Scourge Messenger

Chapter 143 Seven Star Sword Chang Le City

"Monk, in my entire life, besides the Grand Commander of the Realm, you're the second one I've ever truly respected! Come on, tonight it's my treat at Yuechu Restaurant, we won't leave until we're drunk!"

As soon as they emerged from the secret realm, Sun Chaozong excitedly shouted, his scarred face beaming with a terrifying smile.

"Hey kid, he's a monk, why are you taking him out for drinks and meat?"

"Oh? Are there any vegetarian restaurants around here?"

"No need to worry about me," said the Rat Monk. "Just ask the innkeeper to prepare a vegetarian dish."

"But we're all roughnecks, we'll definitely be drinking and eating meat." Sun Chaozong scratched his head. "Monk, won't you be unhappy to see us eating and drinking like this?"

"Rules and regulations are only suitable for restraining oneself, not for restraining others. Moreover, the rules prohibit killing, yet I don't know how many demons have died by my sword today." The Rat Monk put his hands together: "I do not save people, only demons."

If any other monk had spoken like this, Sun Chaozong and the others would have been filled with disdain, but when the Rat Monk said these words, they could only admire him. He had been in Xuanwu Lake Military Town for five days, and apart from settling into his lodgings on the first day, the Rat Monk had spent the next four days fighting in the secret realm.

Moreover, the Rat Monk changed jobs a second time on the very next day. Even though everyone knew he had the support of Prime Minister Shang Xuanwen, this speed was still quite frightening.

Not only that, on the day he changed jobs, he applied to join the expedition team for the second-level secret realm 'Stone Sinking Creek'. However, the commanders did not agree immediately, seemingly because they wanted to contact Shang Xuanwen. After all, sending a messenger who had just entered the second level to attack the second-level secret realm might make outsiders think that Xuanwu Lake Military Town wanted to kill Shang Xuanwen's savior.

It wasn't until yesterday that the commander relented and transferred Rat Monk to Sun Chaozong's team to participate in today's 'Stone Sinking Creek' punitive expedition.

Although he had heard of the Rat Monk's talent, Sun Chaozong did not think that a newbie who had just changed jobs could play a significant role in the second-level secret realm. He even thought that the Rat Monk was there to gain experience and accumulate merits, so he naturally looked down on him.

These second-tier messengers, who are stationed in military towns to conquer secret realms, live on the edge of a knife year-round. They can dream of fighting demons even with their eyes closed. Only the truly strong can earn their respect.

So after a day of conquering the secret realm, the team's attitude towards the Rat Monk completely changed.

Daring to charge ahead and confront demons, and even diverting the demon king's attention to buy time for others to attack when Sun Chaozong was in danger, this courage and ability alone were enough to win the hearts and minds of these soldiers.

In military towns, nothing provides a greater sense of security than being among the strong.

"That Rathead is really something," someone laughed. "He's been fighting in the secret realm for five days straight. Surely he won't be going again tomorrow, right?"

The rat monk smiled but didn't say anything.

Sun Chaozong's forehead was covered in sweat: "Monk, you don't still want to go to 'Stone Sinking Stream' tomorrow, do you? How about we go to 'Wind and Snow Temple' to relax?"

"No need to be nervous," said the Rat Monk. "This humble monk can go to the expedition against 'Stone Sinking Creek' tomorrow. I only hope that General Sun Ya can help with the introductions; otherwise, I can only trouble the commander to make arrangements." He continued, "I wonder if this will be of trouble to General Sun Ya?"

"Just call me Head Sun, or Old Sun if you don't like, but calling me General Sun sounds too formal," Sun Chaozong said. "Introductions aren't a problem. With your abilities, Monk, you'd be welcome in any team. It's just... I was hoping you could stay with our team permanently."

"This humble monk only wishes to deliver all demons. Whoever is willing to conquer the secret realm, this humble monk will go with them. When it is your turn, Sun Tou, feel free to invite this humble monk."

Sun Chaozong's face turned red. He turned to look at his teammates and noticed that their expressions were also quite subtle.

Their team attacks 'Stone Sinking Creek' about once a week, not too often, not too little, and they manage to make a decent living. Their respective families are all major landowners and minor influential clans near the military town. But if they want to advance further, they can only increase the frequency of their raids to accumulate merit.

They originally planned to just drift along like this, retiring and going home to enjoy their retirement when they could no longer keep up. But Rat Monk was such a reliable teammate that they felt safe with him. Even though he said he would continue to raid the secret realm with them in the future, they really didn't want to let go of such an excellent teammate.

Especially Sun Chaozong, a teammate who can share the risks with him in times of crisis, is even more important than his wife.

He tentatively asked, "How about... we apply to play 'Stone Sinking Creek' again tomorrow?"

Seeing that the Rat Monk had finalized the plan for tomorrow's dungeon run, Yan Qing stood up and stretched his limbs. It was also his first time running a second-tier dungeon, and it took him nearly three hours—not because the dungeon was very difficult, but because the military town's plan for the raid was too 'safe'.

The first to enter the secret realm are not messengers but engineers. They dig up the soil and lay oil to create favorable terrain, so that the messengers can lure the monsters into the traps and burn them. When preparing to fight demons with ranged attack capabilities, the engineers can even build walls to force the ranged demons to come around and fight the messengers in close combat. The military town will spare no effort to add even a little bit of safety, striving to minimize the difficulty of conquering the secret realm.

Even so, everyone was on tenterhooks when fighting the Demon King. If Yan Qing hadn't intervened in time, there would have been serious injuries even if no one had died.

It is said that three hours is considered short; some third-tier dungeon raids take days, and some even involve building a fortress within the dungeon.

After all, those who can participate in the second and third ring punitive expeditions are at least messengers, and are no longer resources that military towns can waste at will.

Among the rewards Yan Qing obtained from conquering the second-stage secret realm, besides the usual resources such as spirit jade and blood-replenishing pills, the most precious items were the 'Advanced Sword Technique Mastery Manual' and the 'Seven Star Sword'.

"Seven Star Sword"

"Rank: Second-tier Rare"

"Durability: 120/120"

"Equipment requirements: 10 points of health, 5 points of spirit"

"Equipment Requirements: Advanced Swordsmanship MAX"

Basic attack power: 20~35 points

"Effect - Seven Stars: The Seven Star Sword's attacks will leave sword marks. When seven sword marks accumulate, they will immediately explode. Each sword mark will cause 25 points of cutting wounds and the sword marks will last for seven seconds."

"Effect - Shine: When Shine is activated, the Seven Star Sword Marks will no longer explode or fade, but will remain on the enemy. Normal attacks will no longer deal base damage, but will leave two sword marks. For every 2 seconds that Shine lasts, the sword mark damage increases by 5 points. Shine lasts for a maximum of 10 seconds. Maintaining Shine consumes 20 points of spirit power per second. Cooldown is 5 seconds." "Evaluation: Your Death Star is shining."

It's an extremely rare longsword!
Moreover, compared to the Seven Steps of Reciting Buddha's Name, the Seven Star Sword undoubtedly has higher theoretical damage, but the downside is that it consumes too much spiritual energy. Even for second-rank messengers like Rat Monk Jiang Shi, the maximum spiritual energy is only around fifty points. Even if they become third-rank messengers, they only have a little over one hundred points, which is not enough to bring out the full potential of the Shining Power.

Of course, this refers to not spending Spirit Jade. If Yan Qing were willing to spend Spirit Jade to extend the Shining effect, the Seven Star Sword's instantaneous burst could even match the full-force strike of the Soul-Severing Spear.

More importantly, Yan Qing finally has a stable channel to obtain advanced manuals and rare tokens. Once he puts these items on the trading board, he will surely be able to reap another wave of spirit jade.

If first-tier tokens and basic manuals can only attract ordinary people, then second-tier rare and advanced manuals are probably too much even for messenger families to handle—Shang Xinlei previously only used ordinary second-tier flying ring tokens!

Even if you can only use 'Stone Sinking Stream' once a day, the rewards are still higher than Ye Sijiang and Shi's five times of 'Suppressing Three Mountains'!
In fact, the prices of sword technique manuals and Flame Pattern Longswords have dropped to only a quarter of their peak. It's not that no one wants them, but rather that the rich who need the resources for the first transformation have already snapped them up, leaving only the poor who don't have the money.

Advanced sword techniques and rare artifacts are no exception to this fate. They will certainly fetch high prices at first, but only a few can command such high prices, and they will soon fall to a pitiful price.

But even if the price drops later, it will still be a high price that would never appear in the game.

The reason for this is that people in this world spend decades or even generations' worth of assets to buy secret tokens. These basic sets in the game may be the only opportunity for ordinary messengers to cross social classes in their lifetime.

Moreover, even if they wanted to buy it, they might not be able to. Noble families would only release resources that they didn't need. Skills as versatile as advanced swordsmanship were probably not even eligible for purchase by military envoys.

Now that there's an advanced sword technique, I can place an order on the trading board tomorrow to exchange for an advanced saber technique or advanced dual sabers. Thinking of this, Yan Qing relaxed completely; his long-awaited second job advancement was finally within reach.

Even his alt account, Night Four, reached the second job advancement a few days ago, while his main account hasn't even reached the second job advancement yet. It must be because his alt account isn't working hard enough. If his alt account reaches the third job advancement and goes to the third job advancement dungeon, would he still lack resources for the second job advancement?
Thinking of the Third Transformation Secret Realm, Yan Qing switched back to the Rabbit Girl's account and found that they were almost at the Shu Road Mountain.

Saying they arrived isn't quite accurate, because they had already entered the Shu Mountain region yesterday, which is why they encountered Ye Kai and his apprentice. This morning, they had been trekking through mountains and rivers, spending the entire day before finally seeing a town at the foot of the mountains.

Yes, a town located in the center of a dangerous and dangerous place.

As soon as Yan Qing reached the entrance, he could feel a chilling atmosphere even through the screen. More than a dozen corpses hung on the city wall, each one mangled and teeming with maggots, clearly having suffered torture before their deaths. Their blood slid down the city wall, staining the three characters "Chang Le City" on the plaque a dark red.

Beside the city gate stood a huge stone tablet, on which were engraved several large, blood-stained characters:
"Those who break the rules shall die!"

There were six guards at the city gate, two of whom were red-named. People came and went from time to time at the city gate. A notice next to it said that the entrance fee was five spirit jades. In Chang'an, five spirit jades could probably feed people at the First Noodle Shop opposite Anguo Temple for a whole year.

The pharmacist, wearing a hooded mask, took out twenty-three spirit jades as he entered. The middle-aged man collecting the money lazily said, "Four people, twenty jades."

"Those three spirit jades are used to ask about the specific rules," the pharmacist said, pointing to the stone tablet beside him.

"Rules are rules." The middle-aged man accepted the spirit jade: "Theft, murder, and other such nonsense—you have to follow the same rules here as you do outside. No one is allowed to cause trouble in Chang Le City. If someone causes trouble, then someone has definitely broken the rules."

"If you cause trouble in Chang Le City, you'll be hunted down to the ends of the earth, even if you escape the Shu Road Mountains. Do you understand?"

His implication was simple: if we don't cause them trouble, then there's no trouble; but if we cause them trouble, then someone else will definitely be in trouble.

"clear."

When the pharmacist and his group entered Chang Le City, unlike the deserted outside, the city was surprisingly lively. Although it wasn't exactly crowded, the main streets were lined with shops and had many pedestrians. From time to time, they could hear customers bargaining with shopkeepers, and there were also roadside stalls selling pastries and other food, creating a vibrant atmosphere.

If Yan Qing hadn't been able to spot several red names at a glance, she would have almost thought it was just an ordinary small town.

Upon closer inspection, the shops here are quite intriguing. For example, the shops labeled "weapons" display neatly arranged armor, heavy crossbows, and even oil, each a strategic resource under the control of the military town. On the other side, the shops labeled "tokens" sell an entire wall of face armor, and even rare tokens. In addition, there are shops selling demon masks from Qi and divine crossbows from Liang. Military supplies that require connections and resources from various countries to purchase are readily available here, but the most common items are tokens and weapons produced by Zhou.

"These parasites..." Pharmacist Yuan's voice was icy, his eyes cold, "They actually dared to sell even rare and priceless artifacts!"

After the pharmacist's explanation, Yan Qing finally understood the special features of Chang Le City.

Although the Demonic Path's perilous land is infamous and even the imperial court cannot deal with it, it also means that it is an unregulated lawless zone. All sorts of shady transactions are carried out in the Demonic Path's perilous land. At the same time, the Demonic Path's messengers also have a large demand for supplies and the disposal of stolen goods, but no one dares to trade with them openly. Thus, the black market came into being.

Chang Le City is a black market under the control of Shu Dao Mountain, protected by the demonic forces of Shu Dao Mountain. The corpses outside the city prove that these demonic forces are not joking; anyone who dares to disrupt the business environment of Chang Le City will die. They can't control what's outside Chang Le City, but within Chang Le City, even third-level messengers have to keep their tails between their legs.

Without Chang Le City, the Demonic Messenger might survive, but their quality of life would plummet. Merchants with connections also need Chang Le City, where they can obtain valuable resources from the secret realms from the Demonic Messenger for a minimal cost. Furthermore, merchants can also sell stolen goods, trade weapons, and exchange intelligence here.

The reason why the pharmacist was so angry was that the Zhou state tokens that appeared here must have been embezzled by officials and sold to the black market, and then reported to the court under the pretext of 'damage' or 'fire'.

The guards who truly needed the token might perish in the secret realm because they couldn't wait for the masked armor.

Why did so many soldiers defect to Helan Que? Helan Que might not have treated them very well, but as long as they were guaranteed the treatment they deserved, that was enough to make many soldiers loyal to the Helan family!

It was this group of people who harmed the country and enriched themselves, which is why the Zhou state has degenerated to this extent!

As the pharmacist and his companions observed the surrounding shops, they attracted many ill-intentioned glances. Although they had disguised themselves simply, Wu Qiu and Shi Dong were clearly women, not to mention the little girl, Bunny Girl. Their arrival in Chang Le City was like four little lambs wandering into a pack of wolves.

But whether it was the rules of Chang Le City or the fierce aura of the Pharmacist, no one dared to approach them for a while. Some people followed behind to observe, like hunting dogs lurking in the shadows.

Wu Qiu Shi Dong's body trembled, and the pharmacist said, "Don't be afraid, we're here."

"Yes, this heroine will protect you," Bunny Girl said.

The two maids were immediately relieved, but for some reason, they were closer to the bunny girl, which made the pharmacist a little sad—I am a third-level messenger, shouldn't you rely on me more?
(End of this chapter)