The Nine Cauldrons

“So brother Tian Dan, it’s like this! My cousin Teng Qinghu came with me from our hometown to join Gui Yuan Sect. Yesterday, he became a sergeant and was assigned to your hundred man team. I was wonderingif it would be possible to transfer my cousin to my team?” Teng Qingshan asked directly, “Then move one sergeant from my hundred men team to yours.“

Tian Dan frowned.

“What? Is there a problem?” Teng Qingshan asked.

“You guys are brothers, so of course I’m not against you switching Teng Qinghu to your team. But... two one hundred man teams switching sergeants? This would need to be approved by the lieutenant himself.” Tian Dan looked at Teng Qingshan, “Brother Qingshan, our lieutenant, the man you saw yesterday while we were drinking...he is a prideful man.”

The switching of people between two one hundred man teams indeed needed the approval of the lieutenant.

“Are you referring to Lieutenant Bai Qi?” Teng Qingshan asked, slightly frowning.

“Qingshan brother, you were just admitted to the Black Armored Army, so you probably haven’t gotten to know Lieutenant Bai Qi very well. He might seem polite on the surface, but...deep in his bones; he hides a strong sense of arrogance. Just because he was a core disciple of the Sect, he looks down at people who came from the outside like us!” Tian Dan said.

The soldiers in the Black Armored Army come from two sources.

One source is the original disciples of the Gui Yuan Sect, moving on to the Black Armored Army. The other source is the large quantity of foreigners who join the army. People like Teng Qingshan, Teng Qinghu, Gong Yangqing all belonged to this second category.

Wu Man and Zhang Feng on the other hand, are noble commanders and are of the first kind.

The first kind, because they were disciples of Gui Yuan Sect, they received education and were nurtured by the Sect. After the gained a sufficient amount of strength, they join the Black Armored Army. Naturally, these people receive more trust from the Sect. An army’s commander, lieutenant, and other important positions can’t be taken with only skill, loyalty is far more important!

“Lieutenant Bai Qi probably wouldn’t make things difficult for me for such a small thing like this,” Teng Qingshan said.

“Brother Qingshan, when talking to Lieutenant Bai Qi, you have to be extremely courteous. He doesn’t like to make others lose face, so maybe he will say yes,” Tian Dan advised.

“Look, Lieutenant Bai Qi is right over there,” Tian Dan pointed at somewhere far away.

Teng Qingshan followed Tian Dan’s finger towards the East part of the campus, where there were centurions, lieutenants practicing various weapon arts and techniques and there were also a lot of people practice battling with each other. There was one young man with two strokes of a mustache practicing spear arts.

Hu! Hu!

His spear was like a swimming dragon, the tip of his spear transforming into a ring of light.

This person was indeed one of the three lieutenants under the first commander, Bai Qi.

“Hmm?” Bai Qi shot a glance far away, and saw Teng Qingshan and Tian Dan walking towards him shoulder to shoulder, Bai Qi couldn’t help but speculate, “What are they doing here?” Morning practices were strict for normal soldiers and sergeants.

However, there wasn’t such a strict rule for centurions, lieutenants, and commanders.

“Sir Lieutenant,” Teng Qingshan smile and yelled from afar.

“Oh, it’s Qingshan,” Bai Qi immediately and joyfully put away his spear, facing him, “Qingshan, this is the first day of morning practice, how are you feeling?”

“Six thousand people training together every morning, it’s quite exciting,” replied Teng QingShan.

“It’s said that there are six thousand black armors in the army, but in reality, all six thousand are almost never all on campus, only around five thousand or so.” Lieutenant Bai Qi stroked his moustache and said, “In our Black Armored Army, there is always a group of soldiers completing missions outside.

Teng Qingshan nodded. Tian Dan was standing beside him, and said, “Sir Lieutenant, the reason why Qingshan brother came to see you today is because he needs a favor.”

“Oh, what favor? Just say it, i will do it if it is within my ability,” This Bai Qi said delightfully.

Teng Qingshan’s heart slightly relaxed a little bit and said, “It’s like this. My cousin Teng Qinghu, who came with me from my hometown and joined the Black Armored Army with me, is now a sergeant under brother Tian Dan. I was thinking, transferring him to my team shouldn’t be too big of a problem, right?”

Lieutenant Bai Qi heard, but remained silent.

“Sir Lieutenant,” Teng Qingshan yelled.

“Qingshan,” Bai Qi said solemnly, “This is the Black Armored Army, our military order isn’t just for playing house. You can’t just switch people around when you want to! Teng Qinghu was assigned to Tian Dan, and that was the commander’s order. How can I change that this easily?”

“This is only one point. More importantly, Qingshan, your sergeants are already familiar with their soldiers! When they lead, the process will naturally go smoothly and easily. Now that you want to let two sergeants switch, there will definitely be a little bit of uncomfort.”

Lieutenant Bai Qi seriously said, “I can’t help you with this.”

Teng Qingshan frowned.

This Bai Qi had actually talked to him about military discipline. For Teng Qingshan who had lived two lives, fake words like these were completely useless.

“Sir Lieutenant, this is only a small thing, I only ask to switch two sergeants. I believe in both sergeant’s abilities, and will soon get to know their soldiers. Sir Lieutenant, please help me,” Teng Qingshan smiled as he said, “I, Teng Qingshan will remember Sir Lieutenant’s favor.”

Despite all of Teng Qingshan’s pleading, Lieutenant Bai Q still said quite dissatisfiedly, “Qingshan, it’s not that I am scolding you—even though you two brothers are not in the same team, you are still together in the Black Armored Army! You can see each other every day, why go through all the trouble to move your cousin to your team?” I can’t let this kind of thing happen! Moreover, you have to control your temper. We are the Black Armored Army, not just some messy gang. Not everything can go according to your will!”

Teng Qingshan held some resentment in the bottom of his heart.

Bai Qi’s tone seemed to say, “This is the Black Armored Army, everyone has to follow the military discipline.”

No matter where one is in this world, there is no way to avoid worldly wisdom. When talking about military discipline, he needed to look at the timing. Teng Qingshan wouldn’t bother his superiors in a critical time. However, letting Teng Qinghu on his team was a small favor that wasn’t even worth mentioning.

But Bai Qi had to use the chicken fur as an arrow.

TLN: Use a small reason and make it sound important to convince someone

Bai Qi’s word could fool normal inexperienced youngster, but after all, Teng Qingshan had the experience of two lives.

“Brother Qingshan,” That Tian Dan made signalled his fellow centurion with his eye.

Teng Qingshan didn’t ask Bai Qi anymore, and walked away with Tian Dan.

Lieutenant Bai Qi looked at Teng Qingshan’s back as he walked away, sneering in his heart “Humph, a poor kid from below the mountain thinks he is someone just because he has some amazing spear tricks? Who does he think he is?! ” Towards talented people, there were always two reactions.

One was admiration, appreciation, and esteem. The other was envy and jealousy.

Lieutenant Bai Qi seemed to be an honorable person, but was actually quite narrow-minded and jealous. Because Teng Qingshan had so much attention yesterday, Bai Qi was quite unhappy.

“This is the Black Armored Army, not some gang! In the Black Armored Army, the most important thing is loyalty. Without loyalty, no matter how good you are at fighting, there is no way you can be a lieutenant or a commander!” Bai Qi sneered, people can always fight for another centurion position; however, lieutenants and commanders are only assigned by the Sect.

“Your life is going to be a life of a centurion, one that is always under my control,” Bai Qi was really satisfied, and delightedly resumed his spear training.

......

Teng Qingshan and Tian Dan walked side by side.

“I didn’t expect Tian Dan Brother’s words to be this accurate,” said Teng Qingshan, smiling helplessly.

Tian Dan comforted, “Brother Qingshan, don’t mind Lieutenant Bai Qi. He talks nicely, but looks down on us to the bones. But there’s no way...he is Gui Yuan Sect’s core disciple, and the sect trusts him. However, Gui Yuan Sect doesn’t forbid challenges and duels between centurions, lieutenants, and commanders. You can go and challenge him, and beat him up for satisfaction. As long as you don’t kill him then it’s fine.”

Centurions, lieutenants, and commanders were all amazing warriors.

Gui Yuan Sect didn’t forbid any duels and challenges between them.

“Beat him up?” Teng Qingshan thought for a little bit, smiled, and didn’t say anything more.

Beat him up for satisfaction?

A young, hotheaded guy might do that. But there was no way Teng Qingshan would do such a thing. It wouldn’t benefit him in any way, and could potentially draw trouble to him. No matter what... this Lieutenant Bai Qi looked down upon most centurions, and wasn’t just picking on Teng Qingshan.

However, if he actually beat Bai Qi up for satisfaction, then after that there would be no end to this drama.

“There is no need for that right now,” Teng QingShan said to himself.

It wasn’t worth it to provoke this little, narrowed minded man; after all, small ghosts were hard to deal with.

......

After morning practice, the soldiers were resting.

Teng Qinghu and his nine soldiers were together sitting on the floor casually conversing.

“Hey, brothers,” Teng Qinghu casually chatted to his nine soldiers, “I came to this Gui Yuan Sect, so I should be able to learn some secret techniques of inner strength, right? Why haven’t I seen any secret techniques so far? Gui Yuan Sect didn’t give any to me either.”

“My lord,” One of the soldiers laughed, “You have joined the Black Armored Army, so of course there will be secret books of the inner strength for you to cultivate.”

“Why haven’t I seen any?” Teng Qinghu frowned.

“My lord, this secret book of the inner strength is carved on the stele on the North side of the campus, every Black Armored Army soldier can look at it and cultivate,” Another soldier added, “That secret technique of inner strength is the universal technique for the Black Armored Army, and its strength is actually not that bad. But some experts have their own rare books, so they don’t need to cultivate that kind of secret inner strength technique.”

“On the Northern huge stone? Everyone can look at it?”

Teng Qinghu’s eyes lit up and stood up. He looked towards the Northern side, on the Northern side of the campus, there was actually a silhouette of a granite slab.

Teng Qinghu knew very clearly... he and Teng Qingshan only got their inner strength from cultivating the Tiger Fist, and didn’t even count as an actual secret inner strength technique. Teng Qingshan and Teng Qinghu were both desperate for a real one.

“What’s its name?” Teng Qinghu felt his heartbeat speeding up.

“Vigor of the Reckless Bull! It is considered to be a really good secret inner strength technique,” The soldiers said.

“It is a secret inner strength technique with a lot of offensive power,” Other soldiers added.

In the normal soldiers’ eyes, 《Vigor of the Reckless Bull》 was indeed a very high quality secret technique. However, in the eyes of people like Yue Song, who had a famous teacher, Vigor of the Reckless Bull was nothing to them. But for people like Teng Qinghu and Teng Qingshan, who never even cultivated any secret inner strength technique, 《Vigor of the Reckless Bull》 was a big treasure.

“Vigor of the Reckless Bull?’ Teng Qinghu immediately stood up, running towards Teng Qingshan who was far away. He needed to tell Teng Qingshan this great news!