All Things Are Contracts

What should have been a lively scene was now terrifyingly quiet. The lake was silent, the distant mountains and sky merged into one, as if the entire world had been reduced to the tranquility of the lake surface.

Zhanyue reassessed the opponent before him. The frightening thing wasn’t Ma Qiangang, but the overwhelming heavenly authority behind him.

“This power…” Zhanyue gripped his sky-piercing halberd tightly. The red flame patterns on his Silver Moon Armor all lit up. He was already using his full strength, but this was his first time facing a power known as ‘rules’.

“Traitorous rebels! Die!” Ma Qiangang swung his whip again, like a mountain collapsing.

Zhanyue forcibly took the blow, feeling as if all his internal organs had been struck by a muffled hammer, accompanied by terrifying lightning coursing through his body. He was smashed into the lake bottom. Soon after, he flew back up, only to be greeted by another whip strike, lightning flashing across the lake surface.

“Hahaha, no matter who you are, you’re just a rotten fish now. Watch me smash you to pieces!” Ma Qiangang struck out with his steel whip again, as if to split the entire lake in two. As the lake waters surged, Feng Xueqing stood at the bow of the ship, reaching out her hand. A lotus flower bloomed before her, forming a shield to resist the terrifying impact. She used all her strength to protect the ship beneath her, and now cracks appeared on the lotus shield.

“Such terrifying power… even the aftershock can break my shield. What horrifying attacks must Zhanyue be enduring?” Feng Xueqing couldn’t help but worry. This trial task was indeed extraordinary.

“Prince Yu, if you have any more tricks up your sleeve, now is the time. Or do you know nothing about their trump cards?” Feng Xueqing turned her head to ask Prince Yu beside her.

Prince Yu’s face had turned pale. If not for Feng Xueqing’s intervention, the ship would have sunk into the lake by now.

“Alright, please protect me, Miss Feng,” Prince Yu gritted his teeth, knowing it was time for him to act.

Feng Xueqing nodded in agreement.

Prince Yu had his attendants bring a thick bamboo scroll. As he unrolled it, a bloody smell spread. The scroll was very long, written with blood characters.

“This is a record of the current emperor’s bloody debts, too numerous to list! Each character is written with the heart’s blood of victims, their cries cannot be ignored.” Prince Yu sat cross-legged, bit open his finger, and continued writing on the blood scroll. The incantations were very complex, incomprehensible to outsiders. But everyone felt that as Prince Yu wrote, the pressure from the heavenly way weakened considerably.

“What is the heavenly way? Maintaining order is the heavenly way, so resisting order is naturally also the heavenly way! These unwilling wills will all become your weapons, these resentful thoughts will become your armor. What we do is also carrying out heaven’s will!” Prince Yu waved the bamboo scroll, and the blood characters on it materialized, flying towards Zhanyue.

Zhanyue suddenly felt himself surrounded by mountains of corpses and seas of blood, endless wronged souls appealing to him, unwilling wills urging him to resist. At this moment, Zhanyue entered a state of enlightenment. A blood-red shadow appeared behind him, confronting the shadow behind Ma Qiangang. The feeling of being suppressed by the heavenly will vanished.

Heavenly way against heavenly way, rule against rule. If the opposite side symbolized stable order, then he was unyielding resistance. Two opposing rule powers clashed, bringing the duel back to a fair arena.

“Hmph!” Zhanyue snorted coldly and attacked again. Without the advantage of rule power, Ma Qiangang couldn’t gain any upper hand. After a series of exchanges, the Thunder-Controlling Divine Whip fell into Zhanyue’s hands, while Ma Qiangang sank to the bottom of the lake.

Seeing the enemy leader fall, Prince Yu gave the order, and all soldiers launched a general attack. The decisive battle of Wenshi Lake began. In the end, the current emperor, seeing the situation was lost, committed suicide.

A month later, Prince Yu entered the capital and ascended the throne. When he sought Zhanyue and Feng Xueqing again, they were nowhere to be found.

Mission completed, Zhanyue and Feng Xueqing were suddenly transported away by their identity tokens. They found themselves by a riverbank, looking at each other in confusion, not knowing where they were or what their next task would be.

“What’s going on? Is this still the previous world?” Zhanyue asked puzzled.

Feng Xueqing shook her head as well.

“There’s a fisherman by the river. Let’s ask him,” Feng Xueqing suggested.

They approached the man. The fisherman was white-bearded, thin, about sixty years old, fishing and drinking. He looked at the two curiously as they approached.

“Old sir, is this within the Great Fortune Kingdom?” Zhanyue asked.

The old man looked even more confused and replied, “Great Fortune Kingdom? Didn’t it fall thirty years ago? This area now belongs to the Blue Hill Kingdom.”

Zhanyue and Feng Xueqing stared at each other, bewildered.

“Do you know about Prince Yu and General Yue Feipeng?” Zhanyue asked again.

The old man became interested, “Prince Yu and Yue Feipeng? We all grew up hearing their stories. How could we not know? They were figures from a hundred years ago.”

“A hundred years ago?” Zhanyue and Feng Xueqing gasped. They had been transported to a world over a hundred years later?

“Oh? Could you tell us more about their stories, old sir?” Zhanyue requested.

“No problem, this old man loves chatting with young people like you.”

As the old man narrated, a grand historical epic unfolded before them.

After the Battle of Wenshi Lake, Prince Yu smoothly ascended the throne as Emperor Shengwu, reformed the government, gave the people respite, and restored the nation’s strength. This period was known as the “Shengwu Revival”. Twenty years later, he waged war against Blue Hill, winning consecutive victories and forcing Blue Hill to cede territory and pay reparations, leaving it on the brink of collapse. However, his son was not as wise, giving Blue Hill a chance to recover. The third-generation ruler was even more incompetent than Prince Yu’s brother, causing widespread discontent within Great Fortune and frequent rebellions. He even desecrated Yue Feipeng’s tomb out of personal desire, forcing Yue Feipeng’s grandson to flee to Blue Hill and become a general there. Years later, Yue Feipeng’s grandson personally led iron cavalry to overthrow Great Fortune, making the once struggling Blue Hill Kingdom the final victor.

Zhanyue and Feng Xueqing listened in a daze to the old man’s account. Just moments ago, they had witnessed Prince Yu’s ascension, and he had promised to treat the people well and become a wise ruler, making them feel they had helped the right person and chosen the correct path. The next moment, they arrived a hundred years later to find that although Prince Yu had indeed fulfilled his promise and become a great ruler, Great Fortune still fell after three generations. Yue Feipeng, who valued his reputation above all else, would never have imagined that it would be his descendant who overthrew Great Fortune.

All of Prince Yu’s schemes to ascend the throne; General Yue’s inner struggles and decisions for the people’s sake; Zhanyue’s heroic deeds of infiltrating the camp to kill Nangong Wujiang and beheading Ma Qiangang on the battlefield – in the long river of history, they were merely passing clouds, ultimately becoming just tales on this fisherman’s lips. Even the heavenly way’s will of stable order versus the will to resist seemed to hold no great power in the face of time.

“So this is how this world ends up,” Zhanyue sighed. Having personally experienced these major historical events, only to see such an outcome. Prince Yu was so talented, yet his nation fell after three generations; General Yue cherished his reputation, yet his descendants had to betray the country; Blue Hill was defeated several times, yet ultimately turned defeat into victory. The fickleness of fate was indeed unpredictable.

Zhanyue and Feng Xueqing both felt their identity tokens vibrate. Their cultivation had fully returned, with no more restrictions.

“All tasks in this realm have been completed. Failed to complete the hidden task – changing Great Fortune’s national fate. Final evaluation: Grade B.”

“? That hidden task was actually to change Great Fortune’s fate of destruction?” Zhanyue and Feng Xueqing both felt some regret, but there was nothing they could do. The difficulty of this trial had exceeded their expectations.

“Where do you think we went wrong? Why couldn’t we change Great Fortune’s downfall?” Zhanyue asked, puzzled.

Feng Xueqing shook her head as well, “I don’t know either. But we’re about to part ways. All tasks in this realm are completed, and our future tasks are unlikely to synchronize again.”

“I…” Zhanyue wanted to say something more, but two beams of light enveloped them, instantly separating them and sending them to the next task world.

“(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻!” Zhanyue felt speechless, he still had things he wanted to say.

“You have entered the Demon Abyss. At the same time, there are other trial participants in this realm. The task worlds have been synchronized. You may be collaborators or competitors. Good luck to you.” Another reminder came from the identity token.

“Synchronized with others again?! Who is it this time?” As Zhanyue pondered, he saw a pair of angel wings rapidly enlarging, and a graceful figure crashed into his arms. Before he could see who it was, his attention was drawn to a huge creature in the distance. Just a glance filled him with unprecedented fear.

“What… is… that… monster…”

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