Urban Martial Saint

The courtyard was a spacious training ground, lit by a large lamp that made it as bright as daylight, and everything around was distinctly visible.

The size of the training ground was indeed vast; though it was close to the Southern Suburb, it was still within the city limits. It was a bit remote, but having such a large piece of land was truly exceptional, and it became clear that the owner of the courtyard was no ordinary person.

Two men were fighting at the center of the ground, one of whom was a tall and burly man known as Black Bear. The man fighting with Black Bear was in his thirties, half a head shorter than Black Bear and also broadly built. However, compared to Black Bear, his physique seemed like that of an underdeveloped teenager, and the disparity in their sizes was quite significant.

Ye Qing initially thought Black Bear was at a disadvantage, but upon closer inspection, he realized the fight was evenly matched, with no clear winner or loser.

About a dozen people, all dressed in training uniforms, stood by the side, evidently members of the Xingyi Martial Arts School. Ye Qing saw clearly that Ding Shaoyan was among the crowd, cheering vigorously as if he wished that the head of the gym, Wu Xinghuai, could kill Black Bear on the spot!

Seeing that Black Bear was not losing ground, Ye Qing quietly withdrew and went into another courtyard to look for Wang Tiezhu.

The Xingyi Martial Arts School had three courtyards in total, with the one where Black Bear was fighting likely being the training ground. The other two courtyards seemed to contain various fitness equipment, probably used for physical training. After searching through both courtyards, Ye Qing finally found Wang Tiezhu in a corner.

He was curled up on the ground, his body covered in blood and tightly bound by ropes, his body occasionally twitching. Ye Qing called out to him twice, and he did not respond, his body still twitching slightly and foam continuously flowing from his mouth, which looked rather strange.

Ye Qing touched his forehead, and as he bent over, he suddenly smelled the scent of drugs. His expression changed dramatically as he violently pried open Wang Tiezhu’s mouth. His tongue was black, and there were remnants of powder in his throat, confirming Ye Qing’s suspicion that he had indeed been force-fed a substantial amount of drugs.

Ye Qing’s expression turned grim as he finally understood how Wang Tiezhu ended up in this state. Ding Shaoyan and his cohort were truly cruel, not satisfied with merely injuring him, they had force-fed him these drugs. After all, such substances could be lethal!

”Pillar! Pillar!” Ye Qing called out softly several times, but Wang Tiezhu showed no response. His pupils were dilating, indicating that he was slowly losing consciousness.

Feeling a great urgency, Ye Qing realized that Wang Tiezhu had been poisoned. In his current state, even if taken to a hospital, it would likely be too late for treatment.

After pondering for a moment while staring at Wang Tiezhu, Ye Qing suddenly gritted his teeth, turned Wang Tiezhu over to lay flat on the ground, and then pressed hard on two acupoints on his chest and throat. These were detoxification techniques recorded in the Acupoint Seeking Technique, but they required sufficient Inner Strength to unblock the acupoints.

Currently, Ye Qing’s Inner Strength was not strong enough to flow through his body, so he had to use physical force to strike the acupoints in an attempt to detoxify him. Of course, this method was very dangerous, as forcibly striking acupoints could cause significant harm to the body.

With Wang Tiezhu’s life hanging by a thread, Ye Qing had no choice but to make a desperate attempt.

After pressing on these two acupoints for a while, Wang Tiezhu’s convulsions became more severe. Just as Ye Qing began to doubt if he was using the wrong method, Wang Tiezhu suddenly started vomiting violently. It looked as though he was trying to vomit his entire stomach, and the vomiting continued for a long while without stopping.

Seeing Wang Tiezhu like this, Ye Qing sighed with relief. Being able to vomit the residual drugs was a sign that his life was no longer in danger. However, the damage the drugs had caused to his body was not minor, and it seemed he would need to recuperate in a hospital for a while.

”Who’s there?”

The sound of Wang Tiezhu’s vomiting drew attention, and two men entered the courtyard. Upon seeing the scene, one of them immediately snapped, ”Damn it, some little thief daring to break into the Xingyi Martial Arts School!”

”Why waste words with these thieves?” another man arrogantly walked over, pointing at Ye Qing, and said, ”In all these years, you are the boldest one I’ve seen. Daring to steal from the Xingyi Martial Arts School, damn, you really think your life’s too long, huh? Come, let’s see the head of the gym!”

Ye Qing did not resist; instead, he helped Wang Tiezhu up and started walking out.

”Hey, stop!” one man glared, ”We told you to see the head, what the hell do you think you’re doing taking him with you?”

Ye Qing ignored him, prompting the man to become infuriated and reach out to grab Ye Qing’s shoulder. Ye Qing retaliated with a punch to the man’s face, causing him to immediately clutch his face and crouch on the ground.

”You dare hit someone...” the other man furiously reached out to strike Ye Qing.

Ye Qing casually grabbed his wrist, twisting lightly, and the man immediately yelped in pain, continuously crying, ”It hurts, it’s broken, stop... stop twisting...”

”Answer me one question, or else, I’ll break your hand!” Ye Qing said coldly, ”Why did you feed him drugs?”

The man looked confused, ”Who?”

Ye Qing glanced at Wang Tiezhu beside him, causing the man to pause and say, ”Who fed him drugs?”

”Are you testing my patience?” Ye Qing slightly increased the pressure in his grip, and the man immediately began pleading with a crestfallen face, ”Big brother, I... I’m telling the truth, when he came he was already like this. Young Master Ding said he had taken drugs, was delirious, and went to attack Young Master Ding with a knife. He... he took it himself...”

Ye Qing frowned slightly. How could Wang Tiezhu possibly take drugs on his own? Yet, he swiftly realized, it wasn’t that Wang Tiezhu had taken the drugs himself; rather, Ding Shaoyan had force-fed him on the way to the Xingyi Martial Arts School.

This way, Wang Tiezhu’s alleged crimes would appear more severe, and even if he died, it would be as a result of consuming drugs, absolving them of any responsibility.

Ye Qing’s expression turned icy, and Ding Shaoyan was truly insidious. It seemed that Wang Lili’s incident was undoubtedly linked to him!

Flipping his hand, Ye Qing tossed the man aside and supported Wang Tiezhu as he walked straight into the training ground. As they arrived, Ye Qing saw something else that infuriated him. The dozen or so people who had been watching the fight earlier had all charged forward, surrounding Black Bear in the middle, relying on their numbers to gang up on him.

Although Black Bear was very strong, facing so many people, he was left with no choice but to take hits. He covered his head with both hands, clumsily fending off the attacks from the multitude, utterly unable to fight back.

Wu Xinghuai, the head of the Xingyi Boxing Gym who had fought him earlier, stood panting to the side with a trace of blood at the corner of his mouth—it seemed he had come off worse and thus had his underlings join forces to mob Black Bear.

With anger already coiling in his heart, Ye Qing couldn’t contain himself any longer and bellowed, ”Hey!”

His voice boomed like thunder, startling everyone, causing them to turn their heads in shock.

”Captain!” cried Black Bear, visibly elated, feeling much more secure seeing Ye Qing.

Ding Shaoyan stared at Ye Qing, slowly uttering two words, ”Ye Qing!”

”Is this that Ye Qing?” A man sized up Ye Qing and said, ”That’s all? I thought he would have three heads and six arms!”

”He dares to oppose Young Master Ding, does he think his life is too long?”

”Young Master, watch, I’ll avenge you!”

A man eager to show off in front of Ding Shaoyan charged straight at Ye Qing, shouting as he threw a couple of punches, ”Kid, I hear you’re pretty good. Don’t say the people from the Xingyi Martial Arts School bully you; I’m giving you a chance. Let’s have a match. If you win, we’ll call it even. If you lose, you better kneel down and... ”

Before he could finish, Ye Qing suddenly punched him in the face, and the man immediately squatted down, clutching his mouth; he didn’t need to finish his sentence. Blood streamed through his fingers—the force behind that punch was no small matter!

”Fuck, that was a sneak attack!”

”Bastard, do you even know what an honorable duel means?”

”Why waste words on someone like this? Let’s all get him. Kill him!”

The crowd shouted loudly, while Ding Shaoyan quietly took a few steps back—he had seen for himself how formidable Ye Qing was.

Meanwhile, Wu Xinghuai slowly stood up, waving his hand to quell the shouting. His gaze cold, he stated, ”As a martial artist, one should act honorably and be forthright. To strike a sneak attack, such behavior is truly despicable!”

Ye Qing ignored him completely, only turning to Ding Shaoyan, ”Ding, come here!”

”How the hell do you talk!”

”What ’Ding’? You should call him Young Master Ding!”

The crowd immediately showed dissatisfaction with Ye Qing’s form of address; evidently, they were all Ding Shaoyan’s lackeys.

Wu Xinghuai stepped slowly into the arena, his voice cold, ”I don’t care what grievance you have with Shao Yan, but here in the Xingyi Martial Arts School, you must follow our rules. If you can beat me, you can do whatever you want!”

Wu Xinghuai had suffered at Black Bear’s hands, but he had not lost in terms of technique. In fact, while Black Bear had taken a dozen punches from him, he had only taken one from Black Bear. However, given the major size difference between them, his dozen punches combined were still less powerful than the single punch from Black Bear, causing him to suffer a great deal.

Seeing that Ye Qing had an ordinary physique, he speculated that Ye Qing couldn’t be very strong, so he wanted to have a match with Ye Qing to regain some face. After all, he was still very confident in his technique!

Ye Qing frowned and glanced at Wu Xinghuai, ”This has nothing to do with you; I advise you not to get involved!”

”Shao Yan is my junior brother, and his issues are mine as well,” Wu Xinghuai said coldly. ”If you want to take Shao Yan with you, you’ll have to get past me first!”

”Asking for it!” Ye Qing coldly shouted, handed Wang Tiezhu over to Black Bear for support, and strode toward Wu Xinghuai.