After my eyes glanced upon the Qi Contract, the biggest thing conveyed to me was this concept:

Indentured Servitude.

500 years of serving without question. And even afterward, they would still be required to owe some level of allegiance to me and my causes, not giving away any secrets.

Which is completely beneficial to me, of course, but makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. Mostly for the obvious reasons, from coming from a lineage born out of slavery.

Put other people into something like that, doesn’t feel right.

I mean, even with the demi-humans’ contract, I…

I…

Wait a second.

Though I may have scaling punishment methods for the demi-humans’ contract, is it really any different from this one?

In that one, I don’t even have a release date.

So, it’s still just slavery.

While others may not think much of this, I can’t help but to look into this further. Searching for what this truly means.

And I end on the answer.

It isn’t.

While it could partially be considered indentured servitude, by loose definition, it is more like the apprenticeship or squire style of servitude.

But, since there is a weekly stipend of silver and other benefits, it’s not exactly unrewarded. However, that they aren’t allowed to leave without severe penalties (like death) brings it to the edge.

As I think about this, all the elders are still dealing with the finishing touches on their respective items. Giving me a little more time to think about this.

…

…

I haven’t kidnapped any of these people.

I gave and will give choices on whether to join the contract.

None of them were forced into it.

They WILL be treated like normal people and nothing less.

They are not property.

And if something occurs that is out of the norm, I’ll do what I can to help them.

…

The world I’m in differs from the one I came from. But there are still things that are similar. There are many contracts that have terms that reflect the slavery from my world. These are not like them.

The people here live for long periods of time and will, if I’m able to get them to that point. And the contract doesn’t make children into slaves.

With all that said, I shouldn’t delude myself.

What I’m doing in these contracts may be seen as reasonable to some, but in other ways could easily be abused. All of my contracts allow me to abuse my people without recourse.

I did all I could in the previous contract to make it fair for them.

I don’t have a way to make things safer for myself, while also avoiding this aspect.

Yet.

Even now, I suspect I don’t have much choice in this contract creation, but I will do what I can to make sure this is as fair as possible for people that join me.

But I’ll figure out a way in the future. That, I promise.

… this is good enough.

I still need to get a good look at this contract, though.

After I make this resolution, it still takes another 10 minutes until they are done with the final touches.

During this wait, I could see Master Ming making additional adjustments and additions to the floating, glowing parchment and Senior Tian, with Sister Nuan and Elder Li, help fortify the formation.

Each of these giving me valuable insights into their processes.

But all things come to an end, and just as I think Master Ming is done with the parchment, I sense a mass of qi from him hit the parchment.

Melding with the parchment, it then separates as if like a cell experiencing mitosis. Creating two identical contracts.

With a wave of his hands, another influx of qi floods both of them. The feeling from the appears to change. One gaining something, while the other loses it. And an unknown factor added to both.

Immediately afterward, though, I can practically see him deflate. Bereft of energy.

Seeing the amount of effort he’s put into making these, I can’t help but run to support him.

My hand just lands on his back as I glimpse his face. The view of which scares me.

He has a mad grin on.

I almost drop him.

But I hold on and luckily, he seems to notice his crazed look, quickly shifting to a normal one.

… he must really enjoy making contracts.

Makes sense, as he’s likely been doing this for a century or two, being a core formation expert.

I quickly heal him to get him back into good shape.

As the light streams from my hands, his eyes widen in surprise at the sudden influx of energy. He’s back to full again.

The other elders in the room also turn to watch. I can see all of their eyes narrow in envy at the action. Just like Master Ming, they seem to have worn themselves down, though not to the same extent.

As I finish up, I can hear a slight cough from Sister Nuan, causing me to look in her direction.

“James? Would you be able to do the same for us as well?”

I immediately rush over to her side and heal her first, before healing the others.

She and the others give a wry smile at this, as they can’t say much to being completely refilled despite them using a significant quantity of qi.

Master Ming is the first to speak back up. His voice changing the tone in the room.

“Two contracts for different situations. You can add people to it, at any time. Removing… would be more difficult.”

He lifts the one in his right hand.

“This is the one that we will be using. One for any seniors that you wish to trust your secrets with and will teach you theirs in return. As could be expected, this has limited restrictions, but a higher penalty for breaching.

“I’ll let you view this in a bit, as I and the others here have already agreed to what’s in it. Any elder that has the slightest inkling of what you can do will agree to it.”

When did they discuss this? Just now?

…

Ah.

Their spiritual sense.

I had forgotten that being able to speak mind-to-mind was another common usage of the technique.

Theirs are permeating the area, albeit at a very low level. Not enough to be peering into my abilities, as I previously noted, but enough that they could still communicate with each other.

That will be something to consider, as I talk with higher realm cultivators. Even as they say one thing in front of me, they could do something else.

… I may need to decide later if I should attempt to listen in with my scan.

He then turns to the one in his left hand.

“This one is for your servants. For those you want to build into your personal force. Something that is apparent you will need.”

He looks at the others, with his eyes staying on Sister Nuan. He nods at her before continuing.

“I’ll explain this one a bit more.

“You’ll make them into your personal servants for 500 years. With anything you wish being allowed. If you do what you did for us, they should last at least that long, if they are worth anything. As is normal for these types of contracts, there will be a dispersal of their cultivation base and killing them for any breaches. In addition, they can’t take or induce any negative actions against you or it will cause a breach. They’ll need to protect your interests passively and actively.

“You also have the option of wiping a contractee's memory and cultivation, in case you want to release them from the contract without a breach. Scalable down, of course, if you aren’t worried about them as a threat.

He pauses.

“Ah, from personal experience, I highly suggest always wiping the memory of secrets. It’s never worth it to keep it out there. Even for people you care about. They’ll still be required to keep your secrets after release or completion, but they can’t stop it if they are already dead.”

He nods as if this is truly common knowledge for something like this, only explaining for my benefit.

“Outside of those, I’ve added a few additional things.”

He leans in excitedly, as I get a sense that this is what his earlier maddened grin was about.

“It was difficult, but any items or abilities being used to spy on you, using the contractee, will be destroyed and cause backlash onto item owner. If it’s an ability, it will not allow them to sign and will notify you. I hooked in a backend process to make it, so you can see if it is a curse that you can remove.

“Both of which were difficult as it’s using the person spying as a sub-contr…”

Sister Nuan coughs, causing Master Ming to blush a bit.

“Ah, yes. Back to… ahem.

“Last thing is that they will need to assist their fellow contractees, to a reasonable extent. As you will likely need a cohesive group that will actually work together. But other than that, there are some general things I’ve learned over the years to close any loopholes, so you should all set there.”

“Here, look.”

A quick review confirms the information.

It really covers most of what I would need and many things that I wouldn’t have considered being issues. Some of which actually protect the contractee from being put into breach unfairly.

“This looks great. But what about the other contract?”

A glance at each other shows this one won’t be as simple.