Chapter 1 The Bell's Realm

In the Bell's Realm, three figures walked across a plain where the edges blurred.

With Feng Bujue's adaptability and linguistic skills, he had quickly gained the NPC's trust without resorting to violence. Thus, Lu Qingning joined him and Si Yu, and the three of them began to explore this space together.

During their conversation, Feng Bujue still presented himself as the owner of the Broken Sword Teahouse, using the same story as he did in Azure Spirit Town. He recounted in detail his encounter with Ye Hai on the road, as well as his interactions with the other members of the Flower Shadow Six Swords, and even mentioned that Su Shang needed his help to break through the Underworld Dark Art.

His words were a mix of truth and falsehood. The truthful parts were detailed and logical, while the false parts were mainly about his martial arts skills and identity, making it difficult for the other party to discern.

In short, after Jue-Ge's spiel, Lu Qingning couldn't say she completely trusted the two people before her, but she was basically certain that this Proprietor Feng and his wife were not sent by Lin Chang to hunt her down.

With the tense situation defused, Lu Qingning also provided Feng Bujue with some information, which could be said to have significantly advanced and subverted the plot of this scenario...

...

The specific dialogue between the NPC and Feng Bujue and the others will not be detailed here. I will use the perspective of God to explain the general situation...

This matter must be traced back to a few months ago, when Xie San received Ye Cheng's challenge letter.

That letter was not written by Ye Cheng at all, because Ye Cheng was already dead at that time. The person who issued the challenge was not Ye Cheng from the beginning, but Lin Chang.

Lin Chang was the second master of the Ye Manor, the leader of the Flower Shadow Six Swords, and the third greatest swordsman in the martial world. He was known for his chivalry, integrity, and humility. He didn't marry until he was thirty, and he had no children. His wife was not a member of the martial world, but just an ordinary woman.

In terms of martial arts, Lin Chang's aptitude was considered good. At nearly forty years old, he was already a top master among the first-tier experts. He ranked third among swordsmen, and he was definitely in the top twenty in the entire martial world, on the same level as Gongsun Qian, the owner of the Myriad Bloom Pavilion, and Ji Tong, the owner of the Eight Directions Pavilion.

Of course... compared to those martial arts novel protagonists who were almost invincible in their twenties, he was far behind.

Lin Chang's achievements could only be described as the result of steady progress and gradual advancement. He had joined the Ye Manor to learn martial arts since he was a child, and he had high talent, worked hard, and had no obvious flaws or chuunibyou tendencies in his personality. So he continued to improve, and was taught more profound skills. After growing up, he traveled the martial world, accumulated experience, and gradually made a name for himself, and his martial arts became more refined. Until today, everything could only be said to be normal.

But it was such a person who occupied the word "righteousness" in all aspects, who, under a certain opportunity, became a "wicked" demon.

Lu Qingning now recalled that Lin Chang's initial transformation should have been a year ago...

Once, after returning to the manor from handling errands outside, Lin Chang behaved very strangely for two months. Sometimes he would be silent all day, and sometimes he would be moody. During that time, many disciples in the Ye Manor were inexplicably scolded or punished by him.

And two months later, Lin Chang returned to normal, as if nothing had happened before. He was still the respected and kind-hearted Grandmaster Lin. So, the matter was dropped, and no one mentioned it again, after all, everyone has their bad days...

Now it seems that things are far from as simple as they seem...

During those two months, Lin Chang's spirit and mind had undergone a qualitative change. Afterwards, when his personality changed back, it was no longer his true nature, but a disguise.

After another half year, the grand plan that Lin Chang had been secretly preparing was basically ready, and thus, a shocking conspiracy against the entire martial world unfolded. And the first step in this plan was to kill Ye Cheng.

In terms of martial arts, Lin Chang was now almost invincible. There were people in the world who could compete with him, but not Ye Cheng. So, Ye Cheng died. A generation of sword gods died silently, and his body was still thrown in the Sword Tomb forbidden area of the Ye Manor, undiscovered...

Lin Chang imitated Ye Cheng's handwriting and wrote a letter of challenge to Xie San. The letter was not long, and there was not much nonsense. The most important thing was sixteen words: August 15th, Azure Spirit Sword Meet, the world's number one, the winner is king.

He also wrote a handwritten note to Ye Hai, saying that Ye Cheng asked him to pass it on. The content was roughly: This Sword God will be in seclusion until the day of the duel. During this period, no one is allowed to approach the Sword Tomb. Old Master Ye and the Flower Shadow Six Swords can go to Azure Spirit Town first, and I will arrive on the day of the duel.

Afterwards, Lin Chang secretly released the news of the duel. As a result, in just ten days, under the operation of the Flying Pigeon Gang, the entire martial world, and even the imperial court, knew that the two greatest swordsmen of the world would duel in Azure Spirit Town.

Soon after, the Azure Spirit Inn opened, and martial artists flocked in from all over the world.

Everything was proceeding according to plan, but one night after arriving in Azure Spirit (the night before, when the players entered the scenario), an unexpected situation occurred.

That night, Lin Chang was meeting with his junior brother Shang Fei somewhere in the town. Shang Fei, the second-ranked Shadowless Sword among the Flower Shadow Six Swords, was Lin Chang's most loyal confidant. He was usually eccentric, taciturn, and always thought highly of himself. Among the six swords, only Lin Chang was closest to him.

Shang Fei was Lin Chang's only accomplice. As for why he would turn to Lin Chang, it was very simple... nothing more than coercion and enticement. Lin Chang had enough power to make others submit, as long as he also promised some benefits... it was not difficult to drag Shang Fei into the water.

The Shadowless Sword was as elusive as his name suggested. Lin Chang believed that Shang Fei was the perfect collaborator for four reasons: First, this guy's martial arts were very high, especially in reconnaissance; second, judging from the years of friendship and mutual understanding between the two, the probability of him betraying himself was extremely small; third, Shang Fei was very good at keeping secrets. He hardly ever appeared in public, so there was even less talk of leaking secrets; fourth, doing such a big thing, single-handedly, always felt insecure...

Shang Fei was indeed very dutiful. These days, he had been traveling between Copper Hill and Azure Spirit, gathering a lot of information. The fact that Xie San had appeared in Copper Hill was what he had told Lin Chang via Thousand Mile Sound Transmission at the first possible moment. In fact, Shang Fei was also responsible for disposing of the body after Lin Chang killed the person...

Of course, that was a later story, let's go back to that night.

During the conversation between Lin Chang and Shang Fei, although the whole picture of the conspiracy was not revealed, the death of Ye Cheng, the plan to ambush Xie San, and Lin Chang's extraordinary martial arts... were all revealed between the lines.

As the saying goes, coincidence is stranger than fiction. Their words were all overheard by Lu Qingning, who was hiding in the dark...

And the most interesting thing was that the heroine Lu was not intentionally tracking Lin Chang or Shang Fei when she came here... she was initially tracking someone else.

Last night, Lu Qingning accidentally saw the Myriad Bloom Pavilion's mistress and a handsome disciple sneaking out of the inn one after another. Perhaps she was a very gossipy woman, anyway, she followed out of curiosity at the time.

Lu Qingning's qinggong (light body technique) was also considered superb in the martial world. Purely in terms of qinggong, she was only on par with Shang Fei. The two people's techniques formed their own unique style, each with its own merits.

However, if Lu Qingning were to track Lin Chang or Shang Fei, she would most likely be discovered, but at that time, she was tracking Shi Yanran and Wang Ao...

And it was precisely in this process that she discovered Lin Chang's figure in the darkness. Because she was puzzled, Lu Qingning changed the target of her tracking, wanting to see what Martial Brother Lin was up to. At this time, Lin Chang was already very close to the meeting place agreed upon with Shang Fei. He had repeatedly confirmed that no one was following him along the way, but he did not expect that at the last moment, someone would come after him.

...

"Wait, heroine Lu..." Feng Bujue seemed to have heard some problems. He first repeated, "According to what you said, you first saw Shi Yanran and Wang Ao go out for a tryst, and then you accidentally broke into Lin Chang and Shang Fei's conspiracy, then you escaped into the mountains under Lin Chang's pursuit, and finally a strange bell sound rang... and you suddenly came here, escaping Lin Chang's pursuit." He then recited, "You said that about an hour and a half has passed since you came here..." When Feng Bujue said this, he was already converting the time ratio between this place and the outside world in his mind. "But the things you experienced before entering here should have happened last night, and it was before we entered the town. And the moment we entered this Bell's Realm was at sunset on August 13th. At least seven or eight hours have passed since you entered."

Lu Qingning's expression changed slightly: "What does Young Hero Feng mean?"

"Within three hours, if we can't leave this Bell's Realm..." Feng Bujue said thoughtfully.

Si Yu continued his words and said: "We may not be able to make it to that duel..."

Lu Qingning said: "But... the Clan Master is already dead, maybe even Xie San is dead now, what duel is there?"

"Yes, I also want to know, on the night of August 15th, what Lin Chang is preparing for the people of the entire martial world to see..." Feng Bujue touched his nose with his finger, "Hehe..." He suddenly remembered something and laughed out loud, "But it's good to stay here for a while longer, the collective poisoning plan can be ignored."

"Poisoning? Collective?" Lu Qingning asked suspiciously.

Si Yu looked at her and said, "My husband is just joking, we Broken Sword Teahouse have some jokes that outsiders don't understand." She then turned to Feng Bujue and said, "What about the others?"

Feng Bujue spread out his hands: "Judging from the content of the side quests, Xiao Tan and Bei Ling seem to have gone to some strange place too... if there is really a problem, it is estimated that Jin Fugui will have to bear it alone..."