"You have stepped into the territory of Starter Village #10021!"
"Note: Stepping into the starter village without permission will cause the guards and powerful fighters in the village to view you as an enemy!"
Qin Shujian received a notification from the system when he was three meters away from the village entrance.
He stopped in his tracks when he looked at the guards standing in front of him.
"The territory of the starter village? Cause the guards and powerful fighters in the village to view me as an enemy?" Qin Shujian thought.
These two notifications made Qin Shujian's expression turn grave.
He had next to no understanding of the starter village in the Liangshan territory.
However, judging from the guards standing in front of the village, Qin Shujian could roughly estimate the starter village's strength.
If this were an average day, Qin Shujian would not have taken action rashly before he thoroughly investigated his opponent's strength.
However, it was different for the starter village.
Giving the players more time meant they would become more of a threat to him in the future.
Qin Shujian's main goal this time around was to scout just how powerful the starter village was.
As for why he took action, the main reason was that there were no other powerful fighters in the Liangshan Stronghold.
If he had sent a few small-fry Mountain Bandits over, they might have become experience points for the players before they even stepped foot into the village.
He had to use a sufficient amount of force to determine just how strong the village was.
Qin Shujian was using himself as the stone to test how deep the waters of the village ran.
He was confident in himself.
With his stage at Martial Entry-Level Six, he should be able to retreat in one piece even if a terrifying expert was hiding in the starter village.
The players who were corralling beside Qin Shujian looked confused when they saw Qin Shujian stop in front of the starter village. They seemed not to understand Qin Shujian's intentions.
But the players didn't have time to ask questions when they saw Qin Shujian take a step forward.
"Note: You have stepped into the territory of Starter Village #10021!"
Qin Shujian gave the system notification a simple glance before he tossed it to the back of his head.
At that moment, the guards who originally stood motionless like statues in front of the village entrance walked forward immediately and blocked Qin Shujian's path.
"Stop right there!" They crossed their spears. The bright tip of the spear reflected harsh, cold light.
One of the guards, who looked more senior, shouted with a low voice, "This is the territory of the village. Anyone who is not from the village is prohibited from freely entering the village."
"Haha!" Qin Shujian first let out a calm smile. His expression then turned cold.
"I did not expect that there are people in Liangshan who dared to block my path," Qin Shujian had just finished his sentence when the atmosphere instantly turned tense.
The spectating players all had strange looks on their faces. Several people had an excited glimmer in their eyes.
How could they fail to recognize this with their perceptive ability?
The NPC's simple words were laced with fury. It seemed like a battle was about to erupt.
The new players did not have to care if the starter village guards were on their side, nor did they have to care if Qin Shujian was an enemy.
In their eyes, they were all NPCs.
Since they were NPCs, their battle had nothing to do with them.
They might even be able to gain benefits from this battle.
Thus, several of the players were faintly egging them on. They wanted the two parties to fight.
Qin Shujian disregarded the guard's obstruction.
The two spears might as well be useless in front of Qin Shujian. Qin Shujian stopped in his tracks for a moment, then stepped forward once again.
Charge!
The two guards attacked at the same time.
They thrust their long spears outward with fierce momentum. Their attack would have easily pierced through an average person.
But, from Qin Shujian's perspective, they were as slow as a turtle.
He raised his right arm as a reaction to the attack. He struck his palm past the tip of the spear, then tapped on the body of the spears with his fingers at extreme speed.
Boom!
A powerful force erupted from the body of the spear, and the two guards felt their grips shake. They involuntarily loosened their grip on their spears.
Qin Shujian took a step forward and planted his palms on the chest of the two guards.
The force exerted by a person at Martial Entry-Level Six must have weighed a thousand tons.
The two guards were only at Martial Entry-Level One. How could they have taken Qin Shujian's attack?
Boom!
The two bodies were sent flying like straw.
Their chests caved in, and their ribs had had long been shattered from the impact.
They instantly bled from every orifice. The guards couldn't even speak before they landed on the ground, devoid of life.
"Wow!"
The sudden development startled the rest of the players.
Even though they knew that conflict would erupt between the two parties, they did not expect the battle to be that abrupt.
The guards, who looked powerful in their eyes, had been unable to last even through one hit from the NPC before dying.
Qin Shujian's attack had been swift. The players only managed to see two afterimages before the battle ended.
Expert!
The NPC was definitely an expert!
Even the NPCs who were teaching them techniques in the training hall did not seem as powerful as Qin Shujian in the players' eyes.
"This NPC is so powerful. Wouldn't we be able to get a huge lead on the other players if we managed to learn techniques from him!"
A portion of players thought about the matter from another perspective.
During the time they had entered the game, a few experienced players had understood some of the game rules.
There was no leveling system in this game. Players had to focus on cultivating techniques.
Then, correspondingly, the higher the level of the cultivated techniques, the stronger their abilities would become.
The techniques they could learn from the village's training hall were mostly weak techniques that could not differentiate them from the other players.
If they genuinely wanted to rise above the other players, they had to find a way to learn techniques that were of a higher grade.
In these players' eyes, Qin Shujian was an NPC who possessed high-grade techniques and had abilities that were deep beyond comprehension.
Qin Shujian could not be bothered with the players' conjectures.
That was because while his Life Value had increased by two points after he killed the two village guards, he had also received a few notifications from the system.
"You have killed the guards of Starter Village #10021!"
"The relationship of the Liangshan Stronghold and Starter Village #10021 has become that of enemies!"
"Your actions have incited the wrath of the powerful fighters in Starter Village #10021!"
"Note: The powerful fighters of Starter Village #10021 are rapidly approaching!"
Powerful fighters!
Qin Shujian squinted slightly when he saw those words.
Even without the hint from the system, he could faintly detect a heavy aura rapidly approaching him from within the starter village.
On the other side, the two village guards' pitiful deaths gained the attention of the other guards.
At the moment, a dozen guards swarmed out from within the village.
They did not say anything. They did not try to converse with Qin Shujian.
"Charge!" One of the guards roared in fury. He thrust his long spear toward Qin Shujian.
The rest of the guards attacked at the same time.
A dozen spears pierced forward. Their shiny tips caused the hair of the people who saw it stand. It was as if they could sense a considerable threat from the attack.
Qin Shujian silently grabbed the handle of the blade behind his back with his right hand.
His gaze gradually turned ice-cold when he saw the long spears piercing toward him.