Leon seemed to struggle with the suggestion.

“A Spirit Contract is a rare item.” he said. “It's tricky to get my hands on one.”

Red nodded. “I am sure it is. Still, it’s the only thing that will give me peace of mind to work together.”

The young master remained quiet, reflecting on his words with a frowning expression. It was only half a minute later that he spoke up again.

“I will need to consult my father on this.”

“As you wish.” Red said.

He didn’t expect their ventures to be a secret from the Duke. In fact, he was almost certain that Leon’s father funded his investigation, as the man also might have a vested interest in their findings.

Leon got up and walked away. He entered the manor and left Red by himself for almost half an hour.

When he returned, he brought a locked box with him. He set it down in the center of the table and sat down. The gaze with which he looked at Red seemed to have an added sense of severity to it.

“My father has allowed me to use a Spirit Contract.” Leon said. “However, there are certain conditions which he wants us to establish before we can use it.”

This wasn’t unexpected to Red, so he nodded.

“What are they?”

“First, it’s your role in the investigation. If you agree to this contract, you are to help with the entire investigation into the demonic cults in the capacity of a Formation Expert. You will still be offered payment for your duties, but backing out of your responsibility will make the contract void and cause backlash.”

Red frowned. Perhaps it was expected that they would try to secure the cooperation of a formation master like him after finding out the enemy had a similar expert, but this was still a lot of responsibility to take on.

“As long as these responsibilities do not force me to put my life in danger against my will, I do not mind.” He said.

“We won’t force you to investigate anything that would put your life at risk.” Leon nodded. “The second condition is about information secrecy. As long as you agree to this contract, any leak in information learned through our investigations to others, excluding to those I give my explicit agreement towards, will be considered a breach in contract.”

‘I wonder if that includes Aurelia.’

“… That is fine.”

Leon looked relieved as he heard his responses.

“The third and final condition is that if any of your actions deliberately cause harm to innocents within the city, it will also be considered a breach in our agreement.”

This one gave Red pause.

“This seems like a rather ambiguous statement.” He said.

There were too many ways in which that condition was unclear, and just by putting the word ‘deliberately’ there didn’t make the interpretation any more direct. For instance, what if Red fought another cultivator in a public space? He wouldn’t have any intent on harming mortals around him, but it’s entirely possible it would happen. If he still chose to engage while acknowledging that risk, would that be a deliberate action to harm innocents? What if he needed to weight the lives of two groups of people and choose who to save? Would the deaths in that scenario be put on him as far as the contract went?

Leon didn’t seem surprised by Red’s words. “It is a vague statement, and I also struggled with how to include it in a contract, which is why it won’t be part of the contract. It’s just a promise between the two of us.”

Red was taken aback.

“A promise?”

Leon sighed.

“I don’t like working with these kinds of contracts, Master Viran. I think mutual trust is the best way to establish a good working relationship with others, so I would rather believe in someone’s character to stand by their word, even if I have to open myself to be betrayed. With all that said, the first two conditions were absolute requirements on my father’s behalf to allow the use of the Spirit Contract. This last one is just a request on my part.”

“… If it’s just that much, I can promise you that.” Red said. “Though I can’t guarantee no harm will come to pass to others if I’m targeted by assassins again.”

Leon smiled.

“I just ask that you keep that in mind when taking action. I would rather never lose sight of the reason I am doing this in the first place.”

“You want to save innocents?” Red asked.

“Of course! Why else would I be doing it?”

‘That’s right. Why else?’

Perhaps Red had spent too much time around self-interested and cynical cultivators as he grew up, so it was strange for him to see someone with such pure motives. Still, there was a reason that most cultivators lacked in heroic spirit. At best, it would accrue you a lot of enemies, and at worst, it was bound to get you killed for messing with the wrong person. In either option, it was bound to make your cultivation journey much harder while providing you with little to no advantages.

Perhaps Leon hadn’t faced that reality yet due to his sheltered life, but it wasn’t Red’s responsibility to teach him a life lesson.

“Are those all the terms?” He asked.

“Yes.” Leon nodded. “They’re all written in the contract already.”

He opened the box and passed a sheet of paper over to Red. It looked like an ordinary item, but when he gazed at the symbol near the top of the paper, he froze.

It was an eye.

‘This is very similar to the symbol that elder taught me in my dreams.’

It wasn’t quite the same, yet the similarities were too much for this to be a mere coincidence.

Red didn’t let any of his surprise show in his actions. He read further down, seeing the conditions he had already agreed to written on the paper already. There was still a lot of space on the paper where he assumed his own conditions would be placed.

“Who made this contract?” he asked.

Spirit Contracts did not work on a simple agreement basis. To make sure that both parties kept their word and to punish them in case they didn’t, the contract must be overseen by a stronger existence who was capable of these things in the first place. A fair and benevolent one, if that was possible.

“It’s a Spirit Contract my father bought from the Divine Dream Sect.” Leon said. “The eye symbol is a form of connection to the Ancestral Spirit of their sect.”

“Their Ancestral Spirit?”

This wasn’t the first time Red heard of the rather recluse Divine Dream Sect. It was the first time he heard about this Ancestral Spirit, though.

“The Ancestral Spirit of the Divine Dream Sect is known to be fair and just in all its judgements.” Leon said. “They say it’s the spirit of an ancient artifact, but no one knows for sure. All that I know is that it’s the standard judge for making Spirit Contract in the cultivation world.”

Aurelia piped up at this. “He’s not wrong. Even in my time, people used the Ancestral Spirit as the standard overseer of agreements.”

“How do you know this is safe, though?” Red asked. “Is it not possible to cheat it?”

Leon seemed to be at a loss for words. “Uh… I suppose I never thought about that before, but as far as I know, no one has ever accomplished that before.”

“What if someone took control of that Ancestral Spirit? Wouldn’t they be able to control these agreements?”

“W-Well, I…”

Aurelia snorted. “Stop being paranoid! The Ancestral Spirit of the Divine Dream Sect doesn’t exist in the material world. No cultivator can reach it through normal means, and even if they could, they would need to deal with a Spirit that has been around since the founding of the sects. If they have the power to do that, then they could just do whatever they want in the world anyway and ignore any contracts!”

As always, Aurelia’s explanation shed some light on the matter. Leon, though, was still struggling with an explanation.

“It’s fine.” Red said. “If the sects use this as standard, there’s no reason for me to cast doubt on it.”

Leon let out a breath of relief. “Good.”

Red, of course, still couldn’t ignore his new discovery about the eye symbol. How was it related to the one in his dream? Was that elder involved in all of this? Perhaps this was something worth investigating, but he doubted Leon could provide him with any answers.

“Since you’ve agree with my conditions, I suppose you can put your conditions forward now.” Leon said.

Red nodded. “Any information I reveal to you as it relates to my personal matters can’t be revealed to anyone else.”

“That…” Leon frowned. “What kind of personal matters?”

“Sensitive matters.”

“Will they affect people around me or my investigations?”

“Maybe. Though I can only see such a thing coming to pass if you reveal them to others.”

Leon closed his eyes in thought. A few seconds later, he opened them and looked at Red with a serious expression.

“Are you involved with nefarious matters?” He asked.

“I can’t tell you that.” Red shook his head. “All I can say is that I’m not an evil person.”

Leon gave him a helpless smile. “What is that even supposed to mean?”

“Whatever you make of it.”

The young master paused again.

“… I can’t tell this even to my companions?”

“No. The only information you can reveal is that which I allow you to, or what you need to reveal to help me with my tasks.”

Leon raised his eyebrows. “You need help with something?”

“That is the second condition. You will help me accomplish something to the best of your ability in exchange for my services.”

“To the best of my ability? Is it something difficult?”

“I don’t know.” Red said. “Though it’s possible that it’s beyond your capabilities.”

Leon nodded. “If you’re being honest, then I agree with all of it.”

“… Just like that?”

Red was surprised.

The young master laughed. “What is there to discuss? I talked about trusting people, so I obviously need to put that into action… I just hope it’s nothing evil.”

“We can put that down in the contract if you want.”

“No, no, it’s fine! My instincts tell me I can I trust you… I think.”

Over the next hour, they both set about writing the conditions on the piece of paper. Other than the specific terms they discussed, there were a bunch of general conditions they needed to establish, such as not betraying each other, or not working directly for their enemies. With the help of a pen and a magical ink that was easily erased, they had the finished draft after a lot of revisions - mostly on Red’s behalf.

Leon leaned back and looked down at the document. “It’s done.”

“What now?” Red asked.

“Now we sign it with our vital blood.”

Leon bit the tip of his thumb, causing a droplet of blood to pour down. He smeared it on the bottom of the contract, and the paper glowed in a silver light. Just as quickly as it came, though, the light disappeared.

“Your turn.” Leon said.

Red hesitated. He knew that it would come down to this, but now that the time came, he was worried about showing off his blood.

As if responding to his concerns, he felt a rumbling from the pit of his stomach. Something seemed to float all the way from his stomach to his right hand and towards the tip of his thumb.

Red knew this was his cue.

He bit the tip of his finger, causing a droplet of blood saturated with Spiritual Energy to emerge. Then he smeared it on the contract, and the reaction was almost instantaneous.

The paper glowed in the same silver light, though this time more intensely. The eye symbol seemed to come alive, and Red felt as if he was being stared by a great existence. Before he could react, though, the contract suddenly morphed into two beams of light, one which shooting into his and Leon’s head.

Then, the feeling of being watched suddenly dissipated, and nothing remained of the contract in front of them. Yet, Red felt as if something was suddenly inserted into his mind - a boundary of sorts. The feeling was hard to describe, but he knew that this meant the Spirit Contract was now in full effect.

A weight seemed to be lifted off of Leon’s back as he looked at Red with a wide smile. “Finally, we can put that behind us. Will you tell me what you need help with now?”

Red nodded. “Do you remember that girl I told you to investigate?”

“Yes, though Pierre is the one who knows the details about the investigation.” Leon leaned over. “Is your request related to her?”

“It is. She’s sick.”

“So you mean to find a cure? I can help with-”

“She’s cursed.”

A pause.

“Cursed?” Leon asked.

“Yes, her soul is cursed. I mean to search for a cure in those demonic cults, and I want your help.”

The young master leaned back and massaged his temples.

“Now I see why you said that I might not be able to help you… As far as I know, souls are the realm of Spiritual Awakening practitioners, right?”

Red nodded. “That is correct. There is no guarantee that the cults in this city will have the cure, but it’s my best lead.”

“I understand. I can’t promise you that we will definitely find it, but me and my companions will certainly try our best.”

“That is enough for me.” Red took out a small pill from his pouch. “There’s also this medicine she takes on a regular basis. I want you to test it and tell me what its effects are.”

“That is something I can certainly do.” Leon picked up the pill, eyed it, and stowed it away in his pocket.

He looked back at Red and smiled.

“She must be pretty important for you to go to all these lengths for her, right?”

All the response Leon got was an impassive gaze beneath the mask.

He shook his head, embarrassed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

Red ignored him. “There is another matter. You said your friend Ilse saw a vision of a demonic snake in the city, correct?”

“That is right.” Leon nodded.

“Can you describe it to me?”

“Well, if you want a description, I think Lady Ilse would be much better for-”

“I don’t have a contract with her. I have a contract with you.”

“R-Right… However, I’m afraid there’s not much to talk about that you don’t already know. It was a humanoid snake, probably a fusion between a cultist and a demon.”

Red frowned. “Was there anything out of the ordinary with it? Its clothes, its features?”

He was still bothered by that feeling from yesterday. Now, he was trying to dig for clues, but it still felt like a pointless search.

Leon seemed ashamed. “It was a demon, Master Viran. It had the body of a human and the head of snake, and all of its features were distorted to some extent, as Ilse told me.”

‘I wonder…’

A remote possibility dawned in Red’s mind.

“Can you tell me what was distorted about it?” he asked. “Other than the snake's head.”

“Well, she made a drawing of it, though it’s not in my possession. From what I recall, though, it had curved horns, four arms, an elongated neck, six eyes, a protruding fan-”

“Wait.” Red cut him off. “You said six eyes?”

“Yes. It had six eyes, three on each side of its head and…”

He didn’t listen to the rest of Leon’s explanation. Suddenly, things clicked and the faint sense of recollection became clear as day.

He had felt that energy before, without a doubt. Though back then, it wasn’t as strong, or as corrupted.

That energy was the same as his pet snake.