The Martial Saint of the Defiled World

When the thing pounced, Chen Awu didn't actually see anything.

I felt a gust of wind rush towards me, the stench of which was nauseating, and then something grabbed my right arm.

The thing's claws were like iron clamps; it grabbed his arm and lifted him up, causing his feet to leave the ground.

A sharp pain exploded in his arm, and he heard his bones crack. He didn't know if they were broken or what.

He slashed upwards with the bronze knife in his hand, striking the thing as if it were stone, the impact making his hands go numb.

The thing roared, flicked its claws, and sent him flying.

When he got up, his right arm was no longer under his control.

He looked down and saw that his sleeve was torn, blood was flowing down, and the flesh was turned inside out, revealing the bone underneath.

Just as the thing was about to pounce, a light suddenly appeared in the darkness.

The light was clearly not the light from a tinderbox; it was more like will-o'-the-wisp.

Light shone from deep within the tomb passage.

There was a person standing in the light, wearing a tattered Taoist robe, holding something in his hand.

The thing was less than three steps away from him.

With the help of that light, he could see clearly.

That thing really had the head of a beast, the head of a wolf, with its mouth protruding forward and a row of yellow teeth bared.

Two eyes with vertical pupils stared at him, a deep green.

It saw the bluish-white light and suddenly stopped.

The wolf's head turned and stared at the person in the light, letting out a low growl.

The person in the light took a step forward.

Chen Awu saw it clearly.

He was a young Taoist priest, looking to be in his early twenties, thin, and with a face as white as paper.

His Taoist robe was tattered beyond recognition, the cuffs were worn to shreds, and a large piece was missing from the hem. He wore a pair of cloth shoes that exposed his toes.

But the thing he was holding emitted a bluish-white light in the darkness.

It looks like a mirror, or perhaps some kind of magical artifact.

The young Taoist priest spoke.

"evil creature."

Just two words.

The thing suddenly shrank back.

Chen Awu was stunned.

This thing killed Jin Yi, Wang Jiuyi, and Wang Sanjiu. It killed people like tearing paper. But when it saw a ragged young Taoist priest, it actually backed away.

The young Taoist priest took another step forward.

The roar in the creature's throat changed, from a low growl to a whimper.

He looks scared.

The young Taoist priest picked up the glowing object and shone it in front of the thing.

A bluish-white light enveloped the creature, causing it to shudder, let out a sharp screech, and turn to run away.

It ran even faster than when it was chasing them, disappearing into the depths of the tomb passage in a few moments.

The young Taoist priest put away the glowing object, and the tomb passage fell dark again.

Chen Awu stood there, his legs as weak as noodles.

Cui Ping's voice came from the darkness.

"Ah Wu! Ah Wu!"

Cui Ping's voice, choked with sobs, came from the other end of the tomb passage.

He hadn't run far when he heard no more noise behind him, so he turned back.

The young Taoist priest produced a tinderbox from somewhere, blew on it, and held it up.

The firelight illuminated the tomb passage.

There were pools of blood on the ground, along with torn pieces of clothing, and...

Chen Awu dared not look closely.

He looked towards the other end of the tomb passage and saw that Jin Yi and the other two were gone, without even a trace of their bodies.

Cui Ping ran over and helped him up.

Are you alright?

Chen Awu shook his head, then suddenly felt a sharp pain in his right arm.

He looked down and saw that his right arm, from the shoulder down, had a torn sleeve, and blood was flowing down, dripping onto the ground from his wrist.

He didn't know when that thing tugged at him, and a large chunk of skin and flesh was torn off his entire arm, exposing the bone.

He hadn't felt any pain before, but now that he had stopped, the pain was so intense that his vision blurred and he almost fainted.

The young Taoist priest walked over, glanced at his arm, and frowned.

"We need to get out of here quickly, the smell of blood will attract something."

Chen Awu gritted his teeth and nodded.

Cui Ping helped him up, and the three of them walked towards the entrance of the tomb passage.

After walking a few steps, Chen Awu suddenly remembered something and stopped.

"Where are the things?"

Cui Ping was stunned for a moment, then looked down and saw that he was still holding that pile of gold and jade artifacts in his arms.

Chen Awu just gave it to him, and he carried it all the way without losing it.

Chen Awu breathed a sigh of relief.

Jin Yi is dead, Wang Jiuyi is dead, Wang Sanjiu is dead. If these things are also lost, then all of them will have died in vain.

The three stumbled to the entrance of the tomb passage, crawled out through the hole in the brick wall, and climbed up the sloping tunnel.

Chen Awu couldn't use one arm, so Cui Ping supported him from behind while the young Taoist priest pulled him from the front. It took them quite a while to climb to the cave entrance.

Emerging from the crevice in the rock, I saw that the moon was already setting in the west, casting a white glow over the mountain.

Chen Awu plopped down on the ground, panting heavily.

Cui Ping squatted down next to him.

The young Taoist priest stood by the cave entrance, peering into the crevice for a long time. Then he took out several pieces of yellow paper from his robes and pasted them onto the stone next to the crevice.

He then pulled out something and pressed it on the yellow paper.

Chen Awu couldn't understand it, nor did he have the energy to ask.

After pasting the yellow paper, the young Taoist priest turned around, walked up to him, and squatted down to look at his arm.

"He was seriously injured."

Chen Awu gritted his teeth.

The young Taoist priest took out a small porcelain bottle from his pocket, uncorked it, and poured the medicinal powder inside onto Chen Awu's wound.

The powder, made of some unknown substance, burned intensely when poured on, causing Chen A-Wu to shudder and nearly cry out.

"Bear with it."

After the young Taoist priest finished pouring out the medicinal powder, he tore a piece of cloth from his robe and used it to bandage the wound.

When he was wrapping the bag, Chen Awu got a clear look at his face.

They are indeed young, and don't look much older than me.

His face was deathly pale, though his features were delicate. There was something indescribable in his eyes, as if he had seen it all and was indifferent to everything.

After bandaging the wound, the young Taoist priest stood up.

"My life has been saved."

Chen Awu opened his mouth, wanting to ask who he was, what that thing was, and what those yellow papers were for.

But when the words were about to come out, the question that came out was something else entirely.

How did you know we were down below?

The young Taoist priest glanced down at him.

"I was on the mountain when you opened that grave."

Chen Awu was stunned for a moment.

"and you……"

"That thing has been asleep for thousands of years, and you woke it up."

The young Taoist priest glanced at the crevice in the rock.

"I didn't want to get involved. You're asking for it, so who can I blame? But if that thing gets out, all my efforts will have been wasted."

Chen Awu didn't understand.

The young Taoist priest didn't explain and turned to leave.

Cui Ping suddenly stood up and shouted.

"Master Daoist!"

The young Taoist priest stopped.

Cui Ping, carrying the pile of gold and jade artifacts, took two steps after him.

"Great Daoist Master, how many of these items would you like to take?"

The young Taoist priest turned around, glanced at the things in his arms, and his lips twitched, it was hard to tell whether it was a smile or something else.

"If I really wanted it, none of you could find a single thing when you went into the tomb before."

Cui Ping was taken aback.

The young Taoist priest ignored him and turned to walk down the mountain. After a few steps, he suddenly stopped.

"I've sealed that entrance; don't come back again."

After saying that, he walked into the moonlight, his tattered Taoist robe swaying as he quickly disappeared into the shadows of the trees.

Chen Awu sat on the ground, staring in that direction, and didn't move for a long time.

Cui Ping walked back, squatted down next to him, hugged the things, and suddenly started crying.

"Jin Yi, Jiu Yi, San Jiu".

He cried like a child.

Chen Awu did not cry.

He sat there, staring blankly as the moon slowly sank in the west.

After a long while, he stood up.

"Walk."

Cui Ping looked up, her face covered in tears.

"Let's go? Jin Yi and the others."

"I can't take it with me."

Chen Awu's voice was very calm, so calm that it didn't seem like he had just lost three brothers.

Cui Ping wiped away her tears, stood up, and helped him up.

The two of them walked down the mountain step by step.

The next day at noon, a few people came to Suzhou City and went up Canglong Mountain.

They searched for a day and a night halfway up the mountain, but found nothing.

Whether it was the cracks in the rocks, the yellow papers, or even the pit they dug, it was all filled in and overgrown with grass, as if it had never been touched.

Many years later, people in Suzhou City still talked about this incident.

It is said that in the autumn of that year, evil spirits were said to have appeared on Canglong Mountain. A few young men went up the mountain to chop firewood, and in the middle of the night they heard strange noises coming from the mountain. They were so frightened that they ran down the mountain in a panic and never dared to go up again.

It is said that later a wandering old Taoist priest passed by, wandered in the mountains for three days and three nights, and pasted talismans all over the mountain before finally suppressing the evil spirit.

The old Taoist priest told people before he left that there was a thousand-year-old king buried in the mountains, and that the king was asleep and should not be disturbed.

Whoever wakes him up has to stay and keep him company.

The speaker described it in great detail, while the listener was horrified.

But no one knows what really happened that night.

Only Chen Awu knew.

But he didn't say anything.

Those gold and jade artifacts helped him and Cui Ping establish a firm foothold in Suzhou City.

Since then, two more large families have emerged in the city.

One's surname is Chen, and the other's surname is Cui.