Scourge Messenger

Chapter 356 The Bone Ferris Wheel

"I finally have the chance to come here."

Looking up at the towering Ferris wheel made of white bones, Yan Qing went to the door and attached the Blood and Flesh Cage Bracelet to it. The door immediately opened with a rumble.

As the most prominent building in the Guiding Lands, the Bone Wheel Ferris Wheel is naturally an entertainment facility, but this is the first time they've visited it after so many days. The reason they hadn't come before wasn't a lack of interest, but rather the extreme risks involved.

"White Bone Ferris Wheel"

Entering different pods will grant different keyword bonuses.

Each rotation takes 45 minutes.

Each ride takes 45 minutes. Time isn't the problem; the problem is what to do if they get blocked at the entrance. The Baibao Guards searched everywhere for them and found that it wasn't difficult for them to get on the Bone Ferris Wheel. In addition, the reward wasn't particularly important; it seemed to only slightly increase their combat power. Therefore, Yan Qing and the others hadn't gone in to play when they passed by before.

However, the Hundred Guards were all gathered at the Bone Script Plaza, while the Bone Ferris Wheel was on the northwest edge. Even if they discovered Yan Qing and his two companions, it would still take them more than an hour to get there, so they had plenty of time.

Yan Qing even hoped they would come. The Hundred Guards had a great advantage in positional warfare, but if it were a pursuit or encounter battle, he might be able to crush these evil spirits who roam the world today.

When Yan Qing and the other two entered, they discovered that although the gondolas of the Bone Ferris Wheel were all one of the compartments on the wheel, the keywords for the rewards varied depending on the different skulls on the wheel.

Shield Skull: Gain one Divine Shield.

Battle Knife Skeleton: Adds 1000 attack power.

Cloaked Skeleton: Gain one Stealth (enemies will not attack you before you attack).
Cursed Skeleton: Gain one [Soul Destruction] (Ultimate Attack).

Skeleton Prophet: Gain one [Time Reversal] (the effect activates an additional time at the end of each day).
Skeleton Priest: Gain one [Resurrection].

Well, they're all extremely useful, but unfortunately, aside from the Warblade Skeleton, the others can only trigger once, making them feel a bit underwhelming. However, since we're already here, if the Hundred Guards really choose this place as the final battleground, then these buffs will come in handy immediately.

After a brief moment of thought, Yan Qing decided to send all the monster puppets to the shield skull's pod to obtain the [Holy Shield].

Although all of these effects can only be triggered once, the others are guaranteed to trigger at the start of battle. Given their current overwhelming puppet lineup, acquiring them would be a waste. Only [Holy Shield] and [Resurrection] can be maintained until the puppet is injured or dies. However, [Resurrection] has a major drawback: the resurrected puppet will not have the previous buffs and its health will be forcibly reduced to 1. For example, "Qiongqi" currently has 100,000 stats, but after resurrection, it will revert to its original form as a 1-health puppet.

The only exception is the Dragon Servant, a type of ghoul puppet. Their stat bonuses all have a prefix: 'no matter where the puppet is,' which includes the state of being resurrected.

"Huh?" Murong Hui suddenly said, "It seems we can't sit together."

Yan Qing looked at the sign, which read: "Each pod can carry a maximum of two messengers. If more than two messengers are carried, the keyword bonus will not be available."

It seems this is a battleground for late-game skirmishes... Yan Qing quickly grasped the subtext of this rule: this place is extremely important, so important that players would rather queue up to come here for buffs.

Yan Qing considered the Bone Ferris Wheel useless from a PVE perspective, but what about PVP? In a game like the Guiding Lands where stats are compared, adding a layer of [Holy Shield] to all your puppets is enough to completely turn the tide of battle.

Different races' puppet lineups each have their own unique keywords. For example, the Ghoul is resurrection, the Mechanism is a holy shield, and the Mysterious is a guaranteed kill. The Bone Ferris Wheel is the easiest way to obtain keywords for other races. For instance, the keyword "Resurrection" is useless for the Yokai race, but it's incredibly powerful on the Mysterious race. Mysterious creatures have low health and rely heavily on "Soul Scattering" for guaranteed kills; with "Resurrection," the Mysterious puppet can reliably one-shot two enemies.

“Let’s all go to the Shield Skull’s pod,” Yan Qing said. The other keywords were meaningless to them. [Resurrection] seemed useful, but setting aside the fact that resurrecting would leave them with only one HP, the key question was whether this resurrection truly revived the person, or just revived a set of data? It would be safer to just use [Holy Shield] to block one hit. “As for how to divide into teams…”

"How about," Ying Rushi suddenly said, "the two of you form a team?"

These words stunned not only Yan Qing and Murong Hui, but even Ying Rushi herself. Murong Hui immediately shook her head and hugged Ying Rushi's arm: "No, I want to sit with the little fox. Yellow Dog, don't miss me too much, but I'm a beautiful young lady of the Murong family who loves new things and never gets tired of the old. When I have to choose between the two, I will always choose the soft, fluffy, and delicious little fox! The little fox is the most delicious!"

"I'm starting to doubt that you'll be the only one coming out of the pod in 45 minutes," Yan Qing quipped. "But don't get your hopes up. You're going to have some alone time from now on. Come here, I have something to tell you."

Watching Yan Qing and Murong Hui whispering together like two chattering squirrels, Ying Rushi's lips curled up slightly, but the light in her eyes dimmed little by little.

Why would she make such a suggestion? Or rather, why did she see such a horrible scene in her hallucination? Why is the female protagonist Murong Hui, and not Black Wolf or Red Serpent?
Because she was very aware of this fact: Murong Hui liked Yan Qing.

How could she not like it? Although Murong Hui has a wide circle of friends over the years, she is the Murong family head who is both kind and dignified in public. She leaves most of the affairs to the head of the family and travels around with her servants. Her only close friend is Yan Qing.

Perhaps Murong Hui hasn't realized it yet, subconsciously treating Yan Qing the way she treats Ying Rushi, but she's not a truly naive seven or eight-year-old girl. Sooner or later, she'll realize her feelings, and sooner or later... they'll come together.

If the female protagonist in the hallucination were Black Wolf or Red Serpent, Ying Rushi might be surprised, angry, or even grit her teeth, but she would not have any murderous intent. This is because she feels guilty towards Black Wolf and Red Serpent; she is the one who came later, and it would be perfectly reasonable for them to assert their dominance. At most, she could only turn around and leave; she had no right to throw a tantrum.

Murong Hui was different. If it were Murong Hui, she would feel betrayed, so she had to raise the Heaven-Slaying Sword to kill these phantoms that defiled Murong Hui and Yan Qing, just like tearing off the scars from a wound, even if it would cause bloodshed.

But just now, Ying realized a possibility she didn't want to imagine, but had to face:
What if Yan Qing and Murong Hui got together in real life?

What if they really were as intimate as they were in last night's hallucination?
When the time comes, will she kill them just like she killed the illusions...?
Yingru desperately wanted to convince herself that such a possibility didn't exist, that they wouldn't end up together, and that she wasn't incapable of distinguishing between illusion and reality. She was a member of the Qi royal family, of divine and martial blood, the Prince of Lanling, Yingru—how could she possibly be led by the nose by illusion?
But each time he looked in the mirror, his courage gradually diminished, and fear slowly crept in.

The girl in the mirror looked more and more like Ying Le, whom she had seen when she was young.

So beautiful, so indifferent, her eyes held struggle and cruelty.

If it weren't for Ying Le, Ying Ru Shi might have dared to gamble that she could overcome the illusion, but Ying Le... that was Ying Le, hailed as the 'reincarnation of a divine warrior,' the most outstanding bloodline of the royal family in the last hundred years, her most beloved aunt. Even Ying Le couldn't control herself from slaughtering the royal family and killing her relatives and friends, so how could she dare to gamble that she was stronger than Ying Le? If it weren't for meeting Yan Qing, she wouldn't have been able to persevere!

That's why she blurted out the suggestion that Murong Hui and Yan Qing team up to enter the gondola.

Besides eliminating fear, another way to eliminate fear is... to make fear a reality.

Thinking about it carefully, aren't Murong Hui and Yan Qing a perfect match? Murong Hui is so lively and adorable that most people either can't keep up with her or get bullied by her. Even Ying Rushi is sometimes speechless because of her unconventional imagination and extraordinary action. Yan Qing is the only person she has met who can not only keep up with Murong Hui, but also suppress her. He will tolerate her willfulness, and she will accept his guidance. It's as if they have known each other for a long time, long enough to understand each other perfectly.

Ying Rushi would bless them; her best friend was with the person she loved most, and she was willing to pay any price to ensure their happiness. Therefore, even if they were as intimate as she had imagined last night, Ying Rushi might feel sad, heartbroken, cry, or turn away and flee this place, but she would never draw her sword against them.

At least, she won't follow in Ying Le's footsteps.

At least, she won't make any mistakes she'll regret.

　Three updates today

　　
　
(End of this chapter)