Scourge Messenger

Chapter 63 The Wind Rises
When the tribal chief fell, only three of the five high-level statues remained, and all the low-level statues had their durability reduced to zero.

Qian Gongyu and the others did not participate in the final battle. The vast difference in strength could not be bridged by courage; the tribal chief could easily tear them to pieces with a single chain. They stood outside quietly, watching Jiang Shi return triumphantly from the battlefield, carrying two iron-blooded longswords.

"Are you alright?" Jiang Shi asked.

Qian Gongyu covered her face with the animal fur, somewhat embarrassed, and said in a muffled voice, "It's okay, it will go away in a few days..."

Jiang Shi suddenly squatted down and touched Qian Gongyu's tail. Qian Gongyu was startled, covered her bottom, and blushed: "Jiang Shi, what are you doing?! You, you, you, do you still know that you are my guard?"

"Young Miss, I was wrong."

"Why add it?! It shows no sincerity!"

"Jiang Shi," Jie Yuanshao let out a long breath, "we did it."

"Yes, we did it." Jiang Shi walked over and hugged Jie Yuanshao generously. "Thank you for going on this adventure with me."

Jie Yuanshao was stunned for a moment, but quickly returned the hug. She seemed to have never done anything so intimate before, and her movements were somewhat stiff.

Then Jiang Shi hugged Qian Gongyu: "Miss, thank you for your help these past few days."

"Huh? Huh?" Qian Gongyu's tail stood on end, a little flustered: "Well, it's not that troublesome... it's just a little bit..."

Before Jiang Shi could even approach, Shang Xinlei hugged him tightly, whispering in his ear, "Jiang Shi, do you now consider me someone you can rely on?"

Yan Qing of the Thieves' House was slightly taken aback, only then remembering Shang Xinlei's response to the previous conversation. He really wanted to reply firmly, "I don't need to rely on anyone," but thinking of Qian Gongyu and the others' desperate battle, he couldn't help but soften his heart.

That's how it is when you play games. When you meet a great teammate, you start to wonder if you can stay in the same team forever.

"I'm truly defeated by you guys."

Shang Xinlei's eyes lit up: "So that means—"

"It depends on whether you or the Jie family offers a higher price. I'm very expensive."

Yan Qing ignored Shang Xinlei's chatter and instead opened the system information; he still had many things to deal with.

"The 'Silver Hunter' milestone has been achieved."

"The next wave of monsters will attack after 54:35."

"You have comprehended the 'Advanced Steps', and your current level is 10."

"You have mastered the Advanced Dual Swords Technique, currently at level 5."

"Your HP increases by 1"

"Your spirit level has increased by 1."

"Your dexterity increases by 1.5."

"You reached level 20!"

"Congratulations on reaching level 20. Would you like to proceed with your second job advancement immediately? Note: Your job advancement is related to your play experience and skill proficiency."

Yan Qing took a deep breath, her heart pounding with excitement.

He never expected that the first alt account to reach the second job advancement wouldn't be 'Night Four', but this 'Jiang Ten' who had only been created for four days!
It can only be said that choosing the Woodland Messenger profession was the right decision. 'Jiang Shi' just spent a day in the Woodland of Mansu to improve his skill proficiency, which was enough to make 'Ye Si's' hard work for more than ten days!
Three boxes appear on the screen, listing three optional professions:
"Dual-wielding Messenger (Rare)"

"Attribute bonus: Health +8, Spirit +2, Agility +10"

"Dual Blades (Blue Trait): When using two longswords as weapons simultaneously, each effective attack will cause 3 points of bleeding damage per second for 10 seconds, which can be stacked up to 10 times."

"Demon Dance (Blue Trait): After every 5 consecutive attacks, your next attack will always be a critical hit."

/
"Blade Messenger (Rare)"

"Attribute bonus: Health +10, Spirit +2, Agility +8"

"Blur (Blue Trait): When you trigger a perfect dodge, you enter a state of absolute blur for one frame, allowing you to dodge even wide-range attacks." "Blink Strike (Blue Trait): After triggering a perfect dodge, your next attack can dash up to ten steps forward."

"Undamaged Blade (Gold Trait): After triggering five perfect dodges without taking damage, you will enter the Undamaged Blade state. In this state, the damage dealt by all your melee attacks is doubled. You will exit this state after taking any attack. This state has an internal cooldown of 600 seconds."

/
"Wandering Messenger (Rare)"

"Attribute bonus: Health +20, Spirit +10, Agility +10"

"Woodland Kin (Gold Ability): When you are in the Woodland, all your stats are temporarily increased by 50."

"Mansu's Gift (Golden Trait): When resolving the Mansu Forest Treasure Chest, you gain an additional opportunity to choose."

"Woodland Roaming (Golden Trait): When there are more than 1,000 trees within a one-kilometer radius, you are considered to be in Woodland Roaming."

One rare profession, two precious professions!

Although Yan Qing knew that rare professions would appear starting from the second job advancement, he did not expect to be so lucky this time. All three professions were above average, and each had its own strengths and none of them were useless.

Dual-wielding messenger is clearly the most reliable choice, offering a stable boost in damage output and consistent trigger conditions; choosing it guarantees you won't lose out.

The Blade Messenger is highly skill-dependent. While the Blur and Blink attacks are merely icing on the cake, the Golden Trait of Unharmed Blade is a game-changer, doubling all damage. However, its trigger conditions are extremely demanding, and once you're injured and exit Unharmed Blade state, you have to wait ten minutes to reactivate it. If a player's skill level is insufficient, the Golden Trait of Unharmed Blade is essentially nonexistent.

The Wandering Messenger is an upgraded version of the Woodland Messenger. Not only is the 'Woodland Companion' perk upgraded from +50 to +50 to all attributes, but the 'Woodland Wandering' trait also makes this class incredibly versatile—as long as you can keep the surrounding area filled with trees, you can maintain a 50-point increase in all attributes! Not to mention, the Wandering Messenger has the highest base attribute bonus; other classes only get a 20-point increase in base attributes, while it gets a whopping 40 points!
There's a reason for switching to any profession, and you'll find a place to use your skills no matter which one you choose. So, which profession should you switch to?

After Yan Qing finished dealing with the matter, and the others had rested enough, Shang Xinlei stood up and stretched: "Let's go back."

"Okay," Jie Yuanshao said, "Jiang Shi, Qian Gongyu, you two don't say anything later. Shang Xinlei and I will handle it."

"Let's go, I'm starving." Qian Gongyu rubbed her stomach: "I'm always especially hungry after transforming."

"Don't forget to take the Blood Artifact." Shang Xinlei clipped the Blood Artifact Flying Ring to her waist: "Whether I get a legendary token in the future depends on it. Oh, and Miss Jie—"

"I understand. I'll keep it a secret and only tell others that it's a token of love."

The four of them traversed the thick fog and returned to the real world from the forest. By then, the sun was setting and dusk was approaching; a fire was lit in the camp, turning the jungle a warm orange glow.

There was no doubt that a large group of people were waiting outside. Jie Yuanshao saw Jie Zilong in the distance and waved, saying, "Third Uncle, we—"

"Stop!"

With a sharp shout, dozens of crossbowmen scattered throughout the camp raised their divine crossbows and aimed at Jiang Shi and his group. The murderous intent emanating from them sent chills down Jie Yuanshao's spine. The Liang Kingdom's divine crossbows were forged from refined iron produced in the secret realm. A single bolt might not be able to penetrate a defensive token, but dozens of bolts fired simultaneously would instantly pierce even a second-tier defensive token!

But after the fear came a raging fire. Shang Xinlei walked ahead, her voice utterly fearless: "I am Shang Xinlei of the Shang family! Who dares to hurt me? Who dares to kill me?!"

"Xinlei, calm down."

Upon hearing the voice, Shang Xinlei was startled. Looking in the direction of the sound, she saw the sickly, pale-faced young man standing in the crowd and asked in surprise, "Brother? You, what brings you here?"

"You've done a great job here, how could I not come?" Shang Yue coughed and smiled, "Don't worry, Lu Xiaoqi is just investigating the case, he won't wrong you."

"Yuan Shao," Jie Zilong also said, "It's alright, let's hear what he has to say first."

With their two closest relatives speaking, Jie Yuanshao and Shang Xinlei naturally had no way to refute anything. However, given the current situation, they vaguely sensed that things were completely beyond their control, as if... the seven great families had reached a consensus.

Lu Wangji stepped out from the crowd and waved, at which point someone carried a quilt onto the grass. Upon seeing it, Qian Gongyu immediately felt nauseous and vomited—the quilt contained a mangled corpse!

Moreover, he was treated extremely cruelly before or after his death, with dozens of knife wounds on his body, yet his body remained intact despite being broken.

"This afternoon, someone discovered that the second young master of the Luo family had been murdered in the camp. The murderer's methods were cruel, disregarding the law and defying hierarchy, killing a member of a prominent family in a way that was almost a form of revenge," Lu Wangji said calmly. "After interrogation, a servant saw Jiang Shi, a guard from the Qian family, loitering near the second young master of the Luo family's carriage that night."

"The Mansu Camp is directly under the Emperor's jurisdiction. As the Emperor's personal guard, I am temporarily in charge of interrogation to find out the truth of this matter. Now I need to examine Jiang Shi's sword to see if it matches the knife marks on the corpse."

"Jiang Shi, please cooperate with my investigation."

(End of this chapter)