Refining the Mountains and Rivers

But as he thought about it, these stone beads were all things that he casually picked up. The ones feeling heartbroken right now should be the Three United Trade Association. After thinking of this, Qin Yu immediately felt much better about himself.

“After losing an entire ship’s worth of stone beads they shouldn’t give up…” He mumbled to himself before immediately suppressing this thought.

He had already done the deed so it was impossible to turn back. Then, he might as well let the cards fall as they would!

With how potent Qin Yu’s will was, he could almost ignore the danger brought about by the walking corpses. But, the terrors within the Sea of Bewildering Fog were unlikely to be limited to just them.

After succeeding in obtaining so many spirit stones, not cultivating with them would be completely unjustified. He glanced over them and nodded in satisfaction.

With a flick of his sleeves, the chests that were tossed to the side immediately flew up and stacked in front of him. It was like a semicircular wall, forming an independent small space in this corner of the palace.

Even with all that was happening, cultivating was still important!

Light flashed and a pile of stones appeared in front of Qin Yu. He picked one up, a mesmerized expression on his face.

A warm flow of energy gushed out from the stone bead and directly into his body. Qin Yu could clearly feel his own will slowly strengthening.

Several breaths of time later there was a light cracking sound and the stone bead dissolved into powder. Without hesitation, Qin Yu picked up a second one.

Pa, pa, pa –

Pa, pa, pa –

The faint clear sounds constantly resounded throughout the hall filled with fog. He was like a little squirrel hidden in a tree hole, enjoying a meal of pine nuts.

Only when the 37th stone bead dissolved into powder did Qin Yu feel his will reaching its absorption limit.

He put away the remaining stone beads and closed his eyes. Within the world of his mind, a figure ran out. The surface of this figure’s body had golden flames twining around it. As it moved, these golden flames were absorbed and fused within.

Completely immersed in cultivating, Qin Yu didn’t notice that deep in the hall there was a statue covered in fog, and this statue’s eye was gradually beginning to emit a blood red light.

This statue had six arms, each one holding a weapon. It had one eye and fierce fangs like a ghost from hell. As this blood red light appeared, it began to absorb the fog within the hall.

As this fog was constantly fused into the statue, the statue’s aura rapidly rose. But, there was an invisible imprisonment on the surface of the statue so that its aura was completely suppressed to a bare minimum and didn’t spread outwards.

Shua –

Qin Yu’s eyes opened. A crystalline light flashed in his pupils and he smiled widely.

These stone beads were indeed the cultivation item must suited to him. Within such a short period of time his will had been enhanced by a considerable degree.

Silently calculating the process and how many stone beads he still had left, Qin Yu’s smile became increasingly bright.

But at this time, he seemed to sense something wrong. His eyebrows furrowed and he warily sensed all around.

The hall was peaceful and silent. There was no change from before…no, there was a change!

The fog had thinned.

He hadn’t paid attention to it before. But now that he was noticing, he could clearly tell that the fog had changed.

There was a sudden cracking sound from deep within the hall. For some unknown reason, Qin Yu’s heartbeat began to race.

As if a horrifying danger was about to arrive!

Starting from the first cracking sound, more and more followed as if plates of crystal were being struck. Then, there was the sound of things falling down and smashing into the ground.

A dignified expression crossed Qin Yu’s eyes. He stood up and looked deep into the hall. His gaze pierced through the light fog and landed upon a blood red light.

Hum –

His ears immediately buzzed. His eyes ached and tears burst out uncontrollably.

Rah –

A deep roar sounded out. As if it came from the abyss of hell, it carried with it an endless destructive aura that instantly flooded the entire hall.

Qin Yu suddenly stepped forward and flew into the skies. In the next moment, the ground where he had been standing suddenly blew apart.

This was an ancient bronze lance covered with rusty patches. Its tip still lightly trembled as it hummed in vibration.

Qin Yu had a solemn expression. He could feel a threat coming from the ancient bronze lance. The source of this threat wasn’t absolute strength, but a strange aura it contained.

Before he could think further, there was a loud thunderous ring from deep within the hall, followed by rapid heavy footsteps that were quickly approaching.

The blood red light in the fog became increasingly clear. It actually came from a singular eye. The statue had fangs that jutted out from its lips, white fog coming out in great plumes. Its six thick and sturdy arms each reached out in all directions.

The only empty hand suddenly grasped forward. The ancient bronze lance that shattered the ground suddenly howled back into its grip.

“The remnants of the War Clan should die!”

A deep roar came from the statue’s chest, causing the air to shake and shiver. The blood red light coming from the statue’s eyes grew bright as it shot out like an arrow.

Facing this blood red light, Qin Yu’s eyebrows furrowed together. He instinctively felt a sense of hate and loathing.

He lifted a hand and punched out. A terrifying strength rushed forth like a river. Before the blood red light approached, it was directly shattered.

The fist didn’t stop there. It continued racing forwards. One of the statue’s arms that held a sledgehammer suddenly bulged and smashed downwards.

Bang –

The sledgehammer flew away, tumbling several times in the air before crashing into the ground and leaving a deep crater. Cracks appeared on the statue’s arm and started to rapidly spread upwards. Wherever it crossed, stone would break apart and collapse.

But before these crushed stones fell to the ground, an invisible strength pulled them back towards the statue where they condensed into a new arm. The sledgehammer also flew back. In the blink of an eye, the statue was restored to its original appearance.

Qin Yu frowned. This statue wasn’t too strong in his eyes and destroying it was easy. And, reality proved that this was true. But what he didn’t expect was that it possessed astonishing regenerative abilities.

It was the fog in the hall!

As the statue repaired itself, the surrounding fog had thinned. This hadn’t escaped Qin Yu’s eyes.

He took a step forward, the ground collapsing. Countless cracks appeared as a terrifying impact wave spread out at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Strong winds whipped up, wildly pushing the fog away and causing the space around the statue to become empty.

Qin Yu’s strength erupted as he took a stance. The power of his legs raced up his body, finally surging into his arms as he violently punched out.

The statue lifted its six arms at the same time. In the next moment its body shook and a crazy strength pierced through it, causing ripples to appear in the surrounding air.

Countless cracks appeared, spreading over every inch of the statue. With loud crashing sounds, the statue was reduced to crushed stones and its weapons scattered along the floor.

The crushed stones wriggled and trembled. It was clear they wished to fuse back together, but without any fog present, they were clearly unable to do so.

Qin Yu furrowed his eyebrows. He smashed his feet down once more. The impact of strength erupted once more and the fog that was coming in was shaken back again.

Qin Yu repeated this several times. After being unable to fuse together with the mist, the trembling of the crushed stones began to die down. Then, as if a hundred thousand years passed in a moment, the weapons that the statue held decayed into nothingness.

It was only then that this statue was thoroughly killed. But, Qin Yu didn’t reveal any joy. Rather, he revealed a dignified expression.

His intuition told him that these statues were another formidable threat that existed in the fog.

When he hurried along here after gathering the treasure chests, Qin Yu faintly remembered seeing many similar statues.

If these statues were the same as the one he just fought then things would become troublesome!

Moreover, this region was only a relatively remote corner of the palace. Who knew whether more terrifying statues existed in the more important areas.

Bewildering fog, walking corpses, statues…just what secrets were hidden in this palace?

Suddenly, Qin Yu’s complexion changed. He took a step and submerged into the fog, rapidly leaving this place.

Soon after he vanished, the fog in the hall violently tumbled and several figures appeared. They were several large statues.

As these new statues saw the crushed stones produced from the dead statue, they all roared out in anger. They turned around and quickly left.

Qin Yu could hear howls coming from behind him. His complexion darkened. It seemed his guess was right. There was more than just one revived statue and they seemed to have some strange connection to each other.

This was too horrifying!

He had expended a great deal of effort to kill a single statue just now. If a crowd of them were to arrive, just thinking about the consequences left him frightened.

But the more it was like this, the more it proved that there was some enormous secret hidden within this palace. If he could figure it out, it was sure to be a great harvest.

Shua –

Qin Yu’s figure flickered and he vanished into the billowing fog.

…

A great incident had occurred in the Three United Trade Association. They had lost an entire ship’s worth of stone beads; they had been stolen away by some cultivator who had managed to insert himself into the crew. This was terrifying enough, but what was even more terrifying was that this cultivator had the ability to move through the Sea of Bewildering Fog.

It had to be known that for cultivators within the Sealed Stone World, the Sea of Bewildering Fog was the place they wanted to enter the most, but it was a place that they couldn’t approach.

For a time, news of this revelation even surpassed the incident of the Three United Trade Association’s stone beads being stolen away.

It was precisely because of this that the Three United Trade Association obtained a chance to catch their breaths. The great figures that had placed their own ‘personal wealth’ onto the ship quickly sent messages to the trade association.

If they could catch this mysterious cultivator then they would forget about the stone beings being stolen. But if they couldn’t, they would thrust the Three United Trade Association beyond redemption.

Even if the trade association had several great figures standing behind it, they still weren’t enough to withstand the anger of so many other people of equal standing.

Moreover, the Three United Trade Association was very interested in this mysterious person.

“Bring all activities to a temporary pause. Summon all the experts and send them off to the Sea of Bewildering Fog!”

“Catch this person no matter the price!”

“If he’s alive I want to meet him, if he’s dead I want his corpse!”

Mantuo was given an opportunity to redeem herself. Her entire body was wrapped in tight white bandages and her hate-filled eyes exuded a horrifying chill.

When she returned to the Three United Trade Association, Mantuo had fainted in a puddle of her own blood. She had quickly been carried away to be treated and saved. Besides the several people who treated her, no one knew what kinds of injuries she received.

As a result, no one knew that what lay beneath those white bandages was a completely rotted and tattered body. There were massive scabs and scars that were bruised and mottled. It was so bad that even looking at it made one want to vomit.

But as long as she could smoothly find this perpetrator, the Three United Trade Association would help her find a perfect mortal body to replace her own. To Mantuo, this revenge was the only hope for her to continue living.

“I will find you, I will definitely find you!” Mantuo growled in a hushed voice. She stepped onto a ship of the Three United Trade Association. Then, with a loud hum, the ship sailed far away from the sealed stone ‘nebula’.