Chapter 145: Chapter 145

Medicine Master Wen and the others had booked a large suite with three beds, though it was clear none of them would truly sleep through the night. Someone had to stay on watch—there was still a chance the inn could attempt some underhanded tricks.

Choosing to stay at an inn was mainly to avoid others’ covetous eyes.

Medicine Master Wen sat beside the window, gazing out at the still-bustling Eternal Joy City. Nighttime brought its own amusements. Eternal Joy City wasn’t much different from other county cities.

She quietly reflected on all that had transpired today. While staying at the inn could possibly avoid Zhong Ji’s retaliation, avoiding it once didn’t mean forever. Besides, she hadn’t come here to admire the scenery of Eternal Joy City—she was here to ascend Shu Mountain and conquer the Third-Stage Secret Realm, to inherit Si Wuxie’s legacy... She didn’t have much time to waste here.

A swift and decisive strike was necessary. If things dragged on, allowing Zhong Ji to rally his forces for revenge, the situation would only become more difficult.

Tonight, at midnight, they would escort the Bunny Heroine away!

They would likely escape Shu Mountain’s territory by the day after tomorrow. By then, they should be safe. Thankfully, Wu Qiu and Shi Dong had also become Messengers now—their pace should be able to keep up.

Thinking of this, Medicine Master Wen sighed inwardly. It wasn’t as if she didn’t want to settle down. With her strength, joining any of the major Protectors would earn her respectful treatment, and she could slowly scheme for Si Wuxie’s legacy. But since the Bunny Heroine valued the Advanced Blade and Sword Manuals so highly—enough to go against Zhong Ji—Medicine Master Wen had no choice but to follow her to the end.

Still, it wasn’t all bad. Now that she had offended Blood Aspect, it would naturally be easier for Medicine Master Wen to gain the trust of the other two major Protectors in the future. There was filth even among the righteous paths, let alone the Demon Path? Just like the shopkeeper just now—Fu Nan—wasn’t he clearly trying to recruit them on behalf of Boreuo?

She pulled out four items: two Masked Helmets and two Flame Pattern Long Blades. The Masked Helmets were clearly spoils of war from earlier, and the Flame Pattern Long Blades were familiar to Medicine Master Wen—Tokens often sold by Immortals on the Trading Board.

「We can’t accept these!」Wu Qiu hurriedly refused, and Shi Dong also shook her head repeatedly—she wasn’t being polite, just genuinely afraid of these weapons.

「You’re Messengers now. How could you not have any Tokens? Take them,」the Bunny Heroine said.「Next time you’re in danger, at least you can fight back a little. My brother said, women who fight back are more charming.」

Your brother’s kind of disgusting... Everyone silently grumbled in their hearts.

「Take them,」Medicine Master Wen said.「I don’t have any other Tokens to arm you with right now. Having some combat ability for the upcoming journey will make things safer.」

Since the young miss had spoken, Wu Qiu and Shi Dong accepted the Tokens.

Though these were only the most basic First-Stage Tokens, they were also the first Tokens they had ever received in their lives. Even if the road ahead was uncertain and dangerous, the maids couldn’t hide their joy.

Seeing this, Medicine Master Wen hesitated no longer. Perhaps it wasn’t just about escorting the Bunny Heroine—she could take this chance to send Wu Qiu and Shi Dong away too. Now that they had some ability, they could live quietly under new identities elsewhere...

But before Medicine Master Wen could speak, the Bunny Heroine was a step ahead:

「Let’s part ways tomorrow.」

Everyone froze. Shi Dong immediately panicked:「Why!?」

「I’m going to storm Shu Mountain tomorrow. If you follow me, you’ll get dragged into it,」the Bunny Heroine said flatly.「Storming the mountain probably wasn’t in your original plans, was it?」 Get full chapters from novel⁂fire.net

「What!?」Wu Qiu was shocked.

「Storm Shu Mountain?」Medicine Master Wen was incredulous.「Why would you do that? Do you have a personal vendetta against them?」

The Bunny Heroine turned to look at Medicine Master Wen:「Big Sister, that’s such a narrow way of thinking. Just because I don’t have a grudge against Shu Mountain, doesn’t mean I can’t storm it for the sake of justice, right?」

「But honestly, even knowing they’re bad people, if they didn’t attack me, I wouldn’t feel right attacking them first. Who would’ve thought I’d offend a major force within Shu Mountain today? When I go up tomorrow, they’ll definitely send people after me. That way, I can kill them with no psychological burden.」

「My brother said, that’s called having a righteous cause!」

「What righteous cause, my ass!」Medicine Master Wen couldn’t help but grab the Bunny Heroine’s shoulders.「I can escort you out of Shu Mountain tomorrow. You can go be a hero somewhere else—you don’t have to throw your life away in a Demon-Infested Zone!」

「And what makes you think that? Even I can’t be sure of that!」

「My brother said so.」

「Your brother’s full of shit!」

「Anyway, I’m going to Shu Mountain tomorrow. Go wherever you want,」the Bunny Heroine said, climbing onto the bed, sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed to meditate.「I’ll be on alert all night. Goodnight.」

Seeing that Medicine Master Wen and the others still wanted to say something, Yan Qing simply shut off the game console and went to take a shower.

Did he have any confidence?

What a joke—of course not.

The Bunny Heroine was only level 20. The Third-Stage of Shu Mountain likely had more than a handful of top-tier enemies, many of them Red-Named Messengers possessing Asura Tokens. Even if Yan Qing believed he could fight above his level, being surrounded by a mob still carried a high risk of character deletion.

As for why Yan Qing chose this path—it was simple. He had never intended to cooperate with the Demon-Path Messengers of Shu Mountain from the start.

Think about it: if entering the righteous path’s Third-Stage Secret Realm was already this troublesome, how easy could it possibly be for the Demon Path? What Shang Xinlei meant was, ‘a powerful Third-Stage Messenger can easily qualify to enter the Demon-Infested Zone’s Third-Stage Secret Realm.’

That easily was relative to the righteous path. The righteous path might take years of observation and require someone’s approval. The Demon Path only required strength, yes—but the catch was, you had to join a faction. Shu Mountain had three major Protectors, and to enter the Secret Realm, you clearly had to align with one of them.

Actually, Yan Qing didn’t mind having his alternate character join a faction—under three conditions: either the faction was far stronger, treated him well, or was interesting enough to draw him in.

Joining a faction was like taking a job—there had to be something in it for you.

But Demon Path factions? In terms of strength, the best they had were Third-Stage. If Yan Qing pulled out the Bingzi Pepper Forest, he wouldn’t be powerless. As for how they treated him, Zhong Ji had already threatened him, and Fu Nan had tried to extort him—definitely a death wish. A bunch of Red-Named Monsters who murdered regular people? Yan Qing liking them would be absurd.

Even if Yan Qing did join them, flipping the table would be inevitable—so why not flip it from the start? It’d be less suffocating.

Still, none of that was the main reason.

The main reason was—Yan Qing’s fingers itched. He wanted to test his power.

When one possesses a powerful weapon, the killing intent arises.

Like in open-world games—The Elder Scrolls, Red Dead Redemption—sometimes you just wanted to massacre a town for fun. Yan Qing didn’t mean to; he’d just accidentally press a wrong button and punch someone, and suddenly the whole town would gang up on you... Quite like real life, actually. I haven’t even done anything yet, and they’re already out for blood?

If they wanted to start a war, Yan Qing was happy to oblige.

Would the Bunny Heroine die? Maybe.

With thoughts of tomorrow, Yan Qing drifted to sleep—leaving three conflicted, sleepless women behind.

Reportedly, today marked the fourth anniversary of the Messenger’s Manual. So here’s a tiny bit of extra content.