After checking the blueprints and item descriptions, Bai Qiu quickly lost interest.
He turned to Zhang Shiyao and said,
"These blueprints are useless to me. You can learn them yourself. As for the materials, you can buy them in the Black Tower at the Safe Zone with Sanctum Coins."
"These boosts should be pretty decent for an archer-class player like you in the early stages," he added.
Only then did Zhang Shiyao accept the blueprints and Sanctum Coins.
Bai Qiu also handed her a large number of Crimson Feathers.
After all, she hadn't killed any Crimson Feather Chickens herself—every single feather, numbering in the thousands, was stored in Bai Qiu's inventory card.
Without materials, she wouldn't have been able to craft anything anyway.
As for why Bai Qiu wasn't interested in the bow and arrows, it was because they were designed for shortbows, only about 75 cm long.
If he tried to use them with his heavy Darksteel Longbow, their power would probably be less than half that of his standard Darksteel arrows.
While talking, Bai Qiu began searching through a pile of rubble blasted apart by his Noble Phantasm.
Before long, he found another treasure chest, its black-iron surface blending perfectly with the stone wall behind it.
Carrying the chest over to Zhang Shiyao, he said, "Open it. Let's see what we get this time. By logic, a black-iron chest should be one tier higher than the last one."
As the black chest slowly opened, a short sword radiating a sinister, dark aura appeared before them both.
Sword of Hatred (Rank D)
Description: A 60 cm long blade, completely black, constantly seeping dark energy. It looks deeply ominous.
Effect: Wielding this sword draws the hatred of all monsters within a 1-kilometer radius, causing them to recklessly charge at the user.
Special Trait: Each time the wielder kills an enemy with this weapon, the hatred-attraction radius increases—up to 10 times its original range!
Evaluation: A truly cursed weapon.
Zhang Shiyao yelped in fright, falling backward onto the ground and scrambling away on hands and feet.
Bai Qiu's eyes, however, lit up with excitement.
Turning to her, he asked,
"Can I have this sword? I've been looking for a way to draw more monsters!"
His achievement title, [King of Monster Grinding], already allowed him to attract monsters within ten kilometers, but its hatred-pulling power was far weaker than that of the Sword of Hatred.
With both effects stacked, he could draw enormous monster hordes to him—perfect for farming before the Magic Merchant left!
After much explaining and persuasion, Zhang Shiyao finally agreed to give him the sword—though, truth be told, she had been planning to throw it away.
After all, most people would run for their lives at the sight of a pack of Dragonfang Soldiers.
Only Bai Qiu would be insane enough to deliberately taunt them all at once—pure madness.
Of course, Zhang Shiyao also had her reasons for hesitating.
She knew just how strong Bai Qiu was.
If he used the Sword of Hatred to farm monsters, she'd have an even harder time catching up to him!
But she had promised from the start that everything in this secret realm would go to Bai Qiu.
In reality, he'd been guiding her the entire time, and most of the spoils had gone to her.
Just from the shared experience alone, she had already leveled up once!
Meanwhile, Bai Qiu—after fighting monsters for half a day—ended up with a "cursed" sword and a pile of useless materials…
"No! Zhang Shiyao, you can't rely on holding Brother back to catch up to him. You have to work harder and reach him with your own strength!" she thought, giving her cheeks a firm slap.
Then she took out the secret realm map from her storage card.
Crimson Feather Secret Realm Map (Rank E)
Current Exploration Progress: 100%
Gathering Progress: 98%
Elimination Progress: 100%
Treasure Chests Obtained: 2 / 2
Exit Conditions: At least three of the following—exploration, gathering, elimination, or treasure chest progress—must reach 50%. (Conditions met.)
Leave the secret realm?
"Yes!"
Two beams of white light enveloped them both, and their figures vanished from the secret realm, leaving behind an empty, silent valley.
"Ding! You have successfully completed the secret realm. Rating: Perfect. Reward: 100 Sanctum Coins."
As they departed, one hundred Sanctum Coins were automatically added to both Bai Qiu's and Zhang Shiyao's inventory cards.
...........
The two of them returned to where they had started.
Bai Qiu originally intended to help Zhang Shiyao clear the remaining secret realms as well, but she firmly refused.
"No means no! The requirements to leave a secret realm are too strict! What if we end up stuck inside for another four or five hours? What Brother Bai Qiu must do right now is go to sleep!" Zhang Shiyao said seriously.
Even though they had only spent a single day together, there didn't seem to be any age gap between them—their way of speaking to each other was casual and natural.
"And besides, Brother, you spent the whole night fighting monsters just to protect me, didn't you?!"
"I told you, I was meditating…" Bai Qiu replied helplessly.
But Zhang Shiyao puffed up her cheeks, lifting her chin and staring stubbornly at him, her eyes glimmering faintly with mist.
Bai Qiu immediately surrendered, sighing in defeat. "Alright, alright, I'll go to sleep, okay? Just make sure you stay safe. And remember what I told you—once you're able to use your Noble Phantasm, send me a message."
She immediately struck a "V" pose and said cheerfully, "Got it! See you later, Brother!"
"Mm. See you tomorrow."
After agreeing on a time to meet the next day, they went their separate ways.
Bai Qiu planned to take a walk around the tower, then rent a room with some Sanctum Coins and get some sleep.
Zhang Shiyao, on the other hand, decided to use the remaining daylight to hunt as many monsters as she could!
Outside the safe zone, though small and delicate in stature, she had eaten four attribute fruits.
Her stats now rivaled—if not surpassed—those of adult players at her level!
Her agile, graceful figure darted through the outskirts of the safe zone as night began to fall.
Whoosh!
Her arrows flew fast and true—she could now one-shot Level 6 Dragonfang Soldiers with a single arrow!
Following the technique Bai Qiu had taught her, she had grown astonishingly proficient after only a few tries—every shot was drawn to full bowstring tension.
If Bai Qiu could see her now, he would surely be shocked—she was like a completely different person compared to the timid girl from that morning…
…
Meanwhile, Bai Qiu arrived at Guinelia's Potion Shop.
He greeted her from the counter:
"Guinelia, looks like business still hasn't picked up here."
The rabbit-eared Guinelia, who had been lying idly on the counter, perked up the moment she heard his voice.
Her drooping ears instantly stood upright as she looked up at Bai Qiu with surprise and delight.
Then she sighed and grumbled, "The Dragonfang Soldiers outside aren't even Level 10 yet. Most people don't have any Sanctum Coins. Isn't it obvious why business is bad?"
"Is that so? Funny, because that magic merchant outside seems to be doing just fine. He's got people lining up, and he's even motivating adventurers to head out of the safe zone to hunt more Dragonfang Soldiers," Bai Qiu teased.
"Mhm, that old man's quite remarkable," Guinelia nodded in agreement.
"In the last Sanctuary, he gathered materials from adventurers and used them to craft countless Ancient Dragons. They launched an assault on the Source of Calamity and managed to delay the Sanctuary's destruction. Though in the end, he was gravely wounded and had to flee…"
Bai Qiu hadn't expected that—what she'd just shared was a piece of history few knew anything about.