Bian Yun was so startled she forgot she was “seriously injured.” She bolted upright, staring at Suisui in disbelief!
Who could tell her why a toddler who hadn’t even started cultivating could successfully form a seal just by casually making a gesture?
Even more terrifyingly, that golden mark had absorbed the blood she had just spat on the ground; it was a master-servant contract! The kind where if the master dies, the servant follows!
Fortunately, any contract required the merging of both parties’ blood to be completed. Since the child wasn’t bleeding, it shouldn’t be a big deal.
Just as she thought this, Bian Yun saw the golden seal in the air suddenly burst with light, turning into two streaks of flowing light heading toward her and Suisui.
If Bian Yun had an emoji right now, it would definitely be: Don’t come over here!!!
However, a contract recognized by the Heavenly Dao cannot be dodged, no matter how high your cultivation. Bian Yun watched helplessly as the contract mark sank into her forehead.
A contractual bond appeared in her mind, and the one who could decide her life and death was the milk dumpling just a few steps away!
“Ah! It feels like something moved in.” Suisui tilted her head and pointed at her little noggin, looking incredibly ignorant and innocent.
In reality, the contract allowed both sides to feel a connection and a clear sense of restraint, but a three-year-old toddler was too young to understand anything; she could only say it felt like something had moved into her head.
Seeing the big sister sitting up, Suisui ran over pitter-patter. “Big sister, were you woken up by Suisui’s rescue?”
But hadn’t Mother said doing that would protect her? Did Suisui do it wrong and turn it into a rescue instead?
Bian Yun still couldn’t believe this master-servant contract had been formed so haphazardly.
She grabbed Suisui’s hand and inspected it closely, only then discovering a nearly healed scratch on one little finger.
Could a scratch like that really produce a drop of blood sufficient to form a seal?
This was outrageous! Completely beyond reason!
This shock was too much; Bian Yun’s vision went black, and she fainted.
“Big sister, you’re washing out again! But Suisui has already forgotten how to make the seal now!”
Suisui was so scared she was tripping over her words. She knelt down and pushed Bian Yun, calling her several more times. Seeing that Bian Yun still wouldn’t wake up, she quickly got up and ran back to find an adult.
Ye Wan happened to be coming out to look for Suisui. Seeing Suisui running back, before she could even ask what she had been doing, she was frantically pulled away by Suisui to save someone.
Ye Wan followed Suisui behind the big tree and saw a woman lying on the ground. The woman was wearing a cyan daoist robe. Even though she was lying still with her eyes closed, one could still feel a sense of pressure emanating from her. Her somewhat delicate face didn’t quite match her aura; it probably wasn’t her true appearance.
After all, in the cultivation world where everyone was a handsome man or a beautiful woman, even those who were hideously ugly could use Beauty Pills to optimize themselves.
After Ye Wan pieced together what had happened from Suisui’s chirping, she sat to the side in a bit of a daze, looking at the sky.
To be able to break through the protective array of the Manager’s Building and sneak in without alerting the Soul Transformation cultivators, her cultivation must be at least at the Void Refinement stage or above.
She had been planning to use the Stop-Life Grass at the Guangjiao Pavilion to trade for a bodyguard at the Void Refinement stage or higher for Suisui—even a Soul Transformation would have done—or failing that, to trade for heavenly materials and earthly treasures to supplement Suisui’s energy. She hadn’t expected to get exactly what she wanted through Suisui’s own accidental success in forming a master-servant contract.
To form a master-servant contract, the master usually forms the seal, then drops of blood from both the master and the servant are added, with the Heavenly Dao witnessing the completion of the contract.
Suisui hadn’t started cultivating, but a trusted person could form the seal on her behalf. Ye Wan had been practicing this seal intensely for the past few days. She hadn’t expected Suisui to watch her and successfully “draw a tiger based on a cat.”
This Heavenly Father must have truly recognized her; otherwise, such a dramatic turn of events wouldn’t have happened.
Ye Wan looked at the person on the ground with some sympathy. Perhaps her sympathetic gaze was too direct, making it impossible for Bian Yun to stay “unconscious” any longer.
Bian Yun sat up, crossed her legs, and remained silent with a cold face.
Ye Wan stood up and pulled Suisui back, while quietly clutching a jade plaque in her hand—the trump card given to her by Qin Zixun.
“Ahem, please don’t feel wronged. For a powerhouse like you to disguise yourself as ‘seriously injured’ to deceive a child, saying you had no motive… not even a dog would believe that.”
Bian Yun: “…”
She did have a motive for coming, but it wasn’t this kind of motive.
Seeing that this expert showed no signs of anger, Ye Wan moved further to negotiate.
“How about this? I posted a trade at the Guangjiao Pavilion, offering Stop-Life Grass in exchange for someone at or above the Void Refinement stage to be a bodyguard for three hundred years, with the requirement of signing a master-servant contract. Since this contract has already been formed by fate, consider it that you’ve accepted my trade. I’ll give you the Stop-Life Grass, and we’ll go before the Mirror of Heart Appraisal at the Guangjiao Pavilion to swear a Heart Demon Oath, guaranteeing that the contract will be dissolved after three hundred years.”
Bian Yun felt that Ye Wan was suppressing a smile when she mentioned “formed by fate.”
She looked at Suisui, who had a look of innocent ignorance, completely unaware of the grand feat she had achieved.
A master-servant contract was the most rigorous of all contracts: the servant follows the master in death, and no matter how much higher the servant’s cultivation is than the master’s, they cannot backbite. Once the contract is signed, life and death are entirely in the master’s hands. Since ancient times, peaceful dissolutions of such contracts have been extremely rare.
“I don’t need the Stop-Life Grass. I can protect this child for three hundred years, but I need her divine ability to help me with a favor.”
The smile on Ye Wan’s face vanished instantly, and she gripped the magical treasure in her hand even tighter. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I saw her use her divine ability that time. Otherwise, do you think you could have dodged the divine senses of those powerhouses so easily? I have no intention of harming her. Once her divine ability reaches mastery, I only need her to take me to a certain place,” Bian Yun laid her cards on the table.
Ye Wan felt a lingering fear. This cultivation world was practically more terrifying than modern surveillance. If they had encountered someone with malicious intent, they wouldn’t have helped them hide their tracks—they would have kidnapped and imprisoned them directly without a word.
Ye Wan looked around. Bian Yun understood her concerns and waved her hand to set up a barrier.
“What is this ‘divine ability’ you’re talking about?” Ye Wan asked.
“I don’t know much about it, but I’ve heard that someone with such an ability can ignore the laws and travel to any place, even to other worlds, or even back to the past.”
Ye Wan couldn’t help but look at her little cub.
My child is amazing. Taking your old mother back to her hometown one day isn’t just a dream.
“That’s an exaggeration. I’m just an ordinary Qi Refinement cultivator with three spiritual roots, and her father was just someone who dug wild vegetables. How could we produce a child with the kind of divine ability you’re describing?” Ye Wan waved her hand in denial.
Bian Yun’s mouth twitched when she heard Ye Wan say the child’s father dug wild vegetables.
If it was truly the person she suspected, she wished she hadn’t heard that.
Bian Yun held her hands behind her back. “The Dao is often inactive, yet nothing is left undone. Everything is possible.”
Ye Wan suspected the other party was fooling her. “Can someone of your cultivation level see that Suisui is unusual? Oh, right, may I ask what your cultivation level is?”
“I couldn’t see it; I just happened to see Suisui use it and made a guess. Cultivation level…” Speaking of cultivation, Bian Yun paused for a moment. “Void Refinement, I suppose.”
Ye Wan: “…”
Void Refinement is Void Refinement. Why the pause for consideration, and why add an ‘I suppose’?
“You aren’t even sure if Suisui’s divine ability is what you think it is, yet you sneakily tried to ‘entrap’ her?”
“I was testing the child’s pure heart. What do you mean ‘sneaky’ and ‘entrap’? You, as a mother, should read more books; you don’t even know how to use words correctly.” Bian Yun’s expression was a bit unnatural.
Ye Wan gave a long “Oh.” “And after the test?”
“Naturally, I would stay by her side and protect her as she grows up.” Who would have thought the Heavenly Dao would play such a trick?
So the big shot originally just wanted to be Suisui’s bodyguard? Usually, wouldn’t they take a disciple instead?
Ye Wan thought this and asked as much.
Bian Yun glanced at the jade-like, adorable Suisui. “I am not qualified.”
Ye Wan: “…”
A Void Refinement powerhouse—likely even higher—saying she wasn’t qualified to be a master to her three-and-a-half-year-old daughter? Was she serious?
Thinking of the master-servant contract formed by accident… ahem, although it was a bit unethical, Ye Wan felt her Suisui had done a fantastic job!
A big shot suddenly appearing out of nowhere to “entrap” them into letting her be a bodyguard—at most, they could have signed an equality contract, or perhaps just a Heart Demon Oath would have sufficed. Or even nothing at all. After all, this was a world where the strong didn’t need to be reasonable. In others’ eyes, one should be secretly delighted that someone was willing to be a bodyguard for the child.
Based on Suisui’s divine ability, signing a master-servant contract was naturally for the best.
“I don’t know if Suisui will be able to achieve what you wish in the future. I’m afraid I cannot agree to that condition as compensation.” Ye Wan was worried this person would push the child too hard to achieve her goal in the future, so she refused the request.
Bian Yun looked at Suisui, who had pitter-pattered back to sweeping fallen leaves at some point. “I understand your concerns. I won’t ‘encourage growth by pulling at the sprouts,’ but you cannot be too indulgent of her playing, either.”
This child was clearly unrestrained; her heart was bold, and her round eyes were full of liveliness. However, for her to know to finish what she started at such a young age—not bad.
Ye Wan nodded. “Naturally. I want her to be strong more than anyone else.”
Suisui had no idea her days of playing freely were numbered. She huffed and puffed as she swept the fallen leaves under her feet to both sides, believing that this was how you swept something clean.
Having reached a consensus, Ye Wan suggested going to the Mirror of Heart Appraisal at the Guangjiao Pavilion, but Bian Yun refused.
“No need. If after three hundred years I still cannot make Suisui willing to dissolve the contract, then I have no reason to look toward the future anyway.”
Three hundred years might not be far for a big shot, but to Ye Wan, it was very long—long enough that she didn’t know what changes might occur.
Just for this boldness, Ye Wan had to give Bian Yun a thumbs-up. “You are the best! With you guarding Suisui’s path forward, she definitely won’t let your teachings down.”
Although Bian Yun didn’t know what the thumbs-up meant, combined with Ye Wan’s words, she knew it was a compliment.
Bian Yun, who had never been complimented so directly, felt her ears grow a bit hot. She gave Ye Wan a look of disdain. “I only hope I don’t teach her to be as silver-tongued as you.”
Ye Wan: “…”
What, did I compliment her the wrong way?
“Suisui, come here.” Ye Wan waved to Suisui.
Suisui had just finished sweeping the last few leaves under her feet. She hugged her little broom and ran toward Ye Wan pitter-patter.
“Mother, I swept the leaves clean!”
Suisui tilted up her little face, which was flushed from exertion, proudly expecting praise.
“My Suisui is the best!” Ye Wan leaned down and gave the soft, tender little cheek a big kiss, took the small broom from her arms, and turned her to face Bian Yun.
“Come, pay your respects to… May I ask what Senior’s Dao title is?” Ye Wan only just realized she didn’t know the big shot’s title yet.