All Things Are Contracts

Chapter 52

As the economic center of the Eastern Kingdom and its largest seaport trade city, Pearl City was much more prosperous than Sun City. Bustling crowds moved through the complex network of alleys, the streets were filled with vehicles and horses, and merchants were constantly coming and going.

People from the Eastern Kingdom, Rising Sun Kingdom, Blazing Earth Kingdom, and even from the distant Rain Falls Kingdom came here for tourism and trade. Various civilizations’ clothing styles were strange and diverse, with rows of small but distinctive shops lining both sides of the streets. A dazzling array of goods was displayed in shop windows, with colorful silks, fragrant spices, and precious gems attracting many people’s attention. Vendors competed to sell their wares, with noisy hawking and bargaining voices filling the entire district. Even the simple act of window shopping was enough to make one linger and forget to leave.

As a port city, a huge statue of the Goddess stood quietly on the sea, watching over everything. The coming and going of passenger and merchant ships densely covered the sea surface like Schools of fish on patrol.

“How is it? Pearl City is very lively, isn’t it?” the black-robed person asked, looking at Zhanyue.

Zhanyue nodded, “It’s much more lively than I imagined. There are many faces and clothing styles I’ve never seen before.”

“Pearl City is the Eastern Kingdom’s most important port city. It’s a mix of all sorts of people here. Beneath the prosperous surface, undercurrents are surging. The city lords of other cities are usually powerful Profound Beings, but the one presiding over Pearl City is a powerful Spirit God Realm expert – Sea Suppressing King Mi Tianwei. He’s the Eastern Kingdom Emperor’s uncle, showing how much importance the Eastern Kingdom places on this place. So don’t cause any trouble in the city,” the black-robed person warned.

“Let’s go. Our purpose here is the auction, not tourism,” the two quickly passed through the crowd and checked into a luxurious inn. For some reason, the black-robed person didn’t step out at all.

“Is this auction organized by the Thousand Steeds Association?” Zhanyue asked curiously.

“It’s jointly organized by the Thousand Steeds, Wu Wei, and Fu Yuan, the three major associations. The three are evenly matched here, none submitting to the others. In the end, under the Sea Suppressing King’s coordination, they jointly took the rights to hold Pearl City’s only auction. Each of the three puts up some auction items, and they split the proceeds according to what’s sold. Because it’s an auction held by the three major associations together, the Pearl City auction is the largest auction event within the Eastern Kingdom’s borders. But not every auction has particularly valuable items appearing,” the black-robed person explained.

“Then what’s the most valuable item that has appeared at the Pearl auction?” Zhanyue asked curiously.

The black-robed person said, “It’s hard to say. The value of items is different for different people. The most valuable things I know of include ninth-grade pills, gold-grade techniques, ancient relics, and so on. I remember that ninth-grade pill sold for the astronomical price of 1 billion purple crystal coins. Just one pill for such a price. It’s a pity there are no ninth-grade alchemists in the world, otherwise, they would definitely be the world’s richest person.”

“1 billion?” Zhanyue drew in a sharp breath. Ninth-grade pills couldn’t be refined by anyone; they were mostly discovered in ancient ruins. A single pill was actually worth 1 billion. He had a ninth-grade Vajra Pill on him.

“You should rest well. Our rooms are next to each other. If anything really happens, you can come over quickly,” the black-robed person dismissed him.

“Alright,” Zhanyue didn’t hesitate and returned to his own room, then had the servant prepare hot water for a bath. After many days of travel, a good bath was truly comfortable.

In the huge wooden tub was warm water, with white flower petals floating on the surface. This type of flower had cleansing and refreshing effects. Soaking in the warm water, Zhanyue felt both body and mind relaxed.

“Comfortable. I’ll ask later what these flowers are. I’ll keep some for myself and add them to my baths in the future,” Zhanyue’s arms moved around his body, easing the fatigue.

Just as Zhanyue was comfortably soaking in the bath, a figure suddenly pushed open the window and entered. Zhanyue looked closely and saw it was the black-robed person.

“You’re bathing?”

“Why didn’t you use the door? Why the window?”

They asked simultaneously.

“Junior brother, go check next door. I clearly felt that spiritual energy fluctuation,” a voice came from outside.

“There’s no time!” The black-robed person looked around Zhanyue’s room but couldn’t find a suitable hiding place. Finally, they looked at the huge wooden tub, gritted their teeth, and jumped right in. Then they took a pill underwater and held their breath.

Soon after, two figures directly broke down the door and barged in.

The two were dressed identically in tight-fitting green clothes, with short hair, sharp gazes, and imposing auras.

“Could they be two Profound Realm experts?” Zhanyue looked at these two with a chill in his heart. The aura of these two was terrifying; they were likely both Profound Beings.

“Big brother, there’s no one,” the two scanned Zhanyue’s room with their gaze, then both looked at Zhanyue suspiciously. Zhanyue looked at the two with a ‘panicked’ expression.

“They must have run far away,” that person replied, then said to Zhanyue somewhat apologetically, “Young brother, sorry for the disturbance.”

The two closed the door and left. Although Zhanyue was angry, he was also helpless. Others had forcibly entered his room, but he could do nothing about it.

The black-robed person’s head emerged from underwater, but Zhanyue’s expression changed, and he pushed that head back underwater, ignoring the black-robed person’s struggles and holding them down firmly.

The black-robed person hiding underwater felt like they were about to explode with anger. Their entire face was pressed against Zhanyue’s thigh, and he was holding them down firmly. At this moment, they didn’t dare use their power.

“Bang.” The door was forcefully pushed open again. Those two had actually returned.

“Seniors, is there anything else?” Zhanyue looked at the two with a pitiful and innocent expression.

“No… nothing,” the two looked at the empty room, indeed unable to sense the presence of a second person, then left reluctantly.

After Zhanyue asked the illumination Goddess to use her divine sense to confirm that the two had indeed left, he finally breathed a sigh of relief and released his hand.

The black-robed person who emerged from underwater had bloodshot eyes, as if they were about to eat someone. They raised their hand to slap, but that delicate jade hand was grabbed by Zhanyue, unable to come down.

“The situation was critical. You can’t repay kindness with enmity.”

The black-robed person’s chest heaved violently, taking a long time to calm down before jumping out of the tub. Soaking wet, they could no longer hide their graceful figure. They glared fiercely at Zhanyue once, then returned to their own room to change clothes.

“Let’s go. We can’t stay here anymore. I’m afraid they’ll come back,” the black-robed person came to Zhanyue’s room again. By this time, Zhanyue had also dressed.

Zhanyue didn’t ask much, and the black-robed person didn’t say much. The two seemed to have tacitly agreed to forget about what had just happened.

“How did they find you?” Zhanyue asked puzzled. The black-robed person hadn’t stepped out at all, how could they still be found? Could there be some tracking mark?

“A mark was left in my spirit veins. As long as I use spiritual power, they can sense it within a certain range. Although I try my best to control the spiritual power in my body, sometimes it’s not under control, like when sleeping or other times when there’s involuntary spiritual energy fluctuation,” the black-robed person didn’t conceal this key information, after all, Zhanyue was currently responsible for their safety.

“Sigh, I realize I’ve gotten onto a pirate ship. I didn’t expect there to be Profound Realm experts chasing you,” Zhanyue said with a bitter smile.

“You… do you want to back out? You can if you want to. After all, this doesn’t concern you,” the black-robed person said with complex emotions. They also didn’t know those people had tracked them to Pearl City.