Sword Among Us

“What did you just say? Say it again!”

The Class One Hall members stood in front of the diviner’s stall, and the muscles on their face twitched. They were basically unable to believe their ears.

The ones who stood further outside the group could not help but ask the diviner their question again.

While diviners demanded a hefty fee from players if they were asked to provide detailed information about another player, they were not stingy when they were asked to repeat their words. He stroked his long beard and answered, “The Moksha Realm martial artist you’re searching for has indeed obtained an ultimate technique a few days ago. The other abnormality about him is that once he fell from Punishment Mount, he has a handicap on him.”

“A handicap” was the professional term diviners used once players died and received their death penalty. This meant that the player had been weakened. The players looking for their details will have to pay even more money to look further into how much they were weakened.

However, that sentence alone was enough to deliver a huge shock to the Class One Hall elites.

It was already bad enough that they died in Happy’s hands.

At the very least, Happy used his full strength and was nearly killed by their Grieving Needle, or that was what they believed, because the diviner had clearly told them that Happy fell off a cliff and died a few days ago. His status had been reduced by ten percent, and this was something they cannot accept. This was as bad as someone suddenly telling them that their opponent had not fought at their full strength after they suffered a setback against their opponent and that he was just toying with them.

The group was in an incredibly bad mood.

Perhaps some players will not mind dying once, but as their attributes grew stronger and their fighting abilities increased by leaps and bounds, the players would become stronger, and the stronger a player was, the effect of being weakened will also become even more obvious.

The punishment for dying in battle once was a ten percent reduction in their attack, defense, speed, recovery speed, and even attack speed.

They could not even defeat Happy when he was injured, and here they were, wondering about whether Grieving Needle will torment Happy to his death.

By the looks of it now, if Happy had been at the peak of his condition, they will lose even faster!

At that moment, this group of prideful elites had extremely sour expressions on their faces. No longer had the mood to bother about other matters. They returned to the restaurant quietly, got themselves some wine, and drank.

He Yi wanted to send the message to Dream Clouds, but when she thought about the scale of the incident this time, the hall master would have definitely investigated everything about Happy clearly. He could not help but have his heart turn cold, and he said falteringly, “My friends, the situation isn’t good for us…”

“We’ve already fully embarrassed ourselves. How much worse can the situation go?”

The group did not even bother looking at him.

“It’s precisely because we’ve humiliated ourselves too much. If the people outside learn that we can’t even kill an injured Happy and all of us died in his hands…”

The group jumped up like cats with their tails stomped. Their faces were filled with alarm and fear.

“Are you saying…”

“That the hall master already knows?”

“She might have even learned about it online, which is why she told us to immediately log off to watch the battle replay…” He Yi smiled in anguish.

The group had all the blood drain from their faces. They were silent.

If this news spread out, Class One Hall might suffer even greater humiliation.

*****

The worries and assumptions from He Yi and the others were not wrong.

Dream Clouds had indeed seen the entire process where He Yi and his group were killed by Happy. At that time, she did not pay too much attention to it, because she just wanted to get more information about Happy, since the length of the battle replay this time was rather long.

But she did not expect that Happy’s information would be attached at the end of the battle replay as well!

Someone bought all of Happy’s information from a diviner, and a line of red words that were typed out pierced into Dream Clouds’ eyes.

‘A handicap?!’

This discovery caused Dream Clouds, who had been shocked by Happy’s strength, to have her expression change on the spot. She quickly scrolled down to look at the comments, and her expression turned even darker.

“‘Awesome… What amazing moves…’” Dream Clouds practically said those words through gritted teeth.

“Ring…” Her phone rang.

She cast a glance at the caller, and Dream Clouds answered the call without hesitation, “Did you see it as well?”

There was silence on the other side.

After a while, a faint sigh filled with emotion was heard. “I didn’t expect that he will still be so powerful even after one and a half years has passed.”

The voice on the other side was clearly from Blood Robes.

The two were still connected, and by the looks of it, their relationship was still the same as before.

“You’re wrong.” Dream Clouds stared at the snow mountain outside with a dark expression. Her tone was cold. “In the past, I never regarded Happy as anyone of any importance.”

Blood Robes fell silent once more on the other side.

What Dream Clouds said was true.

Before Happy fell into a coma, Dream Clouds already had great power, and there were not many people in the Chinese server who can stop her from doing anything.

Happy was indeed strong, and he had some talent in fighting, but compared to Class One Hall, he was, undoubtedly, just an ant before an elephant, and she could easily crush him.

At that time, she just needed to send Five Venoms, and she managed to weaken Happy, who had been incredibly powerful at that time, to his lowest point.

But Blood Robes’ situation was different from Dream Clouds.

Dream Clouds liked watching a person’s personal achievements, so she paid more attention to Happy’s battle talent and skills. Hence, she decided to attack him during the Sword Among Us Tournament. She used Xu Yao by telling her about a message that did not exist and formed a misunderstanding when she temporarily lost her way to contact Happy. Then, with just a few more words, she practically destroyed Happy from the soul itself.

“Are you saying that right now, he made you feel threatened?” Blood Robes remained silent for ten seconds before he spoke up again, “Or are you saying that he’s making you angry?”

Dream Clouds kept quiet for the time being. Her expression became one of calmness, and she said while she thought things through, “Right now, I can’t be certain. I only have a hunch. This Happy doesn’t give me the feeling that he’s someone who has been in coma for one and a half years.”

“I’ve already asked for confirmation about his information from his attending physician. Besides, over the past one and a half years, Xu Yao has been taking care of him all along.”

Blood Robes thought that Dream Clouds was skeptical about Happy being in coma, and he immediately gave that reply.

Dream Clouds sucked in a deep breath and stood up before she said, “I’m not wondering about that. I’m just wondering whether he was actually conscious over the past one and a half years.”

“Conscious?” Blood Robes’s tone became grave.

“That’s right.” Dream Clouds nodded. “It’s too much of a stretch for a person who has been in coma for one and a half years to be able to immediately enter the game once he wakes up and even catches up to the rhythm of the game. His personality has also changed drastically. He’s unlike the comatose person who was driven mad by you. It doesn’t make sense.”

Blood Robes sank into deep thought once more.

He had actually thought about what Dream Clouds told him. It might seem unbelievable, but he had never suspected the truth of his understanding through his investigation and the information he secured.

“Are you saying that he might actually have been awake over the past one and a half years…?”

“This is where I am not certain, but the feeling Happy is currently giving me is too strange,” Dream Clouds answered.

“I have a basic understanding of what happened at Mount Song. He cleared the exquisite Go game very quickly, and he was very resolute in his actions, even if he used Life and Death Realm moves against a Moksha Realm player.

“Also, on the first few days he returned from the game, his qi increased very quickly, and it was much faster than the pace in which he leveled up one and a half years ago.

“Besides, he used the idiots from Blood Alliance to make himself famous, and he quickly got attention for himself, making many players remember what happened in the past. Then, he was smoothly able to reserve items that are worth one hundred million taels of silver.

“Furthermore, even when he fought against Class One Hall, he knew not to hide his strength and bide his time, because it will do him no good. Hence, he used Fu Tianqiong to push him to the center of the storm so that he will be in the limelight, and by doing so, he secured his fame.

“Moreover, his speed in farming for money is astonishing. He spent one hundred million taels of silver for that Recondite Steel Heavy Sword and unique sword technique. Do you think that he had such a sharp mind in the past? Would he have spent his time farming money?”

“Last, and this is his most frightening aspect. He did all this maintaining his injured status.”

When she said this, Dream Clouds sucked in a deep breath and said, “The battle today is actually a gamble Happy has been waiting for all this while.”

“Oh?” Blood Robes gasped in surprise.

“If he wins the gamble, he will rise to fame, just like now. Regardless of Blood Alliance or Class One Hall, we cannot deny Happy’s strength and reject his strength and status as a top-class elite in the Chinese server.

“And even if he loses the gamble, it doesn’t matter to him. He can still tell the world that he’s injured, and even if he’s killed by so many famous people from Class One Hall, it will not damage his current fame.

“But Happy won! He has already proven his strength, and it’s enough to threaten us. At the same time, he will attract many sects into offering him positions in their sect. I heard that Wind Assault Tower’s Phantasmal Shadow has long been making preparations to draw him to her side. Even if we fight against him at full strength, we might end up forcing Happy into Wind Assault Tower, and with Wind Assault Tower’s protection, he will continue fighting against us.”

Dream Clouds’ explanation caused Blood Robes to be ill at ease.

“Could it all just be a coincidence? Happy isn’t that smart, and he doesn’t have such a sharp mind on his shoulders. If he truly joins Wind Assault Tower, he will grow up even faster, and by then, things will be truly troublesome!”

“That’s why I said that this man is no longer the same. The situation is completely in his control. He can now choose to attack but also defend. As for us, we were humiliated, and we can’t even attack him publicly regardless of the cost to get rid of him.”

“Should we have Five Venoms attack again?”

Dream Clouds smiled coldly. “Now? Five Venoms managed to succeed in the past because we set up a meticulous plan, and Happy was not prepared for it. But even so, he managed to kill more than one hundred people at that time. Do you think that Five Venoms will have the chance of killing him again?”

She stopped talking for a while before she said, “Besides, Illusion Life and Death Pills are no longer goods that are in short supply. There are too many treatment methods and medicine that can help people get rid of the injured status. The price for it has also dropped. Even if we reduce Happy to nothing, we will only suffer losses from it.”

“Are we supposed to do nothing and let him continue getting stronger until he can attack us?” Blood Robes was a little frustrated.

Dream Clouds’ tone suddenly changed. “I’m not thinking about doing nothing.

“Last time, because of this matter, quite a lot of people came to fight against our sect, yes? They only gradually stopped after you left Class One Hall. Since Happy has decided to place himself in a safe shell, all we need to do is to force him to show himself.”