Scourge Messenger

Chapter 389: Fire in eyes, body in dream

"Chong Ming Tong"

"Rank: Fourth-Tier Legendary"

"Durability: 300/300"

"Base attack power: 10~50 points of candlelight damage."

"Equipment requirements: 150 points of Qi and Health, 150 points of Spirit and Soul"

"Equipment effect: All your attacks gain 20% of the minimum hit modifier."

"Effect - Fire in the Eyes: You open your Double Eyes and gaze at the target. As long as the target is within your line of sight, you can ignore distance and subject the target to the corrosive flames of [Crimson Candle Tears]. You can only attack once per second, but if you activate it three times in a row within ten seconds, it will reduce the durability by 1 point. If you spend 10 Spirit Essence and 5 points of durability, you can create a [Crimson Candle Tears] fire wall at the target location."

"Effect: Instant Eyes: You can teleport to a location within your line of sight. The base cost is 5 Spirit Essence. The more complex the surrounding Dao patterns, the more Spirit Essence is consumed, but you can always consume all of your own Spirit Essence (>5) to activate Instant Eyes."

"Effect: Dream Body: A fleeting moment, a spark in a stone, a dream body."

You must consume 100 Spirit Essence and 100 Durability to activate this.

You need to focus on the target for at least three seconds before you can activate this skill. During this time, you will continuously consume spirit energy and durability. If you lose the target in the meantime, the consumed spirit energy and durability will not be refunded.

Once all conditions are met and the activation is successful, the target will create three clones in the following order over the next five seconds:

Cliff Walker: The clone escapes quickly from the target and disappears after 0.5 seconds. If you can hit Cliff Walker, the target will be unable to move for five seconds and will be locked in the current space.
Spark in Stone: A clone leaps out from the target, flashing with sparks, lasting for 0.05 seconds. If you hit the spark in stone, the target's defensive barrier will shatter instantly.

Dream Body: A clone appears next to the target, perfectly mirroring the target's state, lasting for 3 seconds. All damage you inflict on the Dream Body will be returned to the target's original body after the Dream Body disappears.

"Comment: Perhaps it's a lament that I don't have the Double Bright Eyes!"

Looking at the eyeball in his inventory, its pupils flickering with candlelight, Yan Qing felt that the Foundation Establishment Demon Core had been well worth the money. The effects of this legendary artifact alone far surpassed those of the all-powerful Bunny Girl!
Many people may focus on the "Flash in the Eye" and the "Dream Body," but the value of the legendary artifact "Double Bright Eyes" lies at least 80% in the "Fire in the Eyes"!

After players reach the fourth stage of Foundation Establishment, their evaluation of the tokens may not be consistent with the game system, because everyone's supernatural abilities are different. Some legendary tokens may have high stats, but because they cannot bring out the advantages of the supernatural abilities, they are not as good as some rare or precious tokens.

However, among all the tokens, there is one power that, once it appears, is recognized by players as a T0-level token, and even if it is only of ordinary quality, it can be sold for a good price.

That's an eyewitness account!
As long as a player equips a token with similar powers, even if his supernatural abilities are as bad as shit, he is still a pile of shit that can be smashed in the face of the enemy in an instant!

Putting everything else aside, if Yan Qing had the "Double Bright Eyes" in the Demon Gathering Land, he could have locked Ying Su in the [Epitaph] with just one glance!
Within sight, it's all range; it's impossible to intercept and has no wind-up. [Fire in the Eyes] can be paired with any supernatural ability to break through tactical stalemates, making it a true all-rounder!

Of course, 'Witness' is strong, not invincible; after all, the developers will make balance adjustments. Leaving aside the fact that frequent use of [Fire in the Pupil] will reduce its durability, if Yan Qing wanted to combine [Fire in the Pupil] with a supernatural ability for long-range casting, the supernatural ability would likely consume a significant amount of spiritual energy, making it unsuitable as a regular method; at most, it would be a trump card used only as a last resort.

But that's enough; the mere existence of this trump card is enough to give people immense confidence.

Interestingly, the power of "Fire in the Eyes" is strongly related to "Red Candle Tears." This is because the Bunny Girl used "Red Candle Tears" to deal 90% of the damage, which caused "Double Bright Eyes" to be contaminated by "Red Candle Tears," just like in "Breath of the Wild" where killing an animal with fire directly yields roasted meat.

Yan Qing had seen this situation on game forums before. Although it was interesting, as it seemed that different players could get different loot by clearing the same dungeon, few people would do it intentionally, because this kind of 'specialization' would usually have a detrimental effect. The original [Fire in the Pupil] value should be higher.

However, the strength of [Fire in the Pupil] lies in its sight-based casting method, and its numerical value is negligible. Yan Qing naturally did not feel regretful. On the contrary, he was very satisfied to have obtained a special legendary token, as if the Bunny Girl had signed it.

The instantaneous teleportation of 【目中瞬】 looks good, but it's just good.

After all, Foundation Establishment cultivators either jump around or fly and disappear into the ground. This kind of teleportation, which requires spiritual energy, can only be used for escaping. It is not even suitable for moving around on the battlefield because it will be affected by the Dao pattern environment.

The so-called Dao patterns are the distortions and patterns left on the environment by the use of supernatural powers during Foundation Establishment. For example, [Candle Tears Red] will leave behind a large number of fire Dao patterns, which will only return to their original state after a period of time. The more supernatural Dao patterns there are, the more spiritual energy will be required to activate [Eye Snap]. Therefore, unless it is a truly critical situation, using [Eye Snap] on a chariot will quickly deplete one's spiritual energy.

As for the seemingly powerful [Dream Body], it is indeed very strong, but it's difficult for a fourth-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator to fully utilize its effects. Aside from the 100 durability, you'll need to find a way to repair the token after just two uses; the bigger problem is that it costs 100 spirit essence, and the maximum spirit essence for a fourth-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator is only around 200. Therefore, after using [Dream Body], a fourth-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator may not have enough spirit essence left to infuse the item.

Moreover, the "Horse in the Gap" and "Fire in the Stone" clones of the [Dream Body] are obviously very difficult to hit. If this power is used in a tense and exciting battlefield, the player will most likely just have another "Dream Body" target that can be easily damaged.

A 20% hit rate correction isn't bad either. It means that Yan Qing's attacks, which would normally miss, can be corrected to hit directly as long as they are within the correction range.

Most regrettably, as an eye-type artifact, it lacks investigative abilities. If it possessed suitable investigative abilities, Yan Qing might be able to unlock the true power of the [Epitaph], which is the fundamental reason for its ranking among the Ten Great Mysteries! But regardless, with the "Double Bright Eyes," a fourth-tier legendary item, Yan Qing's confidence in the fourth case suddenly increased by 50%!
After finally calming down, Yan Qing had the mind to examine the other spoils of war.

"The Blood of the Black Bird"

"Usage conditions: Only for tokens of level 6 or below"

"Effect: Restores the item's durability by 200 points and increases its maximum durability by 50 points. Each item can only use one artifact that increases its maximum durability."

"Evaluation: The blood of the Black Bird is black and yellow."

Yan Qing knew that this thing was worth almost as much as a fourth-tier legendary item; any rare item that could increase the durability limit was extremely valuable.

Upon seeing "The Blood-Spitting Manual of the Dance of the Fallen Kingdom," Yan Qing was taken aback, for this was a master book for those at the Flying Circle Master level.

This isn't just for beginners, it's for experts. Using it will take you straight to the max level of Flying Hoop Master!
Even though the Chongming Bird is a boss in a difficult fourth-tier dungeon, equivalent to a fifth-tier demon king, it's still a bit outrageous for it to drop a Master Proficiency Book directly. However, Yan Qing thought about it again. Weapon skills are basically useless after Foundation Establishment, and unpopular weapons like flying rings are even worse. Learning them might pollute the job advancement pool, so dropping a Master Proficiency Book directly doesn't seem so strange.

Shang Xinlei is really lucky.

Besides these, all that's left are some materials, True Spirit Jade, and the Heavenly Gang Inverted Yin-Yang Mirror. The Inverted Yin-Yang Mirror is also a rare Heavenly Gang that can directly point to a perfect Dao foundation. If we find a piece of Earthly Fiend, then the Dao foundation should be secured.

It's a pity that another Chongming robe dropped.

While Yan Qing was inspecting the spoils, Master Suolong had already taken his share from the treasure chest and left with the corpse of the Chongming Bird bound in chains.

As soon as the bunny girl and the pharmacist stepped out of the secret realm, they heard a collapse behind them. When they turned around, they saw that the cave inside the vortex was cracking and springs were gushing out. The landslide and the underground springs erupted at the same time, completely blocking the cave. The mountain rocks and spring water rushed all the way to the entrance of the secret realm, dispersing the light blue vortex entrance, leaving only a pile of rocks blocking the cave.

"Truly a natural disaster."

Master Suolong stood guard nearby. There was no one around. She had come out early and also chased away the people near the entrance to prevent anyone from seeing this scene.

"They completely destroyed the secret realm from the inside out, leaving not a single trace."

"Regret it?" the Bunny Girl asked.

“There’s a little bit, but really not much,” said Master Suolong. “I’m considered one of the more diligent Foundation Establishment cultivators, clearing a secret realm every month, but today’s harvest is enough to make up for two years of my hard work. If I could get this kind of reward every time, I would be happy to help you find those fourth-level secret realms in the wild.”

Thinking of this, Master Suolong was somewhat dazed.

They ran the first half more than twenty times. Although they had to split the treasure chests, the problem was that Master Suolong consumed almost nothing. She spent at most a few hundred spirit essence throughout the whole process, but her gains exceeded ten thousand.

Normally, when she were conquering dungeons, it would cost her about 500 to earn 1000, and that's assuming a long payback period. After a year of hard work, she'd only earn less than 6000. Therefore, her estimate of earning money over two years was quite accurate.

“Then you can start looking now,” said the bunny girl. “I can promise you on my brother’s behalf that for every secret realm you find that we can purify, we can bring you a return no less than today’s. Of course, Aunt Yue, you also have to participate, after all, you are also a very important fighting force.”

"Truly, the old waves push the new waves forward." Master Suolong smiled but didn't: "Even I, a fifth-level master, have to be driven by you juniors."

"Didn't your uncle say that a true strong person knows how to make money?" the Bunny Girl said. "We can't just give up making money for the sake of saving face, can we?"

Master Suolong glared at Rabbit Girl with annoyance, looking like an elder who couldn't refute a child's retort.

"I won't keep you any longer. You've chosen a difficult path, and I suppose you won't listen to the advice of an old aunt like me." Master Suolong put his hands behind his back, looked up at the stars, and exuded an air of extraordinary elegance: "I wish you a safe journey."

Although the Wolf and Rabbit sisters never revealed anything from beginning to end, Master Suolong was an old and shrewd person, so how could she not see the anxiety that Yaoshi Yuan was hiding? In addition, Yaoshi Yuan was a member of the Thieves' Family, so it was easy to guess what they were worried about.

The last case almost offended her, a Foundation Establishment cultivator; this case will only be more dangerous.

The pharmacist had a sudden thought, an absurd yet feasible idea.

But before she could suggest that she go back to the Thieves' House to discuss it with Yan Qing, the Bunny Girl asked directly, "Aunt Yue, what price would it take to hire you to assassinate an emperor?"

(End of this chapter)