Chapter 161: Chapter 161

The confusion that had plagued Yan Qing for days suddenly cleared up. The source of this content ɪs ɴovelfire.net

When he heard that Si Wuxie had left his inheritance within a Fourth-Stage Secret Realm, Yan Qing had already been wondering—wasn’t this a bit too risky?

He could understand Si Wuxie’s reasoning. If the inheritance were left outside, then any test would be meaningless. Other Messengers could simply tunnel through mountains and earth to seize it outright. And given that Si Wuxie was a famed Demon-Path behemoth, his enemies probably lined up from Shu Mountain all the way to Chang’an.

To prevent his inheritance from falling into the hands of his enemies—and considering that Secret Realms were unaffected by natural disasters or external disturbances—it was perfectly reasonable for Si Wuxie to choose a Fourth-Stage Secret Realm as the site for his legacy.

But the question was: how did Si Wuxie ensure his legacy wouldn’t be reset by the Secret Realm?

Once a Secret Realm reset, everything inside reverted to its original state. This trait allowed Secret Realm Garrisons to possess seemingly inexhaustible supplies, but also meant that any changes made within could only take effect once. The Sinking Rock Stream campaign at Xuanwu Lake Garrison took three hours—two of which were spent by engineers repeating civil works they had already performed hundreds of times.

If no one was inside, the Secret Realm would reset—an unbreakable iron rule.

If Si Wuxie’s legacy had endured for nearly a century, there could only be one explanation: the Secret Realm had never reset, and someone had always been inside.

「This humble monk cannot deny, Wolf Demoness, that your theory may be correct,」said Boreuo.「After all, no one has ever reached the depths of the Forest of Corpses. Perhaps Si Wuxie truly is inside, waiting for us. However, we believe it’s more likely that Si Wuxie left behind a spirit beast within the Secret Realm.」

Yan Qing had no particular impression of the term, but Medicine Master Wen quickly clarified for him:「It’s certainly possible. After all, even Foundation Messengers haven’t been known to fast or live on nothing. And Si Wuxie was active during the early days of the Three Nations, on par with Emperor Taizu of Liang, Shenwu of Qi, and the Founding Emperor of Zhou. Even if he didn’t die back then, by now he should have passed away from old age. However, a spirit beast transformed from a demon has no worries of lifespan or sustenance and could indeed reside within the Secret Realm for a century unchanged.」

「What exactly is this spirit beast you speak of?」asked Bunny Heroine.

「A demon subdued by a Foundation Messenger using a token,」explained Medicine Master Wen.「Tokens above the Foundation level possess increasingly mysterious powers, including the ability to alter a demon’s mind and render it obedient to the Messenger. All demons converted in this way are known as spirit beasts.」

「However, most spirit beasts are of Third-Stage level. It’s rare to see a Fourth-Stage spirit beast. Rumor has it that the Kingdom of Qi has one passed down by the Shenwu Emperor, but whether it’s true or not is unknown.」

Of course it would only be a Third-Stage spirit beast. A Fourth-Stage couldn’t possibly be controlled for so long!

Yan Qing understood immediately—wasn’t this just a ‘Confuse’ or ‘Dominate’ effect? In combat, it could temporarily convert enemies into neutral or allied units.

Such effects were always time-limited—except when crushing lower levels. To avoid a game progression like “Level 1 fights baby crayfish, Level 99 fights Crimson Overlord Lobster,” the developers had designed stronger mechanics for higher-level players while making these mechanics wildly overpowered against lower-tier enemies.

Foundation Messengers had overwhelming suppression against anything below Third-Stage—for example, random chance effects became guaranteed, timed abilities became permanent, and all skills with variable stats were maxed out to their highest potential.

The key wasn’t just in the numbers, but the mechanics. What was the point of a hit doing 99,999 damage? But if a simple palm strike could send a small mob flying ten meters into a wall, embedding it there—and a slow debuff made a boss freeze like it was afraid of soiling itself—that’s when the player truly felt they’d earned their level.

The weaker the ability, the more exaggerated the enhancement. In The Messenger, veteran players loved taking newbies through low-level content—it was fun. Many people enjoyed these “out-leveling” challenges and even discussed fun ways to “fish slap” on the forums.

And abilities like ‘Confuse’ or ‘Dominate’ were precisely the kind that got buffed to absurd levels. Useless against elite monsters or bosses, they only worked on regular mobs. How could that not be trash? No player would be troubled by mobs—no wonder the duration got boosted to permanent.

When Yan Qing first heard “spirit beast,” he thought it referred to the summoning system. After all, summons in The Messenger were quite powerful—but only accessible post-Foundation. He hadn’t expected they meant turning low-level demons into pet companions.

The Messenger had no monster-taming pet class because of a fundamental problem: if you could beat the monster, why bother taming it? Even raising baby monsters from scratch was inferior—summons were tied to tokens, could be revived, and were designed by the devs to be cool and adorable.

Yan Qing never imagined that a nearly nonexistent “pet class” in the game had been fully developed in this world. Or rather, what was a fun gimmick in-game had taken on a completely different meaning in reality.

「It’s not strange for a Foundation Messenger to have a spirit beast. Many send them to assist their families in raiding Third-Stage Secret Realms—it’s like adding a Third-Stage fighter to the clan,」said Beiyou.「However, most spirit beasts break free upon their master’s death. No one knows how Si Wuxie managed to keep his obedient.」

「We’ll know once we get in there,」the Blood Minister said stiffly.「Even if Si Wuxie is still alive, so what? The Secret Realm hasn’t spawned any Fourth-Stage demons, meaning what he left behind can only be Third-Stage. A Third-Stage spirit beast or corpse will just turn to pulp in my blood-drenched hands.」

「So impressive,」Bunny Heroine clapped.「Then why haven’t you smashed through the antechamber yet, uncle? Don’t tell me you can’t beat it?」

The Blood Minister’s face darkened. Demon-Path tokens worked wonders against Messengers but weren’t as effective against demons. Normally, that wouldn’t be a big issue—he was still a top-tier Third-Stage—but the Forest of Corpses happened to be filled with undead and corpses, which directly countered his token.

Medicine Master Wen peered past the six zombie demons, toward the Undying Skull Tower they guarded.「The real difficulty in the antechamber is probably that skull tower, isn’t it?」

「Exactly,」Boreuo nodded.「If it were just a large number of demons, it wouldn’t be a problem for us. Worst case, we’d clear a little each day. Since the Secret Realm won’t reset, we could just grind it down slowly.」

Yan Qing nodded repeatedly. Normally, this wouldn’t be viable, because monsters in Secret Realms had nearly infinite aggro range. Once provoked, they would chase you to the ends of the earth unless every player left the realm—resetting it and wasting all effort.

But the Forest of Corpses was different. Some unknown presence prevented resets, making this blood-grind tactic viable. Messengers could run in, shoot an arrow, and jump out again—rinse and repeat. The demons wouldn’t even chase them outside...

「The Skull Tower doesn’t attack, but if there are fewer than six zombie demons, it starts wailing in agony. Then, new zombie demons crawl out of the ground,」explained Boreuo.「Unless we take out the Skull Tower, the antechamber’s demons are endless.」

Medicine Master Wen's eyes turned grim:「So, we have to find a way to strike down the Skull Tower first while surrounded by six Third-Stage demons?」

This was clearly a test of numbers, Yan Qing thought.

If twenty Third-Stage Messengers formed a party, they could instantly burst down the Skull Tower in a single focus-fire round. The remaining zombie demons wouldn’t be hard to deal with—they could even fall back to the gate and exploit the terrain to whittle them down.

But forget Shu Mountain—even among the Three Nations of the Central Plains, gathering twenty Third-Stage Messengers wasn’t something done lightly.

It wasn’t that there weren’t that many people—it was just not cost-effective.

Even if all the Secret Realm rewards were split equally, the gains would pale in comparison to a Third-Stage Messenger leading a garrison raid party. In those, the team could be filled with Second-Stage or even First-Stage Messengers, and the big loot would still all go to the Third-Stage Messenger.

In-game, it was easy to pull together a team of Third-Stagers (well, not really—more likely it’d be Fourth-, Fifth-, or Sixth-Stagers helping newbies complete escort missions because there just weren’t enough low-level players anymore). But in reality, First- and Second-Stagers were used up like expendables.

The fewer the people, the higher the DPS requirement on each individual. But still...

「Have you never tried whittling down the Skull Tower little by little?」Medicine Master Wen asked curiously.「The distance is a bit far, sure, but with a bit of archery training, shouldn’t it be easy to land a shot and then retreat?」

「Knew you’d say that,」Beiyou said as he pulled a throwing dart from his lower back. It looked like it was forged from fine steel—not a token:「Get ready to retreat. I’ll demonstrate.」

Once everyone was prepared, Beiyou flicked his wrist, and the dart struck the Skull Tower dead on, triggering a piercing wail from it! The six zombie demons immediately turned their gaze, ghostly flames flaring in their eyes, burning with intense hatred as fuel. They opened their mouths in a soundless war cry!

The five immediately exited the Forest of Corpses Secret Realm. Throughout the process, Medicine Master Wen tightly gripped the Soul-Severing Spear with full concentration, clearly prepared for the Three Guardians to pull some trick. But the retreat went smoothly—only the overwhelming killing intent trailed behind like a shadow. Even after escaping, it left them shaken.

「You saw that, didn’t you?」the Blood Minister mocked.「Still have the guts to go back in? Surrounded by those demons, you’d probably blow your Return Tokens and run for your lives, wouldn’t you?」

Medicine Master Wen ignored him and asked,「What was that golden light on the Skull Tower? And why was there a lotus dais silhouette beneath it?」

When the dart struck the Skull Tower, a massive crack appeared in the center. Beneath it rose a three-petal lotus platform, Buddhist sanctity entangled with skeletal demonic miasma—a ghastly, ominous sight.

「Who knows? But we believe it was left there by Si Wuxie when he set up the inheritance,」Boreuo replied with a wry smile.「As you saw, the golden light dealt a grievous wound to the Skull Tower—but for some reason, the lotus dais grants it a constant healing buff.」

「Moreover, if you strike the Skull Tower using a Buddhist token, the lotus platform solidifies even more, and its healing effect skyrockets. This humble monk didn’t know that at first, and it ended up sprouting an extra petal permanently. Because of that, I had to spend years of accumulation to acquire a Third-Stage Rare Long Staff from the outside—to replace the monk’s staff that had followed me for years.」

Only now did Medicine Master Wen notice that Boreuo indeed carried a long staff, not the monk’s staff she’d seen earlier that morning—confirming his account.

No wonder no one had managed to breach the grand hall for years. A Skull Tower that constantly summoned demons and self-repaired was a trap, plain and simple—a bait station to lure Third-Stage Messengers to their deaths. By Medicine Master Wen’s estimate, without a team of at least ten Third-Stage Messengers, it would be extremely difficult to take it down quickly.

As for Fourth-Stage Messengers, that was even more out of the question. If a Foundation Messenger entered, the Skull Tower would instantly escalate into a Fourth-Stage demon. Even with their immense strength, it’d likely take four or five Foundation Messengers to break through the front hall.

But three or four Foundation Messengers? Si Wuxie’s inheritance wouldn’t even be enough for them to divide among themselves.

No wonder they valued the little sister so highly—the Thunderstorm Messenger, with her exceptional combat ability, really was their best hope of breaking this deadlock.

Medicine Master Wen pulled Bunny Heroine aside and asked,「Sister, do you have confidence? If you think the risk is too great...」

「Big sis, do you know what ‘karmic force’ is?」Bunny Heroine suddenly asked.

「What?」Medicine Master Wen was startled.「Karmic force... isn’t that a Buddhist term used to explain cause and effect? Is your family Buddhist?」

「Nope, just suddenly remembered my brother mentioned the word once. Thought it was kind of interesting, it just popped into my head.」

Brushing the question aside, Yan Qing recalled the image he had just seen. Besides the golden light and lotus platform, he had noticed two indicator bars appear on the Undying Skull Tower.

One was a health bar, with a max of only 70%—probably the leftover damage from Si Wuxie. If one hit could chunk nearly a third of this DPS-check elite’s health bar, it could only have come from a Foundation Messenger.

The other was a black-gray bar Yan Qing had never seen before, labeled ‘Karmic Force’, and it had already been reduced by 36%!