Chapter 1 The Key

Speaking of which, the Hell Frontline crew, after passing Ye Hai's checkpoint and following the path for about half an hour, arrived at the entrance of Cangling Town.

Along the way, Feng Bujue had been analyzing the situation in this scenario and discussing how to deal with it with his teammates.

Regarding the strength of the NPCs... Judging from the combat power of the blue-robed old man, the martial arts masters in this scenario were undoubtedly quite strong. If players competed with them in martial arts, they probably wouldn't have enough lives to die. However, players also had their own advantages. Settings like skills and equipment belonged to the category of supernatural things in this world. Even masters of Ye Cheng or Xie San's level would certainly die if shot with firearms without any preparation.

However, Feng Bujue believed that it was best not to have any conflicts with the NPCs under normal circumstances, and even more so not to expose their unique advantages as players too early. Because this was a scenario generated under sleep mode, the time required for the process might be very long, which meant that the players might have to stay in this scenario for a long time.

Undoubtedly, the key point of the plot was the "duel" event. It was unlikely that the scenario would end before the duel took place. Bai Dian mentioned "the duel three days later," which appeared in the opening CG as an obvious hint. Players who noticed this sentence would naturally have it in mind.

In another two or three hours, it would be dawn, and "day one" would officially begin, while the day of the duel was the third day. Assuming that Ye Cheng and Xie San planned to find a place to enjoy the moon and drink the northwest wind around seven or eight o'clock on the third night, there were still about sixty-five hours left until the duel.

Feng Bujue logged out of the non-sleep mode at night and went to sleep in the game pod, setting the login time to 12:10. The preparation time before entering the scenario could be ignored, which would be just over two minutes in real time.

Judging from the situation of this scenario, if they wanted to play until completion, it would be around seven in the morning when they finished. If nothing unexpected happened, they could only play this one scenario this night.

"So... it's settled then. I am the Liao Zhu (chief) of the Broken Sword Tea House, and you are all my Liao Ke (guests)." Feng Bujue confirmed with everyone for the last time before arriving at the village entrance, "Try not to have conflicts with others, and even if there are conflicts, don't take out the guns unless it's absolutely necessary. Modern weapons are our trump card. Once we use them and someone sees them, it will be difficult for the good situation of the opponent rushing towards the muzzle to happen again."

As he said this, a pile of broken walls made of wood and brick appeared in front of the five people. The appearance of this village entrance was very simple, built against a mountain wall, with three large characters carved on the wall—"Cang Ling Town."

The three characters were written vertically from top to bottom, the highest point being two zhang (about 6.6 meters) from the ground, the lowest point being parallel to people's line of sight, the characters being three chi (about 1 meter) long and as wide as a shoulder span. As long as one was a martial artist, one would know at a glance that the characters were neither chiseled nor carved with weapons, but written in one go with fingers as pens, releasing zhenqi (internal energy).

The shape of these three characters was upright and vigorous, like a dragon soaring and a leopard changing; their meaning was grand, simple, and powerful. The martial arts of the predecessor who wrote these characters were so high that it was unbelievable, and even the two peerless swordsmen who were about to duel were far from being his opponents.

Of course, these characters had been written in the early years of Cangling Town's establishment, and that predecessor was no longer alive, but his feat remained here for future generations to marvel at.

"Oh, so we're here." Xiao Tan looked at the town name on the mountain wall with the help of the moonlight, "It's so strange, didn't the introduction say that this is just a small village and town, but the town name is actually engraved so ostentatiously, and it's quite imposing."

"Do you think that only illegal armed groups like the Water Curtain Cave of Mount Huaguo can engrave place names on mountains?" Feng Bujue joked.

Atobe interjected at this time, "Although I don't quite understand these... but these characters don't look like they were carved, right? Could they have been carved by a master with sword energy?"

"Eh! That's possible." Xiao Tan immediately said, "Maybe someone who came to watch the duel deliberately showed off at the village entrance, wanting to give every martial artist entering the village a shock."

"No." Si Yu calmly denied, still as concise as ever.

Xiao Tan and Atobe both looked at her, but she had no intention of explaining at all, just turned her head and gently touched Feng Bujue's shoulder with the back of her hand.

"What's wrong? Do you have social anxiety?" Feng Bujue looked at Si Yu.

Si Yu stared at Feng Bujue with cold eyes. There was no emotional fluctuation on her face, but this instead gave people a sense of invisible pressure, "No."

Bei Ling, who was on the side, didn't know what she had seen, and suddenly burst out laughing.

"Okay, let me explain." Feng Bujue shrugged and turned to Xiao Tan and the others, "The characters on the mountain wall are obviously not products of this era. If you look closely at the moss and cracks on the mountain rocks, you can tell that the characters have been engraved for some years. As for the purpose of the engraver a hundred years ago... maybe that person was the one who named this place." He paused, as if thinking of something, "Hmm... interesting, perhaps... it's not because of this duel that Cangling Town became extraordinary. But because of the secrets hidden in the town itself, there was this duel."

"Hey, there's a guy over there, it seems like he's already noticed us." Bei Ling suddenly said, and pointed in the direction of the village entrance.

Everyone looked over there and found a figure sitting on the ground about thirty meters away from them.

Feng Bujue was still the first to step forward. After all, he was eloquent and quick to react, and it was most efficient for him to negotiate with the NPC.

Crossing that dilapidated barrier, the five people officially stepped into Cangling Town, and the system prompt came:

[Current mission has changed, main mission has been updated]

In the menu, the task [Enter Cangling Town] was checked.

The new task was also displayed: [Investigate the truth behind the duel]

Seeing the content of this task, Feng Bujue immediately blurted out in his heart: "Damn!"

For him, this task was much more troublesome than tasks such as "Go to the Broken Temple north of town to investigate the truth of the vengeful spirit," because the so-called "truth behind the duel" could be anything. Maybe it was related to the imperial court, maybe it could be linked to the haunting of this village, maybe Ye Cheng was an alien, maybe Xie San and Ye Cheng were gay...

Everyone knew that there was some kind of conspiracy hidden behind the plot, but the content of the main mission suddenly changed from a very specific action to something without any direction. Wasn't this equivalent to letting the players have complete freedom?

While thinking about it, Feng Bujue had already walked up to the figure sitting on the ground. At this distance, he could see more clearly.

It was an old beggar, about the same age as Ye Hai, with a dirty face and tattered clothes. He held a meat bone in one hand and a wine gourd in the other, eating and drinking while looking up to observe Feng Bujue and the others. When Jue Ge approached, he said, "These days, quite a few people have come up the path, but I, Old Beggar, know all those people." He smacked his lips and swallowed a mouthful of meat; "It's strange today, a few unfamiliar faces have actually come. Hehe... how did that old ghost Ye Hai let you little kids in?"

"I'm his illegitimate son." Feng Bujue replied with a serious face.

"Pfft!" The old beggar almost choked to death on a mouthful of wine, coughed until tears came out, and only after catching his breath did he open his eyes wide and say, "What did you say?"

"Hehe... I'm just joking with you, senior." Feng Bujue clasped his fists in salute, "Junior is the Liao Zhu (chief) of the Broken Sword Tea House, Feng Bujue. These few are my friends, who are usually guests in the Liao..."

"Never heard of it." The old beggar waved his hand to interrupt him, "I think you junior is quite polite, so I'll give you a piece of advice, hurry back and don't wade into this muddy water in the town."

How could Feng Bujue leave? He smiled and said politely, "May I ask for senior's esteemed name?"

"Oh?" The old beggar showed a look of doubt, "Don't you know who I am, kid?" As he said this, he shook the hand holding the gourd in front of Feng Bujue. It was a vermilion lacquered gourd, and the old beggar's right hand was missing a little finger.

Feng Bujue thought to himself: Hong Qigong? Impossible... Hong Qigong's gourd is a big one, and it's the index finger that's missing...

"Uh... junior has poor eyesight, senior is a respected elder, a transcendent master, please forgive me..." Feng Bujue was interrupted again.

"Hahahaha..." The old beggar laughed loudly, "Kid, you really don't know me! Hahahaha!"

This old man was naturally not Hong Qigong, but he was indeed the leader of the Beggar Clan. This person was known as the Beggar King, named Meng Jiu. Seven years ago, Meng Jiu was defeated by Xie San's sword and lost a finger. This incident was well known. There were even Jianghu (martial world) charlatans who claimed that Meng Jiu's life was cursed by the number nine, and that this battle was a tribulation. The most outrageous thing... was that this claim was widely circulated and accepted by the masses. As if people wouldn't use their brains to think... according to this logic, Xie San should have had seven fingers cut off.

As the leader of the world's largest gang, coupled with his easily remembered name and the finger incident, it was really difficult to find someone in the Jianghu who didn't know him. It was said that there were many old beggars who chopped off their own fingers to impersonate him and freeload, which shows how well-known he was.

"If you're not pretending to be stupid, then..." Meng Jiu suddenly stopped laughing and grabbed Feng Bujue's wrist, pinching his pulse. The old beggar's originally cloudy eyes also flashed a sharp light, "Hmph... you have no internal energy at all, how could you have passed Ye Hai's checkpoint? Tell me... how did you get here? Did you find some hidden path?"

Before he could finish speaking, a cold sword blade was already on Meng Jiu's neck.

It turned out that at the moment Meng Jiu suddenly attacked, Si Yu, who was standing closest to the two, immediately reacted. She thought that Feng Bujue had triggered some flag and was attacked, and the vigilant her immediately took out "Holy Seal" and strode forward. In an instant, the cold light arrived.

"Let go." Her words were concise and powerful.

Meng Jiu was outwardly indifferent, but inwardly he was extremely surprised. He never expected the other party to have such a move. If he had been prepared, he wouldn't have been held at swordpoint.

Meng Jiu thought to himself: This little girl is so young, but her movement is so fast that it's probably no less than that of Lu Qingning, the 'Fallen Plum Sword' known for her lightness skill. But... I see that these people don't seem to have any internal energy. Their breathing is no different from ordinary people. Even the lowest-level disciples in my Beggar Clan who have practiced the Taizu Long Fist for a few years wouldn't be like this...

Of course, he didn't know, nor did he understand... as a "player," Si Yu didn't need to master any internal energy or lightness skill methods. She could achieve this speed purely by relying on her physical fitness. So her age and whether she knew internal energy were irrelevant.

Feng Bujue captured something from Meng Jiu's expression and had a clue in his mind, "Senior." He was still smiling, with a friendly face, "Let's talk nicely, you let me go first." As he said this, he gave Si Yu a wink. The latter hesitated for two seconds before moving the sword away.

"Hmph... this is interesting." Meng Jiu's gaze towards Feng Bujue had changed. Feng Bujue's smile, in the eyes of this Beggar King, had also become a smile hiding a knife, "It seems that I, Old Beggar, have misunderstood..." Meng Jiu released Feng Bujue's hand, seemingly inadvertently sat up straight, and then said, "It's not that you don't have internal energy, but that you're hiding it deeply."

Feng Bujue was very talented in observing and memorizing things. All the other party's subtle movements could not escape his eyes, "It's easy to say, it's easy to say... This senior, although I don't know you, but..." As he said this, he consciously moved his gaze down.

At this moment, Meng Jiu had changed from lying down to sitting cross-legged. Feng Bujue deliberately used his eyes to point out this fact, and said, "I've heard that among the martial arts of the Beggar Clan, the lower body skills take the strengths of various schools and are very impressive." He looked at Meng Jiu's face again, "Senior calls himself 'Old Beggar,' and his tone is not ashamed but proud; coupled with his flowing hairstyle and casual attire... In my humble opinion, even if you are not the leader of the Beggar Clan, you are also an elder in the clan."

Although Meng Jiu didn't fully understand Feng Bujue's words, he still looked at Jue Ge with a "although I don't understand, it feels awesome" expression, slowly put down the wine and meat in his hand, and clasped his fists in salute to the young man in front of him, "This... Liao Zhu (chief). I am Meng Jiu, the Beggar King, the current leader of the Beggar Clan."

"Oh! Long time no see! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!" Feng Bujue replied shamelessly. Even an idiot knew that he had never heard of this name before, otherwise he would have recognized the other party long ago. What was there to be in awe of? What was there to be sorry for?

Meng Jiu couldn't get angry either. It was true that he had looked down on the other party just now and had been rude first. Moreover, every word Feng Bujue said was at least polite on the surface, at most sarcastic without using swear words.

At this time, Meng Jiu had already regarded the other party as a powerful character. His basis was mainly two points: First, since this kid could see from his small movements of changing his sitting posture that this was to prepare to use his power to defend against the enemy, then he must be someone who knew martial arts, and also a master proficient in superior martial arts.

Second, although the female swordsman's skills could only be considered quasi-first-rate for the time being, she could have this kind of skill at her age... If she wasn't a congenital master, she must have practiced a profound and unique mental technique. But she had to listen to the orders of that Liao Zhu (chief), which shows that this Feng Bujue was at least a first-rate master, or he was her husband.

"I was very rude just now..." Meng Jiu said.

This time it was Feng Bujue who interrupted the other party, "Hey~ What are you talking about." He waved his hand, "It's just that junior is ignorant, how can I blame you, senior?"

Bei Ling, who was standing a few meters away, leaned close to Xiao Tan's ear and whispered, "Our Liao Zhu (chief)'s skin is really thick, not a single heartfelt word from beginning to end, and his expression is always so natural..."

Xiao Tan's mouth twitched, "Heh... you can see that his skin is thick from this kind of scene? You don't know Jue Ge well enough..."