The Nine Cauldrons
chapter-46

“Gu Yong, quick, flee northward,” the Blind Swordmaster said hastily to Gu Yong with the use of the Sound Transmission Technique.

Teng Qingshan was one to two Zhang ahead of the Blind Swordmaster. If Gu Yong ran in the wrong direction, his body would be hacked by Teng Qingshan’s axe. Although Gu Yong was protected by the Divine Armor, his face was exposed. So, with Teng Qingshan’s skills, the axe would definitely slash Gu Yong’s face.

The Blind Swordmaster was located north of Teng Qingshan. Therefore, Gu Yong ran northward, closing in the distance between him and the Blind Swordmaster.

“Yes, Martial Ancestor.”

Gu Yong, who was far off in the distance, remained calm. He instantly determined the most advantageous direction and dashed northwest. However, he had only moved a distance of several Zhang when two streaks of flowing light descended almost simultaneously.

“Cunning old bastard.” Teng Qingshan’s brows raised in anger. The moment Gu Yong fled, Teng Qingshan would lose the advantage which would allow him to win against the Blind Swordmaster. “However, is your running speed as fast as the speed of my axe-shaped flowing light?” Teng Qingshan shouted out when he was several Zhang away from Gu Yong.

“Whoosh!”

Without showing any mercy, Teng Qingshan hacked down fiercely with his axe. Immediately, a semicircular axe-shaped flowing light flew toward Gu Yong rapidly. The Blind Swordmaster’s facial expression changed drastically, and he reacted with a prick of his rod. A black beam of light flew through the illuminating axe-shaped flowing light, which then disintegrated. However, it still enveloped Gu Yong.

As for Gu Yong, he had already lowered his head and was covering his face with his arms as he ran.

“Bang!” The seven or eight axe-shaped beams of flowing light hacked into Gu Yong’s body.

Gu Yong was thrown into the air like a sandbag, and he spurted a mouthful of blood.

“Whoosh.”

The Blind Swordmaster caught Gu Yong in his arms. Then simultaneously, he immediately ascended into the sky and hovered in midair.

“Are you alright?” The Blind Swordmaster asked Gu Yong.

“I am fine. Thank the heavens for the divine armor,” Gu Yong answered, heaving a sigh of relief. His complexion appeared pale as he hovered in midair with the Blind Swordmaster. Gu Yong stared at the divine armor in shock and said, “Martial Ancestor, this divine armor is powerful indeed. Jing Yi’s attack didn’t leave a mark on the armor, while I have only suffered from blast injury.”

The force of the impact was great, but Gu Yong was a Golden Dan Innate Expert. As such, he had protected himself with the use of the True Origin. Furthermore, the force of impact had weakened when it went through the divine armor. For Gu Yong to have only received this blast injury, it was already considered fortunate.

……

Teng Qingshan stood on the ground. The great number of Qing Hu Island soldiers in the distance had no audacity to approach him.

He looked up at the Blind Swordmaster, who was hovering in midair, and bellowed furiously, “Tie Wu, are you so scared that you don’t dare to come down?” The voice sounded like the rumbling of thunder, causing many soldiers of Qing Hu Island to cover their ears in pain.

“Hmph.” The Blind Swordmaster humphed and ignored Teng Qingshan.

“To think that Gu Yong didn’t actually die.” Teng Qingshan stared at Gu Yong while thinking, “Even though my detached axe-shaped light disintegrated because of the Blind Swordmaster’s rod, it would still have exhibited a powerful effect that even Golden Dan Innate Experts cannot handle. Even someone as strong as ten Golden Dan Innate Experts would die.”

However, the silver battle armor donned by Gu Yong…!

“There is not even one mark on it? The attack of an Emptiness Realm Expert can’t even leave a mark on that armor?” Teng Qingshan had excellent vision. Even though Gu Yong was about two hundred Zhang above the ground, Teng Qingshan still saw clearly.

“What kind of armor is that?” Teng Qingshan had never seen such armor. He came to an understanding that this suit of armor had saved Gu Yong’s life.

Teng Qingshan cast a glance back and smiled.

At this moment, the army of the Gui Yuan Sect was guarding cautiously on the walls of Jiangning County-City. The army of Qing Hu island had already retreated away from the city walls as the battle had halted temporarily. Actually, there was no choice but to stop the war… The Longgang Guards of Gui Yuan Sect were like the Golden Scale Guards of Qing Hu Island. Moreover, the Longgang Guards outnumbered the Golden Scale Guards greatly!

Attacking the Jiangning County-City would be suicidal.

The troops which had come from three directions naturally chose to stop the battle temporarily.

Now that Teng Qingshan was no longer worried about the Gui Yuan Sect, his attention diverted to the armor that Gu Yong was wearing. “What armor was that?” He thought to himself.

“Tie Wu, I didn’t expect that instead of wearing that precious armor yourself, you would actually let Gu Yong wear it. You really care about him,” Teng Qingshan said with the use of the Sound Transmission Technique.

While flying in midair, the black-clothed blind man sneered coldly and replied with the use of the Sound Transmission Technique, “Hmph, why? Are you jealous? I guess even the Heavenly God Palace has possession of only two godly armors. You weren’t qualified to get one, right?”

“Godly armor?” As Teng Qingshan heard the Blind Swordmaster’s words, he immediately knew…

Godly armors were very rare.

According to the Blind Swordmaster, even a great force like the Heavenly God Palace had possession of only one or two godly armor.

Actually, the Blind Swordmaster thought that Teng Qingshan’s background was the Heavenly God Palace and had assumed that Teng Qingshan already knew about the godly armor. Therefore, the Blind Swordmaster didn’t keep it a secret.

“Where did Qing Hu Island get this godly armor?” Teng Qingshan asked with the use of the Sound Transmission Technique.

“Hmph, it’s not from the Heavenly God Palace.” The Blind Swordmaster was standing in midair. At this moment, he had no time to talk nonsense with Teng Qingshan. Instead, he was observing the armies of the Gui Yuan Sect and the armies of his Qing Hu Island. Simultaneously, using the Sound Transmission Technique, he communicated with the two of the three generals who led the three great armies. The generals only needed to speak. Even if they were several Li away from each other, the Blind Swordmaster would still be able to hear them.

“Eh?”

When the Blind Swordmaster heard the reports given by the two generals within his domain, he was utterly shocked. “Such powerful army? The Gui Yuan Sect has such a powerful army? No way! It must be a troop of the Heavenly God Palace!

“Being able to foster an such an elite and great-numbered troop, the Heavenly God Palace is truly terrifying.

“It is just as I have expected. The Heavenly God Palace had such plans since the beginning. They have already deployed an elite troop to Jiangning County City. When the Heavenly God Palace attacks Yangzhou, the Gui Yuan Sect will work on the inside. Yangzhou will then be conquered entirely by the Heavenly God Palace,” the Blind Swordmaster deduced.

He didn’t believe that the Gui Yuan Sect, a sect which only controlled a land of one county, could possess such a great number of First Rated Warriors!

……

The Blind Swordmaster was in midair. Teng Qingshan couldn’t fly, but the Blind Swordmaster couldn’t kill Zhuge Yuanhong and the others either.

This was because—

An Emptiness Realm Expert could leap over a hundred Zhang high, which was much higher than the walls of Jiangning County City. Therefore, if the Blind Swordmaster descended several Zhang, Teng Qingshan would be able to attack him with just a leap. If Teng Qingshan was able to hold him down, it would be very troublesome for the Blind Swordmaster.

The Blind Swordmaster had to protect Gu Yong. So, he couldn’t fight whole-heartedly with Teng Qingshan.

As the Blind Swordmaster’s expression darkened with rage, the Blind Swordmaster issued the command begrudgingly, “Retreat!”

Then suddenly…

Upon receiving the order, the two generals standing within the Blind Swordmaster’s domain let out a sigh of relief. The two troops that were attacking the east wall and the north wall immediately began retreating. When the troop situated near the west wall heard the order, they too retreated.

As Teng Qingshan looked down below, the Blind Swordmaster humphed coldly and said with the use of the Sound Transmission Technique, “Hmph, Jing Yi, you’re lucky today.”

“Let’s go.” With this, the Blind Swordmaster immediately led Gu Yong away and pierced through the air, disappearing into the sky.

……

Amidst the clouds, there were only Gu Yong and the Blind Swordmaster.

“Martial Ancestor, is Jing Yi so powerful that even you can’t kill him?” Gu Yong had witnessed how the Blind Swordmaster had thrown him far away and then proceeded to attack Jing Yi. Even so, the Blind Swordmaster still hadn’t managed to kill Jing Yi. In fact, he hadn’t even managed to wound Jing Yi.

“Of course, he’s no match against me,” the Blind Swordmaster said confidently. “However, because I had to protect you today, I was not able to use my full strength! When I hurled you far away and attacked Jing Yi, I attacked him with the wrong move. At that time, I used the fastest move, which was my most skilled move. If Jing Yi failed to defend against even one move, he would had died.

“However, I didn’t expect that his defense would be even more exquisite and marvelous than my moves,” the Blind Swordmaster said with a sigh.

“Therefore, no matter how fast and how smart my moves were, they were useless against Jing Yi’s defensive moves.

“If I really wanted to kill him, I wouldn’t need to use any smart moves. I only needed to attack him with my most powerful force! If I use all 100 percent of the Power of the Heavens and the Earth, and instill all that power in that one sword strike…! If I pressure him with my full force… Even if he manages to defend against that full force, he will definitely make some mistakes. And when he does, I will seize that chance and kill him,” the Blind Swordmaster said.

In the past, the Blind Swordmaster had never really liked pressuring someone with his full force. This was because he was meticulously skilled in the art of sword.

However—

He had never expected to meet Teng Qingshan, someone whose moves were even more skilled than his. Actually, the Blind Swordmaster was not at fault. No matter how powerful the Blind Swordmaster’s moves were, how could they be compared with the 《Thirty-six Splitting Mountain Forms》 which had been created by Emperor Yu?

“Unfortunately, you were beside me. So, I didn’t dare to take any risk,” the Blind Swordmaster said.

The Blind Swordmaster pulled Gu Yong, transformed into a flowing light, and flew toward Qing Hu Island.

On the walls of Jiangning County-City, a great number of the soldiers and disciples of the Gui Yuan Sect were all busy with attending to the wounded and carrying the corpses of the dead. Joy could be seen on most of the survivors’ faces.

Qing Hu Island, one of the eight Supreme Sects, had attacked again, but the Gui Yuan Sect had actually won once more.

“The Gui Yuan Sect is safe.”

Teng Qingshan turned and strolled toward the city gate. Many disciples and soldiers of the Gui Yuan Sect looked toward Teng Qingshan with admiration and respect. Of course, gratitude could be seen on their faces as well! They had all watched the battle between the two Emptiness Realm Experts. So, they all knew that it was Senior Jing Yi who had fought and guarded the Gui Yuan Sect against the black-cloaked blind man of Qing Hu Island.

“Whoosh!”

Teng Qingshan leaped up like a shooting arrow and then descended upon the city walls.

“Senior Jing Yi.” Immediately, the people in the surroundings, including Elder Yan, Elder Ni, Zhang Feng, all came to show their gratitude. Elder Yan was so excited that he even knelt on the ground.

“Please don’t, please don’t.” Teng Qingshan hastily supported Elder Yan up.

These were all things that he should do!

After all, he was a member of the Gui Yuan Sect!

Zhuge Yuanhong, who was at the side, smiled as he stared at Teng Qingshan. He recalled back when Teng Qingshan took the test to join the Gui Yuan Sect and when Teng Qingshan fought the disciple of the Cangjiang Swordmaster, Yue Song. At that time, Zhuge Yuanhong had already known that Teng Qingshan possessed boundless prospects.

“Boundless prospects… Indeed,” Zhuge Yuanhong sighed as he thought of the past, “The Heavenly Eyed Swordmaster is known to be an expert who has attained the culmination of the Emptiness Realm.”

At this moment…

“Yun.” A beautiful figure appeared on the city wall. She held two toddlers and dashed rapidly toward Zhuge Yun.

Teng Qingshan stared at the familiar figure. It was his sister…

His own sister, Qingyu!

“Qingyu.” Zhuge Yun had already removed his armor. His wounds were bandaged as well. Despite his pale complexion, Zhuge Yun’s expression brightened as he rushed toward Qingyu.

“Father!” The voices of the toddlers called out.

Qingyu’s eyes were red and puffy. As she stared at the red bloodstains on the white cloth which bound up Zhuge Yun’s wounds, tears welled up in her eyes. “Yun.. You…”

“It’s alright. Everything is fine. Everything is over.” Zhuge Yun held one of the two toddlers While tears leaked from his eyes. “I am willing to be disabled as long as I am able to see you and the kids again.”

Teng Qingshan stood at the side. He stared quietly at the sister he loved the most. Suddenly, he felt that all the effort he had expended was worth it.

As long as he could see the happy smile on her face…

As long as he could see the bright smiles on the faces of his fellow clan members, then everything was worth it..

Suddenly, Teng Qingshan felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned and saw that it was Zhuge Yuanhong. Zhuge Yuanhong smiled at him and said, “Everything is over. The Gui Yuan Sect is safe. It’s all good.”

“Yes, it’s all good.” Teng Qingshan nodded and grinned.

Then suddenly, he sensed something was approaching and looked up at the sky.

A beam of swordlight pierced through the air and shot toward Teng Qingshan.

“Senior Jing Yi, be careful!” Elder Ni was the first to scream out loud. They all knew that Emptiness Realm Experts capable of flying were experts who stood on the pinnacle of the Emptiness Realm.

“It’s alright.” Teng Qingshan smiled as he walked over.

As the beam of swordlight descended before Teng Qingshan, it transformed into a human figure. It was the Sovereign of the Sword Sect, the indifferent-looking white-browed man who donned a black cloak.

“Brother Huhe, what happened? Where are the men of Qing Hu Island?” He inquired with a confused expression.

Pei San had ordered the Sovereign of the Sword Sect to chase away the army of Qing Hu Island and protect the Gui Yuan Sect.

“Brother Li, the men from Qing Hu Island have already left,” Teng Qingshan said with a smile.