Sword Among Us

‘Did we run into mountain bandits who have an archer squad?!’

Eleventh Crane was forced back behind the carriage by another volley of arrows. He felt depressed. Even though the arrows that shot out of the forest did not possess the lethality of Grandmaster Realm, they were all in the eighth or ninth realm. They were powerful, and not weak and useless shots.

With the numerical and geographical advantage on the archers’ side, Eleventh Crane was suppressed so much that he could do nothing about them, even though he was a veteran with the bow!

Eleventh Crane leaned against the back of the carriage and shouted, “Damn it! Young Worry! Lure the firepower away! The guards can’t take it anymore!”

Ghost’s Worry turned his head around and cast a glance at the guards beside him. They had already collapsed because of the arrows. They had some four arrows stuck in their thighs and arms, and they could only swing their other arms to block the arrows. They were in a dire situation.

The hearts of Orchid Researcher and Dawn Lotus were full of fear because of the arrows that came from within the forest. They did not dare show their faces. Xu Lang was a useless child who followed behind others, so Eleventh Crane had no one else to call out to except Ghost’s Worry.

“I can’t leave! If the horse dies, how can we continue with the mission?!” When Ghost’s Worry answered, he was distracted for a moment, and an arrow pierced his chest!

“Ah!”

Before Ghost’s Worry could shout out, Orchid Researcher had already screamed because she saw such a terrifying scene. With a pale face, Dawn Lotus grabbed her sword and rushed out to stand guard before the fallen defenders.

In just an instant, wounds were left on her arms.

Orchid Researcher nearly cried as she watched the scene. She bit her lip and also charged forward while shouting, “I’ll kill you!”

There was a quiver in her indignant voice, and she sounded as if she had been bullied by someone.

When the two girls joined the fight, they finally managed to rescue the carriage from its dire situation, but only slightly. They temporarily saved the four guards’ lives, and the horses drawing the carriages were still fine.

But the mountain bandits in the forest seemed intent to finish the battle with arrows. When they saw that the people around the carriage intended to continue stubbornly defending, they continued sending volleys of arrows at them. Some of the archers even chose to focus their attention on the only person behind the carriage who could threaten them from a long-distance—Eleventh Crane.

“Damn it! Since when did these mountain bandits become so smart?!” Eleventh Crane was incredibly angry.

If it were not because he had Xu Lang following him, he would have rushed out from behind the carriage a long time ago with his Grandmaster Realm Bow Body and entered the forest to kill the archers. However, since he had to take into consideration that he could not ensure Xu Lang’s safety, he could only suppress that crazy idea and place all his hopes on Happy, who had disappeared for quite some time.

He firmly believed that Happy had sensed the abnormality in the forest before them.

If they lasted a little longer, the volleys of arrows would surely stop.

As long as he had time to catch his breath, those people would end up as dead meat!

Right when he thought of this, panicked screams rose within the forest.

Then, the originally dense arrow shower became much thinner, and the danger level dropped.

“Young Worry, you’re injured, stay here!”

When Dawn Lotus sensed the pressure reduce, she easily plucked out two arrows and, without even turning her head back, rushed into the forest.

“Sister Lotus, wait for me!”

Orchid Researcher was not willing to be outdone. She lifted her sword and chased after Dawn Lotus. She did not even hear Eleventh Crane calling out to them.

“Come back! These two girls!”

Eleventh Crane put down the bow and arrow in his hand in anger, feeling extremely gloomy. The two girls had clearly forgotten that he still had Xu Lang by his side, who had very low fighting power. He originally hoped that the two girls could protect Xu Lang so that he could let loose in the forest, but now that the both of them had left, if Eleventh Crane recklessly rushed into the forest with Xu Lang, Xu Lang’s life might be in danger.

Besides, the two girls did not have a lot of experience. If they entered the forest recklessly, they might run into danger.

*****

The girls had not even entered one hundred and sixty-five feet into the forest when they saw a spot devoid of trees ahead of them. There were people there, and they were fighting. There were corpses dressed in tight-fitting white clothes on the ground, but they did not seem like mountain bandits.

Happy was filled with murderous intent. He chased after the people in white, attacking frequently and quickly with his lancet knives. Every time he attacked, he would take away two lives.

“Heaven Domination Sect Members?!”

Orchid Researcher stopped and looked around. Shock swiftly appeared on her face—she could see the emblem of Heaven Domination Sect on the chests of the white-robed corpses.

The two girls instantly understood what had happened. No wonder that the system did not give them any notification to protect the tributes or that the attacks had been limited to volleys of arrows from the start. By the looks of it, Heaven Domination Sect members had decided to set up an ambush for them.

“Darn it!”

When they remembered that they had nearly died under the Heaven Domination Sect Members’ arrows, the two girls became so angry that the emotion filled their whole beings.

“These bastards!”

Happy stopped in the distance. He had a sour look on his face.

In truth, when he scouted the place, he felt that the atmosphere was somewhat strange. There were too many footprints by the road, and there were also far too many tracks showing that people had walked all over the place. Yet mountain bandits would not leave such things behind.

Hence, he activated Cloud Treading Steps. He intended to check out what happened by venturing deep into the forest.

However, he did not expect that once he moved, Eleventh Crane would alarm the ambushers in the forest. Arrows rained down from the sky, nearly taking away the lives of the four guards and the horse.

Rage coursed through Happy’s veins, and he became even more certain that the people who hid in the forest were players and not mountain bandits.

Even though he was shocked, Happy did not expect that the people who came to snatch their tribute would be Heaven Domination Sect of Gusu City, his old enemy…

When he noticed the archers who were firing shot after shot and the guards protecting them by the side, the negative emotions that had been bottling up in his heart since the previous night turned into endless rage that erupted without warning!

He threw his lancet knives, and he instantly took away four people’s lives.

Then, when the guards became alarmed, he dropped from the tree into the crowd, throwing the twenty or so archers into disorder. More than ten people died under his Green Jade Shrouded in Heavenly Silk on the spot.

When the people from Heaven Domination Sect saw Happy, they immediately descended into chaos.

Happy had actually charged into their midst by himself. The archers quickly changed their weapons into swords and sabers to surround and kill him! But they did not manage to surround him, much less kill him. Happy jumped up and vanished from their group, and when he threw his throwing knives, someone would always die.

His throwing knives came and went without a sound!

When the eighth person at the outermost layer of the encirclement keeled over and died, the members of Heaven Domination Sect finally noticed what was going on, and they panicked and fled.

If this had happened in the past, Happy would have found it beneath himself to chase after them, but this time, Heaven Domination Sect members had acted like maggots in the bone. They had actually laid down an ambush for him, despite that requiring to travel far from Gusu City. With such actions, they had nearly killed his group, so there was no way that Happy would easily let them go.

If he let them run, the master of Heaven Domination Sect might think that Happy was an easy-going person who was easy to bully!

Whoosh!

With one tap against the ground, he activated Cloud Treading Steps and gave chase at full speed.

The lancet knives became Happy’s best scythe in reaping souls. Wherever they landed, a Heaven Domination Sect member would fall to the ground with a grunt. No one bothered to check if they were still breathing.

In their panic, none of Heaven Domination Sect’s members thought about splitting up. They just fled in disorder.

But there was no way they would be able to escape Happy, who had already mastered a lightness skill. They could not avoid Happy’s throwing knives, and without a hitch, he chased after them.

That was the reason why Orchid Researcher and Dawn Lotus saw many white-robed corpses along the way.

“You killed all of them so soon? You should have left a few for us.”

“You silly girl. These are all players. Did you actually think they were those dumb NPCs?” Dawn Lotus cast Orchid Researcher a resigned look. Once she finished speaking to her, she turned to Happy and asked, “Did they come for you or the tribute?”

“They should have come for me.”

Happy cast a glance at the wounds on the two girls, and his heart tensed. ‘The danger brought by players is indeed much greater than that of NPCs. Looks like I’ll have to be even more careful next time!’

At the same time, he swore in his heart, ‘When I go back, I’ll destroy Heaven Domination Sect’s headquarters!’