"Flap, flap, flap..." Just as Ye Weiming was feeling frustrated about losing the criminal suspect he was chasing, a white pigeon flapped its wings and landed on his shoulder.
This type of white pigeon is a unique type of communication tool in the game, known as a carrier pigeon.
The moment the white pigeon landed on his shoulder, it disappeared. In its place was a flashing message in his message box:
Zhang Cuishan didn't abandon his post, he noticed someone escaping from a hidden place in the escort agency. Without time to alert others, he went after them. Among those present, his cultivation was the highest, and he was the only one who noticed the movement.
Although the person was not captured, we have successfully united. We will continue to investigate in Hangzhou City, if willing to cooperate, please meet at Broken Bridge during the You period tomorrow.
—Yin Bukui
After his encounter with the man in black, Ye Weiming is more than 90% sure that the massacre at Dragon Gate Escort Agency was not a doing of Zhang Cuishan or any Wudang disciples.
Taking into account that their goals are aligned - to investigate the truth behind Dragon Gate's massacre - cooperating with Wudang seems like a good choice.
Once Ye Weiming understood the key points, he immediately sent a message back to Yin Bukui that simply read, "See you there!"
He returned to the Escort Agency to continue retrieving bodies until his backpack was full. Having scrupulously inspected the agency again and confirmed there were no other clues, he activated his Qinggong and ran towards the outskirts of Hangzhou City.
Digging graves, burying people, returning to the escort agency to collect more bodies, then going back out to bury them..
Back and forth, the whole process took almost the entire night. When Ye Weiming buried the last body, the sky was turning light. The mounds from his previous graves had already been refreshed by the System, turning back into flat grassland.
Perhaps characters like Da Jin were destined not to leave behind any trace or memory of their existence in this world.
Taking a deep breath of the fresh air at dawn, Ye Weiming didn't return to Hangzhou City, instead, he stepped off towards Sunset Mountain with his quick movement technique.
He found no clues in the Dragon Gate Escort Agency, and he figured asking aimlessly in the city would be a waste of time. It seemed better to retrieve the secret book left by the old man Li and enhance his own strength before his meeting with Yin Bukui.
He had a feeling that the missions coming up wouldn't be a matter of simply solving crimes.
The path from the outskirts of Hangzhou City to Sunset Mountain was straightforward. He just had to follow along the shore of West Lake to the south. There were humanoid beasts named West Lake Pirates scattered along the way, an aggressive bunch with levels fluctuating between 10 and 12. Given Ye Weiming's current power, killing them was child's play.
Despite their poor combat power, the drop rate of the West Lake Pirates was decent. For every one he killed, they would drop some spare change. Even though it wasn't much, with enough grinding, it could add up to a nice sum.
It's important to note that killing animal-type beasts didn't reward any money.
Apart from that, almost every West Lake Pirate he killed dropped a bottle of sulphur wine. Its effect: after consumption, attack power +5 with a probability of intoxication, reducing movement and reaction by -5. (The chance of intoxication depends on the player's alcohol tolerance)
The reward wasn't substantial, but it could be sold at the town's grocery store for money - another respectable income.
On these West Lake Pirates, Ye Weiming once again experimented with his body-disposing technique. The results were disappointing as after ten attempts, he only managed to gain a single "Knife Technique Comprehension".
Knife Technique Comprehension: Revelations on knife technique from a West Lake Pirate. When used on a specific knife technique, it can increase its proficiency by 5 points!
With a casual wave, the secret book vanished. Through association, his swordsmanship proficiency increased by 1 point!
Gathering the bodies of ten corpses but only earning 1 point in swordsmanship proficiency, no matter how Ye Weiming calculated, he felt he was at a great loss.
Leaving the cost of buying straw mats aside, just the time spent on funerary preparation and burying bodies alone, if used to fight monsters or practice cultivations, would yield much greater returns!
Upon realizing that these randomly refreshing wilderness monsters weren't worth the effort of burial, Ye Weiming, feeling too lazy to waste his time, quickly continued his charge toward his destination, dispatching any water bandit that attacked along the way, and not purposely inviting trouble. After all, he was here to treasure hunt, not to slay monsters and level up.
However, the closer he got to his destination, the more concentrated was the West Lake's bandits' base. When he reached Sunset Mountain, he found the entire hilltop crammed full of these water bandits.
The quantity was large, their power average, and the drop rate decent. These conditions combined to satisfy all the requirements of a good leveling up spot. As such, in the mountains and forest, was band of players everywhere teaming up to kill monsters, a lively sight indeed.
Upon reaching the periphery of Leifeng Pagoda, he could see three groups of players killing monsters nearby, one of which was a female player. Leaning against the pagoda, she was cheerfully shooting water bandits with her crossbow and calmly kicking any that got too close, continuing her attack.
Seeing this situation, Ye Weiming felt a headache coming on.
He was here to find treasure. If so many players were present when he opened the dungeon, there would be no treasure hunting, since just shaking off the followers would be headache enough.
"Cluck! Cluck! Cluck!..."
Suddenly, a distant sound of a rooster's crow echoed. The water bandits, as though receiving some sort of command, fled their hiding places as if flying, those nearer to Leifeng Pagoda rushed towards the pagoda's massive doors, disappearing the instant they crossed the threshold.
In just a few minutes, the vast majority of water bandits seemed to have evaporated from the battlefield, leaving only about ten still engaged in combat with the players, after which the previously lively leveling spot was devoid of monsters, leaving only a group of players staring at each other.
"West Lake's water bandits only refresh every evening. They disappear at the crow of a rooster and won't reappear until nightfall. I suggest we all disperse." The speaker was a sword-wielding player wearing Huashan Sect's gear. However, his outfit was incomplete, consisting only of a long robe, a far cry from the complete set awarded in Novice Village, and his longsword similarly appeared lacking?
Despite everything, this was good news for Ye Weiming.
With no monsters left , the players won't linger here. Once they all dispersed, he could begin his treasure hunting in peace.
After bidding farewell with his team, they took their leave without a backward glance. The other teams in the vicinity also began to leave one by one. Ye Weiming sat down in meditation right where he was to restore his inner strength.
This was a normal operation in the game and wouldn't arouse any suspicion.
About ten minutes later, Ye Weiming's inner strength was fully restored. Upon opening his eyes he saw the girl who had been shooting water bandits from beside the tower, now meditating at the entrance, presumably restoring her own inner strength. His entry into the pagoda would be difficult without disturbing her.
Unconsciously his gaze fell upon this gatekeeper. She was dressed in a black suit, had a curvaceous figure, short hair that complemented her delicate face, exuding a flavour of capability and efficiency.
What caught his attention was the thin, long scar on her right cheek. It was like a crack on a piece of beautiful porcelain making one lament its imperfection.
Suddenly, she opened her eyes, her gaze meeting Ye Weiming's.
Their eyes met, he saw in her eyes three parts dissatisfaction, three parts scorn, three parts provocation and one part indifference.
She seemed to be saying in short, three words:
What you staring at?
As a proper man, it's downright impolite to dwell on a woman's flaws. Naturally, Ye Weiming, understanding he had crossed a line, did not return her gaze with "What are you looking at?" Instead, he respectfully averted his eyes.
This wasn't being a pushover—it was good manners!
The woman didn't seem interested in continuing their argument and stood up from the ground, making her way to the woods not far from the pagoda.
Before Ye Weiming could even catch his breath, however, the woman came back from her quick roundabout in the woods with handfuls of dry twigs and straws.
Then, under the corner of Ye Weiming's watchful eye, she returned to the front of the pagoda and lit a bonfire. She skewered a feather-plucked chicken on a stick. Judging by her actions, it looked like she planned to roast the chicken right there, eat, and then leave!
Ye Weiming could only groan in disbelief at the woman's unpredictable behavior.
Feeling hungry after a full night's affair, Ye Weiming decided to stop bickering with her.
If I can't win the fight, can't I still retreat?
He stood up, utilizing his movement technique, and charged towards West Lake. He first washed his face with the lake water, which seemed to rejuvenate him entirely. Then, he devoured three buns from his backpack in one go and washed it down with a bottle of strong liquor.
As to why he washed his hands before eating the buns?
Don't forget that he had been dealing with corpses all night. Although it was unlikely bacteria or viruses would harm him in the game, it was still off-putting to eat without washing his hands.
Having filled his stomach with plain food, Ye Weiming picked up a shovel, ready to dig a hole by the lake.
This was the greatest downside of the corpse-disposal skill. There were only two ways to take care of disposed corpses.
The first option was to send them to the undertaker. However, they would only accept bodies that could serve as evidence or clues in an unsolved case.
Otherwise, you'd have to dig a hole and bury them.
Dumping them anywhere willy-nilly would cost you righteousness points!
After spending almost an hour burying the bodies, he reckoned that the woman had probably finished her meal and left. Therefore, he returned to the entrance of the pagoda only to find a dying bonfire.
As expected, the woman had left.
To avoid any unnecessary trouble, Ye Weiming circled the pagoda and saw no other players. He then stepped into the pagoda and followed the instructions written by Farmer Li to twist a semi-circular dragon carving on the left wall.
With a light "clack", two tiles on the pagoda floor sprang up, revealing a downward metal chain ladder below.
He descended the ladder into the underground palace, where the pathway was wide enough for two people to walk side by side. Charcoal-coated walls illuminated the subterranean world.
Ye Weiming twisted another dragon carving on the right, identical to the previous one, closing the opening above.
He proceeded down the corridor until he turned a corner to find two bodies lying on the ground. These corpses belonged to the West Lake bandits he had spotted earlier.
Are there still West Lake bandits lurking within this underground palace of the pagoda?
No mention of this was found in the note left by Old Man Li.
Although puzzled in his heart, Ye Weiming nonetheless quickened his pace unconsciously. Since what he saw was the deceased West Lake gangster, and his body was still warm, it was not difficult to draw one conclusion. He was not the first player to enter here, there were now other players who had arrived at this underground palace ahead of him!
Could it be that the clue left by Old Man Li was not only in his hands?
While contemplating, Ye Weiming changed two more forks, finding more and more gangster corpses on the ground, which made him even more worried that the early bird seemed to have a good understanding of the layout of this underground palace. The route the other party took was directly leading to the depths of the palace. There were also gangsters wandering on other forks, but there were no traces of combat.
Seeing that his treasure was claimed by someone else, Ye Weiming was anxious and unconsciously applied the movement technique of "Toad Leaping in Eight Steps", which made his speed soar several times. Only after passing two more junctions did Ye Weiming finally breathe a sigh of relief.
There was a three-way junction ahead. The location of the treasure as indicated on Old Man Li's map was on the right side of the palace, while all the gangsters on the left had become corpses.
This means, beginning from this junction, finally the direction of the other party diverged from his target?
It's good to have a divergence!
You're busy with yours and I'm looking for my treasure, no one bothers anyone, isn't it harmonic?
Drawing his longsword, Ye Weiming was about to go towards his target, when he suddenly heard a flurry of frantic and chaotic footsteps coming from the left. They were particularly grating in this enclosed tunnel. Next, he saw a woman, her hair cut short around her cheeks, she was dressed in black and stepping back while fighting. It was the same scarred woman he had met outside the pagoda.
Earlier, Ye Weiming had been wondering why this sister was still lingering and not willing to leave after the gangsters had disappeared. Turns out, her target was also this underground palace.
However, her complexion was currently very bad, a bit greenish, clearly indicating she had been poisoned. Behind her, a dozen gangsters wielding swords and knives were in hot pursuit.
Normally, a player who has learned movement techniques could easily shake off these ordinary mobs. A player proficient in using dark weapons like the scarred woman could kite at will. But now, seemingly due to the poison, her steps seemed very light and her speed had dropped to about the same level as the gangsters chasing her. She couldn't shake off her pursuers.
Seeing Ye Weiming appear in front of her, the scarred woman was startled. But she had no heart to care about this right now. She just brushed past Ye Weiming without stopping, and the gangsters chasing her rushed up to him closely.
Seeing the gangsters with their guards down next to him, Ye Weiming unconsciously thrust his longsword forward, piercing through the throat of the one running in front.
-286!
A big critical hit number jumped out from the gangster's head, instant kill!
Ye Weiming's move was like a stone thrown into a lake, causing a ripple effect. The hatred of those following gangsters was immediately attracted to him by this sword, all brandishing their swords and attacking him together.
As for these gangsters with almost zero force, Ye Weiming was not concerned at all. Especially in this narrow tunnel, the advantage of a large number of people can't come into play at all. Plus, these pursuers had already been kited around by Scarred Woman for a long time, they weren't at full health. Under Ye Weiming's fierce attack, they all became his experience in an instant.
After casually picking up the loot dropped by the gangsters, Ye Weiming found that the experience and loot rate of the gangsters in this underground palace were much higher than outside. It was definitely a good place for leveling.
Turning his head, Ye Weiming noticed that the Scarred Woman was not far away. She had sat down not far behind him, threw an elixir into her mouth, sat down cross-legged right on the spot, and started to rest and recuperate in quite a grand manner.
"I mean..." Ye Weiming said half-jokingly: "This palace's location is quite concealed, aren't you afraid that I might take advantage of your condition to kill you, in order to keep all good things to myself?"
Scarred Woman gave Ye Weiming a calm look and murmured two words: "As you wish."
Having said that, she closed her eyes and ignored Ye Weiming. She had a heroic appearance, like a lamb to the slaughter.