Refining the Mountains and Rivers

If the three of them were still within the scope of Bronze Bell Ancient City and the obliteration of the Infinite Realm’s rules, all that awaited them would have been death.

“It…it…died…” Xie Yu finally said, her eyes full of fear.

The purple-gold crowned youth had a solemn expression. He took a deep breath and cupped his hands together, “My name is Qin Hanshi. If there was any misunderstanding before this, I hope that fellow daoist doesn’t blame us.”

With the strength of that evil spirit, it was naturally impossible for Qin Yu to have been here for what they searched for.

Qin Yu shook his head. “In that sort of situation, for fellow daoist Qin to not attack me, that is already beyond my expectations. He paused for a moment and then said, “I am Qin Yu.”

Qin Hanshi…Qin Yu…

The two fellow daoist Qins glanced at one another, each with a slightly absent-minded expression. They both felt that the other person was familiar.

Suddenly, loud cracking sounds rang out from the black sphere. The arcs of thunder weaving across its surface began to rapidly collapse and dissipate.

“This is bad!”

“Run quickly!”

But it was already too late. A strange fluctuation descended from the nothingness and space seemed to freeze. Even the branches of ancient trees swaying in the wind were frozen.

Qin Yu, Qin Hanshi, and Xie Yu were all stuck in poses of running away. Yet, none of them could move at all.

Strings of scorched hair drilled out from the cracked black sphere. Then, like two hands ripping out from the inside, the ugly head thrust its way out with difficulty. It had already shrunk by more than half and large bald patches were visible all throughout its hair. The stitches on its face had gashes running haphazardly through them. Deep wounds marred it and rotten flesh and blood constantly dripped down.

A mass of wrapped hair fiercely tossed something out that fell onto the ground with a loud bang. It was unexpectedly a dead withered scholartree. There was a faintly pained face etched on the surface of the scholartree – it was that Granny Scholartree.

She was originally not a human but the spirit of an ancient scholartree that had developed consciousness. Now, all of its essence energy had been swallowed up by the evil spirit. If it weren’t for that, this ugly head wouldn’t have been able to survive the erasure of the Infinite Realm’s rules.

“All of you must die…” A deep roar filled with hatred caused one’s soul to tremble.

Qin Hanshi had a bitter expression. But if it weren’t for Granny Scholartree they wouldn’t have lived for this long to begin with. He looked at the massive amount of scorched hair and then revealed a decisive expression.

Bang –

Rich purple light erupted from his body, shattering the suppressive world prestige around him. Qin Hanshi lifted the sword in his hand, purple flames blazing in his eyes.

“Die!”

Shua –

The sword slashed out. Purple sword light swept out like a tide, tearing apart everything. There was a loud rumbling sound like raging rivers and streams.

Qin Hanshi cultivated the Purple World Myriad Sword Dao. Normally when he trained, he would practice one strike every day. Using the power of the rules, he would mark a sword shadow and condense it into his sword heart. Although this was only a sword shadow, it contained all of his sword intent. As there were more and more sword shadows, his sword heart would gradually solidify and became more powerful, finally undergoing a transformation.

This was Qin Hanshi’s path of ascension. At this moment he released all of the sword shadows within his sword heart and erupted with an incomparably terrifying killing intent. But at the same time, this was also his final trump card. In the future he would have to spend many years to condense more sword shadows.

Although he had to pay a severe price, none of this was worth mentioning in the face of life or death. As long as he didn’t die here, everyone he lost could be retrieved.

Qin Yu’s eyes brightened with acclaim. He had already decided to go all-out but he never imagined that Qin Hanshi would possess such a powerful card in his hand. This rapidly flowing purple river was condensed from pure sword intent and possessed a horrifying killing strength. Although it was inferior to the might of a Revered Blue Sea powerhouse, it was almost the same.

The ugly head screeched in rage and anger. The hair it sent out suddenly drew backwards, wrapped around it in layers. In the next moment, the raging flow of purple light crashed down with majestic might, thoroughly submerging it.

Qin Hanshi’s face was deathly pale and his body shivered. He held himself up with pure willpower; this was the only reason he hadn’t fallen to the ground. He fixed his eyes tightly on what was happening in front of him. If this sword strike couldn’t kill the evil spirit then all of them would die here.

The purple light gradually dissipated to reveal an incomparably ugly and battered head. Its patchy hair was now almost completely gone. The rampaging sword intent had left behind countless wounds on its face and it seemed as if it would shatter in the next moment.

But it was still alive. It opened its warm and gentle eyes, inexhaustible hatred appeared within them. The temperature all around them began to drastically fall. Traces of ice cold aura began invading their bodies.

This was the strength of the killing curse!

It had already given up on swallowing these three hateful small insects. Rather, it wanted them to experience the greatest degree of pain before their souls scattered into the wind.

Xie Yu was the weakest. Right now, black runes appeared on her face and her expression was distorted with pain and despair. Still, she couldn’t move or make a single sound.

Qin Hanshi closed his eyes. Although he was unwilling in his heart, this was the way the world was. No one had a chance to remake their decision. Since he had chosen to come here, death was his outcome; there was no one he could blame.

But as he was waiting for death, he felt a shocking aura erupt to his side. His eyes popped open and he watched as Qin Yu stepped forward.

Kacha –

Kacha –

The energy that imprisoned him was forcefully torn apart. With his second step, his aura rose again. With his third step, his aura reached an inconceivable state.

The void began to shiver. An invisible strength spread outwards, breaking apart the frozen space. Then, cracks started to appear in space and recklessly spread outwards like tentacles, grinding apart everything within range.

Qin Hanshi was astounded. He never imagined that Qin Yu would be hiding a strength even more terrifying than his own. Luckily, his reactions were quick. Before the shockwaves of strength affected him, he grabbed onto the screaming Xie Yu and threw themselves backwards far away.

Qin Yu could feel an unprecedented level of strength raging through his body. It felt as if he could stomp upon the entirety of the heavens and earth.

The power of the burning heavens. Burn blood, burn magic power, burn life. Right now, all three strengths completely erupted, but the pain he imagined didn’t appear. Instead, his consciousness reached an unparalleled state of serenity.

Qin Yu could clearly feel the blood that was boiling and burning within his veins. It burned so hot and violently that it surpassed the limits of his mortal body and constantly damaged his insides. Within his dantian sea, the Five Element Nascent Souls began to ignite with five-colored flames. Although there were expressions of joy on their faces, their eyes revealed a pained struggle.

And, the most mysterious part was that for the first time, Qin Yu clearly felt his own life. It was invisible and intangible, yet it was fused into his flesh, blood, and soul, pervading every part of his body. At this time, faint wisps of white gas constantly faded away and he could feel his life shrinking at a horrifying pace.

But at this time, Qin Yu didn’t feel any fear at all. He was only calmly calculating how long he could maintain the power of the burning heavens for in his current state.

He soon calculated the result: ten breaths of time.

He could last at most ten breaths of time. That was fighting to the degree where his Demon Body collapsed, his Nascent Souls dissipated, and his life thoroughly depleted itself.

If he didn’t want to cause too much damage to himself, he had at most two breaths of time.

Bang –

All of these thoughts seemed as if they took a long time, but in truth they were all finished by the time Qin Yu took his third step. As he did, his entire body accelerated forwards and he smashed into the ugly head like a meteor.

Five-colored sword lights blazed into existence, all of it submerging into the ugly head. A breath of time had passed and a thought suddenly rose in Qin Yu’s mind. With the Five Element Sword technique alone, he could not kill the evil spirit. He lifted a hand and thrust out a finger, striking the ugly head between the eyebrows like a bolt of lightning. Then, a black light flashed.

Two breaths of time.

Qin Yu’s terrifying aura rapidly retreated like a falling tide. His body wavered in the air and his sunken eyes became full of weariness. He could no longer maintain his black hair and all of it instantly turned ash gray.

Before returning to the Beast Hunting Pavilion, in order to avoid being noticed, Qin Yu had stimulated his vitality to turn his ash gray hair black once more. But now that he lost his lifespan yet again, it was difficult to continue hiding it.

The ugly head’s wide eyes were filled with cruel raging intent. Its scorched black hair scurried towards Qin Yu, but before it could touch him, all of it fell to the ground.

“No!”

With a deep roar of unwillingness, its stitched face suddenly split open. This wasn’t a single wound, but something that came from deep within. A man’s head flew out from the crack. The head seemed extremely young and beautiful and there was a bright red spot between its eyebrows.

But just as it flew out, this beautiful head revealed a look of great panic and horror. The bright red spot between its eyebrows quickly dimmed, losing all of its luster.

Hu –

A gust of wind blew past. The flesh and blood on the head was instantly reduced to ash that was blown away. All that remained was an exquisite, jade-like skull.

That’s right. This should have been a terrifying skull, but what it gave off was an exquisite and beautiful feeling.

Qin Yu swayed about. He could no longer resist the weakness coursing through his body and plopped to the ground.

At the same time, heavy footsteps came from behind.

Lying on the ground, the extremely distressed Qin Hanshi looked up. When the two met eyes, they both smiled.

To survive this really hadn’t been easy!

Xie Yu was unconscious. As the evil spirit died, the strength of the killing curse also scattered, sending her into a deep slumber.

All that remained in the world were the heavy, heaving gasps of two people.

After a long time, Qin Yu managed to struggle into a sitting position. He took out a pill and swallowed it.

He heard the sound of footsteps and looked over to see Qin Hanshi walking over, dragging his sword behind him. “Fellow daoist Qin, don’t think too much about it. This skull is actually a very good item.”

He struggled to pick it up and then formed a hand seal. The sword flew up and lopped off the top of the skull. Bright crystal clear blood shined from within.

A tantalizing scent wafted out from within. Just taking a single sniff of it made Qin Yu feel incomparably hungry. His stomach started to rumble and he revealed a shocked look.

He…he…he actually…had an appetite towards this kind of thing…damn it, was I poisoned or am I suffering from some kind of illusion?

Just as this thought appeared, he saw Qin Hanshi take a deep breath and reveal an expression of incomparable joy. His eyes lit up with excitement. He turned and saw Qin Yu’s expression and guessed what he was thinking. Then, his happy face stiffened and he shouted out, “I am not some crazy corpse-eating freak, don’t look at me like that!”

Qin Yu awkwardly smiled. He also didn’t think that was too likely.

Qin Hanshi walked over and sat down beside Qin Yu. The simple movement caused him to gasp like an elephant, but the hands with which he held the skull were steady and stable.

After taking several deep breaths, he earnestly said, “That evil spirit was once a great priest of the native life forms of the Infinite Realm. In order to preserve its own life, it swallowed up its entire tribe and transformed. It is no longer a living being. After its transformation, it became an existence similar to a devil. The stuff inside its head is the concentrated life essence of its entire tribe. In the Land of Divinity and Demons there is another name for this – blood marrow!”