Hard Work

It really wasn't surprising at all.

Yan Qing sighed inwardly. When he saw that the mission reward was only a Bingzi Jiaolin, he knew this kind of situation would occur—but he couldn't even blame others, because he had created the Thieves' Den setting himself.

Struggling for mission rewards, teammates scheming against each other, even backstabbing each other, was one of the fun aspects of playing in the Thieves' Den. Yan Qing had referenced elements from tabletop games like Werewolf when designing this instance, striving to let players experience a tense and exciting game even in this low-level instance.

However, encountering teammates who started scheming against each other before even completing the mission in reality was a bit too tense and exciting.

"Wow, the Qi Kingdom's standard rare relic, the Brave General Sword. It's said that only five can be synthesized each year. Every noble and military general in the Qi Kingdom considers wielding the Brave General Sword an honor. I didn't expect you, White Fox, to have such a precious relic!" Shang Xin Lei commented sharply from the side, "Although an Ascended rare relic is generally stronger than a synthesized one, the Divine Martial Emperor once led the Qi Kingdom's brave generals to rampage across the world. And Black Wolf, your Vidyaraja Armor leans towards defense—"

Hearing Shang Xin Lei's words, Ying Ru Shi thought things were going to go badly.

Black Wolf was clearly from a Zhou Kingdom military family and couldn't stand hearing about the prestige of the Qi Kingdom's Brave General Sword!

Almost every word Red Snake said was hitting Black Wolf's sore spots!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Sure enough, after hearing Shang Xin Lei's words, Yaoshi Yuan's attacks became even fiercer, forcing Ying Ru Shi to retaliate. But the more Ying Ru Shi retaliated, the denser the faint golden light on Yaoshi Yuan's body became. Ying Ru Shi knew that once the faint golden light accumulated to a certain extent, Yaoshi Yuan could unleash an extremely terrifying counterattack. Therefore, she only had two choices—surrender, or use an even stronger attack to shatter the Vidyaraja Armor's defense right now!

She could only and had to choose the latter!

Ying Ru Shi had been playing the role of a smooth talker and peacemaker ever since participating in the Thieves' Den, but even a clay figure had some anger, let alone her, a Qi Kingdom's County Duke? Her relatives were the kind who casually killed and abused people on the streets. She didn't do that only because she knew propriety, justice, integrity, and shame, not because she couldn't!

The Brave General Sword emitted a faint azure light, so sharp that it seemed even the wind would be cut with wounds.

Seeing the Brave General Sword's spiritual light, Yaoshi Yuan's eyes lit up instantly, and her Vitality surged. The reason she wanted to obtain the Thieves' Den so much, besides wanting to make the Zhou Kingdom great again, was to be able to fight against strong individuals from all over the world!

Let me see, is my Vidyaraja Armor as immovable as a mountain, or is your Brave General Sword capable of breaking through formations and punishing the rebellious!

"Enough."

A White Iron Straight Blade was inserted from the middle. Yaoshi Yuan and Ying Ru Shi's eyes flashed, seemingly unable to hold back their strength. The Brave General Sword and the refined steel spear were swung out with all their might!

Clang!

With a loud bang, the three weapons intertwined, but Yaoshi Yuan and Ying Ru Shi's expressions changed simultaneously.

They saw that their weapons were emitting the lingering aura of spiritual power, indicating that they had activated the relic's power and added it to their weapons.

But the White Iron Straight Blade blocking them was not emitting any spiritual power!

A relic without spiritual power was no different from an ordinary object!

They knew that their full-strength attacks could dent even the door of a golden cabinet, but the White Iron Straight Blade, which had withstood the full force of their attacks, didn't even have a nick.

How was this possible?!

Yan Qing hadn't even activated his relic, handling the situation with ease, as if he was separating two small animals that were fighting.

How did he do it?

Yaoshi Yuan and Ying Ru Shi couldn't understand or accept it, because this result could only prove one thing—

The gap between Yellow Dog and them was so great that they couldn't even discern the other party's methods!

Third Rank? Fourth Rank?

"Have you two made enough noise?"

Yan Qing coldly swept a glance at them, gripped the White Iron Straight Blade and flicked it upwards, deflecting the weapons of the two women. He didn't use much strength, but Yaoshi Yuan and Ying Ru Shi were intimidated by his power, and didn't dare to resist, obediently retracting their weapons.

"And you, Red Snake!"

Yan Qing raised his blade, pointing it at Shang Xin Lei.

"If you can't speak properly, then don't open your mouth."

Shang Xin Lei immediately clutched her throat, her mouth opening and closing but no sound coming out, as if Yan Qing had forbidden her vocal function with a single command. Her face was terrified, as if she had suddenly discovered she was mute, pitifully begging Yan Qing for forgiveness.

Such a drama queen.

The same evaluation popped up in the minds of Yan Qing and the other two.

Under the gaze of Ying Ru Shi and Yaoshi Yuan, Yan Qing directly reached out and took the Bingzi Jiaolin from the golden cabinet.

"I'll keep this blade," he paused, "until the mission is complete."

Already intimidated by his power, the two women, hearing that he wasn't taking it for himself but temporarily holding it, both accepted this arrangement.

Yan Qing saw that they had all become well-behaved and were no longer causing trouble, and he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

He originally didn't dare to interfere in the fight between Black Wolf and White Fox. They both looked like Heralds above the second rank. If they really fought, he wouldn't be a match at all. However, seeing their weapons clash, Yan Qing suddenly remembered something—although they could attack each other, they were still identified as teammates in the game system.

Thieves' Den was ultimately not a PVP but a cooperative PVE dungeon. Although you could attack and even kill teammates, teammates' deaths wouldn't drop any equipment or experience, it was just a wasted death and mission failure.

Of course, in reality, there was no such thing as a 'wasted death'. If you died, you were really dead.

As everyone knew, game programs tried to call existing code as much as possible, rather than the planner adding new code groups every time they wrote a function. After all, new content in the game would only increase, and constantly adding new code would simply create a mountain of garbage.

Planners followed the same logic. Those planners who came up with brilliant ideas with a tap of their heads and made programmers constantly write new functions to cooperate would sooner or later be dragged out and flicked to death by the programmers. A qualified planner, when conceiving a new event, should refer to the existing functions in the game and try to have the programmers re-skin the old functions into new gameplay.

In order to get his plan approved, Yan Qing's new gameplay prepared in Thieves' Den could almost all find prototypes in the game. Like the Thieves' Den's gameplay where teammates could attack and backstab each other, the prototype was the very common 'sparring mode'—players in the same team could fight each other as long as they turned on sparring mode, and there were no losses if they died.

In sparring mode, players' weapons and armor wouldn't consume durability, and the Herald's Relic wouldn't be destroyed by the opponent's 'shattering damage' (damage exceeding the weapon's durability).

In short, teammates in Thieves' Den could harm each other, but they couldn't damage each other's Relics.

If it was really as he expected, then even if Yan Qing's strength was not enough, he could still interfere in the battle between Black Wolf and White Fox!

Yan Qing admitted that he was gambling, but he bet correctly.

Yaoshi Yuan and the others would only see Yan Qing blocking their attacks with the White Iron Straight Blade. Even if they guessed it was related to the 'Heavenly God Rules', it would be difficult to explore the truth in a short time.

Before they figured this out, they would only overestimate Yan Qing's strength as much as possible.

When leaving the vault, Yaoshi Yuan and Ying Ru Shi subconsciously took a step back, and Yan Qing rightfully walked to the front.

He carried the large sack in his right hand, the Bingzi Jiaolin in his left, and led everyone out of the inner hall.

There were many people waiting in the outer hall. They surrounded the exit in three layers. The outermost layer was monks, the inside was nobles, and the innermost layer was naturally An Wu, blocking the exit. At this time, An Wu's left arm was almost completely burned, the dark charred arm bone exposed on the outside, and the left half of his body was also severely burned, and he could no longer be recognized as a person.

Discovering Yan Qing and the others coming out, the monks retreated in horror, including Martial Monks and even second-rank Heralds of Clarity, but they didn't dare to approach Yan Qing's group at all.

There were also gaps between Heralds. Truly powerful Heralds rarely stayed in the main city even if they didn't frequently enter the Secret Realm. How much bloodthirst would the Martial Monks who stayed behind in Anguo Temple, which had no security pressure, have even if they were second-rank?

"Do you want to kill them?" Yaoshi Yuan suddenly asked.

The monks panicked upon hearing this, scrambling and crawling towards the depths of Anguo Temple.

"We are thieves, not some serial killers." Yan Qing said lightly, "But if you want to kill me, that's fine too."

Yaoshi Yuan thought for a moment and decided not to do it—these monks were so good at running, killing them one by one would be too inefficient. She would wait until she got home and then, in the name of the Embroidered Uniform Guard Overseer, clean up these vermin.

Although Xue Yan and the other dignitaries saw them with their big and small packages, they all seemed to have become blind and mute, keeping their mouths shut. Under everyone's gaze, Yan Qing walked up to An Wu, who looked like a fierce ghost, and patted him on the shoulder.

"Thirty."

An Wu nodded and stopped blocking the door, instead starting to count down: "Thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight..."

Yan Qing turned to the dignitaries and monks and said, "If you don't want to die, leave Anguo Temple before he finishes counting down."

Passing by An Wu, Yan Qing paused and said softly, "Thank you for your hard work."