Chapter 138: Chapter 138

The firewood crackled as it burned, the campfire glowing brightly.

The campsite chosen by Medicine Master Wen was excellent. It was about a hundred steps from the water source—close enough for easy access, but far enough to avoid dampness; backed against a large rock with no dead branches or stones overhead; and the ground was a relatively even grassy patch... No one knew whether she had already mastered survival skills or had learned quickly over the past few days of fleeing.

Yan Qing found Medicine Master Wen very intriguing. A daughter of a Duke, on the run, a Third-Stage strength, heading to a demonic region to inherit a Foundation legacy, and even accompanied by two loyal and inseparable maids... The only pity was that she wasn’t a man—otherwise, this would have been the most classic revenge plot imaginable.

In fact, when Medicine Master Wen suggested forming a sworn bond, Yan Qing did hesitate. Helping her seek revenge would undoubtedly be a very fun quest chain, but he quickly gave up the idea: even without a bond, Bunny Heroine could still get involved; but if they did swear loyalty, it would mean an unnecessary emotional tie.

An alternate character would, eventually, risk everything for Yan Qing’s benefit. Forming too intimate a relationship with others wasn’t ideal. He didn’t want anyone to grieve when an alternate character died—this was one of his rare mercies as a player.

Wu Qiu and Shi Dong had already pitched a large tent that could sleep four people. Naturally, the tent was provided by Bunny Heroine—stolen from the Pingcheng Military Camp—and by now, no one was surprised. They all firmly believed Bunny Heroine’s Brother was a good man with a few screws loose who doted on his sister and had prepared everything for her travels.

Bunny Heroine sat by the fire repairing her tokens. Seven-Step Buddha Recitation only had half its durability left, and Hands of Hundredfold Refinement had lost a third.

During today’s battle, the reason Yan Qing endured beatings for so long before counterattacking was because the cost of a failed perfect block was too steep. If he had kept doing standard blocks, both Seven-Step Buddha Recitation and Hands of Hundredfold Refinement would have exploded long ago. He needed full confidence to attempt a perfect block.

But the rewards of success were staggering. Not only could he block attacks without taking damage, he could also reduce the durability of the enemy’s token. If Helan Que had continued fighting him, it wouldn’t have just been the rare curved blade that shattered—even the Soul-Severing Spear wouldn’t have survived.

Medicine Master Wen was also repairing her token, but she wasn’t using a repair kit. Instead, she applied a gel-like substance to the damaged area of the Soul-Severing Spear, then wrapped it with cloth. It looked more like she was treating a person than fixing gear.

Noticing Bunny Heroine’s gaze, Medicine Master Wen explained:「This is Apothecary Gel. While not as effective as tools from Secret Realms, it’s cheap, abundant, and works on all tokens. It’s one of the most vital strategic resources in the Great Zhou.」

「It’s a technique the Medicine Master family developed over a century ago using Secret Realm materials.」She glanced at the repair kit Bunny Heroine had just used:「Cangjian Villa Toolkit... That’s a tool exclusive to the Cangjian Villa Secret Realm in Great Qi.」

But she left it at that, not asking further. It felt more like a display of her knowledge. Once Yan Qing finished his repairs, he planned to log off. But just then, Medicine Master Wen stood up and asked,「I’ll keep watch for the first half of the night. Will you take the second?」

Right—wilderness survival required night watches.

Yan Qing had always just set the game to auto and logged off. While there were occasionally fresh corpses nearby the next day, he clearly didn’t mind the risk—who would stay up all night just to protect an alternate character?

「If you trust me, I can stay up the whole night,」Bunny Heroine offered.「I can remain alert while sleeping. Even if you force me to rest, I’ll stay on guard. I’ve been traveling alone for days without incident.」

Medicine Master Wen thought for a moment and nodded:「Alright. I usually wake naturally around the third watch (3 a.m.). We’ll set off at the fourth hour (6 a.m.). I’ll relieve you then.」

Yan Qing was slightly surprised—they’d only known each other for a day. Handing over camp security to Bunny Heroine seemed overly trusting. But then he realized what she was thinking: Look how much I trust you—aren’t you touched? Aren’t you ready to call me Big Sis?

After setting the night patrol routine, Yan Qing followed his usual habit: nighttime training, then bathing. When he came back, he glanced at the screen and saw the trio already asleep inside the tent—most likely fast asleep.

Naturally so. For Yan Qing, today was just mildly entertaining. For them, it had been a harrowing escape, followed by a day of grueling travel. Falling asleep the moment their heads hit the pillow was perfectly reasonable—yes, there were even pillows in the tent.

Yan Qing hesitated briefly and added a new evolution rule to Bunny Heroine’s routine: ‘Trigger alarm on enemy encounter’.

It shouldn’t trigger, he thought. There wouldn’t be bandits here, and beasts wouldn’t approach the fire.

Yan Qing shot his hand out to grab the Naise Game Console, almost instinctively hitting the power button. The buzzing stopped.

Three seconds passed before he fully registered what had happened. Opening the screen, he found that Bunny Heroine had not entered combat—nor had anyone breached the ten-meter perimeter of the camp.

That was not normal. He had set Bunny Heroine’s encounter protocol to: ‘Unknown entity attacks’ and ‘Unknown entity within ten steps’. The former triggered an immediate counterattack; the latter issued three warnings before fighting. If neither condition was met, even someone observing from beyond ten steps wouldn’t count as an enemy. The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the ɴovelfire.net

But when Yan Qing saw the screen clearly, he understood why the auto-evolution algorithm had triggered.

Because in the game world, there were certain people—who, even if they didn’t attack you, even if they didn’t approach—just by appearing, you knew they were enemies.

And such people always bore a very distinct trait:

At that moment, Medicine Master Wen and the others were also roused by Bunny Heroine’s alarm. Seeing no beasts or enemies, they asked,「What is it?」

Bunny Heroine pointed toward the woods, thirty steps away, and called out,「‘Hundred-Poison Hand’ Ye Kai, ‘Little Poison Hand’ Chen Afu—come on out.」

Moments later, two figures emerged from the bushes—one tall, one short. The short one, a middle-aged man, had a gloomy face and flared nostrils that seemed to exhale malice. He sneered:「Eagle Eyes? Owl? You didn’t just spot us—you recognized us in the dark? Not a simple little girl, are you?」

「No matter how clever, she still has to die!」The tall young man reached into his crotch, drooling at the sight of Wu Qiu and Shi Dong beside the fire.「Master, let’s go. Such pretty girls—I haven’t had fine goods since we left Yongzhou.」

「Sister,」Medicine Master Wen stepped behind Bunny Heroine and asked softly:「Do you know these two Demon-Path scoundrels? What Tokens do they use?」

「No. I’ve never seen them before and don’t know what Tokens they have.」

「Huh!?」The short man frowned.「You’ve never seen us before? Then how did you recognize us?」

Medicine Master Wen’s heart sank. They were still over ten steps away from the pair, and she had lowered her voice when speaking. Yet they heard it clearly. That meant either they had auditory-enhancing scouting Tokens—or their spirits were shockingly strong. Either way, it meant they were no weaklings.

「Because I’m a heroine, and heroines can see villains’ names directly.」Bunny Heroine pointed at their heads:「My Brother says, anyone whose name I can see is a vile criminal worthy of death.」

Sure enough, above the middle-aged man and young man’s heads were the names 「Hundred-Poison Hand · Ye Kai」 and 「Little Poison Hand · Chen Afu」.

This was the first time Yan Qing had seen others’ names and appearances revealed outside of a Secret Realm, without any intelligence gathering.

And both were Red Names, making them hostile on sight—treated just like Secret Realm demons.

「Wu Qiu, Shi Dong, follow behind me. Not too far, not too close,」Medicine Master Wen instructed, then asked,「I’ll handle the old one—you take the young one?」

「Switch. You kill the young one fast and come help me with the old one.」

「As you say, sister.」Truthfully, Medicine Master Wen thought the same but worried that offering to fight the weaker one first would lower her sister’s opinion.

Ye Kai laughed in fury:「Interesting. Looks like you’re competent outlanders. If given time, maybe you could’ve earned a place in the Mountains.」

「Too bad... you met us.」

All four lunged forward at once—Bunny Heroine against Ye Kai, Medicine Master Wen against Chen Afu.

What surprised Yan Qing was that Ye Kai didn’t use a weapon. His Token appeared to be a pair of gloves—he was a very rare fist-and-palm Messenger.

Below Fourth-Stage, weapons were far safer and deadlier than barehanded combat. Thus, most Martial Messengers trained with weapons—even Qian Gongyu used claws to enhance her lethality. Ye Kai was the first pure fist-and-palm Messenger Yan Qing had encountered.

Fist-palm blocks were more subtle. At first, Yan Qing had Bunny Heroine rely on evasive counterattacks, but Ye Kai had a defensive Token that triggered a barrier whenever Seven-Step Buddha Recitation struck him. He was agile and kept trying to close in on Bunny Heroine, but Yan Qing kept him at sword’s length with relentless footwork.

Suddenly, Ye Kai unleashed a palm strike through the air. Even across a sword’s distance, Yan Qing dodged in advance—yet Ye Kai anticipated that, too. His left palm aimed exactly at the evasion path, releasing a puff of purple-green mist toward Bunny Heroine’s head.

Yan Qing didn’t worry. With a defensive Token, the smoke could only obscure vision. Unless it was acid-tier poison, it couldn’t breach the Heartguard Mirror of the Mountains—

Bunny Heroine’s HP began to drop. A poisoned status icon appeared above her health bar!

But when Yan Qing checked, the Heartguard Mirror of the Mountains’ seven-layer barrier was still intact.

The combat log flashed:

「You are taking damage from ‘Ziluo Smoke’.」

「You have been poisoned.」

「Due to your spirit, your combat information is severely limited.」

「You are under attack by Asura Token · Hundred-Poison Silk Hands!」

At the same time, Medicine Master Wen’s voice rang out from the other battlefield:

「Sister! These two are bloodthirsty Demon-Path fiends—their Tokens can partially bypass defensive Tokens!」