Urban Martial Saint

When Ye Qing and Fat Wang broke through the water surface, they were already inside an underground river. On either side of the underground river were spacious stone paths, extending deeper into the cave, with no clue as to where they led.

”Wow, we finally found it!” Fat Wang emerged from the water, looking around excitedly, and said, ”This is the place, this is the location recorded on the map given by Eighth Master, no doubt about it!”

Finding this place didn’t surprise Ye Qing much. What truly puzzled him was the chain he was holding. It continued to extend in this underground river, stretching downstream. But the question was, would there be another Immovable Bodhisattva Seal downstream?

With this doubt, Ye Qing swam forward along the direction of the chain. After covering a distance of more than two hundred meters, Ye Qing indeed saw from afar, submerged, another stele, which was the Immovable Bodhisattva Seal he had seen before!

Seeing this Immovable Bodhisattva Seal, Ye Qing’s expression changed. According to Old Wang Ba, this was the escape route left by Knife Saint for the Sword Saint Sect. However, on this escape route of the Sword Saint Sect, there was such an Immovable Bodhisattva Seal, what on earth was going on?

The Immovable Bodhisattva Seal was definitely not left by the Knife Saint, and the places where the Immovable Bodhisattva Seal existed were all used to suppress powerful evil demons. That is to say, there was definitely a very powerful evil demon suppressed by the Immovable Bodhisattva Seal here. Before Knife Saint came here, all of this already existed.

With the capability and knowledge of Knife Saint, he couldn’t possibly not recognize the Immovable Bodhisattva Seal. Under such circumstances, he still established the Sword Saint Sect here and left an escape route, what was he thinking? Could it be that he wasn’t afraid of the evil demon suppressed by the Immovable Bodhisattva Seal?

With doubts in his mind, Ye Qing approached the Immovable Bodhisattva Seal to take a closer look. This Immovable Bodhisattva Seal, just like the one he saw before, had no special features. And the chain extended beneath the Immovable Bodhisattva Seal, just like what Ye Qing saw outside the secret room where Patriarch Bodhidharma passed away. This meant that beneath this Immovable Bodhisattva Seal, there was definitely a powerful evil demon being suppressed. As to who was suppressed, no one could know.

Fat Wang also came over and, upon seeing the Immovable Bodhisattva Seal, exclaimed, ”Wow, another Immovable Bodhisattva Seal! Why is this thing everywhere?”

Ye Qing stared at the Immovable Bodhisattva Seal for a while, unable to make sense of what it was all about.

”Never mind, let’s not concern ourselves with this!” Ye Qing said as he walked from the underground river to the riverbank, ”Let’s move forward and head to the Sword Saint Sect to do what needs to be done!”

”Oh.” Fat Wang reluctantly glanced at the Immovable Bodhisattva Seal, then suddenly asked Ye Qing, ”Young Ye, if you were to take an Immovable Bodhisattva Seal out to sell, how much do you think it could fetch?”

Ye Qing almost spat out blood. This damn Fat Wang, he was actually coveting the Immovable Bodhisattva Seal?

”I’m warning you, don’t you dare touch that Immovable Bodhisattva Seal!” Ye Qing said urgently, ”If you mess with it, I reckon you’ll die here instantly!”

”Uh, I was just asking, how would I dare touch it?” Fat Wang chuckled awkwardly, looking around, ”Hold on, let me get my bearings first, don’t want to go the wrong way!”

Fat Wang pulled a compass from his backpack and busied himself underground. Ye Qing watched from the side, curiously saying, ”Aren’t you grave robbers supposed to use Dragon-Seeking Rulers? Your digital compass is quite high tech!”

”It’s just for determining direction, no need to fuss so much!” Old Wang Ba sniffed disdainfully, ”I would like to use a Dragon-Seeking Ruler, but we’re going into the water. My backpack is only so big, bringing a Dragon-Seeking Ruler is inconvenient. It’s better to just get a waterproof compass, convenient and straightforward!”

Ye Qing wasn’t sure how the thing worked, so he said, ”All right, stop with the nonsense, just get the positioning right. I don’t care what you use, as long as you don’t get it wrong!”

”Don’t worry, Fat Lord has been doing this for so many years, don’t you trust me?” Fat Wang took a deep breath, placed the compass on the ground, and carefully observed the directions on it while using a small stone to calculate on the ground.

Ye Qing couldn’t understand Fat Wang’s calculations, so he wandered around casually. It wasn’t long before Fat Wang stood up and said, ”Done, this way!”

Ye Qing glanced at the direction Fat Wang indicated and exclaimed, ”Are you sure? There’s no path there!”

”Of course not, if there was, how would it show the importance of Fat Lord?” Fat Wang smirked, leading the way to a nearby stone wall. He knocked on the wall a few times with his hand.

The stone wall emitted a dull sound, indicating it was solid. However, Fat Wang wasn’t discouraged. He circled the stone wall for a moment before finally finding a small mechanism on it, upon which he immediately pressed his hand.

With a dull thud, the stone wall slowly retreated, revealing an entrance about two meters wide. Inside, it was pitch black, emanating an indescribable fear.

”Well, here it is!” Fat Wang pointed at the entrance and said to Ye Qing, ”Let’s go.”

Ye Qing looked at the entrance, noting that the stone wall was about two meters thick, no wonder it sounded so muffled when Fat Wang knocked on it earlier. No sound could penetrate that thickness.

Ye Qing led the way with Fat Wang into the cave. As soon as they entered, the stone gate behind them gradually shifted back, blocking the entrance they had just come through.

Ye Qing and Fat Wang exchanged a glance; at this point, retreating was not an option, so they continued forward.

Upon entering, a stone corridor awaited. Ye Qing and Fat Wang walked within, the corridor was dark, making it impossible to discern what lay around.

”Young Ye, hold on a moment, I’ll get a flashlight!” Fat Wang mumbled, stopping to rummage through his backpack for a headlamp. When he turned it on, it revealed empty surroundings, with no sign of Ye Qing.

Despite having been in countless tombs, this situation made Fat Wang’s scalp tingle. He had entered with Ye Qing, but only a few steps in, Ye Qing was gone. What was going on? He was clearly just beside him, how did he disappear in the blink of an eye?

”Young Ye, Young Ye!” Fat Wang called out desperately, but there was no echo, which only added to his panic. Could it really be a ghost? Was that not Ye Qing but a ghost accompanying him?

”Damn, what evil dares to scare your Fat Lord!” Fat Wang, a bit flustered, pulled out a talisman and a black donkey hoof from his backpack, proclaiming, ”Corpses I’ve handled number not one thousand but eight hundred. You little ghosts dare come before Fat Lord, I’ll finish you with this black donkey hoof!”

Before Fat Wang finished speaking, he was suddenly patted on the back. Startled, he screamed and immediately turned, throwing the black donkey hoof and talisman simultaneously.

”What are you doing?” came an angry shout from behind, the voice quite familiar. Fat Wang paused, turned back, and saw Ye Qing standing not far behind, with a talisman he had just thrown still hanging from his ear.

”You... you... you...” Fat Wang stammered for a long time before exclaiming in shock, ”Are you a person or a ghost?”

”Damn, what nonsense are you spouting?” Ye Qing glared at Fat Wang and said, ”I don’t have time for your nonsense, grab my clothes and stick close!”

”Uh...” Fat Wang was still a bit anxious, Ye Qing’s sudden disappearance had him suspecting Ye Qing might be a ghost.

”Are you a person or a ghost, say so first!” Fat Wang urged nervously.

”Ghost your grandpa!” Ye Qing cursed irritably, grabbing Fat Wang’s clothing while looking around and said seriously, ”Be careful, this is a mystifying formation. There’s no real danger here, but it has illusionary effects. If we don’t step correctly, just a single misstep can seem like a thousand-mile gap, rendering us unable to see or hear each other. Whatever you do, don’t wander aimlessly here, or even I might not find you if you stray too far!”

”Such a formation exists?” Fat Wang gasped, glancing around anxiously, whispering, ”So we got lost in this formation, not encountering a ghost?”

”Eighth Master mentioned, this area is primarily dominated by formations, with a total of one hundred and eight great formations, and this is just the first one.” Ye Qing said in a low voice while leading Fat Wang forward, ”I never expected the Knife Saint to have such profound expertise in formations. I’ve only studied part of this mystifying formation. I’d never be able to set it up myself. It looks like getting through all these one hundred and eight formations won’t be easy.”

Though Ye Qing was talking, his steps were steady, moving slowly forward according to the positions of the Odd Door Bagua. Thanks to Ye Qing’s deep understanding of the Taoist formation, anyone else might not even think of traversing this mystifying formation.

Fat Wang didn’t understand anything about such matters, but he didn’t need to; he was here with Ye Qing, anyway. Clutching Ye Qing’s clothes, they walked for about ten minutes before Ye Qing let out a relieved breath, saying, ”Alright!”

Fat Wang looked back and said, ”But we haven’t come far at all? Can’t we just dash straight through?”

”Of course not!” Ye Qing looked back at the mystifying formation and explained, ”In this formation, a single misstep could mean a thousand miles apart. Without understanding formations, you could be trapped in there for a lifetime, growing old, and never make it out!”