Urban Martial Saint

Scratches broken?

Everyone looked at the stone wall in unison, each face showing astonishment. Indeed, on the stone wall, only one scratch remained, while the other had broken here and did not extend further.

”Why do the scratches break here?” Everyone exchanged glances, each face showing surprise.

”Could it be that these invading army got here, exhausted, and couldn’t scratch further?” a man asked quietly.

”Impossible!” Nine-Fingers Wu Yong shook his head decisively, saying solemnly, ”These people wouldn’t stop making marks. If they truly were out of strength, they wouldn’t even have the strength to walk forward. But look carefully, where are the corpses around here?”

”Then... then what’s going on?” Everyone wondered, even Ye Qing was surprised.

Nine-Fingers Wu Yong was silent for a moment, then suddenly said solemnly, ”Could it be, they... they found an exit here?”

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone at the scene became excited. They had been walking inside for so long to find an exit. If they really found an exit here, wouldn’t they all be saved?

”Quick... quickly search everywhere...” Handsome Fatty Wang said while running forward, hammering the surrounding walls frantically. This situation made everyone, who were already exhausted, stand up in a hurry, following Handsome Fatty Wang to knock on the walls.

”Hahaha, found it, hahaha, found it...” Suddenly, a man burst into laughter, this time with much more joy.

Without saying a word, everyone ran over, even Nine-Fingers Wu Yong couldn’t stay calm at this moment, hurriedly running to the man’s side.

The man stood by a stone wall, using a small hammer to knock on the stone wall next to him, from which thumping sounds came, indicating that the stone wall was hollow behind, enough for a person to enter.

”Quick hahaha, hurry, Young Ye, quickly open up this wall...” Handsome Fatty Wang stood by the stone wall, hurriedly saying, ”Fat Lord can’t hold on much longer...”

Everyone looked at Ye Qing, at this time, nobody was thinking about finding the mechanism, just wanting Ye Qing to quickly use the Famed Instrument to break open a path in the stone wall.

At this point, Ye Qing didn’t hesitate, took the Scabbard of the Ancestor of Miao Dao and walked over, stabbing the scabbard into the stone wall, slowly carving out a passage through which a person could pass. Then, Ye Qing slowly pushed the stone wall open, revealing a pitch-black cave.

Later, everyone almost rushed crazily into the cave, breathing the air around them big mouthfuls. The air in the stone corridor was filled with laughing gas, breathing it in made people laugh. But the air in the cave didn’t have this laughing gas, it was the fresh air everyone was seeking.

After absorbing this air, everyone’s laughter finally weakened a bit. Laughing gas is like this; breathing it in makes one laugh uncontrollably, but as long as they breathe fresh air, they can recover normally.

Ye Qing walked last, unlike others trapped by the laughing gas, so he was in no hurry. However, upon entering the cave, Ye Qing suddenly felt something strange, turned to look at Nine-Fingers Wu Yong beside him, and whispered, ”Mr. Wu, do you feel this cave looks familiar?”

The cave was pitch dark, the people who entered hurriedly breathing fresh air hadn’t noticed. Now hearing Ye Qing, they immediately regained their senses, especially Nine-Fingers Wu Yong, who looked around alertly, suddenly seeing two black shadows lying on the ground in the distance, immediately shone his flashlight over.

The flashlight illuminated the place, Ye Qing also saw the situation on the ground, there lay two corpses. And these two corpses were none other than Da Feng and the other person who were bitten to death by the poisonous snake when they first entered.

”Isn’t this the stone chamber we just entered?” Handsome Fatty Wang widened his eyes, other people were also extremely amazed.

”Is this haunted?”

”We’ve walked so far, how did we return here?”

”Could it be that we’ve circled back to where we started?”

”Impossible, remember, where we entered had two invading army corpses, did you see invading army corpses just now?”

”Then... what’s going on? Could it be their spirits are still following us?”

”Could it be that someone moved them here to deliberately create mysteries and scare us?”

”Nonsense, these two were bit to death by those venomous snakes; their bodies are full of poison. Anyone who touches them would die of poisoning. Who could possibly move them?”

”So did we really see ghosts?”

In such a tomb, events like this led everyone to various conjectures.

Ye Qing stared at the two corpses for a long time and said in a deep voice, ”These two bodies shouldn’t have been moved. However, this stone chamber is somewhat different from the one we saw earlier.”

”How is it different?” everyone asked curiously.

”Didn’t you notice?” Ye Qing said, ”This stone chamber has no entrance or exit. The stone chamber we first entered had an entrance. And if I hadn’t just dug an exit here, there would’ve been no way out.”

”Yeah, why doesn’t this stone chamber have an entrance?”

”We came to this stone chamber from that big stone gate, but now there’s no entrance leading back to that big stone gate.”

”Could this stone chamber really not be the one we entered before?”

”If not, how do you explain these two bodies on the floor? Mr. Ye also mentioned earlier that there are no signs of these bodies being moved.”

Everyone fell into debate once again when Nine-Fingers Wu Yong suddenly spoke up, ”This stone chamber is indeed the same one we entered earlier.”

”Why do you say that?” Handsome Fatty Wang turned and asked.

”Look carefully at the floor,” Nine-Fingers Wu Yong said solemnly, ”Just now, Ye Qing killed a few snakes here, and the snake blood splattered everywhere on the ground. Even if the bodies could be moved, the traces of snake blood on the floor couldn’t be faked. This place is definitely the stone chamber we first entered.”

”Then why are we here?” Ye Qing asked curiously, ”The place we entered wasn’t here at all. Could this stone chamber be moving?”

”You’re right...” Nine-Fingers Wu Yong slowly nodded and said in a deep voice, ”This stone chamber does move!”

”Ah?” Everyone was stunned, all looking at Nine-Fingers Wu Yong, each with a face full of shock and surprise. A moving stone chamber? How is that possible?

”I’ve never seen anything like this, but my master who brought me out here once told me about it,” Nine-Fingers Wu Yong took a deep breath and slowly sat down against the wall, looking at the two bodies beside him, ”My master spent his life robbing tombs and has much more experience in this field than I do. He’s entered many ancient tombs that you’ve never even heard of. I remember him telling me about a burial method called the Inverted Five Elements.”

”Inverted Five Elements?” Ye Qing exclaimed softly, ”What kind of method is that?”

”Inverted Five Elements is just a name; it’s a type of mechanism intended to baffle and bewilder, enough to scare off most people. This burial method uses rollers to leave several movable stone chambers around the tomb’s perimeter. These chambers are perpetually driven by an eternal force, revolving around a central axis like gears. The center doesn’t move, but the surroundings do,” said Nine-Fingers Wu Yong in a deep voice, ”Once people leave the stone chamber, it moves away. When they try to return, they can’t find the original chamber, giving them a ghostly sensation. Those with weaker nerves would surely be scared witless. Even those with stronger nerves would find this tomb unsettling and wouldn’t dare to venture deeper. They’d only think of escaping. Such a mechanism is enough to keep many people at the tomb’s perimeter.”

”The current situation of this tomb is very similar to the Inverted Five Elements mechanism my master described. This stone chamber is indeed the one we entered before. But once we entered the stone corridor, this chamber began to slowly move away from its original position. That’s why we ended up back in this stone chamber!” As he said this, Nine-Fingers Wu Yong took a deep breath and said in a deep voice, ”I never imagined I’d encounter this legendary mechanism. This tomb is indeed extraordinary, and the tomb owner truly spared no expense. And this is just the perimeter; who knows what dangers lie within!”

Nine-Fingers Wu Yong’s words left everyone dumbfounded. Who could have thought that the ancients would use such mechanisms to protect a tomb? It seemed like an extravagant effort. Especially Ye Qing, he never dreamed that there would be so many mechanisms within the tomb. Thinking back, he was grateful for bringing Handsome Fatty Wang along; otherwise, on his own, even if unafraid of these dangers, he wouldn’t have been able to enter the tomb at all.

”But...” Ye Qing looked at the stone walls around and said, ”How much force is needed to move such a large stone chamber? And you mentioned an eternal force earlier, what do you mean by eternal force?”

”Yes, what kind of force can last until now?” Handsome Fatty Wang also asked quickly.

”An eternal force is a continuously sustaining force,” Nine-Fingers Wu Yong explained, ”Have you forgotten? There’s an underground river here. The continuous flow of water in the underground river is a form of sustained energy, constantly pushing the stone chamber to move. As for how much power is needed, the ancients who built these surely calculated everything.”