All Things Are Contracts

Before them were about a dozen people, men and women, old and young, all thin and sallow, walking with faltering steps. When they saw Zhanyue and Huang Xueqing, they all rushed over.

“Food… do you have any food?” A middle-aged woman stared at Zhanyue eagerly.

Although Zhanyue and Huang Xueqing both had spatial storage tools, to avoid exposure, they still carried packages for show. The packages contained some baked cakes and potatoes they had brought from Yunmo Village.

He took out a baked cake, and the people in front of him instantly looked like wolves seeing meat, about to rush forward.

“Stop! All of you, come back!” A shout rang out as a middle-aged man walked out from the crowd, seeming to be the leader of this group of refugees.

“You two, are you coming from Nancai Province?” the man asked. His face was also dirty, and though hungry, he still maintained his rationality.

“That’s right. And you?” Zhanyue looked at the man puzzledly.

“Don’t go north anymore. A locust plague has broken out in Wunan Province, causing famine and epidemic. The officials up there can barely protect themselves, and no other provinces are sending relief. The whole of Wunan has become a living hell. We’re lucky, being close to Nancai and getting the news early. We had stored quite a bit of food at home, so we ran early,” the man explained.

These dozen or so people were from one family. Fortunately, someone in the family was in official service, so they received the news early and made plans, fleeing south early.

“Bandits, riots, plague, famine – the whole of Wunan is completely finished. You should turn back quickly,” the man emphasized again.

“Take these cakes first. Walk south for two or three more days, and you’ll see Yunmo Mountain. There are some wild fruits and animals in the mountains that can stave off hunger,” Zhanyue handed some food to the man.

The others’ eyes lit up, and they all knelt down. Though not much, this food could definitely save lives. They just needed to reach the mountains to survive.

The man took the food and distributed it, looking at Zhanyue gratefully. “We will never forget your great kindness, benefactor. Where are you heading north to?”

“To the Northern Border,” Zhanyue said.

“What?” The man was stunned and hurriedly said, “The Northern Border is very far from here. You have to cross both Wunan and Wubei Provinces to reach the Northern Border Province. Not to mention that Wunan is already hell on earth, you won’t get any supplies. And the Northern Border is in chaos now. What are you going there for?”

“We have reasons we must go,” Zhanyue replied.

“Sigh, you should take a detour. In any case, don’t go to Wunan. It’s not a place for humans anymore,” the man said again. He naturally didn’t want to see these two jump into the fire pit.

“Thank you, brother. Don’t worry, we know what we’re doing. If it really doesn’t work out, we’ll come back,” Zhanyue continued. As for taking a detour? Heaven knows how much time this task has left them. That General Yue is probably ill, which is why Huang Xueqing needs to go treat him. If they delay too long, both his and Huang Xueqing’s tasks will fail.

“Alright then,” seeing he couldn’t persuade Zhanyue, the man didn’t persist. Each to their own fate. He took out a map from someone’s bag in the group. “We have no way to repay your great kindness, benefactors. This map of the ‘Great Yun Country’ is for you two. We hope you can reach your destination safely.”

Zhanyue was overjoyed, and Huang Xueqing’s beautiful eyes trembled. So the country they were in was called Great Yun Country, vast in territory, composed of sixteen provinces. They were currently at the border of Nancai Province and Wunan Province.

After seeing off these refugees, Zhanyue and Huang Xueqing continued north.

However, what they encountered along the way made them shudder. They met several more waves of refugees. Some people just came to beg for food, and left grudgingly when they saw they had none. But some people showed their fangs, seemingly eyeing their flesh. Zhanyue never imagined that Wunan Province had reached the point of cannibalism.

Of course, these refugees were no match for Zhanyue. As they continued north, even the grass on the roadside had been eaten clean. All they saw was devastation. There were no crops in the fields, and as far as the eye could see, beyond small hills, there were no deep mountains or old forests.

“We underestimated the difficulty of our task. I never thought we’d have a day where we’d worry about food,” Zhanyue frowned. After five or six days, the two had exhausted all their food supplies. In the past, he had refined a large number of pills that could satisfy hunger, so he had never worried about food. But in this world, the medicinal effects of pills were null. Besides the food brought from Yunmo Village, they had also eaten all the edible things in their original storage spaces.

Soon after, they came to a village. As expected, it was a dead village. Unexpectedly, it wasn’t empty, but filled with corpses – men, women, old, and young, simply covered with cloth or mats, some even dead at doorsteps and on streets.

“Plague… we’ve entered plague-stricken land,” Zhanyue said, fighting the urge to vomit as he searched the village for half a day without finding anything edible.

“Let’s go. I don’t want to spend the night here,” Huang Xueqing frowned. What they had seen along the way made her sigh, but she was powerless.

“As a divine doctor, don’t you want to research this plague?” Zhanyue asked.

“What’s the use? In this situation, even if I could research a cure for the plague, would it help? Not to mention we can’t find the corresponding herbs, we can’t even find living patients. These past few days, how many corpses have we seen? Thousands or tens of thousands?” Huang Xueqing said helplessly. Although she had divine doctor abilities, the current situation was beyond her power to change.

“Let’s go,” the two continued north, finding a dilapidated temple north of the village that could serve as a shelter for the night. Fortunately, there were no people or corpses in this temple. Those who could run had run, those who couldn’t had died. The closer they got to the center of Wunan, the more horrified the two became. This was truly hell on earth. People either starved to death or died from the plague, regardless of gender or age, no one had any privilege.

“I wonder how the Great Yun Country is dealing with this Wunan problem. Judging from Yu Dayou’s tone earlier, the current emperor is probably not a good person,” Zhanyue sighed.

After tidying up a bit in the temple, they discovered its peculiarity. The temple didn’t enshrine any gods, Buddhas, or human figures, but a fox statue. Was this actually a fox deity temple? Did the Great Yun Country have such a tradition?

But regardless of what it enshrined, neither Zhanyue nor Huang Xueqing were afraid.

“What should we do? Wunan is vast, and we’re out of supplies. If we can’t find food soon, we might really starve to death. I don’t want to resort to eating human flesh,” Huang Xueqing’s pretty face showed some confusion. They were too unprepared and hadn’t anticipated that this place would be so desolate, with no signs of life for a thousand miles, just a road of white bones.

Zhanyue wasn’t worried about them starving to death. At worst, he could revert his body state, though it would waste some lifespan. It’s better not to use it if possible.

“Let’s wait a bit longer,” Zhanyue sighed. Since it’s a trial, there must be a way to break through, just deeply hidden. Perhaps they should have prepared enough food before setting out. In any case, even if the task fails, even if they die, they’d just start over. So neither of them felt particularly concerned, though after resetting the task, they might not be together anymore. Huang Xueqing hoped to stay with Zhanyue – wasn’t it nice being carried all the way?

Suddenly, there was movement in Zhanyue’s divine ability space. His eyebrows raised in joy. “Bai girl is indeed my good treasure!” He took out a plate of roast duck and a jar of wine out of thin air. He hadn’t expected that even in the trial space, this divine ability space was still connected, showing its high grade. “It seems she’s also completed her first task.” Thinking of this, Zhanyue felt relieved. Earlier, he had written a letter in the divine ability space explaining the situation, and now he had received this roast duck and fine wine.

“You…” Huang Xueqing was stunned. Where did this hot roast duck and fine wine come from? Not only was she stunned, but the Heaven Book Spirit watching outside was also dumbfounded. What had she seen? She saw Baizhi making roast duck and buying wine in her trial space, and those things appeared in Zhanyue’s hands shortly after!

“They’re cheating!” The Heaven Book Spirit gritted her teeth. But thinking about it, it shouldn’t be possible to cheat in this trial world. Was this an ability they originally had? She had been looking forward to seeing Zhanyue in a predicament, a generation’s genius starving to death – how interesting that would be. Instead, she saw him happily drinking wine and eating roast duck.

“Hmph, don’t be in a hurry. This trial isn’t as simple as you think. You think solving the food problem is enough?”

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