A contract was a type of Spiritual Object born from the heavens and earth.
Once a contract was signed, it meant both parties would be watched by the Will of heaven and earth.
Whoever dared to violate the contract—so long as they remained in this world, or even near it—would be found by the Will of heaven and earth. The Will would then, as agreed, collect the stake put down by the defaulting party.
Li Chang’an had sensed the Will of this world during his previous battle with the Cultivator.
That was why he had made the suggestion.
After all, the price he had to pay was immense. The World-Devouring Whale needed to guarantee that nothing would go wrong, and at present, only this world’s World Consciousness could serve as a supervisor.
The World Consciousness was one of the concrete manifestations of the world’s laws. As long as It didn’t encounter an even more powerful World Consciousness, It was essentially invincible within its own domain.
The World-Devouring Whale signed the contract without hesitation.
The two parties had officially reached an agreement.
Having achieved his goal, Li Chang’an didn’t linger. He left the great tomb and returned to his residence in the Li Yang Capital.
The World-Devouring Whale was a member of an Ancient Race, with an incredibly powerful physique.
Healing its injuries would take more than just a few Elixirs; he would have to refine hundreds of Foundation Establishment Stage Elixirs.
The raw materials for the Elixirs Li Chang’an currently possessed had all been planted by the Cultivator near Soul-Breaking Mountain and the other portals. His supply was finite.
However, this problem was no match for Li Chang’an.
The Cultivator had been able to grow Spiritual Medicine near Soul-Breaking Mountain because he had set up an Array there. That, combined with the fact that the area around the portal could absorb some Spiritual Qi from the Cultivator World, allowed the Spiritual Medicine to mature.
Using his Heaven-defying Comprehension, Li Chang’an had already secretly analyzed every last detail of the Cultivator’s Array.
He planned to take the opportunity to siphon some Spiritual Qi from the Cultivation Realm the next time the Immortal Sect’s gate opened to allow the Cultivator to return.
This Spiritual Qi could not only be used to cultivate the spiritual herbs, but would also allow Li Chang’an to practice some Immortal Cultivation Techniques.
As for how far he could progress, that would depend on exactly how much Spiritual Power Li Chang’an could siphon.
To be honest, it was a very dangerous plan.
Li Chang’an had no idea if the Cultivation Realm would notice, nor did he know what the Immortal Palace’s stance was on such matters.
Li Chang’an pulled the Cultivator’s remnant soul from the Soul-Calling Banner and tried to interrogate it.
However, after such a long period of torment in the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, the Cultivator’s soul had long since become a muddled mess. No matter what Li Chang’an asked, he could only hear it muttering to itself, "I want to go home... Let me go... I want to go home..."
Li Chang’an didn’t mind being unable to get any information.
In truth, trying to fleece the Cultivators was like walking a tightrope; a catastrophic failure was possible at any moment.
Risk or no risk, this was something Li Chang’an had to attempt.
Faced with the high and mighty Cultivation World, neither he nor this world had many choices.
The only option was to take a desperate risk and carve out a viable path through a forest of thorns.
...
In his ninety-first year, the fifty-year extraction period came to an end.
Outside Soul-Breaking Mountain, the gate of the Immortal Sect began to vibrate. The door opened on its own, leaving a crack just wide enough for one person, awaiting the return of the Cultivator who had completed his extraction mission.
Li Chang’an stood before the gate in silence.
As the gate to the Immortal Sect opened, Li Chang’an took a deep breath and activated his technique.
After decades of meticulous refinement through his Heaven-defying Comprehension, the current *Martial Scripture* was no longer just a Martial Arts Technique; it also possessed some characteristics of Immortal Cultivation Techniques.
Thus, when Li Chang’an circulated his technique at full power, a significant amount of Spiritual Power from the Cultivation World was pulled through the Immortal Sect’s gate by the *Martial Scripture*, converging on him.
The gateway trembled ceaselessly.
At first, the siphoned Spiritual Power was just a trickle.
But as time went on, that trickle became a torrent, as if a dam had burst.
The breach in the flow of Spiritual Power grew larger and the current faster, so much so that even Li Chang’an was stunned. He did everything in his power to stop the Guiding and seal the breach.
However, it was at that moment Li Chang’an discovered to his horror that he was utterly powerless. He couldn’t seal the breach—he couldn’t even move his feet.
The gate of the Immortal Sect had been open for a full hour and still hadn’t closed.
Standing in the valley of Soul-Breaking Mountain, Li Chang’an felt a cold sweat begin to bead on his forehead, unstoppable.
By now, the *Martial Scripture* was circulating within him at a terrifying rate. The amount of Spiritual Power being siphoned from the Immortal Sect grew and grew, blanketing all of Soul-Breaking Mountain in a faint, spiritual haze.
But the reason for Li Chang’an’s cold sweat wasn’t that he was drawing too little Spiritual Power. It was that he was drawing far too much. This could no longer be called theft—it was blatant robbery!
Such an act had most likely already attracted the attention of the Immortal Palace.
And indeed it had. Under normal circumstances, the gate of the Immortal Palace should only remain open for a single hour after the extraction period ended.
If a Cultivator failed to return within that hour, they would be forced to remain in the Lower Realm for two thousand years, waiting for the gate to the Immortal Palace to open again.
But now, the gate had been open for more than an hour. Unless the brains of every Cultivator in the Immortal Palace had rotted, they must have noticed the anomaly by now.
Li Chang’an wanted to stop circulating the *Martial Scripture*, but something had gone wrong. He found he was completely unable to stop it voluntarily.
The Energy of the Cultivation Realm poured down like a heavy river of mercury.