Chapter 1 Night Falls

Night fell quietly.

On the desolate plain, a team of riders sped towards the Great Wall.

As their figures appeared on the blurred horizon under the moonlight, the group of thirty-odd people dismounted and released their horses in the opposite direction.

Then, they took out the thick cloths they had prepared in advance, wrapped them around their feet, and slowly trudged across the snow-covered wilderness.

The deepening night provided them with excellent cover, and this group of valiant warriors quietly arrived at the foot of the Great Wall.

They came with a mission...

These thirty-seven men were all outstanding warriors from the Great Jin (referring here to the Later Jin); they had been directly ordered by the Khan to enter the Central Plains and carry out a secret mission.

This mission might take a very long time, so long that it could be calculated using the rest of their lives.

This mission was also extremely dangerous, so dangerous that they would immediately lose their lives if they were exposed.

However, they didn't care; they had already made up their minds to dedicate everything to this mission.

Because their success might change the fate of the entire Great Jin.

Of course, in this plan, the Great Ming naturally played the role of the villain and the sacrificial lamb...

"Ba-ye, I've checked. There's definitely no one on the nearby beacon towers."

The middle-aged man who spoke was wearing a very common padded jacket and was dressed no differently from the people of the Central Plains.

The "Ba-ye" who received his report was also of a similar age and dressed in the same way.

Obviously, these people were planning to "lie dormant" in the Central Plains for a long time. Before setting off, they had undergone rigorous training. Not only could they speak very fluent Chinese, but they could also provide detailed explanations for their backgrounds and origins, with few loopholes.

"Hmm..." Ba-ye pondered for a moment, then continued, "Natan, you take the lead and go up first. After confirming that there are no abnormalities above, give us the signal."

"Yes." After receiving the order, Natan acted immediately. He retreated a few meters away from the city wall, stomped his feet (at this time, they had removed the cloths from their feet), and leaped up.

Then, he used the city wall to gain momentum a few times in mid-air and climbed up the wall with ease, arriving on top of the Great Wall.

Before long, his companions below saw him stick his head out and give a "follow me" gesture.

So, the remaining thirty-odd people, led by Ba-ye, climbed up the city wall in a similar way; for experts like them, jumping over the city wall was a piece of cake.

"Good... not one missing." When the last person climbed over the battlement, Ba-ye, who had been silently counting, said in a low voice.

The next second, he was about to order them to jump off the wall and "enter the pass."

Unexpectedly, suddenly...

"Everyone, please hold your steps for now." A man's voice came from above.

This one sentence made the thirty-seven people present tremble, and they almost simultaneously reacted defensively in the direction of the voice.

"Did you forget something?" Then, the man said another sentence.

At the same time, a dark object was thrown down from the beacon tower.

By the moonlight and their excellent eyesight, the Later Jin warriors could see before the object landed that it was a human head.

The head landed and rolled to Natan's feet. Although the hair on the head was scattered and covered half of its face, Natan recognized it at a glance. It was the "chief officer" he had bribed in advance, the very person who... had withdrawn the soldiers who were supposed to be on guard at this beacon tower tonight.

"Ba-ye, this is..." Natan immediately turned his head, wanting to remind Ba-ye.

However, Ba-ye didn't seem to need his reminder, and just raised a hand, signaling the other not to continue.

"Who... is coming?" After a moment, Ba-ye raised his head and looked at the beacon tower, asking this question word by word.

He didn't plan to hide anything anymore, because the moment he saw the head, he already knew that what he would face next would be a battle to the death.

"Hehe..." After hearing this question, the person on the beacon tower also chuckled and raised his voice, reciting aloud, "The first pass of the Great Wall..."

After saying the first sentence, his figure had already appeared on the edge of the beacon tower.

"A thousand years of wind and rain forge desolation..."

As the second sentence landed, the cold moonlight happened to shine on the weapon in the man's hand... It was a long spear.

"A million soldiers are gone now..."

As the third sentence was spoken, the man leaped down, somersaulting in mid-air, and landed from the beacon tower.

"A lonely spear, one courage... a weary dream returns!"

As the last three words were uttered, Juan Menghuan (Weary Dream Returns) stood proudly, spear planted firmly in the ground.

Although his poem was not very well-formed, the domineering aura between the lines was genuine.

The warriors took a closer look and saw a white-faced (compared to most men of that time, most players appeared fair and delicate) youth, wearing a bizarre black armor, standing solemnly with a spear.

Although the moonlight tonight was not bright, his armor still emitted a clear halo, and the long spear in his hand also revealed an indescribable chill.

"Hmph..." When Ba-ye saw this person, he first snorted coldly, then praised, "Good!" He paused. "A good 'lonely spear, one courage'!"

Speaking of this, he simply raised his voice and shouted to his companions behind him, "Brothers! This kid can be considered a good man... Give him a quick death!"

At his command, the dozens of Later Jin warriors rushed out almost at the same moment.

The space on the city wall was very narrow, so it should be very difficult for so many people to attack the same target...

But, these Later Jin warriors could do it.

Their cooperation was very tacit, so tacit that it was seamless even without words...

In less than a second, the thirty-six people had neatly dispersed, divided into the center, air, and two wings... and attacked Juan Menghuan at the same time; this was undoubtedly their first time fighting on the Great Wall, but their performance was as if they were doing something they had practiced countless times.

Fast!

That was Juan Menghuan's first feeling.

Even as a player whose physical fitness had already broken through the limits of humanity, he had to secretly marvel at the speed of these enemies before him.

But, the most terrifying thing was not the speed, but the mode of action of these people...

They were not individuals, but more like one person.

This group of Later Jin warriors was like a whole composed of thirty-six bodies, each part serving the whole, completely disregarding their own safety and life...

Their offensive was like a raging wave, advancing layer by layer, surging and continuous. Even if the person charging at the front was pierced by a spear, swept away, or even shattered into a bloody paste by energy... the people behind would not hesitate at all—they would continue to attack until they reached their goal.

Faced with such a team, without sufficient determination or the use of ranged means such as bows and arrows, even if ten times their number were sent to fight, it would be difficult to say who would win or lose...

And now, Juan Menghuan was a veritable "lonely spear, one courage," truly "one man guarding the pass"...

In the eyes of others, this was simply a desperate situation.

However, Juan Menghuan... had a calm face, brandishing his spear continuously.

In an instant, blood blossoms bloomed.

Dots of cold light claimed lives, layers of spear shadows seized souls.

Before long, the thirty-six elite experts had been killed by him, leaving no one unscathed.

And that thirty-seventh person... the last one, was staring with bloodshot eyes, looking at the scene before him with disbelief.

He really couldn't believe that his brothers, who were bound by life and death... those strong men in the tribe who could fight ten enemies at once, would be killed by this mere person from the Central Plains in an instant, and... without any ability to fight back.

"You... are also good men." Juan Menghuan turned his spear diagonally, pointing the tip downwards, letting the blood on the spear drip slowly. "Therefore, I will also give you a quick death."

Ba-ye gritted his teeth and stood trembling in place with anger.

Only he could understand his mood at this moment.

Ba-ye and his sworn brothers had decided to dedicate everything to this mission; death or failure, they could accept.

But he couldn't accept the ending now.

"Kill me too." Ba-ye didn't think for too long before making this request. "I have no face to go back and face the Khan, and I don't want to abandon my brothers... and live alone in this world."

His request was reasonable. Since the mission was hopeless and resistance was futile, it was better to let the other party fulfill his wish.

"No, it's not your time to die yet." Unexpectedly, Juan Menghuan refused.

"What?" Ba-ye looked surprised and a little agitated. "What do you mean by this? Are you insulting me!"

Juan Menghuan shook his head. "I won't kill you because... before you die, there is one more thing you must accomplish."

Ba-ye sneered. "Hmph... Don't tell me you think I will betray..."

"Wrong." Juan Menghuan interrupted him before he could utter his incorrect guess. "I just want you to go back, back to your Khan's side, and tell him everything that happened here tonight... in detail."

"You..." The expression on Ba-ye's face was uncertain. After thinking for a moment, he sneered. "I understand, you think... the Khan will be afraid after hearing about tonight, and will give up..."

"He can think whatever he wants." Juan Menghuan didn't let the other party finish his sentence again. "If he is really afraid, then it shows that the measure of the person you respect is only so-so..."

"Presumptuous!" Ba-ye's Chinese was very good, and he could use various idioms at will. "Winner is king, loser is villain. You can insult me, but you cannot insult the master of my Great Jin!" He paused, then snorted again. "Hmph... Do you think that just killing this team of ours... my Great Jin has no one left? I tell you... warriors who are ten times, a hundred times stronger than us... are as numerous as carps crossing the river by the Khan's side."

"Oh... is that so." Faced with this sentence that even Ba-ye himself didn't believe, Juan Menghuan's reaction was naturally quite indifferent. "We probably don't have as many experts on our side as you do..." He continued in a calm tone, "There are only about a hundred roles who are about the same strength as me, and a little bit weaker..."

He wasn't being picky. In the entire Thriller Paradise, there were definitely a hundred players whose combat power was close to his level. There was no limit to the number of players in this script, who knew how many had come; moreover... he hadn't even counted the NPC forces in this script.

"As for those who are stronger than me..." Juan Menghuan paused for two seconds, then added, "Ah... about ten or so... maybe a few more, after all, I haven't had the chance to fight so many monsters one by one..."

As his voice fell, Ba-ye's worldview had collapsed.

Fear and shock shattered his understanding, and he wanted to tell himself that what he had just heard was not true; unfortunately, Juan Menghuan was a terrible liar, and people like Ba-ye... could never tell whether his words were true or false.

"You seem to understand." Juan Menghuan said, casually flicking his spear, and carrying the long spear on his shoulder handsomely. "If I were you... I think it's still very necessary to bring back such news and let your master know... um... that's all I have to say."

He wasn't as eloquent as Feng Bujue, he was just a stubborn, strong, but also self-aware person.

But today, his appearance here might be more appropriate than anyone else's appearance here.

…………

The clouds cleared, the moon was bright, and the night was not over.

Ba-ye had already returned. He had a way to come, and naturally he had a way to go back.

On the city wall, Juan Menghuan put the weapon back into his bag and breathed a long sigh of relief.

The spear was not his only weapon; now he had a halberd, a spear, and a staff... three kinds of weapons.

It was just that tonight, in this place, he wanted to use a spear.

So he used it.

"Wow, amazing..." At this time, another person's voice sounded behind Juan Menghuan. "Not only did you complete the side quest \[Preventing the Elite Warriors of the Later Jin from Sneaking into the Pass], but you even solved the hidden quest \[Changing the Future Dynastic Changes in this World]."

The person speaking was none other than Bi Lao Shi from the "Loser Alliance Team" during S2.

"I thought we would have to rush to the capital and kill the emperor of this world..." Bi Lao Shi muttered as he climbed onto the city wall. "I didn't expect that just leaving a hand in this side quest would allow us to complete it at the same time."

"Heh... Assassinating the emperor is indeed a feasible plan." Juan Menghuan, who had completed the task, also breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. "I just wanted to try it, so I let him go, I didn't expect it to actually succeed..." He shrugged. "Now that I think about it... the simultaneous appearance of those two tasks was actually a rather obvious hint."

Bi Lao Shi nodded. "Then... should we enter the town now?"

Juan Menghuan thought for a while. "Um... I think we can wait a little longer."

"Huh?" Bi Lao Shi said, "We've cleared several side quests in one day, aren't we going in yet?"

"Don't worry." Juan Menghuan replied with confidence. "There must be more than one group of players who haven't entered the town yet like us... It's impossible that only the two of us noticed that 'Order' was keeping watch at the town entrance." He muttered thoughtfully, "Don't be misled by the plot summary. The main quest didn't say that we must 'enter Linlu Town.' Think about it another way... Since we already know the time and place where 'Jian Wu Cao Ji' (Sword Dance Grass Script) will appear, then before it appears, being farther away from the core location of the event is actually an advantage..."