Chapter 606: Witch Contract, “The Correctness of the Contract” Statement
As more and more people gathered in Ninglan New City, many spontaneously called for and firmly pursued their own tasks.
Of course, everyone’s initial purpose in entering Ninglan New City was to help the humans outside Ninglan New City rebuild civilization.
This had been communicated to everyone when they entered the teleportation portal and signed the contract, but… it was not mandatory.
When those with a compassionate heart wanted to help the deeply troubled refugees, they found they couldn’t even communicate with them, and to persist, they needed to self-learn one or even multiple languages!
Such matters inevitably started off slowly; the saying “All things are difficult before they are easy” probably sums this up.
But who are they? They are witches!
Even though many from other Extraordinary Academies had come, the majority of the visiting crowd in Ninglan remained from the Witch Academy.
Not everyone was focused solely on the resources of the Expanding Realm.
Upon entering Ninglan New City, the contract didn’t force everyone to assist those refugees in rebuilding civilization, but it strongly encouraged individuals to help them.
Moreover, the contract clearly stipulated one thing: that those who helped rebuild the civilization and refuge could not in any form impede the process of civilization reconstruction.
This means… you can choose not to participate in this great selfless act, but you cannot become an obstacle to this action; otherwise, following the Witch Contract, they would be expelled and at least could not return to the Expanding Realm in any form during the contract’s duration.
At a time when the group trying to help rebuild civilization was at a loss, they quickly obtained some breakthroughs.
If they wanted to help the refugees rebuild their homes, they needed to communicate with them, and it seemed that currently the only ones they could awkwardly communicate with were the members of the Literature Association in the city.
However… learning a language, or even multiple languages, step by step would take an incredibly long time.
Then they received some very important information from the elder Shentu Le.
“The translations of these languages were provided by Scholar Xiao Han. I heard that Scholar Xiao Han is a teaching assistant from your Witch Academy; she knows many of that civilization’s languages and can perform a magic spell rumored to facilitate barrier-free communication with those people.”
“Xiao Han? Is she Sister Xiao Han? What? We can still hear legends about Sister Xiao Han here?”
“Then, Elder Shentu, can you tell us about what kind of magic spell that is? Can we learn it?”
“I’m not sure; I heard it’s a translator that only the user can see. I can’t explain it, but perhaps you can visit the highest military officer of the city defense army, Mo Le; he’s the beneficiary of this spell, and maybe you can learn about it from him,” Shentu Le said. “If there’s nothing else, this old man will get back to studying.”
“Then we won’t disturb you any longer; goodbye, Elder Shentu.”
“We’re leaving now.”
After gathering this information, the group hurriedly rushed to another location.
For such a spontaneous group of extraordinary academy visitors wanting to help those refugees, Mo Le was naturally willing to take the time to receive them.
After all, who wouldn’t want free labor?
Mo Le spoke with them for quite a while, discussing everything from the spell called Knowledge Shadow to language translation issues and arrangements for those refugees within Ninglan New City, as well as placement issues outside the city, and so forth.
They proposed numerous suggestions for delineating a placement area outside of Ninglan New City, with external disaster relief tents as the primary means of accommodation.
However, facing the gathering of thousands of refugees, this was the real headache for Ninglan New City.
So ultimately, it was still a matter of money, as money, supplies, and manpower were the main means of disaster relief.
Money was not much to witches.
Unless the witch studied alchemy or medicinal crafting, which could easily lead a student to poverty.
However, money was also not a windfall for the students.
So what other way could there be to earn money?
The extraordinary crystal mining area outside the city provided resources that were yours once mined, so theoretically, making money here wasn’t difficult.
You could even conduct donation activities; you could choose not to donate, but you could not obstruct those willing to rescue and rebuild civilization, thus expressing your determination to help them rebuild civilization.
Not everyone is physically present to complete the reconstruction of civilization; donations of materials are equally helpful.
And all of this only requires one reason to suffice, representing the side of justice and suffering. Such actions are even strongly encouraged by the Witch Contract.
In Ninglan New City, whatever you do might be met with obstruction and ridicule, but helping those people rebuild civilization cannot—this stems from the “correctness of the contract” as embodied in the Witch Contract.
As long as the contract is used well, even the power of language is enough to silence many and make them compromise; otherwise, how could this contract be known as the “Witch Contract”?
Did others not notice this?
They did notice, especially those teaching assistants, who could clearly see how to utilize this contract. Did they truly think they were just simple bandits?
Being a bandit, how convenient is it to just mouth off and get money?
If everyone had such a short-sighted outlook, then on the first day Ninglan New City opened to teaching assistants, all the assistants would have rushed in first instead of just the five or six who actually went, and those few didn’t even rush in to seize things right away.
The first batch of witches to interact with the extraordinary energy crystal mining area learned about the difficulty and thresholds of mining these crystals. The thresholds for mining regions transformed from extraordinary crystals were extraordinarily high, but the extraordinary materials mining area transformed from world source soil had much lower energy radiation.
And these mining regions could be exploited on a large scale with low thresholds, as long as the mining processes were handled carefully; there was no need for further worries.
The only thing that caught them off guard was the troubles and changes encountered during this period.
The most headache-inducing issue for all the teaching assistants was the overlapping dreams, which consumed a lot of their time on learning new spells and significantly increased the variables they needed to pay attention to…
But that was fine; at least they felt this could bring them profits, so they would continue doing so.
So… a seemingly simple matter became a source of difficulty because of profits.
Clearly aimed at having everyone work on the reconstruction of civilization, it turned into a battleground of interests because of potential gains, and if they thought deeper, even the task of rebuilding civilization could be exploited.
…
Disaster Refuge.
“If you brought me here to waste time, I think our conversation ends here. I have very important matters to attend to; I don’t have time to play with you.” I stood up and glanced at the group that had come, led by Wenni, the all-purpose association teaching assistant I had previously met in Ninglan Township Fort.
“Wait! Don’t you want to help these people rebuild civilization? With our help, this Disaster Refuge you are currently in can surely grow larger. As the largest scale refuge closest to Ninglan New City, with this basis, it could temporarily alleviate the pressure outside of Ninglan New City…”
“Wenni, you are also a teaching assistant with the Great Knowledge Seed; do you think those little plans of yours are useful to me?” I directed my gaze at this teaching assistant and spoke.
“Sorry… I think you may have misunderstood our intention, but I hope you can understand that nothing in this world comes without a price. I think… you are being a bit too possessive over the Disaster Refuge, not allowing others to have a hand in it?”
“I’m just doing what I want to do; what happens to the Disaster Refuge is none of my business. You want to use this basis to build a super large refuge? I have no objections…”
“Are you afraid of losing control over those people? To put it bluntly, you sound like a slave master. The only difference is that these ‘slaves’ currently can’t help you, and you don’t want to exploit them.”
“Can I take that to mean you are probing my emotional bottom line?” I wasn’t angry at the other’s words.
I just simply hated chatting with people full of malice; it was tiring. But if I didn’t take them seriously, they would inch forward to take advantage of others, smiling happily; as soon as I got angry, they immediately started to blame me, pretending to be weak to garner sympathy.
“Just kidding, how could we do that? I’m sorry for my previous way of speaking; I apologize to you. I was thinking of the people here too; do you really have the heart to let them live in such a place indefinitely?”
“Do as you wish; just avoid touching my bottom line, or I’ll flip the table.” I snorted lightly, ending this meeting.
As for my bottom line?
I hadn’t explicitly stated it to them; I had just previously told them not to touch the area around the Wanlian Main Network Tree. Since they didn’t know where my bottom line was, they wouldn’t dare to go too far.
However, this also had a downside; if they were shameless enough, they would keep creating opportunities to communicate with me and continuously test my bottom line.
I hoped they wouldn’t overstep too much; at the very least, tone down their approach a bit, but they hoped to detect my bottom line and then maximize profit based on that.
Thus, I said that I was destined not to share a path with them.
Once in contact with them, they would inch forward on my bottom line; to them, the bottom line was the scope of their “reasonable” gain.
In any case, this was an irreconcilable contradiction. I had already given the necessary warning; now it was up to them when they would wear my patience thin.
Yes, I had predicted from the beginning that they would inevitably reach that point.
“So, are you agreeing? Rest assured, we absolutely have sincere intentions; for your contributions, we will publicize them, and we won’t let those people forget what you have done for them, so… please don’t keep mentioning flipping the table.” Wenni said with a smile, and as for flipping the table?
She wasn’t afraid. Strength means nothing here.
There couldn’t be mutual slaughter here, and civilization reconstruction couldn’t be disrupted. As long as they mastered the pace and rhythm of civilization reconstruction, they could achieve many things.
Once they took over this unique foundation of Refuge from Teaching Assistant Yang Yuelan, responsible for the reconstruction, with a large enough population outside Ninglan New City, they would support the super large-scale refuge; eventually, this place may no longer need such an unpleasant title as “refuge.”
By then, how would they promote Yang Yuelan’s contributions?
What they elevated could also be pushed down from the pedestal by them; everything was viewed from a developmental perspective. Even if they touched that person’s bottom line, could she really strike back?
Mastering the discourse was enough; because they held “the correctness of the contract,” no one could disrupt the reconstruction of civilization.
“Do as you wish.” I turned to leave but was called back by her.
“By the way, since this exchange was completed successfully, can we learn what you are currently working on?” Wenni’s tone and demeanor suddenly lowered significantly.
They were indeed very interested in what the other was doing, but they didn’t dare to get involved, because the other was researching something with the involvement of extraordinary mentors!
A single word from the mentor could make them leave in an instant; although they had taken the initiative during the earlier conversation, they believed what the other was doing was surely important, and with the backing of extraordinary mentors, the others could be so brazen.
This was something they had to take seriously.
For them, they felt they could tread on Xiao Han’s bottom line but could never cross the line of the mentor!
“It’s none of your business; you should focus on how to rebuild this refuge and then welcome the gratitude of those people towards you.”
After I said these, I stood up to send them off.
After sending off this group of people, seven figures gathered around me, those same individuals who had just been sent away.
These seven were the current leaders proposed by the Disaster Refuge management, considered the spiritual leaders guiding all to survive.
And these seven… were the first I encountered, six males and one female, the initial group that had strong execution power and sense of responsibility.
Of course, the primary importance was that they understood me, after all, I was the actual builder of the Disaster Refuge and held absolute power.
“Lady Witch, that group just now…”
At that moment, one of them cautiously opened his mouth to inquire. The language barrier meant they didn’t know the specifics of our conversation.
“They will help you build the refuge; when they come, you’ll handle all communications with them. If you don’t understand this area, find someone skilled in negotiation; don’t let those guys take everything from you,” I instructed.
“Really? They are willing to help us build the refuge?”
“Don’t get too excited; who knows if their intentions are sincere.”
Very quickly, the person who first spoke was advised by someone next to him; he understood how to read the room.
“They plan to build here into a super large refuge; by then, it will take in more individuals.” I continued, “Their task is to help you in reconstructing civilization. Whether they are sincere or not is irrelevant; they will indeed do this, so I said to be careful not to let them take everything from you; there’s no such thing as a free lunch.”
“We know; we will definitely be cautious!”
“Anyone can say pretty words. Rebuilding civilization implies a complete reshuffling of your society; you are currently at the forefront, and you likely have your ambitions, too?”
“We dare not…”
“We would never… absolutely not…”
Hearing my words, they hurriedly denied it, while many simply chose silence.
“Having ambitions is a good thing; I will also help you like those people, but it won’t be in their way,” I reassured them.
It was inevitable that they would have ambitions; I never cared about that, so I continued to speak, guiding them to willingly do what I wanted them to do.
“Do you wish to gain power? If you are determined to bear the cost, I can help you master extraordinary power.”
