All Things Are Contracts

Chapter 9: Alliance

In an underground tomb somewhere in the Myriad Spirits Realm, an eerie silence prevailed. The spacious chamber had been unvisited for thousands of years, but now suddenly showed signs of activity. In the center of the tomb’s hall was a huge stone coffin. On the coffin lid were placed about ten candle stands, which suddenly lit up, emitting a ghostly blue light.

Then, about ten figures slowly walked in, divided into two rows. In the candlelight, it became apparent that these ‘people’ were not actually human, but wooden puppets, mechanical beings. They were dressed like maids, with wooden heads, each carrying a large mirror. It was an extremely bizarre sight.

These wooden maid puppets lined up on both sides of the stone coffin, eighteen in total. The eighteen mirrors reflected the ghostly blue candlelight, and soon black shadows appeared in the mirrors.

“How have you all been, Great Lords?” a figure in one of the mirrors spoke first.

“Everything is going smoothly, Strategist. It’s truly fortunate for our Nightmare race to have a genius like you,” another mirror chimed in, with others expressing agreement.

“If not for Strategist’s brilliant plans, our Nightmare race would have been exterminated by humans long ago after the Corpse Emperor was sealed. When His Majesty the Corpse Emperor awakens, we will certainly recommend you for merit. The Nightmare race has eighteen Great Lords, it’s time we had a Vice-Emperor level leader, and Strategist deserves this position.”

“These are trivial matters. We only need to weave our grand net well. When His Majesty awakens, we can completely drive humans from this world. In the meantime, I hope everyone will cooperate with me,” the Nightmare called Strategist said humbly.

“Don’t worry, Strategist. We strictly follow your strategy of ‘increasing two, showing one’ – increasing our strength twofold while only revealing one part, applying just the right amount of pressure on humans. Right now, humans naively think we’re evenly matched, not knowing that our Nightmare race’s strength is already several times theirs. I wonder what expressions they’ll have when we launch our all-out attack? I’m really looking forward to it,” a figure in another mirror laughed.

“By the way, Strategist, how do you understand humans so well? You even successfully instigated three internal conflicts among them? Your great wisdom is truly our Nightmare race’s strongest weapon,” another asked curiously.

The one called Strategist explained: “In the past, when the Corpse Emperor was here, the strategy against humans was too overbearing and direct, putting too much pressure on them, which instead united them like iron. Actually, compared to humans, our Nightmare race’s greatest advantage is our unity, after all, we are essentially different facets of the same being. When external pressure is small enough, humans’ evil thoughts will surface. They are competitive, greedy, always fighting for rankings and precedence in everything they do, and the interests of different classes are completely disunited. Internal conflict is inevitable, provided we don’t let them feel strong external pressure affecting their common interests.”

“If that’s the case, shouldn’t our Nightmare race appear as weak as possible?” someone asked.

“As the saying goes, too much is as bad as too little. There are also wise individuals among humans. Such feigned weakness would make them see through my plan prematurely. The current situation is just right, giving them some pressure but not enough to unite them like iron,” Strategist said.

“Strategist’s plan is brilliant. When the Corpse Emperor returns, and when humans have their next internal conflict, we will surely secure victory in one fell swoop. What do you think, Strategist?”

“Hehe, humans are ultimately our great enemy, we can’t be careless. But I really like two sayings from human sages: ‘Any solid fortress can be broken from within’ and ‘Humans never learn from history’. So, the final victory will definitely belong to our Nightmare race!” Strategist said confidently.

In the inn, Zhanyue was still immersed in studying, absorbing the basic knowledge of this world.

“The Nightmare race is the mortal enemy of our human race. They are a kind of spiritual beings that can only move freely by inhabiting the corpses of various creatures. They fear sunlight, hide during the day and come out at night. The souls of living beings are their food. They eat souls and invade corpses, extremely vicious. Human souls are the strongest and their favorite food.

In ancient times, Nightmares were even called the natural predators of humans, until one powerful figure after another was born among humans. Relying on them to unite human strength and develop many methods and weapons against Nightmares, humans were finally able to fight back, leading to today’s situation.

Now, daytime belongs to humans, nighttime to Nightmares. The existence of illumination Towers allows humans to sleep safely at night, but places beyond the light of the illumination Towers are still dangerous, not to be entered by non-experts.

The special power of contractors can harm spiritual beings, so contractors are the core force against Nightmares, holding a special status in human society.

In today’s Myriad Spirits Realm, various forces are intricately intertwined. If divided by countries, there are ten great empires as leaders, while three major commerce associations distributed among the ten empires control the commercial lifeline of humanity. In addition, there are five major Night Lords coordinating contractor combat power, and eight major academies passing on human knowledge and combat techniques.

The Myriad Spirits Realm has established different organizations based on different types of contractors: the Spirit Contract Alliance that only accepts spirit contractors, the Beast Contract Alliance that only recruits beast contractors, the Weapon Contract Alliance that only recruits weapon contractors, and the most recently established Jade Mountain Night Alliance that recruits miscellaneous contractors. Joining These Alliances has many benefits. There’s also the Knowledge Profound Alliance that only recruits powerful individuals, composed of absolute human elites.”

Zhanyue played with the red gemstone left to him by the illumination Goddess, discovering that his power of ‘light’ could be transformed into a more intense power of fire through this ‘gemstone’. He gripped the gemstone in his right hand, then channeled his power. His original light fist became a fire fist, nearly setting the room ablaze with one punch.

A “knock knock knock” sounded at the door. It was the bellboy returning with his order.

“Sir, the boxing gloves you ordered are ready. Please check them,” the bellboy handed Zhanyue an orange-colored pair of gloves made from beast hide.

“These gloves are made from the hide of a fire-resistant beast. They’re fireproof, completely customized according to your requirements,” the bellboy said with some envy.

“Good, you can go now. You’ve done well,” Zhanyue said, paying a reward. The bellboy left, beaming with joy.

Zhanyue carefully examined the gloves. They were designed with open fingers, very convenient as they would expose the fingers when worn. There was a setting in the palm of the glove where Zhanyue inserted the gemstone.

“From now on, this will be my contract object,” Zhanyue had already figured out how to deceive others. To the outside world, this gemstone would be his contract object, the source of his fire ability. After all, fire gemstones did exist in this world.

“If the outside world knew I had the same light ability as the illumination Goddess, it would probably cause a huge stir. No wonder that woman left this gemstone for me. But she didn’t explain anything, wasn’t she afraid I wouldn’t discover how to use the gemstone? Or did she have confidence in me?” Zhanyue was a bit speechless, the illumination Goddess had left too hastily. But his worries were useless. With his meager strength, not being a burden was the greatest help he could offer.

“Let’s go register at the Jade Mountain Night Alliance branch first. According to the gemstone, I should be classified as a miscellaneous contractor. In this world, only registered contractors have official contractor status, which comes with many benefits. Otherwise, you’d be viewed with suspicion everywhere, like an undocumented person.”

Soon after, Zhanyue arrived at the Sun City branch of the Jade Mountain Night Alliance. He instinctively walked towards the central door. He was greeted by a young and beautiful woman.

“Hello, are you here to register?” the woman smiled professionally.

“Yes, I’m here to register as a contractor. My contract object is a gemstone,” Zhanyue said ‘truthfully’.

The woman’s smile froze, “Uh, this is the Weapon Contract Alliance registration hall. If you’re a miscellaneous contractor, please exit and turn left.”

Instantly, everyone in the hall looked at Zhanyue. Some found it amusing, thinking another greenhorn had come, while others had contempt on their faces.

“Kid, don’t waste the lady’s time on real business. Miscellaneous contractors should register in the left room,” a burly man said. He was holding an axe, having just awakened as a contractor recently, and looked at Zhanyue with displeasure.

Zhanyue’s expression changed. Did miscellaneous contractors have some original sin? Was there a need for such insults? The weapon contractors’ lofty attitude and sense of superiority left Zhanyue speechless. He couldn’t be bothered to argue with them and left without looking back. The room on the left was far less imposing than the Weapon Contract Alliance’s. Inside, an old man who seemed to be the caretaker was lazily dozing on the desk.

“Old sir, I’m here to apply for a contractor certificate,” Zhanyue said politely.

The old man opened his sleepy eyes, yawning and curiously looking at Zhanyue, “It’s rare to see a miscellaneous contractor come to register in Sun City.”

“Huh? What’s wrong with Sun City? Isn’t it good to register here?” Zhanyue was puzzled.

The old man kindly said, “The Eastern Kingdom has a hundred cities. Sun City is teeming with experts, second only to the Imperial Capital and Academy Town. Miscellaneous contractors have no chance of getting qualifications to enter the Imperial Academy here. If you have some ability, you should go register in a lower-ranking city to compete for spots there.”

Zhanyue finally understood why the miscellaneous contractor hall, which should have more people, was so deserted. Those people had gone to register in other cities for better ‘prospects’.

“I’ll just register here. It’s my fate to be connected with Sun City,” Zhanyue wasn’t interested in any academy qualifications. Once the illumination Goddess returned to personally teach him, wouldn’t that be much better than any academy?

The old man’s eyes lit up, having been worried about not finding any suckers, and now one had delivered himself. The task assigned by the Jade Mountain Night Alliance could finally be completed. “This is your own decision, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Come here, let’s first test your talent,” the old man led Zhanyue to a corner of the room where there was something like a stone mill, engraved with various mysterious patterns. “Let me demonstrate for you.”

The old man placed his hand on the stone mill, which lit up with a blue glow and then slowly started to rotate. “The faster this stone mill turns, the stronger the potential of your contract object. My speed shows I have no talent. Let’s see yours.”

The old man stepped aside, making room. Zhanyue excitedly walked over, also wanting to test what kind of talent he had.