Refining the Mountains and Rivers

The skies grew increasingly dark. When the bone dragon swallowed up all of the specters in the giant graveyard, its body was thoroughly soaked in darkness.

Black energy tumbled around it. A 100,000 foot face appeared, its crimson eyes glaring at Qin Yu. “I will make you suffer for 10,000 lives and never enter samsara!”

Qin Yu had a calm expression, “Perhaps you really can accomplish that, but I’m sorry, your true opponent today isn’t me.” He took a step backwards. The bright sky behind him left a shadow on the ground.

But, this shadow didn’t move with Qin Yu. It flowed like water, stretching out and up until it condensed into Undying’s figure.

His face was blank. He had no eyes, nose, or mouth, but right now he gave off the feeling that he was earnestly looking at the black energy in the skies and the massive face that floated there.

For some unknown reason, when the massive face was caught in this ‘gaze’, it was filled with a deep sense of unease. This feeling caused it to roar in anger. It shouted, “Who are you!?”

Undying said, “Who I am is unimportant. What is important is that you have taken something that doesn’t belong to you. It is about time for you to pay the price.”

The giant face violently shivered. Obvious fear appeared in its crimson eyes. Then, it opened its mouth and the torrential spectral aura around it gathered together, condensing into a black sphere. It howled out…hiding itself in black energy.

It actually wanted to escape!

Undying looked up into the skies at the round bead that was rushing away surrounded with terrifying spectral strength. He lifted his hand and pointed at the void. The bead shivered and immediately collapsed.

His fingers moved, forming lines in the void. A faint shimmering rune appeared and a horrifying imprisoning strength erupted.

“No!”

The massive face screamed in panic. It was pulled out from the black energy. No matter how much it wildly struggled, it inevitably came crashing down.

As it fell, it began to shrink. Then, it was sealed up within the palm-sized rune. The rune trembled and then dissipated.

A pitch black bead fell into Undying’s hand. It was translucent and one could see countless black clouds tumbling within. The massive face was caught inside. It tossed itself left and right but it couldn’t escape.

Qin Yu revealed an amazed expression. Although he didn’t believe that Undying would joke about something like this, the subduing process still surpassed his expectations.

A light rune had suppressed the seafolk ancestor who had swallowed countless specters and drastically increased its strength. If he hadn’t seen this with his own eyes, he would have found it unbelievable.

“You took something that doesn’t belong to you…” Carefully thinking over it, these words seemed to contain countless meanings, enough for someone to mull over for days.

Qin Yu looked at the large graveyard. It had been thoroughly cleaned up and not a single specter was in sight. The black clouds in the skies rapidly faded away and the weather became unexpectedly bright.

Undying lifted a hand. He pressed the bead between his eyebrows and it sank into his forehead. He turned towards Qin Yu and hesitated for a moment before saying, “Master, I have indeed remembered something, but they are only incomplete fragments. Once I figure it all out, I will tell you.”

Qin Yu nodded. “Don’t worry about it too much. We have experienced so many life and death experiences together already. If I didn’t trust you, I wouldn’t have lived until now.” He smiled, “Let’s go. Once we find the divine stone we can bring this journey to an end.”

He walked back towards the graveyard. Undying stood behind. He ‘looked’ at Qin Yu’s back for several breaths of time before following.

With all of the specters sealed away, the graveyard revealed its original appearance. Qin Yu soon found traces of where the divine stone had crashed into the earth.

Passing several tombs that had been destroyed, Qin Yu made his way to the edge of the main tomb. There, beneath a giant stone pillar, was the divine stone that fell from heaven.

It had sharp edges and there were obvious signs of breakage. Its surface was crystalline, like some sort of strange jade that had been formed after withstanding extremely high temperatures.

And what was even more mysterious was that this divine stone had unusual fluctuations of strength coming from it. These fluctuations converged and dispersed like it was breathing, releasing a strange purple light as it did so.

But right now, what Qin Yu was concerned with wasn’t this divine stone. Rather, it was the stone pillar that had been cracked because the divine stone smashed into it.

Countless runes and lines were etched onto the surface of the stone pillar. They were chaotic and dense. But, if one stared at them long enough, one felt as if they would be drawn in. They were like a giant spider web, imprisoning the soul.

Qin Yu was startled. He immediately regained his composure. He averted his eyes, his complexion turning dignified.

This stone pillar was really strange!

Undying’s voice sounded out, “I also have an impression of this stone pillar. This thing is only an imitation. It seems that the suppressed seafolk ancestor had seen the true stone pillar before.” He pointed at the divine stone, “This thing possesses a great energy. When it crashed into the stone pillar it caused it to break a little. Because of this, the specter of the seafolk ancestor developed the wild idea of escaping from here, leading to everything that master experienced.

“This stone pillar represents absolute suppression against specters. Even if they know the divine stone is here, they cannot approach it at all…no matter how good the divine stone is, they could only look.”

There was a mocking tone in his voice.

Those seafolk specters had been baselessly bragging all this time. What sort of divine stone gifted by the heavens that only their king had the qualifications to possess? They were just putting up a pathetic façade.

Qin Yu smiled. Bragging or not, they had already been suppressed. Although he had no idea what that black bead was, when he looked at Undying’s attitude, it seemed those specters wouldn’t have a good ending awaiting them.

Although he didn’t sense anything wrong with his divine sense, Qin Yu still remained cautious. Light gathered in his hand. It slowly extended forward and picked up the divine stone.

His hand sunk when he received it. Although it was only the size of his palm, the weight was incomparably astonishing; it was at least several thousand jins. He probed it with his divine sense. When he determined that there really weren’t any hidden dangers within it, the light scattered and he touched it.

Qin Yu had never been interested in obtaining this divine stone. But now that he held it in his hands, he couldn’t help but be a little curious.

Just what sort of lucky chance was hidden in here that all the influences within the Land of Divinity and Demons, and even the seafolk, would send men over such a great distance to compete for it.

Carefully sensing it, Qin Yu discovered that there were six other auras echoed with the divine stone in his hands. It seemed that when this divine stone fell from the heavens, it divided into seven parts that were scattered all over.

Suddenly, out of the six auras Qin Yu felt, one of them began to rapidly weaken, soon vanishing completely. Soon, a second vanished, a third, a fourth, a fifth…

Qin Yu stared on helplessly as the purple light shining from the divine stone began to slow down and restrain itself. As if it had lost all vitality…

Qin Yu suddenly realized what had happened. Someone had perceived the good fortune contained within the divine stone and had obtained its strength. Although this divine stone was divided into seven, their auras were still connected as one whole. Once one part recognized a master, the strength from the other parts would be taken back.

Qin Yu’s eyes widened. He couldn’t help but furrow his eyebrows together. His lips moved as if he wanted to say something. There was a strange look on his face.

It wasn’t because the divine stone had turned into waste as soon as he found it. Rather, it was because the aura of the person who took away all of the divine stone’s strength was actually familiar.

This wasn’t an illusion…Qin Yu carefully recalled the feeling and his complexion became increasingly strange. Then, he also compared the approximate position of the last stone. Finally, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

“The divine stone from heaven actually chose that bastard…is it blind?”

Undying leaned forward, puzzled.

Qin Yu hefted the divine stone. “The good fortune in this has already been taken away. It just happens that I am old acquaintances with the fellow who did it.”

He helplessly shook his head. He wanted to return to the Land of Divinity and Demons as soon as possible, but now it seemed there were some side tasks he needed to finish first. Qin Yu sighed, not planning to explain himself. “Let’s go. After this, we really might need to provoke trouble.”

At the start, he intended to stay out of trouble. Then he had been compelled into helping the seafolk. Now, he likely needed to directly interfere.

Reality always proved contrary to expectations!

Undying didn’t leave. “Master, the burial items here are very rich.”

Qin Yu stiffened. “This…doesn’t seem too good. In the end, these are the burial items of other people’s ancestors.”

Undying’s voice didn’t waver. “We might as well. We’ve cleared out the entire Sea Mausoleum anyways.”

Qin Yu was enraged. “It was all for you fellows…whatever, it's fine, since you all ate to your heart’s content, I cannot leave here in vain!”

Even the ancestral specters had been swallowed up, so what scruples did he need to have? Since the pot was cracked he might as well throw it away!

After tossing away the chains of his psychological burdens, Qin Yu was immediately brimming with energy. It was true that the Sea Sovereign’s treasury couldn’t enter his eyes, but there were actually many good things buried here.

Half a day later, Qin Yu was fully satisfied. He flew out from the graveyard within the Sea Mausoleum, his figure shooting into the skies.