The Nine Cauldrons

Even though Helian Haotong was just a rather lowly disciple of the Tianfeng Clan, he was still a member of the Tianfeng Clan! Teng Qingshan was the Most Powerful Martial Saint! If Teng Qingshan killed a member of the Tianfeng Clan, it would be the same as slapping the face of the Tianfeng Clan! By that time, the Martial Immortal of the Tianfeng Clan would definitely take the reputation of the Tianfeng Clan into consideration and take action against Teng Qingshan!

“Old Wang’s whole life...... Sigh......” Teng Qingshan sighed.

Old Wang had been a beggar back when he had been young. Then after he had gotten adopted by his parents, he had struggled and strived to make a living like ordinary human beings. Old Wang had been lucky to obtain the record of an inner strength cultivation method and had cultivated assiduously for several years. He had then become the guard of a great merchant, married a beautiful wife, and had a son.

However...

Calamity had descended upon them, and the parents who raised him had also died in the tragedy.

“It would be weird if Old Wang didn’t hate Helian Haotong and his wife, Wu Shuang.” Teng Qingshan sighed.

“Big Brother Teng...... ” Li Jun said.

“Take a look.” Teng Qingshan handed the thread-bound book to her.

Teng Qingshan turned and looked at the Sixth Elder puzzledly while asking, “Sixth Elder, according to the information written in the book, one of Old Wang’s eyes was pierced while he was fleeing, and he became blind in one eye. However, why was his leg crippled as well when I first met him?”

“We didn’t find any information about the crippled leg.” The Sixth Elder shook his head as he explained, “He might have injured and crippled his leg at some place. Or maybe...... he’s pretending to be a cripple.”

“Pretending to be a cripple?” Teng Qingshan pondered and nodded, acknowledging the possibility.

“Big Brother Teng, I think Old Wang...” Li Jun looked up at Teng Qingshan, and her eyes reddened as tears began to well up in them. “He must have gone to Tianfeng City to seek for revenge. However, he hasn’t reached the Innate Realm. Therefore, it will be very dangerous for him to take revenge on a member of the Tianfeng Clan......”

Before Li Jun could even finish her words, the Sixth Elder, who was at the side, interrupted in horror, “Mister Teng, please don’t meddle with the Tianfeng Clan.”

Teng Qingshan stared at the Sixth Elder.

“Yang Wang is going to seek revenge, but he is just an ordinary warrior. So, it’s a trivial matter! The Tianfeng Clan, such a monumental clan, won’t be bothered by that. However, if an innate expert provokes the Tianfeng Clan, the Tianfeng Clan will definitely send even more powerful innate experts to deal with their adversary.

“If a figure like Mister Teng takes action, then there will be trouble!

“At present, in the entire continent, the two Martial Immortals are the only ones who can win against you.

“Mister Teng, if you take action, the Tianfeng Clan will have no other solution but to take action! By that time, even the Dreamy Cloud Martial Immortal of the Rising Sun Trading Company won’t be able to interfere,” the Sixth Elder said helplessly. “The Rising Sun Trading Company and the Tianfeng Clan have made an agreement. If the Tianfeng Clan goes after you without any reason, the Dreamy Cloud Martial Immortal can help. However, if you are the one who provokes the Tianfeng Clan...... it will be difficult for us to interfere.”

Teng Qingshan nodded in response.

Due to the difference in ability, the severity of the provocation would be different too.

Yang Wang was just a small figure without any fame. If he killed Helian Haotong, the people in the higher positions of the Tianfeng Clan wouldn’t even care. Even if they decided to pursue and kill Yang Wang, they would simply send someone.

However, Teng Qingshan’s status was different...

Without even the mention of Teng Qingshan killing someone, his arrival at Tianfeng City alone would attract the attention of all the people in the higher positions of the Tianfeng Clan. Teng Qingshan’s every move could attract the attention of all the clans in the entire continent. If he dared to kill a member of the Tianfeng Clan, it would be embarrassing if Tianfeng Clan did not strike back.

“I understand,” Teng Qingshan said with a nod, but a feeling of helplessness surged through him.

He hadn’t even reached the Emptiness Realm yet. So, helping Old Wang would cause him harm instead.

“Can the Rising Sun Trading Company help Old Wang?” Teng Qingshan asked.

“We can only help in secret,” the Sixth Elder answered solemnly. “The prerequisite is we need to find him first, but we have no idea where he’s currently hiding.

“It is hard for even the Rising Sun Trading Company to find one person amongst the millions of people in the Tianfeng Clan. Moreover, I speculate that Yang Wang will disguise himself as he strives to kill Helian Haotong. This will make it even more difficult for us to find him.” Even the Sixth Elder wasn’t confident.

Teng Qingshan nodded understandingly.

“Sixth Elder, please just try your best. Find him and aid him secretly,” said Teng Qingshan.

“Okay. I hope we can find him before he takes action,” the Sixth Elder said with a nod.

Teng Qingshan could only sigh to himself.

“Old Wang, you can only depend on yourself now,” Teng Qingshan said inwardly as he wished Old Wang the best. As long as you didn’t have any regrets, sometimes, death was not scary at all.

After sending the Sixth Elder off, Teng Qingshan and the others were not in a good mood.

The teenager, Yang Dong, read the letter too, then he remained completely silent as he crouched on the thick snow by the Crescent Moon Lake. As for Li Jun, when she heard what the Sixth Elder had said, she also understood that Teng Qingshan really couldn’t help.

“Yang Dong!” Teng Qingshan was dressed in a white cotton coat as he stood on the snowy ground.

Hearing the call, Yang Dong, who was crouching on the snowy ground, immediately turned and looked over.

“Come here,” Teng Qingshan instructed.

“Yes.” Yang Dong immediately stood up and walked over.

After taking a few glances at Yang Dong, Teng Qingshan asked, “Have you cultivated inner strength before?”

“I have only cultivated inner strength for a year,” Yang Dong answered. Simultaneously, confusion and fear filled his heart. His father’s Boss was the Most Powerful Martial Saint who even the Elders of the Rising Sun Trading Company treated with reverence. Why would a figure like this ask if he ever cultivated inner strength?

Perhaps to accept Yang Dong as his follower?

Yang Dong’s heart began palpitating involuntarily. He knew clearly that if he were to become the follower of the Most Powerful Martial Saint, he would be like the carp that leaped through the dragon’s gate*! His life would undergo a complete transformation.

TLN: Become successful. A idiom the carp jumps over a gate (龙门) at the end of a waterfall, it becomes a dragon.

Teng Qingshan said indifferently, “Use your own sword art to attack me.”

“Yes.” Yang Dong nodded.

With the bamboo pole in his left hand, Yang Dong supported himself up. He continued saying, “I thought of this sword art when I was young. It was after mutiple times of...” Before he finished his words, he rubbed the top of the bamboo pole at lightning speed and drew the peculiar rapier. As Yang Dong pulled the sword out, he took a deep breath and slashed a strange-looking wavy arch.

“I see,” as Teng Qingshan remarked, his body morphed errily into two figures. The rapier slashed through one of the figures in front and that figure gradually disappeared.

“I didn’t pay much attention last time. The fact that the rapier has a round body but a flattened yet trenchant tip was out of my expectations. It’s slightly similar to a speartip. The tip can slit someone’s throat and cut someone’s head off.”

After the horizontal slash, Yang Dong moved a step forward in a natural manner. Simultaneously, he whirled and thrusted it straight.

“Chi—”

Teng Qingshan could even hear the sound of the air being pierced. As Teng Qingshan stared at the teenager’s keen eyes, a smile crept up his face.

Just a thrust was not enough. Yang Dong moved his feet and retracted the rapier along the same wavy arch as before, then he suddenly thrust toward Teng Qingshan again in a reversed curve.

“Whew.” This time, Teng Qingshan had unexpectedly created three figures which stood side by side.

At this time, Yang Dong actually sheathed his sword and stood up.

“Are there no more moves?” Teng Qingshan looked at Yang Dong with a smile as he said, “Do continue if there are more moves.”

“None. I only know these three moves. If I continue, I will just be reusing the same moves.” Yang Dong shook his head as he answered.

Teng Qingshan stared at Yang Dong with interest and asked, “Tell me, how did you create the three moves?”

“No one taught me. I was physically weak when I was younger and I couldn’t hold a long spear. Therefore, I used a wooden stick. I shaved the top of the short stick into a speartip and used the wooden stick to pierce the insects on the ground. My father was not around at that time. He arranged for a village to care for me, but the kids in the village often bullied me.

“After getting into fights time and time again, I understood a few things about fighting. Firstly, one must move suddenly, so the opponent can be caught unprepared. Secondly, the moves must be quick, so quick that the opponents won’t have the time to react. Thirdly, the moves must be special, so the opponent won’t expect it. With these three elements, you will be able to win.

“Therefore, at the age of six, I began practicing assiduously on the drawing of the sword! One must draw the sword rapidly and suddenly!

“I don’t slash in the ordinary arc which others do after the sword is drawn. I slash in a wavy and curved arc.” Yang Dong knew that Teng Qingshan was testing him, thus, he continued to expounded. “A true expert can change the direction of a strike instantly, but I couldn’t. As a result, I trained arduously and strived to make this wavy and curved slash my instinctive move. So that, when I do it, I will naturally strike fast. When the enemy expects me to slash his neck, the slash may suddenly fall downward because of the wavy and curved arc. However, I will slash his chest in the end.

“The thrust is fast, simple, and unexpected as well.”

Yang Dong continued saying, “Later on, I thought of concealing the sword, to make it hard for others to anticipate.”

Teng Qingshan nodded with a smile.

Actually, Teng Qingshan had noticed quite a few things about this Yang Dong...... For example, when he first saw this teenanger, named Yang Dong, Teng Qingshan thought that Yang Dong was just a simple and candid teenager. However, as a cultivator of the Internal Martial Arts, Teng Qingshan naturally had keen senses. When Yang Dong approached, Teng Qingshan had immediately perceived the smell of blood on Yang Dong’s bamboo stick.

As Teng Qingshan scrutinized it, he had even noticed that there was an extremely thin gap which could barely be seen on the bamboo stick. In the hitman training Teng Qingshan took during his previous life, this method of hiding concealed weapons would be considered the most inept.

However, there were Yang Dong’s three sword moves: the draw; thrust; and re-thrust.

If these three moves were used against an ordinary inner strength expert, they might really suffer.

“The disguise and the sudden attack...... all seemed inherent,” Teng Qingshan pondered. “Yang Dong knew about these at the age of six and was able to create such a sword art. He disguised himself even better and also has more composure than some adults. To have already started practicing sword art at the age of six, he must possess great determination. The fact that he created three simple but extremely effective moves shows that he is extremely intelligence.”

“His mentality, willpower, and intelligence are all excellent.” Teng Qingshan nodded to himself.

Actually, after being aware of Old Wang’s background and knowing that he himself couldn’t help Old Wang, Teng Qingshan felt apologetic and wanted to compensate for that through Yang Dong.

If Yang Dong only had ordinary talents, Teng Qingshan would simply teach him a few techniques which could help Yang Dong survive.

If Yang Dong was extremely talented...... then Teng Qingshan would teach him properly.

However, as Teng Qingshan inquired and analyzed, Yang Dong’s presentation was totally beyond Teng Qingshan’s expectations.

“No matter how great one’s natural endowments are, the most important elements are still one’s mentality, determination, and intelligence. With these three elements, it is possible to become powerful.” Teng Qingshan nodded as he thought to himself. As for natural endowments? Such things could be changed through the Spiritual Treasures of the heavens and earth. For instance, Li Jun couldn’t even cultivate inner strength, but the Spiritual Treasure of the heavens and earth had transformed her and opened all her meridians.

One’s natural endowments could be improved, but it would be extremely difficult to increase one’s determination.

“Yang Dong, are you willing to be my follower?” Teng Qingshan asked.

Yang Dong revealed an expression of jubilation and he immediately knelt down, with the sound of a bang. Simultaneously, he said reverently, Yang Dong is willing to be your follower.”

As Teng Qingshan stared at Yang Dong, who knelt on the snowy ground, he smiled and said, “Yang Dong, from today onwards, you shall be Teng Qingshan’s second follower.”

On the shore of Crescent Moon Lake near the Godly Axe Mountain, Yang Dong officially became Teng Qingshan’s second follower.