Sword Among Us

For the next five days, Happy and Thunderous Battle never left the ancient tomb. They were completely immersed in the pleasant feeling of their various martial arts swiftly leveling up! But they did not know that the world outside had become incredibly dangerous and chaotic.

During that period of time, they also gained a deeper understanding of each other.

Thunderous Battle was the type of person who was level-headed and indifferent to the matters of the world. Even though his friends had been dragged into the quest for the emperor’s birthday one after another, since his Infinite Sword Technique had yet to reach Grandmaster Realm, he did not intend to join the quest. His thoughts were very simple: He wanted to place his full concentration on increasing the level of his sword technique before he wandered about the land!

Once Happy briefly told Thunderous Battle what he knew, he focused on training, pouring all of his heart and soul into entering Blessed Realm.

However, they still learned about several powerful players who brought about outstanding achievements in the game, especially Quicksword Xiao Shan from the south, who went to slaughter Mountain Range Sect, and North Placating Duke, whose alias in the game knew him as Soul Severing Guest and who had destroyed Wind and Rain Tower.

They most often spoke about those two.

The fierce looking Stone Giants and the dark and disgusting Dirt Puppets were the only things that stayed beside the two players. The duo never left the ancient tomb, and even when they logged out to eat, they worked their schedules to fit each other’s. They set a time to log in at the same time, and the levels for their martial arts naturally increased at lightning speed.

Thunderous Battle was in a good condition. During the days he fought against the Stone Giants, he focused only on luring the monsters and withstanding their attacks. Hence, his Turtle Shell rose from the eighth realm to the tenth realm, and when he activated his body fortification technique, strange patterns appeared on his skin. A sturdy shell would cover it, and even Stone Giants had a hard time pushing him back.

As Thunderous Battle’s body fortification technique became more powerful, the time he could last fighting against the Stone Giants increased from the original four minutes to more than seven minutes. His Infinite Sword Technique also reached the ninth realm from the sixth realm. The sword began to glow when he attacked, The light looked alive as it traveled all over the sword, dazzling anyone who looked at it. It became very difficult to figure out where the blade would truly strike.

However, if Thunderous Battle’s reward from training were those two martial arts of his gaining a great increase, then Happy’s rewards were even greater!

Not only did he manage to push his Five Continuous Axe Strikes to Grandmaster Realm, his Black Cloud Sword Technique, Black Wind Saber Technique, Black Snake Staff Technique, and Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Sword all reached Grandmaster Realm from the tenth realm. With Flashing Sword Breaker, which had also reached Grandmaster Realm the day before, his qi reached eighty points, which was the great mark to reach Blessed Realm, and he officially entered the second qi realm!

This meant that Happy had already joined the ranks of those in Blessed Realm the day before!

At that time, Thunderous Battle had taken the initiative to suggest going back to the city once and exchanging all their loot for money. They could buy a high-tier martial art manual for Happy from the market before they returned to the ancient tomb.

This was because over the past few days, Thunderous Battle had not only sensed that Happy had a great understanding of the game, but that there was a very strange and unique characteristic about him that made others feel at ease.

After spending a long amount of time with Happy, not only did the practicing of his martial arts become incredibly relaxing to the point that it was no different to the time when he had a big party and they took turns withstanding the monsters’ attacks, Thunderous Battle could even learn a new skill every single day.

Happy had also sensed Thunderous Battle’s sincerity.

Right then, high-tier martial art manuals were very rare in the game, so they were not something all Blessed Realm players could obtain.

Each martial art manual was linked to a highly difficult quest.

Only some really powerful players could obtain a manual through a stable foundation in their martial arts or if they were lucky enough to encounter a fortuitous event.

If they wanted to buy a high-tier martial art from the market, the quoted price for one manual was two hundred thousand taels of silver crumbs!

If anyone wanted to exchange RMB for silver coins through the offline trading platform, they would need 10,000 RMB. From this alone, it could be seen just how rare and valuable high-tier martial art manuals were.

Over the days they trained, the two had obtained a large amount of goods from the ancient tomb. They received all sorts of metal and jade items, and if they sold them, they could get nearly one hundred thousand silver coins.

But Happy did not take Thunderous Battle’s offer.

It was not as if he did not have high-tier martial art manuals. In fact, he had more than one!

Flowering Knights’ Song and Demon Subduing Staff were in his possession.

When Happy suddenly swung his saber, he drew an arc that produced a sound that was as deep and imposing as the one heavy metal would produce when it fell on the ground. His saber shone, and he struck a light crack on the Stone Giant. Thunderous Battle’s jaw went slack in shock, and he was stunned speechless.

Happy could be said to have everything going his way.

With Thunderous Battle attracting the Stone Giant’s attention in front of the monster, he did not have to worry about many things. All he needed to do was deliver his attacks at full force and increase the level of his martial arts. That was all.

In two days, his Flowering Knights’ Song swiftly went from Level 1.00 to Level 49.37. The Stone Giants and Dirt Puppets began to have a very hard time surviving more than fifteen minutes under the duo’s attacks!

If they were careful, they could get rid of one Stone Giant or Dirt Puppet in one round, without taking any breaks.

On that day…

“Brother, I’m so sorry, I don’t think I can make it today. My mother-in-law has come, and my wife gave me orders that I absolutely must go to the airport before she lands to pick her up, or else she’ll be really cross with me! Why don’t we return to the city after we finish all the monsters here and log in tomorrow at six in the evening?” Thunderous Battle explained his situation to Happy with an apologetic look.

“It’s alright.” Happy’s expression did not change. He smiled and said, “Your family is important. Go on. Once we finish this round, I’ll log off as well, but I won’t be returning to the city. I’ll wait for you at six in the evening.”

When he heard this, Thunderous Battle could not help but size Happy up again. Then, he nodded.

“Alright, but you must be careful. Don’t take on a Stone Giant alone. If you really can’t handle it, go to the entrance to lure the monsters, or else it’ll be too dangerous.”

Happy chuckled. He had indeed thought about fighting against the Stone Giants alone so that he could increase the progress of leveling his martial arts, but he did not expect that Thunderous Battle would be able to see through him.

Thunderous Battle did not say much more. He cautioned Happy to be careful again before he logged off and left.

Once Thunderous Battle was gone, Happy swept his gaze over the ancient tomb. There were seven Stone Giants and Dirt Puppets still wandering about as usual. They did not encroach in each other’s territory.

Happy exhaled. He had rested enough.

He brought out a normal low-tier martial art manual from his Universe Bag, and once he looked at it, he pressed both his palms on the book.

Whoosh!

The martial art manual swiftly turned into a black ray of light that sank into Happy’s body.

Ding!

The system let out a clear notification.

“Learned the low-tier body fortification technique—Black Sand Invulnerable Body!”

It was a body fortification technique he had obtained from Black Wind Mountain’s chief bandit. As its level and realm increased, its defensive properties would also gradually increase.

However, Black Sand Invulnerable Body was just at Level 1, so it was the same as him not having any body fortification technique. If he used it to withstand an attack from a Stone Giant in Blessed Realm, it would be similar to him wearing a thick piece of paper, but it was better than nothing.

Happy sucked in a deep breath, and at a moderate pace, he brought out his Great Wolf Fur Coat, Great Wolf Fur Gauntlets, Great Wolf Fur Boots, and Great Wolf Fur Shorts, and equipped all of them. Once he turned himself into a hunter in the forest, he stood up and approached a Stone Giant not too far away from him.

Whoosh!

With a flick of his wrist, a lancet knife accurately struck the Stone Giant dozens of feet to his left. Then, Happy quickly came back to his original spot. The Stone Giant did not even flinch, but it glared at Happy once it found the perpetrator. With loud stomps, it took huge strides and charged toward Happy, as if there was wind under its feet.

Happy’s breathing instantly became light and slow.

If he wanted to withstand the Stone Giant’s attacks with a Level 1 Black Sand Invulnerable Body, there was still a huge risk involved.

When the Stone Giant advanced to ten feet away from Happy with an imposing and aggressive momentum, Happy narrowed his eyes slightly. He could not help but tighten his grip around the Hundred-battle Saber before he prepared to counterattack.

He had been practicing his martial arts with Thunderous Battle for a long time by going up against these monsters head on with brute strength. It was time to increase the progress of his training!