Urban Martial Saint

At the same time that the Bloody Monk rushed to Xiaolin Temple, Liu Mubai also arrived outside the secret chamber where Patriarch Bodhidharma had entered final nirvana back then.

This was a Stone Mountain. Back then, Ye Qing had brought back the first Buddha’s Relic from here, and with this Buddha’s Relic defeated the Corpse Ghost Dragon that no one could rival at the time. However, it was precisely because of this Buddha’s Relic that Ye Qing’s body suffered heavy damage, all the meridians in his body were crippled, and to this day he possesses no Martial Arts at all, having almost become a useless cripple.

Liu Mubai had heard Ye Qing speak about the situation in this secret chamber and also knew that inside it, traps were everywhere. However, with Ye Qing’s prior experience as a lesson, it was no longer difficult for him to enter this Cave now.

Entering the Cave from underwater, he came directly to the vicinity of this Underground River. Liu Mubai had heard Ye Qing describe the situation in this Underground River and also knew that previously there had been a dragon crocodile guarding this place. But this time when he came in, there was no longer any dragon crocodile blocking the way, and Liu Mubai did not encounter the slightest danger coming in.

Walking along the bank beside the Underground River, after a while Liu Mubai saw the huge stone gate Ye Qing had mentioned before. Everything was exactly as Ye Qing had described earlier; on the stone gate there was still a small door leading into the secret chamber.

Liu Mubai did not go in directly, but continued walking for a while until he reached the end of the Cave. From this spot, looking down from the shore into the river channel, he saw that at the bottom of the channel there was a black Stele, suppressing the water’s depths. This Stele was the first Immovable Bodhisattva Seal Ye Qing had seen. At that time Ye Qing had truly been shaken by this Immovable Bodhisattva Seal.

Liu Mubai had previously only heard Ye Qing talk about the Immovable Bodhisattva Seal, and had never seen a true Immovable Bodhisattva Seal. Now, seeing it for himself, he also felt somewhat shaken. Especially when he saw those three chains at the river bottom, his heart was even more shocked. For he still remembered what Ye Qing had told him: these three chains bound something as huge as a mountain, and no one knew what it really was. It should be the thing that the Immovable Bodhisattva Seal was suppressing.

In fact, Liu Mubai had come to look at this Immovable Bodhisattva Seal mainly out of curiosity. After looking at the Immovable Bodhisattva Seal, Liu Mubai went straight back to the huge stone gate, and following the method Ye Qing had described, opened the stone gate and entered.

There were poisonous snakes inside the stone gate, but these things posed no threat at all to Liu Mubai. Liu Mubai walked into the Stone Chamber corridor, circled past the corridor, entered the true gate, and arrived at the great hall that Ye Qing and the others had entered back then.

This great hall still preserved the scene from when Ye Qing and his group had come in before: those coffins had all been moved, those armored men were standing in the middle of the hall, maintaining the posture they had when attacking Ye Qing and his companions. The only difference was that Silver Coffin. According to Ye Qing, back then they had only found the way out after pushing open the Silver Coffin. In other words, there should be a passage in this hall. Yet now there was absolutely no passage in the hall. Moreover, that Silver Coffin seemed to have returned to the position Ye Qing had mentioned earlier, as if it had never been pushed aside at all.

Liu Mubai had heard Ye Qing describe everything in this hall, and with his current high skill and bold heart, even though everything here seemed gloomy and terrifying, Liu Mubai felt no trace of fear. He strode straight to the Silver Coffin and, using the method Ye Qing had taught, tried to push the Silver Coffin, intending to shove it aside and find that passage.

But when Liu Mubai’s hands rested on the Silver Coffin and he exerted strength to push, he was unable to move the Silver Coffin at all. Instead, the lid of the Silver Coffin was pushed open by him in one go, directly revealing the situation inside the Silver Coffin.

This gave Liu Mubai quite a fright; he had not intended to open this Silver Coffin. He knew that back then Old Ninth Wan Yan had repeatedly warned them about Silverware Soul Sealing, saying this Silver Coffin absolutely must not be opened rashly. On that occasion, Ye Qing and the others had not dared to open the Silver Coffin, and now it had been popped open by Liu Mubai just like that—how could he not be shaken?

As the Silver Coffin was pushed open, Liu Mubai instinctively retreated a step, watching the Silver Coffin guardedly. However, the expected terrifying event did not occur; there was not the slightest movement inside the Silver Coffin. Liu Mubai cautiously approached the Silver Coffin again and looked closely: the interior of the Silver Coffin was actually completely empty—it was an empty coffin!

”What’s going on?” Liu Mubai couldn’t help but cry out. Back then Old Ninth Wan Yan had shouted his warnings to the heavens, forbidding anyone to open this Silver Coffin, and everyone suspected that some terrifying thing was inside. Yet why was there nothing at all inside this Silver Coffin?

In fact, when Ye Qing and his companions had entered here back then, several Sect Leaders of the South Ridge Sect had come in as well. Those Sect Leaders had suspected at the time that the Silver Coffin most likely contained a corpse—a corpse from the Demon Hideout Cave. But who could have imagined that there was actually nothing inside the Silver Coffin?

Just as Liu Mubai was marveling, something strange happened. Above the Silver Coffin, a mass of black mist slowly appeared, and the mist was constantly growing larger, as if it could absorb the air around it to swell itself.

Liu Mubai stood beside the Silver Coffin, seeing the black qi most clearly. As that black qi kept expanding, he distinctly felt a suction force spread onto his body, actually starting to absorb his power. This shocked Liu Mubai to the core; he hurriedly took several steps back, while forcibly suppressing his own power, trying to stop the black qi from draining him.

However, it turned out that what Liu Mubai did was completely in vain. The power that black qi absorbed was terrifyingly great; in just a short moment, Liu Mubai’s power began pouring out in torrents, crazily devoured by the black qi. In less than half a minute, all the power within Liu Mubai was drained clean; he didn’t even have the strength to stand anymore, his legs gave out and he collapsed onto the ground.

Yet that mass of black qi was still expanding without pause; no one knew what it actually was. But instinct told Liu Mubai that this thing shouldn’t be hostile toward him, because whenever he looked at that black qi, he kept feeling a strange sense of familiarity.

The absorption by the black qi lasted for over two hours. Judging by the speed at which it devoured Liu Mubai’s power, who could tell how much force it had accumulated over such a long span? In the end the black qi didn’t grow much larger, roughly the height of a person. But the power contained within it made Liu Mubai feel involuntary fear in his heart.

Once the black qi stopped absorbing, it abruptly dove into the Silver Coffin. The Silver Coffin took the hit and actually smashed through the floor, dropping down and leaving a hole in the ground.

Only at this moment did Liu Mubai finally see this pit in the floor, and he understood this must be the path Ye Qing had mentioned.

Seeing this tunnel appear, Liu Mubai didn’t hesitate; he forced himself up at once and ran over, jumping straight down into the hole. His power had been sucked away by that black qi, and now the black qi had taken the Silver Coffin and left. He had to chase it down and get to the bottom of this, see what exactly was going on. His own power couldn’t just be carried off by that black qi without rhyme or reason.

When Liu Mubai jumped down, his timing was just right, and he fell directly into the Silver Coffin. The mass of black qi paid Liu Mubai no mind; after taking the Silver Coffin down, it barreled wildly through the branching tunnels, moving at an extremely high speed.

Liu Mubai was inside the Silver Coffin as well, so naturally he was carried along with it. After about ten minutes like this, the Silver Coffin actually brought Liu Mubai hurtling into a gigantic Cave. This Cave stretched for more than ten meters front to back, quite spacious. In the center of the Cave stood a huge stone block roughly three meters tall. The block looked like cooled magma piled up together, with the aura of lava everywhere around it. And on the outside of that lava boulder, layer upon layer of blood-colored liquid had been poured over it, like blood; though already solidified, it still looked extremely eerie.

The most shocking thing was that around this giant stone block, three thick iron chains were coiled. Looking more closely, these three chains were precisely the Mystic Iron Chains Liu Mubai had seen at the bottom of the water when he first entered this place.

Liu Mubai recalled what Ye Qing had told him earlier about the situation inside this Stone Chamber. According to the Imperial Edict left behind by Patriarch Bodhidharma, this Stone Chamber was supposed to be the place suppressing that Evil Demon. Only, where was the Evil Demon? Could this Pillar that looked like magma really be the legendary Evil Demon?

While Liu Mubai was still reeling, that mass of black qi had already surged out of the Silver Coffin, charging straight toward the Magma Pillar.

When the black qi was about to reach the Magma Pillar, the red color surrounding the Pillar suddenly flared with a dazzling scarlet glow, as if trying to resist the black qi.

When Ye Qing was here before, he had also encountered this scarlet light. But back then, Ye Qing hadn’t dared provoke this Eternal Demon; naturally, he’d taken off immediately. Now, however, this mass of black qi showed no courtesy at all. After the red glow appeared, the black qi didn’t retreat in the slightest, but instead rammed straight into it, colliding head‑on with the scarlet light.

The two lights were like two forces clashing, locked in struggle inside the Cave. Liu Mubai had no idea what exactly was happening; he could only stand off to the side, staring in stunned silence. His instincts told him that everything was tied to this Magma Pillar.

After the two forces confronted each other for a while, the black qi’s power seemed even stronger, pressing the scarlet glow back again and again. In the end, the black qi spread out, completely enveloping the red light, hammering it again and again. The scarlet glow grew weaker and weaker under the assault, until finally it was completely extinguished.

Once the scarlet light faded, the mass of red outside the Magma Pillar slowly gathered together, eventually becoming something that looked like a pool of blood, wrapped tight within the black qi.