Chapter Forty-Two: The Ring-Hilted Saber

After Liu Zixuan dashed out, Lin Xiaofeng and the other three could not possibly let her face the monster alone and quickly followed her into the fray. Lin Xiaofeng led the charge, wielding his cudgel, with the youngest male player close behind, while the two female players fired arrows from a distance.

As expected, Chen Hao kept his word, standing aside with folded arms and watching from afar, not joining the battle. If Liu Zixuan’s group could defeat the two Boxer NPCs, he would certainly honor his promise and ask for nothing in return. But was that even possible? The sallow-faced man not only had a fighting skill of 40, but also knew basic swordsmanship. Lin Xiaofeng’s group stood no chance.

The youngest of the four players was surprisingly as skilled as Lin Xiaofeng. He wielded a short dagger and moved with practiced steps, always finding an opening to thrust his blade, catching the two NPCs off guard time and again. After a brief struggle, Liu Zixuan was overjoyed to see that, with her and Yudie’s support, Lin Xiaofeng and the other were holding their ground, and she began to believe they stood a chance of completing the quest.

“You scoundrels! Last time you tried to save that foreigner and I drove you off—how dare you return?” the sallow-faced man bellowed. Suddenly, he drew a ring-hilted saber from the bundle on his back, slashing several times in quick succession, forcing Lin Xiaofeng and his partner into disarray.

With the saber in hand, the yellow-faced man’s close combat ability surged. Lin Xiaofeng’s cudgel was sliced clean in half. Lin Xiaofeng’s wide sweeping strikes and his companion’s opportunistic dagger thrusts had worked well together, but against barehanded foes, not an armed one. Now, with their fighting attributes so outmatched, Lin Xiaofeng and his partner were completely overwhelmed.

Just as Lin Xiaofeng found himself in dire straits, a broadsword deflected the sallow-faced man’s attack—Chen Hao had finally stepped in. Even Liu Zixuan could not fault his timing; had he waited any longer, Lin Xiaofeng would have been finished.

Wang Wu tutored Chen Hao in swordsmanship for an hour each day. Though his basic sword skill was still at intermediate level, he was close to advancing. The sallow-faced man had only picked up some skills after joining the Boxers and had not mastered true swordplay; he was no match for Chen Hao when it came to blade work.

Moreover, the ring-hilted saber was inferior in power to Chen Hao’s horse-cutting saber, let alone his wild goose-feathered blade. In terms of weapon quality, the man was once again outclassed. With +3 to combat when fighting with a blade, and the goose-feathered blade adding 5 more points, Chen Hao’s fighting stat reached 38. With the Bloodbath close-combat skill boosting it by 20%, he was the equivalent of a player with around 45 fighting points.

In his battle with the yellow-faced man, Chen Hao held the advantage at every turn. The man’s expression changed drastically; after exchanging a look with Li Shitou, he forced Chen Hao back and attempted to flee. But Chen Hao had anticipated this. From the moment he joined the fight, he signaled to Lin Xiaofeng to cut off their escape. Blocked, the yellow-faced man was quickly subdued, Chen Hao’s broadsword at his throat.

“If you value your life, don’t move,” Chen Hao said coldly. “Or I’ll kill you where you stand.”

The sallow-faced man puffed out his chest. “I don’t fear death. The Holy Mother protects me—no blade or bullet can harm me. If you don’t believe me, go ahead and kill me.”

With the slightest movement of his goose-feathered blade, a thin line of blood appeared on the man’s neck. Chen Hao sneered, “Your Holy Mother can’t protect you. Don’t force me to kill you.”

Most Boxers were ignorant and superstitious. Chen Hao had no patience for their nonsense. He instructed Lin Xiaofeng’s group to find some mountain vines and tie up the two Boxers. The reason he went to the trouble was to avoid making mortal enemies by killing them. In 1900, the Boxer Rebellion was at its peak, and many quests involved Boxer NPCs. Making deadly enemies of them would be unwise.

Once the two NPCs were thoroughly bound, the system judged them as captured alive, allowing Chen Hao to take all their possessions. To his dismay, they had only seven copper coins between them—utterly destitute. At least he could sell the ring-hilted saber for two silver dollars.

“Hold on.” Just as Chen Hao was about to stow the saber away, Li Zixuan suddenly stopped him. “Since we hired you to help with the quest, the loot and money from defeated enemies belong to us.”

Left with no choice, Chen Hao reluctantly handed the saber and seven coins to Lin Xiaofeng. Though Li Zixuan seemed to be targeting him, her reasoning was sound. He was acting as a hired hand and had already been paid; any gains during the quest rightly belonged to the employers.

Lin Xiaofeng accepted the saber and coins rather sheepishly. “Brother, you were the one who subdued these NPCs—we barely did anything. You should keep them.”

“Why give them to him?” Li Zixuan interjected, snatching the saber and coins with a triumphant grin. “Not just this saber—any loot from the other two NPCs will also be ours.”

“Whatever,” Chen Hao shrugged. “But directly attacking the remaining NPCs in the ancestral hall could provoke the villagers to swarm us. I wanted the saber only to lure those two out. If you’re unwilling to use it as bait, and something goes wrong, I won’t take responsibility.”

“Didn’t you promise us a one hundred percent success rate?” Li Zixuan retorted with a cold smile.

Chen Hao replied coolly, “I never said I wouldn’t guarantee your success, but only if you follow my strategy. If you insist on your way and the quest fails, that’s on you.”

Li Zixuan weighed her options. Unable to risk the quest's failure, she reluctantly handed back the saber she had barely warmed in her hands. Chen Hao passed the ring-hilted saber to the pale, devilish youth. “Take this to the ancestral hall and tell the remaining two NPCs their comrades have been captured.”

After the youth left with the saber, Chen Hao smiled, “Unless something unexpected happens, those two NPCs will leave the ancestral hall. We just need to hide nearby, and once they’re gone, we can rescue the lieutenant.”

Li Zixuan eyed him suspiciously. “Are you saying we won’t need to fight at all?”

Chen Hao nodded. “If we lure them away with the saber, rescuing the lieutenant will be easy. Why fight if we don’t have to?”

Li Zixuan pressed, “Why not just wait here, ambush the two NPCs when they come, take them out, then rescue the lieutenant?”

Chen Hao looked at her as if puzzled by her stupidity. “If we can rescue the lieutenant without fighting, why bother ambushing the NPCs? Are you sure you’re thinking straight?”

A flush of anger rose in Li Zixuan’s chest. She saw it now: he was getting his revenge—since he couldn’t keep the saber, he’d make sure she didn’t either.

There was a clear difference between luring the NPCs away to rescue the lieutenant and ambushing them: an ambush would recover the saber and net them more loot, while a diversion would leave them with nothing. But for Chen Hao, who was just a hired hand, the only thing that mattered was completing the quest. Any loot found along the way wasn’t his, so why should he bother fighting the NPCs?