Chapter 16: The Weakness in the Capital City

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The person who appeared before An Five was a monk.

He looked fairly young and had delicate, handsome features. His monastic robe was covered in patches of every color, and he wore straw sandals. When he spoke, he kept his palms together and behaved with impeccable propriety. He looked exactly like a guileless little novice who had lived in a temple since childhood.

“The Compassionate Relief Courtyard?”

“Over there.” The young monk pointed behind Anguo Temple. “I’m on my way back. Would you like to come with me? There’s only room left in the communal dormitory, though, so you’d have to stay with the others.”

“Are there any private rooms?”

“There are, but women and certain patients aren’t always able to share rooms with others… Are you hungry? If you haven’t eaten yet, there might still be some leftovers if we go now.”

Yan Qing followed the monk without much suspicion. For one thing, this was only a secondary character; for another, he did not believe anyone in Chang’an could harm him. The monk was extremely talkative and introduced himself without prompting.

“My monastic name is Ben Zhi. I practice at Anguo Temple’s Service Courtyard—in other words, I do odd jobs… But doing odd jobs at Anguo Temple is actually a good thing. Unlike the Martial Monk Courtyard, we don’t have to train from morning till night, so it isn’t nearly as exhausting…”

“Besides, the Service Courtyard can rotate people through the Compassionate Relief Courtyard. Every ten days, we get three days outside… Oh, right. What’s your name, benefactor?”

“An Five.”

“An Five, this is the Compassionate Relief Courtyard. See? It’s very close.”

Ben Zhi led An Five to a large residence. The plaque above the entrance read “Compassionate Relief Courtyard.” The moment they entered, they were assailed by the strong smell of medicine. Dozens of medicine pots were boiling, while in the large room beside them lay several dozen patients.

“This is the patients’ ward. If you feel unwell, you can come here during the day. The senior and junior brothers from the Gourd Hall come over from the county to provide free consultations.”

“The county?”

“Anguo Temple has an even larger temple outside the county. Land in the city is precious, after all, and aside from the main hall, Anguo Temple has very little space for housing its monks. Would you like something to eat?”

“No need.” Yan Qing thought, I still have dozens of roasted lamb legs in my inventory.

“This Compassionate Relief Courtyard was built with donations from many benevolent gentlemen in Chang’an. Anguo Temple merely manages it. Although we don’t charge anything, unless someone is seriously ill or in special circumstances, we ask them to leave after seven days at most. If they have nowhere to go, people come here during the day to recruit tenant farmers and day laborers. We don’t support idlers here…”

“Although the Buddha protects the city, so that ordinary people cannot be harmed by blades or swords and are safe from fire and water, pushing and shoving are permitted. When you sleep, it’s best to keep your backside against the wall… Ah, even monks like us occasionally run into thugs of that sort.”

The Buddha’s protection was quite something. Still, it made sense. The monsters in dungeons were described as demons and devils, so naturally, a safe zone where people could not harm one another would be regarded as a miracle granted by every god and Buddha under heaven.

As they walked, Ben Zhi opened a side door. Inside were numerous cleaning implements, clearly making it a storeroom. At the very back stood a large wooden tub.

Ben Zhi went over and called out, “Come lend me a hand, benefactor. Help me carry this tub to the well. I nearly forgot the task Uncle-Master Chengyin gave me.”

There was no reason to refuse such a small favor. An Five went to the opposite side of the tub and prepared to lift it with him.

“Stand firmly now.”

As the little novice spoke, he did not lift the tub. Instead, he reached out and seized a hemp rope hanging beside him.

Snap.

The wooden floor beneath An Five suddenly sank, revealing a hole. Yan Qing had neither the time nor the means to stop An Five from falling. An Five slid downward as if on a playground slide, and after nearly twenty seconds, landed with a smack on a pile of straw.

Although the shaft contained sloping sections to cushion the descent, An Five’s health still inevitably fell by one-tenth. Yan Qing gained a sudden insight: Chang’an prevented people from harming one another, but it did not prohibit fall damage. By the same reasoning, jumping from a building in Chang’an would certainly still be fatal.

“Heh. A newcomer this late at night?”

An Five had landed in an underground prison. Candlelight was the only illumination, and black iron bars rose from the hard blue stone floor. Two tall, powerfully built, bald monks sat outside the cell. Their features were fairly respectable, but there was not the slightest trace of compassion in their eyes. They looked at An Five the way farmers regarded the chickens and ducks they raised.

“Praise be. Red lips, white teeth, fair skin, nimble hands and feet. An excellent specimen.”

“Looks like he comes from a poor family, though. He’ll need some training first. Country bumpkins don’t fetch a good price.”

“That won’t be difficult. In the end, it all comes down to appearance. What does it matter if an ugly girl is the daughter of a minister? If someone is beautiful, people will believe she is the child of a noble family.”

Aside from An Five, the newcomer, there were more than a dozen people in the cell. Men, women, and even children—but without exception, all were good-looking. Quite a few wore expensive clothing and were obviously from wealthy households. Yet every one of them lay weakly on the ground, listless and emaciated. A few chamber pots sat in the corner, but filth was scattered across the floor as well. Fortunately, the game console could not transmit smells. Otherwise, Yan Qing would certainly have lost his appetite for his late-night snack.

There were so many prisoners, yet the two martial monks outside discussed without the slightest hesitation how to sell them for the highest price. Clearly, they had complete confidence in this prison and the entire trafficking network. Even if these people eventually escaped, there was no possibility whatsoever that they could retaliate.

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Yet there were still many details Yan Qing did not understand.

“Is the Compassionate Relief Courtyard a place you use specifically to abduct people? Are all the elderly, children, and sick people inside it impostors?”

The martial monk pressed his palms together and revealed a solemn, dignified smile.

“The Buddha is compassionate. It is only right that those who have renounced the world should aid ordinary people. The Compassionate Relief Courtyard is naturally genuine. If the elderly, the weak, women, or children come here, Anguo Temple will do everything in its power to care for them. As for distributing porridge and coal, repairing bridges, and maintaining roads, Anguo Temple has never failed to do so year after year. Our good name has spread in every direction.”

“That is precisely why, if anyone were to slander Anguo Temple by claiming that a family member vanished after going there to offer incense, neither the people nor the authorities would tolerate such a rebellious wretch disgracing Anguo Temple’s century-old reputation.”

The martial monk was not saying this solely to An Five. He wanted the others to hear it as well. If things were truly as he claimed, then none of the victims in this cell could possibly expect aid from outside.

Perhaps sensing An Five’s unexpected calm, the martial monk looked him over several times before warning him, “Stay put and behave. No matter what you say, you’ll be left here to starve for several days. But if you cause us trouble, don’t blame us for making you suffer.”

So it really was starvation.

Looking at the prisoners, who were too weak even to sit upright, their cheeks hollow from hunger, Yan Qing guessed how these people managed to harm others despite the restrictions of the safe zone. First, they lured their victims into a place they could not escape—a prison cell. Then they starved them until they no longer had the strength to resist. Once that happened, the victims naturally became meat on the chopping block.

Yan Qing had assumed this place existed only to starve people, while the real “training” took place in the temple outside Chang’an. Without the safe zone, they could use all sorts of methods. But judging from the martial monk’s words, did they actually have a way to injure people even inside the safe zone?

With that thought, Yan Qing put on an exceptionally arrogant expression.

“Come on, then. I’d like to see what you grandsons can do to your grandfather. Chang’an is protected by the gods. What can you possibly do to me?”

The martial monks exchanged glances. One of them gave a cold laugh, walked over, and opened a black jar on the ground. He ladled out a scoop of oil into a bowl, then brought it near a candle. The black oil in the bowl immediately burst into roaring flames.

Fire?

“Come on! You think playing with fire can frighten your grandfather?” Yan Qing was completely unafraid. He even controlled An Five into walking to the bars and sticking his hand through them. “If you’ve got the nerve, burn me.”

Yan Qing refused to believe the safe zone contained such a massive loophole. If it did, what kind of safe zone would it be? If people could harm one another simply by playing with fire, then a single Flame Messenger could wipe out the entire main city. Besides, it was only An Five in the cell. If Yan Qing guessed wrong… then so be it.

The martial monk, however, began explaining at his leisure.

“Normally, fire cannot burn other people. It will even go out the moment it is poured out.”

He splashed the burning oil into the cell. The black oil landed on the floor and immediately went out, leaving only dark stains behind.

“Under the Buddha’s protection, fire in Chang’an cannot burn external objects, nor can it burn other people. Only those of supreme enlightenment, supreme wisdom, and perfect attainment can understand the Buddha’s true intent and comprehend the meaning of fire to the people of this world…”

The martial monk casually picked up a piece of clothing from the pile of miscellaneous objects beside him. It appeared to be an old garment left behind by someone. He wrapped it around his hand like a strip of cloth, then poured the entire bowl of burning black oil over it.

Whoosh!

“Blazing sacred fire, burn away my mortal remains!”

The martial monk raised his flaming right hand and rushed forward, seizing An Five’s hand through the bars. Although An Five immediately pulled back, several drops of health still vanished. Worse, some of the black oil splashed onto his hand and began burning him. He had to roll across the ground to extinguish it.

“Brat, still feeling tough?”

With a cold laugh, the martial monk tossed the strip of cloth onto the ground. Astonishingly, it continued to burn instead of going out like the bowl of oil had.

Yan Qing immediately understood the principle. Burning another person or a building triggered the safe zone’s rules, causing the attack either to fail or the flames to be extinguished.

There was only one exception: burning oneself.

The safe zone prohibited people from harming others, but it did not prohibit them from harming themselves. Once a person caught fire, the safe zone’s judgment no longer applied to those flames, allowing them to damage other people and the surrounding environment normally.

It was remarkable that these people had actually discovered such a loophole.

But this alone was not enough to make Yan Qing back down. He retreated onto the straw and waved at them.

“Come on. Let’s see whether you dare burn this whole place down.”

“You think that will let you get away with insulting us? We have plenty of ways to deal with a stubborn wretch like you.”

The martial monk took a large candle from the wall. He waited patiently until the wax was about to drip, then gave it a hard flick. A drop of candle wax flew toward An Five.

Yan Qing was not foolish enough to stand there motionless. He dodged several times in succession, then suddenly heard a scream behind him. Turning around, he saw that a drop of candle wax had landed on a little girl nearby. She curled up in pain, trying to make herself as inconspicuous as possible.

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Because An Five had turned around, he was struck by several drops of candle wax. Yet he suffered no damage at all, and his health did not decrease by even a single point.

“Oh? You can endure even that?”

The martial monk seemed somewhat surprised. He lowered the candle.

“Then enjoy your arrogance for a few more days. Once you’re too weak from hunger to move, I’ll cover your entire body in candle wax and see whether you’re truly so tough.”

The candle wax caused no damage, yet it could still make people feel pain…

It was probably because the wax was a falling projectile rather than direct damage inflicted by another person. In the game system, candle wax was likely classified as an “environmental interactive object”—in other words, it had been placed on the safe zone’s whitelist. Thus, it could scald people and cause pain, constituting a minor loophole.

There probably were not many loopholes like this. The conditions of “no damage but slight pain” and “projectile” were so stringent that candle wax was likely the only thing that qualified.

Yet the two techniques alone—the self-immolation fire attack, which could inflict actual damage, and the splashing candle wax, which could cause pain without damage—were enough to show that Anguo Temple, or rather the people here, had thoroughly studied every loophole in the safe zone.

Yan Qing glanced at the only exit from the outer hall.

“You’ll have to open the cell sooner or later. I’ll escape for certain, and when I do, you won’t be able to stop me.”

“Escape? Anguo Temple is right outside. How are you going to escape?” The martial monk sat down and continued eating peanuts and drinking wine. “Even if you can get out of this cell, all I have to do is ring a bell, and Anguo Temple will immediately seal the gates and block the exits. How will you escape then? We won’t even need to lay a hand on you. We only have to block the passage, and you won’t get past us!”

“I advise all of you to obey us obediently. If you really force our hand…” The martial monk’s expression turned cold. “There are more than a dozen jars of lamp oil here. That’s enough to burn every one of you to ash.”

Yan Qing continued acting like a troublemaker and probed them with a few more questions, gradually learning the general layout of the place.

The underground prison was connected to both Anguo Temple and the Compassionate Relief Courtyard. The courtyard had only one passage leading downward—a slide that was essentially impossible to climb back up. The passage to Anguo Temple was relatively narrow, and two martial monks were enough to block the stairway. The main hall of Anguo Temple lay directly above, so there was no chance that these bald monks would obediently allow their victims to flee.

In truth, this entire incident was the result of Yan Qing’s character customization. If he had created a burly man with thirteen points of vitality, he would never have been lured into the trap. Unfortunately, a short young man with thirteen points of agility happened to fit the worldly definition of a beautiful youth, making him ideal prey for the monks.

But if the people of Anguo Temple could hunt and capture people outside Chang’an by force, why had they gone to such lengths to set traps inside the city? The risks and time involved were both far greater than operating beyond Chang’an’s walls.

Yan Qing asked the martial monk several times, but the man could not be bothered to answer. Only when his impatience finally reached its limit did he let something slip.

“You’ll find out soon enough. Don’t imagine that the gods and Buddhas will protect you. Even in Chang’an, people like you can only obediently serve as dogs!”

Chang’an!

Yan Qing looked at the noble young ladies and sons of eminent families in the cell and faintly grasped the truth. If this were not Chang’an, would these helpless people dare go out alone? Would they have fallen into such a simple trap and found heaven deaf to their cries?

No.

It was precisely because they trusted in Chang’an’s protection that those unable to defend themselves had ended up here. Conversely, did that mean Chang’an was little different from a prison to certain people who could protect themselves?

They could have acted as they pleased, yet they were constrained by the rules of the safe zone and could not even punish others.

No wonder Chang’an County was so much more prosperous than Chang’an City. Perhaps many powerful and influential people would rather live outside than remain in a main city where they were restricted at every turn.

And whenever rules existed, breaking through them naturally became a source of pleasure. It was like bathing on the ground versus bathing aboard an airplane. Both were bathing, but the latter was clearly more luxurious and enviable.

Human trafficking was merely the surface. What Anguo Temple truly sold was the thrill of trampling upon the rules.

In simpler gaming terminology, it was cheating. You could not violate the rules to hurt me, but I could exploit loopholes to hurt you. In any game with player-versus-player combat, there would always be people who sought the pleasure of crushing others through such a completely one-sided advantage.

Moreover, the higher the victim’s status, the better. Their customers surely had countless servants outside and had long since grown bored of bullying common laborers. Only prey of noble birth could truly stir their interest.

Now that he understood the truth, what could Yan Qing do?

After a brief moment of thought, Yan Qing gave An Five a few evolution commands, logged out of the account, and logged into An Six.

In the alley, one of the four youths sitting on the ground resting slowly stood up. He rolled his neck, then turned to look toward the Compassionate Relief Courtyard.

In-game vengeance lasted from dawn to dusk.

The first step was to deal with Ben Zhi, who had actually dared to deceive him.

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