All Things Are Contracts

Chapter 30

“The Nightmare race has a group structure similar to ants. High-level Nightmares are like queen ants in ant colonies. They generally don’t move, relying entirely on their subordinate mid and low-level Nightmares for nourishment. When high-level Nightmares evolve to King-level, they gain extremely high intelligence and more freedom of action. Only one Lord-level Nightmare might be born among a hundred King-level Nightmares, and only one Grand Lord-level Nightmare might be born among a hundred Lord-level Nightmares.”

“The Corpse Emperor itself is only a Grand Lord-level Nightmare. In my era, there were about eighteen Grand Lord-level Nightmares, most of whom fell in battle. My abilities are very suppressive to Grand Lord-level Nightmares. Even three or four ordinary Grand Lord-level Nightmares are no match for me. As powerful as they are, Grand Lord-level Nightmares are still spiritual beings. They still need to possess other creatures’ corpses to exert their maximum strength.

The Corpse Emperor found a corpse of an ancient powerhouse from somewhere. That humanoid yet inhuman corpse allowed its strength to undergo a qualitative change, no longer fearing sunlight, so my suppression of it was greatly reduced. In a one-on-one fight, I wouldn’t be its match. Back then, I had the assistance of the Four Symbol Lords. They temporarily entangled the Corpse Emperor, allowing me to use a forbidden secret technique, sealing it away at the cost of my own life,” the illumination Goddess recounted the battles of the past.

“The Four Symbol Lords? Are they still alive?” Zhanyue asked curiously.

“I don’t know. The great battle didn’t end after my death, but the possibility of them being alive isn’t high. Profound Beings live for five hundred years, Spirit God Realm experts live for a thousand years, and those above Spirit God Realm, the True Realm, only live for three thousand years. It’s been over three thousand years now. If they didn’t have any special encounters, they’ve probably passed away from old age,” the illumination Goddess answered.

Zhanyue continued to ask, “Then is there no concept of immortality in this world?”

“No, there are similar records in ancient texts, but they’re all unreliable. There are quite a few evil methods to extend lifespan though. I once took in nine disciples with extraordinary potential, all war orphans. Under my guidance, they all advanced to the Spirit God Realm, known to the outside world as the Nine Radiant Stars. One unworthy disciple obtained an evil technique that could greatly extend lifespan, but that evil technique required a large number of human soul beads. For this, he even set up a trap, isolating information, allowing a city of 300,000 people to be gradually overrun by Nightmares. He hid behind, gradually harvesting, obtaining 300,000 human soul beads.”

The illumination Goddess recalled this past event, her tone still filled with indescribable sorrow.

“Later, I uncovered the truth and personally executed him, completely erasing that evil technique…”

“No wonder,” Zhanyue remembered Cheng Lu mentioning earlier that the only ultimate prohibition personally issued by the illumination Goddess was that anyone privately keeping or using human soul beads for other purposes would be subject to the most severe punishment.

“Why aren’t there any records of this in the books? The Nine Radiant Stars… perhaps their descendants still exist in the world,” Zhanyue also felt emotional. Raising orphans from ordinary children to Spirit God Realm experts must have taken a lot of effort and care from the illumination Goddess, yet in the end, she had to personally execute one of them.

“Probably because that person was my disciple. They were concerned about my reputation, so they didn’t make this matter public. No one is unafraid of death. If this evil technique were to spread, I fear there would be more than one unworthy disciple in the world. At that time, humans would be more terrifying than Nightmares,” the illumination Goddess sighed. Longevity is extremely tempting for anyone, especially those whose lives are about to end.

“But there are still people like you in the world, sister, willing to sacrifice your life to seal the Corpse Emperor,” Zhanyue sincerely marveled. No wonder people of later generations revered her as a deity.

The illumination Goddess gave a bitter laugh, remained silent for a while, unsure whether to say certain things, but then she still spoke to Zhanyue. After all, living a second life, she didn’t have much to care about anymore.

“I’m not as noble as you think. The reason I was willing to sacrifice my life to seal the Corpse Emperor was firstly because there really was no other way to deal with it; secondly, I was truly too tired and wanted to escape.”

Zhanyue was stunned by these words, gaining an unexpected insight.

“What saddened me most in the great battle back then wasn’t the Nightmares’ strength and ruthlessness. That’s their biological instinct, a battle between two races, so I don’t actually harbor hatred towards Nightmares. You can blame a wolf for eating your sheep, but you can’t complain about why wolves eat meat instead of grass. It was the baseness of human hearts that truly grieved me. In my high position, I had access to a lot of information. Even when facing extreme danger, they still schemed against and used each other. Even I bore the name of Goddess, pushed forward, but how much of their respect was genuine? Until I uncovered the truth about that unworthy disciple, I was finally exhausted. I didn’t know what I was trying so hard to protect anymore. Why did even my closest disciple turn out like that? So in the final battle, I sought death wholeheartedly. After my death, they could do whatever they wanted, it would no longer be my concern,” The illumination Goddess revealed her true thoughts to an outsider for the first time.

“So that’s why you say you were escaping?” Zhanyue felt very sympathetic hearing this. “But could you really let it go? The first thing you did after awakening was to understand history and personally investigate the current state of the Nightmare race.”

“I… I don’t know. I had already died, yet things still weren’t over. Perhaps my mission isn’t complete yet,” the illumination Goddess said helplessly. She wanted to escape, even willing to seek death, yet after three thousand years of death, she came back to life in this state.

“Mission? I don’t necessarily think so. Perhaps heaven took pity on you, sister, letting you live again to enjoy the happiness you didn’t get to enjoy before?” Zhanyue said. He couldn’t escape involvement in this matter either.

“You sure know how to comfort people. Enjoy happiness? To really enjoy happiness, you’d have to be able to stand on your own first,” the illumination Goddess laughed.

“The sun is about to set. Indeed, I’ve only reached halfway up the mountain. I’m afraid I’ll have to spend the night in the forest. Fortunately, the fierce spirit beasts around have been driven away by the patrolling generals, and I’m not afraid of Nightmares,” Zhanyue searched for a while and finally found a cliff with a crevice-like opening below. It wasn’t deep, but it was enough for him to lie down in. He gathered some rubble and weeds to block the small crevice, making it very hidden. He didn’t dare sleep deeply, but he could sit cross-legged to cultivate while recovering some energy. He was constantly thinking about improving his cultivation.

The forest was terrifyingly quiet, without even the sound of insects, like a world without life, as even the wolves and tigers had been driven away. However, in the latter half of the night, Zhanyue actually heard two human voices. So late at night, there were actually people climbing the mountain? Their courage was extraordinary.

“Dingding, what should we do? It’s the king’s birthday in two days. If we can’t satisfy the king, we might be fed to the fish,” one voice said.

“Dangdang, it’s all your fault. Why did you have to brew wine? Couldn’t we just steal this stuff from humans? Hmph, you said brewing it ourselves would show loyalty, and now look what happened! It’s all burned up!” another voice complained.

“How can you blame me for this? How was I supposed to know some damned person would set half the mountain on fire, burning all the fruit wine we brewed? I originally thought if we two could learn to brew wine, the king might look at us more favorably. We wouldn’t have to keep doing garbage collection jobs every day.”

“It’s Mountain Goblins. I didn’t expect they hadn’t gone extinct,” the illumination Goddess could sense many things around Zhanyue through the Sun God Stone.

“Mountain Goblins? Aren’t they afraid of Nightmares?” Zhanyue asked curiously. These two Mountain Goblins not only spoke human language, but their tone also showed no fear at all.

“Mountain Goblins aren’t on the Nightmares’ menu, so they generally won’t be attacked by Nightmares. Legend has it that their ancestors ate a kind of highly poisonous fruit and didn’t die, but it left a kind of aura in their bloodline and soul. Nightmares really dislike that aura and are unwilling to devour Mountain Goblin souls or possess their bodies. Mountain Goblins are generally weak, and their intelligence is usually very low. They know their low intelligence makes them easy to deceive, so they’re generally unwilling to communicate with humans.”

“As long as they’re not man-eating ghosts, it’s fine. But how do they understand human language?” Zhanyue’s thoughts communicated with the Goddess through the divine stone without making any sound. This treasure was truly omnipotent, worthy of being the Goddess’s most prized possession.

“I don’t know either. I don’t know much about Mountain Goblins. They were a race with extremely low presence even thousands of years ago. They’re generally weak, with the strongest in their Clan only at the Profound Realm level. They don’t participate in the war between humans and Nightmares. They have difficulty reproducing, always seeming on the verge of extinction. I didn’t expect them to survive until now. Compared to the Dragon race, which is a necessary ally for humans, they probably wouldn’t even leave a name in history books,” the illumination Goddess explained.

“Dingding, do you smell something?” one of them said.

“Mmm, it’s human scent. What should we do? Should we run? The king told us not to contact humans.”

“He’s hiding in that rock crevice down there, sneaking around. He doesn’t look powerful at all. Dangdang, I have an idea. Let’s have him help us find wine. That way we can complete the king’s task.”

“As expected of the smartest fool in the Mountain Goblin Clan. No wonder the king praises you. But how do we do it?”

“Hehe, we’ll pretend to be mountain gods, then have him bring wine as an offering. Humans really believe in this stuff. I saw it in a book.”

“Wow, you can read human books?”

“Hehe, how can I not understand when it’s all picture books?”

Zhanyue felt speechless. Can’t you discuss your plans more quietly? Planning out loud like this, are you really afraid I can’t hear? No wonder the Goddess said their intelligence is very low. But he also knew that Mountain Goblins have a very keen sense of smell. He had already been discovered.

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