The Nine Cauldrons
chapter-54

The guards on the North wall of Jiangning County City stood frozen, eyes wide, staring at the raging battle between the Emptiness Realm experts below in disbelief. Though their eyes were unable to keep up with the insane speed at which the two warriors were trading blows, they were able to discern the winning and losing sides.

“Senior Jing YI’s aide, the human formed demonic beast, could easily kill thousands of men from the Silver Dragon Army in one move.”

“Senior Jing Yi and that hunter who shoots well have fought to a standstill. If the blind man dressed in black were to enter the fray, senior Jing Yi would lose.”

One soldier, who was standing on the wall, kept muttering to himself silently, trying to prevent himself from forgetting.

His name was Hu Chuan.

He was one among the many guards of Jiangning County City. As a city guard, his wages were not high. If he was going to chase his dreams of living a comfortable life in Jiangning County City, marrying a gorgeous woman and being able to take care of his parents, that salary was far from enough. So, at times, he would take on illicit job offers. This was one of those times.

His orders were to carefully observe the battle that would take place when senior Jing Yi started fighting on the outskirts of Jiangning County City. He was to take note of the whole process of the fight.

After that, simply report back the to the client about the process and he would receive five hundred silver taels!

Now, five hundred silver taels, to a regular low-ranked soldier, was huge. He’d be a fool not to agree. In any case, there will already be a lots of chatter about this tremendous fight after it ends, so even if he were to talk about it, his actions would not be tarnishing the reputation of the Gui Yuan Sect, and he would be at happy with the money he earned.

People like Hu Chuan were considered outsiders employed by intelligence agencies of some great force.

After all, there were certain places that even the people of other intelligence agencies could not go.

Furthermore, the battles of the Emptiness Realm Experts usually exposed their secrets and techniques, thus each of the eight big sects viewed the battles of Emptiness Realm Experts as something crucial. The information of the battle could be sold for an immense price. A regular soldier would watch, but they wouldn’t try to memorize or notice the details. However, hired staff would always observe and memorize everything.

“The arrow that was shot by the hunter has knocked Senior Jing Yi back two Li, causing him to crash against the wall. However, senior Jing Yi seems to be unfazed.”

“Senior Jing Yi’s aide, the human formed demonic beast, flies at a great speed, creating an illusion of it duplicating.”

“The giant silver wolf, which is being chased by the human-like demonic beast, has burrowed deep into the ground.”

The young man, Hu Chuan, memorised everything he saw. Though the exact details of the fight between the Emptiness Realm experts could barely be seen with the naked eye, he did the best he could to take note of every detail he could observe without getting distracted.

“The blind man in black has gone underground as well.”

“He has resurfaced, along with the giant silver wolf,” mumbled Hu Chuan as he tracked them with his attentive eyes.

Bang!

The ground split open. Both Blind Swordmaster and the giant silver wolf, drenched in blood, leaped out onto the surface. The giant silver wolf was now only a shell of its former self, missing the elegant beauty it once had. It showed not only through his blood-drenched fur, but also through the fact that its once formidable weapon—its tail, was now nothing more than a small stud on the backside of the wolf.

The tail broke!

The Shooting Sun Heavenly Wolf has become one without a tail, with a hideous wound on its back leg where its bone could be seen.

“Boom!” the Six Legged Bladelike Chi emerged from the other side of the ground. The Six Legged Bladelike Chi held a foot of the demonic wolf’s tail in its arms. It flapped its two wings and flew back towards Teng Qingshan. Shen Gongtu and Teng Qingshan both retreated.

Whish!

Teng Qingshan leaped onto the back of the Six Legged Bladelike Chi’s, while Shen Gongtu rushed to the side of the Shooting Sun Heavenly Wolf.

“Roar, roarr~~” the giant silver wolf leaned on Shen Gongtu, wailing in pain and despair.

“Roar, roar~~” A man who had achieved Emptiness Realm Culmination, Shen Gongtu, who was famous in the Land of Nine Prefectures, carressed the giant silver wolf. When he saw the ‘stud’ on its bottom, which was all that was left of its once magnificent tail, and the huge wound on its back leg, Shen Gongtu was so furious that his face turned purple, tears welling up in his eyes.

Shen Gongtu understood the language of the beasts. He had stayed with this giant silver wolf for three hundred years, their bond was like those of brothers.

The injury on its leg would recover, but without its tail, the giant silver wolf has lost an important weapon, and without a tail, it would never be as agile as it was when evading attacks in a close distance. Adding to that, not having tail was a shame to the giant silver wolf

It could be compared to a man becoming lame, it would be looked down upon by others.

Among the wolves, those who did not possess a tail were looked down upon. Although the giant silver wolf was an Emptiness Realm demonic beast, it still held an esthetic conception.

“Tie Wu, did you and this expert from the Shooting Sun God Mountain honestly think that you could kill us today?” Teng Qingshan laughed mockingly while sitting cross-legged on the back of the Six Legged Bladelike Chi. The Six Legged Bladelike Chi also looked at the two men and the injured demonic beast as though it was mocking them. The giant silver wolf’s eyes were filled with fear as it looked towards the Six Legged Bladelike Chi.

Before the battle, the giant silver wolf had the audacity to fight the Six Legged Bladelike Chi.

But after the battle, the giant silver wolf realised that not only was there no way he could have won, it had not even been able to flee for its life. If the Blind Swordmaster had not interjected, it would have lost a lot more than just its tail.

“Shen Gongtu, could you shoot another ‘Void Piercing Arrow’? Not at Jing Yi this time, but target the demonic beast. Maybe it can finally slay that creature,” suggested the Blind Swordmaster.

“It’s not easy to make ‘Void Piercing Arrow’,” replied Shen Gongtu angrily with the use of the Sound Transmission Technique, “And when the wolf was fighting with that demonic beast, I noticed that even the wolf’s razor-sharp claws only left scratch marks on the demonic beast’s body. The scales did not even crack. My Void Piercing Arrow might able penetrate it but its power would be a lot weaker. In any case, that demonic beast dodges too quickly, hitting any of its vital points would be almost impossible.”

Every time he thought of the Six Legged Bladelike Chi seemingly duplicating itself in the sky, Shen Gongtu would exclaim in admiration.

The demonic beast’s agility was insane.

“You two! Still want to fight another round?” jeered Teng Qingshan, who was sitting lazily on the back of the Six Legged Bladelike Chi. “If I had the mood for it, I wouldn’t mind having barbequed wolf today.”

“Hmph,” the Blind Swordmaster scowled.

Shen Gongtu’s eyes turned cold.

They knew that things would be difficult now as Teng Qingshan sat on the back of the Six Legged Bladelike Chi. Even with the combined speed of Shen Gongtu and the Blind Swordmaster, they would not be able to even touch its tail. If they were to start brawling, once Teng Qingshan finds an opening, the Six Legged Bladelike Chi would attack the wounded giant silver wolf.

“We can’t possibly win if we fought, we would only suffer more losses, why should we still fight?” Shen Gongtu said to the Blind Swordmaster with the use of the Sound Transmission Technique.

The Blind Swordmaster looked at the terrified Silver Dragon Army in the distance and the pile of dead bodies. He was filled with rage and said, “Curse my luck, I had to retreat the last time because Gu Yong was there. I did not expect that this time, Jing Yi, he’s lucky to have a demonic beast adept at both flying and digging.

“Having a demonic beast like that is better than having two Emptiness Realm Culmination Experts,” said Shen Gongtu as he sighed.

Many sects were fawning towards the Shooting Sun God Mountain because of his wolf.

After all, the Emptiness Realm demonic beasts were very useful, but there were only a few sects who could tame these beasts. However, this demonic beast of Teng Qingshan’s clearly outclassed the Shooting Sun God’s wolf.

“Go!”

“Go!”

The Blind Swordmaster and Shen Gongtu, without hesitation, lifted the giant silver wolf and ascended. With the three of them together, it would be a waste of energy for Teng Qingshan to attack them.

“Retreat!” the Blind Swordmaster transmitted the message to the general of the Silver Dragon Army.

“Retreat!!!”

Within the Silver Dragon army, voices yelling orders sounded immediately. The twenty thousand Silver Dragon soldiers carried their dead and injured mates and left in an embarrassing manner.

“Tie Wu and this expert from the Shooting Sun God Mountain, I hope we don’t meet again. If we do, I wouldn’t mind bringing this good friend of mine to have a walk in your sect,” the transmitted voice of Teng Qingshan sounded in the ears of the Blind Swordmaster and Shen Gongtu.

The Blind Swordmaster and Shen Gongtu quivered.

If Teng Qingshan really went ahead and attacked their sect mounted on the Blade-like Chi’s back, they had no contingency plan.

“Hmph, This was your stupid idea. You didn’t check properly beforehand,” Shen Gongtu said angrily.

“How could I have known?” the Blind Swordmaster was also unhappy.

The two separated and went back to their own sects.

After this battle, there were many who were delighted. Not only the people of Gui Yuan sect, but also those like Hu Chuan, who took on illegal jobs.

“Mhmm, this is what I saw.” In the room of a restaurant, Hu Chuan passed on a piece of paper.

The receiver was a mysterious person, skinny, with a moustache. He opened it and his eyes glimmered. “Hu Chuan, you have done an excellent job this time. I have received three papers before this, yours is the most detailed. Mhmm, here you go,” said the moustached figure as he passed a small stack of silver notes.

Hu Chuan received it excitedly. He examined it delicately. Each piece was worth one hundred taels… But why was there 6?

“Six hundred taels?” Hu Chuan was shocked, for he did not believe that the person had given him more by accident.

“Mhmm, yup, six hundred taels,” the moustached man laughed, “you did great this time, so the extra one hundred taels are your reward. Remember, as long as you keep observing carefully and taking note of everything, I will not wrong you.”

“Hehe,” Hu Chuan smiled. He thought to himself,“This money should be enough to find me a good wife.”

“Then I shall take my leave.” Hu Chuan left silently and slowly closed the door.

The moustached man looked at the piece of paper in his hands and smiled.

……

It was barely the next day when one by one, secret letters from Jiangning County City were delivered to various areas of the Land of Nine Prefectures: Southeast Yongzhou, Northeast Youzhou, Qingzhou, Rongzhou and Yu Zhou. All the big sects had arranged for people to wait at these important places.

……

On his battle horse, Pei San casually rode among the army.

“This Jing Yi’s power is unbelievable,” Pei San muttered as he looked at the letter, surprised. “He even managed to obtain such an amazing demonic beast. With this, how can that old thief of the Xiao Yao Palace possibly get away?”

……

The Qin Mountains with a range of three thousand Li dwelled the Ying Family. In a quiet underground palace decorated with numerous sharp swords, a golden-cloak figure with a red mole on his forehead could be faintly seen in the misty great hall of the palace.

“This type of demonic beast?”

“This Jing Yi has got such an impressive demonic beast. If the Ying Family had such a beast, we wouldn’t have become jokes to the world all because of a drunkard,” the shadowy figure in the golden coat’s voice contained an excitement that could not be hidden.

……

Meanwhile, in the Land of Nine Prefectures, many experts, both well known and hidden, and also the almighty experts of the Mani Temple who are as powerful as the reincarnated living buddha, all received the news. Emptiness Realm Demonic Beast were too proud and the number of tamed Emptiness Realm Demonic Beast was too few. That in itself would have been enough to make people envious, not to mention a demonic beast that had mastered flying, digging and group attacking.

It made people extremely jealous.

But the big sects knew that having such a demonic beast, Jing Yi was not someone who could be easily bullied.

Fortunately

This Jing Yi had no sect. If he joined a sect, wouldn’t it be nice for that sect?

……