Inside the inner hall treasury of Anguo Temple, Ying Ru Shi took a coil of snake‑patterned rope from her backpack.
“Wow, it really is a Murong family rope,” Shang Xinlei said as she picked it up and wound it around the wheel outside the treasury with admiration.
“It truly is a work of art,” she added.
“It seems White Fox has quite the connections in Qi,” dicine Master Wen said evenly while wrapping the rope.
“The ropes Murong sells aren’t of this quality,” she remarked.
Ying Ru Shi smiled.
“It’s not really connections. It’s just that rope like this is rare—there’s no way to get this quality elsewhere. But it’s not like it’s inexpensive; hardly anyone cares about rope quality that much. After all, their secret realm lies beneath a cliff… I only know one friend in the Murong family, so it was easy to get.”
“Compared to that, Black Wolf, your connections are even wilder—sohow you acquired an Exceptional Token. Did you get the token crafting blueprint from so secret realm?”
“It wasn’t crafting,” dicine Master Wen said, raising her head with restrained pride.
“It was ascension.”
“Of course,” Ying Ru Shi said, with a hint of envy amid surprised tones.
“We all know a bit about Exceptional Tokens, but none have powers matching your performance just now.”
“You actually ascended a token… that’s incredible…”
Under her mask, dicine Master Wen’s face ward and she relaxed.
Her gaze softened toward Ying Ru Shi, and she even offered guidance.
“Ascension isn’t that difficult. You just refine the token day and night—when you master it, ascension is possible.”
Yan Qing felt confused.
He understood ‘token crafting’ and ‘token ascension’—two upgrade paths.
But he had never heard of the ‘Exceptional Token’ Black Wolf and White Fox ntioned, and he didn’t know what it referred to.
“Black Wolf, your Exceptional Token must have the effects of ‘Defense’ and ‘Counterattack,’ right?” Shang Xinlei asked confidently.
“And the counterattack strength scales with how much damage you blocked—otherwise you wouldn’t need to wait for those bald monks to strike first before retaliating. From that angle, your Exceptional Token must be in armor… or clothing?”
Ying Ru Shi glanced at Shang Xinlei.
She could see the sa things, but she didn’t say them.
She thought sharply: Red Snake’s insight was keen—she had thought the token might be that conspicuous steel glaive Black Wolf wielded.
dicine Master Wen didn’t bother hiding.
She tugged at her collar to reveal a dark‑brown inner armor with a faint blue glow at the edges, as if the armor were breathing.
“The Second‑Tier Exceptional Token: Ming Wang Armor,” she said calmly.
“In the future, when you need to break through defenses, you can rely on .” ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ n0velfire
This ti, dicine Master Wen finally saw amazent in Yan Qing’s eyes.
Though she noted it lacked jealousy or resentnt—hm, he probably thought he’d never catch up with her in this lifeti, so he didn’t even feel jealous anymore.
dicine Master Wen thought so.
But Yan Qing wasn’t stunned by the Ming Wang Armor itself.
He finally realized that the so‑called Exceptional Tokens the others spoke of—the tokens that astonished monks outside—were simply the rare grade tokens in the ga!
In The ssenger, tokens were not only the source of player skills but also the players’ gear, and naturally, they had tiers.
From lowest to highest, they were Plain (white), Rare (blue), Precious (gold), Legendary (orange), and Dark‑Gold (Immortal).
Plain and Rare were transitional items for players, so when Yan Qing heard them talk about Exceptional Tokens, he hadn’t reacted—like hearing soone praise an object as “as thin as a cicada’s wing, as white as snow,” who’d think it’s a roll of Vinda brand tissue used for wiping mouth or bottom.
While spinning the snake‑patterned rope, Yan Qing asked, “What tier sits above Exceptional Tokens?”
Everyone looked at him curiously.
Shang Xinlei answered, “That would be Exotic Tokens.”
“And above Exotic?” he pressed.
“That would be Legendary Tokens—famous across the world and only held by outstanding figures,” she replied.
“And above Legendary?”
“Legendary is the highest tier,” Shang Xinlei said, surprised.
“Could there really be a tier higher than Legendary tokens?”
It seed they didn’t know about Immortal Tokens… Yan Qing wasn’t surprised.
Even Legendary Tokens only appeared after Fourth‑Tier ascension, so at their level, it was impossible they knew about Immortal Tokens.
But just by the nas, it was clear that high‑tier tokens in their world were far rarer than in the ga—‘Rare’ beca ‘Exceptional,’ ‘Precious’ beca ‘Exotic,’ while ‘Legendary’ remained the sa.
Well, clever won are handicapped without rice—no wonder they valued rare tokens so much.
That was his thought, and that was his look.
dicine Master Wen sensed his gaze shifting from wonder to pity.
She was no stranger to that kind of look—many benefactors outside Chang’an would walk by ragged street children and drop so food bits for them to scramble over.
They looked down with pity, seeing the world full of suffering.
dicine Master Wen had never imagined she would be the target of that look.
She didn’t even get angry—just wondered why Yan Qing looked at her that way.
Before she could ask, Shang Xinlei posed a question that caught her full attention.
“The task reward was supposed to turn the Bingzi Pepper Forest into a token, right?
For the Thieves’ House reward, it should at least be an Exceptional Token, right?”
“It could also be an Exotic Token,” Ying Ru Shi said enthusiastically.
“But it definitely couldn’t be an ordinary one.”
“It’s a Legendary Token,” Yan Qing said.
At that mont, dicine Master Wen finally realized she should be angry, and imdiately retorted, “How do you know it’s a Legendary Token? Do you know how rare those are? And the quest reward is a First-Stage Token—how could there be a First-Stage Legendary Token?”
Yan Qing didn’t argue with her and simply kept twisting the snake-patterned rope with force.
As they twisted the rope, it tightened more and more, and the gold cabinet door wrapped in the rope began to creak and crack.
The golden door that even a ssenger couldn’t shake was actually starting to collapse under the pressure of a single rope!
Boom!
With a few loud explosions, the doors of the gold cabinet—entwined with the snake-patterned rope—burst from the cabinet and collided in midair!
The gold cabinet door, which would take a martial monk an entire hour to open, only lasted a few monts in their hands—and they hadn’t used a single token, just one rope!
“Even though it was part of the plan, seeing it for real is still shocking,” Ying Ru Shi murmured.
“How can tying so many knots cause the rope to release such power?”
“It’s simple—just the principle of movable pulley amplification,” Yan Qing said, pulling out a large sack.
“Grab what we need and go.”
Opening the gold cabinet door with rope relied on using knots as movable pulleys to multiply force.
The more knots they tied, the more it worked like an extrely long lever to pry open the cabinet.
Yan Qing had learned this trick from tales of infamous thieves robbing banks—it was a proven thod among professionals.
He had just reconstructed the steps using his knowledge of physics.
All four gold cabinets were opened, and of course, Yan Qing and the others weren’t going to leave with just the Bingzi Pepper Forest.
Even dicine Master Wen didn’t object—she had brought the largest sack.
But the task was urgent and the cabinets were stuffed with treasure, so they had to move as fast as possible to fill their sacks and get out.
Though the cabinets were big and held many items, most of them were worthless to Yan Qing’s group: business and land deeds were useless to them, they didn’t need gems, gold, or jewelry, and antiques and paintings held no aning for them either.
So the most valuable items in the treasury were Spirit Jades, Healing Pills, and various rare materials dropped from secret realms!
As for tokens, there wasn’t a single one.
After all, tokens were essentially weapons, ant to be converted into combat power.
Even if a token couldn’t be used right away, people would still keep it at ho as a backup.
Who would ever lock away weapons in a gold cabinet to earn interest?
Still, even stealing a sack of Spirit Jades was worth it.
Yan Qing estimated the sack could hold two to three thousand Spirit Jades.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t a ga character, and without a ga console, he couldn’t access personal or public storage.
Otherwise, he could’ve emptied all four gold cabinets.
Clang!
Suddenly, the sound of clashing tal echoed from behind.
Yan Qing turned to see Black Wolf and White Fox fighting.
Black Wolf thrust her spear, White Fox drew his sword—neither backing down, blocking each other in front of one of the gold cabinets.
Inside that cabinet was a weapon stand, and on it rested a three-foot-long blade.
Its hilt was inlaid with jewels forming a pattern, and its scabbard was engraved with birds and beasts in elaborate carvings—graceful and imposing, luxuriously crafted.
Even with other jewels and precious tals in the cabinet, they paled in comparison to this blade.
This was the objective of their mission.
Bingzi Pepper Forest!
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