The Nine Cauldrons
chapter-554

WhewWhew~~

The Great Yan Mountain seemed to be coated in silver. The feathery snow was falling from the sky, but none of the Internal Martial Arts cultivators in the Xing Yi Sect seemed to care about the heavy snowfall. Many of them were only wearing a shirt as they arduously practiced the fist art. Breathing sounds could be heard everywhere in the Xing Yi Sect. Many disciples were even cultivating in pairs. The sounds of fists clashing could be heard as well.

In the Xing Yi Sect, there was a very quiet house on top of a mountain called Dragon Tiger Mountain.

This was the residence of Substitute Sovereign Yang Dong.

On the balcony on the third floor of this house, Yang Dong could be seen dressed in a purple cloak. The house was located on the peak of the Dragon Tiger Mountain. As Yang Dong stood on a high place, he could easily see many places at the bottom of the mountain. There were over ten million disciples practicing their fist arts. And now, Yang Dong, who had started a family, looked much more mature than back then. He had even grown a mustache that was split in the middle.

"Back then, I just wanted to be the leader of a gang of bandits. Who would have thought that I would end up in charge of such a great sect!?" Yang Dong stood highly and looked at the numerous disciples cultivating down below. Momentarily, he felt extremely great.

After all, Teng Qingshan had chosen not to associate himself with the worldly matters, and so, he rarely dealt with the matters of the sect.

In addition, Yang Dong was very good at managing the sect.

"Eh?" Suddenly, Yang Dong frowned as he looked down at the courtyard down below.

"Lord! Lord! A secret letter from Youzhou," someone shouted outside the courtyard door. The maid in the courtyard down below looked up at Yang Dong. Yang Dong nodded slightly in approval and the maid then opened the door.

Whew!

Yang Dong jumped and fluttered down from the third floor, descending in the courtyard of the house.

"What is this secret letter? What is so urgent that they sent it directly to me?" Yang Dong frowned.

"Lord, look at this." The young disciple immediately handed the secret letter over.

After Yang Dong took the letter, he opened it. As he read, his facial expression changed drastically.

A cold glint flashed in Yang Dong's eyes as he roared, "Who the f*ck has such audacity!?"

"Leave," Yang Dong ordered as he waved his hands.

"Yes." The young disciple then left.

Yang Dong stood on the snowy ground and thought for a while. He then headed outside. At this moment, a beautiful, white-cloaked woman walked over and said with a smile, "Dong, it's almost lunchtime. Why are you going out?"

"Hm, I am going to see Teacher. I will be right back," Yang Dong said and quickly left.

"Visit the Sovereign?" the young woman mumbled to herself as she watched her husband exit the house. "Normally, Dong is able to deal with all the matters in the sect. He rarely bothers the Sovereign. What matter requires him to ask the Sovereign for instructions?"

Under a pavilion, Teng Qingshan and his family sat around an exquisite, dark red wooden table, eating lunch together. It was a joy to eat while watching the snowflakes fall in the surroundings.

"Teacher," Yang Dong greeted as he walked into the pavilion.

"Dong." Teng Qingshan smiled and placed his chopsticks down before he asked, "Have you eaten? If not, please join us."

Instead of answering, Yang Dong took out a letter and said, "Teacher, please take a look at this."

"Oh?"

Perceiving Yang Dong's bizarre expression, Teng Qingshan couldn't bother with anything else as he hastily took the secret letter. Seeing this, Li Jun, Honglin, and Hongwu all glanced over curiously. Honglin even mumbled, "What's so mysterious?"

Flip!

Teng Qingshan opened the letter and saw that it was personally written by the manager of Qingshan Enterprise, who was currently in Blood Blade County of Youzhou. The manager said that he was visited by a very mysterious Innate Expert last night. This Innate Expert had his face covered. He displayed some of his strength and departed after leaving a secret letter.

The secret letter sent by that Innate Expert said that…

The acts of impeding and slaughtering Internal Martial Arts cultivators will happen in Yanzhou in the Land of the Nine Prefectures within less than one month.

"What?" Teng Qingshan's facial expression changed.

"Yanzhou?" Li Jun, who was reading the letter by Teng Qingshan's side, was also very astonished. "Qingshan, the branch of Qingshan Enterprise in the region of Yanzhou normally takes in many cultivators who desire to join the Xing Yi Sect and escorts them all the way to Yangzhou. They transport few hundred or even over a thousand people. If all these cultivators were obstructed and killed…"

Teng Qingshan nodded to himself as he pondered deeply.

"Teacher, we must prevent this from happening." Yang Dong said anxiously, "Although nothing like this has happened in the past, we have to be careful. After all, this message was from a very mysterious Innate Expert in Youzhou."

If it was from an ordinary person, the letter would have never gotten into the hands of Substitute Sovereign Yang Dong.

However, if the informant was a mysterious Innate Expert, then the significance of the letter would be distinctly different.

"I know," Teng Qingshan said with a frown.

"Which cold-hearted sect plans to slaughter the cultivators of Internal Martial Arts?" Teng Qingshan thought puzzledly.

One should know that Yanzhou was inhabited by 200 to 300 million people. There was an extremely great number of Internal Martial Arts cultivators there. Moreover, because Yanzhou was the nearest prefecture to Yangzhou… most of the foreign Internal Martial Arts cultivators were from Yanzhou! Yanzhou and Qingzhou were the two prefectures nearest to Yangzhou, but Qingzhou was under the control of the Heavenly God Palace.

The Heavenly God Palace was too strong and had absolute power in Qingzhou.

There were people coming from Qingzhou and Youzhou. However, there weren't many.

Compared to Qingzhou and Youzhou, Yanzhou was different. This was because the Shooting Sun God Mountain was afraid of Teng Qingshan! Ever since Shengong Tu died, the Shooting Sun God Mountain had only one Emptiness Realm Expert and the aid of the Shooting Sun Heavenly Wolf. With Teng Qingshan's help, the Gui Yuan Sect could easily destroy the Shooting Sun God Mountain. And so, the Shooting Sun God Mountain feared to do anything that would enrage Teng Qingshan.

The Qingshan Enterprise located in the region of Yanzhou took in many people and escorted over a thousand cultivators to Yangzhou at times.

For many years, the Shooting Sun God Mountain had never taken action against this. They feared that Teng Qingshan would take this opportunity and use this as an excuse to destroy them.

"The Shooting Sun God Mountain doesn't have the audacity to do such a thing!" Yang Dong said out loud as he shook his head. "Many of the other sects have very good relations with the Xing Yi Sect. The sects that could possibly do such a thing would be Mani Temple and Emperor Yu's Hall. However, Mani Temple only cares about their own territory, which means that it must be Emperor Yu's Hall."

"Emperor Yu's Hall?" Teng Qingshan suddenly thought of something.

"Teacher, ever since you publicly humiliated the Emperor Yu's Hall, Emperor Yu's Hall started hating you even more deeply. Maybe they are the ones doing such despicable deeds." After saying that, Yang Dong frowned and questioned himself, "However, would Emperor Yu's Hall really take revenge for that?"

Teng Qingshan's eyes narrowed.

"Dong," Teng Qingshan said in a serious tone.

"Teacher." Yang Dong hastily cupped his hands, and Teng Qingshan ordered, "Ask your Eldest Martial Brother to come here now!"

"Yes!" Yang Dong didn't dare to have any second thoughts as he left hurriedly.

...

In the East Flower Garden, Teng Qingshan was no longer in the mood to dine.

"Qingshan, is Emperor Yu's Hall really this cold-hearted?" Li Jun could no longer remain silent.

"Hmph, I have publicly humiliated them, so they might take revenge for that" Teng Qingshan answered as he shook his head. "However, we have no evidence. Let it be for now. However, no matter what, we must not allow any accidents to happen in Yanzhou. After all, we get most of our disciples from Yanzhou. By killing one batch of cultivators from Yanzhou, they could easily get rid of over a thousand Internal Martial Arts cultivators all at once."

The thought of over a thousand young men who dream of cultivating the profound techniques of Internal Martial Arts being slaughtered just enraged Teng Qingshan. "How dare they target those teenagers!"

There is no smoke without fire. Even if the information originated from a strange place, Teng Qingshan didn't dare to ignore this piece of information.

"Bladelike Chi," Teng Qingshan said.

"Roar~~"

In the Great Yan Mountain, a deep roar sounded. Soon, a stream of light flowed and flashed. Then something landed in the courtyard, making a loud bang. It had an enormous body, blood-red eyes, six bladelike limbs, and two pairs of wings that looked like a cape. It was the Six Legged Bladelike Chi."

"Teacher." Someone dashed inside.

Dressed fully in black, a very muscular man walked in. It was the Eldest Martial Brother of the Xing Yi Sect. In the branch of Internal Martial Arts, Teng Shou was the one whose cultivation level was second to only Teng Qingshan's! Teng Qingshan shot a glance at Teng Shou and couldn't help but praise inwardly. For the past 16 years, his Eldest Disciple had cultivated from the beginning stage of Supreme Force to the last stage of Supreme Force.

Even though Teng Shou had spent fifteen years doing this, Teng Qingshan was already very content with Teng Shou's speed of improvement.

"Shou." Teng Qingshan threw the secret letter and said, "Read this."

With a puzzled expression, Teng Shou took the letter. As he perused, his expression changed. Immediately, he looked up at Teng Qingshan and said, "Teacher…"

"I felt something was weird." Teng Qingshan instructed, "To prepare for any eventualities, you shall depart with the Bladelike Chi to the Qingshan Enterprise located in the region of Yanzhou. I will command them to stagger the transportation times of the disciples and ensure that there will be a group of people escorting the disciples at the same time. You can fake your identity and hide among that group. I will instruct the Bladelike Chi to accompany you secretly throughout the journey to Yanzhou. If you encounter any danger, just ask the Bladelike Chi for help!"

"Yes," Teng Shou hastily said.

"If the group assigned by Qingshan Enterprise to escort the disciples is really obstructed and attacked, try to capture some of the attackers alive," Teng Qingshan instructed. "I want to know who is behind this!"

...

Through Teng Qingshan's arrangement, the Six Legged Bladelike Chi and Teng Shou were prepared to leave the Great Yan Mountain that afternoon. Simultaneously, the Xing Yi Sect issued orders to all the stores of Qingshan Enterprise in the region of Yanzhou. Obviously, Teng Qingshan had laid out a trap in Yanzhou and was just waiting for the enemies.

Time went by very quickly. Soon, it was the Yearly Sacrifice. On this day, a great celebration was held in the Xing Yi Sect. There was even a feast happening in the sect.

"Teacher."

During the evening, when Yang Dong was walking in the sect with Teng Qingshan, he asked puzzledly, "Eldest Martial Brother went to Yanzhou for over half a month ago. However, we haven't heard anything from him. Is the information really true?"

"Don't worry," Teng Qingshan said as he shook his head. "The secret letter said that the incident would happen in less than one or two months. Just let your Eldest Martial Brother stay in Yanzhou for three months. If nothing happens after three months, then instruct the Qingshan Enterprise in Yanzhou to escort the disciples in smaller groups. Each batch should have less than 100 disciples.

"Yes," Yang Dong nodded slightly.

...

Ever since Teng Shou arrived in Yanzhou, he had been constantly on the move. He didn't relax at all. However, an entire month had passed, but nothing had happened.

"Teacher said that I should wait for three months," Teng Shou thought to himself.

At this moment, Teng Shou was among a big group of caravans that had almost two thousand people. This caravan belonged to Qingshan Enterprise. Among the caravan of people, there were 1,081 Internal Martial Arts cultivators traveling to join the Xing Yi Sect. There were very few merchants.

"Eh?" Teng Shou's brows rose.