Chapter 53: Pearl Tear Alliance
At most, it can only be enhanced into a Legendary Token?
Only?
Shang Xinlei suddenly realized that when a person was rendered speechless to the extreme, they truly couldn't say a word.
She even somewhat regretted coming to Mansu Woodland—if she had just obediently gone to her family’s Secret Realm for vacation, she wouldn’t have encountered such a colossal opportunity—so colossal that even the Shang Family might not be able to protect it.
“Miss Jie,” she let out a long sigh and said to Jie Yuanshao, “I won’t tell anyone anyway. If you want to report it to your family, I’ll just accept my fate.”
“I can guarantee that before Jiang Ten re-enters the Mansu Woodland next year, I won’t leak this secret,” Jie Yuanshao immediately said, “If I still haven’t reached Third-Stage by then and haven’t inherited the family’s Rare Token, I’ll hand over this information to the family.”
Jie Yuanshao had principles and followed the rules, but she wasn’t a fool.
She was just the eldest miss of the Jie Family, not the family head, much less a Grand Elder. If this news got out, not just outsiders, even the elders in the family would covet it immensely.
She valued her family and the bigger picture, but that didn’t mean she would willingly sacrifice her own interests for the benefit of others.
“Thank you,” Shang Xinlei let out a long breath. “One year is enough.”
Then they looked at Qian Gongyu, and Shang Xinlei smiled, “Xiaoyu, I remember the Qian Family doesn’t have any Rare Tokens or Precious Tokens, right? Such a precious opportunity to enhance something shouldn’t be wasted on a normal token…”
“Name your price,” Jie Yuanshao was more direct, “As long as the Jie Family can do it, we’ll satisfy you.”
“I’m not selling it!” Qian Gongyu shook her head repeatedly, hugging her Iron-Claw tightly. “I’ll definitely reach Third-Stage in the future. After that, I’ll get a Rare Token sooner or later. When I enhance it into a Precious Token, it’ll become the Qian Family’s heirloom… Unless you can directly give me a Precious Token, that might be acceptable. But at least Third-Stage, okay?”
The two noble young ladies couldn’t help but shake their heads at this request. What Qian Gongyu was asking was effectively two Precious Tokens in exchange for one Legendary Token.
A Legendary Token was certainly powerful, but two Precious Tokens could arm two Third-Stage combat forces for their family. Comparing the two, there was no doubt the latter was more meaningful to the family.
Still, they weren’t in a rush. After all, they had an entire year. There was plenty of time to scheme and compete for Qian Gongyu’s enhancement material. The priority now was to quickly slay the demons and unlock and unseal those Blood Weapons…
“Huh?” Shang Xinlei suddenly noticed someone was missing. “Where’s Jiang Ten?”
“She left while you two were chatting,” said Qian Gongyu.
“Not good! The low-level demons will all be wiped out by her!”
…
…
"Your Blood Weapon has drunk the blood of one hundred Mansu demons and evolved into 'Ironblood Long Blade.'"
Yan Qing quickly retreated from the monster horde and took a quick glance at the properties of the new token:
"Ironblood Long Blade (Jiang Ten’s Exclusive Blood Weapon)"
"Grade: First-Stage, Normal"
"Durability: 45/45"
"Equip Requirements: 7 Vital Energy and Blood, 3 Dexterity"
"Effect - Ironblood Splash: You can activate the blade to enter Ironblood State. While in this state, every slash that draws blood causes the blood to transform into blades that splash and damage surrounding enemies, dealing 10 points of slashing damage. Activating this state consumes 10 Spirit Energy, lasts 10 seconds, with a 30-second cooldown."
"Effect - Blood Forged: While in Ironblood State, every attack that draws blood restores the blade’s durability."
"Effect - Sealed: This weapon cannot leave Mansu Woodland."
"Evaluation: The Blood Demon Sect spent hundreds of years in pursuit of crafting a weapon that could drink the blood of the strong and evolve infinitely. This blade is the result of their efforts during the first ten years."
It truly matched Yan Qing’s needs perfectly. Faced with the onslaught of monsters blanketing the mountains, a weapon capable of wide-area attacks would undoubtedly increase his efficiency in killing them.
He immediately activated the ‘Ironblood State’ and charged into the monster horde, slaughtering wildly.
Shang Xinlei and the others didn’t dare to act so recklessly. After all, these little monsters had around First-Stage combat power. If they weren’t careful, they could get injured. They had to rely on the Narcissus Mermaid and the Blade Warrior to draw the monsters’ attention.
But Yan Qing was different, for a very simple reason—the third-person perspective gave him an overwhelming advantage, and controlling a character had incomparable benefits.
First-person view had blind spots. Third-person could observe in all directions, almost like having a Byakugan.
In real combat, dodging required full-body muscle coordination. Controlling a character only needed one roll key.
Not to mention, Yan Qing wasn’t even worried about ‘Jiang Ten’ getting hurt or dying…
This was precisely why Yan Qing dared to act so brazenly—he truly wasn’t afraid of fighting these people and didn’t even believe he would necessarily lose.
Although he hadn’t played The Messenger before, he had seen numerous videos like “Level 1 Useless Character No Parry No Defense No Damage vs. Blade Warrior (Level 30 Boss).”
Yan Qing hadn’t tried it himself, but he didn’t believe he couldn’t do it—such was the confidence of a noble action game Brahmin.
When the comb-headed monster finally fell, Yan Qing finally received a message he had long been waiting for:
"You have comprehended [Advanced Footwork], currently at level 1."
"Your Vital Energy and Blood increased by 0.5."
"Your Spirit increased by 0.5."
"Your Dexterity increased by 1."
"You have reached level 11!"
Was this the charm of the Woodland Messenger +50 Comprehension?
You know, 'Ye Si' didn’t comprehend Advanced Blade Technique until level 16, and it took 7 real-life days—while ‘Jiang Ten’ had only been playing for 2 days!
"At least leave some for us." Shang Xinlei complained. "I’ve only killed 16."
"No way. I’m not satisfied with getting just one enhancement material. There are still two days left. I’m going to defeat at least two thousand enemies and farm two enhancement materials."
As soon as he said this, everyone was stunned.
Jie Yuanshao asked in disbelief, "These Blood Weapons can be… infinitely farmed?"
She didn’t even know how to describe it for a moment and subconsciously imitated Yan Qing’s wording.
"As long as you can kill enough demons."
Yan Qing actually still had more important intel he hadn’t mentioned—not because he wanted to hoard it, but because he felt it was too distant for them to grasp.
"Bloodsoaked Iron Arsenal"
"You can acquire Blood Weapons of any form from this arsenal and unlock more effects by killing enemies in Mansu Woodland."
"100 kills: Blood Weapon evolves into a Token."
"300 kills: Blood Weapon can be taken out of Mansu Woodland."
"1000 kills: Blood Weapon can be used as enhancement material to upgrade any Token to a higher tier (up to Legendary)."
"5000 kills: Blood Weapon can enhance any Token to Legendary tier, and the player may choose 3 out of 9 preset traits."
"10000 kills: Blood Weapon can enhance any Token to Legendary tier, and the player may choose 3 out of 18 preset traits. For every additional 10000 kills, 3 more selectable traits are added."
The most reliable reward for players participating in Mansu Woodland was probably this enhancement material.
Clearly, in The Messenger, getting a Legendary Token wasn’t that hard—players simply hoarded these materials and waited until the final meta to draw cards, hoping to roll a perfect trait.
Naturally, Yan Qing had no such hoarding delusions.
He figured he probably couldn’t reach 5000 kills, so he’d just farm as many enhancement materials as possible—and train some other Advanced Martial Techniques while he was at it.
After the second wave ended, they had another 30 minutes to scavenge.
This time Yan Qing changed tactics: he let them venture further to search for rare resources, while he cleaned up the surrounding trees and stones.
If there were four players, common resources like trees and stones weren’t lacking—you could just chop a bit while walking.
Unfortunately, in this team, only Yan Qing could store resources in a Personal Storage; the others had to carry them manually.
So resources like timber and stone, which were in high demand and easy to gather, could only be handled by Yan Qing.
Shang Xinlei and the others felt a little guilty—after all, going further meant better chances for encounters.
But this wasn’t the time to refuse. The upcoming third wave was even tougher—they had to race against the clock.
There wasn’t much to say about chopping trees and breaking stones.
Yan Qing nearly cleared all trees and stones within a 200-meter radius and gathered three stacks of rare resources.
When the 30 minutes were almost up, the three girls returned carrying huge sacks.
And this time, each of them had triggered an encounter.
Qian Gongyu stumbled upon a garden.
In the garden, tiny people fluttered like butterflies and cheerfully invited her to drink honey.
After she drank the honey, she felt drowsy and only woke up after the time it takes to brew a pot of tea.
The little people were gone—and she found that her Vital Energy and Blood had increased by roughly a quarter.
Shang Xinlei found a Wooden Hut.
Inside was a map showing the surrounding resource points.
As a result, she brought back the most rare resources.
Jie Yuanshao didn’t have such a complicated event.
She simply picked up a ring from the ground and discovered it was a Second-Stage Token—useful for herself.
Watching them excitedly talk about their experiences, Yan Qing’s lips curled into a faint smile.
He felt an indescribable joy—probably because Mansu Woodland was such a well-designed dungeon, and seeing his teammates enjoy it too made him happy.
Seeing others enjoy something you like—it’s just delightful.
But he had to maintain Jiang Ten’s cool and aloof persona, so he suppressed his desire to share and instead discussed building plans with them.
Soon, the resources they brought back vanished like illusions, and many new buildings appeared in the Castle Courtyard—
"'Portal' has been constructed."
"Portal: Players receive four tokens. As long as a token is activated in Mansu Woodland, the player can instantly return to the Shelter through the portal. Tokens cannot be taken out of Mansu Woodland."
"'Hall of Heroes' has been constructed."
"Hall of Heroes: The number of random building statues per round increases to three."
"'Funeral Mermaid Statue' construction complete."
"'Six-Bodhi Warrior Statue' construction complete."
"'Eagle Archer Statue' construction complete."
Needless to say, the Portal was of huge strategic importance.
With it, they no longer had to waste ten or more minutes returning—they could scavenge until the last moment and teleport back.
The Hall of Heroes was just as valuable.
Statues were undoubtedly the strongest force in a Shelter.
The current goal was to build as many as possible to cover the field.
As the Dense Fog descended, the third wave of monsters attacked.
When they finally saw the two monsters emerging from the fog, all of their expressions changed.
"White Bat and Venom Viper—both are Third-Stage Demon Lords," Jie Yuanshao said grimly.
"Good thing we retreated yesterday… The third wave actually brings two Demon Lords at once!"
"Can we win?" Qian Gongyu asked worriedly.
"We will."
Jiang Ten simply answered and dashed onto the battlefield, with the others following close behind—
This time, they absolutely had to snatch the spoils from Jiang Ten’s mouth!
They couldn’t let her wipe out all the mobs again!
As the snake swarm and bat horde approached the Castle, suddenly a giant mass of water surged out.
It trapped dozens of monsters like a water prison.
Then an ice orb struck the water mass—instantly freezing all the trapped monsters and killing them on the spot!
Huh?
Yan Qing remembered those statues weren’t this powerful.
And they usually fought separately.
How did they pull off such precise coordination?
When he turned to look at the statues, he saw the Narcissus Mermaid and the Funeral Mermaid glowing with a violet radiance, as if they were linked together.
Below their health bars, a special status effect appeared—
"Pearl Tear Alliance: When the number of Pearl Tear Messengers ≥ 2, all Token effects of Pearl Tear Messengers have +50% range, and they will prioritize attacking in coordination with each other. (Narcissus Mermaid, Funeral Mermaid)"