Sword Among Us

Panda Novel

Under the combined efforts of Happy and his group, the tribute of the Murong Clan was stolen by a group of nameless mountain bandits while they were in the territory of Yangzhou. The four guards had very happily and readily ran off and disappeared without a trace once Happy and his group fled, causing the group of people who had received the quest to steal their tribute to receive news that their quest had changed.

Since the tribute had been stolen, their target shifted from the Murong Clan’s carriage to the mountain stronghold. They were to enter the stronghold to steal the tribute, which increased the difficulty of the quest by leaps and bounds!

After they learned of this news, the people who had remained a great distance away became extremely angry. They had no choice but to leave the spot where they had chosen to lay their ambush and make preparations to go up the mountain to engage in a fierce fight with the bandits.

Happy would not care to whom their tribute would end up with in the end.

In the end, Happy bade farewell to his sect members nd entered Yangzhou City by himself on his horse.

Yangzhou had the same status as Suzhou. It was also a very famous, prosperous, and thriving ancient city.

On the way, Happy immediately saw signs of the city thriving. Regardless of whether it was a tavern or a sundry shop, there were plenty of players gathered around them; business was good in all the shops. They enjoyed great popularity.

When he got close to the city, he met many powerful players from Yangzhou City…

He wondered whether it was because of the quest to escort tributes, but over the last few days, the overall number of Blessed Realm players had increased by a lot in all of World of Martial Arts. He even ran into quite a lot of players who fought against ferocious beasts toe-to-toe on the way to the city.

The other players might not be bothered by that, but Happy could tell the origins of a player’s martial art along with the clan or sect they joined and where they came from based on their skillset. Hence, he could tell who were practicing high-tier martial arts after they made a few moves.

Two players had especially attracted his attention. When he was passing by a mountainside full of trees, he saw them fighting at full swing against a white tiger with an extraordinary presence. Based on their strength, the white tiger’s abilities had already reached the middle stage of Blessed Realm, and it was much stronger than the Great Wolves.

The White Tiger Pelt was a luxurious item that was worth tens of thousands of silver crumbs. It could be refined into a masterpiece named White Tiger Battle Armor, which was worth hundreds of thousands of silver crumbs. However, Happy did not want to be misunderstood for no reason, so he did not slow down and just rode past the area.

Right then, when he thought about it, he regretted his decision quite a lot. After all, he had around one million taels of silver crumbs on his person. It would be quite good for him if he could buy a White Tiger Pelt.

With faint regret, Happy rode into Yangzhou City.

“Get down!” The soldiers at the city gate were very harsh and rude. They pointed their spears at Happy and stood in front of the horse to block his path. “Don’t you know the rules? If you want to enter the city, get down from the horse!”

There were quite a few players at the city gate who were incredibly envious of Happy when they saw his horse. When they heard the guard’s words, they found pleasure in his misfortune, and they snickered in their hearts.

Stunned, Happy pulled on his reins.

As he watched the soldiers who were like the Iron-faced Judge[1], he remembered some things, and he could not help but smile softly.

In Imperial China, such soldiers had quite a lot of power.

They were fearful of government officials and those with power, but they loved a person with money.

The soldiers would not block any of the three types of people.

Government officials were above the soldiers in status. Most of them had accumulated meritorious deeds through military achievements, and mere soldiers would not dare to block their paths even if they had great courage.

The second type were wanderers who had methods to deal with all kinds of matters. Soldiers were rather wary of this sort of people. The experience they had accumulated over a long period of time gave them a keen eye for them. They would allow all powerful martial artists who were above Blessed Realm into the city on their horses.

The final group of people did not have government titles attached to them due to their military achievements, and neither did they have great strength. What would they rely on, then?

Their steeds!

Fine steeds could show a person’s identity and status. The steed Happy rode on was only worth two thousand taels of silver crumbs. It was incredibly normal, and it would naturally not soften up the soldiers at the entrance.

Only the valuable horses who were handsome, tall, and had extraordinary presence such as the Ferghana horses, Wind Chaser[2], and Red Hare[3] would be worthy of respect. Each of them cost thousands of gold pieces, which showed just how rich the rider were.

The soldiers would never stop such people. They would just shut their eyes and let them pass.

As of then, Happy had not yet had any chance to gain military achievements, and neither had he reached Blessed Realm. Even though he had the money to buy a good horse, it would be wasteful for him to bring out a huge stack of silver certificates to buy a steed.

Just as a number of players gathered at the city gate to watch the show, Happy leisurely brought out a stack of silver certificates from his Universe Bag, and under the incredulous gazes of the players around him, he stuck the silver certificates on the longspears that were nearly touching his nose. When he pulled his hand back, he wrapped his fist in his palm.

“It is my first time in your honorable land. I do not understand the rules, please forgive me.”

“Heh.”

“It’s alright.”

The stern expressions that made the two soldiers look like Justice Bao reincarnates disappeared without a trace. They put away the silver certificates in extremely slick movements and put on smiles that belonged to slippery old foxes.

“When you wander the lands, you must rely on your brothers! Alright, get in.”

They put away their longspears, having just accepted the bribe right in the face of many players without feeling the slightest bit of shame. Without another word, they made way for Happy to pass through.

Happy wrapped his fist in his palm and bowed to them again.

Then, he slapped his horse’s butt and had it slowly trot into the city.

Of course, it was not that Happy had intentionally decided to be so flashy, but time was money. He was used to entering cities on horseback in his past life, and he did not bother about this. His actions were done very naturally, and he did not notice that the players in the area sported strange expressions on their faces and had abnormal reactions to the situation.

“Where… did that brat come from?”

“How arrogant! He bought passage with two hundred taels of silver crumbs! You can’t just show off like this even if you have money, right?”

“Damn him.”

“You can actually do it this way?”

“Damn it, we have to post this online later. It’ll definitely be great news!”

The players around the city gate had varying reactions, but they could not affect Happy.

Once he entered the city, he asked someone about the largest market in Yangzhou City. Then, he patted his horse and went there. Even if there was a huge crowd around him, horses still moved faster than people, and the players maintained a distance from him. They did not run into him, and soon, he passed the players by his side.

The closer he got to the market, the more bustling it became. All sorts of people cried out their wares without end.

“Selling all kinds of martial art manuals!”

“Supreme grade martial art manual for Iron Shirt! It can be mastered by just repeatedly practicing it without having to fight against anyone and is only eight thousand taels of silver crumbs! Those who want it, you have to hurry!”

“Great Wolf Pelts! They’re a specialty from Gusu City! Three thousand and five hundred taels of silver each. Those who want it, hurry up and get it. There aren’t many in stock—” (The person who said that did so only because he knew prices for commodities would return to their real price very quickly.)

“Forming a party to steal tributes! Those who know how to, come here! We only accept Blessed Realm players! We’re looking for someone who has a high-tier martial art!”

“High-grade Jinchuang Ointment. We have high-grade Jinchuang Ointment. One bottle for five hundred taels of silver!”

“Selling equipment and weapons!”

“You can walk past, but don’t miss these! Take a look!”

All sorts of noise rushed into Happy’s ears from everywhere. It was like a giant farmers’ market. However, not only did Happy not find himself unable to get used to the noise, he actually enjoyed it very much. He swept his gaze over the stalls on his sides from high above the horse based on the different voices he heard in search for items he might be interested in or which might be useful to him.

“Who’s that?”

There were only a few people who had the right to ride a horse and enter the city in the game as of then, and there were even fewer people who knew how to get a horse inside. Since Happy sat on a horse, he soon became a celebrity in the market.

Many of the stall owners deliberately made their voices louder when Happy passed by them, crying out their wares even more vigorously.

However, there were very few things that could attract Happy’s attention. He never stopped moving.

In a while, he noticed a man who stood in the distance like an iron tower. His eyes were sparkling eyes as he stared at Happy with great interest. The empty space in front of him showed that he had placed items there for selling, but strangely, he never cried out his wares. Yet there were more players surrounding his stall compared to the other stalls.

Happy was instantly interested.