Sword Among Us

“What a close call!”

After All-powerful Medicinal Stone, Thunderous Battle, and Little North listened to Happy’s orders and ran into the other cave, they found that there was no one who actually chased after them. They released breaths of relief, but at the same time, they felt that there was something really strange about the situation.

Why did it suddenly become quiet behind them? It was so quiet that it was a little weird.

In the beginning, the trio thought that the people from the two sects were just worried that they would use the terrain to launch an ambush on them, but as time passed, they finally sensed that something was off.

Little North reacted the fastest.

When he linked the situation to the metallic item Happy had thrown behind him and Happy’s relaxed and contented expression, his eyes lit up slightly, and a hint of surprise and delight showed up on his face.

“Pear Blossom Storm Needles!”

“What?”

All-powerful Medicinal Stone and Thunderous Battle were both stunned. They looked at the duo in puzzlement.

Happy smiled faintly.

“Pear Blossom Storm Needles are Tang Sect’s top-grade hidden weapon. They can easily destroy the true qi that protects the body, but they’re only effective on martial artists that are below Life and Death Realm. It covers an area of 164 feet, and in such a small room, even Universal Golden Immortal wouldn’t be able to save them[1]!”

While speaking, Happy walked out from behind a wall and returned to the previous cave under the trio’s shocked gazes.

The trio followed behind him with puzzlement. Then, they were instantly stunned. There were twenty or so corpses left in the cave, and they were in all sorts of postures from before they had died. The ground was covered in streams of blood.

There were also black, fine needles as thin as cow’s hair covering the walls like a carpet. The walls and ceiling shone with a dark light, creating an incredibly strange and terrifying sight.

Disbelief and shock showed up on the trio’s faces.

A group of elites at the peak of Blessed Realm and a few Mystical Realm players who were in Dragon Rank were all killed without a sound by one hidden weapon…

“Are the hidden weapons from Tang Sect so good?!”

When he noticed that he was safe, All-powerful Medicinal Stone regained his usual wild and unruly mannerisms. With an exaggerated expression, he reached out to touch the fine needles on the wall, but the next moment, he retracted his hand.

“This thing isn’t poisonous, right?”

“You can try and touch it, then you’ll know.”

Happy smiled and crouched down near a corpse. He searched through their Universe Bag and took out a bunch of gold notes. The smile on his face grew brighter.

The corpse belonged to Solitary Perpetual Joy. As the leader of a famous sect, he had quite a lot of gold notes on his person. Even though he would only drop 50% of his money after he died, Happy still received forty thousand taels of gold crumbs, which meant that it was equivalent to four hundred thousand taels of silver crumbs. He had earned big.

“Tsk, tsk. He sure is rich.”

When he saw Happy crouch down to pick up the gold notes and silver notes from the corpses, All-powerful Medicinal Stone drooled over the money, but when Happy suggested he pick up the spoils of war as well, All-powerful Medicinal Stone immediately put on a scornful expression and spoke in a righteous manner.

“Don’t think of me as someone who is easily moved by money. As the first generation successor of Marvelous-handed Sect, I will only steal from the living, never the dead. I still have that amount of pride.”

Little North stared at All-powerful Medicinal Stone in wordless admiration.

Thunderous Battle said that they had only been able to defeat all these elites from the two great sects because of Pear Blossom Storm Needles. He would not divide the spoils of war that were earned by Happy alone.

Happy did not force them.

In truth, he had made preparations to use Pear Blossom Storm Needles since the start, since he saw that the sect masters of Fallen Feathers Sect and Perpetual Joy Sect had decided to take action personally. They also led a group of elites who had extraordinary abilities. The four of them alone would be in a dangerous situation if they wanted to fight against them, so they could only rely on external help.

Besides, even though Pear Blossom Storm Needles were incredibly rare and valuable, it managed to get him more than one million taels of silver crumbs by killing the leaders of the two sects. If he counted the money he gained from killing a bunch of elites as well, he had not only obtained more than two million taels of silver crumbs, he had also gained a few equipment pieces that were quite good. All in all, the trade was rather worthwhile.

But Happy was the most pleased with killing Situ Luoyu, the sect master of Fallen Feathers Sect. After such an event, Fallen Feathers Sect might be at a disadvantage in their fight against Chivalry Sect.

His main goal for coming to Fox Cave was achieved!

“We killed the leaders of Fallen Feathers Sect and Perpetual Joy Sect, so we might run into trouble in the future. Big Brother Thunder…”

When he noticed the apologetic look in Happy’s eyes, Thunderous Battle swung his hand in a displeased manner. “Enough with the bull crap! I came here to explore the map with you. If I didn’t fight with the others, I wouldn’t have been satisfied anyway. Everyone else can go and fly a kite for all I care. Fallen Feathers Sect and Perpetual Joy Sect? If worse comes to worst, I’ll just run away from them in the future.”

“Big Brother Thunder, you’re just destroying your own prestige if you say that. Where did all your might go?” Little North asked. “You’re even thinking about running away from those bastards from Fallen Feathers Sect?”

Thunderous Battle rubbed the bridge of his nose in embarrassment. He smiled bashfully and said that Little North was right.

However, all of them knew clearly that with a single player’s abilities, it was simply ridiculous of them to even think about fighting against a guild. Little North’s words were simply the indignation of a young man. He immediately fell into deep thought and began analyzing their situation.

“Big Brother Thunder, in truth, you’re quite strong. The damage and speed of your sword technique is good, and your body fortification technique is also good. You can easily gain the upper hand when you deal with good players below Mystical Realm. It’s a pity that your lightness skill is a little weak.”

“That’s right.” All-powerful Medicinal Stone took over the conversation while looking at Thunderous Battle. “It won’t do if you don’t have a high-tier lightness skill. If you’re slow, it’ll be easy for you to get hit. You especially can’t go without one when you’re up against a guild. Look at me, I can run if I can’t win against them, but you can’t do that. Once they set their sights on you, it’ll be very easy for them to eat you up until there’s nothing left.”

Thunderous Battle nodded with a face full of regret.

“I want that, of course, but it’s not easy to get a high-tier lightness skill manual. That Fox Monster’s Phantasmal Shadow did not even appear while we were at the first level.”

“It’s fine. The chances of Fox Monster’s Phantasmal Shadow dropping is higher in the second level of Fox Cave. We might run into one later,” Happy said to comfort him.

When he heard it, Thunderous Battle quickly shook his head.

“Don’t! I don’t need it just yet. If one appears, you can take it first. Happy, Little North, both of you don’t have high-tier lightness skills as well, right? Besides, Little North doesn’t even have a high-tier body fortification technique. At the very least, I still have a high-tier body fortification technique.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll all get what we deserve.” Happy smiled. “Dead She-wolf, the mini-boss in the chamber, will definitely drop Fox Monster’s Phantasmal Shadow and Illusory Spirit Body. One of them is a body fortification manual, and the other is a lightness skill manual. You can get one book each, which is just nice.”

“What about you?”

When Thunderous Battle and Little North heard Happy’s words, they were unwilling to accept his offer. They knew that Happy’s lightness skill was only a low-tier lightness skill—Cloud Treading Steps—at Grandmaster Realm.

“You don’t have to worry about me. I’ve already prepared a high-tier lightness skill for myself, and it’s in my storage. I can learn it when I reach Mystical Realm.”

When the three heard his explanation, they relaxed. Yet when they realized that he mentioned going up against Dead She-wolf, they could not help but be a little nervous.

“Are we going up against Dead She-wolf with only the four of us?” All-powerful Medicinal Stone scowled, making it clear that he was a little uneasy and hesitant. “Dead She-wolf is not a normal monster. I heard that she’s a humanoid werewolf that has the abilities of a Life and Death Realm martial artist! She’s also invisible under the effects of the illusion matrix. If we go against her with just the four of us, we might end up not even knowing how we died.”

Happy did not say anything. Naturally, he knew all of that. However, if he did not have full confidence in killing Dead She-wolf, he would not have come. He just smiled and told them his plan.

At that moment, a voice that the quartet was not familiar with came from the direction of the entrance to the chamber.

“If you’re going to fight Dead She-wolf, I can help you.”

It was only at that moment that they noticed another person in the area. They instantly grew vigilant and looked over as fast as lightning, but all they saw was Red Dust. He was covered in blood and wrapped in bandages while standing at the entrance to the chamber.

Red Dust swept a glance over the corpses littered all over the ground before he said, “I won’t take any items. Consider my help as thanks for you taking revenge for my brothers.”