Chapter 1 A Lengthy Night

The night in deep winter is very long.

Long enough to accomplish many things.

For instance, murder.

Tonight, Linlu Town is undoubtedly a good place to kill.

Because no one can say for sure why a person was killed here.

They might be killed by enemies, or by others seeking to seize the *Jian Wu Cao Ji* (Sword Dance Manuscript), or perhaps… they wanted to kill others, but ended up dead themselves.

Even if there were "eyewitnesses," it wouldn't matter. In such an environment… who can guarantee that those testifying are telling the truth? They have every reason to lie for their own purposes. What could be better than "saying a few words" to kill someone using another’s hand?

Therefore, on this night, killing is relatively free.

The murderous intent that is usually suppressed has already begun to stir in people's hearts…

Those skilled in hidden weapons and nighttime maneuvers; those who have harbored grudges for a long time but dared not seek revenge due to the other party's power; those plotting to usurp their fellow disciples… for these people, tonight's opportunity is not to be missed.

And for the players in this script world, this "chaotic situation" also provides them with favorable conditions for "overcoming the strong with the weak" and "reducing opponents."

"After waiting all day, I've only managed to grasp the whereabouts of three people. I feel like… I made a slight miscalculation," Moonlight shone down as Sashimi stood on the roof of a building, looking down at the town before him, muttering to himself.

"Do you think… is it possible they snuck into town without you detecting them?" Meng Jingchan stood beside him, still looking as lazy as ever, with a wine bottle dangling from his left hand.

"The *yinbei* (sound shells) scattered throughout the town are all operating normally. My detection is flawless," Sashimi replied confidently. "Whether they sneak in through the mountains behind the town, jump in from the sky, or crawl in through tunnels from underground, as long as they enter the boundaries of Linlu Town, I'll definitely know…"

"Heh…" Meng Jingchan chuckled. "Then there are two possibilities. First, our opponents are only Jian Shao, Bu Pa, and Xu Huai Shang. Second, there are an unknown number of hostile players who detected us before we detected them… and then chose not to enter the town."

"I'd rather believe the latter," Sashimi said. "At least… Xu Huai Shang should have one teammate remaining outside the town, right?"

"That one…" Meng Jingchan took a sip of wine. "Hmm… I'm not so sure about that."

"Not sure?" Sashimi asked suspiciously. "Hey, hey… you haven't figured out the rules of this 'Team Melee' mode yet? It has to be two people teaming up to…"

"I know," Meng Jingchan interrupted, continuing, "What I mean is, her teammate probably already left the script."

"Huh?" Sashimi still didn't understand. "Why? What's the basis for your speculation?"

"Well…" Meng Jingchan thought for a moment. "I might as well tell you…" He curled his lip and continued, "As far as I know, Xu Huai Shang's contract with Hong Ying is about to expire, and the two sides haven't come to an agreement on the renewal." He paused, further explaining, "Since Xu Huai Shang's contract clearly states that her game account belongs to her personally, it means that if she eventually leaves Hong Ying, this game character cultivated by Hong Ying will leave with her… Even if the contract restricts her from joining other studios for the next few months, she can still participate in various competitions as an individual professional player… Therefore, Hong Ying has already stopped providing her with various resources at this stage, and also used the terms of the contract to prohibit her from teaming up with other players. However, the rights and responsibilities of the contract are relative, and she naturally has her rights as well. Hong Ying can't make things too difficult for her… for example, using clauses to force her to be unable to participate in certain modes of the script, that is not allowed."

"Oh…" Sashimi was also a veteran professional player, and he had seen such things before. Hearing this, he roughly understood. "So they just randomly found an account to team up with her, entered the script and immediately quit, and then let her play alone… so this doesn't count as 'prohibiting her from playing the game normally.'"

Meng Jingchan nodded, "When I saw her entering the town alone today, I immediately thought of this… Looks like her termination with Hong Ying is basically a done deal."

"Wait a minute…" Sashimi said, "Then where did you hear these termination news from?"

"I'm familiar with the management," Chan Ge replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "They've recently been planning to sign Xu Huai Shang, and even offered to pay her salary during the period she is affected by the 'non-compete agreement'; of course, that's all I know, I don't know how much they specifically offered her for other unequal treaties and the 'signing fee', but it's definitely much, much, much, much higher than what they gave us when we came…"

"Look at how unbalanced you are…" Sashimi squinted his eyes and complained expressionlessly, "Why don't you say eight 'much's?"

"I'm not unbalanced, just stating the facts… it really is a lot," Meng Jingchan replied. "But… honestly, I think she's worth the price. From the perspective of the fan economy, Xu Huai Shang's value is ten or eight times higher than ours. I can understand that…"

"Thank you for the compliment." In the next second, a woman's voice suddenly rang out, replying to Chan Ge.

In that instant, Meng Jingchan's pupils contracted, and every pore on his body seemed to be immersed in a cold current.

He turned his head slightly, looking at Sashimi.

But he happened to see Sashimi's head… sliding off his neck.

When the neat cut came into Chan Ge's view, Sashimi also began to turn into white light.

Until that moment, the corpse was still standing, not falling down.

This blade was too fast, so fast that Sashimi didn't even realize he had been cut before being judged dead.

"Haa…" Two seconds later, Chan Ge slowly turned around, exhaling a breath. "I was careless…"

Meng Jingchan rarely lets his guard down when acting alone. This time, his carelessness stemmed from his trust in his teammate.

Even so, this cannot be considered a mistake; because his teammate is Sashimi, the player with the strongest scouting ability in the entire Thriller Paradise… without a doubt.

However, often, the "strongest" place is also where the breakthrough lies.

It is not difficult to see from the previous conversation that Sashimi has absolute confidence in his abilities, and his sentence "My detection is flawless" is by no means an exaggeration.

But once someone finds a "blind spot" in this detection, it will be fatal to the caster.

"This doesn't count as carelessness… I spent a whole day adapting to the detection frequency of those *yinbei*," Xu Huai Shang said, her figure already appearing on the roof ridge behind Meng Jingchan.

At this moment, she no longer concealed her face as she had during the day.

Under the moonlight, her slender figure was like a flawless blade; her bright eyes revealed a cold killing intent.

"I understand…" Meng Jingchan looked at the other party and continued, "Completely covering the surface of the body with energy, forming a dynamic 'armor', and then keeping this energy layer at the same vibration frequency as the *yinbei*. This way… you can 'hide' in Sashimi's detection network…"

"As expected of Meng Jingchan, you can deduce my method just by listening to me say a word," Xu Huai Shang replied.

"Heh…" Chan Ge smiled, took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, and lit one for himself. "Fuu--" He exhaled a puff of smoke, leisurely saying, "You overestimate me too much. I'm not the kind of genius who can see through all kinds of complex techniques with a little look, and I don't have Feng Bujue's mind that seems to be able to think about a hundred things in a second…" He paused, "I was able to guess your method immediately because… before today, I had thought about it – how to avoid Sashimi's detection."

"So, this method is something you had already thought of?" Xu Huai Shang asked.

"That's right…" Meng Jingchan flicked the ash and replied, "Don't look at me like this… I'm actually quite a competitive person, even if they are teammates in the same studio, I will research how to defeat the other party." He paused for half a second, then said, "Of course… many things that you can think of don't mean you can do it. I said, I'm not a genius. If I had to make a comparison… a genius can give twelve answers when faced with ten questions, but I can only give one."

"So you think… I'm a genius?" Xu Huai Shang asked again.

"Of course, you are." Meng Jingchan spread his hands, "You, Gui Xiao, Shiva, Wang Tanzhi, Si Yu Ruo Li, Wu Daoke, Qi Sha, Feicai Shu, Oda Ai… probably these few." He thought as he spoke, counting out these nine people, "In terms of combat, the talents of these nine people are the most outstanding among the people I know and have seen… However, the highest 'talent' does not mean the strongest strength."

"You seem to have forgotten to include Feng Bujue," Xu Huai Shang said after listening, her first reaction being this.

"Him…" Meng Jingchan shrugged, "I can't evaluate someone who has already exceeded my ability to judge."

"So, you still know my strength quite well?" Xu Huai Shang said.

"Heh… we know each other pretty well," Meng Jingchan said. "You only made one cut in that sneak attack just now, and both you and I know why…"

This sentence of his was not a bluff.

There was a reason why Xu Huai Shang's attack only targeted Sashimi just now and did not attack Meng Jingchan, who was only one meter away.

It wasn't that she didn't want to do that, but that she didn't have the confidence…

Sneaking up on Sashimi was not difficult, because Sashimi had absolute confidence in his detection ability, and this confidence and "reliance" are directly proportional.

When the strongest ability he relied on was found to have loopholes, his void confidence made him a defenseless target.

But Meng Jingchan was different. Even if he didn't guard against the surrounding environment based on his trust in his teammate, his instincts as a martial artist were far stronger than Sashimi. A momentary murderous aura was enough to trigger his reaction.

If Xu Huai Shang attacked two people at the same time, or changed to only attacking Meng Jingchan, then her sneak attack might not have succeeded.

Although its success rate was still very high, perhaps eighty or ninety percent… but it would never be like the sneak attack on Sashimi just now, with "one hundred percent" certainty.

Considering this, she would naturally choose the plan that would be one hundred percent successful.

After all… she had no teammates.

Once the sneak attack failed, even if she could seriously injure one of them, she would still have to fight two opponents; she wouldn't dare to be careless even in a one-on-one fight against two masters of Order, let alone with someone who could recover from injuries and join the battle at any time.

"Since everyone is clear about each other's strength…" Two seconds later, Xu Huai Shang responded, "Then let's end the small talk here…"

The implication of her words was – we've talked enough, it's time to fight.

Meng Jingchan also agreed with this suggestion; if the two continued to stalemate like this, it would be very detrimental to both of them.

Because confrontation… takes more mental effort than fighting.

Don't look at the two standing there without moving, but during this conversation… every second, they were looking for an opportunity to attack, while also guarding against the opponent's movements. This was a great test of concentration.

If they spent too much effort here, even if they won, it might negatively affect the battle against other players later.

"Okay." Meng Jingchan replied, casually throwing away the cigarette butt (he had already put away the wine bottle before taking out the cigarette). "Then I… won't be polite."

Before he finished speaking, he had already drawn his sword.

He didn't count himself among the "geniuses," not out of modesty, nor to play the pig to eat the tiger.

Just as Meng Jingchan's analogy for geniuses…

He really couldn't answer "ten questions," and even if he spent time racking his brains, he could only answer six or seven at most.

Under normal circumstances, he could only answer "one question."

And that question was always about the "sword."

In the blink of an eye!

But seeing a flash of rainbow light, the figures had already passed each other.

The rustling of the wind was slow in coming.

This sword was faster than sound, and the person was faster than the sword.

What was frightening was… after one sword, there was no sound of metal clashing in the night sky.

The only sound of breaking wind seemed to be declaring the attack a miss.

But in reality… it did not miss.

In that fleeting moment, the blade and the sword had collided in reality, but… one of them was cut off by the other in a "silent" state.

It was as if you suddenly cut open a piece of tofu suspended in mid-air with a sharp knife, it would naturally not make any sound.

"Good swordsmanship," Xu Huai Shang said, standing in place, looking ahead, in a slightly tired tone.

She didn't look down at her twin blades, because she knew… the *Luohua* (Fallen Blossom) and *Feixu* (Flying Willow) in her hands had already been broken, and she also knew that a hideous wound had been cut on her ribs.

"Heh…" Meng Jingchan had now appeared behind Xu Huai Shang, with his back to her.

He gave a wry smile and took out a cigarette from his pocket again, putting it in his mouth: "In terms of swordsmanship, I don't think I will lose to anyone." He laboriously took out a lighter with the same hand and lit his cigarette, "Too bad…"

Just as he uttered the word "bad," the arm holding his sword was neatly severed from his shoulder, just like Sashimi's head that had slipped off…

"Fuu--" Then, Meng Jingchan comfortably exhaled a puff of smoke. At the same time as he exhaled, three very short but extremely deep wounds suddenly burst out on his torso; those three wounds also sprayed out blood like "spitting smoke," converging into a cloud of blood in the air, "So that's why…" He turned his head, still with that decadent look on his face, "I hate fighting you 'geniuses'…"

After saying this, he also disappeared into white light.

It was not until this second that Xu Huai Shang relaxed slightly, knelt down on one knee, and quickly covered her wound with her hand.

She didn't rush to use items or skills to heal herself, but instead turned her eyes to a shadow under the eaves and said coldly, "You don't need to hide anymore, I knew you were there from the beginning…" Her eyes were as sharp as torches, and her tone was firm, not at all like a seriously injured person, "Since you can cooperate with them, then why not talk to me?"

After she finished speaking, after a moment, a man who had been frightened pale walked out of the shadows.

"May I ask… for the honorable name of this heroine…" Even someone like Fang Jin was speaking tremblingly at this moment.