Chapter 170: Chapter 170 - The Blood Ink Pen and the Soul Contract
The clueless ones turned toward Lin Weiyang for explanation.
Lin Weiyang stared at the dark red pen in Su Bai’s hand. Her expression had become cautious.
"That is a Blood Ink Pen," she said slowly. "It is an ancient tool used to draft Soul Contracts."
Someone frowned. "Soul Contracts still exist now. Why are they so afraid?"
"Modern Soul Contracts are usually written with agreement first," Lin Weiyang explained. "Both sides offer blood, Qi, or a soul mark willingly. The terms are clear, the backlash is fixed, and most sects have ways to inspect whether the contract is fair."
Her gaze returned to the pen in Su Bai’s hand.
"But old Blood Ink Pens are different."
The outpost became quieter.
Lin Weiyang continued, "When the holder writes, the pen uses blood as ink and pulls a sliver of Soul Essence into the contract as collateral. If the terms are broken, the soul sliver is destroyed first, and the oath-breaker’s main soul suffers backlash through that connection."
A young cultivator’s face changed. "And if the person does not agree?"
Lin Weiyang’s voice lowered slightly.
"That is the frightening part. If the person is forced to sign after the contract is written, the pen can still bite into their blood and soul. Consent makes it smoother. Lack of consent only makes it more painful."
Everyone’s scalp tightened.
Now they understood.
This was not a polite agreement between cultivators. This was an old method of binding consequences directly to flesh and soul.
Su Bai listened quietly and nodded.
Lin Weiyang’s explanation was accurate enough.
This Blood Ink Pen had been one of his sign-in rewards from the Grand Halls of Radiant Zenith Peak.
Su Bai looked at the four Blood Iron Sect disciples bound on the ground.
Two were injured by the Glacier-Lung Bone Mask. The other two were uninjured, but their faces were even paler.
Sometimes, fear did what injury could not.
Most people thought Su Bai would make the thieves write the contract themselves.
That would have been normal.
The guilty party signed, the soul was bound, the punishment was set.
But Su Bai did not hand the pen over. Instead, he took out a blank parchment, then, he began writing.
The Blood Ink Pen touched the parchment.
A faint red light spread from its tip.
The pen drank Su Bai’s blood.
Everyone saw it clearly. A thin stream of crimson entered the pen, darkened, and flowed out as ink. Each stroke carried a faint pressure that made the parchment tremble.
Several cultivators held their breath.
The Blood Ink Pen was indeed drawing blood, but Su Bai’s expression did not even change.
The pen drank greedily, yet he looked as if he were copying an ordinary notice in a study.
What they did not know was that his Macro-Taiji circulation had already begun moving. The blood and vitality consumed by the pen were quietly replenished before weakness could settle.
Just then, the pen attempted to pull his Soul Essence.
Su Bai felt it.
A thin hook reached inward, trying to draw out a sliver of his soul and weave it into the contract.
But... it failed.
The hook touched the depth of his soul, trembled once, and slid away as if it had tried to bite an empty abyss.
Su Bai’s brushstroke paused for the briefest moment.
The Blood Ink Pen could take his blood, but it could not take his soul sliver.
His eyes lowered.
The others did not notice the failure. They only saw that Su Bai continued writing calmly. But Su Bai understood what this meant.
If the contract required the writer’s soul as collateral, then for him, the greatest restriction had already failed.
The contract could still bind the signers, but his side of the oath would have no soul sliver for the contract to destroy.
In other words, the pen could create a contract that favored him far more than anyone here could imagine.
Su Bai’s expression remained calm.
In his previous life, he had seen many documents that looked fair until one read the smaller lines properly. This was not exactly the same but the principle was familiar enough.
Su Bai continued writing.
The terms were simple at first glance.
The four Blood Iron Sect disciples would not attack, poison, obstruct, mislead, steal from, or scheme against Su Bai, Radiant Sky Sect disciples, or anyone traveling under Su Bai’s temporary command inside the Fallen-Star Sanctuary.
They would obey Su Bai’s direct orders during the remaining duration of the Sanctuary exploration, unless the order required immediate self-destruction or deliberate suicide without tactical purpose.
They would not leave the group without permission.
They would not conceal information about Blood Iron Sect, their routes, their allies, their findings, or any suspicious cultivators they had met inside the Sanctuary.
They would not claim equal priority in treasure division. Until their debt was judged repaid, they would receive only the final portion after others had chosen, and even that portion would depend on obedience and contribution.
They would surrender the items used in the theft attempt as compensation.
They would not seek revenge for this matter during or after leaving the Sanctuary.
They would report this debt truthfully if questioned by elders of Blood Iron Sect or Radiant Sky Sect.
And if they violated any term, the contract would punish them directly through the soul sliver sealed within.
Su Bai read the lines once, then added one final sentence.
If an order was unclear, Su Bai’s interpretation would prevail.
The Blood Ink Pen paused.
The parchment glowed faintly.
The four Blood Iron Sect disciples stared at the contract with expressions that slowly changed from fear to despair.
Even those who did not fully understand the wording could feel the pressure inside it.
Lin Weiyang’s mouth opened slightly, then closed.
She looked at Su Bai.
For some reason, she suddenly felt that this contract was cleaner than expected, but also more terrifying because of that cleanliness.
It did not scream cruelty. It simply closed every door.
Qiao Wen stared at the parchment and muttered, "That is... thorough."
Tang Ziyan smiled. "Very."
Ji Ruyue glanced at Su Bai once, then said nothing.
The bandaged young man from Outpost No. 5 swallowed. He had expected punishment. He had not expected a document that made the thieves look as if they had walked into a formation and only noticed after every exit disappeared.
Su Bai looked down at the four Blood Iron Sect disciples.
"Sign."
The two uninjured accomplices trembled.
One of them forced himself to speak. "Fellow Daoist Su, this... this is too much. We only—"
Su Bai looked at him.
The man stopped.
Su Bai’s voice remained calm. "Sign or die."
The choice was simple.
Everyone understood that this was not an empty threat.
Inside the Fallen-Star Sanctuary, Su Bai had enough reason to kill them.
The first uninjured disciple crawled forward while bound by Nether Threads.
Su Bai loosened one hand.
The disciple reached for the Blood Ink Pen.
The moment his fingers closed around it, his face twisted.
The pen bit him.
It did not drink politely as it had with Su Bai, it pierced!
Blood flowed from his palm into the pen. At the same time, something unseen was dragged from his soul. The disciple’s eyes rolled slightly, and a muffled groan escaped his throat.
Only now did everyone understand how abnormal Su Bai had looked earlier.
When Su Bai wrote, the pen had drunk his blood like wine and failed to disturb his expression.
When this disciple touched it, he looked as if something had reached into his chest and pinched his soul between two cold fingers.
The disciple signed his name with shaking strokes.
The moment the final character formed, the parchment flashed. A thin red mark appeared briefly on his wrist before sinking beneath the skin.
He collapsed to the side, panting.
The second uninjured disciple signed next.
His reaction was no better. By the time his name was finished, his face was covered in sweat, and he looked at Su Bai with a mixture of resentment, fear, and disbelief.
It was unfair.
When Su Bai used the pen, nothing seemed to happen.
When they used it, it felt like being bitten by a hungry ghost.
But then, they remembered the mask.
That had also looked harmless on Su Bai.
The resentment became quieter.
Meanwhile, the two injured thieves were harder.
Their hands trembled too badly, and one of them nearly fainted when he tried to move. The frost damage in their throats and lungs made every breath painful. They were conscious, but only barely.
Su Bai looked at them for a moment, then sighed.
He raised one hand.
Devouring Maw activated.
The air around the two injured thieves tightened.
A moment later, the remnant frost lodged in their throats and lungs trembled, then was pulled out at once. Pale icy filaments flew from their mouths and entered the dark devouring force before disappearing into Su Bai.
The two injured disciples convulsed, then coughed violently.
Blood still came out, but the sound of their breathing became clearer.
The entire outpost stared again.
"What technique was that?"
Someone whispered the question, but no one answered.
Many wanted to ask. No one dared.
They had already learned that Su Bai’s things were better left unexplained.
Tang Ziyan’s eyes brightened slightly.
Lin Weiyang stared at the fading shadow of the Devouring Maw, curiosity almost escaping past caution.
Chen Feng silently looked away. He had decided earlier that peace was important, and that decision became firmer.
After the remnant frost was removed, Su Bai loosened one injured thief’s hand and placed the Blood Ink Pen between his fingers.
He signed helplessly.
The pen drank his blood and tore out a soul sliver. His already pale face became nearly gray, but the contract accepted the signature.
The second injured thief signed last.
By then, the outpost was so quiet that the scratch of the pen against parchment sounded almost loud.
When the fourth name was completed, the entire contract shone dark red.
Four thin blood marks rose from the parchment, turned into small chains of light, and sank into the four Blood Iron Sect disciples’ wrists.
The contract was made.
Su Bai took the pen back and stored it away.
The Blood Iron Sect disciples watched the parchment disappear into his storage with dead eyes.
Their lives had been spared but for some reason, none of them felt particularly saved.
Su Bai looked at them and said, "Good."
The single word made the four disciples shiver.
He had gained four new temporary subordinates.
Lackeys, if one wanted to be less polite.
Su Bai preferred not to say that aloud.
He turned his head. "Sister Mu Qing, can you heal the two injured ones enough that they can walk?"
Mu Qing had already prepared medicine. The moment Su Bai spoke, she stepped forward.
"I can stop the bleeding and keep their lungs from worsening," she said. "But full recovery will require proper treatment after leaving."
"That is enough."
The four Blood Iron Sect disciples heard this and felt complicated.
Su Bai had bound their souls with a contract, taken away their freedom, and forced them to obey.
Then he asked someone to heal them.
Was this mercy?
Was this cruelty?
Was this efficiency?
They could not decide.
The surrounding cultivators could not decide either.
One Outpost No. 5 cultivator whispered, "Fellow Daoist Su is truly magnanimous."
Another stared at the four blood-bound disciples and whispered back, "Are you sure that word still means what you think it means?"
The first cultivator thought for a long moment.
Then said, "Maybe... complicatedly magnanimous."
Several people nodded.
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