The Nine Cauldrons
chapter-357

“Brother Teng, help!” The Great Elder yelled and simultaneously transformed into a streak of azure light as he smashed into a mountain rock. He then dodged twice and dashed to Teng Qingshan’s side. With clothes torn and stained with blood, the Great Elder hastily said to Teng Qingshan, “Brother Teng, this evil creature is extremely powerful.”

Teng Qingshan observed the triangular head emerging from the hole on the mountain wall.

Chichi~~

As the triangular head completely emerged from the hole, the two slender antennae on its head also became visible.

“Eh? Its eyes?” Teng Qingshan scrutinized.

In the center of each of the two huge, spotted gold eyes was an extremely small and black pupil. The black pupil was as big as the pupil of an ordinary human.

“Crack~~” The rocks of the mountain wall split open and a pair of enormous and keen, gold-colored blades emerged from below the triangular head. Immediately—a buzz sounded! The monster then leapt out of the mountain rocks and floated in mid-air.

“Buzzbuzz~~~” The slightly transparent gold-colored wings stretched open and began fluttering.

Floating in mid-air, the monster just examined the two humans on the mountain rock ahead.

“This is—” The Great Elder was astonished.

“Eh?”

Teng Qingshan widened his eyes.

He had never seen a demonic beast with such an appearance. However, the image of this demonic beast made Teng Qingshan recall an ordinary creature—Mantis! The appearance of this demonic beast was very similar to that of a mantis! However, this demo was a lot bigger than a mantis and also possessed a much more terrifying aura!

The triangular head! The pair of enormous eyes and the two extremely small black pupils.

Its chest was slender and seemed to be forged with gold-colored steel.

Its back was slightly wider and the scale armor radiated a dazzling, gold-colored glow. The body of the monster was around seven Zhang (eighteen meters) long.

Of course, the six legs of this demonic beast were the most terrifying! There were three pairs of legs, one on each the head, thorax, and abdomen.

The forelegs which seemed like two enormous blades glowed a faint gold color. Numerous spikes could be seen on the joints of the forelegs and every spike had a length of about four Chi (one meter) .The spikes grew on the legs like needles. There were even barbs on the joints of the forelegs. The barb was eight Chi (two meters) long.

Each of the forelegs had a terrifying length of at least five Zhang (about 13 meters). They were thick, solid, and muscular forelegs and as sharp as a blade!

The midlegs and hindlegs were slightly narrow compared to the forelegs. In Teng Qingshan’s eyes… the midlegs and hindlegs were still about four Chi (one meter) thick. The spikes and barbs on the legs reflected a chilly, cold luster.

“What kind of demonic beast is this?” Teng Qingshan could feel this sense of suffocation.

“This is… the Six Legged Bladelike Chi!” The Great Elder couldn’t stop himself from yelling.

“The Six Legged Bladelike Chi?” Teng Qingshan looked cautiously at the demonic beast in mid-air as he listened to the Great Elder’s explanation. One who knows his own strength and that of the enemy is invincible in battle; yet Teng Qingshan did not know how powerful this demonic beast was.

The Great Elder promptly said, “The Six Legged Bladelike Chi appeared in the Northern Frost Region over a thousand years ago. At that time, the armies of two clans were battling and a Martial Saint Expert accidentally let the Six Legged Bladelike Chi out from underground. The Six Legged Bladelike Chi was furious when it came out and a bloody slaughter started.”

“It was said that its whole body was impervious to swords and spears!”

“It is as quick as the shadow of a ghost. Especially its six legs! The six legs were like enormous curved blades, extremely sharp. The spikes and barbs could easily impale a human being and rip someone in half.”

“During that time, amongst the twelve thousand soldiers, only a few hundred people luckily escaped. The others were all killed. The two Martial Saints were among the people that died.”

“However, since then, the Six Legged Bladelike Chi never appeared anymore. For thousands of years, no one has heard of it appearing anywhere. I never expected that… we would encounter it today.” The Great Elder gripped the Blood Devourer Blade in his hand. As the saying goes, one’s reputation is like the shadow of a tree. The Six Legged Bladelike Chi was reputed to be the demonic beast that was able to slaughter over ten thousand soldiers with only a few hundred survivors.

TLN: The meaning of this phrase ‘one’s reputation is like the shadow of a tree’: You and your reputation are inseparable like how the tree and its shadow cannot be separated.

If over ten thousand people were fleeing, even Teng Qingshan himself wouldn’t be able to kill so many people.

This could only mean one thing—the Six Legged Bladelike Chi is extremely fast and its killing speed is also extremely fast! Thus, it will be very hard to escape from it!

“Roar~~”

In mid-air, the pair of eyes on the Six Legged Bladelike Chi’s triangular head glared downwards. It emitted an ear-piercing roar and suddenly dashed down. its colossal body seemed to have transformed into a gold-colored illusion. A gust of wind blew as it dashed rapidly towards the Great Elder and Teng Qingshan. Simultaneously, it slashed forward with its enormous bladelike forelegs!

“Get lost!”

Teng Qingshan and the Great Elder worked together! One wielded spear and the other wielded a blade!

“Clank~~ Tink~~”

As frenzied explosive sounds rang, mountain rocks tumbled and smoke and dust pervaded the air.

“Go!” Teng Qingshan shouted.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Teng Qingshan and the Great Elder immediately fled in two directions.

“This monster cannot be defeated by force.” For the first time, Teng Qingshan’s clothes were damaged. As for the Great Elder of the Rising Sun Trading Company, his clothes were even more damaged than those of Teng Qingshan. There was even a wound on the Great Elder’s stomach and blood dyed his clothes red.

Through this brief fight! Teng Qingshan finally learned of how terrifying the Six Legged Bladelike Chi was!

“I didn’t expect that even my spear art was unable to completely defend myself against the blade art of this Six Legged Bladelike Chi!” Teng Qingshan could remember distinctly the horrifying scene just now. Indeed, the slashes of the Six Legged Bladelike Chi’s forelegs could be called ‘blade art’ and the blade art was extremely fine and delicate!

The instant Teng Qingshan blocked, he realized in shock that—the spikes grown on bladelike legs could actually change direction, piercing towards Teng Qingshan together!

Which meant that—

The slash of the Six Legged Bladelike Chi was not just an attack of the bladelike leg, but the combined attacks of the bladelike legs and the keen spikes! Simultaneously, the dozen attacks were as fast as lightning! Even Teng Qingshan’s ‘Transmutation Unity Qi’ spear art still missed one pointed spike.

“Fortunately, the penetrating force that the spike contained was just ten percent of the penetrating force that bladelike forelegs possessed. If the spike really did pierce my body, it would only damage my clothings. However… it was unable to wound me.”

Only the bladelike forelegs of the Bladelike Chi possessed a great attacking force, while its spikes and barbs possessed a force that was much weaker.

“However, this Six Legged Bladelike Chi has six legs. Right now, just the attack of one leg is already troublesome for me. Once the six bladelike legs attack in unison, then that would be…” Teng Qingshan too felt that this Six Legged Bladelike Chi was terrifying!

“Roar~” There was once more a burst of an ear-piercing sound, like the ear-splitting noise produced when a piece of glass scraped against an iron sheet.

The Six Legged Bladelike Chi pounced at Teng Qingshan from up high like lightning!

It was very clear that Teng Qingshan’s fleeing speed was even slower than the Great Elder’s!

Second, through the brief exchange of blows earlier, the Six Legged Bladelike Chi also realized that Teng Qingshan was even more difficult to handle. Thus, it decided to deal with the more troublesome one first and deal with that Great Elder later!

“Brother Teng, be careful,” the Great Elder quickly cried out loudly in the distance.

“Scram!” In the moment that Teng Qingshan jumped fleeing onto a large tree, he suddenly thrust the Reincarnation Spear back. The Reincarnation Spear transformed into a silver-colored streak of lightning and pierced towards the Six Legged Bladelike Chi’s triangular head. However, the Six Legged Bladelike Chi had a total of two pairs of wings that were as thin as gossamer; with a light quiver of it’s wings, it avoided easily.

Right after came a pair of bladelike legs that attacked Teng Qingshan!

“Ahraar~” The Six Legged Bladelike Chi’s horrendous roar rang out once more, and a pair of sharp forelegs hacked forward. It was obvious that it wanted to tear Teng Qingshan into half.

“Vile creature!”

Teng Qingshan gave a sudden shout, and in a flash, the Reincarnation Spear transformed into a circular spear image. This time, the main thing for Teng Qingshan was to block the cutting edge of those two forelegs. As for the numerous sharp spikes… Teng Qingshan completely gave up on blocking them. After all,Teng Qingshan’s spear arts simply did not allow for him to ward off this many attacks at the same time!

If it were an ordinary person’s arrow, even if ten thousand arrows were released simultaneously, Teng Qingshan would be able to easily block them.

However, with merely more than ten sharp spikes, the Six Legged Bladelike Chi already caused Teng Qingshan to be entirely unable to block.

“Pch!” “Pch!”...

Multiple “pch” rang out loud and clear. The sharp spikes pierced through Teng Qingshan’s clothes, but the moment the spikes reached Teng Qingshan’s skin, it was like they stabbed at strong, tough scales, issuing “pch, pch” sounds. At most it left points of red marks; it could not even pierce the skin!

Teng Qingshan dropped to the ground.

Seeing that it could not kill the human before it, the Six Legged Bladelike Chi’s four other bladelike legs—just as extremely long—cleaved forward as well.

Six legs were about to attack at the same time!

“The impact from the two legs already made my two hands feel numb. Now six legs?” Teng Qingshan immediately employed the ‘Swimming Pisces Body Art’. Perhaps in fleeing in straight lines, Teng Qingshan couldn’t compare to that Great Elder. However, in weaving about, the ‘Swimming Pieces Body Art’ that was created from Teng Qingshan combining the stances within the 《Thirty-Six Splitting Mountain Forms》, as well as the 《Dao of the Water Element》, was on the contrary very strong.

The only thing that could be seen was Teng Qingshan dodging like a very slippery loach in water.

The Six Legged Bladelike Chi was simply unable to attack Teng Qingshan at the same time.

“This beast with such long legs. I basically have no way of getting close to attack its body. Furthermore, with its legs this long, one stretch and it has me within its reach.” A twinkle shone in Teng Qingshan’s eyes. From far away, a human shadow pounced down from a large tree, and a swift and fierce blade light hacked down!

It was precisely Great Elder!

“Clink!” The edge of the wings that were gossamer-thin but were like a weapon collided with the blade light. The Great Elder was sent flying away, while the Six Legged Bladelike Chi was not the slightest bit injured.

“Roar~~”

The Six Legged Bladelike Chi was furious. It actually ignored Teng Qingshan. With a flap of its four wings, it actually turned and pounced towards the Great Elder.

“Screech~~”

A loud bird cry resounded in the heavens. A streak of fire flashed past in the sky and floated ahead of the Six Legged Bladelike Chi. The Divine Bird Blue Luan, the creature that seemed to only appear in dreams, was enveloped by scathing flames as It looked down at the Six Legged Bladelike Chi from the high altitude. The Six Legged Bladelike Chi immediately looked back up and glared at the bird before its eyes.

“Blue Luan!” Teng Qingshan looked up and exclaimed.

“Whoosh!”

Black flames spouted out of Blue Luan’s mouth. Amidst the black, a hint of purple could be faintly seen. The terrifying flames burned the space, twisting and vibrating the air. The flames instantly enveloped the Six legged Bladelike Chi, which was trying to escape. In terms of air dodging ability, the Blue Luan was not weaker than the Six Legged Bladelike Chi!

Under the flames of the Blue Luan, the gold scales on the Six Legged Bladelike Chi’s body, the body that even the attacks of the Great Elder couldn’t cause any damage, were emitting sizzling sounds.

“Roar~~” An ear-piercing and furious roar sounded.

The Six Legged Bladelike Chi actually pounced onto the ground. Its six legs instantly tore the earth apart and the slightly burnt body fled into the soil, disappearing.

“Yuu~~” Blue Luan descended before Teng Qingshan and flapped its wings proudly.

“Blue Luan…” Teng Qingshan was slightly delighted and slightly surprised. “As expected of the demonic beast that was rumored in the Land of the Nine Prefectures to be unparalleled amongst the ones ranked below the Emptiness Realm—Divine Bird ‘Blue Luan’. Blue Luan has competed with me twice, but those were just competitions. The Blue Luan didn’t use its most powerful technique. It did not fight a battle of life and death with me. Blue Luan is indeed the Divine Bird of the Element Fire. The flames that it emitted… are truly terrifyingly powerful.”

Teng Qingshan finally understood how horrifying Blue Luan’s most powerful technique was.

“Brother Teng, this… this bird-type demonic beast seems to be close with you?” The Great Elder walked over with a shocked expression.

“Yes.” Teng Qingshan nodded with a smile.

“When I saw that Six Legged Bladelike Chi, I thought that it was the most powerful demonic beast amongst the ones ranked below Martial Immortals. Who would have thought that it…” With beaming eyes, the Great Elder looked at Blue Luan. Yet Blue Luan turned away proudly, refusing to look at the Great Elder. The Great Elder exclaimed in admiration, “In this world, probably only my teacher, the Tianfeng Martial Immortal, can fight against such demonic beast. It is a bird-type demonic beast…. If it wanted to flee, the Martial Immortal wouldn’t be able to pursue.”

Blue Luan was indeed the fastest flying demonic beast Teng Qingshan has ever seen.

Indeed.

Emptiness Realm Experts could only fly when they reached the culmination of the Emptiness Realm. Even if an ordinary Emptiness Realm Expert were able to defeat the Blue Luan, if the Blue Luan wanted to escape, the Emptiness Realm Expert could only look up as it fled.

Even if the Emptiness Realm Expert could fly, the Emptiness Realm Expert would just be flying through the control of the Power of the Heavens and Earth. The flying speed of the Emptiness Realm Expert might not be as fast as that of Blue Luan’s.

“Brother Teng, you are really powerful. I truly envy you,” the Great Elder praised.

“Great Elder, you just said that you have a teacher?” Teng Qingshan said in surprise.

“Haha… Only a few most supreme clans in this world know about this.” The Great Elder said with a smile, “On Duanmu Continent, there are two Martial Immortals. One is part of the Tianfeng Clan, and is called ‘Tianfeng Martial Immortal’, while the other who is my teacher is part of the Rising Sun Trading Company. My teacher is called ‘Cloudy Dream Martial Immortal’.”

Teng Qingshan was astonished.

How many Martial Immortals (Emptiness Realm) were there on Duanmu Continent? Previously, Teng Qingshan could only make conjectures as he didn’t know.

On the Land of the Nine Prefectures, there were two Emptiness Realm Experts in Yang Zhou.

Duanmu Continent also had two Emptiness Realm Experts!

“Tianfeng Martial Immortal and Cloudy Dream Martial Immortal…” Teng Qingshan remembered these two names clearly.

“It is truly fortunate that we were able to save ourselves from the Six Legged Bladelike Chi,” the Great Elder praised. Suddenly, he turned and looked at Teng Qingshan as he said, “Brother Teng, until now, you still don’t know my name, right?”

“I only know that Great Elder’s surname is Mu!” Teng Qingshan said with a smile.

“My name is Mu Wang!” The Great Elder smiled and said, “If you think highly of me, then call me Old Brother Mu. I am over one hundred and thirty years old. I should be older than you.”

After this fight, and also because Teng Qingshan was able to fight the Six Legged Bladelike Chi for such a long time, the Great Elder Mu Wang viewed Teng Qingshan in a new light.

Especially—

Blue Luan!

“Tsk, tsk.” The Great Elder stared at Blue Luan and sighed in admiration. He then said, “Brother Teng, this fight between you and me filled my heart with joy. I won’t be staying! If you have time, come to West Tang Region to find me.”

“Sure.” Teng Qingshan smiled.

The Great Elder carried the Blood Devourer Blade and transformed into a streak of azure light, flowing away rapidly.

“Blue Luan, come. Let’s go back too.” Teng Qingshan and Blue Luan quickly headed towards the Crescent Moon Lake.

……