The Nine Cauldrons
chapter-308

The tungsten wood vessel drifted along with the rapidly surging sea water. On the bow of the vessel, Li Jun quickly came out from the cabin and stood next to Teng Qingshan as they gazed into the long northernmost coastline.

“The eighth time!” Teng Qingshan still remembered the rhythm of the alternating flow of the sea.

“Big brother Teng, did you say that there’s a big island in front of us?” Li Jun said in surprise as she stared toward the north. However… she couldn’t see anything ahead of her, and all she could hear was the whistle of the sea.

“Yeah!” Teng Qingshan nodded, “You’ll see it soon.”

Li Jun didn’t possess a night vision like Teng Qingshan himself.

After a while ——

“The ninth time!”

Teng Qingshan realized that the speed of the vessel had decreased once again; although the their travelling speed was described as “slow”, it was still faster than its speed out on the sea. It also meant that the speed they described “fast” was even more astonishing.

“Peng!” Suddenly, a fierce crashing sound echoed out.

The entire tungsten wood vessel jolted.

“Eh?” Teng Qingshan frowned, “Oh no, there’s a reef submerged beneath us!”

“A submerged reef?” Li Jun’s complexion also changed.

If it was a reef sticking out of the surface of the sea, then it could’ve been discovered earlier and easily avoided. However, some of the reefs were submerged beneath the sea. The depth of the vessel below the surface of the sea was just enough to touch these reefs, thus, collision was unavoidable. They could only rely on luck!

“Peng!” It bumped once again.

The tungsten wood vessel shook once again. Li Jun hastily grabbed onto the bow of the ship in fear of falling into the sea.

“It should be fine.” Teng Qingshan said to console her, “The vessel’s body is made of tungsten wood, which is even stronger than steel, thus it has a better resistance. Furthermore, it has a reinforced base, therefore, it could survive from impact! We’ve encountered quite a few reefs en route, and it’s still fine. As long as we can endure this area of submerged reefs, then we will be alright.

Peng! Peng! Peng!

The tungsten wood vessel bumped in succession, jolting the ship with each bump.

The ship's speed resulted to the fierce bumps.

Even a large vessel made of steel couldn’t escape without any damage. Thankfully, it was made of tungsten wood which was much tougher and more capable of withstanding a collision.

After a moment ——

“Big Brother Teng! I can see it! Have we reached the Northern Sea Continent?” With the help of the moonlight, Li Jun was finally able to vaguely see the endless coastline. The end of the coastline wasn’t visible even after she drew closer to look.

“We’re only several Li away from the island.” Teng Qingshan peeked at the surging surface of the sea. The tungsten wood vessel jolted once more after bumping into another submerged reef.

Teng Qingshan ruminated over it, “The alternation between fast and slow speed would occur every 10th Li, and this is already the ninth time… which is a total of nine interlinked regions…..nine interlinked regions!” Teng Qingshan carefully gazed at the dry land that was several Li ahead and saw that plants flourished along the shore.

“Creak——” The tungsten halted on the seaside, and Teng Qingshan casted an anchor soon after.

“Li Jun, let’s get off and take a look.” Teng Qingshan said at the same time.

“Yeah.” Li Jun got off the boat with Teng Qingshan like what she used to do when she encountered an island.

“Screech~~” The Whole Gale Eagle flew down the ship together with them.

After the several hundred Li of voyage through the nine interlinked regions of the sea, Teng Qingshan had finally arrived to the seaside. Currently, the sky was showing its first glimmer of light.

On the beach.

Teng Qingshan and Li Jun walked on the beach side by side, when suddenly, Teng Qingshan’s complexion changed as he turned around to look at the flourishing plants ahead. He then yelled “Come out!”

“Rustle!”

Noises immediately sounded within the flourishing plants; Teng Qingshan moved as a gust of wind seemed to have howled past. In a blink of an eye, he had dashed to the flourishing plants while Li Jun waited at the same spot; she had faith in Teng Qingshan.

Soon——

“Big Brother Teng.” Li Jun yelled with a smile. At this moment, Teng Qingshan walked back to Li Jun while grabbing a middle-aged man.

“Noble Hero, please spare my life!” the middle aged man said repeatedly.

“Noble Hero?” Li Jun looked at the middle-aged man in surprise.

Being addressed as “Noble Hero” was rare in the land of the nine prefectures, but most importantly —— although the middle aged man had an awkward accent, but the language he spoke was clearly the language of the nine prefectures!

“I will ask you a question, you’ll give me an answer. Answer honestly!” Teng Qingshan was holding a trenchant sword which belonged to the middle-aged man.

The middle aged man hastily answered, “My name is Shangguan Quan.”

“Shangguan, quite a rare surname!” Li Jun mumbled at the side. The middle-aged man named Shangguan Quan hastily explained, “This heroine, what you said is incorrect! Shangguan is actually a common surname of our Northern Yan Town.”

“Northern Yan Town?” Teng Qingshan was struck by a thought and continued asking,

“How many people are there in Northern Yan Town?”

Shangguan Quan froze, it was as if Teng Qingshan’s questions confused him. Teng Qingshan’s complexion fell, “I ask and you answer! If there is any hesitation——” Teng Qingshan exerted force, and after a crunchy sound, trenchant sword in his hand got clenched into a twisted dough. “Walla~” A large amount of iron powder fell down from the palm of Teng Qingshan.

“Iron powder?” Shangguan Quan was stupefied.

Clenching a trenchant sword into a twisted dough was not difficult! Snapping it into a few parts was not difficult too! But turning the trenchant sword into iron powder was simply outrageous.

Shangguan Quan looked at the iron powder after feeling Teng Qingshan’s gaze sweeping past him; he trembled and hastily said, “I reckon the Northern Yan Town has more than a few hundred thousands of people.”

“How many towns are there in this island?” Teng Qingshan questioned again.

Although Shangguan Quan thought that the questions being asked were uncommon and strange, he still didn’t dare to hesitate, “The Bright Moon Island has eighteen towns in total.”

Teng Qingshan and Li Jun glanced at each other, their eyes revealing astonishment.

Even in the islands near the nine prefectures, having a few ten thousands of people would be considered good. Reaching up to hundred thousands in population are the gigantic islands. Who would’ve thought —— hiding in the distant northern sea exists a colossal island with countless inhabitants!

“What are you doing by the seaside so early in the morning?” Teng Qingshan asked.

“I’m just a fisherman.” Shangguan Quan hastily answered, “I come here in the morning..”

“A fisherman equipped with a trenchant sword? The swordplay you displayed before wasn’t bad at all!” Teng Qingshan’s complexion sunk, the swordplay he displayed when Teng Qingshan went to catch him was indeed formidable.

Shangguan Quan looked at Teng Qingshan in surprise, “Noble Hero, we enter the “Sword School” to learn the sword when we are young, which town here wouldn’t know Sword Arts? Why would you say that?”

“Sword School?”

Teng Qingshan was shocked and amazed.

A sword school? Perhaps it is a school similar to the schools in Teng Qingshan’s previous life? Everyone had to learn sword arts when they were young? What kind of island is this? A population of millions were all learning sword arts. Even though Yangzhou had a population of twenty or thirty million people, only one million people could genuinely learn inner strength and sword art systematically.

Other common civilians didn’t have an opportunity to do so, and as a result, they only knew some villagers’ moves that were derived from the moves of sowing and plowing.

“Everyone is learning sword arts?” Teng Qingshan asked, “Do they learn to use other weapons? Axes? What about knives?

“Axes for woodcutting, knives for chopping vegetables,” Shangguan Quan hastily answered, “But the most prominent one is the sword art! The sword arts of the elite disciples in the sword school are very powerful.”

“Okay, do you have money on you?” Teng Qingshan suddenly asked.

“I do.” the fisherman hastily fished out a beautiful white pearl from his bosom.

……

Teng Qingshan was indirectly asking the fisherman, Shangguan Quan, questions and finally got a general understanding of the Bright Moon Island. The currency of the island wasn’t made of gold or silver, but of the pearls that was exclusive to the Bright Moon Island. These pearls were divided into purple pearls, white pearls, and gray pearls, with the most valuable one being the purple pearl. The value of a single purple pearl was equivalent to a hundred white pearl, and a white pearl was equivalent to a hundred grey pearls.

In order to prevent the tungsten wood vessel from being stolen by other fishermen, Teng Qingshan returned to the tungsten wood vessel and began to scull southward, sailing several Li forward. However, after the distance of several li, the seawater surged so violently and rapidly that even though Teng Qingshan rowed extremely fast, he could barely resist the speed of the flowing water.

Through this, one could see how fast the flow of the seawater was!

With this, Teng Qingshan dived into the water and directly pulled the tungsten wood vessel forward, proceeding up to about two Li’s using an iron chain. He then stuck the iron anchor in between a reef.

“The current is so swift that even an innate expert would still have to put in an effort when swimming in the current beneath the large sea.” Teng Qingshan was relieved about leaving the tungsten wood vessel here. Soon after, he dismantled the Reincarnation Spear and placed it into the bundle. He then took an Iron Leaf Fruit and also placed it into the bundle before he left the tungsten wood vessel.

On the beach.

“Let’s go!” Teng Qingshan, Li Jun, as well as the captured fisherman Shangguan Quan, set off together.

……

On a desolate dirt road, Teng Qingshan and Li Jun carrying a bundle set off together with Shangguan Quan, while the Whole Gale Eagle hovered in the sky. Shangguan Quan had no idea about the relation between the Whole Gale Eagle and the two people in front of him.

“Noble hero, you’re amazing, you were able to put a large ship so far away by yourself!” Shangguan Quan admired, “That was the legendary Nine Rhythm Treacherous Currents, even the elite disciples of the Sword Tower wouldn’t dare to to enter it. There are many fisherman who swims there without permission, but the majority of them ends up drowning.

Teng Qingshan laughed.

Nine Rhythm Treacherous Currents?

This name wasn’t bad at all. According to Teng Qingshan’s observation… the surge of the current beneath the surface was at a level where an innate expert could handle it. However, if one was dragging a large ship forward, then even if they were Golden Dan innate experts, they still wouldn’t be able to persist for long. At least, they wouldn’t be able to persist for as long as Teng Qingshan.

“Nine Rhythm? Who named it?” Teng Qingshan was struck by a thought; it seemed like there was someone on the Bright Moon Island that has knowledge about the nine sequence of the speed alternating between fast and slow.

“It was a long time ago,” Shangguan Quan said, “In any case, the name was passed down from generations to generations, however, no one was able to pass through the Nine Rhythm Treacherous Currents. Noble hero, are you from the outer regions?” Shangguan Quan started to realize.

Teng Qingshan humbly laughed and glanced at him, “The less you know, the longer you will live!”

Shangguan Quan nodded, his heart sank as he thought about Teng Qingshan’s vicious methods.

“Li Jun, let’s take a look around the Bright Moon island, and then get some food onboard the ship!” Teng Qingshan said, and Li Jun hastily nodded, “I’m tired of eating fish all the time.” Teng Qingshan and Li Jun didn’t try to hide their conversation from Shangguan Quan, an inhabitant of this island. Teng Qingshan himself and Li Jun would leave after they strolled around and bought their goods, thus, why would they care about other people?

……

Not too long after, Teng Qingshan walked up on a path and saw a village in the distance.

“That’s the village I live in.” Shangguan Quan hastily smiled.

Teng Qingshan casted a glance and saw—

“He!”

“Ha!”

“A group of kids that looked around five to seven years old was using a twig to practice a set of sword art. With Teng Qingshan’s ability, he could discern that the sword arts they were practicing were actually a set of top notch sword art! Did all of the common children of the village practice a top notch sword art?

“The children are practicing sword arts in order to enter the sword school of our Northern Yan Town more easily!” Shangguan Quan said with a quick smile, “You can only stand out in the eighteen towns’ sword schools if you put in effort as a child! That way, you’ll be able to gain a passage to become an elite disciple of the Sword Tower!