Refining the Mountains and Rivers

At this time, Qin Yu naturally didn’t know what sort of commotion was caused by his act of forcing away the monster beasts. Black Beibei had misunderstood him, and then he had incorrectly spoken of it to Ming Siyuan, who then came up with a completely exaggerated and misinterpreted judgment of the situation.

Right now, he was sitting in a cabin he had casually chosen, calmly feeling the ferocious aura all around him.

With the little blue lamp in hand, there was nothing Qin Yu needed to fear when it came to refining pills. But, the key point was that he needed to at least be able to refine the pill to begin with, otherwise no matter how heaven-defying the little blue lamp was, it wouldn’t be able to start anywhere.

The ferocious killing aura outside would indeed have a considerable influence on an alchemist. The only reason Qin Yu participated in this competition was for the treasure furnace’s remnant spirit that the Fleeing Flame Furnace felt an incomparable desire towards. In other words, unless he managed to take first place, all of his efforts would have been for nothing. In the Land of Divinity and Demons, there were as many talented geniuses as there were stars in the skies, so he didn’t dare to underestimate them in the least.

The night passed without problem. A bell sounded out the next morning and Qin Yu opened his eyes, a sharp light passing through them. To be able to completely ignore the ferocious aura all around after a single day was impossible, but he was able to adapt to a large degree, minimizing the effects it would have when he was refining pills.

He stood up, washed his face and hair and then stepped out, welcoming the warm rays of sunlight. He let out a light breath; the competition was about to start.

The Southshine Nation officials were very simple with how they handled things; they immediately announced the first step of the competition: choosing a pill furnace.

Everyone knew how important a pill furnace was to an alchemist. Whether it was high-grade or low-grade, a pull furnace was important in successfully refining a pill as well as determining its quality.

The Southshine Nation’s actions received the broad support of the majority of young alchemists. After all, everyone was different and had different backgrounds. If someone with a rich and powerful background directly brought forth a treasure furnace, then even if their skills were average at best, there still existed the chance that they could fight their way to the finals and even become the champion. If so, then this competition would lose all meaning.

Qin Yu followed the crowd and arrived at a black iron pagoda. The pagoda had nine levels and was 100 feet tall. The surface seemed rusted and it emitted a scent as if it had seen many years.

A Southshine Nation official emerged. “Fellow participants, although it is possible that everyone knows the rules already, in order to ensure fairness, I will need to take up a bit of your time.” He turned and pointed, “This pagoda is called the Pill Furnace Pagoda. There are 10,000 pill furnaces within, of which 100 are of complete quality, 1000 are of slightly inferior quality, 2000 are of second-rate quality, and the rest are lower quality. The quality of a pill furnace cannot be determined; it will depend on your luck. Of course, I must remind everyone that the higher you go in the Pill Furnace Pagoda, the greater the chances that a higher quality pill furnace will appear. When the wind chimes sound out, you can use your divine sense to enter and choose a pill furnace.”

Numerous people in the crowd revealed dignified expressions. After all, the quality of a pill furnace would greatly affect the outcome of the competition. Of course, it wasn’t that there weren’t people that were unhappy about this, but to a cultivator, luck in itself was extremely important. Even if they chose a poor pill furnace, that was simply one’s fate and they couldn’t complain to anyone about it.

Ding ding ding –

Atop the rusted iron pagoda, the sound of wind chimes suddenly rang out. When the sound entered the ears, it wasn’t pleasant at all. Rather, it was like stone and metal grinding against each other. Many cultivators immediately paled, feeling as if they had been smashed over the head with a large club. Their field of vision flashed black and the divine sense they gathered suddenly stalled.

Qin Yu frowned. In a brief moment, his divine sense broke free from his body and soared into the Pill Furnace Pagoda. Those people that were able to accomplish this first were all participants with outstanding degrees of cultivation. But as their divine sense penetrated deeper and deeper into the pagoda, the sound of the wind chimes became increasingly loud and deafening, like sharp needles stabbing into the mind.

“Ahh!”

“Save me! Save me!”

“My head hurts!”

“I’m going to die, I’m going to die!”

Outside the Pill Furnace Pagoda, around 20% of the participants fell to the ground, their faces twisted in pain as they rolled back and forth, clutching their heads. Among the remaining cultivators, many had faces that were pale white. They clenched their teeth and stubbornly held on, barely managed to stabilize themselves.

In the distance, atop a wooden pagoda, Yun Yilan took a sip of tea. The sounds of pained cries carried here on the winds didn’t change his expression at all.

“Exalted One, are our actions a bit too excessive? After all, most of them are juniors at the Golden Core and Nascent Soul realm. How can they withstand the might pagoda’s bell that hasn’t had any seals placed on it?” An official asked after hesitating.

Yun Yilan put down his teacup and lightly said, “I don’t want to have to pay attention to the matters between the Great Desolate Lake and Cleansing Temple. But, I can’t allow the competition to lose its dignity just because of them. With so many people here, a portion of them have to be discarded, otherwise the competition will proceed far too slowly.”

“This…”

“Don’t worry. I’ve placed a mark of my prestige within the pagoda’s spirit. Once a cultivator surpasses their limits, they will directly faint and it won’t cause any damage to their cultivation…as for the pain they suffer, consider it a small punishment for taking advantage of loopholes to participate in the competition.”

Qin Yu had a dignified complexion. Although he didn’t know that this was all Yun Yilan’s arrangements, it wasn’t hard for him to guess what the Southshine Nation was thinking. This was to serve as an extension of the unfinished screening process of the wilderness trial. The poor participants had managed to mix their way into the pool of genuine cultivators, so in order to ensure that the competition proceeded smoothly, all those people needed to be removed.

While there wasn’t anything wrong with this…when he swept his eyes around and saw people strewn across the ground, screaming in pain, he couldn’t help but think this was a bit too extreme. Of course, even though he thought this, he had no intention of arguing against it. He invested all of his strength into galvanizing his divine sense, constantly breaking into higher levels of the pagoda.

This rusted iron Pill Furnace Pagoda had an ordinary appearance and its name was very basic and vulgar. But, it was actually an extraordinary treasure, and Qin Yu could even say that it was the most mysterious treasure he had encountered in his life. When his divine sense entered, a thin layer of something wrapped around him. This thin layer isolated out the ‘sensory’ nature of his divine sense, but still allowed him to retain his most basic feelings. Thus, he could choose a pill furnace to bring out, but he didn’t know whether it was beautiful or whether its face was filled with pock marks.

Moreover, within the Pill Furnace Pagoda, an invisible energy divided every level. There was no shortcut to take – if one wished to go up, they could only push their way through. This energy was icy cold. When one’s divine sense collided with it, it was like leaping into a frozen lotus pond in the middle of a winter night.

There wasn’t much to say about the feeling.

And the further one went, as the level increased, the coldness of the invisible energy became increasingly strong. On the eighth level, even Qin Yu found it hard to keep up.

This invisible energy was like a water surface. Whenever someone tried to break their way through, it would create ripples that could be sensed by other cultivators. When he tried to push through, he unexpectedly felt three other divine senses already entering the ninth level. Qin Yu sighed inwardly over this, surprised. This was truly the Land of Divinity and Demons; the geniuses here were countless.

Immediately, a heroic and daring feeling rose in Qin Yu’s heart and his eyes erupted with a dazzling divine light. So what if there were numerous geniuses in the Land of Divinity and Demons? At this point in time, he wasn’t necessarily inferior to any of them.

Bang –

His divine sense pushed forth with all his strength, causing the invisible energy to violently shake. Several people who were caught along with Qin Yu and were trying to figure out how to break through were suddenly startled and angered.

In the next moment at the base of the Pill Furnace Pagoda, several cultivators spat out mouthfuls of blood and woke up. They quivered with rage.

“Bastard! Who decided to play tricks on the eighth level and ruin my plans!?”

“The competition hasn’t started yet and I’ve already fallen behind. I don’t know which fellow daoist decided to send such a great gift, but I will surely return it back double!”

“You wounded me and forced me to choose a medium-grade pill furnace. You had best not let me find out who you are!”

“At least you still have a medium-grade pill furnace. I was forced to quickly choose and had to select a low-grade furnace! Bastard, I’ll kill you!”

The roars spread out like thunder. Many cultivators looked at them with pity, but also snorted derisively at their angry shouts. If there was someone that could strike the invisible energy once and cause shockwaves that pushed all these people aside, that person’s divine sense must be extraordinarily strong. It was common knowledge that the divine sense originated from the soul, and only when the soul reached the Divine Soul realm could it truly start being tempered. Thus, the training speed of one’s soul couldn’t compare with the rise in one’s magic power by far.

If one’s divine sense was stronger, then their magic power was definitely stronger too. This was a fact. Of course, there were some exceptions that existed. For instance, if one ate some sort of heavenly material causing their soul force to drastically rise…Qin Yu was sure that he was such an exception, so he chose to ignore all those angry shouts.

Cough cough…could he really have done something that caused discontent amongst all these people?

I shouldn’t have. I just wanted to break into the ninth level.

Qin Yu felt helpless about the situation. Luckily, in the next moment there was a light popping sound and his divine sense immediately entered a broad space. He was now too busy to think of anything else. His divine sense perceived the surroundings; this must be the Pill Furnace Tower’s ninth level.

The inside of a magic tool could actually emit a vast and limitless feeling.

Before he could marvel too much, there was a loud rumbling sound. It started from afar but approached at an astonishing speed. Qin Yu’s divine sense took human form. He frowned and looked towards the source of the sound. Several breaths later, his pupils shrank…that was one incomparably massive pill furnace!

That’s right, it was a pill furnace. But at this time, it seemed more like a raging bull, viciously rushing towards him. Although it was still some distance away, Qin Yu was extremely clear on what sort of dreadful strength this pill furnace brought with it.

Although he had broken into the ninth floor in order to take a pill furnace, and this wild bull pill furnace was clearly unordinary, he had no intentions of trying to seize it. What nonsense, with that speed and sound, he feared his divine sense would be crushed to pieces before he could grab it!

Shua –

Qin Yu’s divine sense form suddenly dodged to the side, watching as the wild bull pill furnace rumbled past him, roaring into the distance. He thought that he absolutely couldn’t provoke this pill furnace. He watched it hurtle away, a reluctant feeling in his heart.

If one wasn’t blind, they could tell that this pill furnace was absolutely fierce!

As if able to sense Qin Yu’s reluctance, that howling pill furnace suddenly came to a stop.

Qin Yu’s heartbeat began to quicken. He didn’t know why, but a foreboding premonition suddenly rose within him.

In the next moment, this premonition turned into reality.

Rumble rumble –

That wild bull pill furnace came roaring forwards once again. But this time it had changed direction…it raced straight at Qin Yu!