Chapter 1 The Blacksmith's

There were two large rooms in the blacksmith's backyard. The one on the right was the blacksmith's living quarters, and the one on the left was a warehouse for storing ironware.

The gaunt middle-aged man first led Li Xianzong and the others to the warehouse full of ironware. He pushed open the long-sealed warehouse door, and a musty, rusty smell hit them in the face. Li Xianzong stepped over the threshold and entered the warehouse, his gaze steadily sweeping across it.

They saw all kinds of torture instruments placed in the warehouse, including razors, steel needles, hooks, branding irons, vises, and tiger benches.

Li Xianzong narrowed his eyes. These were different from the perverted woman Yi Chuanmei's "torture instruments." The things in the warehouse were used to torment people—real torture instruments.

Most of them were covered in dust and rust, while others were brand new, as if they had just been made.

"If you are not particularly interested in his every word,"

"Why would a blacksmith have so many torture instruments in his warehouse?"

Do not casually use the "follow" function because the speaker was a burly young man with ordinary features and an arrogant face. At first glance, he was not a good person, the kind of young man who was fond of courage and fighting. Even with that, all of his posts and replies would be notified to the mobile version. But this temperament was unremarkable in an evil profession. The young man's only characteristic was a missing left ear, which seemed to have been cut off by a sharp blade.

"Reminding you!" the gaunt middle-aged man said.

"Not only that, but look carefully. These torture instruments are both old and new. That Wang blacksmith is still constantly forging them." As he spoke, the gaunt middle-aged man picked up two razors, one rusty and the other with a bright, snow-white blade.

"He is repetitively, meaninglessly forging torture instruments," Li Xianzong concluded.

The young man with the missing left ear frowned. "What is the behavior logic behind this NPC? Or is this just a meaningless setting that we don't need to pay attention to?"

At this moment, a man in a suit and leather shoes exclaimed in surprise, "Look what I've found!"

Everyone looked over at the sound. In his hand was a dark red steel nail, about two inches long. The dark red color was dried blood. Fu Qingyang's eyes flickered slightly. He took the steel nail from his hand. A few seconds later, a message appeared: [Name: Nail of Curse] [Type: Consumable] [Function: Soul Erosion] [Introduction: This steel nail once pierced the heart of a strong person. Before her death, her resentment缠绕 (chanrao, lingered/entwined) on the steel nail, forming a curse. The soul of anyone pierced by the steel nail will be destroyed by the curse.] [Note: I curse you, curse you to die a violent death like me.]

"A very weak consumable," Fu Qingyang chuckled. "Isn't this reasonable? After killing a weak elite monster, we should replenish some powerful items."

He looked around at everyone. "I'll keep this consumable. Any objections?" The team members shook their heads slightly.

Evil professions abandoned martial force, where the strong were respected. Once their identity was confirmed, they possessed firm rule. Those who did not submit could initiate a challenge, but they had to be prepared to pay the price of their lives.

In the orderly professions, voting or negotiation was indispensable, unless the discoverer rejected it themselves.

Next, Fu Qingyang and the others carelessly inspected every torture instrument and ironware, but found no more props or consumables.

Afterward, the group left the warehouse and headed towards the house where Wang the blacksmith lived.

"Squeak~" A bed made of bluestone bricks was placed near the window, with a square table in the middle, and a wardrobe directly opposite the bed.

After searching for a while, everyone found a ledger in the wooden chest where clothes were stored.

As the captain, Li Xianzong opened the thread-bound book, glanced at it, and looked at his teammates. "Who can read traditional characters?"

The ledger was written in traditional characters, and the handwriting was ugly. Fu Qingyang realized that his cultural level was not enough to support him in completing the traditional characters. The evil profession members looked at each other, and fell into silence for a moment. But the man in the suit and leather shoes stepped forward and said, "Let me take a look."

Fu Qingyang breathed a slight sigh of relief and gave the booklet to the other party. The man in the suit and leather shoes looked at it repeatedly for a long time and smiled. "This is a detailed list of the blacksmith shop's income and expenditure. I know who those torture instruments were sold to. It's someone named Zhang Yuanqing." He then said, "But the numbers on the ledger don't quite match what we saw. There are too many torture instruments in the warehouse, far exceeding the number ordered by Zhao Yuanwai."

Fu Qingyang frowned at the discrepancy in the numbers.

He vaguely realized that this was information, information that the dungeon was revealing to the Spirit Realm walkers.

Fu Qingyang had experienced an A-level dungeon once before. Otherwise, how could he be called a genius? The more difficult the dungeon, the more it tested the abilities of the Spirit Realm walkers. A lot of information needed to be dug out by themselves.

Li Xianzong told his teammates his thoughts. The gaunt middle-aged man thought for a moment, and said uncertainly, "I have a guess, but I'm not sure. That Wang blacksmith seems to be cursed. I smelled a trace of curse from him." The gaunt middle-aged man explained, "Curse is the ability of a Wugushi (witchcraft master) at the Saint stage. I haven't reached that level yet, so I can't guarantee it. Furthermore, this is a camp confrontation dungeon, so it's not strange for a curse to exist."

"Curse," Fu Qingyang sorted out the information and came to the conclusion, "The curse is that he keeps forging torture instruments." He didn't dwell on it for too long and announced, "Leave here and look for Zhang Yuanqing. He should be our next target. We have to complete the side quest before the orderly camp."

"Xiuer, Xiuer..."

Zhang Yuanqing walked on the street in the west of the town, shouting at the top of his voice, "My Xiuer, where are you?" But Guan Ya and the Queen, along with several others, silently followed behind Li Xianzong. While observing her surroundings, the Queen quietly asked the mixed-race beauty next to her, "Has he always been this socially active?"

She had always maintained a strong curiosity about the legendary Yuan Shi Tian Zun.

After a short period of contact, she found that this widely known guy did not have the arrogance and aloofness of a heaven's chosen one, nor did he have humility or irritability. He was talkative, stiff, could chat about anything, and could侃 (kan, chat casually) with anyone. And she didn't dislike this kind of personality.

Guan Ya gave a "Heh" and said, "He just joined the Five Elements Alliance less than a week ago, and he's already very familiar with the colleagues in the team. Fu Qingyang, you know him, right?"

The Queen nodded. "Of course I know him. He's a real heaven's chosen one." The Queen touched the silver ring on her earlobe and smiled.

"It's said that he's very handsome, but very aloof and difficult to get along with. There aren't as many female colleagues who admire him as there are the Taiyi sect's Ling Jun, but they are all very loyal." Wang Po turned her head and glanced at the female colleague with a bright and atmospheric appearance.

"Even that Zhao Yuanwai hates him. Whenever Yuanshi is around, Fu Qingyang talks a lot." The Queen was shocked and sighed repeatedly, "Is this the so-called mutual appreciation between geniuses?"

"No, Zhao Yuanwai just hates listening to Yuanshi flatter him." At this time, Huo De Xingjun said irritably, "Does Widow Xu really live nearby? Is Wang Po lying to us?"

They had been searching for half an hour, and Zhang Yuanqing's throat was almost hoarse, but the legendary Widow Xu's shadow had not appeared. If they couldn't find her, it meant that the task would be difficult to carry out. At this time, the sun was scorching hot,

Roasting the ancient town. After walking for half an hour, everyone was covered in sweat and had to take a temporary rest in a shady alley.

Li Chunfeng leaned against the old white wall and fanned himself with his hand, saying, "Are we missing any information?"

Missing information? Zhang Yuanqing lowered his head and thought, going over the details in his mind, but he didn't find anything missing. But, well, not feeling it doesn't mean there isn't. If I trigger my old illness, I should be able to recall all the details, but it's not worth it. Wang Po stood next to Li Xianzong and pondered for a few seconds, saying, "No, we haven't missed any important clues. Xu Widow's information has only appeared twice, once when Guan Ya mentioned her address, and the other time was the scarecrow.

"But this has nothing to do with the predicament we are currently facing."

The round-faced Qing Nian (young man) Chi Ou frowned and said, "The weather is a bit hot, making people irritable. I'm thirsty, are you?" "I'm also thirsty." Li Xianzong immediately looked at the Queen and smiled, "Your Majesty, grant some juice."

"What juice? What you said sounds weird." The Queen muttered. But if you were Wang Po, I would be staring at your chest when I said that, Zhang Yuanqing thought.

Driving Wang Po was catering to her preferences, the old driver likes this kind of thing. But driving with other girls would make him seem猥琐 (weisuo, sleazy/unseemly). This Queen, just looking at her appearance, was definitely a beautiful older sister. Big earrings, smoky makeup, and a short top and capri pants showed off her mature figure.

But unlike Wang Po, who hated driving, she was relatively "clumsy" in this area. "Water demons can control water, but they can't conjure water out of thin air."

Seeing that his teammates were unbearably hot, she thought for a while and said, "I'll 'transport' some water from the river for you. Even dirty water can be drunk directly after it's purified by us water demons."

Wang Po reminded, "Don't go too far." The Queen didn't turn her head. "Don't worry, we won't encounter the evil camp before completing the side quest." Li Xianzong watched her graceful figure disappear into the distance, retracted his gaze, and said, "I think we need a specific method to trigger the appearance of Xu Xiuer. But there is too little information given at the moment, making it difficult to deduce the triggering method."

Wang Po prompted, "Why not start from the character's background?"

"Start from the character's background?" Li Chunfeng pondered, "She's a widow, suspected of cursing Guan Ya's son, and is likely to be a Wugushi (witchcraft master). Wang Po's son has hurt her, most likely by breaking into the widow's door at night. How—"

"But there's a logical bug here. Since she's a Wugushi (witchcraft master), how could she be hurt by an ordinary man?"

"Of course, we can't be sure if Guan Ya's son is a special person, and this doesn't have much to do with the current predicament."

"What are you talking about? You've analyzed a lot, but it doesn't seem to have a point. You scholars just like to overthink things." Huo De Xingjun said dissatisfied. "But this matter is very simple. Guan Ya's son slept with her, she cursed Guan Ya's son, so she hates men."

"Hating men, so avoiding us makes sense." The slightly chubby Chi Ou nodded repeatedly.

"What a load of bullsh*t." Li Li Yuan Shang Cao said flatly, "Could it be that previous Spirit Realm walkers haven't walked this plot before? Aren't there any men among them?"

"This…" The round-faced Chi Ou couldn't answer. Guan Ya pondered and said, "No, Huo De Xingjun's guess makes sense. I have a guess. What if, what if this level requires a female walker to trigger it?" Her words caused the expressions of everyone present to change.