The Nine Cauldrons

Everyone enjoyed a great feast that night. Having reached his destination safely, Zhu Chongshi was very happy as well. He had his fill of liquor before he parted ways with Teng Qingshan in a drunken state.

“Brother Qingshan! You’ll have to stay at my place for a few more days!” Zhu Chongshi reeked of alcohol and was not even able to walk straight. He wrapped an arm around Teng Qingshan’s shoulders, “I am also aware that you guys from the Black Armored Army usually do not have much business to take care of. You don’t have to hurry back, just treat it as a delay on the way and enjoy yourselves for a few days! Oh...... Right, I have arranged for a few ladies at the place where your brothers are staying. I have also specially arranged for two pretty twins at your place. Have fun tonight. Haha......”

Having finished his words, Zhu Chongshi left smiling, wobbling as he was assisted by his men.

“Women?”

Teng Qingshan shook his head and headed for his room.

He was not aware if the rest of the Black Armored Army had enjoyed the company of the girls, but it was without a doubt that Teng Qingshan practiced the Three Xing Yi Postures that night. He had sat cross-legged in the backyard through the entire night and didn’t even lay a single finger on the two ladies.

In a central room, Zhu Chongshi sat on the main seat. He was much more awake now.

“Master!”

In the middle of the central room, two strong men bowed and called out.

A smile broke out on Zhu Chongshi’s face. “It has been tough on the two of you. Have all the goods made it safely through this journey?”

“We are thankful for not failing your orders.” One of men replied with resolve. “We teamed up with the other traders to form a big group with close to a thousand guards. While there were some obstacles on the way, we did not lose any of the goods. We brought all four carts here.”

When traders travelled on long journeys, they tended to gather and team up with other traders.

With such a large gathering of traders, they would form a large company. With that, they could enlist the help of many guards, making the journey much safer.

“Mmmm.” Zhu Chongshi nodded. “Excellent. It’s not early anymore. The two of you can head back to get some rest.”

“Yes, Master.” Both of them left.

Zhu Chongshi picked up the tea cup next to him and took a few sips. His gaze was reserved, without a single trace of drunkenness. “Father was right, we cannot keep all our eggs in one basket! This time around, if it weren’t for Brother Qingshan, I would probably have lost my batch of goods. With my skills, it would not have been sufficient enough to fend off that Meng Tian! If these goods were snatched away......I’d be left with only the goods carried by the Fan brothers!”

After tolling for so many years, Zhu Chongshi had split the goods he had accumulated from abroad into two batches.

The Fan brothers would pretend to be normal traders, bringing along four carts to Chu County.

Zhu Chongshi himself would bring along ten carts of goods as he headed for Chu County.

Even if the ten carts of goods had been snatched from him, with the four leftover carts of goods, Zhu Chongshi still believed that he would have at least a 20% chance of winning the seat as Head of the Family.

“Brother Qingshan is still so young! I pride myself on my talents and hard work. I’ve even gone through many adventures. There should not be many who are stronger than me among the younger generations, but Brother Qingshan......” Zhu Chongshi had come across many life and death situations during his many years of roaming abroad. He had never slacked when it came to training his martial arts.

He had thought he was strong enough.

But who would have thought that Teng Qingshan would be able to kill Meng Tian?

Although Zhu Chongshi was very confident in his own strength, he did not think that he would have been able to defeat Meng Tian.

“There will always be someone stronger than yourself!” Zhu Chongshi exclaimed. “Father was right. We cannot be proud regardless of the situation. Once we let our guard down, defeat will be the only thing awaiting us.” He had just returned from abroad, but his grand emotions were quickly dashed by Teng Qingshan’s abilities.

Zhu Chongshi was also able to understand the deeper meaning behind some of the words his father had often said to him.

Nightfall!

A messenger pigeon touched down in Jiangning County’s Gui Yuan Sect.

It was common to use messenger pigeons to send word within the Nine Prefecture. Of course, only sects, certain big merchants, and large clans would be able to have the resources to specially train messenger pigeons as well as to have intelligence branches across various locations.

With the winding roads, the distance for Teng Qingshan’s soldiers and the caravan to reach Chu County from Jiangning County was close to two thousand Li.

But in fact, these winding roads were mostly detours.

Straight paths tended to be much shorter in comparison.

The messenger pigeons did not have to be concerned with obstruction by rivers or mountains. In addition, under the nurturing of nature’s spiritual influence, the messenger pigeons were capable of flying at high speeds. Some of the better ones could fly across the borders of a prefecture in merely a day.

On the other hand, even the Dark Demonic Horse of the three Dragon Horses, which could travel five thousand Li per day, would need to take one day to travel across the entirety of Yangzhou due to the winding roads.

At Gui Yuan Sect, a man in grey robes ran over in panic towards Sovereign Zhuge Yuanhong’s room. The room was pitch black without a tinge of light, but the grey-robed man was aware......The Sovereign usually stayed in this study on most nights rather than visiting his personal training ground.

“Bang!”“Bang!” “Bang!”

“Come in!”

The doors to the study opened with a creak. Zhuge Yuanhong was already standing as he lit the candles.

“Sovereign, we’ve received urgent secret message from Xuyang County.” The man in grey robes handed over a secret letter that was rolled up into a small scroll.

Zhuge Yuanhong raised his eyebrows. It couldn’t be a small issue for it to be treated with such urgency. Frowning, he opened the letter and immediately laughed out when he read the contents. “Haha......this is really a surprise. Take a look, Martial Brother Qing Yang.”

“Surprise?” The man in grey robes was stunned. He received the letter in confusion.

“Two men from our Black Armored Army died...one is badly injured...Teng Qingshan killed Meng Tian?” The man in grey robes looked at Zhuge Yuanhong in shock. “Sovereign, this... how could this be possible?”

“Martial Brother Qing Yang. It was only mentioned that Qingshan inflicted Meng Tian with heavy injuries and chased after him thereafter. He later returned with a Blood Moon Saber. No one saw if he had killed Meng Tian.” Zhuge Yuanhong said with a smile. “Since no one was there to bear witness, it is hard to say.”

The man in grey robes fervently replied, “But Meng Tian is an expert of the Earth Ranking. How could he be defeated by the hands of Teng Qingshan and have his weapon taken from him? With his weapon taken away, chances are that he has been killed!”

Regardless if Meng Tian was really dead, it was a fact that his weapon had been taken from him.

For a powerful expert, to have a his weapon stolen was complete defeat!

“The men from Xuyang County also said that the news is spreading like wildfire. Teng Qingshan has injured Meng Tian, cut off one of his arms, and chased after him, but they did not say that he was killed!” Zhuge Yuanhong said.

“Mmm.” The man in grey robes nodded.

In fact, the news had been spread by the twenty-odd men who had seen Teng Qingshan injuring Meng Tian.

The twenty-odd men quickly left the inn after the massacre that had taken place. They were not aware about whether or not Teng Qingshan had truly killed Meng Tian, but such rumors were quickly spread around as they travelled around in Xuyang County.

The news spread like fire and was found out by the Gui Yuan Sect’s informants.

“Haha...... Qingshan. He is definitely worthy to be listed on the Hidden Dragon Ranking.” Zhuge Yuanhong laughed. “As for whether he can be listed on the Earth Ranking, it is still hard to say...... The inspection from the Wan Xiang Sect on whether one can be ranked in the Earth Ranking is very strict. No one has seen nor confirmed whether Qingshan had single-handedly snatched the other party’s weapon.”

The man in grey robes nodded.

It is truly difficult to get placed on the Earth Ranking. Which of the experts listed in the Earth Ranking did not have stunning battle histories?

The fastest way to be listed on the Earth Ranking was to kill the other party. Of course, this act must be witnessed by someone else. If not, no one would know if you were the one who carried out the act. The second method was to let the other party admit defeat. There must also be a witness to this.

Zhuge Yuanhong smiled as he said, “Regardless, our Gui Yuan Sect finally has a disciple who can be listed on the Hidden Dragon Ranking. Now, no one will dare to say that the younger disciples of our Gui Yuan Sect are useless!”

There were many experts amongst the younger generation of the Gui Yuan Sect.

The two young commanders Zang Feng and Guan Lu, and Zhuge Yun. However, the outside world still saw the younger disciples of the Gui Yuan Sect as incompetent.

The outside world was not aware of the geniuses in Gui Yuan Sect. They only referred to the Hidden Dragon Ranking.

“Sovereign......” The man in grey robes suddenly felt uneasy as he said agitatedly, “Teng Qingshan is not even twenty and he was able to defeat Meng Tian! He definitely has the qualifications to be listed in the Earth Ranking. Do you think he will be able to reach the innate state?”

“Innate state?” The eyes of Zhuge Yuanhong gleamed.

The importance of an innate master to a sect was needless to say.

“You can leave first.” Zhuge Yuanhong said.

“Yes, Sovereign.” The man in grey robes respectfully headed out.

On the other hand, Zhuge Yuanhong extinguished the candle with a wave of his arm. He calmly sat in the dark study for a very long time. “Teng Qingshan’s background is clean. It is impossible for him to be a spy from another sect, and no other sect would be willing to force a genius to be a spy! He is definitely our Gui Yuan Sect’s best disciple in the past one thousand years! If Teng Qingshan is able to continue improving at such speeds, tens or hundreds of years later, under the reign of Teng Qingshan, our Gui Yuan Sect may possibly......overtake Qing Hu Island one day to become the top sect in Yangzhou! Teng Qingshan, I will put all my efforts into nurturing you to see how far you can go. I hope that you won’t let me down!”

Sometimes, there was a need to be decisive!

Teng Qingshan’s parents were not the most trustworthy, nor were they members of the Gui Yuan Sect.

But Teng Qingshan was still one with a clean background. With such talent, why would they not nurture him and risk giving him up to other sects?

When the time came, it was important to be decisive!

In his heart, Zhuge Yuanhong had already decided to nurture Teng Qingshan as the next Sovereign! The seat of the Sovereign of the Gui Yuan Sect was not passed down from father to son, but was rather passed down to the top disciple!

In the past, Zhuge Yuanhong had treated Zang Feng, Guan Lu, and Zhuge Yun as his successors.

Although the three of them were powerful......

They were far in comparison to Teng Qingshan, who had defeated Meng Tian. Most importantly, Teng Qingshan was only 17! There had been no one in Gui Yuan Sect in the past one thousand years who was able to defeat an expert from the Earth Ranking at the young age of 17. And to think that Teng Qingshan’s past training was reliant on himself and not under the nurturing care of the Gui Yuan Sect.

“Gui Yuan Heart Technique and Dark Moon Spear Technique. Which one should I pass down to him?” Zhuge Yuanhong thought. “One of them is the most treasured manual of our Gui Yuan Sect. The other is merely an Earth level technique, but emphasizes the Spear Art! Hmm.......” Zhuge Yuanhong started to seriously plan on how to train Teng Qingshan.