All Things Are Contracts

Chapter 23

Outside Sun City, ten horse-drawn carriages loaded with illumination Stones were traveling on a wide road. Forty Sun City soldiers on horseback flanked the carriages. The person in charge of this mission was Cheng Lu. As a talent at the ninth stage of Soul Control Realm, Cheng Lu had the strength to contend with early-stage Star Profound Realm experts, more than enough to escort a few carriages of illumination Stones.

Cheng Lu rode a tall horse at the front of the team. To his left was Zhanyue, the weakest among the forty people.

“The sunlight has been quite abundant this month, producing a large surplus of illumination Stones. After selling some to the citizens, the rest need to be transported to the northern volcano for coloring. Fire-attribute illumination Stones are more valuable. Such missions are carried out almost every few months. This is my fifth time in charge of the escort,” Cheng Lu explained.

“I see. The northern volcano is very far from here, almost at the northernmost edge of the Eastern Kingdom’s territory. How long will this trip take?” Zhanyue asked curiously from horseback.

Cheng Lu smiled and explained, “If we relied solely on horsepower, it would take at least half a year. There’s an outpost north of Sun City with an ancient teleportation formation that happens to lead to the north. The north also has a reciprocal formation back to that outpost. So in fact, this journey only takes about half a month. Teleportation formations are very useful, but unfortunately, we’ve long lost the method of setting them up. We can only use the formations left by our ancestors.”

“So there’s a teleportation formation connecting the two places. I was wondering why we were going all the way to the northern volcano,” Zhanyue marveled internally at how useful these distance-defying teleportation formations were, wondering if the illumination Goddess knew about them.

“How did such amazing formations get lost?” Zhanyue asked curiously, the importance of these formations was self-evident.

Cheng Lu shook his head and sighed, “How would I know? But it was probably lost during human internal conflicts. Since the fall of the illumination Goddess, humans have never been united again. Legend has it that the Nightmare race was almost wiped out, but human infighting allowed them to recover. In the end, they occupied eight or nine tenths of the wilderness, while humans largely retreated to areas illuminated by illumination Towers. Despite this, various human factions still fight endlessly, seemingly not taking the Nightmare race seriously. Fortunately, later on, two powerful figures, Thunder Lord and Sword Lord, emerged. They temporarily united the human front, putting a halt to major conflicts for now, though minor frictions still persist.”

“Thunder Lord, Sword Lord…” Zhanyue noted these two names.

Zhanyue nodded, “I’ve read about it in books, and it seems the ones who tried to assassinate the Holy Maiden were Night Lord’s people.”

Cheng Lu nodded and elaborated, “Between the Rising Sun Kingdom and the Eastern Kingdom, there used to be a small country called the Night Kingdom. Though small, it was rich in resources and even had several ancient ruins. Later, it’s said that the Night Kingdom’s court, from the Lord to the ministers, were all possessed by the Nightmare race, making the Night Kingdom a stronghold for them. The Rising Sun Kingdom and Eastern Kingdom joined forces to eradicate them, which was all normal up to this point.”

Cheng Lu paused, then sighed, “The Nightmares possessing the Night Kingdom’s court were all destroyed, but the Night Kingdom’s prince’s line still survived. The two countries should have withdrawn their troops and restored the throne to the prince. Unfortunately, both countries’ rulers were blinded by greed. They fabricated evidence claiming the prince’s line was also possessed by Nightmares, and then eradicated their entire lineage. The two countries divided the Night Kingdom’s territory and resources. Who knew that the prince had left a son in the mortal world – Night Lord. A hundred years later, Night Lord’s power came to fruition, and he launched his rebellion, causing heavy losses to the Rising Sun Kingdom and Eastern Kingdom. To stabilize the situation, Sword Lord intervened, but unfortunately, Night Lord’s strength was extraordinary, and Sword Lord failed to kill him, allowing him to escape.”

“Big Brother Cheng, how do you know all this so clearly?” Zhanyue frowned, curious. Shouldn’t this be top secret?

“It’s all information Night Lord made public. Otherwise, why would he only cause trouble for the Eastern Kingdom and Rising Sun Kingdom? But it’s been a hundred years. Even if everyone knows that the two great empires were wrong back then, so what? It’s impossible to help Night Lord restore his country now. Besides, even if we helped him restore his country, would he forgive the two great empires? I remember Thunder Lord once tried to mediate, but it ended in failure,” Cheng Lu said. Although he was a citizen of the Eastern Kingdom, he wasn’t an unreasonable person.

Zhanyue sighed, “Indeed, if I were Night Lord, I certainly wouldn’t be willing to let it go. When the Night Kingdom was destroyed, Thunder Lord and Sword Lord didn’t intervene, but now that he’s seeking revenge, they step in. From his perspective, isn’t this taking sides?”

“Ah, who can argue with that? Even if Thunder Lord and Sword Lord didn’t intend it that way – they were also deceived in the Night Kingdom affair – but the fact remains. Such things aren’t uncommon among humans. Grudges between countries can surface at any time. Ah, so-called unity is really just a dream… If it weren’t for Thunder Lord and Sword Lord suppressing with their strength, humans would destroy themselves through mutual attacks before the Nightmares even attack,” Cheng Lu’s eyes were full of pessimism.

Zhanyue felt a headache coming on. Because no matter from Thunder Lord and Sword Lord’s standpoint, or from the Eastern Kingdom’s standpoint, they now had no choice but to kill Night Lord, even if they were wrong first. Otherwise, this grudge would never end. What Night Lord wanted obviously wasn’t as simple as the two empires admitting their mistake, so there was no possibility of negotiation.

Zhanyue remembered Mi Hongchen’s words. Because of Night Lord’s rebellion, countless lives had been lost, eight or nine out of ten of them innocent. Night Lord’s righteousness had long been lost. His attempt on the Holy Maiden’s life further proved this point. He was no longer just opposing the two empires, but the entire human race. The nature of the situation had completely changed.

“Let’s not talk about this anymore. It’s a problem even Thunder Lord and Sword Lord can’t solve, what can two insects like us change? By the way, make sure to keep that map I gave you earlier safe. Once you’re lost in the wilderness, it’s certain death. The night is the Nightmare’s domain. Humans can only rest at various outposts, so during the day, you must find a suitable outpost to stay. That map shows the outposts along various roads in our Eastern Kingdom,” Cheng Lu reminded.

“Mm, thank you, Big Brother Cheng. It’s a pity we don’t have the ability to fly, otherwise reaching outposts would be easy, right?” Zhanyue said with some regret.

“There are four ways to fly. First, reach the Spirit God Realm, which is beyond our reach. Second, contract a flying animal, which we also don’t have the chance for. Third, obtain a flying technique, which are at least seventh-grade gold quality (white, green, blue, purple, orange, red, gold, rainbow, divine) and not something we can get. Fourth, flying mechs, which can be bought if you have money, but their flying speed and duration are far inferior to the other three methods,” Cheng Lu smiled.

As they talked, they arrived at an outpost. It was getting dark, and they had to stop here for the night.

In the Sunset Wasteland, two figures visited the Sunset Castle late at night.

“Strategist, according to my inspection, the mystery of the castle hasn’t been discovered. You can rest assured,” one figure respectfully said to the other. It was the lord of this Sunset Wasteland territory.

“Dream Vulture Lord was guarding this place on my orders. I bear some responsibility for its death. I wonder who killed it. By the way, notify the ‘Soul Searchers’ among the Nightmare race to get active, but they’re not allowed to harm humans to avoid alerting them. Just instruct them to search for the whereabouts of the Ghost Fruit. Once we find the Ghost Fruit, we can naturally track down Dream Vulture Lord’s killer,” Strategist ordered.

“Yes, Strategist. Your insight is beyond our reach,” Star Disgust Lord beside him flattered.

“Hmph, how did you learn the human way of bootlicking?” Strategist said dissatisfied.

“Uh… Strategist, I’m sincere. Take the Night Kingdom affair for example. You orchestrated the possession of the Night Kingdom’s Lord and ministers, but deliberately spared the prince’s line, even protecting the highly talented prince’s son all the way, allowing him to grow into ‘Night Lord’ and become a major threat to humans.

You grasped human thoughts perfectly. You said the Rising Sun Kingdom and Eastern Kingdom would take the opportunity to destroy the Night Kingdom and occupy its territory, and they indeed did so. You said the prince’s son would become a powerful figure in the future and cause turmoil, and it indeed happened a hundred years later as you predicted. Whether it’s the Rising Sun Kingdom, Eastern Kingdom, or those Thunder Lord, Sword Lord, or Night Lord, they’ve all been played by you. Such god-like planning, how can we not admire it?” Star Disgust Lord sighed.

Strategist smiled slightly, “It’s just a small game. This move is just one of my ordinary plays. My brilliant moves are beyond your comprehension.”

“Ordinary play? Brilliant move? What do you mean, Strategist?” Star Disgust Lord asked confused.

“Just human chess terminology. Knowing yourself and your enemy is the key to winning every battle. To defeat humans, I’ve studied a large amount of human knowledge, including chess, formations, military strategy, history, mythology, art, techniques, etc. I understand them better than many humans understand themselves,” Strategist explained.

“With someone like Strategist in our Nightmare race, it must be heaven’s will for our race to prosper!” Star Disgust Lord exclaimed sincerely excited. Strategist was worlds apart from brutes like them who had brawn but no brains, which was why all Nightmare Lords trusted Strategist.

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