“This contract will bind directly to your soul. If you violate any of its rules, you will be punished.”
Mr. Ma's expression was very serious.
Yin Yang glanced over it briefly and asked, “How do I sign it?”
“Just drip your blood onto it and read the words aloud.”
“Alright.”
Yin Yang took the knife handed to him, pricked his finger, and let a few drops of blood fall onto the parchment.
The moment the blood touched the parchment, it was rapidly absorbed, and lines of red text began to surface.
Yin Yang read the contents of the contract aloud as instructed.
Once he finished reading, the parchment twisted and shriveled, as if all its moisture had been sucked dry.
Mr. Ma carefully put away the parchment and said, “Mr. Liu, starting today, we are companions.”
Yin Yang smiled and looked around at the historical records. “I'm very interested in these, but I don't know much ancient script. Where can I learn it?”
“I will give you a book that has side-by-side comparisons of the ancient script. Although it doesn't include the pronunciations, it will at least help you understand the meanings.”
Yin Yang nodded and asked again, “I'm very interested in the history of the Shang and Zhou eras. Can I come here to read whenever I have time?”
“Of course. However, as a member of our society, you will also need to do some work for us.”
“Naturally.” Yin Yang agreed readily.
“You're very famous right now and have attended many high-society gatherings. We hope you can recruit a few influential figures into our society!”
Yin Yang pointed at his own nose with a helpless smile. “Me?”
“Yes.”
“What are the criteria? What if someone I try to recruit doesn't want to join and instead exposes me as a member of the True Knowledge Society?”
Mr. Ma shook his head. “You are a smart man. I trust you can handle it well.”
“There are ranks within our True Knowledge Society as well.”
“The higher your rank, the more archives you can access.”
“Considering you are not a transcendent, you can even receive quite a bit of protection.”
“And to raise your rank, you must make contributions!”
He smiled again as he reached this point. “You should have heard of the four major evil cults, right?”
“I have.”
“But let me tell you, our True Knowledge Society and the Shadow Lotus Church are on a completely different level compared to the Primitive Cult and the Idealist Society.”
“They are merely cults that exist around Great Wei and Great Qi, whereas our scale and that of the Shadow Lotus Church are far beyond your imagination.”
“Even if you leave Great Wei one day, you will still be able to receive our assistance.”
Yin Yang nodded, then impatiently returned to reading the history.
Mr. Ma walked over to a nearby bookshelf and pulled down two books. Both were quite thick and heavy, with somewhat weathered covers.
“These are the most common ancient script annotations and Shang and Zhou murals. Oh, right, there's also this.”
He pulled out a much thinner booklet and handed it to Yin Yang.
“This is the catalog of materials you can access at your current rank. If you want to read any of them, just contact me in advance.”
“Alright,” Yin Yang replied, not even looking up as he greedily devoured the records in front of him.
Mr. Ma was not surprised. Most of the people recruited by the True Knowledge Society were like this, behaving in almost the exact same way after joining.
Yin Yang stayed and read for several hours before finally leaving. This was only because Mr. Ma warned him that staying any longer might expose them; otherwise, Yin Yang would have happily moved in.
After they rode the elevator back to the surface, Mr. Ma instructed him once more, “Look through the catalog carefully. Tell me directly if there's anything you want to see. You can't come here too often.”
“Okay,” Yin Yang agreed, bidding him a seemingly reluctant farewell.
The moment he stepped out the door, a dark shadow melded into his own.
“Meow~”
“Yeah, it's done.”
...
After returning to the cafe, Yin Yang told Canned Food about joining the True Knowledge Society.
As for the non-disclosure clause in the contract?
Give him a break.
The moment the contract took effect, it already belonged to Yin Yang. The outcome that followed went without saying.
Yin Yang sacrificed it at the cost of just a tiny sliver of divinity.
Besides, trying to bind a 【Grand Celebrant】 with a contract was like showing off swordplay in front of the God of War.
The moment Canned Food heard that Yin Yang had joined the True Knowledge Society just to read books, it promptly slipped away.
As a cat, it completely failed to understand what was so good about books.
Yin Yang, on the other hand, was holding the ancient script annotations, unable to put them down.
Over the next few days, he skipped all invitations to banquets and spent his entire day reading in the cafe.
Having thoroughly mastered the ancient script annotations, he was now studying the Shang and Zhou murals.
Those murals were incredibly exquisite, with some of the colors remaining remarkably vibrant.
Their styles were completely distinct, allowing one to tell at a glance which belonged to the Shang Era and which belonged to the Zhou Era.
Furthermore, the events recorded on the murals were so bizarre and sinister that they made Yin Yang's skin crawl.
Especially the Shang!
They were bloody and savage.
Half of the content related to the Shang in the book was about sacrifice.
They seemed to be fighting against something, but the depictions on the murals were very vague. All that could be gathered was that these people were growing increasingly mad.
The further it went, the more grotesque the postures of the Shang people became, and the more frequent their sacrifices grew.
Next were the murals from the Zhou Era.
The Zhou seemed significantly more civilized, with noticeably fewer sacrifices depicted.
Their primary enemies were natural disasters!
Droughts, earthquakes, volcanoes, sandstorms, floods—all of these were their foes.
Astonishingly, they had actually fused these natural disasters into human bodies, allowing mortals to master those forces and subsequently crowning them as gods!
Yin Yang was utterly dumbfounded. Never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined that natural disasters could be converted into authority to artificially create gods.
For the first time, he realized just how narrow his worldview was. The phrase “a frog in a well” suited him perfectly.
Whether it was the Shang's 【artificial natural transcendents】 or the Zhou's 【artificial gods of natural disasters】, they both seemed to be telling him one thing: his understanding of this world was far too shallow!
“Phew~”
Yin Yang exhaled slowly. After reading continuously for so many days, he had finally finished both books. His harvest was bountiful, and he had taken a substantial amount of notes.
Yet, this also gave rise to a new question in his mind.
Be it the Shang Era or the Zhou Era.
According to the records on the murals, their strength back then had been peerless. With power of that caliber, how could a mass extinction have occurred?
The more he knew, the more curious Yin Yang became.
Thus, he decisively flipped through the catalog of books he could exchange for with his current clearance, picked out a few, and sent the request to Mr. Ma.
“Mr. Ma, I've finished these books. I would like to continue reading these few next. Please prepare them for me.”
“No problem.”
Mr. Ma agreed very readily on the other end. Yin Yang stretched his body.
“The True Knowledge Society is actually pretty great.”
“I need to find a way to raise my clearance.”
As he spoke, he drew a formation diagram on a piece of paper beside him. It was the exact same one he had seen on the stone slab earlier.
Yin Yang stroked his chin.
“Its power doesn't seem to be that great...”
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