Chapter 152: Conditions

Damn... this many?

Huang Ze was utterly shocked. He never expected the God of Light to harbor such a vast number of angels under his command. Once the barrier vanished, if these seven or eight hundred angels were to charge together, the Xia Country might not truly be able to hold them off!

However, upon second thought, he suddenly felt this number wasn't actually outrageous, perhaps even a bit too small!

After all, as a powerful deity, the God of Light had operated in the Prime Material Plane for at least tens of thousands of years. Even if only a single angel were added each year, it would still amount to tens of thousands.

The fact that the God of Light currently maintained only seven or eight hundred suggested that angels were not creatures that could be easily cultivated.

Of course, another possibility could not be ruled out: these seven or eight hundred angels were merely the standing forces of the God of Light. Once war demanded it, He could rapidly scale up His forces.

Regardless, this God of Light was definitely a formidable enemy!

"It is my turn to ask,"

Cyril said to the black dragon, "If I ask you to rescue me from the Xia Country, what price must I pay?"

"Sorry, that question is off the table!"

The black dragon replied without a second thought. Are you kidding me? A prisoner actually trying to bribe me?

"Black dragon, there are no questions in this world that cannot be discussed."

Cyril smiled and said, "Just now, you swore an oath to the Goddess of Night. You must already have the answer in your heart. Just say it!"

"..."

A strong impulse indeed welled up in the black dragon's mind, and it blurted out, "Rescuing you from the Xia Country is not entirely out of the question, but you must offer your soul to me!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, Huang Ze was momentarily stunned. Just now, when taking the oath, he clearly hadn't received any feedback from Lilith. Why did he suddenly feel like he had acquired obsessive-compulsive disorder, compelled to blurt out his true thoughts when asked a question just to find relief?

Oaths... were they really this metaphysical and absurd?

"Want my soul... you certainly have a brazen ambition!"

Cyril sneered, but strangely, her emotions showed no obvious anger or annoyance.

"What of it... I am a dragon, after all. Having a big appetite is completely normal."

The black dragon was thick-skinned. Far from minding the angel's taunts, he explained with a straight face, "Besides this, I truly cannot think of anything else you possess that would make it worth my while to rescue you?"

"In terms of wealth, as a corrupted angel with nowhere to go, how many tons of gold could you possibly pull together? Right now, in the Xia Country, my baseline net income is ten tons of gold per month. How could I risk losing a massive fortune just to offend the Xia Country for your sake?"

"In terms of power, I am far stronger than you, and I have the entire Xia Country as my backup. Your existence is naturally dispensable to me."

"In terms of beauty... leaving aside whether you would even accept such conditions, I have no particular sexual interest in you. After all, we dragons have never been gentlemen. If I truly had such inclinations, wouldn't using force on you directly be much simpler?"

"..."

"So, taking everything into consideration, unless you surrender your soul to me, I genuinely cannot think of any reason to persuade myself to rescue you."

"Very well!"

Cyril nodded, and then uttered a startling statement: "I accept your condition and can hand my soul over to you, but there are a few terms!"

"Huh?"

The black dragon's eyes widened, clearly not expecting that Cyril would agree to such an outrageous demand—willing to sell her own soul just to leave the Xia Country!

There had to be something fishy going on here!

Far from feeling excited or pleased, Huang Ze grew doubly vigilant.

"First, this transaction must have a time limit."

Cyril said on her own accord, "Ten years. My soul can only be given to you for ten years."

"..."

The black dragon did not reply, but instead stared fixedly into Cyril's eyes, trying to uncover some hidden trick.

"Secondly, you must swear not to force me to do... anything that violates my will, including but not limited to—damaging the interests of the Church of Light, and mating with me..."

"If you are willing to agree to these two conditions, then I can hand my soul over to you and serve you for ten years!"

Cyril met the black dragon's gaze unflinchingly, her resolve seemingly immense.

"Sorry, I decline."

After thinking for only a brief moment, Huang Ze decisively refused.

"Why?"

Cyril wore a puzzled, almost agitated expression. "Isn't this exactly what you wanted? Why are you backing out?"

"This is the second question..."

Huang Ze employed the tactic Cyril had just used, attempting to regain some initiative.

"Black dragon, you are lacking in sincerity!"

Cyril said with dissatisfaction, "That was not what you said just now. Every question must be thoroughly explained before moving on to the next, otherwise our communication is bound to be inefficient, and neither party will be satisfied in the end!"

"Alright..."

Huang Ze thought for a moment and felt Cyril made a reasonable point, so he explained, "The reason I refuse is because I simply cannot trust you."

"What is there not to trust about me?"

"I don't trust whether your soul might harbor some hidden danger that would invite the retaliatory wrath of the God of Light."

Huang Ze said, "I am well aware that your master is extremely overbearing and domineering. How could He possibly allow an angel under His command to sell her soul to someone else?"

"Chances are high that He has tampered with your soul. Once I take possession of it, He might seize the opportunity to launch a dimensional reduction strike against me..."

"..."

"Why aren't you speaking? Did I guess correctly?"

Huang Ze's expression suddenly turned solemn, filled with both indignation and incomprehension. "...I find that I truly underestimated you and almost walked right into your trap. You're already corrupted, abandoned by your master, so why are you still so stubbornly loyal to Him?"

"Since you are an angel under His command, if viewed from a completely objective perspective, what kind of entity your master is, and what kinds of atrocious deeds He has committed, you must know best, right?"

"I thought that having stayed in the Xia Country for so long, your mind would have cleared up somewhat, but I never expected you to remain so obstinate."

The black dragon lifted its neck and stretched, saying with a sense of boredom, "Pointless. Had I known it would be like this, I shouldn't have come to see you."

"..."

Taunted by the black dragon, Cyril did not retort. She merely lowered her head and stroked her wings, lost in thought.

"Nothing else to say to me? If not, I'm leaving."

Huang Ze urged impatiently. He certainly wasn't going to run over and offer comforting words just because Cyril put on the look of an autistic patient; that didn't fit the persona of a dragon.

Therefore, he chose the tactic of advancing by retreating, to see if this Cyril was truly worth winning over.

"..."

Cyril remained silent, staring blankly at her black-and-white wings.

"They're just a few black feathers, what's there to fuss about?"

Though the black dragon claimed he was leaving, he didn't act on it immediately, instead offering sarcastic remarks. "The Xia Country's technology is very advanced, and the quality of various color dyes is excellent. If you really dislike them, you can completely have the Xia people dye them back to white for you. I guarantee the color won't fade for several months!"

"In fact, as long as you like, you can dye them whatever color you want—blue, red, purple, brilliantly colorful... Isn't that much better-looking than your monotonous white?"

"That's why I say, you angels are utterly rigid, completely lacking in any natural instincts, and only know how to blindly act as lapdogs."

"..."

Dyeing her own wings...

Though it was merely the black dragon's sarcastic teasing, Cyril surprisingly took it to heart.

After all, the darkening of her feathers had always been a thorn in Cyril's side. At first, she could still pluck out the newly grown black feathers, but later she found that the faster she plucked them, the faster they grew back, until she finally had to abandon the effort in despair.

What made it even more unacceptable to Cyril was that if your feathers were going to turn black, they could at least follow some pattern and grow in patches, leaving one wing pristine white and the other pitch black so it would at least look aesthetically pleasing.

Instead, they grew a strand here and a strand there, making her look like a mottled rooster, completely ruining her aura and stripping away any celestial grace.

Thus, upon hearing the black dragon's suggestion, Cyril was genuinely tempted.

"As expected, human nature has already awakened within me, beginning to care about worldly aesthetics and learning to pursue beauty..."

Cyril sighed inwardly, and then suddenly said to the black dragon, "Actually, I should have died long ago."

"Oh? How so?"

Seeing that Cyril was finally willing to speak, Huang Ze felt a surge of joy and quickly put on an expression of listening intently.

"Just as you said, my Lord's management of us angels is extremely strict. He tightly controls our minds and souls, absolutely never tolerating any behavior of betrayal, nor allowing us to fall into enemy hands."

"He left a self-destruct program within our bodies..."

At this point, Cyril suddenly closed her eyes in pain, her expression a struggle as several more black feathers abruptly sprouted on her wings.

It seemed that the words she was uttering conflicted with certain mechanisms in her brain, triggering a backlash, or perhaps an even deeper corruption.

Naturally, Huang Ze wouldn't just stand there idly. He decisively lent a hand, directly summoning an arm-thick bolt of lightning and treating the angel to a crackling electrotherapy session.

"Thank you, I feel much better."

The black dragon's electrotherapy was indeed a foolproof cheat, quickly shocking Cyril back to sobriety and prompting her to sincerely thank the black dragon for the first time.

"No problem, small matter. Go on."

The black dragon waved a claw, signaling Cyril not to dwell on it, as continuing the story was more important.

"This self-destruct program activates the moment we fall into enemy hands or harbor rebellious thoughts, causing our brains to bloom from the inside and blowing us to smithereens."

Cyril pointed to her own head and said with calm detachment, "You dragons should be well aware of this, because your ancestors must have warned you in your ancestral memories never to mate with angels, as they are extremely likely to suddenly explode in the middle of it."

"..."

"..."

"......That really is quite terrifying."

Seeing that Cyril kept staring at him as if waiting for his comment, Huang Ze could only offer a dry response.

Cyril then continued, "Originally, when I fell into the hands of the Xia people, I should have met the fate of self-detonation. Yet for some reason, the self-destruct program within my body never activated, and I simply lost connection with my Lord."

"......Maybe the signal was bad."

Not knowing what nerve Cyril had suddenly struck, insisting that the black dragon reply to her before she would continue, Huang Ze had no choice but to chime in.

"That's what I thought, too."

Cyril said, "The Xia Country is an entirely new world. My Lord's power cannot yet penetrate here, which is why the control over me was severed."

"I have a question."

Huang Ze couldn't help asking, "Although the self-destruct program couldn't activate, didn't I hear that you angels have always been the most loyal and unyielding? Why didn't you commit suicide?"

"Who says I didn't?"

The black dragon's question was actually quite impolite, but Cyril didn't seem to mind and answered directly, "During that initial period, I tried to kill myself many times."

"It's just that having lost my magic power, my physical vitality was still excessively strong, so not a single suicide attempt succeeded. I was always saved by the Xia people using electric shocks."

"As time went on, I naturally couldn't be bothered to do it anymore. It's pointless."

"Alright, I understand."

Huang Ze felt a measure of sympathy. During those early days, this Cyril had probably suffered quite a bit.

It wasn't that the Xia people's methods were inherently base, but rather that she had brought it upon herself. After all, as a high-and-mighty angel abruptly cast down into the mortal world and captured by the Xia people for research, the psychological disparity and humiliation must have been immense, making her want to die every minute.

The problem was that her vitality was simply too strong for her to commit suicide. If her experiences and encounters during that period were adapted into a movie, anyone who heard of it would grieve and anyone who saw it would shed tears.

"When... did your mindset begin to corrupt?"

The black dragon continued to ask, "You should also know the specific cause that triggered it, right?"

"Actually, from the very first day I arrived in the Xia Country, my mental state was already somewhat abnormal."

Cyril fell into recollection. "You should know that the Xia Country and our material plane are two completely different worlds. The humans here are far more complex than any other intelligent race."

"To put it bluntly, we angels are actually very rigid and ignorant creatures, fond of dogmatism and incapable of handling overly complex matters."

"Furthermore, within the territory of the Xia Country, I could no longer receive the spiritual solace and tactical guidance of my Lord. Before long, cognitive conflicts arose, making it impossible to maintain my disguise, and I was captured by the Xia people."

"However, I probably wasn't corrupted yet at that time... The true reason for my corruption stemmed from the time when the Xia people charged my body with electricity."

"Electricity?"

"Indeed."

Cyril confirmed, "Electrical energy conflicted with my body, altering the power core of my physique and causing some organs to malfunction. My divinity perceived this as pollution, and then the black feathers began to grow."