All Things Are Contracts

Chapter 194: Northward Journey

The two traveled swiftly, or rather, Zhanyue carried Huang Xueqing swiftly. They finally left Yunmo Mountain and reached its northern side. A journey that would take ordinary people two or three days, Zhanyue completed in just one day while carrying a person.

“Why did we stop?” Huang Xueqing opened her drowsy eyes and asked curiously. She had enjoyed a good sleep.

“You slept comfortably, but I’m exhausted. Weren’t you afraid I might throw you off a cliff?” Zhanyue joked.

“The esteemed Divine Son surely wouldn’t stoop so low. If the Goddess knew, she might spank you,” Huang Xueqing climbed down from Zhanyue’s back, her face still slightly flushed. They had been too close, which was indeed a bit uncomfortable.

“We should find a carriage to travel in later. It’s not good to have you carry me all the time,” Huang Xueqing said apologetically.

Zhanyue didn’t say much, just pointed to a place in the distance and said, “That should be a village. Let’s stay there for the night. Although there are no Nightmares in this world at night, it’s cold and we can’t see anything, which isn’t good for traveling. Our current strength isn’t enough to ignore natural laws.”

“Alright, I’m hungry anyway,” Huang Xueqing said sheepishly. She had done nothing all day but sleep, and now she wanted to eat.

“Let’s go.”

The two walked side by side and soon reached the village at the foot of the mountain. However, at a time when there should have been lights and smoke from cooking, the mountain village was eerily quiet.

“No one’s here?” Zhanyue and Huang Xueqing entered the village, only to find it had been abandoned for a long time.

“These houses show signs of being looted. The villagers probably fled into the deep mountains to escape bandits,” Huang Xueqing guessed.

“Mm, you’re probably right,” Zhanyue entered a house. The furniture inside was in disarray, and there were no clothes in the wardrobe. The villagers must have packed up and left voluntarily. For them to abandon everything, those bandits must have been truly notorious. Now that they had lost their strongest leader, who knows if they would split up. If they turned on each other, it would be some revenge for the common people.

“Sigh, even without Nightmares, ordinary people’s lives are still so difficult,” Zhanyue lamented.

The two found a spacious and clean place to stay. Although there were many empty houses, Huang Xueqing insisted on staying in the same house as Zhanyue, looking at him pitifully. Who knows what this woman was thinking.

“Staying overnight in an abandoned village, I’m not afraid of you, but I am afraid. I’m just a weak woman now,” Huang Xueqing said softly.

“Keep pretending. You’re all sweetness on the outside but dark on the inside,” Zhanyue was speechless. This woman was capable of defeating Fan Longyu, yet she claimed to be a weak woman. Even with her cultivation restricted, Zhanyue didn’t believe she had no means of self-preservation. However, she really wasn’t afraid of anyone having improper thoughts about her, after all, her entire body was highly toxic, and she was extremely skilled in using poison. So Huang Xueqing wasn’t actually afraid of Zhanyue either, firstly because she trusted his character, and secondly because she really wasn’t afraid of him having any bad intentions.

However, she didn’t know that if Zhanyue really tried to take advantage of her, she would be powerless against him. After all, Zhanyue could revert his body state, making poison completely useless. Of course, she didn’t know this.

As night fell, Zhanyue took out an Illumination Stone, which lit up the pitch-black room.

“The Illumination Stone works?” Zhanyue became interested. Then he took out a pill from his divine ability space. Under their gaze, the pill lost its medicinal effects at an extremely rapid rate, instantly becoming useless.

“Well, okay, it seems something as outrageous as pills isn’t allowed by the laws of this world. I wonder if after completing tasks, I can recover my pill refining skills. Pills refined with herbs from this world might be usable normally,” Zhanyue speculated. If pills could be used, forget that dead eunuch, even if all the martial arts experts in the world were together, Zhanyue believed the handful of fifth-grade Xuan Lie Pills in his divine ability space could blow them all to smithereens. Unfortunately, this was a trial, and trials wouldn’t be so simple. Such cheating methods wouldn’t be allowed.

“To be able to define various laws within this illusion, the Void Heaven Emperor’s strength is simply unimaginable. At least sister couldn’t do this,” Zhanyue was curious about the Void Heaven Emperor, the master of this Heaven Book. He wondered what realm he had reached, and was somewhat worried about what kind of calamity even such a powerful figure as the Void Heaven Emperor couldn’t handle. At least it wouldn’t be Nightmares.

“What are you thinking about? You haven’t spoken for a while,” Huang Xueqing asked beside him. She was now disguised as an ordinary woman.

“The weather is getting colder,” Zhanyue took out an animal skin blanket and handed it to Huang Xueqing, while he used a piece of cloth to make a bed on the ground. One person slept on the bed, the other on the floor, and they chatted casually.

“Our tasks this time are both to go to the northern border to find General Yue. Since it’s a trial task, it probably won’t be simple. We should be careful later,” Zhanyue said.

“Mm, I’m just a doctor. I’ll follow your lead in everything,” Huang Xueqing was lazy to think.

“You… ah…” Zhanyue sighed helplessly. Was this woman planning to rely on him completely?

“I wonder how the others are doing?” Zhanyue thought about the others at this moment, not knowing what kind of tasks Baizhi and MuMu Lixi were experiencing. How did he end up with this woman?

“What are you thinking about again? You’re not wondering why it’s me here instead of Baizhi or little sister Holy Maiden, are you?” Huang Xueqing said from under the animal skin blanket, smiling.

“Well… okay, I was indeed thinking that,” Zhanyue said.

“Between those two, who do you like more?” Huang Xueqing asked gossip-like.

“Can’t I like them both? Let’s not talk about this. Let’s rest early, we still need sleep to recover, but don’t sleep too deeply,” Zhanyue changed the awkward topic.

“Ah, you really are a greedy, fickle radish. You sleep first, I’ll keep watch. After all, I’ve been sleeping all day,” Huang Xueqing said. Soon after, she heard Zhanyue’s even breathing. Zhanyue was truly tired, first from the battle with Eunuch Cao, then not sleeping well in the small cave, and then carrying Huang Xueqing for a whole day’s journey. He slept peacefully, confident that if anything happened, Huang Xueqing would wake him. This woman surely wouldn’t do anything ungrateful.

Huang Xueqing looked at the man lying on the ground, lamenting in her heart. If only she were a normal woman, it would be good. Her body determined that she could never get too close to others. The sweet intimacy others enjoyed was out of reach for her.

Early the next morning, the two set off again. This world was vast, as large as the real world, and it would take them a long time to reach the northern region. Fortunately, the weather was nice, crisp and clear, suitable for traveling.

“Giddy up!” Huang Xueqing, on Zhanyue’s back, was beaming with joy.

“Miss Huang, if you keep this up, I might just drop you,” Zhanyue was a bit speechless. He still hadn’t figured out this woman’s true personality. At first, he thought she was aloof and saintly, then he felt she was sweet on the outside but dark inside, with deep schemes. Now he saw her innocent and lively side.

“What, is the horse unwilling?”

“That’s going too far. I am the Divine Son, after all,” Zhanyue frowned. How annoying could this woman be?

Huang Xueqing hugged Zhanyue tighter, her body pressed close to his back, her mouth near his ear, her breath like orchids. “Or should we switch? I’ll carry you? I’ll be your horse?”

Zhanyue felt her fragrant breath on his face and was quite speechless. Her carrying him? Him riding her? Probably not that kind of riding.

“What are you thinking? Don’t have any bad ideas,” Huang Xueqing seemed to realize she had said something ambiguous. “By the way, Divine Son brother, if we’re like this, won’t little sister Baizhi and little sister Holy Maiden be angry if they knew?”

“……”

After a long journey of bantering with Huang Xueqing, Zhanyue finally saw other people. It was a group of people in tattered clothes, about seventeen or eighteen of them, looking like refugees.