Chapter 1 When the Sky Brightened

When Brother Jue and Ruoyu came out of Wang Qiong's room, it was already bright.

After several hours of discussion, their cooperative relationship with Wang Qiong was finally confirmed.

Among the many NPC forces in this scenario, Wang Qiong was definitely not the strongest in "force," but in terms of "intelligence"... he was unmatched.

Feng Bujue was most willing to team up with this type of character.

Through the negotiations with Wang Qiong, Jue-ge and Ruoyu's side quest – [Investigate the Cause of the Mi Si Inn Murder] – had been successfully completed.

Although Feng Bujue had managed to pry some information from "Mirror" before taking his head, the information he obtained at that time was not enough to end the quest. Because… "Mirror" was not afraid of death. Until his head was removed from his body, Mirror only revealed some basic information about the scenario. This kind of intelligence... any disciple of a second-rate sect could be caught and interrogated for the same info.

Fortunately, Mirror had a stack of silver notes from Wang Qiong's money house on him...

Feng Bujue found Wang Qiong through these silver notes. After chatting with Wang Qiong, the mystery of the Mi Si Inn was completely solved.

Speaking of which... this "Mirror" was also unlucky.

The previous afternoon, after a hard battle, he finally succeeded in killing and impersonating the Mian Daoren (Cotton Daoist).

After completing the disguise, Mirror took the silver notes Wang Qiong gave him and left the town, trying to meet with his "companions" at a certain location outside the town.

Unexpectedly, he had only walked a short distance from Linlu Town when he encountered Feng Bujue and Li Ruoyu.

When Jue-ge saw that this guy's data strength was much higher than that of an ordinary NPC, he stepped forward to negotiate with him. As for the outcome of the negotiation... it was quite good for the two players.

Now that he had successfully joined forces with Wang Qiong, Feng Bujue understood all the information in this scenario.

In his mind, he had already begun to lay out a plan for tonight.

However, what he couldn't foresee was that... his act of killing "Mirror" had already caused a drastic change in the original storyline.

…………

Meanwhile, outside Linlu Town.

In the desolate forest, a man was kneeling upright on a large rock.

He was a middle-aged man, looking to be around fifty years old, with a scruffy beard.

He wore a bamboo hat and thick, but tattered, coarse cloth clothes. Beside him was a stick-like object wrapped in cloth.

Although it was wrapped in cloth, anyone who looked at it would feel... that it was a weapon.

"It's dawn." Suddenly, a voice came from behind the man.

It was a woman's voice. She and her companion had been standing quietly resting by a tree not far from the middle-aged man.

These two were players, with IDs [Oda Ai] and [Sasaki Mei].

"I know." After a moment, the middle-aged man slowly opened his mouth and responded.

"Mirror didn't come." Oda Ai added.

"Yes, he didn't come." The middle-aged man said.

"Yesterday you said... he would arrive at the latest by evening, but we waited for nothing all night." Oda Ai said.

"What do you want to say?" The middle-aged man asked.

"What she wants to say is... there are only two possibilities." Before Oda Ai could respond, Sasaki Mei interrupted with his sickly, weak tone, "First, Mirror ran away with the money himself. Second..."

He didn't continue, because he could feel that when he said the word "second," the aura of the middle-aged man on the rock... had changed.

"Hmm..." After a moment of thought, the middle-aged man spoke again, "Killing Mirror... is not so easy."

"Hmph... not necessarily." Oda Ai sneered upon hearing this. "Perhaps it's difficult for those guys in town, but as far as I'm concerned... I can definitely take his life within ten moves."

"Then do you think..." The middle-aged man continued, "Those 'outsiders' similar to you can do it too?"

"It's hard to say whether they can solve it within ten moves like Oda." Sasaki Mei took over and replied, "But simply pursuing the result of 'killing'... it won't be too difficult for them." As he spoke, he fixed his gaze on the other man's back, "As long as they put their heart into it... even dealing with you is not entirely without a chance."

"I see..." After listening to Sasaki Mei's words, the middle-aged man remained calm and replied faintly.

Having said that, he picked up the stick-like object wrapped in coarse cloth and stood up from the stone.

"Since that's the case..." After standing still, the middle-aged man raised his hand and tugged at the brim of his bamboo hat, "Then there's no need to wait any longer."

As soon as these words came out, Oda Ai's expression changed: "What do you mean? You're going into town?"

"Yes." The middle-aged man gave an affirmative response.

"Hey, hey... this is not what we agreed on." Oda Ai obviously had some objections to the other party's decision.

"It doesn't make much difference to you, does it?" The middle-aged man didn't react much; his tone was still calm, "It's just a matter of 'time' being brought forward."

"This..." Oda Ai was still hesitating.

"Don't worry." The middle-aged man continued, "I am trustworthy... our deal remains unchanged. After we join forces to kill all those martial artists and so-called 'outsiders'..." As he spoke, he took out a bamboo scroll from his arms and held it up to his side, "This *Jian Wu Cao Ji* (Sword Dance Draft), I will naturally offer it to you with both hands."

The eyes of the two "Warring States" players changed slightly when they saw that item, but they didn't make any unusual moves.

"Of course, you can also choose... to draw your swords against me now." After a few seconds of pause, the middle-aged man added, "As long as you can kill me, this thing will naturally belong to you."

Of course, they wouldn't draw their swords...

If Oda Ai and Sasaki Mei wanted to sneak attack this man, they would have done so long ago.

The reason why they had been standing less than five meters behind the other party all night without making a move was because they felt they didn't have the confidence...

In their opinion... the difficulty of teaming up with this NPC to kill other players and NPCs was far lower than the difficulty of the two of them challenging this NPC.

In fact, this was indeed the correct choice.

Objectively speaking, this middle-aged man holding the *Jian Wu Cao Ji* was very strong.

His combat power could at least rank in the top three in this martial arts world. Of course... this list only included living people; those who were no longer alive were not counted.

In terms of solo combat skills—Mirror, Water, and Moon, these three were already top-notch masters in today's martial world. They were even stronger than masters of Duan Keyi, Mian Daoren, and Xie Xiuwen's level.

However, compared to this man, they were still far behind.

Even they themselves would admit this frankly, because... "Mirror Flower Water Moon" were all disciples of this man.