Master of Kaidan
Chapter 156: Ten Agreements

Chapter 156: Chapter 156: Ten Agreements

Upon hearing Jessica’s question, Feng Xue did not resort to any dramatic plot twists, but simply nodded:

"It’s undeniable that there are always some individuals in this world who have a gift for languages. In this team, there just happened to be such a genius, who, during his laboring career, mastered most of the languages used by the workers and, by telling stories, established good relationships with them—you can imagine how valuable a person who could communicate and tell stories was in an environment where every day was about toiling for one’s life."

Jessica nodded in agreement. Having experienced survival in the wilderness herself, she understood very well how important a conversationalist could be under extreme conditions.

"So, what use is this metal plate?" Jessica was very interested in such legendary tales and naturally played the role of the enthusiast, while Feng Xue was not enigmatic and directly answered:

"This language genius was born into a merchant family from Yan Country, but due to the times, the family fell into decline, and he became a laborer himself. Nonetheless, this did not change the fact that he was educated.

"By guessing and inferring, he deciphered the ancient language on the metal plate. Although skeptical, as a laborer, he still took the risk and hid the metal plate with his teammates. This hidden metal plate was actually a contract."

"Contract?!" Upon hearing this word, Jessica almost instantly thought of the legendary Demon Contract, then looked at the man in front of her, who hardly admitted that he was a demon, with a face saying "I am gradually understanding everything."

"Yes, a contract, although it’s unclear from which era it originated. We can only confirm that it was an ’Executioner’s’ contract. According to the contract, it was an attachment to a certain code of laws, existing to ensure the balance between morality and law and to address any potential loopholes in the law. The signatories of the contract would gain great power, but they also had to abide by the terms of the contract, striving to maintain the balance of law and morality."

"Does that mean, on the scale, placed on the other side of the heart, it’s not gold bars, but legal documents? Or maybe, legal paperwork?" Jessica’s focus was clearly a bit off, but Feng Xue shook her head:

"The box that originally held this contract had indeed depicted a scale balancing the heart and paperwork, representing conscience and law, but this coin was different, because the principles of this team and the contract somewhat differed."

Feng Xue tapped the table with her index finger as Jessica realized that she had interrupted "The Minstrel’s Epic," immediately quieted down, and Feng Xue continued telling the story—

"After the young man hid the metal plate, he began to work hard on translating and researching. Fortunately, the civilization of Yan Country had not been interrupted, and the ancient characters and the traditional characters of that modern era still had many similarities. When he decoded the contents, he understood that the core of this contract was simply ’maintaining balance,’ ’upholding justice,’ and ’based on morality.’ On this basis, without violating these points, the contract holders could write down the powers they desired on the contract, and the contract would generate new terms according to those powers.

"He shared the content of the contract with his teammates, but everyone just took it as a story similar to a Wish-making Lamp. However, even so, in an environment where the only thing besides work was more work, they couldn’t help but fantasize—if the contract was real, what kind of power would the Executioner actually possess?

"At first, the discussions were about ’heroes from the history of their own country or knights who might be Executioners,’ but later on, they couldn’t help but fantasize about if they were Executioners, what kind of power they would want.

"Some said it should be like the legendary knights who could kill a person every ten steps, leaving no trace for a thousand miles; some said it should be like being favored by gods, possessing immense strength and being impervious to weapons; others said it should be having endless money because only then could one perform heroic deeds daily without worrying about their own livelihood...

"Afterward, the young man gathered everyone’s ideas and wrote them down on the back of the metal plate with charcoal sticks. But when he saw those armed guards, he added one last item—fearlessness toward guns.

"However, as he continued writing, the language genius noticed something odd—the metal plate was small, and the charcoal stick was thick, but he faced no difficulty in writing. Moreover, it seemed like the metal plate would never run out of space, no matter how many items he wrote, there was always room left..."

"It sounds like the handwriting input on a smartphone..." Jessica couldn’t help but murmur, then asked:

"So, he discovered the contract was real and became an Executioner?"

"To be precise, they became Executioners," Feng Xue corrected Jessica’s guess. "When all the expectations were written down, the pitch-black charcoal text gradually vanished, and then transformed into the ’Traditional Flame Characters’ used by the language genius. Apart from the initial three terms, a total of seven new contracts were created."

"Seven contracts..." Jessica caught on and immediately grabbed a pen. Though she had a recording pen, she wanted to record everything by hand.

"The first, the Executioner must hide their identity to exchange for the ability of Concealing Breath.

"The second, the Executioner must not harm the innocent, in exchange for the Skill of Slaughter.

"The third, the Executioner must base killings on commissions, in exchange for endless wealth.

"The fourth, the commissions accepted by the Executioner must be fair (identical retaliation), in exchange for the support of Mortals (who will not be reported by uninvolved witnesses).

"The fifth, the Executioner must thoroughly investigate before acting, to confirm the commission’s authenticity, in exchange for the power to discern right from wrong.

"The sixth, the Executioner must act alone, in exchange for the physique to fight against thousands.

"The seventh, the Executioner must not use firearms as weapons, in exchange for protection against flying arrows.

"These seven terms, along with the three essential terms of maintaining the balance of law and morality, upholding justice, and conforming to moral standards, total ten terms termed by later Libra organization as ’The Ten Pacts.’"

...

After Jessica wrote down the ten contracts, a strong sense of déjà vu surged in her heart. She instinctively looked towards Feng Xue, but remembering the term about "must hide their identity" in the contracts, she suppressed her question and instead asked,

"What happened next?"

"Next? What happened next was that this team recognized that the contract held true supernatural powers. Then, following the translation method of the language genius, they signed the contract, escaped from the ruins with the magical powers granted by the contract, and then, with the help of endless wealth and great power, they established the Libra organization. They adhered to the principle of ’an eye for an eye, blood for blood,’ bringing justice to those who couldn’t achieve it through legal means."

"Don’t just gloss over the most exciting part!"