The Nine Cauldrons 598 Battle

On their way back, he still laughed and joked around with Teng Qingshan. When Pei San was going back to the Western Regions and Teng Qingshan was going back to Xing Yi Sect, Pei San laughed and said, "Teng Qingshan, when the army of the Heavenly God Palace reached the Mani Temple, you have to go check it out! I am guessing that the Mani Temple will send out their Insightful Emptiness Realm Expert. A fight between the Insightful Emptiness Realm Experts! You have to check it out. Maybe it will benefit your cultivation."

"Of course." Teng Qingshan smiled and nodded.

"Then, I will see you next time."Pei San cupped his hands. He stood on the Godly Thunderbold Hawk and quickly flew in the northwestern direction.

Teng Qingshan watched as Pei San departed. "A fight between the Insightful Emptiness Realm Experts? No one knows how powerful the Insightful Emptiness Realm Expert of the Mani Temple is…" Teng Qingshan then smiled. He sat cross-legged on the Undying Phoenix's back and flew towards the Great Yan Mountain of the Jiangning County.

The Undying Phoenix was extremely fast.

When Teng Qingshan reached the Great Yan Mountain, the sun had just sunk beneath the horizon. In the towns and villages located at the bottom of the Great Yan Mountain, smoke flowed up into the still air from the chimneys of the many houses.

"Eh?" Teng Qingshan looked down from the sky and saw his wife, Li Jun, staring at the sky with a worried expression. His daughter Linlin stayed right beside Li Jun, accompanying her. Seeing this, Teng Qingshan felt a sense of warmth surging through his body. He made the decision to marry Li Jun back when they were staying in the Duanmu Continent. Looking back, Teng Qingshan felt that it was the wisest decision he had ever made.

Whoosh!

When Li Jun and Linlin saw a fiery red beam of light flying downwards, their faces showed a sense of joy and surprise.

'Qingshan."

"Father."

When Teng Qingshan landed on the ground, Li Jun and Linlin ran over. When Li Jun saw that Teng Qingshan's clothes had been torn and that only the battle armor remained intact, she was shocked. However, when she realized that there were only a few wounds on Teng Qingshan's body, she heaved a sigh of relief and started teasing Teng Qingshan. "Qingshan, it seems like you have gone through a lot of trouble at the Barbarian Tribe Temple."

Teng Qingshan smiled helplessly and said, "Little Jun, don't laugh at me. Can you bring me some clean clothes? I am going to take a shower and change my clothes. We can talk later."

When Teng Qingshan had taken a bath and changed his clothes, it was already night time.

As the family of five gathered together for dinner, Teng Qingshan explained everything that had happened. Teng Qingshan initially planned for his parents to stay with them as well.

However, since Teng Yongfan recovered and since his leg grew back, he became very busy. He was always training the younger generation of Teng Jia Village. As both of Teng Qingshan's parents had drunk the Scarlet Fruit Wine, they have been very healthy.

And so, Teng Qingshan decided to just visit his parents occasionally. He also asked Honglin and Hongwu to visit their grandparents more frequently.

In the meantime, Teng Qingshan had told the entire story. As Honglin listened, she clenched her fist and exclaimed, "That bastard is finally dead."

Honglin really hated the person who secretly plotted everything!

"It's good he died," Hongwu added.

"Father." Honglin suddenly asked, "Who is that person? Why does he hate the Teng family so much? Why did he repeatedly plot against us?"

Li Jun, who sat beside Teng Qingshan, hastily questioned as well, "Yeah, Qingshan. Who is that person? Previously, we guessed him to be Gu Yong. Is he?"

With a helpless expression, Teng Qingshan shook his head and said, "I don't know. Even after I removed his mask, I still do not know his true identity."

"You could not recognize him even after you removed his mask?" Li Jun blurted out. At the side, Hongwu, Honglin, and Hongwu's wife all stared at Teng Qingshan, waiting for an answer.

"No."

Teng Qingshan shook his head and answered, "Because he was disfigured."

"Disfigured?" The entire family, who sat in the central room, suddenly became quiet.

"So this means that I will never confirm whether if this person, Elder Jin Sheng, is actually Gu Yong." Teng Qingshan grinned. He then laughed and said, "Alright. Whoever he is… He is dead now! This is over."

...

After Teng Qingshan returned to the Xing Yi Sect, he stayed by his family's side and did nothing for three days. On the fourth day, he went into his cultivation room and started his quiet closed-door cultivation.

Teng Qingshan benefited greatly from the fight against the Barbarian Tribe Temple. He managed to transmute the Five Elemental Power of his World into the Power of World Destruction.

For now, Teng Qingshan felt that he should reinforce the current state of cultivation and gain a complete understanding of the Power of World Destruction… The moves of the Three Postures, the preparation and the punch, were respectively the concept of "life" and the concept of "death." Now, he has mastered the concept of death. He just needed to use the Three Postures and the understanding of the concept of death to comprehend the concept of "life."

Teng Qingshan practiced and cultivated wholeheartedly.

It was complete silence in Xing Yi Sect. While Teng Qingshan was cultivating quietly, a terrifying battle occurred in Yanzhou, one of the nine prefectures! Although the Emptiness Realm Expert of the Shooting Sun God Mountain had died, the Shooting Sun God Mountain had governed Yanzhou for too long. Moreover, Gui Yuan Sect suffered because of the godly archery skills mastered by the disciples of the Shooting Sun God Mountain.

After all, only a few people could have no fear of the archery skills shown by the powerful disciples of the Shooting Sun God Mountain.

Fortunately, Gui Yuan Sect had the support of the Emptiness Realm Expert, Zhuge Yuanhong, and the powerful Longgang Guards.

...

The battle had started since the end of last year. Whenever the Longgang Guards would take down a city and leave, the disciples of the Shooting Sun God Mountain would return and take the city back.

Back then, Gui Yuan Sect was able to destroy Qing Hu Island because of the Longgang Guards and because of the support provided by Teng Qingshan and the Undying Phoenix!

Actually, to a sect with a million soldiers, an Emptiness Realm Expert was not a huge threat. After all, an Emptiness Realm Expert could not kill as many people within one move. The real threat was an Emptiness Realm Demonic Beast. For example, the Undying Phoenix.

To kill over ten thousand people, the Undying Phoenix only needed to spew her flames once.

The Violet Rain was able to freeze over ten thousand soldiers to death with its breath of cold air. It is the biggest hit to the army's morale! This is what the soldiers fear the most!

However, Gui Yuan Sect does not have an Emptiness Realm Demonic Beast!

The Shooting Sun God Mountain just needed to avoid the powerful Longgang Guards. Their strategy was to divide their own army into small groups and hide in different areas while fighting with Gui Yuan Sect for every inch of Yanzhou! The losses during the beginning left Zhuge Yuanhong no choice. He could only command his army to advance gradually and entrench Gui Yuan Sect's force at every step. Zhuge Yuanhong had no choice but to conquer Yanzhou very slowly. His army had to gain absolute control of a place before it could move on to conquer another area.

Actually, Zhuge Yuanhong could also ask Teng Qingshan for help.

Unfortunately, Zhuge Yuanhong was not willing to sacrifice his pride, especially since what happened last time. In his opinion, the Gui Yuan Sect already gained an advantage, considering that the Shooting Sun God Mountain had already lost their Emptiness Realm Expert. If Gui Yuan still could not conquer Yanzhou, then Gui Yuan Sect had no right to rule over Yanzhou." Therefore, Zhuge Yuanhong thought of this battle as a training for the army.

Even though Gui Yuan Sect an Emptiness Realm Expert, a more powerful army, and stronger morale, it still took Gui Yuan Sect a total of four months to conquer the entire Yanzhou. With three hundred thousand casualties, this battle started at the end of last year and ended this April.

Although Gui Yuan Sect managed to conquer Yanzhou, remnants of the Shooting Sun God Mountain were still present everywhere in Yanzhou.

Nevertheless, nothing can change the current situation.

...

While Gui Yuan Sect was ruling over Yanzhou and Yangzhou, an even greater battle started, drawing the attention of everyone in the Land of the Nine Prefectures. The army of the Heavenly God Palace finally advanced on the 'Golden Road,' the pathway between the border of the Western Region and the border of Liangzhou, and crossed the border of Liangzhou.

The Heavenly God Palace governed one billion people. With an invincible cultivator like Pei San, the Heavenly God Palace was truly a terrifying sect. Although it took a long time for the sect to assemble its army, make a detour around the desert, enter into the Western Regions, and advance into Liangzhou through the Golden Road, no one doubted the power shown by the army of the Heavenly God Palace!

The twenty years of preparation! The elites selected from among the billion people!

The land of the two prefectures governed by the Mani Temple was inhabited by five hundred million or six hundred million people. This land had a long history. Rongzhou and Liangzhou were the two prefectures with the most cohesive society. As a sect established by an Omnipotent Expert, the Mani Temple had numerous secret techniques and a great number of powerful experts.

The clash of these two powerful sects would be terrifying. Even Teng Qingshan refused to get himself involved.

As the sun set, the rays shone through the atmosphere, giving the western sky a rosy glow.

On the Buddha Mountain in the Mani Temple:

The Buddha Mountain was the forbidden area of the Mani Temple and only the Buddhist Grandmasters who had achieved the Emptiness Realm were qualified to enter. At this moment, a chubby young monk could be seen dashing over and flying into a cave halfway up the mountain. The young monk wore a monk gown with nine purple profound-looking patterns on the sleeves.

"Martial Uncle!"

The young monk placed his hand together and said.

Inside the cave, a monk dressed in yellow could be seen sitting cross-legged in the cave and facing the wall.

"Fan Kong, you are here." The monk in the yellow gown said softly. As he spoke, the chanting of meditation sounded. It was like the background accompaniment for his voice and it somehow had a calming effect. "How is the army of the Heavenly God Palace?"

"The army of the Mani Temple could not stop them." the young monk shook his head as he answered, "The Heavenly God Palace had spent twenty years building an extremely powerful army of elite soldiers. For the past twenty years, they have selected the elites from the great number of disciples who dwelled in the Great Prairie, Youzhou, and Qingzhou. In these three regions, there were a huge number of disciples who cultivated the Internal Martial Art and these disciples were taken in by the Heavenly God Palace."

"With the use of some inner strength secret technique, anyone who has some sort of achievement in the cultivation of the Internal Martial Art could become a Second Rated Warrior. If the person has high achievements in the cultivation of the Internal Martial Art and possessed inner strength, he would be of the same level as a First Rated Warrior." 

"Because of the cultivation of the Internal Martial Art, the Heavenly God Palace was able to gather such a huge number of elite soldiers."

"Among the million soldiers of the Heavenly God Palace, the weakest ones are the Third Rated Warriors. Most of them are Second Rated Warriors." The young monk shook his head and sighed as he said, "If I knew, I would have asked the people of Rongzhou and Liangzhou to learn the Internal Martial Art! Although a portion of them would join the Xing Yi Sect, most of them would join the Mani Temple to be where home is."

Hearing this, the monk, who wore a yellow gown and sat cross-legged, remained silent for a long time.

The Mani Temple was known to be the utmost authority in Rongzhou and Liangzhou, allowing them to ban any cultivation methods not used by the Mani Temple.

"Martial Uncle, this is a huge disaster." The young monk said hastily.

"Sigh…"

The monk, dressed in the yellow gown, let out a deep sigh.

"Fan Kong, take two elders with you and head to the Xing Yi Sect." The monk, dressed in yellow, said slowly, "Tell Teng Qingshan that the six million people of Rongzhou and Liangzhou will be permitted to learn the Internal Martial Art in the future. He can also start a branch of Qingshan Enterprise in both Rongzhou and Liangzhou. Moreover, the Xing Yi Sect will be allowed to recruit cultivators of the Internal Martial Art from Rongzhou and Liangzhou. We just hope that he can lend us the Undying Phoenix."

"Martial Uncle…" The young monk froze.

Since Martial Ancestor Shiga established the Mani Temple, the sect had never begged anyone.

Unlike the Emperor Yu's Hall and the Ying Family, the Mani Temple had never contended for hegemony. However, the members of the Mani Temple were always proud of themselves. The Mani Temple was the most powerful sect in the Land of the Nine Prefectures! The dissemination of the cultivation methods of other sects was not allowed in the territory of the Mani Temple. The dominance exerted by the Mani Temple revealed the pride hidden in its core!

A sect could not claim this status by mere words. Its power determined whether it deserved the status.

So what if the Emperor Yu's Hall always claimed to be the most powerful sect? The people of this world still viewed the Mani Temple as the strongest.

However, now…

Even the Mani Temple had to sacrifice its pride.

"Martial Uncle, we never gave him any respect in the past. We did not allow him to build a store of the Qingshan Enterprise and we did not allow the dissemination of the Internal Martial Art. If I go, will he…" The young monk felt slightly embarrassed.

"Go."

"This is a matter of life or death. It decides whether Mani Temple will continue to exist. So what if we yield to Teng Qingshan?" The monk in the yellow gown said, "Fan Kong, you must bring back the Undying Phoenix."

The young monk took a deep breath. Finally, he placed his hands together and answered, "Yes, Martial Uncle."

Chapter end