Chapter 135: Chapter 135
Rewind to four days ago.
When Yan Qing heard that Shu Mountain not only had Third-Stage and Fourth-Stage Secret Realms, but even had Foundation Inheritance, he naturally grew curious and decided to create a new alternate character to scout the area.
Shang Xinlei tried hard to explain how dangerous the Demon-Path Lands were. But to Yan Qing’s ears, it sounded like a new leveling map with “challenging difficulty,” “lots of PVP combat,” and “side quests.”
The first step for the new character was appearance. Yan Qing recalled Shang Xinlei’s suggestion: if he had to explore a danger zone, it was best to send a fierce-looking strong man. So, naturally, he planned to create a delicate, charming, voluptuous beauty—in direct defiance of her advice.
If he followed Shang Xinlei’s suggestion and created an evil-looking alt, he might avoid many dangers and even blend smoothly into the group of Demon-Path Messengers, becoming a renowned new star of the dark path.
But then came the problem—what would Yan Qing even do?
Where were the monsters? The PVP? The thrilling adventure?
It would be like playing an action game with invisibility turned on—sure, it’d be easy to walk straight to the boss room, but where was the fun in that?
The Rat Monk character was made for Thieves’ House missions. Exploring Shu Mountain was just a side activity for fun, so he was going to prioritize enjoyment and comfort.
Having previously created Jiang Ten, Yan Qing was already very familiar with the face-customization system. In no time, he had crafted a beautiful, seductive, yet delicate-looking woman. Though her looks rivaled Jiang Ten’s, Yan Qing was confident this one was far more attractive to men.
Just as he was about to continue, for some reason, he recalled how Shang Xinlei looked while eating ice cream. She took such a big bite—didn’t her cheeks freeze? Then he looked at the new alt, and instinctively began comparing her with Shang Xinlei. Her legs were a bit meatier, their waists seemed similarly slim, chest was hard to judge, and as for her face…
He suddenly shook his head hard, trying to fling Shang Xinlei’s image out of his mind.
This was bad. Probably because Shang Xinlei was the only real-life woman he’d interacted with recently—also the only one he could have a decent conversation with—he now associated any beautiful female avatar with her. He could even imagine her contemptuous expression upon discovering he’d added another beautiful female character to his collection.
He didn’t care about the contempt. What bothered him was how such thoughts wasted his time. It wasn’t until he recalled how Shang Xinlei had cried with snot running down her face that he finally laughed aloud. But you couldn’t play a high-intensity action game with such distractions. The road from Chang’an to Shu Mountain was treacherous, and Yan Qing didn’t want to be reminded of her floral little face in the middle of a fierce battle.
So he gave up on the beauty avatar and instead created a sweet, innocent little girl.
《The Messenger》was very lenient with appearances. If you set body type and age to the minimum, you could create a child character. But few players chose this—cool gear shrank accordingly, making adult characters look like immortal warriors while child avatars looked like school play performers.
This new alt was modeled after his bratty yet adorable cousin. Every time they met, she’d call him "Brother~" and flash the game’s recharge interface at him with sparkling eyes, hinting for coins. A character like that wouldn’t have to worry about fighting. Watching a little girl run around would never get boring—definitely better than controlling a bulky guy.
For Talent Inheritance, Basic Footwork and Advanced Footwork were must-haves for movement speed and dodge tolerance. But this time, Yan Qing skipped blade techniques and chose the sword path.
That’s because the longsword “Seven-Step Buddha Recitation,” a gift from Shang Xuanwen, was his strongest weapon aside from the Bingzi Pepper Forest. Though it lacked active skills and couldn’t hit multiple enemies, its single-target damage was brutal. More importantly—it felt amazing to use. Once you get used to luxury, it’s hard to go back. After wielding such a weapon, Yan Qing had no desire to touch the White Iron Straight Blade or Flame Pattern Straight Blade again.
If “Seven-Step Buddha Recitation” were a Marvel-Class Token, he might even use his last Blood Weapon material to upgrade it to Legendary.
As for the Bingzi Pepper Forest, he only authorized its use in life-threatening situations. It wasn’t about playing weak to hide strength or fear of exposure—he just had to carry that trump card with him at all times.
Even though the Thieves’ House was very safe, so was the main city—and Shang Xuanwen still got cornered in an alley by a crime gang. What if Black Wolf, White Fox, or someone else barged into the Thieves’ House looking for trouble, and the Bingzi Pepper Forest was in the hands of an alt? Yan Qing wouldn’t be able to rest in peace.
As for attribute points, Yan Qing decided to go bold. Because the small girl model added +2 Dexterity, and he’d prepared several tokens for her, he planned a 406 build: 5 Vital Energy and Blood, 1 Spirit, 2 Dexterity, 6 Comprehension.
Why those stats? Because “Seven-Step Buddha Recitation” required 10 Vital Energy and Blood to equip. While 5 was only half the requirement, if you dual-wielded a one-handed weapon, the stat requirement was halved. Even if the alt didn’t know sword techniques and thus dealt less damage, at least she could use it.
Technically, even if the stats were insufficient, the weapon could still be used—it would just swing unbearably slowly.
When it came time to choose a name—normally the least important part—Yan Qing paused.
Following the zodiac, this alt should be Ox + Profession. The profession was clear: a sword-wielding girl traveling to Shu Mountain—she was a Heroine.
But “Ox Heroine” sounded strange. “Rabbit Heroine” was a better fit. He remembered his cousin kept a rabbit that loved to escape its cage and leave chocolates everywhere. Neurotic and skittish—actually, quite like her.
So that’s it—「Rabbit Heroine」!
Upon spawning in “Chang’an Affiliated Newbie Village,” Yan Qing couldn’t wait to equip Rabbit Heroine with two tokens.
First was the Second-Stage Rare Token “Seven-Step Buddha Recitation,” which required no Spirit to use.
Second was the Second-Stage Legendary Token—“Hands of Hundredfold Refinement!”
『Hands of Hundredfold Refinement』
[Grade: Second-Stage Legendary]
[Durability: 150/150]
[Equip Effect: +5 Spirit, -1 Dexterity]
[Material: Sunsteel, Moon Essence, Deep Copper of the Mountains, ???, ???]
[Weakening: You attempted to repair this token using Refined Gold Furnace Liquid, resulting in a downgrade by 20 levels and a 50% reduction in max durability. The repair was highly incompatible, causing severe weakening: +300% durability loss rate, -33% durability restoration effect. Upon next breakage, the item will disintegrate.]
▶ Effect: Strike (Weakened) When wielding any melee weapon or barehanded, you may activate Fury Strike: one attack at 200% speed. If the enemy blocks, their item suffers at least 5 durability damage. Fury Strike consumes 2 durability from your melee weapon. Due to failed repair, it may also consume 1 durability from the Hands of Hundredfold Refinement.
▶ Effect: Block (Weakened) When blocking attacks with weapon or bare hands, you always succeed, but the weapon loses 5 durability and the Hands lose 3 durability. Against attacks from Fourth-Stage or higher tokens, durability loss is increased by 200%.
▶ Effect: Hundredfold Refinement (Weakened) Refine all forms, perceive all arms!
When an enemy makes a melee attack, you may attempt a Perfect Block. A successful Perfect Block deals 80% counter-damage to the enemy and cannot be blocked by defensive tokens. It also deals 10 Countershock Weapon damage to the wielding part of the enemy’s body—this damage ignores defensive tokens.
Perfect Blocks cause enemy weapons to lose durability. Consecutive successes cause increasing damage.
Failure defaults to a normal block.
The more tokens with this trait you wear, the easier it is to trigger Perfect Block.
Due to failed repair, against Fourth-Stage or higher tokens, the Perfect Block window is halved.
「Appraisal: We refine a hundred forms into one weapon, and one weapon into a hundred forms.」
Yes—Yan Qing successfully delivered the repaired Hands of Hundredfold Refinement to the alt, using only one item: the Treasure-Hunting Token.
The method was simple: the alt posted an order late at night using the Treasure-Hunting Token, requesting a trade for the Hands, with no specific parameters. Yan Qing then used his Treasure-Hunting Token to fulfill the order. The whole process took five seconds—and the token became account-bound and tradeable. The source of thɪs content is novelFɪre.net
Although sellers must know the item info to list it, buyers only need to own the item.
Last time in the Inner Treasury, Yan Qing had traded a Heartguard Mirror for mortal items. Mortals didn’t know their items’ info, but they could still click the Trading Board to complete trades.
So Yan Qing flipped the strategy—by being the buyer, he could use the Treasure-Hunting Token to pass any item to an alt.