All Things Are Contracts

Chapter)

Zhanyue had two trump cards left. Relying on these two trump cards, he formed a plan and immediately put it into action. Instead of fleeing, he charged towards the armor.

Just as the armor’s ji halberd was about to cleave Zhanyue’s head, he summoned the Earth Mother Golden Cauldron. With a slide tackle, he slipped past the cauldron’s feet. The massive cauldron appeared out of thin air, taking the ji halberd’s strike head-on with a metallic ring. Fortunately, this treasure was truly extraordinary, showing no trace of damage from the armor’s strike.

In the moment the Earth Mother Golden Cauldron blocked the strike, Zhanyue emerged from beneath it, his hand already grasping the armor’s leg piece.

“State Reversal!” Zhanyue shouted. Terrifying spacetime causal forces swept over the armor. What was once a single entity instantly scattered on the ground, regressing to its inactivated state.

Zhanyue breathed a sigh of relief. This move worked! However, soon after, the armor was enveloped in golden light and activated again.

“State Reversal!” Zhanyue once again used his lifespan to employ his ultimate skill. “Damn it, still want to transform?”

And so, Zhanyue picked up the armor’s helmet and began to study it carefully. Whenever the armor showed signs of activating with golden light, Zhanyue would “shut it down”. Repeating this process, the armor couldn’t fully assemble and activate.

“This thing isn’t soul-controlled, it’s more like some kind of formation control. No wonder I can regress it. Since it relies on formations, it must need energy,” Zhanyue speculated, looking at the formation patterns inside the helmet. Although he wasn’t deeply versed in formations, he recognized these as formation patterns. Each piece of the armor had formation patterns inside.

Soon after, Zhanyue discovered a green stone about the same size as the Sun Divine Stone inside the breastplate. The stone was embedded in the center of the formation, clearly the energy source for this armor.

“I’ll remove your battery and see if you can still transform,” Zhanyue quickly removed the stone. Sure enough, the armor became lifeless, no longer moving. By now, Zhanyue was drenched in sweat. It was his first time using his ability so frequently. This battle had consumed a significant portion of his lifespan, but it was all worth it. With normal methods, he couldn’t have been a match for this armor. Without his ability, even a Spirit God Realm expert would have to completely suppress the armor before removing this stone.

“Top-grade spirit stone, containing vast amounts of spirit energy, worth 200,000 points,” the light-transmitting mirror provided the answer.

“200,000 points?” Zhanyue’s face showed an ecstatic smile. “What a treasure! It’s actually a top-grade spirit stone. The outside world doesn’t have these at all. I’ve only read about them in ancient texts.” Spirit stones were recorded as spirit objects from the previous civilization, divided into four grades: low, middle, high, and top. In the current era, illumination stones had replaced spirit stones as energy sources. Zhanyue hadn’t expected to see one here.

Even an eighth-grade pill formula was only worth about six top-grade spirit stones. The soul bone he had found earlier was only worth half a top-grade spirit stone. These spirit stones were truly rare items.

When the light-transmitting mirror shone on the armor and ji halberd, there was no reaction.

“What’s going on? It’s impossible that they have no value. It must mean the light-transmitting mirror hasn’t recorded them or can’t evaluate them,” Zhanyue looked at the armor and ji halberd with a pained expression. Such good items weren’t his, and he ultimately couldn’t take them off Ghost Island.

“Without a price set, even if I hand them over to the Ghost Shark clan and they deliberately undervalue them, I can’t do anything about it,” Zhanyue wanted to keep them privately, but it was impossible. His own spatial ring couldn’t hold these items, not even the spirit stone. However, the fragrant pouch worked well, directly storing the ji halberd and the cool armor set.

“Ah, such good items, and I can only look at them,” Zhanyue’s face was full of disappointment.

However, a divine thought came again, this time from the bronze door.

“The Red Lotus Trial does not allow giving up. You can only leave after completing the final trial.”

“Will this ever end?!” Zhanyue’s head was about to explode. He had dealt with the armor, and now they were telling him the trial wasn’t over? Such a formidable armor wasn’t even the final trial? This had to be a mistake.

With the way back cut off, Zhanyue could only continue forward. This time he had learned a big lesson: there were too many dangerous places in this secret realm, and he absolutely couldn’t take risks lightly.

Pushing open the bronze doors, inside was a vast space, pitch black, with no visible end. Beneath his feet was an expanse of scorched earth.

“Is this the final trial?” After entering the space, the bronze doors automatically closed, meaning Zhanyue had no way back.

“Pop, pop, pop” sounds kept coming. One skeleton after another emerged from the scorched earth, each wearing armor. Soon, an army of 3,000 skeleton soldiers formed – this was the final trial.

“This…” Zhanyue was dumbfounded. Densely packed enemies, each seemingly not easy to deal with. Asking him to fight 3,000 alone? Even if they were 3,000 pigs, he’d be exhausted to death.

“Is this a trial? Is this really a trial? There must be some mistake,” Zhanyue was speechless. The previous armor was just an appetizer; this was the main course. “Even Moon Profound and Sun Profound experts would find it hard to pass,” Zhanyue couldn’t help thinking. This was definitely not a test for those below Profound Realm.

The enemies didn’t stop to wait for Zhanyue’s confusion to clear. A skeleton jumped over but instinctively retreated upon seeing the illumination stone in Zhanyue’s hand.

“Illumination stone? It’s afraid of illumination stones?” Zhanyue noticed the surrounding skeleton soldiers seemed hesitant, showing some fear.

“They’re possessed by Nightmares?!” Zhanyue suddenly realized these skeletons weren’t undead, but Nightmares possessing them. They were forcibly confined within these skeletons, unable to leave, becoming trial tools.

“What kind of person could forcibly trap so many Nightmares and turn them into trial tools?” Zhanyue couldn’t help wondering, but there were more pressing matters at hand.

Each skeleton was possessed by a high-level Nightmare. One high-level Nightmare was enough to cause huge chaos, requiring high-level Profound Beings to deal with. Yet here were 3,000 of them. These queen-like existences numbered 3,000.

Soon after, the skeletons realized the illumination stone’s damage to them was actually very limited. Their fear was just instinctive. Once they recognized this, true danger finally descended.

“Damn it, I’m specialized in killing Nightmares!” Zhanyue went all out, fully activating the Solar Essence Fire and Sun Divine Stone. Relying on his top-level counter to Nightmares, he was able to slay high-level Nightmares that normally required Profound Beings to deal with!

The Solar Essence Fire condensed into a sword, piercing through a skeleton, then chopping off its head, and finally dismembering it. The skeleton finally stopped moving, the possessing Nightmare completely dead. Even with the Solar Essence Fire, it was very taxing for Zhanyue to kill high-level Nightmares. His realm was still too low.

Fighting while retreating, after killing five skeleton high-level Nightmares, Zhanyue was already drenched in sweat, his power depleted. Fortunately, he had enough pills. After taking some, he was back in fighting form.

After killing thirty skeleton Nightmares, Zhanyue’s pills were running low, and he had sustained some injuries. Luckily, he immediately recovered using State Reversal. Unfortunately, State Reversal only restored his state; the depleted power couldn’t be recovered. After all, State Reversal couldn’t create something from nothing, especially for intangible things like cognition, memory, soul state, spirit power, and such.

After killing forty skeleton Nightmares, Zhanyue was at his limit, completely exhausted. Even though his ability was highly effective against Nightmares, facing densely packed high-level Nightmares with his lowly Spirit Communication realm, he couldn’t hold on. Killing forty high-level Nightmares at this realm would have shocked the world if known, but unfortunately, Zhanyue’s opponents numbered 3,000!

With each step, Zhanyue left an illumination stone. Slowly, he finally laid out thirty illumination stones through movement, forming a basic Light Formation covering an area of four zhang. Zhanyue hid within the formation, panting.

The Nightmare skeletons indeed halted their advance. Zhanyue remembered Cheng Lu saying that a basic Light Formation could intimidate mid-level Nightmares but wasn’t very effective against high-level ones. A high-level Light Formation was needed to fully repel high-level Nightmares and intimidate king-level Nightmares. But the high-level Nightmares in this secret realm were clearly inexperienced, not knowing much about Light Formations, only instinctively fearing them.

But soon, they realized that the formation’s damage to them was indeed limited, and they began to constantly assault and consume the formation’s power.

“The formation is about to be broken. What should I do?” Zhanyue had used all his trump cards and could fight no more.

“Little one, why aren’t you using the armor prepared for you before entering?” That mysterious divine thought sounded again, this time kindly reminding.

“That armor? Won’t it attack me if I let it out?” At this moment, many thoughts surged in Zhanyue’s mind. The trial’s difficulty was too high unless the person who set it up deliberately didn’t want people to pass. Otherwise, the armor at the entrance might truly be the key to breaking through the situation.

Zhanyue summoned the armor and mustered the courage to put it on completely. The armor didn’t fit at first but automatically adjusted its size, perfectly fitting Zhanyue’s entire body. Then, countless fine spikes extended from inside the armor, piercing Zhanyue’s skin at various points, drawing his blood. The blood flowed along the formation patterns, making several circuits before finally completing the pattern. This eerie recognition ceremony shocked Zhanyue.

“Detected that your realm is too low. Your own power cannot activate the armor. Please insert a spirit stone to use an external spirit power source,” a thought sounded in Zhanyue’s mind after the armor recognized him as its master.

“Ah?” Zhanyue was speechless. He had actually been looked down upon by the armor. His current ability couldn’t activate the armor’s true power, needing a spirit stone as an external driving force. “200,000 points?” However, this money had to be paid whether he wanted to or not, because the formation had been broken.

An opening appeared in the chest piece, and Zhanyue inserted his only top-grade spirit stone.

Soon, he felt his body filled with power. Picking up the ji halberd standing nearby, at this moment Zhanyue felt he was truly Lü Bu reborn.

“Unrivaled Chaos Dance!” Zhanyue didn’t know halberd techniques, just swinging wildly, but with the armor’s enhancement, he was like a god of slaughter descending to the mortal realm.

One sweep of the halberd felled a swath of skeleton soldiers. One was skewered high and then thrown. The powerful Nightmares were now being slaughtered like toys.

“With this armor, the trial’s difficulty isn’t much,” Zhanyue complained. However, he soon paid the price for his ignorance.

“Spirit stone energy depleted. Please replace the spirit stone promptly,” the armor issued a warning.

“Ah?” Zhanyue was dumbfounded. He had only killed over 500 of the 3,000 Nightmares. This was a top-grade spirit stone! The armor consumed spirit power too quickly.

“Your mastery and utilization of power are too poor, wasting a lot of spirit power. Even with the armor’s enhancement, this trial is much harder than you think. One spirit stone won’t last until the end. Ah, what a pity. I had high hopes for you,” that divine thought sighed helplessly, believing Zhanyue had already failed.

Without the spirit stone’s enhancement, the armor dimmed, no longer having that earth-shattering power boost. Zhanyue was once again in a deadly situation.

“Damn it, no choice but to try!” Zhanyue took out the Sun Divine Stone and placed it where the pulverized spirit stone had been. Terrifying power transmitted from the Sun Divine Stone to the armor. The originally silver-white armor suddenly turned a fiery red, as if Zhanyue was bathed in blood, regaining power.

“As expected of the Sun Divine Stone, big sister’s most powerful treasure. You’ve never disappointed me,” Zhanyue’s eyes showed confidence. The illumination Goddess hadn’t lied, giving him her most important treasure as a trump card from the beginning. This divine stone had saved him many times.