Chapter 1 From the Start

From the situation five minutes after the start of the competition, the opening of this script should be divided into two parts.

The first part is the opening CG and the plot synopsis narrated by the voice-over, which both teams watched together; the second part is different.

The four members of Hell's Frontline were teleported to the location of a Jianghu (martial world) power, and under system protection, they watched a "Martial Arts Assembly" performance.

On the Hong Ying side, they were teleported to Burial Heart Valley, where they directly met... "Yan Wang (King of Hell)."

Yan Wang is a chilling title, as people often associate it with death.

Perhaps there are people in this world who are not afraid of death, but for most people, death is terrifying.

Therefore, Yan Wang is also terrifying.

However, the Yan Wang in Burial Heart Valley is not terrifying at all.

Not only is she not terrifying, but she is also very charming.

Because Yan Wang is a woman, a beautiful woman.

Her beauty is enough to take one's breath away, making one lose their soul and dream of her.

Moreover... for many years, Yan Wang's appearance and figure have remained the same as those of an eighteen or nineteen-year-old girl, without any change.

Time seems unable to leave any trace on her.

Therefore, no one knows how old Yan Wang really is... Some say forty years old, others say fifty; others even say that "Yan Wang" is actually more than one person, and the current one is the daughter of the previous Yan Wang.

Of course, the last speculation is obviously impossible. Yan Wang meets with the "ghosts" in the valley at least once a month, and if she had been pregnant, it would not have been hidden.

Thus, the theory of "eternal life" arose...

"Hmm?" Although the four Hong Ying players suddenly appeared before her eyes, Yan Wang's expression did not change much, and her tone was very calm. "It's a rare thing to encounter today..." At this moment, she was resting her head on one hand, lying on her side on a wide jade couch; beneath her light gauze clothing, her exquisite figure and the faintly visible white skin aroused reverie, "... that someone could silently break into my 'Burial Heart Valley' and come to my manor."

Speaking to this point, Yan Wang sat up cross-legged and glanced at the four players: "And... it's four girls."

"This..." Xue Qiangwei (Blood Rose) cupped her fist in salute and thought for several seconds before deciding what to call her, "... Senior, we trespassed here today and have offended you greatly. May we ask for your honorable name?"

Xue Qiangwei is the vice-captain of Hong Ying and can be considered the team's strategist; most of the negotiations with NPCs are handled by her.

Since she is responsible for this area of work, she certainly understands the basic principles. For example... at any time, especially when just entering a script, it is perfectly acceptable to be polite to those NPCs who have not directly attacked or show obvious hostility; in this way, one might receive a task, obtain information, or directly gain benefits.

"Hehe..." Yan Wang smiled and simply stood up. "You break into someone else's home and then ask them to introduce themselves?"

Hearing this, Xu Huai Shang's reaction was the fastest. She quickly took half a step forward, bowed, and said, "We were impolite, please forgive us, I am Xu..."

"Hold on." Unexpectedly, Yan Wang suddenly interrupted Xu Nvshen's (Goddess Xu's) words and slowly walked toward the latter.

In an instant, the atmosphere became tense...

Although the other party did not say it explicitly, everyone in Hong Ying understood in their hearts... Judging from the previous two sentences, "my Burial Heart Valley" and "my manor," the beauty in front of them was very likely the "Yan Wang" mentioned in the introduction. In addition... she was still able to maintain this calm attitude in the face of four strangers with weapons who had suddenly appeared... this conclusion was almost certainly correct.

Dong, dong...

Yan Wang walked barefoot across the wooden floor, making a light tapping sound.

Her feet were also very beautiful; the slender curves and smooth, tight skin almost made people forget that this should have been a relatively rough part of the body.

Yan Wang walked to Xu Huai Shang and stopped quietly. Two seconds later, she slowly raised her right hand, gently extended her slender fingers, and used her index finger and thumb to support Xu Huai Shang's chin, slightly raising her face.

At that moment, two beautiful faces were close at hand, and their eyes met.

Time. Seemed to stand still.

It was as if even time wanted to stop at this moment.

The tense atmosphere suddenly changed and became somewhat ambiguous...

Ninety percent of the audience watching the competition (regardless of gender) swallowed when they saw this scene, they didn't even know why...

"Continue." Yan Wang looked at Xu Huai Shang with a charming gaze, "... What's your name?"

"I am... Xu Huai Shang." Xu Nvshen responded to the other party in a relatively calm manner on the surface, but she was already complaining in her heart, "What's going on... another Ji Fenglong (Lord of the Harem City)?"

Yan Wang listened and smiled, then turned around and walked back to where she had been standing, saying as she walked, "Very well... I won't hold you accountable for breaking in."

…………

"Wow, this works?"

"It's really a world that judges by looks..."

"Shangg Shang forever!"

"Oh oh! Yan Wang's yuri (lesbian) spirit has awakened!"

"I've decided, I'm going to take a screenshot of that scene just now and use it as my desktop."

…………

Not only did the audience naturally accept this setting, but even the members of Hong Ying...

"Well done, Captain." Xue Qiangwei turned her head and whispered to Xu Huai Shang.

"As expected of the captain... even NPCs can't resist your charm..." Feng Xinzi (Hyacinth) next to her also added.

Tie Haitang (Iron Begonia) also chimed in, "It looks like... the script Boss has basically sided with us."

"Hoo..." Xu Huai Shang herself took a long breath and shook her head, muttering, "I really don't know whether to be happy about this kind of thing..."

…………

Let's split the story and look at the Hell's Frontline team.

After preparing briefly in the desert, they quickly caught up with the group of "martial heroes" ahead and entered the valley together.

Although Jue Ge (Lord Jue) and the others disdained to act with these guys, there was no reason not to take advantage of free cannon fodder.

"Heh... as expected..." Less than two minutes after entering the valley, Feng Bujue stopped and turned his head to say to his teammates, "We're poisoned..."

The reason he said "as expected" was because Jue Ge had already speculated about the defense mode of this place, and his conclusion was - poisonous gas was a good method.

At his reminder, Ruo Yu, Xiao Tan, and Hua Jian immediately opened the game menu to check and found that the word [Poisoned] did indeed appear in the status bar.

"Is it caused by this mist?" Ruo Yu's first reaction was quick and accurate.

"I suppose so." Jue Ge replied.

"Since it's caused by the mist..." Hua Jian continued, "then it's meaningless for me to use skills to detoxify you, we'll be poisoned again as soon as I'm done."

"Yeah... we have to figure out the principle of the poisoning..." Xiao Tan touched his chin and muttered, "According to my speculation... this 'glowing' mist is probably generated by certain specific plants in the valley undergoing chemical changes with the surrounding environment. According to the law of mutual generation and restraint in nature, a natural antidote that can eliminate this toxicity can definitely be found in the valley..."

"Right, it's over there." The next second, Feng Bujue lazily pointed to a clump of trees not far from the group.

"Huh?" Xiao Tan was stunned at the time.

To be honest, it was rare for Xiao Tan to show off. If it weren't for the fact that he studied medicine and had some knowledge in this area, he wouldn't have expressed any opinions. But... he had just finished stating the theory, and Jue Ge, an outsider, had actually given the answer directly, which was a bit unbelievable.

"Your theory is undoubtedly correct, but... bypassing professional knowledge, and starting from a purely logical reasoning point of view... this matter can also be deduced." Feng Bujue knew Xiao Tan very well, and he could tell what the other person was thinking just by looking at his expression, so he immediately explained, "From the opening CG, it can be known that people live in this valley. They breathe the air in the valley every day, so they must take antidotes all year round. And the source of this antidote... whether it's water, plants, or animals... its origin must be in this valley." He spread his hands and smiled, "In this day and age, it's impossible to airdrop supplies by plane. Burial Heart Valley is surrounded by deserts, so if the antidote has to be taken from outside the valley, how troublesome would that be?"

"Yeah... Besides, Yan Wang doesn't allow people in the valley to leave, right?" Xiao Tan replied.

Hua Jian also nodded thoughtfully and said, "Even if Yan Wang allows it, there are too many variables in taking the antidote outside the valley. If the person who goes to get the medicine doesn't return for various reasons, wouldn't everyone in the valley have to wait to die?"

"So... the antidote... or the raw materials needed to make the antidote, must only be found in this Burial Heart Valley." While Feng Bujue said this, he made a gesture to his teammates, signaling them to follow him.

The four quickly walked to the clump of trees that Jue Ge had pointed to earlier and found some roots and stems that had been picked behind a few trees.

"Even through some trees, I noticed that there are large areas of soil that have been turned over here." Feng Bujue said, "At first, I didn't understand what this was all about, but after looking at the status bar, I realized... this was obviously done by the imperial troops, and the purpose was to eliminate the mist poison; because there are so many of them, they dug up a lot."

"Eh?" Hearing this, Xiao Tan suddenly thought of something. "Strange, the imperial troops... only discovered that they were poisoned after walking here?"

This was indeed a question worth pondering... because so far, none of the Jianghu people walking in front of the players had noticed that they were poisoned, which meant that the mist poison in the valley did not have any significant physical symptoms, at least in the beginning.

Game players can directly see their abnormal status through the status bar, but... how did the people of the imperial court notice it?

"Everyone, please wait!"

Just as Xiao Tan raised his question, Yuan Mengzhu's (Alliance Master Yuan's) voice rang out from more than a hundred meters ahead.

"There's poison in this mist!"

A few seconds later, Yuan Mengzhu spoke out a rather bad fact, causing a commotion in the crowd.

"Everyone, don't panic! Use your internal energy to protect your heart, which can slow down the toxicity."

After all, the one surnamed Yuan was the martial arts alliance leader, very shrewd, and he quickly came up with a set of theories similar to Xiao Tan and Jue Ge's, and then asked people from all walks of life who knew medicine to quickly look around for anything that could detoxify the poison.

And at this time... the four members of Hell's Frontline had already detoxified themselves and each kept some of the antidote in their knapsacks.

"I think I understand..." After thinking for a few minutes, Feng Bujue said, "People with higher internal energy cultivation should be able to detect that they have been poisoned faster and more keenly than ordinary people." He paused, "So, that Yuan Mengzhu was the first to discover this." His eyes changed slightly, and he pondered, "Hmm... from this, we can obtain some additional information..."

Ruo Yu's thoughts closely followed Jue Ge's. Hearing this, she continued, "Among the imperial troops, there is at least one person whose internal energy cultivation is not below that of the martial arts alliance leader, and one who is proficient in medicine and can quickly identify the antidote."

"That's right," Jue Ge continued, "Of course, the two you mentioned may also be the same person."

They were chatting leisurely, just not telling the NPCs where the antidote was...

Fortunately... there were indeed some guys among those martial arts heroes who were more accomplished in Chinese herbal medicine and medicine. They spent more than ten minutes finding this root that could detoxify the mist poison elsewhere.

In short, nearly thirty minutes later, those hundreds of people finally swallowed the antidote, adjusted their breathing, and prepared to set off again.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, another change occurred.

Chi chi chi chi chi—

The sound of something cutting through the air came from mid-air.

At first glance, this sound was very common. Everyone present had heard this kind of sound of hidden weapons.

But when the thing that made the sound of wind approached, people felt a strong, eerie killing intent.

Many sounds of weapons being unsheathed followed the sound of the wind, rising and falling...

However, there was not a single sound of metal clashing.

This meant that... none of the hidden weapons just now were blocked.

So... after a few breaths, some people died, and some people were still alive.

The dead fell to the ground, and the living exclaimed and screamed.

The person who threw the hidden weapons used internal energy to transmit his words into people's ears: "If you go any further, more than just these few will die."

At the same time, Yuan Mengzhu quickly walked to the nearest corpse and glanced at the hidden weapon in the wound. In that instant, his expression changed drastically: "This is... the Yin Yue Fei Xing Biao (Hidden Moon Flying Star Dart)!" He muttered, then used his internal energy and continued in a loud voice, "Hmph! I was wondering who it was... it turns out to be 'Xing Yue Shen Biao (Star Moon Divine Dart) Song Wuqi'..."

His tone was obviously tinged with contempt: "Fifteen years ago, you colluded with bandits to kill your sworn brother, raped and murdered his daughter, and killed his entire family... The martial arts fellows have not forgotten this beastly act..." Yuan Mengzhu was awe-inspiring and used his tongue like spring thunder, "Now you dare to act as a roadblock in front of heroes from all walks of life, you really don't know how to die!"

As his voice fell, his palm rose.

Yuan Mengzhu had already confirmed Song Wuqi's hiding place through this internal energy transmission probe, so after saying this... he used seventy percent of his power and blasted a palm in the air.