31. A Contract

Zhongli never thought that Ryūhei seemed to tell him that humans could still live normally without their protector.

"A new era will be born, huh?" Zhongli murmured while repeating Ryūhei's last sentence.

Ryūhei was afraid that Zhongli couldn't seem to take what he was saying, so he immediately bowed in apology.

"Ah, I'm sorry if my words sound disrespectful. But, I just want to state the truth."

"No, it's fine. You're absolutely right saying that." Zhongli waved his hand. "As you know, I've dwelt upon this world for more than six thousand years. It is now 3,700 years ago that I founded Liyue together with Adepti. Even boulders that can withstand whirlpools will erode with the passing of time. The Adepti in seclusion didn't know a lot about humans and they were least informed about the situation of Liyue. And most of them didn't make an effort to understand the hearts of the people. So I decided. Soon enough, I will conduct a test in order to know whether Liyue is already prepared to enter its next age or not."

Ryūhei didn't know what to say. And more importantly, Zhongli didn't seem to bother to tell such an important thing when a mortal was present.

On the other hand, Madame Ping commented.

"So, you're going to make them cooperate with people, especially Liyue Qixing to defend Liyue by creating chaos in this land?"

"Correct."

"One moment, please!" Ryūhei just heard something crazy, so he couldn't help but raise his hand. Zhongli and Madame Ping turned to him. "Mr. Zhongli, you talk about something important. But, why did you involve a mere nobody like me in this?"

"If I don't, you will likely get involved later and mess up my plan. You are very sensitive to malicious intent as you took action immediately the moment you felt someone was threatening your shop. Since my plan will cause chaos in Liyue, I believe you will notice and try to hinder it. Is this reason enough for you?"

Ryūhei was shocked. "How would Zhongli know if I had just taken care of someone who wanted to copy my manga? Is it because he is a deity?" He said in his mind.

Looking at Ryūhei's shocked expression, Madame Ping opened her mouth.

"Child, my old friend just wanted to tell you not to get involved in his plan until the time is right."

Zhongli nodded.

"In fact, I knew you could perform a blackhole-like technique by using Yin energy as a power. I'm amazed that you can control such energy without harming yourself with your mortal body."

In that instance, a rapid heartbeat pounded through Ryūhei's chest.

Ryūhei felt so numb hearing Zhongli's statement. Although it wasn't a secret that he could perform a blackhole-like technique which was none other than Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue, he never said that he could manipulate negative energy which was called Yin energy by Zhongli.

"Is it because of Xingqiu? No, it shouldn't be. Then, it must be when I met Hu Tao for the first time and he noticed me when I leaked out my power to scare off her. But, why didn't Hu Tao notice it?" Ryūhei couldn't help but say in his mind.

Never did he know that Hu Tao's mind was slowed down at that time and didn't even try to sense his power. So, it wasn't strange if Hu Tao didn't know his power to control negative energy.

"You don't have to be nervous. Let me tell you about Power. It's what everybody wants, right? Money, political influence, weapons, power to intimidate, power to make people do things, power to build things, power to get things done. Power causes a lot of problems, and it is tempting to think of power as being an evil thing because it is so liable to abuse. Power is a dangerous thing because it is – well – a powerful thing. But power in itself is not evil. It just needs to be used rightly, which means shared, cooperatively, and creatively, for the sake of the common good. And from my perspective, I don't see you abusing your power to do evil things."

With all of what he said, Ryūhei was relieved. To be honest, he was too reckless to use his power while feeling proud to be able to hide it completely. But, it was useless in front of a deity who lived more than 6000 years.

Ryūhei really didn't plan to hide his power all the time. But he also had no plans of exposing his power any time soon. Too bad the deity from Liyue already knew about it. Fortunately, he had a positive response from Zhongli, so he wasn't in danger at the moment.

"So, it doesn't matter if I expose my strength in Liyue?"

"Actually, I saw you transform negative emotions into Yin energy to form a technique that means your power can disperse evil elements, which are actually good." Zhongli said while his gaze did not move from Ryūhei. "I told you previously that Liyue was beset by the disaster caused by lingering hatred of the fallen ancient gods. I don't know how far you can turn negative emotions to be your power. But, if you can turn the negative emotions of the fallen ancient gods into your power, it means your power was their nemesis and you can even gain unimaginable energy sources since there are still a lot of ancient god remains. By doing so, the remains of the fallen ancient gods will disappear. Don't you think so? So you don't need to think if your power can be accepted by other people or not. What matters is your intention."

After hearing Zhongli's lecture, Ryūhei lowered his head.

"Thanks for your teaching, Mr. Zhongli. But to be honest, I've never encountered any residual hatred from a fallen god until now. So I'm not sure I can convert something like that into my power."

Zhongli thought for a moment while holding his chin. Even though he knew that Ryūhei was a person from Inazuma, he felt that Ryūhei would play a certain role in Liyue's future growth. So after giving it some more thought, he was willing to strike a deal.

"How about we form a contract?" Zhongli offered.

"Contract?"

"That's right. The contract is, don't interfere with my plan to conduct a "test" in Liyue until the time is right, and keep it confidential. In exchange, I will teach you some Adeptus Arts. In addition, it's better if you can confirm whether you can turn the fallen gods' negative emotions into your power or not. If you're not confident to do it yourself, you can ask me and I will be glad to help you."

The contract content offered by Zhongli was indeed enticing. But he was baffled over something. He wanted to know why Zhongli had decided to help him and offered him a contract that was actually more beneficial for him. However, he decided not to ask and agreed to Zhongli's offer instead.

After agreeing to the contract offered by Zhongli, he suddenly felt a connection within his body. Because he knew that it was a contract formed by the Geo Archon himself, it would be fatal if Ryūhei reneged on the contract. It was after they formed a contract, Zhongli finally let Ryūhei out of the Serenitea Pot.

— — — —

After Ryūhei got out of the pot, he was greeted by Yaoyao, a little girl who was none other than Madame Ping's disciple.

"Ah, Brother Ryūhei. How did you get out of the Master's teapot?" Yaoyao recognized him immediately because they had met recently. "Ah, is it because the story of your manga is so good that Master decided to take you as a disciple?"

Ryūhei rolled his eyes after hearing that. What an absurd reason for him to be taken in by the Adeptus as a disciple. There was no way the Adeptus would go around taking a disciple just because someone wrote a good story. Rather, he was invited inside the teapot because the Adeptus wanted to punish him due to an obscene story in his manga.

Even so, Ryūhei still replied with a smile.

"No. Your Master only gave me a little pointer. Well then, I'm going first, little Yaoyao. Make sure to visit my shop next time!"

"Umu." Yaoyao nodded lightly. And then, Ryūhei left Yujing Terrace swiftly.