Sword Among Us

Boom!

As a loud sound rose, a huge hole was blown out of the roof of the largest building at the core of Mountain Villa of Ten Thousand Beasts. The explosion came from inside, and stones as well as dust flew everywhere. A figure covered in dust shot out.

That person’s clothes were in tatters, and his torn robes as well as the demon vessels inside were covered in fine and small holes. Red blood dyed most of his body red. He looked incredibly pathetic.

Who else could the person be but Happy?

He managed to suddenly flee to safety from the dark indoor square and returned to the world of light. Happy felt as if he had become a proper human being again. He stood on the roof and looked down. Then, he sucked in a deep breath of the refreshing and free air outside before he exhaled. “I’m finally out! Hahahaha!”

His loud laughter spread to every corner of Mountain Villa of Ten Thousand Beasts. Quite a number of players who were adventuring and grinding in the area heard the loud laughter that came from the depths, and all of them were surprised. They looked up or looked sideways, and they began discussing about who snapped because of stress.

“I wonder who he is.”

“That’s the core of the villa, and the number of people who can enter it per month can be counted on one hand…”

“But isn’t he a little too excited? Is he actually a new player in the game?”

Those who heard the last sentence did not even bother answering. None of them believed that someone had entered the final treasure house of Mountain Villa of Ten Thousand Beasts, because that place guaranteed certain death, and they also refused to believe that someone had managed to clear the treasure house that was rumored to be unsolvable as well as managed to get the treasures inside. No one even believed that someone had actually managed to get the treasure inside in less than ten minutes but had spent a few hours to break the other two traps inside before he broke the roof and rushed to safety.

“That damn barbaric merchant. What sort of stupid trap did he design…?”

While Happy cursed the greatest merchant in the world for creating Mountain Villa of Ten Thousand Beasts, he brought out the silver box from his Universe Bag. He had spent a lot of effort before he finally managed to get it in his hands.

“I hope you won’t disappoint me.”

But unexpectedly, when he brought out the silver box and exposed it under the sun, it immediately released a dazzling silver light, and the elegant floral patterns on all six sides of the box looked as if they had turned into flowing mercury.

The exquisite silver floral pictures quickly gathered together.

Slap!

Suddenly, the sound of springs moving rose from the box in Happy’s hands.

He was stunned.

He was already at the verge of a nervous breakdown because of the various sounds of springs moving around in the treasure house. Right now, when the sound of springs moving rose near him, Happy instinctively activated his true origina aura and had it envelope the silver box.

When the silver patterns settled down, they had already formed a normal picture. Happy could not see what it was clearly, but Happy could sense that one side of it had loosened up. It seemed like he could now open it because it was no longer sealed as tightly shut as before.

Happy quickly turned the silver box around.

Happy cautiously crouched down and put down the silver box before he gently lifted the lid until a crack was formed.

A system notification rang in his head.

“Ding!

“Obtained the treasure left behind by the world’s greatest merchant in Mountain Villa of Ten Thousand Beasts!

“Completed the hidden quest in Mountain Villa of Ten Thousand Beasts.

“Obtained 100,000 Chivalry Points!

“The secret left behind by the barbaric merchant in Mountain Villa of Ten Thousand Beasts has been revealed. You obtained 1 Legendary Point!”

The sequence of system notifications made Happy pause in his movements for a moment.

‘Legendary Point?’

This unfamiliar term attracted all of Happy’s attention. In fact, he had even ignored the simple book and shabby map lying quietly in the treasure box.

He summoned his attributes log.

[Happy: Inaction Realm

[AFF: 512, AST: 487, BMM: 461, CPH: 419

[Qi Points: 1,307

[Chivalry Points: 100,000]

Happy remembered now that when he caused that massacre in Beijing, his Chivalry Points were drained to zero. Now, it recovered.

[Legendary Point: 1 (Since you have completed a unique, legendary quest in World of Martial Arts, your achievement has been recorded by the imperial court, and your name will go down in history. The increase in Legendary Points will increase the charm in a player, and you can obtain more Affinity Points when you converse with NPCs. At the same time, you will have a chance to activate quests in forbidden areas.)

[Hidden Attributes:

[Willpower: 3]

When he saw the explanation from the system about Legendary Points, Happy was first stunned before he appeared curious.

‘Quests at forbidden areas?

‘I’ve never heard of it before…’

He frowned and thought about it for a while, but he could not think of anything. Then, Happy shifted his attention from the Legendary Point to the treasures he received this time.

It was one manual and one map.

Without even thinking, Happy reached out to grab the manual.

As a virtual martial artist, no one could withstand the temptation of a high-grade martial art manual. Besides, there was no way Happy would not be excited when he had obtained this manual after going through grave danger. The system had paid special attention to this and even created a legendary martial art manual.

The system notification rang.

“Ding!

“Obtained Amazing Log of the Seas and Mountains!”

When he saw the eight eye-catching words on the manual in his hands, Happy’s movements froze, and the excitement burning in his heart froze over.

‘Are you serious?’

Happy’s first reaction was that he had been toyed by the system.

The name, Amazing Log of the Seas and Mountains did not seem like the name for a martial art manual at all, much less the name for an ultimate technique.

Half a minute, one minute, three minutes, ten minutes…

Happy stood on the roof and flipped through this Amazing Log of the Seas and Mountains in his hands repeatedly for half an hour, but did not discover what sort of secret was contained in it. He also did not receive any astonishing martial art. His hope was gradually snuffed out, and he became dejected.

If it were not because it was difficult for him to get this item, Happy would have wanted to immediately throw this stupid book back into the box.

“You stupid barbarian, you better hope that I will never find you!”

Happy gnashed his teeth and rolled up the manual before he tossed it into his Universe Bag. He vaguely remembered that the name of the richest barbaric merchant was Hu Baiwan.

But it was no wonder why he would react this way.

He had slaughtered his way into Mountain Villa of Ten Thousand Beasts and experienced great danger. He had even taken one drop of Fire Qilin Blood before he managed to get out. If he had paid such a huge price only to notice that the greatest secret left behind by the barbaric merchant was just a stupid joke that described people, a continent, and unrecorded history, he would definitely not be ablet to accept this result. Heck, anyone else in his place would not be able to accept it. They would probably even think about cutting that perpetrator into shreds.

Fortunately, there was another item contained in the silver box.

It was a shabby map that seemed quite old.

This time, the system did not joke around with Happy anymore.

The map showed an incredibly famous place!

Dragon Sect Inn at West Region!

At the moment he obtained the map, the system did not disappoint Happy and gave him a piece of shocking news.

“Ding!

“Discovered the maps to the ruins of Dragon Gate Ruins!

“This is a map Hu Baiwan obtained from the black market in West Region. On it is the original address to Dragon Gate Inn. Search for Dragon Gate Inn, and use its underground tunnel to enter the palace that is buried in the desert.

“Since you have 1 Legendary Point, you are allowed to activate the quest in the forbidden area, Dragon Gate Inn!”

The system then gave him a prompt and a notification.

“Will you activate the quest to the forbidden area, Dragon Gate Inn?

“Once you activate the quest to the forbidden area, you will use 1 Legendary Point, and this news will be announced by Hu Baiwan to the world in two days.”

Happy was tempted, and his grudge toward that stupid and useless book in the silver box finally lessened by a huge degree.

This was a quest in a forbidden area which had never appeared, and he had a Legendary Point which allowed him to open the doors to the quest in the forbidden area. It allowed him to quell the anger and resentment in his heart, but only by a little.

However, there was one Dragon Gate Inn in West Region.

Yet based on the information provided by the system notification, it would seem like Dragon Gate Inn had already been destroyed and was even buried under the sand. The existing Dragon Gate Inn and the one mentioned by the system were different.

Besides, Hu Baiwan releasing the news might be a segment of the quest in the forbidden aera, and the difficulty of this plot-related quest might be unprecedentedly high!

When he thought of this, Happy could not help but hesitate.

‘Should I take it immediately? No, it’s not a wise decision.’

Quests in forbidden area had never appeared before, but he could already guess that the difficulty level would be insanely high. This was a place that even the richest merchant in the eye had his eyes on. At that time, incredibly powerful martial artists beyond West Region would definitely come over, and even the peerless martial artists in the Chinese server would come over.

When he thought of this, Happy had to become even more wary.

Before he activated the quest, he must prepare well! Or else, before he could even clear the quest in the forbidden area and get any benefits, he would end up dying.

“No!”

Happy cautiously chose to not activate the quest for the time being.

The system notification rose once more.

“The people in Mountain Villa of Ten Thousand Beasts have already learned of the news of you obtaining the map. The news will soon be sent to Hu Baiwan through his information network. If you do not take action within half a month, Hu Baiwan will send his subordinates to retrieve the map.”

‘There’s a time limit to the quest in the forbidden area?’

Happy frowned a little.

He was originally intending to use some time to train Sun Finger, and if he could push it to Grandmaster Realm, even if he fought against Evil King Shi Zhixuan, who was already One with the World, he could do so face to face. By then, he would have no problem in clearing the quest in the forbidden area.

But by the looks of it now, it was already difficult enough for him to push Sun Finger to the seventh realm. Besides, he had to recruit people to build his “Imperial Army”. At the same time, he also wanted to get the Heaven Crystal Sword in the hands of Sword Sect’s master, and his desire for the latter was especially clear. Happy did not want anything to happen to Heaven Crystal Sword and have it land in someone else’s hands.

‘Looks like I’ll have to hurry up now.’

Happy sighed with a myriad of emotions in his heart. He grabbed the now empty silver box and obtained a notification telling him that the box was made of a very exquisite piece of art made using silver. It could sell for one hundred thousand taels of gold. Happy unhesitantly put it into his silver box.

Whoosh!

Happy tapped against the floor and quickly jumped down from the floor. He then used his maximum speed to rush out of the villa without ever stopping.

Then, he rode on his horse and began rushing somewhere under the envious and respectful gazes of those martial artists moving around the mountain villa.

While he was on horseback, Happy seized time and sent a messenger pigeon to ask Wandering Know-it-all about the progress of the task he asked of him.

[I don’t know what you’re thinking, but most of the people asked me whether I asked the wrong person after they received my message and asked me whether I’m really Wandering Know-it-all. I’m about to go through a mental breakdown here…]

Happy found himself unable to say anything about that.

[Alright. As of right now, I’ve already managed to convince a few of them. There’s All-powerful Medicinal Stone from Marvelous-handed Sect, Little North from Corpse Sect, Momo from Shifting Flower Palace, Ancient Wind from Mount Hua Sect, Night Rain Follows Wind of Beggar’s Sect, and also Lin Xiao and Red Dust of Chivalry Alliance. They have already agreed to become guests at Lovely Land and listen to your suggestion.]

[Only these few?] When he read these familiar names, Happy felt a wave of sentimentality in his heart, but he also could not help but frown, because he had given Wandering Know-it-all more than one hundred names at that time.

[Most of them are still thinking, and some of them say that they don’t have the strength to work together with him.] Wandering Know-it-all answered honestly.

When he saw the contents in Wandering Know-it-all’s letter, Happy could only sigh with deep feeling.

‘It’s fine even if you don’t have the strength, I can wait for all of you…’