Sword Among Us

World of Martial Arts went into a frenzy!

For a long period of time, countless players had treated Zhou Yu as someone who was at the same level as One Emperor. Even if Zhou Yu lost to him, One Emperor did not publicize the fact. Class One Hall had also kept it a closely guarded secret, which was why many players did not know about this inside secret.

Zhou Yu’s status in the game was so high that he could be said to be at the same level as One Emperor and Happy.

But once World of Martial Arts Secret News Log was renewed, countless players burst into a commotion.

Happy was the one who replaced Zhou Yu’s position as the second in Dragon Rank, and since he skipped ranks to challenge Zhou Yu, the battle was even archived into Happy’s list of achievements in his position as a famous player. Coincidentally, Dream Clouds, Blood Robes, Tang Feng, and the names of the other powerful players had also been listed inside.

While surrounded by Class One Hall elites, Zhou Yu had been killed by Happy, and the news of it soon caused a ruckus in the world of martial artists. Everyone in World of Martial Arts fought over each other to spread the word.

It was the hottest news of the players on Dragon Rank switching positions. Since launch of the game, the elites on the ranks had changed continuously, but it wasn’t hard to tell that there was never a major change to the people at the very top. Hence, when Zhou Yu was dragged from the second spot on Dragon Rank by Happy, it became the hottest piece of information.

It was especially so since the fight at Beijing had happened not too long ago. The monsters from Class One Hall were also present, and it naturally attracted countless players’ attention and sparked their curiosity. They dug out what went on behind the scenes in hopes to learn what had happened at that time.

Some of the rumors that appeared left dumbfounded!

The Shaolin Temple disciples said that Zhou Yu, who was at the same level as One Emperor, fought against Happy alone while numerous Class One Hall elites watched by the side. The end result, however, was that he died in less than three moves.

Since this story came from the Shaolin Temple disciples, many players immediately denounced their testimony and said that they did not believe them. They refused to believe that Zhou Yu would lose and die so easily. Even if he died, the two parties should have fought fiercely against each other for days. Zhou Yu could have only died after three hundred moves!

Some people though understood where the Shaolin Temple disciples came from. If it were not because the fight had ended so quickly, there was just no way that people from Class One Hall would have just watched Zhou Yu get killed.

All questions were completely answered when Class One Hall did something major and a few Class One Hall members who defected provided a battle replay to the pay-to-view battle replay system.

On the next day, all the branches Class One Hall had set up in the cities in Western Border vanished.

The branches that were close to Mu Clan in Hubei disappeared on that day as well. This not only caught the attention of all world of martial artists and sparked their curiosity, but there were even many disciples from Class One Hall who were puzzled and could not accept this fact.

Some of the branches had been set up since a long time ago, and quite a number of players relied on them as resource points for their own development.

Many Class One Hall members were prepared to show their strength through them, but they did not expect that the higher-ups would release an order that call to pull back all the branches. They had to pack up their resources and leave quickly.

This major change inevitably led to a few Class One Hall members coming to a realization of certain things, and they resolutely left Class One Hall.

There were also a handful of Class One Hall members who noticed Class One Hall’s precarious situation while they were at the foot of Mount Song. Right then, the situation of the three powers standing tall in the game was broken, and a fourth sect which took a portion of the server rose up.

Mu Clan seized a large portion of Western Border and all of Hubei from Class One Hall in one go. With the many branches they had in the south and how large their territory was, they were no longer inferior to Class One Hall, Chivalry Sect or Towering Palace.

Instead, Class One Hall, who originally had the most members and was the most domineering, had been forced back to only a few counties in the north from their previous situation of having their forces spread inside and outside of Shanhai Pass, Jiangnan, and beyond the Great Wall. Their resources shrunk by a large margin.

What caused Class One Hall even more frustration was that on the day they faced a pressing issue of resources, one pay-to-view battle replay exposed the reason behind why their reputation fell to the slumps.

Happy’s act of killing Zhou Yu in two moves and the words he said to Dream Clouds later were both released in the battle replay, and countless people gasped in amazement.

Once Class One Hall gave up on Western Border and Hubei, the number of players who left them in a few days quickly climbed up to ten thousand!

Barren Murderer also left Class One Hall and headed to a place no one knew.

Even diviners and Wandering Know-it-all only knew that he was no longer in China or Western Border. He seemed to have gone to an area that was outside China.

After this major change, Class One Hall showed a state of fatigue that they had never shown to anyone before.

They shrank their sphere of influence and did not take even half a step across their borders.

They ordered their subordinates to not step into Hubei, the south of Changjiang, and Western Border, and they even rarely stepped into the coastal area.

The ones who benefitted the most from this major change was naturally Mu Clan and Happy!

Mu Clan gained a status and resources befitting of one of the four great sects; they now had a large territory and lots of resources. Even though Western Border was not rich, Hubei was enough to make Mu Clan busy for a while.

They sent people to be stationed in those places, and once they opened up more than ten branches, they received new instructions from Happy. They opened up a few resources in Western Border, the highlands, and the desert. Then, a huge resource mining machine came to maturity.

Ever since Happy rose to the second place on Dragon Rank, his fame grew even more.

Not only was his progress in developing Western Border and Hubei going incredibly smoothly, many local sects took the initiative to look for Thunderous Battle or the higher ups of Mu Clan to ask for cooperation.

That included a millionaire who always kept a low profile, who happened to be known as Kind Tycoon, and who was the second on Rich Rank. He finally showed up and personally went to Shennongjia to meet up with Thunderous Battle to talk about working together.

Baokang and Mu Clan’s headquarters were constantly bustling with activity, and the areas around it were filled with people.

Momo, Ancient Wind, and Thunderous Battle could only sigh with a myriad of emotions, since they had to stay for a long period of time in the headquarters to be constantly prepared for dangers.

They had completely taken over a dozen resource points to the north, but they did not expect that their burden would become even heavier from that. Various matters just kept coming one after another as Mu Clan became the most powerful sect and the one with the best reputation among the four great sects.

[Big Brother Thunder, from now on, you can divide some of your work to the people under you. Just focus on training.]

[Don’t worry about me. I’m staying at the clan prison every day, and I haven’t fallen back in terms of my training. When they come to meet me, they do so in a group meeting, and we settle it in one go.

[I’ve given away some of the tasks here and there and things that don’t require me to personally handle them to Flying Dragon and Xu Yao. I have to say, when you students take care of things, you’re much more meticulous compared to an old man like me.]

In truth, training in the clan prison was very quick and convenient, and the best thing about it was that it cut down on the time needed to return to the city. Thunderous Battle had long since perfected a Life and Death Realm martial art and pushed it to Grandmaster Realm.

His Life and Death Realm body fortification had also reached tenth realm. His lightness skill had reached the sixth realm, and he was showing signs that he was about to have a position on Dragon Rank again.

[You’re the one I’m worried about. You’re running about day and night all over the place. What’s your situation now?]

Mu Clan’s development was great, and Thunderous Battle was both nervous and delighted. His tone was incredibly relaxed though. He had not expected that Happy and Wandering Know-it-all’s rescue mission would bring about such a good effect.

Happy’s progress was also very smooth.

After receiving a reminder from Mad Monk and having his thoughts stirred by Zhou Yu, he began to study the ingenious ways of using Ten True Dragon Styles even more carefully. His last battle had allowed him to understand Dragon Capture even more. He then fused his Petite Dragon into Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palm, and his strength increased by a whole level.

Even though he could not win against One Emperor, Happy was still quite confident that he could last for a period of time.

However, when he saw Xu Yao’s name on a letter, he felt his heart clench for some strange reason. Then, his lips curled up into a faint arc.

[Big Brother Thunder, I have something I need to talk to you about.]