Urban Martial Saint

Old Chen’s incessant chatter continued, but Ye Qing paid no mind and kept moving forward. Although he stumbled over a dozen times, given Ye Qing’s current physical condition, he didn’t feel any pain and thus paid it no heed. However, he was mentally calculating the number of pits he had fallen into and the distance he had covered.

Ye Qing walked like this for about half an hour when Old Chen suddenly shouted, ”Hey, hey, hey, Young Ye, are you really crazy? What are you doing? Are you planning to start from the beginning and fall all over again?”

Upon hearing this, Ye Qing opened his eyes and looked around, realizing that he was standing outside the first pit. In other words, he had been walking with his eyes closed for half an hour and had ended up back at his original position.

”Hey, Young Ye, are you really crazy? What are you doing?” Seeing Ye Qing open his eyes, Old Chen started to ramble again, ”Are you really practicing wrestling? Falling so many times back and forth, don’t you mind the pain?”

Ye Qing smiled faintly and said, ”If I don’t fall so many times, how can I figure out what kind of formation is laid out in this cave?”

”Formation? What formation?” Old Chen asked in surprise.

Ye Qing did not explain to Old Chen; with someone like that, explanations wouldn’t make much sense. As Ye Qing walked, his falls, the distance traveled, and the eventual return to the starting point all helped him roughly analyze the formation. In fact, it’s only someone like Ye Qing, who could decipher the cave’s formation. After all, once Ye Qing learned the Tiangang Beidou Step Technique, he became quite adept at the Taoist formations. If it had been someone else, they wouldn’t even dream of figuring out the formation in this cave.

Ye Qing took a deep breath, surveyed the surroundings, determined the direction, and then looked at Old Chen, saying, ”Old Chen, for the next step, I’m going to walk right up to you!”

”Walk up to me?” Old Chen scratched his head, saying, ”Are you kidding? We’re so far apart, how can you walk up to me? Besides, I wasn’t standing where you were, if you walk forward, you’d fall to your left-rear side, you can’t possibly reach me. You’re boasting without planning, aren’t you...”

Before Old Chen finished speaking, Ye Qing stepped diagonally to the left-front. Upon landing, Ye Qing stepped into the void again. However, this time Ye Qing was prepared; the moment he touched down, he stretched out his hands to support himself on the ground, avoiding the fall, landing instead in a pit. At this moment, Old Chen’s voice came from nearby, ”Hey, I wasn’t finished talking, why did you run off? Young people today, why don’t you show enough respect when elders speak? Alas, human hearts are not what they used to be, young people nowadays, why...”

Ye Qing climbed out of the pit and just happened to see Old Chen standing less than two meters away from him, still rambling on.

”Old Chen!” Ye Qing suddenly shouted.

”Oh my god!” The sudden voice from behind startled Old Chen, causing him to collapse onto the ground. Upon recognizing Ye Qing standing behind him, his expression changed instantly from surprise to delight. He grabbed Ye Qing’s arm excitedly, saying, ”You... you really... walked right up to me. Wow, you truly weren’t lying; you took one step to reach me. How... how did you do it? Do you know why the cave is like this?”

Ye Qing chuckled; he had figured out everything in the cave. Actually, everything was the result of a combination of Daoist formations and Qimen Dunjia methods. In reality, the distance between him and Old Chen was just over ten meters. It was simply the Qimen Dunjia’s blinding method making it seem as if they were far apart. After understanding the formation, Ye Qing was able to move freely within it, so walking up to Old Chen was no problem at all.

”If I hadn’t figured out what’s going on in the cave, could I walk up to you?” Ye Qing casually replied.

”What? So... what’s going on?” Old Chen asked promptly.

”It’s simple. There are ghosts in this cave!” Ye Qing spoke, his voice suddenly lowered, giving an eerie feeling.

”Ghosts!?” Cold sweat started to pour from Old Chen’s forehead as he looked at Ye Qing and said, ”You... you must be joking. I’ve been grave robbing for years and never... never seen a ghost. How... how could there be ghosts in this world? You’re definitely joking to scare me, there’s no way there are ghosts.”

Old Chen’s mouth denied the existence of ghosts, yet as he spoke, he moved closer to Ye Qing, his forehead sweat flowing continuously, clearly showing his inner fear.

Seeing Old Chen’s reaction, Ye Qing couldn’t help but inwardly chuckle. He didn’t explain further to Old Chen but moved away from him, stepping into another pit. When Ye Qing climbed out of the pit, he appeared several hundred meters away from Old Chen.

”Hey, Young Ye, where have you gone, where have you gone! Don’t run around, take me with you, I don’t know how to get out!” Old Chen yelled, panic evident in his voice.

”Scared you, you old pervert!” Ye Qing muttered to himself, ignoring Old Chen. He carefully observed the surrounding directions, walked three meters forward, then turned left and continued five meters. Like this, sometimes moving forward, sometimes changing direction, he walked over a hundred meters without stepping into any voids. After about ten minutes, he finally exited the formation’s range.

Turning around, Ye Qing saw that Old Chen was indeed less than seventy meters away. It seemed the formation’s range was just about a hundred meters. However, when inside the formation, it feels overwhelmingly large, where even a few steps seem to span hundreds of meters. Furthermore, with traps everywhere, continually falling into pits ultimately brings one back to the start point. Unless one thoroughly understands the formation to avoid every pit and escape its range, only then can they truly break free. Otherwise, entering this situation either returns one to the starting point or traps them inside forever without any progress.

Ye Qing understood the formation’s intention; since this was the Tomb of Guiguzi, the formation must have been set by Guiguzi himself. Such a formation indeed indicates that everything inside the cave is left for the descendants of the Taoist Sect. After all, those who specialize in formations are generally from the Taoist Sect. Other outsiders who don’t understand formations can forget about finding a way out even if they enter the Tomb of Ghost Valley Master!

Outside the great formation, the scenario was different from what Ye Qing had seen earlier. When Ye Qing first entered the cave, he saw a spacious cave, larger than the previous caves. However, the cave was filled with boulders and pits, and the path was uneven. But once beyond the formation’s range, the cave’s condition changed drastically.

Initially, this cave was not as large as before. Beyond the formation’s range, the remaining cave was less than thirty meters. Within those thirty meters stood a gigantic stele. The stele stood about three zhang high, one zhang wide, located at the cave’s end.

While the stele was enormous, what actually grabbed attention were the five big characters inscribed on it – Tomb of Ghost Valley Master!

Ye Qing’s heart skipped a beat, does this mean that he has finally found the Tomb of Guiguzi? Is the Tomb of Ghost Valley Master behind this stele? Is this stele the tombstone for the Tomb of Ghost Valley Master?

Without any hesitation, Ye Qing quickly rushed forward. Thirty meters wasn’t far, and Ye Qing soon reached the stele. Once there, Ye Qing noticed that behind the stele was the stone wall at the cave’s end. A part of the stele was embedded in the stone wall. This was contrary to Ye Qing’s assumptions; behind the stele was no tomb, it was merely a stele!

Having reached here, Ye Qing took a closer look at the stele, discovering that besides the five big words ”Tomb of Ghost Valley Master,” there were many smaller characters carved on it. Ye Qing initially thought these small characters would be hard to recognize, but upon closer inspection, he found he could indeed read them all.

Reading the first line of these small characters, Ye Qing’s expression changed because it read: ”To open the Gate of Life, first enter the Gate of Death!”

What does ”To open the Gate of Life, first enter the Gate of Death” mean? Does it mean that to access the Gate of Life one must first walk through the Gate of Death? What does this really mean?

While Ye Qing emerged from the Gate of Death, he clearly understood the conditions within it. Let alone other factors, simply put, when the Church members and the batch of Wo Country’s Ninja entered the Gate of Death, all perished inside. The sole survivor, Seventh Elder, survived only because he quickly retreated before entering too deeply. The powerful pressure inside that cave is unbearable for any human. Ye Qing could even assert that not even a character like The Undead Lord Corpse Ghost Dragon could withstand the pressure inside the Gate of Death!

Such conditions within the Gate of Death mean entering it is akin to seeking death. What do the eight characters left on this stele mean now? Does it mean that to open the Gate of Life, one must enter the Gate of Death to die? But after entering the Gate of Death, can one even return here, let alone open the Gate of Life?