"According to my investigation, An Guo Temple is not only a temple but also the largest money lending institution in Chang'an City."
As Pharmacist's Wish had just spoken a sentence, Yan Qing couldn't help but ask, "A temple is a money lending institution?"
"What's so strange about that? Temples inherently have lending repositories like the Longevity Vault. Aristocratic families depositing money to let the bald monks lend it out is normal, otherwise why do you think temples are so prosperous, with both the rich and the poor liking to worship Buddha?"
Shang Xinlei blew on the teacup and rubbed her fingers, making a vulgar gesture.
"Because it brings in money."
Thud!
Pharmacist's Wish heavily hit the stone table, and calmly said, "If you have questions or things to say, you can wait until I finish speaking—unless you want to take over hosting?"
Everyone immediately shook their heads. Ying Rushi took out a notebook and a graphite pen to pretend to take notes, actually writing down records only she could understand: "Black Wolf values rules, says what he means, and whether or not his true identity is a Military General, he is definitely a powerful figure commanding a violent organization."
Pharmacist's Wish said, "Because of An Guo Temple's dual nature as a temple and a money lending institution, it is usually busy with many worshippers, and the task requires us to arrive at 1:45 PM. At that time, although not many people are worshiping, the area around An Guo Temple is a bustling market, ensuring many people will be nearby, just like this sand table shows."
Everyone looked down at the sand table in real time, and sure enough, the area around An Guo Temple was bustling with carriages and pedestrians, both vendors and shopowners alike.
"Stealing without anyone noticing is basically impossible, I suggest we go in head-on and rob them. What do you think?"
Yan Qing and the other two exchanged a glance, and all nodded in agreement.
Pharmacist's Wish continued, "If we rob head-on, we need to solve three problems—closing the temple doors, opening the gold vault, and escaping pursuit."
"Among these, escaping pursuit is the easiest, because Chang'an City is the main city. Whether it's the Imperial Guards from the Imperial Palace or the Shence Army outside, all are extremely complacent about the internal security of Chang'an. The only quickly mobilized unit is the Wu Hou Shop responsible for firefighting."
"Besides, we don't even need to escape the city; we just need to stay on Vermilion Bird Avenue for half an hour to return to the Thief's House."
"No need to worry about An Guo Temple's defenses, because Chang'an City is the main city. Thus, no one ever dares to rob temples, and at most the temples only have Martial Monks to press civilians to repay their debts."
"As long as the Thief's House lifts the main city limitations for us, we can control the scene upon entering An Guo Temple. Those fat bald monks will open the gate to the vault after a few hits."
Yan Qing felt something was off.
Why does 'Chang'an City is the main city' mean 'the army is complacent about city security' and 'temples are never afraid of being robbed'?
Is Chang'an a legendary utopia where everyone is good?
But Ying Rushi immediately revealed the truth.
"Black Wolf, you can rest assured on this point," Ying Rushi said, "Last time the Thief's House operated fifty years ago at Nocturnal Heaven—back then Nocturnal Heaven was still the Wei Kingdom's capital main city. The group of thieves targeted the Imperial Palace and actually stormed through the main gate. The Imperial Palace Guards were so used to the main city's invulnerability rule that they didn't react until dozens were killed before realizing they needed to fight back."
"Whenever the Thief's House acts, it allows thieves to slaughter in the main city—of course, those who encounter the thieves will have their restrictions lifted."
Yan Qing suddenly understood.
He recalled the three main cities in the game: 'Jiangnan,' 'Chang'an,' and 'Nocturnal Heaven,' finally realizing that the main city they were talking about was indeed the 'main city' in game terms!
A safe zone where players can't harm NPCs or other players!
Yan Qing remembered that the 'Thief's House' instance he designed indeed involved thievery in the game's main world. More accurately, stealing in a safe zone was one of the features of this instance.
Initially, he overlooked the safe zone concept, since this was reality and not a game, but he didn't expect this world to be so completely 'gamified,' with even instances and safe zones implemented!
"Now for the second problem, opening the gold vault."
Pharmacist's Wish pointed to the super large gold vault inside An Guo Temple: "An Guo Temple has four large gold vaults, each one zhang tall, one zhang wide, and one zhang deep, called the 'One Zhang Vault.' The gate and walls of the vault are two chi thick, cast using several tons of Refined Gold by the Third-Turned Fire-Controlling Talisman."
"With only half an hour for the task, including the travel time to and from Vermilion Bird Avenue to An Guo Temple and the half-hour wait to evacuate, we have at most a quarter of an hour to deal with this vault."
"There are basically three ways to handle the vault—take it whole, forcibly break it, or pick the lock. The least feasible is probably picking the lock."
"Why is picking the lock not feasible?"
Shang Xinlei opened a small bag she carried, taking out a snack, eating a mouthful with tea, as if enjoying dessert after a meal. Yan Qing thought this person had quite a strong heart, eating and drinking so calmly, not even offering him any.
But Shang Xinlei obviously couldn't hear Yan Qing's complaints; she earnestly said, "I have the 'Invisible Hand,' and so far, I haven't seen a lock I couldn't unlock."
She seemed worried they wouldn't believe her, so she took out a thin as cicada's wing silk glove from her bag. Although the glove's cuff was originally slightly large, once she put it on, it became snug without the slightest wrinkle.
If Yan Qing had a small account, he would see this token's detailed information, but unfortunately, he was just a tridimensional being without a game system. While Shang Xinlei didn't provide detailed information on the Invisible Hand, she nonetheless slightly demonstrated its magical properties—
Her fingertip lightly passed over a piece of steamed sponge cake. The cake was jelly-like, and under the light, the sliced bullhead yam within was clearly visible. As she scrambled her fingers within, the yam got messily fragmented, and the square yam pieces were pinched to bits.
Yet when Shang Xinlei withdrew her fingers, everyone could see the cake, though riddled with holes inside, was outwardly unscathed!
"No wonder it's the Invisible Hand," Ying Rushi praised, "With this token, Red Snake, you don't need a key to pick locks, or rather, your hands are a master key capable of unlocking any lock cylinder."
"I don't doubt your ability," Pharmacist's Wish said, "but the lock on the gold vault is more troublesome than you imagine. Come closer and take a look..."
Seeing them all stand up and bend down to observe that small part of the sand table representing An Guo Temple, Yan Qing was reluctant to approach—although he carried the White Iron Straight Saber as a symbol, he was still an unconverted mortal. The more he closely interacted with them, the easier it would be for them to notice flaws.
Moreover, it wasn't smart. When trying to observe a specific area, it should be possible to zoom in...
Almost instinctively, Yan Qing extended three fingers and swiped at the sand table.
Then the sand table swiftly transformed, other areas disappeared, and only the transparent area representing An Guo Temple expanded to the maximum size. Even the number of bricks and tiles on the rooftop were clearly visible.
The Thief's House fell into silence, everyone stared intently at the sand table and Yan Qing. Moments later, Shang Xinlei asked, "Can you change it back?"
With the same muscle memory, Yan Qing drew his three fingers inward, and the sand table returned to its original state.
It was strange, why did the logic of smartphone and tablet operations work here? Could it be that "Messenger" developed a mobile game version after he crossed over?
"How did you make An Guo Temple bigger?" Shang Xinlei paused, seemingly realizing she was asking for a favor, and then coquettishly said, "Can you tell me?"
Red Snake turned out to be a woman!
Yan Qing, Ying Rushi, and Pharmacist's Wish shared the same thought.
Actually, Red Snake never really disguised herself. Although her clothing was designed for ease of movement, making it hard to discern her figure, everything from the tools she used to the pastries she ate was extra refined, and her exposed hands were so delicate and fair. Everyone could clearly judge that she was, in reality, a noble woman who cared greatly about the quality of life.
Yan Qing certainly wouldn't become infatuated just because Red Snake's voice was pleasant. Instead, he realized this was an opportunity to strengthen his character.
"You don't know how?" His words seemed a bit surprised, then his lips curled into a smile, "Watch closely, if you don't get it, I can demonstrate a few times."
The gestures for zooming in and out are very simple, Shang Xinlei and her group learned them in a single try, but they were quite displeased. Everyone could hear the superiority in Yan Qing's tone, as if he was imparting trivial city knowledge to countryside bumpkins.
Despite the displeasure, they internally raised their estimation of 'Yellow Dog'—knowing this kind of obscure knowledge, Yellow Dog was not as simple as he appeared.
They zoomed in and out on An Guo Temple and soon learned to enlarge areas for detailed observation. But Ying Rushi noticed that when they enlarged the Imperial Palace, military camps, and confidential places like the Six Ministries, Pharmacist's Wish would promptly shrink the sand table and zoom in on other areas, as if hindering their observation of Zhou Kingdom's secret places.
"Black Wolf must be a Zhou person, and extremely loyal to Zhou Kingdom," Ying Rushi silently noted.
After a while, Pharmacist's Wish signaled for them to continue the meeting. She enlarged An Guo Temple, letting everyone see inside the gold vault's four major vaults: "The gold vaults have locks, but no keys."
"The vault door is sealed with eighteen reinforced steel locks. To unlock them, you have to turn the dial on the vault door."
In the center of the vault door was a dial, which had only one handle. Proportionately, the handle was just right for a normal person to grip with one hand.
"You can see, this dial has only one handle, and the handle is particularly short," Pharmacist's Wish said. "But even if the handle were extended, it wouldn't save much effort."
Ying Rushi looked at the door with the dial but no keyhole, realizing a possibility.
"The way to open the vault door is to turn this dial?"
"That's right, inside the vault door are very complex gear mechanisms requiring eighty-one rotations to unlock one lock."
"So a total of one thousand four hundred fifty-eight rotations are needed."
Shang Xinlei quickly calculated the result.
"By the way, An Guo Temple employs a Martial Monk who has honed Qi Blood in his lifetime to open the vault door. His strength is roughly three times that of an ordinary Martial Arts Messenger. Even he requires one breath to turn the dial one rotation, taking at least half an hour to open the vault door each time."
Pharmacist's Wish paused, "These are rumors deliberately spread by An Guo Temple to let Chang'an's nobles know their vaults are so secure that even if their wealth is seized by the Government Office, An Guo Temple could delay for at least half an hour."
Only then did Yan Qing and the others understand why Black Wolf said unlocking it was impossible—because opening this lock doesn't require any technique, but strength and time.
Even if they had sufficient strength, they lacked enough time.
The Thief's House only gave them two quarters of an hour, about half an hour.
They had only two options left: take the gold vault or forcefully open it.
Shang Xinlei said, "I could borrow the Qiankun Sleeve, but even with the third-turn Qiankun Sleeve, it's impossible to contain such a large gold vault."
"The Golden Touch Hand token can indeed absorb gold in normal times and enhance the Golden Touch effect during confrontation," Ying Rushi said, "I don't have the Golden Touch Hand, but I can explore finding some tokens that can absorb melted gold."
Everyone proposed various ideas, but either extremely precious tokens were needed, or their effects couldn't be guaranteed. A thickness of one inch was enough to counteract most tokens' destructive power.
During the discussion, Ying Rushi also kept distracted attention. She noticed Yan Qing was always staring at the four gold vaults inside the gold vault and casually asked, "Yellow Dog, do you have an idea? Share it so everyone can discuss it."
"I have a way to destroy these four gold vaults,"
When Yan Qing spoke, he stunned them all: "And I don't need tokens, just very simple tools."