Refining the Mountains and Rivers

*changing purpleback bluewing ants to lowercase*

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Today, Qin Yu could finally be said to have truly grasped the Monster Raising Mystic Art. As for the Soul Summoning Bell, he discovered that it was an item whose role was more than to summon the remnant soul of the ancestral monster. As a supreme treasure of the soul, the Soul Summoning Bell could counterbalance most of the crushing will that came from the ancestral monster’s remnant soul. Otherwise, as the cultivation continued and the summoned remnant soul of the ancestral monster became increasingly strong, there would be almost no one that could withstand its will.

And the most important point was that the Soul Summoning Bell could scatter the ancestral monster’s undying will, allowing that remnant soul to truly be absorbed. Otherwise, even if it was somehow absorbed, the ancestral monster’s remnant soul would condense back together anyways…as a result, the purpleback bluewing ants in Qin Yu’s hand would die regardless!

Qin Yu had a dignified expression. He was originally celebrating that he was able to last through the crushing will of the ancestral monster because of his considerable soul cultivation and firm will, but he never expected there would be even more additional hidden dangers.

The Soul Summoning Bell urgently needed to recognize a master. Moreover, he needed to do it before the ancestral monster’s will condensed again! Closing his eyes, he carefully sifted through the information related to the Soul Summoning Bell recognizing a master. He opened his eyes after a long time, hesitation in them.

It was not a simple matter to have the Soul Summoning Bell recognize a master. In fact, the difficulty of this task was far, far above what Qin Yu had expected. In order to refine this treasure, he needed 36 different kinds of soul treasures to build a soul leading altar. Then, using this altar, he needed to summon a kind of soul of nothingness from another world.

This sort of soul had no self-awareness but had the inborn ability to fuse into all treasures. By placing a wisp of his divine sense within and then fusing the soul of nothingness into the Soul Summoning Bell, he could complete the task of having it recognize a master.

Summoning this soul of nothingness from another world required a cultivator to have an extremely high soul cultivation. Moreover, the 36 kinds of different soul treasures needed to construct the soul leading altar were also difficult to collect.

For instance, darkbone wood. This was something that could only be born in a place of extreme yin where a massive number of specters gathered. To soul cultivators, it was a treasure of the highest degree. It was able to gather specters from a large range and each one was incomparably priceless.

For instance, a bitter mulberry flower. This was a type of natural born treasure that could condense the soul. It had an incredible ability of restoring soul injuries. It was rumored that a 10,000 year bitter mulberry flower could even reform the soul.

There was also hidden soul stone, soul source water, eternal frost soul, and other such things.

These things all had two aspects in coming.

One, they were rare.

Two, they were expensive.

Still, Qin Yu had around 600 million spirit stones. If he took them all out then they might be enough.

But the key issue was that there were some treasures that he couldn’t buy even if he wanted to.

Qin Yu took a deep breath and sensed the purpleback bluewing ants. Indeed, he could feel the existence of the ancestral monster’s will within their bodies.

Although it was extremely weak, this will was slowly restoring itself. At most, it would take four months.

Unless he chose to give up on the purpleback bluewing ants and chose another monster beast to cultivate, Qin Yu only had a short four months to solve the problem of the Soul Summoning Bell.

Qin Yu didn’t need much thought to overrule the idea of discarding the purpleback bluewing ants. Not to mention how troublesome it would be to choose another monster beast, he had simply invested too much in the earlier period of cultivation.

There were the cultivating pills and the ten kinds of high level monster beast souls and blood, which took around 300 million spirit stones to purchase. If it weren’t for how much he earned in the betting ring, he wouldn’t even have been able to play around with the Monster Raising Mystic Art.

If so, the only thing he could do was try his best and have the Soul Summoning Bell recognize a master within four months.

Qin Yu’s eyes flashed. The Black Demon Sect should also know about the materials needed for the Soul Summoning Bell to recognize a master. He could only collect these materials from somewhere else.

After thinking for a moment, Qin Yu made up his mind. He went into seclusion for ten days, doing nothing but refining pills and purifying them with the little blue lamp. After the ten days, he passed a massive number of pills to Tuba and Tutou and had them continue to purchase spirit plant materials. Afterwards, he announced to all that he was going into deep seclusion training.

The next day, Qin Yu changed his appearance. He borrowed the status of one of Grandmaster Jiang’s disciples and left the Black Demon Sect. Of course, the real disciple had fallen into a sleep after taking a pill. Before Qin Yu returned, it would be impossible for him to wake up.

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Zhao Empire, Four Seasons City.

The reason for this city’s name was that in the distant past, there was once a sect here called the Four Seasons Sect. The Four Seasons Sect was originally a small and ordinary sect, but one day a shocking, peerless proud son of heaven was born there. This person rose from the bottom, clawing his way up to the top and eventually becoming one of the powerhouses of his era who dominated the land.

Although everything was eventually erased with time and this peerless powerhouse had long since disappeared, perhaps because of the respect for powerhouses, Four Seasons City had always retained this name.

Even though it was located in the southern part of the Zhao Empire, the climate was still cold. Snowflakes fell down from the dark skies, piling up in a thick layer on the ground. Walking in the snow, it came up to a person’s calves.

Amidst the wind and snow, outside of the towering Four Seasons City, a black-robed figure walked forth. Although he walked on the snow, this figure didn’t leave behind any footprints at all.

In contrast to the beams of light up above who flew down and up occasionally, he appeared low-key and common. In such cold weather, even if a cultivator didn’t fear heat or snow, no one was willing to stay outside for too long.

Whoosh –

Whoosh –

There was another beam of light that came whistling in from afar. It was a group of travel-worn cultivators, led by an old man with white eyebrows. The old man’s eyes were dignified with a hint of worry. As he cast out his aura, he was like a dragon swimming through the deep sea. He was impressively a Blue Sea powerhouse.

“How is the miss’ condition?” He turned and looked at a speedcar in the mist of the group. An exhausted maid responded with several cautious words. Her voice was hidden in the wind and snow so it was hard to hear her clearly, but looking at how the white-browed old man’s face became even cloudier, it clearly wasn’t good.

“Let’s go!”

The group continued without pause. They howled into Four Seasons City. As for the figure who was slowly making his way into the city gates, they didn’t even glance at him.

The Qin and Zhao Nations were both lands of bitter cold. There was only a short period every year when the earth recovered and gave birth to life. If it weren’t for the cultivators here having their own methods to change the climate on a small scale, it would be almost impossible to survive here.

Because of this, the Qin and Zhao Nations had a ferocious culture and their cultivators usually handled things in an overbearing manner. It wasn’t like there weren’t city guards or some sort of defense, but they were loose and sparsely scattered.

Of course, if anyone dared to cause trouble in the forbidden zones, they would soon taste the pattern-issued long spears of the Zhao Empire’s soldiers.

It was a rare sight to see someone slowly and humbly making their way through the city gates. Several soldiers who were guarding the gates all had a strange look in their eyes. One of them teasingly said, “He can fly but he doesn’t dare to. Just how low is his cultivation? Boy, I advise you to go back home and cultivate for several more years. If you come out too early, it is easy for you to lose your life!”

The Qin and Zhao Nations were populated with countless villages and there were similar numbers of these young cultivators. They all held hopes and dreams of being powerhouses and they desired to leave their hometowns and wander the world. But, what awaited them was often a horrible fate.

However, it was because of the endless outpouring of these adventure-yearning youths that the Zhao Empire was continuously supplemented with fresh blood to remain strong.

Thus, even though this soldier might have been teasing, the truth was that he was speaking with good intentions.

“Enough. Stop talking so much. Just stand there and do your duty!” The captain scolded a few times. The several guards were puzzled. They revealed resentful looks, no longer speaking much.

The black-robed figure didn’t stop. He soon vanished in the wind and snow.

The captain watched the figure disappear into the distance. He frowned, a thoughtful look on his face.

One of his subordinates asked, “Captain, is there a problem with that person?”

The captain shook his head. “I just think he isn’t common at all. I don’t know why, but he gives off a terrifying feeling.”

The looks of the several subordinates changed. Their captain was a veteran who had retired from the border frontier and had fought in numerous battles without dying. Through his experiences, he had forged an extremely keen sense. If there was something that could make the captain feel fear, then that black-robed person who just passed them could likely have crushed them all to death with a tiny move of his hands!

“Humph! Consider today a lesson to not underestimate anyone! With our strength, we aren’t even considered a fart in the eyes of a true master!” The captain coldly snorted and his subordinates hurriedly nodded. Still, they helplessly complained in their hearts. How could such a master be playing games and remaining so low key!

After entering Four Seasons City, the black-robed figure casually chose an inn to stay at and rented a lone courtyard. After sending away the young servant, he took out the token and opened the spell.

Walking into the courtyard, the weather instantly warmed like spring. The plants and flowers in the courtyard were lush and vibrant and lotuses had just opened in the flowing pool of water. The black-robed figure pulled down his hood to reveal a young face. He couldn’t be considered too handsome, but he was still good enough to look at twice.

This young man was Qin Yu.

After he left the Black Demon Sect, he had spent several days to hurry along the way. Borrowing the power of numerous transmission arrays, he travelled far away from the Black Demon Sect’s domain of influence. He chose Four Seasons City because there were several famous auction houses here. If he needed to find 36 kinds of soul treasures, he naturally couldn’t rely on his own strength.

After freshening up and recovering his spirits, he pushed open the door and left the courtyard. Not long after he walked out he could see a group of cultivators hurrying in from the snowy skies.

Qin Yu moved to the side of the road. His eyes flashed. These cultivators were the group he had seen when he passed through the city gates.

Compared to before, the atmosphere of the group was even darker and more depressed. The white-browed old man’s complexion was even cloudier than the skies up above.

This caused the inn servant to turn pale with fear. He was so scared he didn’t even make half a sound.

Both sides crossed paths. Qin Yu only glanced at them for several moments before hurrying away.

He wasn’t in the mood to bother or ask about the matters of other people. Right now he needed to search for 36 kinds of soul treasures and the urgency of this task left him gasping for breath.

An hour later, Qin Yu appeared at the entrance of an extremely magnificent auction house. There were 16 large and burly men lined up at the entrance. They wore a strange styled clothing of black pants and coats and they wore thick black glasses atop their noses. They constantly exuded a vicious and violent aura.

These should be the real barbarians, right? Their blood energy was indeed incredibly formidable. Of course, compared with the titan tribe’s Tuba and Tutou, there was a vast disparity. In particular Tuba, who had just made a breakthrough, could probably have slapped these 16 barbarians to death with a single hand.

Of course, having these 16 barbarians guard the door was more than enough of an imposing atmosphere. Moreover, while these big fellows could deter others, in another sense they also made one feel safe and secure.

Qin Yu walked up the steps. The steps were like black jade, each one incomparably clean. Beneath the shining lights, they gave off several degrees of opulence.

“Welcome guest, is there anything I can help you with?”

Two hours later, Qin Yu stood at the entrance of the auction house with a helpless expression. He hadn’t found a single one of the required 36 materials. This caused a shadow to form in his heart.

“Please make way!” A low voice sounded from not too far away. Qin Yu turned and surprise filled his eyes. Four Seasons City wasn’t considered too small, but he actually encountered them again. The several cultivators hurriedly making their way over were the same ones he had met at the city entrance and at the inn.