All Things Are Contracts

Chapter 66: Spirit Beasts and Spirit Pills (2)

“I really suspect that the Bai family head deliberately didn’t cultivate this girl’s combat skills. His intentions are questionable, treating her completely as a pill refining tool, and then planning to exchange her for an eighth-grade pill formula once she had higher value,” Zhanyue speculated. Baizhi was extremely talented, and Zhanyue felt that if she learned some cultivation methods and martial techniques, it wouldn’t necessarily take too much time. In fact, Baizhi didn’t know any martial techniques, only having raw cultivation power and relying entirely on pills for fighting. No wonder her first thought when facing the Five Bandits was to run.

“This won’t do. I need to find a way to arm this girl. It’s a pity I can’t contact big sister now, or I could get some free cultivation methods,” Zhanyue thought to himself.

“How was that? Wasn’t I amazing?” Baizhi retrieved her bloodied dagger, her eyes curved like crescent moons in a smile, quickly returning to Zhanyue’s side to seek praise.

“Watch out!” Just as Zhanyue was about to compliment her, the black panther’s ‘corpse’ suddenly sprang up and pounced. Zhanyue hugged Baizhi and spun around to protect her. Despite the soft fragrance in his arms, Zhanyue had no time to savor it as the black panther’s sharp claws left three bloody gashes on his back.

Zhanyue used his hand as a blade, covering it with scorching flames, condensing fire into a sword. With a Sun Flame Slash, he turned and cut the black panther in two, then burned the two halves of the corpse clean with two balls of Solar Essence Fire.

“Are you alright? I’m so sorry, it’s all my fault,” Baizhi’s eyes were filled with tears, Zhanyue’s back already soaked in blood. She hadn’t expected the black panther to still be capable of fighting back even with its head pierced.

“It’s not your fault, don’t cry. Quickly pack up the tent, we need to change locations,” Zhanyue took off his blood-soaked clothes and threw them on the ground. The bloody marks on his back had already ‘healed’ without a trace of injury – State Reversal was such an overpowered ability. “The scent of blood will quickly attract other fierce beasts. We need to leave quickly.”

Zhanyue keenly noticed that the incinerated black panther corpse left behind a blood-red pearl, which he collected.

The two quickly moved to another location. Sure enough, the blood and bloody clothes soon attracted several powerful fierce beasts.

“You… you…” Baizhi stared blankly at Zhanyue’s smooth back. Hadn’t the panther injured him? Was it her imagination earlier? But the force felt so real, he had clearly shielded her, and the impact had even passed through to her.

“What are you looking at? Do you have another black robe?” Zhanyue said helplessly. This girl was really quite naive.

“Oh, I do,” she took out another black robe and handed it to Zhanyue.

“Have you refined any pills that can mask human scent?” Zhanyue asked again.

“There’s a third-grade ‘Scent Removing Pill’ that fits the requirement. I can refine it, but unfortunately, I don’t have any in stock,” Baizhi didn’t carry every type of pill, of course.

“These beasts find their prey through blood scent and human aura. Without the Scent Removing Pills, we might be in trouble. It seems we can’t sleep tonight. Apparently, when the blood moon disappears, they regain their intelligence and won’t actively antagonize humans. At least, that’s what Horse Face’s book says,” Zhanyue said helplessly.

He picked up the red pellet he had collected earlier and scanned it with the light-transmitting mirror. “Third-grade spirit beast core, worth 50 points.”

“That black panther was a third-grade spirit beast? This thing is a beast core? In the outside world, there’s no concept of ‘yao’. There are only fierce beasts and spirit beasts. Yao? Are there yao in this secret realm?” Zhanyue knew that in the Myriad Spirits World, beasts were just beasts. Regardless of their level, they couldn’t shapeshift, not even dragons, because beast Clans had long lost the inheritance of yao cultivation, and could no longer enter the path of humanity. Were all the beasts in this secret realm yao beasts? Yao that could cultivate? What kind of place was this secret realm!

“What are you spacing out for? Another monster is coming,” Baizhi warned. Zhanyue looked in the direction she pointed, seeing a huge black bear. A smile appeared at the corner of Zhanyue’s mouth, “Spirit beasts are good. Spirit beasts have cores, and cores are worth quite a few points.”

The black bear was twice Zhanyue’s size. Its roar shook one’s heart and mind. Zhanyue and Baizhi instantly felt their spirits wilt – this black bear could even use mental attacks. Fortunately, the Ghost Fruit in Zhanyue’s soul trembled slightly, and his wilted spirit instantly became full again. His State Reversal couldn’t affect intangible things like the soul and spirit, but he had the Ghost Fruit.

“Vicious beast, don’t be so arrogant,” Zhanyue formed a fire sword and attacked.

Stepping with the Phantom Light Step, wielding the Phantom Form Sword, the black bear, having lost its intelligence, fought purely on instinct. Its eyes locked onto Zhanyue, but it couldn’t hit him no matter how it swiped, nor could it dodge his attacks. Soon, it had many charred wounds on its body, though its thick skin and sturdy flesh made it quite resistant to damage.

“I need to end this quickly, before more spirit beasts come. I can’t handle several more black bears like this,” Zhanyue thought. He formed Earth Vein Ghost Fire in his left hand and Solar Essence Fire in his right. Using an earth burrowing technique, half his body sank into the ground. As the black bear swiped at empty air, two fire swords cut the tendons in both its feet. The black bear instantly collapsed, unable to move.

Zhanyue pulled back, controlling the flames to continuously attack the black bear, burning its skin black and filling the air with a charred smell.

The black bear angrily opened its mouth, preparing for another mental attack.

Zhanyue’s eyes lit up, “I’ve been waiting for this!” He poured two balls of flame, one blue and one golden, directly into the bear’s mouth. The black bear fell to the ground, struggled a few times, then stopped moving. Having learned from the black panther experience, Zhanyue observed for a while to confirm the bear was truly dead before approaching. The bear’s core was in its abdomen, which Zhanyue cut open to retrieve.

“Fourth-grade peak spirit beast core, worth 500 points,” Zhanyue smiled happily. It was ten times the value of the black panther’s core. The Ghost Shark clan indeed hadn’t manipulated the point values; this black bear was much harder to kill than the black panther.

“The bear carcass isn’t worth much, no need to take it. Hm? What’s this?” Zhanyue noticed a faint glow in the black bear’s head. He immediately broke it open, finding a small bone inside. It took quite some effort to extract, and the white bone glowed faintly in the night light.

“Spirit beast soul bone, extremely rare, worth 100,000 points.” After reading this information, Zhanyue was stunned for a moment. The beast’s core was only worth 500 points, but this thing was worth 100,000? Zhanyue didn’t know that very few spirit beasts possessed innate divine abilities. These abilities were stored in the beast’s soul bones, soul blood, or cores. After the beast’s death, these would normally become ordinary with the beast’s passing, but in extremely rare cases, soul bones, soul blood, or special cores retaining their extraordinary properties would remain. These items were scarce in any era.

“The Ghost Shark people must have been conflicted about pricing this at 100,000 points. They were afraid people wouldn’t recognize its value and not take it if the points were too low, but giving too many points would draw our attention. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to use this thing, and nothing can be taken off Ghost Island. Ah, the Ghost Shark clan really has good methods,” Zhanyue knew this was a treasure, but unfortunately didn’t know its use.

“What’s wrong with you? You’re spacing out again,” Baizhi had watched the thrilling battle. This black bear couldn’t be taken down with just a few pills, but it still died at Zhanyue’s hands. Zhanyue was too strong. If he really wanted to do something to her, could she resist? She couldn’t help thinking, then quickly pushed the thought out of her mind. “He’s not that kind of person.”

“We’ve struck it rich,” Zhanyue opened his palm to show Baizhi the soul bone. It was a white sphere, bone-white in color, emitting a faint glow.

“One… one hundred thousand?” Baizhi trembled with excitement. “If we kill a few more bears like this, wouldn’t we have enough points?”

Zhanyue put away the soul bone and smiled, “Silly girl, you think these are common? A bear would most likely only give those 500 points, and it’s so hard to kill.” Zhanyue planned to study the secrets of this soul bone carefully after leaving.

The two changed locations again. Shortly after they left, several more spirit beasts came and feasted on the black bear carcass, not pursuing Zhanyue and the others. This was also Zhanyue’s purpose in leaving the bear carcass.

The two walked and hid along the way, exhausted but also reaping a full harvest. In one night, they killed seven third-grade spirit beasts and two fourth-grade spirit beasts. Unfortunately, soul bones proved to be rare items, and they didn’t encounter any more. Finally, they found a cave with several stone pillars outside, clearly man-made markers. They decisively hid inside. According to Horse Face’s records, this cave was called the Blood Python Cave. It originally housed a fifth-grade spirit beast, equivalent to a Star Profound Realm strength, but it had been killed by several people working together. This became a good temporary shelter, as the blood python’s aura lingered for years, keeping nearby spirit beasts away.

“Finally, we can rest. Horse Face’s information really was useful,” Zhanyue praised, feeling the 2,000 points were well spent. No wonder he could sell so many copies; it truly contained valuable information.