*****
'This time, after we destroy Towering Palace, we can let Wind Assault Tower… No, I can have Phantasmal Shadow become the representative to take charge of the coastal area. She will come forward to manage the territories in the coastal area. There is no hurry for Mu Clan to directly interfere in this matter.'
Happy knew very clearly that as of current, not only did Mu Clan suffer a rather large blow, once he mobilized Mu Clan's forces here, their core might be very easily affected. It was also difficult for the other branches to send a large group of people to interfere with the matters in the east of the coastal area. This was not the time for them risk their clan. After all, Mu Clan was the support and home for countless members.
While Happy thought about how he should end this matter and was planning about how he should deal with the east side of the coastal area, a commotion suddenly appeared far into the distance outside the headquarters.
A group of Embroidered Uniform Guards in carriages entered Happy's sights with an astonishing momentum.
Chapter 770 - Order to Restrict Force
'Why are the people from the imperial court here?'
Happy had three years worth of experience in the game from his previous life. When he saw the Embroidered Uniform Guards charge over with great fanfare and with serious expressions. He frowned slightly, and a hint of surprise shone in his eyes.
In his previous life, the imperial court will rarely be involved in the fights in the world of martial artists.
Even though Embroidered Uniform Guards, Eastern Depot, Western Depot, and Six Doors produced quite a number of martial artists, most of them had the identities of wanderers. They also wandered about the land, and it was rare that they would just come into Yangzhou with just a large group of people.
They only did this in a few major events in Happy's previous life!
Besides, every time the imperial court sent people over, those that they deployed were very strong, and they were much stronger than the ones sent during capture quests.
"...Embroidered Uniform Guards?"
"Why are they here?"
A large group of players outside the headquarters made way. At the same time, they began to secretly guess the purpose of these Embroidered Uniform Guards' visit while they sized them up as they rode past the players on their horses and carriages.
These Embroidered Uniform Guards came on horses and carriages, and they rode past them with an aggressive momentum. All of them had an extraordinary foundation in martial artists. They looked around with burning eyes, and all of them exuded the cold and awe-inspiring presence of someone who had already gone through numerous fights and spilled countless blood.
"Damn… Looks like there's none who are below Inaction Realm."
"Are they going to interfere with the matter at Towering Palace's headquarters?"
"Who knows?"
While the people talked about this, quite a number of players cast sidelong glances at each other. The Towering Palace members' eyes were filled with hope.
The Embroidered Uniform Guards were indeed heading straight toward them!
When people no longer had any power to turn the tides in a desperate situation, when they saw any sort of power interfere, they will be filled with beautiful hope.
As the Embroidered Uniform Guards stood uniformly outside Towering Palace's headquarters, the atmosphere nearby instantly turned strange, and it was filled with paranoia.
The crowd cleared out a path.
A gentle voice traveled clearly through all of Yangzhou. Then, the voice also spread through the entire plains in China.
"The emperor has received orders from heaven, and he now issues a decree to the world.
"Martial artists who break the law has been increasing day by day in the world of martial artists, and they are currently causing disruption in the order of the country. They massacre the people and involve the innocents in their fights. Yangzhou City has the highest number of offenders among all martial artists. The sects are involved in fights, and they fight in the streets, causing hundreds of government officers to die. They are indeed wicked, and from today onwards, the son of heaven has issued a decree to the world. He will place a restriction of force in the world, and those who dare to fight in the city will be chased down by government officers with all their might. Those who kill government officers will treat the imperial court as their enemies, and the imperial court will chase after such offenders with all their might. The imperial court will not forgive such offenders.
"That is all!"
All of Yangzhou City instantly burst into commotion!
Everyone stared at the eunuch who put away the royal decree.
And they saw that once the eunuch put away the royal decree, his gaze suddenly turned cold while he surveyed the area and said, "You heard it. Next time, any of you uncultivated sects want to fight, fight far away from our sights. It'll be best if you do not do it in the cities, or else, if you dare defile the emperor's ears again and displease His Majesty… Hmph!"
Once he finished speaking, he said nothing else and led his group of people away.
The group came with a mighty momentum, and they left just as mightily. They did not bring anything else with them.
*****
Bang!
A window at a restaurant that was bustling with activity was suddenly torn. Someone from the floors above was sent flying violently out to the streets.
Before that person got to his feet, a few people chased after him from the restaurant. They quickly surrounded that person on the ground.
"Hand over that item, and we, the Five Tigers of Qilian, will spare you, or else… Hmph! Don't even think about having a peaceful time in the game in the future!"
"You… Don't go overboard!"
The person who was surrounded got up to his feet with grief and indignation.
"Hmph, so what if we're bullying you? You're alone, and you can't even protect that treasure. Instead of letting others benefit from it, it's better if we're the ones who benefit from it."
Right when one among the Five Tigers of Qilian finished speaking, they suddenly heard intense and urgent sounds of horse hooves rushing toward them.
The group of people turned their heads sideways to look in surprise, and their expressions instantly changed drastically.
"This is bad!"
A group of Embroidered Uniform Guards with extraordinary presences urged their horses toward them.
"Inaction Realm martial artists…"
"Damn it!"
"Go!"
The Five Tigers of Qilian had already heard of the series of announcements just now, but they thought nothing of it, because the imperial court had always been inept in their pursuits, but now, they were too fast, and the ones who came were all Inaction Realm martial artists.
Right when the five tried running away, Embroidered Uniform Guards also appeared behind them on the street. The Embroidered Uniform Guards on the horses laughed coldly. "You committed a crime in the city, where do you think you're going?"
When the group of Inaction Realm martial artists surrounded these people, in just a moment, all five people were chained up.
"Take these five fools who caused trouble in the city back for a beating!"
"Huh?!"
"Aren't we supposed to just be imprisoned?"
"You can't just subject us to lynching!"
The Five Tigers of Qilian had their expressions change swiftly, and they made a ruckus.
Those who were subjected to a beating after they were imprisoned were usually criminals who committed serious offense. After they were imprisoned for a while, they will be sent straight to Guanlin Temple, and this fate was even worse than dying once.
"Lynching?"
The Embroidered Uniform Guards laughed coldly. "We are an organization formed by the imperial court, and our right to execute punishment is given by His Majesty himself! Move!"
Their words set the Five Tigers of Qilian's fate in ston
e. They were bound for death.
After this event, quite a number of people managed to tell that once the emperor gave his order, the government officers had clearly sent more powerful people to execute the law.
They had begun to place an emphasis on the killings in the Chinese world of martial artists.
Next time, if they caused trouble in the city, they will not just be hunted down. If they were not strong enough, not only will they be imprisoned for a while, but they will also need to die once.
This was very hurtful for their progress!
Events such as this happened frequently in the Chinese plains.
Very soon, practically everyone learned that after the emperor gave his order, the custodians of the city and enforcers had their strength increase by leaps and bounds, and the players became more cautious and exercised restraint while they were in the cities.
*****
Once the group of Embroidered Uniform Guards left Yangzhou City, Happy's heart began surging with emotion.
The progress in the game increased again!
In his previous life, the enforcers in the cities only had their strengths upgraded during the third year to move from Moksha Realm to Inaction Realm, and their purpose was to put a limit on the players, who had become wilder in their actions day by day.
But this was just the start of the second year since World of Martial Arts had been launched.
By the looks of it, under his influence, the game was still providing new changes continuously. The progress of them had been brought forward, and the changes had also become more frequent.
'But…'
Happy used his power as the clan master to release an announcement to all Mu Clan members and restricted their actions in the city in order to prevent his clan members from getting into any sort of conflict in the city with the Embroidered Uniform Guards in the future.
Even though there was no reason for them to be afraid of the Embroidered Uniform Guards' strength and it might seem as if the imperial courts' martial artists cannot compare to those of the major sects, in truth, the shadows of many sects could be found behind the imperial court, and they were the strongest forces in China.
The imperial palace was filled with all sorts of elites.
And Happy could vaguely sense that the restriction of force in the world was not merely caused by the event in Yangzhou City. Later on, the war achievement system that he had not had the time to fully understand in his previous life should be launched very soon.
Chapter 771 - Frightening Man
Once Happy placed a restriction on them, Yangzhou City's Mu Clan members and Wind Assault Tower members all stayed within Towering Palace's headquarters, and they were not hunted down by the Embroidered Uniform Guards who appeared inside the city.
After Towering Palace's hopes faded away, Towering Palace spontaneously shifted the status of their headquarters to some place else and reduced this building to the status of a branch, and it was completely destroyed by an endless stream of blows.
After all, once the foundation of the palace of a sect was destroyed, the other branches will instantly, and after twelve hours, the system will automatically declare those places as free estate.
"Let's go and rescue our friends from the Guanlin Temples."
Happy did not look at Musical Note, Shangguan Lian, and Hai Dongqing. He gave an order without even turning his head around and led a large group of people to head to the nearest Guanlin Temple in a mighty wave while the more than ten thousand Towering Palace members watched.
Happy continued to take the lead and rode in front of the others.
*****
Once Towering Palace's former headquarters was destroyed, black messenger pigeons descended on each Towering Palace member's shoulder, but no one paid any attention to them. On it was the automatically generated notification from the system, and it was a nightmare that made them feel helpless.
Countless Towering Palace members had anger and bewilderment written all over their faces.
Their former headquarters in Yangzhou had always been Towering Palace's greatest symbol of glory. The higher level of management they looked up to were there, and they were the goals for them to strive to.
Now, everything was reduced to rubble.
Towering Palace's name was completely removed from Yangzhou City!
But that did not symbolize the end.
All of Towering Palace's branches at the south of the coastal area were destroyed, and right now, their former headquarters at the east of the coastal area was also invaded and destroyed. It was one disaster after another, and Towering Palace had already completely lost their right to be proud.
Even though Towering Palace still occupied a lot of resources in the east of the coastal area, anyone can tell that their throne as one of the four top-class sects in the Chinese server was slipping from their hands.
Mu Clan did not even send their full forces to attack them, and they had already delivered a heavy blow to Towering Palace.
And Mu Clan clearly did not intend to end the fight here.
All of this caused the Towering Palace members to be filled with anger, frustration, and worry. They felt lost and anxious, as if they could not see Towering Palace's future.
The Towering Palace members had already lost command.
But since the system had just officially announced a restriction of force in the city, they did not need to worry about Mu Clan's revenge in the city, so they left in groups of three to five.
Some people left in silence.
"Say, Mu Clan actually attacked with the intention to destroy our headquarters. Are they thinking about killing us all as quickly as possible?"
"Killing us all as quickly as possible?"
"We have more than ten thousand elites in Towering Palace, I'd like to see him try! If Happy dares give that order, Mu Clan will definitely suffer a heavy loss!"
Quite a number of Towering Palace members said resentfully.
"But…" There were some who were very worried.
Even though Musical Note ordered them to give up on Yangzhou and immediately head to other cities, those cities might not be safe.
This time, Mu Clan lost thousands of their elites.
Based on Happy's temperament in the past, he will absolutely not let this slide so easily.
Besides, while the Towering Palace members were all angry right now, those with a clear mind knew that the destruction of Towering Palace had a great effect on the higher ups, but the effect was not that obvious to the normal members.
Besides, if Mu Clan continued using the method they deployed at the south of the coastal area and used the local sects as representatives to destroy Towering Palace, many of the sects at the east of the coastal area will willingly side with Mu Clan!
There were many who understood this.
*****
Musical Note issued her order very quickly!
The Towering Palace members who were gathered around the Guanlin Temples around Yangzhou City started to disperse quickly right after Happy entered the city. The Mu Clan members were able to receive their friends who died and were revived with no problems whatsoever.
Most among these thousands of people died once, but there were also those who were more unfortunate, they were killed when they tried to leave Guanlin Temple, and their strength was largely reduced.
When Happy watched so many of his friends walk out of Guanlin Temple and gathered by his side, even he felt a heavy weight in his heart.
This number was nearly one-third of Mu Clan's elites.
If their progress in the future was hindered because of their deaths this time, it will be a huge blow to Mu Clan!
Happy immediately issued an announcement in front of the people without hesitation.
"Make a record of all those who died once here, and make sure they receive two million contribution points each! For those who lost their equipment, you can choose anything you like from the spoils this time. You will also have p
riority in using the clan prison!
"For the twenty or so clan members who died twice or more, we will not be giving you any contribution points, but once you go back, each of you will receive one Illusion Life and Death PIll, along with one four-echelon grade one masterpiece."
Silence fell among the people for a moment after Happy said this.
But immediately after that one instant, the crowd burst into commotion, and they cheered!
The contribution points and equipment filled up the economical losses these Mu Clan members suffered. The right to use the clan prison also allowed these people to have an even better training environment. Even though they had a bit of their strength compromised, they will not be in any sort of danger in the clan prison, and this group of people were instantly completely freed of any trouble that might strike behind them.
As for those who died twice or more times, they received a blessing in disguise. They were lucky enough to taste an Illusion Life and Death Pill, which was worth ten thousand taels of gold…
Not only will their strength be recovered fully, they will also receive one four-echelon equipment.
"What a huge expenditure."
"Whew, as expected of Mu Clan… and as expected of Happy." Phantasmal Shadow, Wu Kuo, and the rest outside the crowd were deeply shocked by Happy's words.
He was giving contribution points to nearly four thousand people, and that alone was already worth nearly ten billion! The equipment he was giving away was secondary, because he was also handing out Illusion Life and Death Pills, which were not sold in the market even if there was a demand for it. Each pill was incredibly valuable, and even high-ranking players like Happy will stock up on these items, but Happy had released more than twenty of them in one go.
This expenditure and boldness was something not many people could imitate in the entire Chinese server.
And after this incident, Mu Clan's prestige will not drop at all. Instead, because of this battle, more Mu Clan members will give their everything without fear!
"This man is pretty terrifying."
Sword Among Us c1-1268 Page 381
