DEMON GROUPI ACCIDENTALLY ENTERED THE EVIL CHAT!

Yuan Lin spent the entire night reading and re-reading the report that Xue had sent.

It wasn't just information; it was a window into a world of brutal laws and eternal commitments.

He was sitting on his sofa, the light from his computer screen the only illumination in the room, displaying the report he had copied from his mental interface.

[Brief Report on Oaths of Fealty - Compiled by: Dark Fairy Queen Xue]

[Introduction: Loyalty in the lesser realms, as in ours, is the currency of power. But the forms of this loyalty vary in their strength and permanence.]

[1. Verbal Oaths: The simplest form of loyalty. Merely a promise. Worthless in most cases, as they can be easily broken.]

[2. Soul Contracts: More formal agreements, in which a small part of the subordinate's soul energy is tied to the master. Breaking the contract causes spiritual damage, but it is not fatal.]

[3. The Blood Oath: The most sacred and dangerous form of loyalty. It can only be done with the full and voluntary consent of the subordinate. The subordinate offers a drop of their heart's blood and a part of their soul's essence, swearing an eternal oath to the Lord. This creates an unbreakable bond.]

[Benefits of the Blood Oath for the Master: He can sense the subordinate's location and condition, issue simple mental commands, and draw upon a portion of the subordinate's life force in extreme emergencies.]

[Consequences of the Blood Oath for the Subordinate: His life becomes tied to his master's. If the master dies, the subordinate dies. Absolute loyalty becomes a part of his nature, and any thought of betrayal causes him unbearable spiritual pain.]

Yuan Lin closed the file and took a deep breath. "Blood Oath."

This was what he needed. Not just loyalty, but absolute control. A bond that would ensure his "World Anchor" would be stable and reliable.

But the report was clear: "full and voluntary consent."

How could he convince a man like Master Chen to voluntarily offer him his soul?

At the end of the report, there was a personal note from Xue, which seemed to pierce through his thoughts.

[Side note: My Lord, it is a curious topic. Are you planning a recruitment drive?]

Yuan Lin felt a shiver. She was dangerously smart.

"I'm just studying the habits of my lesser beings," he thought sarcastically, realizing how weak his lie was.

He couldn't act recklessly. His old plan of going to Chen directly was stupid. He needed to know more. He needed to do reconnaissance.

The next morning, he didn't go to the junkyard.

Instead, he headed to the public park very early. But he didn't enter it.

He found a café on the second floor of a commercial building that looked directly out over that quiet spot under the willow tree.

He ordered a cup of tea and sat by the window, like a private detective on a mission.

He didn't have to wait long. As the sun rose, Master Chen arrived. He began to practice his slow, fluid movements.

Yuan Lin activated his `[Perception]` skill. This time, he wasn't just watching for the sake of watching. He was studying. Analyzing.

He once again saw that calm, blue current of internal energy circulating in the old man's body.

But with his new focus, he noticed something deeper. The energy wasn't just a closed loop. It was interacting with the world.

When Chen's hand passed near a leaf, Yuan Lin saw a faint green thread of life energy being pulled from the leaf and absorbed into the old man's body, leaving the leaf looking slightly duller.

When his foot pressed gently on the ground, the raw earth energy threads beneath it calmed and harmonized.

"This isn't just a health exercise," Yuan Lin realized with a shock. "He is cultivating. He is actively absorbing scraps of energy from the nature around him. It's an incredibly slow and inefficient method compared to what I do... but it's real. He's doing it without a system, without any external help."

He felt a mixture of respect and arrogance. Respect for this man's rigor and discipline, and arrogance because he possessed a shortcut that bypassed decades of this hard work.

He watched him with intense focus, studying every movement, every flow of energy, completely lost in his analysis.

He was so lost that he didn't notice when the old man had stopped his movements.

Suddenly, in the middle of a motion, Master Chen froze.

Then, very slowly, he turned his head and raised his eyes.

He didn't look around randomly. He looked directly across the street, to the second floor of the commercial building, directly at the window where Yuan Lin was sitting.

Their eyes met.

Yuan Lin felt as if his heart had jumped into his throat. He'd been discovered! How? He was more than fifty meters away, behind glass.

A blue system window suddenly appeared in his vision.

[Warning: You are under observation by a practitioner who possesses a developed "Spiritual Sense." Your `[Perception]` skill generates a faint psychic ripple that can be detected by experienced individuals when focused for a long period.]

"Damn it!" Yuan Lin thought, feeling the urge to hide under the table.

The eye contact lasted for a few seconds that felt like an eternity. The old man's gaze wasn't hostile. It was filled with curiosity, surprise, and perhaps... amusement.

Then, the old man did something Yuan Lin never expected.

He slowly raised his hand, and in a simple, quiet gesture, he beckoned to him with two fingers. An gesture that meant "come here."

It wasn't a command, and it wasn't a threat.

It was an invitation. A test.

The blood froze in Yuan Lin's veins. His plan to spy and observe from a distance had collapsed. He had been summoned.

He had two choices: run and hide like a coward, confirming to the old man that he was scared and weak. Or get up, accept the invitation, and face this man he was planning to make his first subordinate.

His old personality was screaming at him to run. But the "Lord" growing inside him, that arrogant entity that had tasted power, could not tolerate this insult. Running was not an option.

He took a slow, deep breath and forced his heart to calm down. An icy coldness of resolve flowed through him.

"So, the time for observation is over," he thought, a cold smile barely visible on his lips. "The prey has noticed the hunter. Very well... let's see what the grandmaster wants."

Yuan Lin stood up and placed a few yuan on the table for the tea he hadn't touched. He turned, ignored the stares of the other customers, and walked steadily toward the elevator.

He was descending to face an encounter he was not at all prepared for, armed only with his secrets, his arrogance, and an ugly goblin dagger hidden in his boot.