Sword Among Us

A piercing light shone above the heads of the people from Beautiful Robes Faction! Within the great golden light, everyone saw Ninja King, who was dressed in golden armor, being sent out of the ball of light! He staggered, having lost his balance. He went skidding a few steps away before he managed to stop himself with a loud thud.

When he raised his head, a solemn look was on his face.

Whoosh!

Happy was dressed in Yellow Dragon Archer Gear, and his robes fluttered when he landed in front of the people from Beautiful Robes Faction. His Silver Wolf Emperor Breaker Sword was pointed diagonally at the ground, and his expression was relaxed and calm.

When the faction stared at him from behind, they felt dazed and absent-minded.

Glutinous Rice and Phoenix Dances blinked. When they snapped out of the shock brought to them by the clash between the stranger and Ninja King, they sized him up and exchanged an incredulous gaze.

‘The equipment and that back… are so familiar…’

The Three Lonely Wolves reacted quickly. Before the people exposed Happy’s identity, they squeezed to the front from the back of the group and whispered into Phoenix Dances’ ear. They also whispered into a few other people’s ears. Everyone’s eyes went wide in surprise, then they quietly retreated to the back. It was best if Happy was not exposed at that moment.

‘… I knew it, it’s you.’

Phoenix Dances’ hands trembled while she held the Silver-spiked Staff. She stared at Happy’s back, and the final hint of displeasure remaining in her heart disappeared without a trace.

She had thought that Happy had missed the very first large-scale faction operation, but to think that the brat had been nearby all the time! When she remembered the few times he had spoken up to lend them a helping hand, it always seemed to have been to give Beautiful Robes Faction a reminder. She could not help the surge of warmth that rose in her heart, and she suddenly felt that the hard work she had done since the start had not been for nothing.

Glutinous Rice was incredibly excited. Once she was over her surprise, happiness bloomed on her face. Her eyes sparkled as she stared at Happy’s side profile, and she badly wanted to rush up to observe him carefully and seriously so that she would know how he looked like. She would have certainly done so if not for Ninja King eyeing them hostilely from where he had landed on the ground.

Compared to them, Butt Shaker, Tea Words, and the other male students were much calmer.

“That brat sure came at the right time…”

“At least no accidents happened.”

“Hmph, I knew it was him. Who else could have been so good as to be able to fight against so many ninjas alone…”

The internal members of Beautiful Robes Faction rose into commotion.

However, the few Wudang Sect disciples by the side did not notice that the people from Beautiful Robes Faction had begun discussing quietly among themselves. They did not notice any abnormal behavior, and when they snapped out of their shock, they stared at the mysterious man standing in confrontation against Ninja King in surprise and delight. Smiles even appeared on their faces.

Across from them were the thirteen staff-using monks, Ouyang Qing, and the others, who had also noticed the mysterious man appear in the battlefield out of nowhere. All of them let loose huge sighs of relief.

“Thank you for being generous and lending us a hand, brother!”

“You’re welcome,” Happy said faintly. He looked around the tunnel, and his gaze paused for a moment on the Wudang Sect disciples’ corpses. He sighed in his heart. ‘I was still a little late.’

Even though he had harbored the thought that it would be better if there was less competition for a time, when he thought of the difficulty of the second level of the royal mausoleum, he wanted to at least make sure that Wudang Sect, Shaolin Temple, and Emei Sect managed to retain their numbers.

After deciding on that, he looked up at Ninja King.

The Dragon Capture he executed just then had clearly made Ninja King uneasy, and he did not intend to act recklessly.

It was the intelligence possessed by a high-level NPC.

Happy took two steps forward and spoke in a voice that echoed in the whole tunnel. “Let me handle this.”

The people from Shaolin Temple and Wudang Sect were stunned for a moment before they swiftly understood what he meant. They nodded and retreated with their wounded so that a wider battlefield was created.

Based on the strength the mysterious man displayed just then as well as the sword strike that forced Ninja King to retreat, they did not doubt that he had the ability to fight against Ninja King alone!

“One Circle, retreat.”

Phoenix Dances tried hard to calm her surging heart and assumed a serious attitude before ordering One Circle to leave the battlefield.

He might have been a little muddle-headed and confused, but the situation told him something very obvious: while his defense had indeed reached a state where he could stand supreme above others, when he faced Ninja King, who was two realms above him and whose attack speed was terrifying, he could not fight back at all. He would not last for long in a battle with him.

One Circle was rather fond of the mysterious man who had blocked the disaster for Beautiful Robes Faction. Hence, even though he had declared that he wanted to take down Ninja King himself, One Circle did not find himself rejecting the idea too much.

One Circle nodded and slowly moved himself sixty-five feet back. His purplish-red greataxe hung by his side while he stood in front of Shaolin Temple and Wudang Sect to serve as their guard.

*****

The battlefield was cleared of all people, and Happy’s gaze landed on Ninja King again.

The man had a balanced body figure. The golden armor that enveloped his body not only made him sturdier, but even more mysterious too. An intangible aura belonging to someone supreme spread out from his body. His cold gaze and every movement that caused clanging sounds made people not dare to underestimate him.

It was Ninja King!

However, Happy knew that it was just one of Ninja King’s high-class clones. Its fighting power was very close to that of Ninja King himself, but it was still only at the peak of Life and Death Realm. It was one final step away from Moksha Realm.

As the saying went, “One slight error might lead to a great discrepancy!”

That sentence could be perfectly used for Ninja King.

Life and Death Realm as well as Moksha Realm were a completely different concept.

Forget the fact about strength, if Happy had been up against the real Ninja King, it would have been impossible for his Dragon Capture to even be deemed successful!

It was also precisely because of Dragon Capture that the “Ninja King” at the peak of Life and Death Realm was bound to face a tragic end.

*****

A dreary atmosphere swiftly filled the tunnel!

The people from the three sects stood on both sides of the tunnel with their gazes fixed on the back of the mysterious man and Ninja King, who stood across from him. Their hearts surged at the sight.

They could not help but imagine just how intense the battle between the two would be!

However, before the battle even began, Happy did something that everyone found puzzling.

He brought out two medicinal pills from his Universe Bag and tossed them into his mouth. Then, he crushed them like beans before he suddenly moved before everyone’s stunned gazes!

Whoosh!

Perhaps the saying “Staying as quiet as a mouse when idle, and moving like rabbit when attacking” was meant to describe situations like that.

Ninja King was not slow, however. The moment Happy vanished from the spot, he moved as well. He took half a step forward and placed his hands over each other to move into the standard defensive pose perfect for counterattacks.

Clang!

Ninja King trembled a little, but he seized the pause Happy always had once his attack landed. A cold glare shone in his eyes, and he went to strike Happy’s head by closing in at a speed that showed he was completely unaffected by Happy’s attack.

The wind roared!

“Hmph!”

Happy was prepared for it since a long time ago. He formed his left hand into the shape of a claw, and when Ninja King attacked him, he instantly delivered himself into Happy’s hands. His strength was immediately dissolved, and Happy swung his Silver Wolf Emperor Breaker Sword horizontally without hesitation.

Clang!

Even though Ninja King’s throat was protected by the golden armor, it was covered in chains that linked the head gear to the body armor, so the defense over there was the weakest. When a loud bang rose, Ninja King covered his neck and took a few large steps backwards, his feet creating loud thuds. His gaze burned slightly.

‘Continue!’

Happy did not hesitate. Once he succeeded in one attack, he activated his Phantasm Body Movement Skill.

The heat released by Dew Pill swiftly restored the qi used by Dragon Capture.

Clang!

Dragon Capture!

Ninja King once again crashed into the wall without any power to fight back. It seemed that it would certainly face a tragic end.

But just when Happy executed Dragon Capture for the third time to control Ninja King, a loud racket suddenly rose from the other end of the tunnel.

“Look!”

“We caught up! They’re there!”

A cacophony of voices came from the distance. The people from Beggar’s Sect, Hidden Soul Sect, and Soaring Tiger Sect had arrived!