Sword Among Us

“Towering Palace’s Clear Music has stepped down, and right now, her younger sister, Musical Note has taken the position of palace master. Clear Music has been forced into a corner by Happy.”

Dream Clouds smiled faintly in the meeting room in the headquarters.

“Even though Mu Clan’s prestige has increased and turned them into the strongest sect in China in all its literal sense, Happy can be considered to have planted a hidden problem for Mu Clan. He actually didn’t seize the chance to completely occupy Towering Palace’s coastal cities in the south.”

“Heh.” Blood Robes also had a hint of a cold smile on his face. “Happy is a very troublesome opponent, but when it comes to handling women, he’s not ruthless enough. Ahem, what I mean is, Towering Palace will be filled with hatred for Mu Clan now. Clear Music will definitely be filled with hate as well, and in the future, when the time is ripe, they might become a very troublesome enemy for Mu Clan.”

Dream Clouds said nothing. Her expression turned slightly calmer, and she nodded. “Perhaps the battle at the summit of Mount Tai will turn into a turning point for Mu Clan.”

She stopped talking for a moment before narrowing her eyes slightly and saying, “If Happy wins, Mu Clan’s reputation will become even greater. No one will be able to touch Mu Clan’s position as the strongest for at least half a year. But if he loses to One Emperor… Hmph! How’s your progress?”

When she reached the latter half of her sentence, her tone suddenly changed.

“Everything is going smoothly.” Blood Robes smiled. “It’s a real coincidence. The woman who is taking care of Happy right now shares the same surname as that girl, and they’re calling each other sisters. Their relationship is incredibly good, and she’s often invited to Happy’s place.”

“Oh.” A hint of surprise appeared in Dream Clouds’ eyes.

“Is the woman taking care of Happy really pretty?”

“She should be pretty good looking.”

“Is there any way for Happy to take the initiative to chase away the woman taking care of him and switching to someone by your side?”

“This will be a little difficult. I heard that the woman taking care of him right now is one of the veterans of South China Martial Arts Ranking Board, and she’s a work partner with Happy. I heard that there’s romantic tension between them as well.”

“Didn’t you say that the person on your side looks pretty good?” Dream Clouds stared at Blood Robes with a strange gaze.

Blood Robes could only smile wanly and explain. “It’s not that I don’t want to use her. I heard from her that there was a conflict between them in the past, and things were not pleasant. Happy has some prejudice against her, and there’s a barrier between them. Even if it were not because of that woman, it’d be impossible for her to get close to Happy. So it’s unlikely to happen…”

“A pity,” Dream Clouds said. She frowned a little and did not say anything else.

“By the way, Dream, we didn’t receive any news about Barren Murderer over this period of time. Where did he go?”

“Persia,” Dream Clouds said without hiding anything, “Did you forget? While we were at Ming Cult, we received a quest item from that side, but the trigger point for that quest was too far away, and I didn’t have any thoughts about it, but Zhou Yu gave me a reminder later on saying that while Persia is a barbaric place, it’s still the birth place of Ming Cult.

“There are countless elites over there, and if Barren Murderer manages to get Heaven and Earth Great Shift or items such as Ming Cult’s Holy Fire Order while he’s there, his strength would increase by a lot.”

“Persia…”

A hint of joy appeared on Blood Robes’ face.

He still remembered how the Holy Fire Order messengers from Persia had trapped Zhang Wuji and Xie Xun for a long period of time, which was enough to prove that there were some very powerful people outside the country.

Besides, a few sword users with dazzling skills had appeared in Goryeo recently. It was said that they were from Bright Sword Sect and had already entered the Chinese server through the plot of Twin of Brothers.

Along with the people who were skilled at fleeing arts and had long since entered the Chinese server, as well as Abu and the others, who were boxing masters from the southwestern countries, the multitude of great players in the Chinese server gradually began to regard the foreign players with higher value.

*****

The readjustment in Wind and Rain Alliance, the changing of palace masters in Towering Palace, along with the abnormal calm as well as well-behaved attitude from Class One Hall allowed all martial artists to tell that Mu Clan and Happy’s actions had had an effect. Not only had they placated the instability in the south, Towering Palace had also chosen to compromise to the largest extent!

This sort of thing caused Mu Clan and Happy’s prestige to increase by another degree! The Chinese martial artists as well as foreign experts also gained more of an insight toward them.

The world of martial artists returned to peace once more.

But storms still brewed under the surface!

One Emperor, who had gained an epiphany of his sixth sword at the arena during the martial arts tournament in Hero’s Mountain Villa, had vanished without a trace once he obtained second place in the tournament. He did not show up again in the world of martial artists.

No one knew where he went.

But there were countless martial artists who made guesses and said that he was perturbed by the fact that he did not obtain the title of strongest in the world during the tournament because he did not manage to win against Ling Huchong at Dragon Tiger Arena and disappeared to pour his heart and soul into understanding his seventh slash. There were even rumors that he was practicing an even more powerful martial art to prepare for the fight at the summit of Mount Tai.

However, even if One Emperor’s strength did not grow, the last dazzling sword slash he delivered at Dragon Tiger Arena had heavily injured Ling Huchong, which was enough to make countless martial artists look forward to the day he would reappear!

The fight at the summit of Mount Tai would show just who was truly the strongest in the Chinese server and the world!

As time passed, everyone began to look forward to Happy and One Emperor’s eventual duel at the summit of Mount Tai. In fact, there were many people who came to wait beforehand at Mount Tai. They sacrificed their time to practice in order to witness the duel between the two strongest players in the Chinese server!

When there were only three more days left before the final fight, the restaurant at the foot of Mount Tai was filled with people. The cities and sects nearby were also full of martial artists. Only a sea of people could be seen in the area.

*****

But the people did not know that while they were waiting in the area, Happy had been attracted by an unexpected system notification to the mighty clan in the north dozens of miles away.

It was one of the eight aristocratic families! They were a mighty clan that relied on crafting excellent weapons to intimidate the world of martial artists, and they were the best at it! They were rich, had plenty of elites, and connections all over the world. Money and power were in their hands, and it was, frankly, astonishing to behold.

Unfortunately for Happy, while he was giving his all in preparing for the fight at Mount Tai, he received a messenger pigeon from the four abandoned disciples of Sword Sect saying that the repairs for Heaven Crystal were near the end!

And the situation was very delicate…

Even though the Nangong Clan was determined to retrieve their previous clan master’s sword and seize Heaven Crystal to rebuild Nangong Clan’s prestige, the sect master of Sword Sect had also gone through a lot of trouble to secure Heaven Crystal. He personally served as a garrison with a group of elders at the mighty clan in the north to monitor the Sword Creation Lake used to repair Heaven Crystal, and he never let down his guard for even a second.

The strangest thing about this was that during the process of repairing Heaven Crystal, most of the elites of the mighty clan in the north were relocated to the area nearby, as if they sensed the quality and strength from the profound mysteries contained within Heaven Crystal and had grown to desire it.

The three factions of power held their breaths and accumulated their strength while they harbored their own thoughts and waited for the final moment when Heaven Crystal would be completely repaired!