Urban Martial Saint

(The book has been renamed to ”Urban Martial Saint.” Please search for Urban Martial Saint next time.)

It seemed that Ye Qing had nowhere to escape. At this critical moment, a long, narrow object suddenly fell, hitting the head of the great dragon crocodile. Immediately, a loud explosion erupted in the water. Ye Qing felt a vibration all around him, and the great dragon crocodile was also shaken, losing its balance and snapping its jaws onto empty water. Ye Qing managed to avoid this fatal strike.

The massive shockwave left Ye Qing’s vision blackened. However, with so much spiritual medicine in his body, his recovery abilities were incredibly strong. Moments later, Ye Qing was back to his senses. Seeing the still-shaking great dragon crocodile, he didn’t hesitate, pulling out The Ancestor of Miao Dao’s scabbard from its claw and thrusting it into the dragon crocodile’s other eye.

Previously, Ye Qing had already blinded one of the dragon crocodile’s eyes. With the second eye now blinded, it let out a crazy roar underwater. The claw that had been gripping Ye Qing immediately released him. The creature thrashed and screamed frantically underwater, clearly in excruciating pain.

Seizing the opportunity, Ye Qing surfaced from the water. As soon as he broke the surface, he was grabbed by several people on the shore and pulled ashore with multiple hands. Ye Qing didn’t have time to think; he just opened his mouth wide, gasping for air. Not long ago, he had nearly suffocated in the water. Being alive and ashore felt incredibly lucky.

After catching his breath, Ye Qing finally saw clearly. Handsome Fatty Wang was standing by the underground river, lighting a detonator and throwing it down, shouting, ”Damn it, blow it up! Blow it up!”

Turns out, the long, narrow object from before was the detonator brought by Handsome Fatty Wang. It was crucially that detonator that saved Ye Qing’s life. Without it arriving in time, Ye Qing’s life would surely have been forfeited.

Inside the underground river, the great dragon crocodile continued to howl miserably. With both eyes ruined, it was utterly blind in the water. The intense pain made it thrash about underwater. On top of that, Handsome Fatty Wang was attacking it with a detonator. Although it wasn’t a fatal blow, it left the creature completely dazed, clearly on the verge of collapse.

”Don’t use the detonator,” Ye Qing, having caught his breath, hurriedly went to stop Handsome Fatty Wang.

”Why?” Handsome Fatty Wang looked at Ye Qing in surprise and said, ”You wouldn’t be feeling compassionate for it, would you? Don’t forget, when we came in earlier, this creature ate a few of our people.”

”It’s not compassion,” Ye Qing frowned and said, ”There’s something strange under the water, under the stele. It might be sealing something. If this stele gets blown open, it could be troublesome.”

”A stele? What stele?” Nine-Fingers Wu Yong asked hastily.

”I don’t know what kind of stele it is either,” Ye Qing replied gravely. ”But when we came in, we saw that mysterious iron chain extending into an underground hole beneath the stele. There are also two other similar mysterious iron chains. Something strange must be under the Stone Cave. It’s best not to mess with this stele!”

Nine-Fingers Wu Yong was dumbfounded, not speaking for quite a while.

”Then what do we do about this dragon crocodile?” Handsome Fatty Wang said as he walked over. ”Better finish it off while it’s weak. Otherwise, keeping it here will remain a threat. From the looks of it, many people have fallen victim to its deadly maw.”

”Let it be. Both of its eyes are already blind, so it’s no longer much of a threat,” Ye Qing said solemnly. ”And besides, its entire body is covered in extremely hard scale armor. Killing it won’t be easy.”

Hearing Ye Qing say this, Handsome Fatty Wang could only give up, saying, ”Alright, I thought I could blow it up.”

In truth, with the dragon crocodile still alive, Ye Qing also felt a bit uneasy. However, he couldn’t find a method to kill this dragon crocodile. Moreover, the great dragon crocodile was in a completely frenzied state, so Ye Qing couldn’t get near it. Hence, he could only temporarily let it go.

The group backed away from the underground river, and Handsome Fatty Wang asked, ”By the way, what did you see written on the stele underwater?”

”I don’t recognize it,” Ye Qing shook his head, speaking the truth, as he couldn’t understand those Buddhist texts.

”Damn, aren’t you a college student? And you don’t recognize it?” Handsome Fatty Wang said in surprise.

”I don’t recognize this script. It should be some kind of ancient text,” Ye Qing said. ”I’m a college student, not an archaeologist!”

”Do you remember the shape of those characters?” Nine-Fingers Wu Yong asked, ”If you can reproduce the writing, I can take a look and see if I recognize it.”

Ye Qing shook his head and said, ”Everything happened too fast, I couldn’t see clearly. I only noticed those three iron chains.”

Listening to Ye Qing’s words, Nine-Fingers Wu Yong felt somewhat disappointed. He glanced at the surging underground river over there and finally gave up. Ye Qing could go down and come back alive, but that didn’t mean he would be able to survive. There’s a great dragon crocodile at the riverbed; if he went down, he’d surely lose his life there.

Ye Qing didn’t tell Nine-Fingers Wu Yong the truth because he felt that Nine-Fingers Wu Yong wasn’t trustworthy. Although Ye Qing didn’t recognize the characters on the stele, he did remember those few red letters. He couldn’t understand the Buddhist texts, but there are plenty of people in Shenchuan City who could. When he returns, he would find someone to translate it, then he would have a general idea of the stele’s significance. However, he couldn’t let Nine-Fingers Wu Yong know about this; Ye Qing was still very wary of him.

”It seems there’s no entrance here either.” Ye Qing looked around and finally fixed his gaze on the location of the large door earlier, saying in a deep voice, ”If we want to enter the tomb, we’ll probably have to go that way.”

Nine-Fingers Wu Yong slowly nodded, looked around, and furrowed his brow again, saying in a deep voice, ”Don’t you all find this a bit strange?”

”How is it strange?” Handsome Fatty Wang asked curiously.

Nine-Fingers Wu Yong said in a deep voice, ”This cave, is it naturally formed or artificially excavated?”

”This...” Handsome Fatty Wang looked around and said, ”Such a large cave should be naturally formed, right? If it were artificially excavated, when would they be able to dig such a large cave?”

”If it was naturally formed, this area would be entirely suitable for constructing a great tomb, complete with various mechanisms. However, we’re still outside the tomb now.” Nine-Fingers Wu Yong looked at the stone wall behind him and said in a deep voice, ”Why would ancient people waste effort to build a tomb? Why not use the natural stone cave and instead excavate another cave?”

This question suddenly silenced everyone. Thinking carefully, it indeed seemed to be the case. This cave stretches about seven or eight hundred meters forward and backward. Such a large cave could completely accommodate an ancient tomb, yet we are still at its outskirts, which is rather puzzling.

Ye Qing was most familiar with the situation here; this place is where Patriarch Bodhidharma passed away. The so-called tomb was added later by the Demon Sect. However, what Nine-Fingers Wu Yong said indeed puzzled Ye Qing; why wouldn’t the Demon Sect build the tomb directly in this cave? And what’s the matter with the stele in the underground river and the pit beneath it? The stele bears marks of Buddhist texts; when the Demon Sect built the tomb here, they should have seen it too. Didn’t the Demon Sect open this stele then?

These doubts made Ye Qing’s heart uneasy. He suddenly recalled that Shijia, the old fellow, didn’t want to come in. It seems he knew what was inside, so he let Ye Qing come over. It’s likely that it’s not as simple as Shijia claimed. There might be other hidden dangers in the cave.

”Who cares about that!” Handsome Fatty Wang shouted, ”If the tomb isn’t here, let’s not waste time looking here. Let’s go; let’s head to that big door. Even if we can’t get into the tomb, we must find a way to pry out that luminous pearl. Damn it! Fat Lord can’t go tomb-robbing and return empty-handed. That luminous pearl is enough for Fat Lord to live lavishly for the rest of his life!”

Nine-Fingers Wu Yong slowly nodded and said, ”That’s true; let’s get into the tomb first. Fat Wang, you’d better not covet that luminous pearl; you absolutely can’t take it out, and taking it spells death.”

”Is it really that serious?” Handsome Fatty Wang muttered, but Ye Qing could see that the fatty was actually quite apprehensive. After all, he’s also an expert in tomb-robbing, with rich experience; he certainly wouldn’t make mistakes in such matters.

Everyone retraced their steps back to the side of the giant stone gate. Nine-Fingers Wu Yong walked slowly to the front of the stone gate and stared at it for a long while. He was the most experienced among them and had been to the most tombs; typically, any mechanism or the like, he handled personally.

Ye Qing followed behind Nine-Fingers Wu Yong, also looking at that stone gate. The presence of such a giant stone gate was quite imposing. However, Ye Qing’s heart was more puzzled; why did the Demon Sect build such a large stone gate here? What did they intend to transport inside that required such a large stone gate?

Just as Ye Qing was lost in thought, Nine-Fingers Wu Yong suddenly furrowed his brow and said in a deep voice, ”Damn it, this is a fake door!”

”Ah?” Everyone exclaimed in surprise, looking at Nine-Fingers Wu Yong with astonishment, while Ye Qing asked curiously, ”What do you mean by a fake door?”

”This stone gate is a fake door.” Nine-Fingers Wu Yong said, ”This stone gate is just a sculpture, not a real door of such size.”

”Oh? Really?” Handsome Fatty Wang immediately walked over and asked, ”What makes you say that?”

”Take a careful look at this,” Nine-Fingers Wu Yong pointed to a spot on the stone gate, ”Look here.”

Everyone followed the direction Nine-Fingers Wu Yong pointed out and looked over. After a while, Ye Qing’s expression changed as well, ”Why is there a crevice?”

In that moment, everyone saw clearly. Where Nine-Fingers Wu Yong pointed, there was indeed an extremely thin sliver, so fine it was difficult to detect with the naked eye.

If not for Nine-Fingers Wu Yong pointing it out, and everyone taking a good look for a while, they probably wouldn’t have noticed this crevice.