Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 139
Zhou Qian had observed earlier that most of the soldiers stationed at the west gate were gambling with cards in the morning. He thought he might be able to use this to his advantage to lure them away.
This plan was somewhat idealistic and not guaranteed to succeed. So, he approached it with a try-and-see attitude.
Using stratagems to achieve results without bloodshed was, of course, the best option, as it would allow him to conserve as much mana as possible. If that failed, he was prepared to confront them directly.
At this moment, stepping into the alley and hearing the noise behind him, Zhou Qian knew he had succeeded.
It seemed that every detail in this instance was intentional and potentially beneficial.
Considering what Alayne had said, the soldiers’ actions weren’t surprising—when the top is crooked, the bottom would be too. The Fire leader betrayed the former Day, Moon, Star, Cloud to attain his current position. How could such an opportunist leader teach his soldiers to be loyal to their duties?
The fortunes of both the Kingdom of Words and the Land of Silence were indeed coming to an end.
When they rise, the people suffer; when they fall, the people suffer.
The players were merely passersby in this instance. They couldn’t save everyone or stay to clean up afterward, but at least after eliminating Difu, the whole world wouldn’t fall into a doomed fate.
Quickly, over twenty soldiers followed Zhou Qian and the young man into the alley, only to see a small blue dragon appear, which suddenly whisked the young man away.
Sensing something amiss, the soldiers turned to flee, but it was already too late.
A trap previously set up in the area, [Heavenly Net*], was activated instantly, ensnaring them all within its grasp.
*(天罗地网) Idiom referring to a situation where someone is completely surrounded and trapped, with no way to escape.
Before the soldiers could even react, they were hanging in midair.
Then, they saw Zhou Qian walking out from the other end of the alley.
Zhou Qian, shirtless, with his hands in his pockets, strolled over, chewing bubble gum. Looking up at the soldiers hanging in the air, his gaze showed a bit of surprise, as if he was completely unaware of the situation.
Then he smiled, his look turning mischievous, as if watching some kind of animal performance.
Seemingly amused, he smiled at the soldiers and then puffed his cheeks… and actually began to blow a bubble with the gum.
Seeing a pink gel-like substance emerge from Zhou Qian’s mouth and grow larger, the soldiers in midair had no idea what it was and were utterly captivated by it for a moment.
After staring at the pink bubble curiously for a while, they began to question Zhou Qian—
“Who are you?”
“What do you want?!”
“Not good. This man is most likely a spy from the Land of Silence!”
Zhou Qian laughed. The pink bubble detached from his lips, floated into his palm, and then he looked at the trapped group and said, “Correct. You’re too smart. I am indeed a spy from the Land of Silence.”
One of the soldiers hurriedly said, “I’ll notify—”
Before he could finish, the soldier quickly took out a flare from his pants leg, seemingly planning to throw it through the gaps of the [Heavenly Net] to the ground.
But he couldn’t complete this action. The strange gel-like pink sphere in the stranger’s palm suddenly expanded and then enlarged in front of him, somehow surrounding them from all directions!
In just a moment, the twenty or so soldiers suspended in the air were surrounded by pink gel below their feet, above their heads, and all around, as if they had fallen into a giant pink ball.
They didn’t know what the material of the ball was, but it seemed elastic and highly reflective of sound.
The unfinished sentence of the soldier started bouncing around within the “balloon”, creating an unbearable cacophony.
Realizing this, everyone dared not speak, as every word they uttered would continuously create an almost undiminishing echo, quickly filling the “balloon” with noise.
Adding insult to injury, the flare thrown by the soldier also exploded inside the “balloon,” and the red smoke bounced off the inner walls, making everyone tear up and unable to open their eyes.
At this point, they were completely blind to the outside world, could not hear any external noise, and were totally unable to communicate any messages out.
[Item: Giant Pink Bubble House]
[Effect: Can trap a large group of people inside a bubble gum constructed house, blocking all sound and images, lasting for 30 minutes.]
[Note: The effect is quite amazing, but the success rate of use isn’t high. You must blow the bubble in front of the target, under their gaze, and continue blowing for 30 seconds. But perhaps by the time you finish blowing the bubble, the enemy has already fled.]
[Grade: Uncommon]
This item was uncommon, and its effect was hard to achieve on players.
After all, it was classified as uncommon, and most players were familiar with it and would be wary, not foolishly staring at it for 30 seconds.
But using it on instance NPCs who hadn’t seen much of the world and didn’t know what bubble gum was, was more than sufficient. Especially when they were trapped in the [Heavenly Net] and planning to question Zhou Qian, this “spy”.
Collecting money, gambling, blowing bubbles…
Zhou Qian easily trapped over twenty soldiers.
Turning to leave, he only left them with a message. “Of course, you need to spread the word that I am a spy from the Land of Silence, but there’s no rush. After 30 minutes, you can fire the flare again.”
With that, Zhou Qian draped his shirt over his shoulders and walked away nonchalantly, indifferent to whether those people could hear him or not.
Half a minute later, Zhou Qian appeared under the west gate.
There was no one around, and no one noticed the anomaly here.
However, three soldiers who weren’t interested in gambling had stayed behind, likely indifferent to their duties. They lazily leaned against the city wall, yawning, with swords at their waists.
After sending the little dragon to watch from the rooftops of nearby houses, keeping an eye on the Fire leader’s arrival, and monitoring for any other unusual activity, Zhou Qian took out a [Flying Rope] from his bag and silently climbed up the city gate.
Holding a knife, and with the speed gained from soloing two high-difficulty trial instances, he swiftly passed by the three men.
By the time they realized something was wrong, they were already collapsing with ruptured carotid arteries.
Conveniently, there were many shields on the ground. Zhou Qian laid their bodies down, stripped their armor, and hid it all in his bag, then made several cuts to their faces and bodies.
What has happened, cannot be changed.
They might be resurrected later, but Zhou Qian couldn’t control when they would come back to life, so just in case, he tied them up with a special rope and hid them under the shields.
All that was left for Zhou Qian to do was wait for the Fire leader to appear.
According to the information provided by Alayne, Village Chief Ab was a rare individual who had mastered all the skills of the Day, Moon, Star, Cloud families and was thus unanimously chosen as the village chief.
Therefore, the Fire leader’s strength was probably weaker than Ab’s.
With his skills, the little dragon’s assistance, and the aid of various items, killing him wouldn’t be too difficult.
However, the soldiers of the Land of Silence were skilled in close-quarters assassination with curved blades. If the Fire leader’s body showed obvious signs of unusual death, it would be problematic.
In this case, Zhou Qian had to minimize mana and health consumption while killing him up close with a sword, which was a bit more challenging.
Of course, for Zhou Qian, it was just slightly more difficult.
Facing the city area, he took out a mirror from his bag.
[Item: Dream-Back Mirror]
[Effect: Placed in the scene, it can fully restore the story that once happened in the scene, making people feel as if they were there; Range: 300m; The scene time can be adjusted, but it can only restore up to 24 hours before; The past scene can last for half an hour.]
[Note: Can be used to reminisce about people who were here within the last 24 hours, or to reconstruct a crime scene and search for clues; However, the scenes produced by the Dream-Back Mirror are all illusions. Don’t indulge too much, for illusions are ultimately empty…]
20 minutes later.
Crouching behind the city wall, Zhou Qian received a message from the little dragon—the Fire leader had appeared and would enter the street directly opposite the city gate in one minute.
Upon receiving the message, Zhou Qian hung the Dream-Back Mirror on the city wall within 30 seconds.
All he had to do next was to hide and wait at the city gate.
As soon as the Fire leader turned into the street leading to the west city gate, he entered the range of the Dream-Back Mirror.
What appeared before him was the scene of soldiers dutifully standing guard at the city gate.
Feeling a sense of déjà vu, the Fire leader shook his head, thinking the scene was very similar to what he had seen that morning.
But after thinking it over, it seemed there was nothing wrong with that—soldiers wearing the same uniforms and standing in the same places naturally looked similar.
Thus, the Fire leader didn’t notice anything too unusual and continued toward the city gate.
Arriving at the gate, he yawned and walked up the stone steps next to the rampart to the city wall.
The soldiers stood guard at the city gate without moving, a few facing towards the city interior while the majority faced outward, appearing very serious and dutiful in their posts.
However, the Fire leader eventually noticed something odd—why didn’t they greet him?
It was as if they hadn’t seen him at all…
Wait… Why was the light reflecting off their armor so strange?
The sunlight falling on the armor and every brick of the city wall displayed a distinct orange color, the shade of dawn when the morning sun first rises.
But now, the day was fully bright. Such a phenomenon shouldn’t be occurring. What… What is going on?
As the Fire leader pondered in confusion, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a sight that made his heart race with fear—he turned his body to look down the street below the city gate and saw another version of himself striding towards him!
In shock, the Fire leader hadn’t even fully comprehended the situation when the shields lying on the ground next to him started moving on their own!
Holding twin blades, the Fire leader turned his body, highly alert towards those shields, only to see a few shields fall aside, revealing four bodies emerging from underneath.
The faces of these four bodies were all scratched, unrecognizable, and in addition to their clothes being removed, their bodies were covered in wounds.
No, upon closer inspection, there were only three bodies. One was still alive!
The survivor, upon seeing the Fire leader, shouted, “Greetings, Leader!”
Then he attempted to rise from the ground, only to fail immediately, falling back down and spitting out a mouthful of blood.
Afterwards, he spoke very weakly to the Fire leader. “Not good… The Land of Silence… It’s the people from the Land of Silence… They used magic that made us hallucinate… unable to distinguish what’s real from what’s fake… I was attacked by another version of myself… but no matter what I did… I couldn’t harm him at all, I… cough cough…”
Attacked by another version of oneself?
This man hadn’t clarified the situation, but the Fire leader clearly caught a crucial sentence. So he looked down the street at the other version of himself again, finding that he had already walked to the middle of the road.
Suddenly, the Fire leader swung his blade, sending a cloud of fire down the street towards the person.
The murderous intent-filled fire cloud surged powerfully, but upon hitting the other Fire leader, it dissipated into nothingness. It was like punching soft cotton, utterly ineffective.
On the street, the Fire leader walked with ease, his expression unchanged, as if nothing had happened.
This scene undoubtedly agitated the Fire leader at the city gate. He then executed several more moves, but the Fire leader on the street remained unharmed!
The Fire leader’s heart pounded, and he nervously looked towards the soldiers around him.
After standing for a while, they occasionally whispered to each other, as if slacking off. But from beginning to end, not a single one looked at him, as if he didn’t exist at all.
This isn’t right…
What in the world…
At this moment, the Fire leader heard the man lying on the ground speak again. “Leader, only you, me, and these three dead brothers beside me are real. Everything else is fake. But they will kill us and then replace us in the living world! As long as they kill all of us, they can replace us! Ah…”
After saying this, the man spat out blood and became motionless, probably dead like the three others beside him.
Not only did the Fire leader’s heart beat wildly, but his ears also rang.
No, of course he couldn’t be replaced!
With twin blades in hand, the Fire leader quickly ran around the city gate, executing countless moves. Normally, these soldiers would have been incinerated by his fire cloud technique. But now it was different. Those people remained unscathed!
Disbelieving, the Fire leader connected his twin blades, unleashing a powerful move. Two blades of light collided, creating a massive firestorm, like a wildfire fanned by spring winds, instantly targeting every soldier!
The fire was fierce, as if it would burn everything to ashes. But moments later, the flames dissipated, and everything on the city gate remained unchanged, as if nothing had ever happened.
At this moment, the Fire leader suddenly realized what was wrong.
He turned around and saw the other version of himself walking up to the city wall, and the nearest soldier turned to him, saying, “Good morning, Fire Leader!”
The other Fire leader replied, “Good morning, everyone! Did you have a good breakfast? I usually turn a blind eye to your behavior, but not today! Today, of all days, you cannot slack off!”
These were the words he had said that morning.
The scene before him was exactly what he had experienced.
Something that happened in the morning was happening again…
Is this… my memory?!
I’ve entered my own memories!
They can’t see me. They’re not harming me. They’re all from my memory…
Wait, when I first came up to the city gate and noticed that no one looked at me, that the armor had dawn’s light on it, I had already started thinking in this direction, because of that…
It was that man who suddenly appeared covered in blood! He said the other version of myself would kill me!
He was deceiving me! He was misleading me!
Who is he?!
What does he want?!
The Fire leader gripped his twin blades tighter and took steps towards the blood-covered man on the ground.
Suddenly, the man sprang up from the ground.
With a smile on his lips, he raised his hand, his thumb sliding across the corner of his lips, wiping off the blood there, then wiped his eyes as if to clear his vision.
Then the Fire leader saw those bloodthirsty eyes looking back at him.
“You’re even dumber than I thought,” Zhou Qian said with a smile. “With your mana gone and your ultimate on cooldown… what are you going to fight me with?”
……
Five minutes later, Zhou Qian arrived at the breakfast shop they had dined at in the morning and went straight to the second floor.
This was the place they had agreed to meet up after completing their tasks, and upon Zhou Qian’s arrival, only Alayne was there. Alayne was responsible for the Rain leader at the south gate.
Seeing Zhou Qian, she nodded, indicating that she had taken care of the Rain leader.
The other players hadn’t arrived yet. Zhou Qian wasn’t in a hurry. He ordered some food and drink, which was soon delivered.
Breakfast time had passed, and many civilians were trying to squeeze their way to the east gate to watch the spectacle, so there weren’t many customers in the shop at this time.
Although Zhou Qian ordered the food and drink, he didn’t touch it and instead just sat by the window waiting.
After a while, Yun Xiangrong and Yin Jiujiu returned.
They were responsible for the Thunder leader at the north gate.
Thunder corresponded to the former Star, both proficient in utilizing the power of the stars. Yin Jiujiu’s clothes were clearly torn, and her skin underneath appeared charred, suggesting she was struck by lightning.
Fortunately, she specialized in tanking, so she endured it, but now her health was only at 15%.
Yun Xiangrong was slightly better off, with her health at 25%.
The two girls looked pale, already not fully recovered from the previous battle, and having to undertake a highly difficult assassination task was truly taxing.
After both sat down, Zhou Qian asked Yin Jiujiu several questions but didn’t ask Yun Xiangrong anything.
Yun Xiangrong ignored him, sitting down and drinking water without lifting her eyelids, clearly continuing some unspoken performance between them.
But now, both had some other thoughts about the reason why the Peach Blossom Legion had sent her—
Firstly, to keep Zhou Qian’s attention on her and Yin Jiujiu, whose stance was unclear, completely ignoring Ke Yuxiao.
Secondly, now that they had triggered the hidden completion condition, it was clear this instance was very special. Perhaps the Peach Blossom Legion also coveted the rewards of the hidden achievement. If the Peach Blossom Legion sent someone else, Zhou Qian would never let that person win the reward, but if it was Yun Xiangrong, it might not be the case.
Bai Zhou was assigned the task of infiltrating the racecourse and monitoring Difu’s movements, so he wouldn’t be back for a while. The only one they were waiting for now was He Xiaowei.
As they waited, he had already missed the final time agreed upon by everyone.
Yin Jiujiu glanced at the system panel’s time and said anxiously, “Could something have happened to him? The Land of Silence’s troops are about to arrive. His task may not involve assassination, but it’s still crucial. If something goes wrong—”
Zhou Qian tapped his index finger on the table. “Xiaowei Ge might be a bit jumpy sometimes, but he’s never let us down at crucial moments. We should trust our teammates more.”
“I know…” Yin Jiujiu exhaled. “I’m just a bit worried. If he messes up, all our injuries would have been for nothing.”
Zhou Qian’s expression remained unchanged, only looking out the window. “No rush. Gao Shan is with him. He can help. Besides, Zhou Ge is close to him. He’ll be fine.”
With that, Zhou Qian summoned the little dragon, petting its head. “Xiao Long, sneak over to the east city gate. After the Land of Silence people arrive, follow them. I’ll be watching everything through your eyes. Be careful not to get caught.”
“Yip!” The little dragon let out a soft cry and flew out the window.
Yin Jiujiu watched this scene anxiously, only to see Zhou Qian looking out the window with a smile. “Look, our Xiaowei Ge is back.”
The author has something to say:
Zhou Ge fights: Single strike style.
Qian Ge fights: Gambling cards and pretending to be dead, then using all kinds of flashy tricks.
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