Nesser Handheld Game Console

In Chang'an City, inside the Duke of Jin Manor, outside a room in the inner residence, many maids were waiting outside the door. Suddenly, a clear, cold voice came from inside: "Wu Qiu, Shi Dong, come in, just the two of you."

The two maids closest to the room signaled the others to move away, then quickly entered the room and closed the door. When they saw the person inside, they couldn't help but reveal surprised expressions, suppressing their voices as they laughed, "Miss, where did you get that wolf hat? It's so cute!"

The person in the room was none other than Black Wolf, who had appeared in the Thieves' Den.

Black Wolf glanced at the two maids, letting out a "Woof!" as he struck a pose to grab someone: "Dare to make fun of me, believe it or not, I'll bite you!"

After a round of playful banter, the two maids helped Black Wolf remove the hood, coat, chainmail, inner armor, skirt armor, shoulder pads, and other protective gear. Even though the two were quite skilled, removing the armor still took them a lot of effort, especially since some of the armor was mixed with Orichalcum Fine Gold, which was thin but heavy. Just taking it off was enough to make the two maids sweat.

After removing the armor, the seemingly sturdy Black Wolf transformed into a tall, slender young woman. She instructed Wu Qiu and Shi Dong to maintain the armor, then walked out of the room and asked the guard outside, "Yu Fu, where is the Duke now?"

The guard captain replied, "He is receiving subordinates in Changqiu Study."

"Inform the Duke that I have important matters to report."

"Yes."

Black Wolf quickly arrived at the courtyard of Changqiu Study to wait. After a while, a middle-aged official came out of Changqiu Study. Black Wolf took the initiative to greet him: "Lord Yang, you've been working hard for the country."

"Not at all. If I don't work hard for the country, how can I be worthy of the Grand Chancellor's promotion?" The middle-aged official quickly replied, "Please ask Miss Yuan to advise the Grand Chancellor to take care of his health. This humble servant sees the Grand Chancellor working day and night for the country and is truly worried. Great Zhou cannot be without the Grand Chancellor for even a day."

"Yuan understands. Lord Yang is truly worthy of being a loyal and upright person whom Father relies on."

After Black Wolf entered Changqiu Study, she immediately said to the middle-aged man behind the desk after the guards outside closed the door, "Dad, Yang Xing is a treacherous person who appears loyal but is actually cunning and deceitful. You must not entrust important matters to him."

The person in front of Black Wolf was none other than the owner of Changqiu Study, the Duke of Jin of the Great Zhou Dynasty, who was in charge of military affairs both inside and outside the country, the Grand Tutor, the Grand Commandant, and the Grand Chancellor, Yaoshi Mo Ke. Yaoshi Mo Ke smiled and said, "Of course I know. People like Yang Xing are trying every means to get their hands on the Secret Realms controlled by the Yaoshi Family, but aren't we also trying to take away the Secret Realms they control? I know what I'm doing. By the way, Yuan, you have something to ask me?"

"Yes."

Black Wolf, Yaoshi Mo Ke's daughter Yaoshi Yuan, said, "I was conscripted into the Thieves' Den Secret Realm and accepted a theft mission. The target is the Bingzi Jiaolin kept in Anguo Temple."

"The Thieves' Den?!"

Yaoshi Mo Ke stood up with a whoosh and quickly walked to Yaoshi Yuan's side.

"You didn't encounter any danger, did you?"

"No, just like the rumors, the Thieves' Den is just a safe house for thieves, and there are no Secret Realm demons." Yaoshi Yuan said, "Moreover, the Thieves' Den has the power of teleportation. I can now come and go to the Thieves' Den at any time... Father, the Thieves' Den can teleport me to the Duke of Jin Manor silently, and it can definitely teleport me to anywhere in the world!"

"As long as we control the Thieves' Den, our Great Zhou's military power can descend upon Jiang Nan of the Liang Kingdom and Evernight Sky of the Qi Kingdom. The world will be ours!"

Although his daughter was painting a grand blueprint, Yaoshi Mo Ke was not too excited. Instead, he asked, "I remember that the Thieves' Den only conscripts experienced thieves. Why were you invited? Speaking of which, the great thief 'Night Wolf' appeared in Chang'an City last year. At that time, you volunteered to take the Night Wolf case into your Embroidered Uniform Guard, but the number of victimized nobles and aristocrats has been increasing. Many people have complained to me about this."

Yaoshi Yuan snorted coldly, "Those people are full of food and know only how to seek pleasure all day long. What's wrong with using their money to strengthen the Embroidered Uniform Guard?"

"You, you." Yaoshi Mo Ke shook his head, "If you accidentally reveal your identity, do you know what outsiders will say?"

"If they know that the great thief of Chang'an is the daughter of the Duke of Jin, they will definitely put their treasures in the most conspicuous places." Yaoshi Yuan didn't care, "Dad, why are you trying to win over those wastes from the Yuwen Family and the Helan Family? Instead, you are squeezing out the Duke of Ancheng Commandery and the Duke of Wei, these famous members of the imperial family, to the local areas?"

Yaoshi Mo Ke raised his eyebrows: "How can you interfere in national affairs? Who asked you to speak for Yaoshi Xian and Du Shuyu?"

"No one asked me. In the past two years, my Embroidered Uniform Guard's eyes and ears have spread all over Chang'an. Besides using them to find out which noble is rich, I have also obtained a lot of real information." Yaoshi Yuan said, "Dad, I have been holding back from telling you, but the people you trust are all good-for-nothings, and the capable people are all being antagonized by you. If this continues—"

"Shut up!"

Yaoshi Mo Ke shouted, and Yaoshi Yuan immediately stopped talking. After a moment, Yaoshi Mo Ke exhaled and said in a calm tone, "The Yuwen Family and the Helan Family are both Great Zhou's pillar families, in charge of the Secret Realm military power. If we don't unite them, the court will be in chaos. If the court is in chaos, the local areas will be in chaos. Do you know how many spies from the Qi Kingdom and the Liang Kingdom are waiting for us to reveal our flaws? The overall situation is the most important thing. You must not say such things in the future."

"Yuan understands."

"Let's continue talking about the Thieves' Den." Yaoshi Mo Ke didn't want to fall out with his daughter. "You've always planned carefully before acting. Since you've come to me, you must already have a strategy in mind."

"Now that the existence of the Thieves' Den is confirmed, naturally we must seize it." Yaoshi Yuan said, "The Thieves' Den has summoned a total of four thieves. In five days, it will teleport us to Vermillion Bird Avenue. At that time, Father can send people to ambush at Anguo Temple and capture the other three, only allowing me to complete the theft mission. Then I will become the sole master of the Thieves' Den."

"But to prevent the Thieves' Den from continuing to summon thieves, Father, you'd better find three experts and have them become notorious thieves as quickly as possible. That way, no matter what, the Thieves' Den will be our Great Zhou's Secret Realm."

Yaoshi Mo Ke pondered for a moment, surprisingly not agreeing immediately.

Yaoshi Yuan felt incredulous. She believed that the Thieves' Den's first mission falling in Chang'an was simply heaven helping Great Zhou. After all, no matter how powerful the other three thieves were, they would still be unable to escape if surrounded by the Left Rear Guard Twelve Legions. Why hesitate at such an easily obtainable opportunity?

"This matter is of great importance, I need to consider it." Yaoshi Mo Ke said, "You may leave for now."

He paused, then added, "You should pretend to really steal from Bingzi Jiaolin, and don't reveal any flaws. If there's danger, it's better to give up the Thieves' Den than to take risks."

"Don't worry, Father, I will never let anyone discover it." Yaoshi Yuan said seriously, "The Thieves' Den will definitely become our Great Zhou's new Secret Realm!"

Evernight Sky City, Duke of Lecheng County Manor. In an empty room, a figure wearing a White Fox mask suddenly appeared. Before she could take off her attire, she heard a hurried voice from outside, "County Duke, County Duke, have you returned?"

"What is it?"

"His Majesty summons you to the palace, he has urged twice already!"

White Fox was startled, quickly removing the mask and armor. When she went out, she had already transformed into a graceful and gorgeously dressed female County Duke. A carriage was already prepared, and soon White Fox entered the palace through a side gate in the palace wall. Here, she could not ride in the carriage and could only walk. A eunuch wearing a black face scarf silently led the way for her.

Inside the palace, there were guards every five steps and sentries every ten steps. The guards wearing demon masks stood like tombstones on the side of the road. Although the sun was shining brightly and the palace buildings were magnificent, the palace seemed to be filled with a deep Yin energy, without even a trace of wind, as quiet as a graveyard, as if the entire palace contained no other living beings besides White Fox and the eunuch leading the way.

Passing through winding roads, she stepped onto long flights of stairs.

When White Fox arrived at the entrance of the main hall, the four demon guards at the door glanced at her, and a chilling malice swept through White Fox's body.

The demon guards didn't say a word. Their movements were like steel molds filled with lead, and they opened the red-gold palace doors made of gold with just their palms. The windows in the hall were tightly closed, and it was pitch black inside. Even in broad daylight, it was only lit by candlelight. A sweet and sickening smell rushed towards her like an escapee, almost suffocating White Fox. A huge ball of fire seemed to be burning in the center of the hall, making it difficult to see clearly.

White Fox felt something was wrong as soon as she took a step. The carpet under her feet was quite sticky. Upon closer inspection, she realized it wasn't a carpet at all, but rather minced, rotten flesh spread flat on the ground, even using the texture between the flesh to weave patterns!

White Fox lowered her head and approached the center of the hall with small steps. The closer White Fox got to the huge ball of fire in the center of the hall, the more she could hear a faint wail, and the more she could smell the sweet and sickening fragrance that seemed like honey melting in her brain.

But she didn't dare to look up. She walked to the steps and could even keep her voice calm, "Your Majesty, Ru Shi has arrived."

"Look up."

White Fox looked up, and even though she was mentally prepared, her mind was still shocked by the scene before her.

The beautiful woman on the throne was only wearing a semi-transparent gauze robe, lying almost naked on it. Nine tails extended from behind her. The huge ball of fire that White Fox saw was because her tails were burning.

But upon closer inspection, one could see that they were not tails at all, but rather the woman had spliced nine spinal bones onto herself. Countless fingers were spliced onto the spinal bones, and these fingers twisted and floated in the flames, suddenly looking like a fluffy tail.

The flames seemed to have no temperature, and the fingers were unharmed inside, but the wailing that White Fox heard came from inside the fingers, as if countless wronged souls were locked inside the fingers!

"Ru Shi," the woman asked, "The nine-tailed Fox Demon of ancient times, should it look like this? Do you think I am beautiful, or is the legendary nine-tailed Fox Demon beautiful?"

White Fox forcibly suppressed the shock in her heart and nodded, saying, "Your Majesty is beautiful."

"Then tell me, are you beautiful or am I beautiful?"

"Your Majesty is beautiful."

"Lies!"

The woman stretched out her hand, and the White Fox naturally flew to her, resting its chin in her hand. The woman inserted two fingers into the White Fox's mouth, grabbing its tongue, causing the White Fox to stiffen, almost unable to move!

Evernight Sky City was clearly a safe zone where fighting was prohibited, one of the three major cities in the Central Plains. Theoretically, no one could actively harm others in the safe zones of the three major cities, but this woman seemed capable of bypassing this law of heaven and earth, manipulating other lives at will!

"Xuan Jing clearly told me that the most beautiful person in Evernight Sky is you! Why did you lie to me? Are you going to betray me too?"

The White Fox couldn't speak, only look at the woman in despair. The woman released its tongue, and the White Fox gasped for breath, coughing twice before quickly saying, "Ru Shi is not lying! In Ru Shi's opinion, appearance is only the most vulgar part of beauty. Power and authority are the true beauty, the beauty that never fades, the beauty that awes the world! Therefore, the most beautiful person in Great Qi must be Your Majesty! In Your Majesty's eyes, I, Ying Ru Shi, am nothing but a painted skeleton, not worth mentioning!"

The woman in front of Ying Ru Shi was none other than the ruler of Great Qi, Ying Le.

Ying Le remained silent, only stroking Ying Ru Shi's face. Not knowing what she was thinking, a grim, pale smile gradually appeared on her face. Ying Ru Shi's heart trembled violently, and she quickly said, "I was just recruited by the Thieves' Den!"

Ying Le was taken aback, immediately sitting upright, her expression becoming serious.

"The Secret Realm Thieves' Den that can teleport to any place in the world? No wonder you suddenly disappeared from Evernight Sky... What did you encounter inside?"

Looking at the attentively listening Ying Le, Ying Ru Shi was momentarily dazed. She seemed to see that wise and martial, courteous and virtuous empress again... But the nine tails burning with wails behind Ying Le, that almost unclad body, and the sweet, bloody smell in the air, quickly brought Ying Ru Shi back to reality.

Ying Ru Shi briefly described the situation of the Thieves' Den and the target of the theft, and then analyzed, "I can roughly guess the origins of the other three thieves. Although Black Wolf uses our Great Qi accent, the grammar of some colloquialisms is from Zhou, so he is obviously from Zhou; Red Snake's accent and grammar are both southern, probably from Liang Kingdom; Yellow Dog's accent is indistinguishable, and he doesn't talk much, but judging from his movements, he is quite timid, so he should be a thief with little practical combat ability."

Ying Le interrupted her, "The only thieves within Great Qi are the Fox Demon gang. Do you have any connection with Fox Demon?"

Ying Ru Shi knelt on the flesh and blood carpet and confessed, "At the beginning, it was just because there were a few disobedient clans when I was a county magistrate, so I wanted to use bandits to clean them up. Later, I found that it could be used to gather some strongmen who didn't obey the court. Instead of letting these people harm one side, I might as well manage them and do some dirty work, so I established Fox Demon. I was probably recruited by the Thieves' Den because I am the head of Fox Demon."

"'Fox Demon' has been growing stronger recently, and I am also overwhelmed. I implore Your Majesty to send someone to take over."

Just then, a neat sound of footsteps rang out outside the hall. Ying Ru Shi looked back and found a team of ogre warriors entering. As they approached, Ying Ru Shi's face turned pale instantly—each ogre warrior had three or four heads tied around their waist!

Moreover, these heads were precisely the experts and leaders of her Fox Demon!

The ogre warriors untied the heads and placed them on the ground, piling them into a Jingguan (mound of corpses) named 'Fox Demon', then exited the hall without a word.

"Now you can focus on planning for the Thieves' Den." Ying Le flicked her finger, and a ball of flames burned the Jingguan of Fox Demon to ashes, as easily as flicking away dust, "How can our Ying Family's clan county duke be involved with such petty, opportunistic wild ghosts?"

"Ru Shi understands." Ying Ru Shi's head was pressed against the carpet, the sweat seeping from her forehead flowing into the wriggling flesh of the carpet.

Although the base of Fox Demon was not far from Evernight Sky, this speed was too terrifying. The only possibility was that when Ying Le discovered she was not in Evernight Sky, she immediately sent people to slaughter Fox Demon!

No suspicion, no interrogation, no preliminary procedures, just kill!

"I have never heard of anyone being able to control the Thieves' Den Secret Realm. I don't have any requirements for you, as long as you don't let others control the Thieves' Den, but I am very interested in Bingzi Jiaolin."

"Ru Shi will definitely present Bingzi Jiaolin to Your Majesty!"

Jiangnan City, Shang Family, Zhiyuan Residence.

Zhiyuan Residence was the study of Shang Qia, the third son of the Liang Kingdom's Grand Chancellor and a military general. Normally, no one would dare to break in, but at this moment, Shang Qia could only stop his work to receive this uninvited guest.

"Who angered you again?"

"Look, I haven't even spoken yet, and brother is already like this." Shang Xin Lei sat down and covered her face, crying, "I understand that I am not as interesting as other younger sisters. In brother's heart, there is ultimately no me."

Shang Qia was completely helpless with this younger sister of his. His father doted on her, his only daughter, to the point that she was already lawless in the manor. After becoming The Herald, she was even more uncontrollable. He let out a long sigh and took out his token, "Take it, do whatever you want. Remember to return it to me after you're done."

"Brother, you've guessed wrong. I'm not here to ask you for a favor, but to bring you some great news." Shang Xin Lei didn't take out the token, and said triumphantly, "I just came back from the Thieves' Den."

"Oh... huh?"

Shang Qia was stunned for a moment before he reacted: "You were recruited by the Thieves' Den? I remember the Thieves' Den is a four-person Secret Realm, did you expose your identity? ... Wait, how could you be recruited into the Thieves' Den?"

"Ah? Third brother, don't you know that I am 'Feathered Serpent'?" Shang Xin Lei picked up a pastry and ate it, stuffing her cheeks full: "I asked you to help me fence stolen goods several times, I thought you knew it long ago."

Shang Qia stood up abruptly: "You are actually the phantom thief Feathered Serpent!?"

"You actually didn't know I was the phantom thief Feathered Serpent, brother, you really don't value me at all." Shang Xin Lei sighed, "Brother, if you have such an attitude, you might as well just ignore me."

"You, I, you, sigh..." Shang Qia rubbed his temples and sat down, "I thought you were just playing around secretly, you usually just do petty theft... I will notify father that you are Feathered Serpent, as for the Thieves' Den, don't participate—"

"Why?" Shang Xin Lei widened her eyes: "This is the legendary Secret Realm, not to mention moving me from Jiangnan City into the Thieves' Den, in five days it can also let me descend to Chang'an to steal Bingzi Jiaolin, I have wanted to go to Chang'an to see it for a long time!"

"Descend to Chang'an, steal Bingzi Jiaolin!?"

Shang Qia was so frightened that he almost fell off his chair: "You are not even at the second rank, and you dare to go to Chang'an alone? You are not allowed to go anywhere, wait for father to come back tonight—"

"Father will definitely allow me to go."

Shang Xin Lei suddenly calmed down: "The Thieves' Den is not only a national weapon, but also a family treasure. As long as there is a chance to get involved, father will never let it go. Father certainly dotes on me, but father values the family more."

"I know my cultivation is nothing in the Shang Family, but if I can control the Thieves' Den, maybe I can... control my own future."

Looking at his serious and mature sister, Shang Qia couldn't speak for a while, paused and then asked: "Then the reason why you transformed into Feathered Serpent to steal, is it to be recruited by the Thieves' Den?"

Shang Xin Lei blinked, shook her head, and turned to leave the room.

"No, that's just because I like it."

This sister is really restless.

Shang Qia felt a headache, thought about it and decided to wait for his father to come back and discuss it, but as soon as he sat down, he immediately noticed something was wrong.

"Where's my newly bought Zihua brush?"

In the Thieves' Den, Yan Qing, who had no home to return to, was inspecting his temporary new home.

There is a bed, a water heater, a toilet, and a bathroom. Except for the lack of windows, it is basically no different from a hotel suite. In the center of the room is a circular teleportation array. When Yan Qing stepped on it, a teleportation door appeared in front of him, and on the other side of the door was a path in the woods.

Yan Qing would naturally not be stupid enough to go to an unknown place. For now, the personal room in the Thieves' Den is his most reliable safe house. But ten minutes later, Yan Qing changed his mind - there was no food in the Thieves' Den.

Not only the room, but he ventured to the hall to look around, and found no food at all!

There is tap water, and there is no problem with taking a bath, but without food, unless Yan Qing plans to starve to death, otherwise staying in the safe house is tantamount to waiting for death!

However, although Yan Qing did not find food, he was not without gain.

He found a liquid crystal screen handheld game console on the bedside table. This handheld game console was casually placed on the bedside table, looking like a game console that the owner of the room would pick up and play for a while before going to bed, and in fact, Yan Qing suspected that this game console was the one he had in the original world - except for the same appearance, even the tempered film that was a little crooked was exactly the same!

Yan Qing pressed the power button, and as he held his breath and waited, the screen slowly lit up after three seconds:

「Welcome to Nesser Handheld Game Console.」

There was no prompt to connect to Wi-Fi, no prompt to update, but the account automatically logged in, and then the system went directly to the main interface. The game library was empty. All the games Yan Qing had previously purchased had disappeared, leaving only one free-to-play online game:

"The Herald."