Chapter 16: The Loophole in the Main City
The one who appeared before ‘An Wu’ was a monk.
He didn’t look very old, with delicate features, dressed in a monk’s robe patched with various colors, wearing straw sandals, and when he spoke, he pressed his palms together with proper manners, looking just like a naive little monk who had grown up in a temple.
"Ciji Courtyard?"
"It’s right over there." The young monk pointed behind Anguo Temple. "I’m heading back now, do you want to come with me? But only the shared sleeping area has space left. You’ll have to stay with others."
"Are there single rooms available?"
"Yes, there are. After all, it’s inconvenient for women or some patients to share rooms with others... Are you hungry? If you haven’t eaten, there might still be some leftovers if we go now."
Yan Qing followed the monk without much suspicion—first, because this was a low-level account, and second, because he didn’t think anyone in Chang’an could harm him.
The monk was very talkative and introduced himself, "My Dharma name is Benzhi. I practice at the Miscellaneous Services Courtyard of Anguo Temple, which means I do odd jobs... But doing odd jobs at Anguo Temple is actually a good thing. It’s not like the Martial Monk Courtyard where they have to train from morning till night. It’s not that tiring..."
"Plus, the Miscellaneous Services Courtyard gets to take shifts at the Ciji Courtyard. Every ten days, we get to come out for three days... By the way, what’s your name, benefactor?"
"An Wu."
"An Wu, this is the Ciji Courtyard. See? It’s close by."
Benzhi led ‘An Wu’ to a large residence. The plaque above the door read ‘Ciji Courtyard’.
Upon opening the door, a strong medicinal scent wafted out.
Dozens of medicine pots were brewing herbs, and in the large adjacent room, there were dozens of patients lying down.
"This is the patient area. If you’re unwell, you can come here during the day. The senior and junior brothers from the Hanging Pot Courtyard will come from the county to offer free consultations."
"From the county?"
"Anguo Temple has a larger monastery out in the county. After all, land in the city is scarce. Besides the main hall, there’s not much space to house monks in the city temple. Do you want to eat?"
"No need." Yan Qing thought to himself, I still have dozens of Roasted Lamb Legs in my storage.
"This Ciji Courtyard was built with funds from many benevolent patrons of Chang’an. Anguo Temple only manages it. Although we don’t charge money, unless the patient is seriously ill or it’s a special case, we usually advise them to leave after seven days. If someone has nowhere to go, during the day, there will be people coming to Ciji Courtyard to recruit tenant farmers or laborers. We don’t keep idle people here..."
"Though they say the city is blessed by Buddha, so ordinary people are unharmed by blades or fire, touching and bumping is still allowed. When you sleep, it’s best to face your butt against the wall... Ai, even we monks sometimes run into scoundrels like that."
Blessed by Buddha, huh. But that actually made sense. Even the dungeon monsters were called demons, so it was only natural that a safe zone where mutual harm was forbidden would be considered a miracle of the gods and Buddhas.
As they walked, Benzhi opened a side door. Inside were many cleaning tools, clearly a utility room. At the far end was a large water bucket. Benzhi walked over and called out, "Benefactor, give me a hand. Let’s carry this bucket to the well. Uncle Chengyin told me to do this, and I almost forgot."
There was no reason to refuse such a small favor. ‘An Wu’ walked to the other side of the bucket, ready to lift together.
"Stand firm, okay?"
As Benzhi said this, he didn’t lift the bucket. Instead, he reached out and grabbed a hemp rope hanging beside him.
Snap.
The wooden board beneath ‘An Wu’ suddenly gave way, revealing a hole. Yan Qing had no time and no way to stop ‘An Wu’ from falling through. He watched as ‘An Wu’ slid down like on a slide, falling for nearly twenty seconds before landing with a thud onto a pile of straw.
Though the sloped descent had cushioning, ‘An Wu’ still lost about one-tenth of his health. Yan Qing had a sudden realization—Chang’an City prevented mutual harm, but it didn’t forbid fall damage.
By that logic, jumping off buildings in Chang’an would definitely be fatal too.
"Heh, a newcomer this late at night?"
‘An Wu’ had landed in an underground cell.
The only light source was a candle, and the place was dim, with pitch-black iron bars standing on solid bluestone. Outside the cell sat two tall, burly, bald monks.
Their appearances were fairly decent, but their eyes showed no compassion.
When they looked at ‘An Wu’, it was like farmers eyeing their poultry.
"Amitabha. Red lips and white teeth, fair skin, nimble hands and feet—an excellent specimen."
"Looks like he’s from a poor background, though. We’ll have to train him a bit first. Mud legs don’t sell for much."
"That’s easy. In the end, it all comes down to looks. Even if she’s the daughter of a prime minister, if she’s ugly, who cares? But if he’s handsome, say he’s a noble heir and people will believe it."
Besides the newly arrived ‘An Wu’, there were a dozen others in the cell—men, women, and even children. But without exception, all were good-looking.
Many wore luxurious clothes, clearly from wealthy families. Yet none of them could escape their sickly states, all lying weakly on the ground. In the corners of the cell were a few chamber pots, and the floor was littered with filth.
Thankfully, the game console couldn’t transmit smells, or else Yan Qing definitely wouldn’t be able to eat his midnight snack tonight.
Yet even with so many people in the cell, the two martial monks outside had no scruples discussing how to sell them for high prices.
It showed how confident they were in this cell and the entire trafficking operation.
They clearly believed that even if these people got out one day, they wouldn’t be able to retaliate in the slightest.
But Yan Qing still had many details he didn’t understand.
"The Ciji Courtyard is your place for abducting people? Are the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled inside the Ciji Courtyard also fake?"
The martial monk pressed his palms together, showing a solemn and compassionate smile.
"My Buddha is merciful. It is only right for monks to offer relief to the world. Naturally, the Ciji Courtyard is real. If elderly, weak women and children come to Ciji Courtyard, Anguo Temple will naturally do its best to take care of them. As for porridge distribution, charcoal deliveries, bridge repairs, and road maintenance, Anguo Temple does not miss a year, and its good name spreads far and wide."
"Precisely because of this, if anyone slanders us saying their family went missing after offering incense at Anguo Temple, no one—whether common folk or officials—would tolerate such a traitor defaming the century-old reputation of Anguo Temple."
The martial monk wasn’t just speaking to ‘An Wu’, but also for the others to hear.
If what he said was true, then the victims in this cell had no hope of outside help.
Sensing ‘An Wu’s unexpected calmness, the martial monk glanced at him a few times and warned, "Behave yourself. No matter what you say, you’ll have to go hungry here for a few days. But if you cause trouble, don’t blame us for giving you a taste of pain."
Hunger was indeed real.
Seeing how the people in the cell were too weak to even sit up, their cheeks sunken from starvation, Yan Qing guessed how they harmed others within the safe zone's restrictions—lure them into a cell from which escape was impossible, then starve them until they had no strength to resist.
At that point, the victims became meat on the chopping board.
But Yan Qing had thought this was only the place where they starved people; the real “training” must be outside Chang’an City in the monastery, where without the safe zone, they could use any method.
But from the martial monk’s words, could it be they had ways to harm people even within the safe zone?
So Yan Qing put on a wildly arrogant act: "Come on then, I want to see how you grandsons will give Grandpa a hard time. Chang’an City is protected by heavenly deities—what can you do to Grandpa, huh?"
The two martial monks exchanged a glance.
One of them sneered, walked over, opened a black jar on the ground, scooped out a spoonful of oil, poured it into a bowl, then moved close to the candle.
The black oil in the bowl instantly ignited into fierce flames.
Fire attack?
"Come on, you think playing with fire will scare your Grandpa?" Yan Qing wasn’t afraid at all. He even controlled ‘An Wu’ to walk up to the bars and stretch his hand out. "If you’ve got the guts, burn Grandpa right now."
Yan Qing didn’t believe the safe zone had such a huge loophole.
If it did, what kind of safe zone would that be?
If playing with fire could harm others, wouldn’t a Fire Messenger be able to massacre the entire main city?
And even if he guessed wrong, it was only ‘An Wu’ in there—so be it.
But the martial monk calmly explained, "Normally, flames can’t burn others. In fact, once you pour them out, they extinguish immediately."
He poured the burning black oil into the cell.
It hit the floor and instantly went out, leaving only dark oily stains.
"Under Buddha’s protection, flames in Chang’an cannot burn objects, cannot burn others. Only those with great enlightenment, great wisdom, and great perfection can comprehend Buddha’s true intent, and understand the meaning of fire for the world—"
Then the martial monk casually picked up a piece of clothing from nearby junk, apparently someone’s discarded garment.
He wrapped the cloth strip around his hand, then poured the entire bowl of burning black oil onto it!
Whoosh!
"Holy fire ablaze, consume my decaying body!"
The martial monk raised his burning right hand and lunged forward, grabbing ‘An Wu’s hand that was reaching through the bars.
Even though ‘An Wu’ quickly pulled back, he still lost several drops of health and even got some black oil on his hand, which kept burning until he rolled on the ground to extinguish it!
"You little brat, still acting tough?"
The martial monk sneered and threw the burning cloth strip on the ground.
It continued to burn, unlike the previous black oil that extinguished instantly.
Yan Qing immediately understood the principle:
Burning others or structures triggered the safe zone rules—it either did nothing or extinguished the flame.
Only one exception remained—burning oneself.
The safe zone only forbade harming others.
It did not forbid harming oneself.
Once one set themselves on fire, the safe zone’s flame rules were bypassed, and the fire could harm both others and the environment.
They had actually found such a loophole.
But that alone wasn’t enough to scare Yan Qing into submission.
He backed up onto the straw pile and waved, "Come, let’s see if you dare burn this whole place down."
"You think that’ll threaten us? We’ve got plenty of ways to deal with your filthy bones."
The martial monk took a large candle from the wall.
He patiently waited until the wax tears were about to drop, then flicked it hard.
A drop of molten wax flew toward ‘An Wu’.
Of course, Yan Qing wasn’t foolish enough to stand still.
He dodged several times, but suddenly heard a scream from behind.
Turning around, he saw that a drop of wax had landed on a little girl nearby.
She curled up in pain, trying to make herself as small as possible.
Because of that turn, ‘An Wu’ got hit by several drops of wax.
Yet he took no damage.
Not even a single drop of health was lost.
"Oh? You can endure that too?"
The martial monk seemed a bit surprised and put down the candle. "Then I’ll let you act tough for a few days. Once you’re too weak from hunger to move, I’ll pour candle wax all over your body and see if you can really endure it."
Candle wax might not deal damage, but could it still cause pain?
It was probably because the candle wax was falling as a projectile, not a direct attack from another person. So in the game system, it was likely identified as an “environmental interactive object”—in simple terms, it was on the safe zone’s “whitelist.” That’s why people felt pain from candle wax. A small loophole.
There probably weren’t many similar loopholes. Conditions like “no damage but slight pain” plus “projectile” were extremely strict—only candle wax seemed to fit.
But even with just these two techniques—self-immolation to cause damage and splashed candle wax to inflict pain—it was clear that Anguo Temple, or rather the people here, had thoroughly studied every loophole in the safe zone.
Yan Qing glanced at the only exit in the outer hall. "You’ll have to open the cell door eventually. I will escape, and by then, you won’t be able to stop me."
"Escape? Outside is Anguo Temple. How would you escape?" The martial monk sat down again, munching peanuts and drinking wine. "Even if you could get out of this cell, I just have to press a bell and the temple will seal and block the doors. How will you run? We don’t even need to lay a finger on you—just block the path and you won’t get through!"
"I advise you all to behave. If you push us too far..." The monk’s expression turned cold. "There are over a dozen jars of fire oil here—enough to burn you all to ash."
Yan Qing kept playing the role of a troublemaker, probing a few more times to get a general sense of the layout.
This underground cell was connected to both Anguo Temple and Ciji Courtyard.
The Ciji Courtyard had only a downward slide channel—climbing up was virtually impossible.
The passage to Anguo Temple was narrow; just two martial monks could block the stairway.
And right above was the temple’s main hall—these bald monks certainly wouldn’t let the victims escape easily.
To be honest, this whole mess was partly due to Yan Qing’s character design. If he had made a 13 Vital Energy and Blood buff guy, he wouldn’t have fallen for the trap. But this 13 Dexterity short young man just happened to be the kind of pretty boy that appealed to the monks’ predatory standards.
But the question remained—why would the people of Anguo Temple go to such lengths to set traps inside Chang’an City, when they could just use force outside the city?
The risks and time costs were far higher within Chang’an.
Yan Qing asked the martial monk several times, but the monk ignored him.
Finally, when the monk got impatient, he revealed a bit. "You’ll find out soon enough—don’t think gods or Buddhas will protect you. Even in Chang’an, people like you can only be obedient dogs!"
Chang’an City!
Looking at the noble ladies and gentlemen trapped in the cell, Yan Qing caught a glimpse of the truth.
If this weren’t Chang’an, would these delicate, helpless people dare venture out alone?
Would they fall into such a simple trap with no one to call for help?
Absolutely not!
It was precisely because they trusted in Chang’an’s protection that they, unable to protect themselves, ended up here.
On the flip side, for those who could protect themselves—wasn’t Chang’an City effectively a prison?
They could’ve acted freely, but were instead bound by the safe zone rules, unable even to punish others.
No wonder Chang’an County was far more prosperous than the main city.
It was probably because many powerful and influential people would rather live outside than be restricted everywhere in the main city.
And once rules exist, breaking them naturally becomes a source of pleasure.
Like bathing on the ground versus bathing on an airplane—both are just baths, but the latter is obviously more luxurious and enviable.
Human trafficking was just a surface layer.
What Anguo Temple truly trafficked was the thrill of “trampling rules.”
In gaming terms—it was like hacking.
You can’t break the rules to hurt me, but I can exploit loopholes to hurt you.
As long as there’s PvP in a game, there will always be players chasing that one-sided domination.
And the higher the prey’s status, the better.
After all, their clients outside had long grown tired of bullying peasants.
Only noble prey could spark their excitement.
Now that Yan Qing had grasped the truth, what could he do?
After some quick thought, he set up a few behavioral commands for ‘An Wu’, then logged out of the account and logged into ‘An Liu’.
In a small alley, among four boys sitting on the ground resting, one of them slowly stood up.
He twisted his neck and turned his head toward the direction of Ciji Courtyard.
Game revenge—day and night.
Step one: go deal with that Benzhi who dared to trick me.