9 Cooperation

"Ah…" Sun Yang was startled, he was about to jump but Luo Tian's grip on his neck was too strong that he could barely even move.

Luo Tian carried him into a house, he threw him against the wall, his sword appeared in his hand, before he even slashed the sword, Sun Yang had already pleaded, "No, Your Majesty, please forgive me. I will tell you everything."

It was as if he was meeting a grim reaper who was ready to take his life, his face turning deathly pale as his body trembled.

"Say it quickly," said Luo Tian.

"This, Yang Ming," he answered quickly.

"So that's him, do you know his identity?"

"No, we just met on an internet forum, I really don't know who he is."

"Tell me his id code."

"Dha342."

"Huh," Luo Tian smiled sinisterly, he then added Yang Ming to his friends list.

But he still looked at Sun Yang, "tell me everything Yang Ming has told you since the first time you communicated with him."

Elsewhere, Yang Ming almost jumped in surprise when he saw Old_Demon add him as a friend. His eyes widened as his breathing stopped.

"Damn it, did that little bastard betray me? Maybe he tricked me from the start?" he said.

He didn't think that far, so he concluded Sun Yang had betrayed or tricked him. After all, being caught red-handed while communicating via the game's communication feature was a rather ridiculous thing that he never thought about.

He started pacing back and forth to think of a response.

"Alright, I'll accept his request, I want to see what he looks like. No matter what, he won't be able to do anything as long as I hide here unless he shows his true talent. But since he was hiding until now, he probably didn't intend to. And my real identity is also very safe, I'm European but I use a Chinese name because I'm a fan of eastern cultivation novels. I'm afraid he has a very strong background in the real world, but even if that's the case, it's still almost impossible to find me with today's level of technological security. Damn, isn't this just a game, why did things turn out like this. I'm starting to take things seriously."

After some deliberation, he finally chose to click the yes button, soon after that he became friends with Old_Demon.

[Hello, how are you?]

He received a message that shocked him. At first he thought he was going to threaten her or something, but it was definitely a friendly greeting.

Of course, while he considered many things, Luo Tian considered far more.

He knew that the only way he could deal directly with him was to enter the core circle of the sect, but he didn't want to do that right now.

There was too great a risk if the NPCs were truly as intelligent as humans, in that case, sooner or later they would definitely investigate the players who kept acting strangely. While that was happening, it was better for him to keep a low profile, hide his nickname, and focus on increasing his cultivation.

The storm will pass eventually, the best time to act conspicuous is after this storm is over, at that time, he will also become much stronger, things can be done more easily.

So, for the time being, he could only rely on friendly communication to deal with Yang Ming.

[Hello...]

Yang Ming replied to his message. Since he's sending friendly messages, he has no other choice but to send friendly messages too, as the saying goes - you shouldn't slap someone who smiles at you.

[Yang Ming, right? I'm sure you're very smart in real life.]

Yang Ming became a little awkward, he scratched his head before replying.

[Compared to you, I'm just a little inexperienced kid, I think I've done something, who would have thought that it was just such a stupid thing.]

Luo Tian chuckled as he saw the answer. That answer indicated that now he felt inferior to him.

'He thinks Sun Yang is my accomplice in charge of investigating him.'

[I know you're worried about my existence, that's understandable.]

Yang Ming, "..."

[Actually I don't plan on continuing this matter, instead of being enemies, how about we cooperate? You know, the NPCs in this game are probably as intelligent as humans, as players, I think we should focus more on them than the other players.]

[You want to cooperate with me?] Yang Ming couldn't help but be surprised.

[You're a smart guy, you should be able to guess what will happen when the NPCs notice the players' weirdness. They will catch us and force us to speak, some people will definitely tell the truth. What do you think will happen after that?]

Seeing the message, Yang Ming knitted his brows.

It's not that he didn't think so, but...

[Are they really going to do that?]

In other games, NPCs usually referred to players as travelers, and of course, they wouldn't do anything strange like investigating travelers.

[If you have any doubts, that means you don't take this game seriously enough, just think about it, how many weird things are there in this game?]

'How many weird things are there in this game? It just came out of nowhere, and it's also something that technology shouldn't be able to create now,' Yang Ming began to think seriously.

'Does he know anything?'

[So what kind of cooperation are we going to do?]

[For now, let's focus on increasing our strength first, you too, importantly, act as if you're an NPC too, avoid other players and keep a low profile. I'm advancing faster in fact is a good thing for you, in that case, other players won't pay much attention to you. They will focus more on me. Here, only Sun Yang knows my character but there are many who know your character, anyone can tell the NPCs that you are one of them too.]

Yang Ming was silent for quite a while, he thought about his words

'Everything he said was true, but somehow I felt he was just taking advantage of me. Even so, this is also the best way.'

After a moment of thought, he finally sent an agreeing message.

[Alright, let's work together!]

Luo Tian didn't show any expression when he saw the message.

He knew their cooperation would not go well in the future, the problem was that Yang Ming himself was not the type to be easily controlled.

[I want you to delete your post on the forum mentioning my nickname.] He sent the last message.

[Alright.] Yang Ming replied.

Sun Yang cowered in fear beside the wall, Luo Tian only glanced at him briefly before stepping away.

This brat holds a grudge against him, it is unknown if he will still think of a plan for revenge, Luo Tian thinks his existence is not completely bad. This time, it was precisely because of him that he was able to make contact with Yang Ming.

Maybe later he would still lead him into matters related to matters that he didn't know about.

He then proceeded to go to the mining area.

On the way, he sent a message to Luo Shen.

[I want you to form a team of professional internet experts. Give them the task of supervising game forums, let me know if they find posts discussing my nickname or the names of places I've been.]

...

He finally arrived at the mine area, no one stopped him, the disciples guarding the mine just stared at him for a while. However, they stopped the disciples who had just come out of the mine, they even checked their spatial bags.

The mining area consisted of tunnels, he entered one of the tunnels where the walls were mixed with gold and silver.

Of course, the sect didn't need gold and silver, what they needed was only spiritual stones.

In the eyes of cultivators, one houtian spiritual stone is as valuable as 1 kg of gold in the eyes of mortals, obtaining it is not easy, usually disciples only get fragments which are then combined into one.

'There is no mine of this kind on earth, but I have read some records, besides, my divine body has much better perception, I should be able to detect the presence of hidden spiritual stones.'

He went further into the tunnel, inside that tunnel there were still many other tunnels where then there were several areas that were opened up by the disciples. He saw some disciples mining in those areas with iron rods and hoes.

After passing through several areas, he finally found an area that caught his attention, it was being mined by about ten disciples who were quite old, their cultivation consisted of the second and third layers of iron bodies.

'It's a pretty good area, there might be some spiritual stones here,' he thought.

He stopped, the disciples were aware of his existence, but they didn't even look at him because they thought he was just a new disciple who had not yet cultivated.

'More than 10, I have to move quickly to knock them out.'

He took a deep breath, his iron wooden sword appearing in his hand.

Whoosh...

He lunged at them while swinging the sword in his hand at them. Sharp auras gathered around the sword, they then formed more than ten sword shadows which directly attacked the disciples.

Xiu... Xiu... Xiu...

They pierced their necks, causing their eyes to widen.

When they disappeared, a hole was left in their neck. Their spiritual energy quickly leaked through the hole.

Luo Tian who arrived behind them hit their backs one by one until they coughed up blood. After that, their bodies fell while their eyes lost light.

They had passed out.

Killing them would have been easier for him, but it was too risky because it could lead to an investigation from the elders, which was why he only knocked them out.

He didn't check on them, he immediately lunged at the wall they had mined.

This time, there were more sharp auras gathering around his sword, they all condensed together with the sword so that it emitted a sharp light that seemed capable of piercing through steel.

Shu...

He slashed the sword against the wall, it produced a tone that sounded like the hiss of a snake.

Break...

The wall suddenly cracked before crumbling into countless shards.

Between the gold and silver, there were shards of transparent white stone that gave off a cold and cool light.

If they were all combined into one, it might only be the size of a child's fist, but the life aura it emitted could definitely bring a crippled person back to health.

"Well, they are at least equivalent to three spiritual stones."

He collected them into his spatial bag.

Before stepping away, he surveyed the remnants of the wall he had destroyed.

The disciples took a lot of effort to break the wall, but the wooden sword only took one slash to destroy it.

Even though his cultivation was higher than theirs, the difference between his strength and theirs far surpassed the difference in their cultivation.

'Ultimate Way Of The Sword, this might be the answer to the question "can one use a sword without a sword technique?" Because with this, even the simplest slash will produce an extremely extraordinary technique.'

Up until now, he hadn't used his technique comprehension points for any technique, he wanted to see what his sword skills would be with this merit law, and now he thought he really didn't need any sword techniques.

'Next I will add King Arthur's Holy Light, after that, only then will I start selecting techniques. I have more techniques than merit laws, I can trade more in the game shop to find one that suits me.'

He then went to another tunnel, after a while, he managed to collect six spiritual stones.

After that, he decided to leave.

He didn't immediately leave the area, but waited for the disciples he attacked to be found.

When they were found, there would definitely be panic, he wanted to leave when it happened with the other students, that way, he could leave without creating suspicion.

The disciples guarding the mine would not ask for rations at a time like this.