Traveling together

Yunmeng Marsh was still some distance away.

After asking for directions, Fang Zelin left the city and headed toward Yunmeng Marsh.

By the time Fang Zelin had walked about fifty li, the sun had already sunk to the edge of the sky.

It was dusk.

Just then, the sound of a speeding carriage came from far behind him. Hearing it, Fang Zelin moved to the roadside to make way.

But when the carriage behind him drew level, it slowly came to a stop.

The man driving the carriage glanced back at Fang Zelin, looked him up and down, then smiled.

"Brother, where are you headed? It's getting late. Why not join us?"

Seeing the carriage stop, Fang Zelin glanced inside.

Good grief, several people were crammed into the already cramped carriage.

"What are you all...?"

Fang Zelin took a closer look. These people all seemed to be players, but there also appeared to be a scholar among them in the carriage.

It seemed like a rather odd combination.

"Oh, this is a provincial examination graduate from Anzi County. He's heading to the capital to sit the examination. Something delayed him, and he was worried about outlaws along the way, so he came to the martial arts school..."

After Great Han offered a brief explanation, Fang Zelin understood.

These players were escorting the man to the capital for his examination, having taken it on as a quest.

"This area isn't very safe. I've heard that people traveling at night often die suddenly out in the wilderness. Would you care to join us, brother?"

Having finished his explanation, Great Han invited him again.

Fang Zelin saw that it really was getting late, and with the man saying it was unsafe as well, he nodded at once.

Great Han smiled and urged the horses on a little. The carriage went a few paces farther before stopping at a spot backed by a large boulder.

There were no ruined temples or anything of the sort nearby, and any mountain god temples were up in the mountains.

There were none here along the main road.

After stopping the carriage, Great Han waved to Fang Zelin from a distance, beckoning him over, then began preparing a fire and a place to sleep for the night.

"Why did you invite that guy along? He doesn't even seem to have a weapon. If anything really happens later, we'll have to spare someone to protect him."

At that moment, someone beside Great Han voiced his displeasure.

They had heard that the wilderness was exceptionally dangerous.

Some unlucky people even ran into tigers.

These tigers were extremely ferocious. An ordinary fifth-rate expert would be pounced on, pinned down, and killed in a single encounter.

There were also players who had drifted off to sleep in the wilderness without realizing it.

When they woke, they were informed that they had died and would have to wait half a month before they could log in again.

All these incidents showed just how perilous the wilderness was.

Under these circumstances, the young man they had just seen looked like a burden no matter how they looked at him.

"Oh, since we ran into him out here in the wilds, we might as well lend one another a hand. There's strength in numbers."

Great Han brushed it off.

As he saw it, since they had just happened upon the man, there was nothing wrong with bringing him along.

The others beside him were speechless. They were about to say more when Fang Zelin, who had been some distance away, came up to them.

If they kept discussing it now, he would hear them.

With that in mind, they stopped bringing it up.

"We'll rest here tonight. Have a look and pick somewhere to sleep."

Great Han greeted Fang Zelin, then busied himself setting up warning measures around the perimeter.

If anything approached during the night, they would have some advance warning.

Before long, a campfire was burning.

The distant sun finally sank below the mountains as well.

The campfire before them flickered, with burning branches occasionally cracking like firecrackers.

"I heard today that an expert showed up in Hualing City. He cut off the Wild Wolf Gang leader's head in a single encounter. Truly extraordinary."

In front of the campfire, the people before him took out their dry rations and began eating as they chatted about what they had heard that day.

When they passed through Hualing City earlier that day, they had heard about what had happened there.

They were not particularly clear on how strong the Wild Wolf Gang leader was.

But they had heard that his strength ranked among the top ten players in Hualing City.

Presumably, he had some skill.

Yet even with that strength, he had died in a single encounter. That other man seemed even more formidable.

"What's so special about that? Martial masters in Quest for the Dao are generally stronger than us. How long have we even been here? It's perfectly normal."

Another man immediately replied, unconcerned, "That Wild Wolf Gang fellow was unbelievably stupid, too. Of all the things he could have done, he just had to provoke an expert in Quest for the Dao. I reckon that expert was third-rate at the very least."

In Quest for the Dao, someone third-rate could be considered an expert.

Someone second-rate or first-rate was a figure who could hold the fort.

For an ordinary sect or martial arts school, having a second-rate or first-rate expert presiding over it was already quite impressive.

In the martial world, fifth-rate was essentially the baseline, while third-rate was the standard for an expert.

These were all things they had pieced together in Quest for the Dao.

And among these ranks, third-rate experts marked a very clear dividing line.

They had heard that third-rate experts could turn Qi into force, their bodies light as swallows, crossing rivers with ease.

But that was all hearsay. As for anything else, they were not very clear on it.

After all, they had yet to reach that level.

"But what if the person riding the white deer was a player?"

Just then, the female player seated to the right suddenly spoke up.

For some reason, whenever everyone mentioned that player riding the white deer, they seemed to assume he was an NPC in Quest for the Dao.

Why couldn't he be a player?

"How could that be? That fellow spoke in such a literary way, and he was riding a white deer. Which player is capable enough to have a white deer as a mount this early?"

"Besides, he was so powerful."

At this, even Great Han beside them kept shaking his head, naturally feeling that the man must be an NPC.

Hearing this, the female player insisted somewhat stubbornly, "You still can't just decide he's an NPC like that. You should know that a player posted the Wind-Riding Sword Art on the forums as early as three months ago."

"For that player to have made the Wind-Riding Sword Art public, at the very least, they must already have learned it by then. They should even have reached the stage of Entering the Hall and Inner Chambers. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been so generous about sharing this sword art."

"If that's the case, take a guess. How strong would that player be by now?"

As her words fell, the expressions of the people present shifted slightly, all of them having thought of something.