The Nine Cauldrons

If he were as powerful as Emperor Yu or Heavenly Emperor of Qin Mountains, he could unify the world, but once he died, the world would be in disruption again.

Teng Qingshan and Teng Shou went back to the Crescent Moon Lake and continued cultivating with all their heart.

In the distant East Flower Region, within Wuan City:

“Clatter~clatter~~~”

A luxurious carriage was advancing slowly on the street of Wuan City. It then arrived at a rather secluded area, in front of a medicine store named Five Savors Hall. “Neigh~~” The coachman halted the carriage and jumped off hastily. He then shouted respectfully, “Master, we have arrived at the medicine store, Five Savors Hall.”

The door curtains opened, and three people stepped down the carriage. All three of them wore felt hats and wrapped fur scarves around their faces, showing only three pairs of eyes.

This manner of dressing was not uncommon in such cold weather.

“Yes, wait here.”

Amongst the three people who had just come down from the carriage, there was a young man dressed in a grey coat. He stepped into the Five Savors Hall first, and the other two followed. The Head Physician and two staffs who helped prepare prescriptions were the only people in the Five Savors Hall. Therefore, the Five Savors Hall seemed very empty. However, the Head Physician and his two assistants were actually sitting around the stove, appearing rather content.

“Are you three here to see a doctor?” The Head Physician flicked a glance over as he asked.

“We want to see a doctor in the inner hall,” An elder behind the young man said in a deep tone.

“Inner hall?”

A thoughtful glint flashed across the Head Physician’s eyes, and he immediately stood up to welcome the three. One of the two elderly men behind the young man took out a gold bar from his bosom and threw it toward the Head Physician as he asked, “Ten taels of gold should be enough for three people to go in, right?”

“It’s enough, it’s enough.” The Head Physician grinned as he took the gold bar. After squeezing it, he nodded and took out three black iron cards from his bosom. He handed the three iron cards over and said, “You three may enter.”

If someone from an ordinary medicine store saw this, they might be stunned. Ten taels of gold were equivalent to over a thousand taels of silver. Why would a visit to a doctor cost so much silver? Besides, this was just to enter the inner hall.

......

The young man and the two elders walked into the inner hall through the side door. They then saw two cold-looking men in black standing in the hallway.

“Eh?” One of the men in black stopped them immediately.

“Three people.” The slightly plump elder handed over the three black iron cards. The man in black took it and nodded as he said, “Come with me!”

They continued advancing, and as they followed through a passageway, they arrived at a luxurious mansion. In this mansion, men dressed in black leather coats could be seen everywhere. The young man and the two elders didn’t dare to stray off. They continued following the man in black and advancing further.

Soon, they arrived in a quiet room.

“You three wait a while. The supervisor will be here soon,” The man in black said as he stood before the door. “You three can rest in this room.”

“Second Uncle, is the Hall of Assassins really as powerful as you claimed?” The young man felt slightly hesitant.

“Hong, you will know later,” The slightly plump elder said.

The tall elder by the side whispered, “Hong, when we meet the supervisor of Hall of Assassins, he will tell you whether or not the Hall of Assassins can solve our clan’s problem. The Rising Sun Trading Company is the force behind the Hall of Assassins. Therefore, if Hall of Assassins can’t do it, the other assassination organizations won’t be able to do it.

The sounds of footsteps rang out.

Dressed in white leather coat, a skinny middle-aged, cold-looking man with sunken eyes walked into the room.

“Vice Supervisor,” The man dressed in black saluted respectfully.

“Yes.”

The skinny middle-aged man waved his hand, and the man in black left immediately. At this moment, the three guests and the supervisor were the only people in the room.

“There is no need to cover your faces here,” The skinny middle-aged man said with a smile.

Hearing this, the young man and the two elders unwrapped the fur scarves which covered their faces. With a smile, the middle-aged man walked to a seat and sat down. He then said, “Please sit.”

“I wonder what problem you three would like the Hall of Assassins to solve?” The Vice Supervisor asked as he scrutinized the three people.

“I want the Hall of Assassins to help me kill someone!” The young man gnashed his teeth as he said this. His facial muscles twitched as he continued saying, “...Dong Zhezi of Dong Clan in East Flower Region!”

“Dong Zhezi?” The Vice Supervisor was astonished when he heard this.

“Why? Does the Hall of Assassins have no audacity to accept this request?” The young man sneered.

The Vice Supervisor peered at the young man and grinned. “This must be the Third Young Master of the Jiang Clan...... Oh, no. It should be the newly-appointed Patriarch of the Jiang Clan. It’s no wonder you want to kill Dong Zhezi.” The young man and the other two elders were not surprised that the Vice Supervisor knew their identities.

They all knew about the ability of the Hall of Assassins of the Rising Sun Trading Company. So, it would be weird if they didn’t know the Third Young Master of the Jiang Clan.

“This Dong Zhezi... the Jiang Clan wishes to eat his flesh and drink his blood.” An ominous glint flashed in the young man’s eyes. He could never forget the images. Those days had been the most nightmarish days of his whole life. Whenever he thought about those days, he would feel so angry that his entire body would shiver.

The slightly plump elder at the side immediately patted the young man’s shoulder.

“A Martial Saint would be required to undertake the task of killing Dong Zhezi,” The Vice Supervisor said with a smile as he took out a pile of extremely thin papers. “Hall of Assassins... has the most powerful assassins. The details are described on this piece of paper. You can choose who you want to undertake the mission. Of course... the price will also vary depending on who you choose.”

The Vice Supervisor handed the paper as he said this.

The young man took the piece of paper, unfolded it and read it with the two elders beside him. As the young man perused the contents of the piece of paper, he showed a sense of joy.

“Apex Martial Saints?” The young man showed an expression of jubilation.

“The Hall of Assassins is indeed powerful” The elder at the side praised. Normally, it was already good for a great clan to have one Martial Saint, but in this description of the Hall of Assassins, there were quite a few Martial Saints...... One could tell just how terrifyingly powerful the Rising Sun Trading Company was. The paper described the strength of the Hall of Assassins, but there were no descriptions of the assassins’ identities.

“If the Apex Martial Saint handles this mission, as long as he takes a bit of caution, he can definitely kill that bitch.” The young man couldn’t hide the joy in his heart.

“This is—”

The young man flipped to the last page.

“Most Powerful Martial Saint?” The young man and the two elders at the side were slightly surprised. The thin and tall elder then inquired, “Supervisor, this Most Powerful Martial Saint...? We have never heard of this cultivation rank.”

The Vice Supervisor revealed a proud expression as he answered, “This Most Powerful Martial Saint is a rank that the Hall of Assassins recently established. In the entire Duanmu Continent, no other assassination organizations have such a powerful expert... I can tell you that if this Most Powerful Martial Saint is the one that takes action, if the target is anything aside from a Martial Immortal...... Hmph.”

“Perhaps it is the Rising Sun Martial—” The young man cried out involuntarily in astonishment.

“Hmph.”

The Vice Supervisor’s face darkened as he scolded, “The identity of the powerful expert is none of your business.”

The two elders pulled at the young man hastily, while the young man himself also knew he had said something wrong.

“I can tell you all that if the Most Powerful Martial Saint takes action, there will be no problem.” The Vice Supervisor was very confident.

“That bitch...” A vicious glint flashed in the young man’s eyes as he gnashed his teeth and said, “If I want to make a request, I may as well request for the most powerful one! I want to request the Most Powerful Martial Saint to catch that bitch alive and hand her to the Jiang Clan. Tell me, what’s the price?!” The young man was already prepared to spend a fortune. Meanwhile, the two elders beside him remained silent.

The Vice Supervisor shook his head with a smile. “What kind of status does this Most Powerful Martial Saint have? He doesn’t care about money! The only way to request for him is if you have one of the thirty-six stone inscriptions left by the Godly Axe Mountain, Great the Yu. When the mission is accomplished, you must give the stone inscription to this Most Powerful Martial Saint for three years. It will then be returned to you after three years. The Hall of Assassins will act as the guarantor.”

“Of course, it will be slightly troublesome if you want the Most Powerful Martial Saint to catch Dong Zhezi alive,” The Vice Supervisor added.

Recently, there had been a few customers who wanted the Most Powerful Martial Saint to take action.

Unfortunately...

None of those customers had one of the thirty-six stone inscriptions. The Vice Supervisor was also doing things according to the arrangements of the higher positions. He just told the customers what he should say, since the Rising Sun Trading Company didn’t know who were the ones who possessed the thirty-six stone inscriptions anyway. However, since there were thirty-six stone inscriptions in the world, there may be a clan, among those they chose randomly, which possessed one.

“The stone inscriptions of the 《Thirty-six Splitting Mountain Forms》?” The young man was shocked and he could not help but turn to look at the two elders at the side.

At present, they were the highest authority of the Jiang Clan.

The Jiang Clan did have a stone inscription! However, as this stone inscription was very precious, they felt slightly reluctant.

“You three can ponder about it.” The Vice Supervisor smiled and stood up. Then he left the room and closed the door.

The three were the only people left in the room.

“Second Uncle, Six Uncle,” The young man said, hesitating slightly. “If we lend it out, that stone inscription will be returned to us within three years! However, I am worried that the Rising Sun Trading Company will desire the stone inscription. They may emphasize openly about how they value their reputation and will definitely return it to us... However, they may also act viciously against us after they return the stone inscription.”

This was what the two elders were also worried about.

Lending the stone inscription out for three years... That point was fine. .

“Hong.” The slightly plump elder narrowed his eyes and said with a deep tone, “These 《Thirty-six Splitting Mountain Forms》 were known to be legendary. However, the Jiang Clan has possessed one of the stone inscriptions for such a long time and yet no one has ever cultivated some exceptional Axe Art through it! That one stone inscription is not very useful. I think...... how about we lend it to that Most Powerful Martial Saint for three years. Then when the period of three years has passed, we don’t ask for it back. We’ll just ask the Rising Sun Trading Company to auction it off for us.

“This time, Jiang Clan has suffered greatly. Making a comeback, expanding our armed forces, and recruiting more manpower all require the use of money!”

“The stone inscription is useless to us anyway. We should just use it to get some gold. I heard that set of Blunt Vanadium Stone Tablets was sold at a price of over five hundred thousand taels of gold. Logically, the price of this stone inscription shouldn’t be lower than that amount.”

With this, the other two nodded.

“Yes, we will do that!”

The young man’s eyes beamed coldly. “That bitch, Dong Zhezi, tortured my father to death in the dungeon. If I didn’t escape soon enough, even I...... would have been tortured to death by her. This bitch...... even death won’t be able to resolve this anger if I don’t catch her.” He could never forget the nightmarish days of being taken captive.

Whether it was his dignity or his body, both had suffered an unprecedented humiliation, which caused the young man to suffer from a month of nightmares after he escaped. Every day, he would dream of the scene which made him insane.

“That bitch!!! I must torture her to death by myself! I must make her regret!!!”

The young man immediately stood up and headed outside toward the Vice Supervisor.

They had come to an agreement!

If he wanted to request, he might as well request for the most powerful one, the confident Most Powerful Martial Saint!

......

Evening, beside the Crescent Moon Lake below the Godly Axe Mountain:

Smoke could be seen rising from the chimney.

Teng Qingshan was walking in the forest. With each step, his figure flashed, and he darted far away. It appeared slow but was strangely fast.

“It’s not right. It’s still not right.” Teng Qingshan shook his head. At this moment, he was trying to use the Dao of Earth Element he had comprehended in order to create a Qing Gong Body Art which belonged to the Dao of Earth Element! Qing Dong Body Art was now Teng Qingshan’s weak spot.

Suddenly, many figures could be seen coming from afar.

“Mister Teng,” A distant shout rang out.

Teng Qingshan looked into the distance and saw that it was a group of people led by the Sixth Elder of Rising Sun Trading Company. He then smiled and said, “Sixth Elder, why are you here at such a late hour? Perhaps, you have come with some good news?”