All Things Are Contracts

Chapter 251: The Life-Nurturing Soil

The two re-entered the burial chamber. The three coffins had been blown to pieces; while the chamber itself was protected by a formation, the coffins weren’t. However, the statue, having endured such a terrible explosion, didn’t show a single scratch, seeming to have merged with the formation.

The golden scepter that was in Lulu’s hand now stood straight up, looking quite eerie. The disaster beast, naturally not easily killed, was now swimming around the golden scepter in a fish swarm, not actively attacking Zhanyue and Yunyao.

Zhanyue and Yunyao exchanged a glance, understanding each other’s meaning.

“You go or I go?”

“You’d better go. Be careful,” Yunyao said. She had suffered greatly last time, and to avoid embarrassment again, she naturally left this “good opportunity” to Zhanyue.

“Alright, but it won’t be easy to get close to that golden scepter. Help me keep those disaster beasts occupied,” Zhanyue said, rubbing his shoulder and preparing to charge in.

“No need for that trouble,” Yunyao stopped him. She held a feather between her fingertips. Under Zhanyue’s gaze, the originally white feather turned fiery red, the same color as his phantom wings.

“Oh, white was just a camouflage color. It’s actually red,” Zhanyue looked at the feather, which was Yunyao’s contract object, possibly from the legendary Feather Heavenly Emperor.

Yunyao manipulated the feather, making it pass through the gaps in the fish swarm at an invisible speed, finally landing next to the golden scepter. Then, Yunyao’s body appeared next to the feather, and she swapped her position with Zhanyue’s. Just like that, while Zhanyue was still stunned, he found himself next to the golden scepter.

“This is too exaggerated,” Zhanyue had seen Yunyao’s abilities before, but he was still amazed. This was similar to the Flying Thunder God technique combined with the Heavenly Hand Power, or even more impressive. However, swapping their positions seemed to have some additional limitations, though Zhanyue didn’t know what they were yet.

Not pondering further, Zhanyue grasped the golden scepter beside him. At that moment, it seemed as if the whole world had stopped. The surrounding disaster beasts hung motionless in the air, no longer swimming. Yunyao in the distance stood still like a beautiful sculpture. Zhanyue felt that at this moment, he was the master of this world, with everything in heaven and earth submitting at his feet. The feeling was so wonderful that he found himself reluctant to let go of the golden scepter.

But his state of mind was ultimately incomparable to that of the Sand Dune King or Lulu the sand worm. Soon, his eyes regained a hint of clarity, and he struggled free from that pleasant illusion. Time resumed its flow at that moment.

Zhanyue planted the golden scepter on the ground and uttered the word ‘Destroy!’

The surrounding disaster beasts instantly merged into a giant piranha, then exploded into dust, dying just that simply, leaving only a pair of fish eyes.

“That simple?” Yunyao walked over and picked up the fish eyes from the ground. She couldn’t believe the third disaster beast had been eliminated so easily.

“It’s just that simple. This golden scepter seems like a true divine artifact, having absolute control over the disaster beasts, including the power to make them die,” Zhanyue said. He didn’t know how the previous Sand Dune King had awakened this golden scepter, but he knew they were lucky this time. The enemies they faced weren’t some incredibly powerful disaster beasts, but characters like the Sand Dune King and Lulu the sand worm. Lulu even died by self-destruction in the end. Everything had gone smoothly.

“That’s good. We haven’t fully refined the eyes from that mirror-holding monkey, and now we’ve got another pair of eyes. I see this underground tomb is particularly safe. Why don’t we go into closed-door cultivation here? Once our eye techniques breakthrough, we can continue searching for the next disaster beast,” Yunyao suggested. Such a rare opportunity for undisturbed cultivation shouldn’t be missed.

“Good, indeed we should. We need to progress steadily, step by step,” Zhanyue nodded. “But before that, we have one more thing to do.” He turned his gaze to the Life-Nurturing Soil in the tray held by the statue behind them.

“You’re eyeing it?” Yunyao warned, “If we take it away, the oasis above our heads will cease to exist, and those races will have nowhere to live. You don’t seem like someone who would do such a thing.”

Zhanyue smiled, “Aren’t you taking this too seriously? We’re in a virtual world. Those people were created by the Void Emperor; they’re not real living beings. But some treasures in this world are real, like this one.”

“Sometimes, I’m also curious about what’s real and what’s fake in this world. For example, if I take away this Life-Nurturing Soil and die, how will the world reset? Without the Life-Nurturing Soil, there’s no reason for the oasis to exist. I fear everything would change,” Zhanyue said.

“You can try it,” Yunyao said calmly.

“Never mind. If the task resets to the beginning and we have to start over fighting disaster beasts, I can’t take it,” Zhanyue shook his head. Although he was curious, he didn’t dare to gamble.

He walked over, wanting to take the tray, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t lift even this small amount of Life-Nurturing Soil.

“So heavy, how can it be so heavy!” Zhanyue exclaimed, unaware that the weight of this bit of Life-Nurturing Soil exceeded the combined weight of three mountains and five sacred peaks.

“Try if you can directly put it into your divine ability space,” Zhanyue thought again. However, after many attempts, he couldn’t take it away. Neither spatial rings nor divine ability spaces worked.

“I told you earlier, the space around this Life-Nurturing Soil is solidified. You can’t take it away,” Yunyao knew this would be the result from the beginning, which is why she never had designs on the Life-Nurturing Soil.

“I was wondering how you could resist the temptation of such a treasure. So that’s why,” Zhanyue was speechless. The treasure was right in front of him, but he couldn’t lift it or take it away.

“Wait,” Zhanyue suddenly had an idea and took out the Earth Mother Golden Cauldron, which he hadn’t used for a long time.

However, when this object was taken out, a magical scene occurred. The Life-Nurturing Soil flew into the Earth Mother Golden Cauldron by itself.

“This?” Yunyao’s eyes widened, and Zhanyue showed a smug smile. “Although I don’t know why, I succeeded.”

After entering the Earth Mother Golden Cauldron, that terrifying weight disappeared. Zhanyue could easily pick up the cauldron and recall it to his storage space.

“Earth Mother Golden Cauldron, Life-Nurturing Soil, perhaps there’s some connection between them that we don’t know about,” Yunyao didn’t envy Zhanyue for obtaining this treasure, after all, she couldn’t take it away even if it was given to her. She just marveled at Zhanyue’s good luck.

“Wait, there seems to be some writing on this tray,” Zhanyue keenly discovered that after removing the Life-Nurturing Soil, the words on the tray were revealed.