Sword Among Us
chapter-255

Chapter 255: Royal Mausoleum, Ninja

The royal mausoleum might sound very grand, but in China, who had thousands of years of history and an equally old culture, there were plenty of emperors’ tombs belonging to various dynasties. Yan Dynasty was just a small splash throughout the stream of time that formed China. Besides, with this sort of background, this dynasty which still had royal descendents and had yet to have their thoughts of restoring their dynasty vanquished from their minds, was bound to never be able to see the light. It would never be tolerated or accepted by the imperial court.

Yan Dynasty’s royal mausoleum was a secret that had to be hidden. Murong Clan did not even dare to openly worship their ancestors there!

*****

“This place has good atmosphere.”

After traveling for two days, Happy and his party arrived ahead of the others in Yan Dynasty’s royal mausoleum. The bamboo forest around it was lush, and the area was quiet. It was a very good place, and Little North could not help but open his mouth to praise it.

Thunderous Battle also looked around. While he admired the view, he also enjoyed the refreshing breeze blowing against his face. “This is such a big place, and they actually used it to build a royal mausoleum? What a waste of natural resources.”

Happy did not join the conversation.

From the moment he entered the bamboo forest, he noticed that there was something off about the atmosphere. When he circulated his qi, he could clearly sense that there were quite a few pairs of eyes that had been cast on his party.

However, he did not immediately expose them.

It was not the first time he came to Yan Dynasty’s royal mausoleum. He knew the place better than everyone else.

His Hoof Shadow trotted forward slowly. It had its beautiful eyes lowered and occasionally looked around the area, taking note of the shadowed places where the bamboo forest was the most lush. Then, it would let out a snort with great scorn. It did not slow down. It just continued moving forward leisurely.

Whoosh… Crack, crack, crack…

The sounds of robes fluttering and people stepping on bamboo leaves reached their ears.

Little North and Thunderous Battle finally noticed something wrong. Their bodies tensed up, and they looked in the direction from which the sounds came with wary looks. They were in time to see a vague black figure disappear behind a bamboo tree not too far away.

Similar sounds came from all around them.

The two of them turned their heads left and right and found similar black shadows appearing in all directions. They moved incredibly quickly, and Little North as well as Thunderous Battle could even see the unique cold glare that belonged to premodern combat weapons.

“Looks like we’ve been surrounded. Haha…”

Thunderous Battle was not afraid. Instead, he was delighted. He laughed and drew his sword from his back. He held it in an icepick grip. Then, he looked around the bamboo trees, and the fighting spirit in his eyes began to burn. He looked like he could scarcely wait to begin fighting.

They had been rushing forward without stopping for two days. They did not halt for even a moment. In his words, his muscles and bones had rusted over. If he did not find a place to move a bit, he would not even know how to put on the beginning stance for Infinite Sword Technique anymore.

At the same time, the two zombie puppets jumped out from behind Little North and landed on the ground without a sound. Their aura had become even thicker, and their durability had also improved. They wore hoods to cover up their frightening faces, and they looked like two silent messengers of death while standing beside Little North quietly.

Little North had begun making his puppets wear those hoods after Lu Mingyue controlled them and made them nearly “kiss” him. It seemed that he had been quite disgusted by them at that time.

In just a few seconds, the mysterious black figures who had been wandering about the depths of the bamboo forest finally revealed themselves.

Strange and hurried orders rose, and a dozen or so black figures shot out from all directions. They held tsurugis with reverse grips in both their hands while dressed in black garments belonging to ninjas and black masks hiding their heads. They moved in short, swift, and steady footsteps while closing in on the trio at an astonishing speed.

“What the heck?!”

“Ninjas?!”

Little North and Thunderous Battle’s expressions changed slightly, and they cried out in surprise. Thunderous Battle resolutely put away his Hoof Shadow and activated his body fortification and qi realm. He then spread out his arms like a large bird to go jump on the ninjas ahead of him from high above.

Little North patted his zombie puppets’ heads. With a foul stench, they rushed toward the ninjas with an indomitable spirit.

“These damn Japanese…”

Little North spat and charged after the zombie puppets. His fingers were dark and shiny, like a pair of phantom claws. He struck a ninja on the back and tore through the person’s black uniform. He even left a few dark bloody marks on the ninja’s back.

Thunderous Battle’s side was even more exciting!

He activated his body fortification and withstood eight ninja’s sword attacks without the slightest injury. He did not move half a step backwards either. He executed his Infinite Sword Technique, and the six ninjas in front of him looked as if they had been struck by lightning. They staggered backward to reveal terrifying wounds on their chests. As it turned out, Thunderous Battle had also learned Wind Spirit Spin.

One person attacked the ninjas in the front, and the other attacked the ninjas at the back. The two people and two zombies attracted all the attention.

Happy did not feel any sort of pressure. He continued to sit on his Hoof Shadow while he watched the two groups fighting in front and behind him. Not a single hint of emotion could be detected on his face.

Yan Dynasty’s royal mausoleum might be a normal emperor’s tomb in history, but to the poor Japanese who were lagging behind in terms of technology, the riches, culture, and weapons inside were all treasures. Once they successfully opened the tomb and stole all the treasures back to their island, the significance of it would be incredibly great!

Murong Clan had by chance discovered large groups of foreigners trying to sneak in while fully equipped. They had even entered the royal mausoleum.

Murong Clan was enraged by it!

If it were not because the imperial court had been keeping a close eye on them and had even promoted eight aristocratic families to suppress them, Murong Clan could have easily sent a powerful martial artist to completely erase the reckless and foolish ants.

However, for the sake of the clan’s foundation, its elites would not take action easily. They could not let the imperial court discover Yan Dynasty’s royal mausoleum. If Six Doors, Eastern Depot, or Western Depot discovered them, Murong Clan might face the horrible fate of having nine generations of their family killed.

Because of that, Murong Clan remembered their head disciple—Happy!

Recently, he had built a reputation for himself in the world of martial artists, but it was still not great enough to enter the sights of the elites in the imperial court, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, or the other organizations. Hence, the Murong Clan Lady ]ordered Happy to immediately head to the royal mausoleum and get rid of all the Japanese who were coveting the riches in their royal mausoleum!

Happy never had received a similar order in his previous life. Hence, it was only par for the course that he did not know that it was the main clan quest of Murong Clan. Usually, the Murong Clan disciples would follow the people from Shaolin Temple to surround and kill the Japanese. It was only at that moment that he knew that there was actually another secret going on behind the scenes.

He thought about it for a while and suddenly gained an even deeper understanding toward the quest.

It seemed that Murong Clan had only given it to him. If that were the case, then it should be Murong Clan’s hidden quest!

If his guess was correct, he could understand why there had been no one who had announced the details of Yan Dynasty’s royal mausoleum in his previous life.

When he thought about it, Happy felt comforted in his heart. Aside from the rewards in the royal mausoleum, it would seem that he had to return to Murong Clan after the quest was over.

Once he came to this conclusion, Happy cast his eyes on the two groups of ninjas again.

Within a short period of time, nearly half of the sixteen ninjas had died. Those people were not even in Blessed Realm. They had the lowest qi realm among the ninjas and were nobodies who were placed outside to keep a lookout on the area.

The real battlefield was inside the royal mausoleum!