All Things Are Contracts

Chapter 19: Unexpected Rewards

Mi Hongchen wore red armor, fully armed, with a simple phoenix-head helmet unable to cover her black hair that fell to her waist. Years of warfare had given her a sharp, deadly aura. She was beautiful, but no one had ever dared to look into her eyes for too long. Like a rose, she was stunning yet full of thorns, inspiring fear. When people spoke of Mi Hongchen, they rarely praised her beauty, focusing more on her talent and impressive battle achievements.

Mi Hongchen wasn’t at the Spirit God Realm, but she could crush some Spirit God Realm experts, solidifying her title as the Female War God. She only needed to break through to the Spirit God Realm to be called the Dragon Lord. The imposing red dragon descended from the sky. Mi Hongchen breathed a sigh of relief seeing Holy Maiden Lixi unharmed. If anything had happened to the Holy Maiden, it would have been an extremely serious diplomatic incident.

“Your Highness the Holy Maiden, we’ve finally found you,” Mi Hongchen smiled, a rare display of gentleness from her.

“Sister Mi, no need for formalities. It’s been half a year since we last met, hasn’t it?” Lixi and Mi Hongchen were old acquaintances.

Mi Hongchen’s gaze swept over to Zhanyue beside them, her eyes pausing with a surprised expression.

“It’s you?” Mi Hongchen had only heard that the Holy Maiden had rescued a soldier while activating the teleportation formation, but didn’t expect this soldier to be Zhanyue.

“Sister Mi, you know each other?” Lixi asked curiously, while also feeling a hint of wariness in her heart.

“Mm, we’ve met once. When we parted last time, I left you 100,000 purple crystal coins, enough for you to live a life of luxury. How did you end up enlisting in Sun City?” Mi Hongchen asked, puzzled.

Zhanyue looked at this acquaintance, still feeling quite fond of Mi Hongchen. There was no other reason; she was just too generous.

“Reporting to Your Highness the Princess, I registered my contractor status in Sun City and carried out mandatory military service as required. I happened to encounter the Holy Maiden’s visit and was tasked with maintaining order. That’s how the previous events occurred. It was thanks to Her Highness the Holy Maiden’s rescue that I didn’t die under the arrows,” Zhanyue answered truthfully.

Lixi glanced at Zhanyue, countless thoughts flashing through her mind. She understood that she and Zhanyue couldn’t appear too close, though she realized they weren’t particularly close anyway. Thinking of this, she felt a bit disappointed.

“What’s wrong with me?” Lixi wondered, never having felt so conflicted before.

“With your strength, daring to guard the Holy Maiden is already a great achievement, deserving of reward. Let’s go. We’ll head back first; they’re all waiting anxiously,” Mi Hongchen said. Her observation was keen, noticing that the Holy Maiden’s gaze kept lingering on Zhanyue, which was quite unusual.

The giant dragon wasn’t fully grown, making it a bit cramped for three people to stand on its back. The Holy Maiden stood in front, Mi Hongchen in the middle, and Zhanyue at the back. Mi Hongchen was half a head taller than Lixi, but about the same height as Zhanyue, which explained why this woman made Zhanyue feel such pressure.

“Like before, if you can’t stand steady, just hold onto my shoulder,” Mi Hongchen said.

“No need, I can stand steady,” Zhanyue replied bluntly, his abilities having improved considerably compared to before.

“Oh? Though your realm hasn’t improved much in this time, your strength has progressed quite a bit,” Mi Hongchen praised.

“Your Highness seems a bit disappointed,” Zhanyue smiled, feeling happy at the compliment.

Mi Hongchen’s eyes turned cold as she snorted, “You’re quite bold, daring to joke with me. Aren’t you afraid I’ll throw you off?”

Zhanyue quickly shut up, not speaking anymore. This made the Holy Maiden giggle, thinking to herself that Zhanyue’s courage was far greater than she had imagined. Despite her status as Holy Maiden, Zhanyue had treated her like an ordinary girl all along, without the stiffness and subservience of others. But this actually made the Holy Maiden very happy; she disliked people putting on airs of flattery around her.

The red dragon’s speed was extremely fast, quickly carrying the three back to Sun City. Flight ability was very rare in the Myriad Spirits Realm, especially such rapid and maneuverable flight. Although humans had teleportation formations, they had long lost the method of setting up new formations and could only use existing ones. Only a few places were connected by teleportation formations.

The flying dragon landed in front of the City Lord’s mansion. Mi Hongchen took out a wooden token and threw it to Zhanyue.

“This is your reward for your performance this time, consider it my personal reward. You didn’t disgrace our Eastern Kingdom. When you encounter a bottleneck in your cultivation and can’t find direction, you can take this token to the Learning Capital and report to the First United Academy,” Mi Hongchen explained.

The Empire’s First United Academy, located in the Eastern Kingdom’s Learning Capital, was a comprehensive institution jointly established by the Eastern Kingdom, Rising Sun Kingdom, and Blazing Earth Kingdom. It was the best academy in the entire Eastern World, gathering geniuses from the three great empires with extremely strict selection criteria. Mi Hongchen directly giving Zhanyue a spot would make others envious, but unfortunately, Zhanyue didn’t yet know the value of this thing and just lightly responded with an “Oh.”

Mi Hongchen led the Holy Maiden into the City Lord’s mansion, while Zhanyue was stopped outside by Xiong Xin, the deputy commander of the Sun Knight Regiment.

“You did well, but there’s nothing more for you here. Go collect your reward,” Xiong Xin said coldly. Spending a day and night alone with the Holy Maiden was an opportunity even princes craved, yet this kid had lucked into it. He wasn’t worried about Zhanyue daring to do anything to the Holy Maiden, as she could easily kill this Spirit Contract Realm Level 3 kid. He was just jealous and resentful.

Lixi turned her head to look at Zhanyue once, saying nothing, and followed Mi Hongchen into the inner hall. She was quick-witted, knowing that appearing too close to Zhanyue now would only harm him, making others resent him. After all, she was the noble Holy Maiden and couldn’t be too close to a mere soldier.

“With this parting, I wonder if we’ll meet again,” Lixi couldn’t hide her disappointment.

“What are you thinking? If he truly has ability, you’ll meet again,” Mi Hongchen seemed to have seen through the Holy Maiden’s thoughts, just sighing at what capabilities this Zhanyue kid had to make the Holy Maiden care so much after just one day and night.

Lixi’s face reddened, knowing she couldn’t continue this topic, or something would go wrong.

“Sister Mi, where’s my grandfather? Why did you come to pick us up instead of him?” Lixi asked.

“Wind Lord…” Mi Hongchen sighed, “Wind Lord was severely injured. I don’t know if he’s regained consciousness. You should go see him.”

“Ah? How could this happen?” Lixi’s face paled at the news, and she hurriedly quickened her pace.

“Don’t rush, I’ll take you there.”

Meanwhile, Zhanyue was led away by someone else. Besides some purple crystal rewards, the City Lord also granted him permission to enter the Heavenly Treasury Pavilion to select a technique.

Techniques were divided into nine grades from low to high: white, green, blue, purple, orange, red, gold, rainbow, and divine. The Heavenly Treasury Pavilion’s highest collection was purple-grade techniques. Techniques were further divided into cultivation techniques and battle techniques. Cultivation techniques could improve cultivation speed and lay a good foundation, while battle techniques were combat skills for practical use.

Generally, cultivation techniques were far more valuable than battle techniques because most cultivation techniques included some battle skills, and these skills could only be used by those who had cultivated that technique, like the earlier “Great Sun Traversing Heaven Technique.”

Zhanyue wasn’t a light contractor; that was borrowing the illumination Goddess’s power. He also wasn’t a fire contractor; that was activating the Sun God Stone’s power. The Heavenly Treasury Pavilion didn’t have any suitable cultivation techniques for him, so he had to settle for second best, choosing a purple-grade fire-system battle technique – “Flame King Blast.”

The old man guarding the Heavenly Treasury Pavilion shook his head, exclaiming that Zhanyue lacked vision, choosing a battle technique with such a good opportunity. He didn’t know Zhanyue’s predicament.

With the “Flame King Blast,” Zhanyue happily returned to the inn where he had paid for a year’s stay. Three days of leave was also part of his reward; he just needed to report back to the military camp after three days.

Closing the doors and windows tightly, Zhanyue excitedly took out the spatial ring Lixi had given him. “At least she has a conscience. This thing is incredibly useful when traveling.”

Soon, Zhanyue had refined the ring anew. The ring only had a few cubic meters of space, but it was enough for Zhanyue to use. This was already an extraordinary treasure. The ring came with a built-in concealment array, making it invisible and undetectable to others, which delighted Zhanyue. “As they say, don’t flaunt your wealth. This saves a lot of trouble.”

With a thought, Zhanyue put the wooden token into the space. He then turned and put the large backpack he had when he crossed over into the space as well. Some things in it might be useful in the future; they were all rarities not found in this world.

“Huh, what’s this?” Zhanyue discovered another token and a large box inside the ring’s space.

The golden token had the character “Holy” written on the front, with the Rising Sun Kingdom’s national emblem on the back. “Holy Temple Knight token? I’ve heard that Holy Temple Knights have a very high status in the Rising Sun Kingdom. This might be very helpful if I go to the Rising Sun Kingdom in the future.”

Then Zhanyue took out the box. “Let’s see what other treasures that girl left for me.”

However, when the box opened, even the thick-skinned Zhanyue felt a bit embarrassed. It contained some women’s clothing and accessories, even including worn undergarments.

“……” Zhanyue was speechless. But she had been in a hurry earlier, only taking her staff, forgetting about this box. These things should be put back and returned to her when there’s a chance. He couldn’t just throw them away.

“That girl is really silly and cute,” Zhanyue put the box back. He was probably the only one in the world who would evaluate the Holy Maiden like this. “Hope she cultivates well and can suppress the cold poison soon. Next time when the Goddess returns, we’ll go see her again.”

“What’s this now?” Zhanyue discovered that besides some transparent illumination Stones, there were also some illumination Stones that seemed ‘dyed’ in the ring, in red, green, and blue.

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