The Nine Cauldrons

Book 2 Chapter 48 Human lives are as cheap as grass

“Brothers, let us drink! In a little while, we will eliminate the Iron Mountain Gang in one fell swoop!”

The mounted gangsters were passing a wine gourd around; each person took his turn drinking one gulp at a time. A ferocious and murderous intent shone in each mounted gangster’s eyes. They were all clear… they were the attackers and the Iron Mountain Gang were the defenders. In order to annihilate the Iron Mountain Gang’s 3000 core disciples, the White Horse Gang would suffer many losses.

It was very possible that this would be the last sip of wine in their life.

“Pa!” The wine gourd fell from the air resolutely. A mounted gangster clutched his chopping saber and leapt on the horse before yelling, “Brothers, let’s go! After we win, we can come back and continue drinking!”

“Continue drinking!”

These intrepid mounted gangsters mounted their horses identically.

This scene was set on multiple different wastelands, but everyone knew that this battle would result in the deaths of many! The laws of this world were like this; although bandits could strut around normal people showing off their prowess with delight, if they wanted to become Yi City’s number one gang, they had to defeat all the other gangs.

This required a large amount of their brothers’ blood!

Large gulps of wine, massive bites out of meat, a plethora of silver and a myriad of women!

These sorts of pleasures that were built upon the endless bloodshed!

……

Within the cluster of mounted gangsters, there was a group that was fully covered in armor, including their horses. This group of mounted gangsters were surrounding the Young Master Hong Zhenjie, There were numerous motionless girls on the ground in front of them.

“Brothers.” Hong Zhenjie surveyed his surroundings with a chilly gaze. “The three Wang brothers are fearless, but us brothers from the White Horse Battalion are all heroes! Everyone understands that tonight, among us 200 brothers, there will most likely be many who will perish under the Iron Mountain Gang! However, I, Hong Zhenjie, have said that as long as I still have enough to eat, the the wives and children of the those who perish while fighting for the White Horse Battalion will also have enough to eat!”

“Young Master! Although the three Wang brothers are rumoured to be ferocious, in a single clash, us brothers will slash them into honeycombs! There’s nothing to be scared of!” An 8 chi tall man roared.

“Young Master, us brothers have drunken our wine and taken our fill of the women here! Right now, even if I die, I will be satisfied as long as we slaughter Iron Mountain Gang’s punks!”

The valiant bandits, who were wearing armour, harbored an ominous glint.

All of them had been able to enter the White Horse Gang’s most elite group, the White Horse Battalion. How could any of them not be extremely fierce?

“Okay!” Hong Zhenjie suddenly jumped onto his horse. With a malevolent expression, he howled, “Brothers, mount your horses!”

The elite White Horse Battalion comprised of 200 men; they simultaneously mounted their horses. The surrounding mounted gangsters couldn’t help but involuntarily step aside.

From a distance, Teng Qingshan and Teng Qinghu saw the numerous mounted gangsters drinking and yelling. From time to time, a howl would ring out; it seemed that these bandits relied on the shouting and drinking to boost their morale.

“Qingshan, with their yelling, won’t the Iron Mountain Gang find them?” Teng Qinghu suddenly inquired.

Teng Qingshan examined the large mass of bandits in the distance. “Of course they will discover them! Yi City is only so big. With a few thousand mounted gangsters majestically moving about, I would assume that the Iron Mountain Gang has already received this information. However, the Iron Mountain Gang has a smaller amount of people and horses, so they would rather rely on the security of their mountain stronghold to defend themselves. They will not take the initiative to attack. The White Horse Gang also knows this!”

Teng Qinghu nodded his head.

“Cousin, this White Horse Gang has eight thousand core disciples. Today, at the very least, they have dispatched six to seven thousand! Moreover, the Iron Mountain Gang has a sturdy stronghold to rely on….this battle will most likely be extremely wretched,” Teng Qingshan said in a quiet voice.

“Qingshan….Luo…Luoxiang, will she die?” Teng Qinghu whispered.

“I don’t know.” Teng Qingshan said.

Truthfully, deep down, Teng Qingshan understood that Li Luoxiang’s chances of dying surpassed 90 percent. Before going to battle, these bandits would vent their emotions. In order to prevent these unlucky women from becoming a burden, after venting their emotions, they would immediately kill them and throw their corpses into the wilderness!

On the wasteland ahead, mounted gangsters ceaselessly set out on their horses, and the number of mounted gangsters on the wasteland continued to grow.

A while later——

“Everyone has left.” Teng Qinghu stood up from the weeds and proceeded to run over.

Bearing the Reincarnation Spear on his back, Teng Qingshan followed.

The wasteland was in complete disorder. Broken wine jars were astrewed about the ground. Teng Qingshan’s gaze suddenly focused on the area before them. “Corpses!” He saw numerous corpses littered in the distance while Teng Qinghu frantically flipped through each and every corpse like a madman.

Teng Qingshan ran over.

“They’re all women!” The channel adjacent to the wasteland was also full of dead bodies. All of the corpses were of young girls with their clothes tattered; some were even completely naked. With one glance, they could tell that there were a few dozens of corpses.

“These pitiful people were defiled by the gangsters.” Teng Qingshan took in a deep breath.

“Luoxiang, Luoxiang!!!” Teng Qinghu suddenly started sobbing. He was hugging a girl with ripped clothing while crying. He cried so much that he started losing his voice. After all, this was Teng Qinghu’s first love of his life.

Teng Qingshan silently stood behind him.

Teng Qingshan didn’t know how to exactly describe the forlorn feeling in his heart.

“Chi!” “Chi!”

Teng Qinghu grabbed a broken piece of a wine jar beside him and started to frantically dig into the dirt. The dirt flew everywhere, and after a short while, a large hole had been dug. Teng Qinghu solemnly carried the woeful body of Li Luoxiang and placed it into the large hole. After, he threw the dirt back on top of her corpse.

It wasn’t the right condition to hold a cremation, so she was temporarily dug a grave.

Kneeling in front of the grave, Teng Qinghu’s tears rolled down his face.

“Cousin.” Teng Qingshan opened his mouth.

“Qingshan, let me cry to my heart’s content. I don’t have any way of avenging Luoxiang so don’t tell me I can’t even cry about it!” Teng Qinghu had frantically run here, hoping that his lover was still alive. However, the result was nothing but cruel. Truthfully, in this chaotic world, Teng Qinghu had heard of events like this before.

However, when it happened to him, he could only feel a heart wrenching pain.

“Who said that we can’t avenge her? Come with me to the Iron Mountain Gang,” Teng Qingshan said.

Teng Qinghu suddenly lifted his head. His eyes were as round as a ball as he exclaimed, “Qingshan, you…”

“Still not coming?” Teng Qingshan yelled.

Teng Qinghu proceeded to stand up and grab Teng Qingshan while eagerly saying, “Qingshan, in my heart, I am itching to chop the White Horse Gang’s Young Master into mince meat! However, Qingshan, you shouldn’t rashly go and kill the Young Master! Those bandits went to our Teng Family to collect the annual tax and thus there are many that recognize you! If you wish to kill the Young Master, you will definitely be recognized….when the time comes, the White Horse Gang will raze our Teng Village to the ground! You should be aware of the bandits’ disposition; they will definitely seek revenge for their Young Master!”

Looking at the present Teng Qinghu, Teng Qingshan inwardly sighed. His cousin understood the virtue of patience. Those that did not understand patience in this chaotic world were fundamentally unable to survive.

As for the bandits’ disposition for blood, Teng Qingshan was also aware of this.

In this tumultuous society, there were many bandits who weren’t afraid of death!

Unafraid of death! This was the motto of many bandits. Even if Teng Qingshan displayed peerless martial prowess and slaughtered the Big Master, the Second Master, the Third Master, and the Young Master all by himself, in order to become the new Big Master, the remaining White Horse Gang members would try and be the first to kill Teng Qingshan, thereby eliminating the Teng Jia Village to avenge their old Masters! Only then would they have the qualification to become the new Master!

This was the custom!

When the time came, the various despicable methods used would be endless. Although Teng Qingshan wasn’t afraid, what would the Teng Jia Village clansmen be able to do?

“Am I this sort of an impulsive and reckless person?” Teng Qingshan replied with a question.

Teng Qinghu was startled.

That’s correct, Teng Qingshan had offended others in the Teng Jia Village, but he had acted extremely earnestly.

“Qingshan, what do you mean?” Teng Qinghu asked.

“Don’t worry, what I am about to do will not endanger Teng Jia Village. Just watch and you will understand.” Teng Qingshan turned around. “Let’s go, we will walk from the Great Yan Mountain to the Iron Mountain Gang.”

“Alright.” Although Teng Qinghu was slightly suspicious he still followed along.

The Iron Mountain Gang’s stronghold was built securely into the mountain. It was heavily fortified, and on the day it was built, it possessed the ability to resist the White Horse Gang’s violent attacks.

According to rumors, the White Horse Gang had lost a myriad of people while attacking the Iron Mountain Gang’s mountain stronghold entrance.

However…

The entrance of the mountain stronghold had already been broken open.

“Slaughter these punks! Brothers, charge!” A deafening roar resounded everywhere around the Iron Mountain Gang’s lair. At this time, everyone had bloodshot eyes; white knives would turn into red knives as heavily casualties were sustained by both the Iron Mountain Gang and the White Horse Gang.

……

Halfway up the mountain, Teng Qingshan and Teng Qinghu were overlooking this scene.

The Iron Mountain Gang’s entrance had already been forcibly opened, and fighting had broken out everywhere in the Iron Mountain Gang’s stronghold. This sort of close combat killing was extremely bitter. There were men on horses charging rampantly, and others hid in the room while sporadically releasing arrows. It was a cycle of death! The walls and floors of the mountain stronghold were splattered with blood and littered with dead bodies.

“This…” Teng Qinghu’s face couldn’t help but turn pale.

Even Teng Qingshan let out a breath of cold air. In his previous life’s contemporary society, how could he have seen close to ten thousand people slaughtering each other? Currently, the powerful bandits underneath him had bloodshot eyes; as long as the other person wasn’t on their side, the only word that resounded in their heads was “KILL”!

“Human lives are as cheap as grass!” This sort of feeling arose within Teng Qingshan’s heart.

These bandits had been capturing females and stealing money at one point. However, right now….each one was losing his life.

In this chaotic world, a person’s background didn’t matter; if one wanted something, he or she had to take it.

In order to obtain an exalted life full of pleasures, it had to be built upon the blood of others.

If one wanted his clansmen to live a happy lifestyle, the men of the clan had to have enough martial prowess.

“Qinghu, wait here,” Teng Qingshan said. The bones and muscles all over his body started to quiver as his entire body suddenly shrank in size. However, his arms and legs were clearly slightly too bulky. “I will go down there for a while; help me hold my Reincarnation Spear.”

Seeing this scene, Teng Qinghu cried in alarm, “Qingshan, you…”

“When your Tiger Form Fist is cultivated to its pinnacle, there will be a day that you can do this,” Teng Qingshan said with confidence.

When common people cultivated their muscles, they could stimulate their muscles when they stiffened. However, they would be unable to control their bones.

This Internal Martial Arts, when cultivated to the Grandmaster realm, would enable the user to control every bone in his or her body. Many people knew that between each bone was a gap, so some people practiced yoga to elevate their height by a few centimeters. It was also due to this reason that Teng Qingshan, who had trained his body to its limits, was able to either shorten or elevate his body height.

As for his facial feature…

His facial bones were set in place and were hard to alter. However, facial features were fundamentally trifling. This was because the difference between a person’s cold expression and smiling expression rendered an extremely large facial change. If one were to rub some dirt and add a few bloodstains on his or her face, who would be able to recognize him or her on the chaotic battlefield?

Teng Qingshan loosened the string that was holding his hair together, letting his hair fall down. Simultaneously, he rubbed some dirt on his face and spread his hair in front of his face.

“Qinghu, do you recognize me?” Teng Qingshan laughed.

“This…” Teng Qinghu was still in an astonished state.

Previously, Teng Qingshan’s figure had been tall and large, and he looked like a handsome youngster. Currently, he was shorter by half a head, while his body was much thicker, so much so that Teng Qingshan’s body was slightly hunchbacked. His entire aura had seemingly undergone a change. Even Teng Qinghu couldn’t believe that the person in front of him was the previously elegant Teng Qingshan.

In his previous life, Teng Qingshan had been an assassin, so this sort of simple disguise was nothing to him. As for his aura, many television actors knew how to alter their aura. A young maiden wanting to act as an older madam wasn’t impossible.

“Qinghu, you can wait here for me.” After speaking, Teng Qingshan rushed down the mountain.

“Be careful.” Teng Qinghu proceeded to say; simultaneously, he muttered in his heart, “Qingshan is even able to change his figure to the point where I can’t even recognize him. The bandits who have come to our village but aren’t familiar with Qingshan will not recognize him at all!” In actuality, even if there was a bandit with incredible vision who may have suspected Teng Qingshan, seeing a difference in height, the bandit would no longer suspect him.