Sword Among Us

The stall owner seemed to be around thirty years old. He had a grim face and did not like to speak much. Even if others asked him about the price, he did not seem to want to acknowledge their presence, as for his strength…

Happy sized up the man who was built like an iron tower that stood steadily on the ground. After he thought about it for a long time, the only conclusion he came to was that he had no idea just how strong he was. Without attacking, it was difficult to determine a person’s strength. However, his instincts told him that this person was definitely someone remarkable, even though the stuff sold in the stall were metal weapons and jade items that did not seem to be of much practical use.

Happy cast a few more glances at the built man’s items.

They were indeed very normal.

They were all commonly seen vessels, and they were either around tens of thousands of taels of silver crumbs or hundreds of thousands of taels of silver crumbs. He wondered why the people in the area valued these items so much, because anyone could get plenty of them if they just went and explored an ancient tomb once.

Happy looked away, and when he was prepared to leave, he suddenly trembled, and his gaze returned to the stall. The items in the stall were the same as before, but Happy’s expression turned incredibly strange.

He cast the man a glance, and his expression became normal. He pushed his hand against the back of the horse and flipped over in a nimble move. He landed on the ground, then tugged his horse’s reins to move to the front of the stall.

“Brother, can I ask a question?”

“Go on.”

The built man had paid a lot of attention to Happy from the start, though it might have been only because he was on a horse. When he saw Happy taking the initiative to get down from his horse to ask a question, the lines on his face softened a little, and he said two simple words.

He sounded very cold and cool.

“Heh, I’d like to know where you got these items.” While saying that, Happy pointed at the items in front of the man.

The players in the area looked at him with surprise.

“You’re not from the area, are you?” someone in the crowd answered for the man. “This is no longer a secret to the people in Yangzhou. Not too long ago, someone discovered a hidden ancient tomb outside the city. In has Dirt Puppets and Stone Giants, which are very powerful. Most of the people who go in die, but all these items are from the ancient tomb. It’s not far from here though. If you ride a horse, you should be able to reach it in twenty or thirty minutes.”

The built man’s face did not change. He only nodded after the person answered to show that the answer was correct.

“Dirt Puppets… Stone Giants?” Happy muttered to himself.

In truth, before he even got down from the horse, he knew that he had made a mistake.

Metal weapons and jade items were indeed normal, but that was three years later, when most of the players were generally above Mystical Realm, and there were also plenty of powerful players in Life and Death Realm. It was very easy for them to handle NPCs in the middle stage of Blessed Realm, so such items became a very common sight.

However, as of right then, it was the era of those in Blessed Realm. The Dirt Puppets and Stone Giants who protected the ancient tomb had combat abilities that were rather terrifying, and they were difficult to handle. No wonder then that there were so many people surrounding the stall for a look.

“You want to enter the ancient tomb?” the built man suddenly said, and his eyes sparkled brilliantly.

Happy was silent for a few seconds before he nodded slowly.

“I do want to take a look.”

When he heard Happy’s answer, the light in the built man’s eyes became even stronger. “Are you in Blessed Realm?”

“No.”

The built man was rendered speechless. A brief flash of disappointment that he did not bother to hide appeared on his face. “Then I suggest that you don’t go. The Dirt Puppets and Stone Giants guarding the ancient tomb are all very powerful. Not only is their movement speed high, their attack power is also astonishing. Their defense is also extraordinary. Even if a few Blessed Realm players attack together, they have to be incredibly careful. They have to take turns attacking them, and even then they will only be able to destroy those monsters after more than thirty minutes.”

“Oh.”

The players around them looked at him in surprise.

Even though they knew about the existence of the ancient tomb, they hadn’t known about the details.

“Thank you for your reminder. I just want to take a look.”

Happy smiled, already making calculations in his heart. There was still more than half a month before the first stage of the banditry disaster would come to an end. During that period of time, he wanted to train in Yangzhou and push his qi realm to Blessed Realm so that he could learn his first high-tier martial art—Flowering Knights’ Song.

‘Blessed Realm…’

People’s qi would be refined to an exquisite degree by that time, which was why only those who reached that realm had the right to learn the lowest grade high-tier martial arts. It was also why only then would they truly have the right to wander around the lands and gain a footing in the world of martial artists. Otherwise, they were bound to only be passersby.

Just like Happy.

Even though his current strength was great, there was still quite a distance between him and true powerful players in Blessed Realm.

If Orochimaru’s Reverse Dual Swordplay had been higher in level, it would have been impossible for Happy to win against him using the advantage of his experience in various areas. It would also have been impossible for him to become the champion of the offline martial arts tournament and obtain the high-tier martial art—Flowering Knights’ Song.

Happy knew that since he had not joined the game during the first two months it was launched and because he had been held up with feeding rabbits for a period of time at the start, he was destined to suffer from a disparity in strength against the strongest batch of players in the game!

If he wanted to make a name for himself in the storyline quest and reap benefits from it, it would not be enough to rely on just his abilities in Gate Realm and a few throwing knives.

Not only did he need to increase his qi realm, he also needed to have a high-tier martial art with a rather high realm.

Until then, his qi had increased to 65.89.

He only needed to push Flashing Sword Breaker and a few other ninth realm or tenth realm martial arts into Grandmaster Realm, and it would be more than enough to fulfill the qi requirements to reach Blessed Realm.

However, the hardest task was to actually level up high-tier martial arts.

Practicing high-tier martial arts was different from practicing low-tier martial arts.

There were plenty of things that could be used as target practice for low-tier martial arts. The players could begin with practicing on wooden dummies during the first realm, then move to some normal wild beasts, and when their martial arts reached the fifth realm, they could aim for Gate Realm NPCs. Later on, when they reached the peak of Gate Realm, they had even more choices and targets to choose from.

However, it was completely different for high-tier martial arts!

The skills of high-tier martial arts were developed from low-tier martial arts in Grandmaster Realm. It meant that they received an upgrade, and every single skill and technique in high-tier martial arts were the pinnacle of perfection of each skill and technique for their respective low-tier martial arts.

It was impossible for Happy to increase the level of high-tier martial arts if he went up against normal opponents!

If he considered his targets based on their qi realms, then he had to choose targets in Blessed Realm, because he could not gain any experience from enemies below it and the level of his martial arts would not increase then! Only when he chose opponents who were in or above Blessed Realm would the level of his high-tier martial art increase.

Once Happy realized that there was an ancient tomb outside Yangzhou City, he was immediately tempted.

The fever for stealing tributes grew stronger every day. He believed that most powerful Blessed Realm players would join in, and they would neglect training during this period of time. If he went to train right then, he would probably find all the good training grounds empty of people.

When Happy was about to leave, the built man frowned, and in the end, he could not help but say, “If you really want to practice your martial arts, then come with me.”

Happy stopped and turned around to look at the stall owner.

“Huh?”

“I’ve been practicing my martial arts in the ancient tomb. If you really want to go, we can form a party. You can wait for me to sell these items and buy some medicinal tablets to restore qi before we head there.”

The man had a good eye for judging people. He had been able to tell that Happy did not want to go there to farm beneficial items, but to train.

“Alright. I’ll wait for you over there.”

Happy could already be considered as a very experienced person who was as cunning as a fox. He knew that it was very difficult to practice high-tier martial arts in their initial stages. A lot of time will have to be spent using recovery items, so he nodded and agreed to the deal.

When he saw that Happy had indirectly acknowledged that he did indeed have the goal of practicing his martial arts, a hint of joy that was rarely seen on him showed up on the built man’s face. Once they exchanged a knowing look, the man decided to put away his stall. “You’re even more impatient than I am. Then, I won’t be wasting your time. Come. Quite a number of my party members have left my party, so I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to find anyone to train with me.”