Chapter 3

The hunter stared at Xie Mengyun, his eyes glowing red. There wasn’t a hint of drunkenness about him. With his hands occupied, he simply bared his yellowed teeth and lunged at Xie Mengyun’s slender, pale neck.  

Death wasn’t terrifying, what was terrifying was how one died.  

Xie Mengjun had previously thought it was embarrassing to be slapped to death in the novice village. But now, she’d rather be struck seventeen or eighteen times than endure a single bite.  

Who knew if this hunter had even brushed his teeth since the game started?!  

In a flash of lightning, Xie Mengyun let go of her sword, used the hilt for leverage to push off, and leaped into the air.

At that moment, everything around her seemed to slow down. Xie Mengyun saw with perfect clarity as the hunter raised his head, his cold, bloodthirsty gaze tracking her movement upward.  

Then she noticed, his pupils suddenly dilated, and thin, irregular red veins crept outward from the edges of his eyes.  

‘This was bad.’

After a period of struggle, the hunter’s health had been whittled down significantly and was now on the verge of depletion. According to the laws of monster battles, many bosses, in their final moments, receive a special blessing from the system, triggering a special state.  

True to her expectations, he went berserk.

Sparrow Steps granted substantial bonuses to evasion and agility, and it was only thanks to this skill that Xie Mengyun had managed to barely cling to survival under the hunter’s relentless onslaught. But now, facing a mini-boss whose stats had suddenly surged across the board, her previous evasive tactics were no longer enough.  

Xie Mengyun leaped upward to dodge the hunter’s snapping bite, twisted midair, and landed on the half-crumbling wall of the boss’s house. She took two quick steps, then stumbled as a searing pain flared across her back, and her HP bar continuously dropped.

The berserk boss’s attack power and speed had both skyrocketed. After being slapped several times in succession, Xie Mengyun’s already thin HP bar was reduced to just a sliver.

As the saying goes, among the thirty-six stratagems^[1]The Thirty-Six Stratagems (《三十六计》) is a classic Chinese treatise on military strategy and cunning tactics, believed to have been compiled during the late Ming or early Qing dynasty. It … Continue reading, fleeing is the best…

Xie Mengyun swiftly scrambled toward the top of the wall, ready to vault over it and escape, when a tremendous force yanked at her ankle. She glanced back and saw the hunter’s left hand clamped like a vise around her right foot, dragging her down with brute strength.  

“Do you think I’m a damn yo-yo?”  

Fury burned through Xie Mengyun’s veins. Gripping the wall’s edge with both hands, she raised her left foot and viciously stomped on the hunter’s face. But whether it was due to the boss’s unnaturally thick skin or sheer stubbornness, even after seven or eight brutal kicks, his health barely budged, while Xie Mengyun’s palms were now slick with blood.  

To prevent players from crying and abandoning the game midway, the pain sensation in ‘Riding through the Jianghu’ could be adjusted up to 80%. Xie Mengjun had set hers to the default 20% when she entered the game. Even so, that was enough to make her forehead break out in a cold sweat from the pain.

Seeing Xie Mengyun cling stubbornly to the wall like some tenacious squid, the hunter roared in frustration. He tossed aside the rusty iron sword he’d snatched from her, and used both of his hands to yank hard.

The gap in level and strength was simply too vast. Xie Mengyun soon felt the wall beneath her hands begin to tremble. Then, in the next instant, her body suddenly went weightless. To her shock, she was hurled into the air, still clutching a chunk of the wall, tracing a bright parabolic arc across the sky before tumbling headlong toward the ground.  

A split second before embracing the earth in a bone-shattering impact, Xie Mengyun, finally shaking off her dizziness activated her Qinggong skill in desperation.  

“CRASH!”

Xie Mengyun heard the sound of a heavy object falling and almost thought she had failed her landing. A grey-white mist spread in front of her, and the bricks and stones from the wall continuously collapsed downward. Amidst the crashing sounds, there were also continuous screams from a certain mini-boss being struck.

Xie Mengjun silently dropped the wall brick she was still clutching in her hand.

The hunter’s remaining health was already low. By the time the dust settled, half of his body was buried under broken bricks and shattered tiles, leaving him completely immobilized and gasping for breath. He was exhaling more than inhaling.

Xie Mengyun’s iron sword had been lost in the earlier fight. Eyeing the hunter’s sliver of remaining health, she reached into her inventory and pulled out an embroidery needle.  

 

Ordinary Embroidery Needle: Gifted by Chu Xiaoxiu, can be used to mend clothes. Attack power: 1

 

 【Guild】 Yangfan Jicanghai: …So you brutally poked the boss to death with a needle?!

 

A chilling cold could be felt even across the map.

 

【Guild】 Liushui Raoshazhou: What else was I supposed to do?

【Guild】Wuyue Shanqing: You could’ve just used a brick to bash it 😊.

【Guild】 Sese Hong: …

 

While chatting with her friends, Xie Mengyun examined the loot dropped by the hunter. Though the game delivered a highly immersive virtual experience, certain elements had been softened for player comfort, likely to avoid running afoul of content regulations.  

The boss’s corpse appeared far from gruesome, and beside it lay a conspicuous blue pouch, a thoughtful design choice by the developers to make it easier for players to collect dropped items. Xie Mengyun opened it to find a jade-green hairpin, a book, and a small money pouch containing 1 gold, 7 silver, and 24 copper coins.

In “Riding through the Jianghu,” the exchange rate between gold, silver, and copper was a fixed 1:100 ratio. Currently, there wasn’t an exchange channel between real-world currency (RMB) and in-game currency.

Xie Mengyun picked up all the items. She noticed that the head of the hairpin was carved into the shape of a budding lotus, and its entire body was pure green without any blemishes. Unfortunately, the carving skill was mediocre, and stiff cut marks remained on it.

Jade Hairpin: All martial arts levels +3. A mysterious hairpin dropped from a novice village hunter, it seems to hide certain secrets. Perhaps someone in the martial world might know its origins.

 

《Blood Transformation Divine Art (Incomplete)》: Ninth-grade martial art. A secret manual of the Blood Shadow Sect that has fallen into outside hands. Note: The writing on the manual is blurry and stained with ominous, mottled bloodstains, making it difficult to use.

 

Xie Mengyun maintained her picking-up posture for a full ten seconds, staring in disbelief at the “Ninth-Grade” text and the words “Difficult to Use” on the manual. She tried three times, unwilling to give up, but each attempt yielded the same result: the system, completely devoid of emotion, notified her that she did not meet the conditions to learn the martial art.

While she was in a daze, her guild chat suddenly lit up with a rapid-fire string of messages.  

 

【Guild】 Sese Hong: Dear~

【Guild】Sese Hong: What did the boss drop?

【Guild】 Yangfan Jicanghai: 🤨

【Guild】Bixuan Lengdeng: Oh, has the boss already been defeated?

【Guild】 Liushui Rao Shazhou: “Yeah, it’s done.”  

【Guild】 Yangfan Jicanghai: …Such a calm tone.

 

Xie Mengyun silently posted the attributes of the dropped items, along with a crying emoji.

 

【Guild】 Liushui Rao Shazhou: “I tried—I really, really can’t learn it QAQ.”

【Guild】 Yangfan Jicanghai: …

【Guild】 Sese Hong: …

【Guild】 Bixuan Lengdeng: …

【Guild】 Wuyue Shanqing: ‘Blood Transformation Divine Art’ is a martial art of the Blood Shadow Sect. I haven’t heard of any players learning it yet.

【Guild】 Wuyue Shanqing: The accessory’s stats are great though. [applause].

【Guild】 Sese Hong: Mengyun is a newbie, so it’s fine, but how are you not freaking out right now, Su Xiaoqing???”

Wuyue Shanqing’s real name is Su Qinglang. His close friends felt this name was too artistic and didn’t fit the vibe of the software engineering department, so they called him Su Xiaoqing. This nickname has continued from their student days until now.

【Guild】Wuyue Shanqing: 😊

 

Although Xie Mengyun had read some guides and introductions, she was still relatively new to the game and lacked knowledge about many basic mechanics. After her guildmates explained it to her, she finally understood: currently, all in-game accessories that boosted martial arts levels had specific restrictions, some enhanced sword techniques, others palm or fist techniques, or movement skills, etc. But one that boosted all martial arts? This was literally the first time anyone had heard of such a thing. ==  

 

【Guild】Sese Hong: “Aside from your hairpin, the best martial art-boosting accessory is probably Dawn Breeze and Fading Moon guild’s Zun Zhongjiu’s ‘Nine-Twist Cloud Pendant’, it adds +5 to both movement skills and sword techniques.”  

【Guild】 Liushui Rao Shazhou: “@Yangfan Ji Canghai, look at other guilds’ names…”  

【Guild】 Yangfan Ji Canghai: “😏”  

【Guild】 Sese Hong: “😂”  

【Guild】 Sese Hong: “In ‘Riding Through the Jianghu’, every martial art caps at level 100. The higher the art’s tier, the harder it is to level. Zun Zhongjiu is a Wudang disciple, and his martial art, Pure Yang Sword, is 8th-tier, probably the highest-tier martial art any player has mastered.”  

【Guild】 Sese Hong: “Well, that is, if we don’t count your ‘Blood-Transformation Divine Art’ 😊.”  

【Guild】 Liushui Rao Shazhou: “…”  

【Guild】 Yangfan Ji Canghai: I wonder if the players from the Blood Shadow Sect would absolutely lose it if they knew a fresh newbie got their sect’s martial arts manual.

【Guild】 Wu Yue Shan Qing: “Let’s keep the hunter incident quiet. The Blood Shadow Sect has a large player base, even if the manual can’t be learned, some bored troublemakers might still come knocking.”  

【Guild】Sese Hong: Absolute secrecy!

【Guild】Yangfan Ji Canghai: Okay.

【Guild】 Bixuan Lengdeng: Following orders~

【Guild】 Wuyue Shanqing: @Liushui Rao Shazhou, before you leave, check if the boss has any special items, or if there are any at his house.”  

 

This was something Xie Mengyun understood. To “provide players with an authentic Jianghu experience” (developer’s exact words), boss loot wasn’t limited to neatly packaged drops, some items required manual searching.  

Of course, finding nothing after a thorough check was perfectly normal. After all, as the designers put it: “This is the real Jianghu. Different bosses have different styles, who’s to say they’d always carry something useful for players?”  

 

【Guild】Liushui Rao Shazhou: Okay, I’ll go look.

 

Xie Mengyun used the rusted iron sword she’d retrieved from the rubble to sift through the boss’s clothing. Unfortunately, Comrade Hunter’s tattered, hole-riddled outfit was more avant-garde installation art than functional attire, no accessories, no valuables, and his upper body was completely bare. As for the lower half… well, this was a family-friendly game. 

Unable to extract anything from the boss’s corpse, Xie Mengyun channeled classic RPG instincts and conducted a floor-by-floor search of the hunter’s house. If only this VRMMO had a spacebar, she would have pressed every single tile in the house.

This time, her efforts yielded results.

The hunter’s house, like his attire: rugged, raw, and dripping with primitive charm. A bow and arrows hung on the wall. Xie Mengyun took them down for inspection—usable, yes, but with pathetically low attack power, like Chu Xiaoxiu’s embroidery needle. With enough patience, they could work as weapons… theoretically.  

Against the back wall of the inner room stood a wooden-framed bed piled high with layers of dried, stiffened animal hides. Xie Mengyun sliced open the bedding with her rusted iron sword, only to find nothing but blackened, moldy cotton wadding. Recalling tropes from wuxia novels and TV dramas, she suddenly had an epiphany. Channeling her inner strength, she propelled herself seven feet straight up, grabbed a roof beam with one hand, and effortlessly flipped onto it.  

A rectangular pit was dug on the beam, and an iron box was embedded tightly inside. Xie Mengyun pried out the box, and the moment it landed in her hands, she heard the long-awaited system prompt—

 

【System】: Congratulations to player Liushui Rao Shazhou for completing the novice village hidden quest: The Hunter’s Secret.

【System】: Player Liushui Rao Shazhou obtained: Aquamarine Jade ×10, Recipe: Benzoin Incense ×1, 10 gold 87 silver 56 copper.

 

Like alchemy recipes, incense formulas can only be learned by players who have chosen the ‘Physician’ lifestyle profession. These can be acquired from medical halls in major cities, dropped by monsters and bosses, or obtained as exclusive recipes from certain sects, accessible only to their disciples.  

As for ‘Aquamarine Jade’, it serves as a supplementary material for both forging and alchemy.  

Xie Mengyun stashed the locked box in her inventory. It had a lock and with no way to open it now, she’d have to wait until reaching a main city to figure it out. 

“Goodbye, Novice Village.”

The minimum level to leave the novice village was ten. Most players departed early once they met the standard. Even those who lingered couldn’t gain any more experience from the novice village after reaching level fifteen and had to leave within two hours.

The coachman at the village entrance was always waiting there, calmly sending off wave after wave of players. This was a one-way road, no turning back, no pauses. Unless…  

Unless you deleted your account and started over.

Just two hours after Xie Mengyun boarded the carriage with her quest rewards and ventured into the wider world, another player spawned in the starter village. A closer look revealed this character bore an uncanny resemblance, both in appearance and ID to ‘Ji Dongfeng’, one of the rising core members of the dominant guild ‘Invincible Alliance’. The moment he materialized from the white light, he ignored the kindly village elder and sprinted straight to the most secluded western corner.  

The house where the hunter had been was now empty.

“Míshī, Yeah, it’s me. Seems I’m a step too late this time.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Author’s note: I want to read holographic martial arts online novels, I’m really short on material, so I’m starting my own!