Refining the Mountains and Rivers

There were many demons outside of Nine Nether Pagoda. Some of them carried a large amount of demon crystals. They wanted to borrow the soul tempering power here to increase their strength.

Others purely wished to look at this illustrious cultivating holy land that occupied the hearts of so many demons.

Mixed in with the crowd of demons, Qin Yu only managed to squeeze his way into the first floor after a long time. When he asked about the price, he discovered that it really wasn’t ordinary.

Normal demons wouldn’t come here. Only reborn young masters or those with unimaginable degrees of wealth would have the confidence to come here and cultivate.

Otherwise, even Demon Generals wouldn’t be able to help but widen their eyes and curse out loud. They would think that the Nightmare Clan were bastards with black consciences who only wanted to make money.

Others might try to bleed them out, but this was simply shearing off their meat!

Qin Yu calculated for a while. If a Demon General didn’t hesitate to use up all their money, they could last at most a month here before running out of resources.

Moreover, that was in a situation where they stayed in the top few levels and didn’t go too far down.

It was no wonder that even the Nightmare Clan had utilized their ancestral land to earn demon crystals…the income from this business was truly amazing!

But fortunately, thanks to Feature’s blessing, Qin Yu had freely obtained two powerful old demons in Old Fox and Black Astral.

And what was even more wonderful was that they were worth a great deal of money. It was hard to say exactly how much, but in Qin Yu’s mind it wouldn’t be difficult for them to come up with a billion demon crystals.

So while Nine Nether Pagoda’s expenses were high, it wasn’t enough to scare Qin Yu off.

But no one’s demon crystals came randomly blowing in from nowhere. And he had no idea how long he would be staying in the abyss for.

Saving as much as he could wasn’t wrong.

Besides, no matter how effective Nine Nether Pagoda was said to be, he would only truly know by personally testing it out.

Qin Yu smiled and said, “Could I bother you with opening up a room for me on Nine Nether Pagoda’s first floor?”

After a long period of public operations, the Nightmare Clan had set up countless tricks and routines within Nine Nether Pagoda.

For instance, as long as he opened a room…well, he would just call it that for now, as an easier way to remember.

But as long as he opened up a room, no matter how long he stayed in it, no matter how long he was able to last, he still had to pay a lump sum amount of demon crystals for the entire day.

The demon behind the counter was a cute girl with large eyes. Yes, that was correct. Her eyes were really large and she looked cute and lovable. She smiled sweetly at Qin Yu and said, “Dear guest, do you only wish to open up a room? Our Nine Nether Pagoda can provide a series of service packages. For instance, there are a variety of refreshments and meals, drink sets, or we can even have someone accompany you to cultivate together. The specific prices are listed here. As long as you need it, you can freely ask for it. We will try our best to accommodate you.”

Qin Yu glanced over. Using some unknown means, x-rated images began to appear on a refined crystal screen. He glanced at it once, twice, and then a third time. He couldn’t help but sigh with emotion. Since when did the dignified and noble Nightmare Clan, known as one of the top ten royal families of the abyss, become so versatile, stopping at nothing to earn demon crystals?

Snacks and drinks were one thing, but what was with having demon women cultivate with him? And they all wore skimpy clothes that were almost no different from being naked.

Tsk tsk, too revealing, this was too revealing!

But as Qin Yu took a few more glances at the screen, seven or eight demons had already chosen their packages and were being walked into the depths of Nine Nether Pagoda, each of them with a demon woman in their arms.

Uh…it seemed that reality was different from his thoughts. This sort of package service seemed to be very popular…

Qin Yu coughed, “I just need a room.”

The cute demon girl behind the counter nodded. “Very well. Dear guest, please pay the demon crystals…in addition, I would like to remind you that if you need anything midway, you can always contact us through the internal communication device…”

For some reason, Qin Yu felt that there was some hidden meaning behind this cute demon girl’s words. If he needed something midway…? Could it be that he would become hungry and thirsty during the cultivation process?

Qin Yu wondered this but he didn’t say much else. After paying demon crystals he received a door card. Then, he followed directions to enter the true Nine Nether Pagoda.

When he took a step in, he felt an invisible oppression flood the air.

It wasn’t strong and only vaguely existed. Yet it was like a thick cotton cloth that covered the mouth and nose, making it a bit more difficult to breathe.

Qin Yu’s eyebrows rose before he composed himself. For this to be called soul tempering power by the abyssal demons, the Nightmare Clan’s ancestral land was really something.

Although he saw many demons being led into rooms by various women, as he walked through the corridors he didn’t hear anything at all. It was clear that the Nightmare Clan’s conscience hadn’t completely broken down. At least they had put in due diligence in terms of sound insulation.

It was unknown how many years ago Nine Nether Pagoda had been built, but the materials were large pieces of blue and black stone. The textures were extremely rough and they had clearly been artificially excavated.

Aside from that, nothing else was strange. But for some unknown reason, when Qin Yu looked at these stones he felt an unknown dignity.

That’s right, it was a feeling that made his heart chill and awe to subconsciously rise in his mind.

However…even if material existed for countless years and was used to construct Nine Nether Pagoda, it still shouldn’t have this sort of attribute, right? With Qin Yu’s current strength, even if he didn’t summon the titan true body, he was still strong enough to crush ordinary Demon Commanders.

If something could make him feel awe at just a glance, it had to be at least at the Abyssal Demon King level. Could these stones that Nine Nether Pagoda was built from, to a degree, have attributes of an Abyssal Demon King?

This was clearly impossible!

As thoughts raced through Qin Yu’s mind he didn’t reveal anything on the surface. He soon found a door corresponding to his room card.

Here, he once again had to praise the Nightmare Clan’s ability to accumulate money. All throughout Nine Nether Pagoda, besides the ninth floor that wasn’t open to the outside world, every other floor was divided into numerous rooms that were rented out.

He opened the door and glanced around. The area wasn’t large and the furnishings were simple. Besides a round cushion woven from some unknown material, there was a large bed.

The bed was indeed large. It was enough for five or six people to rest on and it occupied half the room. In contrast to the crude decorations of the room, the large bed was comfortable and luxurious.

The white sheets, the soft and fluffy pillows, just one glance made one want to lie down and rest.

Qin Yu had a strange expression. He thought that this Nine Nether Pagoda was truly interesting. But then again, when he thought about the demon women who accompanied the demons to cultivate here…perhaps it was normal for them to arrange such a comfortable bed.

After pressing down these random thoughts, Qin Yu closed the door. He swept his divine sense out, carefully searching the room several times.

It was good that he didn’t find anything wrong. With his soul force and this being the first floor of Nine Nether Pagoda, since he didn’t sense any problems here then it should be fine.

He approached the wall. Then, he took a deep breath and placed a hand on it. Soon, he furrowed his eyebrows together.

Before, just by looking at the stones he had felt something like ‘dignity’. But now that he touched it, he didn’t sense anything at all.

Even that ‘dignified’ feeling had vanished.

How strange!

Qin Yu tried several more times but didn’t discover anything in the end. He withdrew his hand, a thoughtful look on his face.

A thought tumbled around in his heart. Perhaps the stones he saw weren’t as simple as they seemed.

But how weren’t they simple? He had no clue at all.

Moreover, taking a step back, if the Nightmare Clan was willing to place the Nine Nether Pagoda here, something that connected to their ancestral land, and even use this place to blatantly earn massive amounts of demon crystals, then it was obvious they weren’t afraid of any accidents occurring.

In other words, it was normal for Nine Nether Pagoda to be strange. If they put it out here without some sort of cover up, that would really be idiotic.

Qin Yu shook his head. He looked at another stone in front of him and put away his thoughts for the time being. For now, he would try the so-called soul tempering power and see if it was useful. Maybe he could earn some harvests here.

He walked over the round cushion and glanced down. It was woven from some kind of vine and was black and mottled in color.

Without hesitation, he sat down. Then, his complexion changed as he truly felt the existence of the soul tempering power.

That’s right, these round cushions were the true medium used to connect to the soul tempering power. Only by sitting on them could one truly feel it.

Of course, this was only the first level. According to what he knew, the lower one went in Nine Nether Pagoda, the larger the mediums were for the soul tempering power, and the greater the strength would be.

Qin Yu wasn’t in the mood to consider such things right now. He frowned a little, carefully sensing the fluctuations of soul tempering power…how should he describe it? In his senses, this force was almost like a ‘flame’. It directly penetrated through the barriers of his mortal body and enveloped his soul.

Like the crimson flames of a furnace, it slowly roiled and burned, able to refine out impurities and strengthen the soul, increasing its quality.

Of course, this was just an analogy that wasn’t perfectly accurate but was easy to understand.

Because besides eliminating impurities, the soul tempering power could slowly increase the strength of the soul as it was in a suppressed state.

Slow wasn’t enough to describe how ‘slow’ this was. Whether it was eliminating impurities or strengthening the soul, this sort of function was barely perceptible and its tangible effects were nearly negligible.

Qin Yu didn’t know about others, but with his current soul force, he would need to stay on the first floor of Nine Nether Pagoda for at least three years before he would feel a clear increase in his strength.

This didn’t mean that it wasn’t worth it to use up three years to strengthen his soul. With Qin Yu’s soul level, it was already astonishing if he could strengthen his soul with just three years of time.

If the Nine Nether Pagoda was placed in the living world, just the first floor alone would be enough to cause countless cultivators to fight over it until they were bloodied.

But this was the abyss. And with the soul attributes of the demons, they weren’t able to withstand a baptism of the soul tempering power for a long time.

Even if they could endure it, what about the expenses? The amounts that Nine Nether Pagoda charged were high to the point of frightening others.

And this ‘frightening amount’ was just for one day. If one were to extend this to three years or even longer…

Even if the Nightmare Clan knew how to work things and gave some customers a large discount, this still wasn’t a price that everyone could afford.

At the very least, even if Qin Yu knew that he could use up all of Old Fox and Black Astral’s demon crystals, he still couldn’t accept this!

It wasn’t that his heart pained, but it just wasn’t enough!