Chapter 1 The Situation

Two separate stories unfold. The Hell's Frontline team passed Ye Hai's checkpoint and traveled along the path for about half an hour, arriving at the entrance of Cangling Town.

Along the way, Feng Bujue analyzed the situation of the scenario and discussed how to deal with it with his teammates.

Regarding the strength of the NPCs… based on the combat power of the blue-robed elder they encountered earlier, the martial arts masters in this scenario were undoubtedly quite strong. If players were to compete with them in martial arts, they probably wouldn't have enough lives to die. However, players also had their advantages. Settings like skills and equipment belonged to the category of supernatural things in this world. Even masters of Ye Cheng or Xie San's level would certainly die if shot by firearms without being prepared.

However, Feng Bujue believed that it was best not to have any conflicts with the NPCs under normal circumstances, and not to reveal the unique advantages of being a player too early. Because this was a scenario generated in sleep mode, the time required for the process might be very long, which meant that the players might have to stay in this scenario for a long time.

There was no doubt that the key point of the plot was the "duel" event. The scenario was unlikely to end before that duel took place. Bai Dian mentioned a sentence, "the duel three days later." This information appeared in the opening CG as a clear hint. Players who noticed this sentence would naturally be mindful of it.

In another two or three hours, it would be dawn, and the "first day" would officially begin. The day of the duel was on the third day. Assuming Ye Cheng and Xie San planned to find a place to enjoy the moon and drink the northwest wind around seven or eight o'clock on the evening of the third day, then there were about sixty-five hours left until the duel.

Feng Bujue exited from non-sleep mode in the evening and fell asleep in the game pod, setting the login time to 12:10. As for the preparation time before entering the scenario, it could be ignored. Converting it to real time, it was only about two minutes.

According to the situation of this scenario, if they wanted to play until the end, it would be around seven in the morning. If there were no accidents, they could only play this one scenario for the entire night.

"So… it's settled then. I am the Liao Zhu (master) of the Broken Sword Teahouse, and you are all my Liao Ke (guests)." Before arriving at the entrance of the village, Feng Bujue confirmed with everyone for the last time, "Try not to conflict with others. Even if there is a conflict, don't take out your guns unless absolutely necessary. Modern weapons are our trump card. Once we use them and someone sees them, it will be difficult to see the other party rushing towards the muzzle again."

As he spoke, a stretch of broken walls made of wooden planks and bricks appeared in front of the five people. The entrance to the village was very simple, built against a mountainside. Three large characters were carved on the mountain wall—"Cang Ling Town."

The three characters were written vertically from top to bottom. The highest point was two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters) from the ground, the lowest point was at eye level, the characters were three chi (approximately 1 meter) long and as wide as a shoulder. Anyone who practiced martial arts would know at a glance that the characters were neither chiseled nor carved with weapons, but were written in one go by using a finger as a pen and releasing zhenqi (internal energy).

The shape of these three characters was upright and vigorous, with the power of a dragon and the change of a leopard; the meaning was grand and magnificent, simple and vigorous. The martial arts of the predecessor who wrote these characters were unbelievably high. Even the two peerless swordsmen who were about to duel were far from being his opponents.

Of course, these characters were written long ago, when Cangling Town was first built. That predecessor was long gone, but his feat remained here for future generations to marvel at.

"Oh, we're here, huh." Xiao Tan used the moonlight to look at the town name on the mountain wall. "It's strange. Didn't the introduction say that this is just a small village and town? But the town name is carved so ostentatiously, it's quite imposing."

"Do you think that only illegal armed groups like the Water Curtain Cave of Mount Huaguo can carve place names on mountains?" Feng Bujue joked.

Atobe interjected at this time, "Although I don't quite understand these things… but these characters don't look like they were carved, right? Could they have been carved by a master with sword qi (sword energy)?"

"Eh! That's possible." Xiao Tan immediately said, "Maybe someone who came to watch the duel deliberately showed off at the entrance of the village, wanting to give every martial artist entering the village a *xia ma wei* (a show of force to intimidate newcomers)."

"Incorrect." Si Yu calmly denied, still being concise with her words.

Xiao Tan and Atobe both looked at her, but she had no intention of explaining. She just turned her head and gently touched Feng Bujue's shoulder with the back of her hand.

"What? Do you have a social disorder?" Feng Bujue looked at Si Yu and said.

Si Yu stared at Feng Bujue with cold eyes. There was no emotional fluctuation on her face, but this gave people an invisible sense of oppression, "No."

Bei Ling didn't know what she saw, and suddenly chuckled.

"Okay, I'll explain." Feng Bujue shrugged and turned to Xiao Tan and the others, "The characters on the mountain wall are obviously not a product of this era. If you look closely at the moss and cracks on the rocks, you can see that the characters have been carved for some years. As for the purpose of the person who carved the characters a hundred years ago… perhaps that person was the one who named this place." He paused, as if thinking of something, "Hmm… interesting, maybe… Cangling Town didn't become extraordinary because of this duel. But because of the secrets hidden in the town itself, this duel came to be."

"Hey, there's a guy over there. He seems to have noticed us." Bei Ling suddenly said, pointing in the direction of the village entrance.

Everyone looked over there and saw a figure sitting on the ground about thirty meters away from them.

Feng Bujue was still the first to step forward. After all, he was eloquent and quick to react. It was most efficient for him to negotiate with the NPCs.

Crossing the old barrier, the five officially stepped into Cangling Town, and the system prompt came:

[Current task has changed, main task has been updated]

In the menu, the task [Enter Cangling Town] was checked.

The new task was also displayed: [Investigate the truth behind the duel]

When he saw the content of this task, a word immediately popped into Feng Bujue's mind: "Damn!"

For him, this task was much more troublesome than tasks like "Go to the ruined temple north of the town to investigate the truth of the evil spirit," because the so-called "truth behind the duel" could be anything. Maybe it was related to the imperial court, maybe it could be linked to the haunting of this village, maybe Ye Cheng was an alien, maybe Xie San and Ye Cheng were *ji you* (male lovers)…

Everyone knew that there was some kind of conspiracy behind the plot, but the content of the main task suddenly changed from a very specific action to something without any direction. Wasn't this the same as giving the players complete freedom to play?

While he was thinking, Feng Bujue had already walked up to the figure sitting on the ground. At this distance, he could see more clearly.

It was an old beggar, about the same age as Ye Hai, with a dirty face and ragged clothes. He held a meat bone in one hand and a wine gourd in the other, eating and drinking while looking up at Feng Bujue and his group. When Jue-ge approached, he opened his mouth and said, "These days, there have been quite a few people coming up the path, but I, this old beggar, know them all." He smacked his lips and swallowed a piece of meat. "It's strange today, a few unfamiliar faces actually came. Hehe… How could that old ghost Ye Hai let you little brats in?"

"I'm his illegitimate son." Feng Bujue replied with a serious face.

"Pfft!" The old beggar was almost choked to death by a mouthful of wine. He coughed until tears came out before he could catch his breath, and his eyes widened as he said, "What did you say?"

"Hehe… I was just joking with you, senior." Feng Bujue cupped his fists, "Junior is Feng Bujue, the Liao Zhu (master) of the Broken Sword Teahouse. These are all my friends, guests in the *liao* (teahouse) on weekdays…"

"Never heard of it." The old beggar waved his hand and interrupted him, "I see that you juniors are quite polite, so I'll give you a good word of advice, go back quickly and don't wade into this muddy water in town."

How could Feng Bujue leave? He smiled and said politely, "May I ask your honorable name, senior?"

"Oh?" The old beggar showed a look of doubt, "You little brat don't know who I am?" As he spoke, he shook the hand holding the gourd in front of Feng Bujue. It was a vermilion lacquered gourd, and the old beggar's right hand was missing a little finger.

Feng Bujue thought: Hong Qigong? Impossible… Hong Qigong's gourd is a big gourd, and the one missing is the index finger…

"Uh… Junior is ignorant, senior is an elder, a hermit, please forgive me…" Feng Bujue was interrupted again.

"Hahahaha…" The old beggar laughed loudly, "Little brat, you really don't recognize me! Hahahaha!"

This old man was naturally not Hong Qigong, but he was indeed the leader of the Beggar Clan. This person was known as the Beggar King, named Meng Jiu. Seven years ago, Meng Jiu was defeated by Xie San's sword and lost a finger. This incident was well known. There were even Jianghu (martial world) swindlers who claimed that Meng Jiu's life was destined to have the number nine, and this battle was a tribulation. The most outrageous thing… was that this statement was widely circulated and recognized by the masses. It was as if people wouldn't use their brains to think… according to this logic, Xie San should have had seven fingers cut off.

Meng Jiu, as the leader of the largest clan in the world, plus his easy-to-remember name and the finger incident, it was really difficult to find someone in Jianghu who didn't know him. It was said that there were many old beggars who chopped off their own fingers to impersonate him and scam food and drink, which showed his popularity.

"If you're not pretending to be stupid, then…" Meng Jiu suddenly stopped laughing, and suddenly grabbed Feng Bujue's wrist, pinching his pulse. The old beggar's originally turbid eyes also flashed a sharp light, "Hmph… you have no internal energy at all, so how could you have passed Ye Hai's checkpoint? Tell me… how did you guys get here? Did you find some hidden path?"

Before he finished speaking, a cold sword blade was already resting on Meng Jiu's neck.

It turned out that at the moment when Meng Jiu suddenly attacked, Si Yu, who was standing closest to the two, immediately reacted. She thought that Feng Bujue had triggered some flag and was being attacked. Alert, she immediately took out "Feng Sheng," and strode forward. In an instant, the cold light had arrived.

"Let go." Her words were concise, but sonorous.

On the surface, Meng Jiu was indifferent, but in his heart, he was extremely surprised. He didn't expect the other party to have such a move at all. If he had been prepared in advance, he wouldn't have been held with a sword.

Meng Jiu thought: This little girl is so young, but her movements are so fast. I'm afraid she's even better than Lu Qingning of the 'Falling Plum Sword,' who is famous for her lightness skill. But… I look at this group of people, and none of them seem to have internal energy. Their breathing is no different from ordinary people. Even the lowest-level disciples of my Beggar Clan who have practiced Tai Zu Long Fist for a few years wouldn't be like this…

Of course, he didn't know, and didn't understand… As a "player," Si Yu didn't need to master any methods of internal energy or lightness skill. She could reach this speed purely by relying on her physical qualities. So, how old she was and whether she knew internal energy were irrelevant.

Feng Bujue captured something from Meng Jiu's expression, and he already had a bottom line in his heart, "Senior." He was still smiling, with a friendly face, "Let's talk nicely, you let me go first." As he spoke, he winked at Si Yu. The latter hesitated for two seconds before moving the sword away.

"Hmph… this is interesting." Meng Jiu's gaze towards Feng Bujue had already changed. Feng Bujue's smile, in the eyes of this Beggar King, had also become a smile that hid a knife, "It seems that I, this old beggar, have misunderstood…" Meng Jiu released Feng Bujue's hand and sat up straight as if casually, and then said, "It's not that you have no internal energy, but that you are hiding it deeply."

Feng Bujue had a talent for observing and remembering things. All of the other party's subtle movements couldn't escape his eyes, "Easy to say, easy to say… This senior, although I don't know you, but…" As he spoke, he consciously shifted his gaze down.

At this moment, Meng Jiu had changed from his original lying and sitting position to sitting cross-legged. Feng Bujue deliberately used his eyes to expose this matter, and said, "I have heard that among the martial arts of the Beggar Clan, the lower body skills take the strengths of each school and are very impressive." He then looked at Meng Jiu's face, "Senior calls himself 'old beggar,' and is not ashamed but proud of it; plus, his hairstyle is flowing and his clothes are free and easy… In my humble opinion, even if you are not the leader of the Beggar Clan, you are also an elder in the clan."

Although Meng Jiu didn't fully understand Feng Bujue's words, he still looked at Jue-ge with an expression of "although I don't understand, I feel it's awesome," and slowly put down the wine and meat in his hand. He cupped his fists at the young man in front of him, "This… Liao Zhu (master). I am Meng Jiu, the Beggar King, the current leader of the Beggar Clan."

"Oh! I've heard of you for a long time! My respects! My respects!" Feng Bujue replied shamelessly. Everyone knew that he had never heard of this name before, otherwise he would have recognized the other party long ago. How could he have "heard of you for a long time"? Where did "my respects" come from?

Meng Jiu couldn't get angry here either. It was true that he had looked down on the other party just now and had offended him first. Moreover, every sentence that Feng Bujue said at least sounded polite on the surface. At most, it was sarcasm without swearing.

At this time, Meng Jiu had already regarded the other party as a powerful character. His basis was mainly two points: first, since the young man in front of him could see from his small movements of changing his sitting posture that it was to prepare to use his energy to defend against the enemy, then he must know Kung Fu, and he must be a master who was proficient in superior martial arts.

Second, although the skill of the female swordsman could only be regarded as quasi-first-rate for the time being, but at her age, to have this kind of Kung Fu… if she wasn't a congenital master, then she must have practiced a profound and unique mind method. But she had to listen to the Liao Zhu's (master) words, so it could be seen that this Feng Bujue was at least a first-rate master, or her husband.

"I, this old one, was very rude just now…" Meng Jiu said.

This time it was Feng Bujue who interrupted the other party, "Hey~ What are you saying." He waved his hand and said, "It is junior who is ignorant, how can I blame you, senior?"

Standing a few meters away, Bei Ling whispered to Xiao Tan's ear, "Our Liao Zhu's (master) face is really thick. From beginning to end, he hasn't said a word from the bottom of his heart, and his expression is always so natural…"

Xiao Tan's mouth twitched, "Heh… you can see that his face is thick from this kind of scene? You're too unfamiliar with Jue-ge…"