Chapter 239 - - 237 Yizi Ding Qiankun_1

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“What’s your keyword?” Duge asked again.

“Wen Hua,” Dan Cong replied without hesitation, then countered, “And yours?”

“Management,” Duge glanced at him, not minding his subtle attempt to reverse their master-servant relationship, and revealed his own keyword. The premise of cooperation is sincerity; only through sincerity can one gain the other’s true heart.

“Impossible, how could ‘management’ possibly destroy the characters I wrote? How could it steal someone else’s spiritual power?” Dan Cong furrowed his brow, “Wang Chong, the premise of cooperation is honesty. Playing games like this is pointless.”

“Old Dan, you seem to have forgotten that there’s also cooperation based on a master-servant relationship,” Duge chuckled, “Moreover, I feel you have a misunderstanding of ‘management’. Higher-level management and trade inherently imply the disruption of the existing order. It can shake the stability of society. If it can disrupt stable social orders, then of course it can destabilize the structure of your characters.”

“What skill do you have?” Dan Cong asked.

“Fair’s fair, you say one, I’ll say one,” Duge said. “You’re the weaker one, you go first.”

“Flowers Bloom from the Pen,” Dan Cong stated. “The prose and poetry I write, everyone will consider exceptional.”

“Illicit Management,” Duge looked at him, saying, “When I engage in improper business practices, I disrupt the stability of societal order.”

“…” Dan Cong furrowed his brows, “Is that your definition of honesty?”

“I trusted you, but you don’t trust me?” Duge laughed, “Old Dan, you probably don’t know that I have issued stocks in this world. I issued them and I regulated them, thoroughly wrecking the existing social order a long time ago.”

He glanced at Dan Cong and volunteered, “My second skill is forcible trade—anything I set my sights on can be traded for by force. When I seized your arms or plucked your organs, in fact, it was the effect of my second skill.”

“But you didn’t conduct a trade, you just took the arms directly!” said Dan Cong.

“Ever heard of freebies?” Duge surveyed Dan Cong’s body and proudly stated, “When I buy something, I generally don’t need the other party’s consent.”

“…” Dan Cong fell into a sudden silence, and after a long while, he said, “My second skill is ‘A Single Word Commands the Universe.’ The characters I write have a certain chance to trigger special effects.”

The first skill was responsible for building reputation and enhancing attributes; the second skill was for offense and defense; the two skills could be considered a dream collaboration.

Especially the second skill—it was just too awesome.

Duge looked at Dan Cong, “Can others use the characters you wrote?”

Dan Cong shook his head: “Only I can use them. You had people carry away those solidified bricks because the effect of the characters is still there. It’s still me who imparts properties to those bricks.”

“That means, those ‘control’ and ‘ban’ characters of yours, I won’t be able to use,” Duge queried.

“Wang Chong, there’s no need for me to deceive you,” Dan Cong chuckled. “After all, this is easy to verify, isn’t it?”

“That’s true,” Duge gestured, took Dan Cong’s right hand, and briskly attached it back on, then stretched out his hand, and pulled all the writing materials towards him, grinning at Dan Cong, “Come, write a few characters, let’s see.”

Dan Cong moved his right hand and tentatively asked, “What about the other hand?”

“Isn’t the right hand enough for writing? What a hassle,” Duge muttered, then fitted his left hand back on too.

After spending a day dismembered, Dan Cong once again became whole. He moved his restored limbs and felt an inexplicable sense of gratitude toward Duge, as well as a bit of luck. He really wanted to cooperate, didn’t he?

“Old Dan, I have already shown my sincerity. Now it’s your turn,” Duge said gently, reaching to the paper and brush, spiritual energy curled up the ink stick, helping Dan Cong grind the ink.

“May I put on some clothes?”

Looking down at his naked body, Dan Cong asked tentatively.

Having his limbs severed and lying down, he hadn’t felt much, but now restored and sharing a room with Duge, a grown man, he felt somewhat uncomfortable.

“Old Dan, that’s a bit much! Who do you think you are, asking for an inch and taking a mile,” Duge frowned, “In the Medical Immortal Valley, we’re all men; what’s the use of clothes? Even if there were women, clothes would be even more of a burden. When writing, distractions must be absent, unrestrained, which allows your mind to calm down faster.”

Knowing that he hadn’t entirely gained Duge’s trust, Dan Cong sighed and picked up the brush, dipping it in ink, “What should I write?”

Without hesitation, Duge said, “Sturdy, Nimble, Water, Fire, Sharpness, Keenness… any characters that can enhance physical constitution, or enchant weapons.”

His hand rested on Dan Cong’s neck, “Old Dan, I helped you reattach your limbs, showing my sincerity. But you have yet to earn my trust. If I see anything wrong in your strokes, or characters like ‘Seal,’ ‘Ban,’ ‘Trap’ that could potentially harm me, your head will belong to me.”

Doctor’s Benevolence only increases others’ goodwill towards oneself; it doesn’t change their thoughts.

Theoretically, one who is friendly toward oneself wouldn’t cause harm, but Duge was cautious. He would never entrust his life to someone else’s hands.

“I’m doing this for your own good,” can sometimes be harmful too.

One must steer the ship of life with caution to sail on for eternity.

Dan Cong sighed helplessly, picked up his brush, and wrote the character “resolute” on the paper.

Then he frowned, discarded the paper to one side, took a new sheet, and continued writing “resolute”, explaining as he went, “Characters with special effects emit a golden glow when successfully written, but the chances of success are quite slim. The paper you’ve prepared is actually not enough. A single character can determine the universe, and it is only effective when there is a single character on each piece of paper.”

Upon hearing this,

Duge invoked several streams of Spiritual Energy, slicing the paper in front of him into four pieces, signaling Dan Cong to continue.

He also called in a Disciple waiting outside the cave, ordering them to bring over all the paper from the Medical Immortal Sect.

With his hand on Dan Cong’s neck, Duge made sure Dan Cong didn’t act recklessly. Dan Cong earnestly continued to write the character “resolute,” and after crafting over three hundred failed attempts, a “resolute” finally burst into blinding golden light on the paper before quickly fading away.

Dan Cong picked up the “resolute” character, letting out a breath of relief, “At last, it’s done. The chances of writing a character with special effects are very low. Previously, I wrote the ‘resolute’ character over a thousand times to complete just one.

The more powerful the ‘character,’ the lower the probability.

That ‘dragon’ character, I spent three full days and nights on it before succeeding. If it weren’t for the ‘dragon,’ I could have created many other powerful characters, and wouldn’t have been left with so few when you attacked.

I thought that ‘dragon’ would be an ace up my sleeve, but you easily destroyed it. You have no idea how desperate I felt at that moment…”

“Have you ever considered writing ‘divine’ or ‘immortal’?” Duge asked, taking the “resolute” paper from Dan Cong’s hand and tossing it onto the desk in front. The paper fluttered lightly onto the surface without triggering any effect.

“Writing one ‘dragon’ already took three whole days and nights. To truly write a ‘immortal’ character might take years!” Dan Cong replied with a wry smile, “If my ranking was lower, I might spend years sharpening a sword, perhaps writing ‘immortal’ in one go, and determining the universe with a single stroke.

But with a top ten ranking, I didn’t dare take such a big risk for a single character. And I don’t know what effect a successfully written ‘immortal’ would have. If it turns out to be a useless immortal, then months, even years could be wasted in vain. Just like that dragon that you casually slaughtered…”

Duge picked up the “resolute” character again, “Can it be used on a person?”

“I have experimented on a dog,” Dan Cong said. “And then I easily killed that dog. It didn’t become very hard, but it kept barking furiously at me until it died, not blinking once. I think, when applied to a living creature, it should confer toughness or strength of character…”

“What about clothes?” inquired Duge.

“It’s possible,” Dan Cong understood what Duge meant and patiently explained, “but the clothes will become extremely hard, inhibiting movement, like armor. After all, you can’t completely wrap yourself in clothes and still need to move. Enchanting clothes with the ‘resolute’ character is not as good as a ‘shield’ character, but the ‘shield’ can only be used by me, not by you.”

Duge handed over his flying sword.

Dan Cong took the ‘resolute’ character from Duge’s hand and casually slapped it onto the sword, a small inky ‘resolute’ character appeared on the blade.

Duge manipulated Spiritual Power to make two similar flying swords cross and strike each other.

With a crisp clang, the flying sword marked with “resolute” remained unscathed, while the other sword’s blade developed a notch.

A single character determines the universe.

It truly was a single character determining the universe, and this chance-based skill, if used wisely, could turn the tide even for those ranked lower, just like how Feng Jiu handled Gluttony back in the day…

Lucky for Duge, he’d captured him early!

Those qualified to enter the Alien Battlefield are indeed different from the naive students in the simulation.

Just one Dan Cong was this formidable.

What about the others?

A strong sense of crisis arose in Duge’s heart as he asked, “Old Dan, can ‘agility’ be used by others?”

Dan Cong was silent for a moment, then nodded, “Yes.”

“Next, write ‘agility’,” Duge smiled, using Spiritual Power to create a barrier around his palm as he patted Dan Cong’s shoulder, “Old Dan, let’s cooperate. I’ll ensure you get the second rank, and we’ll sweep away all those who don’t want to work with us. Let’s show the people of the Pan Universe that cooperation is possible even on the Alien Battlefield.”

Dan Cong resumed writing quietly while pondering how to free himself. Duge had helped him reattach his limbs and wanted to use his skills, which might not hurt him but didn’t mean he was content with being trapped here.

He had to take his fate into his own hands…

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