All Things Are Contracts

Chapter 87: The Synchronous Jade Wall

After defeating the two mechanical puppets, a golden door opened in the great hall.

Zhanyue and Baizhi exchanged glances, then walked through hand in hand. Behind the golden door was a long passage, with no traps or enemies within. At the end of the passage, they encountered a fork in the road.

“Let’s check the left side first,” they entered the left path.

A smooth jade wall stood before them, blocking their way. The wall was towering, stretching upwards with no visible end. Above, there was light, clearly marking the exit.

“Are we supposed to climb up this jade wall?” Zhanyue wondered.

He placed his hand on the wall, feeling it was extremely smooth and couldn’t provide any grip. It didn’t seem climbable at all. Zhanyue frowned. Although at their level, falling from a great height wouldn’t kill them, they still couldn’t fly.

“Huh?” As Zhanyue was puzzled, protrusions suddenly appeared all over the jade wall, like handholds in a rock climbing game.

“Is this level just testing rock climbing?” Zhanyue was confused, thinking it couldn’t be that simple. He placed his hand on a protrusion and indeed could grip it. However, before he could rejoice, the protrusion turned from solid to ethereal, and Zhanyue’s hand passed through it.

“How… how are we supposed to climb this?” Zhanyue was speechless. The protrusions could be used for leverage, but they would turn ethereal after just a breath. He couldn’t possibly climb to the top using these protrusions in such a short time.

“Let me try,” Baizhi volunteered. She used her ‘Charm Shadow’ divine ability to rush upwards, but only made it a third of the way up the wall before sliding down.

Baizhi explained, “It’s no use. At my speed, I can’t reach any further handholds once I get that high. Climbing up is much harder than moving on the ground.”

“Ah,” Zhanyue sighed, “Charm Shadow isn’t omnipotent. It can only reach its maximum speed on the ground and isn’t suitable for climbing. If only we could fly.”

The man watching their awkward performance said proudly, “Stumped, aren’t you? Haha, I’ve set up restrictions here. Even a pseudo-divine realm (Spirit God Realm) expert would have to honestly climb up.”

“Let’s check the other side,” they went to the other path, only to find an identical jade wall. The protrusions on this wall behaved the same way, turning ethereal shortly after being touched, impossible to use for climbing.

“Since this is a two-person trial, and there are two identical jade walls, could it be…?” Zhanyue had an idea and said to Baizhi, “I’ve noticed the protrusions on both walls are in the same positions. Go to the other wall and try touching the protrusion in this position.”

Baizhi nodded and went to the other wall.

When she placed her hand on the protrusion, Zhanyue did the same on his side. When they touched the same position simultaneously, the protrusion didn’t turn ethereal as before but remained solid, allowing them to use it for leverage.

They met again, both understanding the secret of the two walls.

“That boy figured it out so quickly, he’s indeed promising,” the woman observing from afar said.

“Don’t be hasty. Knowing the wall’s secret isn’t enough. I want to see how they manage to be of one mind and in sync,” the man smiled. This second trial didn’t require facing any enemies, but its difficulty far exceeded the first trial. There was no way to cheat or use brute force to win.

Zhanyue had also figured it out, “This trial tests the tacit understanding between Baizhi and me. We must climb up simultaneously, at the same speed, and choose the same protrusions each time. One wrong step and we’ll fall back to the start. Separated so far apart, and without the ability for soul communication (a Spirit God level technique), how can we achieve such synchronization?” Thinking of this, Zhanyue frowned.

They immediately began to try, attempting to climb without any way to communicate. However, the protrusions would turn ethereal if not touched simultaneously. Either Zhanyue was too fast, or Baizhi was. Moreover, with so many protrusions in front of them, should they choose left or right first? Inconsistent choices would also lead to failure. They couldn’t see the distribution of protrusions above, and there seemed to be no discernible pattern.

After dozens of attempts, all ended in failure.

“The difficulty of this trial is unbelievable. Unless Baizhi and I are truly of one mind, how can we have such tacit understanding? Even twins probably couldn’t succeed,” Zhanyue was frustrated. Even with his many skills, he had no way to use them here. They needed to be in sync and make the same choices at every step. How could they achieve this?

Baizhi came over from the other side and, seeing Zhanyue’s furrowed brow, said, “I… I have an idea. I don’t know if it will work.”

“Oh? Let’s hear it,” Zhanyue was curious about what idea this little girl might have.

Baizhi said softly, “I know of a fourth-grade pill called the Sleepless Pill. After taking it, one can stay alert even without sleep for ten to fifteen days. When refining it, the rhythm and choice of each ingredient are very strict. Although it’s only a fourth-grade pill, few people can refine it because it’s difficult and has limited use. The refining process is troublesome, with over ten ingredients added repeatedly in a specific rhythm. I was thinking, since we’re both alchemists, if we both mastered its refining method, couldn’t we use its rhythm for climbing and the yin-yang attributes of the ingredients for left-right choices? Wouldn’t that achieve the same rhythm and choices?”

Hearing this, Zhanyue’s eyes widened. He pulled Baizhi into his arms and kissed her forehead firmly, “Great idea! Let’s do it that way. Do you have the ingredients for that pill?”

Baizhi’s face turned red with embarrassment. She nodded, “Yes, I still have some. I’ve already mastered it, it’s up to you now.”

“Good, guide me through it,” Zhanyue, now a fourth-grade alchemist, could naturally learn the Sleepless Pill’s refining method. He sat cross-legged and began refining the Sleepless Pill using the materials Baizhi provided.

“Huh, what are they doing? Why did they suddenly start refining pills? Judging by the grade of those materials, it’s probably just a fourth-grade pill. Are there any fourth-grade pills that can make people’s minds connect?” the woman asked, puzzled.

The man shook his head. Neither of them understood alchemy, so they naturally couldn’t guess Zhanyue and Baizhi’s plan. “I bet they won’t pass this trial in less than half a year. They’re probably refining some satiety pill.”

The Sleepless Pill was indeed one of the most troublesome fourth-grade pills to refine, requiring extremely strict mastery of rhythm and a rigid order for repeatedly adding each ingredient. Even with Baizhi’s guidance, it took Zhanyue seven days to fully master the pill’s refining method. Although Zhanyue successfully refined the pill on the third day, success didn’t mean mastery, so he still took seven days.

“It seems the girl is guiding the boy in pill refining. Strange, what does pill refining have to do with climbing the jade wall?” The two senior experts couldn’t figure it out after seven days of pondering.

“They’re moving.”

“Look! Identical, identical rhythm. How can they be so synchronized!”

The two exclaimed.

“Blood Sun Grass, yang nature, left.”

“River Otter Flower, yin nature, right.”

…

Using the rhythm and ingredient order of refining the Sleepless Pill, they climbed with the same rhythm, choosing the same protrusions each time, all the way to the top of the jade wall.

“It’s driving me crazy. How did they do it? I clearly left a cultivation method in the jade wall that would automatically appear after a thousand failures if they didn’t give up. Once mastered, it would allow them to be of one mind. They clearly didn’t discover it!” the man said in surprise.

“Your cultivation method probably requires reaching the third level to have such an effect, right? That would take quite a while. Yet they only took seven days,” the woman laughed.

“Ah, they passed again, and in a way I didn’t anticipate. How did they do it?” The man felt a bit embarrassed. “Never mind, I don’t believe they can do the same for the third trial!”