As soon as these words left his lips, the deer-headed beast known as "Yang Lu" saw its expression change drastically. The grey giant bird, its heart previously consumed by utter despair, was instead seized by sudden elation. Its gaze fixed upon its former companion turned wild and bloodthirsty.
The two stared at each other for a brief moment before both let out a thunderous roar almost simultaneously. One of them saw its body swell to a hundred times its original size in an instant, while a thick, earth-yellow armor covered in long, sharp spikes materialized across its surface.
The other shook its wings, and the grey spirit flames coating its body transformed into a sky full of fiery rain that surged toward its opponent.
As their figures blurred back and forth, the roar of explosions and the crack of detonations echoed throughout the entire space.
The black-robed youth watched this display with a chuckle, then spun around. His entire body, along with the massive blood-colored seal beneath him, sank into the void behind him and vanished without a trace.
With a soft "pop," the black-robed youth materialized through a ripple of spatial fluctuations high above a pockmarked field of jagged rocks somewhere on the Thunderclap Continent. In his hand, he held a faintly trembling dark green bottle, and he swept his gaze in every direction.
Finding nothing but emptiness around him — not a single soul in sight — he let out a cold snort, flicked his sleeve, and shot skyward as a streak of golden light.
Half a day later, the golden light descended upon what appeared to be an unremarkable little mountain. Once the youth's form reappeared, he tossed the dark green bottle in front of him.
The bottle immediately flipped upside down, and as its mouth faced downward, a swirl of rosy light spilled forth. A tall figure wobbled into view, its body covered in wounds and its battle armor mostly cracked and shattered — but it was unmistakably the deer-headed, bear-bodied monster.
"I guessed correctly. You're the one who survived after all," the black-robed youth said flatly, glancing at the beast.
"Yang Lu greets its master!" The deer-headed beast wasted no time, dropping to one knee before the youth.
"Very good. You are perceptive, and you have courage. Had you not been the first to pledge yourself to me, my escape would not have been nearly so easy. Rest assured — since you have done everything I required, I naturally will not break my word. The True Soul Pill will be bestowed upon you, and I will bring you back to the Immortal Realm. However, before that, surrender a portion of your main soul. You will sign the Spirit Servant Contract first, and we can take this opportunity to sever all of your connections to this realm," the black-robed youth said, his face expressionless.
"Yes, Master." Yang Lu hesitated for only a heartbeat before opening its mouth wide and spitting out a pale green sphere of light. Within it, a miniature version of the deer-headed beast — shrunken countless times — could be seen raising its head and roaring.
"This counts as a favor to you. Once you bind the contract onto this Immortal Spirit Treasure Scroll, you will no longer be subject to the restrictions between planes, and you can enter the Immortal Realm without worry. As for me, I have no idea how many years it will take to refine this treasure all over again." The black-robed youth fixed his gaze on the light sphere, then opened his own mouth and spat out a golden scroll that radiated ten thousand rays of rosy light.
"Open your mind and do not resist. If something were to go wrong, I cannot vouch for what would happen," the youth said. With one hand, he formed a seal, and a single finger traced a series of inscriptions upon the golden scroll with blinding speed.
In the next instant, ten thousand rays of light blazed across the scroll's surface, and countless golden seal-script runes flew forth from within. One by one, they flashed and sank into the light sphere, orbiting the miniature beast inside in a swirling dance.
A low roar erupted!
The deer-headed beast clutched its head with both hands, its face twisting in agony. Countless things were boring into its spiritual consciousness all at once, and it suddenly understood the purpose of the golden scroll as well as the general contents of the Spirit Servant Contract it was about to sign.
The beast endured the pain and carefully read through everything, and its heart suddenly lightened.
According to the contract, while serving as a spirit servant did mean being subject to another's commands, it was not obligated to carry out orders that would directly threaten its own life — provided it paid a certain price. Moreover, the contract was not permanent; the conditions for dissolving it were also listed. Though they appeared harsh, they did not seem entirely without hope.
This thought brought the beast secret joy.
The black-robed youth seemed to discern what the beast was thinking. His expression remained unchanged, but inwardly he sneered.
Once Yang Lu had finished reading every word and confirmed that the contract held no hidden tricks — that it was, in fact, far more lenient than it had imagined — it no longer hesitated. It opened its mind completely.
At the same moment, as the resistance within the light sphere surrounding the miniature beast vanished, the golden seal-script runes flashed one after another and sank into it.
Yang Lu's true body shuddered once, then its eyes closed and it toppled backward onto the ground.
Only then did the black-robed youth unhurriedly sweep his great sleeve forward. With a flash of rosy light, he recalled the golden scroll.
The light sphere enclosing the small beast drifted back and sank into Yang Lu's body, disappearing without a trace.
An indeterminate amount of time later, when the beast finally rose to its feet on trembling legs, it found that its spiritual consciousness appeared no different from before — and yet it could faintly sense a strange, binding force threaded through it.
So this was the contract's power from the golden scroll.
It let out an inward sigh, then bowed deeply to the black-robed youth once more.
The black-robed youth still stood ramrod straight in his original position, as though he had never moved at all.
"Good. Since you have signed the contract, I naturally will not withhold what I promised," the youth said coolly.
No sooner had his words fallen than a fluctuation rippled in the air before Yang Lu, and a golden pill the size of a chicken's egg materialized out of thin air.
The pill appeared inert, yet its surface blazed with dazzling golden light. Wisps of milky-white auspicious energy spiraled around it, and an indescribable fragrance of sandalwood drifted outward from within.
The moment Yang Lu caught a whiff, it felt its soul suffused with an overwhelming sense of comfort. Its entire being seemed to drift upward toward the ninth heaven, weightless and ethereal. It could not help but feel both startled and delighted.