Urban Martial Saint

Three minutes passed, and the betting ended. The referee reappeared in the ring.

”Alright, after the joyful betting time, comes the cruel combat time. Will it be Madman who creates the miracle of ten consecutive wins, or will this young man who launched a suicidal attack emerge victorious? Let’s wait and see. But...” the referee made a big turn and looked at Ye Qing, saying, ”I still want to ask, my friend, couldn’t you find a more convenient way to kill yourself?”

The whole audience laughed, Ye Qing didn’t respond, and the referee seemed very satisfied with Ye Qing’s reaction. He then turned to the fat man in the audience, saying, ”And to this boss here, once the bet is placed, it can’t be changed. Looks like your money will be going to verify the ruthlessness of our competition along with this young man!”

The laughter grew louder, and the fat man stood up abruptly, shouting, ”Kid, fight well, I’m rooting for you. At least last for two more rounds, don’t let me lose my five hundred thousand too quickly!”

”Hahaha...” Even the referee burst into laughter, and Madman glanced at Ye Qing with the corner of his eye, clearly not taking him seriously at all.

In the room, Tiger King smirked at the scene outside while a staff member had already tallied the betting situation and was reporting it to him.

”Brother, up until now, we’ve received thirty-seven million in bets, with only six hundred thousand betting on Ye Qing to win, and the rest on Madman.”

”Thirty-seven million!” Tiger King laughed even more brilliantly, saying, ”Subtract the six hundred thousand betting on Ye Qing, at two to one, we’d owe twelve hundred thousand. That means, just on this round alone, I’m going to earn more than twenty million. These so-called big bosses really don’t have brains! Is there such a thing as a free lunch in this society?”

After he said this, Tiger King looked up and commented, ”Those old guys upstairs are steadier and won’t bet rashly. But they’re not really paying attention to these early small fights. The focus is on what happens after the fifteenth match. That’s when we’ll attract a lot of bets. Remember, for the first fifteen fights, I want him to win without fail!”

”Don’t worry, we’ll arrange it,” the underling said proudly.

”Once those old guys upstairs start losing badly, today’s earnings won’t be as simple as a mere one hundred million!” Tiger King sneered coldly, then turned and said, ”Make sure everything here runs smoothly, no mistakes allowed.”

”Brother, the fight is about to start, aren’t you going to watch the results?” a junior inquired curiously.

”Do I need to watch?” Tiger King glanced at Madman and said, ”I just want to know if he can withstand three moves from Ye Qing.”

The people were taken aback. Wasn’t Tiger King’s estimation of Ye Qing too high? Madman was the monthly champion. Three moves? How could that be possible?

On the ring, amidst the boos and mockery of the referee, the fight finally officially began.

”Beat him to death! Beat him to death!”

”End it quickly, Madman, don’t waste time!”

”Go! Go! Go!”

Madman, with his arms crossed, looked at Ye Qing with disdain amid the laughter of the crowd.

”Kid, I admire your courage. But since you dared to step onto this ring, you should be prepared to die!” Madman unfolded his arms and slowly clenched his fists, pointing at Ye Qing from a distance, saying, ”If I can’t kill you within three minutes, consider it my loss!”

Madman’s words brought even more cheers and screams from the crowd while Ye Qing remained still as water, seemingly not hearing Madman’s words.

Madman waved his hands at the audience, then suddenly clenched his fists, turned around, and charged at Ye Qing. Accompanied by a roar, his right fist flew toward Ye Qing’s temple.

It must be said that Madman indeed had some skill. As a monthly champion, his strength was considerable. The speed and power of his punch reached a very formidable level. Even someone as sturdy as him getting hit by this punch would likely be knocked out. And with Ye Qing’s build, the crowd had no doubt that this punch could send Ye Qing flying.

The crowd’s excitement rose as Ye Qing showed no sign of dodging, and their shouts filled the air. They believed this punch was enough to finish off Ye Qing.

Ye Qing didn’t dodge, and as Madman’s punch was about to hit him, he suddenly took three steps to the left and, with eerie speed, darted behind Madman.

Madman’s punch missed completely, and he had to turn around to chase Ye Qing. At that moment, Ye Qing finally threw his punch, a heavy blow to the back of Madman’s head. The force of the punch, combined with the momentum Madman had just built up, sent him flying more than three meters forward, finally coming to a stop against the wire mesh fence.

The scene fell into a deathly silence, everyone having believed that Ye Qing would be killed by Madman’s punch, only for Madman to be the first to suffer. What’s more, the key point was that Madman lay on the ground motionless.

Everyone watched breathlessly as Madman lay there like the dead, unmoving. At last, someone couldn’t stand it any longer and started shouting, ”Get up Madman, beat him to death!”

”Get up! Get up!”

”What’s going on? How could Madman lose to this kid?”

Amidst the yelling of the crowd, the referee walked over to Madman and after bending over and struggling for quite a while, he stood up and said in astonishment, ”Madman... Madman is in a coma...”

There was shock all around, everyone staring blankly at Ye Qing standing quietly in the ring. Who could have thought that this seemingly frail youth would use just one punch to knock out the dominant Madman?

”Wow! Wowsers!” Suddenly, the fat man in the stands stood up and shouted, ”I won! I won! I won! Oh lei lei oh la la, Victory!”

The fatty’s hand trembled for a moment as he placed a bet of five hundred thousand on Ye Qing to win, originally thinking that money was as good as gone. He never expected that God would give him such a huge surprise. Ye Qing actually won, and he won so clean and neat, a one-punch KO.

With odds of one to twenty, he just won ten million, no wonder he was so excited he started singing the World Cup theme song; that he didn’t belt out ”A Man Should Strengthen Himself” was already quite good.

”What the fuck, how could this happen?”

”Yeah? How did this happen? How could Madman lose to this kid?”

”It must be a fixed fight!”

”Doesn’t Tiger King have a reputation? What’s going on here?”

”We don’t believe it, this is definitely a fixed fight, Tiger King should give us our money back!”

The scene became chaotic, and the referee standing on the stage was extremely embarrassed, as this situation was completely unforeseen. To be honest, even he doubted whether there was something fishy going on because he didn’t favor Ye Qing at all. Even if Ye Qing could actually win, it shouldn’t be by a one-punch KO, right?

At this time, Tiger King had already reached the private room on the top floor. There was a live broadcast of the event upstairs as well, and seeing the noise below, Tiger King couldn’t help but frown.

He had used Ye Qing’s relatively unknown reputation to set a trap for these people, making a hefty profit upfront. However, he didn’t expect Ye Qing to win so decisively, sparking suspicions among the audience that he was in a fixed fight.

Indeed, Tiger King had arranged fixed fights before, but this time he truly hadn’t arranged one. He had anticipated that Ye Qing could beat Madman, but the victory was so clean that even he found it a bit hard to accept.

”Motherfucker, that bastard is way too fierce!” Tiger King ranted angrily.

”Boss, things down there are about to explode, what should we do now?” a lackey asked anxiously.

Tiger King frowned and remained silent for a moment, then said, ”Change the player, change the method. Find someone strong to fight him in a death match to remove their doubts. On this ring, only a death match is beyond suspicion!”

”A death match, so it’s not over until someone dies?” The lackey glanced at Ye Qing and said in a low voice, ”Given Ye Qing’s personality, I’m afraid he wouldn’t fight to the death!”

Tiger King glared at him and said, ”Then find someone who deserves to die, do I need to teach you that?”

The lackey immediately nodded and rushed out to arrange the matter.

In the basement, the audience had already rushed to the fence, clamoring for a refund and such. The referee was trying to placate everyone from above, but no one listened to him; they were all convinced that Ye Qing had been in a fixed fight.

Finally, Tiger King’s lackey strode out and, protected by several men, entered the ring. He took the microphone from the referee and shouted, ”Everyone, quiet down please, please be quiet!”

”Quiet down your fucking leg, you have the nerve to make excuses for a fixed fight!” a man yelled angrily.

”Give us our money back, don’t say anything else, just refund us!” another man shouted loudly.

”Don’t rush, everyone, don’t rush, I’m here to give everyone an answer,” Tiger King’s lackey shouted several times, finally quieting the crowd down. Everyone turned to him in anticipation of Tiger King’s response.

”You suspect he’s been in a fixed fight, and I can understand those feelings. In truth, even Tiger King himself has doubts about this. This Ye Qing, it’s his first time here, and we didn’t know his strength beforehand. But our reputation has always been solid here, we’ve never been in a fixed fight.

Don’t get agitated, listen to me!” He raised his voice and said, ”To dispel everyone’s doubts, and to prove the fairness of our venue, Tiger King has decided that the next match will be a death match!”

”A death match?” The entire venue went silent.

”Yes, a match where one must die, a battle that absolutely cannot be fixed!” Tiger King’s lackey announced loudly: ”This will be putting lives on the line; surely no one would dare fix a death match, what do you all think?”

After some discussion, someone in the crowd voiced agreement, which gradually spread among the people. After all, such a death match truly couldn’t be faked.

”You want a death match, that’s fine, but the opponent you find can’t be much weaker than Madman, otherwise how would that prove anything?” a man shouted loudly.

Tiger King’s lackey laughed and said, ”Of course, we’ve already decided, the next one to come out will be Prison Head!”

”Prison Head!?”

”Isn’t that the champion of last year’s semiannual competition?”

”My God, is that the guy nicknamed ’The Murderer’, Prison Head?”

”What do you mean ’nicknamed’? That guy is a murderer!”

The crowd started to buzz again; this Prison Head was a bit more of a heavyweight than Madman.