WTYTIAAN Chapter 187

“Merchant, esteemed sir! We have completed your request. However, the blacksmith couldn’t quite understand what you wanted in your order. But we’ve collected a whole warehouse of various ores that blacksmiths use, ensuring you can order the weapon of your dreams!”

[Mount Emei Monkey] finished the entire sentence in one breath without pausing. The surrounding players looked at her, silent—

Oh, right, I forgot I’d silenced them.

Yan Yunqing blinked. “Is that so? I’m truly grateful. Then please allow me to meet this blacksmith. I hope, as you say, he’ll readily accept my order.”

Players: !

Yes! It looks like this quest can be completed within the time limit.

“Then you shall lead the way for me,” Yan Yunqing said, pointing to [Mount Emei Monkey].

The other players’ gazes immediately fell on [Mount Emei Monkey]. The players under the silence spell couldn’t speak, but they had the special cheat weapon of players: the chat panel.

In an instant, private messages popped up on the players’ private chat panels.

[What’s going on? Does this mean she’s going to be the first to complete the quest? I remember she wasn’t the first one here, was she?]

[Why does the NPC randomly choose someone to complete the quest? Shouldn’t the first player to find the NPC be considered the one who completed it? What kind of low-level code is this?]

[Could there be hidden favorability settings?]

[Which newbie village is this player from? Could she be an outsider?]

…

Yan Yunqing didn’t know what the players were chatting about privately, but seeing them all reach out to summon the system interface at the same time, he could tell that their chat panel must be buzzing.

They were still too inexperienced. He could now open the system panel and use its functions with his mind, ensuring the players wouldn’t notice anything unusual.

[Mount Emei Monkey] never expected that she might be the one to submit the final task for this public quest. She was ecstatic. This was the first time she’d come into contact with a special quest; no matter how hard she tried before, she only encountered basic tasks in newbie villages.

“Of course!” [Mount Emei Monkey] readily agreed, trotting forward to lead Yan Yunqing. The other players were helpless; after all, they were all afflicted with the [Silence] debuff and had no way to seize the initiative.

They could only hope that this mysterious merchant NPC wouldn’t directly settle the quest.

Yan Yunqing reappeared at the entrance of the blacksmith’s shop after more than a week. Merlin had already sensed his presence. This time, he wasn’t dead drunk but was pretending to study ores in the blacksmith’s shop.

As soon as Yan Yunqing entered, Merlin looked up at him, casting a resentful glance. Even with the hood, Yan Yunqing’s vision wasn’t obstructed, and he saw it clearly.

Yan Yunqing: Cough.

The quest he issued had indeed caused Merlin some trouble.

The player was still oblivious, happily leading Yan Yunqing to Merlin. [Mount Emei Monkey] said, “Merlin, the merchant is here. Please take his order!”

The player looked forward to this historic meeting with anticipation—

Merlin glanced at Yan Yunqing: Look at the mess you’ve made.

Yan Yunqing, relying on the hood to conceal his expression, gave a reserved smile that Merlin and the player couldn’t see. He took out a roll of parchment from the wide sleeve of his magic robe and handed it to Merlin. “This is what I need, Mr. Mason.”

Merlin raised an eyebrow, not expecting Yan Yunqing to actually produce something. He took it, unfurled it, and couldn’t help but twitch his eye.

The parchment was blank, imprinted with two large paw prints—considering whose territory Yan Yunqing had been in these past few days, there was no doubt who those paw prints belonged to.

Merlin: …

Merlin glanced at Yan Yunqing, whose face was completely hidden by the hood. He was as fond of teasing people as ever.

Yan Yunqing feigned confusion. “What’s wrong, Mr. Mason? Are you unable to fulfill this order?”

Players: !

The players stared intently at Merlin, afraid that the unreliable drunk blacksmith would say he couldn’t do it. What was the point of them digging for ores everywhere these past few days?

Were they just being diligent?

What a terrible king.

Merlin sighed inwardly. He rolled up the parchment and stuffed it into his pocket, lest the Skyfallen Ones see the inexplicable paw prints. “Of course I can, sir. Please come with me, and we’ll discuss the details of this order.”

Merlin stood up, gesturing for Yan Yunqing to follow.

“Great, I like doing business with straightforward people,” Yan Yunqing said, also standing up and following Merlin into the back room without hesitation.

The abandoned player: ???

So, what about their quest? Was it completed or not?

Wait, why did the NPC leave them behind again?

What is your relationship? Last time, you closed the door without a word. This time, you only said a few words before wanting to chat privately?

Huh???

With a “click,” the door closed, blocking the players’ view. Merlin set up a soundproofing spell again, preventing the people outside from hearing their conversation.

Yan Yunqing took off his hood, revealing Nolan’s face. Merlin couldn’t help but pause for a moment. The eyebrows he was about to raise relaxed again, and he subconsciously softened his expression.

Yan Yunqing gave himself a thumbs up in his heart.

As expected, Nolan’s face would unconsciously evoke goodwill from his former friends and subordinates. It was probably because he had raised his affinity too high in “Demon King.”

Merlin only softened his expression for a moment before quickly recovering. He gave him a speechless look. “Can’t you sneak over here next time? You’re just bringing me trouble. Heaven knows how confused I was when those Skyfallen Ones came to me talking about a merchant’s order.”

“Don’t say you can’t do it. I know that if you wanted to, you’d have a hundred ways to sneak in.”

Yan Yunqing curved his eyes. “Oh, don’t you think this is fun?”

Merlin didn’t think it was fun and rolled his eyes at Yan Yunqing.

“Alright, alright, I just wanted to take the opportunity to test out some special skills.” Yan Yunqing spread his hands. “I promise I won’t bother you next time.”

Merlin looked at him suspiciously.

Yan Yunqing: Innocent.JPG

Merlin could only resign himself to bad luck. “Is everything alright with Beros? That prince… what was his name, is he dead?”

Yan Yunqing nodded. “Dead. He couldn’t withstand the interrogation. His injuries were too severe.”

Merlin had seen so much death in his long life that he had long since grown indifferent. He had no goodwill towards someone like Fiq, who wanted to climb to the top by stepping on the lives of an entire city. Dead was dead.

“Augreir… Tsk, as far as I know, although the queen has always favored the Second Prince Shelton, she also doted on the Fei Wu and Fiq brothers, after all, they were the twins she gave birth to when she was at the height of her power.”

Since the Slangli Pa City incident, Merlin had thoroughly investigated the Augreir family’s affairs in the open these past few days and had heard about the queen’s deeds.

“You killed Fei Wu, the queen was already very angry, pouring all her remaining affection into Fiq, and now that Fiq is dead, it is estimated that the Augreir family will have big plans next,” Merlin said.

Yan Yunqing touched his nose. “How do you know… it was me?”

He didn’t seem to have admitted to Merlin that he killed Fei Wu, did he?

Merlin stared at Yan Yunqing for a moment. “…Do you really think I’m stupid?”

“When you and Beros fought that day, the image you used, the image you appeared in Mantiper, those obvious features, how could I not recognize you?” Merlin said with interest, “Besides, you’re also on Bato Vita’s wanted list, speaking of which, you really…”

“I didn’t!” Yan Yunqing said with a straight face, “It wasn’t me!”

“I haven’t even asked yet?” Merlin said amusingly.

Yan Yunqing rolled his eyes. “Then don’t ask, anyway, I didn’t do it.”

Seeing that Merlin was suspicious, Yan Yunqing sighed and simply told him about what happened in Bato Vita, picking out the parts he could talk about.

For example, how he happened to meet Cornelia, who was looking for her sister, then some of the things that happened in Sunset Village, and finally how he decided to avenge Karenna and the others, cooperating with Cornelia to sneak into the Bato Vita Royal Palace, killing Fei Wu, and incidentally promising to buy enough time for Cornelia.

Merlin listened in a daze. “Your adventure is quite colorful.”

Yan Yunqing gave him a dead fish eye.

“But… Cornelia?” Merlin touched his chin, thinking. “The name sounds a bit familiar, a mermaid…”

Yan Yunqing was puzzled. “Do you know her?”

The mermaids were the royal family that ruled the Sea Clan. Since the Eternal Empire fell apart, the mermaids had chosen to return to the depths of the sea, and it was difficult to see the Sea Clan in the inland.

Of course, smuggling and illegal trafficking didn’t count.

And Merlin had been following Isabel all year round, either in the Dragon Valley far from the ocean or running around everywhere. Would he have met Cornelia, who had just run out of the deep sea to find her sister?

Merlin recalled for a long time, finally saying uncertainly: “I don’t know if it’s the same person, but I may indeed know the Cornelia you’re talking about?”

“But the Cornelia I know is completely different from the Cornelia you described. The Cornelia I know is a ruthless mermaid.” Merlin said, “She is the terrible guy who killed an entire royal bloodline. I heard that there were even mermaids who grew up with her.”

Yan Yunqing thought of the frail little girl smiling softly in the evening breeze and couldn’t help but make a question mark. “Ah?”

“Oh?” Merlin saw Yan Yunqing’s disbelief and smiled, “It seems that the Cornelia I’m talking about is very different from the one you know.”

“Can you tell me more about it?” Yan Yunqing couldn’t help but be curious. “The story I heard doesn’t seem to be the same as what you said.”

“Actually, I was just curious because I heard that a branch of the mermaid royal family was all killed by a mixed-blood mermaid, so I went to find out.”

Merlin shrugged, “After all, the former mermaid prince’s trident was invincible. The descendants he chose would be so easily killed by a mixed-blood mermaid. It sounds really incredible.”

Mermaid Prince… Siren.

A scene from “Demon King” flashed before Yan Yunqing’s eyes, the man who had a beautiful transparent fishtail…

He was one of the few attendants who had never expressed any admiration for the Demon King.