Urban Martial Saint

”Why is it dangerous?” Ye Qingqi asked. Is there something different about this main gate?

Lin Zhen Nan replied, ”I don’t know either, but there’s something odd about that pile of rocks. I’ve been in there once before, and I couldn’t find my way out until it got dark. Luckily, someone led me out. I don’t know the specific reason, but you better stay out of it!”

Ye Qing nodded and said, ”Oh, I see. Thank you, Uncle Lin.”

Lin Zhen Nan sighed softly and said, ”Ye Qing, I don’t know what exactly you’re going to do at the Shen Family, but let me warn you, the people of the Shen Family are not that easy to deal with. Once you get into a dispute with them, they often don’t reason. You’d better think it over before you go in!”

Ye Qing said, ”I’ll play it by ear!”

”That’s good!”

After hanging up the phone, Ye Qing gave Du Tianyi the address of the Shen Family Manor, and Du Tianyi drove straight there. Meanwhile, Ye Qing continued to sit in his seat, regulating his breath to heal his internal injuries. He had been injured by Xu Cunzhi the night before; the main issue was the internal injury. The external wounds weren’t serious, and after dressing them, he was alright. The internal injuries were more severe, but fortunately, Ye Qing had the Acupoint Seeking Technique for treatment, combined with his own True Qi. Overnight, he had healed about eighty to ninety percent of the internal damage. Now he was just cleaning up the tail end.

Following Ye Qing’s directions, Du Tianyi spent a full two hours before he finally found Shen Family Manor. The manor was actually located in a rather remote small woods on the outskirts of Xi Hang. There wasn’t even a road in these woods, and Du Tianyi had to drive through the trees to get there. However, once inside the woods, the scenery was vastly different from outside. There was a huge manor.

The estate covered at least two thousand mu of land. In Xi Hang, where every inch of land is worth its weight in gold, such an estate was simply astronomical. What was surprising was that there was a small stream just outside, winding and turning, making the entire manor seem even more dreamlike and beautiful.

A hedge wall surrounded the manor, and although it wasn’t tall, it gave the estate an even more ancient look. Enclosed by this small woods, the manor seemed like the Peach Blossom Spring from ancient legends, isolated from the world, supremely beautiful!

Seeing the beauty of the estate, Du Tianyi really didn’t feel right driving in, so he parked the car at the edge of the woods and then he and Ye Qing walked the rest of the way. Reaching the manor entrance, Ye Qing saw a huge pile of rocks on the other side, just as Lin Zhen Nan had described.

The rock pile was about a mile from the gate, in a rather secluded spot. Ye Qing looked at it with surprise. Coming to Shen Family Manor, normal people would go straight through the gate first. Who would run over there? Besides, the rock pile looked very ordinary, just with more and larger rocks. There wasn’t anything special about it, so how could one get in and then not be able to get out?

With his doubts, Ye Qing still walked to the entrance of Shen Family Manor with Du Tianyi. Arriving at this martial arts holy land of the Southern Six Provinces, both men didn’t dare to show any disrespect. Du Tianyi knocked on the gate politely and stood aside to wait.

After about half a minute, the gate slowly opened, revealing an elder in his fifties or sixties. Looking at the two men, he asked curiously, ”Who are you looking for?”

”Hello, my name is Du Tianyi. I’m a disciple of Old Mr. Tie Yongwen, the Sect Leader of the Southern Xingyi School in Shenchuan City!” Du Tianyi said with a smile, ”This is my friend, Mr. Ye Qing. We’ve come to visit Old Madame Shen.”

”Oh, you are a disciple of Old Tie!” The elder’s demeanor changed as he obviously recognized the name Tie Yongwen, and he nodded, ”Please wait a moment while I go in and report your visit!”

Du Tianyi smiled and said, ”Thank you for your trouble!”

The elder turned and walked into Shen Family Manor, heading straight to the main hall. Inside the hall, five people were sitting, and two young men stood among them. These youths were Shen Qianyue and Shen Baichuan.

Shen Qianyue and Shen Baichuan were covered in blood, looking extremely disheveled, recounting the events in Shenchuan City to the five people in the hall. Shen Qianyue had a pallid face, full of despair, while Shen Baichuan was filled with indignation, continuously describing how the people from Sha Men had killed the people of the Shen Family.

Of course, they did not mention the ambush at Wangxiang Pavilion and merely said they had gotten separated from the rest of the Shen Family on the way. They later received news that Shen Ba and Shen Jiu were ambushed and killed in Shenchuan City. To bring back the news, the two of them fled back to Shenchuan City overnight, barely escaping with their lives!

The five individuals in the room were grim-faced. After listening to the two men, the leader slammed his fist down on the table, saying furiously, ”Does Sha Men really want to annihilate us? To lay an ambush at Wangxiang Pavilion is just too much!”

Another person said, ”Third Brother, according to the news from our informants in Shenchuan City, this affair may not be the work of Sha Men!”

”Oh?” The leader slightly furrowed his brow, and asked, ”Fourth Brother, who did that?”

Fourth Brother replied, ”As far as I know, after the battle at the teahouse, the people from Sha Men did not come after our Shen Family members. Instead, that very night, they went to the Lin family, trying to capture Hua Yu to threaten us. Those who ambushed our Old Eight and Old Jiu near Wangxiang Pavilion must have been others!”

”Others?” Third Brother frowned and said, ”Who else could there be? Besides Sha Men, who else has such deep grudges with our family? Who dares to kill our people of the Shen Family?”

”That’s hard to say!” Fourth Brother said gravely, ”According to the news from my side, the Cold Moon Blade of our Sha Men ended up in the hands of someone named Ye Qing from Shenchuan City. That night, Ye Qing rushed to the Lin family and got surrounded by the people from Sha Men. It was the Huangfu girl who ran to save him. At that moment, he handed over the Cold Moon Blade to Huangfu Ziyu and then ran away. I believe there’s definitely something fishy about this. When Old Eight and the others left, they were carrying the Cold Moon Blade with them, so it definitely wouldn’t have been lost. Unless they died, someone else could’ve taken it. Normally, the person who killed them would definitely take the blade. The appearance of the blade in Ye Qing’s hands means there must be something wrong with Ye Qing!”

”You mean, it was Ye Qing who killed so many of our Shen Family members?” Third Brother looked at Fourth Brother with a slight frown and said, ”Do you think that’s possible? As far as I know, that Ye Qing cannot even perform the Internal Energy Release, so how could he possibly kill so many of our Shen Family? Old Eight was not weak, he should’ve been able to escape if he couldn’t fight, how could they be annihilated?”

”I don’t know about that...” Fourth Brother paused, then continued, ”However, that Ye Qing seems to be quite close to Huangfu Ziyu. You know the character of that Huangfu girl, who can guarantee she didn’t join hands with Ye Qing?”

Third Brother fell silent for a while, then shook his head and said, ”It doesn’t make sense, Ye Qing has no enmity with our Shen Family, why would he do this?”

It was just then that Shen Baichuan suddenly said, ”Third Uncle, that... that guy with the Ye surname, it seems he’s a successor of the Li Style Bajiquan...”

”Baichuan!” Shen Qianyue hurriedly interrupted Shen Baichuan, but it was already too late.

The five people in the room were suddenly taken aback. A successor of the Li Style Bajiquan was clearly a great enemy of the Shen Family. They all looked at Shen Baichuan at once, with Third Brother sternly demanding, ”What did you just say? Say it again?”

Shen Baichuan looked at Shen Qianyue and didn’t dare to speak, only lowering his head in embarrassment.

Third Brother furrowed his brow deeply, glared at Shen Qianyue, and said sternly, ”Qianyue, you speak!”

Shen Qianyue hesitated for a moment, then said in a low voice, ”Third Uncle, actually this is also our speculation, we haven’t seen it for certain, and I’m not sure. But the boxing technique that Ye Qing uses, it seems to really be the Li Style Bajiquan. However, I have never seen the true Li Style Bajiquan myself, I’ve only heard my uncles mention it, so I can’t really be certain, I didn’t dare to report this to my uncles.”

The expressions of the five people in the room changed yet again. Third Brother violently slapped the table and exclaimed in anger, ”So it is a successor of the Li Style Bajiquan, no wonder! No wonder! Looks like there’s no need to say more, Old Eight, Old Jiu, and Anyun must have been killed by this Ye. Shameless wretch! Shameless wretch! Actually ambushing our people of the Shen Family, he deserves to die! Deserves to die!”

The people in the room were all seething with anger. The enmity between the Shen Family and the Northern Li Family had not been brief. Twenty years ago, during the great battle between the Kings of North-South Boxing, the Northern Fist King Li Changqing was poisoned, and the Northern Li Family has always claimed that the despicable and shameful Shen Family from the South was responsible, while the Southern Shen Family believed that the Northern Li Family couldn’t accept defeat and maliciously framed them. Over these twenty years, the grudge between the two families had grown deeper and deeper until they were completely incompatible. Now hearing that a successor of the Li Style Bajiquan had appeared, one could imagine how they all felt!

What the five people didn’t realize was that Shen Qianyue and Shen Baichuan both had a wisp of a cold smile flash in their eyes. They had already discussed everything outside beforehand. Now, by purposely saying this, they were looking to redirect all the hatred onto Ye Qing, which aligned with their own desires to deal with Ye Qing.

Just then, an elderly man walked into the hall and bowed, saying, ”Third Young Master, there are two men outside seeking an audience. One claims to be Du Tianyi, a direct disciple of the Southern Xingyi School Sect Leader Tie Yongwen, and the other is named Ye Qing!”

”Ye Qing!?” The people in the room exclaimed in unison, which caused the elderly man to hesitate for a moment, not understanding what had just happened, and he stared at the few people in the room in astonishment.

”I’ve been searching high and low, yet they come without any effort!” Third Brother slapped the table angrily and demanded, ”Where is he? Where is he?”

”Just... just at the entrance...” the elderly man said as he saw Third Brother’s reaction, hurriedly adding, ”Third Young Master, if you do not wish to see him, I can... I can drive him away right now, what do you think?”

”No need!” A trace of cold light flickered across Third Brother’s face as he commanded, ”Let them in immediately, have them come here to see me!”