The Nine Cauldrons

Chapter 23 Blood Flowed like River!

In his previous life, after Cat died, Teng Qingshan had used all his energy on pursuing the apex of the Martial Way.

Apex of the Martial Way!

That was the desire in the bottom of Teng Qingshan’s heart. Even in this life, Teng Qingshan had never given up on building a path that belonged to Internal Martial Arts!

It was not until he entered the Great Prairie that he experienced enlightenment.

Although it was interrupted, this experience pointed Teng Qingshan in a clear direction!

What about the 《Thirty-six Splitting Mountain Forms》? Teng Qingshan was no longer worried about that. Now, all his heart was on creating a martial art of a higher caliber within Internal Martial Arts!

“If I do arrive the Godly Axe Mountain of the Northern Sea Continent one day and see the 《Thirty-six Splitting Mountain Forms》...as the saying goes, all techniques are connected. Whether it was Mani Temple, Emperor Yu’s Hall, or the Ying Family, all of them had to comprehend the heavens and earth after reaching the level of Buddha or the Emptiness Realm. The same went with Internal Martial Arts.

“Watching the 《Thirty-six Splitting Mountain Forms》will help me with my comprehension of the heavens and earth.”

Teng Qingshan knew this point clearly.

“However.....” Teng Qingshan also felt puzzled about something as he thought to himself, “If my body hadn’t been strengthened by the energy refined by the Splitting Mountain Axe in the Heavenly Flood Palace, my physical strength would probably only be around two hundred thousand Jin and could only be compared to an Emptiness Dan innate expert!”

“Perhaps I can now comprehend the Dao of Heaven?”

Teng Qingshan also felt slightly dubious!

He knew clearly that his ability improved sharply in the Heavenly Flood Palace. It didn’t improve through the practice of his martial arts, but purely through external forces!

Although Teng Qingshan felt confused, he still trained arduously in the prairie!

With a bag on his back, Teng Qingshan looked like an ascetic monk as he walked on the vast prairie.

The sky was his blanket and the earth was his bed!

Every worry and hatred was forgotten. There was only the desire to pursue the great Dao in his heart.

One month had passed since Teng Qingshan entered the prairie, but Teng Qingshan was still walking in the region controlled by Snow Hawk Hall! This area was considered the outer regions of the Great Prairie. Although Teng Qingshan had encountered some troubles while he was travelling, it didn’t cause much of a problem for him.

During the second and third month after Teng Qingshan entered the Great Prairie, Teng Qingshan was walking in the region under the control of the Three Great Kingdoms of the prairie. During these two months, Teng Qingshan went on a killing spree! Rivers of blood flowed!

It happened because a group of mounted bandits was raiding the prairie when they found the lone traveller Teng Qingshan. At the time, Teng Qingshan was dressing raggedly with broken shoes on his feet and an untrimmed beard, making him seem like a beggar. Perhaps, those mounted bandits didn’t find any victims, but as they galloped past Teng Qingshan, a mounted bandit simply tried to slash at Teng Qingshan!

It was very common for mounted bandits to simply kill people on the prairie!

Unfortunately, they kicked the hot-plate this time!

This group of bandits had over ninety people. After a moment, Teng Qingshan had killed over thirty people before the others immediately fled. Teng Qingshan didn’t care about the ones who fled. Instead, he continued training arduously while pondering how to incorporate the Element of Earth into martial arts. However, Teng Qingshan didn’t expect that——

The group of bandits was actually a troop of Ash-Gray Wolf Capital City Army of the Golden Wolf Kingdom, one of the Three Great Kingdoms in the prairie.

TLN: Ash-Gray Wolf Army is divided into five armies, each in charge of a city.

The Three Great Kingdoms were enemies against one another.

Because the natives of the prairie were brutal and ferocious, the Three Great Kingdoms allowed their armies to send some men disguised as mounted bandits to rob the territories of the other kingdoms!

The sixty-plus survived soldiers fled to the border of the kingdom, where ten thousand soldiers of the Ash-Gray Wolf North City Army were stationed! But although the North City Army was one of the five armies of the Ash-Gray Wolf Army, would they search for a lone traveller in the vast prairie for the sake of thirty people?

Normally, they would just end matter without settling it.

However——

Teng Qingshan was heading north! Finally, he arrived the border of the Golden Wolf Kingdom and was seen by the patrolling soldiers who survived that day! These soldiers gnashed their teeth and immediately notified their superiors in order to avenge their brothers!

Since the lone traveller was just before their eyes, of course they sent people to kill him!

This action seemed to have poked a hole through the heavens!

The ten thousand soldiers of the North City!

When the general of the North City knew that one person had managed to kill eight hundred of his men, he became extremely furious and immediately ordered, “So what if that’s a Golden Dan innate expert?! He’s all by himself Exhaust his Innate True Origin and kill him!” On the Great Prairie, none of the Eight Supreme Sects were able to control the Three Great Kingdoms.

In the center of the Great Prairie, the Three Great Kingdoms were the ruling entities!

The slaughter immediately started!

The men of the Great Prairie were a savage people. After losing so many brother, they killed with the intention to exhaust the opponent’s True Origin. The battle......went from noon until evening! As the glow of the sunset dyed the sky in the west red, the grassland......was dyed red by fresh blood!

In the beginning, the lone traveller didn’t kill very quickly, but the speed became increasingly fast towards the end. The fists that appeared as slow as a mill were actually as fast as lightning. In the blink of an eye, over ten people were killed. During the last hour of the battle, the number of soldiers killed was equivalent to the number of soldiers killed during the previous six hours!

During this battle, the North City Army lost over sixteen thousand people! Over three thousand people were injured!

They originally had a superior attitude and wanted to execute Teng Qingshan. Numerous soldiers encircled Teng Qingshan with the intention of tiring him to death, but too many people died. Seeing that so many of their brothers died, many soldiers felt their eyes redden as they turned mad! But in the end——

Soldiers were killed until fear filled the survivors’ heart!

Retreat! Retreat!

Run! Run for your lives!

The face of the general of the North City Army turned pale in fright as he screamed, “That’s not a human! Not a human! He must be Arada! The demon Arada!”

Because Teng Qingshan had been training arduously on the prairie, he also seen the lifestyles of the natives of the Great Prairie.

When Teng Qingshan was in the great land of the Nine Prefectures, he learned that the two prefectures, Youzhou and Yanzhou, were bitter and cold places. The natives of Youzhou and Yanzhou often battled with the natives of the Great Prairie. They were an extremely brave and fierce people. Because of their bravery and fierceness, they were called the kings of the Nine Prefectures! As for the natives of the Great Prairie, they attacked Youzhou and Yanzhou all year long!

Through this, one could imagine the how fierce the natives of the prairie were! To be more precise, the natives of the Great Prairie weren’t fierce, but rather brutal and cruel!

As months elapsed, Teng QIngshan walked several thousand Li from the outer regions to the center, and he noticed——

Ordinary prairie tribes were very friendly to travellers. If Teng Qingshan wanted to eat, he would usually eat in some tribe and pay some crushed silver.

These small tribes on the prairie were people of the lowest social level in the Great Prairie! They cared for sheeps and cows and lived where there was grass. They were people of no power!

As for the bigger tribes, they were very domineering, brutal, and fierce. They oppressed and exploited the small tribes to the point that they would rob the small tribes like mounted bandits!

As for the Three Great Kingdoms, they were even more bloody! The Three Kingdoms had powerful warriors and even the existence of an Emptiness Realm Expert! Because the Great Prairie was a spacious and sparsely populated place, the Three Kingdoms’ control of their own lands had reached the limit. A kingdom just had to weaken the other two kingdoms and strengthen itself!

The armies of the Three Great Kingdoms were even more terrifying than mounted bandits!

......

Of course Teng Qingshan wouldn’t give mercy to the fierce and brutal troops who wanted to kill him! Teng Qingshan originally wanted to leave after killing some people, but he did not expect......that all those soldiers would move like wind and encircle Teng Qingshan!

Arrows! Crossbows! Boiling oil! A large number of cavalrymen against Teng Qingshan!

Those soldiers wanted to exhaust and tire Teng Qingshan to death! If Teng Qingshan was really a Golden Dan innate expert, it was possible for him to be tire to death by several thousands soldiers!

Unfortunately......

They encountered Teng Qingshan, the only Grandmaster of Internal Martial Arts in the great land of the Nine Prefectures!

Over sixteen thousand people died, and over three thousand people were wounded. A total of twenty thousand casualties!

This news couldn’t be kept a secret and rapidly spread throughout the Great Prairie like a rushing gust of wind. Numerous mounted bandits were terrified and afraid that they might encounter this lone traveller! The experts of the Three Great Kingdoms in the prairie were afraid as well. Being able to kill almost twenty thousand people... Only an Emptiness Realm Expert with limitless True Origin was able to do that.

It was the fourth month since Teng Qingshan entered the Great Prairie!

The mirror-like lake waters resembled a pearl inlaid on the Great Prairie. The sun shone on the surface of the lake while breeze blew and made ripples on the lake surface. The reflection of the sun on the surface of the lake also moved along with the ripples of water.

At the lakeside, Teng Qingshan was practicing his fist arts. There were only three moves, which he repeatedly practiced. The three moves seemed so simple, but when Teng Qingshan performed the moves, he seemed to be in a profound and deep realm. In addition, the speed of the moves was very strange, making it difficult to perceive the movements.

“Weng~~lingg~~”

As Teng Qingshan performed each move, his body vibrated, and the sound of the bones in synchronization could be heard. It was a lot louder than when he practiced the 《Godly Tiger Form Technique》

Occasionally, a earthy yellow flash could be seen on Teng Qingshan’s body!

He continued practicing from noon until the sun dyed the western sky red with its glow and descended beneath the mountains.

“Whew!” Teng Qingshan finally stopped.

“If a man in the morning hears the right way, he may die in the evening without regret."

During these four months, Teng Qingshan had gone through a shocking transformation. Since the first day he entered the Great Prairie, Teng Qingshan had trained arduously with all his heart.......With the sky as his blanket and the earth as his bed. As time passed, Teng Qingshan could almost feel the emotions of the great earth!

When Teng Qingshan encountered pitiful small tribes, he no longer remained a bystander. Instead, he would help them, and by doing so, Teng Qingshan could feel the generosity and kindness of the great Mother Earth.

What truly sparked his enlightenment was that battle with the North City Army, which enabled him to create the third move.

Teng Qingshan understood at that moment that killing was just a natural cycle that belonged to the heavens and earth. Whether it was the death of an animal or a human, there was no difference to the heavens and earth.

......

After creating the third move, Teng Qingshan cultivated in silence for a month before he managed to merge with the third move.

“The Dao of the heavens and earth can be divided into five elements. This fist art of mine should be the first part of the Earth Element Fist.” Teng Qingshan could feel that there was still a long way to go before he could interpret the Dao of Earth in the Dao of the Heavens!

However——

Teng Qingshan still noticed an astonishing achievement!

“I made a mistake previously! Also, what I thought was wrong!” Teng Qingshan sighed emotionally. He stretched his arms, and with the move of his mind, a faint earthy yellow flash passed across him. “I was ignorant before, but now I am finally clear of the first part of the fist art, the Dao of Earth!”

For the cultivation of the Buddhist Sect, ordinary monks first cultivated inner strength and integrated a bit of their inner strength with the ‘Spirit’ in the Niwan Palace. They must cultivate the Sarra with the ‘Spirit as the focus and until the power of Sarra appeared. This power of Sarra was also known as the ‘Origin of Buddha’.

As for the cultivation of the Daoist Sect, ordinary warriors first cultivated inner strength and integrate some of their Spirit with the inner strength stored in the Dantian. With the inner strength as the focus, they had to cultivate until a Golden Dan manifested. This Golden Dan was called the Golden Dan True Origin. A more simpler name was ‘Innate True Origin’.

But for the cultivation of Internal Martial Arts, what happened after Ordinary Warriors cultivated inner strength?

The meridians and channels of the entire body must be opened before a warrior is able to control the bones, muscles, and internal organs! Actually, this was necessary to reach the Grandmaster Realm.

It was just like reaching the limit of the Dantian and having sufficient Spirit was necessary to reach the Innate Realm!

What should be the next step be!

Internal Martial Arts had no cultivation method. Even the so-called “Godly Tiger Form Technique” was just a method created to increase strength in his previous world, which had only trace amounts of Spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth!

And now, although Teng Qingshan had just created the first phase of the Earth Element Fist, he discovered a secret!