The Nine Cauldrons

Inside the inner court of Teng Qingshan’s residence in Yi City:

Boom!

In the dark cloud covered sky, an explosive sound suddenly rang out. Then a winding lightning bolt as thick as a child’s arm struck down, and the rain pouring down between the heavens and the earth grew heavier. For a moment, the borderless heavens and earth seemed like it was all a world of rain. Inside the courtyard, Zhuge Yuanhong, Teng Shou, Li Jun, and Xue Xin were standing on the veranda, and their four faces displayed expressions of worry that were difficult to conceal.

"Teacher’s wife, Teacher will definitely be fine. Don’t worry," Xue Xin spoke softly, unable to bear the stifling mood.

"Mm."

Li Jun looked toward Zhuge Yuanhong and said quietly, "Sovereign Zhuge, do you think Qingshan, he..."

"Li Jun, relax. Qingshan has the help of the Six Legged Bladelike Chi. Moreover, he also has the wonderful treasure, the Grass of Immortality. Even if he can’t kill his enemy, he can still defend himself. Additionally, as long as he manages to flee to the Heavenly Cloud Mountain, he’ll be fine." Zhuge Yuanhong said all this, but he himself felt that his words weren’t persuasive. In his heart, he wasn’t certain either.

Information about the Six Legged Bladelike Chi’s bizarreness had long since spread around.

If the enemies had the audacity to come after the Six Legged Bladelike Chi and Teng Qingshan, then it meant that those enemies definitely had a way of dealing with them.

"Qingshan, you mustn’t die. You can’t die!" Zhuge Yuanhong cried out inwardly.

Li Jun softly stroked her belly, inside which there was a small life that had yet to be born. Inwardly, she said silently, "Qingshan, our child hasn’t been born yet. I don’t want my child to be born fatherless. Hurry up and come back. I beg of you, please come back quickly." There were tears brimming Li Jun’s eyes.

"Teacher."

Teng Shou and Xue Xin also raised their heads in silent anticipation.

They had no way of helping Teng Qingshan at all and could only silently hope and anticipate.

Pa! Pa! Pa!

The pitter-patter of that torrential rain pounding on the ground fell incessantly upon their ears, seeming as though the sound of this rain was the only thing existing in the world.

"You~~~" A resoundingly clear sound of a stirring happiness penetrated through the endless screen of water from an extremely distant place, directly reaching this inner courtyard.

The familiar sound instantly caused Li Jun and Teng Shou to display hints of smiles.

"It’s Little Blue." Teng Shou raised his head to look.

"Little Blue’s coming. Little Blue’s coming!" Even ignoring the rain, Li Jun immediately rushed to the spacious and empty training field. She raised her head to look while letting out a string of hoots.

"Youyou~Youyouyou~~~" The voice of the Undying Phoenix, Little Blue, rang out again. Simultaneously, a faint stream of fire-red light then rushed over at a flying speed amidst the rainstorm.

Li Jun suddenly turned her head, and her long hair, wet from the rain, flicked to the side gracefully with a spray of rainwater. Pleasantly surprised, she yelled to Teng Shou, Zhuge Yuanhong, and the others, "Qingshan is fine. He’s fine. He’s great." After yelling that, she raised her head back up toward the sky and saw several beams of light descending almost simultaneously into the training field beside her.

The naturally powerful pressure of the two giant fire-red divine birds that were immersed in flames, the Undying Phoenixes, stagnated the atmosphere all throughout the inner courtyard.

"Chichi~~~"

The surrounding rainwater immediately turned into vapor. This ordinary rainwater simply couldn’t touch the Undying Phoenixes. For a moment, quite a lot of steam arose from the training field. Amidst the mist, there was still the Six Legged Bladelike Chi, whose injuries had already recovered a lot; the Dreamy Cloud Martial Immortal—Mu Tao—who was carrying a giant wolf-headed war saber; as well as Teng Qingshan, who was carrying the Splitting Mountain Axe.

"Qingshan——"

The moment Li Jun saw Teng Qingshan, her eyes reddened, and she immediately dashed over to hug him, burying herself in his embrace. Before this, the whole time while she had been waiting anxiously in fear, she hadn’t cried. However, now that she saw that Teng Qingshan had returned safe and well, she could not stop crying.

"Li Jun, I’m fine, I’m fine." Teng Qingshan softly caressed Little Jun’s beautiful hair while showing a hint of a smile.

Li Jun’s tears and the rainwater mixed together on her face as she raised her head tearfully to look at Teng Qingshan. "Qingshan, I’ve been so scared. I’ve been so scared... so scared that you wouldn’t reach the Heavenly Cloud Mountain in time. The distance between Great Yan Mountain and the Heavenly Cloud Mountain is so great. Qingshan, if you... I... I wouldn’t be able to live on either... I would die with our unborn child."

"Everything’s fine," Teng Qingshan said softly, slowly asserting her. "And nothing will happen again in the future either."

"Yu~~"

A resentful chirp rang out, and a head that seemed to be wearing a crown stretched over. There was a pair of faintly dream-like eyes that carried a hint of resentment staring at Li Jun.

"Little Blue." With just a glance, Li Jun reached out her hands and hugged the neck of the Undying Phoenix, Little Blue. Li Jun drowned Little Blue in love, hugging and using her face to rub against Little Blue’s neck feathers.

It was at this moment that Little Blue chirped happily. Although she had originally followed Teng Qingshan and gained a good comprehension of the Dao from using his fist art as the foundation, Teng Qingshan was just a friend to Little Blue, someone who was kind to her. However, as Li Jun knew the language of beasts, Little Blue treated her as a truly close friend.

"Qingshan." Zhuge Yuanhong walked over with a smiling face.

Seeing Zhuge Yuanhong now, it was simply impossible to imagine just how worried he had been before.

"Teacher..."

Teng Qingshan showed a small smile. "Nothing will happen anymore in the future. Teacher, let me introduce someone to you——"

As he said this, Teng Qingshan pointed at Little Blue, who was next to him. "Teacher, this is the Undying Phoenix, Little Blue, whom I spoke to you about previously. The one who accompanied me in drifting on the sea and entering Duanmu Continent. As for this other being... She’s that Undying Phoenix I wrote about while I was in the Land of the Nine Prefectures, the one who followed the Omnipotent Expert and Poetic Sword God—Li Taibai."

Little Blue very benevolently nodded her head toward Zhuge Yuanhong.

However, her mother merely shot an ice-cold glance at Zhuge Yuanhong and then didn’t pay any further attention to him. She appeared to be very arrogant.

"Undying Phoenix... Moreover, two of them." Inwardly, Zhuge Yuanhong exclaimed in admiration and sighed at the same time. "As expected of the legendary existence that is the mythological beast that followed an Omnipotent Expert."

"Teacher, this is Mu Tao, Duanmu Continent’s Dreamy Cloud Martial Immortal, whom I spoke with you about previously. He is also a good friend I made in Duanmu Continent. Mu Tao, this is my teacher, Zhuge Yuanhong." Teng Qingshan smiled as he introduced them.

The gray-haired Mu Tao laughed, cupping his hands together in greeting. "Brother Zhuge is truly amazing to be able to produce such a brilliant disciple. I really admire you."

"Disciple?" Zhuge Yuanhong was slightly puzzled, but he still smiled and cupped his hands together in response. "I can’t thank Senior Mu enough for reaching out and assisting Qingshan."

"Haha, it’s not worth the mention. Moreover, I didn’t actually do anything. I had nothing to do with killing those two Emptiness Realm Culmination Experts. The amazing one was this Undying Phoenix," Mu Tao said with a laugh.

"Killed two Emptiness Realm Culmination Experts?" Zhuge Yuanhong was startled and looked at Teng Qingshan.

Teng Qingshan nodded and confirmed, "Below the Heavenly Cloud Mountain, we mainly depended on Little Blue’s mother. She killed Shengong Tu of the Shooting Sun Mountain God, as well as Yu Tonghai of Emperor Yu’s Hall. Little Blue’s mother is simply formidable. She merely spouted out two puffs of flames and immediately burned two great Emptiness Realm Culmination Experts into ashes."

"Shengong Tu and Yu Tonghai..." In Zhuge Yuanhong’s heart, huge waves of emotions surged up toward the sky. "They’re... dead?"

In the Land of the Nine Prefectures, it was extremely difficult to kill an Emptiness Realm Expert, let alone an Emptiness Realm Culmination Expert.

If one wanted to kill an Emptiness Realm Culmination Expert... an Insightful Emptiness Expert or an Emptiness Realm Culmination Expert Demonic Beast would be required to take action. Otherwise, it required the cooperation of several Emptiness Realm Culmination Experts.

"Teacher," Teng Qingshan saw his teacher’s expression and said solemnly, "so what if we killed them? Don’t tell me... only they can come and kill me, but we can’t kill them?"

"Qingshan, I’m not faulting you. I just... find this somewhat hard to believe," Zhuge Yuanhong said while shaking his head.

Teng Qingshan smiled helplessly. "Teacher, in reality, that’s just a small matter... The biggest matter this time is actually..."

"What is it?" Zhuge Yuanhong sensed that something wasn’t quite right.

"Because Elder Brother Mu Tao just came over to the Nine Prefectures, he doesn’t know about my status. So, when we met, he called out, ’Qingshan, my boy’. Consequently, the escaped Liu Xia of Emperor Yu’s Hall knows my true identity. In other words, from today onward, it’ll be impossible for me to pretend to have a different identity, so I have to reinstate my original identity."

"What?" Zhuge Yuanhong froze.

For a 21-year-old to be an Emptiness Realm Expert, this sort of shocking strength... the upper echelons of whichever one of the great sects would all know the meaning of this piece of information.

"Well, this is still a good thing." Zhuge Yuanhong took in a deep breath. "You can’t hide your name forever. Now, this is a chance for you to make it public. From today onward, just reinstate your name as Teng Qingshan."

"Mm." Teng Qingshan nodded.

"What I’m most worried about now is Emperor Yu’s Hall," Zhuge Yuanhong said with a frown. "For them to have existed for more than 6,000 years, becoming the most ancient sect in all of the Nine Prefectures, they must not be as simple as they seem on the surface... And now that they know your real identity, I don’t know what they’ll do."

*******

Outside Yu City, in the depths of the Blind Bear Mountain Range:

Inside the temple:

"Dead? Tonghai’s dead?" Dressed from head to toe in yellow robes, Huang Tianqin’s expression changed greatly.

"Mm, we had no way of fighting them at all," Liu Xia said with red eyes while gnashing his teeth. "Martial Uncle, two Undying Phoenixes appeared at the same time. In particular, one of them was comparatively more powerful. It spouted out one mouthful of flames and burned Shengong Tu to ashes. We didn’t even have a bit of strength to retaliate. Back when we split up to escape, Yu Tonghai got pursued. Before the Undying Phoenix, he would have undoubtedly died."

Huang Tianqin’s expression was unsightly.

Yu Tonghai... In Emperor Yu’s hall, his position was extremely special. Emperor Yu’s Hall had accepted many disciples. Among the three who had reached the Emptiness Realm—Huang Tianqin, Liu Xia, Yu Tonghai—the first two had been groomed by the sect since young, but they weren’t Emperor Yu’s blood descendants! However, Yu Tonghai was Emperor Yu’s blood descendant! Hence, he held a special position in Emperor Yu’s Hall.

"Additionally, Jing Yi is actually Teng Qingshan!" Liu Xia said with a deep and low voice.

"What?!" Huang Tianqin was scared stiff.

"He’s that Teng Qingshan whom Qinghu Island had pursued to kill till the ends of the earth back then. Last year, he was only 21 years old and already an Emptiness Realm Expert," Liu Xia said anxiously. "Martial Uncle, even the four great Omnipotent Experts aren’t this terrifying!"

Huang Tianqin’s expression changed continuously, from pale to ashen, and then so overcast and heavy that it looked like it would rain.

"Leave now," Huang Tianqi instructed in a low voice.

Liu Xia did not dare say anything else and turned to leave.

Inside the quiet temple, Huang Tianqin was the only person remaining. He respectfully and piously bowed toward the front, calling out softly, "Honored Sir... Honored Sir, this disciple requests your advice on a matter."

"Hm? Why did you wake me up?" A deep and low voice, which seemed like it was coming from the depths of the underground, resounded throughout the quiet temple.