Urban Martial Saint

”What does it do?” Ye Qing hurriedly asked. If it was something that could make Shijia rush over like this, its function definitely wasn’t simple.

Shijia shook his head and said, ”It’s not convenient to talk about that right now.”

”You bastard!” Ye Qing cursed. This old bald donkey Shijia always clammed up right at the crucial moment, truly infuriating. Still, Ye Qing also knew that if this old guy didn’t want to talk, no amount of threats or bribes would work—his mouth was sealed tighter than a jar.

”Then at least tell me why you can’t get out?” Ye Qing said. ”Don’t tell me you still haven’t found that Acala Buddha Seal?”

Shijia said, ”I’ve already found the Acala Buddha Seal, but I can’t take it!”

”Where is it? I’ll try grabbing it!” Ye Qing turned his head, looking all around.

”No need to try, there’s no way you can take it either.” Shijia said in a deep voice, ”Because that Acala Buddha Seal is currently suppressing something. Unless your strength surpasses the power of the Acala Buddha Seal, you won’t be able to budge it at all!”

”Oh?” Ye Qing was surprised. ”What exactly is the Acala Buddha Seal suppressing?”

Shijia spread his hands. ”How the hell should I know? I want to know too!”

”You don’t even know, so how do you know the Acala Buddha Seal is suppressing something?” Ye Qing asked curiously.

”Because I can’t walk out!” Shijia pointed at the distant platform. ”See that Stone Platform? The Acala Buddha Seal should be somewhere near it. The power of the Immovable Bodhisattva Seal has spread out, causing this whole Cave to be locked down by the Acala Buddha Seal’s power. Don’t be fooled by that ’exit’ you came down from—once you’re in, there’s no going out through that entrance!”

”Really?” Ye Qing looked up toward the exit, then reached down to yank hard on the belt around his waist, signaling the people outside to drag him back up. But there wasn’t the slightest movement from outside, as if they hadn’t received any signal from Ye Qing.

”Don’t bother trying. Once you’re in here, unless you change the power of the Acala Buddha Seal or break the Seal, you can’t get out at all!” Shijia waved his hand and said, ”That exit may look close, but none of your movements or sounds can get through. This whole Space has been completely sealed off by the power of the Acala Buddha Seal. Only entry, no exit!”

Refusing to believe it, Ye Qing picked up a rock and tossed it outward. But when the rock rushed up near the cave mouth, it was as if something blocked it, bouncing it straight back; it couldn’t get out at all. That pretty much confirmed what Shijia had said.

”How can it be like this?” Ye Qing frowned tightly. So if he came down, didn’t that mean he’d be stuck here just like Shijia?

”So there’s really no way to get out?” Ye Qing asked.

”Not exactly. If we can find whatever is being suppressed by the Acala Buddha Seal and deal with it first, then this Seal will be lifted!” Shijia said. ”The real problem is, I have no idea what the suppressed thing actually is, or where it’s hidden. And anything that needs the Acala Buddha Seal to suppress it won’t be simple. If we just poke around blindly, it might be deadly!”

Listening to Shijia, Ye Qing’s frown only deepened. He stared at Shijia for a while, then said, ”You said this was left behind by Patriarch Bodhidharma. Patriarch Bodhidharma was from the Buddhist Sect. He wouldn’t set up a trap here just to screw over his descendants, would he?”

”Exactly. Didn’t I already tell you? The key issue is I showed up one step too late!” Shijia took a deep breath and said in a grave tone, ”Back then, when Patriarch Bodhidharma left the Acala Buddha Seal here, he didn’t put in these restrictions. He just hid it so future generations of the Buddhist Sect could come find it. But someone definitely got here before me. And that person for sure wasn’t from the Buddhist Sect, so he couldn’t move the Acala Buddha Seal. But he was unwilling to accept that. So he must’ve brought in some Evil Demon–like existence to draw the power of the Acala Buddha Seal over to suppress it. That’s how this situation came about: when the Acala Buddha Seal suppresses that Evil Demon, anyone who comes in later gets sealed inside as well. To put it bluntly, that guy set a trap here to screw over the people of the Buddhist Sect!”

”Oh.” Ye Qing half understood, half didn’t. After a moment of silence, he suddenly said, ”This guy set a trap targeting your Buddhist Sect, so why did you drag me into it? I’m not one of your Buddhist Sect people.”

Shijia looked a little embarrassed. ”Well, before I came, I didn’t know something like this would happen either…”

”You ’didn’t know’ this would happen, yet you still gave me a one-month deadline and left a map for me to come save you!” Ye Qing glared at Shijia. ”You’re obviously just screwing me over!”

Ye Qing had hit the nail on the head, and Shijia hurriedly let out a dry laugh. ”You can’t put it like that. I just wanted you to come broaden your horizons, you know?”

”Get lost!” Ye Qing’s temper flared on the spot. This old bald donkey Shijia was seriously out to screw people. He’d clearly known there was danger here, so he left a map for Ye Qing to come down and ’rescue’ him. But with a setup like this, how was Ye Qing supposed to break it? Great, now he’d managed to get himself trapped here too—all thanks to Shijia’s ’kindness’.

”Calm down, calm down!” Shijia hurriedly waved his hand and glanced around as he said, ”I think we’d better hurry up and find a way to get out of here first. Being locked up in here like this, I’m fine, but you’re probably going to starve to death pretty soon!”

”Get lost!” Ye Qing snapped back impatiently. Damn it, you’re a beyond peerless master, you’ve been locked here for so long and still can’t get out, and now you want me to think of some bullshit way?

Shijia chuckled awkwardly a few times and really didn’t dare speak again. Ye Qing was in a foul mood right now; whatever he said would just be asking for trouble.

After quite a while, Ye Qing’s anger finally eased a little. He turned his head to look at Shijia, frowned, and said, ”Right, you bald donkey, I still haven’t settled the matter from last time in the Demon Hideout Cave with you!”

”What’s there to settle?” Shijia quickly said, ”Aren’t you fine? I already told you, you wouldn’t be in any danger inside the Demon Hideout Cave!”

”I’m not talking about that!” Ye Qing glared at Shijia and said, ”Let’s start with the Scabbard of the Minghong Knife. Where did you put the Scabbard of the Minghong Knife? You lied to me that you were going in to look for clues left behind by Patriarch Bodhidharma, but in the end you snatched away the Scabbard of the Minghong Knife too. How do you explain that?”

”Well…” Shijia scratched his head and said, ”Actually, I took out the Scabbard of the Minghong Knife for the sake of saving all living beings!”

”Shut up!” Ye Qing said irritably, ”If you don’t harm all living beings, that’s already their blessing. And you talk about saving them?”

”I’m telling the truth!” Shijia said anxiously, ”Weren’t you always asking me about the Sword Saint Sect before? How about this, I’ll tell you about the Sword Saint Sect, and at the same time I’ll tell you why I took out the Scabbard of the Minghong Knife!”

Ye Qing eyed Shijia up and down. He kept feeling this old bald donkey’s words couldn’t be trusted. But now that Shijia wanted to talk about the Sword Saint Sect, he did want to listen.

”Go ahead.” Ye Qing said in a low voice.

”To talk about the Sword Saint Sect, we have to start with the Heaven Earth Man Three Gates. The Sword Saint Sect Master was a Supreme who walked out from the Heaven Earth Man Three Gates. You should know this.” Shijia said.

Ye Qing said in a deep voice, ”Get to the point. Don’t talk about what I already know.”

”You’ll have to let me talk this through slowly.” Shijia said, ”You know the identity of the Sword Saint Sect Master, but do you know that among all those who entered the Heaven Earth Man Three Gates, the Sword Saint Sect Master was the only one whose corpse didn’t disappear?”

Ye Qing had indeed heard of this, but when he heard Shijia get to this point, his heart gave a slight jolt. Could it be Shijia knew the reason behind it?

”Keep going.” Ye Qing said in a deep voice, not revealing his curiosity, so Shijia wouldn’t start dangling him along.

”This is where things get complicated.” Shijia took a deep breath and said gravely, ”Although the Sword Saint Sect Master’s corpse didn’t disappear, do you know? Some people say that the corpse of the Sword Saint Sect Master wasn’t actually him!”

”Huh?” Ye Qing’s eyes widened as he stared at Shijia in shock. If it wasn’t the Sword Saint Sect Master himself, what did that mean?

”You get it?” Shijia said in a low voice, ”In other words, the Sword Saint Sect Master might not actually be dead!”

Ye Qing took a deep breath and said, ”When you say not dead, do you mean he wasn’t dead back then, or that he might still be alive even now?”

Since the Sword Saint Sect was founded, it’s said to have been over three hundred years. Over three hundred years—what kind of concept is that? The Sword Saint Sect Master entered the Heaven Earth Man Three Gates, became famous across the land, and only then founded the Sword Saint Sect. Even if he was relatively young and was only forty or fifty when he founded it, the sect has existed for more than three hundred years now. If the Sword Saint Sect Master were still alive, he’d be three to four hundred years old. That age would far surpass Corpse Ghost Dragon’s three hundred and thirty-plus years. And even for a beyond peerless master, the maximum Lifespan is only about three hundred years. Corpse Ghost Dragon living to over three hundred and thirty is already defying the heavens. If the Sword Saint Sect Master is still alive, how heaven-defying would that be?

Leaving everything else aside, the Sword Saint Sect Master’s strength would definitely be far above Corpse Ghost Dragon’s!

Shijia looked at Ye Qing and said in a low voice, ”The key question now is that no one knows whether the Sword Saint Sect Master is still alive. Inside his coffin, the corpse isn’t his. And afterward, no one ever saw his body. So no one knows whether he is dead or alive now.”

”Th-this… that’s impossible, right?” Ye Qing stared at Shijia in astonishment and said, ”How can a person live that long? Or maybe he also went to fulfill that so-called agreement, so they couldn’t find his corpse?”