The Nine Cauldrons
chapter-5

Teng Qing Shan was sitting opposite to Lin Qing in a coffee shop named Bai Yun which was not far from the communal Willow Tea House. As time flew by the sun already went down the mountain.

“So fast”. Lin Qing looked through the window. A day had passed but she felt as if time had been flying by too quickly. She looked at Teng Qing Shan with a sweet smile. Whenever she looked at him she felt relief. Her empty heart which always made her feel lonely was becoming warmer and warmer.

That time Teng Qing Shan was carrying her on his back and they had gone more than twenty miles on the mountain road. She might never forget that feeling of when she was on his back.

She had never felt safe in her life with a calm spirit like now.

“I wish I could look at him like this time from now until the world ends”. Lin Qing was talking to herself. There had always been an image of a person in her mind who absolutely made her heart tremble with every thought. “No, I cannot be entangled with Teng Qing Shan. It did not matter when staying in An Yi district but now we are in Yang Zhou citadel. If we were noticed Teng Qing Shan could be killed!”

As she thought that she wouldn’t meet Teng Qing Shan from now on she felt extremely upset.

Meeting at Da Xing’An mountain was a fate.

Meeting at An Yi district was fate as well.

Now, meeting again at Yang Zhou citadel Lin Qing still felt as if God had set this up for her.

“The Buddha says, meeting 500 times in the past life can only give you one opportunity to meet again in the next incarnation. Teng Qing Shan and I met each other 3 times by accident; it was exactly as set up by God.” In her heart, she felt truly miserable. “But…. I cannot harm Teng Qing Shan ” The conflicting thoughts confused her.

Teng Qing Shan was quite dispirited. He had been waiting for his younger brother Qing Jiang but he hadn’t appeared.

“Oh?” Teng Qing Shan suddenly paid attention to the music in the coffee shop. It was the lyrics of the song “A match, a dream.” sung by Qi Qin

[TL Note – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chyi_Chin ]

“Lin Qing, how do you feel about this song?” Teng Qing Shan smiled at her and asked.

Lin Qing was suddenly startled. She smiled “This song? Qi Qin just covered this song from Dave Wong.”

“Really? I have only listened to Qi Qin.”

I was surprised. That someone had listened to only one version of this song. Being a fan of one singer doesn’t mean that he ignores all other singers. Lin Qing asked curiously “Why have you just listened to Qi Qin’s song?”

“Because he sang a song named Lang.” Teng Qing Shan answered inattentively.

[TL Note – Lang = wolf ]

“Lang?” She asked doubtfully.

“I have to go now. We will meet again if there is a chance.” Teng Qing Shan smiled and stood up. Lin Qing didn’t say anything when he left. She opened her mouth as she wanted to say something. However, she sat down powerlessly. Listening to the mournful music she smiled painfully “A match, a dream? I should regard everything as a dream.” Immediately she held her glass and drank all the wine at once.

All of a sudden Lin Qing Stood. According to Teng Qing Shan, it was no problem. He just exclaimed some words. Da Xing’ An mountain, An Yi district, or Yang Zhou citadel, three destinations, Teng Qing Shan met Lin Qing constantly; for him, it was just coincidental.

“Whew, whew….”

The wind was blowing strongly at night, the branches of a peach tree were also moving. A shaman was still moving, the sound of air cracking, and the sound of the breeze. Because the sound was muffled with the distance between houses surrounding people were not influenced too much.

Immediately, Teng Qing Shan stopped moving his body, in his eyes there was a sign of doubt.

“How can I enter the higher realm?” his mind was filled with doubt. “I have been practicing for many years. Now this internal force could come out from the skin on every part of my body; apart from my hard facial skin . How can this final step be completed?”

The experienced master had to cope with this difficult circumstance, that is to say, in the end he could not enter the higher realm. Teng Qing Shan was lamenting all the time, his ambition in entering the higher realm was increasing more and more.

He no longer thought about this problem.

“I have been coming to this citadel for 8 days and I have yet to see Qiang Jiang.” Teng Qing Shan was quite nervous, he asked Elena for more information but with absolute certainty she was sure that Qing Jiang had been the manager of Yang Zhou area. Teng Qing Shan didn’t know what to do, he only breathed and closed his eyes.

The scenery around him was very quiet.

“Oamh !” A thick wood door in front of the yard broke into pieces as if it had been attacked by bombs and bullets. A large number of wood pieces like arrows flew quickly surrounding Teng Qing Shan.

He was sitting quietly with folded legs. His hands that immediately became the same as a tiger’s raked the ground strongly, and some holes were made. He turned around to pound the ground. Then like a monkey he immediately jumped onto the house’s roof. Exactly at that time there was a slight sound.

“Poof! Poof! Poof!”

Constantly, three sounds resounded.

Two of three bullets were really close to Teng Qing Shan, almost hitting him.

“Finally, they came.” Teng Qing Shan was lying on the roof observing coldly like a wild wolf. He quietly put his right hand under his ankle drawing a short sword from it. Though in fact it was just a knife used to cut fruit. Having a short sword in hand his motivation was stronger.

“Whew!” In the air, the wind whistled. A big sinewy body suddenly attacked from the front door like a high-speed tank. The man realized that Teng Qing Shan had been on the roof, and without hesitation jumped up. Teng Qing Shan immediately noticed that he was bald with white skin.

At about the same time a slim yellow skinned man appeared at the front door. He was holding a silver gun with a cold glint; same as the hundred-year old ice on a mountain. As the bald man jumped he looked at Teng Qing Shan and fired his gun.

“Poof! Poof!”

Two times he fired the gun. While the bald man jumped up almost simultaneously and perfectly.

If Teng Qing Shan had only paid attention to using his sword to defeat the bald man, he wouldn’t have avoided being attacked by the killer, Magosawa. If he had wanted to avoid the bullet he may have met difficulties fighting against Dole Goth Grove. In this short period of time, Teng Qing Shan hardly had any options.

“Hah!”

At the time Magosawa shot, in a jiffy, Dole Goth Grove jumped up. Immediately Teng Qing Shan without hesitation destroyed the house’s roof, and directly jumped down.

He lowered himself causing his two enemies to miss.

Ten Qing Shan with a thunderous gaze, looked at the roof. His right hand was steady. Suddenly he waved his hand—

“Huu!”

In the bright side as well as the dark side of the dawn, the colorful throwing knife looked like a line of thunder in the air, and pierced the roof.

“Shew!” that familiar sound resounded, which made Teng Qing Shan smile a little.

Ten Qing Shan with impressive reflexes jumped up with all his body into his room. He put his hands under the bed, and took out five knives. Buying knives to cut fruit was simple in the city. Ten Qing Shan touched his pants. Ten knives were all placed in his pockets.

“Bong!”

All of a sudden bricks fell on Teng Qing Shan’s head and crumbled. A huge body that looked like a prehistoric monster fell from above.

“Dole Goth Grove! If I fight against this monster the chances of success won’t be a high. Moreover, once attacked by him I will absolutely be killed by Magosawa’s gun!”

Teng Qing Shan was immediately flustered. He pounded the floor strongly, like a great elephant while he was moved behind a few metres. Then, using his own energy, like a tiger he jumped into the yard.

Being a user of Xing Yi Quan Ten Qing Shan was very very fast.

Jumping from his room to the yard in the cold early morning air as bullets followed him!

“Poof!”

A carefully aimed bullet quickly flew in the same direction as Teng Qing Shan to stop him.

Teng Qing Shan being well prepared immediately took out a knife from his pocket.

His shiny knife edge, slid some meters to precisely meet the bullet.

“Teng!” That bullet of course flew to the side.

But at the same time different bullets continued to fly. In terms of power Teng Qing Shan’s knife was stronger than the bullets. Concerning speed however, where Teng Qing Shan threw a knife, the enemy was equipped with a gun that could fire a relatively high number of bullets.

“Hanh.” Teng Qing Shan was in the middle of the air. He twisted with a body looking like a dragon. The bullet shot directly to the right hand of Teng Qing Shan, in a glance, his hand looked like a string of stretched cow tendons. Immediately his hand twisted as well as moved towards the projectile. All of his arm that resembled strings of cow tendons were twisting. A spiral glass machine was produced.

“Poof!”

That spiral machine gushed like arrowheads, striking the tip of the bullet greatly reducing its power. When the bullet impacted the muscles, they would be hampered by its durability. .

“Hanh.” In a glance, the bullet was immediately stopped by the muscles and fell down on the ground. The bullet when falling to the ground resounded a fresh sound which caused not only Magosawa but also Dole Goth Grove to smile.

One stood in front of the yard’s entrance. The other stood next to the door in the room.

The two of them looked at Teng Qing Shan and laughed.

Teng Qing Shan stood under the peach tree in the corner of the yard, with a calm face.

“It is rumored that “throwing knives” could have been used to kill the Red Organization. Even though I shot two bullets you have only been injured a little. The power in your muscles is something that I could not reach. Magnificent!” Magosawa looked like a handsome boy.

His eyes were cold and cruel, like a poisonous snake in the Amazon forest.

Teng Qing Shan knew that Magosawa was a user of “Bagua Zhang”. His real age was approximately the same as mine and he practiced the internal force. Co-coordinating with short guns proved that he was the Messenger of Death which frightened everyone.

“Lang, you are strong. I Dole Goth Grove admire you. You should kill yourself now.” The tall white- skinned man who looked like a Northern bear said…

Teng Qing Shan looked at the bullet on the ground with a little of his blood.

Teng Qing Shan breathed a deep breath. In his heart he knew, even though he was yet to reach the higher realm his power in muscles reached an extremely high level. The problem was that he could not fight against this bullet easily. The fact that this bullet influenced the energy of his right hand as well as of all his body was quite shocking.

“Seeing your bullet resistance, I suppose that you have attained the S- level, yet you are just short of reaching the higher realm.” Magosawa breathed a deep breath, “What a pity! You will still be a dead shaman.” Both of them were in top condition, but Teng Qing Shan was injured, which gave them no doubt about their victory. “Lang. As the same kind of practitioner I respect you. You should commit suicide now to save some face.” Magosawa said.

Killers like them fought strongly until they injured their head or cracked their body, which is normal. Letting Teng Qing Shan die in that way, two of his enemies felt a bit of pity.

“Suicide?” Teng Qing Shan looked at them as if a knife had slid through their eyes. “What a joke! Who lives? Who dies? No one knows. I am here. Come and take my life if you can!”