Chapter 53: Chapter Fifty-Three: The Indenture

Lu Mingfei had a very long dream.

In the dream, his self followed the original trajectory of his life.

No time travel, no chat group, no cultivation.

That little devil, Lu Mingze.

Nailed to a cross, pale-faced, he looked at him and whispered those words:

“Brother, you’ve come.”

When he came to his senses, Lu Mingfei stood in a pristine, unblemished polar expanse, dried blood on his face hardened into dark red scabs.

The howling cold wind swept past, like a baby wailing, or an animal screaming.

The white expanse was utterly empty.

Bone-chilling cold transmitted through every nerve ending in his skin to his brain.

Lu Mingfei struggled to lift his eyelids, lost in the snow.

“Lu Mingze?”

“Brother, are you calling me?” A fixed reply seemed to echo beside his ear—but it was only hallucination.

That elegantly dressed, refined little boy did not appear.

“Why am I here?” Lu Mingfei thought for a long time; he had forgotten why he had appeared here.

The biting, howling wind began to mix with snowflakes—the harbinger of another blizzard.

He pulled his down jacket tighter; his pale lips cracked, and he licked them with his tongue—a metallic, rust-like taste spread across his tip.

Lu Mingfei knew he had to move his feet and leave this place quickly.

While the sun was still visible, Lu Mingfei walked toward where it was setting.

In the inner pocket of his down jacket was a phone, issued by the academy for communication.

“Where’s the promised global signal coverage?”

The phone’s signal bars showed no signal at all—not a single bar.

The time displayed: 05:23.

A sense of disorientation took root in Lu Mingfei’s heart.

Wasn’t the sun supposed to be setting?

It had just risen.

Then why did I feel it was about to set?

Lu Mingfei looked up at the sky; here, sunlight brought little warmth.

He walked for a long, long time.

Beyond the feather-like snow, Lu Mingfei finally saw objects with other colors.

It was a Western-style curved blade, stained with blood, half-buried by wind and snow.

Crimson bloodstains dotted the surroundings.

Following the blood trail, Lu Mingfei gradually saw familiar figures.

Caesar Gassot knelt in the snow, a blood trail across his neck.

Chu Zihang held a strange, tiny alien creature; a silver-white spear had pierced them both through.

“President… Senior Brother…”

Why were there no other emotions? Lu Mingfei watched this scene calmly, as if he had seen it many times before.

His calmness was terrifying.

Lu Mingfei continued forward; more familiar and unfamiliar faces appeared before him.

“Nuonuo…”

The red-haired girl lay beside a plane wreck, snow dusting her hair, her pale skin now grayish.

After a few seconds, Lu Mingfei kept walking.

The scene washed away like water; even the white was gone now.

Drowsily, he opened his eyes from darkness—above him was an unfamiliar ceiling.

“You’re awake. The surgery was successful.” A familiar voice came from beside his ear.

Shhh—

Lu Mingfei jolted awake, reaching for his private parts.

Phew—

Still there.

Click-clack.

Only then did Lu Mingfei look around: two men sat on a sofa nearby, frantically pressing game controllers; even with human eyes, it was hard to discern their speed.

“Hao You Gen!”

“O Duo Ken!”

Classic game voiceovers blared from the TV.

Su Lin chewed a spicy strip, glanced at Lu Mingfei, and while he was distracted, Ke Lain unleashed a combo that drained Su Lin’s character’s health bar.

“Ah…”

Su Lin sighed in disappointment; he’d lost another jin of Qingyuan fruit again.

He had no idea what Ke Lain had been doing all month—how had his gaming skill become so strong?

One jin of Qingyuan fruit, two Huosang fruits, half a jin of Wushu honey—he lost everything he played…

Next time, I won’t play this with him.

Ke Lain, seeing Lu Mingfei awake, felt disappointed; couldn’t he have slept a little longer?

Su Lin retrieved a scroll from his system space and walked toward Lu Mingfei.

“Awake?”

“Awake.” Lu Mingfei shrank his neck.

“Invincible yet?” Su Lin smiled warmly, like a kind neighborly older brother.

“No.” Lu Mingfei shook his head like a bobblehead.

“Remember what happened before you passed out?”

“Remember.” Lu Mingfei nodded earnestly, like a chick pecking grain.

“Oh~ You remember? Then no need to jog your memory.” Su Lin pulled a wad of toilet paper from his system space.

Lu Mingfei shrank into the corner, as if facing judgment.

Unwrapping the toilet paper revealed a pile of shattered fragments.

“Do you know how much I spent—one-fourth of my fortune—to get this?”

“I’m sorry…”

Lu Mingfei truly didn’t understand what had happened; ever since he used the Dayuan Pearl, everything had spiraled inexplicably.

“I like to use this Dayuan Pearl to reflect other parallel worlds—it’s become my habit.”

“I’m sorry…”

Lu Mingfei felt guilty, but he still didn’t understand what had happened to him—a pile of strange versions of himself had rushed into a ball and vanished, then he’d passed out and had a nightmare.

“Future Xiao Yan even enhanced this artifact—do you understand the value of the Lord of the Infinite Fire Realm?”

“I’m sorry…” Lu Mingfei lowered his head further.

“Besides saying ‘I’m sorry,’ can’t you offer any real action?” Su Lin shook his head in disappointment.

“….”

“Can I pay in installments…?”

“Please, give me a chance—I’ll do anything!”

Patak—

A small knife landed before Lu Mingfei.

“You’re not asking me to commit suicide to atone, are you?!” Lu Mingfei’s eyes widened.

Su Lin said nothing, then unrolled the scroll in his hand.

It bore a string of characters Lu Mingfei had never seen.

“Sign this indenture.” Su Lin spoke calmly.

Two minutes later.

Lu Mingfei felt he needed a blood transfusion—signing a name cost this much blood.

Clearly not an ordinary contract…

Su Lin happily tucked the contract away and uploaded it to the system.

A virtual template of Lu Mingfei appeared on the system interface.

【Contract: I Have a Share】: After signing, twenty percent of the signatory’s karmic consequences convert into system points. Limit: 1—Once signed, one-fifth of your future actions count as mine.

Status: Used

Subject: Lu Mingfei

Current Points Provided: 0

Contract Terms:

1. From the date of signing, the signatory voluntarily transfers twenty percent of future karmic consequences.

2. The Contractee may not unilaterally terminate the contract; breach shall result in the loss of one-fifth of all that they possess.

3. The Contract Provider has the right to demand the Contractee create karmic ties; the Contractee is forbidden from withdrawing from the world.

…

99. The appeal provisions are genuine and valid, and must be strictly enforced.