Chapter 190: Entering the Cave

The moment the entrance to the Fox Cave was fully formed, Happy and his three companions, along with two zombies, arrived near the entrance. Under the gaze of countless spotlight-like eyes, they stepped forward to face the three most powerful leaders among the various gangs.

Hong Chen, the deputy leader of the Righteousness Gate;
Gudu Changle, the leader of the Joyful Happiness Sect;
Situ Luoyu, the leader of the Falling Feathers Gate.

With Happy’s arrival, the hundreds of skilled fighters in the forest near the cave entrance fell into an odd atmosphere. By then, almost everyone knew Happy’s identity and realized that, after defeating numerous gangs and disappearing for over ten days, he now possessed even greater strength than when he was near Songshan!

No one tried to stop Happy. Everyone held their breath, focusing their attention on the three leaders in front of the cave entrance. They wanted to know—what would these three leaders, who commanded nearly a hundred top-notch fighters, do?

“Sir in the blue robe, I’ve long heard of your fame!”
“Hello, Happy.”

Yet, to their surprise, Situ Luoyu and Hong Chen stepped forward almost simultaneously, smiling and bowing to greet Happy. This left many skilled fighters who were eager to defeat him utterly stunned.

“…”

In contrast, Happy’s reaction was somewhat cold and unexpected. He glanced briefly outside the forest before turning back and saying indifferently, “Your defenses are quite difficult to penetrate.”

Hong Chen showed signs of embarrassment, shaking his head with a wry smile.

Situ Luoyu stopped awkwardly before explaining with a laugh, “Hehe, it’s due to the circumstances. We’ve sacrificed so much for the Fox Cave lately, so we planned to organize ourselves properly. We didn’t expect to attract such a famous figure from the list of great warriors.”

“You flatter me… But my arrival here shouldn’t disrupt your plans, right?”

“Hmph! With just the four of you, it probably won’t cause much trouble.” It was Gudu Changle, who had remained silent until now, who spoke in a somewhat harsh and hostile tone, likely because of Happy’s cold reaction.

After glancing at him, Happy turned his gaze back to the grass as if unconcerned:

“Since that’s the case, let’s keep to ourselves. You continue with your preparations, and I’ll head off with my three friends.”

“The four of you?”

Hong Chen looked astonished and exclaimed in surprise.

“What’s wrong?”

Feeling the mockery and schadenfreude from all sides, Happy remained calm: “What’s inappropriate about that?”

“Oh no, it’s just the Fox Cave—extremely dangerous. Would Happy Brother like to join us from the Heroic Gate? That way, it might be safer.”
“No need to bother.”
Although the Heroic Gate had a good reputation in the martial world early on, Happy still didn’t want to get too close to them since they had just met with no prior relationship. He politely declined, saying, “You’ve put a lot of effort into this mission. The four of us have our own plans. Besides, it’s hard to divide resources when traveling together. I appreciate your kindness, but I must take my leave!” With that, he bowed to the three of them and headed into the Fox Cave first. Before Hong Chen could even stop him or give any warnings, he saw Lei Zhan and the others follow closely behind.
“…”
Happy moved too fast, leaving Hong Chen no time to persuade or stop him. With a look of regret and sigh, he shook his head helplessly at the entrance of the Fox Cave.
In truth, he wasn’t worried that Happy might disrupt their plans once inside. Instead, he thought it would be a shame for someone with such strong abilities to die in the Fox Cave due to its dangers.
The two others, however, didn’t share this concern. As they watched Happy and his group disappear into the cave, Situ Luoyu and Gu Dulan couldn’t help but smirk slightly.
They knew very well how dangerous the Fox Cave was!
Although Happy’s displayed strength might surpass everyone present, the Fox Cave couldn’t be dealt with by just one or two people. There were hundreds of fox demons in the hall!
While their attacks might not pose much of a threat to experts with superior martial skills and protective abilities, the fox demons’ astonishing speed, attack frequency, and evasion skills were beyond ordinary players’ capabilities. Once surrounded, even the strongest would be overwhelmed by relentless attacks and have no chance to fight back, left to wait for death.
But…
That was exactly what they had counted on. They knew that as long as these four entered the Fox Cave, they might hold out for a while, but in the long run, their internal energy would run out, leading to their deaths in the cave. That’s why they remained silent, watching Happy’s group rush in.
Glancing at each other, they both turned their gaze toward the outside and suddenly spoke in colder tones:
“Get those outsiders to quiet down for a while.”
“Exactly. It will take some time for Happy and his group to get inside. Since there’s nothing to do, why not drive away these annoying guys? What do the other leaders think?”

The back-and-forth conversation between the two reached the ears of other gang leaders in the area, carrying a tone of negotiation yet also hinting at commands. The over 200 non-gang players who had followed them into the forest hesitated after Happy and his group left, unsure of what to do, and their spirits sank upon hearing this. While face was important, they didn’t want to risk dying once again and delaying more than a month of progress. Under the pressure from various gangs, they quickly left the forest. Soon! Most of the hundreds of skilled fighters surrounding the entrance to Fox Cave dispersed. With the addition of so many top-notch fighters, the sounds of combat outside the forest grew even more intense. The Heroic Gate’s “Red Dust” never sent any troops, nor could they stop it, as this event was led by the Falling Feather Gate and the Joyful Music Sect, who brought together other smaller sects—these two major gangs were responsible for coordinating with them. Fearing being expelled in the next event, these gangs mostly followed the lead of the Falling Feather Gate and the Joyful Music Sect and cooperated fully, so the Heroic Gate had little influence. Once everything was settled, the three turned their attention back to the entrance of Fox Cave, but showed no immediate intention of entering. “Brother Joyful Music,” Situ Falling Feather asked lightly with a smirk, “How long do you think those people can hold out in there?” “Five minutes, at most ten,” Lonely Joyful Music replied with a light laugh. “Good, then we’ll enter in ten minutes!” “…” Red Dust frowned, glanced at the two, then resolutely turned and returned to the Heroic Gate’s camp, unwilling to associate with them—he realized they were deliberately trying to get Happy to die in Fox Cave. He indeed wanted to enter and help, but he had few companions, and there had always been heavy casualties in previous attempts. From the perspective of his gang, he didn’t want his impulsive decision to put many of his brothers in danger, nor did he want the Heroic Gate to become a target for the other gangs present. So, even though he knew that Happy and his group were likely to face certain death without any support, he could only wait.