All Things Are Contracts

As night fell deep, Zhanyue, the Master Thief, finally put his skills to use. He quietly approached the roof of the mysterious Old Bai’s room, lifted a tile, and peered down. The ragged old man was bustling about, the room filled with various odds and ends that indeed looked like ritual props. He was meticulously assembling these items, his hands skilled.

After a while, he seemed to tire and prepared to blow out the light and rest. Before sleeping, he removed the gourd from his bamboo staff, hugged it close, and then lay down. Soon, snoring could be heard.

Once the old man was sound asleep, Zhanyue silently appeared by his bedside. Using mysterious techniques, he took the gourd, which seemed to contain some kind of liquid. Zhanyue poured out a portion of the liquid into a jade vial, then returned the gourd to its original place and quietly retreated. As the Master Thief, he had finally encountered his area of expertise.

“How did it go?” Feng Xueqing, still awake, greeted Zhanyue as he returned. As they posed as a married couple, they naturally shared a room.

“I found something. Take a look at this,” Zhanyue handed the jade vial containing the stolen mysterious liquid to Feng Xueqing.

Feng Xueqing sniffed it, then sensed it with her spiritual power. Her expression changed dramatically, “This… this is spirit liquid, made from spirit herbs and fruits. And this scent, isn’t it Blood Flow Grass? How can this world have Blood Flow Grass?”

“Can Blood Flow Grass cure General Yue’s poison?” Zhanyue asked, puzzled.

“It can, but it’s a spirit herb that shouldn’t exist in this world,” Feng Xueqing said.

“That old man… he clearly had the antidote all along, yet he talked about some Fox God curse? Could there be some plot afoot?” Zhanyue frowned.

“Mm, I think so too. It’s too coincidental. He might even know the inside story of General Yue’s poisoning, otherwise how would he bring the antidote?” Feng Xueqing reasoned.

“Who knows what he’s up to,” Zhanyue thought for a moment, then said, “Let’s do this: now that we have the antidote, we should act first. If that old man beats us to it, General Yue will truly be cured by him, and your mission will fail.”

“But if we ruin the old man’s plan, we might end up further from the truth,” Feng Xueqing said worriedly.

“Not necessarily. As long as General Yue wakes up, I think he’ll be interested in this matter too. If he’s willing to cooperate with us in putting on a show, everything will be under control,” Zhanyue said.

Early the next morning, Zhanyue secretly met with General Li. After a confidential discussion, the potion prepared by Feng Xueqing was administered to General Yue. Meanwhile, General Zhang was still overseeing the construction of the golden statue, and the mysterious Old Bai was busy setting up the altar.

In a secret room, General Yue had already awakened, though he still looked unwell. Deputy General Li was briefing him on recent events, only piquing his interest when he mentioned Zhanyue and Feng Xueqing.

“Thank you both for your help. I owe my safe awakening to your great efforts,” Yue Feipeng said. Though pale, his long experience in command still gave him the aura of a superior who held the power of life and death.

“General Yue, we have two important matters to report to you,” Zhanyue suddenly said, glancing at Deputy General Li.

Yue Feipeng understood but said, “Speak freely. General Li is my absolute confidant, more trustworthy than even some of my brothers.”

Zhanyue nodded and said, “Please look at this.” He then produced the token he had obtained from the black-robed man, startling both General Yue and Deputy General Li.

“This… this is Commander Huang’s identity token. How did it come into your possession?” General Yue had previously assigned Commander Huang a secret mission.

“Commander Huang died at the hands of Eunuch Cao. He asked me to pass this on to you,” Zhanyue then handed the wooden box to General Yue.

“Eunuch Cao? The top expert in the palace? Wasn’t he supposed to be at Cloud Ink Mountain? How did he encounter Eunuch Cao? What else do you know? Tell me quickly!” General Yue was bewildered.

“Yes, sir.” Zhanyue recounted how he had encountered Eunuch Cao and how they had joined forces against him, though he said he had killed Eunuch Cao with poison, omitting many details.

“Eunuch Cao is dead too?” General Yue looked incredulous. He knew Eunuch Cao’s strength and gazed at the mysterious young man before him with a complex expression.

“Why did you help me?” General Yue asked.

“It was the right thing to do. Why not?” Zhanyue answered.

“Is that all?” General Yue pressed.

“Isn’t that enough? I’ve long heard of General Yue’s reputation. Everyone admires you,” Zhanyue had prepared this response in advance.

Yue Feipeng smiled slightly, thinking this person had no reason to lie to him, as these matters would be easy to verify. He had his own spies in the palace.

“What’s the second matter you mentioned?” General Yue asked.

“It’s about the poison you were given and the antidote,” Zhanyue said.

Outsiders didn’t know what they discussed, but afterward, General Yue lay back down, looking exactly as he had when poisoned.

“Congratulations on completing the second stage mission – Saving General Yue. Mission rating: Average. Mission reward: Restore Spirit Control Realm cultivation, can unseal one battle technique or divine ability,” Feng Xueqing’s identity jade tablet transmitted again.

“My strength has increased again. I wonder what the next stage mission will be,” Feng Xueqing felt a bit uneasy. She didn’t want to part ways with Zhanyue so soon, having grown accustomed to his company these days, though she hadn’t realized it herself.

“Initiating next stage mission: A plague is spreading from south to north and will soon affect the Northern Frontier. Please stop the spread of this plague. Mission success condition: The plague is effectively controlled. Mission failure condition: The plague ravages the Northern Frontier.”

Feng Xueqing frowned. What was bound to come had arrived.

Meanwhile, Zhanyue received his own prompt.

“Congratulations on completing the second stage mission – Delivering the message. Mission rating: Average. Mission reward: Restore Spirit Control Realm cultivation, can unseal one battle technique or divine ability.” Without hesitation, Zhanyue unsealed Earth Traversing. At his current strength, he couldn’t maintain sword flight for long, but Earth Traversing was different. A Master Thief with the Earth Traversing divine ability was terrifying to contemplate.

“Initiating next stage mission: Help General Yue repel the Blue Hill army’s attack. Mission success condition: Blue Hill’s main force retreats. Mission failure condition: General Yue’s troops suffer more than 25% casualties.”

“This…” Zhanyue inwardly complained of unfairness. The mission required defeating the Blue Hill army, but failure only required a quarter of General Yue’s troops to be lost. This demanded a decisive victory from General Yue, absolutely not allowing a bloody battle. However, the Blue Hill army was not weak, otherwise the Great Fortune Kingdom wouldn’t need a god-tier military figure like General Yue stationed here permanently.

The two openly compared their missions, both frowning. The two tasks were closely related. Without solving the plague’s spread, General Yue’s troops’ logistics couldn’t be guaranteed, making victory impossible. But it also meant the two would have to separate, one heading south to solve the plague’s spread, the other north to fight Blue Hill.

But for now, they hadn’t finished their current business.

A few days later, the golden fox statue was finally completed. In the spacious courtyard, an altar had been set up, with the Fox God statue enshrined upon it.

General Li, General Zhang, and their trusted subordinates stood to one side, while Zhanyue and Feng Xueqing watched from another. At the center of the stage was naturally the mysterious Old Bai. He had discarded his previous ragged appearance and now wore splendid clothes, holding strange talismans, singing and dancing. His dance was bizarre, his singing even harder on the ears. Then he kowtowed seven times to the Fox God statue. Next, he placed talisman papers in a basin before him. The papers were wrapped around stones, so they sank immediately. The basin wasn’t filled with water, but oil.

He then ordered someone to light a fire under the oil basin, bringing the oil to a boil.

He addressed the crowd: “Who’s willing to use their hand to fish out the talisman papers from the basin?”

Everyone looked at each other in dismay. This was a pot of oil! Using bare hands to retrieve something? Wasn’t that suicide?

“Your sincerity is lacking. I’ll have to do it myself. If the great Fox God has forgiven us, this hot oil won’t harm me. Otherwise… General Yue is in danger!” Old Bai said.

Under everyone’s gaze, he extended his thin arm into the oil pot. The onlookers couldn’t bear to watch, but his face showed no fear as he retrieved the talisman papers from the bottom of the oil pot, amazing everyone.

“What skill!”

“What skill? It’s the Fox God’s protection. He has forgiven us,” Old Bai said. He burned the talisman papers to ash in a bowl, then took out his gourd and mixed the liquid inside with the ashes. “This talisman is the forgiveness charm bestowed by the Fox God. Once General Yue takes it, he’ll naturally recover.”

Zhanyue watched silently from the side, speechless. He had heard enough of these tricks with vinegar at the bottom of oil pots to make fishing things out easy. How did this world come up with such a performance? This old fox was using this method to feed the real antidote to General Yue. What was he up to?

After testing, General Yue took the talisman water. Sure enough, after half an hour, he slowly awoke.

“The Fox God has shown his power! The Fox God has shown his power!” General Zhang exclaimed with wide eyes. It seemed he truly believed in this Fox God business.

“Divine Doctor Bai, what should we do with this Fox God statue?” General Zhang pointed at the golden sculpture.

“Naturally, it should be enshrined in a Fox God temple. Not just any temple, I need to calculate carefully,” Old Bai said.

“Enshrined in a temple? But it’s made of gold. Won’t it be stolen?” General Zhang worried.

“We can just plate it with a layer of copper on the outside. Then no one will know,” Old Bai suggested.

“Wouldn’t that be disrespectful to the Fox God?” General Zhang asked again.

“The great Fox God wouldn’t care about such trifles,” Old Bai said, exasperated.

They spoke very softly, but with Zhanyue’s current cultivation, he could hear every word clearly. “This old fox, going to such lengths just for this gold? Is it really that simple?”

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