Urban Martial Saint

Ye Qing listened with a stunned expression, and Fat Wang also widened his eyes, saying, ”Damn, your mechanism is really outrageous, isn’t it? According to you, if you can’t kill these six skeletons, then people can’t even think about getting out, right?”

”That’s right!” Knife Saint nodded and said, ”And in reality, how could anyone capable of defeating these six skeletons come to steal from me? So, this mechanism is very useful for ordinary people!”

Ye Qing and Fat Wang exchanged a look; they were the ordinary people Knife Saint referred to. This mechanism was indeed quite effective against them.

”But it doesn’t make sense.” Fat Wang said, ”I just checked, and although the stone coffin was raised, the road we came in on wasn’t sealed. If someone retreated onto the road they came in on, they could just leave, right? Your mechanism isn’t thorough enough, is it?”

”Not only is there an entrance here, but there’s also an exit. However, with the mechanism activated, you can forget about traversing either path.” Knife Saint said, ”Since I left the mechanism, how could I leave such a loophole?”

Fat Wang turned to look at the road they almost retreated onto, realizing there must be many traps on it. If the mechanism really had been activated as Knife Saint mentioned, they would have surely perished had they ventured in.

Thinking of this, Fat Wang couldn’t help but shiver with fear, thankful Ye Qing stopped him in time. Otherwise, this would have been a big problem.

Ye Qing, on the other hand, absorbed what Knife Saint had said earlier. According to Knife Saint, his strength surpasses the realm of ”Unity of Heaven and Man.” Knife Saint’s power surely exceeded that of the Corpse Ghost Dragon. But human bodies can’t withstand the ”Unity of Heaven and Man” realm, which is why the situation is as it is now. Knife Saint, to save his own life, transferred 90% of his power into the Dragon-breaking Knife. Does this mean that the Dragon-breaking Knife possesses most of Knife Saint’s power?

Looking at the Dragon-breaking Knife, Ye Qing couldn’t help but recall the Tianzhu Sword he had obtained before. At that time, Master Duwang also transferred most of his power into the Tianzhu Sword; was it for the same reason? However, Master Duwang eventually went to honor his pact, which is completely different from Knife Saint. Ye Qing could only speculate that maybe Master Duwang also surpassed the ”Unity of Heaven and Man” realm?

Knife Saint set down the Dragon-breaking Knife and said to Ye Qing, ”Alright, I’ve told you about this matter. You can ask me another question now.”

This Knife Saint was indeed a man of his word, which made Ye Qing quite admire him. If the members of the Sword Saint Sect were as reasonable as Knife Saint, they wouldn’t have ended up in their current strained relationship.

Ye Qing actually had many questions he wanted to ask Knife Saint. Since Knife Saint allowed him another question, Ye Qing didn’t hold back and asked directly, ”I heard that you have a pact with Shijia and Wuji, so they have not attacked the Sword Saint Sect. I want to know, what is this pact really about?”

”Hehe...” Knife Saint gave a slight chuckle and said, ”The pact is simple. Back then, Shijia and Wuji wanted to force me to honor an agreement, but I knew a crucial secret. This secret is critical for Shijia and Wuji, and divulging it would be troublesome. So, they had no choice but to make this pact with me. As long as I don’t reveal this secret, they won’t attack the Sword Saint Sect!”

”What exactly is this secret?” Ye Qing hurriedly asked.

Knife Saint chuckled lightly and said, ”Your aura is strange, containing the Taoist Sect’s aura, the Buddhist Sect’s aura, and also the Demon Sect’s aura. I want to ask, what exactly is the cultivation method you are practicing?”

Ye Qing knew that according to their agreement, he had to answer Knife Saint’s question before Knife Saint would answer his previous question. Since it had come to this, Ye Qing didn’t hold back and explained the situation with the three forces within him.

”The forces of Buddhist and Taoist Magic have all entered your body!?” Knife Saint widened his eyes and said, ”How is this possible? How can these three forces merge together?”

”Tell me about my matter first, and then I’ll answer your question.” Ye Qing said.

Knife Saint was visibly shocked by Ye Qing’s previous words. Hearing Ye Qing’s request, he immediately said, ”I can’t tell you precisely what the secret is, because of my pact with Shijia and Wuji. However, I can give you a hint: this secret concerns the Heaven Earth Man Three Gates, it concerns Shijia and Wuji, it concerns the Divine Clan, and it even concerns the current state of the world!”

Ye Qing stared blankly at Knife Saint. Although he couldn’t discern what the secret was, he realized this secret was likely incredibly profound. It involves the Heaven Earth Man Three Gates, Shijia and Wuji, the Divine Clan, and the entire world’s structure—this secret could indeed concern all of humanity. But what exactly is this secret?

”Alright, answer my earlier questions.” Knife Saint stared at Ye Qing with surprise and asked, ”Did you really merge these three forces? These three forces can’t be merged at all. They have different properties, and once they appear in the same body, they are bound to fight for dominance. Throughout history, no one has been able to merge these forces; nobody has been able to embody even two, let alone all three.”

”I don’t know myself!” Ye Qing shrugged and said, ”These forces just entered my body. They haven’t merged, but have always been at odds within my body. Gradually, they separated clearly, each occupying a different position.”

”Impossible!” Knife Saint said firmly, ”If these three forces occupy different positions in your body, your meridians should have shattered long ago; how could you still be alive?”

”Hehe…” Ye Qing gave a wry smile and said, ”Ever since the first Buddha’s Relic entered my body, my meridians ceased to exist. I’m now practically a cripple, possessing power but unable to utilize it. How could there be any meridians to shatter under the forces?”

”What?” Knife Saint’s eyes widened again. After a brief moment of shock, he suddenly dashed to Ye Qing’s side, grabbing his wrist.

”There’s no need to test, the two disciples of Divine Doctor An Shiping have already examined my body; I have no meridians left.” Ye Qing said, ”All meridians have disappeared, they cannot even be said to be severed. Such a situation, the two of them had never seen before.”

Knife Saint ignored what Ye Qing said; he held Ye Qing’s wrist, his brow furrowed deeply, and his expression changed several times. Nobody could tell what he was thinking, but it was clear he took this matter seriously, grasping Ye Qing’s wrist, concentrating without saying a word. After a full five minutes, a gleam suddenly flashed in his eyes, and he looked at Ye Qing, finally releasing Ye Qing’s wrist and bursting into laughter, ”So that’s how it is! So that’s how it is!”

Knife Saint’s reaction baffled Ye Qing. What happened that made you laugh? What do you mean ”so that’s how it is”? What’s so surprising?

Knife Saint laughed for a good while, as if he had discovered something joyous, and finally stopped. Seeing Ye Qing’s puzzled expression, he smiled again and said, ”Disaster is where fortune resides, fortune is where disaster lurks.”

”What does that mean?” Fat Wang asked curiously from the side. This guy hadn’t gone to school, so naturally, he couldn’t understand when Knife Saint suddenly spoke like this.

”This is something Laozi said,” Ye Qing replied. ”It means disaster and fortune depend on each other, transforming into each other. What you think is disaster could very well turn out to be something good. Likewise, what seems to be fortune might actually be a disaster!”

”Oh, so that’s what it means.” Fat Wang slapped his forehead and said, ”You could have just said that earlier. Why quote poems? Can’t you speak normally?”

Ye Qing no longer paid attention to Fat Wang; he was still contemplating Knife Saint’s words. After checking his meridians, why did Knife Saint utter such phrases? Could Ye Qing’s current situation still hold some good? How could that be? With his meridians gone, what could Ye Qing possibly do?

As if sensing Ye Qing’s confusion, Knife Saint said with a smile, ”Actually, only a body like yours can accommodate the forces of Buddhist and Taoist Magic. Without meridians, these forces cannot damage them, which is why they remain safely within your body. It seems like these three forces are treating your body as a vessel.”

”What kind of vessel?” Ye Qing widened his eyes. Why did that sound so eerie?

”Power needs a vessel to be contained, such as the human body as a vessel for strength,” Knife Saint explained. ”How strong a person is doesn’t just depend on the power but also on how strong the vessel is. For example, if you have meridians, and your power exceeds what your meridians can bear, no matter how strong your power is, you won’t be able to unleash its full potential. Instead, it will cause great harm to your meridians. In such a case, you can only enhance your meridians, broaden them, and increase their carrying capacity to accommodate such power!”

Does this need explanation? Ye Qing had experienced it first-hand. His body once contained all the power of Northern Fist King Li Changqing, but his meridians couldn’t bear it, so he couldn’t use it at all. He nearly died several times due to trying to wield that power, nearly tearing his meridians apart.