Pagliwu snorted:
"The weak obey the strong. I spare your life, and as a price, you become my servant. Such a simple matter, what's there to talk about?"
Rui mildly shook his head:
"Our destinies have been linked together. You killing us is no different from hurting yourself. That's why the relationship between us must be equal in transaction and cooperation. There can be no master or servant. We're bound together for better or for worse."
Pagliwu disagreed:
"I only know that your dear lives are in my hand. Leaving you a way out is already generous enough. If you dare waste any more time, Pagliwu the Great will eat you all!"
Rui stared straight at Pagliwu, and suddenly his voice became melodious:
"What joy in living, what fear in death! The moment I fell into this demon world, my end could already be seen ahead. Although I'm a weak human, a real man I also am. Never for my life would I throw away my dignity and greatness!"
Athena’s eyes illuminated. Only at the moment of life and death could a person's virtue be truly seen. This human's thin back appeared so much taller and larger - this was true courage! Had it been Alan or that Joseph of Alvin Family, they would've undoubtedly been scared jelly-legged.
This so-called true courage, in Pagliwu's view, was clearly the behavior of a prick - your father unluckily fell into the demon world, can die at any time anyway, if I'm gonna die then I'm taking you with me!
Rui had experience with online selling. There were people on the internet who would give shops the worst evaluation, with the intention of blackmailing those shops. They were known as professional downvoters. Merchants, especially the ones just starting their new shops, couldn't do anything about it. Rui had encountered several such guys before. After having lost some money dealing with them, he'd gained quite a bit of knowledge about this matter.
He understood that Pagliwu's situation right now was not that different from trying to hit wolves with a frail stick - both sides were afraid to attack each other. And because Pagliwu also wanted to use him to lift the seal, Rui purposely put on a suicide bomber's attitude, intending to reverse the disadvantaged position. Had he not seen the situation clearly, even with ten thousand "true courages", he wouldn't have dared to bet his own life to try to be brave.
Sure enough, the poison dragon didn't start an outbreak. Instead he only frowned. Rui took the opportunity to add an additional line:
"I, Chen Rui, swear upon the dignity of this world's human, that I'll do all I can to help Poison Dragon Pagliwu lift his seal. If I go back on my words, my body will turn to ash, my soul will shatter into oblivion."
When Pagliwu heard such a heavy vow, his face showed utter astonishment. Little did he know that the very first part of the vow had already been complete nonsense. Rui was basically not this world’s human. To put it bluntly, this was just deceiving innocent people, no, deceiving innocent dragons.
"Pagliwu, I'm willing to help you lift the seal, but not only I want to take back my life, I also hope to obtain your friendship and support. To show you my sincerity, I'll tell you the secret of why I'm not afraid of poisons."
If before, the negotiation had been just a little sweet for Pagliwu, now it was indeed giving the dragon a super effective medicine.
The poison dragon gazed at Rui for a moment, and finally nodded:
"Human, your eloquence is far superior to your strength. If you can really show your sincerity, Pagliwu can consider signing an Equality Contract with you."
Seeing Rui from the absolute disadvantage, all of a sudden leap to an equal position, Athena felt unbelievable. Was this not a genuine matured dragon?
Wise and brave, was the only thing she could think of describing this human standing in front of her right now. Neither did Rui realize that he'd accidentally set up a great image inside Athena's heart; great enough to leave General Alan behind in the dust.
Rui's "sincerity" was nothing more than just repeating the story of the Great Grandmaster and the prehistoric era. He adjusted some small details to make the original story more believable. The poison dragon was obviously harder to fool than Aldaz, as he only stayed quiet. Meanwhile, Athena was certainly fascinated, seeing that she was lost in her imagination.
In order to further win the poison dragon over, Rui brought out a new board game.
On the ground, he drew three vertical and three horizontal lines of grids, for a total of 33 grids. Except the grid in the center, in each grid he put a stone as a chess piece.
The poison dragon was surprised. Even with his thousands of years of experience, he'd never seen this kind of thing before. Again using the Grandmaster's deduction tool as a cover, Rui explained the rules of Peg Solitaire.
According to legend, this game was invented by a noble locked up in the Bastille1 before the French Revolution. It soon became popular all over the world. The gameplay is almost the same as that of checkers in one player mode. The jumped piece gets removed away from the board, and the game continues until no more jump could be made. The fewer the pieces left and the moves taken, the better the record. Based on the remaining number of pieces and the position of those pieces, Rui divided the achievement into six custom-made ranks, with the highest rank being Great Grandmaster Level.
Peg Solitaire, Huarong Road and Rubik's Cube, were hailed as "The three inconceivable puzzles". Athena wasn't too excited about this kind of nerve-racking things, but the calculating dragon was different. He immediately got hooked. If not for the Equality Contract matter, he couldn't have held himself back any longer from trying the game.
"My next words, I don't want them to be heard by a third person. Woman, do not try any stupid things like running away."
The dragon glanced at Athena. Rui then gave her a reassuring look. She nodded and came sit beside Alice and Jiya.
The poison dragon deployed his soundproofing technique and asked with seriousness:
"I, Poison Dragon Pagliwu Sandro Acherkas. Human, your name?"
From Pagliwu solemnly revealing his full name, it could be seen that the dragon's attitude had greatly changed. In fact, the poison dragon was put in a tough spot too. This human couldn't be killed, nor could he be released. The dragon could only hope that this human really did possess that mystical and powerful heritage. If so, then maybe he would be able to find a way to lift the seal.
"It's Chen Rui."
Rui finally loosened up. Only at this point was he considered to have passed this difficult trial.
"Chen Rui, you've successfully won Pagliwu's trust,"
The dragon continued:
"There are some matters I can tell you only after we complete the Contract. I've thought it through carefully. I want to sign a Symbiosis Contract with you. Meaning that, your life and my life will be connected. If one day you betray my friendship and trust, we will both die."
The Symbiosis Contract was completely beyond Rui's expectation. He quickly processed the information and shook his head:
"I don't have any ambition to be a dragon warrior. Supposing we sign a Symbiosis Contract, if I die accidentally or of old age, won't you also be dead?"
"An important characteristic of the Symbiosis Contract is the ability to share life force,"
Pagliwu explained:
"The fertility capability of the dragons is extremely low, but in return, our life span is very long. Some can live for hundreds of thousands of years. I'm now 14,000 years old, about the age of a young man according to human standard. If you sign a Symbiosis Contract with me, you'll receive part of my life force, so there will be no problem regarding dying of old age. In addition to this, your physique will also receive some benefits in a way."
Share life force! Rui was shocked. In the history of China, he couldn't count how many kings and emperors who would trade anything to live longer, fantasizing about immortality. But without exception, no one had ever succeeded. Not in his wildest dreams could Rui have imagined it would be this simple to gain tens of thousands of years of life!
Even those royals of Mozu, if nothing unexpected happened, generally had only about one or two thousand years of life expectancy. As for ordinary demons, the number was merely hundreds. Humans in this world had even shorter life span - unless they reach to a certain height in power, it was simply pointless to compare the two races in this aspect.
"But if it's an accidental death, then there's nothing I can do. Just like what you said earlier, bound together for better or for worse."
Pagliwu shook his head,
"No matter which side, you or I, meets his end, the other side cannot escape death. To tell you the truth, my power is impaired. I can only make a Contract with one person. Because the Ancient Runes matter must be kept a secret, I've planned to kill you, and then make the scythe demon my servant. However, your wisdom and potential have made me change my mind, or so to say, your little trick has worked."
So close! Rui wiped his sweat. It turned out he had stepped one foot into death's door just moments ago.
The poison dragon was a cautious individual - he needed a safety measure after letting Rui go. He understood once their lives were connected, sharing both benefits and risks, it would be impossible for Rui to ignore his seal. This would help in setting him free, and also be the best insurance for his life.
"I need to remind you that you'll risk much more than me. As a weak human, I'll encounter a lot of danger in Mozu,"
Rui pondered for a moment and said:
"If you understand this, and still want to sign a Symbiosis Contract, then I'll agree."
The poison dragon nodded and a perceptive smile flashed across his face:
"Then I can only have faith in that God level Grandmaster of yours for now."
Rui also laughed. YY novel could only stay YY novel2. There was no way that this would play out like some fictions - the protagonist was a genius with God-given wisdom and the rest were brain-damaged retards. People who perceived others as fools were likely the biggest fools themselves.
Although he didn't know how much faith Pagliwu had in his story, what was certain was that this mighty poison dragon had become his first real ally ever since his reincarnation.
The feeling of signing a Contract was exotic. It was as if both sides acknowledged an agreement in spirit. The Contract was immediately effective under some kind of mysterious "law". Unless one party reached God level, this law could not be reversed or modified.
After successfully signing the Symbiosis Contract, Rui could clearly feel some changes in his body. His vigor seemed greatly boosted. And Pagliwu didn't show any unusual signs like getting weakened either.
"Chen Rui, you're now my Symbiosis Partner. It can be said that we're even closer than siblings."
Once the Contract completed, Pagliwu stopped acting all high and mighty.
"I want to know one thing first. Is that scythe demon your woman? She has a mutated bloodline. Great potential. Very likely to reach Demon Lord in the future."
"No, we're not even considered friends. I don't want to upset her."
Rui shook his head. Athena was a beauty all right, but this joke could only stop here. He still didn't forget the tragedy of Kongming Lock.
The poison dragon showed a knowing smile,
"Then I suggest you take her. Female havoc demon is the most loyal woman in the demon race. If you can truly get her heart, she will be wholly devoted to you, and will never betray you. Unless you die, she will never love a second man. If you can't do this, none of our secrets are safe."
Rui now learned that Athena's race had such an unexpected characteristic. It was just that the difficulty of this mission was simply too high.
A fortress in Paris. Mostly used as a prison. ↩ All Chinese web novels seem to be classified as YY novel. It stands for a Chinese term which literally means "mental masturbation", as reading them is very pleasing to the mind. ↩ An image of Peg Solitaire A video of solving Peg Solitaire: LinkTranslator’s notes:
I will stop translating this series. As you all know, this novel belongs to Qidian and they have strict rules regarding fan translation. In my opinion this novel is pretty good and I can imagine they picking it up later on. But of course I will still continue my translating hobby. My new series is . The link to NovelUpdate can be found . If you like what you just read then consider adding this novel to your reading list in NovelUpdate. I can only translate in my free time and with my final year project and thesis coming up, I doubt that I can do more than 1-2 chapters/month. I myself didn’t complete the novel yet, so I’m kind of excited to do this novel. I chose this one because the adapted manhua is pretty good. And also because no one did this novel before, which means it’s not that popular, I can be more relax with my releasing pace. The setting is pretty much about Eastern cultivation as far as I read. There will be a clear power level system, weapon ranking, martial arts with weird name, sect and clan and so on.Trivia:
I like to translate Chinese names so that they wouldn’t sound awkward (at least to me), therefore sometimes the translated names might not have the same meaning as the original. Like the havoc demon race. The literal translation is Big Demon, or Great Demon, which would be super weird in conversation. “Is that big demon your woman?”. lol. Well, because big demon usually do more damage, so… umm… havoc demon. haha. The power system I planned to translate is: Low-leveled Demon → Middle-leveled Demon → High-leveled Demon → Demon Lord → Demon Duke → Demon King → Demon Emperor → Demon Sage. In the Chinese version, Demon Lord, King, Emperor all literally mean Demon King… Demon Duke can even be translated as Big Demon King I dropped the last name Chen midway through the translation because every other characters were called only by their first name. Alice, Athena, Jiya, etc. I don’t know about you guys but I find it super clean and it gives a cool Western feel in a Chinese novel. The Mozu’s strongest demon’s literal name is White Night Lucifer. I could have used the Pinyin translated name Baiye. But the Kanji style name sounds kinda cooler, so… Byakuya Lucifer. And hey, Rui is also kinda Japanese too. Alice’s speaking style. It is so darn frustrating to translate Chinese honorifics, especially the self-addressed ones. And so I ended up with Alice sometimes referring to herself from the 3rd person point of view, which is kind of funny.
Pagliwu snorted:
"The weak obey the strong. I spare your life, and as a price, you become my servant. Such a simple matter, what's there to talk about?"
Rui mildly shook his head:
"Our destinies have been linked together. You killing us is no different from hurting yourself. That's why the relationship between us must be equal in transaction and cooperation. There can be no master or servant. We're bound together for better or for worse."
Pagliwu disagreed:
"I only know that your dear lives are in my hand. Leaving you a way out is already generous enough. If you dare waste any more time, Pagliwu the Great will eat you all!"
Rui stared straight at Pagliwu, and suddenly his voice became melodious:
"What joy in living, what fear in death! The moment I fell into this demon world, my end could already be seen ahead. Although I'm a weak human, a real man I also am. Never for my life would I throw away my dignity and greatness!"
Athena’s eyes illuminated. Only at the moment of life and death could a person's virtue be truly seen. This human's thin back appeared so much taller and larger - this was true courage! Had it been Alan or that Joseph of Alvin Family, they would've undoubtedly been scared jelly-legged.
This so-called true courage, in Pagliwu's view, was clearly the behavior of a prick - your father unluckily fell into the demon world, can die at any time anyway, if I'm gonna die then I'm taking you with me!
Rui had experience with online selling. There were people on the internet who would give shops the worst evaluation, with the intention of blackmailing those shops. They were known as professional downvoters. Merchants, especially the ones just starting their new shops, couldn't do anything about it. Rui had encountered several such guys before. After having lost some money dealing with them, he'd gained quite a bit of knowledge about this matter.
He understood that Pagliwu's situation right now was not that different from trying to hit wolves with a frail stick - both sides were afraid to attack each other. And because Pagliwu also wanted to use him to lift the seal, Rui purposely put on a suicide bomber's attitude, intending to reverse the disadvantaged position. Had he not seen the situation clearly, even with ten thousand "true courages", he wouldn't have dared to bet his own life to try to be brave.
Sure enough, the poison dragon didn't start an outbreak. Instead he only frowned. Rui took the opportunity to add an additional line:
"I, Chen Rui, swear upon the dignity of this world's human, that I'll do all I can to help Poison Dragon Pagliwu lift his seal. If I go back on my words, my body will turn to ash, my soul will shatter into oblivion."
When Pagliwu heard such a heavy vow, his face showed utter astonishment. Little did he know that the very first part of the vow had already been complete nonsense. Rui was basically not this world’s human. To put it bluntly, this was just deceiving innocent people, no, deceiving innocent dragons.
"Pagliwu, I'm willing to help you lift the seal, but not only I want to take back my life, I also hope to obtain your friendship and support. To show you my sincerity, I'll tell you the secret of why I'm not afraid of poisons."
If before, the negotiation had been just a little sweet for Pagliwu, now it was indeed giving the dragon a super effective medicine.
The poison dragon gazed at Rui for a moment, and finally nodded:
"Human, your eloquence is far superior to your strength. If you can really show your sincerity, Pagliwu can consider signing an Equality Contract with you."
Seeing Rui from the absolute disadvantage, all of a sudden leap to an equal position, Athena felt unbelievable. Was this not a genuine matured dragon?
Wise and brave, was the only thing she could think of describing this human standing in front of her right now. Neither did Rui realize that he'd accidentally set up a great image inside Athena's heart; great enough to leave General Alan behind in the dust.
Rui's "sincerity" was nothing more than just repeating the story of the Great Grandmaster and the prehistoric era. He adjusted some small details to make the original story more believable. The poison dragon was obviously harder to fool than Aldaz, as he only stayed quiet. Meanwhile, Athena was certainly fascinated, seeing that she was lost in her imagination.
In order to further win the poison dragon over, Rui brought out a new board game.
On the ground, he drew three vertical and three horizontal lines of grids, for a total of 33 grids. Except the grid in the center, in each grid he put a stone as a chess piece.
The poison dragon was surprised. Even with his thousands of years of experience, he'd never seen this kind of thing before. Again using the Grandmaster's deduction tool as a cover, Rui explained the rules of Peg Solitaire.
According to legend, this game was invented by a noble locked up in the Bastille1 before the French Revolution. It soon became popular all over the world. The gameplay is almost the same as that of checkers in one player mode. The jumped piece gets removed away from the board, and the game continues until no more jump could be made. The fewer the pieces left and the moves taken, the better the record. Based on the remaining number of pieces and the position of those pieces, Rui divided the achievement into six custom-made ranks, with the highest rank being Great Grandmaster Level.
Peg Solitaire, Huarong Road and Rubik's Cube, were hailed as "The three inconceivable puzzles". Athena wasn't too excited about this kind of nerve-racking things, but the calculating dragon was different. He immediately got hooked. If not for the Equality Contract matter, he couldn't have held himself back any longer from trying the game.
"My next words, I don't want them to be heard by a third person. Woman, do not try any stupid things like running away."
The dragon glanced at Athena. Rui then gave her a reassuring look. She nodded and came sit beside Alice and Jiya.
The poison dragon deployed his soundproofing technique and asked with seriousness:
"I, Poison Dragon Pagliwu Sandro Acherkas. Human, your name?"
From Pagliwu solemnly revealing his full name, it could be seen that the dragon's attitude had greatly changed. In fact, the poison dragon was put in a tough spot too. This human couldn't be killed, nor could he be released. The dragon could only hope that this human really did possess that mystical and powerful heritage. If so, then maybe he would be able to find a way to lift the seal.
"It's Chen Rui."
Rui finally loosened up. Only at this point was he considered to have passed this difficult trial.
"Chen Rui, you've successfully won Pagliwu's trust,"
The dragon continued:
"There are some matters I can tell you only after we complete the Contract. I've thought it through carefully. I want to sign a Symbiosis Contract with you. Meaning that, your life and my life will be connected. If one day you betray my friendship and trust, we will both die."
The Symbiosis Contract was completely beyond Rui's expectation. He quickly processed the information and shook his head:
"I don't have any ambition to be a dragon warrior. Supposing we sign a Symbiosis Contract, if I die accidentally or of old age, won't you also be dead?"
"An important characteristic of the Symbiosis Contract is the ability to share life force,"
Pagliwu explained:
"The fertility capability of the dragons is extremely low, but in return, our life span is very long. Some can live for hundreds of thousands of years. I'm now 14,000 years old, about the age of a young man according to human standard. If you sign a Symbiosis Contract with me, you'll receive part of my life force, so there will be no problem regarding dying of old age. In addition to this, your physique will also receive some benefits in a way."
Share life force! Rui was shocked. In the history of China, he couldn't count how many kings and emperors who would trade anything to live longer, fantasizing about immortality. But without exception, no one had ever succeeded. Not in his wildest dreams could Rui have imagined it would be this simple to gain tens of thousands of years of life!
Even those royals of Mozu, if nothing unexpected happened, generally had only about one or two thousand years of life expectancy. As for ordinary demons, the number was merely hundreds. Humans in this world had even shorter life span - unless they reach to a certain height in power, it was simply pointless to compare the two races in this aspect.
"But if it's an accidental death, then there's nothing I can do. Just like what you said earlier, bound together for better or for worse."
Pagliwu shook his head,
"No matter which side, you or I, meets his end, the other side cannot escape death. To tell you the truth, my power is impaired. I can only make a Contract with one person. Because the Ancient Runes matter must be kept a secret, I've planned to kill you, and then make the scythe demon my servant. However, your wisdom and potential have made me change my mind, or so to say, your little trick has worked."
So close! Rui wiped his sweat. It turned out he had stepped one foot into death's door just moments ago.
The poison dragon was a cautious individual - he needed a safety measure after letting Rui go. He understood once their lives were connected, sharing both benefits and risks, it would be impossible for Rui to ignore his seal. This would help in setting him free, and also be the best insurance for his life.
"I need to remind you that you'll risk much more than me. As a weak human, I'll encounter a lot of danger in Mozu,"
Rui pondered for a moment and said:
"If you understand this, and still want to sign a Symbiosis Contract, then I'll agree."
The poison dragon nodded and a perceptive smile flashed across his face:
"Then I can only have faith in that God level Grandmaster of yours for now."
Rui also laughed. YY novel could only stay YY novel2. There was no way that this would play out like some fictions - the protagonist was a genius with God-given wisdom and the rest were brain-damaged retards. People who perceived others as fools were likely the biggest fools themselves.
Although he didn't know how much faith Pagliwu had in his story, what was certain was that this mighty poison dragon had become his first real ally ever since his reincarnation.
The feeling of signing a Contract was exotic. It was as if both sides acknowledged an agreement in spirit. The Contract was immediately effective under some kind of mysterious "law". Unless one party reached God level, this law could not be reversed or modified.
After successfully signing the Symbiosis Contract, Rui could clearly feel some changes in his body. His vigor seemed greatly boosted. And Pagliwu didn't show any unusual signs like getting weakened either.
"Chen Rui, you're now my Symbiosis Partner. It can be said that we're even closer than siblings."
Once the Contract completed, Pagliwu stopped acting all high and mighty.
"I want to know one thing first. Is that scythe demon your woman? She has a mutated bloodline. Great potential. Very likely to reach Demon Lord in the future."
"No, we're not even considered friends. I don't want to upset her."
Rui shook his head. Athena was a beauty all right, but this joke could only stop here. He still didn't forget the tragedy of Kongming Lock.
The poison dragon showed a knowing smile,
"Then I suggest you take her. Female havoc demon is the most loyal woman in the demon race. If you can truly get her heart, she will be wholly devoted to you, and will never betray you. Unless you die, she will never love a second man. If you can't do this, none of our secrets are safe."
Rui now learned that Athena's race had such an unexpected characteristic. It was just that the difficulty of this mission was simply too high.
A fortress in Paris. Mostly used as a prison. ↩ All Chinese web novels seem to be classified as YY novel. It stands for a Chinese term which literally means "mental masturbation", as reading them is very pleasing to the mind. ↩ An image of Peg Solitaire A video of solving Peg Solitaire: LinkTranslator’s notes:
I will stop translating this series. As you all know, this novel belongs to Qidian and they have strict rules regarding fan translation. In my opinion this novel is pretty good and I can imagine they picking it up later on. But of course I will still continue my translating hobby. My new series is . The link to NovelUpdate can be found . If you like what you just read then consider adding this novel to your reading list in NovelUpdate. I can only translate in my free time and with my final year project and thesis coming up, I doubt that I can do more than 1-2 chapters/month. I myself didn’t complete the novel yet, so I’m kind of excited to do this novel. I chose this one because the adapted manhua is pretty good. And also because no one did this novel before, which means it’s not that popular, I can be more relax with my releasing pace. The setting is pretty much about Eastern cultivation as far as I read. There will be a clear power level system, weapon ranking, martial arts with weird name, sect and clan and so on.Trivia:
I like to translate Chinese names so that they wouldn’t sound awkward (at least to me), therefore sometimes the translated names might not have the same meaning as the original. Like the havoc demon race. The literal translation is Big Demon, or Great Demon, which would be super weird in conversation. “Is that big demon your woman?”. lol. Well, because big demon usually do more damage, so… umm… havoc demon. haha. The power system I planned to translate is: Low-leveled Demon → Middle-leveled Demon → High-leveled Demon → Demon Lord → Demon Duke → Demon King → Demon Emperor → Demon Sage. In the Chinese version, Demon Lord, King, Emperor all literally mean Demon King… Demon Duke can even be translated as Big Demon King I dropped the last name Chen midway through the translation because every other characters were called only by their first name. Alice, Athena, Jiya, etc. I don’t know about you guys but I find it super clean and it gives a cool Western feel in a Chinese novel. The Mozu’s strongest demon’s literal name is White Night Lucifer. I could have used the Pinyin translated name Baiye. But the Kanji style name sounds kinda cooler, so… Byakuya Lucifer. And hey, Rui is also kinda Japanese too. Alice’s speaking style. It is so darn frustrating to translate Chinese honorifics, especially the self-addressed ones. And so I ended up with Alice sometimes referring to herself from the 3rd person point of view, which is kind of funny.
