Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Shang Lingyu flicked his sleeves and an invisible strength shot into a mountainside, directly cutting open a simple cave. He smiled at Fairylike and stepped inside.

With this, she determined that this kid really couldn’t wait. She felt contempt in her heart. It turned out that this so-called disciple of Peach Blossom Spring was nothing more than . At the same time, she was also proud of her charms and welcome of his advances.

Fairylike’s face flushed red and she revealed a subservient expression. She entered the cave. She thought that she should figure out a way for this boy to finish quicker. After all, this wasn’t the time to enjoy such carnal comforts.

But even though she thought this, her body ached even more. Her legs clamped together and she felt damp and hot.

“Fellow daoist Shang, where do you feel uncomfortable? Allow me to help you…”

Before she finished speaking, she was taken into his arms. She could feel a man’s hot breath rushing at her face. The charm in her eyes almost flowed out.

This boy really was in a hurry.

Feeling moved for a moment, she slightly closed her eyes, waiting for happiness to come. But in the darkness, she didn’t notice that as Shang Lingyu groped her with his hands, his eyes were cold and indifferent.

“Ah! You’re hurting me…Shang Lingyu, what are you doing…you are insane…let me go…!

“Save me…who are you…what are you…save me…!”

Screams of panic and despair came from the stone cave. Black fog tumbled and swirled, covering two overlapping figures.

But now, there was no scene of pleasure, only a cold fear that penetrated straight into the heart.

Hou –

A constrained roar came from the cave. The tumbling black fog reversed course and drilled back into Shang Lingyu’s body. He held a withered corpse in his hands, looking like it had been buried in the earth for countless years. It emitted a strong aura of decay.

He loosened his hands and allowed the corpse to fall onto the ground. He didn’t even glance at this woman who had looked bright and graceful just moments ago, her eyes closed and filled with passion.

It had been a long time since he last tasted this feeling. But now wasn’t the time to be wallowing in his feelings.

Shang Lingyu took a deep breath and knelt on the floor. He raised a hand and tore the skin between his eyebrows, allowing blood to flow out.

What was strange was that this blood didn’t drip onto the ground. Rather, it spread across his face, drawing an outline like a blooming flower.

“Honorable and respected lord, your humble servant is willing to become your carrier. I pray for your noble will to descend.”

As he whispered beneath his breath, a loud bang came from inside Shang Lingyu’s body. His face twisted with pain.

On his distorted face, the outlined flower image fully bloomed. It released an incomparably eerie and macabre aura.

“Ah!!”

With a cry of pain, Shang Lingyu’s pupils quickly grew until they eventually took up the entirety of his eyes.

A moment later his shivering came to a pause. The darkness in his eyes drew back until he was restored to his normal appearance.

It was just that his pupils were particularly dark, as if they connected to a fathomless abyss.

He glanced at the corpse on the ground. His figure flickered and he left the cave. He looked up and his eyes seemed to pass through the barriers of space, falling upon some distant existence.

His cold and indifferent eyes gradually revealed veneration. He fell to his knees and bowed his head, respectfully saying, “My lord, I have come!”

After kneeling for a long time, Shang Lingyu finally stood up. His pitch black eyes were thoughtful. Upon searching through these memories, he learned who had killed the abyssal being.

But Wugang was not some nameless nobody. If Qin Yu was able to kill him, he had to have a trump card in hand.

Of course, a card was just a card; he didn’t fear it and he had absolute confidence that he could slay this human cultivator.

But if he were somehow injured in the process, he feared that would affect what he wanted to do.

He couldn’t lose sight of the bigger picture just for some small issues. The matters of his race were far more important. Since he knew about Qin Yu’s identity, he wouldn’t be able to escape. His death would come sooner or later.

With his mind made up, Shang Lingyu stepped forward and howled into the distance.

An hour later, a fluctuation of information spread out through the follower contract.

East Zhou Duly opened her eyes on her platform, pleasantly surprised.

They had succeeded in obtaining the third platform!

She stood up without hesitation and stimulated the mark within her body that belonged to the traces of the Path of 10,000 Souls.

Hum –

Qin Yu opened his eyes. He looked at the trembling platform below him. The next moment, he vanished along with the platform he was sitting on.

Everything fell into darkness and there was only silence in his ears. Without any sound at all, it was like he had been isolated from the entire world.

Fortunately, this process only continued for a brief period. After four breaths of time in the silence, light bloomed in front of Qin Yu.

He narrowed his eyes. He could see the smiling face of East Zhou Duly across from him. Her face was flushed and she had an ecstatic expression.

Shua –

Shua –

Space continuously twisted and three more figures appeared. Once the trial was over and East Zhou Duly obtained a spot to enter the land of inheritance, her followers would be gathered here through the contract they signed.

At this moment, Qin Yu stiffened and his heart sank. Fear flooded his mind like a tsunami.

This feeling…an abyssal being!

Compared to the abyssal being he killed before, the strength of this one was on a completely different level.

Qin Yu took a deep breath, forcing himself to maintain a calm and composed expression. He silently looked over and their eyes met midway. Shang Lingyu smiled and nodded. His appearance was mild and friendly, unchanged from before.

It was him!

Qin Yu nodded in return but his heart sank. He suspected that there was another reason why he had been attacked by an abyssal being, but he never imagined that Shang Lingyu’s body had already been taken over by another abyssal being.

Was he a victim? Or was the matter related to him to begin with? Thoughts raced through Qin Yu’s mind but he ended up wryly smiling. There was no point in contemplating this too much. What he should be thinking about right now is how to survive.

Although the abyssal being that took over Shang Lingyu’s body hadn’t revealed its fangs yet, it was undoubtedly terrifying. Qin Yu’s senses explicitly informed him that if they were to truly fight, he would have no chance of winning.

But right now, ‘Shang Lingyu’ hadn’t attacked them. With his strength, it wouldn’t be difficult to kill everyone else here. And not just that, but Qin Yu had slain an abyssal being earlier, so there was a reason for a deep grudge between them.

While he had no idea why Shang Lingyu was patiently waiting, Qin Yu knew that this was his only chance to survive this danger.

No matter what the reason is, since you want to pretend to be helpless then I’ll also play the role of a clueless idiot. That is, as long as you don’t flip around and attack.

“Where is fellow daoist Fairylike?” East Zhou Duly frowned.

Pure Summer and Peaceful Nun’s complexion changed. “In order to speed up the search process we divided into two teams. Fellow daoist Shang and Fairylike went off together.”

Seeing everyone look over, Shang Lingyu revealed a bitter and guilty expression. “Soon after we separated, me and Miss Fairylike found another platform. However, before we were able to contact the others we were discovered by them.

“In the battle, Miss Fairylike fell to their plotting and perished. But as she did, she managed to drag down two others with her. It was because of this that I was able to kill the last person and capture the third platform.”

“So that’s what happened.” East Zhou Duly appeared saddened. She didn’t doubt Shang Lingyu’s explanation. After a brief silence she said, “Because fellow daoist Fairylike died in the Path of 10,000 Souls, the East Zhou Family will richly compensate her relatives, teachers, and friends.”

Pure Summer and Peaceful Nun slowly nodded. While they felt disdain towards Fairylike, they also grieved a little over her passing.

After all, those that entered the Path of 10,000 Souls were all the same kind of people; they were struggling with all their might to pursue greater opportunities.

They didn’t doubt Shang LIngyu’s explanation either. His strength was one reason and him capturing the third platform was another reason.

It was impossible for too many things to happen in such a short period of time…certainly, the most important thing was that the contract had been completed after obtaining the third platform and Fairylike was already dead…

In such a situation, why would they inquire deeper into something they didn’t care too much about?

Qin Yu nodded along with everything, a heavy expression on his face. He glanced at Shang Lingyu. If this matter wasn’t related to him then he would take a block of tofu and smash his own head in!

But to him, Fairylike was only a passerby. Moreover, she likely had thoughts of seducing him to plunder his energy.

If a woman like that died then she died. And if it wasn’t for her taking the initiative to throw herself at Shang Lingyu, she wouldn’t have ended up with such a fate.

The evils we bring upon ourselves are the hardest to bear!

East Zhou Duly’s eyes lingered on Qin Yu. “Everyone, I have obtained a spot for the inheritance and will soon enter the land of inheritance. With this, our contract has come to an end. Here, I will bid all of you good luck and hope you can obtain some harvests.”

When she finished speaking, the binding force of the contract between them disappeared.

Qin Yu’s heart skipped a beat. He thought, what in the world are you acting so quickly for? What if the reason Shang Lingyu didn’t attack was that he was wary about the existence of the contract? If you undo the contract so quickly, the rest of us might die here with you!

Although he appeared calm on the surface, Qin Yu was actually fully prepared to run away. But soon he discovered that he was overthinking things.

Shang Lingyu was the first to cup his hands together. “Everyone, I will say my goodbyes here first. I hope that we may meet each other again in the future.”

He turned and left, vanishing into the horizon.

Pure Summer and Peaceful Nun also revealed happy expressions. “Miss East Zhou, the two of us will also say our goodbyes here.”

Whoosh –

Whoosh –

The two flew away in another direction. It seemed that while they searched for the third platform, the two of them had come to some kind of agreement.

Only Qin Yu and East Zhou Duly were left behind. After determining that Shang Lingyu had truly left and wasn’t skulking nearby to launch a secret attack, Qin Yu slowly let out a long breath of air, a nervous look in his eyes.

An incomparably formidable abyssal being had given up on an opportunity to take revenge for a fellow member of the same race. And according to the information he learned, flesh and blood creatures were considered extremely delicious delicacies for abyssal beings.

In other words, when Qin Yu, East Zhou Duly, and the other two were standing in front of ‘Shang Lingyu’, they were like a buffet on full display.

Yet he had been able to endure this…there had to be a story behind this!

Before Qin Yu could think more, East Zhou Duly hesitated briefly and said, “Qin Yu, what do you plan on doing now?”

Qin Yu glanced at her and cupped his hands, “I have some private affairs that I must deal with. I wish Miss East Zhou good luck in advance and I hope you obtain great harvests in the land of inheritance. Goodbye!”

He turned and left, simple and clean, without dragging his feet.

There didn’t seem to be any lingering feelings or unwillingness to part here, right? East Zhou Duly secretly laughed at herself.  As she thought, she had been overthinking things from the start. It was likely that from the very beginning Qin Yu only chose to become her follower to deal with a private matter, and it wasn’t related to her at all.

How silly she had been. She had been affected by all those outside opinions that she had indulged in needless daydreaming…after mocking herself, East Zhou Duly gathered her thoughts, a look of anticipation shining in her eyes.

She had obtained a spot to enter the land of inheritance. This was the most important matter at hand. Compared to that, the so-called love between men and women wasn’t anything at all.

With a thought, she stimulated the condensed inheritance brand mark within her body. Then, she vanished from sight.