The Nine Cauldrons
Book 4: Vermillion Tiger Fist Chapter 7: The Direction of the Spear

Hu! Hu!

Gusts of strong wind blew across the drill ground and the sky was increasingly turning darker. However, the atmosphere on the drill ground was even more suffocating than that of the gloomy weather.

“Brother, be careful!” Teng Qingshan, Teng Qinghu, Zhuge Yun, and company had gathered together. A faint smile appeared on the face of Teng Qingshan as he nodded. Thereafter, with the Qing Gong 《Crossing Worlds》, he gracefully flew above the crowd as if a gust of green smoke. With two taps on the heads of two disciples of the Gui Yuan Sect, he landed in the arena.

“Martial Uncle!” Teng Qingshan smiled and greeted Pang Shan!

“Good Qing Gong!” Pang Shan praised as his eyes lit up.

The arena had a height of four chi, a width of ten zhang, and was made from a layer of bluish gray rock. At that moment, there was only Teng Qingshan and Pang Shan on the vast arena. Teng Qingshan took a glance down and was full of emotion when he saw Zang Feng in the distance, wearing a suit of black!

Zang Feng held on to a saber and lifted his head as he looked at Teng Qingshan coldly.

“Hu!” The figure suddenly lifted himself off the ground and, as if a beam of light, within a few flashes, he passed through twenty-odd zhang and entered the arena.

“Commander Zang Feng!”

“Martial Brother Zang Feng!”

……

Following the scattered cheers was an overwhelming cheer of support. There were those from the Black Armored Army, as well as those from the core disciples of the Gui Yuan Sect. All these years, there were many who were convinced by Zang Feng’s abilities and were supportive of him.

“Commander Teng!”

“Teng Qingshan!”

……

Many from the Black Armored Army started to holler, and the men from the battalion under Teng Qingshan were especially loud. Teng Qinghu shouted with till his face was grim. Teng Qingshan was from the First Division, so naturally the men from the First Division would be supportive of him. Similarly, those from the Third Division would be supportive of Zang Feng.

The men from the Second and Fourth Division also followed and shouted.

In just that instant!

The whole drill ground was bustling and the shouts circled the area as if a hurricane with the arena being the eye of the storm. Teng Qingshan was wearing a opal suit and grasped his silvery-grey Reincarnation Spear in his hand while Zang Feng was wearing a suit of black and was similarly holding onto his godly weapon.

Standing in the middle of the arena, Pang Shan spoke out.

“This is an arena competition. If one steps out of the ring or admits defeat, it would be their loss. In a contest, blades and spears do not have eyes, but if one were to kill the other party on purpose, the penalty would be death!” Pang Shan’s loud voice spread across the whole drill ground and the shouts in the drill ground immediately turned into silence.

Pang Shan turned his head and looked far into the distance where the Sovereign ‘Zhuge Yuanhong’ was seated on the high platform with a company. Zhuge Yuanhong nodded at him.

“Teng Qingshan, Zang Feng, you may begin!” Pang Shan said, as he turned and leapt down from the arena.

There were only two people left in the arena —

Teng Qingshan! Zang Feng!

“Martial Brother Zang Feng, kindly please enlightenment me!” Teng Qingshan cupped his hands.

“Please!” Zang Feng also cupped his hands coldly.

……

There was not a single strand of noise on the drill ground, and on the heightened platform at the side of the drill ground, there were three seated on chairs. It was the Sovereign ‘Zhuge Yuanhong’ and the two Law Enforcing Elders.

“Sovereign, look at Zang Feng. This kid is displaying his full ability. Even if there are over ten thousand warriors staring at him, there is no hesitation in his eyes at all. Standing atop the arena, he is like a sharp blade. Just looking at his temperament alone, it is hard to find someone from the younger generation with such firm will as his. Compared to the last time I saw him battling with Ji Hong, he has improved a lot.” The white-haired Law Enforcing Elder spoke out.

The Sovereign smiled and nodded his head.

The cool, middle-aged man beside him said, “Martial Uncle! That Teng Qingshan’s gaze is reserved and motionless like a mountain! Standing there with the spear in his hand, he is not affected at all. At such an age, this is rare, truly rare!”

“Martial Uncle and Martial Granduncle. Which of the two do you think will win this battle?” Zhuge Yuanhong smiled as he looked towards the arena.

“It’s hard to say!” The Martial Granduncle shook his head.

The cool-looking middle-aged man also shook his head and said, “Sovereign, what do you think?”

“I did not see for myself when Qingshan killed Meng Tian……Maybe today, he will be able to display his actual skills.” Zhuge Yuanhong smiled faintly. “Mmmm……Feng Er has finally made his move!”

……

Indeed, on the arena, Zang Feng had been prepared right from the start. Teng Qingshan was also holding onto his spear as he faced it with a light smile!

“If one is to win, one must have a clean and obvious win!” Teng Qingshan fixed his gaze on Zang Feng.

Zang Feng’s gaze was as if a vicious eagle, staring at Teng Qingshan. Suddenly, he exerted force upon his legs and the limestone ground cracked as Zang Feng shot towards Teng Qingshan as if a beam of light. The distance of about eight Zhang was closed within the blink of an eye and only a ‘chi chi’ sound could be heard.

The shadow of the blade was as if a cold crescent!

The sweep of blade light reflected in Teng Qingshan’s pupils.

Teng Qingshan’s pupils contracted! An astonishing strength abruptly shot out from his arms as his Reincarnation Spear started to move!

Hu!

The spear was as if an arrow which had just been released, cutting across the sky with a sharp whistling sound!

“Clank!”

At the moment the weapons clashed, the head of Teng Qingshan’s spear created a strong spinning strength! It enveloped the saber and forced it to tilt to the side and Zang Feng’s face immediately changed! Zang Feng, who had initially maintained a fierce and strong appearance, could only feel that the saber had fallen to an invisible hurricane.

Swoosh!

The spear pierced towards his heart!

“No!” Zang Feng stared with his eyes wide open.

“Clank!” At the final moment, the sheath in his left hand swiped in a curved path and knocked against the tip of Teng Qingshan’s spear. Borrowing strength from the collision, with a tap of his feet, he retreated a few Zhang away. Once he landed, Zang Feng realised that his forehead was covered in cold sweat and his back was also completely wet from his sweat.

“What a horrifying Spear Art!” Zang Feng was very astonished.

But he was not aware that, in order to have a clean triumph, Teng Qingshan used a strength of sixty thousand jin! That was because the 《Vigor of the Reckless Bull》 could only create an explosive strength of this standard. Such strength, coupled with Teng Qingshan’s Five Element Spear Art, was something that even the expert Meng Tian from the《 Earth Ranking》 was unable to match up to.

Teng Qingshan broke into a grin.

Hu!

With a poke, the tip of the spear once again turned into a beam of light as it thrust towards Zang Feng.

“Swoosh!”“Swoosh!”“Swoosh!”……

The shadow of the spear was as if many sharp arrows!

Tens of thousands of arrows shot out at once!

The shadows of the spear, dash after dash, seemed like a whole group of venomous vipers fighting to bite Zang Feng. Zang Feng was holding his saber in one hand and his sheath in another. With nimble movements, he continuously shunned and dodged, and concurrently used the saber and sheath in both hands to block the moves. There was one thing — he was continuously moving backwards!

“How could it be, how could it be, how could it be like this?”

While moving backwards, Zang Feng was panicking.

“I must attack!”

Zang Feng wanted to attack, but each spear of Teng Qingshan contained a spinning energy, each thrust was as if it had hidden a hurricane. Furthermore, Teng Qingshan had been practicing the ‘Three Postures’ for very long, and was able to comprehend the ceaseless state even better. The Pursuing Shadow completely encompassed the opponent!

One thrust after another, one hurricane after another!

He fended off one spear after another with much difficulty, but the spear skill with endless streams of attacks made Zang Feng feel that he had entered a massive hurricane. He was totally trapped, without any means to escape! Zang Feng only felt that he was not able to display his blade skills at all. Each time he fended off an attack, he felt so terrible that he was on the verge of puking blood!

It wasn’t just Zang Feng!

Even the innate master ‘Sima Qing’, as well as the evolved demonic beast ‘Red Scaled Beast’, had once entangled with Teng Qingshan’s ‘Pursuing Shadow’ Spear Art, it was hard for them to escape.

It was as if a small boat was entrapped within a surge after surge of stormy ocean waves.

Fending off surge after surge of ocean waves with much difficulty, but……there would be a time when the boat would capsize!

“Pu!”

The sheath was sent flying!

Zang Feng was only left with the saber in his hands. His face was covered in sweat, his face was flushed, and his eyes were staring hard at the endless shadows of the spear.

“Clank!”“Clank!”“Clank!”……

Hu!

The saber was sent flying!

“Ahh!” Zang Feng shouted out in a deep voice of agony.

Silence!

There was nothing but silence!

One could only see that Zang Feng had fallen and was seated on the ground, his face was very pale. On the other hand, the spearhead of Teng Qingshan’s Reincarnation Spear was adhered to Zang Feng’s throat.

“I, I……” Zang Feng’s vision slowly started to focus as he stared in horror at the silver spear in front of his eyes, feeling the strange warm feeling from the tip of the spear. He could see it clearly earlier that the spear was thrust at his throat. “I’m not dead? This Teng Qingshan……to think that he had stopped at the crucial moment?”

……

The thousands of men of the Black Armored Army, as well as the close to ten thousand of core disciples in the drill ground, were all dumbfounded.

This fight, was very short!

Other than Zang Feng’s fierce hack of his saber right from the start, he was only able to fend off the violent waves of the spear shadows of Teng Qingshan. Under the envelopment of horrifying spear attacks that was as if a violent thunderstorm, Zang Feng was as if a frail sheep. After he had barely fended off the attacks for a few breaths time, in the blink of an eye, his sheath was sent flying. Not long later, his saber was also sent flying!

He had suffered from a bitter defeat!

On the platform at the side of the drill ground, Zhuge Yuanhong and the two Law Enforcing Elders gasped in surprise.

“What excellent spear skills!” The white haired old man praised.

The eyes of Zhuge Yuanhong also lit up as he praised, “When Teng Qingshan was fighting for the position of the centurion, he had used this spear skill as well. However……At that time, it did not reach the perfection of such endless streams of attack. Each thrust of the spear was connected to each other. Once one is unable to break through the first attack, facing the endless stream of shadows of Qingshan’s spear, he would not be able to retaliate!”

“The more he retaliates, the worse the defeat!” That cool middle-aged old man gasped. “Facing this spear art, one option is to use an overwhelming amount of Innate True Origin to smash him! Or to use an even faster attack to break his first move directly! Or to use extreme speed to escape from the envelopment of that spear art.”

The three of them were all innate masters.

What keen eyes! To be able to see the impressiveness of Teng Qingshan’s spear art. Even amongst innate warriors, this spear art was also very terrifying.

“Actually, the abilities of Zang Feng this kid is not considered bad already. His 《Shooting Star Blade》 must have reached the second level, the realm of ‘Moon Blade’” That cold middle-aged man praised. Amongst the innate masters in Gui Yuan Sect, he was the only who trained in the Saber Art.

“Sovereign, that Teng Qingshan is really only seventeen? And this spear art, was created by him?” The cool middle-aged man looked towards Zhuge Yuanhong in disbelief.

Zhuge Yuanhong smiled as he nodded. He then looked towards Teng Qingshan in the arena. “That spear art earlier has a state of endless stream of attacks, and to think that he could stop the spear easily at the very last moment. For the spear to touch Zang Feng’s throat yet not hurting him at all. With this level of control, he can definitely achieve the realm of ‘Minute Subtlety’ with ease!”

The other two Law Enforcing Elder also nodded their head.

Under the violent attacks, which were like raging thunderstorms, to be able to stop the spear at the skin of one’s throat without hurting the person an inch in just a moment, the level of control needed was really astonishing.

“With his calibre, once he reaches the innate realm, then, haha……” Zhuge Yuanhong smiled brightly.