All Things Are Contracts

Chapter 29

General Bai Yun had delicate features and looked quite frail in his armor, but the power hidden within him was not to be underestimated. His contract object was a white umbrella painted with a pattern of idle clouds and wild cranes. As a miscellaneous contractor, he had mastered the ability to fly at the Profound Realm, making him a top expert among experts. That’s why he could arrive at the scene first.

“Raging fire burning the mountain, and so thoroughly that not even a spark remains. Was this the work of some fire spirit contractor at the Spirit God Realm?” General Bai Yun swallowed as he looked at the mountaintop, half black and half green.

“Wake up!” Gu Bai fed a pill that restored spiritual power to Cheng Lu, who soon woke up.

“What’s this? General Bai Yun? Didn’t I die?” Cheng Lu sat up, full of confusion.

“And my hand?” Cheng Lu looked at his hand and then at his uninjured body. Even his armor was intact, without any sword marks. “This isn’t right. I clearly took more than ten sword strikes. No, where’s my realm? Hadn’t I already broken through to the Profound Realm?”

Seeing Cheng Lu in a daze, Gu Bai asked, “Don’t rush. What exactly happened?”

“No! Zhanyue is in danger. Where is he?” Cheng Lu suddenly remembered Zhanyue and was about to move, but was held back by Gu Bai.

“Where could anyone be around here? I’ve already searched. That forest over there seems to have had a big battle. The small soldier you mentioned is missing, possibly killed in the battle, his body burned to ashes. Of course, he might also have been taken away by someone else,” Gu Bai said.

“Fate unknown?” Cheng Lu looked at the half-green, half-black mountaintop in the distance, also shocked. What had happened after he passed out? Even if the assassin was strong, he couldn’t have caused this kind of disturbance. Had someone else intervened? If they came to save Zhanyue, his life should be safe. If they came to kill Zhanyue, he might truly have been turned to ashes by now.

“Based on your earlier description – the big battle, the breakthrough at the critical moment, the severed hand – I thought of a possibility. You might have been under an illusion. All of this might have been your hallucination,” Gu Bai analyzed rationally.

“Illusion?” Cheng Lu frowned. An illusion could explain everything that had happened before, but was that sense of reality really an illusion? But if it wasn’t an illusion, there didn’t seem to be any other reasonable explanation.

“Let’s go. They’re waiting for you,” Gu Bai helped Cheng Lu up, opened the umbrella, and it carried the two of them into the air. Gu Bai was the general guarding Mountain River Inn, usually responsible for guarding the teleportation formation. His strength was naturally extraordinary.

“Can we really not find any trace of Brother Zhan?” Cheng Lu looked guilty. “Before we left, I firmly promised to protect his safety, but now his fate is unknown? Ah…”

“Who exactly is this Brother Zhan of yours? To have a Moon Profound Realm expert come to assassinate him? He’s only at the third stage of Spirit Contract Realm,” Gu Bai was full of curiosity.

Cheng Lu shook his head, indicating he didn’t know.

“Let’s hope he’s as lucky as before this time,” Cheng Lu could only pray in his heart, after all, he knew that the small soldier rescued by the Holy Maiden last time was Zhanyue.

Meanwhile, Zhanyue, walking alone in the forest, was surprisingly in a good mood.

“The sea is wide for fish to leap, the sky is high for birds to fly. This kind of life might not be bad,” Surviving a deadly assassination attempt had made Zhanyue more cautious. Moreover, after his explosive punch earlier, he had inadvertently grasped the second realm of “Flame King Blast” – the Fire Separation Realm. Zhanyue threw a punch, and a fireball appeared out of thin air, accompanied by the force of the punch striking a rock not far away, leaving a scorched mark on the large stone.

“Is this the Fire Separation Realm? I now have a means of long-range attack. The technique advanced so smoothly, but unfortunately my realm hasn’t budged, still at the third stage of Spirit Contract,” Zhanyue said regretfully.

“Who told you to be so special? One of your contract objects involves the Dao of time, space, and causality. I’ve never even heard of techniques for the Dao of time and space. The other is me, undefined. Without suitable techniques, of course your cultivation will be slow,” the illumination Goddess explained. Zhanyue had already told her about his other contract object and its corresponding ability.

“Let’s take it one step at a time. At least now I’m not inferior to opponents at the ninth stage of Spirit Contract,” Zhanyue wasn’t in a hurry. There was no use being anxious.

“Where do you plan to go?”

Zhanyue took out a wooden token from his storage ring. “This is the token the Imperial Princess left for me. With this token, I can enter the Empire’s First United Academy. It sounds impressive. I plan to go to the Learning Capital, change my name and live in the academy. I don’t believe that villain can find me there.”

“That’s good. Do you really have no clue about this assassination attempt?” the illumination Goddess asked with concern.

“I don’t know. I haven’t met many people since coming to this world. I haven’t made enemies with anyone. Could it be Night Lord’s people? Because I disrupted their plan to assassinate the Holy Maiden? But that doesn’t seem right, their style of action doesn’t seem to be so secretive. Besides, the Holy Maiden teleported away on her own, it doesn’t have much to do with me. I’m afraid I wouldn’t even catch those people’s eye,” Zhanyue couldn’t figure it out no matter how much he thought. He of course couldn’t know that just because he spent a day alone with the Holy Maiden, it had aroused someone’s jealousy, leading to the dispatch of an assassin.

“Let’s go. Hope for smooth sailing and no more unexpected problems.”

With a map in hand, Zhanyue methodically planned his route. “It should take about three months to reach the Learning Capital. The Eastern Kingdom is really quite large. This mountain before me is called Winding Stream Mountain. I’m afraid it will take two or three days to get out of it. How should I spend the nights?”

“You should be more concerned about the spirit beasts and fierce beasts in the mountains than the Nightmares. With the Sun God Stone protecting you, ordinary Nightmares can’t harm you, and it’s hard to encounter Lord-level or above Nightmares. Nightmares generally have three ways of attacking humans:

First, possessing other creatures, controlling them to attack humans, killing people and then devouring their souls.

Second, directly attacking humans, swallowing souls alive. This is generally a method only high-level Nightmares have. With the Sun God Stone protecting you, you don’t need to fear this method.

Third, entering human dreams, quietly devouring souls and memories in the dreamscape. This is a method only King-level Nightmares have. The last Grand Lord that entered your dream is already cold dead.”

“What you need to worry about most is still Nightmares possessing powerful creatures to attack you. However, although you’re only at the third stage of Spirit Contract, you can use my light power, or activate the Sun God Stone to unleash the sun god flame. Ordinary mid-level Nightmares are no match for you at all. So compared to Nightmares, spirit beasts and humans are the enemies you should be more concerned about,” the illumination Goddess explained.

Zhanyue laughed, “Compared to the Holy Maiden, I’m probably more like the natural enemy of Nightmares. If Thunder Lord and Sword Lord knew, would they give me a title like Holy Son?”

“……” The illumination Goddess was a bit speechless, then sighed, “Whether it’s Holy Son or Holy Maiden, or even my title of Goddess, it’s just a title after all. The price of obtaining this title might not be something you can bear.”

“Let’s not talk about this. Goddess senior, what exactly did you mean earlier when you said the Nightmare race is intentionally concealing their strength?” Zhanyue asked curiously.

“Don’t call me Goddess senior or Goddess. Didn’t you like calling me big sister before? Just call me sister,” The illumination Goddess actually didn’t like those formal, humble titles.

“Sis…sister?” Zhanyue was a bit speechless. This woman could be his great-great-great…grandmother.

“Are you thinking I’m old, kid?” The illumination Goddess seemed to see through Zhanyue’s thoughts.

“How dare I, Goddess sister,” Zhanyue immediately changed his form of address. Even a goddess cares about these things, it seems.

“Just call me Xixuan. I don’t actually like the name Goddess. I’m just a slightly stronger human, not some deity. But my teachers said faith could unite humanity, so I didn’t oppose the title of illumination Goddess. Now living a second life, I still hope people will call me by my name. It’s the only thing my parents left me, I don’t want to lose it too,” the illumination Goddess added.

“Alright, Sister Xixuan,” Zhanyue felt that calling her this way really did make their relationship seem closer.

“That’s right. Regarding the Nightmare race, they do seem to be hiding their strength. I’ve discovered many Nightmares forcibly in slumber. The number of Nightmares definitely far exceeds what humans currently know. I saw in books that humans and Nightmares are currently about evenly matched, but I can now say for certain that this is a misjudgment. The Nightmares seem to be waiting for an opportunity to reveal their true power and launch a total attack on humanity. If I’m not mistaken, they’re waiting for the Corpse Emperor to awaken, so I’m now heading to the Corpse Emperor’s seal. I want to reinforce the seal as much as possible, to delay its awakening time,” the illumination Goddess said. The information revealed in her words was probably enough to shock the world.

“Is that so? These beasts have learned to conserve their strength and play the weak to defeat the strong? This is serious. By the way, Sister Xixuan, how does your strength compare to the Corpse Emperor’s?” Zhanyue asked curiously.

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