Sword Among Us

“Happy, good news.”

When Happy walked out of the royal mausoleum, he immediately received a letter from Thunderous Battle. When he spread it out, the fatigue he felt from fighting against the ninjas for most of the day instantly vanished. A wave of heat and energy rose in his body again, and a hint of happiness appeared on his face.

The last couple days, good news had been coming from Mu Clan one after another.

Beautiful Robes Faction’s development continued in a neat and orderly fashion. Thunderous Battle led his clan members to clear the large forest of Blood Sucking Wood in the depths of Shennongjia. With hundreds of players, they whittled down its HP for a day and night before they killed it and helped Red Coral get the Thousand Year Blood Sucking Wood Root. At the same time, they obtained countless high-grade medicinal herbs from the Blood Sucking Wood forest. Among them were a thousand-year ginseng and a thousand-year lingzhi.

Heartless Iron had become even more skillful.

Even though it had been his first time trying to make third-echelon weapons and he only managed to refine one of the four Nation Protecting Divine Swords, which meant that he wasted more than seventy million worth of ingredients, Happy was not disappointed in him. He continued to provide Nation Protecting Divine Swords and Golden Armor Set parts to Heartless Iron to fully support him in his refinement!

During the final stages of refinement, Heartless Iron had already learned from his past lessons, and he figured out a set of patterns as well as incorporated the refining of grade two masterpieces. Every time he failed in second-echelon grade two refinement, he used the level-headedness he gained from his failure to challenge making a third-echelon weapon.

It had to be said that it was quite effective.

Heartless Iron had received all five parts of Golden Armor Set from Happy. After a few days, he successfully created three sets of Golden Armor and two individual parts. His success rate was more than 60%. Happy decided to be generous and gave him contribution points that were worth sixty million taels of silver.

Thunderous Battle also benefited from that. He obtained a third-echelon Nation Protecting Divine Sword and a set of third-echelon Golden Armor. On the second day, he arrogantly went to cause trouble for Stone King in the crystal mine, and he was lucky enough to get two unakites and some high-grade crystals from it.

And after all that, Happy still received some more good news.

When the alliance of the five sects had been formed for nearly a month, Mu Clan finally managed to get one top-class crystal. It was a beautiful and magnificent Phantasmal Crystal. It was one of the necessary materials to make fourth-echelon weapons.

The person who dug out that crystal was a female miner from Black Rose Clan. Her name was Small Herb. Thunderous Battle used the name of the clan to give Small Herb contribution points that were worth ten million taels of silver, and he also said that whoever dug out a Phantasmal Crystal again would receive ten million taels of silver as well.

Black Rose Clan was absolutely shocked.

[Beautiful.] Happy was not stingy in his praise. [Big Brother Thunder, you can be considered to have made a rather wise move. Black Rose Clan is a group that we should draw to our side if we can. Phantasmal Crystals may be low in value in the market right now, but the drop rate is really low. The five sects have only managed to produce a few of them over the past month. Its value will increase once or twice in the future.

[Ten million is worth it! Also, once the month is over, give them contribution points based on the system for normal clan members. They will share our resources equally. Even though Red Coral will definitely give them allowances, those women are not simple characters either.]

Thunderous Battle answered quickly. [That’s right. I have to say, those girls are much more hardworking compared to many other people. When they’re serious, regardless of whether it is the people from Beautiful Robes Hall or War Hall, we’re all rather impressed.]

[Did Heartless Iron say anything about the appearance of Phantasmal Crystal?] Happy suddenly asked.

Thunderous Battle was stunned. [How did you know? When Heartless Iron saw that a Phantasmal Crystal had been added to the important resources category of our clan storage, he immediately came to me saying that I must absolutely persuade you to let him try it out.

[Whew, even when I think about it now, I find it hilarious. Think about it. He’s a middle-aged man who is usually incredibly callous, and he’s about the same age as I am, but he suddenly became incredibly needy. I can’t quite handle it.]

[What’s your decision?]

[Hehe, I told him at that time that challenging the fourth echelon isn’t that easy. No matter what, we have to get a few sets of materials before we take any action. Right now, many people have come to me with a price. The highest offer was 150,000,000 taels of silver.

[If one of them was shattered, I’d want to jump off a building and kill myself. It’s just a 20% success rate… That means there’s a possibility that four or five of them will shatter. Would I dare to take that risk?

[Besides, it’s not as if there isn’t anyone who has suffered losses because of this. I heard that Kind Tycoon wanted to reap benefits again, but despite trying it multiple times, he failed and lost a few billion taels of silver in ingredients. Right now, he’s so angry that he wants to cough up blood. When I think about how the few third-echelon Nation Protecting Divine Swords in the bank will shatter, my heart pounds.]

[Being level-headed is good, but the attributes of the third echelon are 150%, while the fourth echelon brings them to an insane level. They’re at 300%, so it’s understandable why Kind Tycoon wanted to take the risk. As long as we are successful in our attempt, it’ll be basically the same as us having our attack increase by one whole qi realm as of now. If we sell it, it would definitely be at a phenomenal price.]

[Why are you acting like this? Are you thinking about supporting him?]

Thunderous Battle’s words were full of shock in his letter.

Happy smiled and wrote in a flourish. [It’ll be good if he tries. After all, there is no one with enough contribution points to exchange for those third-echelon Nation Protecting Divine Swords. But tell him that if he fails this time, he’ll have to wait until there are at least four sets of materials before he can attempt to make fourth-echelon equipment again!]

After receiving that letter, Thunderous Battle was silent for a long time.

[Deal,] he answered a moment later in a very irresponsible way. [After all, those are all your items. I’ll just watch by the side and let you two feel anxious…]

Happy smiled and tore the letter apart before summoning Hoof Shadow and heading toward Vast Martial City.

*****

Mu Clan’s Forging Room One in Baokang was publicly known as a famous person’s forging room once Heartless Iron accumulated lots of successes. After all, there were twenty-three third-echelon grade one masterpieces on the Divine Weapon Rank that came from that room.

Each piece was worth more than a billion!

True to his name, Heartless Iron had become the best Forgemaster in Mu Clan. At the same time, he also became the best Forgemaster in the game…

In fact, even Chivalry Sect, Jade Fox Palace, and some of the more famous sects in the game had come forward in hopes that Heartless Iron could refine their equipment.

However, his temper for which he was known in Happy’s previous life had already appeared by then. His tone when he spoke was incredibly firm and crude.

“I don’t lack grade one masterpieces and third-echelon masterpieces!

“I will only accept requests asking me to create fourth-echelon equipment, and you will bring your own materials. And let me make this clear, if I fail, I will give you one million taels of silver as reimbursement.”

As of right then, he had only made an exception for Lin Xiao and Red Dust from Chivalry Sect, and Thunderous Battle had to personally bring them over before Heartless Iron took action. He was so prideful that people gasped in astonishment at it.

There were also many people who tried to hire him in secret.

On that day, Heartless Iron had rejected Kind Tycoon and Class One Hall’s Dream Clouds’ invitations.

The former had tempted him with benefits. He said that he had more than a dozen sets of fourth-echelon materials in his hands. As long as Heartless Iron agreed to switch sects, he would immediately give him a chance to use countless resources and the opportunity to display his abilities. His salary would also be above eight figures.

Heartless Iron might have been tempted, but in the end, he still chose to reject the offer.

After all, Thunderous Battle and Happy had been kind to him, and he had relied on Mu Clan to become outstanding. He had a deep sense of attachment and trust for them. He was not lacking in money either. The success of creating one single third-echelon grade one equipment could allow him to get contribution points worth two million taels of silver. That sum was not any lower than what Kind Tycoon offered.

Class One Hall had tried to threaten him with force, so he scolded and blacklisted them.

Just when Heartless Iron was prepared to heat up his furnace to work on the grade one masterpieces Mu Clan had bought, Thunderous Battle sent him news that made his heart surge.

After repeated contemplation, Happy had decided to let him take the risk once to attempt making fourth-echelon equipment!

Also, Thunderous Battle solemnly promised that the clan was going to use a lot of money to buy Phantasmal Crystals and other refinement materials from Jade Fox Palace, Chivalry Sect, Righteous Sect, and Blood River Sect so that they could help him create fourth-echelon equipment!