Sword Among Us

Time flew.

It had been two months since the entire Chinese server was united under one sect.

At the moment Class One Hall left and completely got out of Beijing, Mu Clan soon built their branches all over the north, making them pop up like mushrooms after a shower.

The number of branches they had swiftly increased from their previous one hundred and sixty to three hundred and seven branches, and they were located everywhere from Changjiang River Basin to the edges of the plains.

The power structure in the Chinese server was finally stabilized.

During the war to unite the south and north, Mu Clan emerged as the greatest winner, and there was no doubt about it.

Their base at Changjiang River Basin was still as sturdy as ever, and they nearly took all of the north region. They had even worked together with the local sects to control it.

However, Mu Clan also gave some of the cities and resource spots to Wind Assault Tower, who were located in the coastal area, which helped them unite the eastern coastal area under their banner.

They also handed over the cities in the southern coastal area to Wind and Rain Alliance, and they gave some of the cities and resource spots in the center of Jiangnan to Chivalry Sect.

Now, there were four factions of power who will split the entire Chinese server between them once more, but the situation was different compared to the previous time when the four top-class sects stood as equals with each other.

After the war, Wind and Rain Alliance, Wind Assault Tower, and Chivalry Sect gave up all the benefits in the north on their own accord, and they gave off the vague feeling that they wanted Mu Clan to serve as their leader.

There was no reason behind it.

Happy had managed to crush the allied force of dozens of large, local sects in Beijing without the slightest effort by working together with Wandering Know-it-all. They also made the people from dozens of branches from Class One Hall give up on fighting and shift to West Region overnight. This was the crucial key in how they managed to win the war so quickly, or else, Mu Clan and Chivalry Sect might have to pay quite the great price before they can end Class One Hall’s rule in the north.

However, Class One Hall ended up with a lot of their members leaving them in this war.

Last time, Class One Hall was a giant with a few hundred thousand people with them, but now, they lost the support from many sects, and the alliance between them also broke down. In fact, they also lost a lot of their own members.

Among them were the one hundred thousand or so Class One Hall members who died in the dozens of branches to the north of Changjiang. Since they were injured and the areas nearby were all controlled by Mu Clan, Chivalry Sect, and the people who were their allies, there was just no way for them to break out of the encirclement and leave. Those people had to leave Class One Hall in order for them to have a chance to live.

After they cast aside the north, Class One Hall did not spend a lot of time before they occupied West Region. But by then, they did not have a lot of people left among them. They only had fewer than one hundred thousand people with them.

In that situation, they did not even dare to kill all the Mu Clan branch members over there. Instead, they can only brace themselves and chase all of Mu Clan’s members out of West Region.

By doing so, Class One Hall already showed clearly that they were willing to admit defeat.

It was also because of this one action from Class One Hall that Mu Clan did not take further action and continue moving into West Region to deliver the final blow.

Over the past two months, Class One Hall just kept losing members.

The situation in West Region was terrible.

They did not have elegant mountains and clear water, no fabulous buildings with beautiful carved structures, and not even plot-relevant systems, which can only be found in the center of the Chinese server. Most of the places were surrounded by deserted deserts, rocky desertification, or quiet plains. They were also surrounded by goat’s milk, bonfires, and wrestling, which they were not used to.

Many of the members persisted for a while before they chose to leave quietly.

Class One Hall had nearly one hundred thousand members originally, and they just kept losing members until they had fewer than fifty thousand people before the loss of members slowly came to a stop. Then, they began to accept their fate of becoming neighbors with Persia, Vietnam, and Thailand.

The Chinese world of martial artists entered a relatively peaceful era.

However, storms rose outside the Chinese server repeatedly, and those storms became fiercer each time.

*****

After two months, the top one thousand spots in the International Influential Rank of the Strong gradually became clearer, and it was updated daily. Its reputation grew day by day on World of Martial Arts.

At the same time, the spots on the International Influential Rank of The Strong changed day by day.

To obtain the top spots and be acknowledged by the world, the elites from various countries sparred with each other, and this happened in a continuous stream. The Prophet’s prestige was pushed to an unprecedented degree as everyone acknowledged the International Influential Rank of the Strong.

In fact, there were a few people who received challenges from dozens of elites from their own country and from other countries in a day because their rank was rather high, and they will even be blocked in their sects for days because of all the challengers in their way.

In the end, they will be killed, and the rank they just received will be seized by someone else.

However, there was someone whose rank remained untouched despite the fact that he was ranked at the third and was among the top on the International Influential Rank of the Strong. No one ever challenged him!

That person was Happy.

Ever since the war to unite the south and north appeared in the Chinese server, where Happy led split up his forces and attacked Class One Hall in an amazing strike before he chased out one of the giants in the Chinese server to the deserted West Region in just two days, no one dared challenge Happy over the past two months because the war shocked the entire world.

Of course, even so, the reason why no one challenged him was completely unrelated to the war.

Instead, it was because of a battle replay that circulated through the net—the battle at Mount Song.

Happy first fought against Wei Zhentian, someone ranked among the International Great People Rank, then used Wei Zhentian’s moves to easily defeat Goryeo’s ace disciple, who was ranked among the top one hundred on the International Influential Rank of the Strong. Then, he used Dragon Saber to slaughter Class One Hall members on Mount Song. The entire fight did not last for even twenty minutes, but it managed to show just how fierce Happy was in his methods.

He was also one of the people many senior players stated as someone they were to absolutely not challenge.

This was because they saw how familiar Happy was in using Wandering Universal Eight Trigrams Souls Palm, and many people were afraid that they will encounter the same treatment.

It was not frightening to be defeated.

What was truly the most tragic was that the ultimate techniques and killing moves you practiced hard were used by Happy, and he even used it in a very flashy manner. This was truly what it meant by suffering double the losses when you initially wanted to gain the upperhand over Happy.

However, while the competition for ranks on the International Influential Rank of the Strong increased day by day, a group called Wild Wolves appeared outside China.

This was a group formed by the elites from various countries working together. They did not have a lot of members with them, but all of them were top-class players, and they were all famous people on the International Influential Rank of the Strong.

It was rumored that they were a group of people who will not act according to logic.

Others challenged other players for fame, but they challenged others because they wanted money and benefits.

Once a sect was targeted by this group of people, if they decided to be nice, they will just take away all the resources in the branch and ask for protection money, but if they decided to not play nice, they will crush the sect to their last breath before they destroyed their headquarters.

This group of people acted rashly, and they were up-to-date in their information. They can easily find their targets and find their weaknesses as well.

They had, coincidentally, become famous for two months as well. Over the past two months, more than thirty sects in North America and South America were blackmailed, and they had to cough up large amounts of money to them.

As for Asia, aside from China not being harrassed by this group of people just yet, some of the famous players in smaller countries had already been visited by this group of people. In fact, not even India’s Snake King Gupta could escape from them.

*****

“Xin, sem break is around the corner. Do you need to go back?”

“Don’t need to. I already spoke to my parents saying that I’ll be working outside. What about you?”

“My parents know about my current circumstances. Besides, with all of you around, I won’t feel at ease going home and enjoying my life. Besides, it’s going to be Chinese new year, the official developers hope that I will join an event, and I can’t leave.”

Xu Xin smiled and said, “That’s why, since you don’t even have the time to eat, I’ll have to take up the hard task of staying here in case you become a homeless dog. That will be so pitiful for you, isn’t it?”

“Then, I’ll have to thank my master, won’t I?”

“Ack, go away!”

With a red face, Xu Xin pushed away the heavy person who hung himself off of her, but she was kissed by that certain shameless boy.

“I’ve changed my mind. You’re getting worse, I think I’ll need someone to keep me company to prevent you from doing anything bad to me?” Xu Xin pushed Happy to the side and said with a red face.

Happy was stunned. “Which bastard will dare snatch my girl from me? Isn’t he afraid of my Nine Yang Divine Skill?”

Knock! Knock!

Before his voice faded away, someone knocked on his door from outside.

Xu Xin jumped up in delight. “Coming!

“I’ll go open the door.”

Happy was dumbfounded, and he felt incredibly gloomy.

‘This girl is already prepared a long time ago… Seriously, I think of her as too simple of a person. She actually brought her own third wheel over… Could it be…?’

“It’s you?”

When he saw Xu Xin leading a familiar person inside while she held a whole bag of bed sheets and toiletries, Happy’s expression froze a little.

He cohabitated with Xu Yao for more than two years in his previous life. He did not expect that he will be doing the same in this world.

Even though Xu Yao’s performance during their battle against Class One Hall finally made him breathe a sigh of relief, they still lived together in his previous life, and there are a lot of things that will be of an inconvenience for them. Right now… he was in trouble now because this one silly act from Xu Xin.

Happy’s expression was incredibly dark.

Before the group of girls and boys entered the door, they could already sense the displeasure rolling off in waves from the owner of the apartment, and they were instantly shocked.

“This has NOTHING to do with us.”

“We need to run, pronto!”

“Let’s go, you silly girl!”

The Three Lonely Wolves, Tea Words, Glutinous Rice, and the other boys and girls quickly placed the items they brought in the living room before they ran down the stairs with their heads buried at their chests.

They left behind Xu Yao, who looked uneasy, Xu Xin, who was bold and assured of what she did, and Happy, who just rubbed his forehead.

“Xin, this isn’t too suitable, is it?”

“How can it not? Big Sis Yao cannot stay in her hostel alone. That’s too lonely and dangerous. It’s a coincidence that we’re not leaving anyway, so we can just keep each other company—”

Before Xu Xin even finished speaking, she was forcefully dragged into Happy’s arms. Her face immediately turned red, and while she struggled, she cried out loudly, “What are you doing, you idiot?!”

“We finally have the chance to be alone, and you gave me such a large third wheel? You’re the idiot here.”

Happy truly wanted to give Xu Xin a Buddha’s Palm.

Boom!

When she heard this, Xu Xin instantly had her cheeks turn red.

“What are you saying…? Xin, don’t listen to him…” Xu Yao finally understood what was going on. It was no wonder why Happy’s expression was so dark.

Destroying her boss’ alone time with his partner was a crime punishable by death. She had just made the decision to work hard for Happy, and she immediately had the thought of leaving, but she cannot carry all the items on the floor on her own to leave, and for a period of time, Xu Yao was at a loss.

When he saw this, Happy truly wanted to immediately call Silver Wolf, Knife, and the rest to come down and act as movers so that they can throw away all these stuff in the house downstairs.

But when he thought about how sensitive Xu Xin was, he resolutely gave up.

“I’ll call Silver Wolf to empty a room for you. Stay there.”

“No! Way!”

Xu Xin jumped up again with her hands on her hips. She widened her eyes and cried out resolutely, “Big Sis Yao will sleep with me. You’ll be staying with Silver Wolf—”

“You…”

At that moment, Silver Wolf came downstairs to check the situation. When he saw how exasperated Happy was, he unscrupulously said, “Wind Chimes said she’s coming over for the holidays, and I don’t have any empty rooms with me. Go to Knife and the rest, but I reckon they don’t have empty rooms as well.”

Once he finished speaking, he turned around and left, worried that Happy will stick himself to him.

Bang!

Happy shut the door in anger.

“Big Sis Yao, I’ll help you carry your stuff. Hmph!”

Xu Xin left behind the image of the back of her head to Happy and helped move Xu Yao’s bedsheets into the room, as if she was the owner of the place.

Happy stood where he was, dumbfounded, but he was already powerless to stop all this.

‘I don’t want to stay with that woman… No, I’ll definitely have to deal with Xin’er tonight and chase Xu Yao away. Yes, I’ll do that!”