"Whoa!"

Skidding to a halt, I glanced around, my Heaven and Earth senses alert for any kind of attack. However, n.o.body would bother to attack me because I wasn"t the protagonist. And even if they did, they would be wasting their time as I had nothing on value on my body for them to steal.

Wait, what? You"re asking me why they would attack someone for being the protagonist? Well, just read I was Trash or Skill Unparalleled. Seriously, the people there had too much time, money and resources to waste. Let"s take Lin Mu from I was Trash, for example. Sure, he"s powerful, and sure, he offended a couple of rich kids.

But was that enough of a reason to justify the kids" parents – who were incidentally CEOs and presidents of megrich conglomerates – to hire a.s.sa.s.sins to kill the guy? In fact, why the f.u.c.k were they trying to a.s.sa.s.sinate Lin Mu in the first place? The only reason I can think of is because he was the protagonist, and needed a reason to show off his martial arts by fighting off a.s.sa.s.sins. Otherwise it made no f.u.c.king sense. a.s.sa.s.sins cost a lot of money, you know. And if they get caught, however unlikely that would be, they would be in deep trouble.

So why waste all that money and resources, and brave committing a crime, to a.s.sa.s.sinate a kid who was pretty much insignificant and didn"t really threaten you or your company other than…maybe offending your son?

And in Skill Unparalleled, look, I know match-fixing and corruption are involved, but who the f.u.c.k sends world-renowned a.s.sa.s.sins to kill an insignificant boxer who just only started his career? Never mind in real life, n.o.body gets a.s.sa.s.sinated just for winning a match in a tournament…why do they even bother with a n.o.body who just won a single match or two? Did they have so much money and resources to waste on getting rid of an insignificant rookie like him? Or was it purely because he was the protagonist that the story had to bend all sort of conceivable logic to throw him into a conflict and have him confront the most unbelievable of villains?

Speaking of I was Trash, I also had something to say about the ridiculous number of heroines who showed up one after another, only to disappear for dozens of chapters or never to show up again. With the absurd number of female characters appearing, you couldn"t even tell who was who, or remember any of them, and in any case it didn"t matter because they would disappear shortly after. As one Chinese reader remarked, even if you want to write a harem story, this wasn"t the way to do it. Funnily enough, none of the a.s.sa.s.sination attempts were justified by some guy wanting to take out a love rival. The heroines just happened to be tangential to the a.s.sa.s.sination subplot. Wait, was the a.s.sa.s.sination thing a subplot or the main plot? Then his interactions with the heroines and the "romance" (or complete lack of it) the main plot or subplot?

Who cares?

"Oi! Wu, what are you ranting about? Why are you talking to yourself like that? Stay focused!"

At Zhu Jiao"s yell, I returned to reality. Right, we were currently in front of a vast, cavernous hall that resembled a stadium more than the interior of some tomb. As always, a network of tunnels snaked away from the edge of the stadium, but no one paid them any attention right now.

Instead, they were all focused on watching the contents in the middle of the ma.s.sive hall.

"That"s…"

I spotted Bai Ning Xue, Kuang Hu and the White Tiger Sect among the crowd. Not far away from them were the members of the Heavenly Way Sect.

Boom!

However, Bai Ning Xue and the others clearly did not register the presence of Zhu Jiao and me. All of them were attacking a glowing barrier in the middle of the vast hall. The combined force of their fierce a.s.sault sent violent ripples across the shimmering surface, but to its credit, the glowing barrier held strong.

I rested my gaze upon the glowing barrier, my gla.s.ses scanning and a.n.a.lyzing the contents. The images on my lenses sharpened before transforming visibly into actual objects. Through the faint glow, I could make out several gleaming shadows behind the translucent screen, which were taking the shape of a sword, a spear, a staff, a shield, a bow, a mace, an axe, and a pair of gauntlets.

"Spirit Treasure Weapons!"

I heard the sharp intake of breath beside me, Zhu Jiao gasping as he shouted excitedly. I nodded as I registed the eight distinct shapes as all being Spirit Treasure Weapons. In other words, they were a cla.s.s above normal Spirit Weapons.

"This is awesome!"

I understood Zhu Jiao"s excitement. Even in the whole of Martial City, it was near impossible for us to find a single Spirit Treasure Weapon. Yet, right in front of us, within this vast, ancient tomb, there were not one but eight Spirit Treasure Weapons.

My eyes were naturally drawn to the sword. Unfortunately, I wasn"t the only one. Most of the occupants in the room were staring hungrily at the treasure sword. Regrettably for me, I just had to choose to learn the most common weapon there was – in almost every story, everyone used swords – which meant compet.i.tion for it was the fiercest.

On the other hand, the treasure sword was also the most magnificent and potent out of the eight, giving off an aura that dwarfed even the other treasure weapons within its proximity.

Beside me, Zhu Jiao was practically drooling. I could tell what he was thinking – he probably thought that even just one of those treasure weapons possessed a value that far surpa.s.sed the amount he could ama.s.s from all of the Pure Yuan Pills that he had obtained earlier. Speaking of which, I noticed that he never mentioned anything about sharing his spoils. Not that I expected him to – he obtained them on his own fair and square, and I wasn"t shameless enough to demand that my bro split the treasures he found with me.

I wouldn"t be pleased if he made that request, and I knew Zhu Jiao well enough to trust that he wouldn"t.

"As expected of a Nascent Soul Stage pract.i.tioner"s tomb!"

Zhu Jiao did his best to calm himself down. He exchanged a glance with me before sweeping his eyes across the hall. As I had noted earlier, everyone was staring greedily at the eight Treasure Weapons within the barrier.

At present, however, they were united in their goal of breaking the barrier. Before fighting over the Treasure Weapons, they had to break through the barrier first. Otherwise, it would be meaningless to just wait around and stare at the weapons inside.

On the other hand, we could expect a tremendously b.l.o.o.d.y battle the moment the barrier collapsed and everyone began fighting for the treasure weapons.

"To obtain these Spirit Treasure Weapons, it"s worth putting one"s life on the line!" Zhu Jiao whispered, his eyes gleaming. I raised an eyebrow at that, but Zhu Jiao was paying me no attention. Instead, he was raising a hand and gathering golden earth-type qi into it to launch an attack at the barrier. "Let"s do this!"

A golden beam lanced out and struck the surface of the glowing barrier. Golden Kirin Holy Blast, if I remembered correctly, having been on the receiving end of it during last year"s tournament final. Even so, I could tell that Zhu Jiao was deliberately holding back.

He was conserving his qi and strength for the inevitable battle later.

Of course, Zhu Jiao wasn"t the only one. A quick scan with my Heaven and Earth Sense revealed that not everyone was using their full strength. Most of the martial artists were also holding back their power, waiting for the barrier to shatter before making their move.

"Geez…"

I sighed. Since I was here, I might as well join in. Even though I knew my chances of actually getting anything out of this were close to zero – there had to be hundreds of martial artists cl.u.s.tered within this large s.p.a.ce – I decided to give a try anyway. Having an astronomical chance was better than having no chance at all. But I was too realistic and practical to a.s.sume the worst. Expect the worst and hope for the best, that was my motto.

Gathering qi in my hands, I fired off a shadowy blast that splashed across the barrier. Frowning, I noticed the Spirit Engraving patterns on the barrier. It would be so much easier if I stepped forward, deciphered and decoded the Spirit Engraving pattern, but I wasn"t a fool. The moment I dissipated the barrier, everyone would rush in and shove me aside. No one would thank me for helping the barrier or reward me for my efforts.

As kind-hearted as I was, I was not a fool. Okay, maybe I was an idiot. But even so I wasn"t stupid to the extent where I would let people take advantage of me. Like, spending three to four hours a day to write a chapter to maintain a daily release schedule while sacrificing sleep, my other hobbies and my social life, only to have to suffer through abusive comments, flames, hate, and a flood of 0.5 ratings. Not to mention people calling my story trash or calling me an idiot.

I wasn"t getting paid for investing so much time and energy into this, and I wasn"t asking for grat.i.tude or appreciation, and I couldn"t care less about votes or rankings. But why did I have to sit there and take all the abuse, insults and inflammatory 0.5 ratings and reviews, despite spending so much time and effort and making so many sacrifices to keep just one or two readers entertained?

Well, the point is that, I wasn"t stupid enough to allow myself to get exploited by b.a.s.t.a.r.ds who wouldn"t be grateful or appreciate that I took the barrier down for them. So I decided to join the a.s.sault and break it through the hard way.

Fortunately, the barrier protecting the Spirit Treasure Weapons was not as sophisticated and durable as the one protecting the exterior of the ancient tomb. Under the relentless a.s.sault of the crowd, the glowing barrier began to dim and crack, buckling under the hundreds of techniques that slammed into it. Shards began peeling off and falling onto the ground as the barrier neared catastrophic collapse.

The moment they saw that, the atmosphere in the huge hall transformed instantly. Initially, the crowd were cl.u.s.tered together densely, working in concert and united in their efforts. However, right now they were all warily eyeing each other as they spread out, paranoia and suspicion beginning to cloud their hearts.

I sighed when I saw that, and shook my head. Typical human behavior. It was every man for himself, I guess, especially when it came to s.n.a.t.c.hing those Spirit Treasure Weapons. Admittedly, it was probably normal in a cutthroat world.

"Zhu Jiao, when everyone charges for the spirit treasure weapons later, don"t go for the sword-type Spirit Treasure Weapon. Do you see the gauntlets all the way to the right? Go for that instead!"

My ears perked up when I overheard that. To be more accurate, I didn"t so much as heard it but sensed it. Evidently Qi Lin, Zhu Jiao"s master, was whispering to him from inside the golden amulet and directing him as he did throughout the entire expedition.

"Uh, obviously." Zhu Jiao tried not to roll his eyes and speak out loud, but the stupidity of his master"s statement struck him as way odd. "I don"t use a sword. I use fist-based martial arts, remember? You were the one who taught me that."

It went without saying that the Treasure Weapon that Qi Lin wanted Zhu Jiao to take was the pair of gray gauntlets.

"Wise disciple. I thought you were planning on going for the most powerful Treasure Weapon, which is the sword."

"Are you kidding?" Zhu Jiao hissed in a low tone, trying not to be heard by others and failing (well, I was the only one who could hear him, so I guess he did succeed). "What use is going for the most powerful Spirit Treasure Weapon if I can"t wield it? It"s too late for me to start learning swordsmanship now. I might as well go for the armament I"m most familiar with."

"True," Qi Lin admitted. "I guess I sort of underestimated your intellect and moral character."

In a way, Qi Lin could be forgiven for doubting Zhu Jiao. Unlike the golden, majestic sword that shone brightly, the gauntlets all the way to the right were gray and appeared slightly worn down. Furthermore, the glow it emitted was the dimmest among the eight. Visibly, it did not look like a Spirit Treasure Weapon at all.

In fact, if it wasn"t grouped together with the others, n.o.body would have suspected that it was a Spirit Treasure Weapon.

That was why it was easy to conclude that it was the worst.

"Heh, don"t worry. Even though it looks like that, those gauntlets are actually far more valuable and powerful than you think. They won"t lose even to the sword-type Treasure Weapon. In fact, I can tell that those gauntlets are only half-complete. Hmm…to think that despite being only half-complete, its power is already equal to that of a mid-ranked Spirit Treasure Weapon…I can"t wait to see how powerful it would become when it"s finally completed! It might even match up against the Heavenly Way Sect"s Heavenly Spear!"

I recalled the Heavenly Spear that Jiang Jun Hao wielded earlier, to attempt to break the barrier surrounding the ancient tomb. So that was a high-ranked Spirit Treasure Weapon, according to Qi Lin, anyway. I had no idea how they ranked Treasure Weapons. Was it based on their durability? Power? Amount of qi stored inside it?

"Half-complete?" Zhu Jiao repeated in shock. He gaped for a moment, and then remembered to close his mouth. Shaking his head, he raised what he thought was a valid objection. "I don"t know how to forge it. If I want to reforge it into a complete Treasure Weapon, I"ll need to learn blacksmithing and Spirit Engraving. That will take me too long…many years if I have to. I mean, of course, I"ll still take the gauntlets, but I doubt I"ll go through the trouble of reforging it."

"Hah!" Qi Lin snorted. "Who asked you to forge it?! Your good friend, the guy wearing gla.s.ses, he"s a blacksmith and Spirit Engraver from the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, isn"t he? Even though he"s not a top-ranked blacksmith, he should at least be competent enough. Make use of your friendship and get him to help you!"

What the f.u.c.k? You think I"ll let you take advantage of me like that, you b.l.o.o.d.y old geezer?!

Zhu Jiao"s lips pursed – clearly he didn"t like the idea of exploiting our friendship either. Knowing him, he would insist on paying me a large sum of money in exchange for my sloppy services. I guess I would let his master"s audacious remark go, since the one to benefit from this would be my friend, and he would reward me handsomely.

Dragging my eyes back to the present, I glanced at the sword. Unfortunately, there were far too many people eyeing it, and I knew I wouldn"t be able to fight for it. Within this ma.s.sive chamber, there were plenty of highly skilled martial artists who were aiming for that treasure sword too. With so many people fighting over it, my chances of obtaining it were close to nil.

Maybe I should try grabbing the spear.

I glanced at the spear, which was being contested by less people. Elder Zhao was teaching me how to use a spear under the Nine Heavenly Armament techniques, after all…perhaps I could make do with my secondary weapon, even if it wasn"t optimal.

The spear, though paling in comparison to the sword, still beheld a regal figure, with precious gemstones encrusted within its blade and its shaft seeming to be forged out of gold. It exuded an immense amount of power. Even if I could get just that, the spear alone would be worth the entire trip to the tomb.

"Let"s focus on getting it first, then I"ll worry about forging and whatnot later."

Beside me, Zhu Jiao had made his decision. His eyes narrowed in determination, he focused solely on the gauntlets.

"Don"t worry! You won"t be disappointed!"

Geez, just go transform into a marten, old man. The b.l.o.o.d.y geezer was ripping off the little marten"s lines more and more. Anymore and I would literally head over and choke the life out of him. Except that he was dead, so that wasn"t an option…huh?

Why the h.e.l.l was I getting worked up over a ghost that was pretending to be a little marten?

Trying to suppress my irritation, I focused on destroying the barrier. Even though I didn"t want to get exploited, it was true that if none of us did anything, the barrier would remain unbroken and n.o.body would get the Treasure Weapons. While that was better than everyone else getting the Treasure Weapons at my expense, it also meant that there was absolutely zero chance of me getting anything either.

In the end, I might as well gamble on trying to grab the Treasure Weapon instead of denying everyone it.

Fortunately, I didn"t have to do anything. While I was contemplating and shooting off shadow blasts at the same time, the barrier finally gave in and began to crumble.

Crack!

At the soft sound, everyone in the hall froze for a moment. Their eyes narrowed as they studied the spherical berrier intently, drawn to the tiny crack that had finally appeared. The crack slowly expanded across the barrier and splintered into a cobweb.

Crack! Crack!

The cobweb of cracks rapidly spread across the spherical barrier, almost like some sort of bug seeking to wrap its creepy tendrils around it.

Bang!

And finally…the whole thing shattered. The cracks were far too many for the barrier to withstand, and it shattered with a thunderous explosion, raining golden qi shards onto the ground. Violent strands of qi streamed outward, buffeting the crowd.

However, despite the shockwaves, the crowd was so possessed by their greed that they paid the blasts no heed and immediately sprang forward, all of them charging for the Treasure Weapons now exposed and open to capture.

That"s it? I wondered. No traps, no spirit guardians, nothing?

You would think the owner of the tomb would place a sentry or two, or at least put some traps around the barrier to discourage the greedy descendants from s.n.a.t.c.hing his treasures. Apparently Zhu Jiao and I were late to the party. Bai Ning Xue and the others must have deactivated and overcome the traps or whatever guardians protecting the large hall earlier. The barrier must have been the final defense against grave robbers.

Watching the scene of onrushing pract.i.tioners, I was suddenly reminded of an image of shoppers on a Black Friday sale. Or the after-hours supermarket sale in j.a.pan. You know, the one where everyone shoved and pushed ahead to grab the dwindling products on sales to take advantage of the huge discounts before they were all sold out.

Fortunately, the only Black Friday sales I partic.i.p.ated in were digital ones. I was so glad I didn"t have to contend with such fierce compet.i.tion physically. And that was the one good thing about digital products – as long as you made your purchase within the discounted period, they would never run out of stock. Steam sales were the best!

"Let"s go!"

Zhu Jiao"s voice rang in my ears. Just like the others, the instant the barrier crumbled, he had leaped forward. Just as the both of us expected, the majority of the people present were unable to suppress their greed and were aiming for the most powerful Spirit Treasure Weapon, which was the sword. In contrast, the people competing for the remaining seven Spirit Treasure Weapons were a lot less.

Glancing at my friend, I could see him chuckling gleefully, as if he had everything planned out. He spun away from the sword and dashed toward the pair of gauntlets, which naturally had the least number of people contending for them.

The guy was so focused on grabbing the gauntlet-type Spirit Treasure Weapons that I could see him resorting to any measure. Not wanting to compete with my friend for it, I veered off and went for the spear, which also had relatively few compet.i.tiors trying to grab it.

Including Zhu Jiao, there were about five pract.i.tioners sprinting forward for the gauntlets, but knowing my friend, he would figure a way to beat all of them. I had best worry about my own circ.u.mstances instead.

Even though there wasn"t as many people competing for the spear as there were for the sword, the number of people dashing for it outnumbered those aiming for the gauntlets. There were twelve other people charging at the spear.

Will I be able to make it?

Using Jin, I dashed forward, making use of my superior speed to reach the spear ahead of the others. I was so close to grabbing it when I suddenly sensed something streaking toward my back.

"!!!"

Spinning around in midair, I narrowly escaped an elemental qi blast that almost pierced through my spine. The sharp pressure of qi lanced into the wall behind me, gouging out a huge chunk of concrete. If I hadn"t evaded that, I would have been sliced in half!

"Hey!" I complained, but n.o.body paid me any attention. Instead, several of them attacked me, especially when they saw that I was the closest to the spear.

"Get out of the way!"

"The spear is mine!"

"Move!"

While I was forced to dodge, I noted that I wasn"t the only one who the other martial artists were attacking. The second, third and fourth closest pract.i.tioners had also inadvertently made themselves targets, the remaining martial artists close behind spreading out and attacking us.

That they failed to kill us didn"t matter. Murder wasn"t their goal. They were more intent on grabbing the spear than actually taking our lives. While I was dodging, one of them dashed past me eagerly, his hands reaching for the spear.

Boom!

He never reached it.

Just before his fingers could reach within a few centimeters of the spear, another martial artist from behind thrust with his non-treasure Spirit Spear and lanced through the guy who almost ensnared it. Blood gurgled from the unfortunate martial artist and he went down, his eyes rolling in his sockets. His killer yanked out his spear and slashed at the remaining martial artists who were trying to get close to the Treasure Weapon.

Whoosh!

Unfortunately by drawing first blood, he might as well paint a huge bull"s eye over his forehead and invite more attacks. Seeing him callously murder another compet.i.tor, the remaining eleven martial artists knew that they had no need to hold back against someone as ruthless as him (or they might die), so they ganged up on him.

"Kuh…!"

It was the murderer"s turn to gurgle in blood as he was pierced by several different attacks and cruelly swept aside by the others as they fought to reach the spear.

"…"

Even though I didn"t partic.i.p.ate in the killing, I still couldn"t help but feel uncomfortable at the gruesome sight. It wasn"t because I wasn"t used to seeing death – I had seen plenty of people die, and I had murdered people with my very own hands before, such as Ba Yun and Qi Fu Ren – but even so those were done out of self-defense.

I didn"t make it a habit of killing someone who wasn"t trying to kill me. Granted, that b.a.s.t.a.r.d did kill another guy, but even so…

Now isn"t the time to think about such things.

I pushed the uncomfortable thoughts out of my mind and continued to dash forward. Thanks to my Shadow Steps and footwork techniques, I was able to pull ahead of the others, but even then…

"Hah!"

One of the other martial artists grabbed the spear before I could. d.a.m.n it! I was just centimeters away from s.n.a.t.c.hing it myself!

Frustration welled up inside me and I pulled to a stop, backing off immediately. Now that the guy had claimed the spear as his own, there was no reason for me to challenge him. He won the race fair and square, and I wasn"t the type to rob other people or steal from them.

Sighing in disappointment, I retreated, feeling very bitter. Fair play to the guy, he was just a little faster than me, and probably more cunning and adept at taking advantage of the situation. All I had was speed, and I lacked experience.

Unfortunately, the other martial artists didn"t seem to agree with me.

"Hmph!"

"Hand that over and I"ll spare your life!"

"Give that to me!"

While some of them retreated and gave up like I did, at least six of them charged forward greedily and recklessly, not caring that the new owner of the spear won it fair and square. They refused to accept their loss and were willing to resort to physical violence to forcibly rip the spear out of his grip so that they could monopolize it.

How foolish.

I couldn"t help but shake my head at their recklessness. Before, our skills and techniques were pretty even, but now that the guy had gotten his hands on the Spirit Treasure Weapon…

Swoosh!

"Gaaah!"

"Whoa!"

"Ugh!"

A hurricane blasted out as the new owner of the Spirit Treasure Weapon swung his recently acquired spear. As expected of a Spirit Treasure Weapon – the qi it exuded was imposing. The frontmost guy screamed as the hurricane blades ripped through his body, sending blood spurting into the air before splashing backward from the blast of the vicious winds.

"!!!"

The second guy quickly reacted, bringing up his spear and shield to block the hurricane, but even so he was thrown off his feet and sent hurtling backward. He survived, but ended up being severely injured, clutching his chest as he coughed out a glob of blood. Looking up with a frightfully pale face, he made no further action to challenge the new owner of the spear.

The third guy was not as lucky.

He managed to evade the hurricane blades, being as fleet-footed as I was, disappearing before flanking in from the side and thrusting his non-treasure spear. The new spear owner antic.i.p.ated his attack and without even glancing back, moved his newly acquired spear back to parry the strike.

Clang!

"?!"

Sparks flew as metal met metal. Twirling the Treasure Weapon, the winner tore his opponent"s weapon from his grip before slamming the end of his shaft into the poor person"s belly. Again, blood erupted from the guy"s mouth before he fell to his knees, doubling over and howling in pain. The Treasure Weapon owner ignored him to confront the threat from the fourth guy, who was bellowing as he swung his own weapon down.

Slash!

I was almost unable to see the strike. The next thing I knew, the fourth guy was shrieking as he staggered back, both his arms gone. Blood poured profusely from his stumps and he stumbled backward before falling over, his eyes growing gla.s.sy.

"!!!"

The fifth guy wisely aborted his plan and retreated, but the sixth guy refused to give up. He thrust his spear forward, believing that he succeeded in exploiting an opening, but the Treasure Weapon owner spun around and sliced his head off before his spear could find his chest. The headless corpse continued to thrust weakly, completely missing his target, then as if it had realized that it was supposed to be dead, toppled over like a puppet whose strings were cut.

"…"

The rest of us glanced at each other nervously before taking a step back. The Treasure Weapon Owner smirked as he planted his new spear on the ground and stared at us.

"Any of you still want to try taking my spear from me?"

"Nope," I replied as I raised both my hands in surrender. It was frustrating, but I wasn"t some lucky wuxia/xianxia protagonist who could have everything go my way and monopolize all the good things and treasures in a tomb. And I didn"t want to test the limits of my plot armor either. As powerful and valuable as the spear-type Spirit Treasure Weapon was, it wasn"t worth losing my life over. "You can keep it."