Refining the Mountains and Rivers

The skies were bright and clear the next day. With a cry of alarm, the entire village fell into noisy chaos.

Countless villagers stared with wide eyes at the massive piles of stone and rubble that had poured down onto the grounds outside the village. Looking upward, one could see that these giant crushed stones came from the mountain that had existed for thousands of years. That mountain had been brutally crushed and the stones here were the result.

“Look at these fallen stones. They must have struck something before stopping! This is definitely the mountain god protecting us, otherwise we would all have died in our sleep last night!”

The elderly people in the village had excited expressions. They fell to their knees, turning to the mountain and bowing towards it. Soon, many other people joined them in supplication.

When Qin Yu pushed open the door and came out, the village had already finished praying to the mountain god. Right now they were busily moving the stones that were blocking the village.

People from several surrounding villages hurried over. Although they didn’t want to believe that the mountain god would have protected such a dirty and tiny Wali Village, the facts were laid out before them.

The thoughts of many people raced. They immediately shouted that all of the surrounding villages were of one family, and if Wali Village had problems, they would definitely help.

But, the villagers quickly rejected this idea with loud righteousness! Since the lord mountain god blocked these stones, then perhaps these stones possessed a bit of the lord mountain god’s aura.

Hum hum, how could they let outside villages take advantage of something so fantastic!

Didn’t they see that the villagers were all desperately trying to move the stones back to their homes?

Hey, do you not see the old man of the Li Family? He is already over 240 years old but even he rolled up his sleeves and is doing everything in his power to move the stones. He’s even more energetic than a young man!

It was said that the old man wanted to use the stones blocked by the mountain god to create a coffin for himself…this was also a wonderful idea. Even after dying, one would be protected by the lord mountain god!

The Zhou Family’s old man was also excited. When he walked out into the courtyard, he just happened to see the granny and A’li doing their best to push one of the large stones towards their home.

“Young Qin, what are you standing there for? Hurry up and help!” The old man’s voice was loud and his face glowed with health. It was like he had become several dozen years younger.

Qin Yu nodded and hurried over to push the stone. After taking two steps he asked, “Old sir, what do you plan on doing with these stones?”

The old man’s eyes widened. “You brat, go outside the village later and take a look. Our Wali Village is under the protection of the mountain god. Last night the mountain cracked and there was a landslide, but our village wasn’t affected at all. These stones were blocked for us by the lord mountain god, and they must be suffused with his aura…young Qin, hurry and push harder! After pushing this stone, go out and take a look with A’li then we’ll hurry and move some more. There won’t be any left by nighttime!”

Qin Yu was stunned for a moment before he composed himself. He immediately understood the story behind this situation. This was a truly unusual event, a complete misunderstanding! Old man, you are overthinking things!

But there definitely wasn’t any way he could explain this situation. Seeing the old man’s excited expressions, his thoughts turned and he decided to give up on trying to change his mind.

If the stones needed to be moved he would move them. He’d just consider this a form of exercise.

A stone was brought back home. Before being able to take a sip of water, A’li was told to stay behind as a guard and the old man grabbed Qin Yu and rushed back.

Following this, for the rest of the day, Qin Yu was moving rocks, moving rocks, moving rocks…the small Zhou Family courtyard had nearly become a quarry.

Of course, every other home in Wali Village was also more or less like this. In a single short day, all of the stones outside the village had been cleaned up. There were even old men and old women on walking sticks searching everywhere for scraps of stone, saying that they could fashion them into charm amulets and other accessories. As for the outside villagers who had waited all day and wanted to taste a bit of the soup too, they were all left in tears.

Do you old people need to be so earnest and even take away stones the size of a fingernail? You have so much, so leave some for us!

At night, Wali Village held a massive bonfire feast. After moving stones for an entire day, all of the men and women, children and elderly arrived. Their hearts and bodies were overflowing with energy.

Using the words of the village elders, this was all because of the lord mountain god’s aura that suffused the stones. Everyone agreed and cheered in abundance!

Qin Yu sat in a corner, quietly drinking the rice wine that the villagers brewed themselves. He had a bitter smile on his lips. Just what the hell was this?

Whatever. Since they thought it was useful, that was all that mattered.

Looking at the lively scene before him, he smiled a little.

Sometimes, ignorance was also happiness…

A’li sat with a group of girls, acting like girls of her age usually did and happily chatting with her friends. She inadvertently glanced at Qin Yu and her eyes paused. At this moment, everyone was celebrating and Qin Yu had a light smile on his face. This was an especially striking sight, completely incompatible with everything around him…he seemed at peace…could he be thinking about his family or his friends?

For the first time, A’li discovered that this disgusting and loathing man’s smile was extremely attractive, and it also gave off a sense of ease.

“Ah! Everyone look, A’li is peeking at a man!”

Hu –

Her cheeks flushed red and she angrily said, “I wasn’t! How could you speak such lies, just wait for me to punish you!”

The girls broke out into giggles, their laughs like tinkling silver bells. Many surrounding eyes were drawn towards them.

The revelry ended late at night. The men were all drunk from drinking and had to be supported back to their homes by the women. The Zhou Family old sir was extremely drunk. Luckily, Qin Yu himself was sober. Otherwise if the old granny and A’li had to lift him back home, that would be terribly troublesome.

After putting down the old man, Qin Yu returned to his room and lay down in bed. His profound eyes peered through the darkness and towards the mountains. A day had already passed. That big snake should have regained its senses by now, right?

…

In the mountains, in the blood-eye ink snake’s dwelling –

Right now the snake was soaking in some sort of pitch black spring water. The broken scales on its body had fully recovered. At this time, its blood red eyes opened and flashed with a cold light. It constantly replayed the events of last night in its mind…and it felt that something was wrong.

If that human really did possess the terrifying strength it had felt, then he could easily kill it with a wave of his hand. Why would he allow it to escape so easily? The snake disregarded any possibility that this human might be some kind and merciful Buddhist believer. For those people whose cultivation had reached this level, who didn’t have hands that were soaked in blood?

The blood-eye ink snake thought about it for a day, and an idea became increasingly clear in its heart – this human was most likely a formidable cultivator, but he had also suffered severe injuries.

As for the companion spirit grass, that just happened to have the function of stimulating one’s potential and breaking through their limit. This was why the human was able to erupt with such a terrifying aura after swallowing them.

But once the companion spirit grass lost its effectiveness then the human’s strength would recede and he would be even weaker than before.

Damn it! How come it didn’t think of this yesterday? It had actually fallen for this human’s ploy and had been forced to retreat in fear!

How hateful!

As the blood-eye ink snake thought about how it had failed to swallow a human powerhouse last night as well as obtain his secrets, the sorrow and lament in its heart was enough to form a river.

Fortunately, it had a chance to atone for its mistake and clean itself of shame. If a formidable cultivator needed to hide away in a mountain village after being wounded, there had to be a reason behind it.

The blood-eye ink snake didn’t care about what this reason was. As long as this human cultivator had nowhere else he could go, then it was fine.

But it still had to hurry up. If the human cultivator fled, it would surely regret this for the rest of its life!

With the aid of the naturally created ink pool, the blood-eye ink snake recovered at an incredibly fast rate. By tomorrow its wounds would be fully healed.

At that time it would kill off that human cultivator and then raze the mountain village to the ground, dispelling the rage in its heart!