Scourge Messenger

Chapter 116 The Pharmacist's Little Secret

As they approached the cave entrance, Yan Qing grasped the outstretched hand of the pharmacist, who effortlessly pulled her to the ground.

"Yellow Dog, give me a hand!" Shang Xinlei called out from below the cave entrance. She was right behind Yan Qing. Both of them had the snake-patterned rope tied around their bodies for security, and then they had Yao Shiyuan and Ying Rushi pull them up. Yan Qing thought to himself that Yao Shiyuan was already helping out, but considering that Shang Xinlei might not be familiar with Yao Shiyuan, he reached out and pulled the snotty-nosed girl up.

When Shang Xinlei came up, she found the central square very quiet, with no guards or palace servants patrolling around. Therefore, the rescue operation, which lasted for nearly half a minute, went unnoticed. She asked in shock, "You killed all the palace servants nearby?"

"We're thieves, why would we do something like this?" the Pharmacist said while adjusting the snake-patterned rope. "Do we look like serial killers?"

Snake Dog looked at the mottled, black bloodstains on Fox Wolf's night clothes and shook his head in tacit agreement. "You're coming back to save us tonight, so whatever you say is right."

“We set a fire when we came here, and now the palace servants have gone to the inner palace to put it out,” Ying explained. “Let’s leave first; this is not a place to stay for long.”

No one objected. On the way back, Yan Qing couldn't help but exclaim, "I never expected you would come to the palace to find us."

“Yes,” Shang Xinlei nodded in agreement. “I thought you would just wait for us at the archway at most, or more likely return to the Thieves’ House after completing the mission. When I was trapped inside, I never thought you would be worried about our safety… It seems I was being petty and judging you by my own standards.”

"A strong wind reveals the strength of the grass, and adversity reveals true friendship." Although Yan Qing could have escaped without them, she would have remembered their willingness to venture into the palace to save them: "White Fox and Black Wolf, you are both reliable teammates. It was Red Serpent and I who were the ones who held us back. Thank you for your help with this mission."

Ying chuckled lightly, "No need to be so polite. After all, the four of us will be committing crimes together in the future, so helping each other is only natural... Black Wolf, don't you think?"

"Ah."

The pharmacist's indifferent reaction didn't surprise Yan Qing and Shang Xinlei. After all, she was an autocratic and arrogant person, and she had indeed saved the two of them, so she naturally accepted their gratitude without hesitation.

Only Ying Rushi could vaguely guess the pharmacist's current complicated feelings, a mocking smile hanging beneath the white fox mask.

……

...

Fifteen minutes ago, on the third floor of Jiangnan Chef God Restaurant.

"Your suggestion is indeed very attractive, but I decline."

Ying Rushi took out the spirit jade to restore her spiritual power and said calmly, "Even if you go back, I will still go to the palace to look for them."

"Why?" the pharmacist couldn't understand.

She had witnessed the swordplay of the woman before her—cold, ruthless, and cunning, elegant yet cruel like a fox. Even now, she dared not say she could reliably defeat the White Fox. Martial artists judge people by their swords, and she believed the White Fox was neither an indecisive fool nor a rigid person bound by worldly morality. That was why she proposed an alliance with the White Fox.

While the pharmacist may have considered taking the white fox as her subject, she was genuinely cooperating at this moment, acknowledging that the white fox was qualified to stand shoulder to shoulder with her.

“There are many reasons, but the most important one is… my future is above the Foundation Establishment stage,” Ying said. “In the future you described, the Thieves’ House will be led by the two of us, with the other two as puppets. Although we can reap the greatest benefits, it also means that only the two of us will face the difficulties.”

The pharmacist sneered, "I really can't believe you, White Fox, are so self-deprecating, even if it's just the two of us—"

"The two of us alone are far from enough!" Ying Rushi retorted without hesitation. "What do you think the Thieves' House is? A little game of warring states, or a childish game of court infighting? The Thieves' House is a secret realm! It's a battlefield prepared by the world for messengers! If you insist on playing power struggles in the secret realm, then I dare say that a self-righteous fool like you will never go far!"

The pharmacist didn't react, but her fists were clenched so tightly that the veins bulged, revealing just how ferocious her face was beneath the black wolf mask. Even so, she didn't argue or even make a move, but simply listened quietly to Ying Rushi's condescending reprimand.

“Black Wolf, I know you are from a noble family, and you may have had experience fighting in secret realms at a young age, but you have never witnessed a real battle in a secret realm…” “White Fox.” The Pharmacist squeezed out a few words through his teeth: “If you don’t understand me, don’t be so presumptuous.”

“I don’t know you, but I know the Secret Realm.” Ying Rushi retorted without any politeness: “You may have fought on the front lines of the first and second level Secret Realm, but what about the third level Secret Realm? What about the fourth level Secret Realm? If you had seen the true cruelty, you wouldn’t have such naive fantasies.”

The pharmacist's hands trembled slightly; this was due to the adrenaline rush from her anger, causing her muscles to relax unconsciously. But she couldn't refute it; she had never been to the Third Transcendent Realm, and her father wouldn't allow her to go.

"I've been to the Third-Rank Secret Realm. In the Third-Rank Secret Realm, the entire team must be messengers, but even First-Rank messengers have an extremely high mortality rate; one wrong move and you're buried in the abyss," Ying said. "However, that's not what I want to talk about. Just the demons at the entrance to the secret realm—it's still possible to overwhelm them with numbers, but..."

At this point, Ying Rushi's voice trembled slightly, as if recalling a painful past. "A third-level demon king cannot be resisted by just one or two third-level messengers. It will launch an attack on everyone, as if testing the messengers' strength. If they fail, they will die instantly."

"A first-level messenger is not qualified to challenge a third-level demon king. A second-level messenger can barely survive. If a third-level messenger cannot work together and dare not attract the demon king's attention, then sooner or later the demon king will defeat them one by one."

"Black Wolf, the enslavement system you mentioned only applies to first and second-tier dungeons. Low-level dungeons can indeed be conquered with a few powerful messengers and a large number of weaklings. But at the third tier and above, without reliable teammates, even third-tier messengers can easily die without a burial place."

The pharmacist took a deep breath and slowly relaxed his clenched fist: "Do you think the Thieves' House will become more dangerous in the future?"

"It has become dangerous," Ying said. "The first target was Anguo Temple, which had a small number of second-tier monks and a large number of first-tier monks. If it were ranked in the secret realm, it would probably be considered a second-tier level. The second target was Shang Xuanwen. Shang Xuanwen himself is a third-tier messenger, and as the Prime Minister of Liang, he can mobilize all the messengers in the city at any time. We just happened to ambush him when he was at his weakest, so we didn't encounter any danger. But that doesn't mean this mission was easy. If Jiangnan City were ranked in the secret realm, it would probably be close to a third-tier level!"

"Besides, if we were able to ambush Shang Xuanwen this time, can we ambush the next target? And the one after that? In which mission do you think we'll face a situation where we have to confront a Foundation Establishment Messenger head-on?"

“One day we will face a desperate situation, and at that time we can only rely on each other.” After absorbing the spirit jade, she turned her head and glanced at Yaoshi Yuan: “So I don’t need slaves, I don’t need puppets, and I don’t need allies with ulterior motives. What I need are companions who can fight alongside me.”

"Let's go, Black Wolf."

The pharmacist did not object, but silently followed Ying Rushi towards the palace. Along the way, they saw many people leaving their homes and gathering in the main streets of the city like they were going to a market, but they did not have time to stop and investigate.

"White Fox," Yaoshi Yuan suddenly asked, "When you went to the Third Rank Secret Realm, was the Demon King defeated by the Third Rank Messengers working together?"

"No." Ying Rushi replied calmly without turning her head, "Just as I said, all three messengers were defeated one by one by the Demon King."

"So how did you survive?"

After a long while, Ying Rushi did not answer, and the pharmacist did not press the matter further.

However, in his heart, the pharmacist had already guessed the identity of Ying Rushi. With both combat talent and leadership ability, he was able to enter the third level of the secret realm at a young age. In addition, with his proficient Qi swordsmanship, he must be either a member of the Qi royal family or a founding noble, and he must hold a high position with great power.

This was the first time Yao Shiyuan had felt such a profound sense of defeat in front of her peers. In terms of vision, magnanimity, and demeanor, she had been utterly outmatched, defeated without any excuse, and utterly ashamed. Yet, she harbored no resentment; instead, she was filled with fighting spirit.

Qi is the strongest state in the Central Plains, and Baihu is very likely to become her biggest rival on her path to hegemony.

That's exactly right!

In the past, the Zhou Dynasty's Emperor Taizu, Emperor Shenwu, and Emperor Taizu of Liang divided the land into three kingdoms, constantly vying for power and leaving behind countless epic tales that are still talked about today. If my path of conquering the world were devoid of worthy enemies, wouldn't it be much less enjoyable?
Just as Emperor Zhaolie subdued Cao Zhengxi three hundred years ago, creating a legendary tale, I believe that you, White Fox, will be my most precious trophy in the future!

Looking at the palace so close at hand, Yakushi stopped her rambling thoughts and began to consider how to win people's hearts. Although she had been persuaded by Ying Rushi, it didn't mean she would hand over the credit so easily. The yellow dog and the red snake were clearly shameless, and she had to take this opportunity to teach them a lesson, to let them know how much she had saved their lives, and hopefully, to make them obedient to her orders from then on.

The thought of being able to stand on moral high ground and reprimand those two colleagues at will made Pharmacist Yuan hum softly.

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(End of this chapter)