Scourge Messenger

Chapter 335 Target: Mysterious Supernatural Powers

In The Messenger, there are all sorts of incredible abilities such as powers, supernatural abilities, special characteristics, and metal element, but in the end, they are just skills in an online game. It wouldn't be a problem to change the names to 'fireball,' 'hypnosis,' or 'time stop,' but why are there so many categories?

Besides numerical values ​​and expressiveness, the most important factor in distinguishing them is priority, or in the terminology of The Messenger, "position".

In reality, the difference in stats between Foundation Establishment cultivators and mortals isn't that significant. If we were to go by the numbers on paper, ten third-tier cultivators could rival Foundation Establishment cultivators. However, in both the game and reality, Foundation Establishment cultivators can easily defeat ten third-tier cultivators. Why? Simply because their [Rank] is a level higher. In code terms, this means that Foundation Establishment cultivators' skills take priority, override existing skills, and are immune to resistance and immunity. If a mortal's skills conflict with a Foundation Establishment cultivator's skills, they will all be ineffective.

How can we fight this? There's no way to fight it.

When Master Suolong restrained Rabbit Girl, Rabbit Girl's defensive barrier was still intact. Later, Yan Qing also tried to get Rabbit Girl to activate Bingzi Jiaolin's Heaven-Overturning Technique, but it was all in vain. The [Lock Dragon Well] divine power doesn't care about anything here or there, it suppresses everything!
If we compare a game to a painting, then the mortal messenger is like utilizing the resources within the painting, while the Foundation Establishment is like directly creating the painting. Even if you find the best sword, the best armor, and the best mount in the painting, I can still erase you with a single stroke of my brush. What can you do then?

Even if a third-tier rank can match a fourth-tier rank in terms of stats and performance, a fourth-tier rank can easily crush a third-tier rank if the rank difference is just one level.

That's why Yan Qing found the reward so unbelievable.

Gaining supernatural powers during the mortal stage, even if there are limitations in their use, is practically the same as being invincible. A level 10 messenger with supernatural powers could easily kill a level 39 third-stage Grand Perfection cultivator! Isn't that a bit outrageous? It's just like the 'hidden professions,' 'god-level pets,' and 'unique treasures' in old-school online game novels, where only the protagonist has a real gaming experience, and everyone else is just there to support them.

However, after calming down, Yan Qing realized that it didn't seem like a big deal.

While the mortal stage is indeed invincible, in *The Messenger*, it's merely the beginner phase, almost like kindergarten. The Foundation Establishment stage, on the other hand, is like elementary, middle, and high school. The mortal stage only comprises about one-tenth of the game's content. Any veteran player can reach Foundation Establishment in a day; who would stay in the mortal stage to watch you show off?
After reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, having an extra divine ability is certainly powerful, but the problem is that this ability is a game reward, at most a choice of three, and is unlikely to align with your future development path; it's merely icing on the cake. Compared to other players' carefully crafted combinations of divine abilities, it doesn't offer much of an advantage. To draw an analogy, it's like having an extra skill point or summoner spell at the start of League of Legends—it's certainly powerful at the beginning, but the difference diminishes significantly after levels six and eleven.

Moreover, only one player can receive this reward. Guiding Lands only opens once a year. Even if The Messenger runs for ten years, there will only be ten players. The impact on game balance is negligible, but their accounts are probably very valuable.

Although he calmed down, Yan Qing was determined to get this reward, and it couldn't be Ye Si who did it. It would be best if he did it himself, because only by personally killing the character of the Heavenly Demon of Transformation could he obtain the Mysterious Divine Power. Other characters on the same account could only obtain the Secondary Divine Power of Life and Manifestation.

In "The Messenger," supernatural powers are divided into four levels: imagery, mystery, creation, and metal. According to the power-focused posts that Yan Qing has read, apart from "metal" being the most supreme, the other three levels are not divided into upper and lower levels, but only into left and right.

The 'imagery' is the most concrete and can greatly enhance the power in a specific area. For example, the [Dragon Locking Well] has the strongest enhancement to the power of restraint, but correspondingly, the [Dragon Locking Well] is not very useful in the areas of attack, defense, healing, and movement.

'Mysterious' is a bit more obscure than imagery, and its enhancement in a single area is not as strong as imagery, but its advantage is that it provides special enhancements in multiple areas. For example, one of the top ten mysterious abilities most praised in strength-focused posts, [Epitaph], provides special enhancements in the three major areas of attack, reconnaissance, and healing, and is the core ability of many strength builds.

'Creation' is the most profound and extensive, and also the most unique, with exceptionally wide limits. It can enhance almost all areas, but unfortunately, the strength of its enhancement is rather underwhelming. However, if paired with exclusive powers, the enhancement effect of Creation Divine Power can even surpass that of Imagery Divine Power. It's just that these exclusive powers...

To put it simply, hardcore players argue fiercely over the top ten mysteries and twenty-eight images, but when it comes to creation, everyone believes that only the five creations are worth playing because the exclusive powers corresponding to the other creations have too limited scope of application.

For example, the Creation Divine Power [Yin Emperor], when combined with the Domination Power, can permanently seize control of a vengeful zombie, including a level 69 Demon King Yama Dao Lord. Isn't that powerful?
It's incredibly powerful, unmatched in the entire game.

But is it easy to use?

hard to use.

Because unless there is a group teleportation token, the Lord of the Underworld can only travel on foot! For balance reasons, these demon kings are strong but weak in movement, otherwise how would players fight them? Therefore, players can only place the Lord of the Underworld in a certain sixth-level secret realm and keep farming for resources.

Is it possible? Of course it is. But the problem is, if you have the resources to create the [Yin Tian Zi] fortune, you can naturally create a strong build as well. These strong builds can also clear dungeons above their level, making the gameplay even cooler, and they don't need to take care of the short legs of the Yama Dao Lord like a burden.

In terms of difficulty of acquisition, 'Creation' is greater than 'Mystery' which is greater than 'Imagination', but the more difficult it is to obtain, the better it is not necessarily. A strong build is generally two Images + one Mystery. It is already very difficult to assemble two Mysteries + one Image. Three Mysteries will take at least several months to prepare. As for two Mysteries + one Creation... if you have the ability to assemble it, you would have ascended long ago in the same amount of time.

The final 'golden addition' is a last resort; no player would normally want the golden addition ability, so let's leave it aside for now.

Yan Qing doesn't have many ideas about the combination of supernatural powers in the future. After all, this place produces too few resources, and he can't waste a lot of time searching for resources for the sake of 'supreme and strongest'. Ascending to heaven as soon as possible is more important than anything else.

Therefore, he prefers the mysterious to the imagery, since the mysterious can at least bless three realms, and there is always a use for it.

More importantly, Ye Si might die or delete his account at any time, so it would be a waste to let him obtain the mysterious supernatural power!
But the question now is: can he defeat the Demon of the Free and Unfettered Heaven?
This boss is clearly meant for all players in the Guiding Lands to conquer together. Right now, he's the only player here. The advantage is that no one is competing with him, but the disadvantage is that even if he develops to his maximum potential, he might not be able to defeat this boss.

Yan Qing suddenly remembered the Bizarre Race series of the Puppet Cards. Puppets of this race often possessed the [Soul Dissipation] characteristic; although their attack power and health were very low, a single touch from them would instantly kill them. If he were to use the Bizarre Race against the True Demon…

"Impossible." Yan Qing quickly dismissed this naive idea. While the game *The Messenger* did indeed have loopholes, the True Demon was the final boss of the annual limited-time dungeon, rewarding players with access to profound supernatural powers even in the mortal realm. Even if this dungeon had a flaw, it couldn't be so obvious that even Yan Qing, who had only played for three days, could spot it.

True Demons likely have a defensive barrier, and may be instantly killed by [Soul Dispersion] when they have only one-tenth to one-hundredth of their health left. However, the health of the strange races is generally very low, and they would probably have been killed by the area-of-effect damage of True Demons long before that.

The best approach is to assemble an absolutely super-powerful lineup to deal with the true demon.

But just like the [Steam Master] and [Steam Supreme Master], the real core activation cards seem to be fourth-tier. Yan Qing only has one chance to defeat a fourth-tier demon team today, and at most there can only be one or two fourth-tier demons.

If a suitable core boot card cannot be found, today will have been a wasted day.

They passed through the portal and arrived in the southwest of the Guiding Lands.

Yan Qing was deep in thought when he accidentally bumped into Ying Rushi in front of him. Ying Rushi turned around, looked up at him curiously, and asked, "What are you thinking about?"

This was the first time Yan Qing had seen Ying Rushi from this perspective; it was as if Ying Rushi were in her arms. But at that moment, Murong Hui squeezed in and exclaimed:

"Ahead is a carousel, to the right is a stone pillar that explodes with excrement, which way to go?"

Yan Qing's heart skipped a beat: "Are the Eight Demons close to here?"

"There's one that's closer," Murong Hui pointed to the left. "Do you want to deal with it?"

"Do you think it's feasible?" Yan Qing asked in return.

(End of this chapter)