Sword Among Us

Smoke bombs were a rather low-grade item in the game, and it could be sold in many places. It was rather loved by players during the beginning of the game, and it was usually used to attack other players or for fleeing purposes. It was a cheap item with tangible benefits.

Smoke bombs were not offensive weapons and could only create smoke in a small area, but it could be used to obstruct sight. Hence, when the Class One Hall members faced the sudden invasion by countless smoke bombs, they found themselves rather resigned as well. They could only watch helplessly as balls of smoke quickly spread out in the lawless street and blur their vision, and they could do nothing about it.

While the smoke bombs came from the street, this sort of action was something that the multiple elites who maintained the order in Dragon’s Gate could tolerate.

A large area of smoke enveloped all of Survival Platform and the lawless street. The Fatal Flying Matrix was instantly destroyed even without Happy attacking it. Once they lost their target, no matter how strong Assassin Hall was, it was impossible for them to take a gamble and see whether they could win the lottery while they were surrounded by a lot of their own people.

Barren Murderer was the first to react to the situation.

“Get rid of the smoke! Hurry!” Barren Murderer felt anxious.

When he saw this, he already knew what Happy wanted to do. While he was in Ghost’s Domain, Happy had used the unique environment and low visibility in Ghost’s Domain to chase them down, causing the entire Blood Alliance army to die.

Happy was alone in this situation, and he did not need to worry when he attacked, and their advantage in numbers would turn into their greatest weakness because of their low visibility.

No matter what, he could not let Happy have the chance to massacre them!

Unfortunately, there were not just one or two smoke bombs that came out from the crowd.

Smoke bombs filled the entire lawless street.

Even if dozens of elites used their palm-generated wind to block the smoke bombs at the same time and had their qi flow fluctuated to circulate around the area, their situation did not immediately turn better.

However, deep whistles that tore at the air that caused their hearts to tremble had already started sounding from the crowd, along with the sound of intense crashing of bodies against something heavy as well as tragic screams!

“Vice hall master!”

“We can’t get rid of the smoke!”

“Someone is causing trouble!”

A number of people shouted angrily and in terror from the smoke.

But the sound of smoke bombs exploding by their side and above them just kept on going without stopping.

Right when their field of vision cleared a little, it would be immediately covered by new smoke, causing them to feel incredibly gloomy.

During that period of time, the grave sounds of air being cut and pained screams rose nonstop.

Barren Murderer could sense that Happy was getting closer nonstop. At least seven to eight people had fallen beside him, and the sound of wind being stirred up because of bodies pushing through air while causing the smoke to stir was incredibly clear. Happy moved very quickly, and his rhythm was never disrupted, making it seem like he had never been severely injured. Instead, he moved with the explosive ease of someone after he had been suppressed for a long time. He arrived at a spot not far from Barren Murderer with the force of a cannonball.

He listened to wind to judge his location. Barren Murderer had long since trained up this ability after five years of playing the game.

But this was the first time he had to fight in such a complicated environment while countless Fatal Flying Maces flew above his head, and his opponent was a powerful enemy. He even had to do it while he was surrounded by his own people.

Barren Murderer’s face was pale. For the first time, Barren Murderer felt that he did not quite control everything in the situation, and that feeling made him feel fear and unease. As he listened to the sound of air being cut and pained screams continuously rising around him, he stomped against the ground a few times to swiftly retreat from the smoke.

At that moment, Barren Murderer did not even dare command the people around him to take action.

By speaking just now, he had already allowed Happy to locate him. He was worried that if he spoke again, it would cause Happy to instantly locate him.

However, Barren Murderer’s choice was clearly not logical.

The sudden chaos not only caused Assassin Hall members to completely lose their ability to control the battlefield, even Class One Hall and Blood Alliance members were at a loss of what they should do.

Without any visibility, everyone tried to play safe and could not attack at will. The unknown situation and their companions continuously screaming quickly magnified their fear toward Happy.

‘Retreat! Stay far away from the screams!’

This thought became the only thought within the people’s hearts.

And the group who was in charge of controlling the situation outside were incredibly frustrated and resigned!

The silver-robed people were pretty skilled, but even they did not dare act recklessly when they faced the people who were within the areas protected by the NPCs in Dragon’s Gate.

They could only watch as the smoke bombs were thrown swiftly into the battlefield before they let loose balls of smoke. Aside from glaring at them, they could do nothing about it.

Assassin Hall felt the gloomiest among all those allied to Class One Hall.

As Barren Murderer and his group of first-class elites fled helter-skelter, they immediately became the most obvious enemies within the smoke.

Those first-class elites might still last a few hits in front of Happy, but these assassins who moved in the darkness could not even last through one attack from Recondite Steel Heavy Sword. They were instantly suppressed so much that they either coughed up blood and were sent flying or died from the shock straightaway.

In the chaos, the pained screams became more frequent.

“Retreat! All Assassin Hall members, retreat!”

The leader of Assassin Hall shouted angrily in the smoke. Even though this was not what he promised he would do with Barren Murderer, in less than half a minute, he heard at least twenty of his members’ familiar voices, and all of them were screaming in pain, but that accursed Class One Hall did not even have a plan to handle the situation. There was no way he could continue calmly watching his members being sacrificed.

Right when he finished speaking, the air moved.

A powerful gust of wind came at him with smoke curling around it.

The leader of Assassin Hall reacted rather quickly. He swiftly realized that Happy might have set his eyes on him, and fear struck him. He hastily activated his body fortification and took a step to the left to avoid the sword glare that grazed his cheek. The part that came in contact with the sword glare burned.

His movements were already considered pretty good among first-class elites.

Unfortunately for him, the enemy he ran into was not just at that level.

“Come back.”

He might have missed, but Happy could still quickly lock down on his enemy’s movement trajectory based on the flow of the smoke and the sound of air being pushed around him. He moved using Wave-like Subtle Waves and executed Dragon Capture with one hand. Then, the leader was immediately sucked into Happy’s palm by a force he could not resist.

“Urgh!”

The pitiful Assassin Hall leder only felt a powerful force controlling his movements before his body became stiff. Then, a fierce force crashed violently into his organs, and the metallic taste of blood surged up his throat.

Before he could do anything else, an astonishing sword momentum came at him like a mountain crashing down on him. His vision turned black, and pain instantly destroyed his consciousness.

*****

Even though the leader of Assassin Hall died because he gave that command, Assassin Hall still managed to avoid the disaster of having their entire army destroyed. Out of two hundred people, more than one hundred and sixty people managed to escape from the smoke-covered lawless street with their lives.

But Barren Murderer and his group were not that lucky.

More than half of around forty famous players who were somewhere between top-class elites and first-class elites died. Blood Alliance lost seven people, Class One Hall lost thirteen people, Heaven’s Music lost three people, and of those who were not allied to any sect, five died.

As Barren Murderer and his group fled from the smoke-covered area, the number of smoke bombs that came out of the crowd gradually lessened.

Happy did not come out from within.

Whoosh!

A violent gust of wind blew past them.

Most of the smoke was blown away.

Then, the original smoke-covered lawless street gradually became clearer, and the outline of Survival Platform was revealed before them.

At that moment, everyone held their breaths.

Only when the violent gust of wind blew away all the smoke in the lawless street was the situation on Survival Platform clearly revealed to them, and the people released the surprised screams they had been suppressing for a long time in them.

There were corpses all over Survival Platform.

In fact, there were more than seventy of them!

Even though the number was not magnificent, the people who saw this still felt complicated emotions in them.

The people who launched the ambush to kill Happy were not normal players and were definitely not the normal members from Class One Hall’s branches.

Regardless of whether the people were sent by Heaven’s Music Sect, Assassin Hall, Blood Alliance, or Class One Hall, all of them were rather famous in the game.

This was especially the case for the dozen elites who attacked with Barren Murderer to surround Happy. All of them were great players who could easily make the Chinese plains shake with a stomp of their feet.

But now, those dozens of players whose names were a part of the other players’ memories had their corpses turn cold on the ground.

The Fatal Flying Matrix that attacked with an astonishing momentum just now had already vanished, and there were still a few Fatal Flying Maces that laid all over the ground.

“Where is he?!”

The Class One Hall members who surrounded the area widened their eyes and scanned the area, but they did not find Happy. So, they started discussing with each other about where he could possibly be.

“Did he run?”

“He used a scheme to kill so many of us, but he left without even saying a word?!”

Class One Hall originally had their momentum seized from their hands, but at that moment, they seemed to have regained some of their imposing mannerisms, and quite a number of them began running their mouths.

“Where did he run off to?!”

“How could you not have stopped him when there were so many of you?!”

As loud discussions and public denouncements rose, only Barren Murderer and the people from Blood Alliance’s Elder Hall had their expressions remain dark. They stared at the empty lawless street, and during that time, they did not say a word.

They knew very clearly why Happy left.

Dozens of top-class elites had been killed in the chaos just now, and more than thirty Assassin Hall members had also been killed.

The remaining Assassin Hall members and the dozen elites left were not enough to pose as a threat to Happy. In fact, they did not have the courage to continue standing up against Happy to fight him.

Happy must have definitely guessed Class One Hall’s decision, which was he decided to leave Dragon’s Gate unhesitantly during the chaos.

“Immediately send a messenger pigeon to the hall master and tell her that we failed in our mission here.” Barren Murderer stopped talking for a moment before he cast a deep glance at the depths of the crowd. His expression was sour. “Someone is helping Happy, but they should not be from Wind Assault Tower. Happy must be thinking of continuing to head north to Beijing. Tell her to get prepared soon.”

“…Understood.” The Class One Hall member who answered was rather dejected and indignant.

*****

No matter what, Dragon’s Gate was the place where information gathered and spread out the fastest in the Chinese server.

The news of Happy fighting head-on against Class One Hall and breaking out of the tight net cast by Class One Hall, Blood Alliance, and Assassin Hall before forcefully killing dozens of famous elites as well as leaving unscathed soon spread through the entire Chinese plains.

World of Martial Arts burst into an uproar.

Rumors even began circulating in the game saying that Happy’s final goal this time was Class One Hall’s headquarters in Beijing.

Happy intended to use the negative impact caused by Class One Hall working together with Wild Wolves to crush Class One Hall, the second strongest sect in the game which had been around for five years and had the game at its beck and call for just as long!