Sword Among Us
chapter-48

At the edge of the forest was Long Meng, who was the vice sect master of Dragon Tiger Sect. The greed and disdain were already gone from his face. As more of his brothers fell between the Black Wind Mountain Bandit corpses, the shock and fear in his eyes became greater. If anyone looked closely, they would even see that his body was trembling faintly.

His eyes went wide!

Long Meng could not believe what he was seeing.

In less than ten seconds, sixteen out of around forty of his brothers who had charged at the battlefield had died, and they were all good fighters who had quite a good foundation in Dragon Tiger Sect. That was why he had deliberately assigned them to be the vanguard.

But they could not even win against Whirlwind Young Li and Eastern Green Gate. The two retreated as they fought, but Dragon Tiger Sect was drained of their manpower the more they advanced. Their numbers dwindled as they were killed by Happy.

The most terrifying thing, however, was that one of the brothers had circumnavigated the battlefield during the chaos and went behind Happy to try and kill him while he was heavily wounded, but Happy actually sidestepped his attack and rushed him. His hand rose up and brushed his attacker’s neck with its fingers, instantly strangling him despite the other having a blade technique at tenth realm.

Once he dealt with the threat near him, Happy continued throwing knives. His expression throughout it did not change once.

A cold chill along with deep regret filled Long Meng’s chest!

It was only at that moment that he learned just how wrong his judgment had been…

He regretted not listening to Scholarly Immortal’s suggestion in the beginning and getting rid of the greed in his heart.

But it was too late for that!

While they fought, Happy even had time to take the bandit chief, Second Bandit Chief, and Third Bandit Chief’s Universal Bags and treasures. The relaxed look on his face made it clear that he was not at all severely wounded. He was basically a human-shaped war machine.

Whirlwind Young Li and Eastern Green Gate brought Black Cloud Sword Technique to its full power as well. They used the amateurs from Dragon Tiger Sect as their sparring partners and showed no mercy. They cut them until their clothes were torn and blood poured out of their bodies.

“Retreat!”

When they saw that Happy’s condition seemed to be getting better, Long Meng finally remembered that Happy had swallowed a medicinal pill when he had pulled the sword out of his body. He felt alarmed and finally gave an order to retreat before all his brothers were killed.

The people from Dragon Tiger Sect instantly felt relieved and turned tail, running away without any hesitation.

Whirlwind Young Li and Eastern Green Gate had both taken down a few people on their own. They were in high spirits and were enjoying being powerful martial artists at that moment, so there was no way they would be willing to let those people go. They lifted their weapons and got ready to continue chasing their enemy.

“Don’t chase them!” Happy stopped the duo.

“It would have been better if all those bastards had died.”

Whirlwind Young Li might have been cursing them because he didn’t get to enjoy killing the people from Dragon Tiger Sect to the end, but he still obediently stopped.

Eastern Green Gate had a much clearer mind. He put away his weapon and said with a smile, “They had been meddlesome in our affairs. so we killed some of them as self-defense. They cannot say anything about that. When they see us in the future, they will just run far away.

“While if we chase after them, it’ll create an ugly sight. They might even bear a grudge against us because of this. We’re all playing this game, so there is no need for us to form unnecessary grudges.”

“Yup.” Happy moved in front of the duo and nodded in admiration when he heard this. “Eastern Gate is right. There’s also something else. We mustn’t enter the forests. This is a rule that we must remember as wandering martial artists! No matter what the situation is, we cannot carelessly give chase into forests that we don’t know.”

He paused for a moment after saying that, since he had went through what he mentioned. “You might not understand this now, but you’ll understand it in the future.”

Whirlwind Young Li and Eastern Green Gate said nothing, but they cast each other a glance while feeling puzzled. Still, they put what Happy said to memory.

For some reason, they always felt that there was an underlying meaning to each of Happy’s words. Of course, this was also related to his strength!

Happy did not bother whether the two took his words to heart, because he did not want to linger in this place for too long but to raid Black Wind Mountain’s stronghold. He immediately gave Second Bandit Chief and Third Bandit Chief’s Universal Bags to the duo, then told them to gather the spoils of war at the entrance of the stronghold and clear the obstruction there. They were to make preparations to enter the stronghold.

Fortunately, the sixty or so Black Wind Mountain Bandits and Dragon Tiger Sect members’ corpses had gradually started disappearing once the battle ended. The three of them took all the spoils of war that were left behind before they went searching through the stronghold.

It was not large though.

Aside from one empty space used to practice martial arts, there was only a gathering hall and two wings!

They searched through the place one by one and had quite the rewards.

Besides some Jinchuang Ointment and low-tier martial arts manuals, there were all kinds of weapons left in the stronghold. There were more than twenty of them, and if they were exchanged for money, they would net quite a large sum.

When they went to the backyard, Happy found a box of silver and another box of gold in a cellar that resembled a storehouse. When he added them together, there were around fifty thousand taels of silver crumbs!

“Oh my goodness, we’re rich!”

Whirlwind Young Li pounced on the boxes of gold and silver and rubbed his cheek against the money with a very satisfied expression. He looked exactly like a money grubber.

Happy and Eastern Green Gate were speechless. They cast each other a glance before Happy made a suggestion.

“Let’s search around a little more and see whether there are any hidden mechanisms. Black Wind Mountain should have one or two very valuable treasures.”

They were in a cellar, which had all sorts of wine pots piled in it, at that moment, and Happy looked around.

Eastern Green Gate was filled with excitement. When he heard Happy’s words, he nodded and began to search through the cellar carefully.

Happy’s gaze landed on the landscape painting that hung on the wall near Whirlwind Young Li.

It was very strange.

Compared to the boxes of gold and silver in the cellar, it was very unassuming, but compared to the wine pots, trash, and sundries, it looked very new. It instantly made the cellar gain a certain feeling, but it was quite faint.

Soon, Eastern Green Gate finished his search and returned empty-handed.

“The wine pots are very normal. None of them are valuable, but this painting is rather strange.”

“You can tell as well?”

“It’s just a feeling.”

“Then let’s take it back and check it out.”

“Alright, I’ll do it.”

Eastern Green Gate cast a glance at Young Li, who was still acting like a money-grubber by hugging the gold and silver and kissing them and rolled up his sleeves to take down the landscape painting that looked very new.

“There’s something in there!”

Just as expected, once Eastern Green Gate took down the landscape painting, he cried out in delight.

Once he took down the landscape painting, a Ruyi jade [1], which was extremely green, was revealed. It lay horizontally in a hollowed hole in the wall. Under the faint illumination of the firelight, the green in the jade swirled in an extremely eye-catching manner.

“A Ruyi jade?”

Young Li jumped up like a spring, and with sparkling eyes, he stared at the item in the hole on the wall.

“It’s entirely green, and the craftsmanship is exquisite. Tsk, tsk… it’s definitely very valuable.”

Eastern Green Gate was speechless. He was originally very excited, but once Young Li said that, he suddenly felt a little disheartened. He stared at Young Li gloomily as if he was telling him that he had never known him to be such a money-grubber.

“Alright, it seems like this is Black Wind Mountain’s treasure trove. The item in the hole is the bandit chief’s priced treasure.” Happy was the only one who appeared to be calm.

While he spoke, he walked to the spot between the two and extended his hand.

However, Happy did not take the Ruyi jade. Instead, he grabbed an inconspicuous, rectangular, black, sandalwood box placed beside the frame made of nephrite. It was used to hold the Ruyi jade in place.

“What is this?”

It was only then that Eastern Green Gate noticed that there was something else in the hole, and his eyes lit up.

As he spoke, Happy opened the black sandalwood box. Something shined black inside. It showed up to be a porcelain bottle that was as dark and profound as night. It exuded an extraordinary charm and allure.

Happy sucked in a deep breath, and a brilliant smile appeared on his face.

“This is the real treasure of Black Wind Mountain.”

The battle had required him use his valuable Small Reversion Pill. Even though the bandit chief’s Black Dragon Murder manual could somewhat cover the loss, once Happy lost such a valuable medicinal pill that could protect his life, if he ever ran into dangerous situations that were similar to what he went through on that day, it would be very difficult for him to move about at ease anymore!

Translator’s Note:

[1] Ruyi jade: The meaning of Ruyi is “as you wish”.