In the blink of an eye, it had been nearly two weeks since Jiang Lin and his group arrived at the West Hall.
This day, Jiang Lin was cultivating in his room when Li Suo Dang Ran suddenly paid him a visit.
"We're leaving tomorrow."
Their visit this time was for the ghost artifacts of the West Hall.
After their purchases were complete, it was time to head back.
As they spoke of departing, Li Suo Dang Ran's gaze lingered on the various villas.
His eyes were filled with reluctance.
Looking at Jiang Lin again, his face was etched with even greater reluctance.
Jiang Lin: "..."
When the two little ghosts first arrived, they were captivated by the West Hall's diverse ghost artifacts.
They had even considered faking the damage of something in the West Hall and staying to work off the debt.
However, the West Hall was different from the South Hall.
After staying for many days and playing around, Li Suo Dang Ran had begun to miss the days of recklessness in the South Hall.
He missed the South Hall's arena and the various displays of skill.
He missed the centralized dormitories and the dorm supervisors.
The West Hall solved everything with ghost artifacts, making it difficult to find someone to fight.
The only joy was shopping.
"Jiang Wuchang, we're really leaving..." Dang Ran looked at Jiang Lin pleadingly.
Li Suo: "Come visit us in the South Hall when you have time."
Their visit this time was specifically to bid farewell to Jiang Wuchang.
Jiang Lin looked at the two little tigers and said, "Be careful on your journey."
On their way here, Li Suo Dang Ran had followed closely behind the East Hall's ghost artifact ship and encountered no problems.
But on their way back, it would just be the two little ghosts carrying a pile of newly purchased ghost artifacts by themselves.
Dang Ran patted his money pouch, "You can rest assured about this. No one can snatch it away."
Li Suo also nodded, confident in his combat prowess.
Wait a moment, had the topic been sidetracked?
Li Suo looked at Jiang Lin, "We're not worried about the journey, we're worried about you!"
Despite their previous complaints, the West Hall was indeed the most well-managed underworld they had ever seen.
No wonder when the South Hall was short on funds in the past, Lord Zhong Kui would always look towards the west and say, "It's fine, it will be resolved."
Compared to the South Hall, the West Hall was a veritable gold mine.
The glittering kind.
"Goodbye, Jiang Wuchang."
"Goodbye."
The day Li Suo Dang Ran rode his large gourd back to the South Hall, it was the viewers in the live stream who were the most reluctant to see them go.
As they watched the two little tigers fly further and further away, a wave of disappointment swept through the comment section.
"Sob sob sob, the little tigers are gone..."
"Don't worry, when you get back, we'll burn paper money for you, and some paper houses, and cars and stuff."
"Alas~ I'll never see the streamer use a cat teaser again. (Sadness.jpg.)"
"Huh? Where is the streamer going?"
...
After Li Suo Dang Ran left, Jiang Lin did not return to the underworld.
Instead, he turned and flew in another direction.
Along the way, he switched through several teleportation arrays, passing through many cities.
This morning, Tai Qin had sent a message, giving Jiang Lin an address.
He said that the last item for their collaboration was ready.
And that Jiang Lin could go over when he had time.
He didn't need to do anything else.
From Tai Qin's tone, it wasn't very urgent.
Jiang Lin didn't deliberately speed up his journey.
It was a good opportunity for the viewers in the live stream to get a clear view of the western region.
The sky was clear for miles.
A gentle breeze blew, and spring flowers bloomed.
In some of the outskirts, vast fields of wildflowers or man-made flower fields could be seen.
Brilliant gold, noble purple, pure white...
In the open spaces, friends picnicked together.
Children ran about, cheering, holding kite strings.
In the sky, colorful kites floated.
The viewers felt as if they could also feel the warmth of the sun on their skin, a sense of comfort and ease.
"Only now do I truly feel that winter has passed."
"I also really want to fly kites, have picnics, and fish... These tall buildings are blocking my path to the countryside, boo hoo hoo~!"
"Hello spring, hello summer, goodbye winter!"
"Winter is the most nice here, we can ski, we can see the world covered in silver. (Facepalm)"
As the viewers sighed and wished for a holiday to travel,
Jiang Lin had arrived before a towering mountain peak.
At the summit of the mountain, clouds swirled, and a striking splash of red could be seen from afar.
-- It was a tree.
Its entire body seemed to be crafted from glazed glass, and as its branches spread, red substances flowed within.
At a glance, a steep mountain peak and a blood-red glazed tree.
One side was the human world, the other a bottomless abyss.
The scene was incredibly eerie.
Not of the mortal realm.
"You've arrived?"
Beneath the blood-red tree,
Tai Qin, dressed in a black coat with gold trim and carrying a submachine gun, was already waiting.
Upon seeing Jiang Lin, he smiled and greeted him warmly.
"Mm."
Jiang Lin responded, his gaze examining the tree before him.
It had no life force, yet it seemed alive.
"This is?"
Tai Qin explained, "This is a ghost artifact we've recently developed, primarily for humans."
-- Living humans.
When people are alive, they inevitably have regrets, remorse, and hopes...
If only I hadn't done that back then.
If only I had gone at that time.
If only, in the next life, I could say 'I like you'.
...
Tai Qin: "But there's no regret medicine in the world, so we made this. We call it the [Contract Tree]."
Jiang Lin: "Contract?"
This thing could actually form the power of a contract?
Tai Qin: "Yes. A contract with oneself, and a contract with others."
"We've broadly divided the functions of the Contract Tree into two:
One, to contract with others, to reincarnate together after death. This increases the probability of meeting again."
Not all souls can meet smoothly after death and remember their spoken vows.
Many souls go to reincarnation in a dazed and confused state after death.
Some only remember one or two most important things, or what happened before they died.
The rest are subconsciously excluded.
"Two, through the power of the Contract Tree's contract, one can leave some information for their next life."
As he spoke, Tai Qin produced a red string.
Both ends of the red string were tied with wooden tags the size of a palm.
"The wooden tags are used to store information. Once you've written on them, just throw them up."
With a slight raise of his hand, the wooden tag in his hand flew upwards.
As soon as the red string touched the branches of the glazed tree, the wooden tags on both ends quickly wrapped around it.
From a distance, it looked like crimson leaves that had naturally grown on the tree.
"As long as they don't fall, it's successful."
The contractual information formed through the Contract Tree is ultimately gathered by the ghost messengers.
In the next life, the contracted person only needs to come here to receive the information they left behind.
After listening to Tai Qin's explanation, Jiang Lin narrowed his eyes.
This ghost artifact newly developed by the West Hall was, in the context of the current human world, a power akin to cheating.
But if you were to say it was against the rules, it wasn't.
First, it didn't alter the life and death of people; it merely solidified the intention of two people to reincarnate together after death.
Second, according to Tai Qin, the power of the contract was not one hundred percent successful.
This meant that they would judge which matters and which people could successfully form a contract.
Which information could be preserved, and which people could receive information in their next life.
It wasn't done randomly.
But this also meant that the Contract Tree had to receive and process a large amount of information the moment it faced the contracting parties.
"..."
Jiang Lin looked at the glazed tree before him, which seemed alive. The West Hall had actually managed to create such a sophisticated ghost artifact.
...