Scourge Messenger

Chapter 150 You're Already Dead
Eleven years ago, in the tenth year of Liang Jianchang, the second year of Zhou Wucheng, and the first year of Qi Tianbao, a battle broke out between Zhou and Liang in Jingzhou, on the border between the two countries. When Yaoshi Moke first ascended to power, he led 24 military prefectures south to attack Liang, with 100,000 soldiers, thousands of messengers, and countless auxiliary troops, claiming to be an army of 500,000.

Emperor Shao Hu of Liang was in his prime at the time. He personally led an army of 150,000 to conquer Bhaisajyaguru. The battle lasted from autumn to spring. When the weather turned warm, both armies withdrew. The only evidence that the battle took place is the remains of over 100,000 people along the Jingxiang line, as well as the hundreds of thousands of displaced people whose families were destroyed by the conscription.

According to the records of both countries, they both won this battle. The physician Moke dealt a blow to the arrogance of the Liang Kingdom, and Shao Hu stopped the northern bandits from advancing south... In the more than one hundred years of confrontation between the three kingdoms, there were far too many such minor skirmishes. Two years later, it was the turn of the spirited and ambitious young Empress Ying Le to beat up both Zhou and Liang, and even her northern homeland was not spared, thus establishing her illustrious reputation as the "Phoenix Emperor".

Now, when people mention the Battle of Jingxiang, they have to ask which year's Battle of Jingxiang you're talking about. After you point out the specific year, most people's reaction is just, "It seems like that happened."

A war that cannot change the world has no right to receive anyone's attention.

But it did change the lives of many people, such as Shi Sanren.

Shi Sanren was not born with this name. His original name was Deng Shitou, the son of a tenant farmer in Qingxi County, Yongzhou Prefecture. All the land in Qingxi County belonged to the descendants of the third branch of the Yuwen family, who heavily exploited the tenant farmers. Deng Shitou often went hungry as a child. When he was seven, his father and elder brother were summoned to the capital to be raised as young masters and never returned. However, they were exempted from taxes the following year.

Having barely survived to the age of fifteen, the Yuwen family summoned their son again that year. Luckily, Deng Shitou survived, and the Yuwen family rewarded him by making him a soldier in the palace. From then on, he could eat his fill of white flour buns and beef every day, but the price was that he had to participate in the conquest of the secret realm.

However, Deng Shitou was quite talented. Unlike his colleagues, he did not suffer any casualties. Instead, he became a messenger in less than ten years and obtained a token. Outside, ordinary people had to respectfully call him Master Messenger. That was the most successful time for Deng Shitou.

But the token wasn't so easy to obtain. As a messenger, Deng Shitou not only had to conquer first-tier secret realms, but was also occasionally transferred to second-tier ones, each time narrowly escaping death and suffering numerous injuries. Facing imminent death in a secret realm, Deng Shitou bribed a subordinate general to retire. The general accepted the spirit jade and told him that having received the military town's favor and become a messenger, he was obligated to serve the town for forty years. If he wanted to retire early, he would have to spend spirit jade to buy his service—one thousand spirit jade per year.

But Deng Shitou can only save up four hundred spirit jades a year at most. If he continues at this pace, he estimates he won't live past five years.

Whether it was a good thing or a bad thing, the Battle of Jingxiang broke out. Deng Shitou, as a soldier of Yongzhou Prefecture, went to war and survived many battles. When the army was withdrawing, he was assigned a task: to retrieve the corpses and their belongings.

With so many masked soldiers dying on the battlefield, it's impossible to recover them in time, nor can we allow them to fall into enemy hands. This is a very dangerous mission, as the Liang Kingdom will also send people to recover them. However, the advantage is that any spirit jade found along the way can be kept by us.

Deng Shitou thus encountered the biggest turning point in his life: he found the body of Yuwen's subordinate Qu Du.

Inside are a second-tier rare defensive token, a second-tier rare longsword, a secret technique manual, and several thousand spirit jades.

Logically speaking, a person of this caliber would be specially collected by their family and would not be left to rot on the battlefield. However, since the body was covered by the corpses of many Liang soldiers, it is normal that the Yuwen family did not discover it.

Deng Shitou couldn't possibly keep these tokens, nor could he sell them. Anyone capable of buying them knew they belonged to the Yuwen family, and notifying the Yuwen family to arrest him was the only logical course of action. Moreover, the body search team worked in pairs, and Deng Shitou wasn't the only discoverer.

So, should I hand it in? Then go back to the secret realm and continue fighting to the death? If I'm lucky, I can retire and go back to my hometown to farm when I'm almost sixty?
Having been the son of a tenant farmer for so many years, Deng Shitou knew that farming could not produce trust, only poverty.

So Deng Shitou steeled his heart and, before his colleague could react, stabbed him to death, taking all his tokens and spirit jade.

Only then did he suddenly realize something he had never noticed before:
Humans are much easier to kill than demons.

From then on, Yongzhou Prefecture lost one of its soldiers, while the Zhou Kingdom gained one more demonic messenger.

There were many deserters in similar situations. There were eighteen at the beginning, but after splits and infighting, only five remained. They fled to the Bashan area and roamed the mountains and forests, calling themselves the Five Wanderers of Bashan. In reality, they were the Five Bandits of Bashan, who killed and robbed villages and towns to replenish their spiritual jade. For ten years, they had been notorious for their scourge on the region.

"Boss, is this really a good idea?" Shi Sanren asked worriedly. "If we steal Xue Shilang's prey, we definitely won't be able to survive in the Shu Dao Mountains in the future, and we might even be hunted down by Xue Xiang..."

After receiving Zhong Ji's message on the mountain, the five wandering men discussed it and decided to secretly go down the mountain to bypass the ambush, clearly intending to leave Zhong Ji and the others behind and eat alone.

"Third brother, if we take this wave, what's the point of us lingering in Shudao Mountain?" Tie Sanren said nonchalantly, "That son of a bitch Zhong Ji thinks he can get rid of us with just 500 spirit jades? I already found out that the other side is at most a second-stage and a third-stage cultivator, and they're just a little girl and a woman. We alone are enough to take them down!"

“Second Brother is right,” said Copper Hermit. “Putting everything else aside, do you really believe that little girl has the strength of a second-stage cultivator? Isn’t she just a piece of trash who was fed by secret manuals? We don’t know how many such family trash we have killed over the years.”

“That young master from the Hou Mo family last time was quite nice.” Yu Sanren licked his lips. “Boss, this time we finally have two women, you should at least leave one for me.”

"Seriously, all of you," Jin Sanren said coldly. "Even if the little girl is insignificant, there's still a third-tier messenger."

"They're just third-stage cultivators from outside the mountains, while we all possess demonic artifacts. We've killed several third-stage cultivators already," Tie Sanren laughed. "When it comes to killing, how could outsiders possibly be a match for those from within the mountains?"

Jin Sanren agreed with this view, but to be on the safe side, he still cautioned, "Go all out in the fight later, don't give them a chance to escape. Especially you, Fourth Brother, if things get ruined because of your crotch..."

“I understand, I understand, I know what’s important.” Yu Sanren raised his hands in surrender: “But after we finish this job, shouldn’t we go down the mountain? We’ve been cooped up for almost two months, and if we don’t find some fun soon, my sword will get dull.”

“Since Xue Shilang values ​​this so much, the other party must have more than one rare treasure. You know, rare treasures can sell for at least 200,000 spirit jades, possibly even 300,000.” Jin Sanren suddenly said, “After we finish this job, we’ll go our separate ways. You can retire from the underworld if you want, or continue to be a demonic sleuth if you want.”

Upon hearing this, the five wandering men fell silent. They exchanged glances, and the Copper Wanderer hesitated before saying, "If we could really get that much money..."

"I'll go to Liang Kingdom and buy a noble family registration, marry a few wives and have many children," Tie Sanren said casually. "I've been busy all my life, it's time to enjoy myself."

Retire from the underworld?

Shi Sanren looked at the faint blood-red light appearing on the others and gave a bitter smile to his heart.

He had thought about it, but... he had lost the ability to be a normal person.

At some point, Shi Sanren began to see a hostile, sharp, and blinding blood-red aura surrounding everyone he looked at, even the Five Wanderers with whom he had shared life and death. This was said to be 'Blood Eye Syndrome,' a disease that could affect any member of the demonic path, and the longer one remained within it, the more susceptible they became.

This disease doesn't harm the Demon Messenger in any way; it only has one effect: it makes the Demon Messenger see everyone as a mortal enemy. There have been several cases of Demon Messengers killing each other in the mountains, and no one knows whether it was intentional or due to the effects of the Blood Eye Disease.

Shi Sanren thought he was immune to conjunctivitis, until one day he woke up and instinctively killed the person next to him who was glowing red. It was a prostitute, also his lover. The sound of his killing attracted the attention of others, and then he saw the whole street filled with red light…

When he calmed down, he was already standing on a pile of corpses.

For this reason, he didn't even dare to see his elderly mother, only daring to send the spirit jade through the door. The only time he saw her in ten years was at his mother's funeral. Amidst a hail of blood and gore filled with malice and hostility, Shi Sanren saw from afar that his mother was still the same as he remembered, without any trace of blood and gore.

All the other wandering cultivators were also sick. Jade Wanderer would kill people every time he finished visiting prostitutes, Iron Wanderer couldn't help himself when he drank, and the skulls hanging around Copper Wanderer's neck were all the family members he had accidentally killed... The demonic path was full of madmen who could only warm themselves with cold corpses.

Curing blood eye disease isn't difficult; one just needs to refrain from killing for three or four years. However, this also means their greatest reliance—the demonic artifact—will become completely ineffective. Therefore, Shi Sanren has never seen anyone truly retire from the underworld. No one is willing to give up their weapon of protection, even if it makes them an unwelcome demon.

But if we pull off this job... with so many spirit jades... maybe it really will work...

"Shi Sanren Deng Shitou, why are there only five of you?"

Shi Sanren's pupils constricted sharply. As he dodged in the opposite direction of the sound, he didn't forget to unleash a defensive slash. At the same time, the other Sanren immediately jumped out of the bushes, shouting sharply, "Who goes there!?"

"You wanted to ambush us, and you even asked who we were?" Bunny Girl pushed through the bushes and stepped onto the mountain path. "Have you all lost your minds?"

Shi Sanren had never seen such a blood-red aura on the Rabbit Girl before. It was not dazzling at all, but thick and gentle, yet full of ferocious hostility, reminding him of the military law inspector in the military town, who would kill you fair and square if he said he wanted to.

The Pharmacist emerged from behind the Bunny Girl, wielding the rare Soul-Severing Spear. His body radiated a blood-red aura as if it were burning, and his murderous intent was completely undisguised, stinging Shi Sanren's eyes.

"I heard Zhong Ji gathered a whole bunch of people to ambush me, how come there are only five little cats and dogs like you?" The bunny girl drew her long sword from behind her back and said leisurely, "Does Zhong Ji look down on me that much?"

"You barbarians, you don't know the immensity of heaven and earth!" Jin Sanren said coldly, "Today I'll show you the power of the Five Wanderers of Bashan!"

"So it's the Five Bandits of Bashan." Yaoshi Yuan's eyes flashed with murderous intent: "You're all doomed today."

"Big sister, go and stop the other four, I'll be there to help you soon."

"no problem."

Upon discovering that the Pharmacist was indeed fighting four opponents single-handedly, and that the Bunny Girl was dealing with him alone, Shi Sanren's remaining doubts vanished, leaving only a burning rage. How could he, a dignified second-stage demonic cultivator, be so utterly disregarded by a mere little girl?

Humans are much easier to kill than demons, especially for the demonic path!

Since you're so arrogant, don't blame me for being ruthless!

Shi Sanren swung his sword in a half-circle, his movements sacred and solemn, like a ritual. During this time, the Rabbit Girl watched as he completed the preliminary steps of the secret technique, which made Shi Sanren despise her even more—she really was just a good-for-nothing from a noble family who had been fed with secret manuals.

Secret Technique: Half Moon Wheel!
This secret technique greatly increases the damage of the next longsword strike; when the longsword reaches the tip of the crescent moon, the damage doubles! Combined with his magical artifact, the rare longsword, even a third-tier messenger would be severely injured in a single blow!

As the half-moon suddenly appeared, a bloodthirsty desire surged in Shi Sanren's heart—he had already foreseen that the merciless blood light would soon dim and warm blood would gush out. Even though he had witnessed the same scene countless times, he still felt a sense of relief and peace.

歘.

The moment the crescent moon pierced the sky, the bunny girl leaped into the air. Before Shi Sanren's incredulous eyes, she gripped a rare longsword gleaming with blue starlight, and in the blink of an eye, she stabbed him... how many times?

Such an astonishing scene caused Shi Sanren to instinctively retreat and avoid it. However, when he checked his defensive token, he found that the barrier had not been damaged at all.

But Bunny Girl's actions just now couldn't be faked; that's something only a Storm Messenger could do...

"Big sister, let me help you!"

He turned his head and saw that the Bunny Girl had already gone to help the Pharmacist deal with the other rogues. He was both confused and angry, and he raised his sword to slash at the back of the Bunny Girl: "Don't think you've won just because you dodged once. Your enemy is me!"

The bunny girl effortlessly dodged his attack, never once turning to look at him, and simply said in a cheerful tone:
"Uncle, you're already dead."

what?
Shi Sanren was slightly taken aback when suddenly ten dazzling sword marks erupted simultaneously, turning him into a blood-red hedgehog!

I……

He lay in a pool of blood, and saw himself in the blood, stained crimson.

(End of this chapter)