Chapter 280: Chapter 223: The Divine Marquis Mansion Is About to Arrive on the Battlefield

Late at night, Duke Jin’s Mansion, Broken Blade Hall.

Pharmacist’s Wish sat on a meditation mat, in front of her was a Sword Mountain pierced with dozens of broken blades, and now there were three broken spears on top, one of which was the spearhead of the Soul-Breaking Spear, marking her achievement from the past half month.

The last time she came to this place, Pharmacist’s Wish had a streak of resentment in her heart, disgusted by her father’s scheming and felt that the mountain of broken blades was just her father’s already decayed glory. But now, coming to this place again, Pharmacist’s Wish’s mindset was different.

Because she had truly managed to break a weapon.

In reality, breaking a weapon is very difficult, especially for someone of her distinguished family status. After battles, there are naturally dedicated people responsible for weapon maintenance, and she always prepares multiple weapons as backups. Insisting on using nearly damaged weapons is irresponsible for one’s life. Only when facing enemies far surpassing one’s own strength, or trapped in successive battles, would weapons be broken.

Even though most of the dozens of broken blades in Broken Blade Hall are for show, as long as a few are real, they are enough to prove Yao Shi Moke’s bravery.

Although from the perspective of a daughter, Pharmacist’s Wish always felt her father was indecisive, cowardly, selfish, and petty. But if Yao Shi Moke had always been this kind of person, how could he ever gain Changqiu Zhenren’s appreciation? Even being appointed as a Foundation Establishment seed, ruling Zhou Kingdom for twenty years, even abolishing and murdering an Emperor.

Changqiu Zhenren lived to the age of one hundred and thirty, spent seventy-seven years in Foundation Establishment, completed Fifth Transition, and dominated Great Zhou. In these eighty-two years, the number of people trying to please her must have been at least thousands. But only Yao Shi Moke became her appointed Foundation Establishment seed, there must have been something at the very beginning that moved Changqiu Zhenren.

Moreover, Yao Shi Moke was already a Third-Turn Messenger before Pharmacist’s Wish was born, and calculating carefully, he wasn’t even thirty years old at the time. Even with the support of the Ba River Pharmacist Family, it was absolutely no easy task. But why would he transform from a Foundation Establishment seed who took pride in broken blades to a middle-aged man absorbed in power desires in Pharmacist’s Wish’s memory? Previously, Pharmacist’s Wish couldn’t understand, simply thought her father was inherently vile, but looking back now, she seems to understand her father’s mindset a bit.

Character surely is a crucial factor, but to make a Third-Turn Messenger who dared to risk his life stop, perhaps it was because something or someone more important than striving for Foundation Establishment emerged.

"Father, I haven’t shamed the glory of the Ba River Pharmacist Family." She bowed toward the Sword Mountain: "For the rest of my life, I will live for myself."

Having said this, she turned and left Broken Blade Hall. As she pushed the door open, the night wind swept through the hall, the broken blades made a spirited sound, seemingly a blessing of a heroic send-off.

...

...

Because pre-preparation was needed, everyone had already gathered at the Thief’s House half an hour before the mission started.

Yan Qing left the room, only to see three Masked Mansion Soldiers looking at him in unison.

Yes, their infiltration plan, in a nutshell, was to disguise themselves as Chang’an Prefecture Soldiers.

Although it was also possible not to disguise, that would require completely avoiding all patrols and not walking under lights, which would not only be troublesome but also increase exposure risks. On the contrary, by disguising as Chang’an Prefecture Soldiers, they could pass through the Military Mansion openly, even being seen by other patrols wouldn’t raise suspicion, providing ample flexibility.

As for the Masked Mansion Soldier outfits, they’re easy to obtain, there’s a military arsenal in Pharmacist’s Wish’s home, because the guards at Duke Jin’s Mansion are Masked Mansion Soldiers.

Until Yan Qing sat down, everyone was still staring at him. He looked at himself and then at them, everyone was dressed the same, nothing different, why look at me like that?

At this moment, Shang Xinlei walked directly to him, bent down, and stared at him, then suddenly reached out both hands to grab his neck.

"Where’s your bandage?"

"What bandage?"

"Haven’t you always wrapped your rotten face in bandages? Why is it exposed now?"

"I’m already wearing a helmet, why wrap a bandage?"

Even though the Masked Helmet doesn’t fully cover, it basically shields the upper half of the face, Yan Qing thought this level of coverage was sufficient; Batman uses something similar, his chin isn’t like a double door butt so obvious, naturally feeling it unnecessary to wrap a bandage.

Except for Pharmacist’s Wish who obviously did a double disguise, both Ying Rushi and Shang Xinlei seemed to go without makeup, even without helmets, just covering their faces with masks would do.

But for some reason, Shang Xinlei was very upset, shaking his head continuously: "No, you go back and wrap the bandage now!"

"No, meeting people on the road might draw more attention."

"Just kill them!"

"We are thieves, not serial killers! Why do I have to wrap the bandage!" Yan Qing felt this woman was simply unreasonable. A little reason for not wrapping the bandage this time was to satisfy Shang Xinlei’s curiosity, since she kept wanting to unwrap his bandage to see what he looks like... Yet she insisted he wrap the bandage.

How could there be such a contradictory woman in this world, Yan Qing felt he might never understand what was going through Shang Xinlei’s mind.

"If you’re really not going to bandage up..." Shang Xinlei let go of her hands, and Yan Qing also breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed she was finally willing to back down.

However, the next second Shang Xinlei took out the Legendary Flying Ring: "At the very least, let me disfigure you!"

"Is your brain riding a horse and running away on its own!?"

At this moment, the stone table in the hall unexpectedly transformed, automatically projecting a sand table. Yan Qing paused, and pushed Shang Xinlei aside: "Stop fussing, business is at hand."

Shang Xinlei gave him a provocative glance, then suddenly started chuckling herself, her eyebrows arched as she nodded at him, as if to say ’I’ll let you off this time,’ then pouted one cheek and glared at him, as if to say ’just you wait’... though he had no idea where he’d offended her.

"The constables from the Divine Marquis Mansion have already found out that your target is the Exotic Iron."

The Thief’s House made them focus entirely with just one sentence: "Ten minutes after you arrive in Chang’an, the constables from the Divine Marquis Mansion will appear near the Exotic Iron to capture you."

The Secret Realm in the dungeon immediately expanded, with four phantom constables appearing at the bottom where the Exotic Iron was located, representing the incoming new enemies.

"The Divine Marquis Mansion will appear an incense stick time after we arrive?" Ying Rushi was shocked: "They’ll alarm the Chang’an Military Mansion from within!"

The expressions of the others became extremely unpleasant as well, as according to their plan, at the very fastest, it would still take them a quarter of an hour to reach the room at the entrance of the Secret Realm, and that’s assuming they proceeded at full speed without any hindrance. Being delayed for a moment could mean two quarters of an hour... this way, the Divine Marquis Mansion would certainly show up ahead of them!

Not to mention whether the Divine Marquis Mansion would report them, even if they did nothing, just the sudden appearance of a Secret Realm Demon Fiend would be enough to trigger an alarm in the dungeon’s Secret Realm. At that point, even the most intricate infiltration plan would turn into a frontal assault — the Chang’an Military Mansion’s thousands of soldiers would gang up on the four of them!

Luckily, they gathered at the Thief’s House ahead of time. If they had come to the Thief’s House at the last second and seen this news it might’ve been too late for anything.

However, the situation was still not optimistic. Approximately fifteen minutes remained until the mission began; could they devise a better plan in these fifteen minutes?

"Can we be any faster?"

"Unless we run directly on the rooftops, but that would easily draw attention."

"Change into Night Traveling Clothes and take the shortest route to rush over!"

"It’s feasible in the front, but inside the fortress where the Hundred Refinements Institute is, there’s a brightly lit open area with a full twenty paces surrounding it. Barring the chance of the guards being blind, there’s no way they won’t have time to sound the alarm!"

Various aggressive plans were proposed and then were denied one after another. They had spent at least three hours over the past two days to summarize a foolproof fastest plan, and it was impossible to surpass the results of three hours in only fifteen minutes. The fastest method was to ignore all guards and charge straight through, but they weren’t invincible; if they dared to barrel through forcefully, the refined iron crossbows of tens of thousands of Mansion Soldiers would surely set them straight.

"I remember," Yan Qing suddenly spoke: "Li Long has Xijiang Yue’s ladies accompany him every night."

Xijiang Yue was Chang’an County Town’s largest Money-Spending Cave, where just having money wasn’t enough to be a guest of the ladies – they only entertained Messengers. Many of the ladies had even used a basic Cultivation Technique to become ’Half-Messengers.’ Since Messengers had strong Qi Blood, their desires were often greater than ordinary people, and regular partners found it hard to cope with their intense energy. However, these Half-Messenger ladies could satisfy them, and their popularity was consequently expected.

’Rising Dragon Hand’ Li Long wasn’t abstinent by any means. On the contrary, they had seen three versions of the sand table illusion’s little spring play over the past three nights, and Li Long fully enacted the principle of helping the world when capable, choosing various Xijiang Yue ladies each night, taking full advantage of his role as the Third-Turn Messenger who transfers payments.

In the original plan, they intended to sneak into the room and infiltrate the Secret Realm while Li Long was engrossed in affection.

Pharmacist’s Wish zoomed in on the map, focusing on the road between Chang’an County Town and the Military Mansion, quickly locking onto the target: "Found it, it’s probably this carriage!"

The carriage had a ’Moon’ flag attached, indicating it’s Xijiang Yue’s carriage. For esteemed clients like Li Long, Xijiang Yue would naturally send the ladies to their doors personally. The carriage had just left from Xijiang Yue not far away and was slowly on its way. By the time Yan Qing and team arrived in Chang’an, it should not have reached the Military Mansion yet.

No further explanation was needed; everyone immediately understood Yan Qing’s plan. After a brief silence, Ying Rushi said, "Four people could ride together in the carriage, but aside from the lady, the maid, the attendant, and the coachman cannot hide their faces. Otherwise, it would only arouse suspicion. Aside from being resented by a Foundation Establishment Zhenren, even just exposing our real identities is enough to cause us trouble."

"I’ll be the coachman." Pharmacist’s Wish removed her helmet, revealing an unfamiliar young man’s face. Her shoulders and waist seemed to be padded, completely hiding her figure.

"I can be the maid." Shang Xinlei pulled out a pair of sunglasses. Disguising herself was effortless like this; wearing sunglasses, she didn’t care who saw.

"I have a human skin mask." Ying Rushi looked at Yan Qing: "Do you have any disguise tools? Or you can show yourself if you want. But that bandage outfit from last time isn’t an option, as you mentioned, it draws attention."

Yan Qing: "..."

"I’ll help you with clothes ×2!"

Both Pharmacist’s Wish and Shang Xinlei said at the same time. They exchanged looks, displaying eyes of determination that refused to back down, then both turned and ran to their respective rooms, the atmosphere heating up instantly!

What on earth are they fired up about...