Shi Yanran had cultivated her family's unique hidden weapon techniques since childhood, with a deep-rooted family tradition. Ten years ago, she married Gongsun Qian, a man old enough to be her father, for reasons of status in the martial world, wealth, and naturally... she also had her eye on the Wanxia Manor's secret arts that were not passed on to outsiders. Over these ten years, Shi Yanran not only perfected her family's hidden weapon techniques but also integrated Wanxia Manor's superior cultivation methods with her original internal energy. Now, her martial arts cultivation, though not yet comparable to the heads of the major sects, was undoubtedly more than a match for the heads of second or third-rate sects such as the Hai Sha School or the Qinghai Sword Gate.

Undoubtedly, she could be ranked among the first-rate experts.

As for Feng Bujue in the Ling Shi Ju Shen Shu (Spirit Consciousness Gathering Body Technique) state, his speed alone was definitely at the level of a first-rate expert. Of course, he didn't rely on qinggong (light body skill) or internal energy but rather on the attribute points given to him by the game. Even if his dynamic vision, reaction speed, and agility could keep up with Shi Yanran, his combat skills and experience were still worlds apart.

Faced with this flying attack, a true martial arts expert could evade the dart and prepare a follow-up move, even turning the tables. But Feng Bujue could do nothing but dodge; he needed more probing to decide on his next tactic.

It could be said that this was the magic of the wugong (martial arts) setting... Opponents like K3-Chiti, though powerful, displayed their power openly, as a combination of strength, speed, energy, traits, and skills.

But in the world of Eastern wuxia (martial hero), the criteria for measuring experts were vague and uncertain. The so-called "first-rate," "quasi-first-rate," "xian tian (innate)," and "peerless" were all very broad terms. The rankings on the weapon index were also relative; no one could say for sure that someone ranked higher would definitely win against someone ranked lower.

Ingenious moves could allow someone with inferior gongli (internal force) to defeat an opponent much stronger than themselves, and profound neili (internal energy) could allow a frail old man to split stone tablets with his bare hands. Li Xunhuan's flying daggers, Lu Xiaofeng's fingers, Chu Liuxiang's qinggong (light body skill)... no one would bother to calculate "how much strength, how much speed," this Eastern-style subtlety and romance were the charm of the wuxia (martial hero) world.

Feng Bujue had never fought against an NPC who used "wugong (martial arts)" before. He had no way to predict what Shi Yanran would do or could do in the next second, so he could only act cautiously, striving to strike later but hit first.

His thinking was correct. Shi Yanran's attack just now was a two-step move. Whether the opponent dodged or blocked, there were follow-up variations. If Feng Bujue had acted rashly, it would have been even more dangerous.

A flash of white appeared, and Shi Yanran, with dart pins in her fingers, suddenly followed up. Despite being a woman using small weapons, her external skills were both fierce and dangerous, and her attacks had the sound of wind and thunder.

Three more powerful dart pins were shot out, aimed at Feng Bujue's throat in a straight line, pointing to the three major acupoints on his chest: Tiantu, Zigong, and Tanzhong.

Shi Yanran's follow-up move was very unexpected. From the gesture she used to throw the dart pins, it was impossible to guess where she was aiming. If someone who had practiced martial arts for many years were here, after avoiding the first dart pin, they would definitely think that Shi Yanran's follow-up move would target the lower abdomen or attack the limbs, based on experience and routine. If they thought so... they would be fooled. As long as they moved half a step in advance, the subsequent three dart pins would be almost impossible to avoid.

But Feng Bujue... didn't have so many thoughts.

If the contest between martial arts experts was compared to playing chess, then at this moment, Shi Yanran had chess pieces on her side of the board, while Feng Bujue had a board full of Jungle pieces.

You move your cannon, I release an animal to bite you; you charge your chariot, I still release an animal to bite you; you jump your horse, that's just an act of delivering live food to my door...

It's your business how many steps you can calculate; I don't even have the concept of a chess manual on my side.

Therefore, Feng Bujue once again made an unpredictable move. His expression was focused, but he didn't make any advance movements. Only when the dart pins completely left Shi Yanran's hand did he begin to react, dodging again. Although it looked dangerous, he still wasn't injured.

Shi Yanran was increasingly surprised by Feng Bujue's strength. She had never seen anyone who could respond like this on their first encounter. All the martial artists she had faced would move in advance when faced with this follow-up move. It was just that some people had very high skills, and even if they realized they had been tricked, they had ways to remedy it. But Feng Bujue's response was more like something someone who didn't know martial arts would do, but he also had the speed to avoid the attack at the last moment...

Doubt breeds hesitation. Although Shi Yanran's attacks hadn't stopped, her decisiveness had vanished. At this moment, she was thinking, "If this kid can survive twenty moves under my hands, the outcome will be hard to say... His teammates all seem like insignificant characters, but if they are all like this kid..."

Of course, thoughts were just thoughts, she still had to fight. After Shi Yanran threw the dart pins, she had already closed in on Feng Bujue. Taking advantage of her opponent's unstable footing, she activated her internal energy and thrust out a palm.

This move, "Rou Feng Shen Xia (Gentle Wind Permeating Glow)," seemed no different from ordinary palm techniques, but in fact, it concealed a hidden mechanism. A viscous internal energy was attached to the palm. As long as the opponent used internal force to meet the palm, Shi Yanran's dark force could seep into their body, directly targeting their dantian (energy center). At this point, it would be impossible for the opponent to use force to snatch it back or withdraw their hand. If the palm's receiver had poor internal skills, their hand would be stuck, and their dantian (energy center) would immediately become as hot as boiling water, lightly crippling their skills and severely killing them on the spot.

Shi Yanran used this move because she couldn't see any signs of internal force on Feng Bujue's body, so she wanted to test the truth. If this kid's actions up to now were all lucky, then this palm would definitely kill him; but if this kid used a unique technique to hide his internal force, this palm could roughly explore how strong his power really was.

But what happened was... in an instant, a golden phantom appeared, and Shi Yanran's palm hit a seemingly large invisible barrier like a door. This defensive means was undoubtedly the special effect of [Death Poker]--the shield "牌(Pai)".

It turned out that when Shi Yanran approached, Feng Bujue felt that the situation was bad. He thought... I can dodge or block ranged attacks, but the real close-range moves of these martial arts experts are no joke. The old ghost Ye Hai took one of my skills barehanded before, and as a result, I lost 30% of my health. Now that this woman is taking the initiative to attack, how can I use my body to resist?

Therefore, Feng Bujue instantly sacrificed his spiritual weapon and used the special effect without hesitation.

These few offensive and defensive exchanges between him and Shi Yanran were as fast as lightning, taking only about ten seconds in total. By this time, his teammates had also arrived nearby to help.

The first to arrive wasn't Xiao Tan, who excelled in speed, nor was it Si Yu, who was the most skilled among them, but Young Master Jibu. As soon as he saw a battle plot, he immediately became energetic. After all, he was the highest-level player in this team, and a "professional player," so how could he keep being mocked by Feng Bujue? He had to show off his skills and let his teammates see his strength.

Jibu immediately used his title "High-Profile Raid" signature skill--Flash Impact.

[Name: Flash Impact]

[Special Ability Type: Active]

[Consumption: Stamina Value 300]

[Effect: Transform into a stream of light and launch a high-speed raid on the target, launching a powerful slash. After the skill ends, you will appear two meters behind the target and face away from the target (cooldown time of five minutes, must be equipped with a bladed weapon. Can be activated within two to twenty meters of the target, but cannot pass through obvious obstacles.)]

[Note: If you encounter an enemy much weaker than you and want to kill them in a very handsome and neat way, this is the move you need.]

By the way, Young Master Jibu's weapon was a giant folding fan about sixty-five centimeters long, with iron bones and steel ribs. When unfolded, the edge of the fan was extremely sharp. This weapon, placed in the jianghu (martial world) of this script, probably wouldn't be able to be wielded by many people.

This weapon, combined with Young Master Jibu's title skill, was like adding wings to a tiger. Because normally, he couldn't increase his speed at all while fighting with this thing, but under the skill's raid and charge effect, anything he could lift could be held in his hand to quickly approach and slash at the target.

Over here, Shi Yanran was confused by Feng Bujue's unbelievable defensive move, but out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed a flash of light beside her. A humanoid figure of light had come like a gust of wind. She was shocked and hurriedly chose to leap back to avoid it.

Unexpectedly, her instinctive reaction was the best way to deal with raid-type skills. The weakness of Flash Advance was that as long as the target jumped high in the two seconds before approaching, the attack would most likely miss.

Sure enough, when Young Master Jibu arrived at the position where Shi Yanran had originally stood, the skill effect disappeared. He didn't hit anything, and he also stopped. At the same time, he heard the sound of wind behind him, and two dart pins immediately arrived.

Shi Yanran's battle rhythm was also messed up by this group of players. She didn't quite understand how to fight this battle. Holding the mentality of fighting wherever she got, she twisted and turned in mid-air, and casually threw two dart pins at the Lingtai acupoint on Young Master Jibu's back. It wouldn't hurt to try.

Unexpectedly... with two clicks, they actually hit...

Since Young Master Jibu was between Feng Bujue and Shi Yanran after charging over, the latter couldn't help him block even if she wanted to.

But fortunately, as a "professional player," Jibu's armor was not bad. The two clicks were not the sound of dart pins suddenly piercing his spine, but just the sound of hitting his armor...

Two dart pins fell to the ground, and Young Master Jibu also staggered a few steps, almost falling. Although the hidden weapons failed to penetrate the armor, he wasn't wearing echo armor that created a sonic barrier for defense, so the impact of the dart pins was still transmitted to his body, causing a loss of 16% of his survival points.

After Shi Yanran landed, she became more and more puzzled. In her eyes, the players were all dressed as young knights of ancient times, wearing proper cloth clothes, which didn't seem like they had armor underneath at all. But the sound just now, and the dart pins that were bounced off, all seemed to be hitting some kind of hard object...

"The highest level of the Golden Bell Cover... Protective Gangqi?" Shi Yanran thought, "How is that possible... This kid looks so weak, how strong can his external skills be? Even if he really practiced the Golden Bell Cover, he would have to grip the ground with his toes and stand firmly to circulate his energy to eat my two nails, but he didn't even put on a horse stance, and iron dart pins can't pierce his body?"

Thinking of this, Shi Yanran already had the intention of retreating. If these five people came from the same school, then no matter what strange martial arts they used, her best hidden weapons were probably useless. If she changed to close combat, how could she win against five people alone?

The problem was... things had come to this point, even if she admitted defeat and begged for mercy, the other party might not let her go. She could only blame herself for being too contemptuous at the beginning and saying too absolute words. Now, she couldn't kill anyone to silence them... If she fought, she might die directly here; if she escaped, the matter of killing Wang Ao would be exposed before dawn, and she would die sooner or later anyway, and also get the dirty name of infidelity.

The more Shi Yanran thought about it, the more desperate she became. Her face was ashen, and a burst of evil fire rose in her heart. She lightly bit her red lips and had already made up her mind to fight to the death.

At this moment, a figure happened to kill him, not someone else, but Wang Tanzhi, who was holding an assassin's dagger.

In fact, Xiao Tan didn't think much about it. He just decided to rush towards the enemy, and attack when he got close enough. Unexpectedly, Shi Yanran was now overwhelmed with anger, and ignoring everything else, she faced the nearest enemy, mobilized the internal energy of her whole body, and punched him.

As the fist struck towards Xiao Tan, before they even made contact, there was a slight crackling sound in the air. This punch might not be more ingenious than the moves Shi Yanran used before, but purely in terms of power, it was enough to send a player directly back to the login space.

Xiao Tan's luck was relatively bad this time, but he still had the strength.

In a critical moment, in the blink of an eye, he saw a suffocating calmness in his eyes. [Demon Bat Wraith Shadow] was immediately activated, and Xiao Tan's figure instantly split into two, and two virtual and swaying phantoms went away from both sides of Shi Yanran.

The full-strength punch that Shi Yanran unleashed actually missed. The fist wind shook the ground within three meters of her, and dust and sand flew up. But she was stunned in place, slowly turning her head, looking at Xiao Tan who appeared several meters behind her, and exclaimed in her heart: "What is this again... Could it be the lost 'Tian Luo Di Wang Shi (Heavenly Net Earthly Web Formation)'?"

Just as she was horrified, Si Yu's Feng Sheng in her hand had quietly arrived, slashing towards Shi Yanran's neck.

"Stop!" This shout was like a thunderclap on the flat ground, ringing out from a dark alley.

At the same time, the sword that Si Yu wielded was hit by a small stone, which didn't cause her to lose survival points, but it shook her arm numb and her movement stagnated.

Shi Yanran came back to her senses and hurriedly jumped back. Hope seemed to be rekindled in her eyes. Although she didn't know who was helping her in the dark, the current situation undoubtedly had new variables.