Sword Among Us

“Spiritual Master Zhang, I am practicing Emei Sect and Shaolin Temple’s Nine Yang Skills at the same time. This martial art is known as Golden Quintessence Nine Yang Skill. Right now, I am only lacking the last page for Nine Yang Divine Skill. I came here boldly because I wanted to ask you whether you are willing to teach me the incantations for Wudang Sect’s Nine Yang Skill.”

“My young friend, you do indeed have amazing luck. You actually managed to convince Master Kong Xiang to give you Shaolin Temple’s Nine Yang Skill? In the past, I brought my disciple to stand outside Shaolin Temple for three days and three nights, but the abbot refused to see us. Fortunately, my boy Wuji has great fate with fortune, or else, that cold poison would have taken effect a long time ago, and he would have died along with my short-lived disciple Cuishan.”

Zhang Sanfeng might have been a person walking down the path of Dao, but when he remembered how the abbot from ten years ago had nearly ended his pitiful disciple, Cuishan’s, bloodline, he could not help the emotions surging in his heart. His Daoist robes began fluttering loudly without any wind.

“Spiritual master, please calm down.” Happy knew that the situation was bad, and he quickly said, “On that day, what happened to Fifth Swordsman Zhang is indeed something that makes people feel indignation. Metal Strokes and Silver Hook [1] are from Wudang Sect, and it was a great loss not only to Wudang Sect, but also to the world of martial artists.

“However, when you gain something, you lose something. A good person will be repaid with good will. If it were not preordained by fate, how would the son of Fifth Swordsman Zhang and Yin Susu be a kind, benevolent, chivalrous, and gentle, and the exact copy of Fifth Swordsman Zhang in the past?

“Right now, Zhang Wuji is also the cult master of Ming Cult, and he is leading Ming Cult down the path of kindness. From this alone, you can see how the heavens have their hand in this. If Fifth Swordsman Zhang learned of this in the underworld, he would definitely feel gratified, and it can be considered as something worthy of being happy about.”

When Zhang Sanfeng heard Happy’s words, he remembered his disciple’s wishes, and he sighed with a great deal of emotion in his heart.

“My disciple Wuji is fortunate and tenacious, so I will not mention the matter about Nine Yang Skill anymore, but…”

He paused for a moment, and his gaze moved to Happy’s face. “My young friend, even though you have done a favor to Wudang Sect, I cannot hand you Wudang Sect’s Nine Yang Sect so easily. I wonder if you are confident in receiving my test.”

When Happy heard his words, he was delighted. “Spiritual Master Zhang, please grant me your guidance.”

Zhang Sanfeng schooled his expression and said, “Qingshu received a messenger pigeon from Emei Sect a few days ago, and he suddenly left the mountain without saying anything to us. However, based on the messages from Ming Cult disciples, Qingshu seems to have been asked a favor by Zhou Zhiruo, and I have been ill at ease over the past few days.”

“Zhou Zhiruo?”

Happy felt his heart let out a loud thump when he heard it. He did not expect that Song Qingshu would still head to Emei Sect to become Zhou Zhiruo’s pawn.

It seemed like after her temperament had changed, Zhou Zhiruo still headed down the path of being ruthless.

Could it be that the test was for him to…

As worry rose in Happy’s heart, Zhang Sanfeng told him about the quest.

There were many sides who stated that Zhou Zhiruo wanted to kill Zhang Wuji, and Zhang Sanfeng was worried that Song Qingshu would get manipulated into doing ii. Zhang Sanfeng, thus, wished that Happy could stop this.

“My young friend, I heard that you played the greatest part in Zhou Zhiruo being able to become the sect leader of Emei Sect. That means that your relationship with Sect Leader Zhou is very good, which is why I hope that you can tackle this issue and have Qingshu return to Wudang Sect. At the same time, please settle the grudge between Zhou Zhiruo and my disciple, Wuji.”

‘I knew it!’

When Happy received the great task from Zhang Sanfeng, he felt a heavy pressure settle on his shoulders.

The most complicated things in the human world were the affairs related to feelings, and the worst of them were the conflicts within love triangles!

Song Qingshu might be the easiest to deal with, but for the sake of obtaining Wudang Sect’s Nine Yang Skill and not offending the legendary Zhang Sanfeng, Happy could not be rough with him.

Zhou Zhiruo might have a pretty good relationship with Happy, but she loved Zhang Wuji so deeply that hate was born from it, and when a woman went mad from her feelings, she was terrifying. Happy was not confident that he could dissolve her grudge and conflict.

As for Zhang Wuji, even though the fact that he was kind, gentle, and irresolute made it possible to break the conflict, there was a very powerful woman standing behind him—Zhao Min. If he revealed even the slightest weakness in front of this woman, he would be manipulated instead, and he might end up losing everything.

Zhang Sanfeng’s quest was very challenging!

There were two completion requirements for the quest. First, for Song Qingshu to return to Wudang Sect. And second, for Zhou Zhiruo to focus on training. These two requirements were great challenges that served as two great walls!

But when Happy saw that the quest reward was Wudang Sect’s Nine Yang Skill, which would be given to him by Zhang Sanfeng, Happy gritted his teeth and accepted the quest.

The final page of Nine Yang Divine Skill had finally appeared, and for the sake of it, Happy decided to give it his all.

Even if he had to break Song Qingshu’s limbs, he would drag him back to Wudang Sect!

As for Zhou Zhiruo, he would act according to circumstances. He could try to use emotions to touch her heart or reason with logic. If worse came to worst, he could also just kill Zhao Min!

Happy’s mind began to run wild as his thoughts gradually went down the path of ruthlessness. Then, he suddenly began to laugh in a self-deprecating manner. He was ready to use all means possible to obtain Nine Yang Divine Skill.

He bade farewell to Zhang Sanfeng and descended the mountain before quickly heading to Emei Sect.

He went as swiftly as lightning!

*****

At that moment, news that caused everyone to be excited appeared.

World of Martial Arts had been launched for nearly ten months, and the official developers decided to organize a large-scale martial arts tournament.

Many people guessed that the competition system from Mu Clan had inspired the official developers of the game, and they decided to organize a martial arts tournament.

But many other people also remembered the offline martial arts tournament three months into the game’s operation.

Then, the official developers had said that after a period of planning and troubleshooting, they had gained a lot of experience from the offline martial arts tournament in preparation to organize a Chinese martial arts tournament.

It would be different from the tournaments in other games. The usual tournaments were organized for the players, and the players would be the main characters, but the official developers stated that the players would not be the only main characters in their martial arts tournament.

Players could enjoy fighting against all the great martial artists in the game, even some of the famous “stars” like Wudang Sect’s Zhang Sanfeng, Emei Sect’s Zhou Zhiruo, Ming Cult’s Zhang Wuji, Lu Xiaofeng, Ye Gucheng, even Xiao Feng, Duan Yu, Xuzhu, and Ling Huchong.

The specific rules were soon released on the official website!

All of World of Martial Arts went into a ruckus upon reading it!

*****

That included Happy, who was so shocked by the news that he temporarily logged out of the game to go to the official website to check it.

*****

As expected, the official website had already gone through a great change. The situation of all sorts of elites and their ultimate techniques was displayed on the webpage, and many of the images of the martial arts elites that many people spoke of were portrayed on the web page in a lifelike manner. Some of them stood above the rest, some of them looked savage and evil, and some of them had stern and cold expressions.

Many great martial artists were displayed with their titles on the front page of the official website.

Happy felt bewildered by it.

Another unknown butterfly effect had appeared.

A martial arts tournament like that had never been organized in Happy’s previous life, and he did not know what the official developers were thinking.

He suppressed the surging emotions in his heart and checked the time and rules for the martial arts tournament.

The date was three days later.

There were three days for the players to register themselves.

The registration spots were the system-allocated sects and clans in the cities, and tournaments would be held within them.

Players would represent their system-allocated sects when they joined the martial arts tournament as part of their lineup.

It meant that Happy was going to represent the Murong Clan!