The Nine Cauldrons

Inside Hong Tian City

“I’ve been looking all along this route, but I haven’t found any Hong Tian Godly Armor at all.”

Teng Qingshan was in the depths of the underground, pondering deeply by himself. Meanwhile, the Six Legged Bladelike Chi lay lazily on the earth, watching Teng Qingshan with droopy eyes. After seeing that Teng Qingshan would stay motionless for a little while, the Bladelike Chi closed its eyes unexpectedly and immediately began to sleep.

“This Hong Tian Godly Armor… It must be somewhere the underground route passes through.” Teng Qingshan’s brows knitted together. “Just where exactly did that You Shijin put the Hong Tian Godly Armor?

“Could it be that when he threw out the parts of the Godly Armor at the start, that was him putting out a smoke ball and then taking the chance to throw out the Hong Tian Godly Armor?” For now, Teng Qingshan had no way of determining the approximate location of where You Shijin could have thrown out the Hong Tian Godly Armor. If Teng Qingshan really wanted to find it, then the scope in which he had to search was truly much too wide… The difficulty of looking for it was too high.

“If I’m You Shijin… Knowing that I’m about to die, I would definitely desire to deliver the Hong Tian Godly Armor into the hands of a survivor of Hong Tian City.”

Teng Qingshan thought deeply, “Realizing that there was someone chasing him from behind, he would definitely have wanted to throw off his enemy! So, then he thought of using another suit of armor, an inferior first-class Godly Armor, to lure the enemy and prevent them from chasing him… After that, his injuries got more and more severe. He knew that he had no way of sending the Hong Tian Godly Armor out… But he definitely wouldn’t want me to find and obtain it.

“So, if he threw out the Hong Tian Godly Armor, he definitely wouldn’t have wrapped it up in the Power of the Heavens and the Earth… Because if he did, it would be discovered by me, so he wouldn’t have dared take the risk.” Teng Qingshan was even more certain of this.

“In that case, back when he used the parts of the Godly Armor to lure me away, the Hong Tian Godly Armor shouldn’t have been thrown out yet. At that time, he would still have been thinking of persevering… persevering until he could send off the Hong Tian Godly Armor.

“Mm, I remember that later on, when You Shijin spoke, his words were incoherent. It was clear that he was already seriously injured. Yet at that time, he was still talking with me. He must have been trying to confuse me.

“In that case…

“The place where You Shijin threw out the Hong Tian Godly Armor… It must have been around that section of the route.

“Soon after You Shijin threw out the Hong Tian Godly Armor, he died.” Instantly, Teng Qingshan determined the approximate location in his mind. “In other words, that section has the greatest possibility of being the right location.”

He wasn’t a 100% certain, but he couldn’t be bothered thinking about it too much.

“Bladelike Chi, Bladelike Chi!” Teng Qingshan immediately yelled for the Six Legged Bladelike Chi to wake up.

The Six Legged Bladelike Chi opened its drowsy eyelids and glanced at Teng Qingshan helplessly with a pair of bloodshot eyes.

“Let’s go, we’re turning around.” Teng Qingshan pointed in the direction they had come from. The Six Legged Bladelike Chi bore the burden willingly and let Teng Qingshan jump onto its back. Then the Six Legged Bladelike Chi transformed into a giant electric drill, tearing easily into the underground rock and soil. They headed toward the southwest direction at an astonishing speed.

“This is where I picked up the vambrace…”

As they forged forward, Teng Qingshan used the strike marks he had left behind with the Godly Axe, as well as consulted a few special reference items, to speedily determine his relative location.

“Stop!” Teng Qingshan jumped off the Six Legged Bladelike Chi once again and saw before him two marks he had hacked out with the Splitting Mountain Axe. “I’ll start searching carefully from here… I suppose I’ll search an area of around 30 to 40 Li in this underground route.” The moment he thought of that Hong Tian Godly Armor which was the Godly Armor that was inferior only to the Transcendent Godly Armor, Teng Qingshan was filled with enthusiasm.

“Bladelike Chi,” Teng Qingshan called out to the Six Legged Bladelike Chi, his laborer.

“Hou~~” The Six Legged Bladelike Chi resentfully let out a deep roar, then its arms also emerged with blades.

“Xiu! Xiu! Xiu!”

The beams of sword and blade light repeatedly ran through the soil and rocks surrounding the route. Teng Qingshan and the Six Legged Bladelike Chi had the Power of the Heavens and the Earth on the surface of their bodies, repelling the soil and water droplets from their space. Just like that, Teng Qingshan and the Six Legged Bladelike Chi began the arduous search for the Godly Armor.

……

After searching for a long time underground…

“The location is completely uncertain, so I can only search the place inch by inch.” Teng Qingshan shot out streams of sword light continuously from both of his hands as though he might miss out an area if he were not careful. After all, the Hong Tian Godly Armor might just be in that missed area. This was the underground… So, even if the Godly Armor was only several Zhang away, it wasn’t openly visible because it was obstructed by the soil and rock.

The Six Legged Bladelike Chi was also somewhat tired now. It casually brandished its blade arms, radiating blade light all around.

“Pu! Pu! Pu!”

The sound of the soil and rock being passed through was so incessant that Teng Qingshan had already become numb to hearing it.

“Clang dong!” Then suddenly, a crisp sound rang out.

“Hm?” Teng Qingshan was suddenly in high spirits, and his eyes lit up completely.

The Six Legged Bladelike Chi’s triangular head suddenly turned around as well, looking in the direction of the sound. The human and the demonic beast exchanged glances with happy expressions in their eyes.

Teng Qingshan was happy that they might have found the Hong Tian Godly Armor.

Meanwhile, the Six Legged Bladelike Chi was happy that it would not have to work hard like a miner anymore.

“Whoosh!”

Simultaneously, Teng Qingshan and the Six Legged Bladelike Chi pierced through to the source of the sound, lightly knocking and breaking down layers of rock until they finally broke through to their destination.

“This is…”

Teng Qingshan stared fixedly at the various parts scattered and wedged amidst the soil and broken rock. He saw the helmet, inner armor, war boots, and so on all scattered in the surroundings. Every part of the Godly Armor was the color of blood, and the entire set of Godly Armor seemed to have a sort of bizarre demonic power. Just by using his eyes to look at it, Teng Qingshan couldn’t help but feel fired up with a desire to kill.

“This is the Hong Tian Godly Armor, which is the Godly Armor that is inferior only to the Transcendent Battle Armor,” Teng Qingshan stated, then he crouched down and quickly collected every part of the armor.

With merely the effort of three breaths, the suit of Hong Tian Godly Armor was completely collected.

“At the time, You Shijin had indeed placed the parts of this suit of Godly Armor together.” Teng Qingshan’s expression changed slightly as he looked carefully at the interior part of the inner armor. He saw that the inner armor of the Hong Tian Godly Armor actually had faint traces of four handwritten words, ‘Hong Tian Godly Armor.’

“Hong Tian City… Perhaps they were worried that this Hong Tian Godly Armor, which is the Godly Armor that is inferior only to the Transcendent Battle Armor, would be mistaken as ordinary battle armor. So, they deliberately left these words inside.”

Teng Qingshan didn’t think too much about it and began putting on the armor at once, making rustling sounds.

First, the blood-colored war boots and then the inner armor… Teng Qingshan put on every part of the Godly Armor. “Hm? This King of the Northeast, Hong Tian… His build must be slightly bigger than mine. The armor seems a bit loose on me.” Although he thought like this in his heart, Teng Qingshan elatedly put on the entire armor properly.

After he finished putting on the armor, only his hands and his face remained exposed.

“Combining this Hong Tian Godly Armor with the Power of the Heavens and the Earth, the defense…” The Power of the Heavens and the Earth gathered together speedily on the surface of Teng Qingshan’s body. His Internal Supreme force and Power of the Heavens and the Earth flowed into every every nook and corner of the space between the Godly Armor and his body. However, right at this moment…

“Chichi~~”

The Hong Tian Godly Armor, which was originally rather loose, unexpectedly tightened slightly, fitting snugly onto Teng Qingshan’s body. The fit was so snug that he could even feel his pores absorbing the air that was passing through from outside the Godly Armor. Additionally, he no longer felt the weight of the Godly Armor, so it wouldn’t hinder him when he was doing all sorts of attacking motions.

“As expected of the Godly Armor.” Teng Qingshan then began performing his body art. For a moment, several tens of silhouettes emerged underground, before condensing into one.

“There’s no hindrance at all. My body art is still as flexible as usual.” Teng Qingshan looked at the Hong Tian Godly Armor on his body and felt even more pleased.

With one hand, he picked up the Splitting Mountain Axe, which was leaning at the side, and immediately hacked down onto his left arm!

“Clang! Clang! Clang!”

He did not use a lot of strength, but he struck down three times in succession. Yet the Godly Armor on his left arm didn’t have even a little bit of a mark.

“Tsk, tsk. As expected of the Hong Tian Godly Armor.” Teng Qingshan’s was delighted.

“I should go take a walk in Hong Tian City.”

Dressed in the Hong Tian Godly Armor while grasping the Splitting Mountain Axe in his hand, Teng Qingshan jumped into the Six Legged Bladelike Chi’s back.

“Chichi~~”

The Six Legged Bladelike Chi immediately charged straight up. It waited until it broke through to the surface before shaking its pair of wings open. Then the Bladelike Chi transformed into a stream of light, flying speedily toward Hong Tian City.

Although the Six Legged Bladelike Chi’s drilling speed was fast, that was relative to the drilling speed of other demonic beasts. However, the Bladelike Chi’s fastest speed was naturally its flying speed.

By the time the Six Legged Bladelike Chi arrived outside Hong Tian City, it was already night and the present Hong Tian City had long since recovered its serenity.

Overlooking the city from above, Teng Qingshan saw that there was a great number of barracks stationed outside Hong Tian City. This time, the God of Heaven Mountain had too many troops and could only be stationed outside the city.

“What a strong scent of blood,” Teng Qingshan remarked when he smelled the stench of blood that was soaring into the sky. His night vision allowed him to better see the black and brown colors on the surface of the ground below. Those were mostly remnant bloodstains. Immediately, he thought about the crazy number of almost 80,000 calvarymen of Hong Tian City and commented, “They are probably all dead.”

Although Teng Qingshan hadn’t watched the war as he had been chasing after Zou Tianchang instead, the reality was just as he thought.

Those almost 80,000 calvarymen had all died. Even the seriously injured and weaponless soldiers had committed suicide. As such, the Heavenly God Palace hadn’t managed to obtain a single captive.

Almost 80,000 calvarymen of Hong Tian City had died, but the losses of the Heavenly God Palace were even greater.

“Wuwu~~”

Amidst the endless lines of barracks, various sounds rang out. There were soldiers mourning for their dead comrades, as well as others chatting and laughing in celebration of the victory. Alongside those, there were also seriously injured soldiers groaning painfully as a heavy stench of blood permeated through the air. Hearing all these sounds, Teng Qingshan let out a sigh.

“If all of the Land of the Nine Prefectures wishes to go through the least amount of suffering, the best way to do that is to maintain the peace for as long as possible. As for the desire to preserve an everlasting unity… that is simply impossible to achieve.” Teng Qingshan didn’t stop over for long and rode the Six Legged Bladelike Chi, swooping down into the interior of Hong Tian City. Simultaneously, he felt distinctly…

The auras of the Heavenly God Palace’s Emptiness Realm Experts.

……

Inside an elegant courtyard:

“Hm?” The six people who had gathered together a banquet—Pei San, Su Mengte the Heavenly God, Li Chao, Wu Hou the Beast King, Pei Hao, and the High Priestess of Snowy Lotus Cult—all put down their chopsticks.

“Huhe has arrived,” Su Mengte said with a smile.

“For him to be coming now… Perhaps he went and put away the Godly Armor he obtained before coming over here,” the High Priestess of Snowy Lotus Cult scoffed. “I reckon he’ll pretend and claim that he absolutely hasn’t obtained the Godly Armor.”

“Little Lian.” Pei San immediately shot his daughter a glare.

“Remember that Jing Yi is a Foreign Dignitary. He’s not a subordinate of our Heavenly God Palace,” Pei San said intentionally for those who were present. The meaning of his words was very clear… ‘Emptiness Real Experts are to be honored, not to be at one’s beck and call. Jingyi is not a subordinate and the Six Legged Bladelike Chi is his. So, if he wishes to search for the Godly Armor, he can just go ahead and do it… Why should he lend his Six Legged Bladlike Chi to you of the Heavenly God Palace and let you search for the Godly Armor as well?’

There was nothing wrong with Jing Yi searching on the Godly Armor on his own.

“Hmph.” The High Priestess of Snowy Lotus Cult did not say much else. Considering Li Jun’s relationship with the Heavenly God Palace, the High Priestess of Snowy Lotus Cult and many others unconsciously saw Teng Qingshan as a member of the Heavenly God Palace. As such, they believed he ought to obey their commands.

After all, the Heavenly God Palace had three Foreign Dignitaries, and the other two Foreign Dignitaries were all yes-men in the presence of the Heavenly God, Pei San. They completely considered themselves as Pei San’s subordinates because the Heavenly God Palace was too strong. Naturally, the two Foreign Dignitaries had no choice but to comply.

“But he has that Bladelike Chi,” the High Priestess of Snowy Lotus Cult thought darkly, “Who can’t tell that he has the desire to covet the Mo Godly Armor?”

“Swoosh!”

Then suddenly, a stream of light descended into the courtyard. A man had arrived, dressed in the blood-red, full body Hong Tian Godly Armor. He stood on the Six Legged Bladelike Chi, with one hand holding the Splitting Mountain Axe and other carrying a set of Godly Armor… It was Teng Qingshan.