Not long after Su Qing slipped away, several more players indeed rushed to the scene. By then she had already retreated to safety, crouching under a huge boulder at the lower part of the Sword Tomb, happily counting her spoils.
She had just wiped out five people. Five fat backpacks to loot.
Unfortunately, probably because they were noobs, their farming speed was trash compared to hers. The haul wasn’t great:
Plus some new goodies:
Overhearing the inner monologues of other people’s life-bound swords made Su Qing’s heart tremble. She tightened her grip on Man Qing Sword. Its silver-white blade remained calm and ripple-free. Though it had already gained sentience, it probably hadn’t reached the level of roasting its master yet.
She swore she would cherish her life, never let Man Qing Sword fall into someone else’s hands and be forced to complain about how useless she was!
That said… carrying someone else’s life-bound sword gave way more attack power than regular items.
Totally worth squatting in that bush for so long.
After eliminating five players, her current stats were beautiful: Attack 3000 · HP +2000 · Defense 300 · Spirit Stones 700 · Sword Qi 999
Attack and HP were self-explanatory, but what was Sword Qi?
She casually flicked out a small blade of sword qi. It hit a distant sword spirit. The sword roared in fury and charged. Su Qing one-shotted it. 【Sword Qi +1】
999 → 1000 instantly.
Ding!
A silvery moon-white glow flashed across Man Qing Sword.
It upgraded!
Tier-2 → Tier-3 in the blink of an eye. All the 【Broken Sword Shards】 in her bag were consumed at once.
The sword trembled happily, like it had just enjoyed a feast.
Life outside couldn’t give it this satisfaction, but the game could. Su Qing felt a twinge of guilt.
Her brain spun fast: in the Sword Tomb she could farm Sword Qi to upgrade her sword. Then Body School students could probably farm defense/HP, Wuya Pavilion students could learn skills, Pill Peak students could get buff pills, Artifact Peak students could get magic treasures…
She wasn’t wrong.
Right now:
Back to Su Qing: after the upgrade, she felt invincible. Farming speed skyrocketed.
Soon her Sword Qi hit 1000 again. She ran into two first-years on the way; they saw her and immediately turned tail. She didn’t chase—priority was still Sword Qi.
But Man Qing Sword showed no signs of upgrading again. Tier-3 to Tier-4 clearly needed way more.
The Sword Tomb was huge. Killing swords one by one would take forever.
Wasn’t there a way to aggro everything at once?
With a tier-3 sword and a bag full of junk, Su Qing decided she could afford to play a little dangerously. Stir the water, then fish in muddy waters.
She remembered how mobs locked onto whoever hit them first and chased relentlessly.
Avoiding the zone-boss icon, she stood at a distance and unleashed a barrage of sword qi.
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh!
Dozens of sword qi shot out, turning into countless straight lines that tore through the air.
In mere breaths they reached the far end of the Sword Tomb.
Su Qing watched warily, ready for counterattacks.
Silence.
The darkness in the distance looked perfectly peaceful.
Then—rumble rumble rumble—
The ground shook. Something was stampeding toward her.
She immediately burned a 【Thousand-Li Eyes】—vision +3 meters.
Through billowing dust, she saw them: Thousands of sword spirits, all with angry red health bars, charging in a dense horde like a flood!
Su Qing’s eyes went wide. She felt oddly flattered.
So this was how Tian Ning felt when ten thousand swords chased her during the sword-selection ceremony! Only difference: back then they were chasing her to acknowledge a master. Now they were chasing her to murder her.
…Being chased to death still counts as being chased, right?
Su Qing raised her sword, leapt into the air, and dove straight into the sword tsunami.
But the swords weren’t alone—behind them came more than a dozen confused sword cultivators waving their own blades, clearly wondering why their mobs had suddenly sprinted away.
Among them, the two highest cultivation were late Foundation Establishment—second-years.
She might not win.
Instant decision: activate 【Basic Puppet】!
An iron puppet with no facial features popped into existence in her place, drawing every aggro.
Her real body teleported ten meters away. She landed, put on a bewildered face like everyone else, raised her sword, and charged toward the puppet with the crowd.
A thousand swords descended on the poor puppet, turning it into swiss cheese in seconds. But Sword Sect quality is no joke—it held for the full ten breaths.
The first late Foundation Establishment second-year to arrive scanned the area and frowned. “Who used an AoE?!”
No time to think—the place had already turned into a chaotic mess.
The darkness was perfect cover. Anyone who exposed themselves or ran into someone else had one optimal choice: strike first.
He had only paused for a second when another late Foundation Establishment attacked him.
“Sheng Zhuguang! So you were picked too! This is definitely your doing—that sword qi was clearly Foundation Establishment level!”
“Stop slandering me!” Sheng Zhuguang snapped back. “You’re the one framing me!”
Whether it was competition or old grudges, the two immediately started fighting.
All the surrounding first-years wisely turned and fled.
Neither second-year cared; their priority was devouring the fat meat in front of them first.
Being familiar with each other was both good and bad. Ten breaths later, because they knew each other’s moves too well, both had barely lost any health.
Su Qing painfully swapped in a second puppet for another ten breaths.
Twenty breaths later… they had only scratched each other a little.
Su Qing was getting depressed. Guys, can you actually fight or not? Are you really nemeses? Why are you pulling punches??
When the last puppet finally died, every sword instantly locked onto her again, humming furiously as they charged.
The commotion naturally drew the attention of the dueling second-years.
They both stopped warily and looked at her.
“New face.”
“First-year?”
“Pretty bold for a newbie.”
“Mid-to-late Foundation Establishment as a first-year—unacceptable!”
The two simultaneously raised their swords and rushed her.
Welp, plan failed.
Su Qing didn’t even look surprised. She turned and bolted straight toward the zone-boss icon.
Thousands of swords chased relentlessly behind her.
The two second-years flung their sleeves and gave chase. “Don’t you dare run!”
Su Qing (in her heart): Only an idiot wouldn’t run. Everyone’s here now—perfect time to wake the boss and let them all fight it out!
If You Notice any translation issues or inconsistency in names, genders, or POV etc? Let us know here in the comments or on our Discord server, and we’ll fix it in current and future chapters. Thanks for helping us to improve! 🙂