He was sure that if he had done this, Emily Parker would definitely have thrown him a single word with contempt—thief!

"Hehe, it's nothing," Edward Thompson said modestly.

"How did you do it?" Emily Parker asked, her eyes shining.

"Well, that's a long story," Edward Thompson had just started to say, when he saw the teacher already at the classroom door. The students who hadn't sat down yet hurried to their seats. Emily Parker and Samuel Reed sat in the same row, leaving a seat between them. She waved at Edward Thompson: "Edward Thompson, sit here."

Edward Thompson suddenly became the center of attention again. Even he felt a bit awkward and uncomfortable about that seat, but Emily Parker didn't care and kept urging him, "Hurry up!"

Seeing the teacher's gaze sweeping over, Edward Thompson had no choice but to walk over. David Harris sat in the back row, watching the backs of the three of them, so angry he wanted to gnaw on his desk.

During the following class, David Harris's neighbors, Mark Evans and Andrew Carter, having stayed up all night, were sprawled on their desks, drooling in their sleep. David Harris, however, stared fixedly at the three figures in front of him, wide awake.

He saw Emily Parker tilting her head, whispering to Edward Thompson, probably asking about the sword-stealing technique. Edward Thompson replied in a low voice, making Emily Parker exclaim in amazement again and again. The model student Samuel Reed wasn't paying attention to the lesson either, but kept turning her head to gaze at Edward Thompson, her long eyelashes not even trembling.

David Harris was insanely jealous. He glanced at the two snoring guys beside him and was instantly filled with rage. He slapped the desk, "Stop snoring, it's so noisy!"

Andrew Carter, startled awake in his sleep, instinctively thought the teacher had called on him and that a classmate was reminding him. He immediately stood up, causing the whole class to burst into laughter.

The torturous class finally ended. David Harris decisively switched to the seat behind Edward Thompson and the others, so Emily Parker promptly shot him a contemptuous look.

"Edward Thompson"

David Harris found it quite difficult to call out this name in a normal tone; he was already used to mixing all sorts of negative feelings into it.

Edward Thompson turned around and looked at David Harris.

"I don't need to tell you about the power of the Wudang Sect. Now that Wudang has issued a bounty on you, do you really think you can escape? Either way, it's a dead end. Why not sell me the sword you stole? The price is negotiable!" David Harris tried to make his tone sound as wise, friendly, and tempting as possible.

When Edward Thompson heard this, he smiled. When David Harris had asked him that morning if the sword was for sale, he had already guessed that the most important part of Wudang's bounty was to recover the Tai'a Sword, not to kill him, Edward Thompson.

In the game, when a player dies, they can immediately respawn, but they lose some experience points and money or equipment. However, the lost sword concerns Wudang's honor. If they can't recover the Tai'a Sword, their reputation will take a huge hit. How could they still have the nerve to ask guests to hand over their weapons when visiting Wudang in the future?

So, getting the Tai'a Sword back and returning it to the hero of Xiangzhong was a hundred times more important than killing Edward Thompson. Whoever could retrieve the Tai'a Sword would definitely receive a huge reward from Wudang. And since this was about Wudang's reputation, the sword had to be recovered quickly. The faster, the greater the possible reward. If it took a year or more to get the sword back, the rule about the sword pool at Wudang might have already been abolished under pressure from the martial world. Even if they got the sword back then, it would only slightly restore their reputation, and the significance would be worlds apart.

It was only natural for David Harris to want to get the Tai'a Sword and exchange it for a reward. Edward Thompson believed that once he logged in again, he would definitely receive countless carrier pigeon messages from Wudang players, offering to buy the sword.

Selling the sword sounded like a pretty good option. Escaping the Wudang bounty would indeed be very difficult. As soon as he was killed, the Tai'a Sword would definitely drop. This game of escape was not going to be easy.

But Edward Thompson just smiled and shook his head. "How will I know if I don't try?"

"Do you even need to try?" David Harris held back from calling him an idiot. "This isn't a wuxia novel. Wudang's rules are strict, and there aren't that many disciples. But this is the hottest online game in the country right now. Wudang disciples? There are over a million! You don't even have a sect now, do you? The Wudang skills you learned before must have been lost when you left the sect. Any player with a higher level can kill you. Not to mention, this time Wudang sent Ling Feixiao and Gu Yunfei, the two chief disciples of the sect leaders, to handle this. I don't need to tell you how powerful these two NPCs are, right? Either one of them could wipe out a group of players with a single finger. How do you expect to escape?"

"If I can't escape, then I'll die. It's just a game. What's the big deal about dying once?" Edward Thompson said.

"You know you're definitely going to die, so why not sell me the sword? That's way better than getting killed and losing everything."

David Harris coaxed.

"Yeah, it's better, but it's just too boring."

Edward Thompson still smiled.

"Haha, exactly! David Harris, if you had any guts, you wouldn't try this trick. If you've got what it takes, go find Edward Thompson yourself and kill him for the sword," Emily Parker jumped in, picking up where Edward Thompson left off.

David Harris, constrained by Samuel Reed sitting nearby, suppressed his anger and ignored her, continuing to try to persuade Edward Thompson: "Fine! Edward Thompson, if you want something interesting, name a place and let's duel. If I win, I just want the sword. If I lose, you can do whatever you want with me."

"Hmph, could you be any more shameless?" Emily Parker chimed in again.