Devil's Bargain

Qin Ran sat by the lake carving wood sculptures, carving and carving, when suddenly, without any warning, he found himself in a dim and narrow space.

This space was like an underground cave, seemingly untouched by the wind for ages, with a moldy smell lingering in time.

"Where is this?"

Qin Ran raised his hand and looked around, nothing was in his hand, the small knife and wood carvings were nowhere to be seen; he clearly remembered he was making a token for Chasing the Wind.

"What is going on?"

He looked around again, the environment here was dim, damp, and empty...

No, at some point, his eyes flashed, and suddenly in that corner he saw an old man with white hair facing away from him.

The old man was sitting there, his figure was thin and bony, wearing a willow green thin shirt.

"Who are you?" Qin Ran asked aloud.

A voice echoed in the space, answering his question: "Haven't you been looking for me?"

Qin Ran was startled, then quickly realized, staring at the aged back, and said in a deep voice: "Devouring Demon Willow?!"

"Not as stupid as I thought."

Qin Ran looked around the space again, knowing this should be the Devouring Demon Willow's sea of consciousness, and he was currently in a primordial spirit state.

"Senior brought junior here, what instructions do you have?" he asked.

Unexpectedly, the Devouring Demon Willow also asked: "Why did you bring me here?"

This was referring to when Qin Ran planted the Devouring Demon Willow at Dan Peak.

"I saved you, didn't I?" Qin Ran calmly replied, directly posing as the Devouring Demon Willow's life savior, "If I hadn't snapped that willow branch, Elder Ning would have definitely found your remaining primordial spirit."

"So I ask you, what do you want?" The Devouring Demon Willow was surprisingly reasonable, wanting to repay the life saving grace, "You saved me, what reward do you want?"

"It's junior's blessing to be able to save senior, I dare not ask for any reward," Qin Ran said, "Senior, please just let me out."

However, Qin Ran saw very clearly who the Devouring Demon Willow was, this guy was a typical demonic overlord. In order to advance his cultivation, he didn't hesitate to devour the entire Hengduan Mountains range and kill countless lives. Would such a being feel grateful to humans and sincerely want to repay them?!

"What if you come out and destroy me?" Seeing that Qin Ran was not fooled, the Devouring Demon Willow dropped the act.

Qin Ran's heart skipped a beat, because that was exactly what he planned to do. He had decided to move the Devouring Demon Willow away from the spiritual eye at the core of the mountain protecting array as soon as he got out.

"How could I?" He shamelessly buttered up with a straight face, "My respect for senior is like the surging river, endless, and like a flooding river, unstoppable..."

The Devouring Demon Willow interrupted Qin Ran's pretentious nonsense and said, "Let's make a deal!"

Here it comes, a demon's deal.

Qin Ran bowed to the aged back and said, "Senior, please go ahead."

"You find my Dao fruit for me, and I'll teach you the spirit division method." The Devouring Demon Willow said.

Without any hesitation, Qin Ran neatly agreed: "Deal!"

Regardless of consequences, agree first and talk later. Once he got out, the first thing he would do was remove this demonic willow from the spiritual eye.

But would the Devouring Demon Willow make such a low level mistake? Of course not!

The aged voice continued: "To ensure neither of us violates the deal, let's make a primordial spirit pact."

A primordial spirit pact?

Qin Ran's spirit was roused, and he quickly raised his hand to stop the Devouring Demon Willow from initiating the primordial spirit pact, saying: "Senior, I think we can discuss this deal further."

What was a primordial spirit pact? It was exactly what it sounded like, a pact between two primordial spirits.

This was a relatively "fair" pact commonly found in this uncivilized cultivation world. Once the pact takes effect, the parties involved cannot violate the pact, even if they mentally intend to violate it, they would be backlashed by the pact.

And Qin Ran had no intention of finding any Dao fruit at all, wouldn't agreeing to this pact be suicidal? Also, making a pact with an overlord who had split his spirit countless times, wasn't this a bit...

"Do you have any suggestions?" The Devouring Demon Willow asked.

"How about, you stop troubling me, and I won't touch you when I get out." Qin Ran said, "What do you think of this deal? We can make a primordial spirit pact."

"I'm only injured, not brainless." The aged voice gained emotion, "Why does this junior of the human race repeatedly mock me?"

"I think senior mocked me first." Qin Ran remained indifferent, saying, "You want me to find your Dao fruit? Where is the Dao fruit? The Dao fruit is in the Lingnan Immortal Sect. Are you overestimating me, senior? Do I look like someone who can go to the Lingnan Immortal Sect and retrieve a Dao fruit for you?"

The aged voice paused for a while, then made a new offer:

"First, I won't kill you and you won't touch me when you get out; Second, I need a Dao fruit, and you have one, so I will give you the first level of the spirit division method in exchange for that Dao fruit. In the future, for every additional Dao fruit, you can obtain another level of the spirit division method from me."

This offer seemed more sincere. Qin Ran agreed: "Okay."

Then, the two further refined the details of the deal, such as:

"Qin Ran cannot reveal that the Devouring Demon Willow is still alive";

"Qin Ran cannot change the location of the spiritual eye at the bottom of the lake";

"When imparting the method and returning Qin Ran's primordial spirit, the Devouring Demon Willow cannot harm him", and so on.

One was a demonic overlord, the other a sly little fox, with absolutely no trust between them, afraid the other party would play tricks during the deal.

Their deal only had those two points, one mutual non-aggression, one exchanging fruits for skills, which could be written in just two lines. But their supplementary conditions amounted to clause after clause, enough to fill around ten pages.

After long discussions, they finally signed the primordial spirit pact, with the Devouring Demon Willow initiating it and Qin Ran accepting it, completing the process.

Right after, the Devouring Demon Willow imparted Qin Ran the first level of the spirit division method, the Nourishing Spirit Art.

The skill was called Nine Extremes Primordial Spirit Demon Devouring Skill.

The Devouring Demon Willow directly imparted it into Qin Ran's mind with his primordial spirit. Qin Ran looked at the skill in his mind, extremely excited and delighted, then said to the Devouring Demon Willow: "I've long heard of senior's great name, but still don't know what to call you?"

"This old man takes his species as surname and skill as name, I am Liu Daoji!"

"Senior Liu..." Qin Ran bowed to the back of the white-haired elder, "Please send me out, otherwise they will do something stupid."

"As you wish!"

After tricking each other for a long time, only now did the white-haired elder in the corner turn around. But before Qin Ran could get a clear look at his appearance, his primordial spirit was already sent back into his physical body.

So he didn't see the sinister smile on the white-haired elder named Liu Daoji.

"Since you have a primordial spirit, you should know its wonders. I don't believe that after seeing this old man's primordial spirit method, you won't be moved..." Even with the primordial spirit pact, Liu Daoji still set traps in the skill, "Cultivating my skill makes you my split spirit! Hahaha..."

This trap was very ingenious. Liu Daoji did not actually violate the pact.

Because there was no problem with the skill itself, he didn't set any traps, it was just that this was his, Liu Daoji's, skill. Once cultivated, one would be imprinted with his primordial spirit mark and ultimately turn into his split spirit.

And in his view, this was a blessing for Qin Ran, not harm.

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