Setting foot in the beginner village

"You are about to enter the boundaries of Beginner Village 10021!"

"Warning: entering the Novice Village without permission will provoke hostility from its guards and powerful inhabitants!"

When Qin Shujian was only thirty feet from the village entrance, he received the system notifications.

Looking at the guards standing outside the village, he stopped.

The Novice Village's boundaries?

Hostility from its guards and powerful inhabitants?

The two notifications made Qin Shujian's expression turn serious.

He knew almost nothing about the Novice Village in the Liangshan Territory.

Still, the guards outside gave him a rough idea of how strong the Novice Village was.

Under normal circumstances,

Qin Shujian would never act rashly before gauging both sides' strength.

But—

The Novice Village was different.

Every extra moment the players had meant a greater threat to him.

Qin Shujian's main objective this time was to probe the Novice Village's strength head-on.

As for why he had come in person,

the reason was that the Liangshan Stronghold had no capable experts he could rely on.

If he sent a few low-ranking bandits, they would probably become experience for the players before even making it through the village entrance.

If he wanted to test its depths, he needed enough force behind the attempt.

Right now, Qin Shujian was using himself as the stone to sound the Novice Village's deep waters.

He was confident.

With his cultivation at the Entering Martial Sixth Layer, he could escape unscathed even if some terrifying expert was hiding inside the Novice Village.

The players crowding around Qin Shujian looked puzzled when he stopped outside the Novice Village, seemingly unable to understand his intentions.

Before they could ask, however, Qin Shujian stepped forward.

"Warning: you have entered the boundaries of Beginner Village 10021!"

Qin Shujian gave the system message a cursory glance, then put it out of his mind.

At that moment,

the guards who had stood motionless at the entrance like statues stepped forward and blocked Qin Shujian's path.

"Halt!"

Two spears crossed, their gleaming tips reflecting a cold light.

One of the guards, who looked somewhat older, barked in a deep voice, "You are now within the village boundaries. Anyone who does not belong to the village is forbidden from entering without permission."

"Heh!"

Qin Shujian smiled faintly at first, then his expression turned cold.

"To think someone in the Liangshan Territory would dare block my path."

The moment he finished speaking,

the atmosphere grew tense.

The watching players wore various expressions, and excitement shone in many of their eyes.

How could they fail to see it?

Those few words already carried a hint of anger, as though a fight could break out at any moment.

As far as the players were concerned, it did not matter whether the Novice Village guards were on their side, nor did they care whether Qin Shujian was an enemy.

In their eyes, these were all just NPCs.

Since they were NPCs, what did their life-and-death struggles have to do with the players?

Perhaps the players could even gain something from this.

So quite a few players were growing restless, eager for the two sides to start fighting.

Qin Shujian paid no heed to their obstruction.

The two spears might as well not have existed in Qin Shujian's eyes. After a brief pause, he resumed walking forward.

"Kill!"

The two guards attacked almost in unison.

Their spears thrust forward with fierce, brutal force, enough to pierce a human body with ease.

But—

To Qin Shujian, their movements were as slow as a turtle's crawl.

He raised his right hand, moving second yet arriving first. His palm slipped past the spearheads, and two fingers tapped each shaft with blinding speed.

Bang!

Powerful force erupted through the shafts. The webbing between both guards' thumbs and forefingers split, and their hands involuntarily released their tight grips on the spears.

Qin Shujian lunged forward, slamming his palms into the two guards' chests almost simultaneously.

At the Entering Martial Sixth Layer, his palms carried tremendous force.

The two guards were only at the Entering Martial First Layer. How could they possibly withstand it?

Boom!

Their bodies flew away like withered weeds.

Their chests caved in deeply, the bones within already shattered by brute force.

Blood poured from all seven orifices in an instant. Without managing another word, they fell to the ground and died.

"Whoa!"

The sudden turn of events gave the other players a fright.

Even though they had known a clash was coming, they had never expected it to happen so abruptly.

The guards, who had seemed quite formidable to them, had died without surviving even a single exchange.

Qin Shujian had struck so quickly that the players saw only two afterimages before the battle was over.

An expert!

This NPC was definitely an expert!

In the players' eyes, even the NPCs who taught cultivation methods at the martial arts hall were not as powerful as Qin Shujian.

"This NPC is so strong! If we could learn his cultivation method, wouldn't we leave the other players far behind?"

Some players' thoughts had turned in another direction.

After spending some time in the game, a few veteran players had already figured out some of its rules.

There were no levels here. Players mainly progressed by practicing cultivation methods.

That meant,

the higher the tier of the cultivation method they practiced, the stronger they would be.

The cultivation methods available at the village's martial arts hall were all commonplace fare, making it difficult for anyone to stand out from the other players.

To truly pull ahead, they had to find a way to learn a higher-grade cultivation method.

In these players' eyes, Qin Shujian was an NPC with a high-tier cultivation method and unfathomable strength.

Qin Shujian could not be bothered with whatever the players were imagining.

When he had killed the two village guards, his Life Source had increased by two points, and he had also received system messages.

"You have killed guards of Beginner Village 10021!"

"The Liangshan Stronghold's relationship with Beginner Village 10021 is now hostile!"

"Your actions have provoked the wrath of a powerful inhabitant of Beginner Village 10021!"

"Warning: a powerful inhabitant of Beginner Village 10021 is approaching at full speed!"

A powerful inhabitant!

At the words “powerful expert” in the system message, Qin Shujian narrowed his eyes slightly.

Even without the system's warning, he could faintly sense a heavy presence rapidly approaching from within the Novice Village ahead.

Meanwhile,

the gruesome deaths of the two village guards had drawn the other guards' attention.

Immediately,

more than a dozen guards surged out of the village.

There were no unnecessary words, no lengthy exchanges.

"Kill!"

One guard roared angrily, taking the lead as he thrust his spear at Qin Shujian.

At the same time, the other guards attacked almost in unison.

More than a dozen spears thrust forward. Their gleaming tips made one's hair stand on end, as though a tremendous threat radiated from them.

Qin Shujian's right hand had already quietly closed around the saber hilt behind his back.

As he watched the spears hurtling toward him, his gaze gradually turned icy.