All Things Are Contracts

Chapter 2: Establishing Merit

Zhanyue had a strange dream, or so he thought when he first woke up. In the dream, he had followed his advisor to a mysterious ruin in the desert. After touching the inscription on the relic, he entered a mysterious space where he awakened an extraordinary power.

“I’ve been binge-reading that novel every day and night recently. I’ve really become obsessed. Teacher was right, I need to balance work and rest. I shouldn’t be too immersed in anything.” Zhanyue opened his eyes, wanting to get up, but felt something pulling him back. He reached out and realized it was his large backpack.

He suddenly sat up, eyes wide open, and looked around at the unfamiliar environment. A dazed look, rarely seen on this excellent small-town academic, appeared in his eyes. “It wasn’t a dream?”

He felt an itch on his right hand and looked down to see nine runic marks appearing on his palm. Before he could get a clear look, the nine runic marks escaped from his palm like birds freed from a cage, flying off in different directions.

“What the hell was that?” The most frustrating part was that Zhanyue knew something had escaped from his grasp, but he didn’t know what. He took a deep breath and calmly sorted out his thoughts, recalling everything that had happened.

“Hmm…I remember that mysterious voice said he left me something?” Zhanyue was puzzled. “It couldn’t have been those things that ran away, right?” Fortunately, Zhanyue found that his watch and backpack were still with him. The watch was a gift from his parents, his deepest attachment; while the backpack contained numerous outdoor survival tools. Zhanyue’s wilderness survival skills were far superior to the average person from his previous expeditions with his teacher.

He looked at his watch and was suddenly terrified. The originally 12-hour dial had become an 18-hour scale, extremely bizarre. The second hand counting seconds was also much slower than before. This watch seemed to be indicating a time scale not of the original world! Seconds, minutes, hours were all completely off!

“I… This is insane. Have I transmigrated?” At this moment, Zhanyue realized that his firm materialist beliefs might not be so firm after all, the inner fantasy addict in him even feeling a bit excited.

Then Zhanyue recalled the new information in his mind, information about some sort of ability. “That mysterious person seemed to have performed some sort of ritual with me and my watch, making me become something called a contractor. What can I do?”

“State Reversal – Rating Unknown. The ability to reverse the state of objects touched to a previous state. The reversal time is determined by the user at the cost of their own lifespan. The time reversed is equal to the amount of lifespan being consumed.” What the hell!? Zhanyue was so shocked he couldn’t see straight. This was a godly ability, but what sort of terrifying cost was that? State reversal was not the same as time reversal. Time reversal could make an old person young again, but at the same time, the old person would lose all memories of those years because time itself was reversed. State reversal, however, would only return the old person’s physical state to when they were young, while retaining all their memories.

If Zhanyue wished, he could even reverse a hundred-year-old ancient tree to its seedling state, but the cost would be a hundred years of his lifespan. With his current constitution, he would likely shrivel up and die instantly.

Excited, Zhanyue took out a piece of paper, then used a lighter to set it on fire. The paper quickly turned to ashes. Zhanyue held the paper ashes, and with a thought, the ashes that had already turned to dust suddenly retained their original appearance. A solid untouched piece of paper.

“What the… Spilled water is hard to recover, a broken mirror is hard to mend – these issues no longer affect me?” Zhanyue was somewhat dazed. However, in an instant, he realized a problem. This ability was powerful, but how could he use it for self-protection? He couldn’t just grab an enemy and turn them into a child, could he? If he did that, wouldn’t he instantly become someone’s wise senior? A passionate clash between powerful heroes immediately turning into an elderly patient versus his grandson…

Hmmm, this ability definitely can’t be used for combat at the time being. If this really was another world, others probably had different supernatural abilities. With his current ability wouldn’t he be on the chopping block? Someone’s free experience points!

Looking at the watch on his wrist, Zhanyue almost felt his tears flowing down.

“Forget it, I’m already here with no clue on how to get back. Isn’t this like those novels? I should be familiar with some of this.” Zhanyue was a relatively straight forward person with a good head on his shoulders. Sitting around crying and despairing wasn’t his speed.

“I do have to say though, this air is fresher than anything I’ve ever seen.” Zhanyue took a deep breath; Fresh and pollution-free. Goodbye global warming!

He found himself on top of a small hill. The hill wasn’t high, and the trees were sparse. There were no animals around. From the hilltop, he could clearly see a small mountain village not far away, but it was too distant to see the people in the village.

Carrying his backpack, Zhanyue set off again, only this time his goal had changed from exploring various ruins to exploring this new world, filled with even more unknowns. “I wonder if this is a fantasy world of beastmen, elves, and angels. Hmm.. Or maybe it’s one of those ancient worlds where everyone cultivates immortality while flying on swords?”

Zhanyue moved at a relatively quick speed, and soon arrived outside the mountain village. Thinking the whole way, preparing a variety of plans: what to do if the people here looked strange, what to do if there was a language barrier, what if… However, his plans were unnecessary. As he cautiously approached the village like a thief, he discovered that this place was abandoned, completely devoid of people. Every household’s doors were tightly shut, covered in dust, while the windows were full of cobwebs.

What made Zhanyue’s hair stand on end even more was that there was a coffin placed in every household.

“What kind of ominous devil place is this?! Definitely not the right starter location time to go.”

Zhanyue tried to dash around this eerie village like he was walking on oil. He wasn’t some Taoist priest with demon subduing talismans on him; seeing all these coffins truly frightened him. Besides, even if a Taoist priest came, wouldn’t they run away too?

However, no matter which direction Zhanyue headed, he always ended up back at the entrance to the village. Now he knew he was in big trouble. His story was about to become: Episode 1 “Awakening Supernatural Powers! The Beginning of World Conquest”, Episode 2 “Dead End, The Impassable Village”, Episode 3 “Reincarnation”.

Seeing how bizarre this place was, Zhanyue took out a multi-functional axe from his backpack and gripped it in his hand. Then he entered the village, randomly choosing a house he didn’t like the look of. First, he climbed onto the roof, tearing it open to let sunlight directly shine on the coffin then slowly went inside the house and gave the coffin a hard kick. This kick was powerful, knocking the coffin lid askew. “The sun hasn’t set yet. If there really are any zombies or ghosts, they’re probably afraid of the sun and won’t dare to appear. If I don’t take advantage of the sun’s protection to investigate everything, once the sun sets, it’ll be out of my control.” Zhanyue thought clearly, analyzing thoroughly.

“People usually fear the unknown. They get themselves worked up without any relevant information and end up scaring themselves. But what coffin haven’t I opened before excavating with teacher. Ghosts and Demons come out to play!”

One kick, two kicks, three kicks, the coffin lid was kicked over. Inside lay a gray corpse! The corpse opened its eyes, letting out a painful howl instantly turning to ashes under the scorching sunlight.

“Holy crap, there really are ghosts!” While terrified, Zhanyue was also delighted. These ghostly things really were afraid of the sun! “I, Zhanyue, truly deserve to be called a genius Ph.D. student!” While praising himself, Zhanyue didn’t stop moving. He flew up and down, tearing off roof beams and tiles, opening coffins and burning corpses. All several dozen households and coffins in the village were thoroughly devastated. He didn’t even notice that his physical abilities had already become extraordinary compared to his previous self.

After checking around and finding no survivors, Zhanyue finally breathed a sigh of relief. He counted – there were forty-eight coffins in total. The sun was about to set, and he was about to spend his first night in this other world. He didn’t dare sleep indoors, but found a secluded corner with an abandoned large water vat that could easily hide him and his backpack.

As night fell, the sky had no bright, clear moon, but instead an extremely eerie blood moon! Unable to sleep, Zhanyue suddenly heard an arrogant laugh, and he realized he could understand it.

“Mi Hongchen, this place will be your burial ground. The great Female War God of the Eastern Kingdom will meet her demise today. I almost feel reluctant to send you to hell,” the wild male voice laughed.

“Heh, Blood Moon Demon Lord, do you think you’re really that capable?” a melodious female voice replied. “After hunting you for half a year I can finally personally execute you, you piece of garbage!”

“Hahaha, Mi Hongchen I’ll be honest. Indeed I’m no match for you. But so what? How long have I been preparing? I set up a Returning Nest Formation here to prevent your escape, and I’ve prepared forty-eight ghost corpses in advance to arrange a Blood Demon Ghost Corpse Grand Formation. To lure you here, I didn’t hesitate to put myself at risk, personally acting as bait. Today, when the blood moon is at its peak, I’ll let you know why I, the Blood Moon Demon Lord, am famous!”

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