Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Beneath the curtain of night, among the shining stars and moon, purple thunder roared!

Woodchopper Fu was currently a great distance away from the Dao Arena, but for those that had reached his level of cultivation, distance alone no longer had any meaning. He could clearly sense everything that was occurring and his eyes filled with acclaim. “Good! Very good! She is truly worthy of being the little baby girl from the Immortal Sect; her courage is worthy of praise! Now this is a great play to watch. But even when watching the fun, I still have to scurry away and hide so far away…hah, I’m really tired of living!”

Suddenly, Woodchopper Fu frowned. His expression turned a bit strange.

“Since you feel tired of living, why continue living? I’ve listened to you say those words for so many years that even if you aren’t tired of hearing them, I am.” This new voice was warm and gentle, as if casual bantering between two old friends.

Woodchopper Fu turned and helplessly said, “What are you looking for an old man like me for? I’m just here to see the play today; this matter doesn’t have the slightest relation to me! Hah, even those lying down can be hit by a stray shot, I really am tired of living!”

Even though his face was full of innocence, he didn’t move at all. When the smiling middle-aged man in front of him looked at him, it gave an indescribable feeling.

From the bump of his throat, this was clearly a man. But, his beautiful face could cause 99.99% of women in this world to feel utterly inferior.

If Qin Yu were here, even he would exclaim in surprise at this man’s beauty. The sisters Ning Ling and Ning Liang, and even You Qi, could be considered amongst the most beautiful women in the world. But compared to him, they were slightly worse.

To describe this man as more beautiful than a woman wasn’t a sign of ridicule or contempt at all. Rather, only such words could appropriately describe him. He wore white clothes and although he was middle-aged he didn’t seem old at all. His beauty was so otherworldly that it was nearly demonic. His eyes were like warm jade, and just by standing there and smiling, a flow of elegance and wonder seemed to emanate from him.

“Stop complaining of injustice. We’re all old acquaintances here, so why the act?” The middle-aged man arched an eyebrow, his smile becoming even more winsome. “Let’s make a deal. How about you act in my place and have that person from the Immortal Sect leave?”

Woodchopper Fu shook his head. “No way! That little girl isn’t old but her strength is quite good. And with her status, she is sure to have life-maintaining methods. Anyone that tries to deal with her would have a headache.” Then, he gloatingly said, “Moreover, she came to ruin your industry today. This has nothing to do with me, so why do I have to help!”

Dao Arena…your industry…this unreasonably beautiful middle-aged man was actually the most mysterious powerhouse in the Land of Divinity and Demons, the Master of the Dao Arena. In the legends, he was a man who had once fought with the heavens and drew back whole and untouched!

That fierce and brave story had been sung throughout the Land of Divinity and Demons for many years, driving countless cultivators to wildly push themselves forward in hopes that they could one day follow in the footsteps of this senior and reach the boundary where they could fight the heavens.

If they knew that this person of unparalleled power and bravery, who could accomplish impossible deeds, was actually this mind-boggling beauty in front of them who was more attractive than any flower, then the image they had of their idol in their hearts would likely immediately collapse.

The Dao Arena Master’s smile didn’t diminish. “Old man, you know that I will never allow myself to suffer a loss. I cannot just watch on as Purple Moon destroys my Dao Arena. But, if I take action, you should understand the consequences. At that time, you will also be drawn in.”

“For what reason!” Woodchopper Fu angrily said, “That’s not reasonable at all! What about the laws! I am just an old man on the verge of death; are you saying I can’t even hide off to the side and watch the play? You want to draw me into this mess too? Solitary Westgate, you gave yourself a strange name and could it be that even your personality has become twisted?”

The one called Solitary Westgate, the Master of the Dao Arena, smiled and nodded. “First, I think my name is quite good. Next, Purple Moon will soon arrive; you don’t have much time left to make a decision. So, do you want me to take action and drag you along with me? Or do you want to act in my place and ask her to leave? Mm, make your choice quickly.”

“I refuse to accept!”

“Refusing to accept is not a valid option!” Solitary Westgate directly refuted. He lifted his hand and said with a bit of helplessness, “It seems you’ve already made your choice. I haven’t moved in a long, long time. It just so happens that I gained some attainments in these past years and have improved some of my small skills. Old man, do you want to help me review them?”

Woodchopper Fu shouted out loud, “Hold on!” He clenched his jaws and said, “Westgate boy, consider yourself ruthless enough!” He raised his hatched and, without turning his head, slashed out behind him.

In the distant skies, where a mass of wind and thunder was approaching the Dao Arena, Great Elder Purple Moon’s complexion changed. “Woodchopper Fu!”

She lifted her hands and thrust out. Space was instantly crushed and a pitch black saber light flew out from the shattered space.

Bang –

There was a terrifying collision. Even in the Land of Divinity and Demons where there were countless masters all around, the vast majority of cultivators had never witnessed a confrontation between two Calamity Immortal realm almighty beings before. But today, in Four Seasons City, the cultivators were fortunate enough to see this sight. Still, most of them would rather die than encounter something like this.

They looked up and saw that a massive chunk of space seemed to have been dug out from the night skies. Pitch black darkness appeared in its place. Everyone could see with their naked eyes the roiling destructive forces within. It was like a tsunami in a black sea. If that terrifying might erupted, it could instantly destroy most of Four Seasons City, sending millions of lives to hell!

Everyone felt as if their hearts had been gripped by an invisible hand. An uncontainable terror gushed out from the depths of their hearts, causing them to freeze solid as if they had fallen into an icy lake.

Qin Yu was also one of these people. As he looked at the not too far away skies and saw the terrifying collision that occurred, his pupils violently shrank and his soul instinctually screamed. Purple Moon had rushed towards the Dao Arena, so the battlefield had erupted at the edge of the Dao Arena. If the shockwaves of the battle swept out in their direction, the Dao Arena and everyone here would be pulverized into dust, their bodies and souls utterly extinguished.

Although Qin Yu knew that Purple Moon wouldn’t hesitate to pay any price to kill him once she found out about his identity, he never thought that she would be so tyrannical to the point where her main body would arrive at Four Seasons City.

Qin Yu also didn’t know that Woodchopper Fu was one of the main culprits behind this. His actions had caused Purple Moon to feel an intense restlessness, thus giving birth to the present situation. He also didn’t know that Woodchopper Fu, who had inadvertently caused all of this, had been grasped tightly by the Dao Arena Master and was forced to calm this storm.

Hum –

Hum –

Two world phantoms arrived. Their edges ruthlessly crashed into each other. But, they covered up the shattered space, isolating in the terrifying strength.

Purple Moon paused her step, her eyes like sharp and cold swords.

Woodchopper Fu lifted his black hatchet across his shoulder. He said, “Little girl Purple Moon, if I said that this wasn’t my original intention, would you believe me?”

Purple Moon lifted her hand and a long sword appeared in her grasp. “So the one who tried to extinguish my divine sense…was you.”

Her voice was calm, but everyone could feel the ice cold killing intent within.

This wasn’t a question!

Woodchopper Fu wryly smiled. He had indeed been discovered. But, he never thought he would be lucky about this somehow. Although Purple Moon was still a distance away from becoming a true powerhouse of her realm, she had already touched the edge. Since they had clashed twice and their true bodies had now met, she would certainly have detected it.

“That’s right. But, I didn’t intend to destroy your divine sense; I just wanted you to leave Four Seasons City. Otherwise, since my main body was here, you would have never escaped.” Woodchopper Fu was a little bit like a hoodlum. Since he had been seen through, he readily acknowledged it.

Purple Moon’s eyes filled with a cold brightness. “Can you give me a reason for this?”

Woodchopper Fu cursed in his heart. The reason is just that you want to kill Qin Yu and I have taken a liking to his mortal body! But since Solitary Westgate came to Four Seasons City, he must have sensed something strange. He definitely couldn’t admit to this.

He had his own clear and obvious reasons. In a sense, it could even be said that he stood on the same side as Purple Moon. But since he couldn’t explain this situation clearly, he could only quietly carry his own burden.

This humiliation…ah, I really am tired of living!

Seeing Woodchopper Fu remain silent, Purple Moon instead became even more tranquil. She crossed her sword in front of her and bowed ever so slightly. “Then, Purple Moon would like to experience senior’s Heaven Sunder Saber Skill.”

Hum –

There was the cry of a sword. In the next moment, within the world phantom behind Purple Moon, a round purple moon appeared. What was astonishing was that countless arcs of purple lightning wove together on its surface.

Even though the world phantom was isolating out all auras, every cultivator that saw this round purple moon could still feel the inexhaustible destruction it contained.

Qin Yu didn’t know why this mysterious old man would appear to stop Purple Moon. But, it seemed that he wouldn’t necessarily die today. His heart calmed down a little and he looked at the purple moon within the world phantom and the thunder that flickered across it. His eyes flashed.

In Qin Yu’s soul space, there was also a purple moon. But, it wasn’t completely full in shape and was just a crescent. Although there were enormous differences between the two moons, his intuition told him that there was some connection between them.

However, he didn’t have time to worry about such things. He suppressed his thoughts and looked towards the battlefield with rapt attention. When Calamity Immortal almighty beings fought, this could be called a stroke of good fortune to any cultivator. If a person could obtain harvests from watching their battle, that would be a fortune equal to years or even dozens of years of diligent training and meditation.

Rumble rumble –

Within the purple moon world phantom, countless arcs of deep purple thunder erupted. They raged outwards, constantly colliding and blending in the air. After several breaths of time, they unexpectedly formed a thunder dragon.

The thunder dragon had purple pupils and purple scales. It rolled about and roared, as if it were the birth of the dragon of destruction.

Purple Moon released her hand. The long sword whistled out, piercing straight between the thunder dragon’s eyebrows and becoming a singular horn on its head.

As the thunder dragon grew a horn, its body expanded, almost doubling in size in a few breaths. Its aura also rose at an astonishing speed!

It reared back its head and roared. Its great tail swept around, tearing open the barrier on the world’s edge. Like an apex predator, it intruded into Woodchopper Fu’s world phantom.

This was a lonely world. There were mountains all over with endless forests of bamboo growing. It was impossible to find the end with a single glance, as if it was a sea of green bamboo. But, if one looked carefully, they would discover that within this sea of bamboo, every stalk had clear cut marks on them, countless marks altogether.

But none of these bamboo stalks toppled to the ground. They rose straight up towards heaven, like backs that were standing straight!

Clouds followed behind the dragon. As the thunder dragon arrived here, endless storm clouds appeared up above, with thick purple flashes of lightning illuminating every corner of this silent world. The thunder dragon slowly fell to the side of the bamboo sea. Its massive body stared intensely at the forests of green and the cruel violence in its eyes gradually thickened.

Suddenly, the thunder dragon opened its jaws and breathed out dragon flames. These flames were formed from an incomparably terrifying strength of thunder, combined with countless sharp sword intents. Qin Yu’s eyes brightened. The dragon flames spat out by the thunder dragon were like the sword slash of a peerless swordsman. In his ears, he seemed to hear the cry of the sword singing into the highest heavens!

Perceiving the Five Element Mountain, Qin Yu had first chosen the path of metal. Metal was white like the western paradise, the lord of slaughter and killing. The victorious slaughter will of this sword strike was the first of its kind he had seen in his life. His cultivation of the metal path had fallen into a bottleneck, but at this time the bottleneck began to tremble. The surprise was too sudden. Qin Yu never thought that this lucky chance in breaking through the metal path would arrive so soon.

His entire mind was completely immersed within. As if in this whole world, all that was left was that world-illuminating sword strike.

The dragon flames fell down from the skies. Like a meteor, a long tail followed behind them. Endless shockwaves were stirred up in the air as they rumbled out in all directions.

Wild winds were whipped into existence. The peaceful bamboo sea violently tumbled as countless bamboo stalks collided against each other, causing crackling sounds to fill the air. This sound was like a layer of ice cracking apart. Crisp and clear, it seemed as if something began to flow at this time.

Within the thunder dragon’s brutal eyes, a trace of solemnity appeared.

Without warning, from the endless sea of bamboo below, all of the cutting marks on the bamboo as well as the saber intent contained within suddenly gushed out. The saber intent was extremely weak, like small drops of rain falling down. But, this rain was far too thick, far too crowded. The quantity was beyond number, so much that it crossed a certain limit. Once this quantitative limit was surpassed, an extremely horrifying qualitative change began to appear. Thus, when they converged, it was like the following process: rainwater became a stream, streams into a brook, brooks into a river, rivers into a vast sea!

Trillions of weak saber intents perfectly fused together. The potential was vast and boundless, containing as much momentum as the rise of the sun, openly and honestly arriving, as if it could divide the heavens and earth.

The Heaven Sundering Saber Skill could sunder the heavens with a single strike; its overbearingness was unparalleled!

Qin Yu’s heart vibrated. The bottleneck of the metal path trembled even more fiercely. Some doubts and puzzles that lingered in his mind like shadows in his thoughts began to rapidly vanish as he achieved a thorough mastery of them. If the thunder dragon’s sword was the turning point to his breakthrough in the metal path, then the bamboo sea’s saber was the potent boost he needed for a breakthrough!

Perhaps in a dangerous and hopeless situations, great good fortune could be found. Qin Yu stood at the eye of the storm today, but he actually broke through his shackles. He had a premonition that he would reach large success of the metal path today!

Whoosh –

Blinding saber light emerged from the bamboo sea, instantly dividing the dragon flames in half. Then, the two halves trembled and began to collapse. The instant that the dragon flames disintegrated, the saber light continued without stopping, cutting down straight at the thunder dragon, its potential unprecedented! It was like even if the world stood in front of this saber strike, it would still be cut into pieces!

The thunder dragon’s eyes filled with a fierce violence. It roared up into the skies and the singular horn between its eyebrows erupted with endless purple light. The purple light was layered upon itself in countless levels, each level formed by inexhaustible sword intent.

But there was only one saber light. It came from the earth and shot into the skies! Facing the layers of purple light, the trillions of sword intents, this saber light didn’t hesitate at all as it ruthlessly slashed out.

Puff –

Like an air bubble being torn apart, the purple light wasn’t able to stop the saber light at all; it was instantly cut apart. Although the sword light was infinite, it couldn’t hinder the saber light in the least. As it cut upwards, its color darkened by the aura behind it didn’t weaken. Rather, as more time passed, it became increasingly strong, increasingly terrifying. It was like a saber that had drunk its fill of fresh blood, all of its desires for slaughter brought to life!

At this moment, Qin Yu suddenly closed his eyes. But in his mind, he was constantly replaying the scene of the saber light tearing open the layers of purple light with unstoppable force.

In his thoughts, countless threads of rules were rapidly unraveling and reorganizing. They became increasingly simple, their aura increasingly sharp.

10,000…1000…100…10…

It seemed as if he had reached his limit.

No. This wasn’t enough. He could continue to reduce.

Nine.

Eight.

Seven.

It began to become difficult.

Qin Yu didn’t know when, but he had already sat down. Wind rose up around his body. It seemed gentle, but it could easily rip apart a mountain.

At some unknown time, the strangely named Solitary Westgate, the Master of the Dao Arena, had appeared behind Qin Yu. He stared at Qin Yu’s back, his eyes full of praise. With his boundary, he could easily understand the changes occurring within Qin Yu at the moment. It was like a rough rock being polished and slowly emitting a dazzling light.

With a flick of his sleeves the world rules instantly changed. The aura that Qin Yu released was covered up so that it couldn’t be sensed from the outside.

Although only several breaths of time had passed, it also seemed as if several years had gone by. Within Qin Yu’s dantian sea, the Five Element Mountain phantom began to shake and tremble. Now, in his mind, there was only a single line of the rules left over.

This rule line was extremely simple. It was like a brush had been soaked in ink and slowly formed a stroke from top to bottom. But if one looked carefully, they would discover that it released something that could be called the simple aura of the Great Dao.

The path of metal. Continuing forwards with its endless sharpness, it could break apart a trillion barriers.

One path was enough.

It…only had one path!

Awareness rose. At this moment, the Five Element Mountain’s path of metal had finally stepped into large success.

Like a quiet volcano erupting, after a short pause, the aura in Qin Yu’s body began to rise at an astonishing speed. In an instant he reached the peak of Divine Soul, just a step away from Blue Sea! Once his cultivation stabilized and his path of metal went from large success to perfection, he could naturally complete his breakthrough and enter the Blue Sea realm.