Death… and me

Erla and Min were taken aback for a moment but immediately followed Rean’s words. “Wait! Rean! You can’t leave us now!”

Habac had also received the same message, so he obviously helped in his own way. “Stop bothering Rean, you two. He already helped you a lot. Look around you. If he wanted to, he could have hundreds of stronger demon beasts and cultivators join his group.”

Erla and Min’s expressions turned dark after that. “The same goes for you! You aren’t the only one with experience, you know.”

Habac nodded, replying, “True. However, I’m pretty confident in my knowledge, so I don’t think Rean will discard me that easily. After all, I have nothing to do with this problem between you and these guys.”

Rean laughed in response. “Hahaha! You’re quite selfish, aren’t you, Habac? Well, I’m pretty selfish myself, so I know what that feels like. Don’t worry. Your knowledge has been quite complete during the tests, with only a couple of points unknown. I won’t send you out.” Rean then looked at Erla and Min before continuing, “As for you two, I already helped you get to the tenth test. All you need to do is complete three more tests on your own. Don’t tell me you can’t do at least that. Just consider it a challenge.”

“We…” Erla and Min were speechless. However, they couldn’t come up with an answer… or so it looked on the surface.

Rean returned his attention to Fanso after that. “You aren’t lying about the ten thousand Rank Two Divine Stones, right?”

Fanso was more than satisfied to see that his offer was accepted. “Of course. It’s a high price, but one that’s worth it. You’re quite annoying to deal with according to the information we got.” He couldn’t help but think. ‘Hehe! In the end, riches are more important than any hollow friendship. Most people would give up their own mother for this amount of Rank Two Divine Stones, let alone some people they just knew for a while.’

Fanso then showed the contract to Rean, saying, “You can read it if you want.”

Rean checked the contract, although he didn’t really care. “It’s all right. Once I get to the Void Tempering Realm, I’ll be able to remove the seal anyway. Let me sign it.” Rean cut his finger and used a drop of his blood to sign the contract. As always, the contract burnt down and put a seal on Rean’s soul… dummy.

Rean then extended his hand after that. “Give me the Divine Stones. According to the contract, I only have to follow it if you make the payment.”

Fanso immediately threw a spatial ring at Rean after that. “You can check it yourself.”

After confirming that there were ten thousand Rank Two Divine Stones inside, Rean smiled. “Very good. With this, our deal is completed.” Rean immediately left Erla and Min behind once he received the stones. Habac followed in his footsteps without even looking back either.

Erla and Min seemed to have terrible expressions as they looked at Fanso. “You don’t think we’ll give up that easily, right?”

Fanso coldly smiled in response. “That’s up to you. However, I would consider giving up earlier than later. Erla, if you give us your heart without any struggle, we can at least guarantee the lives of your White Scaled Carp race. How about that?”

“Hmph!” Erla snorted in response. “You won’t touch them even if I don’t surrender. After all, if I pass the test and enter the Jhiod Sect, I’ll be untouchable. You’ll have to wait for the day I come back and will definitely need something to negotiate your own lives. Unless, of course, your Silver Horn Sturgeon race decides to flee from Terces and especially Clendes Sea.”

Fanso didn’t deny that. “True. However, can you pass the test with us there? We’ll be the judge of that.”

Fanso turned around and left with his group. This time, the Silver Horn Sturgeon race was serious, as Erla could see over thirty Void Tempering Realm sturgeons in the group alone. Not to mention that there might be more of them that hadn’t appeared. ‘They probably didn’t leave a single sturgeon at the Void Tempering Realm behind. Every single one of them is here… except for Blansin. I wonder if they found out about Blansin’s lies.’

At that moment, both Erla and Min were quite nervous. They wouldn’t give up even if Rean really left. However, they saw Rean signing the contract and it activating. Since Rean wasn’t in the Void Tempering Realm, he shouldn’t be able to go against the contract.

Well, it was then that they received Rean’s Divine Sense message. ‘I’ll stay away from you for now. Don’t worry. Our badges are connected since we’re in the same group. That means we’ll be teleported to the same place once we enter the tests.’

Erla immediately answered back. ‘Are you sure you wanna do it? What if the seal kills you?’

‘Seal? What seal?’ Rean asked with a smile. ‘No contract seal can do anything to me. Just trust my words and wait for the next tests.’

Meanwhile, outside the Jhiod Sect’s building, Blansin was sitting together with Tilte and the elders of the Silver Horn Sturgeon race. “Elder, I understand why you don’t want me to take the test. Then again, I should at least be allowed to check the main hall, no?”

Tilte shook his head, telling him, “I know you. You aren’t the type to give up so easily. If I let you enter the main hall, you will definitely enter the next tests to try and make up for your failures. You already got close to dying once, so that won’t happen again.”

“But what’s the point in cultivating if I can’t even try to make up for my errors? Since when did a demon beast run away from danger?” Blansin asked, obviously unhappy.

Tilte was happy he felt like that. However, he still didn’t let Blansin go. “You will have a lot of danger to deal with in the future. For now, just stay here and wait for the good news from Fanso’s group. They have three more chances to capture Erla, considering Erla will succeed in them.”