Chapter 183: Submission

While Pi Yuanhong and Lonter were locked in a fierce battle, Su Chen was walking the dog.

Yes, he was walking the dog!

The spirit tablet flew back and forth through the air, Patelocke yelling and screaming as if he were bungee-jumping. The Purple-Scaled Beast chased constantly after the spirit tablet, running back and forth as if it were on a leash.

The Purple-Scaled Beast wasn’t stupid, but the imprinted orders left behind on its bloodline gave it no other choice.

While the Purple-Scaled Beast had no choice, however, Patelocke did.

Patelocke, who didn’t want to be thrown around in the air any longer, yelled angrily, “Enough! Stop it all!”

As he yelled, an invisible wave of consciousness energy washed over the Purple-Scaled Beast and Su Chen.

However, the Purple-Scaled Beast reared back and let out an angry howl. Patelocke’s will was not able to control the Purple-Scaled Demonic Beast.

He had never been skilled at controlling other lifeforms. He only began studying it once he was turned into a specter and couldn’t contact physical objects, but because he had no foundation and couldn’t read any of the books, he had no path of studying and had to rely on his own insights, making his progress incredibly slow. He had only been able to control the Purple-Scaled Beast previously because it had never experienced something like that before and had been ambushed. Now, repeating that would be quite difficult.

As for controlling Su Chen, that was even further out of the question. Humans were more intelligent and possessed stronger willpower than Demonic Beasts. If the Demonic Beast could resist this consciousness assault, it wasn’t even worth mentioning Su Chen.

Patelocke’s consciousness assault didn’t control either Su Chen nor the beast, giving Su Chen an opportunity.

Just as the Purple-Scaled Beast was resisting the consciousness-attack, Su Chen activated Fata Morgana. The Purple-Scaled Beast instantly fell into an illusion realm, unable to escape.

Su Chen only used Fata Morgana sparingly and under very special circumstances. However, every time he used it, it was almost guaranteed to succeed. No matter what, he wanted to avoid a backlash.

The Purple-Scaled Beast froze in place, and Lonter had been split into two by Pi Yuanhong. The battle had finally concluded.

Su Chen kept his hand on his midsection as he stood up, his face pale. He asked, “Ruoyu, how much more time do we have?”

“At most, the time it takes for a stick of incense to burn before this place collapses,” Ji Ruoyu replied.

“So what are we waiting for? Let’s hurry up and grab what we can!” Su Chen commanded.

“Yes!” Ji Ruoyu and Yue Longsha nodded, then began to tear through the research lab like a tornado.

At this point, they no longer considered the value of the objects. As long as it didn’t look half-bad, they would stuff it in their Origin Rings and look at it later. Even Yu Mengnan and Duan Jiangshan ignored their wounds and began to scour the place.

Su Chen, however, stood there motionless, holding the stone tablet in his hands as he gazed at Patelocke.

“Tell me, how should I deal with you?” he laughed coldly.

“Don’t kill me!” Patelocke began to yell. “I am willing to become your most loyal slave! I used to be one of the leading Arcana Masters during the Arcana Kingdom and have an abundance of knowledge. I can teach you all kinds of things. Aren’t you studying Ancient Arcana Techniques? Air Tentacles? What kind of trash is that? I can teach you many more outstanding techniques!”

“That sounds pretty good. But unfortunately, everything that we find here needs to be turned in to the higher-ups. If you become my slave, I won’t be able to explain it to them,” Su Chen said indifferently.

Patelocke froze.

Su Chen said, “It’s better if I just shatter the tablet.”

Patelocke panicked. He yelled, “You could hide me......”

The words hadn’t even fully left his mouth when Su Chen said in a low voice, “Shut your mouth. Are you trying to get me to sell out my own country?”

Patelocke’s heart trembled. He realized that Su Chen wasn’t the only person here.

He glanced at Su Chen, who was looking at the Purple-Scaled Beast.

Patelocke had been alive for tens of thousands of years. He glanced at Su Chen, then at the Purple-Scaled Beast, and suddenly reacted. He yelled, “If you kill me, you’ll lose the ability to threaten that Demonic Beast after it breaks free of your illusion.”

Indeed, Su Chen’s hand paused before he said, “But if I leave you here, it’ll still attack us. What should I do?”

“What should you do?” Patelocke didn’t know how to answer Su Chen’s questions. He stared at Su Chen dumbly.

Su Chen sighed and reminded him, “Unless I have some way to control you.”

Patelocke suddenly understood what Su Chen was getting at. “Your blood...... If you put a drop of your blood on the stone tablet and then recite the corresponding chant, the words inscribed on this tablet, you will be the tablet’s owner from here on out. But as a price, you won’t be able to dissolve this connection.”

“Is that so,” Su Chen sighed. “Well, there’s nothing I can do. It’s a life-or-death emergency.”

Yue Longsha couldn’t help but roll her eyes when she heard this.

For someone as smart as her, how could she not realize what Su Chen was doing?

He just wanted to find a logical reason to take the spirit tablet for himself.

Smuggling the spirit tablet past inspections wasn’t practical. Because Su Chen was friends with everyone, the others might agree to help him smuggle it through if he begged them.

However, this would also give people leverage over him.

At this point, everyone was still good friends, but no one knew what might happen in the future.

Su Chen didn’t want that to happen, so he needed to find an excuse.

Luckily, the Purple-Scaled Beast was a perfect excuse.

With this excuse, Su Chen could righteously claim the tablet.

In fact, Su Chen’s intentions might be seen through by people other than Yue Longsha.

However, it was just a spirit tablet. Patelocke’s knowledge was an invaluable treasure to Su Chen, but it wasn’t worth anything to the others. To people like Pi Yuanhong, if you told them to read a book, they would fall asleep before even getting halfway through.

In addition, Su Chen’s relationship with everyone was very good. They might struggle with helping Su Chen openly, but no one had any issues with just pretending to be blind. Also, they would also gain Su Chen’s favor; gaining favor just by doing nothing was something everyone liked to do.

Su Chen was the same. Even if they did discover it, Su Chen could claim that it had been a decision made under extreme duress and that he had no alternative but to claim the tablet for himself. In any case, things would be much easier to explain.

Next, Su Chen squeezed a drop of blood onto the spirit tablet and began to recite the chant inscribed on the tablet. In reality, it was just a unique Origin Energy Pattern.

Once he finished the chant, the process of getting the spirit tablet to recognize an owner was also complete. From this point onwards, it belonged to Su Chen completely. It would be impossible to give it away even if he wanted to.

After subduing the spirit tablet, the Purple-Scaled Beast was also beginning to wake up from its dream.

Surprisingly, it didn’t attack Su Chen; instead, it merely gazed at him intently.

Su Chen gazed at the Purple-Scaled Beast and said in a low voice, “I know you don’t believe me, but I want you to know that everything you saw in that dream is true.”

Even though the Demonic Beast couldn’t understand human speech, it could still sense Su Chen’s meaning.

“AWOO!” It tilted its head back and let out a resonant cry.

Following this cry, the cry of a Demonic Beast sounded far off in the distance in response.

It was the little Purple-Scaled Beast’s response upon hearing its father’s cry.

Upon hearing this howl, the Purple-Scaled Beast cried out sadly as it stared at Su Chen angrily.

Su Chen said, “I’m very sorry for killing your mate. However, if you’re willing, I can take your child out of here. The Purple-Scaled Beasts’ mission is over. Your child will be set free from this moment onwards.”

He had no way of conveying to the Purple-Scaled Demonic Beast his thoughts via complex language, but he still had his own tricks.

An instant later, Su Chen cast Fata Morgana again, demonstrating the aftermath of the collapse of the ruins.

This was somewhat of a risk. The Purple-Scaled Beast knew that it was in a dream realm. As long as it wanted to, it could easily break through.

However, it didn’t.

It quietly watched as Su Chen demonstrated to it what would happen next.

It knew that this was the promise Su Chen was making with it.

Within the dream realm, it watched as Su Chen and the others left. A young girl took the little Purple-Scaled Beast with her to the wilderness and unlocked the restrictions, giving it freedom.

The dream ended. When the Purple-Scaled Beast awoke again, it saw the little Purple-Scaled Beast standing not too far away from itself, its large eyes staring at its father with a confused look.

The Purple-Scaled Beast let out a soft croon.

Under the control of Zhou Juanjia’s will, the little Purple-Scaled Beast padded over.

The two Purple-Scaled Beasts, one big and one small, rubbed their necks against each other, sniffing the familiar odors.

Not far from them, Su Chen watched along with Zhou Juanjia and Gan Haoli. “You guys came right on time.”

“It seems like it wasn’t of much use after all...... I was originally hoping to use it to turn the tides,” Zhou Juanjia laughed.

“Not every advance preparation needs to have some great use,” Su Chen replied as he watched the two Demonic Beasts cuddling. “Don’t you think that this conclusion is pretty good?”

“Hm...... Yes, it is pretty good,” Zhou Juanjia laughed.

“Unfortunately, this period of calm is only temporary,” Su Chen sighed. He turned around and asked, “Ruoyu, how much time until it begins?”

Ji Ruoyu shrugged and replied, “It’s already begun.”

Strange ripples suddenly washed over them as if a stone had been tossed into a still pond. The void space began to flicker.

The ruins had begun to collapse.