Hope

Ren Ying watched the new contract presented to him with full hopes, praying that this contract would be better than the last one.

This contract modification could only happen because he had risked both his life and future for it. 

Though the changes made in this contract remained unknown for the time being, preventing him from genuinely replacing the feeling of pain throughout his entire body with happiness.

He waited patiently for Yang Chen to 'offer' this new contract to him. 

Meanwhile, after announcing the good news to Ren Ying, instead of handing it out to him, Yang Chen held it with both of his hands as he read every line on it attentively without passing a single word written down.

He did it for a few times before he closed it and sighed, "Phew... I'm finally done changing it, you can sign the contract now." as he tossed the contract to Ren Ying precisely.

Ren Ying caught the dropping contract with his hands, trembling nervously as the detail on this contract would determine whether his life would have a chance of coming back or not.

He opened the contract slowly, ignoring the existence of Yang Chen floating slightly above him.

With a high expectation of his comeback, Ren Ying began to look through the new terms in the contract.

As he went through it, Ren Ying gritted his teeth while taking a deep breath.

Though the expression that appeared on his face while inspecting it wasn't that good, in the least it was better than before.

On the contract, the rules and regulations were shorter than the old one.

And many extreme and overly strict terms had been removed from it, giving him more freedom in his daily life, unlike the previous slave-like contract.

Though, Yang Chen still kept a lot of core terms inside them, like not allowing him to harm and betray Yang Chen, sharing the necessary information if it was related to him, and completing every task given to him by Yang Chen.

Contrary to the old one, this contract had a time limit set on it, which sparked up the hope inside Ren Ying.

What does having a time limit set on a contract mean?

It meant that after the time limit arrived, every chain that bound Ren Ying would break off on its own, allowing him to reclaim his freedom back from Yang Chen.

Seeing all of these changes, Ren Ying knew it was the bottom line of Yang Chen, it could likely backfire if he was to push it any further.

So, he could only helplessly reread everything in great details. Then he lifted up his bloody, pointy finger full of open wounds and signed his name on the contract.

With every letter that he wrote down, Ren Ying could feel the rough texture of the paper on his finger, indicating how old this contract was.

His breathing became uneven and weak at the thought of leaving his freedom and life in another person's hands after he signed this contract.

After all, Ren Ying loved and valued his freedom the most, as only with it would life be worth living in such a cruel and unfair world that throws obstacles at you non-stop without a rest.

If given a choice, he would never give in to someone ever, but unfortunately that choice was beyond his reach.

Although it seemed like Yang Chen had offered him the contract in a peaceful way, Ren Ying was fully aware that he couldn't turn down this contract no matter what, because if he did, then this room would be the end point of his journey in this world.

Between losing his life and losing his freedom temporarily, he would choose the later every single time, but only if he got a chance to retake it, even if it was a slim one. 

Because Ren Ying was confident that if given enough time, he would certainly become a free man just as he was before, bound by nothing and nobody in the world. He would overcome every disasters and obstacle with his pair of extraordinary eyes.

And this one wouldn't be any different.

But if Yang Chen wanted to enslave him for eternity, leaving no way out for Ren Ying, then death would be his only wish.

After all, being transmigrated into such a wonderful world, where you couldn't even explore all the mysteries and beauties of it, even if you spent your entire life doing so.

The countless fun and thrilling journeys in this world that awaited you, would any of this mean anything if you had no freedom?

Just as he had finished signing his full name on the contract, he was suddenly pulled back from his thought by a heavy and uncomfortable sensation inside his head, deep within his soul, as if his entire soul itself was being wrapped slowly by a deadly serpent.

And eventually, the rules and restrictions within the contract had fully surrounded his soul, preventing him from breaking it or else his soul would suffer troublesome injuries.

Ren Ying sighed depressingly at the thought of how hard he had to work in order to free his soul from this, as he could sense the threat and suppression attaching to it.

He knew that the more severe the rules that you break, the heavier the injuries your soul would sustain. Soul injuries weren't like physical ones; they were hard to cure, took a lot of time, and had a costly price that could empty normal people's life savings.

So, only a few people would dare to break the agreement after signing the contract, because dying and losing one mind were common things that the contract violator would bear.

Talking about soul injury, Ren Ying was kind of lucky at that time, his journey wouldn't even reach this point if he had suffered a soul injury back then, rather than his half-dead body, which didn't take much for him to solve it.

"Hahaha, you finally signed it, kid." Yang Chen said with a joyful expression, imagining the day Ren Ying would help him finally accomplish his goal.

But Ren Ying ignored him, instead, he took out healing pills that he had prepared and plundered from others on his way here. He tossed it directly into his mouth as Yang Chen would no longer bothered him after he signed the contract.

On the other hand, when Yang Chen saw him consuming low-tier healing pills, he called out his beast pet, "Dian Yi, go and take some good-quality healing pills for this junior."

The two-star Thunder Bat nodded its head as it flew toward the same destination, that it came out from last time.

While his body was recovering slowly, his wounds began closing up one by one on their own, while his exhausted energies and Qi were generating bit by bit themselves.

His uneven, shallow breaths were getting steady and long, though the fishy smell still remained there every time he inhaled.

Being so disturbed by the smell, Ren Ying wondered if this place got a water source that he could clean himself or not, and perhaps awakening the so-called unknown bloodline or special physique when bathing in, like in those novels he read in his previous life.

But when he saw the figure of the Yang Chen beast pet emerging from the darkness, he shook his head softly.

In a cultivation world, you shouldn't expect the best out of something, but the worst of it. Take his first opportunity as an example. Who would have expected it to be a trap, set up carefully by this old guy? at least not him, a guy who hadn't experienced much in this world.

Truthfully, he had never doubted this opportunity, Ren Ying expected the best from it out of his habits developed back on his old peaceful planet, which resulted in his loss of freedom now.

Though Ren Ying didn't blame himself much, because at the end of the day, he still had the chance to break away from this, plus he learnt this important lesson while keeping his life intact, unlike the original owner of Ren Ying's current body.

While Ren Ying was thinking, the two-star Thunder Bat figure made its way next to Yang Chen in the same spot as last time, but this time it held a perfectly sealed jade bottle and gave it to Yang Chen.

When the bottle of healing pills reached his hand, he held it out to Ren Ying and said, "Take these healing pills, junior; it can heal you faster since it got a better quality than your pills.

Ren Ying heard it and took the bottle of healing pills out of Yang Chen's hand directly without much thought. He opened its seal and consumed the pills one at a time while he expressed his fake gratitude. "Thanks you, senior, for your generosity, I will definitely repay you back later on."

"Oh, its alright, I'm just lending a helping hand to a person who need it, no big deal." Yang Chen replied shamelessly, as if he wasn't the one responsible for Ren Ying's entire injuries.

Ren Ying could only smile speechlessly at Yang Chen for being such a hypocrite.

Seeing that Ren Ying didn't play along with his words, turning the situation dead quiet, Yang Chen immediately changed the conversational topic as he laughed awkwardly to soften up the atmosphere, "Haha...ha anyways, you haven't told me your name yet?"

"Oh, that's true... you can call me Ren Ying." He told Yang Chen honestly, as there was no point in lying, because Yang Chen had already known his name the moment he signed the contract. He was only asking, to build a closer connection with him.

"Okay, Ren Ying, what a warrior like name." Yang Chen praised him in an easygoing manner, and hit him after with a serious question, "By the way, how long can you stay here, Ren Ying?"