Sword Among Us

“Hmph! As expected of the best player under Mystical Realm and the top of the Famous People Rank, you live up to your name. This time, I, Lu Mingyue, admit defeat. Nian is yours.”

Once the large group of actors left, the mysterious man recovered from the shock of Happy being a successor of an ultimate technique as well. He pushed against his chest and swept his gaze over Nian’s carcass. He felt no reluctance to part with it whatsoever. His gaze lingered for a while on Happy, Little North, and Thunderous Battle’s faces.

When he spoke next, his voice sounded even more like that of a woman. It was gentle and charming. “But we will meet again, and next time… Hmph!”

Once he finished speaking, he rushed away. In an instant, he traveled dozens of feet. In the blink of an eye, he left the peach blossom forest and vanished from the trio’s sight.

“Who will want to meet you again?!” Once Lu Mingyue vanished from the peach blossom forest, Little North remembered the man’s final sentence, and he rolled his eyes. “Stupid pervert! You learn a martial art, and you want to inherit Dongfang Bubai’s personality as well? I can’t stand him!”

“That should not be his intention.”

“Hmm?”

When they heard what Happy said, Little North and Thunderous Battle looked at him in surprise.

When he saw the puzzled looks on their eyes, Happy smiled and explained. “There are restrictions when learning ultimate techniques. Take mine for example. It only has skills and uses up a lot of qi. It also doesn’t have any damage. Also, I can only use it in close quarters. On top of that, the stronger an ultimate technique is, the more exaggerated are its restrictions.

“I believe that even if the practitioner of Sunflower Manual doesn’t need to perform self-castration, they need to imitate Dongfang Bubai’s gentle and feminine personality as closely as possible, or else, they will not be able to bring out the might of Sunflower Manual, which would then lose Dongfang Bubai’s charm. It would become the same as any other normal martial art.”

In truth, this was something one of the successors of Dongfang Bubai who appeared later on revealed, because he could no longer withstand the pressure and questions from the world around him. That player also had a girlfriend in real life.

Little North and Thunderous Battle were silent, but they appeared to have understood something, because they nodded silently. ‘So that’s how it is!’

“By the way, Nian.”

Little North perked up. He jogged to Nian’s pitiful and ignored carcass.

In general, it was a lucky beast that had countless treasures, so countless people would fight over it. However, it had died a long time ago, but no one remembered to take the mysterious treasures hidden in its body. It was very inappropriate for everyone to act like that.

Once Little North reminded Happy of the fact, Happy remembered that Nian was a creature that had a chance to drop good items. He bent his knees slightly and moved next to Little North.

As it happened, Little North had only managed to dig out around ten sparkling gold ingots after searching through Nian’s carcass for half a day. He was stunned.

“Is my luck really that bad?”

He had heard that some Nians would only drop gold ingots and not treasures, but he did not expect that such a thing would happen to him. The face muscles twitched slightly, and he looked like an innocent who had just been dealt a very traumatic blow.

Thunderous Battle just kept sighing and shaking his head by the side.

“Kid… you’d best check your fate with fortune today when we go back. How can you actually run into a successor of an ultimate technique who wants to kill you to shut your mouth when you practice martial arts, and then, when you discover Nian, only get gold ingots? Ah… your luck is so bad that I can’t even find it in myself to rebuke you. It’s best that you don’t open any bags or treasure chests today…”

Once he had his list of unfortunate events enumerated by Thunderous Battle, Little North felt like crying, but he did not have any tears. The only thing he wanted to do right then was to look for a corner, crouch down, and start drawing circles in dejection.

“Fate with fortune?”

Happy’s eyes lit up as if he had just remembered something.

Under Thunderous Battle and Little North’s curious gazes, he wrote a letter, tied it to a messenger pigeon’s legs, and swiftly let it fly.

“What is it?” Thunderous Battle asked curiously. This was the first time he saw such an excited expression on Happy’s face.

Happy smiled without saying anything. He had a profound look on his face while he said, “You’ll know later.”

In truth, the memories of the later stages of the game were more prominent in his mind, and many of the events of the early stages were forgotten a long time ago. They had not been important after the fact, especially if they had made him waste a lot of time searching for them and had rather little value.

Nian was one of such things.

World of Martial Arts would insert the lucky beasts with treasures on them in different regions every year and every season. It would stimulate the players’ passion, and they would also let the players gain a step further in understanding the benefits of their fate with fortune.

In truth, if it were not for Nian’s appearance, Little North’s seriously bad luck, and Thunderous Battle’s act of listing every single bad encounter Little North had that day, Happy would not have thought of their fate with fortune.

During the later stages of the game, many talented players had come to the conclusion of the general benefits a person would receive with high fates with fortune.

Aside from getting slightly higher rewards that day, their chances of getting good equipment would also increase. They could also trigger hidden quests and have the chance to run into hidden Bosses.

Of course, if there were benefits, there were disadvantages as well.

Hidden quests were quests that had higher difficulty, and if the players ran into hidden Bosses, it meant that their safety was in peril.

However, there was a benefit that promised absolutely no danger for those with high fates with fortune!

Nian!

Besides Nian, there were also a few lucky beasts that had similarly astonishing resources in World of Martial Arts and posed no threat to the players.

And while those lucky beasts would appear randomly and were inserted into the game at random points in time, they would usually avoid those with low fates with fortune. They would head to the players with high fates with fortune that day.

The lucky beasts were not limited to certain regions. They could move around at will. They might also linger around a region and refuse to leave if there was no fitting player in a certain circular area around them. However, most of the lucky beasts would be affected by the strength of the players’ fates with fortune.

Hence, some of the players during the later stages of the game formed the habit of finding out how high was and other people’s fate with fortune right after they logged in for the day. Then, they would intentionally form a party with a player with a high fate with fortune!

After all, they would always be one or two times when they were favored by the heavens and be lucky enough to find a lucky beast.

Flap! Flap! Flap!

A white messenger pigeon flew back into Happy’s hands in a timely manner. Once it tucked its wings, it meekly allowed Happy to take the letter out of the bamboo tube tied to its feet. There were a few numbers listed on the paper.

[Happy: Fate with fortune, 67

[Thunderous Battle: Fate with fortune, 41

[Little North: Fate with fortune, 19.]

Little North had just so happened to move around to take a peek at the letter. When he saw the last number, he was instantly dealt such a great blow to his pride that he fell to his knees as if a huge mountain had fallen on his shoulders. He did not even have the strength to moan about how unlucky he was and defend himself.

No wonder his luck was so bad. His fate with fortune was basically nonexistent.

However, he could not be blamed. It was his fault for constantly being together with the dead. When he had nothing to do, he would take medicinal liquid and rub it on his zombies’ body. No matter how great his fate with fortune might have been, it had to have been terrified by his actions to run away.

However, Happy did not expect that his fate with fortune would be the highest. He frowned and pondered over it. Then, he cast a glance at the final piece of information on the letter.

The mass grave that was the closest to them was not too far away. It was only one hour’s journey from them. If there was a Mystical Realm training spot nearby where they could work on their high-tier martial arts and low-tier martial arts, there was no need for them to continue staying in the forest.

‘Alright, let’s go there!’

Once he made his decision, Happy looked at Thunderous Battle and Little North with a determined expression. “Have you heard of Hoof Shadow before?”

“Of course, it’s a high-grade mount. It can run for hundreds of miles per day, and its speed is equivalent to those with high-tier lightness skills at Grandmaster Realm. It’s very difficult for players to catch them, but they’re sold at a very high price at the market, and many people want them.

“There are already quite a number of sect masters who stated that they would buy them for eight hundred thousand taels of silver crumbs or one million taels of silver crumbs. The price is still increasing by leaps and bounds. Heh, I even went to set up a trading deal yesterday to buy the Horse Plate for Hoof Shadow,” Little North answered with his eyes sparkling.