The Nine Cauldrons

The gate of the Great Li Village in front of us. Teng Qingshan, who was in quite a good mood, suddenly discovered that the ground was littered with hoofprints. “So many hoofprints? Only horse bandits could have so many horses. Could it be that the Great Li Village was attacked by bandits?” Teng Qingshan carefully looked at Great Li Village.

He didn’t see any blood splattered anywhere.

“They probably just passed by,” Teng Qingshan thought to himself.

At this moment, the chief of the Li clan was leading his clansmen towards the entrance to greet his visitors. Every single person showed an ugly complexion; the chief of the Li clan barely squeezed out a smiling face.

Teng Jia Village’s group immediately felt that the atmosphere was not right!

During a wedding, the opposite party would usually sound the drums, and many women would come out and join the fun. However, the Great Li Village entrance was deserted, and only a few people came out to greet them. They weren’t even sounding the gongs and drums.

“Li Clan Chief, what happened?” Teng Yunlong asked, dismounting his horse with a frown.

They had come to escort the bride to the wedding, but the opposite party weren’t beating their gongs and drums. Moreover, the other side all showed ugly expressions. Seeing this, Teng Yunlong certainly wasn’t happy; however, Teng Yunlong had also realized ...... that there was a reason for this action. Otherwise, Teng Yunlong would’ve burst out in anger already.

“In-laws!” A shadow suddenly burst from the crowd of people and headed towards Teng Yunlong, before suddenly kneeling down in front of him. With a mournful voice, he cried, “My luoxiang...... was abducted by the White Horse Gang!!! You... you have to save my daughter, please save her!

Teng Qinghu, who still had some color on his face despite his doubts, instantaneously paled.

“Chief Li, what happend?!” exclaimed Teng Yunlong, his facial color turning pale.

The chief of the Li clan revealed a bitter smile while saying, “Brother Teng, my Li Jia Village needs to apologize to you! I would have never thought...... that today is the day that the White Horse Gang plans to go and extinguish the Iron Mountain Gang. When the White Horse Gang passed by our village, a small group of them came and captured several of our young girls, and luoxiang was amongst them. Even our clan’s martial arts master was killed and we couldn’t do anything! We could only look on helplessly as the White Horse Gang took the girls away from our clan.”

Teng Yunlong’s face fell.

“That group of bastards!” Teng Qinghu immediately roared and even dismounted from his horse.

“What are you doing?!” Teng Yunlong stretched his hand out and grabbed Teng Qinghu, while angrily staring at his grandson.

Teng Qinghu’s whole body was trembling in anger. The first love of his life was abducted by the White Horse Gang, how could Teng Qinghu not get angry?

“Chief Li.” Teng Yunlong patted the shoulder of the Li clan chief and sighed, “our Teng Jia Village is not unreasonable, so we won’t blame you! Ah...... when one encounters something like this, there is nothing one can do, save just enduring. The 6th March...... is a good date. I didn’t expect that the White Horse Gang would select this date to extinguish the Iron Mountain Gang! If I knew, I would not have chosen this day.”

Everybody knew.

The White Horse Gang choose this date for the decisive battle, because it was a lucky day. However because Teng Qinghu picked the same day to get married, it led to Li Luoxiang being abducted. It had to be said that this was life! The cruelty of fate!

“Chief Li.”Teng Qinghu stared at that chief of the Li clan, “how long has it been since the White Horse Gang left?”

“About an hour.” The Li clan Chief replied.

“Qinghu, you come back home with me.”Teng Yunlong exclaimed. Teng Qinghu stood still while clenching his fists and teeth.

“In-Laws, only you can save our luoxiang.” Third Old Li wept loudly and laid on the ground knowtowing anxiously. The chief of the Li clan’s complexion turned ugly, before shouting: “Drag Third Old Li back into the village, he already became insane.” The clansmen pulled Third Old Li up and dragged him back into their village.

“Save our Luoxiang, I beg you.” Third Old Li’s whole face was covered with dust and he continued to kowtow as his head even started to bleed.

Teng Qinghu looked helplessly at how his future ‘father-in-law’ Third Old Li was dragged away by the Li clansmen.

“Qinghu, we go back!”Teng Yunlong got angry and shouted.

Teng Qinghu unwillingly looked in the direction that the horse hoofprints went and finally clenched his teeth, before turning his head. Jumping on his horse, he followed his clansmen and he went towards the direction of Teng Jia Village.

......

On the way back, Teng Yunlong slowly said: “Qinghu, you are no longer a young child and you already know the severity of things! What do horse bandits do? They plunder! The White Horse Gang settled around our Yi City and they already calculated the right amount of yearly tribute. They occasionally abduct some women, but present is much better than the past.”

“You should know that your second aunt was abducted by bandits. You should go and see how many girls were abducted from your father’s generation. After all, the horse bandits also want to have children! They want women!” Teng Yunlong sighed, “it is practice that they capture women from various village each year.”

Teng Qinghu didn’t utter a sound.

Teng Qingshan, who was listening to them while walking, felt heaviness in his heart. Survival was indeed a very difficult thing.

“These years, the fame of my Teng Jia Village increased and these bandit factions who capture women, generally look for weak villagers. They were worried that the men in our Teng Jia Village would go mad and fight with them.” Teng Yunlong said emotionally, “20 years ago, we were in a similar situation to the Great Li Village now! It was very difficult.”

“Grandfather......” Teng Qinghu opened and closed his mouth.

Teng Qingshan’s felt very uncomfortable.

He understood that in this chaotic world, horse bandit couldn’t be annihilated. Even if Teng Qingshan could exterminate the White Horse Gang, another gang would dominate Yi City immediately. Perhaps, that gang would be greedier than the White Horse Gang.

“In order to avoid my Teng Jia Village getting insulted, it is absolutely impossible with my strength alone.” Teng Qingshan was very clear of this, “there is only one way...... Join Gui Yuan Sect and climb to a high rank! When that time comes, I just need to casually give the White Horse Gang a shout and they would probably not dare to annoy my Teng Jia Village ever again.”

Teng Qingshan’s desire to join the Gui Yuan Sect became even stronger.

After all, inside Jiangning prefecture, the Gui Yuan Sect represents the heaven! If the Gui Yuan Sect wanted to destroy the White Horse Gang, it was like crushing an ant.

......

The group of Teng clanmen walked with a solemn atmosphere.

“Qinghu.”Teng Qingshan suddenly opened his mouth.

Many of the clansmen looked at Teng Qingshan as he started to speak: ”Qinghu, come with me!”

Teng Qinghu turned his head towards Teng Qingshan and his eyes lit up.

“Qingshan, what are you planning?” Teng Yunlong asked shocked, “is your thinking also muddled?” Teng Qingshan had always been very intelligent since childhood in Teng Yunlong’s mind. Moreover, everything Teng Qingshan did would never let him worry, he was always very steady! Furthermore, with Teng Qingshan’s peerless strength, the clansmen regarded him as their energetic leader within the clan.

For example, during the time when the Iron Mountain Gang attacked the Teng Jia Village.

“Grandfather, you can be reassured that I won’t get us into trouble.” Teng Qingshan said full of confidence.

Only when Teng Yunlong saw Teng Qingshan’s expression, he relaxed a bit, while say: “Qingshan that kid is older than you, but he does things more reckless than you ...... Experiencing this kind of event will help his character to mature in the future. As a man, one can’t be reckless and act on the spur of the moment. You shouldn’t let us worry as well.”

“I understand.” Teng Qingshan replied, “Grandfather, rest assured that there won’t be any problems.”

Teng Qinghu jumped down from his horse at that time and followed Qingshan while saying: “Qingshan!”

“Grandfather, you lead the clansmen back first! Qinghu and I will be back soon.” Teng Qingshan said.

“Qingshan, I won’t block the things you want to do. However, I want to remind you that no matter what you decide to do, you must remember that there are the 2000 Teng clansmen behind you!” Teng Yunlong said.

“Yes.” Teng Qingshan nodded with a serious expression.

“Qinghu, let’s go.” Teng Qingshan carried his spear on his shoulder and rode together with Teng Qinghu toward the Iron Mountain Gang’s lair.

The lair of the White Horse Gang was near the White Horse Lake in Yi City. The White Horse Lake had a radius of ten Li (5km). Inside the Jiangning prefecture, this great lake was quite famous, and it had an island in the middle. The White Horse Gang’s lair resided on this island, creating a natural and easy defense.

This was one of the reasons why the White Horse Gang reigned for so many years.

However, the lair of the Iron Mountain Gang was on the southern outskirt of the Great Yan Mountain.

In order to go from White Horse Lake towards the lair of Iron Mountain Gang, they had to bypass entire outskirt of the Great Yan mountain. Although the northern and southern borders of Yi City were nearly 200 Li (100km) apart, the road connecting them was not straight and they had to bypass the entire Great Yan Mountain.... Therefore, the distance between White Horse Lake and the Iron Mountain Gang’s lair was nearly 300 Li apart (150km).

The troops of White Horse Gang had departed in the early morning, however that bustling group would probably be able to reach the Iron Mountain Gang at night.

“The people the White Horse Gang probably didn’t stop at noon to rest and they only ate some dry rations on their horses.” Teng Qingshan looked at the signs on the road and made his judgment. Meanwhile he and Teng Qinghu were relying on their two legs to sprint along the path. If it was Teng Qingshan alone, his running speed would surpass a warhorse, but Teng Qinghu’s speed was slower.

Although Teng Qinghu had the ability to lift 2000 Jin, his internal organs were still weak and he could only be compared to the marathon runners of modern society.

The distance from Great Li Village to the Iron Mountain Gang was more than 100 miles.

Teng Qinghu was dead tired after running after running 4 hours.

“Qingshan, there won’t anything happen to Luoxiang, right?” Teng Qinghu was worried while gasping for air.

“Difficult to say.” Teng Qingshan couldn’t guarantee anything, because if it was an army, generally they would have camp followers, but this was a chaotic bandit group. Abducting some women to vent off their lust was something that occurred often. It was impossible to expect that horse bandits could have the same discipline as a conventional army.

After hurrying for 4 hours, the sun was about to set.

“Look, the horse bandits are in front of us.” Teng Qingshan pointed at the horizon. There was a spacious flat land that was filled with a dense formation of horse bandits. Most of those horse bandits were resting, but some were already mounting their horses to set out.

“They are leaving?” Teng Qinghu asked.

“This place is only one hour away from the lair of the Iron Mountain Gang”. Teng Qingshan frowned while saying, “I think that the men of the White Horse Gang rushed here without any breaks and they are now taking a rest to eat a meal. After they eat and are rested, they will be starting their battle to eliminate the Iron Mountain Gang.”