Urban Martial Saint

”What is it?” Ye Qing’s eyes widened, looking at Nine-Fingers Wu Yong in astonishment, straight up doubting if he had heard wrong.

”In the mountain spring, there’s a water monster.” Nine-Fingers Wu Yong repeated again.

”Water monster?” Handsome Fatty Wang also widened his eyes, staring at Nine-Fingers Wu Yong for quite some time before suddenly saying, ”Come on, are you kidding? Do you think this is Loch Ness, with a water monster?”

”It’s true.” Nine-Fingers Wu Yong said urgently, ”You know this mountain is called Canglong Mountain, but do you know the name of that mountain spring?”

”What’s it called?” Ye Qing asked curiously, seeing Nine-Fingers Wu Yong’s expression, as if he wasn’t lying to them.

”That mountain spring is called Hidden Dragon Cave.” Nine-Fingers Wu Yong said in a deep voice, ”There’s been a local rumor for a long time that a divine dragon is hidden in Canglong Mountain. This divine dragon, for making a mistake, was punished and locked inside Canglong Mountain. The Hidden Dragon Cave is the mountain spring that appeared because of the divine dragon. Rumor has it, Hidden Dragon Cave is the hiding place of the divine dragon.”

”A divine dragon?” Ye Qing stared at Nine-Fingers Wu Yong for quite a while and said, ”Mr. Wu, do you actually believe such rumors?”

Nine-Fingers Wu Yong said in a deep voice, ”I didn’t believe it at first, but five years ago, when I came here, two brothers went missing in that mountain spring. This is something I couldn’t help but believe!”

”What?” Ye Qing’s eyes widened, and he looked at Nine-Fingers Wu Yong in shock along with Handsome Fatty Wang, saying, ”What on earth happened?”

”Sigh!” Nine-Fingers Wu Yong sighed and said, ”That was five years ago, my second time here. Fat Wang should know that in our line of work, we often need to roam the mountains, scouting for tombs.”

”That’s true.” Handsome Fatty Wang nodded and said, ”Young Ye, don’t underestimate our work; it requires a lot of skill. In fact, we need to understand Feng Shui too.”

”Why?” Ye Qing asked curiously.

Handsome Fatty Wang said, ”Think about it, when those rich people from ancient times died, they were buried with many treasures. Wouldn’t they be afraid of tomb robbers?”

”Of course, they’d be afraid.” Ye Qing said, ”But what does that have to do with Feng Shui knowledge?”

”Don’t worry, let me explain.” Handsome Fatty Wang said, ”When rich people died with many burial goods, they were also very afraid of tomb robbers. So, they devised all kinds of methods to protect their tombs. The most common was setting traps inside the tomb, and those zombies I mentioned before were methods of protection. But traps are man-made and zombies can be countered. No matter what method is used, someone will come to rob the tomb, right.”

Ye Qing nodded, indeed, tomb robbers have never been lacking throughout history. Those ancient people really put effort into protecting their tombs. A notable example is Qin Shi Huang, who supposedly built many false tombs, and to this day, no one can locate his actual tomb.

”Whether by using traps or zombies, even with living people guarding, the tomb isn’t truly safe. As the saying goes, ’Wealth is hidden to be safe.’ So, the ancients mainly used the method of hiding their tombs.” Handsome Fatty Wang said, ”The burial of those ancient high officials and nobles wasn’t like what’s shown on modern TV with grand funeral ceremonies, monks chanting, and large gravestones with inscriptions identifying the deceased. That’s pure nonsense. There were more poor people back then, and far more tomb robbers than now. If anyone dared hold a grand funeral, before the seventh day, the tomb would be robbed. So the safest way was to secretly bury them. Publicly of course there would be a ceremony, but it was all fake. The actual burial goods and the deceased were long buried secretly. Moreover, the tomb was very well hidden, usually underground with no surface markings, so you couldn’t tell it was a tomb.”

Handsome Fatty Wang said all this in one breath, took a large sip from his teacup, and continued, ”This method of burial was the most secure for the ancients. However, nothing is absolute. While the ancients buried in this way, tomb robbers also had counter-methods. And those counter-methods are Feng Shui!”

After listening to Handsome Fatty Wang, Ye Qing was even more puzzled; he still hadn’t explained the relationship.

”Ancient people were quite superstitious; they didn’t just include burial goods but also paid great attention to Feng Shui. As they say, blessing future generations. The ancients wanted their descendants to remain prosperous. So, before burial, they would find a Feng Shui master to locate a great Feng Shui site for burials.” Handsome Fatty Wang looked at Ye Qing and said, ”As a result, tomb robbers also started learning Feng Shui techniques. Finding good Feng Shui sites to excavate, there might just be a tomb of high officials and nobles underneath. This method has continued to this day; professional tomb robbers understand Feng Shui and regularly scout locations for good Feng Shui sites. Out of ten visible Feng Shui sites, one often contains a great tomb underneath. The better the Feng Shui, the more valuable the burial goods!”

”I see!” Ye Qing came to a sudden realization, not expecting Handsome Fatty Wang to circle back to this point. So these tomb robbers learned Feng Shui to serve tomb-robbing.

”As Fat Wang said...” Nine-Fingers Wu Yong elaborated, ”Five years ago, I scouted this Canglong Mountain and found it to be a Feng Shui treasure site. So I brought a few brothers to try our luck. After circling the mountain, we locked in on that mountain spring. If there’s a tomb on this mountain, it’s only likely beneath that spring. So we went to the spring, sending some brothers good with water to dive and search for passages.”

At this point, Nine-Fingers Wu Yong once again sighed deeply and said gravely, ”But I never expected there to be a water monster beneath the spring. Three brothers went down but hadn’t figured out the underwater situation when one suddenly screamed and then sank, never resurfacing. Bloodwater burst forth on the surface; the other two panicked and rushed to help. In the end, the first one there was also dragged underwater. The last brother was lucky, sensing danger he made a quick retreat but still got an arm bitten off by the water monster, now he’s a cripple!”

”Such a thing?” Ye Qing furrowed his brow deeply and said sternly, ”Did you see the water monster yourself then?”

”I didn’t see it with my own eyes, but my now one-armed brother did.” Nine-Fingers Wu Yong said gravely, ”He said the water monster was huge, looking just like a dragon, covered in scale armor, with claws as big as dustpans, and extremely sharp teeth. It lurked underwater; truly terrifying!”

”There really is a water monster?” Handsome Fatty Wang’s eyes widened in disbelief, seemingly shocked too.

Ye Qing remained silent for a while before saying, ”Fatty, you’ve been in so many tombs, you’re quite experienced; have you ever seen any monsters?”

”I have seen monsters.” Handsome Fatty Wang said, ”In my early days, I entered a tomb and encountered a python, about as thick as a barrel, swallowing two people whole, and everyone else ran off in terror.”

”A python doesn’t really count as a monster, does it?” Ye Qing said helplessly; finding a python underground was not unusual. Discovering a water monster was indeed very strange.

”Later I thought, that thing in the spring, calling it a water monster, it might not be the kind of creature we imagine.” Nine-Fingers Wu Yong said, ”Hidden in the spring could be some water-dwelling animal, but larger and more powerful, making it highly dangerous. I’ve entered some ancient tombs before where they raised rare and powerful animals to protect the tomb. However, the creature in this spring, who knows what kind of species it truly is. It hides in the spring, but it’s extremely dangerous. If we rashly dive in and get injured, we might lose our lives!”

Ye Qing furrowed his brow tightly; what Nine-Fingers Wu Yong said was indeed worrisome. A creature beneath the spring was enough to bar their way.

After a long silence, Ye Qing gritted his teeth and said sternly, ”Regardless, the spring is the only possible entrance, so we must give it a try.”

”Mr. Ye, it’s not that I don’t want to help you. But after what happened, my brothers are all apprehensive about this place. They...they definitely won’t want to dive in...” Nine-Fingers Wu Yong looked at his subordinates and asked, ”How should we try then?”

Looking at Nine-Fingers Wu Yong, Ye Qing couldn’t help but silently curse him as an old fox. This guy obviously didn’t want to take the risk himself and wanted Ye Qing to dive, which was why he said so much here. Looking at the expressions of the people behind Nine-Fingers Wu Yong, it was clear that they were determined not to dive even at the risk of death. It seemed that unless Ye Qing went first, they would never get into the tomb today.

”Don’t worry, when we get there, I’ll go down first to scout the path for you.” Ye Qing said coldly.

The people behind Nine-Fingers Wu Yong breathed a long sigh of relief; they really didn’t dare to dive in. Now that Ye Qing said he’d go himself, everyone felt much more at ease.

”Hey, Young Ye, are you crazy?” Handsome Fatty Wang got anxious and said, ”Didn’t you hear him? There’s a water monster down there; aren’t you afraid of dying?”

”Don’t worry, it’s not that easy to kill me.” Ye Qing took the long box off his back and drew out a scabbard, the very Scabbard of The Ancestor of Miao Dao.

Ye Qing tightly grasped the Scabbard of The Ancestor of Miao Dao, his expression resolute. This scabbard was sharper than ordinary Famed Instruments. Even if he really encountered the water monster, he wouldn’t be without a fighting chance. Plus, with Ye Qing’s skill, he wasn’t afraid of the water monster!