The Nine Cauldrons
chapter-149

The next morning, Ji Hong lead nearly 50 members of the Black Armored Army away. Teng Qingshan, Guan Lu, and another 30 Gui Yuan Sect experts remained behind.

Those who were coveting the Red Scaled Beast’s armour weren’t only limited to the Gui Yuan Sect. There were still many people who’d stopped by at the foot of the Blazing Mountain.

……

In the blink of an eye, it had been 26 days since Ji Hong left.

When night fell, Teng Qingshan descended the mountain unfettered and by himself, as he gripped his Reincarnation Spear.

“Lieutenant Teng!” When the Gui Yuan Sect experts in the camp saw that Teng Qingshan had returned, they enthusiastically greeted him. Ever since they’d seen him battle in the center of the lava lake, they’d been extremely understanding about Teng Qingshan’s strength; it was definitely strength that belonged to the «Earthly Ranking», and moreover was probably near the high end of the «Earthly Ranking».

“Lieutenant Teng, did you find the Red Scaled Beast?”

“Haha, considering that all of you were unable to find it, it would also be extremely hard for me to find it.” Teng Qingshan laughed in reply.

“Hmph.” A cold harumph was heard.

Teng Qingshan turned his head as Commander Guan Lu walked out of her own large tent with a cold face, “We were all waiting for you!”

“Haha, let’s eat, let’s eat.” Teng Qingshan let out a laugh; he didn’t feel like bickering with Guan Lu.

“I’ve irritated the woman! Aiya!” Teng Qingshan sat next to the table and glanced at the adjacent Guan Lu. He sighed in his heart, “Didn’t I only win once? I even retained a lot of my strength; furthermore, I didn’t even make your loss seem that bad, yet you’re acting so cold to me.” Teng Qingshan was very helpless.

26 days ago, Ji Hong had just left.

According to Guan Lu, Teng Qingshan and her were to each take one half of the troops to search the mountain. Teng Qingshan, on the other hand, wanted to enter the mountain alone and let Guan Lu lead all of the experts. This caused Guan Lu to be unhappy, and for some inexplicable reason, a fight was proposed.

Even though she knew that Teng Qingshan was strong, Guan Lu still stubbornly wanted to fight.

Ultimately, Teng Qingshan made it look as if Guan Lu had only barely lost in order to save her some face.

Thus, Teng Qingshan was able to move by himself; however, Guan Lu began to complain about Teng Qingshan’s even more.

“Teng Qingshan!” Guan Lu and Teng Qingshan sat a table as they ate their dinners. She seriously said, “It’s already been 26 days, and I’m pretty sure that the Red Scaled Beast has finished transforming. Right now, if we were to enter the Blazing Mountain the danger level would significantly increase. In my opinion, you probably shouldn’t go by yourself. It’s safer if you’re with us.”

Teng Qingshan laughed, “Lieutenant Guan, if the Red Scaled Beast has indeed finished its transformation, it’d be suicide for the people here to fight with it.”

Guan Lu was silent.

Even Innate Realm martial artists were somewhat afraid of a transformed Red Scaled Beast. Whoever sought to risk their life and fight it was equivalent to them committing suicide.

“Looking for Scaled Armor doesn’t just require strength, we should rely on this instead,” Teng Qingshan pointed to his brain, “Don’t worry Lieutenant Guan, I know what to do.”

“Hmph.” Guan Lu’s face frosted over.

She’d approached Teng Qingshan with good intentions in order to let them operate together, but Teng Qingshan hadn’t accepted her good intentions.

Teng Qingshan looked at the cold-faced Guan Lu and softly chuckled, “Lieutenant Guan Lu, I’m going to tell you a secret.”

“Hmm?” Guan Lu’s eyebrows creased as she looked at him.

“Truthfully, you’re quite pretty. If you didn’t harbor a cold expression all day, and smiled instead, I’m positive that many people in the sect would chase after you.” Teng Qingshan teased. When Guan Lu heard this, her eyes instantly widened like round balls, and she was frozen with shock for a second.

She was famous in Gui Yuan Sect for being cold and callous. Moreover, she was young and she occupied a commander position. When all this was combines, what sort of a normal young man would chase after her? In front of her, most of them would be scared witless.

Guan Lu glared at Teng Qingshan and ground her teeth. Finally,

“Hmph.”

In a fit of anger, she threw down her chopsticks and subsequently ran into her tent.

Teng Qingshan looked at the back of Guan Lu’s figure, and laughed as he shook his head. He then satisfyingly took a drink out of his wine cup.

“Women!” Teng Qingshan let out a sigh. In his previous life’s assassin organization, Teng Qingshan had seen seductive female assassins and ice cold female assassins; what sort had Teng Qingshan not seen before? He’d even seen women more ice-cold than Commander Guan. For example, his wife, “Cat”, was a woman as ice-cold as a machine!

Only when she was with Teng Qingshan did she expose her appearance as a normal female.

Truthfully, towards the ice-cold Guan Lu, Teng Qingshan had a trace of good intention at the bottom of his heart.

Perhaps…

This was because in his previous life, his wife had been the same sort of ice-cold person.

“If I was this strong in my previous life, many tragedies wouldn’t have occurred.” Teng Qingshan drank from his wine cup again. Although he was slightly sentimental, his mood was actually quite calm, “The world in my previous life had very thin Spiritual Qi and didn’t have treasures like the Black Fire Spirit Root.”

As he recalled the past 26 days, Teng Qingshan only felt somewhat indifferent.

Truthfully, the real reason that he’d wanted to travel alone was because he’d entered the mountain to train his «Godly Tiger Form Technique», not to find the Red Scaled Beast.

Surely enough, as he’d expected, «Godly Tiger Form Technique» had caused his body’s potential to once again exponentially increase, allowing him to absorb more energy.

However, the amount of the Black Fire Spirit Root’s mysterious energy that was absorbed by Teng Qingshan’s body was related to the length of his training. The longer Teng Qingshan cultivated «Godly Tiger Form Technique», the more energy that he’d absorb. Moreover, this progress seemed to be set at a fixed pace.

Within the 26 days, Teng Qingshan’s level had increased every day!

“During these 26 days, my strength has increased by 10 thousand Jin. Furthermore, at this rate, there seems to be no limit.” Teng Qingshan let out sigh of admiration. The enormous energy that had been harbored by the Black Fire Spirit Root had originally let his strength increase by twenty thousand Jin. Up to now, all together, it had increased his strength by 30 thousand Jin!

His body’s strength had increased from 180 thousand jin to 210 thousand jin!

It hadn’t even been a month.

“Fortunately, this Black Fire Spirit Root ended up in my hands! If it was another martial artist, since they all train inner strength, not their own body’s strength, eating the Black Fire Spirit Root would’ve been a waste on them.” Teng Qingshan sighed as he remembered the other martial artists who’d eaten the Black Fire Spirit Root throughout history.

What a waste!

His own strength had already increased by thirty-thousand Jin, and it was still constantly increasing.

“Even if that innate master ‘Sima Qing’ were to fully display his Innate True Origin power, it would only be around two-hundred thousand Jin.” Teng Qingshan still clearly remembered the fight from a few days ago, “My inner strength rapidly increased my strength by 60 thousand Jin, and I was able to heavily wound him. Of course… Sima Qing’s weak body was probably the cause of this!”

Teng Qingshan was very clear-headed!

Even though Teng Qingshan had killed Sima Qing, he didn’t arrogantly believe that he was invincible.

“Based on Sima Qing’s strength, he should’ve been at the first of the three levels in the Innate Master Realm, the “Emptiness Dan” stage! Moreover, this Sima Qing was proficient at agilely fighting others at close range, as well as escaping. When it came to a genuine head-on close-combat fight, his strength was still quite lacking.” Teng Qingshan guessed that amongst the Innate Master Realm martial artists, Sima Qing would be an inferior person.

He would be the equivalent of a Postliminary expert.

For example, Godly Thunder Blade ‘Hao Yue’, was able to easily slaughter a group of First Rated martial artists.

Even if one was also at the Emptiness Dan stage of the Innate Master Realm, there were also most likely higher and lower rankings.

“Nevertheless, I was able to display overwhelming dominance and kill Sima Qiang. At the very least, I have a sliver of certainty when facing Innate Master ‘Emptiness Dan’ experts.” Teng Qingshan wasn’t unduly humble.

“Ye, tomorrow I should enter the mountain and begin searching for the Red Scaled Beast!” Teng Qingshan stopped overthinking the matter.

On the morning of the second day, time had already flown by. It was the ninth month; it was already late autumn, and the weather had turned frigid.

“In the blink of an eye, it’s been three months since I left.” Teng Qingshan unceasingly sighed as he travelled the Blazing Mountain alone. At the beginning of the sixth month, he’d escorted goods to Chu County and had spent 20 days doing so. He’d then resided in the Blazing Mountain for two months. When he left Jiangning, the weather had reflected the scorching heat of June, but now, the weather had turned cold.

Teng Qingshan was like an efficacious monkey as he rapidly transversed the great mountain.

He didn’t feel like taking a detour.

He directly climbed a tall mountain before jumping off of a cliff. The inner strength in his body continued to operate, and his weight sharply declined as he fell into a canyon.

“Peng!”

After falling to the ground, the earth shook, and a hole in the ground appeared. The surrounding ground cracked apart. Teng Qingshan let out a slight laugh as he walked out.

“A 100 Zhang precipice; when I combine both my inner strength and my body’s strength, I really can significantly lessen the force of impact.” Teng Qingshan subsequently left the hole and entered the subterranean lava lake area.

The first place Teng Qingshan searched was the subterranean area!

……

Myriads of martial artists had said that after the Red Scaled Beast had encountered that battle, it would leave the subterranean area in order to undergo its metamorphosis on the surface at a secret location. Thus, numerous people searched the surface!

Although they said this, a plethora of martial artists all knew in their hearts that—

The Red Scaled Beast was most likely still in the subterranean area!

This was because the subterranean area contained a labyrinth of tunnels. Tunnels upon tunnels in the pitch black dark; there were even high ceiling tunnels that could completely accommodate for the Red Scaled Beast’s movement. There were also portions of tunnels that were slightly shorter. However… no one could see through the pitch black and clearly identify the tunnels; therefore, they were afraid.

Moreover, they weren’t willing to go.

“Gugu~~” Behind him, the lava lake was bubbling.

Teng Qingshan directly entered the tunnels and walked very slowly. He held his Reincarnation Spear at the ready, prepared to attack at any time.

“In the dark, my eyes can unexpectedly see this far.” Teng Qingshan silently exclaimed in astonishment. In the pitch-black tunnels, Teng QIngshan was able to see a few tens of Zhang. It must be known that only a month ago, when Teng Qingshan was in the tunnels, he was only able to see a few Zhang.

Ever since he’d cultivated «Godly Tiger Form Technique», Teng Qingshan’s vision capabilities in the dark had clearly risen.

Moreover, his hearing ability had also increased.

“In addition, if I were to completely exhibit my full strength, the skin on my entire body would turn a vague dark red color! It’s tenacity has clearly also increased.” Teng QIngshan was very satisfied with his transformation over the past 26 days. His skin was currently a dark red color and was even more tenacious… this caused Teng Qingshan to think of a beast!

“A Red Scaled Beast! I remember that the first time I chased down the adolescent Red Scaled Beast, its entire body suddenly became extremely red, and its speed increased by leaps and bounds.”

“My sudden increase in my body’s strength has rendered my skin slightly dark red. Only, dark red is unremarkable.”

Teng Qingshan wasn’t an idiot.

He felt that this most likely had something to do with the Black Fire Spirit Root.

The first time he’d voluntarily absorbed the Black Fire Spirit Root’s energy, Teng Qingshan’s eyesight, hearing, skin, and other areas hadn’t changed. However, after actively cultivating and absorbing the energy, progressive transformations had occurred.

“At the very least, in the darkness, I hold the advantage! Moreover, my body’s defenses are even stronger! Of course… it’s not as extreme as the Red Scaled Beast’s!” Teng Qingshan thought of the Red Scaled Beast and couldn’t help but sigh in admiration. When the Red Scaled Beast was just an adolescent, its body’s strength had only been average. However, its scaled armour was terrifying.

Although Teng Qingshan’s strength had increased, the increase wasn’t obvious.

“Hmm?”

Teng Qingshan was walking very nonchalantly, when suddenly, he abruptly turned his head and looked into the distant place. Approximately ten Zhang away was a rather large red colored head that was facing him.

“Red Scaled Beast! Red scaled armor? It… It completed its metamorphosis?” Teng Qingshan was greatly alarmed in his heart, “Hmm? I’m looking straight at it, yet it hasn’t displayed any reaction. Could it be that the Red Scaled Beast can’t see me?”

Teng Qingshan was unclear of the Red Scaled Beast’s vision capabilities.

At the same time, the Red Scaled Beast figured that Teng Qingshan was unable to see it, since it was nearly ten Zhang away. In its eyes, in the pitch-black environment, humans were blind.