Refining the Mountains and Rivers

After eating a meal with the two women and conversing with them, Qin Yu excused himself to handle some matters. Once he left the palace, his face darkened.

“Your Majesty, the Dao Arena Master is waiting.” The Demon Envoy carefully said. Qin Yu gave off a feeling as if he were a man-eating beast right now.

Qin Yu took a deep breath to calm himself. He nodded and then stepped out, vanishing from sight.

In the next moment, he appeared outside another hall. He said, “Westgate, I already noticed your complexion changing before. What is that altar and what has the Immortal Sect done?”

Solitary Westgate furrowed his eyebrows together. “As you’ve probably heard, that altar’s name is Immortal Origin. It is rumored to be the origin of the Immortal Sect’s strength and possesses extremely terrifying powers.”

He looked Qin Yu in the eyes and continued to say, “In the Immortal Sect, anyone that has an honored status will be marked by Immortal Origin’s aura and thus receive the protection of the Immortal Sect’s destiny. This is highly beneficial to one’s cultivation. But correspondingly, if one betrays Immortal Origin, they will have to suffer Immortal Origin’s punishment…”

Qin Yu’s face paled. “Why did you not tell me this before?”

Solitary Westgate said, “First of all, Shen Yuanyin’s status is too high so I thought she wouldn’t be restricted by Immortal Origin. And since so much time passed with nothing happening afterwards, I decided to maintain my silence.”

Qin Yu drew in a deep breath. “My apologies. I was rude just now. Westgate, can you tell me what the result of Immortal Origin’s punishment is?”

Solitary Westgate was silent for several breaths of time. “I won’t lie to you. In order for the Immortal Sect to activate Immortal Origin to lower a punishment, they would need to pay a steep price. As you saw, the Zhao Empire’s three million strong army was the sacrifice they offered this time.

“So the result shouldn’t be good…Qin Yu, you must remain calm. The Buddhist Nation Sovereign’s final words were clearly to lure you into the Immortal Sect. No matter what happens, you cannot fall for his schemes!”

Even Immortal Origin had appeared; this proved how determined the Immortal Sect was. If Qin Yu were to enter the Immortal Sect world once more, no one knew what would happen then.

“What do you mean by not good?” Qin Yu muttered without expression, “I will absolutely not allow anything to happen to her!

“Westgate, you are the master of the Dao Arena, with spies spread throughout the world. You must know a method to undo this. Tell me! No matter what the price is, I will pay it!”

Solitary Westgate’s expression was heavy. “Qin Yu, I can truly understand how you are feeling right now, but I really am sorry…”

“Sorry? There’s no need for that.” Qin Yu turned and walked away, “I will definitely find a solution!”

At night, he entered the Demonic Path’s ancient text pavilion. Then with the highest level of authority, he sifted through anything that had information related to the Immortal Sect’s Immortal Origin. Until night faded away and dawn appeared, he kept reading. Qin Yu eventually put down a thick tome. He lifted his hands and rubbed his face. Then, his figure flickered and he vanished from sight.

Ning Ling and You Qi were chatting with each other. Ning Liang kept her head lowered as they walked around. Occasionally she glanced up at her gentle and kind sister, a dazed look appearing on her face.

Qin Yu appeared outside the hall. He walked inside with a smile. “I was busy all evening yesterday so I thought I should join you for breakfast now.”

He hugged Ning Ling and You Qi and nodded at Ning Liang.

“If you’re tired you should go rest. We can eat by ourselves.” Ning Ling said with a warm expression. Her cultivation had been temporarily imprisoned so she needed to eat food to obtain energy from the outside world. Three meals were prepared for her each day.

Qin Yu smiled. “I’ll go and rest after I eat.”

After breakfast was finished, he smiled and stood up. He glanced at Ning Ling’s wrist. The blood red dot was a little larger than yesterday.

Whoosh –

He left the Holy Palace. Shooting through the skies, he soon arrived at the Blue Skies Yellow Springs. He found Yama and dove straight to the point, “Yama, you should know my purpose in coming. Is there any way to undo the punishment of Immortal Origin?”

Beneath her dark gold mask, Yama had an apologetic look. “Your Majesty Holy Monarch, I am helpless in this matter.”

“I understand.” Qin Yu turned and left.

Yama looked at Qin Yu’s back and sighed. Immortal Origin…this was Immortal Origin…once punishment descended, that was equal to death!

Darkness covered the world, so thick it was like ink. One couldn’t even see their five fingers placed right in front of them.

Qin Yu stood outside the darkness. He asked, “Supreme Seat, if you can provide me with a method to undo Immortal Origin’s punishment, I vow that I will find a complete godhead for you as a reward.”

The Dark Night Supreme Seat’s cold voice echoed out from the darkness, “Although I desire to obtain a godhead, I cannot achieve this.”

Qin Yu sucked in a deep breath, “Then I won’t keep disturbing you.”

He flew away. Beneath his sleeves, his hands were tightly clenched together, so much that blood seeped out from the seams of his fingers.

After spending a night pouring through the ancient texts, he came to an understanding of just how horrifying Immortal Origin was. Still, he held onto a tiny ray of hope.

“No! I cannot give up! Ning Ling will be fine, she will definitely be fine!” When Qin Yu returned to the Holy Palace he directly entered his chambers. Then, his mind reached into the distant nothingness and summoned the little blue lamp.

At this point, he couldn’t worry about anything else. No matter what, he couldn’t watch on helplessly as Ning Ling died.

Time slowly passed. The little blue lamp remained quiet, as if not responding to his summons.

Qin Yu roared, “I know, I know you can sense me! Come out!”

His roars echoed through the chamber. Little blood vessels rose up on his eyeballs, making his eyes appear red.

Fluctuations of aura passed through endless space to arrive in his soul space.

Bang –

From the collapsed space, a great sun phantom wrapped in nothingness appeared. “Qin Yu, I cannot help you.”

Shua –

Qin Yu’s soul opened its eyes. “I don’t believe you! Through all of our years together, you should understand more than anyone just how important Ning Ling is to me. Please, just take this as me begging you! No matter the price, I will promise you!”

The little blue lamp was silent for a long time. Then, it said, “Qin Yu, you are the person I chose. If possible, I would help you if I could. But concerning this matter of Ning Ling, I really am helpless. I apologize.”

Qin Yu’s eyes were icy cold. “You cannot do anything? Or you will not do anything? Tell me the truth!”

“I will not.” The little blue lamp’s thought fluctuations spread out, “In a short period of time I have already assisted you twice and it is impossible for me to completely hide my aura. If I were to assist you a third time, it would become extremely dangerous. Once locked onto, you should understand how dire the consequences will be.

“Qin Yu, I know that you are willing to die for Ning Ling. But, if we are discovered, do you think that Ning Ling will survive?”

Qin Yu’s soul shivered. “Can you really not?” With his personality, his current actions showed how much chaos and turmoil his heart and mind were in.

The little blue lamp’s thought fluctuations carried a faint chill, “I cannot.”

Qin Yu drew in a deep breath. His soul closed its eyes. “I understand. Please go.”

The dark nothingness and the sun phantom inside disappeared like a bubble that had been popped. Space quickly returned to how it was before.

The little blue lamp was Qin Yu’s greatest hidden card. And, it was also where his final hopes were.

But now these hopes had been shattered!

The chamber was deathly silent. Qin Yu stood there motionlessly like a block of dead wood. After a long time, his eyes slowly opened and they were even redder than before. “I will not give up. I will never give up. Even if it is the world, it can give up any idea of taking her from my side!”

On this day, the Demonic Path openly issued a reward to the entire Land of Divinity and Demons. As long as there was anyone capable of resolving the punishment of Immortal Origin, they would be able to obtain an unlimited pledge from His Majesty the Holy Monarch.

As news of this spread, the world was shaken. The matter with the Qin Empire had yet to pass so what was the Demonic Path’s intent behind this? Who had suffered the punishment of Immortal Origin? Was this related to the complete fallout between the Immortal Sect and Demonic Path?

No one knew the answer to this, but that didn’t stop the news from creating massive waves in everyone’s hearts.

An unlimited pledge from the Holy Monarch…even though the Qin Empire had just betrayed the Demonic Path, no one doubted the energy contained in this pledge.

Almost anything would be possible!

Countless people began to move in secret. It didn’t matter if they succeeded or not. Even if there was just an infinitesimal chance of success, they wouldn’t give up on such an opportunity.

What if they somehow succeeded?

Thus, for the following period of time, the Demonic Path received tens of thousands of suggestions on how to undo Immortal Origin’s punishment. Although many of them were incomplete, they still needed to be tested to see if they would work.

The Holy Palace mobilized their full force to carry out testing at the fastest pace possible. But, to test tens of thousands of methods would require an immense amount of time.