Urban Martial Saint

”Hahahaha...”

A peal of laughter echoed non-stop above the manor. Just from that uniquely sleazy tone, everyone inside could already guess who it was. Other than the lecherous con-man Old Wang Ba, who else here could laugh in such a pervy way?

Ye Qing was now sitting in the courtyard where Old Wang Ba lived—of course, this was also where Bai Li Xi stayed. These two old geezers living together was simply a match made in hell. Bai Li Xi’s shamelessness was no worse than Old Wang Ba’s; the two of them together were basically the ultimate century combo of the sleaze world.

Old Wang Ba originally lived over at the orphanage, but some time ago he quietly moved into the manor of the Seven Steering Committees of Hong Alliance. In his own words, this was to make it easier to ”exchange ideas” with Bai Li Xi. In reality, on the way back Ye Qing had already heard from Li Lianshan. The reason Old Wang Ba ran over to live at the Hong Alliance Seven Helmsman Manor was mainly because he’d gambled with Li Lianshan’s men at the orphanage, racked up a mountain of debt, and had no choice but to hide here from his creditors.

Of course, Old Wang Ba definitely wasn’t going to tell Ye Qing that. As soon as Ye Qing rushed back to the manor, the first person he came to find was Old Wang Ba—he needed to know what was going on with Huangfu Ziyu.

”Can you not laugh like that!” Looking at Old Wang Ba’s grinning face, Ye Qing just wanted to kick him right in the jaw. Every time he saw that smile, he got the urge to punch someone.

”Alright, alright.” Old Wang Ba forced back his laughter, reached out and patted Ye Qing on the shoulder, and said, ”Young Ye, this little trip of yours really paid off, huh. Looks like all the effort your Eighth Master put in wasn’t for nothing!”

”What do you mean your ’effort’?” Ye Qing gave Old Wang Ba a sidelong glance, but in his heart he was silently going over everything that had happened recently, completely unable to figure out what Old Wang Ba had actually done behind the scenes.

Old Wang Ba didn’t spell it out either. In fact, he had long known about Ye Qing leaving Shenchuan City with Fu Qingping. He just didn’t stop it; he even gave things a little nudge from the shadows, all because he wanted Ye Qing to go out and gamble with his life. After all, Ye Qing’s Qi Luck back then had already hit rock bottom. If he didn’t risk it, staying in Shenchuan City would only end in death anyway. Going out to fight for a chance, plus Old Wang Ba’s secret assistance, might still leave a sliver of hope. Destroy first, then rebuild—that was one of the Taoist Sect’s ways to save a life.

Of course, the later matter of the Karmic Dao wasn’t something Old Wang Ba had been able to foresee. After all, even if he really was a successor of the Iron Calculation Sect, there was no way he could calculate anything involving Wuji. He certainly wouldn’t have known about the Karmic Dao—those were realms far beyond his reach. What happened afterward far exceeded his expectations, but also made him genuinely happy. Ye Qing getting that Karmic Dao was hundreds, thousands of times better than the three years of great fortune Old Wang Ba had helped him gain before. You could say that now, Ye Qing’s Life Grid, Feng Shui, and Qi Luck were all unmatched in this world; he really did have what it took to seize a spot to enter the Heaven Earth Man Three Gates.

Fortunately, the Karmic Dao wasn’t something Old Wang Ba had helped Ye Qing obtain, so Ye Qing’s fate wasn’t something Old Wang Ba had forcibly altered. That meant he didn’t have to pay too steep a price for it. But for all the secret help he’d given Ye Qing before, there was still inevitably a price to pay. Old Wang Ba understood this principle all too well, which was why he kept gambling and losing money to Li Lianshan’s men—that also counted as ”losing wealth to ward off disaster.”

”Alright, let’s not talk about that stuff.” Old Wang Ba sat down beside Ye Qing and said, ”Right, Young Ye, that Century-Old Jade Ganoderma Du Canglang ate—was that really from you?”

”Yeah, what about it?” Ye Qing asked in surprise.

”Holy crap, you’re really generous!” Old Wang Ba’s eyes went wide at once. ”Century-Old Jade Ganoderma—do you even get what that means? That’s something that can extend the life of a Peak Master. If you take it out, you’d have who knows how many Peak Masters fighting to the death over it, and you just handed it out like that? And that Du Canglang, it’s not like you guys are that close—he was even your enemy before. You could still give him something that precious?”

Ye Qing took a deep breath and said, ”Du Canglang almost threw his life away to save Wen’er. That alone shows he’s someone who repays kindness. In that situation, if I didn’t save him, would I still count as human?”

”Well said!” Old Wang Ba immediately gave Ye Qing a thumbs-up and said, ”No wonder Du Canglang couldn’t stop praising you this time he came over. Especially after he found out Huangfu Ziyu disappeared, he went out personally to help search for her right away. From what I can see, that Du Canglang is definitely willing to risk his life for you in the future!”

Ye Qing hadn’t had time to ask about Du Canglang’s situation yet. Hearing that Du Canglang had actually gone out to help look for Huangfu Ziyu made him feel deeply grateful. There had never really been any unbridgeable hatred between him and Du Canglang. Even though Du Canglang had captured him before and wanted to kill him to get the Buddha’s Relic, ever since Ye Qing saved him at the Doomsday Sect last time, Du Canglang no longer harbored any hostility toward Ye Qing.

Besides, after Du Canglang lost an arm, all his ambitions were gone and he’d given up on the Buddha’s Relic as well. Now that he treated Ye Qing as a friend, that was actually a great thing for Ye Qing. After all, Du Canglang wasn’t weak; even with one arm missing, after eating the Century-Old Jade Ganoderma his strength had recovered quite a bit—at the very least, he was back to his Acme peak strength.

The medicinal effects of the Century-Old Jade Ganoderma were shocking. It could not only extend one’s life and stave off death, but also boost one’s power. If Du Canglang hadn’t lost that arm, this Jade Ganoderma would absolutely have greatly increased his strength. Being able to recover to his peak state now was already no small feat. After all, being short an arm naturally meant a serious drop in combat strength.

”Right, this is exactly what I came to ask you about.” Ye Qing looked at Old Wang Ba and said, ”Where exactly is Zi Yu right now? Hurry up and calculate it for me.”

”Young Ye, I’m not some immortal. You want to know where she is, and I’m just supposed to calculate it out for you?” Old Wang Ba curled his lip and said, ”Besides, didn’t I say it before? She’s safe for the time being, so stop worrying about her so much.”

”What do you mean, ’safe for the time being’?” Ye Qing frowned tightly and said in a low voice, ”She’s already been taken away. How can that be called safe?”

Old Wang Ba smiled and said, ”Or maybe, for her, this might actually turn out to be a good thing.”

Seeing Old Wang Ba like this, Ye Qing suddenly felt a jolt in his heart. He knew that although Old Wang Ba usually looked lewd and shameless, his fortune-telling skills were truly uncanny. What he said generally had deeper meaning. Could it be that Huangfu Ziyu being taken this time really isn’t a bad thing for her?

After thinking it over and over, Ye Qing still felt unsettled. He said, ”Then when will I be able to find her?”

”When it’s time to find her, you’ll naturally find her. What are you so anxious for?” Old Wang Ba smiled and said, ”Right, tell me about Mount Wendao. I’ve been to that mountain before, but there were just too many snakes on it, I couldn’t get in at all. After you went in, how did you manage to come out alive?”

Ye Qing didn’t tell Old Wang Ba about the Fat Jiao on Mount Wendao. In fact, he had always kept this matter buried in his heart and had never told anyone. After all, that was a Jiao, something that only exists in legends. If word of this got out, who knows how many people in the world would be shaken by it. More importantly, if some ill-intentioned people learned of it, they would definitely think of ways to go to Mount Wendao and deal with that Fat Jiao, which would only bring trouble to the creature. So Ye Qing had always kept this matter to himself and never spoken of it to anyone. Everyone just thought he had run into a bunch of snakes in Mount Wendao, not knowing that the greatest danger wasn’t the snake swarm at all, but that Fat Jiao.

”What do you mean, ’when it’s time you can find her’?” Ye Qing had absolutely no intention of telling Old Wang Ba anything about Mount Wendao. This old guy couldn’t keep his mouth shut; saying too much would only cause trouble. Besides, seeing the way the old guy’s eyes were shining, Ye Qing figured he was eyeing Mount Wendao, probably wanting to go there and swipe some Century-Old Jade Ganoderma. The situation on Mount Wendao must absolutely not be revealed to him.

”’When you can find her’ means ’when you can find her.’ That’s called Heaven’s will; let’s not fuss over it. Anyway, I already told you, the person who took Huangfu Ziyu may not necessarily put her in danger, but as for that person himself, that’s another story.” Old Wang Ba patted Ye Qing on the shoulder and said, ”Alright, let’s stop with this useless chatter. Talk to me about Mount Wendao first.”

”Nothing to talk about. The whole mountain is crawling with snakes. If you’re not afraid of dying, go climb it yourself.” Ye Qing replied.

”That’s it?” Old Wang Ba stared wide-eyed.

”Then what else do you want to know?” Ye Qing stared right back.

Old Wang Ba said, ”At the very least let me know what’s special about Mount Wendao. Like how you got up there, how you got around the snake swarms. Where are the most snakes, where’s the most dangerous, where does Jade Ganoderma grow and the like?”

This old guy really is after the Jade Ganoderma on Mount Wendao!

Ye Qing: ”Go once yourself and you’ll know.”

Old Wang Ba said, ”Nonsense, is this the kind of thing you can just try casually? If I take one wrong step, I’ll die there on the spot.”

”Aren’t you good at pinching your fingers and calculating? Just calculate where it’s dangerous and go around it, isn’t that enough?” Ye Qing said with a grin.

Old Wang Ba snapped, ”Get lost. The mountain’s that big—if Eighth Master had to calculate it bit by bit, I might not finish in this lifetime. Before I even climb halfway up, I’d probably croak first.”

”Then I suggest you give up on that idea.” Ye Qing said, ”The mountain is full of deadly dangers, and the route I took is not safe either. You know I have the Buddha’s Relic on me, so I’m not afraid of those snakes. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have made it up there. If you really want to climb that mountain, you’d better train your Martial Arts well. Once you’re strong enough, any route will be safe.”