Signing the Contract

Guihu Luixing was glad she accepted.

He was starting to think he might have needed to try again. It wasn't easy for him to obtain so many Qi without anyone asking questions.

"Great. What is your name?" He asked.

"It's Serana. Serana Whitestone."

"Very well, Serana. We will sign this contract." He took the remaining blood and wrote in the paper he prepared beforehand.

"Serana Whitestone, in exchange into being given resources and knowledge of Ghost Cultivation, will faithfully serve Guihu Luixing for a minimal period of five years." he read the written text out loud.

Seeing she didn't react, he continued "Unless his life is in danger, Guihu Luixing cannot force Serana to sacrifice her life for him. Unless Guihu Luixing is unable, or feels threatened by Serana, he must provide her resources and techniques to further her strength. Upon contract termination, Serana is still bound to keep Guihu Luixing's secrets, still liable to receive punishment for revealing any."

There were a few more clauses, but these were the main points of the contract. There wasn't much time left, so Guihu Luixing read it rather quickly.

As a experienced businesswoman, Serena obviously found several loopholes in the contract, but she didn't care much. The main points were firmly secured and it was clear that a too restrictive a contract would be counterproductive, as by the clauses, it was obvious Guihu Luixing needed a trusted subordinate. Being too paranoid would only cause the trust he wanted to be impossible.

"How do I sign it?" she asked.

It was a valid question. As a soul, even though she was manifested with the power of the Qi Stones, her ability to interact with the material world was rather limited.

"It isn't signed normally." Guihu Luixing answered.

He poke a hole in the tip of his index finger, drew a symbol on the paper and chanted some strange words. With every word he said, the clouds in the sky rumbled.

*Trrrraaaaa*

As soon as he pronounced the last word, a lightning stroke the paper.

*Fwoosh*

The paper suddenly bursted in flames, which consumed it completely in a single second.

Weirdly enough, all the ashes and the blood textfloated in the air, around the symbol Guihu Luixing drew with his own blood.

"Gather." Guihu Luixing controlled the Qi used in the ritual.

All the ashes and blood fused with the bloody symbol, changing it's color and form from a bloody red symbol to gold sphere.

"Go." Guihu Luixing commanded again.

The golden sphere dived in two. One went towards Guihu Luixing and the other towards Serena.

"Swallow it. You'll feel incredible pain in your soul. It's proof that the contract is engraving itself on you. I suggest you to keep in mind what you wish the most in order to gather strength, as some souls don't resist the process." He instructed her before swallowing his sphere.

"I'm very used to pain." She said before swallowing her sphere.

Serana clearly underestimated soul pain. It was much worse than any beating she recieved in her life. Perhaps only when she was dying, full of injuries and agonizing poison that she felt similar levels of pain.

She could feel an foreign something engraving itself on her soul. Imagine being hot-iron branded in the most sensitive and delicate part of your body. That's how it felt.

To Guihu Luixing however, it hurt significantly less. The effects of his cultivation were already showing and seeing how long Serena contorted in pain, he was glad it did.

After some time, the pain Serana felt finally began to fade, and she was able to hold a conversation again.

"Our time is almost up." Guihu Luixing said "As we are contracted, we don't need to worry about you naturally proceedings to the afterlife by yourself and you can interact with the world a little bit, but we won't be able to communicate by normal means until you become a Ghost."

Serana nodded in understanding.

"The process is quite simple, and now that you're in a contract with me, it would happen naturally, but we don't have the time to wait for that."

After he said that, Guihu Luixing brought out five more Qi Stones from the storage. He now only had a few left.

"Take these. These are Qi Stones. You'll need to absorb their energy. Doing so you will greatly increase the speed of your transformation. Don't ask me how. There must be some instinct that will help you. You can only depend on your talent."

Serana felt a little put off by the instructions. Basically he told her to figure her way herself as he had no idea how to help her.

"The time is running out." He said as Serana was becoming increasingly translucent "I don't want the information that I contracted a ghost to become public, as I want to use you as a hidden card. Follow me from some distance and I'll guide you to my room. When you become a ghost, we'll meet there and I'll give you further instructions then."

"Understood." Serana said. Her voice was very faint and she was about to disappear.

"I barely can see you anymore. Our time is up. We should leave this place as well, we caused quite a commotion."

Guihu Luixing left the place, returning to his room while being followed by a soul.

Obviously, many experts in the Ghost Fox Valley Sect noticed the commotion the formation caused, but this kind of formation was extremely common inside the sect, so they didn't even bother going to see.

Only some competitive disciples would be alarmed and send some subordinates to investigate, but by the time they found the exact location, there was nothing to see anymore.

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In the following day.

Guihu Luixing woke up together with the first bell. Just when he about to leave his room, Dark Moon arrived. Just like the other days, she came to his side, jumped on his arms and instantly fell asleep.

Guihu Luixing was truly puzzled by they fox's actions these days, but even if he asked her, she wouldn't answer him so he could only ask Old Tail or his father about it.

On the breakfast table, today Old Tail was present. Even though he was the headmaster's partner, they were both busy, so it was uncommon for both of them to be present at the table at the same time.

Guihu Luixing took this opportunity. "Uncle Tail, recently Dark Moon has been coming to my room around this time, and she falls asleep soon after. Is there something going on?"

Old Tail obviously knew his daughter's whereabouts and what she has been doing these days, so he reassured Guihu Luixing.

"You don't need to worry, kid. It's just that she finally took a interest into studying, and has been serious about it."

"Dark Moon is studying?" Guihu Luixing got astonished "Then something really happened!"

"Hehehehehe." Laughed the headmaster "You don't need to think too deeply about it, Luixing. It's a good thing."

Guihu Luixing couldn't help but think it was a bit unnatural, but it eas no use to think about it.

After eating his breakfast, Guihu Luixing left to train with Hector.

Hector quickly recovered from his wounds, and even became a little bit stronger. But against the Guihu Luixing that underwent a session of Primordial Soul Mantra, it wasn't enough. Hector was easily defeated.

"Haaa....Haaaa.... Brother Guihu, how did you manage to get so strong?" asked the exhauted Hector.

"I'm about to breakthrough to Qi Gathering Realm." Answered Guihu Luixing "I won't be able to spar with you tomorrow."

"Already?!"

Guihu Luixing's answered startled Hector.

'I'm going to be left behind! I need to train more!' he decided in his mind.