Refining the Mountains and Rivers

“Enough!” Old Fox interrupted, “Yin Hanxin, the greed of the Pit Viper Clan has affected you too greatly. If it weren’t for the fact that you couldn’t give up a part of your authority in the past, you never would have come into conflict with the Merry Forest and ended up in your current situation.

“Now, the beast tide endangers the entire city and neither of us can withdraw. Even after the City Lord has promised compensation, you still remain so hardheaded. Do you plan on reenacting what happened in the past?”

Yin Hanxin narrowed his lone eye. “Old Fox, are you threatening me?”

Old Fox was expressionless. “I just want to warn you not to go too far.”

“Hehe, how strange. It really is strange. I heard that Old Fox had a frontal conflict with Black Astral not too long ago, but now you’re speaking up on his behalf. I cannot help but suspect that things aren’t as simple as they seem.” Yin Hanxin’s lips curled up and he said in a low tone, “After all, if something abnormal occurs there has to be another story to it. What do you think, Old Fox?”

Old Fox sneered, “Think whatever you want. The issue at hand is dealing with the beast tide outside the city!”

“Old Fox is right. Then I agree. I hope that after this matter is over, the City Lord will abide by his words.” Yin Hanxin faintly smiled and no longer spoke.

City Lord Blackpool nodded, “Of course.” In his heart, he scolded this damned viper several times. It was good if they hated the Merry Forest but there was no way they couldn’t distinguish between what was more important. Otherwise this viper never would have had the qualifications to become the steward of Great Deer City’s Three Lives Pavilion.

His performance today was likely intentional so that he could ask for more benefits…as for Old Fox, the City Lord really couldn’t quite understand his thoughts.

Like Yin Hanxin said, why was Old Fox speaking up for Black Astral? Was there some previous agreement or another reason?

After all, as the City Lord, now that he had gone so far as to summon these two people here, he wouldn’t sit back and watch Great Deer City fall into chaos.

Taking a deep breath, City Lord Blackpool suppressed his thoughts. Since he had prepared these demon crystal cards, he had also prepared to follow through on them.

“Everyone, since we’ve agreed on this matter, shall we discuss what we are going to do?” City Lord Blackpool knocked on the table.

Yin Hanxin smiled. “It seems that the City Lord has already made some plans. Why waste our time? Just tell us. If we can accept, we will follow your lead.”

Old Fox said, “That’s right.”

City Lord Blackpool said, “Alright, then I shall offer my humble remarks.” His fingers continued to rap the tabletop. After stopping for a few breaths of time he slowly said, “A change has occurred with the beast tide assaulting Great Deer City. The issue is that it has been strengthened locally. As a result, the cities nearest us are suffering a beast tide much weaker than the previous times. So from this, we can infer that the general environment of the beast tide itself hasn’t changed, it is simply that more and more demon beasts are gathering towards Great Deer City. In this case, you two should be able to guess what I’m trying to say.”

“City Lord, you’re saying that something has appeared within Great Deer City that has attracted these demon beasts?” Yin Hanxin’s complexion was dignified but his eye glowed with heat.

The destruction of Sable Abyss City had shaken the entire abyss. Although it was rumored that the Demon Dragon Clan had also taken action behind the scenes, the horror of the beast tide still left every demon trembling.

If this was true, then it was likely that Great Deer City would follow in the footsteps of Sable Abyss City!

Old Fox’s heart skipped a beat. He suddenly thought of His Excellency Liu Huo. As a formidable Abyss Walker, it would be normal if he had some treasures with him.

Could he be the reason why the beast tide had strengthened?

Countless thoughts raced through his mind but he maintained his composure. If he wasn’t able to conceal his mood, how could he have survived until today?

City Lord Blackpool said, “There is no evidence to support this so it only remains a suspicion for now. So, after you two return, I hope you can investigate in secret to find out if there are any harvests.

“Of course, this is only one way to combat the beast tide outside. The best method is to slay the demon beast that controls the beast tide.”

Every time a beast tide erupted, a formidable demon beast would arrive and automatically become the commander of the demon beast army. They would command their forces to break through enemy lines.

Of course, this was a conclusion that the demon race had drawn after countless beast tides. In truth, the demon beasts within a beast tide had no rationality to speak of. The stronger a demon beast was, the more difficult it was for them to keep their sanity, let alone in a beast tide condition.

But no matter what the truth was, killing the most formidable demon beast in a beast tide directly weakened the entire assault. After losing the dominance of a powerful demon beast, fissures would appear in the beast tide, providing relief to Great Deer City.

This was a good method. And once it was smoothly implemented, it would definitely work. The problem was who would be sent on this mission.

Countless demon beasts were outside of Great Deer City. They were enough demon beasts that they could push mountains and fill in seas. Leaving the city was easy, but coming back alive was another story altogether.

In other words, this was basically a suicide mission. The people sent out likely wouldn’t return.

Even an idiot knew that if there was a demon beast capable of controlling the endless demon beasts outside of Great Deer City, they had to be terrifyingly strong.

Looking at the scale of the beast tide, they at least had to be at the Demon Commander level…even if demon beasts had lost their intelligence and it was easy to kill them, if someone wanted to damage a Demon Commander level demon beast, they had to be at least at the Demon General level.

And the number of Demon General level cultivators couldn’t be low. There had to be at least ten in order for there to be a possibility of slaying the demon beast.

In the abyss, a Demon General was already a top master. For instance, Black Astral’s subordinates, Blacklight and Firefly, had an extremely high status in the Merry Forest and they were Demon Generals.

Although the Merry Forest had a few more Demon Generals of equal status, even if all of them were added together there would be no more than ten.

With this as an example, if one added up the Demon Generals within the top four factions of Great Deer City, there were around 40 of them. Even if all the hidden masters were also included, 50 was the limit.

To suddenly take out ten Demon Generals and send them on a suicide mission, this would mean the loss of almost a fifth of Great Deer City’s powerhouses.

Moreover, because of the absence of the Merry Forest, only the City Lord Mansion, Thousand Eye Temple, and Three Lives Pavilion would be sharing in this matter.

This was simply an astonishing loss!

A Demon General was not an ordinary low level demon that could die whenever. There were countless demon tribes in the abyss and innumerable demons were born every day.

But a Demon General was only born out of every million demons.

And these people all had their own wills and desires. If they were forced to accept a near-death mission, did anyone think they wouldn’t run away?

Hoho, perhaps any Demon Commander would be happy to accept them.

So this matter was extremely difficult to handle.

City Lord Blackpool took a deep breath and said, “The City Lord Mansion can put forth four Demon Generals. This is my limit, as well as the sincerity I am willing to show.”

Old Fox was silent for a time. He clenched his teeth and said, “Three Demon Generals. My Thousand Eye Temple agrees.”

“Hehe, then you want my Three Lives Pavilion to also put out three Demon Generals.” Although Yin Hanxin was still smiling, his complexion was fierce, “City Lord, if you increase the promised compensation by 30% then I will agree to this matter.”

City Lord Blackpool was without expression, “Fine.”

Yin Hanxin smiled, “Then it’s settled!”

After coming to an agreement, the three great bosses separately left. Even with their statuses, if they wanted to complete this task it would consume a great deal of effort.

Sitting in a carriage, Old Fox’s eyes were half-closed. All sorts of thoughts raced through his mind.

Black Astral had gone into seclusion – he had expected this. Since he wanted Liu Huo’s assistance, he naturally had to restore himself to his peak state.

But Old Fox knew that the chances of this matter succeeding weren’t too high.

Because an Abyss Walker wasn’t invincible. If some things were handled incorrectly, they could even create a backlash.

For instance, what Black Astral was going to request Liu Huo to do.

But what if Black Astral handled an extremely important matter for Liu Huo? For instance, if the strengthened beast tide outside of Great Deer City was related to Liu Huo, this could be a chance.

If Liu Huo could help two low-level demons stimulate their bloodline in such a short period of time, then his strength must be at the apex even amongst all Abyss Walkers. If he agreed to help, success might be possible.

After careful consideration, Old Fox took out a demon crystal card. Blood red lines wove together on the surface of this card; it clearly wasn’t ordinary.

He imprinted some information and crushed the demon crystal card in his hands. The fragments fell through his fingers and started disintegrating in midair, soon vanishing from sight before they landed.

“Old dog, whether or not this matter succeeds depends on your luck…but since I’ve known you, besides what happened in the past, your luck has been good.”

…

Feature had completed the refining of another type of demon medicine. According to her, it was a brand new upgrade with completely different effects. It stimulated a person’s potential, allowing them to erupt with power for a brief period of time.

Its name was the mighty invincibility pill!

Qin Yu’s lips twitched when he heard this name. He really wanted to ask why Feature was so obsessed with the word mighty. Was there some unknown quirk that he wasn’t aware of?

But looking at Feature’s smug expression, he decided to give up on the idea of convincing her that there were better names in this world. He would obviously be wasting his time.

In any case, she had refined these demon medicines, so she could call them whatever she wanted. What was important was that she liked them. Also, he had a more important arrangement to attend to.

“Qin Yu, my mighty invincibility pill isn’t an ordinary demon medicine. It has an extremely strong requirement for the user, otherwise if someone eats it and dies, that’s not my fault.

“And you need to sell it at a good price. The things I put all my painstaking effort into refining cannot be sold for cheap!”

With a mouthful of agreement, Qin Yu opened the door and looked around. As expected, he noticed some suspicious looking people.

But these people were only scattered in the surrounding area and didn’t approach the courtyard. It seemed that they were investigating something. This should be the arrangements of the Merry Forest and Thousand Eye Temple. But it was also good if there were some people here. It would prevent accidents from occurring in his absence.

He looked away and left along the street. Soon, he appeared in a reception room inside Thousand Eye Temple.

Old Fox smiled and said, “Mister Liu Huo, you’ve decided to visit us today. Is there any good news?”

Qin Yu glanced at the fox woman who had put on even more explosively revealing clothes. Then he placed a jar on the table and said, “This is a new type of demon medicine called the mighty invincibility pill. After taking one it will stimulate a person’s potential and cause them to erupt with great strength for a short period of time.”

Old Fox’s lips twitched. He thought that this old brother who was so old that he wanted to die had likely become abnormal already. His naming sense was so…grounded.

First it was the mighty heaven ascending pill and now it was the mighty invincibility pill…however, names didn’t mean anything. As long as the medicinal efficacy was good, that was all that mattered.

He received the jar in both hands. After opening it and glancing at the contents, he bowed and put it away.

As he thought, he couldn’t see a problem at all. It was just like ordinary potential-stimulating medicines – the surface characteristics were all the same.

As the steward of Thousand Eye Temple, his eyesight was at the peak. This was decided by the management of Thousand Eye Temple. Yet, even he was confused. It seemed that he had wrongly accused those demon medicine appraisers from before.

But thinking about it, this was also right. How could the demon medicines refined by an Abyss Walker be seen through by others?