Sword Among Us Novel - Chapter 127

Chapter 127: Lion’s Roar from a Buddhist
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The exquisite Go game required a large amount of energy and time. There was ample time allocated for a player to make every move, and even if a few hours were spent before each move was made, Master Xuan Kong would not mind. In fact, even if the player logged off during the game, it would only show that the player was sitting in front of the table quietly. When they logged in, they could continue.
No one could interrupt them in Master Xuan Kong’s room!
Happy had intended to use this unique situation to stall for time and hide from all attacks until the emperor’s birthday passed while he had the imperial court’s tribute in his hands. After all, he did not have the confidence to clear the exquisite Go game, so he could only continuously help the white tiger to remain alive and try his best to stall for time before he lost. 1
Happy spent a long time to try and figure out the exquisite Go game.
He had no idea that the world outside had already become bright. Blood poured down on the ground around the temple, with only a bit of it being taken away by the wind
Sects and various groups formed by different individuals were stationed hundreds of feet away from the temple. Their flags surrounded the small and dilapidated building, and each could be seen clearly. There were also hundreds of corpses that lay sprawled in a radius of sixty-four feet around the temple.
Monk Zhi Heng protected the door of the small temple like a towering mountain. He had his hands pressed flat against each other and simply allowed countless arrows and hidden weapons to pass him by while covering the sky and earth. When he moved like a phantom, all the arrows and hidden weapons landed on empty ground.
“Begone!”
When Monk Zhi Heng noticed anyone trying to seize the chance to approach the small temple, no matter where that person was, the monk would instantly change from an unmoving Arhat to the most cold-blooded and merciless King of Hell. With a single move, he killed all those who attempted to invade the temple.
“Divine Hundred Step Fist!”
A group of people dressed in white scholar robes stood three hundred and thirty feet away from the temple. With swords in their hands, they observed the situation from a distance, and solemn expressions appeared on their faces.
“It’s a high-tier martial art used by a person at Mystical Realm, so it has astonishing lethality. The force of his attacks also contains the profound nature of attacking others from a distance with fists. Unless we have high-tier body fortification techniques and relatively good gear, we won’t be able to block his attack.”
The speaker paused for a moment, and his gaze at Monk Zhi Heng became incredibly complicated. “Also, the attack range of Divine Hundred Step Fist varies based on the realm. When it reaches Grandmaster Realm, the user can easily kill anyone within one hundred steps.”
When they heard this, the people in the area sucked in sharp breaths.
From Monk Zhi Heng easily taking the lives of the players who had snuck behind the temple, they could tell that even if his Divine Hundred Step Fist had not reached Grandmaster Realm, it was already not far away from it.
“Just which brat got so lucky? Not only did he get a tribute, he even triggered the quest in the temple and received the NPC’s protection…”
A number of players sighed softly as they stared at the bright red dot in the maps in their hands.
“I heard that he entered that place a long time ago. I think it was his intention to stay in there because he knows that we’re outside. He wants to leave after the emperor’s birthday is over.”
“Once the time passes, even if we kill him, it’ll be impossible for us to make him drop the tribute.”
As the group of people spoke, they cast a look at Monk Zhi Heng who stood in front of the temple!
If it were not because he had used his strength to build an indestructible image, the group might have immediately charged forward to attack him!
Another group not far from them also felt gloom that slowly shifted into indifference because of the stalemate. They sighed in secret because they had escaped death by chance.
They were a small sect which was the first to know that there was still a tribute in Mount Song’s small temple.
Since they only numbered a few people, when they received the news by chance, they did not believe that there would be something truly good waiting for them. They had even thought themselves clever when they spread the news to the other large sects who had fought each other until rivers of blood poured down the mountainsides around Shaolin Temple.
Some of the people could no longer withstand the torment of fighting for the tribute, but they lacked a reason to leave. When they heard of another tribute, they brought their men into the mountain without any hesitation.
The strongest sects, however, remained defending their ground. They fought madly against Shaolin Temple on the stairs that led up to the temple for the ownership of the brocade box. They did all they could to get it, even giving up their lives!
The people who shifted battlefields had soon come to a realization that the news regarding a tribute being hidden in the small temple were actually real!
An even stronger excitement and battle spirit lit up in the hearts of the people who had already given up on fighting for the tribute. Aside from a handful of groups whose combat abilities had been damaged too much, most of the sects began mobilizing manpower to invade the small temple at all costs while they fought against the other sects to compete for the unexpected discovery.
In the beginning, they flung all caution to the wind and tried to enter in a frenzy, but when corpses began to pile up outside the temple, they gradually calmed down.
When half a day passed, there were at least two hundred players dead outside the temple. They had become souls under Monk Zhi Heng’s hands.
More than a dozen sects surrounded the small temple with lots of arrows and bows, but even if they did all they could, they could still not threaten Monk Zhi Heng. They could not even make him move from his spot.
The people became discouraged, but they were unwilling to give up.
“It’s not impossible for us to break in. After all, the monk is only one man…” A Daoist with a coronet over his head walked over and made a suggestion. “We can attack him all at once! As long as we can trap that monk, the others can take down the temple. We don’t have to care who gets the tribute box first, since we can fight when we get the box out of the temple! What do you think?!”
The leaders of the sects quickly agreed to the suggestion.
*****
A tempest brewed outside the temple!
Dozens of people from various sects formed suicide squads. They lifted their weapons and activated their qi realms. Then, they solemnly and cautiously formed the pocket formation[1] and drew close to Zhi Heng.
Zhi Heng said nothing. He seemed to have sensed the even more somber and dangerous atmosphere around him. Before everyone could get too close, his indifferent eyes on his cold face shone with a chilly glare that contained no emotions.
The killing intent contained in his cold gaze fused with his awe-inspiring look, which resembled that of the King of Hell. It formed an unseen force that enveloped and pressed down on the players around him!
His gaze instantly caused the players to erupt into action.
Their hearts trembled.
“Go!”
“Aaaahhh!”
The people shouted to encourage themselves. Then, they jumped out as if they were not afraid of death and rushed to Zhi Heng.
The one hundred or so Blessed Realm players attacked at the same time. They advanced with a great and mighty momentum, which created a frightening sight!
Soon, Monk Zhi Heng noticed the danger he would be in when the players closed in on him.
It would be difficult for him to fight against four hands when he only had two hands.
While right then, he was faced with hundreds of fists and legs. No matter how fast he was, it would be difficult for him to kill everyone and send them back.
In the blink of an eye, Zhi Heng was submerged underneath a sea of players, who had done this intentionally. He was surrounded, which made it difficult for him to break through.
“It’s time!”
“Attack!”
The eyes of the people in the outer layer of the encirclement sparkled, and they jumped up without even waiting for orders. With their fastest speed, they rushed at the mud wall of the temple.
Thud, thud, thud, thud…
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Fly on Grass, Floating on Water, Catch the Cicada in Eight Steps, Cloud-Ascending Ladder! All the lightness skills from various sects became the players’ greatest advantage during their competition. Countless sounds of air being torn rose, and the situation outside the temple instantly became even more chaotic.
Hundreds of people dashed madly to the temple.
They were so fast that in a heartbeat they were less than thirty-two feet away from the wall.
The temple was about to be invaded by an innumerable number of players.
Then, a roar that shook the mountain and forest suddenly erupted from within the crowd that surrounded one person!
“ROAR!”
The powerful lion’s roar formed a yellow ripple that could be vaguely seen by the naked eye. More than one hundred players in the encirclement were the first to be affected. They felt as if they had run into an iron wall and were flung away while coughing up blood in the air. This revealed Monk Zhi Heng, who looked murderous while continuously executing Gold Ripping Lion’s Roar!
“ROOOOOAAAARRR…”
The sound waves from the lion roars blew at the leaves, dust, and corpses on the ground, and all of them spread out at an astonishing speed.
Before the people who were near the temple could touch the wall, they felt as if they had been struck by lightning! They stopped breathing and crashed to the ground like birds who had been struck down from the sky.
Monk Zhi Heng regarded the players who had been injured badly by the sound waves on the ground as if they were nothing. He spread his arms wide with an angry look on his face. He continued using Lion’s Roar, and the sound waves violently raked through the area outside the temple again and again.
Monk Zhi Heng did not seem to have any intention to stop…
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS
Mogumoguchan Mogumoguchan
Translator’s Note:

[1] Pocket formation: The army lures the enemy into a narrow opening and guides them into the depths, but as the enemy pours inside, the space inside the formation will become larger. When all enemy forces enter, the army will seal off the exit, just like closing a pocket. (Sounds like the crane’s wing formation, but the words are completely different, so I can’t be too sure.)