On the other hand, the Hell's Frontline group passed the Ye Hai obstacle and continued forward on the path. They walked for half an hour before they arrived at the entrance of Canglin Town.
Feng Bujue had been analyzing the situation of the scenario during the entire walk while discussing with his teammate how to handle it.
In terms of NPC ability… extrapolating from the force of the blue-robed elder, the elites in this scenario must be quite powerful. The players would die way too many times if they compared cultivation. But players have their own advantage, such as abilities and equipment which are considered supernatural in this world. Even elites like Ye Chen or Xie San will suffer an inevitable death when shot by guns.
But Feng Bujue thought that technically speaking, it would be unwise to be involved in a conflict with the NPCs, and it was even more unwise to expose the only advantage of being a player. Since the scenario was generated under sleep mode, it was already a established fact that the scenario might be extended, and this meant that the players must stay for a long time in the scenario.
Without a doubt, the key to the scenario was the "duel" event. It was unlikely that the scenario would end before the duel. Bai Dian mentioned something about the "duel three days later", and it was an obvious hint in the starting cinematics. Players who noticed the sentence would naturally keep that in their mind.
In a few more hours, it would be day time with the "first day" officially starting, but the day of the duel would be on the third day. In theory, if Ye Chen and Xie San planned to find a place to enjoy the moonlight and drink northwestern wind [1] at around seven to eight at night, then there were sixty-five hours until the duel.
Feng Bujue exited from non-sleep mode at night and slept inside the game chamber, setting the login time at 12:10. The preparation before entering the scenario was negligible, and around two minutes in time were converted to real life time.
Based on the current situation of the scenario, if they want to complete this, the ending time should be around seven in the morning. Without any surprise, they could at most play one scenario tonight.
"Therefore… let's agree on this. I'm the leader of the Sword Breaking Village, and you're all my villagers." Feng Bujue walked in front of the town and confirmed with the crew. "Try to avoid starting a conflict with other people. When involved in a conflict, don't bring out your gun unless it is pivotal. Modernized weapon is our trump card; we can only use it once. If other people see it, then in the future, it will be hard to see such a pleasant situation of other people running to our muzzle."
While he spoke, shambles made out of wooden poles and bricks appeared before the group of five. The village looked extremely crude and simple with one side built against the wall of the mountain. Two words were engraved into the wall—"Canglin Town."
The two words were written from top to bottom, with the highest point ten meters from the ground, and the lowest point parallel with people's eyesight. The letters were massive and were as broad as shoulders. It was evident that the words were not chiseled in nor engraved by weapons; it was written with a finger by releasing the cultivation force.
The shapes of the two words were commanding, firm, and ever changing; the spirit was overwhelming, simple yet dominating. The senior that wrote the words had cultivation beyond people's imagination. Even the two otherworldly swordsmen dueling here were far no match with this person.
Of course, the words were written when Canglin Town was first built and the senior has long left the world. Only, his feat was left here for the future generations to envy.
"Oh, we are here then." Little Tan used the moonlight to read the name on the wall of the mountain. "This is so odd. Didn't the description say that it is only a small town? But the town's name is so powerful and daunting."
"Do you think only illegal militant Huaguo Mountain Waterfall Hole [2] could engrave the name on the mountain?" Feng Bujue joked.
Young Master Ji Bu interrupted, "Although I don't really understand this… but the words don't look like they are chiseled in? Could it be an elite had used the sword's cultivation force to engrave it?"
"Eh! That's possible." Little Tan said immediately, "Perhaps it is someone who came to watch the duel purposely showing off to leave an impression on the Jianghu people coming into the village."
"No," Like Rain calmly rejected the idea. She still treasured her words.
Little Tan and Ji Bu all looked at her, but she didn't plan to explain at all. She just turned around and used the back of her hand to gently touch Feng Bujue on the shoulder.
"What? Do you have a barrier to socializing?" Feng Bujue looked over.
Like Rain used her chilling eyes to stare at Feng Bujue. There was no emotional fluctuation on her face at all, but it still gave people an invisible suppressive feeling. "No."
Dispirited seemed to have seen something, so she suddenly burst out laughing.
"Fine, I will explain this." Feng Bujue shrugged and turned to Little Tan. "The words on the mountain are clearly not created in the current age. If you look at the moss and cracks on the mountain, it is evident that the words have been engraved for some time. As for the intention of the person that engraved the words, perhaps that person named the place." He paused as he seemed to have thought about something. "Mhmm… interesting, perhaps… it is not because of the duel that Canglin Town became so incredible. Instead, it's because of the secret hidden in the town when the duel occured."
"Hello, look at that guy, he seemed to have noticed us," Dispirited suddenly said, pointing to the direction of the entrance.
The group zoomed to that direction. Thirty meters away from them, they discovered a figure sitting on the ground.
It was Feng Bujue that led and took charge. Since he was skillful with language and had a fast reaction, he was the most efficient in communicating with an NPC.
After stepping over the ancient stepping block, the five officially entered into Canglin town, and the system notification came:
[Current objective changed, main quest is updated]
In the menu, [Enter Canglin Town] was check marked.
The new objective appeared: [Investigate the truth behind the duel]
When Feng Bujue read the content of the objective, the word "fu*k" immediately popped up in his mind.
For him, this objective was more problematic compared to missions like "head to the abandoned temple to the north of the village to investigate the truth of the haunted ghost", since the "truth behind the duel" could be anything. It could be related to the palace, it could be related to the village being haunted, perhaps Ye Chen was an alien, perhaps Xie San and Ye Chen were homo…
Anyone knew some form of conspiracy hid behind the scenario, but the main objective suddenly changing from an extremely specific action to an event without any direction, was it making the players freely express themselves?
When Feng Bujue was deliberating, he walked in front of the figure sitting on the ground. At this distance, he could see quite clearly.
It was an old beggar with age similar to Ye Hai. His face was covered in mud and worn torn clothes. There was a piece of rib in his hand and a gourd filled with alcohol. He was drinking and eating at the same time while observing Feng Bujue and the group. When Jue-Ge approached him, he said, "These days, there are more people from the small path, but the old beggar recognizes those people." He chewed and swallowed down the meat. "Today is so weird, there are a few strange faces. Haha… that old hag Ye Hai, how could he let a bunch of kiddos sneak in?"
"I'm his bastard son," Feng Bujue replied with a stern expression.
"Puff!" The old beggar almost choked on the alcohol and tears even came out of his eyes before he could finally calm down. His eyes widened as he said, "What did you say?"
"Haha… I'm only making a joke with the senior." Feng Bujue put his fists together. "Junior is the leader of Sword Breaking Village, Feng Bujue. These are my friends and we normally stay in the village…"
"I haven't heard of you before." The old beggar interrupted him by raising his hand. "I see that you're quite courteous. My word of advice, go back now and don't get into the mess."
There was no way Feng Bujue would leave. With a smile on his face, he said politely, "I haven't asked senior's name yet?"
"Oh?" The old beggar had a puzzled expression. "You don't know who I am?" He waved the hand holding the gourd in front of Feng Bujue. It was a gourd painted in red. Looking closely, the pinky on the right hand of the old beggar was cut off.
Feng Bujue thought, "Hong Qigong? (2) That's impossible… Hong Qigong has a bigger gourd, and his index finger is cut off…
"Uh… sorry for my foolishness, senior is an otherworldly elite, please excuse me…" Feng Bujue was interrupted once again.
"Hahahahaha…" The old beggar started to laugh, "You actually don't recognize me! Hahahah!"
The old man was naturally not Hong Qigong but rather the leader of the Bagger Clan. People refer to him as Beggar King with a name Meng Jiu. Seven years ago, Meng Jiu lost to Xie San's word, and one his fingers was cut off. This was widespread on Jianghu. There were people gloating that Meng Jiu's life was cursed by the number nine (3) and corresponded to a cursed fate. The odder thing was… it became widely accepted by the public. People didn't seem to use their brain that following this logic, Xie San should have had seven of his fingers cut off.
Meng Jiu, the leader of the biggest clan, along with a simple name to remember, added with the fact of the finger incident, it was nearly impossible to find someone one Jianghu that didn't recognize him. There were even old beggars that chopped off their own finger pretending to be him for free food and drink. Through this, his fame was evident.
"If you're not pretending to be dumb, then…" Meng Jiu stopped grinning as he immediately grabbed Feng Bujue's wrist and held onto his vein. The old beggar's cloudy eyes flashed with a piercing light, "Humph… you don't have any cultivation force at all, how could you trick Ye Hai? Say it… how did you get here? Did you find a secretive path?"
Before he finished, a cold blade was already placed on Meng Jiu's shoulder.
The moment Meng Jiu suddenly made a move, Like Rain who was closest to the two immediately made a reaction. She originally thought Feng Bujue triggered a FLAG and was attacked, so she immediately took out the "The Dominating Deity".
"Let go." Her words were concise, but it was authoritative.
Meng Jiu was unbothered on the surface but he was secretively shocked—he didn't expect the opponent to make a sudden move. If he was on guard, he wouldn't be taken hostage by the sword near his neck.
Meng Jiu thought: The girl is so young but her movement is so swift, she is probably superior even compared to the renowned airborne technique user "Plum Falling Sword" Lu Qingning. But… this group of people doesn't seem like they possess cultivation force at all. Their breathing is no different than ordinary people. Even the lowest level adepts in the Beggar Clan that practiced a few years of fist styles are not like this.
Of course, he wouldn't know nor understand the existence of "players". Like Rain didn't need to master the cultivation force or airborne technique, since she could just rely on her physical condition to achieve such a speed. Therefore, her age or cultivation was irrelevant.
Feng Bujue captured something from Meng Jiu's expression and already had a plan in his mind. "Senior."
He still had a grin and a friendly expression on his face. "We can talk this out, just let me go first." As he spoke, he eyed Like Rain, and the latter hesitated for two seconds before moving the sword away.
"Humph… interesting." The way Meng Jiu looked at Feng Bujue changed. Feng Bujue's smile in the Beggar King's eyes turned into mischief. "Looks like the old beggar has mistaken you…" Meng Jiu let go of Feng Bujue's hand and sat up straight, seemingly nonchalant, then he said, "It's not that you don't have cultivation force, you just hid it well."
Feng Bujue was talented in observation and memorization; any acute movements of the opponent would not escape his eyes. "We can talk it out, senior, although I don't know you…" He said while his sight consciously moved down.
Meng Jiu changed from originally sitting down with legs extended to sitting down with legs crossed. Feng Bujue purposely used his sight to point this out. "I heard that in the Beggar Clan's martial arts techniques, the lower body technique is especially powerful by combining the strength of all other techniques." He then looked at Meng Jiu's face. "Senior refers to yourself as 'old beggar', yet your tone doesn't sound ashamed but rather proud. Furthermore, combined with your flowy hair style and free-spirited clothing choice… with junior's poor understanding, even if you're not the leader of the Beggar Clan, you must be a chief within the clan."
Although Meng Jiu didn't completely understand what Feng Bujue said, he still used the "I don't understand, but it sounds pretty convincing" expression to look at Jue-Ge. He slowly put down the meat and alcohol in his hands and put his fists together to greet the young man in front of him. "Village… leader. I'm Beggar King Meng Jiu, the current leader of the Beggar Clan."
"Oh! I have long respected you! Sorry for my disrespect!" Feng Bujue responded shamelessly. Even fools knew that he hadn't heard the title before or he would have recognized him already. Just where did the long respected came from?
Meng Jiu couldn't make a commotion out of it since he did look down on them, disrespecting them at first. Especially when Feng Bujue's words sounded courteous on the surface, at most, it counted as mocking him without swearing.
Meng Jiu already treated them as elites based on two observations: first, the kid before him could see from him changing his sitting posture that he was in a guarded position—that meant the latter must be a martial adept, and a master of superior techniques.
Second, while the swordwoman's skill could barely be considered mastery, she had already reached this stage at such a young age… If she was not a natural born, then she must have at least practiced some profound and rare internal technique. But she listened to the village leader's words, therefore, this guy named Feng Bujue was either an elite or her husband.
"I apologize for my previous error…" Meng Jiu spoke out.
It was Feng Bujue that interrupted him this time, "Eh, what kind of words is this?" He waved his hand to dismiss it. "It is junior's lack of knowledge, how could I blame the senior?"
Dispirited a few meters out moved closer to Little Tan and whispered into his ear, "Our village leader's skin is so thick. From the start to finish, not a single word came from his heart, his expression is always so natural…"
Little Tan's mouth twitched. "Ha… You could only see his thick skin just through this? You don't know Jue-Ge at all…"