The Nine Cauldrons

Deng Geng had initially planned to kill Teng Qingshan in one breath and retrieve the small black cauldron. However, after a short exchange of blows, he realized that his opponent was not so easy to deal with, and he naturally decided to change his plan. He smiled and nodded, “You’re right. This is our Tie Yi Hall’s heirloom. It was stolen by Wei Dan a while back, and we only managed to find it today. If you could please return the small black cauldron to our Tie Yi Hall, we’ll write off what had happened earlier in thanks!”

“Write off, write off your head!”

Teng Qingshan hollered crudely, and the scar across his face made him seem even more sinister. “Deng Geng! You shameless rascal. Do you know who I am?”

Deng Geng’s face turned sullen. This crude, scarred man had just called him ‘shameless’, causing him to grow furious.

“Senior Wei Dan was the ancestor of our sect!” Teng Qingshan kept his head high and proclaimed, “There are not many innate realm masters who are skilled in the art of the fist. Haha, you had a taste of my fist earlier...and should be able to guess my identity. That’s right, I have inherited the skills of Senior Wei Dan. Back then, Ancestor Wei Dan had secluded himself in the Silver Horn Mountain and disappeared without a trace. The subsequent generations of Sovereigns in our ‘Heavenly Hawk Sect’ would then occasionally come to this Silver Horn Mountain to pay our respects to our ancestor.”

Deng Geng was stunned.

Wei Dan’s fist art? It had been over six hundred years since it had first appeared. Furthermore, paper was only recently invented two to three hundred years ago. In the past, records were all kept on bamboo, sheepskin, and the like. The records on Wei Dan were already very rare with only a few simple descriptions recounting Wei Dan’s fist art as tyrannical and harsh. Furthermore, Wei Dan had no disciples!

However, Deng Geng could not recognize Teng Qingshan’s fist art either.

Did that mean that Wei Dan had no disciples just because the records had said so? It wouldn’t be that strange for people to not know that he had secretly taken in a disciple.

“This time I came to the Silver Horn Mountain to pay respects to our ancestor. Who would have thought that I would come across you guys from Tie Yi Hall fishing out the remains of my ancestor! This is being extremely disrespectful to my ancestor’s remains, so how could I let them go?” Teng Qingshan said in a loud voice. “This ‘Heavenly Hawk Claws’ is a divine weapon of our Heavenly Hawk Sect. It would only be able to release its maximum potential in my hands! Moreover, this small black cauldron was the keepsake of our ancestor, and naturally it should be inherited by our ‘Heavenly Hawk Sect’. What rights do you Tie Yi Hall people have to take it?”

Teng Qingshan said everything in one breath, leaving Deng Geng speechless.

Deng Geng had told a lie in a bid to win the argument by reason.

Who would have thought that Teng Qingshan’s bullsh**ting skills were a notch higher than his own?

“You...Heavenly Hawk Sect? Wei Dan’s sect? Why have I not heard of them before?” Deng Geng said.

“There are many things that you do not know!” Teng Qingshan snorted coldly. “Our Heavenly Hawk Sect had received the order from our ancestor to stay secluded and to hide our existence from the world. There are not many who know of us. This time, if it was not for you guys showing disrespect to our ancestor’s remains, I might not have taken action. Alright, I still have to bury our ancestor. You should quickly take your leave, otherwise...”

Deng Geng was infuriated.

What was this?

Deng Geng was also one with a sharp tongue. Why would he suddenly become the unreasonable one in merely just a few words?

However...the line of words in that Black Iron Treasure map had written, ‘For those who hold the treasure map, those who enter by force, are bound to die. One must remember that to get the treasure, one must bring along one of the nine cauldrons!’ He had recalled the words clearly. It was probably harder to find one of the nine cauldrons than the treasure map itself!

A thousand years since Emperor Yu had passed away, it was known that only the Poetic Sword God ‘Li Taibai’ had once gotten one.

If they did not get that small cauldron this time, when would they be able to get it?

“I don’t care who you are!” Deng Geng’s face turned sullen as he hollered, “I’m advising you, give me the small black cauldron. Otherwise...this Silver Horn Mountain will be the place of your death! Your Heavenly Hawk Sect will also face the threat of annihilation!”

“What? Trying to use force?” Teng Qingshan lifted his eyebrows and smiled.

In fact, Teng Qingshan had deduced many things. “This Deng Geng had not paid this ‘small cauldron’ any heed when they first discovered the remains. However, after finding the treasure map at the bottom of the lake after searching for two hours, he didn’t even want to take revenge for the four warriors in the postliminary realm! To think that he only wanted to get his hands on this small cauldron! Seeing how he was about to turn crazy, it was obvious how important this small cauldron was to him!”

In the beginning, he did not care about the small cauldron.

After looking for the map for two hours, he was suddenly so concerned about the small cauldron.

Teng Qingshan could easily figure out one thing – Deng Geng should have discovered the treasure map, noticing that this ‘small cauldron’ was closely related to the treasure map!

“Only this would explain his complete change in attitude toward the cauldron in merely two hours.” Although Teng Qingshan had come up with all of these reasons, he still had some doubts. He had gotten ahold of this small black cauldron in his previous life and once again in his current life. What kind of relationship did this small cauldron have with the ‘treasure map’ that Tie Yi Hall was looking for?

At that moment –

“You’re courting death!” The furious Deng Geng immediately turned into an afterimage, thrusting a silvery-white blade light towards Teng Qingshan.

“Bring it on!”

Teng Qingshan let out a loud laugh as he dashed up to receive the blade light with his fist.

“Clank!” Teng Qingshan blocked with his left hand and aimed for close combat with Deng Geng. However, after fending off with his left hand, Teng Qingshan’s face paled. “This is not right!” Deng Geng’s sword was light and airy and contained very weak inner strength. This made Teng Qingshan’s prepared hand look like a fist smashing into thin air.

Deng Geng flexibly took one step back. This retreat was only a small step back with his body turned to the side.

“Pu!” The Silver Scaled Sword slashed diagonally, with a sharp Qi encompassing the edges of its blade.

Teng Qingshan immediately plunged down, landing a strong force on the surface with his left palm. The rocky land below immediately exploded with bits of rock everywhere, creating a gust of strong backlash of inner strength. Teng Qingshan shot towards Deng Geng horizontally as if he was a cannonball. At the same time, he twisted his abs, channeled all his inner strength into his right leg, and his right leg stomped towards him.

“Clank!” Deng Geng seemed to have expected for Teng Qingshan to make this move as he quickly dodged and slashed his Silver Scaled Sword towards Teng Qingshan’s neck.

“Something’s not right!” Teng Qingshan was astonished. The exchange this time was completely different from the previous one.

While his opponent did not seem to have improved, his attacks were all strangely within the other side’s grasp. No matter which skill Teng Qingshan used, Deng Geng seemed to be able to see through them. Teng Qingshan was deep in thought, as his gaze swept past Deng Geng’s eyes. There was no light in Deng Geng’s eyes, and it was slightly dark.

“He has reached the Realm of Self-Actualization!” Teng Qingshan was surprised.

“Hu!” The sharp blade light pierced towards Teng Qingshan’s chest in an instant.

Teng Qingshan’s right palm fiercely pushed against the sword as he nimbly dodged the attack. However, Deng Geng’s trajectory of attack curved and once again came towards Teng Qingshan.

Teng Qingshan retreated, taking many steps back!

“This Deng Geng is really putting his life on the line,” thought Teng Qingshan as he started to panic a little.

He had read the 《Dark Moon Spear Technique》, and he knew that there were some steps that one was required to train in after reaching the innate realm. For example, only when someone reached the ‘Human Class’ Realm could his spirit break through the ‘Ni Wan Palace’ and have a chance to reach the Emptiness Dan Realm of the innate state. Which meant.... all those who reached the Emptiness Dan Realm of the innate state also attained the ‘Human Class’ Realm.

And to be able to reach the realm of ‘True Dan’, one must comprehend the ‘Realm of Self-Actualization’ or the ‘Realm of Enlightenment’.

The Realms of ‘Self-Actualization’ and ‘Enlightenment’. As long as one comprehended one of them, one would be able to attain the level of ‘innate True Dan’ very quickly. However, there was still a difference between the Realms of ‘Self-Actualization’ and ‘Enlightenment’.

The Realm of ‘Self-Actualization’ was less difficult, but if one trained in this, in the future, one would have an extremely low probability of attaining the level of ‘innate Golden Dan’. In the Realm of ‘Self-Actualization’, one’s mind would fully be occupied with thinking of battle, killing the opponent at all costs, and even losing an arm or suffering from serious injuries to that extent.

To put it simply, under the Realm of ‘Self-Actualization’, one has lost all sanity.

The Realm of ‘Enlightenment’ was more difficult, but the probability of attaining the level of ‘innate Golden Dan’ would be much higher in the future. Under the Realm of ‘Enlightenment’, one would still be highly focused in battles, and he would still have his sanity.

......

Once a person fully entered the Realm of ‘Self-Actualization’, one would become a crazy battle lunatic!

“This Deng Geng is really going all out, and he won’t be satisfied until he’s killed me.”

Pu!

The shadow of the sword slashed passed Teng Qingshan’s stomach, slitting his clothes and even leaving a slash mark on the ‘Darksteel Inner Armor’.

Tens of thousands of blade lights encompassed Teng Qingshan, and he seemed to be in a sorry state within the blade lights.

“This cannot go on.” Teng Qingshan started to panic. The strength of his own body, coupled with the explosive powers of the ‘innate Emptiness Dan’, was not very far from the level of an ‘innate True Dan’ expert. However...in terms of the Realms, he was a notch weaker. He knew nothing of the Realm of ‘Self-Actualization’ nor of the Realm of ‘Enlightenment’.

The following was based on the description in the ‘Dark Moon Spear Technique’.

Regardless if it was the ‘Self-Actualization’ or ‘Enlightenment’ Realms, both would allow one to have an extremely strong battle consciousness, allowing one to fully perform all the skills and techniques that one knew, such as sword skills and spear arts. Moreover, it would allow for excellent control in channeling the Innate True Origin. It would also allow one to accurately grasp the space in which the battle was in and even to the extent of being able to foresee the opponent’s next attack.

It can be said that –

‘Self-Actualization’ and ‘Enlightenment’ were able to bring one’s abilities to its fullest potential! It was only when comparing with ‘Self-Actualization’, one would have the additional sanity when under ‘Enlightenment’.

’

“I would rather meet one who is trained in ‘Enlightenment’ than to encounter one who is trained in ‘Self-Actualization’. He is now a robot, a lunatic.” Teng Qingshan made a quick flip, and with both fists, he smashed them fiercely into the ground as if they were a pair of hammers. A loud boom sounded as if thunder had roared beside one’s ears!

The land exploded, but as Teng Qingshan had the intention to control it, most of the rocks shot towards Deng Geng.

“Retreat!” Teng Qingshan immediately dashed down the mountain.

“Don’t think about escaping!” Deng Geng, with his lifeless eyes, roared like a wild beast and dashed through the large amount of obstructing rocks. He turned into a beam of light and chased after Teng Qingshan rapidly.

Hu!

Hu!

Between the two men, one after the other, Deng Geng was an ‘innate True Dan’ expert and was skilled in Qing Gong. But the strange thing was...the distance between the two grew increasingly larger.

“A lunatic! Although he had merely entered the ‘Realm of Self-Actualization’, it would not increase his speed of running in a straight line.” Teng Qingshan was like a flash of lightning. He was now an innate master! Therefore...he could finally display the Qing Gong of the second level of the 《Crossing Worlds》, which he had learned in his previous life.

There were a total of three levels to the 《Crossing Worlds》, three sets of diagrams on movements, and six sets of diagrams on the meridian and energy channels.

As for the second level, one could only utilize it after attaining the innate realm.

The speed of the first level was already astonishing enough. Now as soon as the second level was on display, it was compatible with Teng Qingshan’s monstrous physique.

Deng Geng could only stare while Teng Qingshan disappeared from his vision. Only after chasing crazily for a while longer did Deng Geng stop and gradually regain clarity in his eyes.

“I let him escape!” Deng Geng was infuriated, and his eyes turned red. “The Cauldron of the Nine Prefectures! I almost had it!!!” Tie Yi Hall had toiled for over a thousand years, and how hard had it been for them? Moreover, this small cauldron was once right in front of his eyes, but he had not paid it any heed. Only when he had seen the Black Iron Treasure Map did he realise that the small cauldron was special. When he wanted to take it...it was already taken away by someone else!

Everything was too late!

He had merely gotten the Black Iron Treasure Map, but there was no way for him to get Emperor Yu’s treasures. The treasure map had clearly stated that ‘he who enters by force, is bound to die’.

“Arghhhh...” Deng Geng gave a loud roar, and the Silver Scaled Sword in his hand slashed crazily around the surroundings.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Rocks were split open, and a large bunch of big trees in the surroundings fell. Deng Geng face looked sinister as he bellowed, “Heavenly Hawk Sect’s Sovereign, I must shred you into pieces!” The bellow echoed amongst the forest of the Boorish Desolate, causing many ferocious beasts and venomous snakes to scatter around in fright.