Chapter 1 The Opening

From the situation five minutes after the start of the match, the opening of this scenario should be divided into two parts.

The first part is the opening CG and the synopsis narrated; both teams watched this part together. The second part, however, is different.

The four members of Hell Front were teleported to the location of the Jianghu (martial world) forces, where, under the protection of the system, they watched a performance of a "Martial Arts Tournament."

On the Red Cherry side, they were teleported to Burial Heart Valley and directly met... "King Yama."

King Yama is a title that inspires dread, as people often associate it with death.

Perhaps there are people in this world who are not afraid of death, but for the vast majority, death is terrifying.

Therefore, King Yama is also terrifying.

But the King Yama in Burial Heart Valley is not terrifying at all.

Not only is she not terrifying, but she is also charming.

Because King Yama is a woman, a beautiful woman.

Her beauty is enough to take one's breath away, enrapturing the soul and haunting one's dreams.

Moreover... for many years, King Yama's appearance and figure have remained unchanged, like that of a young woman of eighteen or nineteen.

Time seems unable to leave any trace on her.

Therefore, no one knows how old King Yama really is... Some say forty, others say fifty; and still others say that "King Yama" is not just one person, and that the current one is actually King Yama's daughter.

Of course, the last speculation is clearly impossible. King Yama meets with the "ghosts" in the valley at least once a month, and if she had been pregnant, it would not have gone unnoticed.

Thus, the idea of "eternal youth" arose...

"Oh?" Although the four players from Red Cherry suddenly appeared before her, King Yama's expression did not change much, and her tone was very calm. "Today, I have encountered a rare event..." At this moment, she was resting her head on her hand, reclining on a wide jade couch; beneath a thin gauze robe, her shapely body and the faintly visible fair skin aroused wild thoughts. "... Someone has managed to enter my 'Burial Heart Valley' silently and come to my manor."

Speaking to this point, King Yama sat up cross-legged and glanced at the four players. "And... it seems I am visited by four ladies."

"This..." [Blood Rose] clasped her fist in salute, thinking for several seconds before deciding what title to use, "... Senior, we have trespassed here today and caused offense. May we ask for your honorable name?"

Blood Rose is the vice-captain of Red Cherry and also the team's strategist. Most of the negotiations with NPCs are handled by her.

Since she is responsible for this area, she certainly understands the basic principles. For example... at any time, especially when just entering a scenario, it is perfectly acceptable to be polite to those NPCs who have not directly attacked or are not obviously hostile; this may lead to receiving a mission, obtaining information, or directly gaining benefits.

"Heh..." King Yama smiled and simply stood up. "You barge into someone else's home and then ask them to introduce themselves?"

Hearing this, Xu Huai Shang reacted the fastest. She quickly stepped forward and bowed, saying, "It is our lack of courtesy, I hope Senior will forgive us. I am Xu..."

"Hold on." Unexpectedly, King Yama suddenly interrupted Xu Nüshen's words and slowly walked toward the latter.

Instantly, the atmosphere became tense...

Although the other party did not explicitly say so, everyone in Red Cherry understood in their hearts... judging from the previous two phrases, "my Burial Heart Valley" and "my manor," the beautiful woman in front of them was very likely the "King Yama" mentioned in the synopsis. In addition... the fact that she could maintain such a calm attitude when facing four strangers who had suddenly appeared and were carrying weapons... made this conclusion almost certain.

Thump, thump...

King Yama walked barefoot across the wooden floor, making soft footsteps.

Her feet were also beautiful; the slender curves and smooth, firm skin almost made one forget that this should be a relatively rough part of the body.

King Yama walked up to Xu Huai Shang and stopped quietly. After two seconds, she slowly raised her right hand, gently extended her soft hand, and used her index finger and thumb to lift Xu Huai Shang's chin, raising her face slightly.

At that moment, two stunning faces were close to each other, their eyes meeting.

Time seemed to stand still.

It was as if even time wanted to stop at this moment.

The tense atmosphere suddenly changed, becoming somewhat ambiguous...

Ninety percent of the audience watching the match (regardless of gender) swallowed when they saw this scene, they didn't know why...

"Continue," King Yama looked at Xu Huai Shang with a charming gaze. "... What is your name?"

"I am... Xu Huai Shang." Xu Nüshen responded to the other party with relative calmness on the surface, but she was already complaining in her heart, "What's going on... another Ji Fenglong (Harem City Lord)?"

King Yama listened, smiled, and then turned around and walked back to where she had been standing, saying as she walked, "Very well... I will not hold you accountable for barging in."

............

"Hey, hey... so that works..."

"What a world, appearance is everything..."

"Xu Huai Shang is the best!"

"Oh oh! King Yama's yuri (girl's love) soul has awakened!"

"I've decided, I'm going to take a screenshot of that scene and use it as my desktop wallpaper."

............

Not only did the audience naturally accept this setting, but even the members of Red Cherry also...

"Well done, Captain," Blood Rose turned her head and whispered to Xu Huai Shang.

"As expected of the Captain... even NPCs can't resist your charm..." [Hyacinth] added from the side.

[Iron Begonia] also chimed in, "It looks like... the scenario Boss is basically on our side."

"Phew..." Xu Huai Shang herself breathed a sigh of relief and shook her head, muttering, "I really don't know whether I should be happy about this..."

............

Let's split the narrative and look at the Hell Front team.

After preparing briefly in the desert, they quickly caught up with the group of "Martial Arts Heroes" in front and entered the valley together.

Although Brother Jue and the others disdained to act with these guys, there was no reason not to take advantage of some free cannon fodder to lead the way.

"Heh... as expected..." Less than two minutes after entering the valley, Feng Bujue stopped and turned to his teammates, saying, "We've been poisoned..."

The reason for saying "as expected" was that Brother Jue had already speculated on the defensive mode of this place, and his conclusion was—poison gas was a good method.

Reminded by him, Ruoyu, Xiao Tan, and Huajian immediately opened the game menu to check and found that the word [Poisoned] did indeed appear in the status bar.

"Is it caused by this mist?" Ruoyu's first reaction was quick and accurate.

"Most likely," Brother Jue replied.

"Since it's caused by the mist..." Huajian continued, "then it's meaningless for me to use a skill to detoxify you, as you'll immediately be poisoned again after being cured."

"Yeah... we have to figure out the principle of the poisoning..." Xiao Tan said, stroking his chin at this time. "According to my speculation... this 'glowing' mist is most likely generated by the chemical changes of certain specific plants in the valley and the surrounding environment. According to the laws of mutual generation and restraint in nature, a natural antidote that can neutralize this toxicity can definitely be found in the valley..."

"That's right, it's over there." In the next second, Feng Bujue lazily pointed to a clump of trees not far from the group.

"Huh?" Xiao Tan was stunned at the time.

To be honest, it was rare for Xiao Tan to show off. If it weren't for the fact that he was studying medicine and had some knowledge in this area, he wouldn't have expressed any opinion. But... as soon as he finished speaking his theory, Brother Jue, a layman, actually gave the answer directly, which was a bit incredible.

"Your theory is undoubtedly correct, but... bypassing professional knowledge and starting from a purely logical reasoning point of view... this matter can also be deduced." Feng Bujue knew Xiao Tan very well and knew what the other party was thinking just by looking at his expression, so he immediately explained, "From the opening CG, we know that people live in this valley. They breathe the air in the valley every day, so they must take an antidote all year round. And the source of this antidote... whether it's water, plants, or animals... its origin must be in this valley." He spread his hands and smiled. "In this day and age, it's impossible to airdrop supplies, and Burial Heart Valley is surrounded by desert. If the antidote had to be taken from outside the valley, how troublesome would that be?"

"That's right... besides, King Yama doesn't allow people in the valley to leave, does she?" Xiao Tan responded.

Huajian also nodded thoughtfully, saying, "Even if King Yama allowed it, there would be too many variables in taking the antidote from outside the valley. If the person who went to get the medicine didn't return for various reasons, wouldn't everyone in the valley have to wait to die?"

"So... the antidote... or the raw materials needed to make the antidote, can definitely only be found in this Burial Heart Valley." While Feng Bujue was saying this, he gestured to his teammates, signaling them to follow him.

The four quickly walked to the clump of trees that Brother Jue had pointed to earlier and found some root-like plants that had been picked behind some trees.

"Even through some trees, I noticed that there were large areas of soil that had been turned over here," Feng Bujue said. "At first, I didn't understand what this was about, but after looking at the status bar, I realized... this was obviously done by the imperial army, and the purpose was to neutralize the mist poison. Because there were so many of them, they dug up a lot."

"Eh?" Hearing this, Xiao Tan suddenly thought of something. "That's strange, the imperial army... just realized they were poisoned when they got here?"

This was indeed a question worth considering... because so far, none of the Jianghu people walking in front of the players had realized that they were poisoned, which showed that the mist poison in the valley did not have any significant physical effects, at least when it first took effect.

Game players can directly see their own abnormal status through the status bar, but... how did the people from the imperial court notice it?

"Everyone, please wait!"

Just as Xiao Tan raised his question, Yuan Mengzhu's voice rang out from more than a hundred meters ahead.

"There's poison in this mist!"

A few seconds later, Yuan Mengzhu stated a rather unpleasant fact, causing a commotion in the crowd.

"Everyone, don't panic! Use your internal energy to protect your heart and meridians, and this can temporarily slow down the toxicity."

After all, the surname Yuan was the Leader of the Martial Arts Alliance, very cunning. He quickly came up with a theory similar to Xiao Tan and Brother Jue's, and then asked the people from all walks of life who knew medicine to quickly look around for something that could detoxify the poison.

And at this time... the four of Hell Front had already neutralized the poison and each kept some antidote in their inventory.

"I think I understand..." Feng Bujue said after thinking for a few minutes. "People with higher internal energy cultivation should be able to detect that they have been poisoned faster and more sensitively than ordinary people." He paused. "So, that Yuan Mengzhu was the first to discover this." His eyes changed slightly, and he pondered, "Well... from this, we can obtain some additional information..."

Ruoyu's thinking followed Brother Jue closely. Hearing this, she continued, "Among the imperial army, there is at least one person whose internal energy cultivation is not inferior to that of the Leader of the Martial Arts Alliance, and one person who is proficient in medicine and can quickly identify the antidote."

"That's right," Brother Jue replied. "Of course, the two people you mentioned may also be the same person."

The group of them chatted leisurely, just not telling the NPCs where the antidote was...

Fortunately... there were indeed some guys among those Martial Arts Heroes who were relatively accomplished in Chinese herbal medicine and medicine. They spent more than ten minutes and found this root that could neutralize the mist poison elsewhere.

In short, after nearly thirty minutes, those hundreds of people finally swallowed the antidote, adjusted their breathing, and prepared to set off again.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, another change occurred.

Shua shua shua shua shua -

The sound of something breaking through the air came from mid-air.

The sound was very ordinary at first glance, and everyone present had heard the sound of this hidden weapon.

But when the thing that stirred up the wind approached, people felt a strong, eerie killing intent.

Many sounds of weapons being unsheathed followed the sound of the wind, one after another...

However, there was not a single sound of metal clashing.

This meant that... none of the hidden weapons just now were blocked.

Thus... after a few breaths, some people died, and some people were still alive.

The dead fell to the ground, and the living exclaimed and shouted.

And the person who threw the hidden weapon used internal energy to transmit the words into people's ears: "If you go any further, more than just a few will die."

At the same time, Yuan Mengzhu had quickly walked to the nearest corpse and glanced at the hidden weapon on the wound. At that moment, his expression changed drastically: "This is... the Moon-drawing Flying Star Dart!" He muttered, and then mobilized his internal energy and shouted loudly, "Hmph! I was wondering who it was... so it's 'Star-Moon Divine Dart Song Wuqi'..."

His tone was obviously tinged with contempt: "Fifteen years ago, you colluded with bandits to kill your sworn brother, raped his daughter, and killed his entire family... the Martial Arts Alliance has not forgotten this beastly act! Now you dare to act as a roadblock in front of heroes from all walks of life, you really don't know how to live or die!" Yuan Mengzhu was awe-inspiring, his tongue blossoming with spring thunder, "Now you dare to act as a roadblock in front of heroes from all walks of life, you really don't know how to live or die!"

As the words fell, he raised his palm.

Yuan Mengzhu had already determined the hiding place of Song Wuqi through this internal energy sound transmission as a probe. Therefore, after saying these words... he mobilized seventy percent of his power and blasted a palm through the air.