The Nine Cauldrons

“He is walking the path of spear arts, while I’m using the art of the saber! How can I teach him? I am afraid his spear art is probably better than mine. Although he is only in the Postliminary Realm, his realm of comprehension is not much weaker than mine! I am unable to teach him; moreover I already have a precious disciple! I can’t take him as a disciple......Kill him? If I killed him now, Zhuge Yuanhong would definitely be furious. He would probably rush here personally. If he found out that I killed the boy, that would be troublesome.”

This old man still harboured some fear against Zhuge Yuanhong.

“Even if he doesn’t find out, once he comes, it will be hard for me to obtain the Black Fire Spirit Fruit! Yes, the important matters come first. Once I have seized the Black Fire Spirit Fruit, then I will kill that Teng Qingshan! Humph, I will destroy his corpse and leave no trace. Zhuge Yuanhong won’t find out it was me then! Zhuge Yuanhong, oh, Zhuge Yuanhong, it’s your fault for helping Wei Wuya! Don’t blame me this time!”

The silver-haired old man schemed in his heart and smiled while he continued to observe.

At this moment, the surrounding people cheered!

Everyone started to praise Teng Qingshan, because he fought so beautifully a moment ago. While displaying his long spear, it seemed like as if he controlled an obedient flood dragon. From time to time, it would become bizarrely fast and other times unbelievably powerful. This dancing long spear was able to send that Sima Feng, from the Jian Men Sect, flying.

“Big Brother Wang, you’ve also been famous for a decade now. Why don’t you challenge him? If you win, you might become a legend under heaven.” A lean man laughed while talking to the silver-haired old man.

“That’s right Brother Wang. You are one of the several top experts from our Fanwu City.” Someone beside them said.

The silver-haired old man shook his head and said with a smile: “Don’t you guys already know how little strength I have? Comparing me to someone ranked on the Earthly Ranking? Do you think I’m tired of living?” Several warriors in the surroundings laughed. Everybody was joking with “Wang Yun”, who was a strong expert from Fanwu City.

He could be considered to have reached the pinnacle of the Postliminary Realm.

The silver-haired old man, who was being made fun of, put on a smiling appearance, but the trace of cold light that passed quickly through his eyes exposed his true evil heart.

Among the thousand plus warriors, countless were shouting excitedly.

“Teng Qingshan is really powerful. He won against Sima Feng so easily!”

“Teng Qingshan is really worthy of being an expert of the Earthly Ranking.”

......

The numerous warriors with only mediocre strength screamed the loudest. Before, they had ridiculed Teng Qingshan yet now they went all out to praise him. In fact, the new issue of the 《Ranking》 hadn’t even come out yet. They weren’t able to determine if the Wanxiang Sect was even going to include Teng Qingshan on the new 《Ranking》.

However, those warriors were like that. If they see wind, then there would be rain and they love to stir up trouble.

(TLN: Idiom)

“Sect Master!” “Sect Master!”

Many people gathered around Sima Feng as he sat there cross-legged. He controlled his injury through inner strength for some time before finally opening his eyes. He then stood up with difficulty, requiring the support of his disciples. Looking at Teng Qingshan in the distance, he unwillingly, announced in a loud voice, “Lieutenant Teng Qingshan is indeed capable of defeating Meng Tian from the 《Earthly Rankings》. His spear arts have already achieved the pinnacle of strength. I, Sima Feng, feel humbly ashamed! Coughs......”

His loud speaking caused further injury to his internal organs and Sima Feng coughed out blood.

This scene deeply shocked many of the warriors.

That one swing of Teng Qingshan’s a moment ago, had unexpectedly injured Sima Feng to this degree.

“Thank you Lieutenant Teng for showing mercy.” Sima Feng cupped his hands across his chest and immediately walked away under the support of his disciples.

Showing mercy?

Teng Qingshan indeed showed mercy. When the heavy sword in Sima Feng’s hand was sent flying, he was unable to defend the next hit. Anytime the move “Inflamed Passion” landed on someone, even if it was only several thousand Jin strong, it could smash them to death. When Teng Qingshan swung the last time, he had limited his spear.

He had only broke one or two ribs and given his opponent a small injury to his internal organs.

Although he would need to recover for a year or so, he was at least able to keep his life.

“Defeating Teng Qingshan would probably get you on the 《Ranking List》.”

“Yan Tie, you can defeat Feng Wuxue, perhaps you can also defeat Teng Qingshan.” Someone shouted loudly. Yan Tie frowned and his eyes swept over the crowd, but there were too many people surrounding him. Especially with the tall people completely hindering his line of sight, he couldn’t find out who shouted it.

“Humph.”Yan Tie coldly snorted and didn’t go up.

Yan Tie stared at Teng Qingshan in the distance: “What amazing spear arts. Although I could block those two moves with all my effort, before the fight, Teng Qingshan said to his cousin that it was to demonstrate these moves. This fellow......is he hiding his real strength?” Yan Tie didn’t dare to challenge him.

The mere strength exposed by Teng Qingshan already gave Yan Tie a headache.

“It seems like I belittled the world’s experts! Ah, with so many experts here, I will wait a bit and see what happens......Once the thing here is finished I will return to Youzhou and look for master! After wandering around for eight years, I should go back now!” Yan Tie thought to himself.

......

Teng Qingshan stayed in the spacious open area for quite a while. Only after seeing that nobody else dared to challenge him did he turn back and enter the crowd.

After the thousand warriors who watched from the periphery, saw that no one would challenge him again, did they finally disperse. The “Thunder God Blade” Wu Yu watched as Teng Qingshan’s shadow left and a cold light flashed in his eyes: “What powerful spear art. He can evidently control his entire body. This is definitely not Teng Qingshan’s strongest spear art......He indeed killed Meng Tian! He will be a strong opponent this time for getting the “Black Fire Spirit Fruit”. However... after honing my skills for so many years, I don’t believe a 17-year-old kid can block me!” Wu Yu thought full of confidence.

The crowd dissipated and returned to their various places.

However, everybody was still discussing the competition a moment ago, full of excitement in small groups.

The Gui Yuan Sect’s camp.

“Brother Qinghu. The two moves that Lieutenant Teng displayed, were they the same moves you used during the centurion competition?” Some sergeants of the Black Armored Army gathered around and asked.

“Ah.” Teng Qinghu eyes lit up. “Flashing Fire and Inflamed Passion were two moves that Qingshan taught me. I would have never thought ......that these two moves could be so powerful in Qingshan’s hands. If I could display even half the power from these two moves that Qingshan could, then I would be able to seize the first position during the centurion competition!”

“Stop lying.”

The surrounding people burst out laughing.

“Still... even with the same move, why is my power so much weaker?” Teng Qinghu murmured. During the night, Teng Qinghu practiced his spear art for the majority of the night. The spear art Teng Qingshan had displayed before, greatly influence him.

......

During the silent night.

Teng Qingshan sat on the grass with his back against a big tree. On this side of the large hill, he could look over the Gui Yuan Sect’s camp.

“Both the moves Flashing Fire and Inflamed Passion......The ideal realms of conception are opposites, but they can also be fused. The 《 Five Techniques of the Ardent Flame》......” Teng Qingshan closed his eyes. In his mind, he attempted to simulate the fusion. While thinking, Teng Qingshan stood up and started to train while constantly changing his movements.

Teng Qingshan wanted to use Cannon Fist’s realm of concept and fuse the 《Five Techniques of the Ardent Flame》 into one technique.

This move would become the Four Techniques of the Five Elements spear art.

Teng Qingshan had already pondered for several years on how to transform his Cannon Fist into a spear art, but was still unable to succeed.

《The Five Technique of the Ardent Flame》 was a turning point.

Among the 《Five Techniques of the Ardent Flame》, the most difficult to fuse, due to their realms of conceptions being clear opposites, would be Flashing Fire and Inflamed Passion. If he managed to fuse these two moves, then Teng Qingshan could combine all five moves. Suddenly, his training pace immediately got faster and during that night, Teng Qingshan completely immersed himself in his spear art while forgetting about the passage of time.

During the next morning.

Teng Qingshan didn’t feel sleepy and there were still some doubts in his heart: “Of the four technique of my Five Element spear art, which direction should I take? During the process of fusing the spear art, I certainly must get rid of some useless movements in order to fuse the essence. And the realm of conception should focus completely on the attribute of fire.”

However—

What was that essence?

“If I used Wildfire Flames and Silver Flower of the Flaming Tree and combined them with Cannon Fist, I would be able to create a group attack. And if I use Legacy of the Ultimate Flame and combine it with realm of concept of Tiger Cannon Fist, I should be able to create one of the strongest spear arts! “ Teng Qingshan knew very clearly

There were two paths; one was an offensive technique to be used against groups, while the other technique was better suited for single targets.

The Tiger Cannon Fist and his strongest Internal Martial Arts technique during his previous life and its realm of conception could possibly be integrated into the Legacy of the Strongest Flame.

Teng Qingshan had a premonition –

Once he chose a technique for a single target, creating this move would be ten times harder than a group attack technique.

However ......This move surpassed even the Toxic Dragon Drill in his imagination and became the strongest move amongst his four spear art techniques!

“A group offensive technique? My pursuing Shadow can be used for either a group or a single person and my Toxic Dragon Drill’s power is already quite strong! Right now, I don’t need some strong technique against groups. Forget it, I should be patient and put in more effort. I have already pondered over it for many years, I am not in a hurry and a few more years won’t matter!”

Teng Qingshan decided to invest all his time into researching the fourth technique of his Five Element Spear art, which belonged to the fire attribute!

This was the fourth move and the most terrifying, as well as the most time consuming one.

Teng Qingshan descended the mountain and returned to the camp.

“Qingshan, you already went to exercise on the mountain so early in the morning?” Ji Hong asked as he had just came out of his tent.

Teng Qingshan nodded with a smile.

Exactly at that time, Commander Guan Lu walked out of a big tent and looked at Teng Qingshan. Her look had some slight changes, but it was quickly restored to it’s regular coldness. She walked towards Teng Qingshan and said at the same time: “Lieutenant Teng, don’t forget our agreement. Once this matter is resolved, you and I will compete against each other, no matter if there are injuries or not.”

Finishing her sentence, Guan Lu walked away.

Teng Qingshan couldn’t help but be startled.

......

In the coming days, the Gui Yuan Sect again divided their troops into three teams and searched around the Blazing Mountain. However the mountain range was too wide, and even when more and more warriors arrived with the passage of time, it was like searching for a chestnut in the sea.

Very soon, the troops of Yangzhou’s strongest Sect, Qing Hu Island, arrived.

Qingzhou strongest sect, Xiaoyao Sect, had also sent a team of one hundred. Large numbers of well-known warriors arrived, as well as those unknown who wanted to make a name for themselves. In one month, the warriors that had gathered near the Blazing Mountain exceeded ten thousand. Day and night, the warriors returned to the foot of the mountain.

With over ten thousand warriors in one place, of course there would be many conflicts.

Comparing notes, revenge killings and so on were common.