The sun seemed unusually high today.
Suspended high and bright in the sky, its light offered no warmth. Instead, it was blindingly white and astonishingly cold.
It was beneath this very sunlight.
A long-haired young woman sat atop the high courtyard wall. With her right elbow resting on her knee and her hand propping up her chin, she gazed down at the uninvited guests from her high vantage point.
It should have been a lazy, casual posture. Yet, perhaps because the sky behind her was too blindingly bright, or because the wind whipping her hair into the air was too fierce, the majority of her face and expression remained cast in deep shadow. Only her eyes were visible.
A pair of pitch-black eyes, staring down with absolute emotionlessness.
For a fleeting moment.
Regardless of their martial prowess, every single person was seized by that gaze, freezing in place for a second.
By the time they recovered their senses and grasped the meaning behind her words, that split-second of fear rapidly twisted into the furious indignation of being belittled and mocked.
"You are nothing but an ignorant child, yet you dare to bark so arrogantly!"
Accompanied by this furious roar, several renowned martial artists of the martial world struck at the exact same moment!
With swift and shifting footwork, they closed in to besiege the young woman on the high wall!
Inside the courtyard, Deng Caiying heard the commotion and could hold himself back no longer. He shoved the main doors open and charged out to join the fray.
Drawing his sword, he thrust at an attacker who had not yet reached Wu Zhen. His blade moved like thunder and lightning, aiming straight for the heart. Just as it was about to land a fatal blow, a jade-white folding fan drifted effortlessly into his peripheral vision, flicking upward with casual precision.
Deng Caiying suddenly felt as though his blade had struck solid steel. His sword was forced off course, and a relentless, jarring numbness shot all the way up his arm. Had his martial foundation not been so solid, that single parry would have sent his weapon flying from his grasp.
Deng Caiying whipped his head around, only to be met with the sight of Jiang Zhenxue.
He had no idea when the man had arrived. His immaculate white Daoist robe was utterly free of dust. Under the brilliant daylight, the fingers gripping the fan were distinct and elegant, looking as though they were carved from flawless jade.
The intruders had likely never laid eyes on someone with such a divine, crystalline presence, and astonishingly, they froze in the middle of a life-and-death struggle. Yet, the young Daoist lord's gaze did not land on a single one of them. His eyes seemed veiled by a thin mist, and for a fleeting moment, they betrayed a faint, almost illusory trace of disdain.
"If I were you," he said in a weightless tone, a faint smile still playing on his lips, "...I wouldn't intervene."
Deng Caiying knew those words were meant for him. He stared at Jiang Zhenxue in sheer bewilderment, completely unable to comprehend. Even if Wu Zhen was a martial arts prodigy and a peerless master, how could Jiang Zhenxue just stand back and watch her get ganged up on?
"Why? Isn't she your—"
But Deng Caiying never got the chance to finish his sentence.
He suddenly felt a slight weight on his left shoulder.
A shadow descended like a swooping swallow. Something had landed silently right behind him, resting a hand upon his shoulder.
It all happened in the blink of an eye—perhaps even faster.
A gust of wind swept past him from behind, carrying a bone-chilling cold. He saw pitch-black hair whip into the air, accompanied by a voice that was icy and utterly devoid of emotion.
"...Who gave you permission to kill my prey?"
In that very instant.
A prickling, needle-like sense of intense danger exploded down Deng Caiying's spine. His swordsman's physique, which he usually controlled with absolute precision, felt as though it had been pinned into place by that single hand. He couldn't move a muscle!
It was then that Deng Caiying finally recognized one undeniable fact with absolute clarity.
—When in battle, his benefactor was an absolute, indiscriminate lunatic!
From the corner of his eye, he could clearly see that her feet hadn't even touched the ground when she materialized beside him. Then, using the hand resting on his shoulder for the slightest bit of leverage, she launched herself back into the fray, as swift and weightless as a sparrow.
By this point,
Only two of the masters who had besieged her remained. Her killing speed was simply jaw-dropping, leaving absolutely no time to react. The last two men had no chance to flee before the dark-haired young woman closed the distance in a flash, slamming her palm down onto the crowns of their heads from above.
In a panic, one of them attempted to meet her strike with his own palms. The result was the utter obliteration of the meridians in his arms. Flesh and blood exploded outward as he was hammered straight into the earth.
Deng Caiying: ...
He was beginning to feel lightheaded.
Was this truly a level of physical power a human could achieve?
The remaining attackers were nearly scared senseless. Panicking, they scrambled to flee for their lives. Hoping to escape while the god of death was distracted, they channeled their qinggong to fly away. But before they could even gather their breath, a sharp, blade-like flash of silver sliced across their ankles. The silver light traced a perfect, beautiful arc, returning smoothly to the palm of the dark-haired young man like a fleeting blossom.
A split second later, bursts of blood bloomed in unison as their Achilles tendons were cleanly severed. Before they could even launch themselves into the air, they crashed heavily onto the bluestone path.
Meanwhile, the jade fan resting in the dark-haired young man's palm remained as spotless as ever, gleaming radiantly under the sunlight.
Wu Zhen turned her head and cast a glance at Jiang Zhenxue. Without a word, she drew her Sanyin Blade and cleaved the final master entangling her squarely in half. Then, she landed nimbly beside the remaining men who were still desperately dragging themselves away. With a few swift, merciless strokes of her blade, she executed them all—leaving only one alive.
She crouched down, resting her chin in her blood-soaked hand. Studying the fiercely trembling man, she asked, "Who sent you?"
"Spare me, young hero!" the man pleaded, his voice quivering. "I only came to witness the glory of the Sanyin Blade! I never intended to murder you and steal your treasure...!"
Wu Zhen glanced at the hostile red marker hovering over his forehead and raised her blade.
"...Wait, wait! I'll talk! I'll talk!" Realizing she wasn't bluffing, the man met her eyes for a single second and violently shuddered. Sweating profusely, he stammered, "We... we were used as pawns! Someone wants you dead, and they want your blade!"
The man stole a cautious glance at her. Seeing her face still entirely devoid of emotion, her pitch-black pupils staring at him in dead silence, he braced himself and added, "A-and... someone posted a bounty on your head at the Ten Ultimates Pavilion..."
[Clue - Ten Ultimates Pavilion: A terrifying assassin organization in the martial world. It seems your life is worth quite a lot of money.]
"The Ten Ultimates Pavilion...?" Deng Caiying murmured from the sidelines, his expression turning grave.
It seemed someone had paid a hefty sum for her life, intending to use the assassins of the Ten Ultimates Pavilion to test the mettle of the Sanyin Blade's new master.
"Where is this Ten Ultimates Pavilion?" Wu Zhen asked.
The man sweat buckets. "I... I don't know..."
Wu Zhen gave him a swift and merciful end.
She stood up and looked down at the massive bloodstains on her clothes, feeling a bit troubled. This was the one downside to unarmed melee combat. If she had used a proper weapon, she wouldn't have gotten blood everywhere—but she really disliked using weapons that had belonged to other people.
Oh well. Since this was just a fully immersive VR game anyway, she might as well forge a suitable weapon for herself!
She turned around and cheerfully asked Deng Caiying, "Do you know anything about weapon forging?"
Right on cue, the quest log updated with a new side quest.
[Quest: A good horse needs a good saddle, and a warrior needs a suitable weapon. Use the [Forging] skill to craft an exclusive weapon for [Wu Zhen].]
Seeing her completely unfazed, brushing off the dangerous situation to jump straight to another topic, Deng Caiying was momentarily taken aback. Still, he answered instinctively:
"I am not particularly knowledgeable about this. I do know a senior expert skilled in the craft, but he hasn't forged weapons for anyone in years. His whereabouts are a mystery; he has effectively retired from the martial world."
As he spoke, his gaze darted toward Wu Zhen's side for a second.
Jiang Zhenxue had appeared beside Wu Zhen at some unknown point. With lowered eyes, he was using a handkerchief to meticulously wipe the bloodstains from her hands. The black-haired girl didn't seem to find anything unusual about this at all. As if it were the most natural and expected thing in the world, she even offered him her other hand.
Deng Caiying truly could not comprehend the relationship between these two.
Suppressing the urge to scratch his head, he thought for a moment before saying, "The old master of Feixing Villa is celebrating his birthday next month. He is highly respected and has a wide circle of friends. That senior is an old friend of his and will likely attend. If you wish to ask about forging, Young Hero Wu, we could head to Feixing Villa and try our luck."
Clue - Feixing Villa: A faction of considerable standing in the martial world. The old master's eightieth birthday is approaching. Who knows what might happen?
Seeing the clue, Wu Zhen asked, "How long does it take to reach Feixing Villa?"
She had practically memorized the nearby maps; it was about time to unlock a new area.
She wasn't sure if completed quests and resolved clues would be converted into inheritance points during the final tally, but it was worth a try.
Deng Caiying replied, "If we don't rush our journey, ten days or so will be enough."
That left them with plenty of time.
"Then let's set off first thing tomorrow morning," Wu Zhen said cheerfully.
She glanced back at the corpses scattered across the ground and stuffed them all into her backpack.
When she turned back around, she was met with Deng Caiying staring at her as if he had just seen a ghost.
Wu Zhen looked at him in confusion.
Deng Caiying immediately averted his eyes, suddenly breaking out in a cold sweat for some reason. Seeing that she was still watching him, he silently mimed zipping his lips shut.
Ignoring him, Wu Zhen returned to the courtyard with a backpack full of corpses and buried the NPCs in the flowerbeds, ensuring nothing went to waste.
She buried them in a shallow layer of dirt. Once she had emptied her backpack, she paid them no further mind and returned to her room to wash off the blood.
Then, she began to organize her inventory.
After a period of clearing things out, which included, but was not limited to, giving things to Jiang Zhenxue, there was no more junk left in her backpack. Thus, she planned to suspend her daily gifting routine.
She kept every portable item inside her backpack, leaving her room completely bare aside from the furniture. Her food reserves were also sufficient to manage her hunger meter on the road.
Wu Zhen glanced at her Assets tab.
The hostile NPCs that had attacked today didn't carry much wealth. Even with a total wipeout and full loot drops, her gains didn't amount to even a tenth of what she had acquired from killing the Life-Claiming Saber. Not to mention, the cost of modifying terrain was several times higher than other construction options... She was going to have to kill a lot more people.
Although she still had quite a few rare treasures in her backpack, her hoarder instincts as an RPG player meant she generally wouldn't sell them.
Wu Zhen closed the interface. After finishing her daily zither practice in the courtyard, she checked her fatigue meter and decided to turn in early for the night.
In early spring, the sun set early. By the time she put away her zither and walked toward her room, the sky had already grown dim. And by the time she stepped inside, the courtyard was bathed in a blanket of moonlight.
With only a few minutes left before the day officially rolled over, Wu Zhen was just about to go to sleep when she heard a soft knock on her door.
She opened her minimap to check. It was Jiang Zhenxue. She couldn't help but feel a little puzzled.
This was the first time Jiang Zhenxue had come to find her so late. Did he need something?
Wu Zhen opened the door.
She saw the white-clad young man standing quietly outside. He carried a hint of damp moisture about him, perfectly illuminated by the liquid moonlight.
His eyelids were lowered, his long lashes casting shadows as he lost himself in unknown thoughts. Only when she opened the door did he lift his gaze, revealing a pair of dark eyes that observed her quietly.
His gaze, light as a feather, fell upon her, enveloping her entirely in its subtle intensity.
Like an invisible net.
Before Wu Zhen could even offer a questioning look.
He tilted his head slightly and asked, "Is there nothing today?"
Wu Zhen paused, momentarily confused. "What?"
Jiang Zhenxue replied, "My gift."
