The Nine Cauldrons - Chapter 219

Bone Shrinking

“Maze Map!”

Teng Qingshan immediately squatted and tore the green cloak off the dead body, fishing out the items from Qing Hu Island’s Law Enforcing Elder. Teng Qingshan then cast a glance at the items and immediately grabbed the small package wrapped up in animal skin. ‘Qing Hu Island’s Innate experts must have been worried that the map would be soaked by the water when they entered the underground lake.’

Inside must be the map, wrapped in the animal skin.

He opened the package and found some silver notes and a thickly-folded paper.

Hua! He fully unfolded the paper.

“Just as I’ve expected, it is the maze’s map!” Teng Qingshan’s eyes brightened and immediately scrutinized it, thinking, “This maze is much more complicated than I had thought…….If I simply ventured without a map, God only knows when I would find the way out!

‘Truly——

Something’s wrong!’

Suddenly, Teng Qingshan’s face took on a ghastly expression.

“Oh, no!”

Teng Qingshan suddenly turned and quickly darted outside, holding the maze map in his arms.

Dashing to the forked passageway, Teng Qingshan instantly saw Yuwen Liufeng, who was over thirty Li away. Many Golden Dan innate expert were encircling and attacking Yuwen Liufeng, and Yuwen Liufeng’s cloak was covered in blood. He looked unkempt and seemed to have gone crazy as he guffawed, “Haha…..If you all want to kill me, then die with me!”

The fact that Yuwen Liufeng now had a death wish made the people encircling and attacking him even more cautious.

As a Golden Dan innate expert whose name was recorded in the 《Heavenly Ranking》, although Yuwen Liufeng was not as powerful as Gu Yong and Zhao Danchen, he still had great ability. If he used all of his strength and fought with his life at risk, he could take one or two Golden Dan innate experts down with him.

“Brother Qin Lang!” I heard a huge blast from the passageway you came out from. Did you kill Qing Hu Island’s elder?” There were many innate experts in this passageway, and many of them greeted Teng Qingshan.

“There are fighting sounds in front!” Teng Qingshan ignored them and speedily ran ahead to another forked passageway.

In the one of the alleys leading from the fork, three experts were encircling a Qing Hu Island’s Law Enforcing Elder. The Law Enforcing Elder looked very messy. He had many wounds on his body, and blood flowed continuously off his wounds. His right leg was broken and he could only fight desperately whilst leaning on the wall.

“Stop struggling.”

The three innate experts preferred wasting time to risking their lives fighting Qing Hu Island’s Law Enforcing Elder.

“Haha, Xiao Yao Palace, Snow Hawk Hall, you three bastards! I won’t let you three off easily, even if I die,” the broken-legged elder roared. An icy black glow was moving along the surface of the long knife in his hand, and each slash brought about a powerful howl, forming piercing air currents which smashed onto the surrounding walls.

Unfortunately, it was difficult for two fists to fight against four hands. Another bizarre slash struck the Qing Hu Island’s Elder, and was hacked off his other leg!

Pu!

With both legs cut off, the elder sat on the ground. However, his eyes were red and he refused to give up on attacking, still holding his black knife, which shone with a dark glow.
—
“Stop!” Teng Qingshan yelled as he stormed into the passageway, throwing the flying knife in his hand——

An icy light flashed through the air!

Clang! The flying knife clashed onto the longsword of the powerful expert of the Xiao Yao Palace, making his sword change trajectory to the side.

Eyebrows furrowed, the three people encircling Qing Hu Island’s Elder backed away and looked towards Teng Qingshan, who was running towards them. Out of the three, the purple-cloaked man of Xiao Yao Palace yelled, “Qin Lang, what are you doing! The men of Qing Hu Island are fleeing with their lives at risk. It was so difficult to stop one of them, but you want to save him?”

“Keep him alive,” Teng Qingshan said hastily. “The location of the treasure isn’t marked on the maze map!”

“What?”

The three people froze for a second.

“Qin Lang, what did you say?” The three people were slightly distrustful.

“Haha……” Qing Hu Island’s Elder, whose legs were cut off, guffawed arrogantly when he heard that, “Did you guys think you would find Emperor Yu’s Treasure after killing us? Haha, in your dreams!”

At this moment, a roar came from afar.

“Die! All of you, die!!!” It was Yuwen Liufeng’s voice.

“Ah!”

“Ah!”

A few successive screams rang out, resonating clearly even in the forked passageway. Teng Qingshan and the other three innate experts turned and saw a figure darting towards them at lightning speed.

“Yuwen Liufeng!”

Teng Qingshan’s facial expression changed drastically, and he immediately flew backwards. Because the sight distances of the three innate experts of the Xiao Yao Palace and the Snow Hawk Hall were rather reduced, they did not see Yuwen Liufeng appear in the passageway. The three only became flustered when Yuwen Liufeng was already ten zhang away from them.

“Quick! Run!” The three did not have the audacity to fight against Yuwen Liufeng, and immediately turned to flee.

“Haha, die!!!” A horrifying expression, an unkempt figure, whole body covered in blood. Left arm broken, a knife wound on his face and one blind eye. This was Yuwen Liufeng now!

Three strikes as fast as lightning!

Extremely fast!

“Ah!” “Ah!” Ah!” Three successives screams resonated along with a Puchi! sound. A new wound appeared on Yuwen Liufeng’s body.

Two dead, one injured!

Yuwen Liufeng’s sword was fast indeed, but it wasn’t fast enough to kill three people simultaneously. Killing two at the same time was already his limit.

“Yuwen Liufeng!”

Three Golden Dan innate experts had appeared behind him, running in pursuit, but Yuwen Liufeng didn’t even care about them. After killing the two True Dan innate experts, Yuwen Liufeng continued pursuing Teng Qingshan.

In his eyes——

This Qin Lang must die!

“Qin Lang?” With his only eye, Yuwen Liufeng glared at Teng Qingshan running at full speed ahead of him, and yelled, “Die!”

Teng Qingshan’s entire physical strength increased explosively. Every step of his caused the ground to shake. In coordination with the ‘Crossing Worlds,’ Teng Qingshan’s speed was indeed incredibly fast. Unfortunately……The Golden Dan Innate Expert Yuwen Liufeng’s speed was even more shocking in this desperate situation.

“There were three Golden Dan innate experts encircling Yuwen Liufeng, and he still managed to escape?” Teng Qingshan fled with all his strength, thinking, “Too fast! He is too fast!” If he tried even harder, his speed could barely reach that of Emptiness Dan innate experts. With his physical strength in coordination with the ‘Crossing Worlds’, his speed could be compared to the speed of True Dan innate experts, or perhaps even slightly faster than that.

However, his fastest speed could not be compared with Golden Dan innate experts.

Three zhang…… two zhang……The distance between the two gradually decreased, and Teng Qingshan could feel himself suffocating as he ran.

“No!” Teng Qingshan threw a flying knife towards the back.

Clang! Yuwen Liufeng easily blocked the knife with the trenchant sword in his hand, and with a peng, the flying knife became dust. Yuwen Liufeng hadn’t been hurt at all.

“Qin Lang, die!” Yuwen Liufeng harbored great hatred towards this person named Qin Lang. ‘If it wasn’t for him, Qing Hu Island wouldn’t have lost so many people!’ Yuwen Liufeng thought as he easily thrust the longsword in his hand as if he was piercing tofu. As he thrust, not a sound was heard.

It was a very ordinary thrust!

However, this thrust made Teng Qingshan feel such fear, as if a sharp beam was poking his back!

The speed of the sword was so fast that Teng Qingshan had no chance to dodge!

“Ah!!!” Teng Qingshan roared, and his bones actually shrunk one size in that instant.

Puchi!

Because of this instant shrink of Teng Qingshan’s body, the sword thrust into his shoulder instead of his heart.

The sharp sword pierced through Teng Qingshan’s Darksteel Heavy Armor and into his shoulder. Simultaneously, the True Innate Origin on the trenchant blade burst out.

Bang!

Blood flowed out from Teng Qingshan’s shoulder as he fled, borrowing the force of this blast.

“Eh? Why is his shoulder so hard?” Shock and confusion appeared in Yuwen Liufeng’s only eye…… Usually, after the protective heavy armor was pierced through, the muscle would be penetrated very easily. However, when the sword had thrust into Teng Qingshan’s shoulder muscle, it was as if it had struck darksteel.

The burst of Innate True Origin had only made the wound slightly bigger, not having the desired effect of blasting away half of the body.

“His body is as tough as darksteel?” Yuwen Liufeng couldn’t believe it.

Suddenly——

A silent arrow came from afar. By the time Yuwen Liufeng had noticed, the sharp arrow was already ten zhang away. He had no time to dodge.

Instantly, the sharp arrow penetrated Yuwen Liufeng’s head. Boom! Along with a resounding explosion, Yuwen Liufeng’s headless body collapsed on the ground.

“Whew.” Teng Qingshan then laid down on the ground, exhausted.

“You three just had one job, and it was to kill Yuwen Liufeng! Yet, you guys actually let him escape here?” A few figures were approaching from the passageway in front of him. They were the few Golden Dan innate experts who had earlier been pursuing Elder Hu. The one in the front was the muscular man with four braids, and a Godly Bow in hand.

“Don’t even mention that. Just before, Xiao Yao Palace’s Elder Shi almost died because of this Yuwen Liufeng,” said Ying Haojiang, shaking his head

“This Yuwen Liufeng’s sword art is quite powerful indeed. If we really did fight him desperately, one of us three would die,” said the elegant purple-cloaked man from Xiao Yao Palace. His chest was dyed red by blood. He continued, saying, “Fortunately, it was just a minor injury.”

“How many of us are dead?”

Four True Dan innate experts have died. One from Snow Hawk Hall, one from Xiao Yao Palace, one from My Ying Family, and one from Hong Tian City. They all died at Yuwen Liufeng’s hands!” Ying Haojiang let out a sigh and cast a glance at Teng Qingshan, asking, “Brother Qin Lang, are you alright?”

Teng Qingshan sat on the ground and leaned on the wall, thinking to himself, ‘I am okay. Fortunately, that arrow came very quickly, and killed Yuwen Liufeng.’ At this moment, Teng Qingshan could only feel a sense of fear whenever he recalled the situation.

The difference between the levels, Golden Dan Innate Realm, True Dan Innate Realm and Emptiness Dan Innate Realm was indeed very big!

‘Yuwen Liufeng’s sword art made no resistance against the air, just the same as teacher’s sword art. The speed of Yuwen Liufeng’s sword is double the speed of the True Dan innate experts! Heavens! It’s double the speed! One wouldn’t even have enough time to defend.’ Teng Qingshan smiled bitterly. He had no power to defend against the sword he just faced.

When a sword was extremely fast, the resistance of the air was incredibly great.

If there was zero air resistance, the speed would increase greatly. As the Golden Dan Innate True Origin, it in itself was powerful, thus, the speed of the sword was two times faster than the speed of the True Dan innate experts.

Twice as fast!

One wouldn’t even have time to defend!

Teng Qingshan’s body had not had time to move, his only chance being to instantly shrink, which had made his body one size smaller. Through this, he had kept his life.

“To kill the Golden Dan innate expert! If True Dan innate experts faced him, they could deal attacks in groups. With the speed of his sword art, it would take five to six True Dan innate experts to encircle him and attack simultaneously, for us to say there’d be an actual hope to succeed.” Teng Qingshan understood that if there would be a one-on-one fight between a True Dan innate expert and a Golden Dan innate expert, the first would definitely die the moment he touched the latter!

“The maze map? Quick! take it out!” Ying Haojiang ordered. At this moment, a large group of innate experts had already gathered in the passageway.