When Jianmen left the temple of Xyn’s Creator Avatar, he left a small metal coin for Xyn, and two wooden coins for Dolores and Professor Atkinson - if anything bad should happen, these would serve as means of temporary protection.

After departing from the temple and the realm in which Xyn’s two avatars, Professor Atkinson and Dolores resided, he opened up a portal to the outer range of a realm about which he had known for quite some time but never got a chance to visit.

There was a thin gray energy barricade outside this realm, which was occasionally glowing in blood red color. On this barrier, Jianmen could see a lot of markings that looked like they were made from scratchings from sharp claws. They did not seem to be random scratch marks either, but intentional writings with claws instead.

“I imagine you did not come here for tea.” A man in a dark cloak appeared before Jianmen: “And, uh, congratulations on your speedy recovery. What did you do?”

“Dived into my drug caskets.” Jianmen scoffed: “Still recovering - so if you wanna spar you’re gonna have to wait.”

“Heh, nice try. I may not be as favored by the Will as you are, but I still have my honor.”

“Then you know why I am here - if you don’t, then I would seriously doubt the value of leaving you be and letting you have all of that malice in that underground lab.” Jianmen shook his head.

“Having both eyes does have its benefits, but even if I didn’t have them I could still feel the change in the world.” The man lifted the cloak on his head, revealing two eyes glowing in yellow light: “And apparently, it’s humans again.”

“Yes. And you know why I am here.” Jianmen nodded, and flicked his finger, sending a miniscule grain of white crystal to Tze Cha: “As promised. More to come, when the war is over. I trust that you already know about the battle plans?”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Tze Cha received the grain of white crystal and let out a long and hoarse laughter, after which he said to Jianmen: “You really intend to fight alongside humans? A bunch of low level mortals, that’s your choice of teammate?”

“That’s correct, and if you could convince those that have dealings with you and receive benefits from you to join our fight, it’d be much appreciated.” Jianmen smiled and shook his head: “Of course, they would need to make a temporary allegiance contract, sworn with True Words.”

“I have some names, but I don’t think your current teammates would work well with them.” Tze Cha carefully examined the grain of white crystal in his hand and said: “You partnered with annoying and self righteous do gooders and those who hold the concept of good and bad to too much esteem. And the humans I have contracts with - well, let’s just say, they are more like me and not you. One of them was there at the place when it happened.”

“Is that so?” Jianmen narrowed his eyes: “What did you see?”

“Stone of Negation being used, by a reckless human.” Tze Cha scoffed as he twirled his fingers in the air, and the small grain of white crystal was slowly consumed by a stream of dark blue energy: “It was kinda eye opening, that human’s gift - I don’t think I’ve ever seen something like that coming from a lowly mortal race. It’s the vision to see, and the hand to bring the end, it’s … quite ironic.”

“What did this person ask for?” Jianmen immediately asked.

“To get out of a deal she made with an entity - and my palate was kinda tingling at the time when I sensed that entity’s whining through the space.” Tze Cha laughed out loud and then shook his head: “It’s a new but minor god, I can sense it.”

“Your desire for that kind of power is disturbing, and unrealistic. And trust me, it will not end well if your greed is not contained.” Jianmen shook his head: “Didn't losing one eye teach you anything?”

“Hehe, for someone who regularly burns himself doing random things around the universe, did you really think you are in a place to tell me this?” Tze Cha reached into the inner pockets of his cloak to take out a pale twisted horn and a long, dark sharp nail and throw them to Jianmen: “I no longer have any use for these, here you go. They’re from the ‘Demon’ whose body, soul and essence I trade my one eye for, and whose contracts with the humans I inherited, one of which is a one of one’s name.”

Jianmen took the winding horn and the sharp nail then quickly examined them with his Xuanli - these two items still had quite a bit of energy in them, which he could make some good use for setting up traps and artifacts against the Defilers or even blessing and buffing those that would fight against them. What was more interesting, however, was that there were contracts embedded inside - should he accept these two items, he would be inheriting and taking over these contracts - with humans on Earth.

“And for a brief moment I thought you are no longer your self-serving self.” Jianmen shook his head.

“If you plan on dying alongside them, then it’d be reasonable that you take over all of these as well.” Tze Cha shrugged and smirked like a greedy merchant who just duped a client: “I am the last of my kind, should this part of the world fall, I don’t want anything left that they could use to trace back to me.”