Chapter 151: The Evil Plan
You have achieved a certain condition: Fighting a deathmatch against someone in a possession of another part of the Sealed One. The Left Arm of the Sealed One has reached the fourth stage and has entered the sealed state. You will be able to unseal it seven days from now.
The system informed Montra of this immediately after he and his friends arrived at the Heavenly Dragon Guild’s headquarters using the instant teleportation spell he had prepared beforehand. Montra collapsed on the floor and started coughing up blood, which gathered into a small pool.
Kawin left Revin and went to support Montra’s body. “Montra, how do you feel?”
Montra pushed his body up and sat on the floor. “No problem. I just maintained Martial Radiance Art for too long. In addition, Sila’s qi invaded my body.”
Revin walked over and sat down on a chair. “Martial Radiance Art again? Why don’t you teach us? We will be able to help you more than we currently can if you do.”
Montra was incredibly exhausted, which could be seen by his deathly pale face, so he first focused on regenerating his inner force while Ramiel continued to cast healing spells on him without being prompted. It seemed this situation had happened regularly.
As Ramiel healed Montra, he pushed the light sphere with the injured Fenrir to the center of the room, drawing the attention of everyone. He was preventing its life from ending while also pressuring it just enough so it couldn’t recover its strength. “What should we do about this monster, Master Montra?”
“Keep it alive like that. When it runs out of strength, seal it into a pet accessory. Lord Rank monsters are rare. It is likely that we can make use of it later,” Montra said indifferently before turning his head to Revin.
“It’s not that I’m being possessive of the art, Revin, but Martial Radiance Art doesn’t suit you two. The penalty from using it is as great as its benefits. I’m the one who invented it so I know how to properly control it, but if you two use it, it might endanger your life should something go wrong.”
Revin couldn’t think of a reply as he remembered Montra had told him about this before, so he changed topics. “What about the fight? Why were you so injured?”
“Everything still went according to the plan; we got our hand on the Cloudy Pearl and managed to kill a lot of players. Even though there were many unexpected factors, our plan was still successful. More importantly, I had a chance to study Sila’s current ability.”
“Is Sila that strong? He seems like a weakling to me,” asked Revin.
“He is strong. His speed of growth is terrifying; he is several times stronger than when I met him two or three weeks ago. The strength of his qi seems to have jumped a level in quality,” Kawin replied in Montra’s place.
Vitality began to return to Montra’s pale face. “Yes, especially his qi. Sila’s qi is stronger than my inner force even if I can exert my full power. More importantly, his qi is a genuine one, not an in-game qi. This makes it more dangerous.”
“A genuine qi?! There is no way that’s true, right? How can someone who hasn’t trained inner force before suddenly possess qi of that caliber after a month?”
“It’s surely a genuine one. I possess Martial Radiance Art which is a genuine qi art as well, so I can tell. The concrete proof for that is the fact that his qi is still in my body even after I died.”
The three of them fell into silence. There was an easy way to separate genuine qi arts from in-game arts, and that was to die. When the player revived, the system would reconstruct their avatar to its normal state. However, the system couldn’t tell that the lingering inner force was an abnormal status, so it wouldn’t interfere with this information. This was the reason why Montra was still hurt by the penalty of using Martial Radiance Art despite the fact that he had already died; it was because the system implied that the penalty of Martial Radiance Art was the part of his power, and as a result, it didn’t overwrite this information.
“This implies that someone is helping Sila in the shadows,” concluded Montra.
“Are they the Elders? But that’s against the rules, isn’t it?” asked Revin.
“It’s highly likely. Based on the information we got so far, Sila possesses a part of the Sealed One, has unusually strong monsters under his control, and managed to conquer Lost Grea City with only two players. The last one was impossible if he didn’t get outside help.”
“That’s true. Even for us, we invaded the city together but only managed to be on good terms with the king. The fact that he conquered the city means he won against the Emperor Rank monster controlled by an Independent NPC. There was no way he could do that with only two players.”
“Isn’t there a rule stating that the Elders can’t help the successor aside from giving guidance? But they still taught Sila their martial arts, didn’t they?” asked Kawin.
Montra shook his head. “Teaching doesn’t count. The Elders probably considered it as just a way for Sila to gain public acceptance. If I were to fail the mission and they were to suddenly select someone else as the Wulin Lord, many might question their decision. At such a time, if Sila can display their arts, the people will realize that at least his skill is decent and the opposition will lessen... By the way, Kawin, what is your opinion on Sila’s Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws?”
Kawin thought about it for a moment. “Some characteristics are similar, but it’s not Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws.”
Montra nodded. “That’s reasonable. Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws isn’t an art that one can master in a short period of time. However, if it’s just remembering one or two moves, anyone could do it. This means the Elders’ objective is for Sila to be able to show martial moves, not for him to master them.”
“In conclusion, who helped Sila from the shadows?”
“If I were to guess, that person must be Elder Mora, Sila’s teacher.”
Kawin frowned. “But Sila didn’t come into contact with his teacher, did he? At least not until recently.”
Montra shook his head. “Elder Mora could help Sila even if they didn’t meet in person. Moreover, he is the only one who can help Sila without breaking the rules. That was the reason why I did my best to prevent the two of them from meeting.”
“How could he help Sila without breaking the rules? The rules explicitly state that the Elders aren’t allowed to help the successor,” argued Revin.
“Elder Mora can claim that he is helping Sila with his teacher-disciple relationship. Furthermore, many Independent NPCs personally know each other, so it’s possible that Elder Mora asked his friends to help Sila. For example, if Orpheus is his friend, he could ask him to intentionally lose to Sila.”
Revin slammed his hand on the table. “That’s unfair!! We have played this game without receiving any help from our teacher or using his name. How shameless are they?!”
“It’s only my speculation, though I think the truth shouldn’t be far off. As for his qi, someone must have transmitted to him, maybe Elder Mora himself.”
“Is Sila’s teacher that strong?” asked Kawin. He was more curious about Sila’s growth.
“Yes, he is. Among the three Elders, Elder Mora is the strongest, followed by Elder Vichien, Sangdao’s father and teacher, and the last is our teacher.”
This was a part of the reason why Montra wanted to become the next Wulin Lord; he wanted to show everyone that his father, no, his dojo was number one.
“But, as far as I know, the Flaming Cloud dojo had only a dozen or so disciples, didn’t it? It’s just a small dojo. In comparison, our Sky Dragon dojo has five branches across the country and hundreds of disciples,” said Revin.
“The reason that our dojo is bigger is simply because our teacher is excellent at managing it. To tell you the truth, all three Elders were the disciples of the previous Wulin Lord, who was the owner of the Flaming Cloud dojo. Once the owner position fell to Elder Mora, the other two Elders quit the dojo. Our teacher started his own dojo, whereas Elder Vichien didn’t. Even the previous successor who died was Elder Mora’s close friend. Furthermore, Sila is Elder Mora’s main disciple, so he can pretty much tell Sila which arts are best suited for him and which training program is the best for him to follow.”
Revin and Kawin closed their mouths. They had no idea that Elder Mora was that strong. Even their teacher, who they deemed as very strong, was the weakest among the three Elders.
Revin stood up. “Heh, whatever. No matter how strong his teacher is, Sila is no match for me. I will go to him right now and reclaim my sword.”
“Don’t, Revin. I deliberately handed that sword to Sila. As for your sword, I have prepared a new one for you.”
“What? How could you?! That’s my favorite sword. Why did you just give it to our enemy?” Revin yelled.
“Because of my fight with him, I got to know more about Sila’s abilities. His reviving ability is too fraudulent; there was no cooldown, so its downside most likely has to do with the duration. Next time, I will prolong the fight and see whether it helps. As for his qi, I have already come up with a countermeasure, though I will need both of you to help prepare it. About his technique regarding martial arts, he is well below me. If I use a spear, he will be far from my match...”
“Oi. What about the sword? How is it related to my sword?”
“Firstly, the Flaming Cloud dojo only teaches bare-hand martial moves; there are no weapon arts like ours, so Sila is more proficient at fighting barehanded. However, after he fought me, he should have realized that fighting barehanded against someone who wields a weapon gives his opponent the advantage. As such, I gave him a sword so that he will be interested in giving it a try. Nevertheless, sword arts aren’t something anyone can master in a short amount of time, so he will waste his time abandoning his bare-hand techniques to learn how to use a sword. There are less than two months before the war event starts; there is no way his weapon skills can catch up to ours, which we have honed for years.”
“Oh, such a profound plan, Sir Montra. But what if he doesn’t use it?! What if he just sells it? That’s my sword!” Revin continued to argue.
“That’s why it needs to be your Black Dragon Sword. Next, we will declare that our guild will seriously hunt down whoever gets their hand on the Black Dragon Sword. With Sila’s personality, he won’t sell it to others. Even better, he will keep it with him with the intention of luring you to him. Of course, even if he tries to sell, no sane merchants will want to purchase it. Though he can choose to sell it to the NPC shop, the chances of that happening are slim as he won’t get enough money for it. Lastly, even if he just ignores it and keeps it in his system window, we can order one of our people who possesses a high-tier tracking skill to locate Sila’s whereabouts anytime we want.”
Revin sighed. There was one thing about Montra that he absolutely knew about; if Montra made any decision, then that decision had already been refined and well-thought out.
“Hopefully, my new sword won’t disappoint me.”
Montra nodded. “Of course. I ordered one of our people to request the production from Lost Grea City. It’s personally produced by the Android King himself and its tier is equal to the Black Dragon Sword that was produced by the legendary weaponsmith.”
Kawin didn’t care that much about Revin’s new sword. “What will be our next course of action?”
“The Elders have already made their move, so we will start using our backup plan. We will stop collecting the Gems of Catastrophe and use only the eight of them that we have. The quest doesn’t require us to collect all the gems, just that the more we obtain the better, so seven or eight of them should be sufficient. Especially this Cloudy Pearl, it’s special among the rest in its own way. If used well, it will give us a special edge over our opponents.”
“By backup plan, you mean that plan you said you didn’t want to use if you could choose, right? I recall you told me something about how it might cause many players to quit playing the game,” Revin said nonchalantly as he still missed his Black Dragon Sword.
“Yeah, that one. I personally don’t want to use it, but we have no other choice. Anyway, we don’t need to fret over other people’s problems; our goal is to win the upcoming war. The fact that this kind of item exists means we can make use of them. If the game creator didn’t want us to use them, he shouldn’t have created them from the beginning. To continue playing or quit is up to the players, not us.”
Kawin reminded Montra about Sila’s qi.
“What about the countermeasure for Sila’s qi? You said you need our help.”
“About that, Sila’s qi might be powerful, but he lacks experience and meridian knowledge, which we have. From now on, we will isolate ourselves from the world and practice together. I will merge my Martial Radiance Art with your inner forces, and fuse Sila’s qi with them to create our new kind of qi circulation. When I’m done, I will transmit it to you two. As it’s originated from our inner forces, there shouldn’t be any rejection. With this method, not only me but both of you will also have a powerful new qi art. Then, Revin will train to attack Kawin while Kawin will train to defend against Revin. As for me, I will do my own training while putting the plan into motion.”
Revin frowned. “Are we using Sila’s qi as one of the bases for our new power? I thought you hate him. Will it be a good choice?”
“My hatred for him aside, the only kind of person who is too stubborn to learn from his opponent is the foolish one. If it can make me become stronger, I don't care whether I have to use my enemy’s power as a base or have to learn from his experience.”
***
The sky changed to daytime, and the blood moon was replaced by the bright sun. Once their king had disappeared, all the werewolves were noticeably weaker and respectively died to all of the players.
Sila used the Black Dragon Sword to slash the last werewolf standing. He has never used a sword before, but his fight against Montra made him realize that fighting barehanded against someone with a weapon didn’t do him any favors. Varee had even warned him once that, if both fighters were equal in terms of base strength, the weapon user would be three times stronger than the one without a weapon.
‘It’s quite heavy, but I can use it just fine. Previously, I always thought that the Right Arm of the Sealed One prevented me from wielding a weapon, so I didn’t bother trying. Maybe I should ask Mister Orpheus about this.’
The sword used to belong to Revin so Sila decided to keep it with him. He was afraid that if he gave it to someone else, that person might end up being targeted by the Heavenly Dragon Guild. In addition, by keeping it with him, he could use it as a bait to lure Revin to duel him any time he wanted.
If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles; Montra saw through Sila’s line of thought as if Sila was a pawn on the board.
“Big Brother Sila, do you use a sword?” Seeing Sila used the sword for the first time, Aek asked.
“I think I will try using a weapon, and the sword is an interesting choice,” Sila replied as he stored the Black Dragon Sword inside his system window. It seemed he couldn’t use the equip and unequip command on the main weapon, so he had to manually equip it himself. Fortunately, with his Hidden Weapon Firing, he could directly pull it out from the system window without opening it.
There were only around twenty survivors from the player side. One of them approached Sila.
“Hello, I’m a guildless player named Frenzy Sword. I want to thank you for all you have done to help us, Mister Sila. I have talked with my friends and we agree that we will surely return the favor if the opportunity arises.”
“About returning the favor, you really don’t need to.” Sila felt guilty. Tracing back to the source of the problem, it could be said that he was actually the one who brought the calamity to everyone in the town.
After spending some time chatting, everyone bid farewell to each other to take a break after a long day, though they would still be hanging around in the town while they waited for their friends to revive. Meanwhile, Sila, Yardpirun, and the members of Tiger Team entered the nearby teahouse. Lookhin spent all of its power so it returned to the ring to rest, while Sebastian had left to take care of something.
“What are you planning to do next? Everyone?” asked Sila.
Tiger smiled. “The ship to the Main Continent will depart in three days. During these three days, we will train our formation for the last time, then we will go to the Main Continent.”
“At long last!!” Tod clapped his hand on the table.
“In that case, if you need anything, feel free to contact me. Or you can directly come to my house... Here, invitation cards so you can visit.”
Sila gave out black tickets to everyone.
“Montra might be keeping an eye on you all, so you should try to reach the Victorious Wolves Sect and tell them that you are my friends. I think that Mister Lone Wolf can give you some assistance,” Sila said even though he didn’t know if he had that kind of connection. Still, he would feel more at ease if Tiger and his teammates were under the protection of the Victorious Wolves Sect.
“Don’t worry. We can take care of ourselves. Though, if we ever feel that we are in danger, we will immediately contact the Victorious Wolves Sect as you suggested,” replied Tiger.
“That should be fine. I will have to take my leave now. There are many things I need to do.” Sila stood up and exited the teahouse. Suddenly, he saw Vata passing by.
“Miss Vata!!” Sila shouted, to which Vata stopped walking and turned to look at him. “Miss Vata, how are you? Did you just revive?”
“Revive? You made it sound like I died,” Vata said, confusion evident on her face.
Sila was even more confused. “Eh?... Miss Vara, you didn’t die?”
“Eh? No? I just logged out to talk with my friend. I even asked your friend to tell you about that.”
“My friend?”
“Yes. Isn’t your system window broken? When I got out of the forest, I came across someone. After talking with him for a while, he said that he is your friend and was about to go meet you in the forest. I asked him to tell you that I would log out for a while, and he agreed to pass the message along. What does this mean? Didn’t you meet him?”
Sila furrowed his brows. “What’s my friend look like? What’s his name?”
“He wore a magic robe, but he should be a fighter type. His hair is red and long, and he is very talkative. I didn’t think he was your friend in the beginning, but he got along well with me and knew a lot about you. His name should be...”
“Revin,” Sila completed her sentence.
“Ah. That’s right. So did you meet him?”
Revin and Kawin’s reputations weren’t as renowned as Montra’s. Only the players who were interested in the power balance of Monster Soul knew about them, so it wasn’t weird that Vata didn’t know them.
“I met him.” In the end, Sila realized that he was being played by Montra again. “Well, it’s good that Miss Vata is safe.”
“Um... I’m sorry, but I’m in a hurry. I’m going to identify the remaining cards and will go back to the Main Continent right after that. Do you want anything...?”
“Ah, no, I’m not. I won’t keep you with me longer. Good luck.” Sila waved his hand to bid Vata farewell.
Yardpirun approached Sila from behind. “You got tricked by Montra, right?”
Sila turned his head. “You... Yardpirun. Can you finally tell me who you are?”
Yardpirun tapped Sila’s elbow with her hand. “Mister Sila will know that once we arrive in Lost Grea City. Shall we go now?”
Sila was at his wit’s end with this woman. He activated the Invitation Card to Siaferia, and both of them disappeared from Beginning Town, reappearing in the royal palace of Lost Grea City.
Sitting on the throne was the Android King. He seemed to be annoyed with Bluebird’s non-stop talking. Once he spotted Sila, he instantly stood up, walked to him, and extended his hand forward.
“Eternal Onyx!!” The Android King’s enthusiastic attitude prevented Sila from explaining why he was late. Once Orpheus got his hands on the Eternal Onyx, he ran off. He didn’t even care about Yardpirun who was standing behind Sila.
Bluebird soon approached him. “Ow. You were gone for a very long time. You know what? I spent time going around this place so much that it’s like my backyard now. Do you know that the deepest part of the residential area is the casino? Wanna go there to play?”
“Casino? Do you mean a gambling place? Don’t you lose more money than you gain in that kind of place?”
“Oh, it’s fine. There's that thing called expenses for gathering information; I can just ask for reimbursement from my guild. It’s natural that I need to spend some money to befriend the people in the casino to get my hands on the information, don’t you agree?” Bluebird gave Sila a wink before he noticed a woman’s silhouette behind him, and though he wondered why he hadn't noticed her before, he lightly poked Sila with his elbow.
“Oho, you’re such a player, aren’t you? You were gone for a while but came back with a girl,” He lowered his voice. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. Your secret is safe with me. By the way, who is she? Tell me, man.”
Yardpirun stepped forward. Her face was smiling. “My name is Yardpirun. It’s nice to meet you, Mister Bluebird. Based on what you said, it seems you are as diligent while working as before. I should consider giving you a rise in salary.”
Having a clear look at the woman in front of him, Bluebird’s eyes widened, and his legs were shaking.
“B-B-B-Boss!! How did you get there...? I-I worked really hard. I didn’t slack off even the slightiest!! Please don’t kill me~”
Bluebird’s statement revealed Yardpirun’s real identity to Sila. As it turned out, she was the guild leader of the Blue Pigeon Guild, an existence as mysterious as Zero. Only a handful of players, most of which were her vice leaders, knew her appearance.
Bluebird had mentioned his Boss to Sila before, but he has never known that Bluebird’s guild leader was female, or that she wasn’t too inferior to the Four Emperors.
Chapter 151: The Evil Plan
You have achieved a certain condition: Fighting a deathmatch against someone in a possession of another part of the Sealed One. The Left Arm of the Sealed One has reached the fourth stage and has entered the sealed state. You will be able to unseal it seven days from now.
The system informed Montra of this immediately after he and his friends arrived at the Heavenly Dragon Guild’s headquarters using the instant teleportation spell he had prepared beforehand. Montra collapsed on the floor and started coughing up blood, which gathered into a small pool.
Kawin left Revin and went to support Montra’s body. “Montra, how do you feel?”
Montra pushed his body up and sat on the floor. “No problem. I just maintained Martial Radiance Art for too long. In addition, Sila’s qi invaded my body.”
Revin walked over and sat down on a chair. “Martial Radiance Art again? Why don’t you teach us? We will be able to help you more than we currently can if you do.”
Montra was incredibly exhausted, which could be seen by his deathly pale face, so he first focused on regenerating his inner force while Ramiel continued to cast healing spells on him without being prompted. It seemed this situation had happened regularly.
As Ramiel healed Montra, he pushed the light sphere with the injured Fenrir to the center of the room, drawing the attention of everyone. He was preventing its life from ending while also pressuring it just enough so it couldn’t recover its strength. “What should we do about this monster, Master Montra?”
“Keep it alive like that. When it runs out of strength, seal it into a pet accessory. Lord Rank monsters are rare. It is likely that we can make use of it later,” Montra said indifferently before turning his head to Revin.
“It’s not that I’m being possessive of the art, Revin, but Martial Radiance Art doesn’t suit you two. The penalty from using it is as great as its benefits. I’m the one who invented it so I know how to properly control it, but if you two use it, it might endanger your life should something go wrong.”
Revin couldn’t think of a reply as he remembered Montra had told him about this before, so he changed topics. “What about the fight? Why were you so injured?”
“Everything still went according to the plan; we got our hand on the Cloudy Pearl and managed to kill a lot of players. Even though there were many unexpected factors, our plan was still successful. More importantly, I had a chance to study Sila’s current ability.”
“Is Sila that strong? He seems like a weakling to me,” asked Revin.
“He is strong. His speed of growth is terrifying; he is several times stronger than when I met him two or three weeks ago. The strength of his qi seems to have jumped a level in quality,” Kawin replied in Montra’s place.
Vitality began to return to Montra’s pale face. “Yes, especially his qi. Sila’s qi is stronger than my inner force even if I can exert my full power. More importantly, his qi is a genuine one, not an in-game qi. This makes it more dangerous.”
“A genuine qi?! There is no way that’s true, right? How can someone who hasn’t trained inner force before suddenly possess qi of that caliber after a month?”
“It’s surely a genuine one. I possess Martial Radiance Art which is a genuine qi art as well, so I can tell. The concrete proof for that is the fact that his qi is still in my body even after I died.”
The three of them fell into silence. There was an easy way to separate genuine qi arts from in-game arts, and that was to die. When the player revived, the system would reconstruct their avatar to its normal state. However, the system couldn’t tell that the lingering inner force was an abnormal status, so it wouldn’t interfere with this information. This was the reason why Montra was still hurt by the penalty of using Martial Radiance Art despite the fact that he had already died; it was because the system implied that the penalty of Martial Radiance Art was the part of his power, and as a result, it didn’t overwrite this information.
“This implies that someone is helping Sila in the shadows,” concluded Montra.
“Are they the Elders? But that’s against the rules, isn’t it?” asked Revin.
“It’s highly likely. Based on the information we got so far, Sila possesses a part of the Sealed One, has unusually strong monsters under his control, and managed to conquer Lost Grea City with only two players. The last one was impossible if he didn’t get outside help.”
“That’s true. Even for us, we invaded the city together but only managed to be on good terms with the king. The fact that he conquered the city means he won against the Emperor Rank monster controlled by an Independent NPC. There was no way he could do that with only two players.”
“Isn’t there a rule stating that the Elders can’t help the successor aside from giving guidance? But they still taught Sila their martial arts, didn’t they?” asked Kawin.
Montra shook his head. “Teaching doesn’t count. The Elders probably considered it as just a way for Sila to gain public acceptance. If I were to fail the mission and they were to suddenly select someone else as the Wulin Lord, many might question their decision. At such a time, if Sila can display their arts, the people will realize that at least his skill is decent and the opposition will lessen... By the way, Kawin, what is your opinion on Sila’s Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws?”
Kawin thought about it for a moment. “Some characteristics are similar, but it’s not Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws.”
Montra nodded. “That’s reasonable. Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws isn’t an art that one can master in a short period of time. However, if it’s just remembering one or two moves, anyone could do it. This means the Elders’ objective is for Sila to be able to show martial moves, not for him to master them.”
“In conclusion, who helped Sila from the shadows?”
“If I were to guess, that person must be Elder Mora, Sila’s teacher.”
Kawin frowned. “But Sila didn’t come into contact with his teacher, did he? At least not until recently.”
Montra shook his head. “Elder Mora could help Sila even if they didn’t meet in person. Moreover, he is the only one who can help Sila without breaking the rules. That was the reason why I did my best to prevent the two of them from meeting.”
“How could he help Sila without breaking the rules? The rules explicitly state that the Elders aren’t allowed to help the successor,” argued Revin.
“Elder Mora can claim that he is helping Sila with his teacher-disciple relationship. Furthermore, many Independent NPCs personally know each other, so it’s possible that Elder Mora asked his friends to help Sila. For example, if Orpheus is his friend, he could ask him to intentionally lose to Sila.”
Revin slammed his hand on the table. “That’s unfair!! We have played this game without receiving any help from our teacher or using his name. How shameless are they?!”
“It’s only my speculation, though I think the truth shouldn’t be far off. As for his qi, someone must have transmitted to him, maybe Elder Mora himself.”
“Is Sila’s teacher that strong?” asked Kawin. He was more curious about Sila’s growth.
“Yes, he is. Among the three Elders, Elder Mora is the strongest, followed by Elder Vichien, Sangdao’s father and teacher, and the last is our teacher.”
This was a part of the reason why Montra wanted to become the next Wulin Lord; he wanted to show everyone that his father, no, his dojo was number one.
“But, as far as I know, the Flaming Cloud dojo had only a dozen or so disciples, didn’t it? It’s just a small dojo. In comparison, our Sky Dragon dojo has five branches across the country and hundreds of disciples,” said Revin.
“The reason that our dojo is bigger is simply because our teacher is excellent at managing it. To tell you the truth, all three Elders were the disciples of the previous Wulin Lord, who was the owner of the Flaming Cloud dojo. Once the owner position fell to Elder Mora, the other two Elders quit the dojo. Our teacher started his own dojo, whereas Elder Vichien didn’t. Even the previous successor who died was Elder Mora’s close friend. Furthermore, Sila is Elder Mora’s main disciple, so he can pretty much tell Sila which arts are best suited for him and which training program is the best for him to follow.”
Revin and Kawin closed their mouths. They had no idea that Elder Mora was that strong. Even their teacher, who they deemed as very strong, was the weakest among the three Elders.
Revin stood up. “Heh, whatever. No matter how strong his teacher is, Sila is no match for me. I will go to him right now and reclaim my sword.”
“Don’t, Revin. I deliberately handed that sword to Sila. As for your sword, I have prepared a new one for you.”
“What? How could you?! That’s my favorite sword. Why did you just give it to our enemy?” Revin yelled.
“Because of my fight with him, I got to know more about Sila’s abilities. His reviving ability is too fraudulent; there was no cooldown, so its downside most likely has to do with the duration. Next time, I will prolong the fight and see whether it helps. As for his qi, I have already come up with a countermeasure, though I will need both of you to help prepare it. About his technique regarding martial arts, he is well below me. If I use a spear, he will be far from my match...”
“Oi. What about the sword? How is it related to my sword?”
“Firstly, the Flaming Cloud dojo only teaches bare-hand martial moves; there are no weapon arts like ours, so Sila is more proficient at fighting barehanded. However, after he fought me, he should have realized that fighting barehanded against someone who wields a weapon gives his opponent the advantage. As such, I gave him a sword so that he will be interested in giving it a try. Nevertheless, sword arts aren’t something anyone can master in a short amount of time, so he will waste his time abandoning his bare-hand techniques to learn how to use a sword. There are less than two months before the war event starts; there is no way his weapon skills can catch up to ours, which we have honed for years.”
“Oh, such a profound plan, Sir Montra. But what if he doesn’t use it?! What if he just sells it? That’s my sword!” Revin continued to argue.
“That’s why it needs to be your Black Dragon Sword. Next, we will declare that our guild will seriously hunt down whoever gets their hand on the Black Dragon Sword. With Sila’s personality, he won’t sell it to others. Even better, he will keep it with him with the intention of luring you to him. Of course, even if he tries to sell, no sane merchants will want to purchase it. Though he can choose to sell it to the NPC shop, the chances of that happening are slim as he won’t get enough money for it. Lastly, even if he just ignores it and keeps it in his system window, we can order one of our people who possesses a high-tier tracking skill to locate Sila’s whereabouts anytime we want.”
Revin sighed. There was one thing about Montra that he absolutely knew about; if Montra made any decision, then that decision had already been refined and well-thought out.
“Hopefully, my new sword won’t disappoint me.”
Montra nodded. “Of course. I ordered one of our people to request the production from Lost Grea City. It’s personally produced by the Android King himself and its tier is equal to the Black Dragon Sword that was produced by the legendary weaponsmith.”
Kawin didn’t care that much about Revin’s new sword. “What will be our next course of action?”
“The Elders have already made their move, so we will start using our backup plan. We will stop collecting the Gems of Catastrophe and use only the eight of them that we have. The quest doesn’t require us to collect all the gems, just that the more we obtain the better, so seven or eight of them should be sufficient. Especially this Cloudy Pearl, it’s special among the rest in its own way. If used well, it will give us a special edge over our opponents.”
“By backup plan, you mean that plan you said you didn’t want to use if you could choose, right? I recall you told me something about how it might cause many players to quit playing the game,” Revin said nonchalantly as he still missed his Black Dragon Sword.
“Yeah, that one. I personally don’t want to use it, but we have no other choice. Anyway, we don’t need to fret over other people’s problems; our goal is to win the upcoming war. The fact that this kind of item exists means we can make use of them. If the game creator didn’t want us to use them, he shouldn’t have created them from the beginning. To continue playing or quit is up to the players, not us.”
Kawin reminded Montra about Sila’s qi.
“What about the countermeasure for Sila’s qi? You said you need our help.”
“About that, Sila’s qi might be powerful, but he lacks experience and meridian knowledge, which we have. From now on, we will isolate ourselves from the world and practice together. I will merge my Martial Radiance Art with your inner forces, and fuse Sila’s qi with them to create our new kind of qi circulation. When I’m done, I will transmit it to you two. As it’s originated from our inner forces, there shouldn’t be any rejection. With this method, not only me but both of you will also have a powerful new qi art. Then, Revin will train to attack Kawin while Kawin will train to defend against Revin. As for me, I will do my own training while putting the plan into motion.”
Revin frowned. “Are we using Sila’s qi as one of the bases for our new power? I thought you hate him. Will it be a good choice?”
“My hatred for him aside, the only kind of person who is too stubborn to learn from his opponent is the foolish one. If it can make me become stronger, I don't care whether I have to use my enemy’s power as a base or have to learn from his experience.”
***
The sky changed to daytime, and the blood moon was replaced by the bright sun. Once their king had disappeared, all the werewolves were noticeably weaker and respectively died to all of the players.
Sila used the Black Dragon Sword to slash the last werewolf standing. He has never used a sword before, but his fight against Montra made him realize that fighting barehanded against someone with a weapon didn’t do him any favors. Varee had even warned him once that, if both fighters were equal in terms of base strength, the weapon user would be three times stronger than the one without a weapon.
‘It’s quite heavy, but I can use it just fine. Previously, I always thought that the Right Arm of the Sealed One prevented me from wielding a weapon, so I didn’t bother trying. Maybe I should ask Mister Orpheus about this.’
The sword used to belong to Revin so Sila decided to keep it with him. He was afraid that if he gave it to someone else, that person might end up being targeted by the Heavenly Dragon Guild. In addition, by keeping it with him, he could use it as a bait to lure Revin to duel him any time he wanted.
If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles; Montra saw through Sila’s line of thought as if Sila was a pawn on the board.
“Big Brother Sila, do you use a sword?” Seeing Sila used the sword for the first time, Aek asked.
“I think I will try using a weapon, and the sword is an interesting choice,” Sila replied as he stored the Black Dragon Sword inside his system window. It seemed he couldn’t use the equip and unequip command on the main weapon, so he had to manually equip it himself. Fortunately, with his Hidden Weapon Firing, he could directly pull it out from the system window without opening it.
There were only around twenty survivors from the player side. One of them approached Sila.
“Hello, I’m a guildless player named Frenzy Sword. I want to thank you for all you have done to help us, Mister Sila. I have talked with my friends and we agree that we will surely return the favor if the opportunity arises.”
“About returning the favor, you really don’t need to.” Sila felt guilty. Tracing back to the source of the problem, it could be said that he was actually the one who brought the calamity to everyone in the town.
After spending some time chatting, everyone bid farewell to each other to take a break after a long day, though they would still be hanging around in the town while they waited for their friends to revive. Meanwhile, Sila, Yardpirun, and the members of Tiger Team entered the nearby teahouse. Lookhin spent all of its power so it returned to the ring to rest, while Sebastian had left to take care of something.
“What are you planning to do next? Everyone?” asked Sila.
Tiger smiled. “The ship to the Main Continent will depart in three days. During these three days, we will train our formation for the last time, then we will go to the Main Continent.”
“At long last!!” Tod clapped his hand on the table.
“In that case, if you need anything, feel free to contact me. Or you can directly come to my house... Here, invitation cards so you can visit.”
Sila gave out black tickets to everyone.
“Montra might be keeping an eye on you all, so you should try to reach the Victorious Wolves Sect and tell them that you are my friends. I think that Mister Lone Wolf can give you some assistance,” Sila said even though he didn’t know if he had that kind of connection. Still, he would feel more at ease if Tiger and his teammates were under the protection of the Victorious Wolves Sect.
“Don’t worry. We can take care of ourselves. Though, if we ever feel that we are in danger, we will immediately contact the Victorious Wolves Sect as you suggested,” replied Tiger.
“That should be fine. I will have to take my leave now. There are many things I need to do.” Sila stood up and exited the teahouse. Suddenly, he saw Vata passing by.
“Miss Vata!!” Sila shouted, to which Vata stopped walking and turned to look at him. “Miss Vata, how are you? Did you just revive?”
“Revive? You made it sound like I died,” Vata said, confusion evident on her face.
Sila was even more confused. “Eh?... Miss Vara, you didn’t die?”
“Eh? No? I just logged out to talk with my friend. I even asked your friend to tell you about that.”
“My friend?”
“Yes. Isn’t your system window broken? When I got out of the forest, I came across someone. After talking with him for a while, he said that he is your friend and was about to go meet you in the forest. I asked him to tell you that I would log out for a while, and he agreed to pass the message along. What does this mean? Didn’t you meet him?”
Sila furrowed his brows. “What’s my friend look like? What’s his name?”
“He wore a magic robe, but he should be a fighter type. His hair is red and long, and he is very talkative. I didn’t think he was your friend in the beginning, but he got along well with me and knew a lot about you. His name should be...”
“Revin,” Sila completed her sentence.
“Ah. That’s right. So did you meet him?”
Revin and Kawin’s reputations weren’t as renowned as Montra’s. Only the players who were interested in the power balance of Monster Soul knew about them, so it wasn’t weird that Vata didn’t know them.
“I met him.” In the end, Sila realized that he was being played by Montra again. “Well, it’s good that Miss Vata is safe.”
“Um... I’m sorry, but I’m in a hurry. I’m going to identify the remaining cards and will go back to the Main Continent right after that. Do you want anything...?”
“Ah, no, I’m not. I won’t keep you with me longer. Good luck.” Sila waved his hand to bid Vata farewell.
Yardpirun approached Sila from behind. “You got tricked by Montra, right?”
Sila turned his head. “You... Yardpirun. Can you finally tell me who you are?”
Yardpirun tapped Sila’s elbow with her hand. “Mister Sila will know that once we arrive in Lost Grea City. Shall we go now?”
Sila was at his wit’s end with this woman. He activated the Invitation Card to Siaferia, and both of them disappeared from Beginning Town, reappearing in the royal palace of Lost Grea City.
Sitting on the throne was the Android King. He seemed to be annoyed with Bluebird’s non-stop talking. Once he spotted Sila, he instantly stood up, walked to him, and extended his hand forward.
“Eternal Onyx!!” The Android King’s enthusiastic attitude prevented Sila from explaining why he was late. Once Orpheus got his hands on the Eternal Onyx, he ran off. He didn’t even care about Yardpirun who was standing behind Sila.
Bluebird soon approached him. “Ow. You were gone for a very long time. You know what? I spent time going around this place so much that it’s like my backyard now. Do you know that the deepest part of the residential area is the casino? Wanna go there to play?”
“Casino? Do you mean a gambling place? Don’t you lose more money than you gain in that kind of place?”
“Oh, it’s fine. There's that thing called expenses for gathering information; I can just ask for reimbursement from my guild. It’s natural that I need to spend some money to befriend the people in the casino to get my hands on the information, don’t you agree?” Bluebird gave Sila a wink before he noticed a woman’s silhouette behind him, and though he wondered why he hadn't noticed her before, he lightly poked Sila with his elbow.
“Oho, you’re such a player, aren’t you? You were gone for a while but came back with a girl,” He lowered his voice. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. Your secret is safe with me. By the way, who is she? Tell me, man.”
Yardpirun stepped forward. Her face was smiling. “My name is Yardpirun. It’s nice to meet you, Mister Bluebird. Based on what you said, it seems you are as diligent while working as before. I should consider giving you a rise in salary.”
Having a clear look at the woman in front of him, Bluebird’s eyes widened, and his legs were shaking.
“B-B-B-Boss!! How did you get there...? I-I worked really hard. I didn’t slack off even the slightiest!! Please don’t kill me~”
Bluebird’s statement revealed Yardpirun’s real identity to Sila. As it turned out, she was the guild leader of the Blue Pigeon Guild, an existence as mysterious as Zero. Only a handful of players, most of which were her vice leaders, knew her appearance.
Bluebird had mentioned his Boss to Sila before, but he has never known that Bluebird’s guild leader was female, or that she wasn’t too inferior to the Four Emperors.
