Urban Martial Saint

Chapter 1920 - 1920: White Bone Canyon

Ye Qing changed direction, charging straight towards the cliff. Du Canglang, seeing this, was shocked and quickly chased after, trying several times to grab Ye Qing but just barely missing. Gaining momentum from the trees wasn't as easy as it seemed.Ye Qing also wanted to change direction or stop his sliding, but at this point, it was completely too late to prevent the fall. As the cliff neared rapidly, Ye Qing's heart suspended with anxiety: Could he possibly meet his end on Mount Duwang here?

Everything happened in a flash; Ye Qing's thought had only just settled when he reached the cliff's edge. Without any resistance, he flew out into the air, falling towards the cliff below.

Du Canglang, chasing closely behind, saw Ye Qing rush out, and immediately jumped as well, trying to catch him. But ultimately, he was just a bit short, merely brushing Ye Qing's clothes, not even able to grasp them, as Ye Qing fell into the cliff's depths. Despite his strength, Du Canglang dared not jump directly down a cliff over a hundred meters high, and could only cling onto a rock and leap back up onto the cliff. Looking downward, all he saw were dense trees, but nothing about Ye Qing's situation.

Du Canglang immediately frowned, pausing in silence for a moment. He then sprinted in another direction, intending to skirt around to explore inside the cliff. In his view, Ye Qing, with a Vajra Indestructible Body, wouldn't die so easily from a fall. He must find Ye Qing quickly. Besides, even if Ye Qing were dead, the Buddha's Relic remained, and that was most crucial.

At that moment, at the cliff's base, Ye Qing dirtied and disheveled, crawled up from the ground, surrounded by numerous broken tree trunks and branches. There were many various kinds of trees in the mountain, and Ye Qing's fall from above had broken several, slowing down his descent. However, these alone couldn't save Ye Qing's life, but when Ye Qing stood up, his body was fully suffused with the energy of the Buddha's Relic and the Devouring Demon Flower. While crashing into the first tree, these forces had simultaneously emerged, shielding his body. Thus, Ye Qing didn't die from the fall, due to the powers within him, not the trees.

Even so, the fall made Ye Qing cough a few times and his head spin. With those internal forces plus the tree's buffers, he had barely clung to life. Upon rising, Ye Qing didn't have the time to think of other matters; his sole thought was to leave immediately and certainly avoid capture by Du Canglang.

Ye Qing stood and looked around, searching for an escape route. Suddenly, his eyes caught something to the left. Walking over, Ye Qing found it was the skull of a human!

Cracked and weathered, the skull, exposed to the elements for countless years, stood alone without other bones nearby, deepening the fear. Could just a single head have ended up here?

Ye Qing paused to contemplate his next move, the skull sparking a thought. Its location suggested issues this way, and he became intrigued to investigate, yet must prevent Du Canglang from pursuing him. He threw the skull another direction and headed towards where it had been found.

The cliff bottom was indeed a gorge, densely tree-covered, creating a thick canopy. Ye Qing dashed along the skull's path, discovering a leg bone along the way, resembling the skull's markings, suggesting they might belong to the same body. However, if from the same corpse, why spread so far apart? Was dismemberment prior to being discarded?

Without dwelling long, Ye Qing tossed the leg bone aside, continuing to run forward. Soon, he stumbled upon another leg bone, similar to before, distracting his thoughts. Without hesitation, he threw it aside, intending to confuse Du Canglang. After running for five or six miles, he discovered an entire human skeleton. Moreover, as he progressed, bone sightings increased until happening upon heaps of white bones like a mass grave.

Although daring, seeing so many bones amassed made Ye Qing uneasy. Inspecting closely, he distinguished between ancient, weathered bones, and others quite recent, less than ten years old.

This revelation startled Ye Qing; assuming the bones belonged to people long dead, he now realized recent deaths within the gorge meant visitors as recent as within the decade. But why had they died here?

Instinctively, Ye Qing sensed there's more to the bone heaps. Advancing further, the gorge neared its end, and white bones lay scattered across the battlefield-like setting, raising hairs on end. Anyone witnessing such would flee immediately; who would dare linger?

Nonetheless, Ye Qing's bravery endured, driving him onwards despite the chilling sight. He suspected the gorge hid secrets causing so many fatalities. Naturally curious, Ye Qing delved deeper, determined to uncover the truth.

After roughly three minutes, Ye Qing reached the gorge's terminus, encountering a giant rock piled with skeletal remains and backpacks, tools uncannily intact. By the tools' type, those who perished here likely were tomb robbers, similar to the gear Handsome Fatty Wang uses.

Ye Qing understood tomb robbers' nature; they pursue treasure relentlessly. Might hidden treasures lure them here? If treasures truly exist within the gorge, what treasures, apart from Du Wang's Tianzhu Sword, could possibly deem valuable?

Inhaling deeply, Ye Qing rifled through the backpack remnants, searching for clues among mostly decayed contents, finding an inscribed metal plaque written in English, not Huaxia language — confirming the tomb raider was foreign!

Frowning, Ye Qing wondered, what drew foreigners to the gorge? Could it be the Tianzhu Sword?

The foreigners reminded Ye Qing of those seen in Humeng City previously, claimed to be church affiliates with formidable strength, attempting to seize the Sun Shooting Bow but failing. Nonetheless, Ye Qing witnessed the church's prowess and learned their interest in Huaxia. If intent on acquiring the Tianzhu Sword, it wouldn't be far-fetched given its feared power.

Pocketing the plaque, Ye Qing surveyed his grotesque surroundings, the gorge's main death site. Could the Tianzhu Sword be hidden here, or are secret mechanisms involved?

Eyeing the stone wall, Ye Qing reminisced about Handsome Fatty Wang, whose tomb-robbing skills surpassed. Wang would have no trouble solving mechanisms here.

Sighing, Ye Qing searched the rock thoroughly but grew disheartened, finding no hint of traps on the surface.

Amid confusion, his gaze inadvertently settled on a cloth strip hanging from a skeleton's edge.

Taken aback, Ye Qing swiftly examined the cloth, astonished that it exhibited no signs of decay.

Normally, cloths deteriorate after months exposed to elements, yet this one remained fresh, indicating it hadn't rested here long. Suggesting visitors had arrived recently!

The revelation jolted Ye Qing; he quickly proceeded in the cloth's direction. Roughly thirty meters onward, another identical cloth appeared amid brush, seemingly torn from the same fabric.

"What's going on?" Ye Qing pondered, bewildered by the cloths. Its pointing direction led to the gorge's other side, hinting at mysteries perhaps seated there, not here.