Calamity Messenger-Chapter 79 - 63: Winds Rising

When the tribe leader fell, only three of the five advanced statues remained, and all the low-level statues’ durability had dropped to zero.

Qian Gongyu and the others didn’t participate in the final battle. The huge gap in their strength couldn’t simply be bridged by courage; just one random lock chain from the tribe leader could shatter them to pieces. They stood outside, quietly waiting, watching Jiang Shi return triumphantly from the battlefield with two Iron Blood Long Sabers.

"Are you okay?" Jiang Shi asked.

Qian Gongyu felt a bit embarrassed, covering her face in beast fur, and mumbled, "I’m okay, it’ll go away in a few days..."

Suddenly, Jiang Shi crouched down and touched Qian Gongyu’s tail, and she jumped in surprise, covering her behind, her face going bright red: "Jiang Shi, what are you doing!? Do you even remember you’re my guard?"

"My apologies, Eldest Miss Jie."

"Why add the apologies! That’s so insincere!"

"Jiang Shi," Jie Yuan Shao exhaled a long breath, "we did it."

"Yes, we did it." Jiang Shi walked over and gave Jie Yuan Shao a big hug, "Thank you all for joining me in this adventure."

Jie Yuan Shao paused for a second but soon returned the hug. She seemed to never have experienced such a close gesture, her movements were a bit stiff.

Then Jiang Shi went to hug Qian Gongyu, "Miss Jie, thank you for your help over the past few days."

"Eh? Eh?" Qian Gongyu’s tail stood straight, she was a bit at a loss for what to do: "Well, well, it wasn’t very troubling... just a little bit..."

Before Jiang Shi approached, Shang Xinlei hugged him herself, holding him tightly, she whispered in his ear, "Jiang Shi, do you think you can rely on me now?"

Yan Qing from the Thief’s House was slightly taken aback, recalling Shang Xinlei’s response to a previous conversation. He really wanted to respond defiantly, ’I don’t need to rely on anyone,’ but thinking of how Qian Gongyu and the others fought valiantly, he couldn’t help but soften inside.

That’s the beauty of gaming; when you find excellent teammates who fight alongside you, you can’t help but wish to team up for a lifetime.

"You guys really got me."

Shang Xinlei’s eyes sparkled: "So—"

"Depends on whether you or the Jie Family offers a higher price, I’m quite expensive, you know."

Yan Qing no longer paid attention to Shang Xinlei’s chirping, instead, he opened the system information, he had many matters to attend to.

"’Silver Hunter’ milestone achieved."

"The next wave of monsters will attack in 54:35"

"You have mastered "Advanced Stance", currently at level 10"

"You have mastered "Advanced Dual Blade Technique", currently at level 5"

"Your Qi Blood has increased by 1"

"Your Divine Soul has increased by 1"

"Your Dexterity has increased by 1.5"

"You’ve reached level 20!"

"Congratulations on reaching level 20, would you like to advance to your second profession right away? Note: Profession relates to players’ gaming experience and skill proficiency."

Yan Qing took a deep breath, he couldn’t help but feel excited.

He hadn’t expected the first character to reach second-turn wouldn’t be ’Ye Si,’ but rather this four-day-old ’Jiang Shi’!

It just goes to show that choosing the Woodland Messenger profession was too right; ’Jiang Shi’ spent only one day in Mansu Forest Land grinding skill proficiency, which was enough to surpass ’Ye Si’s’ efforts over several days!

The screen displayed three boxes, listing three available professions:

"Dual Blade Messenger (Rare)"

"Attribute Bonuses: Qi Blood +8, Divine Soul +2, Dexterity +10"

"Dual Blade (Blue Trait): When using two long sabers as weapons simultaneously, each effective attack inflicts 3 points/sec of bleeding damage, lasting for 10 seconds, stacking up to 10 times."

"Ghost Dance (Blue Trait): After attacking consecutively 5 times, your next attack is guaranteed to trigger a critical hit."

/

"Blade Messenger (Rare)"

"Attribute bonus: Qi Blood +10, Divine Soul +2, Dexterity +8"

"Blur (Blue Trait): When you trigger a perfect dodge, you enter an absolute blur state for one frame, even wide-range attacks can be dodged."

"Blink Assault (Blue Trait): After triggering a perfect dodge, your next attack can advance up to ten steps."

"Unhurt Blade (Gold Trait): Trigger five perfect dodges without taking damage, and you’ll enter the Unhurt Blade state. In this state, all melee attack damage calculation is ×2, and you exit this state upon receiving any attack. This state has a built-in cooldown time of 600 seconds."

/

"Wandering Messenger (Rare)"

"Attribute bonus: Qi Blood +20, Divine Soul +10, Dexterity +10"

"Mansu Linwood Kinship (Gold Trait): When you are in Mansu Forest Land, all your attributes temporarily +50."

"Mansu Grace (Gold Trait): During the chest settlement in Mansu Forest Land, you get an extra choice opportunity."

"Linwood Roaming (Gold Trait): When there are over a thousand trees within one kilometer of you, it counts as if you are in Mansu Forest Land."

A rare profession, two precious professions!

Yan Qing, although knowing that rare professions would appear starting from the second turn, didn’t expect to be this lucky this time; all three professions are above standard, each with their strengths, none are lame ducks.

Dual Blade Messenger is obviously the most stable choice, with stable output enhancement and stable triggering condition; choosing it ensures no losses;

Blade Messenger is very demanding in terms of skill; Blur and Blink Assault can only be considered as icing on the cake, but the Unhurt Blade gold trait is transformative, doubling all damage, yet its triggering conditions are extremely demanding, and once injured, you must wait ten minutes to trigger the Unhurt Blade state again. If the player’s skill is insufficient, the Unhurt Blade gold trait might as well not exist;

Wandering Messenger is an upgraded version of Woodland Messenger; not only has ’Mansu Linwood Kinship’ increased from intellect +50 to all attributes +50, but the characteristic ’Linwood Roaming’ fills this profession with infinite possibilities—as long as the surrounding is filled with trees, all attributes can remain increased by 50 points! Not to mention the base attribute bonus of Wandering Messenger is the highest; other professions only increased by 20 base attributes, but only it directly adds 40 points!

Each profession choice is reasonable, useful in its own way, but which profession is the best to choose?

Once Yan Qing finishes handling matters, and the others have rested enough, Shang Xinlei stands up and stretches: "Let’s go back."

"Yes," Jie Yuan Shao says, "Jiang Shi, Qian Gongyu, you mustn’t say anything later, just leave it to Shang Xinlei and me."

"Let’s hurry, I’m starving to death." Qian Gongyu pats his stomach: "I’m always especially hungry after transformation."

"Don’t forget to take the Blood Tool." Shang Xinlei fastens the blood tool to her waist: "Whether there’s a Legendary Token in the future depends on it. Oh, and Eldest Miss Jie—"

"Understood, I will keep it concealed, and externally only refer to it as a First-Turn Token."

The four crossed through the dense fog, returning from Mansu Forest Land to the real world. By now, the sun was setting, and the campfires turned the jungle orange.

Undoubtedly, a large group of people awaited outside; Jie Yuan Shao saw Jie Zilong from afar and waved, saying, "Third Uncle, we—"

"Stop!"

With a stern shout, dozens of crossbowmen throughout the camp raised their Divine Machine Crossbows aimed at ’Jiang Shi’ and the others, the murderous intention like needles on their backs made the scalp of Jie Yuan Shao and others numb instantly. The Liang Kingdom Divine Machine Crossbow is crafted from Secret Realm-produced refined iron; one crossbow arrow may not break through a defense token, but dozens firing together could pierce even a second-turn defense token!

But terror was followed by raging anger; Shang Xinlei walked at the front, her voice fearless: "I am Shang Yue, Shang Xinlei; who dares to harm me? Who dares to kill me?!"

"Xinlei, calm down."

Upon hearing this voice, Shang Xinlei was astonished and looked toward the sickly pale youth in the crowd, asking in surprise: "Brother? How did you come here?"

"With such major affairs here, how could I not come?" Shang Yue coughed lightly with a smile: "Don’t worry, this is just Lu Xiaoqi investigating a case, you won’t be wronged."

"Yuanshao." Jie Zilong also spoke: "It’s alright, let’s hear what he has to say."

With both close relatives speaking, Jie Yuan Shao and Shang Xinlei naturally had no choice but to comply. Yet with the current situation, they subtly sensed that things had spiraled entirely beyond their control, as if... the seven great families had reached a consensus.

Lu Wangji emerged from the crowd, gesturing as someone brought a bedding to the lawn. As everyone looked, Qian Gongyu immediately retched and vomited—the bedding wrapped a mangled corpse!

Moreover, the person had suffered extremely cruel treatment either before or after death, with more than a dozen saber marks cut into the body, yet it inexplicably maintained form upon decay.

"At midday, someone found that the second son of Luo Family was murdered in camp using ruthless methods, disregarding the law, defying social order, murdering a noble heir in what seems like rage." Lu Wangji stated coolly: "From interrogation, a servant saw that night, Qian Family’s guard Jiang Shi lingering near the second son Luo Family’s carriage."

"Mansu camp lies under Celestial Monarch’s jurisdiction; as Emperor’s Personal Guard, I temporarily assume the judicial responsibilities to determine the truth of this case. Now, I need to inspect Jiang Shi’s saber to see if it matches the blade marks on the corpse."

"Jiang Shi, please assist me in this investigation."