The Nine Cauldrons

Chapter 15: A Storm is Brewing

Yangzhou train station.

At around five o’clock in the evening, two Indian men walked out from the train station’s exit. One of them had a height of close to 1.8m, and a gentle smile that gave people a sense of being bathed in the spring breeze. What was strange though, was that his neck and head were of equal thickness; additionally, he had his hair tied into a braid. As for the other Indian man, he had a height close to two meters; a shaved head, and an expressionless face.

“Gentlemen, are you here in Yangzhou on holiday?” At this moment, a short-haired youth went up to welcome them and said in English, “We are the travel agency, ‘Left Hand’.”

“Hm.”

The two Indian men nodded their heads.

Following this short-haired youth, they stopped at the side of a highway not far from the train station, where there was precisely what looked to be an ordinary taxi.

That close to 2m tall, cold Indian man gave a cold snort, then said in fluent English, “It took over a month of investigations to find the Lone Wolf; this shows that the Hands of Darkness has very low efficiency.

The short-haired youth could only laugh along, “That Lone Wolf of the Flying Knives is reckoned to have been injured after battling ‘Sharpshooter’ and ‘Body Crusher’, and thus, went into hiding all this while. Moreover, there are too many restrictions in China. We have lesser manpower as well, which is why we were only able to uncover his whereabouts yesterday.”

“Getting injured just from fighting kids like Sun Ze and Dolgoterov, big brother, it looks like this Lone Wolf of the Flying Knives won’t be a challenge at all. I can finish this by myself,” the towering Indian man said. The alias of The Big Three of the world’s number one organization was respectively named Brahma the Great, Vishnu and Shiva.

Although all three had equal standing, Vishnu was the oldest, and thus assumed the role of Big Brother.

Brahma and Shiva were both extremely combative, whereas Vishnu was more amiable.

“Mhmm, but you can’t be careless either.” said the Indian man with the gentle smile and braided hair.

The two Giants of the God Kingdom organization then rode on the taxi towards the urban district.

….

Just roughly one hour after the two Indian men left, at around 6 p.m. in the evening, another group of people appeared at Yangzhou train station. This group of people had set off from Tianjin and took a day’s worth of train and had only reached Yangzhou in the evening.

“Boss Shen, get in the car.” Two Volkswagen Passats picked up this group of four and drove away.

In the first Passat, seated in the back was a skinny man dressed in casual clothes and travel cap. To his side sat a ferocious faced middle aged man with a protruding potbelly.

“Your boss and those hitmen he hired are all dead?”, the skinny man’s brows knitted as he asked.

“Yes, Boss died not long after those hitmen died. Boss died inside the study’s secret room. They only discovered his body after he had been dead for two days. The servant smelled a stench when she was cleaning the study room and discovered the body.” The fierce-looking middle-aged man shook his head and sighed. “We don’t even know who did it.”

With furrowed brows, the skinny man said with a deep tone, “It can’t be Qin Hong.”

Qin Hong was a member of the Special Operations team, if he wanted to kill someone, he definitely would not leave behind a corpse. Qin Hong would make sure that the crime scene was especially clean.

“Boss Shen, this time, things are very weird. Even under our heavy protection, the boss still died without a sound. Killing Qin Hong is not an urgent matter now. There is no need to come personally. Boss Shen, why would you put yourself in danger?” Advised the fierce-looking middle-aged man.

“Hmph, you know nothing.” The skinny man snorted coldly, and the middle-aged man was so scared that he didn’t dare to speak another word.

After all, the former was a famous big shot—— Shen Yangming of the Northeast.

“Big Brother, even if I have to die, I will definitely avenge you.” Shen Yangming silently vowed in his heart. Hitmen who could form a team together generally were able to trust the other person with their lives and usually shared a very deep bond. It was just like ‘Wolf’ and ‘Cat. Teng Qingshan and his wife were literally husband and wife. Because of Cat’s death, Teng Qingshan became berserk and killed his way to the base of the organization.

The team formed by ‘Sharpshooter’ and ‘Body Crusher’ was also an example. When Sun Ze died, Dolgoterov became so enraged that he became crazy and madly attacked Teng Qingshan.

The hitmen who were able to form a team together naturally had an exceptionally deep bond.

That year, ‘Wang Qing’ of the Northeastern Two Tigers encountered the attack of the elite of the Special Operations Team and was killed by Qin Hong. Actually, the reason why Wang Qing died was also because he was trying to help his younger brother, ‘Shen Yangming’. In the end, Shen Yangming escaped and survived, but Wang Qing was shot dead.

The one who shot Wang Qing dead was Qin Hong.

It was impossible for Shen Yanming to ever forget his enemy, ‘Qin Hong.’

Originally, he wanted to use someone else to kill Qin Hong, but things didn’t go as easy as he expected. For the sake of his brother, Shen Yangming spared no effort and personally came to Yangzhou to kill Qin Hong.

“Qin Hong, you will definitely die,” Shen Yangming uttered inwardly and immediately instructed, “You all will get off at the entrance of the hotel in front. This matter has nothing to do with you all anymore.” Shen Yangming naturally couldn’t let these hooligans and gangsters monitor Qin Hong’s whereabouts. This time, he spent a large sum of money and requested the help of the ‘Hands of Darkness’ organization as well.

Shen Yangming would spare nothing to kill Qin Hong.

*******

At around 7o’ clock during the evening, Teng Qingshan was eating dinner at a restaurant in a village.

The sound of the phone vibrating sounded out.

“Hm?” Teng Qingshan was somewhat surprised as he shouldn’t be getting any phone calls.

“Hello.” Teng Qingshan pressed the answer key and said.

“Teng Qingshan, It’s me. Lin Qing.” Lin Qing’s excited voice came through the phone, “Do you have time now, I’m looking for you for an urgent matter.”

Currently, Teng Qingshan didn’t have any other things to do as well. He was just immersed in the cultivation of the Martial Art.

“An urgent matter?” Teng Qingshan replied confusedly.

“Yeah, an extremely urgent matter. Are you able to come over for a moment? I am near the Moon Lake in the West City District. Lin Qing said hastily.

Teng Qingshan considered it for a bit, then nodded and answered, “Alright, I will be there soon.”

Immediately after, Teng Qingshan flagged down a taxi and immediately hurried towards the Moon Lake in the West City District. Teng Qingshan held a stomach full of doubts, “I have interacted with Lin Qing a couple of times and she has always seemed to be a very cool-headed kind of person; she’s never been this impatient before. But from the sound of it, it doesn’t seem like she’s in any sort of danger.”

Teng Qingshan couldn’t figure out what happened to Lin Qing. As they have had quite a few interactions, Teng Qingshan still chose to go.

…

Presently, it was already completely dark, and the Moon Lake near the West City District was only illuminated by the dim street lamps. As it was very late, there were only a few people. A quiet silver Audi A4 was parked by the lakeside, and a lady sat in the driver seat. It was Lin Qing.

Screech —

After the taxi came to a stop, Teng Qingshan paid the money and got off the car. He then headed to the lakeside.

“Teng Qingshan.” Lin Qing immediately got out of the car, waving her hand excitedly.

“Hm?”

Teng looked around carefully. Besides Lin Qing, there were no other people in their peripheral. He was very confused as he walked over.

“Teng Qingshan.” Lin Qing immediately ran over.

“What’s up? What’s the urgent matter?” Teng Qingshan asked.

“Haha…” Lin Qing couldn’t help but laugh, “I’m very happy! Extremely happy! So, I wanted to see you.” At this moment, Lin Qing’s smiling face was dazzling, and even her eyes were squinting because of her bright smile. It was an extremely pure and unbridled smile that originated from the bottom of one’s heart.

The lake wind brushed pass, and strands of hair streaked across Lin Qing’s face. The wilfully smiling Lin Qing of this moment was especially charming.

“Why are you so happy?” Teng Qingshan smiled faintly.

“Yeah, let me tell you! Li Mingshan is dead!” Lin Qing was extremely excited, “He’s dead. That demon is finally dead. I’m ecstatic, I’ve never been this happy before. Haha…”

Teng Qingshan startled.

Li Mingshan?

Could it be the Li Mingshan that he killed?

“Who is Li Mingshan?” Teng Qingshan asked.

It’s Li Mingshan from the Ming Shan Corporation. You probably don’t know since you aren’t from Yangzhou.” Lin Qing answered.

Teng Qingshan was then certain that it was the cunning middle-aged man which he had killed.

Lin Qing’s hands were tightly clenched into fists, and even her body was trembling slightly. A fierce glint flickered in her eyes.

“I dreamt and wished that someone would kill this bastard. The people who want to kill him are many, but, he never died. I had even given up all hope. I could only wait and hope that he would be terminally ill one day. However, who would have thought that he actually died in the secret room in his study room.” Lin Qing laughed and commented, “It’s good that he died! It is great!”

“It seems like there is a deep grudge between you and him.” Teng Qingshan said.

“A deep grudge?” Lin Qing sneered, “It can be otherwise said that I am still indebted to him!”

Teng Qingshan’s brows furrowed. Indebted?

Lin Qing continued, “Truth be told, my family was very poor. At a young age, my mother became seriously ill and died. My father had to work away from home. An accident happened. My father fell off somewhere high, causing half of his body to become paralyzed. I could only do my best to take care of my younger brother and let him go to school. You understand…what could I, a girl of ordinary educational background, do?”

“It was Li Mingshan who “provided” for me. I was his mistress.” Lin Qing smiled coldly as she said.

Teng Qingshan’s emotions didn’t change at all. He had seen too many tragedies. For example, back in the days when he was seven-years-old, he had to survive in a pile of dead bodies. What wretched scene has he not seen… Teng Qingshan did not discriminate against people who had been mistresses. So to speak, every family has its problems, and everyone has their own sufferings.

“I used the money that I got from him to take good care of my younger brother and my bedridden father. The terms of service for being his mistress was a year. I relied on a portion of the money to start a business, and as the business became increasingly big, I simply didn’t need to rely on him. However, as his power and influence were all-encompassing, I was unable to shake him off. Be it the underworld or the upstanding society, it was completely under his control. If he wanted to kill me, it would have been easier than crushing an ant. I still had my younger brother and my father… I had to endure.”

“In front of him, I was like a slave.”

“I spent my days living panic-stricken and in terror. I looked great on the outside, but actually…”

Lin Qing looked at Teng Qingshan, “It was that time, Teng Qingshan, when you carried me on your back over six miles of road, I felt peace in my heart. It was the first time I felt safe.”

In his heart, Teng Qingshan understood this kind of feeling. Because back then in the Siberian training camp, he lived in a state of panic as well. During that time, he didn’t dare to relax for even a second as he could die at any moment. He only lived his days in peace when he began learning martial arts from his teacher Teng Bolei.

“Now, I am finally free. Without Li Mingshan, the people under his control have long fallen apart and scattered.” Lin Qing felt an unprecedented relief; the heart, which had been filled with fears and worries for years, finally felt safe. “I never have to experience those days again. I’m so happy. I wanted to tell someone everything about this, and the first person I thought of was you! ”