Sword Among Us

No player aside from Happy knew about the war in the desert palace and the fierce fight between the eight martial artists in the dao of heaven, along with the catastrophe of Tiger Soul’s reappearance, and neither did they know that it happened hundreds of feet under the desert. Naturally, they did not know the situation underground either.

However, a group of martial artists in tattered clothing escorted two children outside the area where the black sandstorm raged. They moved quickly in the desert in alarm.

Thud thud thud thud…

There were more than one hundred men or women among them. Their qi realms were high, and they only left behind faint footprints on the soft sand hills. They moved as if they were flying.

Even the strongest horse-riding bandits in the desert would not dare to easily challenge this group of people.

Yet this group looked like miserable curs. They moved about quickly in the desert in search for refuge. Occasionally, they would look behind them, and their faces were full of anxiety and unease.

Silver Wolf and his party were among the group.

Among them were Wind Assault Tower’s Phantasmal Shadow and Stained Shirt Sect’s Niu Dali.

The players surrounded more than ten martial artists dressed in shirts and pants as well as Dragon Gate Inn’s owner, Jin Xiangyu.

Their expressions varied, but all of them looked incredibly pathetic and tired.

After the quest in Dragon Gate Inn was activated, they never had the chance to relax. They were chased down by the Embroidered Uniform Guards and ambushed, and an increasing number of people died. They practically did not dare to be careless while they traveled. They were worried that if they were careless, the two children they protected, Cao Huaian, and Mo Yan would die.

Cao Huaian, Mo Yan, and the others might be in Myth Realm, but as the Embroidered Uniform Guards sent an endless wave of people to ambush and chase after them, they lost a lot of their stamina.

Right now, each of them carried a child in their arms while they ran at the forefront of the group.

“They’re here…”

“They caught up!”

“What should we do? Should we just risk it all and fight against those lapdogs from the imperial court?!”

A few crude and heroic voices suddenly rose from the crowd, and they sounded like brutish wanderers.

Cao Huaian frowned and turned his head around.

“Don’t stop!

“We’ll be able to see a town once we pass by a few more sand hills. We have a stronghold over there, and we can avoid the imperial court lapdogs’ chase if we go there!”

“Damn it!”

When the group of players in the group heard Cao Huaian’s calm orders, they slapped their own heads and continued running.

Soon, the faint sound of horse hooves could be heard from behind them.

Rumble… Rumble!!

It was getting louder with each passing second!

The group of players had their expressions change. Cao Huaian and Mo Yan did not say anything else, which was rare of them. They did not slow down but just continued running down the sandhills.

Phantasmal Shadow and the other players could not keep quiet.

The sound of horse hooves behind them were getting denser and louder. It was as if the entire desert was trembling.

“Go and check the situation.”

Phantasmal Shadow was unable to keep calm.

Ever since they were chased out of Dragon Gate Inn because of the black sandstorm and made it thirty-one miles away from the inn through an underground tunnel, they had never stopped moving. During their journey, they faced nonstop ambushes, and many of them died. Wind Assault Tower had already lost a few elites because of it.

“I’ll go.”

A person next to Wu Kuo left the team after he received a signal. He headed to a high spot.

At the same time, Niu Dali also sensed that the number of pursuers behind them might have increased. He was unable to keep his composure as well, and he ordered a subordinate to check out the enemy situation from a high spot.

But it would have been better if they did not check it, because once they did, they were shocked.

Rumble!

A dense wave of armored horses chased after them while sand danced madly behind them. They looked like a huge black dragon, and no end of it could be seen.

The two scouts made a rough estimation and found that their pursuers numbered to at least thousands.

And all of them were elite Embroidered Uniform Guards who were fully armored!

These two people sucked in sharp breaths and looked around them. They saw that this group was no less than one thousand feet away from their rearguard. Once they crossed this sandhill, they would be able to catch up to them.

Embroidered Uniform Guards had also appeared to their sides. The armored cavaliers had formed a pocket, and they had already formed the formation to surround them.

They were in a precarious situation.

When they saw this, the two scouts did not dare to linger around any longer. They ran back to the group at the same time and brought this bad news to Phantasmal Shadow and Niu Dali.

Phantasmal Shadow had her expression change on the spot.

The progression of the quest had clearly diverted from what they expected!

Everyone’s body movements and strength would be limited slightly in the desert. Since they had to divert some of their strength to protect Cao Huaian and Yu Qian’s descendants, they had more problems to worry about, and when they faced the Embroidered Uniform Guards’ arrows, they could not run away from them at all.

They had been able to force their way out of the previous encirclements because there were fewer Embroidered Uniform Guards.

But now, there were thousands of them!

Once the Embroidered Uniform Guards finished their encirclement, they would definitely be wiped out. After all, there were top-tier elites among the pursuers from the Embroidered Uniform Guards.

“Tower Master! You should leave with them first. We’ll stay here to block them for a while and buy time for you.”

With Wu Kuo as the leader, the people from Wind Assault Tower spoke up. They were prepared to sacrifice themselves and buy time for Cao Huaian and the others to break free.

Phantasmal Shadow had a troubled look on her face.

“It’s already too late for you to say this. With the children with us, we’ll never be able to outrun the Embroidered Uniform Guards. It’s only a matter of time before they catch up to us.”

“Then, what should we do now? Give up on the quest?”

When they heard the increasingly deafening sounds of horse hooves thundering against the ground from their sides, quite a number of people became incredibly agitated. They gave their own opinions.

“We should just give up on the quest. This quest is too insane. It’s impossible for us to complete it.”

“If you give up on the quest, you’ll be breaking your promise, and all your Chivalry Points as well as Reputation Points will be gone. All the reputation you built up through the quests before this will disappear in a puff of smoke.”

Phantasmal Shadow’s words caused everyone to stop speaking.

The quest in Dragon Gate Inn was rather unique, because a group of players were supposed to join it together to protect Yu Qian’s descendants. Their faces and voices were already heard and seen by the Embroidered Uniform Guards. Even if they gave up on the quest, news of their involvement would still spread through the entire world. By then, the price for breaking their promise and leaving the path of righteousness will be very great.

The group instantly became conflicted.

Right now, the Embroidered Uniform Guards surrounded them from three sides, and they had no place to hide in the desert. They were faced with dead ends on all sides. Were they supposed to just watch the Embroidered Uniform Guards catch up to them?

Rumble!

Rumble…

As time passed, the Embroidered Uniform Guards finally crossed over the sandhill and entered their field of vision.

The horse hooves that made the desert tremble stirred up sand all over the air, forming dark clouds that swept toward the group of people.

At the same time, the horses from their flanks also came charging forward. Now, they looked like a huge, elongated pocket that came closing in on the group of fleeing people.

They were going to be devoured by the army.

“Curse these imperial court lapdogs!”

Cao Huaian scowled. He handed the children in his hands to the person by his side, and Mo Yan did the same thing. He shouted, “Big Brother He, please leave ahead of us with the children! I’ll stop them! Those who don’t fear death, come with me!”

“Big Brother Silver Wolf?”

“Things have already progressed in this manner. Do you think we have a choice?” When he was faced with the other three people’s inquisitive gazes, Silver Wolf frowned a little. “We’ll follow them and form a formation. We can only focus on protecting ourselves when the time comes…”

“Got it!”

The party of four were people who could go through severe hardships without complaint. Even when they faced real bullets, they would not flinch, so they would definitely not back down from something in a game.

They were the first to respond to Cao Huaian’s call. They turned around at the same time and followed Cao Huaian as well as Mo Yan to head toward the Embroidered Uniform Army.

When they saw this, Phantasmal Shadow, Wu Kuo, and Niu Dali made their decisions at the same time.

“After them!”

“We’ll fight them to our last breaths!”

If they showed any signs of cowardice at this moment, not only would they embarrass themselves, they would also humiliate their own sects.

With Silver Wolf’s party motivating them, more than one hundred players turned around. Aside from around ten players who chose to continue escorting Yu Qian’s children, most of the players chose to fight to the death so that they could buy time for Yu Qian’s children.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

When they started charging back, the Embroidered Uniform Guards who rushed toward them quickly figured out their intentions, and all of them drew their bows while on their horses.

For a period of time, the sounds of arrows piercing through the air rang nonstop, and arrows flew all over the sky.

Countless black dots rained down on their heads and went into the crowd.

“Be careful! Those are Barbed Canine Fang Arrows!”

Someone in the crowd cried out in surprise.

Silver Wolf and his party had their expressions tense up. They protected each other and flung away the arrows.

In truth, it was not difficult to fight against Embroidered Uniform Guards who were only in Inaction Realm.

The ones who were difficult to handle were the Embroidered Uniform Guards who crossed the borders to this place. Not only were they fully decked in armor, they also had all sorts of arrows at the level of demon vessels, and they were all specially created by the imperial court. They were Mad Hornet Arrows, which could release a bundle of poisoned arrows in the air; Barbed Canine Fang Arrows, which could pierce through the body and destroy organs; and Phoenix-tail Arrows, which were elusive and difficult to fend against.

The first was easy to deal with.

While Mad Hornet Arrows had a large attack range, its damage was not to be feared. As long as they brought antidotes with them, it did not pose as much of a problem.

But the Barbed Canine Fang Arrows were incredibly sinister. Not only could they break defenses, once it pierced into a person’s body, a trap would be triggered as well, and it would plant itself firmly in a person’s body. Those who were shot would either die or be heavily injured, and they would lose their ability to fight straightaway.

As for the Phoenix-tail Arrows, only a handful of leaders were able to use them. Those arrows that could change their directions at the will of their archers were something that even martial artists at the peak of Myth Realm found difficult to fend against.

The Embroidered Uniform Guards had relied on these demon vessel-grade arrows to kill nearly one hundred martial artists who were not at all weak, and they managed to chase after them to this area.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

“Ack!”

“Bastards! It’s those poisoned arrows again!”

A dense wave of arrows shot into the crowd, and pained cries rose nonstop from the group.

These demon vessel-grade arrows were mixed among normal arrows, and they killed a group of people immediately. More than ten people fell on the yellow sand, and their bodies were quickly pierced full of arrows. They died.

A few unlucky sods triggered the trap from the arrows, and those Barbed Canine Fang Arrows extended from their bodies. They screamed for a long time while their bodies were covered in blood. They tried blocking other arrows for a while, but in the end, they knelt down on the desert while their bodies were covered in arrows.

They were originally a group of more than one hundred people. In just the blink of an eye, more than half of them were gone!

Phantasmal Shadow, Silver Wolf, and other powerful players followed behind Cao Huaian, Mo Yan, and Jin Xiangyu to draw close to the Embroidered Uniform Army. Aside from them, the others all fell to their knees after facing a few rounds of arrow showers. The situation was incredibly devastating.

“Woo!”

When dozens of martial artists managed to break into the Embroidered Uniform Army, suddenly, a low but loud horn rose from the cliff to their left.

The Embroidered Uniform Army seemed to have received some sort of order. The vanguards of the army had just moved more than thirty-two feet ahead of Cao Huaian and the others, but suddenly, they split to the sides in a strange fashion.

Rumble…

Under the group’s dumbfounded gazes, a multitude of horses galloped about. Sand danced in the air, and they were quickly surrounded by the sand that was kicked up high into the air.

They felt as if they were at the center of a sandstorm, and they gathered together, not knowing what they should do.