Chapter 247: The Owner of the Flying Sword (Bonus for Ally Huang Wei Cleon)

Before Ruan Ning and her group could even log off, another massive crowd swarmed into the shop. Adding the dozen-odd disciples of the Huang Family, there were nearly fifty or sixty people in total!

Beside Huang San stood a plump, middle-aged man clad in a deep brown, broad-sleeved robe, looking every bit the picture of wealth.

In truth, Huang San had not been particularly keen on bringing Tao Kun along. But when one went knocking on another's door to borrow men, it was easy enough to fool ordinary folk, yet no simple task to deceive a shrewd fox like this!

Thus, at this juncture, he had no choice but to bring everyone along.

"Shopkeeper! Activate that... whatever it's called, Legend!" Fifty or sixty people filed in one after another, naturally drawing the attention of many in the shop, including Ruan Ning and her companions, who had hastily fled here after killing someone for their treasure.

Behind the counter, Zou Mo's eyes went utterly wide. So many people, all here to activate Legend! How many spirit crystals would that be?!

"I... I'm actually working in a shop like this?!" Zou Mo stared dumbfoundedly as Huang San, Tao Kun, and the others slammed a massive pouch of spirit crystals onto the desk, before he hurriedly began counting them one by one, terrified of missing even a single piece!

"It really is Second Manager Tao..." Ruan Ning was momentarily left speechless. Had it been before, she would have wondered in astonishment why even this man had come, but now...

To not come to such a magnificent place, one would have to be a fool!

Tao Kun was the Second Manager of the Yuanheng Pavilion, an establishment that dealt strictly in exquisite wares, selling all manner of rare spells and spiritual treasures. Their business was by no means small; whether inside or outside the city, countless factions were clients of Yuanheng Pavilion!

However, he had only tagging along with Huang San today to see for himself. For Huang San to borrow so many men from him, there was bound to be something fishy going on. Fortunately, Huang San had not harbored much hope of keeping it a secret anyway. Once the matter was laid bare, Tao Kun could not help but find it bizarre: "To think that such a shop has appeared within this Half-City?!"

No matter how vast his experience or how wide his knowledge, a place like this was something he had never heard of, let alone seen!

Most importantly, this was actually a new faction!

A faction that had only recently been established, one that had not even secured its footing, yet dared to brazenly set up such a shop in the open...

If everything Huang San said was true, this matter demanded deep reflection!

Since the inhabitants of Half-City were mostly cultivators, their chosen professions in the game were predominantly Mages and Taoists. Soon, a large crowd of newcomers flooded into the small starting village!

Upon sensing his own cultivation rising, Tao Kun's eyes went completely round!

To think that slaying these monsters could actually increase one's strength?! And with such pure spiritual energy?!

This was far more potent than even the Head Manager's private cultivation chamber!

Yet, with so many people gathered now, compounded by the players from Jiuhua City...

Even though the system's version of the map was already vastly expanded, the monsters outside the village still seemed like too little meat for too many wolves.

Tao Kun was clearly a man of far greater boldness and resolve than Huang San. With a sharp sweep of his hand, he commanded: "Go find things to kill in the surrounding areas! If anyone dares to snatch our prey, slaughter them all!"

The Second Manager of Tao intended to clear the field! Bringing so many men along was not for the purpose of reasoning with others!

Such was his sheer overbearing tyranny!

At the very least, every chicken, duck, and goose in the vicinity was to be completely monopolized by them!

Thus, outside the Beginner's Village, one could only see a massive swarm of novices wielding small wooden swords, relentlessly hacking away at all sorts of small animals! Not only that, they slaughtered anyone they came across!

"You think you have numbers?" Tao Kun let out a cold sneer, speaking with immense pride, "Brother Huang, where is that Jiuhua Army you spoke of? Let us see if they can match my Yuanheng Pavilion Guard!"

Gong Ao and the rest of the Jiuhua Army, along with Wang Qiang and his cohort, had already logged off and left, remaining entirely oblivious to the chaos!

Instead, it was the other passing players who immediately suffered. Within a short span of time, over a dozen of them had already been blasted to pieces!

...

The Poison Elixir King, Qin Honglin, possessed another hidden identity.

He was the absolute greatest local tyrant of the entire Thirty-Sixth District, though nowadays, most of these affairs were left to his subordinates, Xue Nian and Xu Biao, to manage.

As for himself, he currently resided in his own small domain, the Honglin Medicine Shop. On the surface, he traded in medicinal elixirs, but in the shadows, he conducted other unsavory, under-the-table dealings.

Lately, however, his business had run into a minor hitch. It had been such a long time, yet that audacious thief—who had slain two of his subordinates right before everyone's eyes in his own shop—had not left behind a single shred of a clue!

Consequently, during a few transactions earlier today, the buyers had subjected him to some rather unpleasant testings!

For some believed that Qin Honglin, the old tiger, had already lost his teeth!

This was a very ominous sign!

At this moment, Liu San held a rolled piece of paper in his grip, his face equally ashen: "Has truly no one ever seen the person who wields this sword?"

Just then, a voice cried out: "Not... not good!"

One of his black-robed cultivators rushed in, reporting with a trace of panic: "Blood Four and Ghost Hand Du Gan... their cultivations have both been destroyed, and their limbs broken! They are completely ruined now!"

"What?!" Liu San's face darkened instantly. "Where are they now?!"

"It so happened that my men were passing by the area, chanced upon them, and brought them back!" the black-robed cultivator said. "Boss, what should we do?"

"Take me to see them!" With a grim countenance, Liu San strode into the main hall, only to find several men lying on the ground, drawing their final, feeble breaths. He had no choice but to suppress his temper and infuse a bit of his own cultivation into one of them. "What exactly happened?!"

"That person's fly... flying sword technique is terrifyingly formidable!" Blood Four gasped, clinging to the remnants of his life. "With a single strike of the sword, my spiritual treasure was shattered!"

"Flying sword technique?!" Liu San's expression suddenly jolted!

"What flying sword technique?!" Liu San hurriedly unrolled the painting in his hand and thrust it forward. "Was it a flying sword like this?!"

"Yes...!" As if catching sight of something utterly terrifying, Blood Four crawled backward in frantic retreat, howling, "It was exactly that flying sword...!"

Liu San gripped the scroll tightly in his hand and squeezed with immense force. In an instant, it disintegrated into a shower of paper dust on the floor. "Excellent! Truly, one searches far and wide only to find it by sheer chance! To think that the master of this flying sword, whom the higher-ups have been desperately searching for, was right under our very noses!"

...

Within the Honglin Medicine Shop, Qin Honglin stared with a dark, brooding face at another scroll in his hands. It depicted a young man with a flying sword hovering by his side. The young man's features and the intricate details of the flying sword were drawn with absolute clarity!

"To think this person not only dared to run amok in our Honglin Medicine Shop, but also slaughtered the men of the Black Demon!"

"He has brought this ruin upon himself; he cannot be allowed to live!" The speaker was the seductive, enchanting woman beside him.

Right at that moment, a burly cultivator dressed in black strode into the room.

"Xu Biao? What is it?"

Xu Biao walked in and whispered a few words into his ear.

"What?! The man has been found?!" Qin Honglin bolted upright from his seat, a wide smile breaking across his face. "It seems our men were one step ahead after all!"

"To dare kill the Black Demon's men, he must possess some measure of ability," the glamorous woman remarked. "Why not let this servant take some men and handle it?"

"No!" A sinister, malicious smile crept onto Qin Honglin's face, instantly twisting his otherwise transcendent, sage-like countenance into something unspeakably grotesque. "This matter, this old man shall handle personally. You all need only watch! I shall refine him into a Blood Elixir with my own two hands! Only then shall the fury in my heart be appeased!"