The Nine Cauldrons
chapter-447

“If you all don’t want to die, then behave.” Teng Qingshan’s aloof-sounding admonition greatly enraged the five people in the great hall. The five were absolutely high-positioned members of the Snowy Lotus Cult. Normally, the High Priestess was the only one who dared to reprimand them in this way. Foreign Dignitary Huhe was an outsider, but he actually had the audacity to chide them in such a manner.

Whew!

The three elders, standing shoulder to shoulder, glowered at Teng Qingshan. A cold glint flashed in the mouselike eyes of the slightly rotund elder. He hissed coldly, “Foreign Dignitary Huhe, you are the Foreign Dignitary of our Heavenly God Palace, and so we greeted you out of respect. However, no matter what, you are still a Foreign Dignitary. An outsider! How dare you threaten us…”

The Second Saintess and the Superintendent of the Red Fiery Division glared at Teng Qingshan. At this very moment, the five united in opposition of the common enemy!

“So what if I threatened you guys?” Teng Qingshan replied with a frigid smile. He stretched out his hand and pointed from right to left at the five people. “I can kill you five with just a flip of my hand. Today, I have come to give you all some advice. Don’t push yourselves to hell.”

Teng Qingshan’s condescending tone made the five people in the great hall even more furious.

The five of them were all innate experts!

A battle between the Heavenly God Palace and Xiao Yao Palace would soon take place. The two hundred thousand soldiers of the Red Fiery Division and the Azure Dragon Division would attack from the south. The three elders were specially deployed here by the Snowy Lotus Cult to fight against the powerful innate experts of Xiao Yao Palace. Two of the three elders were Golden Dan Innate Experts! The other one was a True Dan Innate Expert!

Lu Lilong, the superintendent of the Red Fiery Division that commanded one hundred thousand soldiers, was also a Golden Dan Innate Expert.

Although the Second Saintess ‘Murong Yan’ had reached the Innate Realm a few dozen years ago, she was only a True Dan Innate Expert.

Still, there were three Golden Dan Innate Experts and two True Dan Innate Experts.

“Huhe!” The pupils of the Superintendent of the Red Fiery Division dilated. He scowled and shouted like a furious lion. “This is the barrack of the Snowy Lotus Cult. We respect you as the Foreign Dignitary, but do not act impudently! Hmph…If it’s a one-on-one fight, we might be no match against you. However, there are three Golden Dan Innate Experts amongst us! You…”

“Tsk, tsk.” Teng Qingshan interrupted. He smiled as he replied, “Three Golden Dan Innate Experts? So what if there are five Golden Dan Innate Experts?”

“Foreign Dignitary Huhe, we two martial brothers have heard of your great name for a very long time. We wish to witness your great strength. What do you think?”

An aged voice sounded.

Immediately, the slightly rotund elder and the skinny elder flashed almost at the same time. They dashed towards Teng Qingshan, leaving two afterimages. The weapon of the rotund elder was a blood-red scimitar, while the weapon of the skinny elder was a steel rod. One opponent used a long weapon, while the other opponent used a short one. The cooperation of the two Golden Dan Innate Experts was almost perfect.

“Whew~~ The rotund elder waved the blood-red scimitar and swirled it around like a spinning top, endeavoring to kill Teng Qingshan.

Pew~~ Along with a cold cyan-colored glow, the skinny elder’s steel rod was towards smashed directly towards Teng Qingshan.

“Hmph.” Teng Qingshan grinned calmly. His entire body flickered as he performed the Swimming Pisces Body Art.

“Clang!”

Teng Qingshan unsheathed the trenchant sword on his back. This sword was specially prepared for Teng Qingshan’s fake identity. Since Teng Qingshan had disguised himself as the Foreign Dignitary Huhe, he decided to not perform any spear arts! He defeated the First Godly General Borileimu with the use of rod arts. Teng Qingshan could just explain this with one sentence—I am an expert of both the rod arts and the sword arts.

In the spacious great hall, seven afterimages of Teng Qingshan instantly appeared.

Clang! Clang!

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Teng Qingshan had only launched four strikes. At this moment, he was performing the 《Forty-nine Blue Lotus Strikes》, which was created through the comprehension of the 《Blue Lotus Sword Melody》. With Teng Qingshan’s ability and with the coordination of the Swimming Pisces Body Art, the sword art had reached an illusory and dreamlike level. Moreover, the sword art was as fast as lightning.

“Haha…” Teng Qingshan erupted into laughter.

Two sword arcs appeared one after the other and smacked the two elders in the chest.

“Ah!” “Humph!”

The two Golden Dan Innate Experts let out muffled groans as their bodies flew backwards against their will. Their bodies struck the luxurious chair with such brutality that the chair smashed into the ground and turned to pieces. But, that was not all. The two elders continued backwards till their bodies rammed into the wall, splitting the painting hanging on the wall in half. The walls in the hall faintly shook, leaving behind a few cracks in the process.

After the rotund and skinny white-haired elders fell on the ground, they turned their bodies over on the ground and stood up. Both of them had wisps of blood trickling down the corners of their lips. They glared at Teng Qingshan with expression of shock and anger written all over their faces.

“How is he so fast?”

“H-he… How can he be…”

Both the rotund and skinny elder could be ranked amongst the top five in the Snowy Lotus Cult based on their strengths. These two experts had partnered up to face their opponent, but no one expected that they would lose in just one encounter with the other party who only attacked with four strikes.

“One strike deflected my scimitar whilst the other struck me away?” The rotund elder looked at the scimitar in his hand and faintly shuddered.

“This Huhe…” Murong Yan and the Superintendent of the Red Fiery Division, ‘Lu Lilong’, were also shocked.

Everyone was stupefied.

“Even if Foreign Dignitary Huhe was stronger than the First Godly General ‘Borileimu’, both elders were Golden Dan Innate Experts too… This… Could Huhe be like the King of Beasts who was originally ranked first in the Heavenly Ranking?” The Superintendent of the Red Fiery Division was unendingly shocked. The King of Beasts had ranked first in the Heavenly Ranking that year.

If the King of Beasts ‘Wu Hou’ wanted to kill Golden Dan Innate Experts, he could easily kill them even if three of them teamed up against him.

This was the power of the one ranked first in the《Heavenly Ranking》.

But…

The King of Beasts was no longer ranked first in the Heavenly Ranking for his name has already disappeared from the Heavenly Ranking. Some say that the King of Beasts has died, yet others say that the King of Beasts had already reached the Emptiness Realm.

“If I wanted to kill you guys… Even if there were three Golden Dan Innate Experts amongst you, it would require no effort at all on my part.” Teng Qingshan’s gaze flitted across the five people who were scared witless before his eyes.

“Foreign Dignitary Huhe, we are in the wrong this time.” Murong Yan noticed that the situation had taken a turn for the worst and even smiled while saying, “Actually, you can relax. This is a huge and unprecedented matter for my Heavenly God Palace. Even if we are daring, we dare not act recklessly. Please be at ease… We will definitely obey Junior Martial Sister as our teacher has commanded.”

Amongst the five elders present, which one of them wasn’t experienced and astute in their years? Even the youngest Murong Yan was past her eighties.

Who didn’t know the principle of temporarily yielding when the situation got rough?

“How would this Huhe know how to lead soldiers? He absolutely won’t be able to find evidence against us if we were to secretly cause trouble.” Murong Yan thought to herself.

“Foreign Dignitary Huhe, this time we…”

“Foreign Dignitary Huhe, please forgive us.”

The others also followed suit and bowed their heads in Teng Qingshan’s direction.

Teng Qingshan smiled coldly, “Your words are pretty, yet I don’t know what you’re thinking deep down in your hearts! But, I cannot be bothered knowing either. I am only warning you guys… Little Jun is my wife. If a problem arises while she is in the process of leading this troop of two hundred thousand soldiers, don’t blame me for being heartless!”

“The rules of the Snowy Lotus Cult have nothing to do with me.”

“If there is even the slightest of slip-ups, I will definitely take all of your lives.” Teng Qingshan said indifferently.

The expressions on the faces of the five elders immediately changed upon hearing this.

“Foreign Dignitary Huhe, aren’t those words too serious?” The Superintendent of the Red Fiery Division furrowed his brows and said, “It is hard to avoid small problems that arise within a troop of two hundred thousand soldiers. Such matters are unavoidable and cannot be done accordingly as you said… Moreover, even if Li Jun is the Commander, she has no right to decide whether we should live or die.”

The five of them all had high ranking positions. Li Jun had no right to execute them.

Teng Qingshan swept his gaze over the five elders, “I am not part of the Heavenly God Palace. Don’t bring up those nonsensical rules with me… You guys should be careful when you sleep at night. You all are how going against Xiao Yao Palace, so for them to dispatch people over to kill you is normal too.”

Once Teng Qingshan finished speaking, he turned around and proceeded to leave.

“Huhe, what’s the meaning behind this?” The rotund elder couldn’t help but to shout out.

“Humph.” Teng Qingshan turned his head around and glanced at the five elders. “I’m still not stupid enough to kill you guys out in the open… If I want to kill you guys, it will be very easy for me to do so.”

“Y-you…” The five of them were so angry that they didn’t know what to say.

If Teng Qingshan wanted to kill them secretly, who amongst them could hide from him?

“You are a Foreign Dignitary of my Heavenly God Palace. How could you do such things?” The skinny elder was fuming.

“Listen well.” Teng Qingshan broke into a smile and softly said to the the five people standing before him, “I am not a good person!”

With that, Teng Qingshan left the scene openly, leaving the remnants of the Snowy Lotus Cult’s hall behind him. The five high-positioned individuals all had unsightly expressions on their faces from anger, yet not a single one of them dared to stop Teng Qingshan.

“Everyone, what are we going to do now?” The Superintendent of the Red Fiery Division looked at the four other people present.

“What can we do?” A cold look glimmered in Murong Yan’s eyes beneath her willow-shaped eyebrows. “We can only endure! Huhe isn’t a merciful and lenient individual. Don’t forget… He still has another name —— Devil ‘Arada’!”

The other four shuddered at the idea.

That’s right!

The one named Devil Arada was a devil-like person who could fight an army of a hundred thousand men alone. Was this a person who was going to be merciful and lenient?

“It’s best if we don’t play dirty tricks behind his back lest we won’t be able to see the sun the next day when we sleep tonight.”

After Teng Qingshan threatened them once, these five high ranking individuals who were scared of Teng Qingshan’s reputation and strength didn’t dare to form evil intentions against him. Three days after Teng Qingshan and Li Jun took control of the Red Fiery Division’s troop, the Azure Dragon Division’s troop of a hundred thousand soldiers arrived as well. The barracks had became much crowded because of that.

Teng Qingshan and the rest were all quietly waiting for the orders from the ‘Heavenly God Palace’.

……

October 16. The leaves were yellow and withered. The world was filled with a somber and desolate atmosphere.

Inside the hall.

“It’s finally going to start.” Teng Qingshan was holding a secret letter in his hands with Li Jun standing beside him. This secret letter had just been passed on to him by the Heavenly God Palace.

“The Heavenly God Palace has started to make their move. The Land of the Nine Prefectures has finally started to change too.” Teng Qingshan’s blood boiled at the thought.

Clank!

The distant courtyard gate opened up and the sound of footsteps could be heard.

Clop! Clop! Clop!

The three Elders, the Superintendents of the Red Fiery Division and the Azure Dragon Division, as well as the Second Saintess rushed over immediately. Teng Qingshan and Li Jun sat high above, one on the left and the other on the right.

“Greetings to the Commander and Lieutenant Commander.”

The six of them bowed.

Whew!

Li Jun stood up with a cold look in her eyes. Her clear voice rang out, “The Sovereign personally commands that two hundred thousand soldiers and horses be deployed to the south immediately. We must capture both the Chunfan County and the Muyang County before December.”

The Superintendents of the Red Fiery Division and the Azure Dragon Division, and the others all had shock of their lives.

However, seeing as it was the Empress herself who had commanded as such, no one dared to voice their dissent.

“Time is of essence. A journey with two hundred thousand soldiers will consume a lot of time. We have to hurry!.” Li Jun had a serious expression whilst she spoke in a cold voice, “Lunch is pushed forward two hours today. After lunch, we will rest for one hour then immediately set off for the Chunfan County!”

“Yes, Commander.” The six people present answered in unison.

Teng Qingshan stood beside Li Jun and hearing this command, his gaze clouded up. The Nine Prefectures seemed to be in a state of unrest before his eyes. A foul wind and a sea of blood seemed to be stirring in front of him.

The battle was starting!