Chapter 115 The Plot Thickens

When Brother Jue and Ruoyu emerged from Wang Qiong's room, the sky was already bright.

After several hours of discussion, their cooperative relationship with Wang Qiong was finally established.

Among the numerous NPC factions in this scenario, Wang Qiong was certainly not the strongest in "martial force," but in terms of "intelligence"... he was second to none.

This type of character was the kind Feng Bujue was most willing to ally with.

Through their negotiations with Wang Qiong, Jue-ge and his party successfully completed their side quest: [Investigate the Cause of the Mi Si Inn Murder].

Although Feng Bujue had managed to extract some information from "Mirror" before taking his head, the information he obtained at that time was not enough to conclude the quest. Because... "Mirror" was not afraid of death; even as his head was rolling, Mirror only revealed some basic information about the scenario. This kind of intelligence... could be obtained by grabbing any disciple from a second-rate sect.

Fortunately, Mirror had a stack of silver notes from Wang Qiong's bank...

Feng Bujue used these silver notes to find Wang Qiong; and after talking with Wang Qiong, the mystery of the Mi Si Inn was completely solved.

Speaking of which... this "Mirror" was also unlucky.

The previous afternoon, after a bitter battle, he finally succeeded in killing and impersonating Cotton Taoist.

After completing the disguise, Mirror took the silver notes Wang Qiong gave him and left town, attempting to meet with his "comrades" at a location outside of town.

Unexpectedly, he had not gone far from Linlu Town when he encountered Feng Bujue and Li Ruoyu.

Jue-ge saw that this guy's data strength was much higher than ordinary NPCs, so he went up to negotiate with him. As for the results of the negotiation... well, it was pretty good for the two players.

Now that he had successfully allied with Wang Qiong, Feng Bujue was fully aware of the various secrets within this scenario.

He had already begun to lay out his plans for tonight's events.

However, what he could not have foreseen was... that his act of killing "Mirror" had already drastically changed the course of the original storyline.

***

Meanwhile, outside Linlu Town.

In the wilderness, a man was sitting upright on a large rock.

He was a middle-aged man, looked to be around fifty years old, with a scruffy beard.

He wore a bamboo hat and thick, ragged homespun clothes; beside him lay a stick-like object wrapped in cloth.

Although it was wrapped in cloth, anyone who looked at this object would feel... that it was a weapon.

"It's dawn," suddenly, a voice came from behind the man.

It was a woman's voice. She and her companion had been standing beside a tree not far from the middle-aged man, resting quietly.

They were both players, IDs [Oda Ai] and [Sasaki Mei].

"I know," after a moment, the middle-aged man slowly opened his mouth and replied.

"Mirror didn't come," Oda Ai added.

"Yes, he didn't come," the middle-aged man said.

"Yesterday you said... he would arrive by evening at the latest, but we waited all night in vain," Oda Ai said.

"What do you want to say?" the middle-aged man asked.

"What she wants to say is... there are only two possibilities," before Oda Ai could respond, Sasaki Mei interrupted in his sickly, weak voice, "First, Mirror ran off with the money himself. Second..."

He didn't finish, because he could feel that when he said the word "second," the aura of the middle-aged man on the rock... had changed.

"Hmm..." After a moment of contemplation, the middle-aged man spoke again, "Killing Mirror... is not so easy."

"Hmph... not necessarily," Oda Ai sneered when she heard this, "Perhaps it's difficult for those guys in town, but as for me... I can take his life within ten moves."

"Then do you think..." the middle-aged man continued, "Those 'outsiders' similar to you, can also do it?"

"Whether they can solve it within ten moves like Oda... it's hard to say," Sasaki Mei took over, replying, "But if you simply pursue the result of 'killing'... it won't be too difficult for them." As he spoke, he fixed his gaze on the other man's back, "As long as they are determined... even dealing with you is not entirely impossible."

"I see..." After listening to Sasaki Mei's words, the middle-aged man remained calm, replying faintly.

With that, he picked up the stick-like object wrapped in coarse cloth and stood up from the stone.

"Since that's the case..." After standing still, the middle-aged man raised his hand and tugged at the brim of his hat, "Then there's no need to wait any longer."

As soon as he said this, Oda Ai's expression changed, "What do you mean? You're going into town?"

"Yes," the middle-aged man gave a definite answer.

"Hey, hey... this isn't what we agreed on," Oda Ai clearly had some objections to the other party's decision.

"It doesn't make much difference to you, does it?" The middle-aged man didn't react much, his tone still calm, "It's just a matter of 'time' being brought forward a little."

"This..." Oda Ai was still hesitant.

"Don't worry," the middle-aged man continued, "I'm a man of my word... our deal remains the same; after we join forces to kill all those martial artists and so-called 'outsiders'..." As he spoke, he took out a bamboo scroll from his bosom and held it out to his side, "This 'Sword Dance Grass Script', I will naturally present with both hands."

The eyes of the two "Warring States" players changed slightly when they saw the item, but they did not make any moves.

"Of course, you can also choose... to draw your swords against me now," after a few seconds of pause, the middle-aged man added, "As long as you can kill me, this thing will naturally be yours."

Of course, they wouldn't draw their swords...

If Oda Ai and Sasaki Mei wanted to ambush this man, they would have done it already.

The reason they had stood less than five meters behind the other party all night without making a move was because they felt they didn't have the confidence...

In their opinion... the difficulty of joining forces with this NPC to kill other players and NPCs was far lower than the difficulty of the two of them challenging this NPC.

In fact, this was indeed the right choice.

Objectively speaking, this middle-aged man holding the "Sword Dance Grass Script" was very strong.

His combat power was at least in the top three in this martial arts world, of course... this list only counts living people, those who are no longer alive are not included.

In terms of individual combat skills - Mirror, Water, Moon, these three are already the top-tier level of the current martial world, they are stronger than experts of Duan Keyi, Cotton Taoist, and Xie Xiuwen's level.

But compared to this man, they were still far behind.

Even they themselves would admit this frankly, because... "Mirror Flower Water Moon" were all disciples of this man.