“Now, repeat after me, just replace my name with yours.” Jianmen stood before Professor Atkinson and Dolores, all three of them had their left hand on the dark translucent scythe: “I, Jianmen Yu.”

“I, James Brennan Atkinson.” “I, Dolores Jaye Brooke.”

“Hereby pledge my will in acceptance of the contract of Will offered by Xyn, the first ascender from the void.”

“Hereby pledge my will in acceptance of the contract of Will offered by Xyn, the first ascender from the void.”

“Till the end of time and the death of my mind, body and soul, shall I see to my duties be completed.”

“Till the end of time and the death of my mind, body and soul, shall I see to my duties be completed.”

“My will be with this covenant.”

“My will be with this covenant.”

It took only four simple sentences. When the last syllable dropped, both Professor Atkinson and Dolores felt a sudden inflow of information in their heads: first it was the true form of the god’s name, Xyn, in its original lingo and written form. Secondly it was the visuals of the temple before it became deserted like it was today, when the buildings stood tall with shines of magical energy flowing on the surface; the thousands upon thousands of followers of different shapes, colors and sizes bowing towards the position of the temple, and a planet-scale shadow of an avatar floating right above the temple, looking down at the temple and the followers.

What came after the visuals was the sound of chanting in some kind of ancient language from these followers. Even though neither Professor Atkinson nor Dolores could understand a word from the chants, they felt that they still understood the meaning of the chants - they were praises of the God Xyn, prayers for blessings and protections, and pledgings of their faithfulness and piety.

Three streams of energy flowed into the hands of the three individuals in the office that just accepted the contract. As the broker and negotiator of the contract, Jianmen was fully aware of the terms. He was also glad that he was able to uphold his end of the deal made with Xyn this soon.

That day at the temple, beside the contract he negotiated for the benefit of Professor Atkinson and Dolores, he also struck a deal with Xyn - his deal with Xyn was quite a bit similar to the deal Xyn made offered to the professor and Dolores, which was that he would assist in the search and locating of the descendant, and he would need to protect the descendant from harm when this descendant was found.

This descendant could be anyone who was born from the void, it could be any of the relatively commonly seen elementals, or it could be mysterious beings like fog dwellers and depth dwellers. If Xyn had commissioned some other people to find his descendants, it would be a headache for Jianmen because he would need to find them first and had to collaborate with the people he didn’t know or trust. And right now, Professor Atkinson and Dolores were recommended and vouched for by Josephine Wong, he had no better people to assist in fulfilling both deals, and he could think of no other people more deserving of the knowledge Xyn had to impart.

While Professor Atkinson and Dolores were still standing in their places, receiving and digesting the information beamed from Xyn and the temple. Jianmen helped them back to their seats and left the office.

Before he left, he cast a simple spell on the cakes - which would preserve them in their best condition.

Just the moment he went out of the office, Jianmen sensed that there was some faint but still noticeable energy flow that affected a large portion of the karmic flow in the universe. Some of which actually had an influence on him. He could not tell whether this change was beneficial to him yet. But at least from the initial sense, he could tell that it was not harmful to him or anyone he cared about.

Before he closed the door, Jianmen took another look at Professor Atkinson and Dolores - it looked like that some kind of blessing was cast on them from Xyn, granting them some kind of unknown abilities. It was not permanent, but should be strong enough to hold for a sufficient amount of time until they find the descendant.

“Xyn, you generous and honorable fella.” Jianmen looked up at the sky and chuckled: “Looks like I need to protect your descendent with full force now.”

----------------------------------

It was a sunny afternoon at Xianshi Inn.

Dave was sitting at the reception’s desk, eating a bowl of ramen with Mack by his side, and watching a movie on a tablet placed in front of them.

“Damn, this Chashu.” Dave swallowed and said: “I think this is the best one yet - aside from Mr. Yu’s of course.”

“Yeah well, it’s the one with the second highest rated ramen place in all of San Jose.” Mack laughed and said: “Next time we can try the highest rated one - too bad their owner just went back to Japan so we may have to wait a while.”

“That won’t be a problem for me at all. I’ve got all eternity.” Dave laughed, both at his own joke and a funny scene from the movie.

“I’m sure you do. I’m sure you do.” Mack also laughed.

“Daekan-Velliander, are you here?” just this moment, a tall man with wide shoulders and wearing a grey hood came into the lounge.

Dave paused the movie with a frown on his face and stood up: “What? Who’s asking?”

“Xyankor.” the man in a grey hood answered: “You may not recognize my current face yet, but please excuse my dropping by without notifying you first, but I need your help - we need your help.”

“If it’s not urgent, you can make an appointment on my calendar.” Dave shook his head: “You know the rules.”

“Yes, I know. But this is urgent.” Xyankor said: “And I am not saying this because of my ‘thing’. I am here to summon you.”