Sword Among Us

When the Emperor’s Birthday Quest came to an end, World of Martial Arts gradually returned to peace after the commotion.

Three days after World of Martial Arts Secret News Log revealed all sorts of secrets in the game, the hunt of the various “millionaires” on the Rich Rank finally came to an end too.

However, the true world of martial artists was also gradually brought to light after the Emperor’s Birthday Quest

First, each sect and clan launched the Bounty System.

All the players who died in another person’s hands would have their deaths recorded by the system of a clan or sect in which they learned their martial arts. The information of the murderer would be revealed on the Bounty List, and the people in the clan or sect could take up the quest at any time they wanted. They could go search for the killer and take revenge.

Those who succeeded in taking revenge would not only receive additional monetary rewards, but would also receive reputation points in their sect. Most people would invite senior brothers or sisters they were familiar with to take revenge together, since once a person’s reputation points reached a certain amount, they could trigger higher-level secret missions in their sect.

Hence, the appearance of the Bounty System and Revenge Quests gradually formed a cycle of revenge in which sects became enemies of each other in the game!

Then, with the Reputation System, an increasing number of people revealed that once a person obtained a certain amount of reputation points, they would be able to trigger quests for high-tier martial arts. With such resources, it was only a matter of time before they would become as successful as the people on the Dragon and Phoenix Ranks!

The news made the game even more chaotic, and the people even more motivated.

*****

However, there was a handful of people who did not run around the game for the Revenge Quests.

They were the powerful people who already had at least one high-tier martial art. At the very least, they could all be considered as top-tier fighters in the World of Martial Arts.

They were the ones who benefitted the most from the Emperor’s Birthday Quest!

Some of them were professional gamers, some guild members, and some loners who had achieved some degree of success during the early stages of the game. They would naturally not act like normal players and waste their valuable time and advantage on resources that they already had.

While they still had a clear advantage over others, they wandered to the regions in World of Martial Arts which others had not yet explored, and they developed those areas. Unearthing and building up even more advantages was their most urgent task. It was also what they longed for the most.

Among them, the ones that moved with the greatest momentum were Class One Hall, Towering Palace, and Chivalry Sect.

Class One Hall’s hall master, Dream Clouds was said to have obtained a low-grade divine weapon from the Emperor’s Birthday Quest, and she named it Cloud of Dreams. It took a high spot in the Divine Weapon Rank—third place!

She also had an ingenious crafted armor that surpassed the grade of masterpiece—Rainbow Phoenix Robe. It took seventeenth place on the Divine Weapon Rank.

Also, it was said that Dream Clouds’ two vice hall masters had a divine weapon each. Those weapons were also ranked high on the Divine Weapon Rank. They could be said to be the three great monsters of Class One Hall.

Towering Palace might not be as famous as Class One Hall, but they were a sect built by a group of veteran professional players. Their numbers and abilities were so great that most of the cities in Jiangnan were under their influence. They gradually showed their strength, and even Class One Hall did not dare underestimate them.

The last was Chivalry Sect. They had risen to power by relying on a group of extremely good players. They considered themselves as a chivalrous and just sect. The had great charisma and strong unity. They had already come into conflict with multiple famous sects in the game and had fought bloody battles against them. Their bold and powerful fighting style as well their fearless, bloodthirsty nature that made them fight regardless of the cost allowed them to subjugate multiple sects along the coast.

Ever since the Emperor’s Birthday Quest ended, the three great sects gathered up the resources that served as their advantages and began expanding furiously. They also kept searching for the information on the cities in the perimeter that would lead to hidden quests, such as the Fox Cave, Ancient Palace, Emperor’s Tomb, Five Venoms Valley, Bliss Cave, Unlimited Sword Lake, and Heavenward Summit. Those places were all very famous quest locations, and they were all slowly revealed one by one through the net to all players.

However, the reason it happened was because even the three great sects could not conquer them.

*****

At the entrance to Fox Cave in Immortal Fox Village.

The moon was hung high in the sky. The stars were dim around it.

Countless players had gathered at the back of the small mountain that housed the village. The people moved about, and no one could tell who belonged to which group. They stood close to each other and squeezed against each other in the somewhat flat forest. There were even rows upon rows of players on the branches. They were either standing or sitting on them.

Right in the middle of the large group of people was a huge stone. It stood at an empty spot with no leaves above it. White moonlight shone on it from above, and a strange as well as mysterious white color washed down the stone.

As time passed, the huge stone seemed to absorb all the essence in the world. Faint changes began to appear on it, and the strange lines on it slowly turned dark red from the originally dull black.

Was it a trap or an illusion? No one knew.

However, the moment the great change happened, glee appeared on the faces of the players surrounding the large stone, and they stood up simultaneously.

“The moon is round.”

“Get ready to take action!”

The players who had three drops of blood sewn over their chests watched the incredibly excited players in front of them with barely noticeable mockery.

Even though some people had already verified that there were high-tier martial art manuals in Fox Cave and that it produced many materials for middle-grade equipment, Fox Cave was not as easy to clear as they thought.

Even the people from Class One Hall had needed to pay a devastating price to enter the second layer, and hey had returned in failure from it. The flies who came after hearing the news would never know of the brutality of Fox Cave.

When the people with three drops of blood sewn on their chests saw many Gate Realm players dressed in home woven clothes, the disdain and mockery in their eyes became even greater. ‘What do they think this place is?’

They said nothing, however.

There were also another group of people who showed no surprise or delight on their faces when they stared at the huge white stone. They had calm expressions, though there was gravity and seriousness in their eyes.

“Everyone, be careful,” someone in the group warned. “Before you enter the cave, activate your body fortification technique and qi cultivation technique. After you enter the hall, stay in position and do not move.”

The rest of the group said nothing. They just nodded silently.

Right after the man finished speaking, delighted shouts came from ahead of them.

“It’s open!”

“Hurry up and get in!”

The speakers swiftly attracted all the players’ attention and gazes.

The huge white stone in the middle had changed completely. It turned into a scary and savage looking statue that had been emptied from the inside. It was the skull of a fierce beast, which was covered in blood-red lines. Two balls of strange white light shone at the position of the eyes. It looked as if it had come alive. It opened its huge mouth and invited the players to attend.

That was the entrance to Fox Cave!

The players in the area lamented about how terrifying the entrance to Fox Cave was while they rushed into the mouth of the fierce beast. It was around seven feet tall, and they went in without any hesitation, urged by the players behind them.

When they entered the huge mouth of the ferocious beast, they were immediately relocated and disappeared without a trace.

Groups of people vanished from the mouth of the beast!

Soon, more than half of the people at the entrance to Fox Cave were gone.

There were only a few small groups that did not take any action. They simply allowed the crowd of players to enter Fox Cave while watching quietly. When the area around them became empty, they looked at each other.

Then, they decided to enter!

More than one hundred auras of Blessed Realm rose from the small groups. They were followed by heavy breathing that came from people doing breathing exercises. It was a characteristic of strengthening one’s body.

Everyone activated their body fortification techniques.