Chapter 1: Sword Lotus and Saber Butterflies Flaunt Two Beauties
At midnight, the curved crescent moon emitted a cold, gentle radiance, quietly spilling into the dense forest. Suddenly, the leaves stirred, emitting a crisp, rustling sound, while bursts of refreshing floral and herbal scents carried within the gentle breeze, intoxicating the senses.
Amidst this poetic and picturesque scenery, a most discordant humming repeated shamelessly and echoed on, sounding thoroughly grating.
Among the lush flowers and grasses, a man draped in exquisite armor lay on the ground without a shred of decorum. One could see his left leg propped up, his right leg resting over the left, curved into a comfortable arc and swaying lazily back and forth.
"Today's spring scenery really is fine, I bring along a couple of running dogs, looking left, glancing right, lots of virtuous beauties indeed..."
A thoroughly vulgar little tune drifted from the man's mouth, floating into the distance along with the breeze. This fellow felt no shame whatsoever in ruining the scenery, nor did he know what public decency was. He merely bit on a foxtail grass and hummed with great vigor.
"For young ladies of noble birth we take a couple of glances, for gentle maidens we touch twice or so, yo-ho the feel is really not bad, little ones charge for me..." The little tune came to an abrupt halt here, replaced by a crisp and rapid sound of metal clashing. Clearly, the master of this mouth had run into a bit of trouble.
The man had already flipped up at some unknown point, wielding a pair of gleaming curved sabers as he slashed and danced left and right, completely scattering the several flashes of brilliance closing in on his sides. Taking a closer look, it was actually two slender and graceful figures rapidly circling around the man, the cold gleams in their hands twinkling brilliantly. As they moved, they formed streaks of radiance-sometimes like bolts of silk, sometimes like lunar wheels. Indeed, it was a thousand illusions of sword qi and layers upon layers of saber shadows.
"Hey, hey, what kind of spell did the two of you fall under? The closed beta is about to end, yet you still won't let up? I was just looking at the moon and singing a song, did I offend you?" The man casually parried the two women's attacks while letting out a string of complaints.
Looking closely, this fellow merely appeared somewhat aged and lacked hygiene, with a handful of stubble on his face, making him look just like a weathered, down-and-out brigand. If one closely observed his brows and facial contours, actually... he was quite delicate indeed.
"Ye Fengxing! You bastard have done so many heinous things, how do you still have the face to question us? Abandon your saber and accept your death right now!" The graceful, red-haired woman on the left spoke indignantly, her voice sounding like a fledgling oriole emerging from a valley, quite pleasant and melodious to the ear.
"Heinous things?" The youth who looked quite "brutish" asked in confusion, "I say Eldest Miss Xixue, didn't I just carelessly take a spill? Who knew I'd roll right into that pool of water? You control the heavens and the earth, and you still want to manage how I walk?"
"You... you are arguing with specious reasoning! You've climbed Flying Cloud Cliff hundreds of times, and not once have I seen you take a spill. How is it that precisely that time... that time you fell down!" The red-haired woman was furious, her two short daggers unleashing a flurry of aggressive attacks that instantly forced the youth into a bit of a fluster.
"Alright, as the saying goes, 'men have missteps, horses stumble.' I just 'accidentally' happened that time, and things just happened to turn out so coincidentally. What of it? Do you two want to violate me then kill me, or kill me then violate me? Come on then. Anyway, the beta character can't be taken out, dying doesn't hurt." Our man assumed the posture of a hardened scoundrel, leaving his execution entirely up to them.
"You..." The red-haired woman was choked to the point of breathlessness by this fellow. How... how could he be so shameless? Every single sentence made people angry. Anyway, nothing good ever came out of his mouth. No! Even good words turned foul when they spilled from his mouth! This big scoundrel! Old rogue!
The purple-haired woman on the right, who had remained silent until then, suddenly bit her pretty lip, her voice sounding like pearls falling onto a jade plate: "Little sister, stop wasting breath on him, use the ultimate move!" Having said that, she tipped her toes, swayed her slender waist, and two exquisite, snow-glistening long swords suddenly flicked out patches of snow-like silver light and lunar brilliance, overlapping and blooming in layers. From afar, it looked precisely like a blooming snow lotus.
This move was precisely one of the warrior class's trump-card ultimate techniques-Sword Qi Lotus Blossom!
"Hey, hey, you two are playing for real?" The youth was clearly somewhat depressed. These two women hadn't drunk their tranquilizer today, had they? They started shouting about killing the moment they came up. The younger one going crazy could be let go, seeing as she never usually looked dignified or demure anyway, but even the older one was actually joining in on the madness without a shred of the demeanor an elder sister ought to have. What on earth was this playing at?
As he was thinking, he suddenly saw the red-haired woman also wield her two short daggers, gently twisting her slender waist. Her entire body suddenly transformed into a string of faint red phantoms, and two jade-like green, cold blades in her palms became like dozens of pairs of fluttering emerald butterflies, quietly enclosing the youth within them. It was quite a sight.
The assassin class's signature ultimate move-Thousand Illusions Blade!
Your sister! Starting right off the bat with high-tier skills? Didn't I just "accidentally" run into you two taking a bath? Was there any need for this? Just a crappy game, made so "harmonious," other than "very white and very dazzling," I didn't see a single thing...
For a whole week, the two of you didn't do a damn thing, only caring about hunting me down. Enough, enough! It's my bad luck, alright! But today is the last day of the closed beta, and you still won't give me a moment of peace... Is there any justice left in heaven? Is there any rule of law? Is there any humanity? Huh?!
The youth felt indignant in his heart, yet a trace of sorrowful expression appeared on his face. Only then did he speak in a deep, calm tone: "Qianshuang, this matter is my fault, and I also blame myself for playing too wildly lately. My mind has been a bit dazed and my footing unstable, so whatever you want to do, I leave myself to your disposal."
Upon hearing this, the purple-haired woman could not help shaking both hands, the speed of that storm-like, massive sword qi cluster instantly slowing down to reveal large gaps.
This dead man! Wouldn't it have worked to say this a little earlier... Every time she looked for this stinky rogue to explain this matter, this jerk always had to use that kind of... that kind of gaze to look at certain parts of her body, and then say some very ungrounded rogue words. If she could let him off after all that, she wouldn't deserve to be called "Yun Qianshuang."
Seeing her older sister slow down, the red-haired woman bit her pretty little lip instead, speeding up by several notches! This stinky rogue, every time he finished bullying her older sister, he would use these kinds of sweet-talking deceptions to coax her older sister into losing all her temper. It was simply too hateful!
"If I don't take the opportunity today to thoroughly teach this big scoundrel a lesson, my name isn't Yun Xixue!" The little girl brandished her two short daggers tooth and nail, accelerating as she pounced forward.
The corners of the youth's mouth curled slightly, and without any grand movements on his part, he merely crossed his steps and abruptly retreated over ten meters. His figure transformed into trails of afterimages, and before the two women could even react, his jerkness had already used Charge Stomp to target the delicate little face of the other party, weirdly walking an arc route to fully display his superior operating skills.
Charge Stomp: High-tier warrior skill-dash forward at full speed, knocking down all targets blocking the warrior's path without exception!
"Not good!" The purple-haired woman Yun Qianshuang parted her cherry lips, just wanting to warn her younger sister, but who would have expected that bastard's "Charge Stomp" to be executed far too fast! In the blink of an eye, she saw him rush right in front of them. No matter how fast her speaking speed was, it ultimately could not match the speed of his footwork.
The youth horizontally blocked, parried, and flicked with his right saber. All three strikes were basic attacks without releasing a single skill, yet they forced Yun Qianshuang to terminate "Sword Qi Lotus Blossom." With a crisp, echoing clang, the two snow-glistening long swords had already flown out of her hands and landed on the ground.
"You..." The red-haired woman Yun Xixue almost passed out from anger. Her older sister had shown mercy, yet who would have thought this fellow would take the opportunity to strike a covert blow and shatter her older sister's "Sword Qi Lotus Blossom"? This big scoundrel was simply too shameless!
The youth smiled faintly, dropping his shoulder and sliding forward to narrowly dodge Yun Xixue's blade edge. He lifted one curved saber with the hilt facing outward, and a continuous series of crisp impacts rang out as the dozens of pairs of fluttering "emerald butterflies" in Yun Xixue's hands were all "knocked down" by his hilt, unable to fly or dance ever again.
"Smack!" The other curved saber in the youth's hand made crisp and decisive intimate contact with Yun Xixue's rounded hips, and a boisterous laugh followed right after: "Second Miss Xixue, let me teach you one last lesson. Even when facing an unsolvable predicament, you must never easily give up. Sometimes, a single sentence is enough to make the opponent panic in disorder, understand? Hahahaha..."
The words were still lingering in their ears, yet the youth's figure abruptly blurred and vanished into the dense forest. The agile warrior's "Gale Step" truly wasn't just for show. Once maxed out, that speed... estimated that only wind-fire mages and full-agility assassins could keep up.
Gale Step: High-tier warrior skill-advance at full speed, movement speed increased by 140%, jumping power and agility vastly enhanced.
"Older sister..." Yun Xixue lay prone on the ground, the expression on her face a mix of resentment and grievance... That bastard actually hit her right there just now! Despicable! Second Miss Yun had grown up this large, and not even her mom and dad had ever hit her.
"Forget it." Yun Qianshuang waved her hand and said, "There will be plenty of opportunities to deal with him in the future, let's not chase him today." That was what she said, but looking at the two women's current postures-one prone, one lying flat-they truly had the heart to slay the "bandit" but lacked the strength to reverse heaven.
The "knockdown" effect of a max-level Charge Stomp was indeed mighty!
As soon as the knockdown duration ended, Yun Qianshuang slowly stood up and patted the armor on her body-such heavy-metal-style equipment worn on her body unexpectedly failed to conceal her proud curves. Just looking at her standing there, she naturally possessed the dashing heroics of a heroine!
"Xiaoxue," Yun Qianshuang suddenly spoke up, "Do you still remember what that fellow said at the end?"
"Ah? Re... remember."
"Even though that fellow is a bastard, what he said was indeed very correct. You mustn't ignore his guidance because of your subjective impression, understand?"
"Older sister..." Yun Xixue pouted her little mouth and said, "I know. Bastard is a bastard, but I still acknowledge that fellow's skills. Right, older sister, can you use basic attacks to break my 'Thousand Illusions Blade' just like he did?"
Yun Qianshuang fell silent for a moment, then slowly said, "If using double swords, there would still be hope, but if restricted to using only the hilt of a single weapon... difficult."
Yun Xixue stopped speaking. She knew a thing or two about her own sister's abilities. Since even she held that jerk in such high esteem, it seemed that fellow was indeed quite for... indeed had a small trick or two up his sleeve.
"Abominable, someday this young lady will definitely teach him a thorough lesson!" The Yun family's second young miss clenched her pink fists tightly, thinking resentfully in her heart.
Ye Fengxing sat up from the gaming pod, stretched his neck, and crawled out to start looking for something to eat.
Damn it! How could this crappy game be so fun? Even though it was just a closed beta with bugs everywhere, its simulation degree was simply too high. Past holographic sensory online games could be considered awesome if their simulation degree reached 70%, but this crappy game actually had a simulation degree of over 90%. It was practically no different from reality, and this sleep felt just like taking a trip into Avatar...
This "crappy game" in someone's mouth had the real name Chronicles of the Sky, and it was a holographic online game that had not yet been publicly released. If one asked what was particularly awesome about this game... since the closed beta had just ended, information was scarce and impossible to analyze, at best amounting to a high simulation degree. However, Ye Fengxing did not think so...
Damn it! The backend operator of this crappy game looked like BE on the surface, but Ye Fengxing knew some inside details-its backend developer was definitely not BE, they didn't have that level!
BE stood for Bluestar Entertainment, namely the Blue Star Entertainment company. Behind Blue Star Entertainment was the Blue Star Conglomerate, a top global mega-conglomerate and a family group with quite a glorious history. Its industries spread across the globe, and when it came to financial power and momentum, the families worldwide that could rival it were very few.
Ye Fengxing had nothing to do with the Blue Star Conglomerate, but he had deep friendships with several information engineers inside Blue Star Entertainment, and thus deeply understood Blue Star Entertainment's strength. To be honest, based on his closed beta experience these past few days, Blue Star Entertainment could absolutely never concoct the game "Chronicles of the Sky"!
Such a powerful system, such a lifelike simulation degree, such a vast virtual world-it was definitely not something developed by some family or conglomerate. So who on earth was the behind-the-scenes developer of this game?
Ye Fengxing knocked on his head; he was temporarily too lazy to bother with this question. Whatever, he was just playing a game right now anyway. As for whose family opened the game in the first place, what did it bloody matter to him?
"Public beta in half a month... bros, enemies, imperial concubines, have you all prepared yourselves?" Our man bit down on a cigarette as light-blue smoke curled upwards. He gazed at a piece of calligraphy on the wall, the expression on his face neither a smile nor a grimace.
Following his gaze, a framed calligraphic horizontal scroll quietly hung on the wall, bearing five large characters: A heavy burden and a long road.
"Cooking." Our man turned his head, tied on an apron, and before long, the sounds of popping and sizzling drifted out from the kitchen...
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