Urban Martial Saint

Upon hearing Fu Qingping’s words, Wen’er was also pleased for him and hurriedly said, ”If that’s the case, Senior Fu, please practice a bit more; it will be good for your injuries.”

Ye Qing nodded quickly, but Fu Qingping shook his head, saying, ”Cultivation must be done in moderation. Although the Innate Nine Diagrams is an excellent cultivation technique, practicing it three times a day is enough. Practicing too much can be counterproductive, as the meridians operate too quickly, which is not good!”

Wen’er hadn’t been practicing for as long as Fu Qingping and naturally didn’t know these things. She quickly stuck her tongue out and whispered, ”No wonder my father and the others are so diligent in their practice every day but find it difficult to become peak masters. It seems they practice too much!”

Fu Qingping smiled faintly without speaking. In truth, he knew best that becoming a peak master wasn’t just about hard work in practice; talent is also a fundamentally important factor. He hadn’t met the sect leaders of the South Ridge Sect, so he naturally didn’t know their talents, and thus had no say.

The injuries had healed considerably, and Fu Qingping was able to walk on his own. He slowly walked along the pile of corpses, eventually moving beyond their range. Looking back in the direction he had come, he paused briefly and solemnly said, ”Ye Qing, Wen’er, have you smelled anything?”

”A smell?” Wen’er was momentarily stunned, while Ye Qing quickly responded, ”Yes, there’s a rotten smell here; I noticed it as soon as I came in.”

”Yes, yes, a rotten smell!” Wen’er eagerly nodded. Earlier, seeing Fu Qingping stand up had made her so excited she nearly forgot the rotting smell around her. Now, hearing Fu Qingping’s question, she recalled the matter.

Fu Qingping looked around, his brows furrowing slightly, and said in a low voice, ”You two, be careful. There’s likely something alive in here!”

”Something alive?!” Ye Qing and Wen’er exchanged glances, and at that moment, the flashlight in Ye Qing’s hand began to dim because it was running out of power. As the flashlight dimmed further, their surroundings fell into complete darkness, causing Wen’er to nearly lose her composure. She quickly moved closer to Ye Qing, almost leaning her body against him to find some sense of security and nervously asked, ”How... could there be anything alive in here? This cave has been sealed for thousands of years, what... what could survive until now?”

Ye Qing was equally shaken, having been in enough tombs to know the ancient preference for placing tomb guardian beasts within them. According to Fu Qingping, could this Tomb of Ghost Valley Master also have a tomb guardian beast?

This hadn’t crossed Ye Qing’s mind before. After all, Guiguzi was the only Great Saint in Taoist Sect history, a sage, so how could there be such dangerous traps and tomb guardian beasts in his tomb?

However, seeing the two hundred-plus peak masters and thirty to forty beyond peerless masters’ skeletal remains earlier inevitably shocked Ye Qing. The situation inside the Tomb of Ghost Valley Master might be far from the simple expectations he initially had.

”There definitely is something alive here!” Fu Qingping said. ”This valley has been sealed for thousands of years. Even if there were corpses inside, over thousands of years, any smell should have settled and dissipated. Yet there’s distinctly a rotten odor here, suggesting the recent decay of meat, indicating there must be freshly rotted bodies. If there’s nothing alive in this cave, such a scenario would be impossible!”

Ye Qing and Wen’er were both shocked, though Fu Qingping didn’t know much about grave robbing, his analysis was spot on. Earlier, Ye Qing had been too focused on Fu Qingping’s situation to think deeply about these matters. But thinking it over now, Fu Qingping made valid points; there must be something alive in this cave, otherwise, where would this rotten smell be coming from?

Taking a deep breath, Ye Qing quietly held the sword box to his chest, which contained the Tianzhu Sword. Although he currently lacked inner strength and couldn’t wield the power within the Tianzhu Sword, it remained a famed instrument. If encountered with a tomb guardian beast, there might be some use for it.

”Stay close to me, it’s okay.” Ye Qing reassured Wen’er in a low voice, though his heart was still very uneasy, as he wasn’t sure what lay hidden in the darkness.

”Alright!” Wen’er whispered back, just as she intended to follow Ye Qing forward. Suddenly, a shrill cry broke the silence. In such a secluded valley, the sound echoed chillingly in their ears.

The ear-piercing cry stunned all three of them. Fu Qingping slowly retreated a few steps and moved over to Ye Qing and Wen’er, keeping a watchful eye on the direction the sound had come from. They discerned it was a human’s voice but couldn’t tell whose.

The sound stopped abruptly, as if the throat had been bitten off. The dark cave continued to resound with echoes of the scream, slowly subsiding back into silence. Still, the expressions of the three grew increasingly grave. Particularly Wen’er, whose pounding heart was audible to those nearby.

Even though she grew up among the South Ridge Sect, surrounded by people familiar with grave robbing, Wen’er was, after all, still a girl, and naturally feared such situations. Unconsciously, she’d already grabbed Ye Qing’s arm tightly, unwilling to leave even a step away.

Uncertain of what lay ahead, the three dared not linger there. Ye Qing tugged at Fu Qingping, signaling him to backtrack to the entrance they had first come through. Guarding this entrance provided them some semblance of reassurance. Should danger arise, they would retreat immediately, willing even to return to the Beidou Fumo Path to safeguard their lives.

”From the sound earlier, it appeared to be a ninja from Japan!” Ye Qing whispered.

”How could you tell?” Wen’er asked in astonishment, having been too frightened moments ago to pay attention to such details.

Fu Qingping nodded slowly, sharing Ye Qing’s viewpoint. After thinking quietly for a moment, he remarked, ”Japan’s ninja came in two groups. The first group was led by the Great Elder, who brought many others along. The second group comprised those two ninjas originally outside, keeping watch on us. After the Church attacked, these two slipped inside as well. But we don’t know which group emitted that scream.”

”No matter which group it was, something’s amiss,” Ye Qing said softly. ”Just now, we only heard one person’s scream, so what of the others? Even if it was from the second group of two, shouldn’t the other one have reacted at all when one encountered danger?”

Fu Qingping was equally puzzled. Their flashlights had run out of power, leaving them only able to see their immediate surroundings and not what lay ahead. Thus, they had no idea what transpired just then.

”No matter... no matter what, there’s danger in this cave, and we... we need to be more cautious...” Wen’er murmured, hesitating for a moment, then suggested, ”Maybe we should just return the way we came? This cave feels strange to me...”

”That’s not possible!” Fu Qingping firmly shook his head, saying, ”Japan’s ninja groups are in this cave, and the Church’s people are here too. This is the Tomb of Ghost Valley Master; if they obtain what’s inside, we’d become sinners! We must acquire whatever’s in the Tomb of Ghost Valley Master ourselves, no matter what!”

Ye Qing nodded gradually and whispered, ”Besides, even if we try following our original path back, we’ll never get out. The Tomb of Ghost Valley Master is arranged according to the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams Formation. This formation consists of eight gates, and we entered through the Open Door. To leave, we’ll have to exit via the Gate of Life.”

”What’s the difference?” Wen’er asked in bewilderment, ”Can’t we just go back the way we came, push open the stone gate, and leave?”

”It’s not as simple as you think.” Ye Qing shook his head. ”The eight gates of the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams Formation each have their purpose. The Open Door is for entry only, not exit; that’s its rule. Unless we break the formation, the Gate of Life is the only way out. Otherwise, even if we retrace our steps, we definitely won’t find the stone gate we entered through!”

Wen’er didn’t fully grasp it, not familiar with formations, but seeing Ye Qing’s serious demeanor convinced her he wasn’t deceiving her, so she didn’t insist further. However, realizing they needed to search for the Tomb of Ghost Valley Master’s contents within this sinister cave made her skin crawl. What kinds of dreadful things could be lurking in these shadows?

”So, what do we do now?” Wen’er whispered, knowing standing by the entrance was only temporary. In the dark, she felt as if terrifying beasts were slowly closing in.

Ye Qing glanced toward the distant stone gate and considered the formation positions. The cave should house eight gates, corresponding to rest, life, injury, closure, view, death, shock, and open. Entrance was through the Open Door; exit through the Gate of Life. But where the Tomb of Ghost Valley Master’s items were concealed within these gates was a pressing issue. Only six gates remained, each fraught with dangers, where choosing wrongly could result in peril.

As they pondered, suddenly, another scream tore through the darkness, resonating from no more than fifty meters away. This suggested the imperiled person was a mere fifty meters from them, and so too was the danger!

The sound made the three jump, and Wen’er instinctively clutched Ye Qing’s hand, unaware of how close she had moved to him amidst her terror.