The Nine Cauldrons

Book 7 Chapter 38 Gambling Cage Fight

Teng Qingshan turned and saw a handsome young man walking over with a smile while being escorted by many people. It was Young Master Li.

“Mister—” The moment Young Master Li opened his mouth, he was stunned.

This was because Teng Qingshan actually ignored his existence. Without paying any attention to Young Master Li, he instructed the plump man with small eyes, “I want the two Scarlet Wind War Hous!”

“The two cost a total of six thousand silver. I will call the administrator here.” The plump man with small eyes was very excited as he promptly ran to call the administrator in charge.

After being ignored by Teng Qingshan, Young Master Li couldn’t help but feel angry. He took a deep breath and endured the rage forcefully.

“Which Martial Saint Expert in the Duanmu Continent doesn’t put on airs? It would be weird if he isn’t arrogant,” Young Master Li tried to convince himself in his heart. “Father once said that one must treat a Martial Saint Expert with sincerity! It is only possible to invite them successfully this way.”

Although Young Master Li wasn’t clear of Teng Qingshan’s ability, he determined that the person before his eyes could be a Martial Saint.

“You two wish to buy the two Scarlet Wind War Hous?” An elder dressed in embroidered gown stared at Teng Qingshan and the others with a smile. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Young Master Li and was astonished. He bowed hastily and greeted, “Eldest Young Master!”

“Yes.”

Young Master Li then smiled and walked over while looking at Teng Qingshan. “Mister, consider these two Scarlet Wind War Hous as my gifts to you.” In Duanmu Continent, the form of address, Mister, was the appellation for people you respect.

“Thanks!” Teng Qingshan responded in a dull tone, not refusing the offer.

“If someone is giving, why shouldn’t he take it?

“Mister, there is a place nearby for some tea and rest,” Young Master Li said, smiling, “Mister, let’s go there together and….”

“No, I still have to buy some things,” Teng Qingshan said.

“Mister, what do you want to buy? Just tell me. I will ask the servants to do it,” Young Master Li said with a smile.

Struck by a thought, Teng Qingshan glanced at Young Master Li with interest and thought to himself, “Let’s just see what this little fella wants to do.” In Teng Qingshan’s eyes.….. this Young Master of the Fang Residence was indeed a young fella! Based on Teng Qingshan’s understanding, there were a total of 36 major cities and over a hundred small cities. According to the estimated calculation, despite the fact that Duanmu Continent was the size of two prefectures from the land of the nine prefectures, the population of Duanmu Continent was around two to three hundred million.

Although there were many innate experts in Duanmu Continent, there were probably only one to two innate experts in one major city. Some powerful clans might have a few Martial Saints, but the weak clans didn’t even have one.

“Martial Saint? The Martial Saints of Duanmu Continent are just innate experts! That’s nothing!” Currently, Teng Qingshan was only one step away from the Emptiness Realm.

The innate experts were no match for him.

With such ability….

Teng Qingshan did have the right to not care about the Fang Clan.

“Even if all the Martial Saints in the continent came, I would win them with just a few strikes.” Teng Qingshan could be confident because he had the capability and power.

“I want to buy a carriage—a top-notch carriage!” Teng Qingshan said with a smile, “A carriage which can support goods weighing over ten thousand Jin while still being able to go fast.”

Young Master Li froze for a second.

Goods that weighed ten thousand Jin?

If an ordinary carriage carried goods which weighed over ten thousand Jin, their wheels would sink into the earth. Therefore, Teng Qingshan’s requirement was quite demanding.

“Alright, no problem. My men will bring the carriage here in two hours,” Young Master Li said with a smile.

“How much does it cost……?” Teng Qingshan asked.

Young Master replied promptly, “It’s just a small sum of money. I, Fang Li, don’t mind. Mister, why don’t we go have some tea?”

Teng Qingshan cast a glance at Li Jun and nodded with a smile. At this moment, Young Master Li absolutely did not cast even a glance at Li Jun. In his eyes, Teng Qingshan was much more important than a gorgeous woman. In the chaotic Duanmu Continent, experts were what attracted the great clans.

On the second floor of a large courtyard house styled pavilion located in the slave market, Teng Qingshan, Li Jun, and Young Master Li sat at a square table. If one looked past the hollowed-out fence by the square table, one could distinctly see the spacious courtyard located in the center of the pavilion. The huge pavilion had the architecture shape of a square with empty spaces within, while the courtyard in the center had a length and width of fifteen Zhang.

At this moment, an enormous iron cage with the length and width of ten Zhang and the height of around one Zhang was placed in the middle of the center courtyard.

The enormous iron cage was reeking faintly of blood.

“Eh, what’s the use of this iron cage?” Teng Qingshan asked in shock.

“Mister doesn’t know?” Young Master Li was slightly surprised.

Li Jun, who was at the side, said, “This is the first time my big brother has visited the slave market. Thus, he is not familiar with this place.”

Young Master Li suddenly understood everything and nodded as he smiled and said, “Mister must have heard of the gambling cage fights, right? This is the so called fighting cage.”

“Gambling cage fighting?” Hearing Young Master Li’s tone, Teng Qingshan understood that the people of Duanmu Continent must all know about the gambling cage fights.

Young Master Li continued saying, “I reckon the gambling cage fights will start later.”

Teng Qingshan and Li Jun were both paying attention to the people in the building.

A great number of customers had gathered on the first floor of the enormous pavilion, and every one of them was discussing in excitement.

“Second Brother, are you betting on the human or beast for the first match?”

“I lost when I betted on the human yesterday. I just don’t believe I will lose again today. I am still going to bet for the human!”

“Boss Wang, you won a few thousand taels of silver yesterday, right?”

The talking sounds came up from the lower floor.

As Teng Qingshan listened, he understood slightly and said to himself, “According to what they were saying, this gambling cage fight is about a man and a beast entering this huge iron cage and then fighting in it until only one is left! Additionally, the people who watch can bet on the winner!”

“Roar~~” The roar of a beast suddenly sounded.

The entire pavilion became quiet. Teng Qingshan looked down from the second floor and saw a one-Zhangtall, stone faced, muscular man dressed in animal skin at the main entrance. His right fist, which seemed to be bigger than a person’s face, was clutching an iron chain and leading a completely white Snow Lion into the main entrance. Another muscular man with the height of one Zhang was dragging a skinny but muscular scar-faced man, whose hands and feet were locked with chains.

“Eh?” Teng Qingshan stared at the two people holding the iron chains in shock.

“So tall?” Li Jun was also astonished.

In the land of the nine prefectures, the height of one Zhang was extremely rare. Yet two people of such height had appeared here.

TLN: one zhang = 2.5mters

“Mister, those two are from the remote northern areas. They are Bluestone Clansmen who live near the Bluestone Lake in the Northern Frosty Region. The Bluestone Clan inhabits an extremely cold region in the northern area. Ordinary people cannot survive in that kind of place. The Bluestone Clansmen are muscular, and all of them are born with godly strengths! Each fully grown Bluestone Clansman has the height of one Zhang and possesses the innate strength of two to three thousand Jin. Additionally, they are not afraid of cold.”

Teng Qingshan was truly astonished.

With the height of one Zhang, the Bluestone Clansmen could indeed be considered giants!

“Emperor Yu once told me the environment of the Northern Sea Continent is very harsh.” Teng Qingshan thought as he sighed to himself, “It’s natural selection. A race which can survive in harsh environment will have its strong points.”

In the courtyard downstairs…

A middle aged man, wearing a gold-colored felt hat and a thick leather coat, laughed and said, “Everyone, the old rules. Today’s match is a fight between a man and beast. The slave who will be fighting in the cage today has already fought two matches. Both of the matches were fights between men, and he killed the other two men. As for this Snow Lion, it fought one match in the past and tore its human opponent into pieces.”

“If you bet on the man and the man wins, you get three times the amount you betted. However, if you bet on the Snow Lion and it wins, you get 4/3 of the amount you betted. Everyone, please place your bets.”

The first floor immediately bustled with noise and excitement, and the voices of people placing their bets sounded one after the other.

The second floor was much quieter.

Someone ran to each table just to ask,

“Customers, would you guys like to bet?” A teenager with sparkling black eyes stared at Teng Qingshan and Young master Li.

“Mister, would you like to bet?” Young Master Li asked with a smile.

Teng Qingshan looked down and took out some crushed silver from his bosom as he said, “One tael of silver! I bet that the man wins!” Actually, one could easily tell through the gambling odds that the percentage of the man winning was extremely low.

“One tael of silver?”

The other customers sitting at the nearby tables on the second floor were slightly shocked. This was because for those who were able to dine on the second floor, just drinking tea alone cost over dozen taels of silver. The people who dined on the second floor normally bet over a hundred taels of silver…… Even the people on the first floor would rarely bet less than ten taels of silver. However, when those people saw Young Master Li at the side, none of them dared to say anything.

“Too little?” Teng Qingshan stared at the teenager.

“No. no.” The teenager took the crushed silver hastily.

“I will also bet one tael of silver on the beast winning,” Young Master Li said, smiling.

With a sulking expression, the teenager took the other piece of silver.

Soon after, the receipts for the bets the two people placed were brought over.

“Roar~~~” A furious and loud roar resounded through the entire building, and the strong Snow Lion was placed into iron cage. The moment it was free from its chains, the Snow Lion roared in the iron cage and struck the iron cage with its sharp claws. This caused the specially made iron cage to shake, producing a mix of noises.

“Everyone, all the bets have been placed!

“The gambling cage fight will start now!”

As the middle-aged man shouted, the Bluestone Clansman unlocked the slave’s chain and opened the cage door, pushing the slave into the cage. Simultaneously, he threw a short blade inside.

“Clang!” The cage door was closed again.

At this moment, there were only the man and the beast in the enormous cage.

“Ahhhh!” The slave screamed weirdly like a wild animal and dodged repeatedly in the iron cage with the short blade in hand. As for the Snow Lion, it continued moving forward, searching for a chance. It was obvious the Snow Lion knew this human before his eyes could not be dealt with easily.

Suddenly—

“Whew!”

The Snow Lion leaped out forcefully as fast as lightning and pounced toward the slave.

“Ah!” The slave’s eyes turned red as his facial expression appeared malevolent. During this moment of life or death, he shouted and stabbed the blade forward.

“Bang!”

The Snow Lion’s huge and tall body rammed the slave to the edge of the cage, causing the iron cage to shake. However, at this moment, the Snow Lion had already collapsed helplessly, while the slave held the Snow Lion’s head. Roaring, the slave brandished the short blade and stabbed the Snow Lion’s neck repeatedly.

Blood dyed the Snow Lion’s fur red.

“Ao~~” The slave lifted his head and roared excitedly. He finally survived. Although he still had to fight in the future, he was at least able to escape death this time.

“Haha, I won!”

“F*ck yeah! After losing a few thousand taels of silver, I finally won once!”

The entire pavilion was bustling.

“Mister, you won,” Young Master Li stared at Teng Qingshan with a smile as he said this. “I have watched these gambling cage fights many times. However, out of the matches between human and beast that I’ve watched, I have only seen three matches which resulted in the winner being the human. This is the third match.”

Teng Qingshan flashed a faint smile as he glanced at the slave below.

“Mister, do you know who is the most famous slave of these gambling cage fights?” Young Master Li asked.

“I don’t know.” Teng Qingshan said as he shook his head.

The tall middle-aged man beside Young Master Li knew clearly of what his young master was thinking. Thus, he smiled and said, “There is a very powerful slave in the gambling cage fights. It was said that he had been thrown into a group of beasts when he was young. However, he had actually grown up by drinking the milk of the beasts! He possesses an innate godly strength! Although he doesn’t have inner strength, he’s even stronger than inner strength experts. He participated in ninety-eight gambling cage fights and won each and every match. He even tore an expert, who had reached the peak of the Postliminary Realm, into pieces. Since then, this slave has been called, ‘Xiong Shou’.”

TLN: Xiong Shou (凶兽）means Viscious Beast.

Teng Qingshan was slightly surprised.

A slave that doesn’t have inner strength but was still able to tear an expert, who had reached the peak of the Postliminary Realm, into pieces?

“Perhaps he is a practitioner of the Internal Martial Arts?” A weird thought crossed Teng Qingshan’s mind.

……