# Chapter 2: Making Friends with Animals
The worms in the Sea of Life were also included in Beini's category of animals.
Beini had completely abandoned the combat system. Of the [Follower Promotion Badge] she obtained, ten percent went to improving speed and survivability, ten percent to enhancing travel and treasure hunting, and eighty percent to boosting her ability to make friends.
In the Sea of Life, Beini not only got to know the "Eye of the Unseen," she even recognized the God-Slayer, and even hid with the God-Slayer for a few days. The reason was that Mother of Birth·Eve wanted to catch her and keep her as a pet cat. Beini, of course, was unwilling.
Beini meowed at Su Xiao for a while, speaking with great enthusiasm, but soon she suddenly thought of something, burrowed into Su Xiao's clothes, and poked her cat head out from his collar.
"Meow meow!"
Beini's meaning was simple: let's go, she would take Su Xiao to find the treasure she had discovered traces of inside the Life Workshop, which she was about to search for.
Under Beini's direction, Su Xiao returned to the branch point of the corridor. This time, he walked into the first passage ahead. According to Beini's instructions, he walked a total of 150 steps. The distance between each step didn't matter; the key was the concept of 150 steps.
The sound of wind came from ahead. Su Xiao faintly heard the sound of water and also smelled the moisture of the riverbank and the scent of aquatic plants. He pressed one hand against the wall and began to wait.
Hum~
A spatial fluctuation so unique that he had never felt it before appeared. Su Xiao's vision blurred, and he returned to the fork of the main passage.
"Meow."
Beini directed again. Su Xiao walked into the third passage, still walking, but this time only 10 steps. Under Beini's command, he successively entered passages 2, 5, 9, 3, 6, 6, and 5, each time taking a different number of steps. But the commonality was that after completing the walk, he needed to touch the wall.
When Su Xiao touched the wall for the ninth time, he suddenly felt the ground shake beneath his feet. The floor beneath him actually concealed a circular stone lifting platform.
The lifting platform began to descend. When it stopped, ahead was a small area that could be called a "claustrophobe's nightmare." It could barely fit one adult, leaving very little room to move, not even enough to raise one's arms. Moreover, the surroundings were not rock but a pitch-black, sturdy alchemical material.
Su Xiao stood inside. After a while, the lifting platform ahead began to rise. Before darkness enveloped him, he saw that this lifting platform only had a rock layer on top; below was all this black alloy, tightly sealing this place.
After a moment, the lifting platform stopped. The small space Su Xiao was in was sealed off. He simply closed his eyes to rest. As for whether Beini was an illusion created by an enemy, the follower mark certified by Reincarnation Paradise could not be imitated by any ability, coupled with his own [Absolute Will].
An hour later, the lifting platform ahead trembled and began to rise again. Half a minute later, it revealed a three-meter-high mezzanine space that could be stood in. Su Xiao walked inside, pulled the black lever at the center, and the lifting platform rapidly plummeted this time.
It fell for several minutes before the lifting platform began to decelerate, finally stopping slowly. A metal door appeared ahead. The metal door opened, revealing a secret room of about a dozen square meters.
Entering the secret room, the opposite wall bore writing in Void Script:
'Reward for the Brave.'
A super-large metal treasure chest was located on the wall. Beini meowed, meaning that whoever opened that metal chest would die.
Under Beini's direction, Su Xiao came to the right metal wall. Beini immediately covered her ears with both paws.
Boom!
With a straight kick, the metal wall shattered inward, revealing a secret passage. Continuing forward, the passage ended in a bedroom. This was clearly an emergency shelter. A wooden desk, a wooden bed, and on the wooden bed lay a skeleton. The skeleton had dark brown strip-like objects on it, looking like some kind of bandage, but they hadn't decayed to dust even today, indicating they were precious in the past.
Su Xiao tapped the wall above the head of the bed. A hidden compartment opened, revealing a small box inside.
"..."
Su Xiao looked at the small box in his hand, then down at Beini. He really couldn't understand how Beini knew these steps, and this entire process had clearly not been operated by anyone for many years.
"Meow meow~"
Beini tilted her head and gave an absurd yet reasonable answer. It was the "Life Workshop" that told her. This massive building was actually a giant alchemical creature. In Beini's ability judgment, alchemical creatures also fell under the category of "animal friends."
Clearly, Bubu Wang, Amu, and Beini had all found their paths for the later stages. Baha was still exploring. The assassination system in the late game could be said to be quite difficult. While the alternate space system was good, it had too many uncertainties.
Su Xiao opened the wooden box. Inside were a pendant and a gem.
[You have obtained Soul's Sway (Special Equipment).]
Su Xiao didn't even look at the pendant's attributes. He grasped the main body of the pendant with one hand. A crystal layer appeared in his hand and began to assimilate the pendant's main body. After successfully assimilating the outer layer, he snapped it in half. The broken crystal fragments slid through his fingers, and a prompt appeared:
[You have obtained Soul Energy Crystal ×1.]
The moment he saw this pendant, Su Xiao recognized its origin. The alchemists had clearly coveted this [Soul Energy Crystal], a resource exclusive to the Law Destruction faction, attempting to steal this power. Although they succeeded, the efficiency of the theft was low, and it wasn't worth offending the Law Destroyers over it. The alchemist who died here had kept this as a treasure.
[You have obtained Adaptive Core (Alchemy Product).]
[Adaptive Core (Alchemy Product): Can serve as the core node for over 96.5% of formation diagrams. However, before activating the formation, this core must undergo adaptive changes. This process takes 0.5 to 10 hours (depending on the formation's specifications).]
Good stuff. It might come in handy someday. Su Xiao checked the status of the "Hunt Bounty." Unfortunately, "Bounty 3: Toxic Treasure" was not completed. It seemed this wasn't one of the three treasures within the "Life Workshop."
A Law-Destroying Teleportation Array appeared beneath Su Xiao's feet. With a thud, he returned to the intersection of a dozen or so main passageways. The information Beini had provided earlier was very important: this "Life Workshop" was actually a super-giant alchemical creature.
In that case, let Beini negotiate a deal first. The "Life Workshop" would propose conditions. After they were met, the other party would give one of the three treasures here.
"Meow meow!"
Beini meant, leave it to her. Then, Beini climbed to the top of Su Xiao's head and began meowing in a cat-like manner, negotiating something with the "Life Workshop." From Beini's gradually accelerating tail wagging, it was clear the negotiation wasn't going well.
"Woo meow meow!"
Beini shouted angrily. It was clear she was cursing. The side metal wall surged, indicating the "Life Workshop" was about to strike Beini.
Tap~
Su Xiao pressed one hand on his sword hilt. This made the "Life Workshop" quickly calm down. After a moment, the surrounding mental fluctuations subsided. Clearly, the ship of friendship had capsized, and it was a friendship-ending series.
Beini was long accustomed to this. The "animal friends" she made generally had unstable emotions. Compared to them, the "Life Workshop" was already considered very stable in temperament.
With Beini's emotional intelligence, handling this "Life Workshop" was a matter of minutes. She usually dealt with those big merchants from various Paradise factions in the Great Gathering Place, who were slyer than foxes. A little "Life Workshop" was easy pickings. Not to mention, this guy had already ended their friendship. Beini, when dealing with "animal friends," would never go all out; she genuinely treated them as friends. But now...
"Meow meow meow~"
Beini sighed, as if saying, how pitiful, trapped here for nearly an era.
The consciousness of the "Life Workshop" immediately returned to the surroundings, staring at Beini with a very unfriendly aura.
Beini began to insinuate sarcastically, then gradually started chatting, and finally empathized, making the "Life Workshop's consciousness" become more and more active.
Finally, she coaxed out a piece of information. This workshop was indeed created by the alchemists, but this consciousness entity was lured by the alchemists from the Outer Domain and was forced to sign a contract with the alchemists lasting five era cycles.
During the contract's validity period, the "Life Workshop" was not allowed to leave this place. Hearing this, Young Miss Beini knew the next step was simple. She began to sincerely describe how strong her poop-scooper's contract abilities were. Sincerity was always a killing move. The "Life Workshop" gradually became tempted.
An old parchment contract appeared ahead. This contract had two copies. One was imprinted in the consciousness of the "Life Workshop," and the other was kept by a certain alchemy master, now lost to the ages.
There were only two ways to dissolve this contract: either the contract term expired, or the two copies were merged, indicating the contract had been fulfilled early.
Su Xiao studied it for a moment and found this contract was extraordinary. Every pattern and leather grain had its meaning, ensuring this contract could maximally defend against tampering, and if tampered with, it would directly backfire on the existence causality of the "Life Workshop."
From the patterns and contract carrier material, Su Xiao was 100% certain it originated from the Devil Clan. In his view, Devil Clan contracts were actually very perfect. Just from this contract alone, it was truly flawless.
The question was, what if there wasn't just this one contract?
Su Xiao took out a Contract Parchment and began to copy this "Devil Contract." After completing the copy, he took out a Soul Coin and flicked it with a ding.
"My dear friend, Kaiser just discovered a particularly interesting place."
Su Xiao naturally understood Kaiser's implication: it would cost extra.
"50 ounces."
"What?!"
Kaiser was shocked.
"At least 6000 ounces. This is a Devil Contract!"
"60."
"Deal."
"..."
Su Xiao's hand, which was reaching for the [Space-Time Stone Fragment], paused. He had overpaid. From Kaiser's sly smile, he judged that 55 ounces would have been enough.
He handed the copied Devil Contract to Kaiser. Kaiser wasn't wearing the [Abyssal Jar] this time. The [Abyssal Jar] was the Greed Original Sin. This time it was fraud, so it was:
[Fraudster's Headwrap] + [Fraudster's Hand] + [Endless Greed Broken POS Machine] — the fraudster's three-piece set. If there was no benefit, Kaiser wouldn't summon the [Abyssal Jar]. This was also why Kaiser wasn't backlashed.
He never treated the [Abyssal Jar] as his own thing, but as a partner in crime. Only when both parties could gain benefits would Kaiser put the [Abyssal Jar] on his head.
After Kaiser performed a goblin ritual, the [Devil Contract (Fake)] that Su Xiao had just copied began to resonate with the [True Devil Contract] floating in mid-air. Letting the two contracts touch and then successfully dissolve the contract? That would really be underestimating the contract power of the Devil Clan.
Su Xiao's approach was to use the [Devil Contract (Fake)] to resonate with the [True Devil Contract], then activate the contract loopholes he had left in the [Devil Contract (Fake)]. From there, he began to expand branch contracts one by one, diluting the "Life Workshop's" contractual responsibilities step by step onto thousands of contracts.
If violating the [True Devil Contract] resulted in being backlashed in existence causality, then after being diluted onto thousands of copies, it would follow the content of the branch contracts and become other breach penalties, such as permanently losing a part, or permanently losing a certain amount of power.
This wasn't the end. Su Xiao then expanded further on these thousands of contracts, creating sub-branch contracts. Each branch contract expanded into 10 sub-contracts. That meant the contract penalty was distributed across tens of thousands of contracts.
Contract power was stronger with more contracts, but contract penalties were weaker with more contracts. This was like breaking a bundle of chopsticks at once versus separating the chopsticks and breaking them one by one. The latter was naturally easier to achieve.
Snap, snap, snap~
One by one, the sub-contracts were broken by the "Life Workshop." The contract penalties began to take effect on the "Life Workshop." Before long, the main body of the [Devil Contract (Fake)] shattered.
Shattering along with it was the [True Devil Contract] floating in mid-air, because its contract adjudication had passed through the [Devil Contract (Fake)], completing the established connection. Killing was only a matter of beheading; contracts were even more so. A contract could not bind a target that had already been punished by this contract. This was the basic logic of Devil contracts.
Why did Su Xiao know this logic? Because he had exchanged contract knowledge with a certain Devil Clan using the multi-layer contract method.
The surrounding walls trembled. The freed "Life Workshop" was ecstatic, but it didn't forget that it hadn't paid the reward yet. If it dared to renege, the person who helped it escape would definitely disembowel it.
The wall above softened and spread, forming a bizarre giant arm composed of many pitch-black arms. In one hand of this bizarre arm was a mechanical eye, handed to Su Xiao. This was one of the treasures of this place.
Seeing this object, Su Xiao felt it looked familiar. This thing seemed... like an upgraded version of the [Mysterious Eye]?
Seeing the upgraded version of the [Mysterious Eye], Su Xiao immediately recalled his poor talent in alchemical mechanics, which had led him to develop the [Mysterious Eye] into the extremely absurd function of the [Spinning Flashbang].