Recognizing a Master

"Qingyu! Xiaojun, Qingshan!"

Just as Teng Qingshan was feeling slightly awkward, Gu Sheng, who had already dealt with most of the aftermath, happened to arrive and save him from the awkward situation.

"Cousin!"

Teng Qingshan walked over. Seeing the thing Gu Sheng was carrying with one hand, he felt somewhat puzzled. This thing looked like a wooden box, but why did it resemble a coffin so much?

"Puh~"

Gu Sheng gently and carefully set down the wooden coffin containing Wei Dan’s remains. Even the sound it made was exceedingly soft.

"Big Brother Teng, you’ve been carrying this the whole way. What exactly is this thing?"

Li Jun asked curiously. She had watched Gu Sheng carefully protect this "big box" the entire journey, and had actually felt an urge to open it the whole time.

"A dead man!"

Gu Sheng gave Li Jun a mischievous grin and deliberately thrust his head in front of her like a prank. The little girl was scared half to death.

"Big Brother Teng is such a bully! Sister Qingyu, aren’t you going to do something?"

Frightened, Li Jun hid behind Li Qingyu. Her eyes rolled, and she began to "drive a wedge between them." Young Li Jun had not yet experienced the devastation of her clan’s destruction, so she naturally lacked the heartbreaking maturity that would come later. She was still a lively, cheerful little girl.

"Hehe~~"

Gu Sheng chuckled without saying anything. He pressed and pushed with his right hand, producing a slightly harsh scraping sound. Wei Dan’s remains saw the light of day once more. The lustrous bones gleamed silver under the sunlight, while the purple Sky Eagle Claws he had put back on were especially eye-catching.

"A master~"

Teng Qingshan’s eyes fell on the lustrous, jade-like skeleton that had been submerged for several centuries, and an unusual gleam flashed through his eyes.

"They really are dead bones! But they’re so beautiful!"

Li Jun had initially felt disgusted after taking one look, but she still failed to escape the law of true fragrance. Were all girls secretly dragons? The moment they saw something glittering, they could not take their eyes off it.

"This is~"

Teng Qingshan looked puzzled. He did not understand why Gu Sheng had brought this skeleton back. A master’s skeleton might look nice, but trying to forge weapons or anything similar from it was nonsense.

Because Gu Sheng had tidied Wei Dan’s remains before leaving, placing the pair of Sky Eagle Claws together over his chest, Teng Qingshan had not noticed the small Nine Cauldrons pendant.

"A Heavenly Rankings master from six hundred years ago, Wei Dan!"

Gu Sheng began explaining slowly. "This pair of Sky Eagle Claws is a divine weapon of the age. Even Xiantian experts would find it difficult to damage.

"But that isn’t why I brought him back. Qingshan, look!" As he spoke, Gu Sheng picked up the Sky Eagle Claws, revealing the small Nine Cauldrons pendant hidden over the skeleton’s chest.

"It~"

Teng Qingshan had been looking on indifferently, but the moment his gaze landed on the pendant, his eyes widened. His gaze moved repeatedly between Li Jun and the small cauldron pendant, as if he wanted to discover the connection between them.

At such close range, he could clearly see the pendant. It was a black miniature cauldron only about the size of a finger.

"This little cauldron…"

Teng Qingshan felt his heart race. His mind seemed to have been struck by lightning. "It’s exactly the same as the little cauldron Little Cat left me!" Ever since his late wife, Little Cat, had died, Teng Qingshan had treated that little cauldron as a treasure and worn it every day. However, after her death and his arrival in the Nine Provinces world,

the little cauldron had existed only in his memories. He had never expected to see an identical object! Even more unexpected was that he had once again met a girl exactly like Little Cat—and she had appeared together with the little cauldron. Could there be some connection between them?

"This thing is one of the Nine Provinces’ supreme treasures. Legend says it possesses mysterious power. Even the supreme expert Emperor Yu, its creator, could not fully control it. It is the divine artifact of the Nine Provinces—the Nine Cauldrons."

Gu Sheng rambled on as he introduced the origins and wondrous abilities of the Nine Cauldrons. He even mentioned the story of the Poetry Sword Immortal Li Taibai drinking wine from it. Li Jun’s eyes shone as she listened, and her gaze toward the little cauldron became extremely eager.

"The Nine Cauldrons! Recognizing a master! Automatically disappearing!"

After hearing Gu Sheng’s description, Teng Qingshan’s eyes grew brighter and brighter. He also formed a guess about his transmigration.

"Qingshan!"

Gu Sheng did not hesitate. Once he finished explaining, he directly handed over the little cauldron pendant. He had already mentioned that he and Chu Xin had failed to recognize it as their master, so Li Jun and Teng Qingshan had been prepared for this move.

"This size, shape, and feel… They’re exactly the same as the little cauldron from my previous life!"

A trace of confusion flashed through Teng Qingshan’s eyes as he secretly pondered what Gu Sheng had said earlier. In his previous life, he had investigated the material of the little cauldron, but ultimately had found nothing.

"Qingshan, try using your mind to control the little cauldron! Focus your thoughts on it and imagine making it larger!"

Gu Sheng’s words drew the attention of the other two. Controlling it with one’s mind—was this really so fantastical? Unlike the half-convinced Li Jun and Chu Xin, Gu Sheng knew very well that Teng Qingshan was the fated true master of the Nine Cauldrons. Therefore, he would definitely be able to make the little cauldron change.

As for changing the cauldron’s size, the original story had mentioned that Teng Qingshan had once used the Nine Cauldrons to hold ten stalks of Undying Grass, switching its size freely.

"Mm…" Teng Qingshan slowly closed his eyes. Just as he controlled throwing knives, he concentrated the "spirit" he had obtained onto the little cauldron. As he closed his eyes, the little cauldron actually began to ripple.

Then, under the gazes of the three people, it continued to grow. It went from the size of a thumb to the size of a fist, then to the size of a sea bowl, then a water vat. It grew larger and larger, as though there were no limit.

"That’s enough, that’s enough! Stop!"

Seeing that the giant cauldron had already grown taller than a person and was still expanding, Gu Sheng hurriedly stopped Teng Qingshan.

"This… This really is…"

Teng Qingshan opened his eyes and was instantly dumbfounded. He had never expected the little cauldron to become so large in the blink of an eye.

"It looks like you really are the fated true master of the Nine Cauldrons. You must cherish it properly~"

Gu Sheng smiled and patted Teng Qingshan on the shoulder. His tone, however, sounded so full of lament and unwillingness. Who would have thought that he, the mighty "Heavenly High Three Feet," who stripped the land bare wherever he went and had fleeced the monkeys of Iron Arm Ape Mountain for a fortune, would one day become a treasure-delivery boy? And he had volunteered for the job. What a toothache!

"Got it, Cousin!"

Teng Qingshan nodded. Unfamiliar with the ways of human relationships, he failed to notice anything unusual about Gu Sheng.

"By the way, this…"

"They’re all here!"

After Gu Sheng had mourned for a while and was about to take out the Black Iron Treasure Map, Teng Qingshan’s father, Teng Yongfan, arrived.

Teng Yongfan said, "Qinghu, Miss Li’s father has arrived. The clan chief and Brother Li Yuan are in the reception hall."

"My father~"

Chu Xin was a little excited. Although this was Li Qingyu’s father, Lord Li had treated her so well that this little girl, who had lacked fatherly love since childhood, was quite willing to acknowledge him as her father.

"Let’s go over first!"

Gu Sheng put the Black Iron Treasure Map back into his robes. There was no need to hurry about Emperor Yu’s treasure vault beneath Lake Tianhong. With only half the map and their insufficient strength, they had no way of retrieving Emperor Yu’s Divine Axe and the Essence of the Northern Sea right now.