Chapter 139: Chapter 139

The moment Medicine Master Wen thrust her long spear, a tiger-shaped phantom leapt out from her armguard, coiling around the shaft of the spear as it erupted together!

The ground actually burst apart from her strike—soil surged, and smoke billowed—it looked as if something had exploded.

Ye Kai wasn’t dead, but half of his body was covered in blood. His left hand was nearly severed, and a crescent-shaped bloody hole gaped on his left shoulder.

Facing Medicine Master Wen’s airborne thrust, Ye Kai had reacted in time to dodge, but she channeled a secret technique, allowing her to shift her attack midair. Even dodging had proven futile—especially since this wasn’t a simple lunge, but an area-of-effect strike imbued with the tiger phantom.

「How can you still move?」 Ye Kai gasped, blood bubbling in his throat. 「The poison has already reached your face. You should be dizzy, tongue-numb, and writhing in gut-wrenching pain... You shouldn’t even be able to stand!」

Yan Qing took one look and indeed saw green veins crawling across Medicine Master Wen’s face, her lips pale gray—clearly a sign of deep poisoning.

「That last thief said the same thing—‘You’re dead,’ ‘Soon you’ll beg me naked,’ ‘Why aren’t you down yet’... You demonic thieves really are arrogant and ignorant,」 Medicine Master Wen said calmly. 「If that’s all your final words amount to, then you can die now.」

「Wait, I... I know a secret forging technique!」

Medicine Master Wen paused, seemingly considering it. 「And?」

Ye Kai felt a flash of hope. Never mind the Bunny Heroine, Medicine Master Wen was clearly already deeply poisoned. Delay her a bit more and maybe she’d just drop dead. 「You’re heading for Shu Mountain, right? I’m close with Boreuo! I can introduce you! He’s one of the three Great Protectors of the Secret Realm. If you want to enter, you must join one of their factions—」

A thunderclap struck the earth—Medicine Master Wen suddenly lunged at Ye Kai.

But Ye Kai had been prepared. Even while talking, he had remained on guard, evading immediately from the Soul-Severing Spear.

Since negotiation wouldn’t save him, fleeing was his only hope. With his poisoned palms and the forest terrain, he still had a chance—maybe even to kill one of them in a counterattack—

A crisp sword hum rang out as Seven-Step Buddha Recitation pierced cleanly through Ye Kai’s throat.

His eyes widened as he looked at the little girl before him, realization dawning on his face. No wonder that poisoned Messenger had suddenly stopped to talk to him—she was stalling so this little girl could circle around and strike from his blind spot!

He’d been waiting for her poison to act up—while she was waiting for his death.

「You have slain ‘Hundred-Poison Hand·Ye Kai’.」

「You have slain a Messenger with over 100 points of Slaughter Value.」

「Based on your level, you receive a reward of 10% + 10 points Uncolored Slaughter Value.」

「Your current Uncolored Slaughter Value is 45 points.」

「Based on your level, you may now view the following Asura Milestone information」

「Enemy of Asura: You have slain ten Asuras (1/10).」

「Uncolored Asura: You have gained over 100 points of Uncolored Slaughter Value (45/100).」

「Bloodstained Asura: You have gained over 100 points of Bloodstained Slaughter Value (0/100).」

「Blurred Lines: You have reduced 1000 points of Bloodstained Slaughter Value (0/1000).」

「Evil Meets Retribution: As a Bloodstained Asura, you have slain ten other Bloodstained Asuras (0/10).」

「Death Can’t Cure You: As a Bloodstained Asura, you have died ten times (0/10).」

「Level up or unlock more milestones to gain access to additional milestone info.」

Yan Qing had already been a bit puzzled. Whether it was Ye Si, Jiang Ten, or the Bunny Heroine—they had all killed plenty, yet never triggered the red-name system. He had assumed that fights between alternate characters and locals were outside system protection.

Now, reading the Slaughter Value explanation, he realized this game had extremely strict standards for labeling someone red-named.

First, Slaughter Value was divided into Uncolored and Bloodstained. Only killing Bloodstained Asuras earned Uncolored Slaughter Value—recognized PvP kills by the game, thus not red-naming. Bloodstained Slaughter Value came from killing non-Asura players. When it surpassed one hundred, a player’s name would automatically turn red and appear hostile to normal players.

Moreover, Bloodstained Slaughter Value decayed rapidly over time. Dungeon runs and monster hunts would also reduce it. Only once it passed a hundred would the decay slow dramatically.

So if a player killed a few people in a day, or only fought a handful of times a month, their Slaughter Value would barely hit single digits. After all, fights over grievances are part of gameplay, and reasonable PK is allowed.

That meant it was actually difficult for ordinary Messengers to go red. How many could they kill in a day? Ten? Eight? A single night of sleep would wash away most of it.

To reach one hundred Bloodstained points outside the Asura battlefield, there was only one method: mass murder. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs novel•fire.net

Slaughter Value also scaled with level. For instance, a level 20 killing another level 20 might earn around 3 points. Killing a level 1 might not even yield 0.5.

Let alone in reality, even in-game, only players like Sanjit Dao—who specialized in slaughtering low-level characters—could go red. At its core, the game discouraged Bloodstained farming outside warzones, but if players insisted, the devs allowed it.

In this world, if anything was abundant, it was level 3 and 4 ordinary folk. 《The Messenger》 only peaked at a million concurrent players, but a single major military garrison in Zhou Kingdom could support a population in the millions.

Would Ye Kai and Chen Afu really spare powerless civilians and instead farm Slaughter Value off Messengers? Impossible.

Yan Qing had once thought the so-called righteous and demonic paths were merely about power dynamics. After all, weren’t the "righteous" in Mansu Woodland just petty and self-serving? But if all Demonic Path players were red-named monsters like Ye Kai, then the Court really did qualify as righteous—in a contest of rot, not being utterly rotten already made you the winner.

Indeed, a place crawling with red-named freaks was a stronghold of the Demonic Path.

As for the benefits of becoming a Bloodstained Asura—Ye Kai’s gloves said it all.

『Hundred-Poison Silk Palm (Asura)』

[Grade: Third-Stage Rare] [Durability: 63/150] [Equip Requirement: 20 Vital Energy and Blood, 10 Soul] [Equip Condition: Slaughter Value over 100, Ye Kai Exclusive]

[Base Attack: 33~53 points]

▶ Effect: Silk Palm You may use this token to block or deflect melee attacks, reducing damage by at least 15%. Each block consumes 1~3 durability.

▶ Effect: Ziluo Smoke You may strike a 5-meter long, 3-meter wide smoke screen with the Silk Palm. The smoke infiltrates flesh, dealing 5 poison damage. Damage increases over time. Each second in the smoke or hit adds a poison stack. Each stack lasts 5 seconds and can stack infinitely. Costs 3 Spirit to activate. This effect penetrates most defensive barriers. Healing effects on poisoned targets are reduced by 70%, and poison duration extends by 2 seconds.

[Evaluation: The smoke is just support. Fists are the real power.]

Ignore defensive barriers—directly strike the Messenger!

Even though he had expected it, Yan Qing couldn’t help but be tempted after seeing the full description of the Hundred-Poison Silk Palm. Ignoring barriers was practically equivalent to True Damage. If Bingzi Pepper Forest could be converted into an Asura Token... perhaps even turning the tables on a Foundation Messenger wasn’t impossible.