Sword Among Us

Panda Novel

Henan had various cities such as Dengfeng, Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, and Luoyang. Many sects and some small-scale organizations had their eyes on Happy, who was ranked thirty-sixth on Rich Rank. As World of Martial Arts Secret News Log became common among the people, an increasing number of people began harboring various thoughts about Happy’s money.

But on that day, Happy’s value had increased from one thousand taels of silver crumbs to three thousand taels of silver crumbs within a short period of time.

Every single time anyone asked for a divination, the fee would be equivalent to three normal divinations. If this went on for a longer period of time, the loss suffered would be rather great! Many of the smaller forces of power gave up upon understanding that.

Only some of the medium-sized and large organizations continued to chase after Happy, because they had invested quite a lot of money already! That was why they all rushed to Luoyang.

They worked together with the groups who came out from Luoyang to encircle him. Then, they could kill him as easily as taking a breath!

But things were different from what they expected.

As the people charged out of Luoyang, they heard many players spread the news about the blue-robed swordsman, and they instantly became even more excited.

But when they rushed to the battlefield, all the fighters had already left. Only a large group of onlookers remained to discuss the matter. They chattered among themselves with gusto.

Not too far into the distance was a large group of people in uniform. From first glance, anyone could see that they were strong and built, so they belonged to a rather decent guild or organization.

However, strangely enough, when a man in a coronet told them something, they instantly lost their interest. They split into smaller groups and left in different directions.

“Another group gave up? Ha! Very good!”

But right when those people said that, a messenger pigeon rushed to them.

The eyes of those people lit up!

The leader caught the messenger pigeon, but he was stunned upon reading the message it carried. The information and coordinates, which he expected to see, were not there. Instead, there were two simple words: [Mission cancelled.]

The groups who had rushed over all received messenger pigeons one after another.

And all of them received the same order.

Some of them were more detailed, telling them that the diviners insisted that they could not find Happy’s location and refused to take any money. They even refused to discuss any topic related to Happy.

It was not just the diviners of one or two cities who acted this way. All the diviners in all cities acted like that…

Happy vanished from everyone’s sight!

*****

Thud!

A pair of oracle bones landed on the eight trigrams chart. One of them faced upwards, and the other downwards. A middle-aged man dressed in a wide long robe swept his gaze over Universe Secrets Inkstone. Just as he expected, it did not react in the slightest. He could not help but frown at that.

He nimbly picked up the pair of oracle bones that were made of unique material. He placed his palms together and positioned his hands into the Chinese metaphysics hand gesture before he threw the oracle bones on the black trigram chart. A clear sound rang out. There was another thud, and again, one of the bones faced upwards, and the other downwards.

Two rows of words appeared on Universe Secrets Inkstone.

[Murderer who killed all over the land!

[The blood he spilled rose to the heavens. The Killer Star has descended on earth, and he has covered the sky and earth from view! The secrets of the universe about him cannot be revealed!]

When he saw the words that appeared on Universe Secrets Inkstone, the middle-aged man became even more solemn. He sucked in a deep breath. “I will do the best I can and will leave the rest to God. I’ll leave it alone for now.”

He then put away the oracle bones and the eight trigrams chart, stood up , and headed outside.

There was a very simple and quiet courtyard outside the door. It was full of from from numerous flowers, trees, and other plants planted there. The clear and elegant sound of a woodwind instrument could be heard from a nearby room, and it was a sound that would make people plunge into their dreams.

There was a small pavilion in the courtyard. Occasionally, some sounds that did not fit with the scene came from it.

Thud!

“Darn it! Again!!”

Thud!

“I refuse to believe it!”

Within the pavilion was a girl dressed in a plain white dress. She struggled with an eight trigram chart and oracle bones with a serious look on her face. She threw the horns repeatedly, but every single time, one would face upwards, while the other downwards. It was truly strange.

She bit her bottom lip in a manner that showed she was unwilling to admit defeat and continued to pick the horns up and throw them. She was so stubborn that she was adorable.

The middle-aged man could not help but laugh.

“Wind Chimes.”

“Master!” Wind Chimes shuddered like a startled deer. She quickly sat straight, stuck out her tongue, and hastily brought out a book to cover the oracle bones and the eight trigrams chart.

“You’re still thinking about hiding it?” the middle-aged man asked in a drawl.

When his voice reached her ears, Wind Chimes looked like a child who had been caught doing something wrong by her teacher. She quickly ducked her head and only revealed half of her neck. It made the middle-aged man speechless.

“Take care of your appearance.”

The middle-aged man walked into the pavilion in anger. He picked up the book and cast it a glance. He did not even look at the oracle bones and eight trigrams chart on the table. He shook his head and sighed.

“I already told you that your Comprehension isn’t high enough, and your Chinese metaphysics realm isn’t high. It’s not suitable for you to waste your time on divination and fortune-telling right now. Doing more preparation work will allow you to speed up your progress in the grand scheme of things. Just finish reading your books.”

“But…” Wind Chimes looked up to say something, but she met the middle-aged man’s calm gaze and stopped.

“Just learn your things. I might not have earned a lot of money from World of Martial Arts Secret News Log, but it won’t be difficult for me to help you get your Comprehension up to one hundred so you can become a master in Chinese metaphysics.”

Wind Chimes tucked her head against her chin while pursing her lips. She was touched, but also felt helpless. She spoke softly to argue her case. “But master, your Comprehension isn’t high enough yet as well…”

The middle-aged man smiled faintly. “Don’t worry about that. With this Universe Secrets Inkstone, even if I don’t have that title, I will be able to stand tall in the world of martial artists! But you have the rare nine yin blocked pulses in you, and you can’t learn any normal martial arts. You can only be successful if a teacher take you in as their student once your Comprehension reaches one hundred. I want to see you be taken in by a famous master so you can learn ultimate techniques and be successful.”

The middle-aged man was naturally the legendary Wandering Know-it-all who had appeared out of the blue!

However, based on his words, it seemed that the eccentric girl in the pavilion had the unique physical constitution of nine yin blocked pulses. If word of this spread out, it would definitely be a major news as well.

As he spoke, Wandering Know-it-all took away the oracle bones and eight trigrams chart from the table. “Concentrate on your reading.”

“Okay.”

Wind Chimes did not have great interest in reading. She picked up a book and started skimming through it. Then, she felt as if something had been forcefully stuffed into her mind and a soft voice reciting the lines of the words rose into the air. Those words came from her very own mouth.

Wandering Know-it-all stood by her side for a little while before he left in relief.

In truth, studying was not an easy task, especially in games.

Even though a person could increase their Comprehension if they paid an adequate sum of money to purchase a large amount of books, the higher a person’s Comprehension became, the more books were required.

And while everyone ran about freely in World of Martial Arts that celebrated doing things in a straightforward manner, the person raising conprehension would be stuck reading in a house. While others were getting stronger continuously, that person would remain powerless. The discrepancy was something that normal people would be unable to experience or bear.

Due to the limitations imposed by nine yin blocked pulses, Wind Chimes did not have any qi in her no matter what sort of martial art she practiced. Even if she was a girl, when this went on for a long time, she would think of deleting her character and creating a new one!

If she had not been noticed by the kind-hearted Wandering Know-it-all when he walked out of a private school while she was leaning against a corner of the wall on her tiptoes to look inside the private school, she might have already appeared in the game in a new form. She would have rather restarted her game instead of continuing to bear with the unique physical constitution that was nine yin blocked pulses and spending an extravagant amount of money to increase her Comprehension at the pace of a snail.

It was precisely because Wandering Know-it-all had developed a keen eye and supported her by providing her a large amount of money as an investment that Wind Chimes had stopped thinking about deleting her character. Instead, due to the money obtained from World of Martial Arts Secret News Log, her Comprehension had been increasing at lightning speed.

While she was still a little far away from reaching one hundred points, her speed of increasing her Comprehension had become several times faster, and she became very confident. She believed that in a few months’ time, she would reach one hundred points and venture out to search for a master and ultimate techniques.

“In the future, you will have a place for yourself in the world of martial artists!”

When he returned to his room and was about to close the door, Wandering Know-it-all looked at the plain white figure that overlapped with a certain figure in his memories. Nostalgia and resolve appeared in his eyes, and after a few seconds, he shut his door.