The Nine Cauldrons
chapter-223

In the dark passageway, when Elder Liu realized that the person dashing towards him was Qin Lang, he instantly reasoned, "This Qin Lang is faster than me. I am wounded now…… If I continue to run, he will still attack me with flying knives. If this continues, I will definitely die. So I’d rather try to fight!"

Instantly, Elder Liu became quiet. Eyes focused, he gripped the war saber in his intact left hand.

“Die!” a deep voice resounded in the passageway.

Boom!

The air exploded and an iron claw tore through the air. Along with the vibrating ripples in the surrounding space, Teng Qingshan instantly appeared before Elder Liu.

"Clang!" The war saber ingeniously blocked Teng Qingshan’s claw.

“Break!” As Teng Qingshan leaped up, his right fist seemed to have turned into a flood dragon bursting out of the water, storming forward accompanied by an ear-piercing shriek. At first glance his right fist was similar to a piercing longspear. The punch was as fierce as an enraged thunderbolt, and as fast as lightning, leaving red blurred afterimages behind. When the fist reached Elder Liu, the power of the punch suddenly increased dramatically!

"Om~~"

The space seemed to be pierced through by an electric drill.

"Bang!" As if he had just smashed on an enormous drum. Teng Qingshan involuntarily backed away one step, Elder Liu floating about three zhang away from him. Teng Qingshan’s punch had failed again.

“Realm of Enlightenment?” Teng Qingshan’s facial expression changed slightly.

Teng Qingshan looked towards Elder Liu and saw that he had a calm countenance. His eyes seemed to be like a tranquil pool of water. Their radiance was fully concealed, and the war saber in his left hand slanted, pointing towards the ground. On the edge of the war saber, a cold faint greenish glow could be seen flashing.

“Qin Lang! You want to kill me?” Elder Liu said coolly. “Do you think you can kill me wiith your mere ability?”

“Oh?”

Teng Qingshan grinned and replied, “Then carefully watch what I can do.”

In the dark passageway, an innate expert enveloped by a fiery glow stood face to face with another expert surrounded by an icy-green glow.

"Bang!" Teng Qingshan’s long pants were actually about to burst. His powerful right leg stomped the ground and made the earth shake. Teng Qingshan borrowed the energy of the rebound and the techniques of the «Crossing World», transforming into a blurred fiery-red illusion…… He could move over a distance of several Zhang in an instant.

Elder Liu, who was immersed in the Realm of Enlightenment, stayed calm as he faced Teng Qingshan’s attack.

"Xiu!" Another reckless slash.

The saber landed on Teng Qingshan’s hand. However, it was the right hand, on which he wore the Heavenly Hawk Claws, therefore he was unscathed.

Clang! Sounds of clashing metals resounded, and Elder Liu speedily drew his saber again.

Teng Qingshan’s left hand was as fast as lightning when he grabbed Elder Liu’s saber.

“Hmph.” The corner of Elder Liu’s mouth curved into a sneer. He simply touched Teng Qingshan’s left hand with the saber he held, easily blocking Teng Qingshan’s claw. Simultaneously, Elder Liu borrowed the momentum of Teng Qingshan’s left hand and backed away, but the instant he was about to do so——

“Dragon Form! Tiger Pounce!” Teng Qingshan’s eyes focused.

His left and right arms instantly transformed into pythons, rapidly twining towards Elder Liu. He stomped his legs forcefully and pounced towards Elder Liu like a tiger.

It was a Close Range Tiger Pounce!

His arms were now entwined.

How could the long-armed Liu Elder dodge this? “You are courting death!” Elder Liu’s face darkened, and a dazzling icy-green glow burst out from the saber in his hand as he slashed at Teng Qingshan’s arms. At this moment, Teng Qingshan sneered——

"Kacha——" The sound of broken bones rang out.

Teng Qingshan’s two arms entwined Elder Liu’s single arm like snakes, making Elder Liu’s long arm bend at a weird angle!

“How is this possible?” Elder Liu was shocked.

The Realm of Enlightenment meant one was able to perfectly control the battle through predictions based on the information flow…… However, something that Elder Liu hadn’t foreseen happened.

"Bang!" Teng Qingshan kicked Elder Liu’s stomach with his knee.

In terms of strength, Teng Qingshan’s leg had more power than his arms.

His knee instantly pierced through the opponent’s Innate True Origin, and a powerful force pierced through Elder Liu’s stomach, instantly destroying his Dantian.

With his Dantian destroyed, Elder Liu couldn’t even be compared with a Postliminary Expert.

“Elder Liu, did you see what I can do?” As soon as Teng Qingshan released his hands, Elder Liu fell and crumbled helplessly to the ground. With his hand on his stomach, he glared at Teng Qingshan, asking, “How… how did your arm do that? That’s impossible. Such things are impossible…..” Even though his Dantian had just been destroyed, Elder Li still couldn’t believe it.

“Others can’t do it, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do it either,” coldly replied Teng Qingshan.

Normally, Elder Liu’s previous strike wouldn’t give Teng Qingshan any chance, but Teng Qingshan’s arms had bent at weird angles, as if they were boneless, making the impossible possible. His arms had gone around the saber and coiled around Elder Liu’s arm, breaking it.

“Before you die, let me tell you a secret.” Teng Qingshan grinned.

“Eh?” Elder Liu stared wide-eyed.

That was because Teng Qingshan had taken off the human-skin mask.

“Teng——” Before Elder Liu could finish his words, a fiery light shot through his throat! An innate expert whose Dantian had been destroyed was just an ordinary human being.

Elder Liu immediately died!

"Boom!" Elder Liu helplessly collapsed to the ground, but fright and shock could still be seen in his eyes. His eyes seemed to have seen something unbelievable.

He just couldn’t believe it.

He couldn’t believe that the person who was acting so fierce towards Qing Hu Island and that the person who had managed to kill him was actually the merely seventeen-years-old Teng Qingshan!

Indeed, it was Teng Qingshan!

Before his death, he had found out that……… Qin Lang was actually Teng Qingshan! Unfortunately, he couldn’t tell others.

Teng Qingshan put his human-skin mask again as he said to himself, “Arms entwined and bent? Hmph, in terms of the control of the body, even if you innate experts had trained for a hundred years, you all still wouldn’t be able to compete with me!” The different training paths could produce different results. For those who trained the inner strength, and pursued the innate…… This path viewed inner strength and the Innate True Origin as essential.

As for the path of the Internal Martial Arts, it valued the control of the body, whether it was the internal organs, the flowing blood, bones, muscles, or skin……. In terms of the body’s control, those innate experts were indeed very inferior.

In his previous world, Vishnu, one of the three giants of the God Kingdom, was a grandmaster who had practiced the Ancient Yoga to its pinnacle and could entwine his arms as if they were boneless.

In this life, in terms of the control of the body, Teng Qingshan had reached an unprecedented level. In terms of his flexibility, Teng Qingshan was even more powerful than Vishnu.'

"The best technique of our Internal Martial Arts, especially the advantage of the body, has the best effect when the opponent is at close range. However…… how could powerful innate experts easily allow me to get close to them during a fight?’ Teng Qingshan sighed, "Killing a single-armed Elder Liu was this troublesome! In terms of realms, I am indeed much more inferior."

If Teng Qingshan’s physical strength and the Innate True Origin were added together, he could be compared to True Dan innate experts.

However, Teng Qingshan was still in the Human Class Realm, while a True Dan expert was bound to be either in the Realm of Enlightenment, or Realm of Self-Actualization…… Thus, he could only kill them by improvising in his own way. Otherwise, the difference between realms would make it extremely difficult for Teng Qingshan to do so.

"With my current ability, if I wanted to kill a True Dan innate expert in a fair fight, it would be extremely difficult!" Teng Qingshan said to himself.

Even though he had killed many Elders of the Qing Hu Island by himself, none of their deaths had been in a fair fight. He had killed one outside the Heavenly Flood Entrance through a sneak attack. That Elder had died an unjust death. The other one had crashed into the hard walls made by Emperor Yu because he was being pursued and was running recklessly! As for Elder Hu……To be exact, Teng Qingshan had made something else do the killing for him! As for the fight with this Elder Liu, he had succeeded only because his opponent had only one arm.

Of course, Teng Qingshan could kill so many people also due to his crafty way of taking advantage of the situation and killing the opponents by hook or by crook.

As long as he succeeded in killing, it was good.

If one was more powerful than his opponent, fighting face to face and killing him was a given, but if one was weaker and still dumbly challenged the opposing party face to face, then that person was truly an idiot.

……

In the dark passageway a handsome silver-haired man, Zhao Danchen, was advancing stealthily and soundlessly.

"I just need to take three more turns’ and I will be at the treasure’s location." As Zhao Danchen thought, he felt extremely excited, "This time so many Elders have entered……Most of the other Elders must have died. This great number of sacrifices Qing Hu Island has made is worth it as long as we obtain Emperor Yu’s Treasure!"

Zhao Danchen turned back and cast a glance, the corner of his mouth curving into a sneer.

"That bald donkey must be practicing the mystical «Shakya Heart Sutra» of the Six Divine Senses. He must have already succeeded in practicing the four kinds, namely the Divine Sight, Divine Hearing, Divine Body, and Mind Comprehension. His Arhat Fruit will be cultivated! That’s why it was so difficult to lose that long-browed old monk," Zhao Danchen recalled as he advanced, secretly sighing along the way.

The King of Beasts Wu Hou had been the first to enter the Heavenly Flood Palace.

Zhao Danchen and the long-browed old monk had come later.

In the beginning, Zhao Danchen had purposely taken the wrong route, as he had guessed…… that the long-browed old monk would follow him. For the long-browed old monk, who was quite successful in his cultivation of the «Shakya Heart Sutra», following him stealthily wasn’t a difficult thing at all. Zhao Danchen went around the maze for a long time , trying to get rid of the long browed old monk through any means.

Finally, he thought he had succeeded.

And so, he returned to the right route and advanced forward. Unfortunately, he had accidentally discovered that, shockingly, the long-browed old monk was still following him.

During the second time, Zhao Danchen used all of his effort and finally led the Old Monk onto the wrong route. At last, Zhao Danchen laughed three times, and proudly went ahead.

"Mani Temple is indeed the greatest sect. The «Shakya Heart Sutra» , «Maha» and many Heavenly Ranking secret manuals are all mystical and difficult to understand," Zhao Danchen thought, secretly sighing. There were many kinds of secret techniques in this world.

None of the other sects could compete with the Mani Temple, because out of the four omnipotent experts, only Martial Ancestor Shakya had spent all of his energy on the sect, creating numerous mystical techniques. As for Emperor Yu and Heavenly Emperor Qin Ling, the energy they had invested in their sects had been too little. Thus, the number of secret techniques was smaller. Of course, Emperor Yu Hall and the Ying Family weren’t sects that the other five supreme sects could be compared to.

"However, once Qing Hu Island obtains Emperor Yu’s Treasure, we will definitely become stronger."

Zhao Danchen felt his heart burning hot.

As he turned the last corner, he looked towards the location of the treasure——

On the walls at the center of this passageway, there were two shining inlaid pearls. The bright pearls illuminated a faint azure-green glow, actually lighting up the surroundings in a diameter of ten zhang. Beside the wall, there was a tunnel with a staircase that leads to the underground.

“Emperor Yu’s Treasure is inside!” Zhao Danchen exclaimed, feeling immense joy.

“Haha…… Zhao Danchen, thanks for your hard work,” a guffaw rang out, and Zhao Danchen turned his head around with a shocked and frightened expression——

A figure emerged from the darkness.

It was the King of Beasts Wu Hou!