightly bowed, rarely making an explanation: "After offending me, you still managed to preserve your life. Just by this feat, you would gain enormous fame in the Extraordinary World."
"As for the Curse Mark, your subconscious, or perhaps deliberate approach to this body of mine, wasn't it to use the power of Doomsday Magic to attract those inferior Abnormalities to fuel your Melting Furnace?"
"I bestow upon you a mark that can directly spare you the troublesome process. You just need to activate the mark, and it will automatically attract those inferior monsters to you."
As soon as the Witch finished speaking, a voice still seemingly filled with anger emanated from the Sun.
"Compared to the price I've paid, these benefits are far from enough."
"I need more Extraordinary Methods, you need to serve as my temporary mentor. I want to understand more about the Extraordinary Domain, and I also need to complete the legacy of the Son of the Melting Furnace. As your main body is the enemy of the Master of the Crucible, you must know a lot..."
"All these, I cannot give you. It's not that I don't want to, but I can't. I'm just a secondary personality birthed from the Power of Disaster within a human body. There may be tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of beings like me. To accommodate as much Magic as possible, the main body only bestowed me with little information, which doesn't include what you seek."
"As for the complete legacy of the Master of the Crucible, not even this alternate personality of mine, let alone the main body, has it."
"Alright, this is the best condition I can offer. You must make your choice immediately."
After saying the last sentence, the Witch's alternate personality did not give Tang Qi any more time to think and issued the final ultimatum.
Three minutes countdown, was about to end.
Boom!
Tang Qi immediately felt a surge of Magic much more terrifying than before beginning to pulsate. As soon as Tang Qi gives a negative response, the Witch's alternate personality would consume a large part of her magic to exterminate Tang Qi on the spot.
The moment of life and death came unexpectedly.
Despite being embodied as the Sun, Tang Qi felt a piercing cold, and the sinister magic aura, like a poisonous snake, frenziedly gnawing at Tang Qi's mind.
In the final seconds of the countdown, Tang Qi automatically exited the meditation state, and the surrounding environment slowly began to stabilize. This special fitting room seemed about to return to the original world, and Tang Qi even saw Hudson's fingers trembling slightly.
The Sheepskin Scroll floated before him, its content exactly the same as what appeared in the Dark Nihility space.
Both ends had a blank line.
One line, with an additional mark.
Not a name but a mark, which was understandable, as the figure before him was not the real Witch of Misfortune but a Magic-infused alternate personality, naturally not entitled to sign a Divine name on the contract, a mark was sufficient.
Beneath that mark, a gray thread slowly began to extend.
On the other end of the blank space, there was another thread.
Once Tang Qi signed his own name, the two threads would converge, sketching out the pattern of "Destiny," and the contract would be established.
The violator would suffer unimaginable punishment.
"Sign it!"
"Otherwise, you will die."
Calm yet filled with a terrifying intent to kill, these words spilled from Sally's mouth.
At this moment, she seemed to have returned to normal; the magic was gone, the black Flowers of Misfortune also had disappeared. If not for her still pitch-black eyes, one might think the Witch of Misfortune had been dragged back into the sealing.
Unfortunately, the situation now was that a large part of the Misfortune Witch's secondary personality had returned to the "container," but it left a loophole.
If Tang Qi did not immediately sign the contract, the next second would see a surge of misfortune magic power burst from that loophole, shredding Tang Qi, while the Witch's alternate personality would be severely wounded, returning to the sealing.
In this final moment, Tang Qi looked up swiftly, gazing directly at the Witch, then his gaze fully focused on the Sheepskin Scroll.
Phew!
Perhaps due to humiliation, Tang Qi took a deep breath, quickly lowered his head, and muttered, "I sign!"
As the words fell, Tang Qi's finger suddenly extended, the Melting Furnace Power overflowing, and under the sketching of golden lines, the name Tang Qi gradually took shape.
As the name was completed, and the two gray lines were about to intersect, suddenly a "crack" sounded, akin to breaking glass, the fitting room originally submerged in an abnormal space booming back to reality, all anomalies disappearing, Sally's magic receding in her eyes, and Mrs. Hudson still maintained that smile.
Just at this moment, Tang Qi abruptly lifted his head again, a brilliantly radiant smile emerging.
Then, he moved.