Behind the blacksmith shop, there were two large houses. The one on the right was the blacksmith's living area, 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 filled with ironware. He pushed open the long-sealed warehouse door, and a musty smell of rust assaulted their faces. Li Xianzong stepped over the threshold and entered the warehouse, his gaze sweeping steadily across the space.
Inside, he saw various kinds of torture instruments, including razors, steel needles, fishing hooks, branding irons, standing racks, tiger benches, and so on.
Li Xianzong narrowed his eyes. These were different from the perverted woman Yi Chuanmei's "torture instruments." The things in this warehouse were used to torment people, the real deal.
Most of them were covered in dust and rust, while others were brand new, as if they had just been made.
If you're not particularly interested in every word he says,
"Why would a blacksmith have so many torture instruments in his warehouse?"
Don't casually use the "follow" function for people, because the one speaking was a burly young man with ordinary features and an arrogant look. It was clear he wasn't someone to be trifled with, the kind of young man who was fond of fighting. What's more, all of his posts and replies would be notified on the mobile version. But this temperament was unremarkable in an evil profession. The only unique thing about this young man was his missing left ear, as if it had been sliced off by a sharp blade.
Reminding you!" the gaunt middle-aged man said:
"Not only that, but look closely. These torture instruments are both old and new. That Wang Tiesmith is still constantly forging them." As he spoke, the gaunt middle-aged man picked up two razors, one rusty and one with a gleaming blade.
"He is repeating, meaninglessly forging torture instruments," Li Xianzong concluded.
The young man with the missing left ear frowned and said, "What is the behavioral 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 said in surprise, "Look what I've found!"
Everyone looked in his direction. 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 as he took the steel nail from his hand. A few seconds later, a message appeared: [Name: Nail of Curse] [Type: Consumable] [Function: Spirit Erosion] [Introduction: This steel nail once pierced the heart of a powerful individual. Before death, her resentment wrapped around the steel nail and formed a curse. Anyone whose soul is wounded by the steel nail will be consumed by the curse.] [Note: I curse you, curse you to die a violent death like me.]
"A very weak consumable." Fu Qingyang chuckled. "This is reasonable, isn't it? After taking down 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 forsake martial force and respect the strong. Once an identity is confirmed, they possess solid ruling power. Those who refuse to submit can initiate a challenge battle, but they must be prepared to pay the price with their lives.
In orderly professions, however, voting or negotiation is inevitable, unless the discoverer refuses.
Next, Fu Qingyang and the others cursorily inspected every torture instrument and piece of ironware, but found no more items or consumables.
Afterwards, the group left the warehouse and headed towards Wang Tiesmith's residence.
"Creak~" A brick bed stood against the window, with a square table in the middle, facing the wardrobe.
The group searched for a while and found a ledger in a wooden box containing clothing.
As the captain, Li Xianzong opened the thread-bound booklet, glanced at it, and then looked at his teammates, saying, "Who knows 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 understanding traditional characters. The evil professionals looked at each other, falling into silence. 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 the blacksmith shop's income and expenditure statement. I know who the torture instruments were sold to. It's a person named Zhang Yuanqing." He then said
"But the numbers in the ledger don't quite match what we're seeing. There are too many torture instruments in the warehouse, far exceeding Zhao Yuanwai's order quantity." The quantity doesn't match. Fu Qingyang frowned.
He vaguely sensed that this was information, information that the dungeon was revealing to the The Way of the Extraordinary.
Fu Qingyang had experienced an A-level dungeon once, otherwise how could he be called a genius. The more difficult the dungeon, the more it tested the abilities of The Way of the Extraordinary. 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 Tiesmith seems to be cursed. I smelled a trace of curse from him." The gaunt middle-aged man explained:
"The curse is the ability of a shaman at the Saint stage. I haven't reached that level yet, so I can't guarantee it. Furthermore, this is a factional confrontation dungeon. The existence of a curse is very abnormal, but not surprising."
"Curse," Fu Qingyang sorted through the information and came to the conclusion, "The curse made him constantly forge torture instruments." He didn't dwell on it for too long and announced
"Leave here and find Zhang Yuanqing. He should be our next target. We need to complete the side quest before the orderly faction." "Xiuer, Xiuer"
Zhang Yuanqing walked on the street west of the town, shouting at the top of his lungs, "My Xiuer, where are you?" But Queen Guan Ya and the others silently followed behind Li Xianzong. The Queen Ren observed her surroundings while whispering to the mixed-race beauty beside her, "Has he always been this sociable?"
She had always maintained a strong curiosity about the legendary Yuan Shi.
After a short time together, she discovered that this well-known guy didn't have the arrogance and aloofness of a heaven's chosen, nor did he have humility and irritability. He was talkative, rigid, and could chat about anything with anyone. And she didn't dislike this kind of personality.
Guan Ya chuckled, "He just joined the Five Elements Alliance. In less than a week, he became very familiar with the colleagues in the team. Fu Qingyang, you know him." Ren "Of course I know him. He is a true heaven's chosen." The Queen touched the silver ring on her earlobe and smiled
"It is said that he is very handsome, but very aloof and difficult to get along with. There are not as many female colleagues who admire him as there are for Taiyimen Lingjun, but they are all very loyal." Wang Po turned her head and glanced at the beautiful and dignified female colleague.
"Even that Zhao Yuanwai hates him. When Yuan Shi is around, Fu Qingyang talks a lot." The Queen was shocked and exclaimed, "Is this the so-called mutual appreciation of geniuses?"
"No, Zhao Yuanwai just hates listening to Yuan Shi flatter him." At this moment, Huo De Xingjun said irritably, "Does Widow Xu really live nearby? Could it be that Wang Po is lying to us?"
They had been searching for half an hour, and Zhang Yuanqing's throat was almost hoarse, but the legendary Xu Xi woman had not appeared. If they couldn't find her, it meant that the task would be difficult to proceed. At this time, the sun was scorching hot,
Baking the ancient town. After walking for half an hour, everyone was covered in sweat and had to take a break in a light-sheltered alley.
Li Chunfeng leaned against the old white wall, fanning himself with his hand and saying, "Are we missing any information?"
Missing information. Zhang Yuanqing lowered his head and thought, going over the details in his mind. He didn't find anything missing. But, well, not feeling it doesn't mean there isn't. If I triggered the old ailment, I should be able to recall all the details, but it's not worth it. Wang Po stood next to Li Xianzong, pondered for a few seconds, and said, "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 with that scarecrow.
"But this has nothing to do with the difficulties we are currently encountering."
The round-faced Qing Ou frowned and said, "The weather is a bit hot, making people feel restless. I'm thirsty, what about you?" I'm also thirsty. Li Xianzong immediately looked at the Queen and smiled, "Your Majesty, grant us some juice." "What juice? What you're saying sounds weird." The Queen muttered. But if you were Wang Po, I would be saying these words while staring at your chest, Zhang Yuanqing thought.
Driving with Wang Po was catering to her preferences. The old driver liked this kind of thing. But driving with other girls would make him look perverted. This Queen, judging by her appearance alone, was definitely a beautiful mature woman, with big earrings and smoky makeup. Under her bean-seasoned short shirt and capri pants was a well-proportioned and mature figure.
But unlike Wang Po, who hated driving, she was relatively "clumsy" in this regard. "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 moment and said, "I'll go to the river to 'transport' some water for you. Even dirty water can be directly drunk after being purified by us water demons."
Wang Po reminded, "Don't go too far." The Queen didn't look back. "Don't worry, we won't encounter the evil faction 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 way to trigger the encounter with Xu Xiuer. But the information given is too little, making it difficult to deduce the triggering method." Wang Po suggested, "Why not start from the character's background?" "Start from the character's background?" Li Chunfeng pondered, "She is a widow, suspected of cursing Guan Ya's son, and is likely to be a shaman. Wang Po's son has hurt her, most likely by breaking into the widow's door at night."
"But there is a logical bug here. Since she is a shaman, 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 has little to do with the current predicament."
"What are you talking about? You've analyzed a lot, but it doesn't feel like there's a focus. 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.
"That makes no sense at all!" Li Li Yuan Shang Cao said, "Didn't previous The Way of the Extraordinary walk through this plot? Were there no men among them?"
"This" The round-faced Chi Ou couldn't answer. Guan Ya pondered, "No, Huo De Xingjun's guess makes sense. I have a speculation. What if, what if this level requires a female The Way of the Extraordinary to trigger it?" Her words made the faces of everyone present change.