Armipotent

Chapter 2202: Shizi

Tang Shaoyang waited until the old man was dragged away from the peak by Nikolas. After ensuring that they were far from the spot, he turned toward the pile of bodies and directed his hand toward it.

Spirit Summoning!

The dead bodies lit up in crimson before melting into magma. Then the magma melted the ground, creating a hole. The magma didn’t spread out; it stayed where the body turned into magma and sank into the ground.

He was standing in front of a hole created by the magma. The hole remained the same size as the magma kept going down, around six meters in diameter.

Tang Shaoyang had a bad feeling about this when he first saw the magma. Alderman might be strong, but he didn’t want that man as his spirit. He was getting even more uneasy as the spirit didn’t show up, and there was no hesitation.

He didn’t believe in any God, but he prayed to all Gods that his new spirit was not Alderman.

The ground suddenly started to shake as he could hear a loud gurgling noise from the hole. He was about to take a peek, but the magma burst out from the hole. It shot into the sky and spread magma in droplets.

Tang Shaoyang looked up, and his eyes locked on the ball made of magma shot up to the sky. The ball was getting brighter and brighter in the sky, forming like a small sun. With how things went, this might not be Alderman. He was being hopeful despite the concern that kept bothering him.

”This takes longer than usual...” He muttered as the spirit hadn’t showed up, and there was no notification.

As he said that, the small sun was getting bigger and bigger. That was when he noticed the small sun was descending and landed right in front of him with a boom.

A wave of magma flooded in all directions, going down to the mountain as it melted everything on its path. As the wave subsided, a creature was revealed.

It was a three-headed lion that was made of magma. It had molten rock-like scales on its body, and its mane was made of magma. The magma kept dropping from the mane, and its eyes were bright golden-crimson with two glowing dark-red horns that curved backward.

It had three tails that were also made of magma with an arrowhead at the tip. It was quite long, around six meters long. The tail looked like a weapon, and maybe it could be utilized as one with that kind of tip.

[You have summoned an Archaic Spirit, Shizi the Desolate Heavenly Beast!]

Tang Shaoyang’s first reaction was a relief. He was relieved it was not Alderman, and he was quite satisfied with the summoning as well. He didn’t get what he aimed for, the four Heavenly Beasts that he knew of, but this was considered a Heavenly Beast too.

”That human looks strong. We should fight him!”

A rough and wild voice came from the lion’s right head. It looked straight at Tang Shaoyang with a look of eagerness to fight.

He was surprised how easily he read this head with a single look.

”N-no... W-we should s-serve him as our master, n-not beat him! T-this is our chance to get resurrected. I-if we don’t take this chance, w-we might have to wait for another thousand years...”

The left head responded, in contrast to the right head. The left head sounded more timid, and its voice was on the softer side for a fierce-looking beast.

Just like the right head, the left head’s expression was easy to read. He didn’t need to utilize Absolute Sense to find out their emotions. The right head was eager for a challenge, and the left head was filled with concern for not being able to make a contract with him.

”Silence! We agreed for me to do the talk!”

The middle-head raised his voice, and his voice carried the dignity of the Heavenly Beast.

”I agree with both of you. We need to make a contract to get our second chance, but we are not going to serve a weak master either. I would rather wait for another hundred thousand years rather than serve a weak master!”

The middle-head was the actual brain and the leader of the three. It was a surprise that each had a different personality. That made him think whether his head had a different personality as well or not. He could not tell from his perspective because everything was moving according to his will.

”Do you hear us, human? We will be testing you to see whether you deserve to be our master or not! We will fight, and don’t worry. We will try our best not to kill you!”

Tang Shaoyang chuckled, realizing this was truly their first time being summoned as a spirit. It confirmed what the left-head said.

”It’s truly refreshing to meet a newbie spirit. You don’t need to worry about killing me because you can’t kill me, and I can’t kill you.”

”Then that’s actually for the best. We can go all out without needing to worry about accidentally killing you. Are you ready, human?”

”You are not going to fight me if we have to fight,” It would be his spirit’s turn since he had heard his spirits were buzzing in his head, ”But I have a better solution than a pointless fight.”

”Make a contract with me and serve me for a thousand years in exchange for resurrection after you finish serving me. Isn’t that better? In the first place, does it matter whether I am strong or not? Even if I die, you will just return to your original place anyway.”

”H-he’s right, m-middle-head. E-ev-even if he is weak, we can protect him anyway...” The left-head quickly agreed with Tang Shaoyang’s proposal.

”Fool! What if he died our last year serving him? We will be wasting our time.”

”But do you know that if I win the fight, I can force the contract on you, and the contract might not include the resurrection you wanted.”

The moment that part was mentioned, Shizi fell silent. The mid-head tried to recall all the stuff before agreeing to become a spirit. It realized that Tang Shaoyang was telling the truth. The contract could be forced on them if they lost the battle.

The mid-head was truly the brain as it actually contemplated its options. But it was conflicted because of its pride in not being willing to serve a weak master.

”How about we proceed with the fight? If we win, we will proceed with the contract, but we will only serve you for a hundred years instead of a thousand years, with a resurrection at the end of our contract. But if we lose, we will serve you for ten thousand years and a resurrection at the end of our contract!”

Tang Shaoyang raised his right eyebrow. He was surprised it could come with a fair proposal.

”Since you insist on fighting, then I will humor you. Let me pick your opponent first...”

The voices in his head were getting louder as most of his spirits asked to fight the Desolate Heavenly Beast. The problem was that he didn’t know Shizi’s sub-rank, whether the three-headed lion was pinnacle, high, intermediate, or even low.

Even though it didn’t really matter whether Shizi served him for a hundred years or ten thousand years. For him, one hundred years was long enough to achieve his goal. However, he still won, after all, and for that, he chose one of his strongest spirits.

”Karan!”

”Bahaha.. It’s finally my turn this time!” The red-skinned Orc was quite excited about the battle, ”They are strong, maybe at pinnacle rank, Master.”

”It seems there’s a misunderstanding, human. You are the one we want to test, not your spirits.”

Tang Shaoyang shrugged, ”But my spirit is part of my power too. Do you want me to give you an advantage by not using them?”

”He is right, mid-head. It doesn’t matter if it’s his spirit or him. Let’s just fight!” The right head opened its mouth and let out an ear-shattering roar.

”That’s right, let’s fight! You are thinking too much!”

Axes appeared in both Karan’s head as he lunged toward the massive beast. Karan caught them off guard and smashed his shoulder against the mid-head. That sent the three-headed lion down to the mountain. The Desolate Heavenly Beast rolled on the ground before crashing down on the foot of the mountain, causing the ground to shake.

”If you can’t beat me, don’t dream of beating your Master!” Karan’s voice echoed in the air before he leaped from the peak of the mountain, chasing after the Desolate Heavenly Beast.

Tang Shaoyang then turned around. Nikolas dragged Song Wei too far from the mountain to the point that his Chaos Eyes could no longer reach them. He was so focused on the summoning that he almost forgot about that old man.

From Karan’s assessment, it seemed Shizi was at least a high-rank Archaic Spirit and might be the pinnacle. The fight would be intense, but he was more curious about the old man. The old man could be used as a measurement of a True God Realm compared to his Archaic Spirit.

Mo Tianshen, the Heaven Founder’s leader, managed to survive in the peak True God Realm from Zara. That made him curious how the True God Realm fared against high-rank Archaic spirits like Nikolas.

He decided to leave Karan on his own and looked for Nikolas instead. He closed his eyes for a moment and found Nikolas’ location. With his extreme speed, he quickly reached where Nikolas was and was surprised to see Nikolas on his knees.