Entering the Path of Immortality, Mastering a Hundred Arts: Chapter Forty-Three: Signing the Contract

In the Heavenly-grade guest room of the Blue Spirit Inn within Danju Workshop, a man with broken eyebrows, clad in white silk robes, sat cross-legged, his body enveloped in an eerie purple glow.

Had a Nascent Soul True Monarch been present, they would have seen—through the power of their divine sense—a delicate, translucent insect within the man’s sea of consciousness. The creature writhed incessantly, greedily draining the nutrients from its host. As the purple light intensified, the man’s complexion gradually withered into a deathly, ashen gray. It would not be long before this body was reduced to brittle bones.

Time ticked away. The purple light surrounding the man showed no signs of fading. He remained blissfully unaware that the walls of his room were plastered with dense layers of talismans. Even the bed and his own body were covered in them. These talismans bore peculiar patterns and flickered with dark light, exuding a sense of imminent danger.

Standing before the man was a figure dressed in trim green robes, wearing an amused expression. Li Feng observed for a moment before channeling thousands of spirit stones into a lightning-attribute formation. Triggered by the formation, a vast array of lightning talismans erupted simultaneously. Countless bolts of electrical energy flooded the room, emitting a blinding radiance.

An attack of this scale was bound to cause a massive disturbance, enough to destroy the inn or even affect the surrounding hundred miles. Li Feng had no intention of subduing the soul-parasite quietly; that was simply unrealistic. He wanted a swift victory.

The lightning energy consumed the meditating man. Within mere seconds, the victim lost consciousness without a struggle. As for the Blue Spirit Inn, it could not withstand the onslaught of lightning and collapsed into a cloud of dust and debris. Li Feng tossed two thousand low-grade spirit stones into the wreckage as compensation, seized the puppet body, and mounted his flying sword to head outside the city.

By the time the man with broken eyebrows regained consciousness, Li Feng had already completed the binding of the contract. Thanks to his extensive experience in dealing with soul-parasites, the process went exceptionally smoothly. Upon sensing the anomaly and looking inward, the man was seized by fury and interrogated Li Feng.

"Ant, what kind of restriction have you placed upon me?"

Li Feng slapped him across the face and commanded from above, "Call me Master!"

The man sneered, mocking him, "A mere ant dares to expect me to—"

Before he could finish, an inhuman pain surged through his brain. The soul-parasite within his sea of consciousness had been scorched by an invisible force of lightning, curling into a ball. The contract Li Feng had signed with the parasite was a high-level lightning-attribute pact, possessing powerful suppressive effects. Should Li Feng die, the contract would also annihilate the parasite.

The man finally realized the gravity of the situation. His face filled with disbelief. "Who are you? How do you know my identity?"

Li Feng did not answer, instead warning, "You have one last chance. I do not like servants who are too arrogant."

The man struggled internally. Though filled with immense reluctance, he could not overcome reality. Eventually, he spoke with difficulty, "Master!"

"Kneel!"

The man knelt down, albeit unwillingly.

"Your soul-parasite race—all of you are cut from the same cloth, ha!" Li Feng sneered, fully committed to his act. "I know you are unconvinced, but serving me, Yan Xiuluo, is no loss for you!"

Upon hearing this, the man asked with suspicion, "Are you the Great God-Transformation cultivator Yan Xiuluo from ten thousand years ago on the Immortal Spirit Continent?"

"Indeed, it is I."

Li Feng accepted the identity with ease. Yan Xiuluo had been a God-Transformation cultivator ten millennia ago. Li Feng had borrowed the name of this legendary figure specifically to intimidate the soul-parasite, for in those days, Yan Xiuluo had once tamed a soul-parasite that practiced possession. Furthermore, the compiler of the *Records of Immortal Spirit Oddities* was none other than Yan Xiuluo himself.

The man remained half-skeptical. "You might fool others, but you cannot fool me. If Yan Xiuluo had not fallen, he would have long since ascended to the Immortal Realm. You are nowhere near his level, you mere Qi-Refining ant."

"If I can tame you, do I really need to prove my identity?" Li Feng activated the contract's bindings once more.

The man’s head felt as if it were splitting; purple mist leaked from his body as he begged for mercy. "Master, please spare me!"

Seeing that he had established sufficient authority, Li Feng ordered, "From today on, ninety percent of all energy you absorb is to be fed back to me."

Once a contract is signed between a soul-parasite and a cultivator, the host can share the energy the parasite absorbs. This was the primary reason Yan Xiuluo had been able to rise to power so rapidly back in the day.

The man’s mouth twitched. "If you take ninety percent, how am I to survive?"

As soon as he spoke, the soul-parasite suffered the contract's punishment, writhing on the ground in agony.

"Master, spare me! I will obey your every command!"

Li Feng flicked his sleeves with a cold face. "What is your name?"

Drenched in cold sweat, the man replied tremblingly, "I have only been in existence for a little over ten years; I have not yet taken a name."

Li Feng felt a secret sense of relief. If this had been an adult soul-parasite, he would never have dared to target it. One had to know that an adult soul-parasite was a terrifying entity capable of easily possessing a Nascent Soul cultivator. Eliminating a Qi-Refining cultivator like him would be as simple as crushing an ant.

"From this day forth, you shall take my surname and be called Yan Hun."

"Thank you, Master, for the name!"

Though the parasite was a hundred times unwilling, it had no choice but to submit for the time being. On the way back, Yan Hun asked out of curiosity, "Master, you were so majestic ten thousand years ago; why have you fallen to this state?"

"I advise you to ask fewer questions about my affairs, lest you end up like your predecessor, shattered to pieces by heavenly lightning."

"So, Master, you are starting your cultivation over again because you failed your tribulation?"

Li Feng let out a cold hum, neither confirming nor denying. His demeanor and expressions were perfectly calibrated, showing no hint of falsehood. Although Yan Hun remained doubtful, it tempered its attitude significantly. During their conversation, it had keenly grasped a crucial piece of information: Yan Xiuluo was starting over. This meant all the foundations and power from ten thousand years ago had vanished into foam, and everything would begin from zero.

This presented a rare opportunity. The soul-parasite race possessed innate methods in their memory to break such contracts from the moment of their birth. The method was quite simple: as long as one's divine sense was stronger than the master of the contract, one could launch a counterattack at any time, with a success rate as high as seventy percent.

And the parasite was highly adept at using divine sense; possession was merely an auxiliary talent. Human cultivators had two ways to increase their divine sense: using special secret techniques or breaking through to a higher major realm. Both methods were extremely demanding and yielded unstable results. Therefore, Yan Hun believed that breaking free from Li Feng's control was only a matter of time.

Upon returning to the Spirit Plant Hall, Hong Ling noticed an extra person beside Li Feng.

"Fellow Daoist Li, who is this?"

"A servant I just purchased," Li Feng replied nonchalantly.

Yan Hun kept its head bowed, showing none of the demeanor a servant should have. Hong Ling found Li Feng's habit of purchasing servants from outside quite puzzling, but having grown accustomed to his mysterious nature, she could not be bothered to look into it further.