Scourge Messenger

Chapter 309 Map of the Demon Gathering Land
"You've heard of the Murong family of the North, right? They were the founding heroes of the Later Xuan Dynasty. Our ancestor, the Crimson Tribulation True Man Murong Fu, followed Emperor Guangwu in conquering the world. During the great battle of Kunyang, my ancestor was a key protector, assisting Emperor Guangwu in defeating the Lu Chen Demon Sect's alliance of twenty-eight clans. The corpses were scattered and piled up for over a hundred miles. To this day, a stone tablet commemorating my ancestor's achievements still stands beside Kunyang Lake, personally carved by Emperor Guangwu!"

"My great-grandfather, Qingjie Zhenren, was the benefactor of the Divine Martial Emperor, who helped him greatly when the emperor was still in his infancy. My great-grandfather was also the Canjin Grand Master. Do you know what Canjin is? It's a phenomenon that only those who have reached the sixth level of Foundation Establishment can experience. Their heart's blood will turn golden yellow. My family still enshrines a drop of my great-grandfather's heart's blood. Would you like to see it? It will float in mid-air and even rotate!"

"Have you heard of my great-grandfather, True Person Zi Jie? It's normal if you haven't. My great-grandfather established his foundation forty years ago and has been living in seclusion ever since. However, my great-grandfather dotes on me. He has prepared all the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiends for me. Once the Divine Marquis's Mansion opens, I will go in and slaughter my way through to seize the Foundation Establishment Pill. I will be the next person in the Murong family to establish their foundation!"

"By the way, what's your name?... Why are you avoiding me?"

Yan Qing remained silent, simply moving away from Murong Hui.

Outside the fountain at the crossroads, two people were washing the mud off their bodies and faces with clean water. Yan Qing was in a better position; only his clothes were stained. If it weren't for the fact that this was the first set of clothes Shang Xinlei had bought for him, he would have thrown them away immediately.

He naturally had several sets of clothes in his storage ring, but he always had to wash them before changing them, otherwise stuffing them in would cause secondary contamination.

In contrast, Murong Hui was in a much worse situation. Her black scale armor was sleeveless, and her face and hands were covered in it. She was busy washing her hair, chattering incessantly as she did so.

"I didn't eat a drop!" Murong Hui retorted angrily. "I kept my mouth closed the whole time you made a mess of it, and I didn't eat a single drop!"

"It got in when you opened your mouth to breathe."

"no!"

"If you don't believe me, breathe on it and smell it yourself."

"I won't!"

"Smelly woman."

"Shut up!"

After washing up, Yan Qing was about to slip away when Murong Hui suddenly appeared ahead of him, her long, black hair cascading down her back like a waterfall. As Yan Qing pinched his nose and tried to back away, Murong Hui's shoulders trembled with anger: "It's all because you blew up poop!"

“I don’t think a normal person would stand near a latrine.” Yan Qing walked around her, deliberately keeping a distance. He wasn’t pretending; the smell was genuinely strong, and even he, who had only been touched by a little bit, still smelled. He suspected it was the effect of a near-negative state of contamination. Regular rinsing could only remove the surface filth; to completely dispel it, he would have to wait for the negative state to end or use a powerful dispelling ability like Bingzi Jiaolin Futian.

"What can I do if I'm being hunted down?"

"It's not my business?"

"You saved me, so of course it's your business! Who do you think you saved? I'm the granddaughter of a Foundation Establishment True Person! You've risen to the top in one step, and your life is practically over!"

"You're welcome, there's no need to say goodbye."

Yan Qing took a dozen steps, then sniffed and noticed the smelly, dark-skinned beauty was still following behind. He frowned and asked, "What do you mean?"

“I’m worried there might be other assassins,” Murong Hui said honestly. “It’s safer with you.”

"What if I'm unwilling?" Yan Qing conjured the Flame Pattern Seven Star Sword in his hand and said calmly, "Did I give you the wrong impression that I'm easy to talk to?"

With a flash of movement, Murong Hui was already crouching on the street lamp, the fierce wind blowing her wet long hair: "My third job advancement is Shadow Dance Messenger. I'm not good at combat, but I excel at speed and agility. Unless you hit me with your Wraith Summoning, you absolutely can't stop me from following you."

While looting the spoils, the assassins' most prized items, the Great Bull Bow and the Thunderclap Armor, were meaningless to Yan Qing. The other tokens were also unremarkable. Only one item, which Murong Hui called the "Guiding Soul," was somewhat interesting.

The Vengeful Spirit Summoning Ring appears as a ring of withered bones. Activating it fires a vengeful spirit, though its speed is slow. According to Murong Hui, the vengeful spirit will continuously entangle the target and intermittently and drastically reduce their movement speed. It's quite useful, but in PvP, it's only effective the first time. If the enemy is alert, the Vengeful Spirit Summoning Ring's flight speed makes it absolutely impossible for it to hit again. She was only caught off guard because she had never seen it before.

Yan Qing had no other means of restricting her movement, so if Murong Hui insisted on following him, he really couldn't do anything about it.

However, Murong Hui ran in front of him again the next second. Yan Qing almost wanted to slash her with his sword, but Murong Hui took out a scroll and unfolded it. The scroll had a map drawn on it. In the upper right corner was a white bone wheel, and in the sky was an earthworm wrapped in flames...

"It's drawn terribly," Yan Qing commented.

Murong Hui blushed, though her skin tone made it less noticeable: "I just drew this casually; it's not my true strength. You know what this is, right? A map of the Demon Gathering Land! This must be your first time in the Demon Gathering Land, so this map will definitely be very useful to you."

"Give it to me." Yan Qing reached out her hand.

"No." Murong Hui took a step back. "But I can take you wherever you want to go. Are you looking for special structures like stone pillars? I've marked them all on the map. Besides that, there are places to rest, bathe, and eat. With me leading the way, whatever you want to do will definitely be much easier." "I saved you, give me the map, and we're even," Yan Qing said.

Murong Hui shook her head: "I only have this one original manuscript. I can give you a copy after we get out, but I can't give you the original manuscript. I still want to draw a complete map of the Demon Gathering Land."

Even if I saved your life?

“Logically speaking, you saved my life, so I should fulfill all your requests,” Murong Hui said. “But I need this map to follow you… so not for now!”

Yan Qing clicked his tongue: "Why do you insist on following me? Don't tell me you're worried about your safety. With the Shadow Dance Messenger's abilities and the vastness of the Demon Gathering Land, you can find a place to hide for a few days and no one will be able to find you."

“There are many reasons, but the most important one is that you have caught my attention!” Murong Hui said domineeringly. “From childhood to adulthood, I have always been surrounded by people who try to please me. Even at the Nevernight City, Ying Le would treat me to candy. If they don’t try to please me, they must have designs on me. Some people pretend not to be interested in me, but I can see through their feigned indifference at a glance.”

She held up two fingers. “In my twenty-plus years of life, I’ve only met two people who truly don’t care about me at all. You’re the second. The less you care about me, the more interested I become. It took me a lot of effort to become friends with the first person. I discovered that she was a super genius who was no less than me, and the only true friend I could completely trust… Do you know what people call someone like me?”

"A cheap cat?" Yan Qing gave a fair assessment.

"A discerning eye!" Murong Hui gritted his teeth in anger: "Our Murong family has very few friends, but anyone we consider a friend must be an extraordinary hero with both virtue and talent. Like my great-grandfather's close friend, the Divine Martial Emperor, and my great-grandfather also followed... In short, anyone I set my sights on must become one of my people!"

Although her tone was as bold as that of the Primordial Daoist Master who was about to openly establish a harem, Yan Qing punctured her bubble with a single sentence: "You only had your eye on one person before, so don't talk about having a cloud of fierce generals and rain of strategists under your command."

"Let me come with you, let me come with you! I'll repay your life-saving grace. There should be something I can do to help, right?" Murong Hui stared straight at Yan Qing: "If you still won't agree, then at least... hug me?"

As she spoke, she approached Yan Qing and opened her arms. A strong, almost pungent odor hit her face, and Yan Qing covered her nose and stepped back: "Fine, I admit that your threatening tactic is very effective. Get away from me!"

"Hmph, don't regret it. Even my great-grandmother might not let me hug her." Murong Hui spoke with an air of 'you don't know what's good for you,' but her eyes crinkled with pride, and her cheeks flushed with shyness.

She quickly got to work, took out a map, and asked, "There are three special buildings nearby: a tall building with colorful patterns, a doll cage, and a silver mirror. Which one do you want to go to?"

Yan Qing suddenly felt that her status as a living map was not very useful. The local Muggles did not know the real name of the special facility at all and could only guess the name based on its appearance. The difference between the guessed name and the real name was probably as big as that between Kaspersky and Pakistan.

However, the high-rise roulette wheel should be the 'Blessing Roulette'. According to the daily refresh mechanism of the Guiding Lands, the same facility should only be triggered once a day, so we can rule it out for now.

"The Doll's Cage".

"Then let's go this way."

Yan Qing and Murong Hui walked side by side. Murong Hui glanced at Yan Qing, then at the dragon servant following behind him, spewing out yin energy. Unable to contain her curiosity, she asked, "How do you control demons? Is it through the power of a token? Or is it a professional skill? Can you tell me? Can I touch it? What does it feel like to control demons? It—"

"Are you used to living your whole life as you please, expecting others to unconditionally fulfill your every wish?" Yan Qing asked calmly.

Murong Hui paused slightly, then lowered her head, her long hair falling down to cover her face, like wilted flowers and grass. Yan Qing thought she had finally calmed down, but unexpectedly she raised her hand and kept rubbing her eyes, as if she were either doing eye exercises or wiping away tears.

Seriously? Is the granddaughter of a Foundation Establishment cultivator really this pampered? Is a third-tier messenger's heart really this fragile? I haven't even swore yet.

Yan Qing's lips twitched, and he even felt a little embarrassed. He remained silent for a moment and said helplessly, "You can touch it."

"Really!?" Murong Hui immediately raised her head, her face as clean as if it had been licked by a dog, there were no tears at all. But before she could reach out to touch Long Shi, Long Shi reached out his bone hand and touched her head first, which seemed to surprise her even more.

Yan Qing was speechless. A dignified third-level messenger was actually playing tricks like faking tears, as childish as a little girl. However, although she seemed childish, she was quite cunning and shrewd.

First, she demonstrated her Shadow Dance Messenger abilities, letting Yan Qing know she couldn't restrict her actions. Then, she produced a map of the Demon Gathering Land, emphasizing the help she could offer Yan Qing. When Yan Qing inquired about her intentions, she openly expressed her curiosity and affection for him, even offering him a way out. One step after another, she skillfully employed both carrot and stick tactics, employing emotional appeals to her advantage, showcasing the social maneuvering of someone with Foundation Establishment bloodline.

It is worth mentioning that she only talked about how much benefit her Foundation Establishment ancestor could bring to Yan Qing from beginning to end. When Yan Qing rejected and refuted her, she did not use the power of her Foundation Establishment ancestor to intimidate him. Instead, she pretended to cry and act pretentiously.

In addition, Yingru's recognition of Murong Hui, the goodwill Yan Qing gained from Yanzi Army Town, and the most crucial reason of the map, Yan Qing accepted the temporary decision to team up with her.

He raised his bracelet and found that the Dragon Servant Puppet's ascension progress had reached 15/30. This was the reward from the Stone Pillar Drop Tower, which directly gave Yan Qing's activated puppet half of the ascension progress.

Yan Qing had felt something was off before; the ascension requirement was too high. Putting aside the fact that players couldn't kill that many monsters, the problem was that while the monster density in the Guiding Lands was high, the same type of monster wasn't common. For example, Yan Qing had only seen three Dragon Servants in half an hour. At this rate, it would take him five hours in the Guiding Lands to find thirty Dragon Servants to ascend to—that's incredibly grindy! And this was just one puppet; players can summon a maximum of seven puppets at a time!
Ascending to power by killing monsters is obviously the dumbest method; enjoying the entertainment facilities in the Guiding Lands is the shortcut to improving your strength.

(End of this chapter)