Scourge Messenger

Chapter 59 The Only Wonder: The Painting of a Hero

"Don't deny it. When you took out the white iron straight sword, I guessed that you were related to 'that organization.'" Shang Xinlei looked around, as if she thought Yan Qing would jump out of the bushes and steal her woman. "Plus, the fact that your name has a numerical code only confirms my suspicions."

It was exposed so easily...

Yan Qing was quite helpless. He hadn't expected that in such a vast world with so many people, he would actually encounter the Crimson Serpent by sheer coincidence. The name was one thing, but currently, he only had the White Iron Straight Blade that he could freely give to his alt. He couldn't very well have his alt fight empty-handed just to conceal his identity, could he?

Shang Xinlei continued, "'That organization' sent you here for the treasure chest in the Mansu Forest, right? No guidance, no assistance, just sent you here to run wild. If you succeed, you're theirs; if you die, they discard you like trash... You should have realized the cruelty of that organization by now, right? If you join the Shang family, I can guarantee your safety. A dark organization hiding behind the scenes, scheming and despicable, is not qualified to challenge the Liang Kingdom's Shang family."

"Joining the Jie family is fine, but just don't be loyal to that leader anymore. He's so despicable, shameless, lecherous, and vile; he's not worth following."

Slander! Utter slander! I only peeked at you when you pushed your thigh through the crack in the door, and you call that lewd? I had absolutely no interest in your thighs before you pushed them in!

Although she wanted to loudly refute her, Yan Qing didn't want to reveal any more information and had no interest in acting with Shang Xinlei, so she replied, "Time is of the essence, I have no interest in discussing these things with you."

"Does that scumbag have something on you? Or has your family been kidnapped by him?"

In just a few words, Shang Xinlei's way of addressing Yan Qing had changed from 'that leader' to 'scumbag'.

"If that's the case, you should give in even more. Following orders in that organization will only result in being completely exploited and then discarded like a rag! Only by saving yourself can you possibly break free from your tragic fate!"

"If you can't do it, then leave it to me!" She placed her hands on her chest, her beautiful eyes fixed on 'Jiang Shi': "You might think I'm just trying to win you over, and I don't deny that I have that thought, but the reason I want to help you so much is because you deserve it."

"You should be flying, not lying in the mud."

It got me really excited! The next part should be about the two of them forging a bond that goes beyond friendship, going through numerous adventures and life-or-death situations, defeating the four kings of the dark organization, interspersed with flashbacks of the villains being redeemed, and finally killing the mastermind together, and then the two of them embracing and weeping in the rubble...

"It would be even better if I wasn't the mastermind she was talking about," Yan Qing thought.

However, he had no intention of explaining. He knew all too well that his emotional intelligence and shrewdness were probably at the bottom of the food chain in this world. After all, before he transmigrated, he stayed at home playing games, and after transmigrating, he stayed in the Thieves' House playing games. The common point was that he didn't socialize at all. He wouldn't be surprised if one day his language skills deteriorated to the point where he could only say "abba aba." He knew that the more he talked, the more he would expose himself. What others thought was their business. As long as he didn't say too much, he wouldn't be found out.

"You've already wasted the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Shang Xinlei."

"Why won't you leave that organization? Is it out of gratitude? Being a hostage? Or is it—"

"Shang Xinlei, unlike you, I have no one to rely on."

"I don't need to rely on anyone else."

After saying that, Jiang Shi broke free from Shang Xinlei's hand and walked into the depths of the jungle, leaving behind only one sentence: "Go and gather resources quickly."

Seemingly having given up, Shang Xinlei did not chase after them. Yan Qing reviewed the situation and, feeling that she hadn't revealed any flaws, went off to gather resources with peace of mind.

They cut down trees and rocks along the way, running as fast as they could to the second resource area. The terrain of the second resource area was different each time. The terrain Yan Qing was encountering now was snow. As far as the eye could see, it was a vast expanse of white. As they went deeper, the snow was as thick as half a person. Even with Jiang Shi's advanced steps, it was still difficult for him to move on the snow.

Moreover, although the resource coverage here is very high, the resources are all covered by snow and are difficult to find without getting close, which further reduces Yan Qing's scavenging efficiency.

A short while later, Yan Qing saw a lighthouse covered in snow. Approaching it, he found a wooden sign next to it, indicating that inserting ten spirit jades would activate the lighthouse. After inserting the spirit jades, a golden beam of light shone from the top of the lighthouse, rotating with the lighthouse and scattering golden rain on the snow.

These golden rays, falling on the snow, would adhere to resources or special buildings, making them clearly visible even from hundreds or thousands of meters away. Yan Qing looked around and found that the resources were most concentrated in the northeast, and the outline of a special building could be clearly seen.

But this walk took half an hour, and the golden light had long since dissipated. Yan Qing could only rely on her senses to keep walking in a straight line, missing quite a few resource piles along the way, afraid that going over to collect them would cause her to lose her way. If the player could fly, they could completely loot all the resources here; if they couldn't fly, they could only focus on the largest targets and keep moving forward.

Standing at the finish line is a temple covered by wind and snow.

Inside the temple, there was no wind or snow, only three altars. On each altar was a different scroll, and below each altar was a different resource pattern, with a gap below each pattern.

Yan Qing thought the altar would spew out resources, but after carefully looking at the prompts next to it, he realized that he needed to invest resources to get the rewards.

"Monument to the Fighters"

"Unlock Resource: 25 Crystals"

Construction Resources: 100 Stones, 80 Crystals, 80 Gems

"Unique Wonder: Only one building with this property can exist at any given time."

"Never Stop Fighting: All facilities in the Sanctuary except the statue gain 100 health, increased damage by 300%, reduced building capacity by 50%, and will be fully restored after 60 seconds of damage. This building can be upgraded."

A spectacular building that could completely change architectural strategy!
Yan Qing had sensed something was off before. Because the statues were so useful, the other non-statue minions were extremely inefficient. Unless facing a crucial battle, Yan Qing was unwilling to build minions to fill the lanes. If the minions were only used for early-game transition, but the upgrade of the shelter unlocked many new minion recipes, it gave Yan Qing the feeling that 'people also play the minion strategy in the late game'.

The Fighter's Monument is undoubtedly a key building for the minion-based strategy, providing increased health and damage, doubling the building limit, and even allowing resurrection on the battlefield... Yan Qing is even a little tempted. With the Fighter's Monument, switching to the minion-based strategy should make passing the tenth level much easier!
Rainbow Bridge

"Unlock Resources: 50 Gems" "Building Resources: 100 Wood, 100 Crystal, 100 Mercury, 100 Sulfur"

"Unique Wonder: Only one building with this property can exist at any given time."

"Rainbow Reflection: Shelter members emit a rainbow light with a radius of 25 meters. Resource piles and resource points illuminated by the rainbow light will be automatically collected into the shelter's warehouse. This building can be upgraded."

What the hell!

Yan Qing immediately recognized this as a late-game wonder; anyone aiming for levels 30 or 50 would definitely want it. With the Rainbow Bridge, players could simply charge through the area to collect resources, at a speed at least three to four times faster than normal.

This spectacle is of immense significance to Qian Gongyu and her group, as they lack a personal storage and their scavenging efficiency is less than one-tenth that of normal players. With the Rainbow Bridge, they could scavenge everywhere like normal players, and reaching levels 20 or 30 wouldn't be impossible!
Although the Rainbow Bridge has higher construction requirements than the Fighter's Monument, it's not impossible to gather enough resources if you save up for a few turns...

Yan Qing was conflicted, feeling that the Fighter's Monument was the safest bet, but also that the Rainbow Bridge had more potential. However, when he saw the third scroll, all his doubts vanished.

……

...

An hour later, everyone returned to the shelter on time. Except for Shang Xinlei, who was still preoccupied, Qian Gongyu and Jie Yuanshao both had smiles on their faces, clearly having had their own adventures.

According to the plan discussed last night, we should now build a level 5 shelter and see what better facilities can be unlocked. If not, we should upgrade the statue.

However, Jiang Shi neither upgraded the shelter nor the statue. With a flick of her finger, most of the resources in the courtyard turned into streams of light and flowed into the castle. To everyone's astonishment, the streams of light melted into the wall above the fireplace, transforming into an exquisite, giant painting.

The scene depicted the four of them chatting in front of the fireplace. Jie Yuanshao sat upright, Shang Xinlei was relaxed, and Qian Gongyu was holding Jiang Shi's hand, squeezing onto the sofa. The scene was so lifelike, as if it had been cut from their past.

"So beautiful..." Qian Gongyu murmured, "Can I take it with me?"

"Our resources," Jie Yuanshao drew a large circle with both hands and asked in an incredulous tone, "will turn into a painting?"

"But it looks really good!"

"It's not a matter of whether it looks good or not!"

"Jiang Shi is gone," Shang Xinlei reminded them, and only then did the two realize that Jiang Shi had already left, and the demonic frenzy had begun.

They initially thought Jiang Shi was after the demons, but when they came out and saw him standing on the battlements, he didn't rush out to slaughter them. Unlike Jiang Shi, they all had to rely on the city walls to kill monsters; charging into the demon horde was too risky for them.

The first wave of monsters consisted of thieving lizard demons and hundreds of thieving lizards. As the monsters drew closer, the statues unleashed their power and descended. Just then, Shang Xinlei and the others sensed a tremendous anomaly—

Power surged forth!
Their blood and energy surged violently within them, circulating wildly and powerfully! Their strength surged forth, doubling, tripling, and even increasing tenfold!

Qian Gongyu couldn't help but let out a wild roar, and with a casual slap on the battlement, he smashed part of the parapet into dust!

She was first taken aback by her own strength, then couldn't help but giggle foolishly: "Look, I'm so strong!"

"Jiang Shi!" Shang Xinlei immediately asked, "Is this the power of that painting?"

Jiang nodded, then shook his head.

She raised her iron-blooded longsword, gestured towards the Chaos Warrior and the Narcissus Mermaid beside her, and then gestured towards herself.

Upon closer inspection, everyone noticed that the red light shimmering on the bodies of the Chaos Warrior, the Dragon Slayer, and the Blade Warrior, and the blue light shimmering on the bodies of the Narcissus Mermaid and the Funeral Mermaid, all extended into a thin thread that flowed into their bodies.

Each of them had red and blue light flowing around them, as if... they had become one of the statues.

"Is this the bond effect you mentioned before?" Jie Yuanshao immediately remembered: "We were strengthened by the bonds of the Pearl Tear Alliance and the Comrades' Guild?"

Jiang Shi nodded, jumped off the battlements, and charged alone towards the bandit lizard army as always. This time, however, Shang Xinlei, Jie Yuanshao, and Qian Gongyu exchanged a glance and followed closely behind, facing hundreds of bandit lizards head-on!
boom!
The ocean of thief lizards crashed into four blood-red reefs, leaving them battered and bruised, with heavy casualties!

"Heroic Paintings"

"Unlock resource: 30 Mercury"

Construction Resources: 100 Wood, 100 Stone, 50 Crystal, 40 Sulfur, 30 Gems

"Unique Wonder: Only one building with this property can exist at any given time."

"Heroes Together: When Sanctuary statues form a bond, all Sanctuary members benefit from the bond bonus. This effect can be upgraded."

(End of this chapter)