Nine Star Hegemon Body Arts

Those eyes were not human. They were vertical like an alligator's, and blood-colored lines flickered within them. Being stared at by them felt like a curse of death.

"Are you the demon spirit?" asked Long Chen.

"I am." A reply echoed through the darkness.

"Then let's set up the contract," said Long Chen.

"I have gone through three thousand six hundred and six masters. I've passed through ninety-six thousand eight hundred and forty-three hands. Those who have touched me have been destroyed. Not one was able to die of old age. Their accumulated resentment and curse power make it so that someone like you wouldn't even be able to survive for ten days after forming a contract with me. Are you sure you want to do this?" the icy voice warned.

Long Chen nodded. "Yes."

"You… you realize that your fate will be infected by me with this contract? The calamity will strike at the worst time…" The voice seemed a bit angry.

"Give up. Do you think I'm a child you can frighten? I know that you're a demonic furnace, and I know the consequences. Stop wasting time and form the contract," cursed Long Chen.

"I refuse."

"Why?" snorted Long Chen.

"You… you're too weak. You aren't qualified to form a contract with me. I won't waste your time any longer. Youngster, remember, a person shouldn't be too greedy. Too big of a step and you'll trip."

The darkness vanished. The demonic furnace in Long Chen's hand shook and slipped out of his grip.

"I gave you too much face, huh?" Long Chen snorted and grabbed the furnace again, tossing it into the primal chaos space.

When the demonic furnace entered the primal chaos space, blue flames burst out of it, unleashing a terrible wave of heat. "Brat, you are courting death! Do you know just how many…"

The primal chaos space shuddered ever so slightly. A certain divine pressure appeared, yet it also seemed to not exist as well. As a result, the demonic furnace shuddered with terror, and it swallowed its remaining words back.

"You forced me to do this. You wanted to scam me? You really have guts," sneered Long Chen.

Although Long Chen had not encountered a demonic furnace before, he knew some of the common knowledge about them. Demonic weapons didn't need to select a certain master, nor did they care if they were weak. The weaker the master, the faster they would be killed. Hence, that was actually good news for them.

With how the demonic furnace had been acting, as if he was a child, Long Chen had been suspicious from the start.

"I… I'm doing this for your own good. Forming a contract with me will only bring you horrible luck. Nothing will ever go smoothly for you again," said the demonic spirit of the furnace, its voice shuddering. It seemed afraid but was acting tough.

"Horrible luck? I've had that from the start, so I'm not worried about adding some more. Hurry up and form the contract, or I'll use the laws here to exterminate you," snorted Long Chen.

In truth, he didn't know how to control the primal chaos space and its divine pressure. This was just a bluff.

"I won't form a contract with you! I refuse to spend a lifetime as a slave! I refuse, I refuse…!"

What dumbfounded Long Chen was that the demonic furnace began to cry. Furthermore, this time, it revealed the voice of a young maiden.

"What are you saying? A contract makes us companions. Isn't that good?" Long Chen was caught off guard. If it was a fierce and sinister fellow, he was confident in scaring the crap out of them. But for the other side to reveal a weak side, Long Chen felt a bit bad.

"Liar. With how tough you are, how am I supposed to beat you? If you don't die, I'll be stuck as your slave. I refuse, I refuse, I refuse! Just kill me and end it all instead!" The demonic spirit continued to wail.

"Hey, don't cry. Come out and talk," said Long Chen.

"No! Then you'll catch me and extract my soul! You humans are the worst! After creating me, you raised me like raising a pig so that you could slaughter me when I'm big! Don't think that you can bait me. I won't fall for it. I'd rather die than let you benefit at all from my existence."

A small figure appeared on top of the furnace. It was a girl who appeared to be in her late teens.

"Really?" Long Chen was dumbfounded. The demonic spirit was actually a cute maiden.

"Don't look at me. I can tell just by looking at you that you're not a good person. You've killed even more people than me. I'll give you two choices: either kill me or release me. As for making me submit, you can give up. That's impossible," shouted the girl.

"Fine. Since I can't use you, it seems that I can only…"

"I knew it. You're a bad person. You really want to kill me? You bastard, you won't even let off a little girl? Can you have some humanity?!" The girl began to cry once more.

"I was saying that I can only let you go." Long Chen sent the demonic furnace out of the primal chaos space. "You can go. I was hoping to refine pills with you, but it seems that you aren't willing."

Long Chen released his hold, and the demonic furnace vanished in an instant.

However, just a short moment later, it flew back. Maintaining a safe distance, it asked, "What did you just say? You can refine pills? What kind of pills?"

"I can refine all kinds of pills. I can't classify them all," said Long Chen arrogantly.

"Then… Do you know how to refine demonic pills?" asked the girl, her voice trembling.

"I haven't refined them before." Long Chen shook his head.

That response disappointed her, and she was about to leave again when Long Chen added, "Because I didn't have a demonic furnace, I couldn't refine demonic pills. However, if you help me, I feel like it wouldn't be a problem."

"Then you know how to refine demonic pills?"

"Of course. There is no pill in this world that I don't know how to refine. Right now, it's just a case of not being able to gather the right materials. You can hurry up and go. Do you not see that my side is still fighting? I'm busy and don't have time to talk with someone useless." Long Chen waved his hand in a shooing motion.

In order to capture her, he had to let her go first. Just from how the furnace's spirit had started crying at such a critical time was enough to tell him that her intelligence wasn't very high.

For a demonic furnace, especially one capable of refining pills, refining pills was the fastest way to allow its demonic spirit to grow. This bait was extremely difficult to resist.

"Ah… about that… why don't we discuss it a bit more?" asked the girl after a long moment of hesitation.

"Discuss what?" Long Chen was laughing inside. He had managed to bait her.

"I mean, I can help you refine pills. Yes, all for free. I feel like there's destiny between us. If you don't make things hard on me, well, I can feel good about helping you a bit. However, this will purely be a cooperation between us. There's no need for a contract. What do you think?" she asked.

Long Chen smiled. So she did have some wits. She was clearly trying to benefit only herself, but she made it sound so good.

"That's no problem. We can work together. When you don't feel like it any longer, you can leave. I won't hold you back," said Long Chen.

"Really? Great! I'll definitely help you refine many, many pills so that you can make lots and lots of money!" cried out the girl.

Long Chen also smiled. She naturally wasn't a match for him. With just a few words, he had managed to hook her. By forming a spiritual connection between them, this could already be considered a kind of spiritual contract. Now the demonic furnace could enter his spiritual space.

This kind of contract was a simple one without many restrictions on either party. But the rune on the bottom of the furnace was a contractual one, which would fully bind the two of them together.

That was why this simple contract was acceptable to the demonic furnace. It entered his primal chaos space, and the demonic spirit was shocked to see the vast space, as well as the grand Divine Gate. There was also the Divine Gate Star shining brightly within the Divine Gate.

Moreover, there was a fiendish blade and a giant brick floating within his primal chaos space. Sensing the terrifying auras of Evilmoon and the Heaven Flipping Seal, the demonic spirit shuddered. Not only did Long Chen have a terrifying spiritual space, but he also had two powerful weapons.

"You shameless fellow, you've conned another young lady," snorted Evilmoon.

"Shut up," cursed Long Chen. As expected, the demonic spirit grew even more apprehensive.

Fortunately, the Heaven Flipping Seal floated over and expressed some kindness, which could be considered a welcome for her.

"Speaking of which, what's your name?" asked Long Chen.

"Me? I have no name."

"Then I'll give you a name. You're the spirit of the demonic furnace. Well, I can't think of anything good. I'll call you Ling-er[1]. Yes, simple is easier to remember," said Long Chen.

The girl seemed quite delighted by her name. Long Chen was thinking about chatting with her some more and asking about her origins when rumbling came from the spatial channel above the battlefield. Long Chen hastily left the primal chaos space. He sensed a pressure from that channel that made him shudder.

[1] Ling-er = Spirit