Chapter 608: Contract Signing

By now, Baifeng had finished discussing all matters requiring cooperation with the Xuanyuan Tribe, and subsequently, both sides refined all items once more, confirming every detail for each point.

Once the discussion was settled, they brought out three very large sheets of paper, which were also the highest quality, thickest, and toughest paper in Huaxia.

Baifeng said to Xuanyuan: "Now let us begin writing the contract. We shall write three copies in total; our two tribes will each take one to keep as a basis for the future, and the third copy must be burned to report to the deities, letting the deities serve as witnesses."

Xuanyuan had no objections to this proposal, but a dispute arose regarding which deity to report to, because not all tribes recognized the Heaven and Earth of Huaxia.

Amidst the mutual arguing between the members of the two tribes, Baifeng saw the silent Zhishou and immediately called for the crowd to stop their quarreling.

"Let us have the 'Dao' serve as our witness!"

Everyone was startled, and even Zhishou found it inconceivable: "'Dao' is not a deity; 'Dao' is merely 'Dao'!"

Baifeng hurriedly explained: "I certainly know that, and I am also someone who comprehends the Dao. But 'The Great Dao is formless, giving birth to Heaven and Earth; the Great Dao is emotionless, governing the sun and moon; the Great Dao is nameless, nourishing all things.' Therefore, although the Dao is not a deity, it represents a kind of rule. The contract we are writing is a kind of rule, so what is the problem with letting the 'Dao' supervise it?"

The others were left speechless by these words, but Zhishou fell into deep contemplation due to Baifeng's brief remarks; his breathing gradually grew faint, and his eyes lost their luster, which suddenly caused the people of the Xuanyuan Tribe to panic upon noticing it.

However, Zhishou was still standing there perfectly fine, and no one dared to touch him. Zhishou suddenly began muttering something to himself, and then his eyes suddenly cleared, and he stared at Baifeng with great excitement, asking: "Where did these words of yours come from? Did you realize them yourself?"

Baifeng waved his hands repeatedly: "No, no, these were passed down by a Heavenly Deity; I did not realize them myself. Before the Heavenly Deity taught me, I did not even know what the Dao was."

Zhishou said calmly: "Indeed, indeed. However, which Heavenly Deity passed them down? Can you say?"

Baifeng suddenly thought that the mythology of this era was already inseparable from Kunlun Mountain; perhaps many people had already been to Kunlun Mountain, and perhaps there were humans living there.

Thus, Baifeng tentatively asked: "Do you know of Kunlun Mountain?"

Zhishou nodded repeatedly: "Of course I know it; that is the dwelling place of the Heavenly Deities."

Baifeng thought to himself: "So someone has indeed been there. But it must be that the environment at Kunlun Mountain is too harsh, and combined with its magnificence, it was regarded as a sacred mountain."

Nevertheless, Baifeng said aloud: "That Heavenly Deity resides at Yaochi on Kunlun Mountain, and is titled Xi Wangmu."

Zhishou turned his gaze toward the west, then sighed with emotion: "Then you have met that Heavenly Deity?"

Baifeng could only shake his head, for his original intention was not to discuss the Great Dao or Heavenly Deities with Zhishou, but merely to use these deities that the Xuanyuan Tribe would also recognize to facilitate the signing of the contract. He did not care about other matters, because many Heavenly Deities who would appear in the future were standing right in front of him, chatting freely with him. Baifeng did not care so much about what the future would be like or what the Heavenly Deities were like now; he only really wanted to meet the Sage and Division, Guangchengzi, who had left behind such a renowned name in history.

Seeing Baifeng deny it, Zhishou did not press further. As someone who aimed for immortality, he understood Heavenly Deities better than anyone; not being able to see one was the reality. However, he also understood from the side why Baifeng knew so much and was so clever—because a Heavenly Deity had taught him a deeper level of the Dao.

Thus, Zhishou persuaded Xuanyuan: "There is no problem with Baifeng's suggestion to have the Dao witness the contract. He is someone who understands the Great Dao and can be trusted."

Seeing that Zhishou had also said so, Xuanyuan no longer dwelled on the matter, because the "Heavenly Deity" the Xuanyuan Tribe worshipped was also a grand concept—he did not know who it specifically was—and there were also the ancestors of his own tribe; they believed that the souls of the deceased would return to protect every descendant.

Since there was no longer any dispute, they officially began writing the contract. Huaxia had Yu hold the brush, and the Xuanyuan Tribe could only have Cangjie write. However, Cangjie was very unaccustomed to using the Huaxia writing brush. Fortunately, his characters had only just taken shape and were inherently rugged and wild, so there was no need to worry about writing standards or aesthetics.

Baifeng would say a sentence to Xuanyuan, and they would write it down, confirming there were no problems with every single character. If they encountered a word that Cangjie had not yet created, or were unsure how to write, they would need to reorganize the language before writing it.

Writing character by character like this, they had not finished by noon. For the sake of the contract's coherence and accuracy, everyone unanimously decided to finish writing everything first.

After writing for a long time like this, they finished all three copies of the contract, and after checking them character by character once more, they confirmed there were no problems.

Subsequently, Baifeng had someone fetch ink paste. Ink paste was easy to make; as an enthusiast of calligraphy and seal carving, Baifeng knew very well how to make it, and there was no shortage of materials. They had the main ingredient, cinnabar, right there, because cinnabar and hematite were the most important painting pigments of this era, and many tribes possessed them.

Cinnabar had been in use since the Dadiwan Era (about eight thousand years ago), so it was not that Huaxia could find every mineral and was a blessed land of Feng Shui, but if a place did not have enough produce, how could it nurture a massive tribe?

There were many lotuses planted in Huaxia, and many wild ones as well. After breaking the lotus stalks, they extracted the lotus silk from inside to serve as a binder. Of course, this was the highest-end type; Huaxia had sufficient produce and labor, so Baifeng naturally used the best, as a box of ink paste could be used for a very long time.

The lower-quality kind was made with mugwort floss; this was the ink paste used by ordinary families. They also had seals, as there were transactions between private individuals, and if the volume was large, they also needed to sign a contract and leave a copy at the Ministry of Revenue for notarization.

In the absence of seals, they used thumbprints. Those with better economic conditions would hire someone to carve a mold and then cast an iron seal for themselves using Iron, rather than using seals personally carved by Baifeng like they did.

The ink paste was placed on the table, and then Baifeng picked up the brush and wrote the words "King of Huaxia Baifeng" in the blank space left behind. He then picked up the large seal, pressed it into the ink paste, and stamped it down solemnly. Over the words he had written, the bright red and beautiful four characters "Treasure of Huaxia" appeared.

Baifeng then added the "Seal of Baifeng" to the side, which concluded his signing process, and then he handed the contract to Xuanyuan to fill out.