Urban Martial Saint

Ye Qing quickly put Wen’er down, noticing her tired expression, guessing that she had been hanging on this rock wall for quite a while.

He supported Wen’er to sit down and rest for a moment before Ye Qing began to inquire about what had happened.

Wen’er took a moment to compose herself and then slowly recounted the entire story to Ye Qing.

Originally, after Ye Qing left Shenchuan City along with Fu Qingping last time, Shenchuan City indeed experienced a period of chaos. Helian Tiehua, Bloody Monk, and Wolf Monk searched throughout Shenchuan City for peak masters, challenging them one by one to find Ye Qing’s whereabouts, which goes without saying. Shortly after, Fu Qingping returned to Shenchuan City and spread the news that Ye Qing had been captured by Du Canglang, shocking all the peak masters and prompting almost everyone to leave Shenchuan City to search for Ye Qing.

Fu Qingping only sent Ye Qing’s brother and Black Bear Liu Mubai to Shenchuan City before he also went out to search for Ye Qing. Upon receiving the news, Wolf Monk immediately sought Fu Qingping to join him in the search. Additionally, Huangfu Ziyu returned after Ye Qing got into trouble, departing with Fu Qingping and Wolf Monk to search for Ye Qing. As for Helian Tiehua, he had to personally lead the Seven Steering Committees of Hong Alliance to face the Twelve Green Halls due to an imminent attack from them.

After all these people withdrew, Shenchuan City became unprecedentedly quiet. Wen’er originally stayed in Shenchuan City, hoping to hear news from her father before going to find them. Unexpectedly, less than a day after Helian Tiehua and the others left, Wen’er was ambushed in Shenchuan City. When she awoke, she had already been brought to another city where a group of South Ridge Sect members was gathered. These were core members from the South Ridge Sect, excluding several sect leaders, who disappeared last time the sect dispersed, and unexpectedly gathered here.

Among them was a leader named Zhou Changjin, who gathered these core South Ridge Sect members together, and he informed Wen’er that they had found traces of the Eight Great Sect Masters and planned to bring these core members to find the Eight Great Sect Masters. However, Zhou Changjin did not have a high status within the South Ridge Sect, naturally lacking any authority. He brought Wen’er in the hope she would help unite these South Ridge Sect members to find the Eight Great Sect Masters.

Hearing about her father, Wen’er was overjoyed and didn’t even consider the truth of the matter, quickly agreeing. Initially, those core members were each doing their own thing, arguing among themselves. But with Wen’er’s appearance, they stopped arguing and eagerly followed her to seek out the Eight Great Sect Masters.

Upon hearing this, Ye Qing immediately understood that Wen’er was simply being used by others. That Zhou Changjin surely harbored ill intentions.

Indeed, just as Ye Qing suspected, Zhou Changjin informed everyone that the Eight Great Sect Masters were trapped on Mount Du Wang. Thus, he brought everyone to Mount Du Wang, intending to enter the mountain and search for the Eight Great Sect Masters. Along with them were several people with mysterious identities, who were not members of the South Ridge Sect.

Wen’er was primarily concerned with her father’s affairs at the time and had no interest in other matters. However, after arriving at Mount Du Wang, things began to seem off. Initially, they discovered a spy within their team, whom Zhou Changjin’s men killed before laying out the remaining symbols to point towards another entrance. This entrance was the most dangerous; entering it first led through a section of an underground river inhabited by many crocodiles, making survival impossible. Following this path led to the territory of long-haired monsters, which were even more terrifying than the crocodiles, essentially a death path.

These words nearly made Ye Qing collapse; he finally understood what he had encountered. It turned out that the path he took was deliberately left by Zhou Changjin’s men, a dead-end designed to encounter attacks from crocodiles and long-haired monsters, extremely terrifying indeed.

Thinking of this, Ye Qing was suddenly struck by something and hurriedly asked, ”So you didn’t enter here through that waterway?”

”Of course not.” Wen’er nodded, saying, ”That underground river is swarming with countless crocodiles, and the long-haired monsters beyond are as strong as top-level masters. If that path was taken, survival would be impossible!”

”Really?” Ye Qing furrowed his brows, recalling the situation in the underground river. Ye Qing had traversed the underground river and indeed encountered crocodiles, but only dead ones, which was the primary reason he managed to walk through alive.

Ye Qing had previously assumed that the crocodiles were killed by the people of Wen’er’s group, considering how many people they had brought in. After hearing Wen’er’s words, realizing they didn’t come from the underground river, it indicated that the crocodiles weren’t killed by their group. Then, who killed the crocodiles?

Ye Qing involuntarily recalled Wen’er’s earlier words regarding a spy leaving marks along the way, giving them to his group. However, Zhou Changjin later redirected these marks to the dead-end. Hence, the spies’ group probably traversed this dead-end, and they must have been the ones who killed the crocodiles. Essentially, the cave housed two groups, Wen’er’s South Ridge Sect group and the other group consisting of the spies. But who exactly were these spies’ group?

Noticing Ye Qing’s disturbed expression, Wen’er curiously asked, ”What is wrong?”

”Nothing, continue.” Ye Qing waved his hand, withholding his deductions from Wen’er, opting to listen to what had transpired before making a decision.

After killing the spy, Wen’er’s group took the other path into the cave. That route was safe, with no encounters with crocodiles or long-haired monsters, causing no casualties; initially, everything was well. But reaching the area with seven passageways led to issues.

At these seven passageways, the South Ridge Sect members didn’t know which way to choose. Thus, they resorted to the simplest method of trial and error, given there were many of them.

The first batch sent took the leftmost cave, but shortly after entering, two fled back, while one didn’t return. It turned out they faced traps inside; the frontmost person died, and the remaining two didn’t dare attempt again.

Subsequent batches faced continuous failures; each passage was perilous, either due to traps or strange creatures guarding it, rendering them impassable. Particularly peculiar were the two middlemost passages. One involved silent death inside, sending three individuals in, only one returned, while the remaining two fell dead mid-route, suspected to be due to poison gas.

The other passage was even stranger; entrants gradually aged within. The first wave sent three people, with two later escaping. A man initially in his thirties aged to look over fifty, and another, initially in his forties, appeared as though he was nearly seventy, barely able to walk. The elder initially over fifty died inside, unable to make it out alive!

”Such a thing exists?” Ye Qing’s eyes widened; poison gas was common in ancient times for blocking paths, but a passage that ages and even causes death was unheard of. Could such bizarre occurrences exist?

Wen’er nodded, stating, ”Even seeing it with my own eyes, I would hardly believe it.”

”Did they truly age or was it just makeup?” Ye Qing queried.

”They truly aged,” Wen’er confirmed, ”I saw them afterward; their bodies were covered with wrinkles, as though they had lived decades inside!”

”How is that possible?” Ye Qing still struggled to accept these matters, which are inherently difficult to fathom. Walking a passage and aging seems unfathomable, wouldn’t it?

Wen’er shrugged; initially witnessing this, she was as disbelieving as Ye Qing. But having seen it herself, disbelief was not an option.

”And then?” Ye Qing asked Wen’er, ”Why were you tied here?”

”Sigh!” Wen’er sighed, explaining, ”After losing over ten people to the seven passages, everyone deemed them impassable and began seeking other entry methods. However, Zhou Changjin insisted we enter. I didn’t wish for more deaths, so I tried to stop this, leading to Zhou Changjin’s anger and conflict. At the time, those he brought revealed their true intentions. You wouldn’t believe it; they were all foreigners!”

”Foreigners!?” Ye Qing’s eyebrows furrowed, foreign involvement in this issue? He instinctively recalled previously encountered Counts, Bishops, and similar foreigners.

”Yes, blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigners,” Wen’er said solemnly, ”These foreigners were exceptionally strong; our side couldn’t match them, leading to my capture and being tied to this rock wall. They then told the South Ridge Sect members that unless they retrieved items from the cave, they’d leave me to starve here indefinitely!”