Sword Among Us

Familiar faces staggered out of the Guanlin Temple in Immortal Fox Village. Situ Luoyu and Solitary Perpetual Joy were originally incredibly angry, but gradually, their hearts became cold.

It was especially so when they heard about what had happened afterwards. Their hearts turned even colder, and the already low temperature around them dropped even further. Their dark faces and the growing killing intent on their faces made the players in the area who derived joy from their misfortune to leave with their heads lowered.

“So, you’re saying that all of you died in Happy’s hands. He did all this alone?”

The twenty or so players said nothing. Their faces were pale, and they felt very weak right then. When they heard their failure spoken aloud, they lowered their heads together, feeling so ashamed that they could not speak.

Once Situ Luoyu and Solitary Perpetual Joy verified their assumptions, their faces instantly drained of the last of their color. They became so pale they looked abnormal. After sucking in deep breaths, they did not say anything for a long time.

In the beginning, their pride was incredibly damaged because they were killed by Tang Sect’s domineering hidden weapon—Pear Blossom Storm Needles—after being caught off guard. They were extremely enraged and indignant because of that.

But then, when nearly one hundred top-tier players had worked to kill Happy, the end result was still unexpected, even though they should have had a high chance of killing him. The powerful fighters from their sects on whom they had placed high hopes and who were the mid-tier pillars of the sects had allowed an enemy to break into their formation alone and kill twenty of them! And those people had done nothing to him! Not only had they not managed to injure him heavily, they did not even manage to break his body fortification technique!

Solitary Perpetual Joy had always been very prideful and never regarded the normal players as anything, but on that day, Happy crushed his pride twice in a row.

He sat down on the ground with his chest heaving violently. He had no way to vent his anger, and the more he thought about it, the more aggrieved he felt.

“Brother Perpetual Joy.”

Situ Luoyu was much more shrewd compared to him. His emotions only changed for a very brief moment before he quickly calmed down. Little could be detected on his face when he said, “We shouldn’t be hasty. No matter how strong Happy is, he’s only one person at Blessed Realm. We have many people, and his body fortification technique won’t be able to last for much longer. Once more time passes, he will pay the price in the end.”

Compared to Solitary Perpetual Joy, he did not mind the sacrifices he had to make. Besides, he had made preparations a long time ago. As long as he could kill Happy and suppress him, even if he had to sacrifice more people, he would not feel any pain in his heart. With Class One Hall as his shield, Fallen Feathers Sect would always have hope to catch their breath and rise to power again.

But it was different for Solitary Perpetual Joy.

He closed his eyes, sucked in a deep breath, sighed, and said, “Don’t forget. Right now, Happy’s the only one fighting outside. There are still three other people beside him.”

He was subtly hinting that if Happy alone was so difficult to deal with, once the four people worked together, the losses the two sects would suffer might multiply several times.

Situ Luoyu said nothing. He frowned, but right when he was prepared to take over the conversation and comfort Solitary Perpetual Joy, soft gasps of surprise came from beside him once more. The two of them looked up and saw two other people walk out from the temple. They were people from Perpetual Joy Sect.

When he saw that another two of his comrades had died, Solitary Perpetual Joy’s face turned even paler, and he scowled again.

“It’s you two? What happened inside?”

When the duo approached the two leaders, someone in the crowd recognized them. The two were among the players who had been sent by Ji Feng into Dead She-wolf’s chamber. They instantly became interested and asked what had happened to them.

The two said nothing at first. They exchanged an anguished expression before they told everything that had transpired after they entered Dead She-wolf’s chamber.

They said that after Ji Feng made arrangements for them to rush through, they had wanted to catch the people inside off guard, but before they could enter the chamber, they were held back by a player named All-powerful Medicinal Stone.

“All-powerful Medicinal Stone?”

Situ Luoyu frowned slightly as if he had just remembered something.

The others beside him did not notice his expression, and the speaker just nodded.

“That’s right. The one with really good lightness skills. None of us could catch up to him, and he injured all of us. In the end, we had to work together to force him into the chamber.”

“There are only four in Happy’s party. Happy is alone outside, and there is one more working to hold you back. Are you telling me that the other two could withstand Dead She-wolf’s attacks alone?”

At that moment, someone suddenly remembered the other half of the story, and they all instantly sucked in sharp breaths. They were incredibly shocked by the news!

“No!” The speaker smiled wanly. “There was one more person inside.”

“Red Dust?”

Solitary Perpetual Joy’s breathing froze, and he said the name of a person he had never forgotten in his heart.

“That’s right, it was him!”

“I knew it. They had decided to form a party together.”

At that moment, Situ Luoyu felt that the pressure on his shoulders had increased greatly. But when he considered it from another angle, he felt that there was something off.

“That’s not right. Even with Red Dust joined them, he was injured. It’d be impossible for the three of them to hold back Dead She-wolf by themselves. How did you die?”

“It was Red Dust,” the two answered at the same time and smiled in anguish.

“Even now, we aren’t too certain of the details, but something was really off when we entered. It looked like they had some method to see Dead She-wolf, and her abilities had clearly been reduced compared to before. The other two from Happy’s party could easily hold her back, so once Red Dust worked together with All-powerful Medicinal Stone, we simply couldn’t win against them. By the way, Red Dust seemed to have recovered from his injuries. Once we died, the others should have run away.”

The people outside Guanlin Temple sank into even deeper silence.

Even Situ Luoyu’s confidence in killing Happy had begun to waver.

Red Dust had formed a party with Happy, and once his hands were freed, he would definitely pose a great threat to the people outside!

Even though Situ Luoyu did not want to admit defeat and face the truth, it now seemed truly impossible to kill Happy.

So many of their own had died. Yet not only had they not managed to kill Red Dust and Happy, they had even made those two troublesome people form a party.

The progression of events had gone out of his control!

“What should we do now?”

Solitary Perpetual Joy looked at Situ Luoyu, feeling physically and mentally exhausted. Even if they headed to Immortal Fox Cave again, they would not be able to reach the depths. More than half an hour was required to move from the first level to the end of the second level, and they also had to take some time to deal with the large number of players outside Fox Cave who were filled with righteous indignation. Those players would definitely block them, and they would have to waste time to handle them.

“What else can we do?”

Situ Luoyu’s face was filled with resignation and powerlessness. Right then, their men were still fighting, and they could not receive any messenger pigeons. The sect masters could not give any orders to change anything.

Besides, he had already begun to think about how he would have to report the matter to his hall master after his operation in Fox Cave had failed. He would also have to somehow request for even more core members to fight against Happy.

He had a feeling that Happy already harbored a great dislike toward them. If they just let him become stronger, there was a high possibility that even their Hall Master Dream Clouds, who had now moved to the top of Phoenix Rank, would find it hard to suppress him!

*****

Just when Situ Luoyu and Solitary Perpetual Joy thought about how they should deal with the problems that would surely arise after the disaster, the battle outside the chamber in Fox Cave progressed to a stalemate from its initial intensity.

The people from the two sects had begun to figure Happy’s attacks.

Stormy Shadowless Kick had an astonishing momentum, but its damage was not great, and while Happy’s saber technique was domineering, its speed was average. If it were not for the fact that his body fortification technique was extraordinary, they might have killed him long ago.

“Team 1, retreat! Team 2, attack!”

Ji Feng had been watching from the side for a long time and taken up the position of commander for the two sects. He stood outside the battlefield and calmly commanded the people to attack and defend with loud shouts.

Under Ji Feng’s orders, the players who surrounded Happy gradually became used to the rhythm of the battle. They formed orderly teams and would attack and defend in an orderly fashion. By doing so, they managed to ensure that no more people died.

Every single time a team attacked, there were at least four people whose attacks would land full force on the golden light. Every single time it trembled violently, it became dimmer.

Happy did not notice it in the beginning. It was only when his Golden Bell Cocoon became dimmer and his defense was reduced to a dangerous level that he finally noticed the middle-aged man through the gaps of the crowd. He was standing outside the battlefield and giving commands.

“Ji Feng?”

Among the boundless sea of unfamiliar faces, that familiar face stunned Happy for a moment.

Boom!

A number of attacks struck Happy at the same time. His Golden Bell Cocoon became dim, trembled, and shattered completely. The remaining force of the attacks sent Happy flying out of the crowd and into the wall.