Sword Among Us

Over the next few days, every time Happy logged out of the game, he did something else other than eat—switching on his computer to browse through South China Martial Arts Ranking Board to look at the changes and learn of the guides and news his university mates uploaded.

Even though he had already experienced all of this before, being able to recollect what had happened in the past and read into the events that had transpired before in such a direct manner still brought great enjoyment to Happy. It also brought great nostalgia…

At that point in time, the number of people who had registered in South China Martial Arts Ranking Board had jumped from the initial three hundred or so people to around one thousand seven hundred people. There were hundreds of students who would join the website every day, and its popularity rose continuously.

Happy noticed that his ranking had dropped. He was originally placed around the two hundreds, but now, he had dropped to around one thousand and six hundred. There were more than one hundred and fifty people whose highest ranked martial art had already reached the ninth realm, which showed just how terrifying were university students’ drive and zeal.

The other three boys in Happy’s dorm fared quite well. They were ranked in the top five hundreds, especially Qi Ci’s Young Lonely Seven. He actually had a martial art that had already reached the tenth realm, and he was ranked very high, at the seventh place.

This discovery caused Happy to be incredibly embarrassed.

He had thought that his tenth realm Shaolin’s Long Fist, which he had hidden all this while, could allow him to stay a little longer at the top ranks of the ranking board once he keyed in the information, but apparently even if he did key in his information, he would have eight other people who surpassed his rank in just one night.

Brother Tea Words, who was at the top of the ranking board, had registered four ninth realm martial arts and one tenth realm martial art. When Happy saw this, he could not help gasping in admiration.

This person was indeed so strong that he was not a human.

The game had only just started, and he already had four ninth realm martial arts as well as one tenth realm martial art. Once he reached a breakthrough for all of them and entered Grandmaster Realm, his qi would increase by twenty points at the very least.

‘Looks like World of Martial Arts will soon be the world for players who have entered Gate Realm.’

Happy sucked in a deep breath. His mind was shocked awake when he remembered something!

Soon after some players’ qi reached the first qi realm, World of Martial Arts had launched a story quest of an unprecedented scale, and the rewards involved were very comprehensive and varied. To Happy, who had played the game before, this was incredibly attractive.

More importantly, it was because of that story quest that the players from the sects in World of Martial Arts, regardless of whether they were big or small sects, and whether they had laid dormant in the game or not, would begin engaging each other in bloody fights. They would all walk down the crazed and passionate path of martial artists.

*****

In truth, Chen Fan was very good at making websites. With just a few days of management, he had managed to categorize many of the posts in South China Martial Arts Ranking Board, showing that he had a lot of ways to handle the website. He managed it so well that the users of the website could understand how to navigate it at first glance.

Some of the practical posts had also had their functions verified, and an “excellent” tag was added to the post so that they became even more eye-catching.

Furthermore, a pretty good and very important function had also been added to the website.

Chen Fan had expanded the website and made a Members’ Elegance Zone. All registered members could upload outstanding screenshots and videos that they took in World of Martial Arts to that area.

Right after this function was launched, it immediately attracted a number of members to walk down the road of uploading screenshots and videos. They continuously saved the scenes and experiences that they believed were the best of what they encountered in World of Martial Arts.

“Happy.” Bai Lang returned to the dorm right then. He saw the boy sitting in front of his computer, and he was instantly amused. “Why are you grinning so stupidly? Looking at pretty girls?”

“Go away. Am I that kind of person?” The person Bai Lang spoke to rolled his eyes.

“And you say you’re not looking at a pretty girl? Heh heh, you brat, you must have received news as well. Why are you looking at me like that? Don’t go thinking you can deny this now. Young Yu Yan is the name the girl of your dreams, Xu Xin, chose in World of Martial Arts.”

While Bai Lang spoke, he began sighing with a myriad of emotions welling in him all on their own. “Tsk, tsk, I have to say, with Xu Xin’s personality and temper, she is indeed like Wang Yuyan from Demi-gods and Semi-devils. She is delicate, which stirs up pity and feelings of tenderness in others. She’s so feminine as well. I wonder which lucky bastard will end up dating her in the future.”

Happy was stunned.

Young Yu Yan was indeed Xu Xin’s in-game name in World of Martial Arts. In his previous life, because of the awkward accident with the umbrella, he had never had the courage to meet her again. Thus, they seldom came into contact with each other.

Later on, he heard that there seemed to be a lot of people who tried to woo her in World of Martial Arts. In fact, she was secretly dubbed as Beauty Yu [1] in the Hundred Flowers Chart in World of Martial Arts.

As for which jerk ended up dating her…

Happy scowled. He did not remember any news of Xu Xin getting herself a boyfriend in his past. When he saw the name of Young Yu Yan again, he recalled the events from his previous life carefully and remembered that there was also a vibrant heart of a martial artist under all the delicate mannerisms of Xu Xin.

Wang Yuyan. Young Yu Yan…

So Xu Xin had actually turned herself into the weakest and most delicate woman in Demi-gods and Semi-devils who needed to depend on others the most.

But was the person she was going to rely on going to be Murong Fu [2] of Gusu City, or Duan Yu [3], the crown prince of Dali Kingdom [4]? Or would she rely on herself?

There was no way for him to know this!

Happy smiled faintly. He suddenly remembered something. He was just a normal secular disciple of Shaolin in his previous life, and he did not have much contact with Xu Xin. But in this life, he was a member of the Murong Clan. He might have a chance to come into contact with Young Yu Yan.

“Oh please, my darling Happy, could you not smile so stupidly? I feel like the pressure on me has become greater!”

Bai Lang shuddered in a very exaggerated manner and shook his head. He no longer bothered about a certain someone who just continued smiling foolishly. He kicked off his shoes and climbed onto his bunk.

Happy was speechless. He rolled his eyes and did not bother to respond.

While Bai Lang lay down on his bed, he asked without any malicious intentions. “Oh, by the way, Happy, how many martial arts have you learned?”

Happy was stunned for a moment, then answered, “Hmm… two.”

Lancet Knife Throwing Technique was considered a skill using hidden weapons, and such skills were incredibly difficult to level up. Thus, they should not be considered as martial arts, or that was what Happy thought.

“That’s too few. But it’s good that you’re specializing in something as well. The higher the realm of your martial art, the more qi you will gain. What’s the highest realm of your martial arts? I’ve reached ninth realm, by the way.”

Bai Lang’s tone was one of calmness, as if he was absolutely not surprised by this fact. To him, it would already be great that a nerd like Happy could learn the basics of a certain martial art. His expectations for him were not high.

“Tenth realm for Shaolin’s Long Fist,” Happy answered without even turning his head around. There was no reason why he should hide this fact.

But not a single peep was heard from behind him even after a long time had passed…

He turned his head around and looked back to find that Bai Lang had already put on his helmet to enter the game. It was unknown whether he had heard what Happy had said.

Happy felt extremely put out and rolled his eyes. He turned his head around and continued searching for the information he needed.

In truth, he could not be considered to be looking for information. Instead, he was hoping to find news regarding the situation near Gusu City from South China Martial Arts Ranking Board.

As he had expected, his Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Sword had swiftly reached the ninth realm, but the progress of his Lancet Knife Throwing Technique was slow during the last couple days, but that was because throwing knives were considered a hidden weapon. Not only was their accuracy rate incredibly low, throwing knives were also consumables. He could not retrieve them and continue using them.

Every time he practiced the technique, he had to throw a throwing knife and hit his target if he wanted to increase his progress bar and level up. If he missed, he would not gain any experience, and that was the same as throwing his money into water.

Happy had already spent around 48,000 Ban Liangs outside Gusu City before he finally leveled up the skill up to the eighth realm. All the money he had earned previously that had made him a little rich was instantly gone like the wind.

The only thing that gave Happy some degree of satisfaction was that the requirements for a hidden weapons technique were as high as the requirements to increase one’s qi realm!

He had looked for local rascals every single day and caused them trouble day and night by throwing away tons of money as if it were just pieces of paper. From this, his qi had increased by leaps and bounds from its initial four point something to the current eight point something.

If it were not for this discovery, Happy would have gone on strike a long time ago so that he could stop the money from flowing out from his wallet.

It was also because of this that he had to search for information about NPCs that were stronger than local rascals. He had to see whether there was a way to increase his Lancet Knife Throwing Technique to the ninth realm.

The lousy local rascals could no longer take more than a few knives when he used the Lancet Knife Throwing Technique at the eighth realm. If he let his guard down for a moment and threw a few more knives, his happy life would come to an end, and he would no longer have any rascals to serve as his free and endless EXP in the future.

This situation troubled Happy to no end.

Translator’s Note:

[1] Beauty Yu: concubine of the warlord Xiang Yu, who competed with Liu Bang.

[2] Wang Yuyan and Murong Fu: Both characters in Demi-gods and Semi-devils. They are cousins, and Wang Yuyan is originally obsessed with Murong Fu.

[3] Duan Yu: Also a character from Demi-gods and Semi-devils. In some renditions, Wang Yuyan ends up with Duan Yu.

[4] Dali Kingdom: a kingdom situated in modern Yunnan province, China from 937 until 1253 when it was conquered by the Mongols.