Urban Martial Saint

As the ripples in the water drew near the shore, those foreigners also heard the commotion over there. They all turned their heads to look and just happened to see those ripples that had almost reached the bank.

”What is that?” an old man asked involuntarily. The others all stared at the surface of the pond with shocked faces. At a time like this, for such ripples to suddenly appear on the pond—no one could possibly stay calm!

”What do we do now? What do we do now?”

”Those snakes are about to rush over, we’d better run…”

”Run to where? Didn’t you see there’s something in the pond too!”

”What on earth is that thing in the pond?”

The foreigners screamed again and again. The mere appearance of the snake horde had already pushed them to the brink of collapse. Now something unknown was stirring in the pond as well; one could well imagine the panic in their hearts. Even though all of them were very powerful, in the face of over ten thousand snakes, no matter how strong they were, it was hard not to feel their legs turn to jelly.

Seeing everyone in such a panic, the Great Lord frowned. He suddenly waved his hand and said in a deep voice, ”Stop talking. Follow me!”

The Great Lord was the strongest among them, and his authority was naturally the highest. At his words, the screams stopped at once. Everyone turned to look at the Great Lord, as if they were looking at a savior. And that was exactly the case: if even the Great Lord could not lead them out of here, then they really were going to die in this place!

The ripples surged to the side of the pond, but whatever was beneath the water did not burst out. It seemed to be waiting for them to come closer. Meanwhile, more and more snakes were pouring in from the bend behind them. The tide of serpents surged toward them like a flood. The ground was covered with writhing snake species, and just the sight of it made one’s skin crawl.

The Great Lord drew in a deep breath; his body suddenly seemed to lose all weight and began to drift up into the air. Then he shot forward all at once, ghostlike, and in an instant was at Ye Qing’s side. Ye Qing had no time at all to react before the Great Lord grabbed his clothes and hoisted him up.

Seeing the Great Lord’s speed, Ye Qing was also startled. He had seen the Purple Robe Lama’s Crossing the River with a Reed, and he had seen Ding Lianshun’s Carefree Movement, but compared to the Great Lord, both of their speeds still fell short. The speed with which the Great Lord had just rushed over was actually somewhat similar to Helian Tiehua’s A Stone’s Throw Away—he was upon you in the blink of an eye, leaving you utterly unprepared. Let alone now, when Ye Qing had no strength at all; even at his peak, it would have been impossible for him to dodge this Great Lord!

Being seized by the Great Lord, Ye Qing knew this was bad. He immediately swung the Metamorphic Iron Dagger in his hand and hacked toward the Great Lord. But before the dagger could even touch him, the Great Lord, still clutching Ye Qing, had already rushed to the edge of the pond. At the same time, he flicked his left hand casually and knocked Ye Qing’s arm aside; there was simply no way for Ye Qing to reach him.

Seeing this, Ye Qing’s heart sank even further. He already guessed what the Great Lord intended to do. From the look of it, the Great Lord meant to use him to test what exactly was in the water!

The moment this thought rose in Ye Qing’s mind, the Great Lord heaved and flung him out toward the pond. Of course, the Great Lord was very shrewd; he did not throw Ye Qing directly toward the ripples, but hurled him toward the center of the pond instead. That way, if the thing in the water wanted to go after Ye Qing, it would have to chase him to the middle. The Great Lord and the others could then use the opportunity to skirt around the pond and escape.

It had to be said, this Great Lord was indeed a man of strategy. Under his control, Ye Qing had no power to resist at all; he could only watch himself being tossed away and had no way to stop it. Seeing himself draw closer and closer to the water’s surface, Ye Qing took a deep breath, then held it, and plunged straight into the water.

As Ye Qing fell into the pond, there was a loud splash, which immediately provoked a reaction from that thing already near the bank. It clearly turned around beneath the water, and then the ripples rushed straight toward Ye Qing in the middle of the pond. It seemed things were just as the Great Lord had anticipated: Ye Qing had indeed lured that thing at the bottom of the pond away.

Seeing the ripples head toward the center of the pond, the Great Lord did not hesitate in the slightest. He turned at once and beckoned to the people behind him, signaling them to follow him and leave.

Those people had long since been unable to stand still. When they saw the ripples move toward the center, they immediately dashed over, following the Great Lord, intending to circle around the pond and flee this place.

On the other side, Ye Qing had held his breath before falling into the water, barely avoiding the misery of having water rush up his nose. However, the Great Lord had thrown him down with quite some force, and Ye Qing sank seven or eight meters before he finally stopped. He had no idea how deep this pond actually was—he had already sunk this far, yet there wasn’t the slightest sign of hitting bottom. And because it was night, the inside of the pond was pitch-black; he couldn’t see a thing around him.

Ye Qing knew there was definitely something wrong with this water. That water ripple he saw just now was proof enough that there had to be some gigantic creature at the bottom. So, after Ye Qing fell in, he didn’t dare hesitate in the slightest. He gripped the Metamorphic Iron Dagger tight, started floating upward, and at the same time kept his guard up, sensing everything around him, afraid that thing in the water would suddenly rush over.

Before long, Ye Qing rose from the depths and broke through the surface, and only then did he finally see what was happening around him. On the water’s surface in the distance, a ripple was shooting toward him at high speed!

Up on the shore, the Great Lord was leading the people behind him as they ran to the edge of the pond, planning to take advantage of the moment when that thing in the water attacked Ye Qing to circle around the pond and escape.

At a time like this, Ye Qing had no mind to think about anything else. He immediately tightened his grip on the Metamorphic Iron Dagger, staring nervously at that rapidly approaching ripple, and had already made up his mind. As soon as that ripple came within one meter of him, he would swing the dagger down at once. No matter what that thing in the water was, he had to strike first—otherwise, the one who’d die would be him!

Just as Ye Qing was staring nervously at the ripple drawing closer and closer, a sudden splash of water sounded from the shore, and right after that Ye Qing heard a scream, as if someone had run into something unbelievably terrifying.

Ye Qing instinctively turned his head to look and saw, over on the distant bank where those foreigners were fleeing, that at some unknown point a Giant Snake had already burst out. Most of its body was still in the water, only about two meters of its length exposed, and it had a man clamped in its jaws—one of those foreigners from just now. That scream had come from this man. In the brief moment that Ye Qing was looking over, the Giant Snake’s lower jaw contracted a few times, and it actually swallowed the man alive. Ye Qing could hear that guy, even after being gulped down into the snake’s belly, still letting out wave after wave of screams—it was enough to make your skin crawl!

The massive body of this Giant Snake was about the same size as that Snake Sheddings they’d seen earlier. No wonder they hadn’t run into this Giant Snake along the way—it had been hiding in this pond all along!

Seeing this scene, Ye Qing was stunned, and the other foreigners were clearly dumbfounded as well. The sheer size of this Giant Snake was shocking enough, but the fact that there was actually such a Giant Snake lurking right at the water’s edge was downright mind-blowing.

You had to remember, the Great Lord had just thrown Ye Qing into the middle of the pond specifically to lure over whatever was behind that ripple. Everyone saw that ripple heading toward the center, which was why they dared to run around the pond’s edge. Yet while they were sprinting along the shore, a Giant Snake had suddenly burst out of the water and swallowed one of them whole. A scene like that would scare anyone stupid!

But the Giant Snake didn’t pause. After swallowing one person, it immediately opened its bloody maw and lunged at a second, clearly intent on gulping down another.

”Watch out!” the Great Lord shouted hoarsely, and shot forward like lightning, slamming straight into the snake’s head and knocking the Giant Snake to the ground. It didn’t manage to bite that person, and the guy practically had his life handed back to him.

The man was petrified, and even after being pulled back from the brink by the Great Lord, he still didn’t know what had happened. Someone next to him hurriedly dragged him away, and the Great Lord said in a deep voice, ”Run!”

At this point there was no way any of them dared linger. The swarm of over ten thousand snakes at the entrance was already horrifying enough, and now a Giant Snake of this size appeared in the pond as well. This open space was nothing short of Hell to them!

The Giant Snake, having been knocked flying by the Great Lord, was clearly enraged. It actually let out a hissing roar from its mouth, surprising everyone even more—it was like the snake had become a spirit. Then its whole body surged out of the water and coiled up on the shore, fixing the Great Lord with a death stare, its bloody mouth’s tongue flicking in and out, as if it could charge at any moment and deliver a killing blow.

The Great Lord held the Giant Snake at bay, buying the others a chance to escape. But they had barely run a few steps when another splash sounded from the shore, and another massive snake head burst out of the water, lunging at one of them.

”Damn!” Even Ye Qing, still in the water, couldn’t help barking out. One Giant Snake was scary enough, and now a second one shows up—this was just asking for their lives, wasn’t it? And in this pond, how many of these Giant Snakes were there, exactly?

Thinking of this, Ye Qing couldn’t help but look up at the ripple in front of him. Could the thing beneath that ripple be a Giant Snake as well? With such a huge ripple and such a big commotion, it sure didn’t look like some ordinary fish!

If it really was a Giant Snake, then Ye Qing was in serious trouble this time. A snake that big could swallow him whole without even trying!