Urban Martial Saint

(I had some family matters to attend to today, which delayed the morning update, and for that, I’m truly sorry. I’ll add an extra chapter in the afternoon to make it up to all the friends who have been waiting.)

The result of this match was truly beyond everyone’s expectations. Just when it seemed Ye Qing was set to lose, who could have imagined that he would reattach his arm in such a manner, achieve a surprise victory against absolute adversity, and defeat the Thai Boxing master.

Seeing Ye Qing emerge victorious, everyone was so excited that they stood up and screamed frantically, even the referee was so excited that he became incoherent.

”Twenty-two fights! Twenty-two fights! A new record! A new record! Our new record has been born, and he is Ye Qing, the era’s Huo Yuanjia, Huang Feihong, Chen Zhen, Li Xiaolong...” The referee shouted the names of all the great masters he knew, even though he had witnessed many matches here, witnessing the birth of a new record was something that no one could remain calm about.

”Ye Qing! Ye Qing! Ye Qing!” The entire crowd was shouting Ye Qing’s name in unison, including many who had bet on Ye Qing to break the record and were now exceptionally happy.

The fat man was the most excited; he couldn’t even shout Ye Qing’s name, just stood there screaming wildly. He had placed bets on Ye Qing tonight and not once had he been disappointed. Especially this time, he had spent five million betting on Ye Qing to break the record and was about to earn twenty million back—it was a huge income indeed!

”Next up, our opponent will be...” The referee was still shouting on the stage when Ye Qing directly followed those who were carrying Tony Lu downstairs from the ring. The referee was taken aback and said, ”Ye Qing, are you not fighting anymore?”

Ye Qing waved his hand at him and walked straight towards Fang Tingyun and the others. Fang Tingyun’s face was streaked with tears, and seeing Ye Qing walk towards them, tiredly, she couldn’t hold back anymore. She rushed over and threw herself into Ye Qing’s arms, sobbing painfully.

Ye Qing felt a bit embarrassed, but he could not push Fang Tingyun away, so he could only gently pat her shoulder to comfort her.

”Xiong Zi, how did you guys get in?” Ye Qing asked with curiosity.

Before Ye Qing came in, he had also observed the dog field’s security situation. To sneak into the dog field and rescue Fang Tingyun and the others safely, it would take at least four members of the Night Wolf Squad with a careful plan. Ye Qing couldn’t do it alone, and Black Bear couldn’t either.

Black Bear said, ”I was planning to wait for Zhao Chengshuang’s people to arrive and then charge in together. But as I waited outside for a while, suddenly, a woman dressed in red silently infiltrated the dog field and knocked all the guards unconscious. I followed her in, then grabbed a guard, found out where they were being held, and rescued them.”

”Oh?” Ye Qing frowned and said in a deep voice, ”A woman in red clothes? Are you sure she knocked all the guards here unconscious by herself?”

”Yes,” Black Bear nodded and said, ”That woman moved very fast, and she seemed to know exactly where every guard was. More than forty guards, none of them even had time to make a noise before they were taken down by her.”

Ye Qing asked in surprise, ”But aren’t there a lot of dogs here? Didn’t the dogs bark?”

Black Bear said, ”When I came in, there were no dogs left; it seems they were all brought down for the dog-fighting matches.”

Ye Qing suddenly understood; the hardest thing about getting into the dog field was avoiding those dogs with their keen hearing. If those dogs had been there, sneaking in silently would have been impossible.

Of course, Ye Qing was still shocked. That woman was able to single-handedly, silently take down so many guards; her strength must be truly terrifying. Was this woman, alone, comparable to a team of Special Forces?

”Where did that woman go?” Ye Qing asked solemnly, suspecting that she might be the Xikou Fire Butterfly, about whom there were always rumors.

”She went upstairs,” Black Bear said.

”Upstairs?” Ye Qing was baffled. If that woman was indeed the Xikou Fire Butterfly, logically, she should have come down to seek revenge on him. She went upstairs instead; could it be that she was not his enemy, not the Xikou Fire Butterfly? But then, aside from the Xikou Fire Butterfly, who else could be such a powerful woman?

Just then, a commotion erupted at the entrance to the basement, followed by a group of heavily-armed police storming in. One of them, in a wheelchair, was pushed forward—it was none other than Zhao Chengshuang.

”Where are they? Where are they? Ye Zi? Black Bear?” As soon as Zhao Chengshuang arrived, he began yelling loudly, looking extremely anxious.

”I’m right here!” Black Bear called out loudly.

”Black Bear!” Zhao Chengshuang looked over and saw Ye Qing, his face immediately lit up with great joy, and he hurriedly asked, ”Ye Zi, are you alright?”

”I’m fine.” Seeing Zhao Chengshuang, Ye Qing finally breathed a sigh of relief. No matter what, they had finally gotten out of danger this time.

Zhao Chengshuang rushed over and, seeing that Ye Qing only had some minor injuries, he too felt much relieved. He gestured with his hand and said in a low voice, ”Let’s get out of here fast.”

”What happened?” Ye Qingqi asked curiously.

Zhao Chengshuang said helplessly, ”The people gambling here are either rich or noble, and many are big shots from Dongzhou. The higher-ups don’t allow me to handle cases in the Dog Field, and I came here on my own initiative. We need to get back quickly, otherwise, if just any of the rich people here were to lodge a complaint or something, all the brothers in my team would suffer alongside me.”

Ye Qing furrowed his brows and said sternly, ”A place for group gambling has actually managed to ride on top of you, the police?”

Zhao Chengshuang replied, ”It’s not exactly like that. If it were just Tiger King, it would be all too easy to deal with him. The key issue is those who come here to gamble, they’re too powerful. Most are successful businessmen, so what do you do if you catch them?

If the Shenchuan City police catch them, other places will definitely put pressure on us, who wants their local enterprises to be affected because of this? That’s why it’s easy to crack down on small-time gambling, but big-time gambling is hard to tackle, that’s the real reason.

But then again, these rich people have more money than they know what to do with, how can you control what they do with it? Whatever they want to play, let them play, it’s much better than those who spend their money on street racing and regard human life as nothing. Besides, in many places abroad, dog fighting and horse racing are considered legitimate events.

If they exist, there must be some reasoning behind it.”

Ye Qing opened his mouth but in the end, stayed silent. After leaving the military for so long, many of his views had started to change gradually. Like with this situation, he might not agree with what Zhao Chengshuang said, but he couldn’t deny that Zhao Chengshuang was right.

These wealthy people, managing big businesses and corporations with intricate relations and backgrounds, exert great influence on their respective locales. Nobody wants to touch them lightly, as the implications are too extensive. To turn a blind eye is indeed one approach to handling them.

Naturally, Ye Qing didn’t agree with this attitude, but faced with the reality of society, he had to admit that it was a necessary one. Because society is not the military; black and white cannot be so clearly separated. Nevertheless, he still had a line in his heart, a measure of how black was absolutely unacceptable, and he had his own judgement on that!

Zhao Chengshuang’s arrival with the police did indeed cause quite a panic at the scene, but those gambling guests clearly didn’t take the police too seriously. The police only managed to intimidate Tiger King’s subordinates and helped Ye Qing and the others to bring Li Lianshan’s group away smoothly.

Upstairs, in Yang Shitao’s private room, Tiger King’s lackeys were strewn all about, while Tiger King himself was still kneeling on the floor. From beginning to end, he only saw a pair of beautiful jade feet but could never see the owner of those feet. It was as if he was facing a high and mighty queen, and even glancing at her seemed like the ultimate sacrilege.

”Miss, Ye Qing and his people have left,” reported the dwarf as he came in from the door.

”Good!” The woman’s voice was calm. The jade feet touched the ground, followed by a piece of paper thrown in front of Tiger King.

”With the odds at one to five, how much do you owe me?” The woman’s voice was crisp and pleasant to the ear, but to Tiger King, it sounded horrifying.

”Five… five hundred million!” Tiger King replied through gritted teeth.

”Wrong, it’s four hundred million,” the woman said with a light laugh. ”This hundred million I borrowed from Boss Yang, you just pay him back for me. So now, you only need to pay me four hundred million, and that’s enough!”

Tiger King turned his head and glanced over. Yang Shitao and his few men were crouching in a corner with their heads in their hands, their faces filled with fear and anger. It seemed Mantis had taken over their room and then used Yang Shitao’s money to place such a hefty bet.

He had thought Yang Shitao, eager for revenge, bet one hundred million to pressure Ye Qing to his death, but from the start, he had guessed wrong. The bet was placed by Mantis, actually to lure him into Yang Shitao’s room, and he had really fallen for it!

Yang Shitao himself was extremely angry. Indeed, the betting money was his, but Mantis had never told him about borrowing it. If Ye Qing failed to break the record, that billion would be considered as his bet and lost. But if Ye Qing broke the record, Mantis would claim it as a loan to her, and the four billion won would be Mantis’s, having nothing to do with him at all.

Mantis was exploiting the situation to turn a profit without taking any risks, earning four billion in such a short time, while the real risk was borne by him.

However, despite his anger, he could only keep it to himself. In the face of this female demon-like person, he had no choice but to swallow his pride because expressing even the slightest dissatisfaction meant she would kill you without hesitation. Don’t forget, she is called Mantis, a creature that could bite by bite consume the ones she loved the most!

”Four hundred million, cash or transfer?” Mantis asked softly, as if talking not about a large sum of money but about something very trivial.

Tiger King swallowed hard and said in a low voice, ”I… I don’t have that much money on hand right now…”

”Is that so?” Mantis said with a light smile. ”Comparatively, which is more important, your life or four hundred million?”