"Aren't you leaving? Once the people from Purple Sun Sect come here, you won't be able to leave even if you want to."
"Did you actually think I'll be able to leave the ancient tomb safely in my current state?" Red Coral stared at Happy with a pitiful expression, and the hope in her eyes was incredibly clear.
Happy smiled faintly. He took out the jade slit ring that had brought about the bloody tragedy from his Universe Bag and looked at Red Coral.
"Your goal for staying behind is simply because you want to learn about the secret behind this jade slit ring, but you must understand, knowing too much will not be good for you."
"Hmph, is someone as powerful as you going to threaten a weak woman like me too?" Red Coral's face turned red, but she did not show any signs of weakness in her words. "Besides, how would you know that Purple Sun Sect won't intentionally release the news of the jade slit ring?"
"That will depend on whether the sect master of Purple Sun Sect is smart enough."
Happy was completely unmoved by Red Coral's reminder. He continued to toy with the round and warm jade slit ring. A strange smile appeared at the corner of his lips.
"If they decide to fight against me until one of us dies, Purple Sun Sect will definitely spread the news of the jade slit ring. At that time, you will learn of its secret, even if you don't learn it from me. But if I tell you, the trouble you will attract later on will bring suspicion upon even your Black Rose Clan. Are you sure you want to learn the secret?"
Red Coral was stunned speechless when she heard his words. She froze, and she was immediately no longer as relaxed as before.
"Hmph! If you don't want to tell me, fine. It's just a stupid jade. All you do is try to terrify me." Red Coral snorted in a very spoiled manner and turned her head to the side.
"Aren't you leaving yet?"
"You…"
When Happy sent her away again, Red Coral grew truly angry. She bit her lip and glared at him. "Just you watch."
Once she finished speaking, she turned around and walked out of the hall. Her movements were relaxed, and her heavy injuries did not seem that obvious.
When he heard the Stone Giants' roars and their steps swiftly leaving into the distance, Happy smiled and looked away. His gaze landed on the jade slit ring in his hand, and a hint of gratification appeared on his lips.
The jade slit ring might be normal, but it was an important key to activate the Nine-tailed Bewitching Treasure in Fox Cave. It would bring martial artists into the depths of the abyss. He did not think that it would appear so soon, and that it would be obtained by Purple Sun Sect. It had transferred into his hands, so he supposed he could consider it as quite a great reward.
The key could help him open the secret door at the third level of Fox Cave, and in it, he could find the legendary Bewitching Tome and Yao Hua. In the tome would be Yao Hao's prided martial art, which he created using all the experiences from his life. Those who opened the door could also obtain a Bewitching Weapon that contained enchantments!
Happy tightened his grip around the jade slit ring, and a solemn look appeared on his face.
Jiu Wei and Yao Hua were once a powerful couple in the world of martial artists whose abilities nearly reached Void Realm. But unfortunately for them, when they practiced the martial art written in an evil cult tome, not only did they fail in reaching a breakthrough, their qi deviated, and they turned into monsters who had extreme yin aura and who were extremely evil.
This was how Fox Cave had gained its name!
A normal Red Fox within the illusion matrix was in the initial stage of Blessed Realm, and the White Foxes, who were more affected by the Bewitching Tome, would gain intelligence. Their abilities were around Mystical Realm, and they were very difficult to deal with.
The abilities of Jiu Wei as well as Yao Hua had greatly reduced because of their qi deviation, but they were still strong enough that normal martial artists would not be able to handle them. Even Happy would not dare to bother the two fiends anytime soon.
He had not forgotten the tragic incident from his past life when Jiu Wei dyed the world of martial artists red once she flew into a rage after various martial artists severely injured Yao Hua to snatch the Bewitching Tome and Bewitching Weapon.
There were corpses strewn all over the place by the time the tragedy was over, and blood dyed the land red.
Under the moonlight, the face of the gigantic Nine-tailed Fox was stained red with tears of blood from her sadness. Her gaze was cold and fierce, and there was not a single shred of human emotion or compassion in her. Wherever she went, no living thing would remain alive.
When Happy remembered the remarks of players about Yao Hua and Jiu Wei in regards to their refusal to leave each other side's even in death, even though they went through a lot of hardsh.i.p.s because of it, he could not help but remember his girlfriend who abandoned him in his previous life. A hint of anguish as well as mockery flashed past his eyes.
Even though their minds were no longer clear once their qi deviated, they still helped and supported each other while both being in trouble. They never abandoned each other, so just how deeply did their love run for that to be the case?
"Cuckoo! Cuckoo!"
Happy snapped out of his daze and quickly composed himself. He took out the letter from the messenger pigeon, and when he quickly looked at the name of the sender at the bottom of the letter, he smiled in a relaxed manner.
The person who sent the letter was the sect master of Purple Sun Sect.
He did not mention the jade slit ring. He gave a simple but comprehensive apology for his men's rudeness toward Happy.
'At least he has a sensible head.'
This was Happy's evaluation of the sect master of Purple Sun Sect.
If he remembered correctly, this middle-aged man had gained some achievements in the game, and he had quite an ambitious heart. Based on this reaction, he was indeed a person with a clear head above his shoulders. At the very least, he would not do something as stupid as Heaven Domination Sect had done.
Happy crushed the letter, and the slight bit of worry in his heart completely disappeared.
He lifted the jade slit ring and cast it a few glances before he put it back into his Universe Bag!
A thought appeared in his head, and Happy cast his gaze on the Stone Giant who had just respawned in the corner not too far away.
Happy relied on his understanding toward the set attack patterns of the puppets and immersed himself in the training rhythm once more. The level of his Flowering Knights' Song rose slowly. While progress was not fast, it was still much faster than when he had worked together with Thunderous Battle. If he included the time they spent resting in the middle, Happy was practically leveling up at three times the speed compared to when he worked with a companion.
During training, he would occasionally get careless, and the Stone Giant would graze him. His Black Sand Invulnerable Body would activate at that time, and his body would tremble violently. The level of that skill would then increase slightly! Based on the data provided, Black Sand Invulnerable Body's level increased much faster than that of Flowering Knights' Song.
When noon arrived, Happy made some brief calculations.
With his current speed, when Thunderous Battle logged in at night, his progress with his Flowering Knights' Song would be equivalent to two days' worth of work. He should be able to push it to the seventh realm by then.
The tribute protection quest had progressed for more than ten days. It meant that it was about time for Forest Union, which hid itself around Beijing, to take action!
Chapter 108 - The Seventh Realm
When Thunderous Battle returned to the main hall in the ancient tomb, he heard the sound of something slicing the air, and the sound was as loud and hoarse as a violent gust of wind.
Whoosh… Whoosh… Whoosh…
The sound was incredibly motivating. It was relaxing, composed, but gave off the feeling that the attacks were closely connected to
each other. The attacks came one after another, and they were very clear-cut and clean.
When he looked up, Thunderous Battle was instantly stunned!
He saw Happy happily fighting against a Stone Giant alone.
He still wore that inconspicuous attire that made him look like a hunter. The weapon he used was also the Hundred-battle Saber, which was a weapon that was below a masterpiece. Even though they had not seen each other for half a day, a faint blue light had already appeared on the Hundred-battle Saber.
A halo!
The others might not be able to tell what it was, but over the past few days, Thunderous Battle had practiced his high-tier martial art, Infinite Sword Technique, hard, and he knew clearly what this meant. This was the sign that the martial art was about to enter the seventh realm!
All high-tier martial arts would have different signs signalling their realms, and those signs were all different from low-tier martial arts starting from the first realm itself. Saber techniques would have saber glows, saber glares, and saber halos, and the color would move from faint to bright.
The first three realms would only show on the weapon itself and make the weapon shine even brighter while also making it appear even livelier and more intimidating.
During the fourth to the sixth realm, the weapon would begin to show faint signs of a glare, and it would increase the attack radius and lethality of the martial art from its very essence, causing the damage to increase exponentially.
Starting from the seventh realm to the ninth realm, not only would the weapon gain an even brighter glare, a halo would appear between the execution of each skill, and the brightness would turn from faint to bright depending on the realm as well. Not only would it dazzle the enemy's vision and throw him into chaos, it could also hide trajectory of the attack.
Thunderous Battle remembered that when his Infinite Sword Technique reached the seventh realm, he had been excited for a long period of time, because that was the result of him working hard for more than a week.
However, he did not expect that Happy would be able to push Flowering Knights' Song into the seventh realm in just three days. At the same time he was shocked, he also felt incredibly depressed.
For the time being, he stood in the distance and watched quietly.
As time passed, Thunderous Battle gradually had an inkling of the situation. He frowned slightly, and he would occasionally put on a contemplative or enlightened expression.
Clearly, Happy had already discovered the Stone Giant's set attack trajectory through its attacks. He made use of the Stone Giant's rigid attack patterns to increase the effects of his dodging, and not only did he cut down on the time needed to rest and recover, the frequency in which he attacked was also very astonishing once he got used to its chained attacks. He could now attack several times faster than before, so it was no wonder that he could increase the realm for his martial arts so quickly. The EXP for martial arts was given to the user using the times the user effectively attacked and defended as the basis.
Once Flowering Knights' Song reached the seventh realm, its damage increased by leaps and bounds, and in just a few minutes, Happy dealt with the Stone Giant in front of them. Then, he noticed Thunderous Battle walk toward him not too far from the distance.
"Brother Thunder, you're done with your task?"
"Yup." Thunderous Battle clicked his tongue in admiration[1] as he walked over. He looked at the Stone Giant's mangled corpse and smiled wanly before he punched Happy's shoulder. "Not bad, boy. In just half a day, you reached another realm. You're about to leave me far behind you."
Happy smiled faintly and rubbed his shoulder.
"I've been following you over the past few days, and I witnessed many things, so I managed to figure out the Stone Giant's attack trajectory, otherwise, it would have been impossible for me to have my current achievements."
"Enough with it, stop flattering me." Thunderous Battle rolled his eyes. "I've trained with my friends for a long time, and none of us managed to figure out its attack trajectory. You're just putting me to shame, right?"
Happy smiled and explained. "That's different. If you have a few people with you, the Stone Giant will react according to the person closest to him, and its actions will be rather complicated. Why don't you stand by the side and watch?"
"Alright." Thunderous Battle's expression became stern, and he nodded.
*****
Hundreds of players gathered in Purple Sun Sect's headquarters in Xuzhou City. Their gazes were cold, and they held their weapons or bows in their hands. With a murderous aura about them, they gathered in the hall and long corridor, and all of them gazes at the direction of the door.
At that moment, Phantom Jade, who had appeared in the ancient tomb before, stood to the left of a middle-aged man with an awe-inspiring face. Phantom Jade himself had a stern expression. He held his long metallic whip in his hand, and he let out an aggressive and chilly aura!
To the left of the middle-aged man was Young White Dragon, whose face was no longer as scornful as before, but was now a little sterner and graver. After he was resurrected, he had long since put away his paper fan into his bag, and he held his Cuprite Longspear tightly while he stared at the spot outside the door with blazing eyes.
There was a reason why Purple Sun Sect looked as if they were about to face a great enemy!
In truth, the jade slit ring was from a Blessed Realm player who came from Immortal Fox Village. He got after he killed hundreds of foxes.
Purple Sun Sect originally did not pay too much attention to it, but later on, they got to know from an information source that once the Blessed Realm player from Immortal Fox Village died, he went to search for a sect with great power in Beijing—Life Ending Hall.
Lately, there were quite a number of sects from Beijing who had been very active in the south. One of them was Life Ending Hall, who became famous through assassinations and the usage of hidden weapons.
Life Ending Hall had more than one hundred people in Blessed Realm, and they had dozens of players who had high-tier martial arts. During this period of time, they had also seized many tributes, and rumors had it that the tributes they obtained had already filled up the storeroom in their headquarters.
Purple Sun Sect might be known as the strongest sect in Xuzhou City and also have the ability and prestige to back it up, but when they were compared to Life Ending Hall, they seemed much weaker. If they fought against them, they would just be trying to use eggs to strike a rock.
Yesterday, the sect master of Life Ending Hall sent a messenger pigeon and demanded them harshly to return the jade slit ring within two days, or else Life Ending Hall would march into Xuzhou en masse and destroy Purple Sun Sect's headquarters.
Hence, they would not bother with any of the attacks launched in the name of revenge near the headquarters of any sect.
This was why Purple Sun Sect had mobilized all its members and formed such a great lineup, because they wanted to fend against Life Ending Hall's attack when the time limit was up!
"Foster father!"
Young White Dragon had already died once, and because of it, his self-conceited air and arrogance in the past was completely gone.
When he sensed the threat from Life Ending Hall and experienced how weak Purple Sun Sect was compared to them, he was incredibly worried, and he could not help but suggest to the sect master of Purple Sun Sect.
"Since the jade slit ring is no longer in our hands, why don't we just tell Life Ending Hall about this and let them fight against each other?"
When he heard this, Phantom Jade also put on an attentive expression, along with a look that said he agreed with the suggestion.
Life Ending Hall had extraordinary strength. Their spies had returned to tell them just now that many of the people from Life Ending Hall had appeared in the city, and they were swiftly moving toward them. Clearly, the worst case scenario was about to happen.
Phantom Jade knew very clearly that once they decided t
o fight, the effort Purple Sun Sect had poured in to search for the jade slit ring over the past month or so and the estate they built will all be in vain, and it was something he did not want to see!
After a few breaths, their door was filled with over one hundred players dressed in the black attire of an archer. The few people in the lead had the words [Break Blades and Spill Blood] sewn over their c.h.e.s.ts with gold thread to serve as their sect emblem. Their expressions arrogant and cruel, and their showed outstanding presence. At that moment, they stared at the plate above Purple Sun Sect's door with dark expressions, and fighting spirit burned in their eyes!
Chapter 109 - Going to the Headquarters to Collect a Debt
As hundreds of Life Ending Hall Sect Members in uniforms surrounded the headquarters of Purple Sun Sect, a grave atmosphere rose in Xuzhou City. It was the sign of a storm coming.
As the strongest sect in Xuzhou City, Purple Sun Sect possessed great power to fight against another sect, and all the players in all parts of the world paid attention to its reaction!
Even though the number of players fighting against each other in the name of revenge had increased by leaps and bounds lately, it was still rare to see two such large sects fight each other head on. Everyone made their own assumptions of what sort of devastating sparks would rise up from the clash.
What roused their spirits was that Purple Sun Sect seemed to have come up with a plan to handle Life Ending Hall's attack, because they had opened the doors to their headquarters!
Standing at the forefront were martial artists who held sabers and shields. Behind them were archers who had already drawn their bows. Their arrows were directed at the door. They might have not attacked just yet, but they had already acc.u.mulated their strength, making others feel as if they stood in front of countless cannons. No one would dare to act recklessly in such a situation.
Even though Purple Sun Sect's act of not coming out of their headquarters would diminish their prestige and ruin their reputation a little, in the face of Life Ending Hall—the great force from Beijing—no one would think that they were cowards. Instead, they could sense Purple Sun Sect's resolve to fight the war to its bloody end from the grim atmosphere while they waited for their opponents.
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