Sword Among Us

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Panda Novel

Thirty or so core members of Class One Hall were forced into a hopeless situation because of one unexpected mistake.

Happy did not show any intention to hold back. He stood at the edge of the cliff, and his lancet knives continued flying forward, killing the people from Class One Hall on the Iron Chain Bridge.

As he watched their panicked expressions while they fell into the abyss which was thousands of feet deep, his expression did not change. He recalled the ambush at the foot of Shaoshi Mountain. At that time, no one had come to save him.

It was rumored that Five Venoms was a branch of Class One Hall as well. However, they were in charge of carrying out assassinations and had always wandered about in the dark. They had never openly revealed their identities.

Happy believed that no matter what, the giant that was Class One Hall was related to “that person” who had set him up. There was even a possibility that this organization was the real mastermind hidden behind the scenes!

With this knowledge in mind, there was no way Happy would show any mercy to the people from Class One Hall.

All those who had entered his attack range could not escape. They fell off the Iron Chain Bridge one after another and plunged into the abyss that was thousands of feet deep. Netherworld was among them.

In the end, aside from a few people who were slightly further away and hidden in the fog, everyone else was either knocked off of the Iron Chain Bridge or struck down by Happy. All of them had died.

When peace returned to the Iron Chain Bridge, the people from the bridge returned to the cliff in a mess of limbs and looking incredibly pathetic. Happy could sense the anger and murderous intent from the distance. Class One Hall had lost around twenty men in one breath. Those prodigies, who were incredibly prideful, were probably itching to tear Happy apart right there and then.

Happy said nothing about it. He just calmly sat down cross-legged on the spot.

He executed Complete Reality Qi Cultivation Technique to restore the qi he had lost while thinking about what had happened.

After the lesson Class One Hall learned, Happy’s name would definitely be remembered by them, and based on the ambitions and methods of the huge guilds, they would either offer him an olive branch or try to kill him before he would have a chance to grow.

Next, he would either have to face an encirclement of Class One Hall, whose people would try their best to kill him, or…

A cold look appeared on Happy’s face.

To show their magnanimity as a guild, Class One Hall would push the matter down, bury all news related to it, and treat it as an experience of a failed mission. They would pretend that nothing had happened and would wait until the news about the matter vanished into the wind, or they would offer him an olive branch and invite him to join their guild.

Of course, the show of their magnanimity would just be a publicity act and an illusion aimed at the world.

If it wasn’t the case, Class One Hall would not have built Five Venoms in the dark, had “that person” enter Happy’s life, and then used various methods in reality to gain a higher rank in the Sword Among Us Tournament.

Perhaps after what happened right then, that dastardly male and female pair who were in the same city… would enter his life early.

Despite making a mockery of the matter in his heart, Happy could not help but look forward to their meeting in his new life.

*****

On the streets and empty areas around Guanlin Temple in Dengfeng City, which was located in Zhengzhou, were plenty of men and women who were just resurrected. They were feeble and weakened because of the chaos that had erupted in Shaolin Temple.

Various meditation forms and qi cultivation techniques from all sorts of sects were gathered there. True qi rose from many people, and its wisps made their robes puff out. The scene was very grand.

However, when a new group of pale-looking men stumbled out of Guanlin Temple one after another, some people who sat cross-legged in the crowd broke the peace and quiet in the area.

“They’re people from Class One Hall…”

“How could this be?”

“There’s a lot of them. Tsk tsk, who would have the guts to actually provoke Class One Hall?”

“Hush!”

When discussions rose outside Guanlin Temple, it sounded like someone was holding a market there. The noise culminated in a buzzing sound, which made the area very lively. Upon noticing it, the twenty-seven Class One Hall Members glared in warning at the people around them, ordering them to shut up.

It had to be said that even though their imposing aura was greatly reduced, they had pale faces, and were incredibly feeble and weakened, the emblem of Class One Hall was still very intimidating.

Class One Hall alone had six of the dozens of tribute boxes left in the quest of the emperor’s birthday that made banditry run wild in the game. With the addition of the one they seized from Shaolin Temple, they were in possession of seven boxes, which meant they had acquired quite a huge share of them.

Dream Clouds, who was the hall master of Class One Hall, was also rumored to have obtained three high-tier martial arts at the same time. Aside from being in possession of a high-tier lightness skill and qi cultivation technique, she also had a sword technique in Grandmaster Realm. She had killed a Mystical Realm bandit who wanted to snatch their tribute boxes by herself, which made her the strongest swordswoman in World of Martial Arts.

Once the quest ended, Dream Clouds would obtain one or two treasures that would greatly increase her abilities, and once that happened, she would no longer be far away from commanding the game!

Some sect leaders who were quite powerful in World of Martial Arts had even ordered their subordinates to not try to steal tributes from the hands of Class One Hall.

Yet at such a time, someone had actually still decided to make Class One Hall suffer such bad luck. It was no wonder then that the many players outside Guanlin Temple looked as if they had just discovered a piece of shocking news. All of them quickly recorded the scene before them.

There was a person in black among the Class One Hall Members who looked exceptionally gloomy. He completely ignored the bustling discussions in the area. With his head lowered he simply focused on writing a letter at a faltering pace.

That person was Netherworld.

They failed—no, they had suffered a crushing defeat!

They had nearly been annihilated to the last person, and he did not know how to report it to his president, who was also his hall master. But the more he dragged it out, the more disadvantageous it would be for him.

Netherworld’s heart was dead. He braced himself and wrote a letter that felt heavy in his hands. He put it into the bamboo tube tied to the messenger pigeon, and under his companions’ gazes, he released it.

Everyone who had died had lost fifty percent of their money. Some of the more unfortunate ones even dropped their equipment.

However, that was not important.

What was important was that the conflict in World of Martial Arts had become even more intense as time passed, and the competition between players also became more and more awful. Each time someone died, they would lose twenty percent of their combat ability for a month, which meant that they lost the advantage of activating their qi realm.

For a month, their strength would be affected. They would be as weak as players who were at the same rank as them, and that was the greatest loss Class One Hall had ever had to suffer.

Netherworld explained the entire process of how they failed, not hiding any of the details. He did not try to push away his responsibility.

A few minutes passed, and the judgment letter from the hall master of Class One Hall appeared outside Guanlin Temple. It landed on Netherworld’s slightly tense shoulder, next to his pale face.

“Cuckoo!”

Netherworld did not immediately take the letter out.

He sucked in a deep breath before he did so with great nervousness.

[Read.]

The reply was very simple.

However, the usually pretty words were written with flourish. They revealed great force, showing the president’s might.

Netherworld was instantly dumbfounded.

He had thought that the president would scold him and punish him. He did not expect that her reply would be so simple.

It added to the regret and uneasiness he felt in his heart.

His gaze sparkled, and he wrote another letter to ask about how they should handle the tribute box and the person on Punishment Mount.

[Ignore it. The matter is done. Hurry back to your sects to continue training.]

The hall master’s reply did not mention the third sect in Jiangnan.

Netherworld was certain that the hall master did not intend to deal with him, but he also understood something else. He had made the hall master very disappointed.

He gripped the letter in his hand tightly. His face went red with anger, and his features twisted slightly.

“I will definitely take revenge!”