It had been two days since the game concluded.

  Lu Er sat down on a wooden chair, exhaling a long breath. "Whew, that really exhausted me."

  "Haah… haah… wait, I can still keep going." Zhu Yan lay sprawled on the ground, her chest heaving as she spoke.

  "Shut up. This is already the fifth round. I don't have any more energy. Find someone else. I'm going to scrub this grime off." He offered a tired wave to the others—Cai Hong, Wan Reira, Xu Qin—who were in various states of exhaustion around the yard, then pushed through the heavy wooden gate.

  The training grounds were situated behind the main residential buildings. The small rooms assigned to all of them were located within the main structure. There was ample space for the youths who stayed. Though there were no private washrooms or restrooms within the individual quarters, there were plenty distributed around each floor of every building. The hygiene was never compromised; each facility was immaculate, scrubbed clean daily.

  According to his calculations, nearly ninety percent of the total youths—who had entered during the Grand Awakening Ceremony and had completed their games—returned Unawakened. Thus, there was abundant space for the remaining. It was to the point that Lu Er had yet to see anyone use the same facilities he frequented.

  There were a hundred rooms on each floor, and each floor had ten restrooms and bathrooms. With the ratio being one to one, the clan had clearly put significant thought into how the numbers would work.

  Lu Er took a bath and changed his clothes. The clan also provided temporary garments if an Awakened desired them. The clothes weren't that expensive anyway.

  'Wait. Now that I think about it, it seems like it doesn't even cost much to keep this whole ceremony running. Since the clan usually only conducts business in Essence Stones, the actual cost of running the entire ceremony might just be a few hundred Essence Stones.'

  Lu Er knew that despite household artifacts being extremely expensive for a normal family, they were very affordable for an Awakened. If he really thought about it, the price disparity in Shanyue Village was somewhat similar to the late nineteenth century of Earth. The staple food was cheap, but even the lowest technological commodity was darn expensive for regular people to afford. It was just that Shanyue was simply a more extreme version of the same curve.

  He filed the thought away and began to wander down the corridor in no particular direction. He had made it about halfway when he noticed a figure coming toward him from the room adjacent to his own. 'It's the brunette from next door. Did she win the game?'

  "Hello—I'm sorry to bother you, but could I ask for some help? I don't know what I'm supposed to do next," she asked, her voice trembling slightly.

  "Yeah, sure. Did you awaken anything? Soul Gift or Physical Body?"

  "No."

  "Neither?"

  She shook her head, her eyes downcast.

  "Then it's over. You can just go home."

  "What? No, there must be something else I can do, right?"

  "Listen, it's not in my hands whether you can do something or not."

  "But didn't the instructor say we have to report downstairs?"

  "You can go down and ask at the entrance. They will also tell you to go home."

  "No, you are lying. They can't just tell me to leave! I can still do something! I will ask them myself. Get out of my way!" She shoved past him, her shoulder connecting sharply with his, and hurried down the corridor towards the stairs.

  'What in the actual tarnation was that?' Lu Er soon forgot the conversation and walked to his room.

  He slumped onto his small bed as his eyelids grew heavy. He fell into a nice sleep, almost on the verge of drifting into a pleasant dream—

  Knock. Knock. Knock.

  The sound woke him up instantly. "Oh my god. I swear if it's her, I will punch her right in the face." The room was soundproof, so he couldn't even ask who was at the door. He stood up and opened the door in one aggressive motion.

  "How are you doing?"

  "Oh, it's you, Xia Sahui."

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  "Can I come in?"

  "Uh, the room is small. Let's go downstairs."

  "I need to have a private conversation, so the room is fine."

  "Alright then, come in." He surrendered and let her inside.

  Lu Er closed the door while she sat on the edge of the bed.

  "So, you finally remembered that I also exist?" Lu Er asked with a hint of playfulness.

  Xia Sahui didn't reply. Instead, she looked around and then asked, "This room feels suffocating. It's so small and doesn't even have a window. How do you even sleep here?"

  "I asked a question—Sigh," Lu Er almost retorted but stopped midway. "I've lived in worse places. This one's much better than those."

  Furthermore, the small room kind of reminded Lu Er of those Japanese pod capsule hotels. If people could live in those, then these were similar, he didn't have any problem.

  "Apologies for what happened at the mountains."

  "Why are you apologizing? It was not your fault. If anything, that bastard Hua Yong should be the one to apologize. You were right about him."

  "No. You sacrificed yourself just to save me."

  "Hah. It was my job to protect you, even if my life was on the line, wasn't it? I chose it to be that way. If I am given the choice once again, I will choose the same." Lu Er replied with his eyes closed, arms crossed, without any facial expression.

  Xia Sahui looked at his face, then said, "I was quite busy with a few things, that's why I didn't have time."

  "I get it. I was just asking because I have no money on me, and I want to go out. Staying in the grounds is too wasteful of my time. I'd rather do something useful."

  Xia Sahui nodded, as if this was the expected segue. She reached into a fold of her robe and withdrew a small, flat leather pouch. "Here is your payment."

  The small pouch was not even bulging. It looked as if there were only three or four blues inside. 'Well, twenty grand for the job seems fitting.'

  He took the pouch and felt something different. The weight and shape were not quite the same. His eyes widened as he opened the pouch and looked inside. There were no blues. Instead… there were four greens.

  "Is this a joke?" Lu Er's brow furrowed as he turned sharply toward Xia Sahui.

  "No. This is your payment after deducting your expenses. And also, you will now work for the Xia Family indefinitely until you pay all your debt."

  "What expenses? And why would I do that?"

  She took out a manual and a spherical, orb-like crystal. Lu Er's eyes grew excited as soon as he saw the manual. The manual had a title: Assign Techniques: Formation Circles and Ingredients.

  "I agree," he immediately replied.

  A faint, satisfied smile touched Xia Sahui's lips. "Mhm. First, place your hand upon this orb and vow. You will not copy, redistribute, or sell any knowledge contained within this manual. The only exception is if you later acquire identical or superior knowledge from a separate, legitimate source."

  Lu Er agreed and put his hand on the orb. It shone brightly for a split second and then went back to normal. In the meantime, he also focused on the orb and called Fragment in his mind.

  [Heaven and Earth Vow Orb (D-grade): A crafted artifact that replicates a weaker variant of the legendary Heaven and Earth Vow. Contracts sealed through this orb are binding. Breach of contract grants the other party complete authority over the life and death of the violator.]

  After Lu Er was done taking the oath, he quickly went through the manual and memorized every single detail. There was a lot in the manual. It contained different formation circles for different situations. But as Lu Er kept reading, his face turned grim as he took a side glance at Xia Sahui. "The ingredients…"

  "Are not included," she finished smoothly. "But if you require them, we can—"

  "No, no thanks. I am already in so much debt. I don't want to pile up more. I'll see what I can do myself." He paused, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Actually, how much debt am I in?"

  "I was going to pay you one and a half Essence Stones for your help,” she explained, “but I rounded it to two, and Hua Yong gave one Essence Stone. So, in total, you are twenty-two Essence Stones and four greens in debt. But I'll be generous and write off the greens."

  "Three Essence Stones? You Scions sure are generous. But the formation circle is only twenty-five Essence Stones worth? Don't get me wrong, it's still very, very expensive, but at the same time, I expected it to be higher."

  "That's because the main cost lies in the ingredients. Even the cheapest formation ingredients cost hundred Essence Stones in total. And in your case, it'll be even more expensive. As I told you in the game, the spiritual emulsifiers are related to the soul, thus are very rare. You might not even be able to buy a single one even if you had thousand Essence Stones—"

  Lu Er’s fingers tightened on the manual. "Does that mean I bought the formation for nothing? Did you just—"

  "Let me finish," she interjected, holding up a hand. "If you want, I can arrange all the ingredients just for you. But you will also have to pay the interest on your debt."

  "On that note, what would be my salary working at the Xia Family, and what sort of work do I have to do?"

  "Your current salary is one Essence Stone per month. As for the work, you just have to become my subordinate and do as I say. The work would mostly be hunting beasts. You don't have to take any vow except the one for the debt clearance."

  "That… sure is generous. I'll take the ingredients then."

  "It's decided then. You are coming to the Xia Manor." She seemed mildly enthusiastic about it.

  "Right now?"

  "Yes."

  "But I want to sleep."

  "You can sleep there. We have plenty of rooms."

  'It feels like she is intentionally maneuvering me to fall into huge debt.

  She is not even going to wait until I go to the academy and learn more about Soul Gift? It must be pretty useless to use Assign Techniques for a Soul Gift. It's good she doesn't know that I am going to use it for something else.

  I absolutely cannot do the process of Assign Technique at the Xia Family's house. Who knows what they might have to spy on me.'

  "I apologize, but I have a headache. I'll come later and take the ingredients. I can't cause you any more trouble."

  "…What are you even talking about?" Xia Sahui blinked, her confident momentum stalling.

  "Ah, if you still want me to come, I'll come." He backtracked quickly, injecting a note of weary obligation into his voice.

  "It's fine. I'll go back alone, then."

  "Thank you. And sorry for the inconvenience," Lu Er shouted, opening the door for her, then closed it softly behind her.

  Whew. He stood with his back against the door for a moment.

  Then he crossed the room, fell face-first onto the bed, and went into a deep sleep.