Scourge Messenger

Chapter 173 The Five-Day Agreement
Before going to select the spoils of war, Yan Qing first checked the news that popped up about this battle.

"You have freed a criminal from the deepest abyss."

"In this battle, you successfully freed a criminal with a challenge level greater than 10. Your overall contribution is 68%, exceeding the 50% doubling threshold."

"You have absorbed 2 points of karmic force from natural disasters!"

"You have mastered the secret technique 'Left Curve, Right Return,' and your current level is 8."

"You have mastered the Secret Technique: Flying Star, and your current level is 1."

"Your HP increases by 2.4"

"Your spirit level has increased by 1.8."

"Your dexterity increases by 2.4."

"You reached level 27!"

Because Yan Qing only invested in the Left-Bend Right-Return secret technique talent for Bunny Girl, she thought she would definitely have to learn a new set of techniques by the time she reached the third job advancement. However, she didn't expect that she would collect all the secret techniques after just two battles. It seems that she has a lot of experience fighting the third job advancement after the second job advancement. Bunny Girl may become the first alt character to reach the third job advancement.

"Flying Star (Level 1): Consumes 10 points + 2% of maximum health to increase the speed of your next sword attack by 50%. Has a 10-second cooldown. If activated again during the cooldown, it consumes 5 health points, with no upper limit on the cumulative effect."

"Evaluation: As fast as a shooting star, invisible to anyone."

Compared to the functional use of left-bend and right-return, Flying Star is undoubtedly for burst damage. For lower-level characters, as long as the defensive tokens don't explode, the health bar is just a usable energy bar. If Flying Star is activated continuously during a rainstorm, Bunny Girl's instantaneous output will reach an extremely astonishing level.

Even without Bingzi Jiaolin, she could still achieve a third-stage advancement—though she's almost at the third stage herself anyway.

Yan Qing thought that the Bunny Girl's contribution to the battle would be 100%, since she was the one who dealt all the damage. However, the game actually included Si Wuxie's attacks from a hundred years ago. Although it was reasonable, it still felt a bit ridiculous. It felt like either the Bunny Girl or Si Wuxie was just an easy win.

In addition, the red-clad demon dropped two items: "Earthly Fiend - Borrowing Wind Leaf" and "Secret Technique Mastery Book - Spider Walk". However, the other white-clad demons who followed and died did not drop anything.

If you kill the white-clad demon first, and then the enhanced red-clad demon, you should be able to maximize the loot drop rate. However, there is no chance to verify Yan Qing's guess.

"Borrowing Leaves"

Rank: Earthly Fiend

"Absorption: Absorbing the Wind-Borrowing Leaf increases your Divine Soul by 50 points and grants you the Wind-Borrowing Technique. All your speeds will be increased by 10%, you can briefly stay airborne when jumping, and you can even use the wind to move back and forth in the air. This effect is lost after Foundation Establishment."

"Infusion: Infuse the token with the wind blade to enhance movement ability."

"Reforging: Players can reforge using Wind Leaf and tokens to gain more desired movement abilities."

/
"The Book of Arcane Mastery: Spider's Path"

Learning Requirements: Advanced Steps MAX / Advanced Finger Techniques MAX

"Effect: Makes you a master of spider walking."

"Spider Walk (Level 10): You can crawl and even walk on walls and rooftops, your legs can stick to them without falling. Each step of Spider Walk consumes 5 health points. If you use it consecutively, the health cost increases by 5, with no upper limit. Spider Walk resets when you stop."

"Evaluation: A secret technique of a martial arts master, who can walk on walls and rooftops as if on flat ground using the strength of his fingers and toes."

Leaving aside the Earthly Fiends, this secret technique is far too subtle. Even if Yan Qing could immediately advance to the third class using it, he wouldn't want it. Who knows what kind of monster his class pool would become after being corrupted by this secret technique? It would be better to leave it to Ye Si and Jiang Shi, as they can choose one of three classes when they advance, at least they won't get a really bad class randomly.

The bunny girl crossed the courtyard and entered the inner hall, where she found everyone gathered around a treasure chest in the corner. After she arrived, the pharmacist and Prajna worked together to empty the contents of the treasure chest.

Unlike the main hall, this treasure chest only contained four items and 50,000 spirit jades. Clearly, the unlucky person who chose it last would only get the 50,000 spirit jades. Everyone looked at the bunny girl, including the pharmacist. The bunny girl didn't stand on ceremony and reached out to take the most precious item from the spoils: the "Heavenly Gang Whip Mountain Moving Stone Seal"!
Like the Resurrection Wood, absorbing the Whip Mountain Moving Stone Seal can also increase health by 50 points, but the 'Whip Mountain Moving Stone Technique' it provides is a very vague characteristic, allowing the messenger to easily shake hard objects like rocks. Literally, it should be a special attack on rocks, but its versatility seems too narrow.

However, this gives Yan Qing one Heavenly Gang and two Earthly Fiends. If we don't consider the Dao Foundation combination, he now has the conditions to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage!
Blood Phase unsurprisingly took the "Earthly Fiend - Carrying the Mountain Bamboo". His eyes were fixed intently on the Bunny Girl Warrior, and it was obvious that he was thinking about how to get the Heavenly Dipper that the Bunny Girl Warrior had taken. Just from the names, you could tell that the Whip Mountain Shifting Stone Seal and the Carrying Mountain Bamboo were a combination that could condense a specific Dao Foundation. If he got the Whip Mountain Shifting Stone Seal, he could try to establish his foundation tonight.

As for the third person to choose a prize, it was Pharmacist Wish. She had already locked onto her target and was staring intently at a handwritten copy of "Detailed Explanation of the Dao Foundation" on the ground. But before she could reach out, Bunny Girl stopped her and shook her head.

Despite his doubts, the pharmacist listened to the advice of the bunny girl and took the "Secret Technique Research Book". Bei You took the "Detailed Explanation of the Dao Foundation", and Prajna took the 50,000 spirit jades as a consolation prize.

After the spoils were divided, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Except for Prajna, everyone rushed back to count their gains, but no one took the initiative to speak or make a move. The five people and ten eyes stared at each other, like swords and spears clashing. An indescribable atmosphere filled the inner hall, a tension mixed with a hint of helplessness.

Beyond the inner hall lies the back forest where the Demon King resides.

If Si Wuxie or his spirit beast have been hiding in the secret realm, then Houlin is the only possibility.

Thinking further, is there really a Demon King in Houlin? Could it be that the Demon King has already been killed by Si Wuxie, and only his spirit beast remains inside?

If that's the case, the battle in this secret realm is already completely over. They only need to go in to obtain Si Wuxie's inheritance, and at worst, they'll have to deal with one more third-tier spirit beast.

But the question is, how should the foundation-building legacy be distributed?
The Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiends can be distinguished, because while having them is certainly an added bonus, not having them is not necessarily a bad thing. Even without the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiends, one can still directly establish a foundation; at worst, one's foundation will simply not meet one's expectations.

However, Foundation Establishment Pills are crucial. Without Foundation Establishment Pills, even if you have all the Heavenly Dipper and Earthly Fiends, you only have a 30% chance of succeeding in Foundation Establishment. But with Foundation Establishment Pills alone, you can increase the success rate to 60%.

So how many Foundation Establishment Pills are there in Si Wuxie's inheritance?
It's possible to have only one, or even none at all.

Foundation Establishment Pills are only produced in a very few secret realms, such as the Divine Marquis's Mansion, a secluded secret realm at the third level. However, these secret realms often have one characteristic: Foundation Establishment messengers have difficulty entering.

Therefore, even Foundation Establishment Messengers have difficulty obtaining Foundation Establishment Pills. Even if Si Wuxie has Foundation Establishment Pills, they must have been obtained when he was young. How could there be so many? There would never be enough to go around.

However, it is more likely that there was no Foundation Establishment Pill at all, and that the contents only included the fourth-stage token left by Si Wuxie, the Foundation Establishment Log, the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiends, etc. But even that is amazing enough, and no one would be willing to give it up.

So everyone's stuck in this awkward situation.

After the first two battles, the three guardians knew that the Medicine Master and the Bunny Girl were not much weaker than them, even assuming the girls had no trump cards—but that was impossible. If they really fought, one of them would probably die, and then the girls could use their trump cards to escape.

Moreover, faced with Si Wuxie's legacy, can the three guardians really cooperate as sincerely as before? Prajna and Xue Xiang have both obtained the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiends, while Bei You still has no Foundation Establishment spiritual objects. Can he be content with that?
No one was certain of victory, no one dared to start a war, and no one wanted to leave the secret realm.

"Let's go in and take a look," Bei You broke the silence. "Just standing here isn't going to solve anything."

Everyone nodded silently and walked out of the inner hall to the back forest. In the desolate garden with withered trees, a huge corpse king stood in the open space of the back forest. It sat cross-legged on the ground with its head lowered, and from a distance it looked like a huge mountain of corpses.

When Yan Qing saw the enormous Corpse King in the distance, he could almost hear their sigh of relief through the screen. He didn't know whether to be thankful or disappointed; Si Wuxie hadn't killed the Demon King of the secret realm. This was the ultimate test left to them by the demonic messenger a hundred years ago, and it also postponed the outbreak of conflict between them.

"Wolf Master Demon, Rabbit Benefactor," Prajna suddenly said, "This humble monk has a suggestion."

"Five days. We have five days to defeat this Corpse King. After all, we've been the local strongmen of the Shu Road for so many years, we deserve some preferential treatment. If we can't defeat the Corpse King in five days, then we're willing to share this inheritance with you."

The Pharmacist said, "How should it be distributed? Any distribution plan you propose is meaningless here. Even if you have always kept your promises, it is useless. The Foundation Establishment inheritance is enough to make people betray all the morality in this world."

"Then let's be frank," Bei You said calmly. "It will be distributed according to strength. If you are the most powerful, you will naturally get more; if more of us survive, we should take the lion's share. So these five days are worth waiting for. What if one of us dies? For example, if Xue Xiang accidentally trips and is trampled to death by the Demon King."

The Pharmacist and the Bunny Girl exchanged a glance, then the three guardians said:
Five days.

"It's a deal!"

(End of this chapter)