The Nine Cauldrons

Chapter 44: Capturing the Bandit Leader

The archers of the bandit group were at the back. When they saw how Teng Qingshan charged forward like a ferocious tiger storming down the mountain and fought his way through the other bandits with great ease, killing sixteen of them consecutively, and then heading toward their leader, they were all shocked.

“Archers! Kill him!” The handsome young man shouted anxiously.

“Swoosh!””Swoosh!””Swoosh!””Swoosh!”…

The arrows flew toward Teng Qingshan like numerous locusts.

With Teng Qingshan attracting the bandits’ attention, the pressure on the other members of his clan reduced greatly. Seeing that Teng Qingshan was being attacked, Teng Yongfan, Teng Qinhu, and the others panicked. Teng Qinghu even bellowed out loudly, “They are encircling and attacking Qingshan! Let’s all fight our way there!”

“Attack!”

The men of Teng Clan were furious.

The training they had received since young had now proven to be useful. They easily constructed formations and thrust their long Spears towards the incoming bandits.

…

“Hmph,” Teng Qingshan held no regard toward the arrows that were coming his way. With a swing of his Damascus Steel Spear, a mysterious force was generated and all the arrows flying towards him were sent off to the side.

Spear art—Transmutation Unity Qi!

The bandit leader let out a savage laugh, “Kid, you are courting death!” Rather than escaping, the leader let out a furious bellow and sent his machete slashing in an arch, bringing about a sharp whistling sound of the wind and striking out toward Teng Qingshan’s head. The Damascus Steel Spear in Teng Qingshan’s hand seems to have been given life as it repeatedly tapped onto the surface of the huge machete.

“What powerful strength.” The countenance of the bandit leader turned grim, “My machete…” After the repeated taps of the longspear, the bandit leader could feel that the machete was being drawn into a whirlpool, uncontrollably swinging to the side.

“Hmmm?”

As Teng Qingshan tapped and deflected the machete with his longspear, he could sense that the movement of his longspear also changed slightly. Immediately, he twisted his longspear and thrust it out toward the leader’s throat while maintaining the same speed.

His speed was fast as lightning!

“Hu!” The bandit leader could only watch the tip of the spear thrusting toward him. At this moment, he panicked and thought to himself, “How is this possible?”

The bandit leader was very confident in his own abilities. Even if the longspear could fend off his attack, the longspear should also be deflected to the side. How could it be such that with just a turn, it could thrust in his direction without reducing any speed? The bandit leader would never understand the profoundness behind the turn of the Damascus Steel Speartip.

The true profoundness behind the ‘Pursuing Shadows’ spear technique lies in this ‘one turn’.

This ‘one turn’ could be more accurately said to be a spinning force.

The Pursuing Shadows spear technique was derived from the Bursting Fist of the Five Element Fists. Despite having reached the Grandmaster Realm of the Xing Yi Martial Art, Teng Qingshan still had to spend several years before he could develop the Bursting Fist into the ‘Pursuing Shadows’ spear technique.

The Bursting Fist was like an arrow. The first characteristic of the Pursuing Shadow Spear Technique was the fast speed! Fast as an arrow and as quick as an illusion!

The second characteristic was that the longspear itself contained a spiraling force.

Even if the enemies came attacking with sabers, swords, or longspears, Teng Qingshan would be able to deflect and block easily with the longspear in his hands. With the use of this spinning force, he would be able to deflect the force of the enemy’s weapon to the side. At this same time, his weapon could still be pierced through the enemy’s vital points and take the enemy’s life.

Only one move was required to kill the opponent!

Although this technique seemed simple, it was a test in many areas. For example, it tested one’s ability to ‘hear forces’ and required one to be able to perfectly detect the opponent’s force. One would have to borrow and use this force to send the opponent’s force spiraling to the side, and simultaneously kill the opponent with one’s own weapon. Just this move alone would require one to reach the level of ‘One with the Spear’.

The second thing was that one would have to reach the highest level in the creation of a spiraling force to be able to deflect the opponent’s weapon to the side.

One must be a Grandmaster of the Bursting Fist and reach the state of being One with the Spear to be able to perform this move perfectly..

During an actual battle, only one move is required to kill. This one move might appear simple, but actually require many years of research and practice.

“Ahhh!!!” Facing his impending death, the bandit leader bellowed loudly and grabbed Teng Qingshan’s speartip with his left hand.

“Chi!” The Damascus Steel Spear penetrated the palm of the bandit leader. The spiraling pathway of the spear was affected by the palm and instead pierced through the muscles, bones, and the shoulder of the bandit leader. Blood came gushing out. “Hmph!” Teng Qingshan exerted force in his spear tip and pressed the bandit leader down onto the ground, enlarging the wound on his shoulder.

Teng Qingshan drew his spear and pointed the tip of the spear toward the eyes of the bandit leader.

“Stop!” Teng Qingshan let out a furious bellow.

Amidst the spacious field, the bandits who were going all out in the fight looked at this scene in astonishment. The boss’ life is now in the hands of a young man. Involuntarily, all the bandits stepped back and stopped attacking.

Because of the wound on the bandit leader’s shoulder, his face contorted with pain. Suddenly, a hint of ferocity and madness flashed in the eyes of the bandit leader. Laying on the ground, he abruptly swung up the machete with his right hand. “Hu!” The machete went slashing out toward Teng Qingshan’s upper thigh.

“Courting death!”

Teng Qingshan bellowed and kicked the bandit leader’s right wrist with his right leg at lightning speed, sending a burst of inner strength.

Pa! The sound of crushed bones rang out!

The machete flew to the sky and landed on the ground in the distance.

The right arm of the bandit leader swung limply. The bones of his right hand had shattered into powder.

“I will skin you alive if you make another move!” Teng Qingshan shouted as he glared at the bandit leader. Lightning seemed to flash in his eyes.

The bandit leader was infuriated. However, at this moment, he was so terrified by Teng Qingshan’s gaze that his heart was palpitating. He could clearly sense that… If he were to move just a little, this young man would definitely pierce through his head with that spear. The bandit leader felt as though this young man with a spear was Master Hong Si of the White Horse Gang.

Master Hong Si had traveled the world with his brothers since young and was notoriously known to be one of the ‘Hong Clan’s Four Brothers.’ Having killed countless of people, Master Hong Si could intimidate and frighten an ordinary bandit with just a single glare.

Currently, Teng Qingshan’s aura and gaze also made the bandit leader equally terrified.

“Father, are you alright?” Teng Qingshan quickly asked.

Teng Yongfan and the others ran over, helping those who had been injured. From afar, Teng Yongfan shouted, “The rest are all fine, but…” Teng Qingshan scanned the surrounding and saw that one of the clansmen had lost a section of his right leg. The wounds had been bandaged up with a cloth. Another clansman had been slashed on his face, causing him to lose one eye. The wound on his face was very deep and appeared very hideous.

Almost all of the clansmen were covered in blood.

Fortunately, everyone helped each other and formed the spear formation. And so, no one died. If it weren’t because Teng Qingshan had taken the bandit leader hostage or if Teng Qingshan was slightly slower, a few of the clansmen would have died, which was considered normal in this world.

“Hmph, Qingshan, we’ve killed some of their men too.” Teng Qinghu said.

Teng Qingshan secretly heaved a sigh of relief. The battle earlier was actually very short. Fortunately, he was able to capture the bandit leader and prevent the aggravation of the situation. Teng Qingshan looked towards the bandit leader, who had already collapsed on the ground, and asked, “Why are you targeting us? I will beat you up again if you lie.”

“We are bandits! All we do is rob others.” The bandit leader lifted up his head and shouted.

“Pffft!”

As the longspear moved, the bandit leader let out an agonizing cry. Teng Qingshan’s longspear had already pierced through his right shoulder and blood gushed out. The moment he withdrew his longspear, blood spurted out continuously.

“Damn it! Do you think that we’re idiots?” From the side, Teng Qinghu bellowed, “I’ve entered the city so many times and have not encountered any bandits trying to rob us. Damn it! I will be the one to pierce you to death if you won’t tell us.” Teng Qinghu carried his longspear and dashed over as well.

The members of Teng Clan were well aware that bandits usually wouldn’t rob hunters because hunters are poor and fierce.

Moreover, they had intentionally made a detour into the fields. Despite so, the bandits continued to attack them. It was clear that the bandits had laid in ambush there to attack them.

Why made these bandits come after them, a group of hunters?

Naturally, the members of Teng Clan thought of one thing—the note that was worth ten thousand silver taels! That was the only thing that could make it worthwhile for the group of bandits to attack them.

“Release our boss!” Those bandits felt anxious too.

“Shut up,” Teng Qingshan cast a glance in their direction.

When Teng Qingshan was killing them, he had done so at the speed of cutting grass, which completely intimidated these bandits. Even their boss had not been able to last one round against Teng Qingshan, so how could they possibly dare to go up against Teng Qingshan? All of them merely felt anxious but had no audacity to make any sound. In fact, a number of them glared at that man with triangular-shaped eyes.

The man with triangular-shaped eyes felt horrified as well.

He would never have expected that the youngest one of the thirty-one hunters, whom he had looked down on the most, to be the most terrifying one.

“I will tell you!” The bandit leader finally gave in. He turned to stare at the man with triangular-shaped eyes, who was standing in the distance. “It’s him! Er Gouzi! Damn it! His f*cking brother works under some great salt merchant. He was the one that told me about the silver note of ten thousand silver taels. My hands are both useless now and it’s all because of him!”

Of course the bandit leader hated that man with triangular-shaped eyes.

Both his arms had been crippled and both his shoulders had been pierced. His life was over.

“As expected.” Teng Qingshan was not surprised at all.

Besides the members of the Teng Clan, the people who worked for the great salt merchant were the only ones who knew that they had a silver note of ten thousand silver taels.

“That guy is called Qin San!” Teng Qingshan still remembered the scene back at the Yangzhou Merchant Guild. He remembered the name of that cavalry leader. “It should be him.”

“Who is Er Gouzi?” Teng Qingshan turned his gaze toward the other bandits.

“Ahh!” That man with triangular-shaped eyes was so scared that his face turned pale. He immediately turned and tried to flee. However, a bandit next to him kicked his butt fiercely, causing him to fall to the ground.

“You’re still thinking of escaping?” The handsome young man amongst the bandits said as he grabbed the man with triangular-shaped eyes. He dragged him all the way to where Teng Qingshan and the others were and tossed him over.

The handsome young man cupped his hands and said to Teng Qingshan, “Brother, we only attacked because Er Gouzi told us that there’s a fat catch. Since we have encountered you, we, the brothers from Tiger Hill, can only admit defeat! Please let my brother go! Anything is negotiable!”