Refining the Mountains and Rivers

After a while, Hundred Saint stood up and looked in another direction, his eyes full of respect and admiration.

Half-Kings were the cornerstones of the nation, and no matter who people were loyal to, they still treated these Half-Kings with the utmost respect.

Hundred Saint turned and looked at Qin Yu. He looked slightly shocked, feeling that his earlier decision to curry favor with Qin Yu was a correct one.

“Darkness Ruler, Lord Di Shitian has already left; you can get up now.” Hundred Saint was shocked because people who could recover quickly and make a decent response after being probed by a Half-King were definitely amazing.

Qin Yu shivered for a second, as if his whole body was numb after standing for a long time. He stood up little by little, his face extremely pale. The corners of his mouth twitched, revealing a reluctant smile and he said, “Excuse my poor mannerisms.”

Hundred Saint shook his head and said seriously, “No, on the contrary, I admire Darkness Ruler very much. I am not being sarcastic, you are truly worthy of my respect.”

Qin Yu looked at his expression and laughed bitterly, “Perhaps, but this feeling…it’s bad, it makes me feel like the cultivation that I’ve been doing my entire life has not been useful at all.”

Hundred Saint looked empathetically at him and nodded, “It does feel that way…” It was as if he had undergone such an experience before and he comforted Qin Yu again, “Looking at the vast and infinite territory of the West Desolate, there are only seven Half-Kings in existence. In fact, with your current cultivation, you are also a powerhouse in the Desolate Area. You are too modest.”

After a slight pause and a little hesitation in his heart, Hundred Saint then said in a low voice, “The details are still uncertain at this time, but as long as Darkness Ruler does this task well, you will definitely have a good future.”

Qin Yu took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled, “I hope so.” He was shocked because of the terrifying power of a Half-King, but more importantly, he thought of the future where people were bound to come and take their revenge on him.

To Qin Yu, there seemed to be no difference between these two reasons, but the difference still did exist, and it was a shocking one.

Therefore, Qin Yu felt like he was carrying a huge burden on his shoulders and even the air that he breathed through his nose seemed sour.

Hundred Saint smiled slightly, “Let’s go.”

Qin Yu was still alive, which meant he had passed that Half-King’s test. As for the shock that he endured in his heart, naturally it could not be healed with a few words. It would take time to slowly heal.

Whoosh –

Hundred Saint led the way as both of them flew out of the Connecting Passage and into the distance.

……

Vast Brightness.

Back to the time when Qin Yu stepped into the Connecting Passage and was wrapped by the Half-King’s aura before being pulled into the West Desolate.

In a pitch-black void, ‘Old Turtle’ furrowed his eyebrows and looked towards the World of Darkness.

He could sense Qin Yu’s aura disappearing suddenly. Not that it had died or was destroyed, but blatantly isolated by a powerful force.

To be able to isolate Qin Yu’s imprint, that could only be…‘Old Turtle’ raised his head to look at the endless darkness above, and his eyes turned cold and gloomy.

Qin Yu was his chess piece and was a key part of his plan, yet, he had entered that world today.

If he was used by other people, not only would his entire plan fall short, it would be even more likely that they would take advantage of the situation.

Hesitation flashed in his eyes before ‘Old Turtle’ suddenly raised his hand and pointed between his eyebrows.

Pa –

It was as if a bubble had burst, but in the quietness of the abyss, it was extremely loud.

‘Old Turtle’s’ face was pale, but his expression was extremely calm. He would rather give up all of his previous arrangements than take the slightest risk.

It was just that, since Qin Yu was not part of his plan anymore, his whole plan would need to change.

After pondering for a moment, ‘Old Turtle’ took a step forward. His figure suddenly disappeared and then reappeared. After a few short steps, he saw an incomparably huge Void Creature.

The massive tentacles that were silently swimming in the endless darkness seemed to sense ‘Old Turtle’s’ terrifying aura, and instantly propelled itself forward, trying to escape.

Its reaction was very fast, but not fast enough for ‘Old Turtle’.

Whoosh –

His silhouette disappeared from where he was standing, as if he had never been there.

Not far away, the Void Creature, which was in a hurry to escape, suddenly trembled before it went completely silent.

It retracted its tentacles and like a piece of driftwood in the dark ocean, it moved slowly along an invisible wave.

……

Pa –

Qin Yu clearly heard the soft sound that emanated from the depths of his body, and his face changed slightly under the black robes, revealing a gloomy expression.

After gathering his senses, he frowned and his face softened, but then his eyes showed confusion.

The connection between him and Old Turtle had just been broken along with that soft sound that rang out just now. There was not a trace left…it seemed that the shadow of the abyss had already noticed that Qin Yu had entered the Desolate Area.

To be cautious, he disconnected any remnant imprints.

Strictly speaking, this should be a good thing. After all, the intentions of the shadow of the abyss were unknown, but there was a high probability that he was malicious. After he was completely awakened, he would no longer be that Old Turtle, but a being that disguised himself as the will of the Abyss.

What exactly was he trying to do? A shadow of the Abyss’ will in the Vast Brightness, there might be big problems in the future!

The gears in Qin Yu’s head turned quickly. Very soon, he smiled bitterly. He could not even take care of himself now; how could he still have the energy to care about anything else? Taking a deep breath, he decided to find a way to deal with it only if he could successfully return to the Vast Brightness.

At this moment, Hundred Saint said, “Darkness Ruler, we are here.”

He did not mean that they had reached their destination, because the West Desolate was vast, much more so than the Vast Brightness World.

Even True Saints found it difficult to traverse the entire West Desolate. Therefore, a large number of Space Portals were built between many cities. Only in this way could the rulers govern such a vast nation…the portals were divided into different levels, and the cities that had different sizes also had varying mechanisms to match these portals.

Of course, Qin Yu was not a prophet – all this information was revealed through casual conversations with the friendly Hundred Saint.

He believed that Qin Yu would understand his kind intentions, but in reality, Qin Yu could only say an apology in his heart. Qin Yu was a counterfeit, and he did not know when something would happen to him, so he did not think that befriending Hundred Saint was the right choice.

It was just like what he had thought about earlier. He would not remind Hundred Saint not to get close to him – after all, everyone in the world had to pay for the choices that they made. Even if something happened in the future and Hundred Saint was implicated, it could only boil down to bad luck.

Cough cough, who told Hundred Saint to try and curry favor with Qin Yu? Qin Yu never thought of hurting him!

No portals were built in a large area surrounding a city to avoid any accidents. Qin Yu followed Hundred Saint and flew for quite a long while before they reached this city.

Even though the scale of this city was very amazing from Qin Yu’s point of view, in Hundred Saint’s eyes, it was just a small fifth-tier city. Its only function was to provide a portal to other cities.

It was not fully explained before that there were also huge gaps in the use of different levels of portals. Stepping into a portal did not guarantee that one could enter the transport network and successfully reach one’s destination.

To prevent accidents or for convenience to deal with unexpected problems, low-level portals could only transport one to a higher-level city, unless there was a special case.

Hundred Saint called this city a small one, but Qin Yu’s heart was already moved. In this city, he could feel the aura of Saints. Even though they were just Half-Saints, one must know that any random fifth-tier city that one picked actually had Saints in them!

On the other hand, in the Vast Brightness, a Half-Saint was qualified enough to start a sect such as the Transcendent Sword Sect. They could even occupy a small world.

Indeed, the Desolate Area’s power and their cultivators’ strength were on a much higher level than the Vast Brightness’.

Other than this, Qin Yu discovered something else that made him extremely shocked. In this small city, was were actually a large number of normal people.

Of course, they were slightly stronger than normal people. Their life energies were also more exuberant, but compared to the power possessed by cultivators, they could only be categorized as ‘normal people’.

Although these normal people lived a difficult life since most of them were engaged in hard labor, many of them were doing pretty well, and this was just a small city with Half-Saints!

In the Vast Brightness World, this would be an unimaginable thing.

“Let’s go. This is just a small city, there is no need to pause here.” Hundred Saint led Qin Yu as they flew into the city and landed near the Space Portal.

Without saying a word, both of them obviously gave off an extremely strong aura. Everyone’s faces changed greatly, showing expressions of awe.

However, there was no panic at all. It was probably because this city was near the fragmented area Connecting Passage, so they were used to seeing high-level cultivators coming in and out.

“Greetings to the two of you, please show us your identification.”

This was the regulation of using the portal. Hundred Saint was not ostentatious as he took out his token. The guards’ faces instantly changed and they got onto their knees as their bodies started to tremble.

Qin Yu was slightly startled and glanced sideways at Hundred Saint. It was obvious that in the Desolate Area, True Saints were nothing to be this afraid of. It seemed that this person’s identity was unusual.

Since Hundred Saint wanted to forge a friendship with Qin Yu, he would have to first show what he had to offer. He was not that impressive in terms of cultivation, but his status was enough to make up for this.

Therefore, being aware of the change in Qin Yu’s eyes, Hundred Saint smiled and stretched out his arm. “Darkness Ruler, this way!”

Without saying much, his silence itself represented his strong confidence.