Scourge Messenger

Chapter 16: Vulnerabilities in the Main City

The person who appeared before Anwu was a monk.

He looked young and handsome. He wore a monk's robe covered with patches of various colors and straw sandals. When he spoke, he put his hands together in a very proper manner. He looked like an ignorant little monk who had lived in a temple since childhood.

"Tzu Chi Hospital?"

"It's right over there." The young monk pointed to the back of Anguo Temple. "I'm just about to go back. Do you want to come with me? But the only room left is on the big bunk bed, so you'll have to share with the others."

"Are there any single rooms?"

"Yes, after all, it's not convenient for women or some patients to live with others... Are you hungry? If you haven't eaten yet, there might be some leftovers if you go over now."

Yan Qing followed the monk without much caution. Firstly, he was a small monk, and secondly, he didn't think anyone in Chang'an City could harm him. The monk was quite talkative and introduced himself: "My name is Benzhi. I practice in the Anguo Temple's menial wing, doing odd jobs... But doing odd jobs in Anguo Temple is a good thing. Unlike the martial arts monastery where you have to train from morning till night, it's not that hard..."

"Also, the menial workers can rotate to the Tzu Chi Center, allowing them to go out for three days every ten days... By the way, what's the donor's name?"

"Anwu."

"Anwu, this is the Tzu Chi Center. Look, it's very close."

Benzhi brought Anwu to a large house with a plaque on the door that read "Tzu Chi Hospital". When they opened the door and went in, they smelled a strong smell of medicine. Dozens of medicine pots were boiling medicine, and dozens of patients were lying in the large room next to it.

"This is the patient area. If you feel unwell, you can come here during the day. The brothers and sisters from Xuanhuyuan will come from the county to provide free medical treatment."

"The county?"

"There's a much larger temple outside of Anguoji in the county. After all, land is at a premium in the city, and Anguoji doesn't have much room for the monks besides the main hall. Would you like to eat?"

"No need." Yan Qing thought to himself, I still have dozens of roasted lamb legs in the warehouse.

"This Tzu Chi home was funded by many kindhearted people in Chang'an, and Anguo Temple is only responsible for its management. Although we don't charge fees, unless you are seriously ill or have special circumstances, we will persuade you to leave within seven days at most. If you don't have a place to go, people will come to the Tzu Chi home during the day to recruit tenants and laborers. We don't support idle people here..."

"Although the city is said to be protected by the Buddha and is invulnerable to swords, fire, and water, touching and bumping are allowed. It's best to sleep with your butt facing the wall... Alas, sometimes even monks like us can't avoid encountering those kind of scoundrels."

It's okay if it's Buddha's blessing, but it's also normal. Even the monsters in the dungeon are called demons. Then the safe zone where no one is allowed to hurt each other is naturally a miracle of various gods and Buddhas.

As he walked, Benzhi opened a side door. Inside was a large storage room filled with cleaning supplies. Benzhi walked over to the bucket and said, "Sir, please help me carry this bucket to the well. I almost forgot what Uncle Chengyin told me to do."

There was no reason to refuse such a small favor, so An Wu walked to the other side of the bucket and prepared to lift it together.

"Hold on tight."

When the young monk Benzhi said this, he did not lift the bucket, but reached out and grabbed a hemp rope hanging next to him.

Snapped.

The plank An Wu was on suddenly gave way, revealing a hole. Yan Qing had no time or means to stop An Wu from falling. He slid down like a slide, sliding for nearly twenty seconds before landing with a loud thud on a pile of straw.

Despite the buffer slopes along the way, An Wu's health still inevitably dropped by a tenth. Yan Qing suddenly realized something—Chang'an City prevents mutual damage, but it doesn't prohibit falling damage. Similarly, jumping from a building in Chang'an City would definitely result in death.

"Huh, a newcomer this late?"

An Wu was in an underground cell, lit only by candlelight. Dark iron bars stood atop the solid bluestone. Outside the cell sat two tall, burly, bald monks. Their appearance was respectable, but their eyes lacked any compassion. They looked at An Wu like a farmer observing his own chickens and ducks.

"Shanzai, with red lips, white teeth, fair skin, and nimble hands and feet, she's a very good candidate."

"They look like they come from a poor background. They need some training first. A peasant like you can't sell for a high price."

"That's not difficult. In the end, it all comes down to appearance. If she's ugly, what good will it do even if she's the Prime Minister's daughter? Only if she's beautiful and says she's from a noble family will people believe her."

In addition to the newcomer 'An Wu', there were more than a dozen people in the cell, including men, women and children, but without exception they all had good looks. Many of them were dressed in luxurious clothes and looked like they came from wealthy families. But without exception they were all lying sick on the ground. There were a few toilets in the corner of the cell, but there was also a lot of dirt on the ground. Fortunately, the game consoles could not smell the odor, otherwise Yan Qing would definitely not be able to eat supper tonight.

However, with so many people in the cell, the two monks outside were discussing without any scruples how to sell them at a high price. This showed that they were very confident in this cell and the entire trading chain, and that there would be no possibility of revenge even if these people got out in the future.

But Yan Qing still had many details that he didn't understand.

"Is Tzu Chi a place where you kidnap people? Are the elderly, weak, and disabled people in Tzu Chi fake?"

The monk put his hands together and smiled solemnly.

"Buddha is compassionate, and it is natural for monks to help the world. Tzu Chi is truly committed to this. If the elderly, the weak, women, and children come to the Tzu Chi, An Guo Temple will naturally do its best to take care of them. As for providing porridge and charcoal, and repairing bridges and roads, An Guo Temple does this every year, and its reputation for good deeds spreads far and wide."

"For this very reason, if someone were to slander a family member who disappeared after offering incense at Anguo Temple, no one, from the public to the government, would tolerate such a rebellious person slandering the century-old reputation of Anguo Temple."

The monk said this not only to Anwu, but also to the others. If what he said were true, then the victims in the cell would have no chance of receiving help from the outside world.

As if sensing Anwu's unexpected calmness, the monk glanced at him and warned, "Stay still. No matter what you say, you'll have to starve here for a few days. But if you cause us trouble, don't blame us for making things difficult for you."

I'm really hungry.

Seeing these people in the cell who didn't even have the strength to sit up and whose cheeks were thin due to hunger, Yan Qing guessed how they murdered others under the restrictions of the safe zone - first they tricked people into a place like a cell where there was no escape, and then they starved them. After they were starved to the point that they had no strength to resist, these victims naturally became meat on the chopping board.

However, Yan Qing thought this was just a place where people were starving, and the real 'training' place should be in the temple outside Chang'an City. After all, without a safe zone, they could resort to various means. But listening to the monk's statement, could it be that even in a safe zone, they would have ways to harm others?

So Yan Qing pretended to be extremely arrogant: "Come on, I want to see how you grandchildren can make things difficult for your grandfather. Chang'an City is protected by the gods, what can you do to me?"

The monks looked at each other, one of them sneered, walked to the side, opened a black can on the ground, scooped out a spoonful of oil from it and poured it into the bowl, then brought it close to the candle, and the black oil in the bowl suddenly ignited a raging flame.

Fire attack?

"Come on, playing with fire is enough to scare your grandfather?" Yan Qing wasn't afraid at all. He even controlled 'An Wu' to walk over to the railing and reach out: "If you dare, burn your grandfather." Yan Qing didn't believe the safe zone had such a big loophole. If there was, this wouldn't be a safe zone at all. If playing with fire could hurt each other, wouldn't a fire messenger be able to massacre the entire main city? And it was 'An Wu' in the cell. If Yan Qing made a wrong bet... then so be it.

However, the monk slowly explained, "Normally, flames cannot burn others. If you pour them out, they will even go out."

The monk poured the burning black oil into the cell, and it fell to the ground and went out instantly, leaving only black oil stains.

"Under the Buddha's protection, the flames of Chang'an cannot burn external objects or others. Only those who are highly enlightened, wise, and perfect can understand the Buddha's true meaning and know the significance of flames to the world—"

The monk picked up a piece of clothing from the nearby debris. It seemed to be someone else's old clothes. He wrapped the clothes around his hands like a strip of cloth and poured the entire bowl of burning black oil onto the cloth!
Bear!
"Blazing holy fire, burn my remains!"

The monk raised his burning right hand and rushed over to grab Anwu's hand that was stretched out over the railing. Even though Anwu immediately retreated, several drops of blood were burned, and even a few drops of black oil were stained on his hand, forcing him to roll on the ground to extinguish the flames!

"You little brat, you still dare to be so stubborn?"

The monk sneered and threw the cloth strip to the ground. The cloth strip was still burning, unlike the bowl of black oil before which went out immediately.

Yan Qing immediately guessed the principle: burning others or buildings would trigger the rules of the safe zone, which would either be ineffective or extinguish the fire.

There is only one exception - that is burning yourself.

The safe zone only prohibits harming others, but does not prohibit harming oneself. Once a person starts burning, the safe zone's flame detection becomes invalid, and the person can normally harm others and the environment.

It's amazing that they could find such a loophole.

But Yan Qing couldn't afford to back down just because of this. He retreated to the straw and waved, "Come on, I'll see if you dare to burn this place down."

"You think you can threaten us like this? We have plenty of ways to deal with bastards like you."

The monk took a large candle from the wall. He waited patiently for a moment. When the wax was about to fall, he shook it hard and a drop of wax flew towards Anwu.

Yan Qing naturally wouldn't just stand there like an idiot. He dodged several times before suddenly hearing a scream from behind. He turned around and saw that a drop of candle wax had fallen onto a little girl nearby. The pain made her curl up in an attempt to minimize her presence.

Because of this turn, 'An Wu' was hit by several candle tears, but he did not suffer any damage, and his health was not reduced at all.

"Oh? You can even endure this?"

The monk seemed a little surprised and put down the candle. "Then I'll wait for you to act arrogantly for a few days, until you're too hungry to move. Then I'll drench you in candle wax and see if you can really endure it."

Although candle tears do not hurt, can they still make people feel pain?

This is probably because candle wax is a falling flying object, not a direct damage caused by others, so the game system should identify candle wax as an "environmental interactive object". In short, it is on the "white list" of the safe zone, so people will be burned by candle wax, which is a small loophole.

There shouldn't be many similar loopholes. Only Candle Tears meets such stringent conditions as "no injury, slight pain" + "flying objects".

However, just from the two moves of 'Self-Injury Fire Attack' that can cause damage and 'Splashing Candle Tears' that can only cause pain, it can be seen that Anguo Temple or the people here have thoroughly studied all the loopholes in the safe zone.

Yan Qing glanced at the only exit outside the hall: "You will open the prison door sooner or later, and I will definitely escape. Then you will not be able to stop me at all."

"Escape? There's Anguo Temple outside. How can you escape?" The monk sat down and continued eating peanuts and drinking. "Even if you can get out of this cell, I only need to ring the bell and Anguo Temple will immediately seal the door. How can you escape? We don't even need to do anything. We just need to block the way. You won't be able to get through!"

"I advise you all to be obedient. I'm really pushing you..." The monk's expression turned cold. "Here are more than a dozen cans of kerosene, enough to burn you to ashes."

Yan Qing pretended to be a troublemaker and asked a few more questions to basically understand the general terrain here.

This underground cell is connected to Anguo Temple and Tzu Chi Institute. Tzu Chi Institute only has a sliding passage leading down, which is basically impossible to climb up; the passage leading to Anguo Temple is relatively narrow, and two monks can block the stairs. Moreover, the main hall of Anguo Temple is above, so it is naturally impossible for these bald donkeys to let the victim get away.

In fact, this time it was really Yan Qing's fault for pinching the face. If he had pinched a strong man with 13 blood, he would not have been lured into the trap at all. In other words, the short and agile young man of 13 happened to be a beautiful boy in the secular sense, which met the monks' hunting requirements.

But why did the people at Anguo Temple go to such great lengths to set up traps inside Chang'an when they could have used force to capture people outside? Both the risk and the time cost were far higher than outside Chang'an.

Yan Qing asked the monk several times, but he was too lazy to respond. It was not until the monk grew impatient that he finally let out a hint: "You'll know when the time comes—don't think that the gods and Buddhas will bless you. Even in Chang'an City, people like you can only be dogs!"

Chang'an City!
Yan Qing looked at the ladies and young masters of noble families in the cell, and vaguely grasped the truth. If it weren't for Chang'an City, would these powerless people dare to go out alone? Would they fall into such a simple trap and cry out for help?
will not!

It is precisely because they believe in the protection of Chang'an City that these people who cannot protect themselves end up here. Then, on the other hand, for some "people who can protect themselves", is Chang'an City no different from a prison cell?

They could have acted recklessly, but they were bound by the rules of the safe zone and could not even punish others.

No wonder Chang'an County is so much more prosperous than Chang'an City. It's probably because many powerful people would rather live outside than stay in the main city which is restricted everywhere.

Since there are rules, breaking them naturally becomes a pleasure. Just like taking a shower on the ground and taking a shower on an airplane, although both are showers, the latter is obviously more luxurious and more enviable.

Human trafficking is just the surface; what Anguo Temple is really selling is the thrill of "trampling the rules." To put it in more understandable gaming terms, it's called cheating—you can't break the rules to harm me, but I can exploit loopholes to harm you. As long as there's PVP in a game, there will be people who pursue this one-sided crushing thrill.

Moreover, the higher the status of the prey, the better. After all, their customers must have countless servants outside and are tired of bullying the peasants. Only prey with noble status can arouse the interest of customers.

After knowing the truth, what can Yan Qing do now?

After a brief thought, Yan Qing set some evolution instructions for 'An Wu', then logged out of the account and logged into 'An Liu'.

In the alley, one of the four teenagers sitting on the ground to rest slowly stood up. He twisted his neck and turned to look in the direction of the Tzu Chi Institute.

Game of revenge, from morning till night.

The first step is to deal with Benzhi who dared to deceive me.

(End of this chapter)