Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Dao Arena.

Kang Mingqiao clearly knew something, but he intelligently decided not to ask about it. It wasn’t easy to take any small advantages from the Immortal Sect, so if a person did, it was best to just keep those tiny advantages and be happy about it. However, as he thought about the aloof and domineering Immortal Sect and how they had suffered such a loss at Qin Yu’s hands, Arena Steward Kang couldn’t help but smile. That idiot Qi Cheng, he had clamored to gift spirit stones to Qin Yu. Thinking about it, he was probably still smug with satisfaction right now.

After Kang Mingqiao left, Qin Yu sat in the courtyard of the training room. He furrowed his eyebrows, a dignified expression on his face. Even if Undying had abilities that were shrouded in mystery, in the end he was still dealing with the Immortal Sect. He hoped that no accidents happened just because of this sudden idea of his.

Ultimately speaking, he was still far too young. Even if he had experienced many things in life, he couldn’t suppress his anger. After being provoked several times by the Immortal Sect, he decided to retaliate against them. But, what did it matter if he obtained 10 billion spirit stones from them? To the Immortal Sect this amount wasn’t anything at all.

At this moment, Qin Yu felt a hint of regret towards his impulsive actions. After the precelestial wood he could have just directly built the soul leading altar. Why did he have to mess around?

Suddenly, shadows wriggled beneath his feet. Qin Yu was overjoyed as he saw Undying’s figure rise up from the ground.

Undying casually tore off his black robes and offered a storage ring with both hands. “Little master, the spirit stone cards are here.” He sensed the worry in Qin Yu’s face that had yet to fully disperse and the last bits of his hesitation unknowingly faded away.

“Did you encounter someone from the Immortal Sect?”

“Mm. It was an expert, so I chose to kill him as a means of venting anger for little master.”

Qin Yu’s eyebrow arched up. “You…something doesn’t seem quite right with you?”

Undying chuckled. “Isn’t it good to act loyally? Allow me to remind little master that you don’t have much time left. Are you sure you want to waste it chatting with me here?”

As he spoke he took a step backwards and melted into the shadows.

Qin Yu shook his head and suppressed any thoughts he had. Right now wasn’t a good time to be thinking of investigating such things. The black stone mountain had trembled continuously these past two days; the undying will of the Ancestral Monster could regain consciousness at any moment. After finally managing to collect all of the soul treasures, he didn’t want to fail just because he had lost himself in his thoughts for a moment.

He turned around and walked away. Several flashes later, he appeared in a vast courtyard. The black stone mountain floated high in the air, and the purpleback bluewing ants were in a deep slumber beneath it. One could clearly see ripples constantly appearing on the surface of the black stone mountain, as if tiny stones were being constantly tossed into a lake.

Qin Yu’s expression turned serious. He flicked his sleeves and sat down. He closed his eyes and in his mind all of the steps related to the Soul Summoning Bell’s master recognition process began to play through his thoughts. Although he had studied this process in depth numerous times before, this matter was simply far too important. There was just one chance and he absolutely could not allow himself to fail because of his overconfidence.

Then, after reviewing it all and determining that he hadn’t missed anything, Qin Yu’s eyes opened. A brilliant light flashed around him and 36 different soul treasures appeared.

The first step of the Soul Summoning Bell’s master recognition process was to build the soul leading altar.

…

A hundred miles away from Four Seasons City, above the summit of a low mountain, space suddenly twisted and collapsed, forming a temporarily isolated domain.

The Buddhist Nation Sovereign and Nether Domain Master appeared, their hands held behind their backs as they looked at the distant Four Seasons City. Because of the spatial warping around them, the great city in front of them seemed blurry and faint.

But at this time, the two people had a solemn and dignified expression. In the eyes of other people, Four Seasons City didn’t seem extraordinary at all. But in the vision of these two, the city seemed to be in the midst of a blazing conflagration, an inferno that was recklessly spreading out its heat and flames, causing the surrounding world to tremble.

“He really is powerful.” The Buddhist Nation Sovereign said, a strange emotion in his voice. “He was originally a person that should have died, a person whose connection with destiny is impossibly weak. So how come in a single day he was able to evolve from a carp into a dragon, becoming someone who hovers in the highest heavens?”

The Nether Domain Master had a respectful gaze. “It’s not just you and I that are confused by this conundrum. The Demonic Path’s Blue Sky and Yellow Springs used a supreme treasure and borrowed the power of samsara to deduce the answer, but in the end they didn’t discover anything.”

The Buddhist Nation Sovereign nodded, but there was no dread in his eyes. Rather, there was a burning heat in them. “Black Robe, you have been in Four Seasons City for a long time so you should have a clearer understanding of the situation. What is your estimation of Solitary Westgate’s current strength?”

Behind the two people, a black-robed person had his head lowered. After a moment of silence he muttered quietly, “This subordinate cannot make a true estimation.” He hesitated and then continued to say, “Because from the very start, I was never able to truly sense the aura of the Dao Arena Master. If I had to truly say, the term ‘unfathomably deep’ would be the most appropriate description of him.”

“Unfathomably deep…” The Nether Domain Master sighed. “In this world, for you to call someone ‘unfathomably deep’ in our presence, perhaps he is the only one.”

The Buddhist Nation Sovereign smiled. “Only like this is life meaningful. Otherwise, if you look around and all you see is the world bowed down before you, even if you lived for a trillion years you would still feel lonely.”

These words were nice to hear, but only a person knew what they were truly thinking in their heart. The Nether Domain Master smiled and didn’t speak further.

At this moment, Black Robe looked up. His eyes flashed like lightning and surprise passed through them.

“Two lords, one of my assistants within Four Seasons City just perished. If I’m not wrong, he should have been responsible for recovering the spirit stones that the Immortal Sect passed out.”

The Buddhist Nation Sovereign’s eyes burst out with a flash of light. To be called the assistant of Black Robe, this in itself was an indication of strength.

“Allow me to look up just who dares to kill a person of my Immortal Sect in front of us.” The Buddhist Nation Sovereign lifted a hand and tapped the void. A vast image of a map appeared in space, rapidly enlarging and focussing to reveal Four Seasons City. With a flick of his sleeves, the image began to rewind and play back.

…

The process of building the soul leading altar proceeded smoothly. When the last precelestial wood turned into a mote of light that hid in the mass of seven-colored light, it suddenly expanded and cracked. A vast and ancient blue-colored altar phantom appeared in the Dao Arena. The moment it did, an aura proliferated outwards, covering the training room.

To the outside world, everything seemed normal without even a change in aura. But inside, a connection had already been made. A soul channel had formed, one leading to a different world.

Qin Yu took a deep breath. Without any hesitation his divine sense howled out and fused into the altar. In the next moment, he felt as if he were sucked through a channel. Countless strobes of light passed around him. He had no idea how much time passed, but eventually, the tearing strength that tore at his divine sense suddenly disappeared.

Shua –

A vast sea of stars appeared in front of Qin Yu. Its magnificence was different from the time when he first entered the Ninerealm Holy Land…as if…it possessed a more profound vicissitudes of the years.

Before he could observe further, an invisible suction strength arrived from the far distance, wrapping around his divine sense and sending him howling deep into the sea of stars.

…

Solitary Westgate furrowed his eyes. He looked up towards the Dao Arena and that courtyard which didn’t seem to have any changes to it. He had felt a faint fluctuation in his mind just now, but when he went to look for it again he couldn’t find anything.

Was he too anxious?

Solitary Westgate shook his head, a helpless expression on his face. But as his eyes fell onto that distant courtyard, a bit of anticipation appeared in his eyes. He was a highly intelligent person, so he could naturally sense something strange from the actions of the Immortal Sect.

For instance, their competition with Qin Yu over the precelestial wood.

The Immortal Sect was overbearing and their strength was at the pinnacle of the Land of Divinity and Demons. They always tried to conduct themselves publicly in a righteous and epic fashion. Even if they wanted to eliminate Qin Yu as soon as possible, they wouldn’t do something so petty.

Precelestial wood…there was surely some secret he didn’t know of. The Immortal Sect must have detected it and didn’t want Qin Yu to succeed, thus they proceeded with this ridiculous plan.

Brat, within this heaven and earth, there are few that could make the Immortal Sect feel so much dread. I am looking forward to your future even more. Don’t let me down!

…

He couldn’t move his divine sense at all. Several times, his divine sense approached incomparably pitch black regions in the sea of stars. Even though there was a great distance separating them, Qin Yu still felt a fear gush out from the depths of his soul. He had no idea what these pitch black regions were, but there was something he was sure of – if his divine sense ever entered those regions, there was no chance it would ever come back out.

Luckily, although there were some dangers, the strength that wrapped around his divine sense managed to avoid all of the true dangers. And as he passed deeper and deeper into the sea of stars, this strength that wrapped around his divine sense became increasingly strong and his speed became increasingly fast, so fast that Qin Yu could no longer see anything around him. He finally understood why this attractive force would firmly imprison his divine sense. This was because if there wasn’t this strength firmly wrapping up his divine sense and protecting it, his divine sense would have already been smashed into nothing!

He had gone an incredibly deep distance into the sea of stars but he still hadn’t reached his destination. As he thought about the Monster Raising Mystic Art and the world it recorded that was said to be the home of the soul of nothingness, Qin Yu’s heart turned heavy.

It wasn’t easy for a most precious treasure of the heavens and earth to recognize a master. The first step was to collect 36 different soul treasures. If one had sufficient time and a dash of luck, they would eventually be able to accomplish this. But to collect the soul of nothingness, that was where one’s luck and character were truly put to the test. If he was lucky, he might be able to catch the soul of nothingness as soon as he arrived at this different world. If he wasn’t lucky…to escape alive would already be a blessing from the heavens!

Moreover, the opportunity to enter this world…there was only one time.

After an unknown period of time, there was a loud humming sound. Qin Yu shook so much that his field of vision turned black. When his divine sense restored itself, he discovered that he had appeared in a forest, one so incomparably vast that he couldn’t see where it ended. Countless ancient trees soared up like spears, piercing into the skies.

Although it was only his divine sense, Qin Yu could still clearly feel the terrifying richness of heaven and earth spiritual strength in this world. Just taking a single breath was the same as completely sucking dry the purest spirit stone in the Land of Divinity and Demons.

If anyone were born here, then perhaps even a pig might easily become a terrifying great monster!

Suddenly, a loud heaven-shaking rumbling came in from the distance. The ground started to shake and winds began to blow. Soon, Qin Yu discovered that this wasn’t wind at all, but the breathing of a great beast.

When Qin Yu first saw the creature, he confessed that even though he believed his willpower to be firm, his heart still skipped a beat. He never imagined that such a terrifyingly large beast could exist. Its giant body was like a massive dark cloud that blocked out the sunlight. Every step it took trampled the ancient sky-piercing trees, causing the earth to violently tremble and countless cracks to appear.

Its eyes were like the sun and moon and stars. Every single one of its hairs could fall down and crush a mountain. Its gentle breathing was like the roar of thunder.

Although Qin Yu had already mentally prepared himself to arrive at this world, it was only now that he discovered this world was far more terrifying than he imagined.

No, it was a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times more terrifying!

Fortunately, this great beast hadn’t seemed to discover Qin Yu, who relatively speaking, was even smaller than an ant. It moved towards the distance, finally vanishing from his line of sight. Behind it, the ancient trees that were trampled down rapidly rose up from the ground. The broken sections grew back, until finally there was no trace of damage left behind.

Soon, besides the countless leaves on the ground, everything had restored itself to how it was in the beginning. Even the cracks had vanished from sight!

What a horrifying self-repairing ability!

However, Qin Yu soon realized the reason for it. If this world didn’t have such amazing self-restoring capabilities, then no matter how powerful it was, it would never be able to survive the destruction caused by these giant vicious beasts.

“I hope that there aren’t many of those terrifying vicious beasts in this world…” Qin Yu whispered to himself. With a thought, his divine sense flew forward. He needed to find the soul of nothingness as soon as possible and leave this terrifying different world.