Rewind time back to four days ago.

Upon hearing that Shu Dao Mountain not only houses the Third-Turn and Fourth-Turn Secret Realms but even has Foundation Establishment inheritance, Yan Qing naturally became curious and decided to create a new character to explore.

Shang Xinlei tried hard to explain how dangerous the Demon Path Evil Land was, but what Yan Qing heard was ’challenging difficulty’, ’lots of PVP battles’, and ’side quests’ on a new leveling map.

The first task for the new character was to decide its appearance. Remembering Shang Xinlei’s suggestion that if he needed to explore the evil land, he should send a fierce-looking strong man, Yan Qing decided to create a pitiful, soft, beautiful, and voluptuous woman—yes, Shang Xinlei’s suggestion was sensible, so he planned to do the opposite.

Creating a villain character based on Shang Xinlei’s advice might reduce many dangers and even help integrate smoothly into the group of Demonic Messengers, becoming a renowned rising star of the Demon Dao.

But then the question arose—what would Yan Qing play?

Where are my monsters? My PVP? My thrilling adventures?

It’s like playing an action game with invisibility mode on, and all the monsters ignore you while you run straight to the boss room. It’s easy, sure, but it loses a lot of fun.

The Mouse Monk’s image was for the Thief’s House mission; exploring Shu Dao Mountain was just his recreational activity, meant to be as fun and comfortable as possible.

Moreover, according to Shang Xinlei, the journey from Chang’an to Shu Dao Mountain would take more than ten days on foot, even longer if the safe route is taken. Even if the new character could travel day and night, Yan Qing was destined to spend a lot of time on the run. If the character wasn’t good-looking, it would be like being in prison—well, even a good-looking character would be like prison, but at least you could admire the new character.

Having created Jiang Shi before, Yan Qing was very familiar with the character creation system and soon crafted a temptingly charming yet dignified and gentle beauty. Although her looks were on par with Jiang Shi, Yan Qing could guarantee her appeal to men far exceeded Jiang Shi’s.

As he was about to continue, he inexplicably thought of Shang Xinlei eating ice cream. That was a big scoop of ice cream; didn’t her teeth get numb from the cold? Then he looked at his newly created character and instinctively compared Shang Xinlei with the character. Shang Xinlei’s legs were a bit meatier, her waist seemed similarly slim, and as for the chest, it was hard to judge. As for the looks...

He suddenly shook his head vigorously to shake Shang Xinlei’s image out of his mind.

Oh no, probably because Shang Xinlei was the only real woman he recently interacted with in reality—and also the only person he could chat with in reality. Now, whenever he saw other pretty women, Yan Qing easily thought of Shang Xinlei, and even imagined the disdainful expression she would have knowing he created another beautiful character.

Being disdained didn’t bother him, but falling into such thoughts often wasted a good bit of his time until he recalled the scene of Shang Xinlei crying with a runny nose, which would make him burst out laughing. But playing a game with distractions wouldn’t work, especially with a high-intensity action game where the journey from Chang’an to Shu Dao Mountain was not peaceful. Yan Qing didn’t want to get distracted in intense battles by recalling Shang Xinlei’s teary, little flowered face.

So, he abandoned the beautiful form and instead created an innocent, cute little girl.

In "Messenger," the appearance restrictions are quite relaxed. If you minimize the age, you can create a child character, but there aren’t many child players because the cool equipment in the game would be proportionately smaller, making a normal player look ethereal and adept, while the child player would look like they were performing in a school play.

Yan Qing’s new character was based on his boastful yet adorable little cousin, who would always cling to him, calling him brother and showcasing the game’s recharge interface with sparkling eyes to prompt him to spend some gold coins. With such an appearance on the road, there was absolutely no worry about combat, and watching the little girl run along the path wouldn’t be boring—at least not as dull as controlling a strong man.

As for talent inheritance, the basic and advanced steps were essential choices, increasing movement speed and dodge tolerance. This time Yan Qing gave up inheriting saber techniques and chose the path of swordsmanship.

Because the Long Sword Seven-step Buddha Recitation given by Shang Xuanwen was Yan Qing’s strongest weapon second only to Bingzi Pepper Forest. Although it had no active skills and couldn’t attack groups, it had extremely violent output for single targets, and more importantly, it felt satisfying to use. Once accustomed to indulgence, it’s hard to go back; having used such excellent equipment, Yan Qing no longer wanted to play with the White Iron Straight Saber or the Flame Patterned Straight Saber.

If the Seven-step Buddha Recitation were a Rare Treasure Token, Yan Qing might even consider using the last blood weapon material to enhance it to legendary status.

As for Bingzi Pepper Forest, Yan Qing would only authorize its use if the new character was in extreme danger, not because he wanted to play a pig eating a tiger or was afraid to reveal it, but solely because he needed to hold onto this trump card at all times. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

While the Thief’s House is very safe, so is the main city, yet Shang Xuanwen still got ambushed and beaten up by black forces in an alleyway. If Black Wolf, White Fox, or someone else suddenly barges into the Thief’s House to mess with him, and Bingzi Pepper Forest happens to be with the new character, Yan Qing would die with regrets.

Regarding attribute allocation, Yan Qing planned to be bold; since the girl’s form increased her agility by 2 points, and Yan Qing prepared numerous tokens for her start, he was trying a 406 start: 5 Qi Blood, 1 Divine Soul, 2 Agility, and 6 Perception.