The Nine Cauldrons

“Dear Lord.” Yang Ta called out cheerfully. “Everyone’s elite war horses will be kept here temporarily. Everyone can ride these mediocre Yellow-Maned Horses to head into the Blazing Mountain from here!” There were many cheap Yellow-Maned Horses in front of the mansion. At the sight of this? Many warriors of the Gui Yuan Sect frowned.

It was unbefitting for them to ride Yellow-Maned Horses.

Ji Hong coldly said, “We will be setting up our camp in the Blazing Mountain! Since we will be there for one or two months, if we were to bring our top grade war horses there, there would be warriors who covet them! Alright, everyone get on these horses and we’ll set off!”

More than eighty men mounted the war horses at Ji Hong’s command.

Not just these eighty over men. Yang Ta also ordered 10 servants to mount the horses.

“When we reach the Blazing Mountain, these ten servants will take care of your daily necessities for these one to two months.” Yang Ta smiled and said as Teng Qingshan and company left Hua Cheng and quickly went on their way to the Blazing Mountain.

Although the Yellow-Maned Horse was a cheap horse, it could still gallop 300 to 400 Li distance daily. It took them about four hours for them to reach the foot of Blazing Mountain from Hua City.

When they arrived, it was already noon.

At the foot of the mountain, tents of various sizes had been set up. There were also quite a number of warriors near the tents, and they chatted happily in small groups, as if it was a large-scaled gathering. When the men from Gui Yuan Sect arrived, they immediately attracted the attention of many warriors.

“Look, those are men from Gui Yuan Sect! The one leading them is one of the four commanders, Ji Hong!”

“Tie Yi Hall is here, so is Gui Yuan Sect. I reckon that not long later, even the men from Qing Hu Island will be coming. How would the small sects from Xuyang County be able to compete with them?”

......

Amongst the discussions, there were many people who could recognise famous people, but they were right. Bigger sects such as Gui Yuan Sect and Tie Yi Hall had close to ten thousand core disciples alone, in addition to having an army of warriors. Not forgetting that they had countless numbers of outer disciples......The smaller sects in Xuyang County probably would each only have a few hundreds of men. How could they compare with the bigger sects?

“Set up camp!” JI Hong commanded.

Immediately everyone dismounted and the members of the Black Armored Army, as well as the core disciples and elites from Gui Yuan Sect, all went to help the ten servants set up tentages!

The many tentages were quickly secured, each of them large enough to accommodate ten men.

A total of twelve big tentages, with two of them catered for the ten servants to rest in. In the future, these servants would be in charge of the preparation of food and such. Teng Qingshan and company could focus on their search for the Black Fire Spirit Fruit in peace.

“Qingshan, the number of people isn’t considered much. At one glance, there are only two to three hundred people! ” Teng Qinghu contemplated the surroundings as he spoke. Teng Qingshan also took a glance at their surroundings, noticing the warriors who were scattered around. “Cousin, it’s daytime now, many martial artists are in the Blazing Mountain, looking out for that adolescent Red Scaled Beast!”

Teng Qingshan had also been here three times over the past two to three days.

He was aware of the alarming numbers of warriors that had gathered here.

A small number of warriors stayed in the inns, while most of them stay at the foot of the mountain, with almost all of them selecting an area near to Jin Jia Village, which was also located at the foot of the mountain.

Although the circumference of the Blazing Mountain has a distance of about 60 to 70 Li, everyone firmly believed that the location of the nest of the Red Scaled Beast, as well as the Black Fire Spirit Fruit, would be located near Jin Jia Village. Afterall, the range of Blazing Mountain was so large and there were numerous villages located at the foot of the mountain. Why did the Red Scaled Beast solely target members from Jin Jia Village?

The reason would be that — Jin Jia Village was located the closest to where it stayed!

......

“Everyone gather!” Ji Hong called out from a short distance away.

Immediately the eighty odd men gathered. Ji Hong brought out a scroll and said as it unrolled it, “Take a good look, these are the Black Fire Spirit Fruit and the Black Fire Spirit Root.”

Teng Qingshan observed in detail.

There was two colored pictures on the scroll. In the first picture, the Black Fire Spirit Root was a silvery white color, but its leaves were in a weird hue of black. The shape of the black fruit was close to a round shape, resembling that of an apple.

In the second colored picture, there was no change to the Black Fire Spirit Root with it still being silvery white in color. However, both its leaves and fruit were in red.

“This Spiritual Root is not white, but is translucent!” Jin Hong lowered his voice and said. “The first diagram is where is has yet to mature, while the second one is of a matured one! Take a good look at them, so that you will be able to recognise it when you see it. Another thing, the Black Fire Spirit Fruit grows in locations that are blazing hot!”

After showing it to everyone for a while, Ji Hong took back his scroll. “Everyone go get lunch first. After lunch, we will enter the mountain!”

The Blazing Mountain was scorching hot during the blazing summer.

“Since we have so many people, we will split into three groups to search this Blazing Mountain in detail!” Ji Hong said as he gave out instructions at the foot of the mountain. “The thirty elites of the Black Armored Army will remain with me! The core disciples will follow Commander Guan! Teng Qingshan, your men will continue to follow you! Anyone have any problems?”

Both Teng Qingshan and Guan Lu nodded.

“All of you must be more careful after entering the mountain.” Ji Hong instructed. “There are many venomous snakes and worms, as well as wild beasts in the mountains. Don’t be reckless. Commander Guan, Lieutenant Teng, you should have men under you who are familiar with the mountainous areas. Heed more of their advice. I don’t wish to see any men fall from the venomous snakes and worms rather than getting injured from fighting against other warriors!”

“Yes.” Teng Qingshan and Guan Lu replied.

Teng Qingshan had grown up in the mountains, but Guan Lu had no experience with staying in the mountains.

“Come back here before evening. Okay, enter the mountains!” Ji Hong waved his hand.

The three teams split up and started their search in the Blazing Mountain.

......

Teng Qingshan was not sure about the other two teams, but it was quite smooth for his own team. All the members were from the Black Armored Army, and most of them had experience with living in mountainous or forested areas. Under the lead of Teng Qingshan, Teng Qinghu, and Du Hong, they need not be afraid of any dangers lurking in the mountains.

“Damn it, it’s too hot!” Teng Qinghu could not hold back his curse.

Teng Qingshan looked up at the sky. Based on the time measurement from his previous life, it should be around 2.30p.m. in the afternoon, the time of the day when it was the hottest.

“Qingshan, Commander said that the Black Fire Spirit Fruit will grow in scorching areas. I think that it is likely that everywhere in the Blazing Mountain is scorching hot.” Teng Qinghu laughed as he asked, “How do we go about finding it?”

“With luck!” Teng Qingshan said. “That adolescent Red Scaled Beast is very sneaky and it will be hard to find him. However, we may be able to come across the Black Fire Spirit Fruit since it will not move. Bear with it. We will need to bear with these conditions for at least one to two months.” Teng Qingshan was aware, even if they managed to locate the Black Fire Spirit Fruit now, they would not be able to harvest it.

It could only be harvested on the day it matured.

“Hmm?” Teng Qingshan looked at the front. There were a group of warriors heading towards them. The group of warriors could tell that Teng Qingshan and company were from Gui Yuan Sect from the standardized suits that they were wearing. The one leading the pack was a young man, but he was bald, with a pair of eyes akin to a dead fish, and had a vulture perched on his shoulders.

“Warriors from Gui Yuan Sect, may we ask which one of you is Teng Qingshan?” The bald young man cupped his hands and asked.

“Is our lieutenant’s name for you to call as you wish?” Du Hong hollered.

The eyes of the bald young man gleamed. “Lord Lieutenant?” His eyes scanned and stopped on Teng Qingshan. “This must be Lieutenant Teng, Teng Qingshan.”

“What matters do you have with me?” Teng Qingshan took a glance at him.

“Lieutenant Teng, my name is Jia Liang! I have heard of the reputation of Lieutenant Teng and wish to have a competition with you!” The bald young man was full of pride. He was the young master of the ‘Vulture Gang’ in the Xuyang County, and the top warrior of the Vulture Gang. There was no one who was on par with him within the distance of a hundred Li.

Since he mastered the art of his blade, this young master ‘Jia Liang’ had never suffered a defeat. He was very proud and thought that with his great talent, there were not many from the younger generation who could compare to him.

Ever since he heard that Teng Qingshan had defeated Meng Tian, he had been wanting to challenge Teng Qingshan!

If he defeated Teng Qingshan, he would be able to use Teng Qingshan as a stepping stone to spread his name across the world.

“No time.” Teng Qingshan coldly replied. “Let’s go!”

Teng Qingshan did not bother with such challenges. The men from the Black Armored Army also looked at young master ‘Jia Liang’ with disdain. There was no need to bother themselves with such young men.

“Teng Qingshan, are you afraid?” Jia Liang called out.

Hu!

The team of Black Armored Army turned back and stared at Jia Liang and company coldly. Jia Liang had been living amongst the mounted gangsters. Facing the blood-thirsty presence of the Black Armored Army, his heart stopped for a moment.

“If you wish to challenge me, you must be prepared to die!” Teng Qingshan glanced at him coldly. “Are you prepared?”

Jia Liang was previously stunned by the presence of the Black Armored Army. Now that Teng Qingshan popped this question, for a moment, he stood rooted to his spot, stunned.

Seeing this, Teng Qingshan shook his head silently. “He does not even have strong mental strength. He must be an arrogant punk who has talent and thinks the world of himself but hasn’t faced many obstacles.” Teng Qingshan was not interested in a man like him and he and his men turned and left.

It was then that Jia Liang reacted, “He actually left!”

“Young master, that Teng Qingshan must be scared of you.” Although the mounted gangsters did not dare to say a word earlier, someone from the group shouted out then.

“Hmph, coward.” Jia Liang said with regret.

“Young master, that Teng Qingshan must have powerful methods to be able defeat Meng Tian. We should not underestimate him.” Another mounted gangsters also said.

“Let’s go!” Jia Liang hollered.

......

In the evening, Teng Qingshan and company had already left the mountain, following the path back to the foot of the mountain as they headed back to their camp.

“Qingshan, to think that there were three men who challenged you today! Sadly, they all looked mediocre, to be stunned by the mere aura of our brothers of the Black Armored Army. They truly overestimate themselves.” Teng Qinghu said ruefully. Teng Qingshan also did not know if he should laugh or cry. There were really many people who thought a lot of themselves.

But the aura of the Black Armored Army was truly terrifying.

With just a glare from the twenty men standing there, the aura was stronger than that from hundreds of ordinary mounted gangsters. This also lessened the troubles that Teng Qingshan faced.

“Lieutenant, you defeated Meng Tian! There are many people from Xuyang County and Chu County who have heard of this and wish use you as a stepping stone to gain fame! We will be here for at least one to two months. To think that there were three challengers on the first day. There will probably be more trouble the longer we stay.” Du Hong said.

Teng Qingshan could not help but frown. It was true that many warriors underwent training for tens of years just to be famous one day.

Seems like there would be plenty of trouble in store over the next one month or so!

“I’ll have to strike some fear in those people!” Teng Qingshan said to himself.