Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Qi Cheng respectfully delivered the black-robed cultivator away. Then, he hurried back to the main hall, a worried look on his face. He hesitated and said, “Teacher, do we need to meddle in this matter? Although this disciple has great feelings of discontent towards Qin Yu, the situation is simply far too risky. And the Dao Arena’s attitude has been too ambiguous about this.”

Chu Taidou’s face darkened. He coldly sneered, “Do you think I want to interfere? The Ning Family ‘s treasure is good, but if I can’t obtain it, it doesn’t matter. After all, there is no truly great enmity between me and Qin Yu. But today the one who came was a messenger from the Immortal Sect. In other words, this was something decided by some great figure of the Immortal Sect.

“Yes, the Great Zhao Empire is within the regional influence of the Demonic Path. However, with the Immortal Sect’s strength, dealing with you and I would be as simple as moving a finger in order to send us beyond redemption!” He took a deep heaving breath, “This matter is something I have no choice in. I either comply or die!”

A bitter feeling swelled up from within Qi Cheng, one mixed with fear. Chu Taidou was originally an extremely thick thigh he latched onto, but in front of the Immortal Sect, it was as thin as a stick.

If anything happened to Chu Taidou, as his closest disciple, he would be the first one to suffer!

“Since I have no other choice, I can only wholeheartedly commit myself to handling the Immortal Sect’s matter. Even if I offend the Dao Arena at that time, I can still obtain shelter from the Immortal Sect.” Chi Taidou was a fierce and ambitious man. While he was panicked at first, he quickly calmed down. “So the most important thing we must do is to handle this matter cleanly and perfectly. Otherwise, we will truly die without a burial ground!”

Qi Cheng said in a low voice, “This disciple will follow teacher’s orders!”

Chi Taidou hesitated and said, “Qi Cheng, tomorrow you will go to the Dao Arena and issue a declaration of war against Qin Yu. I will challenge him in alchemy.”

When the sun rose in the east, Qi Cheng arrived at the Dao Arena. This time, he didn’t display the arrogant attitude he did back at the Western Mountain Inn. He respectfully bowed his head and expressed his purpose for coming.

Kang Mingqiao soon obtained the news. His first response was that there was something unusual about this situation. Not to mention that the Dao Arena had already revealed their regards towards Qin Yu, just Qin Yu’s identity as the ninth-ranked on the Ancient Perishment Decree should have been enough to make Chu Taidou forget about any unhappiness and pretend that no conflict had ever occurred.

Even if Qin Yu was targeted by the Immortal Sect and his future wasn’t bright, that didn’t necessarily mean he would die…Chu Taidou was an intelligent man. This could be seen from the way he tried to be close with Qin Yu after his status was revealed.

But today, after a long time of silence, Chu Taidou had suddenly leapt up to challenge Qin Yu. He was using the excuse of having his interest in alchemy piqued by Qin Yu and wanting to have a little spar with him…this seemed like a fair and honest reason, but that in itself was wrong.

After a moment of thinking, Kang Mingqiao ordered to have Qi Cheng wait outside temporarily. If the one who came here was Chu Taidou, then perhaps he would receive him after taking his face into consideration. But for a mere disciple he sent on errands, there was no need to be polite.

Kang Mingqiao stood up and walked away, soon arriving at Qin Yu’s training room. Because he had recently been investing his focus in refining pills, his training room was in a sealed condition and no one was allowed to disturb him.

The highest level training room could only be used by honored guests of the Dao Arena. Even if Kang Mingqiao was the Dao Arena Steward, he didn’t have the qualifications to randomly open it.

He tried to contact Qin Yu but received no response. Then, he took out a message jade slip and marked down some information. After passing it through a channel in the hall, it entered the training room.

Kang Mingqiao turned around and took a seat. Towards this person that had been just a step away from becoming his master’s disciple, he believed he needed to give Qin Yu a certain degree of attention. This was because the world was always changing. While Qin Yu might not be able to become his master’s disciple, that was only because of external reasons. As for Qin Yu’s talent, that was high enough for an infinite number of possibilities to occur.

He looked down at the challenge jade slip placed on the table in front of him. He had already looked through its contents, and his eyes were heavy with worry.

Chu Taidou had come prepared. Kang Mingqiao hoped that Qin Yu wouldn’t be too confident in himself, otherwise he feared he would suffer a great loss.

The Dao Arena’s top training room naturally had an accompanying alchemy chamber. Qin Yu flicked his sleeves and the Ninth Province furnace game a low cry and popped out three pills. These pills had a white gleam shimmering on their surface. Just taking a breath made one feel inspired and their body feel much more relaxed.

This pill was called the Longevity Pill. It was of the seventh-grade and was a relatively difficult one. It could help a cultivator increase their lifespan by ten years. However, the limit was that they could only take three; taking any more was useless.

This was why the Ninth Province furnace only spat out three. Following this, there were loud munching sounds. Qin Yu wryly smiled. He had promised Ninth Furnace that he would give it all excess pills. Otherwise, this greedy and gluttonous little fellow would have gone on strike.

Of course, the advantage was that Ninth Furnace put forth 120% of its pill refining capabilities. This made the pill refining process much easier for Qin Yu. With a flick of his sleeves, the three Longevity Pills were placed into a jade bottle he had prepared ahead of time. It was specially refined and had formidable sealing array formations contained within that would isolate the pills aura so that it didn’t emit outwards.

“Hah!” Qin Yu let out a breath, a somewhat weary expression on his face. But, he actually smiled. He had finished refining three Longevity Pills and he would be able to exchange them for another soul treasure. This meant he was that much closer to having the Soul Summoning Bell recognize him as master.

Putting away the jade bottle, Qin Yu prepared to meditate and recover his losses. Seeing a message jade slip floating to the side, he revealed a look of surprise. He lifted his hand and grabbed it.

A moment later, Qin Yu opened the training room’s doors. Kang Mingqiao was standing outside. Qin Yu said with an apologetic expression, “I’m very sorry about this. I was refining pills today, so Arena Steward Kang must have waited a long time for me.”

Kang Mingqiao smiled. “It doesn’t matter. I have a great deal of idle time every day, so it doesn’t matter what I do.” He raised a hand and passed over a jade slip. “This is a challenge jade slip that Chu Taidou issued to you.”

Qin Yu searched it with his divine sense. Several breaths of time later, his eyes brightened and he laid the jade slip down. There was a brief hesitation on his face as if he were contemplating something. But after some time, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud and said, “I never thought that Grand Authority Chu would be such a good person.”

The challenge jade slip clearly stated that Chu Taidou was willing to put forth ten treasures as the gambling stake to challenge Qin Yu. And, these ten treasures were all items needed for the process of the Soul Summoning Bell’s master recognition.

When Qin Yu counted the rewards he obtained from refining pills, even if there was some redundancy, there were still 12 different kinds of soul treasure. In addition to the nine he found in the jade box, that was 21 different soul treasures. That was almost half of what he needed!

As for whether he would lose this gambling bet? Qin Yu smiled. When it came to refining pills, while he wouldn’t call himself the highest in the world, beating up someone like Chi Taidou shouldn’t be a problem.

So if Chu Taidou wasn’t a good person, what was he? Thinking about it, Qin Yu really wanted to draw up a plaque of congratulations and send it to the Chu Residence with drums and a band.

Kang Mingqiao frowned a little. He said, “Fellow daoist Qin Yu, Chu Taidou knows that you are collecting these treasures right now so he specifically put them in the gambling stake because he feared that you would refuse. There is something unusual about this.”

Qin Yu smiled and said, “I thank Arena Steward Kang for the warning. But, I will still decide to accept Chu Taidou’s challenge.” Seeing the worry in Kang Mingqiao’s eyes, he continued to say, “Arena steward, rest assured that if I dare to agree, then I have my own reasons for doing so. No matter what scheme Chu Taidou is trying to hatch this time, he is destined to be disappointed.”

Kang Mingqiao’s eyes flashed. He said, “It seems that my fears were baseless. Since fellow daoist Qin Yu is so confident, I will go and have people send a reply to Qi Cheng. A mere junior like him does not have the qualifications for you to make a personal appearance. Still, I want to remind you of something. Perhaps Chu Taidou isn’t worth anything, but fellow daoist Qin Yu should never forget about those that might be standing behind him.

Kang Mingqiao bid his farewells and left.

Qin Yu’s heart warmed a little. No matter what the reason was, this person Kang Mingqiao was trying his best to look after him.

However, if Kang Mingqiao could think of it, Qin Yu could too. His thoughts raced and a cold light flashed in his eyes.

The killing curse didn’t work, so they decided to switch things up?

Purple Moon, I will remember every single thing you’ve done. I’ll let you be smug for now, but in the future there will come a time when we settle our debts!

There was no need to investigate. This matter had already been pinned onto the Immortal Sect by Qin Yu.

Qi Cheng waited from sunrise until sunset. Even though he was good at keeping his emotions hidden, he still couldn’t help but reveal a bit of worry. This was the situation he worried about the most. If Qin Yu didn’t agree, then no matter how great his plans were, no matter how confident they were, they simply wouldn’t have any chance to utilize them.

Moreover, what frightened him the most was that the Immortal Sect only wanted a result and didn’t care about the process. If things didn’t proceed smoothly, he feared the Immortal Sect would turn the tables on them. One didn’t need to be a genius to know that he and Chu Taidou would both be in trouble. It was possible for them to lose their lives!

As he was sweating and his thoughts became increasingly chaotic, a cultivator from the Dao Arena suddenly appeared in front of him. “Fellow daoist Qi Cheng, please inform Grand Authority Chu that lord Qin Yu has accepted the challenge. As for the exact specifications of the challenge, prepare them as soon as possible and send someone to inform us in advance.”

This sort of feeling was like standing on the edge of a cliff and being nearly about to fall off before being pulled back by someone. Qi Cheng was ecstatic, as if he were someone that had survived a disaster. Of course, he kept a calm expression and said, “Thank you for informing me, fellow daoist. I will report this to my teacher. Thank you and goodbye.”

Leaving the Dao Arena, he passed through the great square and streets, hurrying along with the last rays of light. Soon he reached the Chu Residence.

Chu Taidou was all smiles. “Very good! I knew that Qin Yu would find the temptation of those ten reasures impossible to resist. He really agreed.”

“Congratulations teacher, the first step in your plan has proceeded smoothly. As long as Qin Yu accepts the challenge, that is the same as being caught in teacher’s trap. With your alchemy skills, you will easily defeat him!” Qi Cheng said, his face full of joy.

Chu Taidou shook his head. “It’s too early to say that. Qin Yu has recently been refining seventh-grade pills one after another, so his alchemy skills must be immense. I cannot underestimate him.”

Qi Cheng said with high praise, “Teacher is too modest. Dozens of years ago teacher already had the ability to refine seventh-grade pills. It was only that the rules restricted you from refining more pills and causing the price of higher grade pills to fall. But in these years, your strength has risen tremendously and you can even refine eighth-grade pills. Defeating Qin Yu will be as easy as turning a hand!”

Chu Taidou smiled, not responding. Qin Yu was young, talented, and successful. This was the period of his life where he would be most high-spirited and arrogant. Moreover, it was said he came from some exiled land so he had no idea what depths he was swimming in. Those that truly stood at the peak of alchemy in the Land of Divinity and Demons all agreed to an unstated rule – to ensure that high level pills would always be in short supply in the world and thus in high demand.

Only in this way could the peak alchemists of this world maintain their own important status. The so-called lowered price of pills was a mere façade to maintain the world order.

To be able to refine seventh-grade pills indeed wasn’t bad, and there was also the fact that Qin Yu was so young. But in the Land of Divinity and Demons, the depths and breadth of alchemy was far greater than he could imagine. Even if the Immortal Sect didn’t take action, Qin Yu had already committed a taboo by recklessly refining seventh-grade pills and he would be punished sooner or later. It had to be known that when peak alchemists joined forces, they were a powerful force even in the Land of Divinity and Demons.

The young were often too confident in themselves. Now, he was about to be struck by reality, and perhaps a bright and dazzling life would end here.

Too young, too simple...the Master of the Dao Arena once used to love using this popular phrase. Although no one could express why it was a taunt, it was actually fitting to describe Qin Yu’s current actions.

Qin Yu, this old man will end you!

Thinking that a peerless proud son of heaven listed on the Ancient Perishment Decree would fall because of him, Chu Taidou’s mood was aroused and endless anticipation gushed out from his eyes.