The Nine Cauldrons

In the evening the sky had dimmed.

There were torches lit up around the mine site already — some bonfire were started on some places. A lot of soldiers and sergeants of the Black Armored Army were vigilantly patrolling the area. Teng Qingshan was currently in a large building inside the Purple Gold Mine, it was his residence here in Tieliang Mountain.

“Chi Chi!” The flame of the bonfire was burning nicely.

Teng Qingshan was holding the Reincarnation Spear, and was immersing himself in spear techniques near the bonfire.

“The feeling of confronting mortal danger and walking out of it after! The mood of despairing, but with a thread of hope...” Teng Qingshan was pondering. Over the past month, Teng Qingshan had separated the eight singular techniques of the 《Ardent Flame Spear Art》 and fit them into five artistic concepts, and had already created four spear techniques from them.

The first technique —– Silver Flower of the Flaming Tree! This technique was very reverie, pretty, and was also very easy to confuse the enemy with.

The second technique —- Inflamed Passion! The name Teng Qingshan gave it was really tacky, but it was easy to understand. The name clearly showed this technique’s power: once the technique was used, the force burst out all at once — just like adding oil to a burning fire.

The third technique —- Flashing Fire! This technique was really sneaky; it could be done really quickly, and without a sound.

The fourth technique —– Wildfire Flames! This is technique was a group attack; it used up a lot of energy but the power was shocking in return.

The only technique left was the fifth. The concept of the technique was similar to being in a dejected mood, albeit a little bit different.

“It’s not right!” Teng Qingshan lightly shook his head.

When he’d first created Silver Flower of the Flaming Tree, it had only taken him three days. However, the more techniques that Teng Qingshan created, the more time it took for him to complete them. To be honest, even though the power of these techniques were shocking, it still couldn’t compare to ‘Pursuing Shadow’, ‘Transmutation Unity Law’, and ‘Toxic Dragon Drill’. After all, Teng Qingshan had studied Five Element Boxing for a long time in his last life.

He’d then spent more than ten years in this life to create these three techniques.

They looked as if they were simple, however, they’d already returned to their true form — the power they had was shocking.

However, Teng Qingshan was unable to create the spear technique versions of Cannon Fist from the Five Element boxing the entire time. Teng Qingshan had the feeling, as he separated and combined the techniques from Ardent Flame Spear Art, that his understanding of the fire attribute was improving as well. As for the spear techniques developed from Cannon Fist, the ideas he had were getting clearer and clearer in his brain as well.

In his last life, ‘Tiger Cannon Fist’ was Teng Qingshan’s most powerful technique. If this was developed into a spear technique, the power should be even better than ‘Toxic Dragon Drill’.

However, meals must be taken bit by bit.

He had to create the fifth technique of the 《Ardent Flame Spear Art》 first; if not, how could he develop ‘Cannon Fist’, which was even harder.

“The dejected realm was different in essence than being in a life and death battle. That state of mind...” Just when Teng Qingshan was thinking about it, suddenly—–

“Pa!” The sound rang out.

Teng Qingshan turned around to look, but he only saw that the bonfire beside him was getting dimmer. The wood that had burned for a long time had red sparks on it, and was sometimes bright, and sometimes dim. Teng Qingshan grabbed two piece of dried wood from his side and threw them in, suddenly causing the red sparks on the wood to ignite into large flames.

“Hm?”

In that moment when the red sparks became flames, a light flashed through Teng Qingshan’s brain. His eyes were filled with enlightenment!

“That’s it!”

Teng Qingshan quickly grabbed the Reincarnation Spear beside him, closed his eyes, while at the same time grabbing the top of the spear with his right hand, and the spear body with his left hand. First, he pulled the top of the spear back, and then suddenly pushed. Teng Qingshan delivered the inner strength in his body into the Reincarnation Spear. The head of the spear thrust out very fast in front of him.

Before it met its limit, the head of the spear lightly shook.

Hu! Hu!

There was actually a visible, powerful spiral created on the head of the spear.

“Yeah, this is the feeling!” Teng Qingshan was surprised. Afterwards, he turned around and stabbed again towards a tree beside him.

“Peng!”

When the spear head pierced the trunk, it produced an explosion, and the trunk that weighed so much that two people had to carry it, received a huge hole. Pieces of broken wood flew everywhere, and the big tree began to tremble, before slowly falling down. The surrounding Black Armored Army sergeants were suddenly frightened, and came to a consistent state of full alert.

“Be careful everyone, don’t get hit by that big tree!” Teng Qingshan laughed. He then immediately shot out a flying kick, and the big tree crashed down in front of Teng Qingshan. The sergeants of the Black Armored Army who were getting ready for the morning, all went to the side to dodge.

“My Lord’s spear arts are too strong. Such a thick and big tree was fell with ease.”

“Our Lord’s spear arts are number one.”

One sergeant after another praised.

Teng Qingshan felt happiness in his heart, and thought to himself, “My flying knife technique ‘Saddened Knife’, can remote control a knife and let them burst open. However, a moment ago, when my inner strength coordinated with my controlled strength, it resulted in my guidance of energetic thought being unexpectedly able to produce a whirlpool with inner strength. This spear explosions power is definitely strong! Yes......This technique will be called ‘Legacy of the Ultimate Flame’!”

Teng Qingshan was very satisfied with this move.

Of the five techniques of the 《 Ardent Flame Spear Art》, Legacy of the Ultimate Flame’ was the strongest technique.

“Unfortunately, this technique has to rely on inner strength to achieve this effect, and isn’t possible with body strength only! However, with my inner strength, this technique’s strength is already very good.” In Teng Qingshan’s mind, it became much clearer on how he could develop the ‘Cannon Fist’ in the future.

After one month had passed, he’d finally created these five techniques.

Right now, Teng Qingshan’s mood was excellent. Holding his Reincarnation Spear, he began to patrol the Purple Gold mining area.

“My Lord!”

“My Lord!”

The sergeants for the Black Armored Army who were supervising the patrols immediately saluted Teng Qingshan when they saw him.

“Mm.” Teng Qingshan lightly nodded with a smile. Glancing at the mine, he saw that some people had started to come out, “Today is the last day of mining?”

“Yes, My Lord. The hard laborers are coming out of the mining tunnel one after each other.” The Black Armored Army sergeant respectfully replied.

Teng Qingshan walked towards the mining tunnel with a smile. The surroundings of the mining area had already been hollowed out, and the mining tunnel was extremely deep. As Teng Qingshan walked towards the deeper parts of the mining tunnel, the hard laborers that were walking outside bowed towards him as he passed.

These hard labourers’ faces, heads, and bodies were covered in dust as well as were dirty.

“Er Gou, how much Purple Gold did you dig out today?”

“Look, it was as big my nail! It was my biggest haul this month! However, no matter how much we dig out, it won’t be ours.”

“Look at me, this Purple Gold was dug out by eight people, and it’s still so little.”

Teng Qingshan looked at the man who’d spoken; in this man’s hand were some broken pieces of Purple Gold. Teng Qingshan frowned and asked, “How come the Purple Gold that was dug out by eight people is in your hands?”

“My Lord.” When the man saw Teng Qingshan, he was frightened and immediately saluted. He then answered, “These pieces were given to me by my brothers to bring them all together to the sergeants of the Black Armored Army, to make it more convenient.”

“What’s your name?” Teng Qingshan asked.

The man was somewhat terrified, “My, my name is Wu Dagan!”

Teng Qingshan nodded and looked towards the mining tunnel, before turning his head and walking towards the entrance of the mine. Not far away for the entrance, two sergeants of the Black Armored Army sat before a table and received the Purple Gold that each miner had unearthed while recording it.

Teng Qingshan secretly nodded, “According to the rules of Gui Yuan Sect, ancestor, the miners in the Purple Gold mining area have had no means to contact miners of the other mining areas. Moreover, their residences were checked from time to time. When leaving, they will be stripped naked and their heads shaved clean. Then they are given a new pair of clothing after we’ve let them walk. This is to prevent some people from smuggling Purple Gold!”

The rules of the Purple Gold mining area were much stricter when compared to the other four mines.

Quietly stealing some Purple Gold was as difficult as ascending to heaven.

“Brother Da Gan, what did the Lord of the Black Armored Army say to you?” Some hard laborers asked Wu Dagan.

“Nothing.” Wu Dagan casually said. He shot a glance at Teng Qingshan in the distance, and finally breathed out in relief while thinking, “the day after tomorrow will be March 28th! This is a crucial moment, and I better be careful not to offend the people from the Black Armored Army or they’ll notice! Otherwise, if I ruin big brother’s big thing, the situation will turn bad.”

Wu Dagan immediately returned to his residence.

......

Very soon, March 28th had arrived.

According to the rules of the Tielang Shan mining area, if the hard labourers of the four big mining areas wanted to visit their relatives, they could go back every month on the 28th. Each month had only one of such day! However, the Purple Gold mining area only had this opportunity once every year.

On the morning of that day.

A light mist filled the air, creating a fresh environment. All of the hard laborers were in a good mood today.

“Spending multiple days and nights in this dry place is too tiring, and one can’t sleep comfortably. Now I can finally go back.”

“Haha, are you missing your young wife?”

“Hehe, sleeping on this ice-cold wooden bed can’t be compared to hugging your young woman at home.”

A group of hard laborers talked to each other and lined up to get their body searched before they could leave the mining area.

“You guys better not trying anything! If you hid any gold, even it’s a tiny bit, you will be executed!” The officers loudly shouted, “Before getting searching, you better check yourself first so that you don’t get framed by someone planting some stolen gold on you. Once something is found by us, no matter what you say, it will be useless.”

A group of soldiers blocked the path, and was carefully examining the group of hard labourers using special search methods.

According to the rules, the body searches of the golden mining area were generally executed by ordinary soldiers.

The body searches of the hard labourers in the Purple Gold mining area were specially done by the Black Armored Army sergeants.

At this time, a brawny man with a big black beard strode over.

“My Lord!” The soldiers immediately saluted since the person who came was the army captain of Huafeng City. It could be said that his status was close to the major, and these soldiers obviously acted with respect.

“Mm.” Hu Tong eyes swept over the hard laborers who’d lined up, and shouted towards the soldiers, “Brothers, check carefully. Everyone must be searched thoroughly, don’t leave out anyone.”

“Rest assured My Lord. They won’t be able to get away with any gold.” The officer immediately replied.

“Mm.” Hu Tong nodded.

His eyes carefully took another fast look around and suddenly fixed on a location dozens of Zhang away. There was a middle-aged guy wearing a patched gown walking towards him, causing Hu Tong’s eyes to immediately light up.