Sword Among Us

As of then, NPCs who had reached Mystical Realm were very rare and practically invincible existences in World of Martial Arts. They had all necessary skills: a body fortification technique, a lightness skill, a high-tier martial art, and a secret technique. Their equipment and weapon were also extraordinary. They had an attack system that they declared entirely their own, and because of how rare they were, it made them even more difficult to deal with.

Hence, even players with high-tier martial arts would feel nervous when they ran into NPCs in Mystical Realm. They could only run when they caught wind of them. That was why the forty or so people had taken flight after meeting the bandits earlier.

But Happy was different.

After playing the game for three years, the powerful players he had fought before were all people who could kill Life and Death Realm NPCs with just a few attacks. Even if they faced Moksha Realm NPCs, they could still win easily. The Mystical Realm NPCs might seem strong, but to Happy, as long as he did not commit any beginner-level mistakes, it would not be difficult while being a Blessed Realm player to defeat them.

However, the bandit leader’s ax techniques were indeed very fierce and domineering. Once he executed his skills, light in the shape of a few axs could be seen in the air. It was even brighter than the saber glare Happy had from Flowering Knights’ Song! It moved forward constantly and forced Happy back. He had to keep avoiding the glare from the ax.

Attacks based on fierce and strong techniques might be violent, but they could not be fast.

The bandit leader’s ax technique had an astonishing speed, but his footwork was not ingenious.

Hence, even if he was oppressed by the bandit leader, Happy did not panic. He remained calm and composed, acting carefully. He temporarily prioritized defense and evading the bandit leader’s attacks.

The process might be simple, and to Happy, it was something he could do skillfully, but that was because it was an accumulation of three years of experience with martial arts. When the bandit leader raised his hand and moved his feet, the aura and ax glare he revealed would automatically tell Happy his possible attack trajectories, and he could subsequently parry or avoid the attack.

The high-tier martial art the bandit leader used was fierce and violent.

Two minutes later, the duo had already exchanged more than a hundred moves, but they did not exchange any attacks head on. Every single time the bandit leader attacked, Happy would reduce most of his force by breaking the attack down, leading it away, or just dodging it.

Like that, as time passed, while the bandit leader’s attacks remained as fierce as ever, it was clear that he no longer had the powerful momentum from before. The skills he used were also the same over and over again. Besides, the bandit leader had become impatient because he could not get rid of the enemy before him.

Happy gradually left the state in which he was oppressed from all sides when the bandit leader’s momentum reduced. He swept his gaze around him. The few uninjured bandits were rushing over from the distance. His gaze focused then, and Happy changed from his defensive stance to his sword glare brightening exponentially. He moved closer to the bandit leader and clenched his left hand to land a heavy blow at the bandit leader’s chin.

The lethality of Black Tiger Fist might not be as great as that of a high-tier martial art, but if it struck a weak spot on a person’s body, it would still deal great damage.

“Die!”

The bandit leader hissed in pain and flew into a rage. He roared and brandished his ax, forcing Happy several feet backwards. In his rage, his momentum became terrifying again.

However, even though his momentum had become strong under his anger, his weaknesses also became even more apparent.

Happy had been waiting for this chance for a long time.

He avoided the ax, and the moment the bandit leader delivered his second attack closely to the first, Happy’s saber shone brightly. At an even faster speed, he swung it from below to meet the bandit leader’s ax, which had a weaker momentum. The powerful force brought with it a powerful inertia, and the bandit leader instantly lost his balance.

His face turned pale. He seemed to realize that something bad was about to happen by the sound of air being sliced apart. He looked up in alarm, and a blue saber glare that looked as if it descended from heaven made his memories forever be fixed on that moment!

His purplish-red great axe fell to the ground dispiritedly.

*****

“Hmm?”

Under the scorching sun, a black figure drifting high in the forest half a mile from the pavilion let out a soft sound before he stopped flying.

The tree top swayed slightly, and the person landed at the top of a very tall tree.

He looked down to the east of the government-made road. The person in the tree was the unkempt middle-aged man who had left the pavilion a long time ago. He had a brocade box in his arms, and a shocked and bewildered look entered his eyes when he looked into the distance.

The unkempt man had an exquisite map in his other hand. One minute ago, the location and moving speed of the other brocade box was shown very clearly. It had chased after him, but just then, the red dot had suddenly stopped.

He stopped for a few minutes as well, waiting.

The red dot remained unmoving on the map, as if it had been held up by something.

“Strange.” A hint of puzzlement appeared on the unkempt man’s face. His gaze sparkled, and he mumbled softly, “Logically speaking, Aside from Black Heron himself, the group he led to ambush the thirteen staff-using monks should not be able to stop the Mystical Realm NPC from stealing the brocade box, and it’s impossible for them to continue sacrificing lives for the boxes. Has a new situation arisen, which made the bandits stop for so long?”

For some strange reason, the unkempt man thought of the blue figure in the pavilion.

‘Could it be him? No way!’

The unkempt man could not help but frown. He lingered around the top of the tree for a moment before his curiosity won over his logical reasoning telling him to leave the battlefield. With a loud whoosh, he shot toward the government-made road like a goose flying at the speed of an arrow.

The unkempt middle-aged man’s lightness skill had already reached an astonishing degree. He was so fast that his speed was astounding. Neither Happy nor the Mystical Realm bandit leader could compare to his speed.

With a jump, he could cross from twenty-two feet to twenty-six feet. He drifted to the government-made road in the distance as light as a feather.

During that period of time, the unkempt man would still occasionally look at the map in his hand.

The red dot that represented the brocade box still did not move.

The curiosity on the unkempt man’s face became even greater. He put away the map and rushed to the spot where the pavilion was!

He moved as quickly as lightning.

In less than half a minute, the middle-aged man, whose clothes were a mess and who did not care about his appearance, appeared not too far away from the pavilion while holding his brocade box in a ridiculous manner. When he saw the masterless horses and the corpses that had yet to disappear scattered everywhere on the ground, the shock on his face became even greater. His eyes moved, and his gaze landed on the man in black who was the only person moving in the area.

The unkempt man said nothing. His eyes were sharp, and he quickly discovered the corpse of the Mystical Realm bandit leader among the dead bandits. It was the same person who had claimed dozens of people’s lives with his hands!

Yet there were only bandit corpses in the area!

And the only person moving around was the masked man in black, who walked in a relaxed and calm manner.

When he saw it, the unkempt middle-aged man understood what had transpired, no matter how slow he was to realize things. He had killed bandits, which made the unkempt man’s face pale.

There were people who could kill Mystical Realm NPCs in the game, but this was the first time he saw someone kill a Mystical Realm NPC alone…

Just how terrifying was this person?

The unkempt middle-aged man cast the masked man in black a glance in a very sleazy and wary manner. He tightened his hold over his brocade box and moved backwards carefully. He looked like he believed himself to be in a very dangerous situation.

Happy was quite speechless.

When the unkempt middle-aged man had arrived, Happy was shocked and nervous. He then saw the other’s sleazy actions, and he could not help but feel like he had nothing to say about the situation.

He quickly increased his speed of looting his spoils of war and the Horse Plates from the bandits. He cast the unkempt man a profound glance before walking away in the direction of Shaoshi Mountain[1] at a moderate pace.