Scourge Messenger

Chapter 58 It turns out to be you
Knock knock, knock knock, knock knock.

Yan Qing pulled the blanket over her head, determined to ignore the knocking at the door.

It took him a full three seconds to realize that he wasn't living in a nine-room apartment in an urban village where drunkards, landlords, and deliverymen could pop up at any moment, but in a thief's den!
He lives alone in this place; what fool would dare to knock on his door?
Just as he was about to open the door, Yan Qing suddenly remembered something. He first put on a coat that Ye Si had given him as tribute, then put on his trousers and shoes, and put on a yellow dog mask. He looked in the mirror to make sure he didn't look like he had just gotten up. Then, he put the Bingzi Jiaolin sword on his left hand, hung the door chain before opening the door, and only opened it a crack. He braced his right arm against the door frame and held the hilt of the Bingzi Jiaolin sword in his palm.

"Red Serpent?"

The uninvited guest who disturbed my peaceful sleep early in the morning was none other than a girl wearing a red snake scarf. Although that's what I said, her entire face was covered by the scarf and hat, with only a pair of bright, sparkling eyes showing—she was so energetic in the morning, it felt like she was a bit weird.

"You're really here?" Shang Xinlei was also a little surprised. She wasn't actually sure if Yan Qing was here, but in her distress, she decided to try her luck.

"I'm traveling and will just stay here for the night," Yan Qing replied casually, avoiding revealing his exact whereabouts. "The next theft meeting is in two days, and it's at noon. You're early."

"I came to see you." Shang Xinlei pointed into the room. "Won't you invite me in?"

"Do not."

The two stared at each other, and Yan Qing tried to close the door with her arm, but Shang Xinlei immediately used her chubby thighs to block the crack in the door: "Okay, I just wanted to ask you a question—why didn't you save An Wu?"

Yan Qing was slightly taken aback, and it took her a few seconds for her rusty brain to remember: "An Wu... Oh, you mean him."

"You've forgotten him?" Shang Xinlei was stunned, her face filled with disbelief. "He harmed himself and set himself on fire for you, even losing his life, dying in obscurity... Don't you care at all?"

"Do you even remember how many pieces of clothing you've lost?" Yan Qing asked impatiently. "He's not the first, and he won't be the last."

"But he was so loyal, why didn't you save him?" Shang Xinlei pressed. "The final step didn't necessarily require his sacrifice, and even burning down Anguo Temple wasn't essential—"

"He's useless."

Yan Qing's words were cruel: "He has no potential, his strength is insufficient, his stat allocation... his training direction is also wrong. Keeping him is just a waste of space. Even if he survives, I will get rid of him."

Yan Qing initially thought that a low-level character with full HP and a low-level character with full Dexterity would be similar, but after playing them, she discovered a huge problem between the two – HP and Stamina are positively correlated! Characters with high HP can deal more attacks, train longer, and run longer, while characters with high Dexterity do not have these advantages. Apart from dodging, they are inferior to characters with high HP in all aspects of survival, output, and training.

However, after Yan Qing became a martial arts messenger, he was already a skilled player. Even without the speed boost from agility, he could still dodge perfectly. Therefore, starting with a full agility build was a disadvantage for him. The real advantage of high agility was 'high burst damage in a short time,' which could only be fully utilized with daggers or short swords as tokens. Long swords currently offered a higher health bonus.

Yan Qing wasn't lying. Character slots are limited. Just like a game library can only hold games worth playing repeatedly, his character slots can only hold valuable alternate accounts.

“If it’s useless, it will be disposed of…” Shang Xinlei murmured, looking down at Yan Qing. “Then what is useful?”

“Things that can make you stronger, things that can help you survive.” Yan Qing paused, then added, “Things that can be put to use.”

"It sounds less like a human being and more like a weapon." Shang Xinlei seemed to be sneering: "Do you remember what the assassins who died at Anguo Temple were called?"

"I remember, Anwu, Anliu, Anqi, Anba, Anjiu." Yan Qing said irritably, "If there's nothing else, see you at noon in two days."

Hearing that Red Serpent had returned to his room, seemingly having left the thieves' den, Yan Qing went to brush her teeth and wash her face. Ever since "Jiang Shi" started hanging out with Qian Gongyu and the others, Yan Qing's life had become increasingly sweet; she even had toothpaste, a toothbrush, and face wash.

After wiping the water off her face, Yan Qing looked in the bathroom mirror, her mind, still half asleep, gradually starting to work.

"Did my statement just now... sound a bit like that of a cold-blooded leader of an evil organization?"

……

...

At the entrance of the forest, Jie Yuanshao glanced at the crowd and quietly introduced them to Qian Gongyu Jiang Shi: "That's Zhou family elder, 'Fire Blade' Zhou Ye."

Unlike his nickname and real name, Zhou Ye was a kind-looking middle-aged man who looked like a shopkeeper greeting customers. He was chatting with Jie Zilong at the moment, and when he noticed Qian Gongyu and the others' gazes, he smiled and nodded, which made him very likable.

"Five of the seven aristocratic families have arrived, and more than half of the fifty-six prominent clans have come..." Jie Yuanshao murmured, "They don't seem to have good intentions..."

"This is nothing," Shang Xinlei said as she walked over. "They're just here to see what our personal treasure chests will contain and to determine the true value of the Mansu Forest. The real battle will begin when Jiang Shihua is chosen."

"Why are you so late today?" Jie Yuanshao glanced at her. "Still in bed?"

"I've gotten up early for two days in a row. It's normal to sleep in for one day now, right?" Shang Xinlei yawned. "At home, I sleep until noon."

"Without self-discipline, how can one cultivate oneself?" Jie Yuanshao said with disdain. "The children of the Jie family work from sunrise to sunset, train in the coldest days of winter and the hottest days of summer, practice martial arts to cultivate themselves, and read books to nourish their character. This is the demeanor of a noble family. Disorderly schedules and seeking pleasure are the behavior of a spoiled brat."

Shang Xinlei winked at Jiang Shi: "Jiang Shi, look at all the rules the Jie family has. Why don't you come to our Shang family? You can sleep in here." "You..."

Seeing that they were about to start arguing again, Qian Gongyu quickly interrupted, "I looked around and didn't see Luo Weijin. Did he go back early? I wanted to show off when I opened the treasure chest later."

“Who would want to see their enemy riding high?” Shang Xinlei laughed. “Especially since both he and you are settling for treasure chests today. But according to past records, an ordinary person’s score over three days is only 15 points, and a treasure chest with 15 points can only yield one bottle of blood-replenishing pills.”

“And we already have…” She looked up at the scoreboard in the distance: “Even the lowest scorer, Miss Jie, has 1565 points.”

“You only have a few dozen points more than me,” Jie Yuanshao said seriously. “Today I will surpass you.”

"What's the use of surpassing us? You can talk after you've surpassed Jiang Shi by 4600 points."

"If I have the opportunity next year, I will give it a try."

"Okay, okay, you can overtake them all." Qian Gongyu pushed them into the Mansu Forest: "It's almost time, let's go in quickly."

As they disappeared into the thick fog, the remaining scions of prominent families entered in groups of three or four. Some whispered among themselves, while others engaged in loud conversation, clearly forming small cliques. Three young men looked around and, seemingly noticing that their companions were missing, decided to go and search for them.

"That's great," Zhou Ye suddenly said. "Seeing these young people reminds me of when I participated in the Mansu Forest competition; I felt just as nervous and excited. Old Lu, do you remember?"

"Do you remember you wet your pants on the first day?" Lu Wangji asked.

“You’re mistaken. It was Chen Zaiyuan who wet his pants,” Zhou Ye said seriously. “He was wearing plain white pants that day, which made him stand out.”

“Don’t try to smear my second brother just because he’s not here,” Chen Linchuan couldn’t help but laugh. “I’ll write to him.”

“Come on, I’m waiting for him in Jiangnan City. He hasn’t come back to catch up with me for years.” Zhou Ye complained, “We agreed to become in-laws more than ten years ago, but he just ignored our promise after he had a daughter. I’ve wanted to settle accounts with him for a long time!”

“Nobody has as much free time as you,” Lu Wangji said calmly. “Everyone is busy.”

"Did you participate in the Mansu Forest together before?" Qunyushu asked from the side.

“Yeah, I was almost scared to death when I first arrived.” Zhou Ye shrugged. “But that’s the point of the Woodland… Throwing four people into that extremely dangerous environment and letting them survive for three days, even complete strangers can forge an unbreakable friendship. If there are members of the opposite sex, that would be even better. They can go back and propose marriage, and accomplish all the important things in life in the process.”

“Now that you’ve said that, I regret not coming before,” Qunyushu sighed. “It seems I’ve missed three potential close friends—or perhaps three wives I’ve never met.”

"As the saying goes, noble families rarely have true friends, and wealthy households have no genuine feelings," Zhou Ye said. "I noticed that the three young ladies from the Jie, Qian, and Shang families talked without any barriers and in a relaxed tone. It seems that they have already forged an unbreakable friendship in the Mansu Forest."

These words caused a slight shift in the atmosphere. One of the biggest problems regarding Jiang Shi was that the Jie and Shang families had a significant advantage, meaning Jiang Shi's fate would essentially be decided between them, a decision even the imperial court couldn't easily bypass. Therefore, everyone glanced at Jie Zilong with envy.

However, it was impossible for them to leave empty-handed. The Liang Kingdom wasn't some barbaric northern tribe; they wouldn't engage in such savage acts as hoarding. Everyone was waiting for the treasure chests to be distributed, to determine the true size of the prize, before they would unleash their full potential.

Their primary enemies have always been the Jie family and the merchants, as for Jiang Shi...

Who would consider meat a rival?
……

...

Upon entering the Mansu Forest, they immediately split up to gather materials. Whether they could break through the tenth level today depended on their ability to dig deep enough to reach the sky.

However, just as Yan Qing casually chopped down a tree, he heard footsteps behind him. When he turned around, he was shocked to see Shang Xinlei.

"Jiang Shi, there's something I want to tell you."

Shang Xinlei walked over and grabbed Jiang Shi's arms, saying earnestly:
"Your leader is not worthy of your loyalty."

"No matter what promises your leader makes to you, he is essentially a scumbag who treats your lives as disposable commodities and discards you the moment you are no longer of use."

"You must keep your treasure chest for yourself; never hand it over to that heartless, ruthless, and inhuman scum!"

Yan Qing looked at the conversation that popped up on the screen. If he wasn't mistaken, Shang Xinlei was probably, perhaps, possibly, maybe, there was a one in ten thousand chance... that she was cursing him?
But why did she scold me, or rather, how did she know that the man behind Jiang Shi was me?

Yan Qing looked down and saw a pair of plump thighs below the slender waist.

So it was you, the red snake who disturbed my peaceful sleep so early in the morning!
(End of this chapter)