The Nine Cauldrons

Book 5 Chapter 9 Bottomless pit

A group of heavily armored soldiers escorted the nine hunters to the Great Yan Mountain. Wherever the group of people passed, the nearby thorns and weeds trembled, causing the accumulated snow to fall.

“Awooooo~~”

The sounds of faraway wolves howling into the night sky would occasionally reach their ears.

“Those beasts are doomed,” Teng Yongxiang said with a smile. Holding his steel spear, Teng Yongfan smiled in agreement. As this was going on, Teng Yongfan was silently calculating in his mind, “There were a total of 180 hunters caught by Qing Hu Island when we last gathered. Qing Hu Island captured three hunters from each village, which means that Qing Hu Island caught hunters from a total of sixty villages! These hunters and soldiers have now each split up into 20 teams of 9 hunters and 50 soldiers.”

At this moment, in the Great Yan Mountain, the twenty teams spread out as they searched for the treasure.

It was not just them searching. Thousands Silver Dragon Soldiers were also participating in this treasure hunt. Small teams of three to five people scattered and searched in the Great Yan Mountain. Unfortunately, the Great Yan Mountain was a lot bigger than the Blazing Mountain. If there were no locals guiding the soldiers, then the men of Qing Hu Island would be searching like a blind person and the search would never end.

“With fifty heavily armored soldiers escorting us nine hunters, it would be very difficult for us to escape!” Teng Yongfan thought to himself.

“All nine of you, how far away is the Bottomless pit?” The fifty Silver Dragon soldiers, each of them with the physique of a bear, all yelled.

Among the nine hunters, the six hunters from the other villages obeyed the hunters of the Teng Jia Village.

“My lords,” Teng Qinghao hastily replied,The Bottomless pit is around twenty li away from here. We should definitely be able to get there by evening.” While the distance between two points on a straight line might seem close on this Great Mountain, the mountain path leading to their destination was narrow and rugged with many valleys and obstacles in the way. Teherefore, people had to take many detours to reach their destination.

“All of you, go faster. Don’t dawdle,” scolded the muscular black bear-like man as he continued forward.

“Brother Qinghao, the men of Qing Hu Island won’t kill us, right?” The hunters from the other villages approached Teng Qinghao and whispered.

“We will see one step at a time,” Teng Qinghao whispered back.

Teng Yongfan was thinking back on the scene of when the 180 hunters were all gathered together and interrogated by Gu Yong, the Island Lord of Qing Hu Island. Teng Yongfan thought to himself, “That Island Lord of the Qing Hu Island first asked if we had ever seen an enormous ancient palace in the great mountain... After we answered no, he then asked if we had ever come across any tunnels or deep pools that led underground......”

“It’s extremely obvious that Qing Hu Island is searching for an ancient palace! Furthermore, this ancient palace is most likely under the Great Yan Mountain!”

Teng Yongfan figured this matter out quite easily.

“There’s actually an ancient palace under the Great Yan Mountain?” Even as Teng Yongfan thought this, he still couldn’t believe it.

......

Deep into the Great Yan Mountain, a great number of soldiers camped in a spacious area on the river bank.

Inside a big tent were thirteen innate experts all sitting on chairs.

A woman dressed in a purple cloaked frowned as she asked, “Twenty teams of hunters and nine thousand Silver Dragon Soldiers have been searching for four hours, and there is still no news of anything being found?”. Among the troops that were searching, the twenty teams of hunters and escorts were made up of a total of one thousand Silver Dragon Soldiers. Including the thousands of scattered soldiers, there was a total of ten thousand Silver Dragon Soldiers searching.

“Don’t be in such a rush. I believe there will be at least some news before night time.”

Most of the elders were leisurely drinking tea in their seats.

“Island Lord,” Zhao Danchen looked at Gu Yong, who had his eyes closed as he rested. Gu Yong opened his eyes as Zhao Danchen continued speaking, “Thirty thousand of our soldiers are stationed in this Great Yan Mountain....... If this information were to be spread, would this attract the attention of others?”

Gu Yong flashed a faint smile as he said, “Elder Zhao, so what if we draw the attention of others? The army of Qing Hu Island has already obliterated Tie Yi Hall and is now preparing to attack the Gui Yuan Sect...... So what if we’re stationed in this Great Yan Mountain? Even if the other sects were to find out, they would only feel confused. Is it even possible for them to connect this to Emperor Yu’s Treasure?”

“If you elders saw that Xiaoyao Palace suddenly deployed its army over at some random mountain, what would you all think?” Gu Yong asked as he stared at the other twelve.

“I would probably suspect that Xiaoyao Palace found some huge mine on the mountain,” Zhao Danchen laughed.

The elder also laughed when they heard this.

All thirteen of them knew that they came here for Emperor Yu’s Treasure. They were nervous and worried that others might suspect that something was going on at this mountain. If they really did act stealthily and the other great sects took notice, then the other sects would be suspicious.

Now, the great army was openly stationed in this mountain.

It was almost guaranteed that all of the other sects would think that Qing Hu Island had possibly discovered a huge mine, and would try to occupy it as well!

“In the last few thousand years, no one has ever found Emperor Yu’s Treasure; therefore, no one would dare think that we have come here for Emperor Yu’s Treasure, so don’t worry and be bold.” Gu Yong smiled. Although he was smiling, Gu Yong was still slightly worried as he thought to himself, “Do the remaining survivors of Tie Yi Hall know of this secret?”

Although he was slightly worried, Gu Yong could do nothing about it.

It was impossible to pull up all the roots and kill every single person during an obliteration of a great sect that had existed for over a thousand years.

Tie Yi Hall was an example. Just the disciples and soldiers at Chu County alone numbered over ten thousand strong. Tie Yi Hall also had disciples garrisoned at other places. No matter how powerful a sect was, it would be impossible for a sect to annihilate all the disciples of such a deeply rooted sect like Tie Yi Hall! Therefore, if one were to raze such a sect to the ground, just killing the core members and innate experts was enough.

This was because the remaining survivors would just be a few random postliminary experts. Could a dozen postliminary experts ever obliterate Qing Hu Island?

If Qing Hu Island were that easily to destroy, that it would have been impossible for it to exist for so long.

“I have to find Emperor Yu’s Treasure as soon as possible and take it away!” Gu Yong said to himself.

“Island Lord...Island Lord!”

Shouts of excitement suddenly drifted in from outside as a figure dashed in without knocking.

“Island Lord, the underground lake has been found!” The middle-aged man said excitedly, his eyes beaming.

“Whew!”

The thirteen innate experts all stood up almost simultaneously in excitement. Gu Yong stared at the middle-aged man and hastily commanded, “Quickly, tell us the details of the situation.”

“Yes, Island Lord.” The middle-aged man took a deep breath and said, “This was what happened. One of the twenty teams found a bottomless hole among the bushes, and said that the deep hole was immeasurably deep that even they didn’t dare to enter. Twenty Silver Dragon soldiers then went down slowly with the help of ropes and vines. After about an hour, a few terrified silver dragon soldiers ran out from the deep hole. As they were escaping, a fearsome demonic beast dashed out from the hole in pursuit.

“A demonic beast?”

The eyes of Gu Yong and the other twelve innate experts brightened.

Actually, they already knew that the location of Emperor Yu’s Treasure would be a place filled with abundant Spiritual Qi of the heavens and earth; therefore, it was not weird for the underground lake to have demonic beasts. In fact, the appearance demonic beasts there meant.......that it was highly possible that they have found the right place.

“It was a Stone Crusher that was one zhang long. As the demonic beasts and the soldiers fought, the other Silver Dragon soldiers in the surroundings joined in. After killing large number of Silver Dragon soldiers, causing the Stone Crusher fled back into the hole. In this fight, four hunters and sixty-eight silver dragon soldiers were killed by the Stone Crusher while over twenty people were injured.”

“It seems as if this Stone Crusher has not evolved yet,” Gu Yong said.

The Stone Crusher is a demonic beast that lives underground, and is covered with tough scales, and its teeth and four claws can easily pierce through rock. Such a creature is the arch nemesis of the heavily armored Silver Dragon soldiers, as the Stone Crusher can easily tear their heavy armor apart.

“The two survivors that escaped from underground said that they found an underground lake inside the cave when they were at the depth of eighty zhang. The underground lake was enormous! An area of at least a hundred zhang of the underground cavern was filled with water. Because the underground cavern had no light, they didn’t dare to swim too far and immediately headed back up, but while they were climbing up, they were attacked by the Stone Crusher.”

Hearing this, Gu Yong and the others felt a sense of joy.

“The lake was a huge lake that was around one hundred li wide,” Gu Yong still remembered what was recorded in the book. “A lake of that size had sunken underground, and was covered by mountain rocks. I truly didn’t expect that there for there to be so much lake water left.”

“Lead the way,” Gu Yong commanded.

Immediately, the thirteen innate experts headed towards the location of the deep hole as quickly as possible.

......

A few hundred silver dragon soldiers had already gathered there. As Gu Yong and the other twelve innate experts arrived, everyone stepped aside to make way.

“Island Lord, this is the deep tunnel that leads underground,” a guide said. Following the guide, Gu Yong walked over to the deep tunnel.

The weeds around the deep tunnel were cleared, revealing the dark and deep hole that was three to four Zhang wide. The bottom of the hole was not visible. Black bloodstains and pieces of meat were seen mixed in with the mud beside the deep hole. There were also many deep craters in the ground. It was obvious that a big fight had just occurred.

“Good,”

Gu Yong commented as he nodded.

“Sovereign, what should we do with those hunters?” General Lan whispered.

Gu Yong turned and casted a glance at him as he said coldly, ”Kill all of them!”

The hunters knew that Qing Hu Island was searching for either a mysterious palace, a deep tunnel, or a deep pool that leads to the underground......Therefore, the hunters must be killed! Although the other great sects did not know that Qing Hu Island was searching for Emperor Yu’s Treasure, it was better to be on the side of caution.

“Yes,” General Lan answered.

“Also, command the Silver Dragon soldiers to make this deep hole as the center of camp, and to camp five to six li around it.” Gu Yong was clear that it was impossible for thirty thousand people to seal off the entire Great Yan Mountain. He could therefore only reduce the blockade around this place.

“Issue the Assembling Order and the Execution Order,”

Gu Yong gave few orders at one time.

......

“This deep pool is really cold. The winter is so cold, but the deep pool is even colder.” The few Silver Dragon Soldiers on the foot of the mountain looked at the Jade Frost pool. However, after they touched the pool water and felt the low temperature, none of them dared to enter the pool.

“Xiu!”

An ear-piercing sound rang to the heavens.

The few soldiers looked up.

“It’s the assembling signal. Go, stop the search. Let’s get there quickly.” Silver Dragon Soldiers immediately headed to the assembling location.

......

According to the rules set previously, once the gathering signal is heard, all teams must stop search and assemble towards the location of the signal. A few moments after the gathering signal was heard——

“Xiu!” “Xiu!” “Xiu!”

Three ear-piercing sounds then rang to the heavens.

This was the signal to kill all the hunters!