Chapter 315: Are You Scared?

Chapter 315: Are You Scared?

Actually, keeping Carlin might not be a bad idea. When Zheng Yichen thought about it carefully, his current living environment was pretty awkward too. Above him were four Witches, each capable of crushing him with one hand. Below? The Ghost Maids? They were Loris’s exclusive servants. Comparing himself to them, Zheng Yichen felt like he had too much time on his hands.

Lily? He was raising her like a little daughter, so what was there to compare? So, looking closely, in terms of combat power, he seemed to be just mediocre. He had never really compared himself clearly to anyone before. Well, now there was one delivered right to his door. Thinking further, what was his hidden identity?

A cliché Transmigrator! In this world, he could already be called the legendary Creator, plus he had alt accounts like the Engineering master Tianwang, the Potionology master Eight Intentions… It wasn’t impossible that more alts would appear in the future. Wasn’t that impressive? But even as such a special existence, he actually had no usable people under him!

Those Alchemical Puppets? They were creations, not underlings. So he had zero underlings. As a dragon and a Transmigrator, he was quite a failure.

After making his decision, Dan Marina seemed to have been eavesdropping all along, because she walked in extremely punctually, reaching out to grab Carlin’s collar. “Leave the Contract matter to me. I guarantee there won’t be any problems.”

“Hey, wait! I want to see the process too!” Zheng Yichen understood Dan Marina’s meaning. She clearly didn’t intend to take him along to have fun. What the heck? Loris had mentioned earlier that two Contracts were needed, but she never said why two were necessary. This still puzzled Zheng Yichen a bit, and he planned to find out what was going on later.

“You’ll know later. Knowing now would just distract you.”

“Distract my ghost! What’s there to hide?” Zheng Yichen muttered discontentedly. Did it have to be like this?

In the end, Zheng Yichen didn’t get to witness the whole process. The passageway to Dan Marina’s room seemed infinitely extended. Zheng Yichen walked for a long time but couldn’t reach the end, so he eventually gave up. When he turned back, he covered the distance in just three steps. Spatial Expansion technique… MMP… Zheng Yichen flipped through his Magical Grimoire in frustration. It did contain methods for Spatial Expansion, but the difficulty was so high. Just thinking about the refinement of that Necromantic Teleportation Array he had created back then, it was basically impossible for him now.

Zheng Yichen could only envy others from afar. Even though Spatial Expansion couldn’t create spatial rifts or anything, full of lethality or capable of direct attacks, it didn’t mean this method had no significance in combat. For instance, used in an auxiliary role now, just a Spatial Expansion made this not-very-long hallway take Zheng Yichen several minutes to fail to walk through!

He didn’t know if Irene did it or someone else. Uh, come to think of it, the one with the highest Magic attainments was Irene, so it was probably her handiwork. Tsk, four fierce women colluding together to stir up trouble… just thinking about it was quite terrifying.

Work hard at studying?

Zheng Yichen snapped the Magical Grimoire shut. He was working hard at studying right now. But Spatial Expansion wasted too much time. Save it for later, save it for later… One day, he would master this field to a high level, at least to prevent what happened today from happening to him again…

“What a pity. If he had persisted for thirty more steps, he could have walked out.” In Dan Marina’s room, she watched the scene of Zheng Yichen leaving displayed on a mirror. Spatial Expansion was just an interference and limited manipulation of spatial state, like stretching and contracting, not direct control over space. At least in terms of Spatial Expansion, it didn’t involve distorting space. The greater the expansion of space, the higher the difficulty. Making Zheng Yichen walk for several minutes in a short hallway was an example.

If spatial distortion methods were used, they could completely trap Zheng Yichen in an endless death loop, making him circle in the hallway no matter how he walked. What Irene did was at least stretch the space at the passageway, extending its length. As long as Zheng Yichen kept walking, he would definitely get out.

This showed Irene’s profound mastery of Spatial Expansion. If Dan Marina had done this, Zheng Yichen wouldn’t need long—less than a minute to walk out. She wasn’t specialized in Magic like Irene. If the Spatial Expansion method weren’t so useful, she wouldn’t have bothered learning such a troublesome technique.

“…” Beside them, Carlin stared speechlessly at the few women who had been fixated on that mirror for several minutes. Just how bored were you all, watching someone walk for so long?

Had you forgotten something? Even if you forgot, you could just forget about me being tossed aside. He wanted to show his presence. After all, he had some social status… Ahem, alright, in front of these four fierce women, saying that was meaningless. Even though two of them hadn’t shown their power, birds of a feather flock together. If they could be together and communicate equally, the women who hadn’t shown their strength didn’t mean they were weak.

Anyway, he couldn’t speak, couldn’t move. He wanted to express his presence but couldn’t.

“Alright, he’s gone back. We shouldn’t forget the main matter either.”

The main matter… Hmm, was it finally his turn?

Carlin just sighed in relief internally, but the next moment, his mood tightened again. What was he sighing in relief for? The problem wasn’t solved yet. That purple-haired woman (Irene) didn’t say much. She had knocked him down with a glance but didn’t seem interested. That blonde woman (Loris) looked at him with indifference, as if his existence or non-existence didn’t matter. Carlin knew this type very well—they were absolutely the worst to provoke.

Even though such people seemed unmoved by external matters and easy to provoke, as if they wouldn’t get angry, in reality, they were like surging undercurrents. They wouldn’t act easily, but once they did, there would be no “then”—it would be a completely fatal move. Unless it was someone of the same level with a decent relationship, there might be a chance to hold back.

Anyone else? A stranger? If they could survive, Carlin would take the expert’s surname.

In short, these two seemed dangerous but were also the safest. As long as he didn’t spout nonsense or provoke them, he would be fine. The truly troublesome ones were that well-endowed blonde woman with blue eyes and that petite woman with black and white hair!

Dan Marina seemed somewhat interested in him. When Annie looked at him, her eyes revealed the delight of discovering a promising experimental subject. This look made him even more uneasy than Dan Marina’s. He was afraid that the next moment he would be taken away for some extremely dangerous experiments. Just one glance from her made Carlin panic terribly.

“How about lending him to me first? I promise he’ll stay alive and well.” In the atmosphere that only Carlin felt oppressive, Annie was the first to speak.

“…” What did she mean by ‘well’!? What about the process? Carlin felt his life experience was extremely poor. Previously, it had been agreed with Zheng Yichen. Normally, logically, after coming here, the process should be straightforward: two Contracts placed in front of him, then he obediently signs, and finally, he does his job properly.

Where exactly did things go wrong…

“I’ve only seen this kind of Talent in records. It’s rare to encounter a living example. Could you satisfy my curiosity?” Annie unusually used a consultative tone, not her usual ‘elder’ manner of speaking.

Ah! So it was about Talent. Carlin felt a headache about this. Generally, as long as one doesn’t actively use it, Talent hardly ever gets exposed. For example, the Magic Pharmacist who owned this place. If he didn’t reveal his Talent, no one would know he had the Talent to ignore material conflicts and more easily create new Magic Potions.

His own Talent was even more secretive. If not exposed, the chance of others discovering it was almost zero. But the first one to see that he had a Talent was that well-endowed woman… Wait! He seemed to have overlooked something!

“You… you’re the Fate Witch!?” Carlin’s mind raced, and he widened his eyes at Dan Marina. At first, he just thought Dan Marina looked familiar… Although the Fate Witch was very famous, not everyone had seen her, nor would many think they could just bump into her here. So Carlin had only been somewhat suspicious before, but now…

“Oh my? I thought you were blind.”

After getting Dan Marina’s response, Carlin immediately understood. It wasn’t him overthinking or having some illusion that she looked familiar. This was the real person. It couldn’t be… why would there be a Witch in this place? Did the Dark Church miss something in their intelligence?

No, no, it should be said that information related to Dan Marina was hard to pin down accurately. If you encounter her, just accept it. Carlin now accepted his fate. Not to mention Dan Marina, the remaining three who could speak with her as equals, would their identities be simple? Just that level of mastery in Spatial Expansion alone probably meant another Witch.

Faintly, Carlin felt he had stepped into a vortex. It seemed like four Witches were ‘working together’ here without animosity. Was that even possible? Witches usually minded their own business. This looked more like a huge conspiracy.

He now wanted to slap himself! For letting greed get the better of you, for thinking this Quest was a piece of cake, for thinking you were a genius and looking down on everything!

“I want to sign the Contract. Don’t anyone stop me!” Carlin wanted to shout, but he just couldn’t. He could pretty much confirm these four were all Witches. How could he just do nothing and let that black-and-white-haired woman take him away? Also, if it was Dan Marina, it wasn’t strange she could see his Talent. She was just that formidable.

“You’re being noisy. I already said no one will die.” Annie looked somewhat displeased at Carlin, who was trying to struggle. With such a guarantee, others would line up to come to her. Why was this little guy in front of her so unappreciative?

“But who can guarantee I’ll still be human in the end?”

Annie gave Carlin an extra glance. This young man had good insight too. She did guarantee no one would die, but whether one remained human was another matter. Research involving the Life Domain of the human body easily led to some mutations, and over seventy percent of such mutations were malignant.

“What’s the hurry with research? After the Contract is made, just have him cooperate willingly.” Dan Marina wanted to reach out and pat Annie’s head but was avoided in advance. Annie shot her a dissatisfied glance. Daring to pat an elder’s head, her audacity was growing.

Damn it. Carlin almost cursed out loud hearing this. He knew he had no choice left, but Dan Marina saying it outright like that made him feel nothing but frustration in his heart. Looking at these four women observing him, he completely understood the meaning of “death is just the beginning.”

So it was better to live properly and not let this “beginning” called death find him.

“Right, you hurry up then.” Annie nodded. Dan Marina took out two Contracts with a smile and placed them in front of Carlin. The latter immediately found he could move again. Even his power, which had been completely restrained and unusable, had returned. But he dared not have any other thoughts. He could only look very obediently at the two Contracts Dan Marina presented.

As soon as he lightly touched one of the two Contracts, a wave of dizziness suddenly hit him. In this brief dizziness, Carlin even heard a chaotic, disordered whisper in his ears… He was not an inexperienced person. Contracts, well, anyone could sign them, but that didn’t mean anyone could touch them. The kind of Contract in his hand was something ordinary people could hardly touch. Just this evil, chaotic whispering—if an ordinary person touched it, they might stand there dazed for who knows how long.

Even those with weaker wills, if not awakened, could starve to death. And those who woke up on their own didn’t necessarily mean they were fine. Both types had a high chance of going mad. Only those who could withstand the impact of the evil power contained in the Contract would be fine.

Resisting the chaotic whispers that made him feel anxious, Carlin calmed his mind to read the content of this Contract. To his surprise, it wasn’t some enslaving Contract. Given his current situation, it was quite an ‘equal’ Contract. The important part of the Contract wasn’t any power it contained, but the content!

The power contained only represented the binding strength of the Contract. With this kind, if violated, there was basically no possibility of avoiding punishment. Even finding loopholes was very difficult. The power in the Contract didn’t allow such loopholes to exist.

With an ordinary, plain Contract, one could endure a bit of punitive force and exploit loopholes without fully triggering the Contract’s punishment. It seemed like an easy operation, though not something just anyone could do unless one was a master specialized in making Contracts. Otherwise, trying not to trigger it fully? The moment one engaged in such behavior, the Contract’s punishment would already be triggered.

The content of the two Contracts in Carlin’s hands was exactly the same. After reading, he let out a slight sigh. On the first Contract, he signed his True Name. The other Contract? Although he also had to sign it, it wasn’t for him to keep.