All Things Are Contracts

Chapter 255: The Medicine Doll Lingling

“By the way, I see we’re surrounded by the sea, and nearby islands should be quite far. How did you get here?” Zhanyue was puzzled. Apart from the pirate ships with flags, he didn’t see any other boats nearby. With Baizhi’s suppressed abilities, she shouldn’t have been able to cross long distances at sea.

“You might not believe it, but I’ve been crossing the sea on a bamboo raft all this time. Unfortunately, they destroyed that raft earlier,” Baizhi said angrily. That bamboo raft was handmade by her and had accompanied her across many seas and places.

“Bamboo… raft?” Zhanyue indeed didn’t believe it. With the waves at sea, how long could a small bamboo raft last?

Seeing Zhanyue’s disbelief, Baizhi was very proud. She put her hands on her hips and said happily, “Let me show you something.”

Not having seen her for a long time, Zhanyue felt that this girl was becoming more and more adorable. Unlike Huang Xueqing and Yunyao, Zhanyue felt particularly relaxed around Baizhi. Although they hadn’t taken the final step in their relationship, by this world’s standards, Baizhi had long considered herself Zhanyue’s person.

“Look at this,” Baizhi extended her hand. In her palm was a green gourd-shaped mark that was glowing.

“What’s this?” Zhanyue asked curiously. He didn’t remember Baizhi having this before.

“Just keep watching,” Baizhi activated the symbol in her palm. The mark burst with light, and then a fist-sized little person appeared in her palm. It was a porcelain-like doll that looked seven or eight parts similar to Baizhi, but more childish. Its watery eyes were adorable, though it looked a bit dim-witted.

“What is this thing? Why does it look not very smart?” Zhanyue asked. It looked very similar to the legendary Nascent Soul, except it had a small belly-covering garment.

“This is the reward I got from my previous mission. Besides some pill formulas, there’s this medicine doll, Lingling. It’s a spirit being, without an actual physical body. Don’t be fooled by its silly appearance. Although it’s not good at fighting, it’s very useful,” Baizhi introduced. The little doll was now hugging one of Baizhi’s fingers, affectionately rubbing its small face against it.

“Medicine doll? Does it have something to do with finding medicinal herbs?” Zhanyue guessed.

Baizhi nodded her little head, “That’s right. Its ability is to find heavenly and earthly treasures. Unfortunately, this world is too barren, so it doesn’t have much use. Watch this…”

Baizhi pointed to a wild grass not far away. The medicine doll Lingling disappeared from Baizhi’s palm, transforming into points of starlight, then flew towards the wild grass and possessed it. Then, the entire grass plant, including its roots, flew up and landed in Baizhi’s hand.

Zhanyue looked at the wild grass in shock. Its roots were completely undamaged, something ordinary people could never achieve. Even he would need to use state reversal techniques to do this. This little thing definitely didn’t just uproot the plant; it was a more mystical method similar to telekinesis.

“You see, this little one can not only sense where heavenly and earthly treasures are, but it can also easily ignore terrain and dangers to get there, and bring those treasures to me completely intact. This little guy is more useful to me than any divine artifact,” Baizhi was very satisfied with the little one, even though it couldn’t increase her combat power.

“But what does this have to do with you crossing the sea, or with the bamboo raft?” Zhanyue had been led astray and now returned to the main topic.

“Silly, its endurance is incredible. It previously possessed the bamboo raft and carried me across the sea,” Baizhi explained.

“I see. You’ve suffered a lot these days,” Zhanyue knew that even if the power problem was solved, drifting alone at sea for a long time must have been tough.

“It’s a trial, after all. There’s no such thing as not suffering. By the way, to kill that thunder bird, we need to head north to the Ink Sea. It’s not close,” Baizhi said, looking troubled.

“What’s there to worry about?” Zhanyue was now in his Ghost Shark form. He immediately used the Ghost Shark Clan’s innate ability and swallowed Baizhi, then leaped into the sea.

The sea was the Ghost Shark Clan’s home turf. The water escape technique operated at high speed.

Zhanyue transformed into a white wave, moving at a speed far surpassing those sea creatures.

Soon after, he spat Baizhi out.

“Where is this?” Baizhi looked around at the environment. “I’ve been here before. It’s the deserted island north of that small island. How long has it been? Even if I used the bamboo raft, it would take most of a day,” Baizhi said incredulously. In the blink of an eye, she had appeared here.

“I’m just that fast,” Zhanyue said proudly. The Ghost Shark avatar was incredibly advantaged in this world mainly composed of oceans, and its strength wasn’t suppressed. This ‘instance’ seemed tailor-made for Zhanyue.

“Look… look over there!” Baizhi’s expression suddenly changed as she pointed to the distance.

They saw the sky to the north suddenly darken, then a purple ball fell from the sky, crashing into the sea before exploding.

“Not good, that thunder bird is feeding again!” Baizhi’s face turned pale. Fortunately, they were far enough away, but it was still terrifying.

Sound travels slower than light, so Zhanyue and Baizhi only heard the terrifying thunder after the lightning had exploded. That power was no weaker than a full-force attack from a Spirit God Realm expert, perhaps even more terrifying.

“Baizhi’s mission is to eliminate that thunder bird?” Zhanyue retracted his earlier thought that the mission shouldn’t be difficult. This thunder bird’s strike was truly too terrifying.

“Those divine thunderbolts fall into some part of the ocean without any warning, just like this. It’s a true natural disaster. That’s why many people aspire to live near the Ink Sea, as divine thunder never falls there. However, establishing oneself in the Ink Sea is not easy,” Baizhi explained.

“Let’s go take a look,” Zhanyue said boldly. Then he took Baizhi towards where the lightning had struck. The thunder bird had just finished feeding, so it shouldn’t act again. And according to Baizhi, each time it fed, it would clear out all life in the strike area, so it shouldn’t strike the same place twice.

Zhanyue swallowed Baizhi again and dove into the water.

Soon after, Zhanyue arrived at the area affected by the lightning strike, exactly as Baizhi had described earlier. Upon entering this area, Zhanyue couldn’t see any marine life. No fish, no shrimp, the place had become a dead zone.

“Hm? There’s a ship?” Zhanyue saw a huge ship in the distance and swam towards it. Without wings or a flying sword, he couldn’t fly, but fortunately, water was everywhere here.

Soon after, Zhanyue boarded the ship. Indeed, it was a ghost ship. All the people on board had disappeared. There was even a cup of steaming tea on a wooden table.

“It seems they were all eaten by the thunder bird,” Zhanyue sighed. Even though the ship wasn’t directly hit by the lightning, so its hull was still intact, it was within the thunder bird’s feeding area, so everyone on board had been eaten.

Zhanyue frowned as he looked at a painting hanging in the cabin because the person in the painting looked ninety percent similar to Baizhi. There were also a few words written in a script he didn’t recognize.

“Do you know what this is?” Zhanyue released Baizhi and asked, pointing at the painting.

“That’s a wanted poster for me,” Baizhi said angrily.