The only sound by the ear was the lapping of the sea. The little female slave stared wide-eyed at the gold bars tumbling out, which shone conspicuously in the faint moonlight of the dark night. She had never seen so many gold bars!
“In these three pockets, there are some books and maps, but primarily three large chests filled with gold. However, there are too many gold bars. The three chests cannot hold them all,” said Teng Qingshan, as he dumped out the contents of the three large pockets.
Three extremely heavy iron chests, a scattering of gold bars, books, and maps.
“Brother Teng, where did these things come from?” Li Jun walked over in surprise. “Are the chests also filled with gold?”
“Yes.”
Teng Qingshan opened the gold in one of the large iron chests as he spoke. Inside, large gold bars were neatly stacked, filling the entire iron chest completely. “All three large iron chests are filled with gold! Rough estimation, all the gold combined weighs about thirty thousand catties, more accurately, around thirty-two thousand catties.”
With his control over his strength, Teng Qingshan felt his estimate was fairly accurate.
“Thirty-two thousand catties?” Li Jun gasped in amazement. “Three hundred and twenty thousand taels of gold?”
For the ‘Goddess’ of the Heavenly God Mountain, three hundred and twenty thousand taels of gold was not considered much! On the Kyushu Continent, an Xiantian expert could easily amass hundreds of thousands of taels. A figure of the Goddess’s stature naturally commanded astonishing wealth.
Take the Guiyuan Sect, whose status was lower than the Heavenly God Mountain; their single gold mine produced gold and purple gold with a terrifying monthly value.
Therefore, for such super-powers, a few hundred thousand taels of gold truly amounted to little.
But—
Who on the Kyushu Continent would travel carrying several chests of gold? People carried gold chits and silver chits! Seeing over thirty thousand catties of gold laid out before them was still profoundly shocking.
“Xiao Qing, Xiao Hui, this stuff cannot be eaten,” Teng Qingshan smiled at the Azure Luan and the Gale Eagle. Both beasts were currently staring wide-eyed at the piles of gold. The shimmering gold was quite stunning.
“Brother Teng, you still haven’t told us where this gold came from?” Li Jun pressed persistently.
The little female slave also stared with wide, pure eyes at Teng Qingshan.
“Xiao Jun,” Teng Qingshan said, “When we reached that island earlier, the Chunshen Family had just finished wiping out the Liu Family of Black Iron River and were setting sail. Their warship was larger, making it slower than our Wumu boat on the sea.”
“And now, the Chunshen Family is only a few miles away from us.”
“I just took a little trip up there,” Teng Qingshan added.
Li Jun suddenly understood.
“Ah, the Chunshen Family probably just moved the wealth the Liu Family of Black Iron River had hidden for years,” Li Jun nodded. “But, Xiao Ping mentioned that the Liu Family of Black Iron River was defeated. Can it be that the fortune of a family capable of contending for supremacy is only this much?”
Thirty-two thousand taels of gold.
Even for the Guiyuan Sect, it wasn't much.
“The value of gold here on the North Sea Continent must be different from where we come from,” Teng Qingshan smiled. “Moreover, under my threat, the Chunshen Family probably wouldn’t dare hand over all their gold. But they wouldn't dare hide too much either; they are ultimately afraid of me discovering it, afraid that I might kill them all in a fit of rage.”
As soon as the words fell—
“Uncle, did you kill those people?” the little female slave cried out, her clear, crisp voice causing a shiver even in the dark night.
“You want them dead?” Teng Qingshan looked curiously at the little female slave named ‘Xiao Ping.’
The girl bit her lip, her eyes filled with hatred, and she whispered, “I was just a household slave on the island, and only Sister A-Fang was ever truly kind to me, the one I liked the most… But Sister A-Fang is also dead. Killed by the people from the Chunshen Family! Uncle, did you kill all those wicked people from the Chunshen Family?”
“No, but I killed their leader,” Teng Qingshan stated directly.
“Thank you, Uncle.” The little female slave dared not offend Teng Qingshan, but a flash of disappointment crossed her eyes.
Those vicious bandits…
How she longed for them all to be dead.
Li Jun heard this, walked over, and gently stroked the little girl’s head. “Brother Teng, those people from the Chunshen Family are utterly inhuman; they massacred everyone on the island. Those people deserved to die.”
“Two rival families. Today, the Chunshen Family wiped out the Liu Family. If the Liu Family had been strong, perhaps they would have wiped out the Chunshen Family too! Tell me, who was right and who was wrong?” Teng Qingshan looked at Li Jun.
Li Jun was momentarily stunned.
“Then Brother Teng, why did you go there, for wealth?” Li Jun asked further.
“Yes, for wealth.”
After speaking, Teng Qingshan turned, faced north, and fell silent.
Li Jun felt a bit lost.
In her mind, Teng Qingshan was not the type to kill casually for money. “Brother Teng is not that kind of person! No, it must be because he saw the tragic scene on the island, feeling a shred of pity for the dead, that he chose to act against the Chunshen Family. It must be so!”
“Furthermore, according to my investigations, Brother Teng never wantonly killed anyone when he disguised himself as a merchant before. And on the Great Grasslands, he was very good to the common herdsmen. On Bright Moon Island, he was equally friendly to ordinary people, like the fisherman Shangguan Quan!” Li Jun thought, becoming increasingly certain in her mind. “Brother Teng is very good to ordinary people, but shows no mercy to armies or powerful martial artists!”
“Hmph, those armies are just like bandits! Slaughtering, robbing, they stop at nothing. Those people deserve to die!” Li Jun had no positive feelings whatsoever for that class of thugs.
This was why, she reasoned, Teng Qingshan should have wiped out all those people from the Chunshen Family.
Her own experience destined her to hate such people to the bone!
The next morning, the sun rose.
The Wumu boat moved forward peacefully, cutting through the waves and kicking up white spray. Above the Wumu boat, the Azure Luan spread its wings, soaring over the ocean, its entire body faintly shimmering with seven-colored light in the morning sun.
Teng Qingshan and Li Jun were both crouched on the deck.
“Brother Teng, we don’t understand these books and maps at all,” Li Jun said as they sorted through the collected books and the large stack of maps. Teng Qingshan and Li Jun could not recognize a single word in the various markings on the maps.
“Let’s wait until we reach shore and ask someone,” Teng Qingshan suggested.
“Mm.” Li Jun also felt helpless.
Being illiterate was indeed a source of great frustration.
“I understand!” a slightly timid voice sounded.
Teng Qingshan and Li Jun both turned their heads to look at the speaker, the frail, thin girl who seemed timid. After sleeping for a night and changing into clothes that originally belonged to Li Jun, although they were loose, this little female slave named ‘Xiao Ping’ already looked much prettier.
“You understand?” Teng Qingshan couldn't believe it.
“Xiao Ping, you can read?” Li Jun was also incredulous.
A little female slave who had been sold three times, now only nine years old. She must have been sold off when she was very young. Which family would teach a female slave to read?
“I… someone in my family taught me reading and writing when I was little,” Xiao Ping explained. “Though I didn’t learn much, I can manage general reading and recognizing characters.”
“Haha, come, come quickly,” Teng Qingshan called out happily.
“Tell us, what are the names marked on this map?” Teng Qingshan unfolded a large map. Though Teng Qingshan couldn't read, from the geographical features on the map, he could guess that this was likely a map of the entire North Sea Continent.
Xiao Ping took a deep breath, seemingly trying to encourage herself. This Uncle and older sister treated her very well; she wanted to repay them.
“Don’t be nervous,” Li Jun pulled Xiao Ping close to her side.
“Xiao Ping, what do these three characters read?” Teng Qingshan pointed and asked.
Xiao Ping looked closely and spoke one character at a time: “Tian Lan River!”
“Good,” Teng Qingshan nodded with a smile. Although illiterate, he could guess from the map that this was the name of a river.
“What are these four large characters?”
Teng Qingshan pointed to the four largest characters on the map, which he guessed should be ‘North Sea Continent.’
“Duan—Mu—Great—Land!” Xiao Ping announced.
“Duanmu Continent?” Teng Qingshan’s eyes widened.
“Duanmu?” Li Jun also looked at Teng Qingshan; both were very confused.
Xiao Ping looked at them in astonishment. “This is the Duanmu Continent, why? Uncle, I often hear you mention the North Sea Continent. You mean our Duanmu Continent is the North Sea Continent?”
Teng Qingshan suddenly realized.
North Sea…
To people of the Kyushu Continent, the ocean to the north was indeed the ‘North Sea.’ But in the eyes of the people of the Duanmu Continent, the ocean was to the ‘South.’ It was impossible for them to name their continent the ‘North Sea Continent.’
The North Sea Continent was a name Yu Huang gave it himself.
Xiao Ping’s literacy indeed simplified matters. Although Xiao Ping knew little about the entire Duanmu Continent (North Sea Continent), the books and maps contained much information Teng Qingshan wished to know.
“So, on this Duanmu Continent, the highest status figures were the ‘Divine Axe Celestial God’ Da Yu from the Divine Axe Mountain long ago, and the other, the ‘Thunder Blade Celestial God’ Duanmu Yu from over three thousand years ago,” Teng Qingshan finally understood.
Although this North Sea Continent was not as grand as the Kyushu Continent, it had actually produced a supreme expert, the ‘Thunder Blade Celestial God’ Duanmu Yu!
“On this North Sea Continent, supreme experts are called Celestial Gods?” Teng Qingshan sighed inwardly. “When Yu Huang was here, the population of the North Sea Continent was only a few million, and they were very united. Yu Huang left behind various cultivation methods, and the people of the North Sea Continent grew stronger. They overcame various dangerous situations, their population increased, and they even produced a supreme expert who unified the entire North Sea Continent, and the entire continent was named ‘Duanmu Continent.’”
The North Sea Continent was only the size of two provinces of the Kyushu Continent.
Yet it could produce one supreme expert.
“Thunder Blade Celestial God?” Teng Qingshan sighed inwardly. The four supreme experts of the Kyushu Continent used no blades, yet the Duanmu Continent produced one who wielded a blade.
“Duanmu Yu had a ‘Dark Chariot Horse’ capable of flying in the sky? And the Thunder Blade containing the supreme technique Nine Scrolls of the Thunder Blade?” From one of the books detailing the anecdotes of powerful experts, Teng Qingshan learned some stories about this Duanmu Yu.
An absolutely domineering super-expert.
A single thunder blade, unrivaled under the heavens.
“This North Sea Continent, oh, the Duanmu Continent! Perhaps it will be more spectacular than I imagined,” Teng Qingshan anticipated in his heart.
……
Nine days later.
The sky was clear and bright. Under Teng Qingshan’s control, the Wumu boat coasted onto a desolate shoreline.
The Duanmu Continent had arrived!