The Nine Cauldrons

Chapter 43: Bandits

The sun hung high up in the sky. The sun during the cold winter was not burning hot. Instead, the light from the sun felt comfortable. The group of hunters from the Teng Jia Village all smiled cheerfully as they went on their way.

“Yongjiang, how much money were the beast hides sold for?” Teng Yongfan asked.

“As we have had completed many deals with Old Wang, he offered us a good price. By selling all the beast hides, we earned 350 silver taels!” An honest-looking middle-aged man with a tall stature smiled and said. “However, that amount still no match for the price of that one snow ferret which Qingshan had caught previously.”

“I went to ask about it at the Wan Xiang Tower earlier. They are willing to offer a price of four thousand silver taels for a snow ferret hide that is in perfect condition.” Teng Qinghu clicked his tongue as he exclaimed.

“There is a constant demand for a snow ferret hide, but there’s always a lack of supply. However, Qingshan did achieve a great merit and the Chief should reward him.”

Teng Yongfan smiled and cast a glance at his son. As a father with a strong son, he was obviously proud. Teng Yongfan smiled and said, “It’s good enough that there’s sufficient to go around. Aren’t we all putting in so much effort for the sake of the clan? But the snow ferret’s hide is really expensive. The money earned from the many Frost Jade Sabers that Master and I had forged can’t even be compared to that of a snow ferret.”

The people from the clan could not help but laugh.

“Oh, right. Yongjiang, where are the steamed buns and flat bread which we brought in the morning? Take them out and let’s have some. We’ll still need to walk for close to four hours on the trip back.” Teng Yongfan reminded.

“Come, each person can get two steamed buns and two flat bread.”

He opened up a cloth bag which had carefully wrapped up steamed buns and flat breads, and started distributing them to the others. Teng Qingshan also received his share.

After taking big bites of the food, they took out the bamboo containers and drank some water.

“These steamed buns really taste quite good.” Teng Qingshan thought as he ate the steamed buns and flat bread. He took a sip of the cold water, and joked around with the group of rough men. For some reason, Teng Qingshan felt that the atmosphere was warm, cozy, and comfortable. “I like this kind of life!” He thought to himself as he looked up at the sun.

These people were a group of sincere and simple-minded men.

“Do you guys know why that Master Hong Si from the White Horse Gang is called Hong Si?” Teng Yingfan said as all of them enjoyed the food happily.

“Isn’t that just his name? What else could there be to it?” None of the clansmen knew.

Teng Yongfan laughed out loud and started sharing the story about the expert ‘Yang Fan’ pursuing and killing the four brothers of Hong Clan.

******

As Teng Qingshan and the others were on their way, there were people who were five to six roads away from them.

At the side of the road, there was a mound covered with wilted weeds. Behind the mound hid a group of bandits.

“Er Gouzi, you made me set up an ambush here within such a short time. Your Brother Lang won’t fool us with a fake news, right?” A tanned strong man with eyes that are as big as that of a cow and with a stocky and imposing build said. He held a huge machete and wore a black cotton cloak, revealing the chest that was covered with bushy hair. This person was the head of the bandits.

The man with triangular-shaped eyes lowered his voice and said, “Boss, don’t worry, there’s definitely no problem with the information I received. That brother of mine is working for a great salt merchant. Why would he lie to me? Without absolute confidence, would I rush over to look for you on horseback and request for your help?”

“I don’t think you would have the audacity to make a fool of me either.” The leader of the bandit group sneered coldly and said, “Go take a look further up and notify us when they arrive.

“Alright.” This skinny man with triangular-shaped eyes appeared very agile as he ran a distance of ten Zhang away while keeping his eyes on the road.

“Brother, do we have enough people here?” Asked a handsome-looking young man who stood next to the bandit leader.

“Don’t worry, Third Brother. Based on what Er Gouzi had said, they have a total of thirty-one people in the group! One of them is even just a young lad, so in fact, they can be considered to have only thirty people! With one hundred and three of us, half of them will f*cking die after tasting a few waves of arrows. We will then charge forward and kill the remaining eleven or twelve of them without using any effort. Hmph, if it wasn’t because they have a note that was worth ten thousand silver taels, I wouldn’t bother bringing so many brothers with me.” The leader of the bandit group stabbed the machete into the ground as he said with a smirk.

“Brother, we should be careful anyway. After all, they are hunters.” The handsome young man reminded.

“What’s there to be afraid of. I can make them cry for their parents with just the use of my machete!” The bandit leader spat out and cursed.

After a long time:

“Boss!” With a joyful expression, the man with triangular-shaped eyes darted over with his body bent.. “They are here. They are probably still one hundred Zhang away. That group of people are wearing beast hides and I was able to recognize them from very far away.”

The eyes of the bandit leader lit up and all of the other bandits were all very excited. However, none of them made a sound. All these bandits were experienced and knew well that… they should not reveal their location at this crucial moment.

“Brothers,” the bandit leader lowered his voice and said with a savage expression, “When that group of hunters are near, fire the arrows at them when you hear my command. It’ll be best if we can kill a large number of them from the very start. After we’ve gotten the money, we shall head to the brothel to have a good time!”

The group of bandits laughed. However, brutal gleams were shining in their eyes, as if they were ferocious beasts that were waiting to attack at any moment now.

…

Teng Qingshan and the others had no idea that there were people lying in ambush. On the other hand, the bandits had started to draw their arrows, preparing to attack.

The bandits’ actions were very light. Normally, ordinary people would not be able to hear them at all.

“Hmm?” Teng Qingshan’s ears twitch as he threw a glance toward the mound in the distance.

As an expert of the Internal Martial Arts and having trained from a young age, Teng Qingshan’s six senses were extremely sharp. He would usually notice before ordinary people had gotten close to him. Back in Yi City, that man with triangular-shaped eyes had thrown a few glances toward Teng Qingshan and the other clansmen from afar. However, as there were too many people in Yi City, he had not noticed it at all.

However, they were now in the wilderness!

The surrounding was extremely quiet, and over one hundred people were hidden behind that mound, preparing to attack. No matter how well they hid themselves, Teng Qingshan still managed to discover them.

“Father,” Teng Qingshan suddenly spoke up.

“What’s the matter?” Teng Yongfan asked with bemusement.

“Everyone stop.” Teng Qingshan frowned and the people from his clan immediately looked toward him. Teng Qingshan lowered his voice, “Can everyone see that mound over there? I have a feeling that…there are people hiding behind that mound. Furthermore, their number isn’t small!”

Everyone’s countenance turned grim.

Teng Qingshan threw a glance toward the mound and quickly began pondering.

In his previous life, even the professional special agents could never approach Teng Qingshan without being discovered. Although these bandits were experienced, they were not like the special agents and hitmen from his previous life who had been through professional training. In terms of concealing themselves, these bandits were still a far cry. Moreover, with over one hundred of them together, it was unlikely for them to not make any sounds at all.

“Brother Fan, what should we do?” Quite a number of them turned toward Teng Yongfan.

Teng Yongfan threw a glance toward that mound and lowered his voice, “There’s no other way out. We must go back to the village! Let’s do this. We’ll take detour and go via the fields on the side so that we can avoid that mound. If we’re their targets, they will charge out eventually. Keeping our distance from them will prevent them from launching any sneak attacks as well.”

“Alright, let’s do this.”

The people from the clan had no other way out and could only go with this plan.

Teng Qingshan and the group left the path and entered the fields, keeping a distance of thirty to forty Zhang away from that mound. At such distance, even if ordinary arrows could reach them, their prowess would be very weak.

…

“To hell with them!” When the bandit leader saw this, his expression changed. “Those hunters actually noticed us.”

“Boss, what should we do?” The man with triangular-shaped eyes asked anxiously.

“What else can we do?” that bandit leader wore a savage expression and a hint of madness flashed in his eyes. “I have over one hundred men with me. Why would I be scared of them? Brothers, listen up! In a while, charge over with me! Once we get close, shoot them with the arrows and kill them all!”

All of the bandits emitted powerful killing aura. Which of them had not killed a few lives before?

…

Since the mound was located on the left, Teng Qingshan intentionally walked on the extreme left.

“Those bandits shouldn’t be after us, right?” Teng Qinghu lowered his voice.

“Don’t speak all that crap. Regardless if they’re after us or not, let’s just get ready.” Teng Yongfan said with a grim expression. All of the clan members were extremely focused, holding either a longspear or longbow. It was not the first time they had encountered something like this. Living in this world. Indeed, one must be vicious if one wish to live well in this world.

All of them held their breaths.

“Charge!” A loud cry rang out from behind the mound. A tanned strong man with a stocky and imposing build held onto a machete and took the lead. A big group of people followed after him. Like a pack of wolves, they dashed down from the top of the mound.

“Attack!” Teng Yongfan bellowed.

“Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!”…

The people from the Teng Jia Village were the first to shoot out the arrows. However, as the two groups were very far apart and there were too few people from the Teng Jia Village, with only twelve of them equipped with bow and arrows, the first wave of arrows only injured the arm of one of the bandits.

“Brother Fan, there’s too many of them. What should we do?” Many people from the clan asked anxiously.

“Brother Fan, you should head back first with the silver note. We’ll hold them off.” There were also some people from the clan who said crazily while facing death.

…

The bandit leader, holding onto the machete, started to smile proudly after seeing that the hunters were panicking. “Shooting from such a far distant? A bunch of fools. Hmph, but to be able to shoot across such a long distance, their arm strength isn’t weak either.” Just then, the bandit leader realized to his astonishment that a young hunter from the other side had dashed over while holding onto a Damascus Steel Spear.

He was moving at an extremely fast speed!

“They are courting death!” The bandit leader sneered. “Archers, shoot!”

Right now, the young hunter was already within shooting distance. Out of the over one hundred bandits, there were over forty of them equipped with bow and arrows. As Teng Qingshan was the first to charge out toward them, many of the arrows naturally shot out toward him.

“Kid, you have courage, but you’re very foolish.” The bandit leader snuffed.

“Hu hu!”

Teng Qingshan, who was moving at extremely high speed, starting swinging the Damascus Steel Spear he was holding. The spear was like a spinning wheel, deflecting all the arrows that got near him. After one wave of arrows were shot out, Teng Qingshan had not a wound on himself. His gaze was locked onto the head of the bandit leader.

The bandit leader was stunned.

The numerous arrows could not even injure one person?

At this moment, many of the bandits were charging out toward the hunters from the Teng Clan. There were also a number of bandits who took out arrows once again.

“Die, kid.” Some bandits said as they charged out toward Teng Qingshan with ghastly expressions. The remaining bandits dashed out toward the remaining members from the Teng Clan. Clearly, the bandits felt that the thirty adults were the greatest threat.

Faced with the bandits’ machetes, Teng Qingshan did not slow down at all.

“Pffft!” “Pffft!””Pffft!”

The Damascus Steel Spear he was holding was like a venomous snake coming out from its den. He moved the spear three times at the speed of lightning, leaving behind some blurred afterimages.

“Urgh~~” The three bandits who had gotten close to Teng Qingshan widened their eyes as they held onto their throat. They emitted “Urgh, urgh~” sounds as they struggled to breath. Blood could be seen spurting out of the big hole on their throats.

Three bandits instantly fell.

“Pffft!””Pffft!””Pffft!””Pffft!”…

The shadows of the spears moved and the red tassels danced about as a few drops of blood splattered into the air.

Within the blink of an eye, Teng Qingshan had dashed out a distance of over five Zhang while thirteen of the bandits had fallen. All of them had been pierced in the throat.

“What?!” The countenance of the bandit leader turned grim. He had made a wrong judgement. Out of the group of hunters, this young man turned out to be the most terrifying one.