Scourge Messenger

Chapter 139 Red Name
The firewood crackled and popped as it burned, and the fire blazed brightly.

The location of the campsite chosen by the pharmacist was excellent. It was about a hundred paces from the water source, making it convenient to get water without getting it damp; it was backed by a large rock, with no dead branches or stones above it; and the ground was a relatively flat grassy area... It's unclear whether she already had wilderness survival skills or learned them quickly during her escape.

Yan Qing was very curious about Yao Shiyuan. The daughter of a duke, she was on the run and had reached the third level of cultivation. She went to the dangerous land of the demonic path to inherit the foundation-building legacy. She even had two maids who would live and die with her and never leave her side... The only pity was that she was not a man, otherwise this would have been the most classic revenge plot.

Actually, Yan Qing hesitated for a moment when the pharmacist offered to form a sworn brotherhood, because helping her take revenge would definitely be a very interesting quest chain. But Yan Qing quickly gave up on this idea: even if they didn't form a sworn brotherhood, the bunny girl could still get involved; but if they did form a sworn brotherhood, it felt like there would be an extra bond that needed to be taken care of for no reason.

The alt account will eventually fight for Yan Qing's interests at some point in the future, and shouldn't build too close relationships with others. He doesn't want anyone to be saddened by the alt account's death; this is one of the few acts of kindness he has shown as a player.

Wu Qiu and Shi Dong had already set up a large tent that could sleep four people. This tent was naturally provided by the Bunny Girl herself—it was taken from the Pingcheng military camp—no one was surprised by this anymore. They firmly believed that the Bunny Girl's brother was a kind older brother with a mental disability but who loved his sister dearly and had prepared everything for her trip.

The bunny girl sat by the fire repairing her keepsake. Her Seven Steps of Reciting Buddha's Name had only half its durability left, and her Hundred-Image Hands of Melting Weapons had also lost a third of its durability.

The reason Yan Qing took so long to retaliate in today's battle was that the cost of a failed perfect parry was too high. If he had just kept parrying (normal parrying), his Seven Steps of Reciting Buddha and the Hand of Melting a Hundred Aspects would have exploded long ago. Yan Qing had to be absolutely certain before he dared to parry perfectly.

The benefits of success were beyond imagination; not only could the attack be blocked without damage, but it could also inflict durability damage on the enemy's tokens. If Helan Que continued to fight him, it wouldn't just be the rare curved sword that would be destroyed, but even the Soul-Severing Spear would be lost.

In theory, in close combat, even a Foundation Establishment Messenger like Yan Qing could potentially defeat an enemy using this fighting style. However, it's clear that Foundation Establishment Messengers all seem to possess wide-range and even long-range attacks. Below the Foundation Establishment level, Yan Qing is confident that this fighting style can deal with all enemies without many limitations, unlike Bingzi Jiaolin, who would have to destroy all her assigned weapons with a single use.

The pharmacist was also repairing the keepsake, but she wasn't using a repair kit. Instead, she was applying something like a gel to the damaged area of ​​the Soul-Severing Spear, and then wrapping it with cloth. It looked more like she was repairing a person than a tool.

Noticing the bunny girl's gaze, the pharmacist said, "This is pharmacist's glue. Although its repair effect is not as good as the tool kits produced in the secret realm, it is cheap and plentiful, and it is effective on all tokens. It is the most important strategic product of Zhou Kingdom."

"Pharmacist's Glue?"

"It's a technique developed by the Pharmacist family over a hundred years ago using materials from a secret realm." Pharmacist Yuan looked at the tool bag that the bunny girl had just used: "Hidden Sword Manor Tool Bag... This is a tool that can only be produced by Hidden Sword Manor in the Qi Kingdom's secret realm."

However, she only said it casually, without intending to press further; it seemed more like she was showing off her knowledge. Yan Qing finished repairing the keepsake and was about to log off when the Pharmacist stood up and asked, "I'll keep watch for the first half of the night, and you'll keep watch for the second half?"

That's right, you need to keep watch at night to survive in the wild.

Before this, Yan Qing would simply let the game run in the background and then log off. Although fresh corpses would occasionally spawn near his alt account the next day, he obviously didn't care about this risk—who would stay up all night to play for the safety of their alt account?

"If you're willing to trust me, I can stay on duty all night," said Bunny Girl. "I can stay alert while I sleep, and even if you let me go to sleep, I'll remain alert. I've been traveling alone these past few days and haven't had a single mishap."

The pharmacist pondered for a moment and nodded: "Okay, I'll probably be well-rested by 3 a.m., and we'll set off at 6 a.m. tomorrow. I'll come out then and let you go back to sleep."

Yan Qing was a little surprised for a moment. After all, they had only known each other for a day, and entrusting security entirely to the Bunny Girl seemed a bit too trusting. But then he realized what Yao Shiyuan was thinking: "Look how much I trust you, you must be very touched, right? Shouldn't you call me 'good sister' soon?"
After setting up the nighttime security procedures, Yan Qing conducted his usual nighttime training and then took a shower. When he came out, he glanced at the screen and saw that the three of them, master and servants, were already asleep in their tents.

This is only natural. Today was just a slightly interesting day of sightseeing for Yan Qing, but for them it was an extremely dangerous escape. After a long day of trekking, it was only reasonable for them to fall asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow—yes, there were pillows in the tent.

Yan Qing hesitated for a moment, then added a step to the Bunny Girl's evolution program: "Trigger the buzzer when encountering an enemy."

"It probably won't trigger anything. There don't seem to be any bandits here, and even if there are fire beasts, they shouldn't come near," he thought.

……

...

"Buzzing—"

Yan Qing suddenly reached out and grabbed the game console, almost instinctively pressing the power button, and the beeping stopped. It took him a full three seconds to realize what had happened. When he turned on the game console, he found that Bunny Girl hadn't entered the battle, and no one had even entered within ten meters of the camp.

This is not normal, because Yan Qing set up the enemy encounter procedure for the Bunny Girl: 'unknown target attacks' and 'unknown target enters within ten steps'. The former allows for an immediate counterattack, while the latter triggers three warnings before a counterattack. As long as these two conditions are not triggered, even if someone is observing the alt account from ten steps away, it will not be considered an enemy encounter.

But when Yan Qing looked at the screen clearly, he immediately understood why the automatic evolution program thought they had encountered an enemy.

Because in the game world, there are people who, even if they don't attack you or get close to you, you know they are enemies just by their presence.

Such people often possess an obvious characteristic:

Red name!

At this moment, Yaoshi Yuan and the others had also been awakened by the Bunny Girl's warning. When they came out and saw that there were no wild beasts or enemies, they asked, "What's wrong?" The Bunny Girl pointed to the woods thirty paces away and shouted, "'Hundred Poison Hand' Ye Kai, 'Little Poison Hand' Chen Afu, come out!"

A moment later, two figures emerged from the bushes. One was tall, the other short; the shorter one was middle-aged, the taller one young. The shorter, middle-aged man had a gloomy face, his nostrils seeming to exude a chilling aura. He coldly said, "Eagle Eye? Owl? Not only did you spot us, but you can even recognize us in the dark. You're quite something, little girl."

"Even if she's not simple, she'll still die!" Gao Qingnian reached into his crotch, drooling as he looked at Wu Qiu Shidong beside the fire. "Master, hurry up and do it. What a pretty young lady. I haven't touched a good one like her since I left Yongzhou."

"Sister," the Pharmacist whispered, stepping behind the Bunny Girl, "Do you know anything about these two wicked villains? What tokens do they have?"

"No, this is my first time meeting them too, and I don't know what kind of token they have."

"Hmm!?" The short, middle-aged man frowned. "Little girl, you haven't seen us before? How did you recognize us?"

The pharmacist felt a chill run down her spine: they were still more than a dozen steps away from the demonic villains, and she had even lowered her voice to talk to the bunny girl. The fact that they could still be heard meant that they either had a reconnaissance artifact that enhanced their hearing, or that the other party's soul was unexpectedly powerful. Either way, it meant that the other party was not weak.

"Because I'm a female knight-errant, and female knights can see the names of bad guys directly." The bunny girl pointed at their heads and said, "My brother said that anyone whose name I can see directly is an utterly wicked villain."

The short middle-aged man and the tall young man had the names "Hundred Poison Hands - Ye Kai" and "Little Poison Hands - Chen Afu" hanging on their heads respectively. This was the first time Yan Qing had known someone's name and appearance directly outside the secret realm without obtaining any information.

Moreover, they are all red-named, meaning they are already enemy units as soon as they appear, enjoying the same treatment as the demons in the secret realm.

"Wu Qiu, Shi Dong, you two follow behind, not too far and not too close," Yao Shi Yuan instructed, then asked, "I'll deal with the old one, and you deal with the young one?"

"Switch places. You hurry up and kill the younger one, then help me deal with the older one."

"Let's do as you say, little sister." Actually, Yakushi En thought so too, but she was worried that if she took the initiative to suggest dealing with the weak, it would lower her sister's favor.

Ye Kai, the Hundred Poison Hand, laughed in anger: "Interesting. It seems you are quite capable messengers from outside the mountains. If you are given time to hone your skills, you might be able to gain a foothold in the mountains."

"What a pity you've run into us, master and disciple!"

The four rushed forward simultaneously: the bunny girl faced off against Ye Kai, and the pharmacist was willing to deal with Chen Afu.

To Yan Qing's surprise, Ye Kai did not use any weapons. The token he used to attack seemed to be a pair of gloves, which were actually very rare fist and palm messengers.

Below the fourth level, weapons far surpass fists and palms in both lethality and safety. Therefore, the vast majority of martial arts messengers cultivate weapons. Even Qian Gongyu uses claws to enhance lethality. Ye Kaizhen is the first pure fist and palm messenger that Yan Qing has encountered.

The parrying with fists and palms was even more subtle. Yan Qing initially tried to dodge and counterattack, but Ye Kai also had a defensive artifact; the Seven Steps of Buddhist Recitation would trigger a barrier if it hit him. Ye Kai was very agile and tried to get past the sword circle to approach the bunny girl, but Yan Qing naturally wouldn't give him that chance, fighting while moving and maintaining the optimal attack distance.

Suddenly, Ye Kai struck out with a palm at the bunny girl from a distance. Although there was a sword's distance between them, Yan Qing still dodged in advance. However, Ye Kai had anticipated this and clapped his left hand in the direction the bunny girl dodged. A purplish-green wisp of smoke quickly rushed towards the bunny girl's head.

Toxic fumes?

Yan Qing didn't care. With the defensive token, the poisonous smoke was useless except for obscuring vision. Unless it was a sulfuric acid-level toxin that could quickly erode the defensive barrier, the Mountain Breast Protection Mirror was there to protect him.
-
3, -4, -5...

Bunny Girl's health is starting to drop, and a poison icon has appeared on her health bar!
But when Yan Qing looked, he found that the seven layers of barriers of the Mountain Heart-Protecting Mirror were still there and had not been broken at all.

Several messages popped up in the battle log on the right:
"You are being harmed by 'Violet Smoke'."

"You have been poisoned."

"Determining..."

"Based on your divine soul, you will receive very limited combat information."

"You are being attacked by the Asura's Relic - Hundred Poison Cotton Hand!"

Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, the solemn voice of the Pharmacist Yuan rang out:
"Sister, these two are ruthless murderers. They both use magical artifacts that can ignore defensive artifacts to a certain extent!"

(End of this chapter)