Volume Six: What She Lost, What I Gained - Chapter 505: An Unequal Treaty (III)

"Cough cough... Let... let go! I didn't come here to fight..."

"Huh? That's obvious. People who come looking for trouble never come up and say 'I'm here to cause trouble'."

Xiao Wu ignored his explanation and poked his arm with a finger. Was she aiming at a sensitive nerve? The man immediately opened his mouth to wail, but just as he was about to shout, Haoyue pressed the Snow Moon, which had been enhanced by the fragments of the Emperor Slaying Sword, against his throat. The misty, cold light made his hair stand on end, and he immediately shut his mouth.

"Hmph, I was just thinking how troublesome the paperwork was, and this has come to my doorstep."

"This saves a lot of trouble. Anyway, let's get him to talk and extract information. Shall we do it, you or me?"

Ugh, Xiao Wu and Haoyue look like butchers standing at the entrance of a pigsty with a butcher's knife. I can't help but feel sorry for this dejected old man. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that. My precious daughter is still in their hands. If I could, I'd really like to gouge out this guy's brain to see where Little Butterfly is being held.

"There are too many people here, should we go somewhere else?"

"Get to work now. First, dislocate the joints of his arms and legs, but be careful not to let him scream."

"Why should I listen to you... Hey, old man, don't open your mouth, or the sword will dig into your neck if you move your jaw even slightly."

"Gurgle... Waaah..."

This is such a pain, can't you hurry up? If it's really impossible, I'll do it. Even though he's an old man, he still has a hole, right? Let some octopus-type or insect-type Blood Beast take turns ravaging him, I bet he'll start talking then...

"Wait, Xiao Ye, stop!"

The projection of Givinia in my mind suddenly spoke up to stop me, "Hey, darling Winnie, don't interrupt! I'm just thinking about using several of my xxs to fuck him at the same time."

"This person should be harmless! He's a 'disciple'!"

Doorman? I'm the windowman too! So annoying, so annoying, stop making a fuss!

"Just stop for now, calm down, Xiao Ye!"

"Oh well, whatever."

I sighed and called a halt to Xiao Wu and Haoyue.

"Heh... heh... you want to kill me?! Haven't you heard that warring parties don't kill their envoys? I was just asked by Yu He to run an errand for me! These young people nowadays..."

"..."

This old man is so annoying, he keeps nagging. Who does he think he is, some kind of elder? He doesn't even wear glasses and dares to call himself an elder?

Then--

In a corner of a small restaurant, a few of us occupied a private room and began amicable negotiations.

"--Friendly my foot! Who negotiates by hanging someone upside down from the ceiling?! This should be classified as torture! It's torture!"

(Author's note: A moment of silence for the heartless, dog-like uncle.)

He struggled and swayed, but the Sick Spider's silver thread bound him tightly, and no matter how much he cried and moved, it wouldn't loosen. However, the squeaking and creaking noises were quite annoying.

I kicked his face, which was swollen and turning a deep liver color from the rush of blood, and he immediately quieted down. "You son of a bitch, you kidnapped my precious daughter and you want to talk about treating prisoners of war well?"

Meanwhile, Winnie's projection kept explaining things to me.

"'Disciple' is what everyone calls him. Nobody knows or cares what his real name is. He's responsible for vetting lower-level members, bringing people into the organization, and handling all sorts of grassroots affairs. He's more senior than several higher-ups, but he doesn't have much authority."

Yes, yes, I got it. In short, he's just a frustrated, perpetually useless errand boy, right? People like that usually don't even survive past the trailers, let alone the third episode or the opening sequence.

"I already said I meant no harm! It's just—"

"Alright, enough nonsense. If you don't want your chrysanthemum to bleed, just tell the truth!"

"What ghost did I summon? I didn't have anything to say anyway!"

"Ouch, ouch, ouch... You're all supposed to be young ladies, how come you're all like this... Honestly, you're the ones who forced me to this!"

Whoosh! The disciple vanished.

Where he had originally stood, only the silver threads of the Sick Spider remained, hanging forlornly.

"Gone!?"

"Superpowers like teleportation?"

Creak...

The door to the private room suddenly opened, and we turned around to look—

They are disciples.

"Alright, everyone calm down! I--"

"You dare to come back?"

"So good!"

Thud! Click!

"Why... why am I hung up again?!"

"Have you behaved yourself yet?"

"Be honest my ass! You all don't understand anything, it's pointless no matter how many times you arrest me!"

The door opened again, and the doorman came in again.

Hmph, you little brat, teleporting away and then teleporting back, is that fun?

Uh, wait a minute.

The one who entered was a disciple.

My gaze shifted—

Those with bruised and swollen faces, hanging from the ceiling, were also disciples.

"... two?"

Without hesitation, Haoyue drew her sword to meet the attack. With a flash of snow-white light, the newly appeared disciple was beheaded. However, no sooner had disciple B fallen than another disciple, C, appeared.

To our astonishment, the number of disciples increased—three, four, five, six... Every time we killed one, a new disciple would appear! Moreover, my ability to sense Blood Energy told me that these were not puppets or illusions; every disciple was real!

"So, can we stop talking violence now? This is my boring but very useful superpower—the ability to create an infinite number of clones. Each clone is a real person with flesh and blood and its own thoughts and consciousness, but overall they all obey the commands of the 'original consciousness.' Moreover, I can transfer the original consciousness to any clone, which means I can make any clone become the original. So, if you want to kill me with clones all over the world, you'd have to wipe out every human settlement on the ground! I am, after all, one of the 'invincible' four!"

"But you can't beat anyone, can you?" ← Me

"One person can do the work of a bunch of salespeople? That's more like the ability of a lowly errand boy." ← Haoyue

"With a physique like yours, even if you formed an army, you'd only be ragtag fodder." ← Xiao Wu

"It's all quantity and no quality! Uncle, all you can do in a fight is punches and kicks, right? Aren't you afraid of hurting your back?" ← Little Ying

"Utterly boring. This ability doesn't even inspire me to fight." ← Sick Spider

"Stupid." ← Sin Annihilation

This useless old man actually burst into tears.

"You guys—even if you know it in your hearts, don't say it out loud!!!"

"... Ugh, this is exhausting. That's why I'm just helping Yu He hand this over to you guys."

The doorman slammed a folder in front of us in a bad mood. "Hey, watch your attitude!"

What is this?

"The contract, the contract Yu He made you sign, and he also asked me to bring this to you."

The disciple placed a beautifully wrapped small box on the table. Under everyone's watchful eyes, I untied the ribbon woven with gold and silver threads and opened the diamond-encrusted lid—

There was a strand of hair inside.

The front end is almost white, gradually turning pink in the middle, and ending in a pinkish-purple.

"This is... Little Butterfly's..."

Haoyue murmured.

"..."

I simply closed my eyes.

If I didn't focus all my attention on suppressing my anger, I'm afraid I would have self-destructed right now and evaporated this entire ocean.

This time, it was hair that was delivered.

What about next time? A finger? An ear? An eyeball? An internal organ?

This is a blatant warning, reminding us to "obediently sign the contract."

That's terrible.

This feeling of having energy but nowhere to use it is absolutely awful.

"Well, I've delivered everything, that's all I need to do. You guys handle it... I'm leaving now?"

""""""...""""""

"Are you really leaving?"

"Get out of here!!!"

I punched him in the head, the punch going in through his cheek and coming out through the back of his head. I could feel his bones cracking and shattering, his eyeballs and brain matter splattering out, but before he even hit the ground, he vanished into thin air. It really was a clone.

Silence fell, and everyone's expression turned somber. Haoyue coughed lightly and said, "In any case, let's take a look at this contract first, Miss Givinia?"

"I'm here. Let me and Miss Haoyue study this together." The projection that Givinia had planted in Haoyue's mind seemed to share her vision.

Three hours later--

"The original contract used a lot of complex technical terms and was quite obscure, so after careful review by Ms. Givinia and me, we have compiled the following key points... The first party here is Yu He, and the second party is us."

Haoyue handed us a piece of paper with the following written on it:

1. Little Butterfly is the guarantor of Party B. Any breach of contract by Party B will have consequences for Little Butterfly.

"Guarantor?"

"When a debtor fails to perform their obligations, the guarantor performs their obligations or assumes liability as agreed... In a broad sense, they are scapegoats."

"Wait... 'Non-fulfillment of debt'? Does that mean if we choose to bear the loss ourselves, Little Butterfly won't be in trouble?"

"It's not that simple," Givinia said. "Yu He cleverly twisted the terms in the contract. In short, the guarantor in this contract will be forced to assume all responsibilities. What a shrewd businessman! Even Miss Haoyue and I almost fell for it."

"Yu He is a very clever and dangerous guy. The wording in this contract is very clever. There are many tricks such as changing the meaning of terms, confusing the public, and shifting the focus. Even an expert can easily misunderstand some of the meanings. That's why we only dared to draw a conclusion after analyzing it for so long."

Tsk...

Continue reading --

2. All combat actions by Party B must be carried out within the limit of the amount. If the amount exceeds the limit, the guarantor shall bear the excess.

What does this mean?

"This is a bit difficult to explain... In short, it means 'use as much power as you have in the money'."

"What!?"

"The amount of assets we possess determines how much power we can display. For example, if we currently have Tong Coin, then we can only display power commensurate with those Tong Coin. If we use power beyond that... any damage caused by the excess will be borne by Little Butterfly."

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment, especially me and Xiao Wu.

"Hey, this is too much... and how is this calculated? How is 'strength equivalent to xx Tong Coin's derived? How can he be sure how much our strength is worth in money!? This standard is too vague!"

"No... he has a very clever method. What is directly related to money is not 'how much strength we have overall,' but 'our different periods.'"

To put it simply --

"To give an example, if we are very poor, we are only allowed to demonstrate power 'equivalent to our level ten years ago.' If our assets continue to increase, we can utilize the power we had five years ago, three years ago, one year ago... Of course, the highest level is being able to fully unleash our current true strength."

""""..."""

Now, our strength is truly and utterly constrained.

"So, based on our current assets, how strong are we...?"

"... See the third point."

3. According to the settlement of the Gray Starling Group, based on Party B's current assets, Party B is currently permitted to use 'the power equivalent to that of one year and two months ago'.

One year and two months ago.

That is, roughly my strength during the imperial capital period.

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I've finally saved up enough drafts for an extra chapter! Here's the deal: I'll add an extra chapter if we reach 210 Monthly Votes!