Urban Martial Saint

Thinking that those surrounding him outside were just people, Ye Qing felt a bit relieved.

Being trapped in the Tomb of Ghost Valley Master for so long, facing so many dangers, and encountering all those water monsters, Ye Qing’s nerves were stretched. Now, suddenly encountering people, even if it were Fu Qingping and the others, they’d surely be excited.

So, after dodging several attacks, Ye Qing burst out of the water and shouted, ”Stop hitting me, I’m human too!”

As soon as Ye Qing finished speaking, several weapons were thrown again, followed by an angry voice, ”Don’t be fooled by him, these water monsters are damn cunning, chop him up, chop him up!”

A pile of weapons came flying towards Ye Qing’s face. Ye Qing, helpless, had to dive back into the water, slightly surprised. Because the voice he just heard was quite familiar to him!

Not just familiar, but damn familiar. Because, in that moment, Ye Qing realized, wasn’t that voice Handsome Fatty Wang’s?

Handsome Fatty Wang, how did he end up here?

Ye Qing couldn’t afford to think about these things at the moment. After dodging a few more attacks, he burst out of the water again, cursing loudly, ”Fat Wang, you bastard, take a good look at who I am!”

”Yo, this **** of a water monster even knows my name, Fat Lord! No need to be polite, keep at it, chop this bastard to pieces and roast him today!” Handsome Fatty Wang shouted loudly.

”Chop your grandpa, I’m Ye Qing!” Ye Qing shouted, as an axe flew over, but he blocked it with an upraised arm. By this time, Ye Qing also clearly saw that Handsome Fatty Wang was standing on the shore. Surrounding him were a dozen people, and this bastard was commanding them to hack Ye Qing.

”Ye Qing?” Handsome Fatty Wang was clearly stunned for a moment, looked carefully at Ye Qing, then his eyes widened, ”Shit, it really is you, why are you here pretending to be a water monster to scare people?”

While Handsome Fatty Wang was talking, two more people threw axes down. Handsome Fatty Wang quickly stopped them, saying, ”Stop chopping, stop chopping, he’s a friend, one of us!”

The group finally stopped, and Ye Qing finally breathed a sigh of relief, indignantly saying, ”Who’s pretending to be a water monster, I should be asking you why you’re ambushing me here!”

”Damn, who’s ambushing you, we’re here to ambush the water monster!” Handsome Fatty Wang mumbled, seeing Ye Qing swim to the shore, he reached out and pulled him up.

”Kid, how did you end up here?” Handsome Fatty Wang looked at Ye Qing’s ragged appearance and said, ”And you’re all torn up like this, are you doing performance art?”

”I should be asking you how you got here!” Ye Qing dried himself off, looking at Handsome Fatty Wang and the well-equipped group around him, he already had some idea about why Handsome Fatty Wang was there.

”Of course, it’s for tomb-robbing!” Handsome Fatty Wang said proudly, ”I got word that there was a great tomb in this mountain, so I brought people over to find it. But after coming over...”

This damn Fatty, he really came to rob a tomb, just as Ye Qing expected!

Before Handsome Fatty Wang could finish, Ye Qing interrupted him, ”Enough with the nonsense for now, were you guys here the whole time?”

”Yeah, we’ve been here for half a day!” Handsome Fatty Wang said, ”You haven’t answered my question, why did you end up in the water pretending to be a water monster?”

Ye Qing said helplessly, ”I’ll say it again, I’m not pretending to be a water monster. Also, have you seen a pale-faced person with a girl passing by?”

”If you’re not pretending to be a water monster, then what are you doing?” Handsome Fatty Wang asked.

”We’ll talk about this later. Answer my question first!” Ye Qing said.

”I’ve seen plenty of pale-faced people, but I haven’t seen one with a girl!” Handsome Fatty Wang responded.

”Have you seen many people with pale faces? Where did you see them?” Ye Qing hurriedly asked.

”Right in the cave next door, there are tons of them, thirty or forty!” Handsome Fatty Wang yelled, casually pointing to the cave nearby. ”We just went in there and nearly got eaten alive by those people. Luckily we ran fast and made it to this cave, so they didn’t follow us. But, it was a stroke of bad luck; in this cave, we encountered the Water Monster and lost several brothers!”

Ye Qing looked in the direction Handsome Fatty Wang pointed and saw that there was indeed a stone gate on the rear rock wall. It seemed this stone gate led to the place where those people gathered. After carefully calculating the position, Ye Qing realized that, based on the direction, that cave should be where he could reach if he had continued going up along the Stone Cave earlier. In other words, Ye Qing had chosen incorrectly just now; if he hadn’t chased the Water Monster but had gone straight up that Stone Cave, he would have found those people.

”Do you have any handy weapons? Can you give me one?” Ye Qing said in a low voice.

”What do you mean by handy weapons? We go tomb-robbing, at most we carry a few axes and machetes, nothing more.” Handsome Fatty Wang said, handing over an axe casually. ”How about this?”

Without another word, Ye Qing took the axe and walked straight toward the stone gate. Fat Wang and the others watched Ye Qing walk over to the stone gate with a bit of surprise, unsure what Ye Qing was about to do. When Ye Qing reached out to push the stone gate, everyone’s expression changed instantly.

”What are you doing?” A man closest to the stone gate yelled immediately, reaching out to stop Ye Qing.

”Hey, Young Ye, what are you doing?” Handsome Fatty Wang also panicked and said, ”There are a lot of those people you mentioned over there. I’m telling you, those guys can’t even be considered people; they’re just beasts, utterly inhumane. If you push open the stone gate and let them through, we’ll all die here!”

”Wen’er was captured by those people. I have to save her. I’m going alone, you don’t need to worry!” Ye Qing said while pushing open the stone gate, casually pushing aside the man next to him and walking with the axe into the stone gate.

Everyone stared dumbfounded at Ye Qing. They didn’t expect Ye Qing to proceed after Handsome Fatty Wang warned him of the danger over there. Wasn’t this a suicide mission?

Seeing Ye Qing enter the stone gate and then close it, Handsome Fatty Wang paused for a moment, then cursed aloud: ”Damn it!”

Although Handsome Fatty Wang looked quite upset, he still picked up an axe from the side, ran over, pushed open the stone gate, and rushed in.

”Damn, is Fat Lord a coward?” Handsome Fatty Wang shouted loudly toward Ye Qing in the distance, ”You’re going to save someone, right? Fat Lord will help you!”

Handsome Fatty Wang also went through the stone gate, which immediately left the remaining people stunned. They were all tomb robbers like Handsome Fatty Wang, following rules that emphasized benefits and self-preservation. Honestly, if they encountered some monster in the tomb, their first thought would be to escape, never to fight. So what was Handsome Fatty Wang doing, going to fight those monsters? Wasn’t he heading for his death?

Handsome Fatty Wang was a bit slower; when he rushed into the stone gate, Ye Qing had already reached the end of the Stone Corridor. At the end of the Stone Corridor was another stone gate, and Ye Qing knew that this stone gate probably led to the cave that Handsome Fatty Wang mentioned. And Wen’er might be trapped on the other side of the stone gate.

Placing his hand on the stone gate, Ye Qing turned to Handsome Fatty Wang, waving to signal him not to follow. Then, taking a deep breath, Ye Qing suddenly pushed open the stone gate.

As soon as the stone gate opened, Ye Qing heard a cacophony of screams. Behind the gate was another spacious cave. In the center of the cave, there was a pond about four to five meters in diameter, which seemed to be the pond from which the water flowed up earlier from the Stone Cave.

And on the edge of this pond were thirty or forty of those pale-faced people. They weren’t in the water now, and Ye Qing could finally see them clearly.

These people not only had pale faces, but their skin was also extremely pale, resembling corpses that had been soaking in water for a long time, lacking any luster. Their faces looked human, but their bodies differed somewhat from humans. The biggest difference was their hands and feet; although they had distinguishable fingers and toes, their fingers and toes were connected by a layer of soft flesh, resembling duck webs. Behind their ears was a series of small round holes that Ye Qing could even see continuously expanding and contracting. This implied that these holes might be akin to fish gills, a crucial part for these monsters to breathe in water.

These Water Monsters had no clothes, appearing more like savages. Or perhaps, they couldn’t be considered humans; they were indeed monsters.

These Water Monsters were currently gathered around a circular Stone Platform in the middle of the cave. On top of the Stone Platform stood a tall sculpture. It was a human sculpture, definitely human, not resembling these monsters. At the feet of the sculpture lay a person. Ye Qing recognized clearly that this person was Wen’er, who was taken away!

Finally seeing Wen’er, Ye Qing felt a surge of emotion but held back from taking rash action. Instead, he hid behind the stone gate, quietly observing the situation in the cave.

The cave was spacious, but the Stone Platform was at the very center. This meant the sculpture was like the focal point of the cave. And now, the Water Monsters were surrounding the Stone Platform, constantly kneeling and howling as if worshiping a god. It’s unclear what status this sculpture held and why these Water Monsters were worshiping it. And why did they place Wen’er at the feet of the sculpture? What were they planning to do?