Messenger of Calamity

Chapter 11: The Capital City

“According to my investigation, Anguo Temple is not only a temple but also the largest bank in Chang’an.”

Medicine Master Wen had just spoken when Yan Qing couldn’t help but ask: “A temple is also a bank?”

“That’s nothing strange. Temples themselves had loan‑granting treasury departments. Prominent clans and noble families depositing money to temples and entrusting those bald monks to lend it out was completely normal. Otherwise, why do you think temples were so flourishing with incense—both the poor and the rich loved to worship Buddha.”

Shang Xinlei blew on her teacup and rubbed her fingers in a vulgar gesture.

“Because that’s how they made money.”

Bang!

Medicine Master Wen struck the stone table heavily and said calmly, “If anyone has doubts or wants to speak up, you can wait until I finish—or perhaps you’d like to preside?”

Everyone promptly shook their heads. Ying Ru Shi took out her notebook and graphite pencil and pretended to take notes, but in reality she was writing a record only she could understand:

“Black Wolf values rules, says one thing and follows through. Even if his true identity isn’t a general, he’s certainly a real power figure commanding a violent agency.”

Medicine Master Wen said, “Because of the double nature of temple and bank, Anguo Temple usually has many people worshipping Buddha, and the job’s required arrival time was at the third quarter of noon. At that time there weren’t many burning incense, but the area around Anguo Temple is full of food stalls and businesses, so there would definitely be many people nearby, just as this sand table map shows.”

Everyone looked down at the real‑time sand table, and indeed the area around Anguo Temple was bustling with traffic of carriages and horses, with both stall vendors and established shops.

“It’s basically impossible to steal without anyone noticing. I suggest we go in head‑on and rob it. What do you all think?”

The three of them exchanged a glance and voted unanimously in favor.

Medicine Master Wen continued, “If we go in head‑on, we need to solve three problems—shut the hall doors, open the golden cabinets, and escape pursuit.”

“Of these, escaping pursuit is the easiest, because Chang’an City is the capital. Whether it’s the palace guards or the frontier Shen Ce Army, they all treat internal security within Chang’an with extreme disregard. The only force capable of rapidly responding is the Wu Hou Fire Patrol.”

“Moreover, we don’t need to flee the city; we only need to stay on Vermilion Bird Avenue for half a quarter of an hour to return to the Thieves’ House.”

“There’s also no need to worry about Anguo Temple’s defense, because Chang’an City is the capital. No one has ever dared rob a temple, and at most the temples had armed warrior‑monks to pressure commoners into repaying debts.”

“As long as the Thieves’ House lifts the capital’s restrictions for us, once we enter Anguo Temple we can control the situation. Those fat‑headed, big‑bellied monks will open the door to the treasury for us after a few whacks.”

Yan Qing felt something strange.

Why did ‘Chang’an City being the capital’ mean that ‘the army would disregard city security’ and ‘temples would never fear being robbed’?

Could it be that Chang’an was the legendary best city in the world, where everyone was honest?

But Ying Ru Shi immediately told the truth.

“You can rest assured about that, Black Wolf,” she said. “Last time the Thieves’ House committed a crime was fifty years ago in Buye Tian, which at the time was the capital of the Wei kingdom. That gang of thieves went straight into the palace from the front gate. The palace guards were so used to the rule that no one could be harmed in the capital, that even when someone was beheaded, they didn’t dodge or avoid, and dozens died before they realized they had to fight back.”

“Whenever the Thieves’ House strikes, they are always allowed to kill in the capital—of course, anyone who encounters thieves will have their restrictions lifted, too.”

Yan Qing suddenly understood.

He recalled the game’s three major capital cities—Jiangnan, Chang’an, Buye Tian—and finally realized that the “capital” they were talking about was indeed the in‑game term for capital city!

A complete safety zone where players couldn’t harm NPCs or other players!

Yan Qing remembered that he had designed the Thieves’ House dungeon to involve stealing in the main‑world capital. More precisely, stealing in the safe zone was one of the dungeon’s selling points.

He’d initially overlooked the concept of a safety zone, since this was reality, not a game—but he hadn’t expected this world to be “gamified” so thoroughly, with not only dungeons implemented but also safety zones!

“Then the second problem: opening the golden cabinet.”

Medicine Master Wen pointed at that huge golden cabinet inside Anguo Temple. “Anguo Temple has four large golden cabinets. Each cabinet is one zhang tall, one zhang wide, and one zhang deep, called the ‘One‑Zhang Cabinet’. The doors and walls of the cabinet are two chi thick, cast with tons of refined gold by the Third‑Stage Imperial Fire Messenger in the past.”

“The mission time is only two quarters of an hour, which also includes our round‑trip time from Vermilion Bird Avenue to Anguo Temple and the half‑quarter‑hour needed for withdrawal. That means at most we have only one quarter of an hour to deal with this cabinet.”

“There are only three ways to handle the cabinet—take it whole, violently break it open, or pick the lock. The least feasible method is lockpicking.”

“Why is lockpicking not feasible?”

Shang Xinlei opened the small pouch she carried, took out a pastry, ate a bite, and sipped tea, as if performing an after‑meal dessert ritual. Yan Qing thought this person had quite the appetite—she was eating and drinking here all by herself, yet she seemed perfectly at ease doing so—and she didn’t even share with him.

But Shang Xinlei clearly couldn’t hear Yan Qing’s complaints, and she said seriously, “I have the ‘Invisible Hand’. So far, I haven’t met a lock that can stop me.”

She seemed afraid they wouldn’t believe her, so she pulled out a glove from her pouch—thin as a cicada’s wing silk. Its cuff was supposed to be slightly loose, but once she wore it, it fit perfectly with no visible wrinkles.

If Yan Qing had logged into a side account, he would have seen the item’s detailed information, but unfortunately he was just a three-dimensional being without a game system. Although Shang Xinlei didn’t reveal full intel about the Invisible Hand, she still gave a brief demonstration of its wonders—

Her fingertip gently brushed across the water chestnut cake on the table.

The cake was like jelly, with clearly visible water chestnuts inside under the light.

As her finger stirred randomly, the inside of the cake turned into a mess, and the square-shaped water chestnuts were crushed by her fingertip.

However, when Shang Xinlei withdrew her hand, everyone could see that although the interior of the cake was full of holes, its surface remained completely intact!

“No wonder it’s called the Invisible Hand,” Ying Ru Shi exclaimed. “With this item, Red Snake, you don’t need a key to unlock anything. Your hand itself is the master key that can crack all lock mechanisms.”

“I don’t doubt your skill,” Medicine Master Wen said. “But the lock on the golden cabinet is more troublesome than you think. Come closer and have a look…”

When they all stood up and bent down to inspect the small section of Anguo Temple on the sand table, Yan Qing was reluctant to go near—despite carrying the White Iron Straight Blade item, he was still an untransformed ordinary person.

The more closely he interacted with them, the easier it would be for them to spot his flaws.

Also, wasn’t this interface too unintelligent? When observing a specific area, it should be zoomable...

Almost instinctively, Yan Qing stretched out three fingers and swiped the sand table.

Then the sand table immediately transformed.

Other regions vanished, leaving only the transparent section of Anguo Temple enlarged to its maximum.

Even the number of bricks and roof tiles could be seen clearly.

A silence fell over the Thieves’ House.

Everyone stared tightly at the sand table and at Yan Qing. After a moment, Shang Xinlei asked, “Can you change it back?”

With the same muscle memory, Yan Qing pinched his three fingers inward, and the sand table returned to its original state.

It was a bit odd—why did phone and tablet gesture logic also work here? Could it be that The Messenger developed a mobile game version after he transmigrated?

“How did you make Anguo Temple bigger?” Shang Xinlei paused, then seemed to realize she was asking a favor, and began to act coy with a delicate voice: “Will you tell me, please?”

Red Snake really was a woman!

Yan Qing, Ying Ru Shi, and Medicine Master Wen all thought the same thing.

In truth, Red Snake had never tried too hard to disguise herself. Although her clothing was of a style suited for movement and revealed little about her figure, everything she used and ate was extremely refined. Her exposed hands were so delicate and fair that it was easy to judge that she was a noblewoman with very high standards of living in real life.

Of course, Yan Qing wouldn’t lose his mind just because her voice was pleasant. On the contrary, he realized this was a chance to strengthen his persona.

“You guys seriously didn’t know?” His tone carried some surprise, then he smiled and chuckled lightly. “Then watch closely—I can demonstrate it a few more times if you want.”

The gestures for zooming in and out were very simple, so Shang Xinlei and the others naturally learned it in one try. But deep down, they felt annoyed.

Anyone could tell Yan Qing’s tone was full of superiority, like a city slicker teaching some bumpkins trivial knowledge.

Still, annoyance was annoyance—they all silently raised their opinion of “Yellow Dog”—to know such obscure tricks, this guy clearly wasn’t as simple as he appeared.

They zoomed in and out of Anguo Temple repeatedly and soon learned to apply the technique flexibly to observe different regions. However, Ying Ru Shi noticed that whenever they zoomed in on sensitive areas like the palace, military camps, or the Six Ministries, Medicine Master Wen would immediately zoom out and redirect the focus elsewhere, as if trying to block them from examining Zhou State’s secrets.

“Black Wolf must be from Zhou and deeply loyal to the Zhou State.” Ying Ru Shi quietly recorded.

After playing around for a while, Medicine Master Wen signaled for the meeting to continue.

She zoomed in on Anguo Temple and let everyone see the four golden cabinets inside the treasury. “Although the golden cabinets have locks, they don’t have keys.”

“There are eighteen embedded steel locks securing the door to the golden cabinet. To unlock them, you can only rotate the dial on the cabinet door.”

They saw that the cabinet door had a dial in the center, with only one handle. Judging by the proportions, the handle was just the right size for an average person to grip with one hand.

“You can see it too—there’s only one handle on the dial, and it’s especially short,” Medicine Master Wen said. “But even if the handle were longer, it wouldn’t save much strength.”

Ying Ru Shi looked at the door that had no keyhole and realized a possibility.

“The only way to open the cabinet is by turning this dial?”

“That’s right. Inside the cabinet door is a very complex gear mechanism. It requires eighty-one full rotations to unlock a single embedded lock.”

“So, that’s 1,458 rotations.”

Shang Xinlei immediately calculated the result.

“By the way, the person responsible for opening the cabinet at Anguo Temple is a martial monk who’s trained his vital energy and blood all his life. His strength is about three times that of a typical Martial Messenger. Even he needs a full breath to rotate the dial once. It takes at least half an hour each time to open the cabinet.”

Medicine Master Wen paused. “All of this was intentionally spread by Anguo Temple to let Chang’an’s nobles know how secure their golden cabinets are—so secure that even if the authorities confiscate their assets, the temple can delay for at least half an hour.”

Only then did Yan Qing and the others understand why Black Wolf had said picking the lock was impossible—because this lock didn’t require technique at all, only brute force and time.

Even if they had the strength, they didn’t have enough time.

The Thieves’ House only gave them two quarters of an hour, about half an hour total.

They were left with two choices: take the cabinet, or force it open.

Shang Xinlei said, “I could borrow a Dimensional Sleeve, but even a Third-Stage Dimensional Sleeve couldn’t store a cabinet this large.”

“The Midas Touch item can absorb gold normally and enhance its golden power in battle,” Ying Ru Shi said. “I don’t have the Midas Touch, but I can try to find something that can absorb or melt gold, based on that idea.”

Everyone proposed different strategies, but either they required extremely rare items, or their effectiveness couldn’t be guaranteed. One inch of thickness was enough to nullify the destructive power of most items.

Even while discussing, Ying Ru Shi kept an eye on things. She noticed that Yan Qing had been staring at the four golden cabinets inside the treasury and casually asked, “Yellow Dog, do you have an idea? Share it so we can discuss together.”

“I have a way to destroy all four golden cabinets.”

Yan Qing’s words shocked them.

“And I don’t need any special items—just some simple tools.”