The air inside the Command Center seemed to freeze.
The Lich Envoy's body of negative energy trembled violently. The two soul flames in its eye sockets flickered with fear and fury.
It had never imagined that a meeting held on behalf of an Upper God would turn out like this.
Qin Chuan had not only rejected the olive branch offered by the great Lord of Slumber. He had torn it apart in a humiliating display and demanded something no god could accept.
A Soul Contract.
It meant absolute submission. It meant placing one's Origin Essence and future entirely in another's hands.
"You..."
The Lich Envoy forced a syllable of rage and disbelief from its dry throat.
But Qin Chuan's attention remained on the wisp of dark-blue soul flame at his fingertips.
It was a fragment of the Lich God's Origin Essence.
If he wished, he could crush it at any moment and inflict a permanent wound on the Upper God far away in his underground Divine Kingdom.
Just then, the soul flame flared.
An ancient, commanding voice pierced through it and echoed across the Command Center.
"Qin Chuan."
"Your arrogance will bring you death."
It was the voice of the Lich God, the Lord of Slumber.
His will had followed the forcibly severed fragment of his Origin Essence to this place.
The voice carried the wails of countless dead souls and the Death Law's power to corrode all life. He sought to turn the Command Center into his Death Domain.
At last, Qin Chuan moved.
He glanced at the restless soul flame on his fingertips.
"You're too loud."
With that, he gave it a gentle squeeze.
Hum!
The soul flame that held the Lich God's Origin Essence was not crushed. A far deeper power forced it into submission instead.
Within