Messenger of Calamity

Chapter 92: Hidden Milestone

「‘Initial Zhen Sanshan’ milestone has been achieved.」

「Milestone reward: Basic Whetstone has been added to the Personal Storage tab.」

Yan Qing began his daily run of the Zhen Sanshan Secret Realm early in the morning. He had already mastered this instance to the point where he could clear it without effort; even with just Jiang Ten and Ye Si, it could be completed within ten minutes. When he finished defeating the boss for the second time, the game screen suddenly notified him that a new achievement had been unlocked.

Yan Qing opened the notification and discovered it was a hidden milestone.

「Initial Zhen Sanshan: After defeating ‘Zhen Sanshan’ Zheng Shan 50 times, reward: Basic Whetstone. Upon reaching this milestone, player damage to ‘Zhen Sanshan’ Zheng Shan is reduced by 20%, Zheng Shan's attacks deal additional fire damage to the player, and loot drop rate from Zheng Shan increases by 5%.」

「Next milestone · Renowned Zhen Sanshan: Defeat ‘Zhen Sanshan’ Zheng Shan 200 times (50/200).」

Huh?

For a moment, Yan Qing didn’t quite know what to make of this milestone. A 5% increase in loot drops was nice, sure—but reducing the player’s damage by 20% was far too much!

As a level designer, he could understand the design logic behind this milestone: increasing loot to improve returns—if the player was willing to farm this instance, they should be rewarded more. Decreasing damage was a way to increase difficulty, adding some challenge to prevent players from getting bored.

If players found it too troublesome and stopped farming it, all the better. After all, if a player repeatedly farmed an instance, it was likely not just because the instance was fun, but because the rewards outweighed those of other instances. This milestone had no effect on ordinary players, who might only farm the instance once or twice a day. But for gold-farming studios that spammed the most cost-effective instance non-stop, the impact was huge. It could effectively curb their influence on the game environment.

Understanding was one thing, but right now Yan Qing was sitting on the player's side. Naturally, he wanted higher returns from the instance and lower difficulty. Ideally, he would hit 999999 damage in one click, clear the stage, and walk away with the rewards.

Opening Jiang Ten’s Personal Storage, Yan Qing found that the milestone reward, the Basic Whetstone, was actually an Immortal-grade item.

「Basic Whetstone」

「Grade: Immortal」

「Only effective on White Iron Straight Blade」

「Cannot be transferred, never wears out, account-unique」

「Effect · Sharpen: Restores the durability of the White Iron Straight Blade through sharpening.」

「Effect · Flame Pattern: Through sharpening, imbues the White Iron Straight Blade with a flame pattern, adding fire damage. Each White Iron Straight Blade can only be imbued once.」

「Commentary: It’s said that Zheng Shan’s ancestor was a Flame Walker from Flame Mountain, renowned far and wide. But by the time it reached Zheng Shan, all that was left was this ancestral whetstone. Now that Zheng Shan has discovered the whetstone in your possession, burning with rage, he will use the Flame Blade on you.」

He needed a place to use the whetstone. Currently, the auxiliary soldiers were still looting Zheng Shan’s home in the Secret Realm, so Yan Qing returned to Jiang Ten’s room in the Military Camp. He clicked in sequence: ‘Whetstone’ → ‘White Iron Straight Blade’ → empty ground.

Then Jiang Ten pulled a large foot-pedal whetstone from his sleeve, placed the White Iron Straight Blade on it, sat on the frame, and began pedaling. The blade was pressed against the stone, and the screen switched to first-person view, displaying a whetstone tutorial.

There was even a matching mini-game.

Yan Qing picked it up quickly. Moments later, the screen displayed: 「You completed a poor sharpening」, and a new blade appeared on screen.

「Flame Pattern Straight Blade」

「Grade: First-Stage Normal」

「Durability: 47/47 (Due to poor sharpening, maximum durability decreased)」

「Base Attack: 2~10 points of cutting damage + 1 point of fire damage」

「Commentary: A junk blade made by a junk craftsman with a junk whetstone, damaging the original weapon’s performance.」

Yan Qing compared the Flame Pattern Straight Blade with the White Iron Straight Blade and found… the Flame Pattern Straight Blade was indeed worse. The White Iron Straight Blade had originally dealt 3~15 base damage, so the total damage of the new blade was actually lower.

However, since there was such a thing as poor sharpening, there must also be high-quality sharpening. After sharpening the blade four times, Yan Qing finally completed a superior sharpening.

「Flame Pattern Straight Blade」

「Grade: First-Stage Normal」

「Durability: 60/50 (Due to superior sharpening, gained bonus durability beyond the maximum limit)」

「Base Attack: 5~15 points of cutting damage (Due to superior sharpening, minimum damage increased by 2) + 5 points of fire damage」

「Commentary: A normal blade made by an average craftsman using a junk whetstone.」

Yan Qing found the reward from the whetstone rather decent—not just for the Flame Pattern enchantment, but especially for its durability restoration effect. In the game, restoring the durability of a Token was quite a hassle, and he had already broken several White Iron Straight Blades.

If even the Basic Whetstone could restore durability, grant bonus durability, and increase minimum damage, wouldn’t a Premium Whetstone be absolutely phenomenal?

The only pity was that it could only be used on the White Iron Straight Blade. If it could be used on all weapons… then it definitely wouldn’t be something one could obtain just by clearing a low-level instance fifty times.

Seeing the pile of White Iron Straight Blades in the storage, and then looking at the Basic Whetstone, Yan Qing’s eyes twitched as a sudden idea formed in his mind.

...

...

Around noon, at the junction of the Upper Ninth Road and Lower Ninth Road.

This area was filled with eateries and restaurants, and the foot traffic was already heavy at noon. As a traffic hub, the road beneath the Junction Archway was wide enough for four carriages to pass side-by-side, yet now it was so congested that not even water could seep through. A large crowd gathered beneath the archway, staring at the Blackboard. Every time the numbers changed on it, discussions and even arguments erupted.

"Nine thousand Spirit Jade! The Blade Technique Manual has reached nine thousand Spirit Jade! Is it going to hit over ten thousand like yesterday?"

"Impossible. Yesterday ten copies were sold, today it’s only three. What does that tell you? It means manuals are sold every day! If that’s the case, the price will drop eventually—the later you buy, the cheaper it gets!"

"That’s ridiculous. What if he stops selling them someday?"

"He’ll definitely keep selling. Right now it’s the Immortal taking pity on us, sharing manuals from the Immortal Realm into the Trading Board, letting everyone compete fairly. The wealthy obtain them early, the poor later. Everyone will become a Messenger—it’s only a matter of time!"

"Fool. If I had money, I’d rather hoard them than let some pauper buy it cheap."

"Why would the Immortal trade two Blade Technique Manuals for one Dual Blade Manual? Is the Dual Blade that much stronger than the single blade?"

"No way... right?"

"Anyone know what those five Flame Pattern Straight Blades are? Their lowest price has already soared past five thousand!"

"Anything from the Immortal must be premium. If I had money, I’d buy one too."

In the crowd, Shang Xuanwen and the Rat Monk didn’t attract any attention at all. In fact, because of their towering statures, they were frequently bumped into—so much so that their boots were stepped dirty.

"Immortal?" Shang Xuanwen said coldly, "Selling manuals, selling Tokens… Big Monk, does the Buddha resemble this Immortal—bringing not peace to the earth, but weapons and war?"

"I don’t study the scriptures," Yan Qing felt a bit guilty. Fortunately, the in-game Rat Monk showed no such emotions. "But if not for the aristocratic clans monopolizing violence, how would common folk ever covet the Immortal’s goods so much? If ordinary people could become Messengers on their own merit, why would they hurl thousands of jade for a single manual or a single Token?"

After realizing that the Flame Pattern Long Blade was different from the White Iron Straight Blade, Yan Qing realized he could put it up for sale at the Treasure Pavilion. He had previously refrained from selling the White Iron Straight Blade because it was too closely tied to him—selling it might alert other thieves that the 'Merchant Immortal' in the Trading Board was him. To minimize risk, Yan Qing had chosen to forgo the money.

But the Flame Pattern Long Blade was a different story. The appearance was distinct, and as long as Yan Qing didn’t use it himself, no one would connect him to the seller. Naturally, he would never use it either—he had Bingzi Pepper Forest and Autumn Ink, and the Flame Pattern Long Blade didn’t qualify for his main weapon stash.

Using two Blade Technique Manuals to exchange for one Dual Blade Manual was an experiment. Yan Qing found it too troublesome to comprehend Dual Blade techniques on his own. Then he remembered that the Treasure Pavilion allowed bartering, so he tried to make a trade.

"If there’s a father and son, the father unkind, the son unfilial, but because the son can’t beat the father and the father still needs the son to help plow the fields, they barely get by. Now, if a passerby sells the son a blade, leading to patricide and starvation due to no one left to farm—who’s at fault?"

"Of course it’s the father’s fault. With fatherly kindness, comes filial piety. Even without the blade, once the son grows up, he’d kill the father anyway."

"But what if the son is never allowed to grow up, never allowed to wield a blade?"

Yan Qing raised a brow. "So you mean the father's cruelty is irreversible, and thus the son must be restrained for peace? But if father and son live in mutual suspicion and hatred, how is that different from the End of the Dharma Age? Better to have a blade-seller let them settle the matter cleanly. When spring returns, others will farm and multiply over their graves."

Shang Xuanwen, unusually, fell silent. Apparently unable to refute the logic, he turned and walked out of the crowd, with Yan Qing following closely behind. The two arrived at a nearby beef noodle shop. Its specialty was beef fried sauce tossed noodles. Yan Qing was quite interested, but the Rat Monk was bald, so he could only order a vegetarian bowl.

The Rat Monk had been idle all morning, and Yan Qing only switched back to him near noon, discovering that the Rat Monk had followed Shang Xuanwen to the Ministry of Appointments. Serving as a guard, the Rat Monk had stood at the gate of the Administrative Hall all morning. At noon, when Shang Xuanwen went out for lunch, the Rat Monk naturally followed, which was how they stumbled upon the excitement at the Junction Archway.

Staring at the menu on the noodle shop wall, Shang Xuanwen suddenly asked, "Do you notice anything?"

"Not at all," Yan Qing couldn’t be bothered with riddles.

"There’s beef noodles, chicken noodles, but no lamb. Do you know why?"

"This isn’t the north. Is the absence of lamb really that strange?"

"In the Huai North region, lamb flatbread is a famous delicacy." Shang Xuanwen shook his head. "In Jiangnan County, beef and chicken are more common, because the nearby Secret Realms mostly yield cattle and poultry. The Secret Realms in Huai North produce sheep, so lamb is more prevalent there."

Yan Qing had a vague idea of what he was getting at, and smiled. "Looks like the Prime Minister is someone who plans his counterattack carefully before striking back."

"In every dynasty and era, it's always the Messenger who is unkind, and the commoner who is unfilial. Reconciliation?" Shang Xuanwen said, "Messengers believe they conquer Secret Realms to nourish the people, but the people lack the ability to repay them—only giving without return. Where is the kindness? The people resent Messengers for being lofty and untouchable, with power monopolized by aristocratic clans, while they themselves can only toil as Mediocre Masses in the soil all their lives. Where is the filial piety?"

"Just because it's always been this way, does that make it right?" Yan Qing found an opportunity to quote a famous figure from his previous life, feeling the rush of being a literary plagiarist.

"Of course it's right."

Shang Xuanwen spoke sternly. "A Foundation-stage cultivator can crush mountains and rivers with a flick. When Messengers form an army, they are invincible. When Messengers stand together, commoners do not even have the right to speak. Yet the Secret Realms in this world are finite, and resources limited. Only a small handful are destined to become Messengers, the rest remain commoners."

"As long as Secret Realms haven’t flooded the world enough to allow most people to become Messengers, then Messengers above and commoners below is the supreme natural order. Any upheaval of hierarchy is evil."

"Now the hearts of the people are unstable, stirred by the Immortal’s goods into harboring desires they shouldn’t have. If someone fans the flames in secret and incites chaos, forcing the Court to raise the execution blade, would you say it’s the Court’s fault, the people’s fault, or the Immortal’s fault?"

Shang Xuanwen already had a serious appearance. When he said a long passage solemnly, Yan Qing felt like a primary school student, and Shang Xuanwen the disciplinarian. If they were talking face-to-face, Yan Qing would probably only nod meekly and wouldn’t dare think of a rebuttal until late at night in bed.

But in-game, Yan Qing took a bite of the persimmon cake an old man had given him yesterday, and the Rat Monk organized his thoughts and replied, "Prime Minister, you’re avoiding the fact that the Court monopolizes the path to becoming a Messenger. Don’t talk about Military Garrison paths where one trades life for advancement. An ordinary person wouldn’t take that risk unless they were desperate. Since you know the contradiction between high and low is this severe, why not try to ease it, give commoners a bit of hope?"

"Burden too heavy to shift." After speaking, Shang Xuanwen shook his head. "No, I should say that from the very beginning, the Great Liang never had that capacity. The territory is too small, resources too scarce. Emperor Taizu could only cooperate with the Seven Great Clans, supported by the Nine-Rank System, to barely cultivate usable troops to contend against Great Zhou and Great Qi. The current Great Liang is like a patient dressed in brocade—splendid on the outside, but declining day by day."

"Only when the Central Plains is unified, when the sovereign holds full power, can he open the Heavenly Path, bless the world, and secure a hundred years of peace. Great Liang is unstable, true, but isn’t Great Zhou and Great Qi on the verge of destruction as well? When the time comes, we may go south and campaign north. Perhaps then, as you said, we may ease the high-low contradiction."

Yan Qing didn’t know how to respond. He hadn’t expected a real answer. His remarks were basically political backseat-driving—how could policies affecting millions be decided by a few words? If Shang Xuanwen entertained him, it meant he had already lost.

But Shang Xuanwen truly went on to explain that Great Liang was rotten on the inside, merely decaying slower than other nations, and had no power to reform. His honesty instead made Yan Qing a bit embarrassed. Fortunately, the Rat Monk had no such extraneous feelings.

"Why tell me all this? Does the Prime Minister believe this humble monk will one day become a general?"

At that moment, two bowls of noodles were served. Shang Xuanwen picked up his chopsticks, took a bite, and slowly said, "I've said these things to many people. Of course, not all of them challenge me as directly as you do. But when discussing state affairs, it’s inevitable that people express concern for Great Liang’s future."

"I dislike hollow words, so I tell them directly—our country is in gradual decline. The clans grow stronger, the bureaucracy bloated. Let go, and chaos follows. Tighten control, and things suffocate. It’s like a rotting, broken ship. They often propose all sorts of plans to rejuvenate Great Liang. I neither oppose nor support them. I simply say—wait until you hold power, then act on your ideals. But as long as I am in office, all of you must diligently patch this broken vessel. Anyone who acts without permission will be expelled from the Court."

"When national power rises, what’s needed are bold, progressive officials. But when power wanes, what’s needed are cautious ones who make fewer mistakes and stir less trouble." As he spoke, Shang Xuanwen continued eating, sounding less like a man discussing national affairs, and more like an old man chatting at a street corner. "I’m telling you these things, Big Monk, because I believe you may one day hold a high position. But as long as I remain Prime Minister of the Great Liang, whatever you wish to do—you’ll have to swallow it."

"I thought you were trying to entrust me with your governing philosophy," Yan Qing said with a smile.

"Times change, the world shifts—what law can last forever? Perhaps one among you may be like the Marquis Zhongwu, capable of holding up the heavens and patching the sky, but I lack the eye to see it." Shang Xuanwen said calmly, "All I wish is that before I retire, I can leave behind a Great Liang that is still fit to fight."

"My talents can barely keep this century-old ship of Great Liang afloat until it reaches the next ferry dock."