Refining the Mountains and Rivers

After having such an intense falling out with the members of the Eclipse Clan as well as being shown the disapproval of Xu Ao, Fan Jianghai, and other disciples who didn’t share the last name of Eclipse, it could be imagined that Qin Yu’s days from now on wouldn’t be easy at all. But he remained as calm as before, not appearing bothered at all. Or, perhaps he was just appearing to be calm even as his heart and mind were quaking.

Whether it was because of his self-confidence or because he was hiding his emotions, Daoist Wang found Qin Yu even more pleasing to the eyes. After a moment of appreciation, his complexion began to darken. He sighed and said, “No wonder a brat like you wasn’t willing to accept me as your teacher; it was because you have a far greater background than I originally thought. Although I am extremely confident in my alchemy skills, I still have to acknowledge that Pill Crucible’s teacher is far greater than I will ever be.”

Qin Yu cupped his hands across his chest. “I accidently obtained the inheritance and don’t have any teacher who truly taught me. When it comes to the true path of alchemy, I ask that Senior Wang guide me.”

Daoist Wang’s eyes brightened and his complexion seemed to light up like a sunny day. He clapped his hands together. “While I cannot compare to Pill Crucible’s teacher, if it is that old fellow Pill Crucible himself, then besides cultivation, I don’t fear him at all!” Then, he whispered, “It’s hard to find someone suitable, but to think that person was actually intercepted before I got there. But, if I don’t do anything at all, that would simply ruin my reputation!”

Qin Yu furrowed his eyebrows. “Senior Wang?”

Daoist Wang coughed. He casually flipped his palm and a jade slip quietly fell to the ground. Then, his complexion changed. He cried out in shock and alarm, “Where did the jade slip that recorded all of my life experiences on alchemy and pills go!? That is something I specifically prepared for my future disciple! Having that jade slip in hand is no different from obtaining my whole-hearted teaching. I cannot allow something so precious to go missing. Well, I have to leave first, I must look for that jade slip!”

Whoosh –

Daoist Wang flew away.

Qin Yu was left dazed and dumbfounded.

Was this okay?

He rubbed his stiff face. After a moment he picked up the jade slip and probed it with his divine sense.

After a long time, Qin Yu let out a long breath, gratitude clear on his face.

The information recorded within the jade slip was extremely detailed; indeed, it was a person’s entire lifetime of understandings. If he fully comprehended everything in the jade slip, it would be the same as having his art of alchemy undergoing a transformative rebirth. In today’s cultivation world, there was still a heavy emphasis placed on tradition and inheritance. Unless one was at least a disciple, they could forget ever learning anything. But, even though Daoist Wang knew that it was impossible for him to take Qin Yu as a disciple, he still passed down his lifetime of understandings to him. This was a truly heavy kindness.

After putting away the jade slip, Qin Yu straightened his clothes and solemnly bowed in the direction that Daoist Wang flew off in.

As night arrived, a foot of sea blue light bloomed in his storage bag, covering the Soul Mushroom.

And what occurred didn’t leave Qin Yu disappointed. After absorbing the power of the sea blue light, the Soul Mushroom’s originally dispirited state became full of vitality.

Qin Yu smiled.

Taking out a new storage bag, he arranged the Soul Mushroom and Radiant Red Wood root there. While he currently wasn’t able to plant it in the earth to grow, he could at least guarantee with the little blue lamp that it would be full of life. Once he left Immortal Eclipse Valley in the future, he would have plenty of time to raise it.

Pill Crucible was extremely good to him, but it was still impossible for anyone to learn of the secret of the little blue lamp.

…

After refining the Eighth Furnace and obtaining the approval of the furnace spirit, even though Eclipse Yan was still known as Old Eight, the truth was that Qin Yu had become the true master of the Eighth Furnace station. The vast majority of Eclipse Clan disciples left along with Eclipse Yan, and the remaining few were at a loss of what to do. Qin Yu simply ordered them away and entered the 10,000 foot mountain once more.

He walked down to the lake of magma. Due to the approval of the Eighth Furnace, the blazing hot temperatures here no longer affected him in the least. He took out the jade slip that Daoist Wang had ‘dropped’ on the floor, and searched it with his divine sense once more. It was like he entered a vast and endless ocean of stars, his entire mind immersed in it.

Only when one wasn’t being disturbed by trivial matters could they truly devote their mind to learning something.

Ten days later, Qin Yu opened his eyes. His complexion was gray and his pupils were dim, making it seem as if he had overdrawn his mind. But in the very depths of his gaze, faint flecks of light flickered about, making it seem far more clear and bright.

“Senior Wang is indeed a great expert of alchemy. This jade slip just happened to make up all the flaws in my experience and theories, tempering my foundation and developing my field of vision so that I have a broader road of alchemy ahead of me. In 10 days, I was only able to quickly memorize everything. If I want to thoroughly understand and comprehend it all, that will slowly happen as I further my alchemy skills.”

Closing his fist, the jade slip crumbled into countless pieces. Before leaving, Daoist Wang had said that this jade slip couldn’t go missing in the outside world. Those words weren’t casually spoken but had their own profound meaning behind them. If Qin Yu didn’t understand him then he wouldn’t have been worthy of Daoist Wang leaving behind such a rich and deep alchemy inheritance to him.

Closing his eyes, Qin Yu began meditating once more, restoring his mind. After a day he opened his eyes. As his vision fell on the Eighth Furnace, it seemed incomparably bright.

Immortal Eclipse Valley’s eight great furnaces were extremely valuable, and their value lay in more than just being powerful pill furnaces that were used to refine pills. Their most precious aspect was that after refining one, a person had a chance to integrate a wisp of their divine soul into the furnace and experience the inheritance Samsara – in other words, to experience all of the pill refining processes performed by previous masters of the furnace.

This was the greatest good fortune of the eight furnaces!

Of course, opening the inheritance Samsara was considered a great loss to the eight furnaces. The furnaces each had spiritual wisdom so they wouldn’t easily open their legacies. However, the Deepest Earth Furnace, the eighth furnace, was a besotted and ridiculous fellow who had already allowed lust to shoot into its head. After being played around with by the Fleeting Flame Furnace, it had already completely forgotten who it was. Qin Yu only had to threaten it and coerce it a little, and the Deepest Earth Furnace immediately fell to its knees, howling that it would open its inheritance Samsara and that anyone who doubted it was looking down on it! Of course, after being masterless for a hundred years the Deepest Earth Furnace had accumulated a great deal of strength during this period, and this was also one of the reasons why it submitted so easily.

Taking a deep breath, Qin Yu whispered, “Deepest Earth, let’s begin.”

Within the lake of magma, the Deepest Earth Furnace absorbed the power of fire from the world. At this moment, it suddenly broke forth from the magma, violently trembling as it thundered upwards, causing the lake to tumble over in mighty waves. Blinding markings appeared on the surface of the furnace, turning into an immense torrent that submerged Qin Yu.

This might current didn’t cause any burning injuries at all. Rather, it was like slipping into a bath of hot water, being immersed in hot springs. Qin Yu’s consciousness gradually relaxed. He slipped into a deep sleep and dreamed an incomparably long dream.

In this dream, he was a young pill furnace child. At the start he looked after the furnace fires, and then he began choosing raw materials for pills. Slowly, he began to manage the alchemy material room and then he supported in refining pills, eventually becoming an independent furnace master. Gradually, with measured steps, he became an alchemy master of his generation.

After that he became a medicine garden guard. At the start he was caring for the spirit plants, and then he was cultivating them. With a stroke of luck, he coincidentally stepped onto the road of alchemy, then discovering that this path was what suited him the most.

Afterwards, he was a firewood-chopping youth. In the heart of a mountain he inadvertently stumbled upon a ragged book of animal skin. Ten years later he stepped onto the road of alchemy, and a hundred years later he became renowned, and eventually died of old age in bed at 900.

The inheritance Samsara. A wisp of soul entered Samsara, fusing together with all the experiences of the previous generations. This was Samsara, as well as a dream, and an unimaginable stroke of good fortune.

In this dream, Qin Yu walked from one life to the next. From small and weak to strong and mighty, from base and lowly to revered and honored, he followed the path of alchemy that those of the older generation followed. He walked down their paths, understanding and seeing their choices, sublimating their experiences and transformations.

Outside the 10,000 foot mountain, the mountain-stabilizing seal appeared, bursting out with unlimited rays of light. The entirety of the heavens lit up with burning heat. The great array formation of Immortal Eclipse Valley began to revolve on its own, imprisoning this vast aura, otherwise the surrounding area for a thousand miles would have been affected.

Even so, during the short period that this phenomenon appeared for, it attracted countless eyes from within Immortal Eclipse Valley. Envy, awe, confusion, helplessness…all sorts of moods wove into each other.

There was also grief and hatred!

Eclipse Yan was lying back on a soft bed that was carried by several disciples. He stared with wide eyes at the distant Eighth Furnace station. Although he wasn’t a furnace master, he had once initially refined the Eighth Furnace so he naturally knew what this phenomenon meant. It meant that the Eighth Furnace had opened up its Samsara inheritance for Qin Yu…the Samsara inheritance!

His mind began to shake and bursts of pain stabbed into his brain. Eclipse Yan could only think of a single thing – this should be his! Qin Yu had taken everything from him! After becoming the master of the Eighth Furnace he had even obtained the Samsara inheritance. A burning pain began to spread within his chest and his throat seemed blocked by something, leaving him unable to breathe. Eclipse Yan’s chest heaved and violently twitched, as he wheezed and gasped desperately.

“Great Uncle, what is wrong? Don’t frighten me!” Eclipse Clan juniors cried out in alarm.

Puff –

Blood gushed out from Eclipse Yan’s head. He slumped backwards, dead from anger.

An eighth level Golden Core of the Eclipse Clan had suffered a psychological attack from anger and died!

After a brief moment of silence, all the Eclipse Clan disciples began to scream in panic and horror. “Great Uncle died! Great Uncle died!”

On this day, the entirety of Immortal Eclipse Valley was thrown into confusion.

The death of Eclipse Yan was a lake of oil dumped onto the fire. The Eclipse Clan’s dissatisfaction reached the pinnacle of possibility, and Eclipse Wuzi wailed and cried, stating repeatedly that Qin Yu was the one who murdered her brother. The Eclipse Clan members were agitated by this and swarmed over to the Eighth Furnace station! Pill Crucible was in seclusion and couldn’t deal with this, so Xu Ao and Fan Jianghai were forced to take action. They forcefully suppressed the Eclipse Clan members, but this last act of compromise completely tore apart any sense of cordiality between the two.

The conflict between the Eclipse Clan members and those who didn’t share their name was like a raging fire. Several fights broke out throughout the day. Although no one died, an Eclipse Clan junior and two outside disciples had their cultivations wasted. The disagreements between the two sides only intensified.

Immortal Eclipse Valley was surging in chaos!

….

Xu Ao and Fan Jianghai were silent. They never thought that things would worsen so much in such a short period of time. As they thought about how they were being badly bruised and beaten out here while someone was comfortably closed up in seclusion and even receiving the Samsara inheritance that they envied so much, they could only bitterly smile.

Fan Jianghai sighed. “Junior Uncle has gone into hiding without needing to see anyone, and yet we’re breaking our legs out here trying to deal with all the fires. This is just ridiculous!”

Xu Ao shook his head. “It is the most intelligent decision for him to not appear right now. The Eclipse Clan’s anger is overwhelming at present. If he were to appear there would definitely be trouble. After some time, once the anger in their hearts fades a little, we can try to find a solution to resolve the situation.”

Fan Jianghai said, “I know that. It’s just that I don’t feel good about it. Even though he is our Junior Uncle, that doesn’t mean he needs to use us to deal with all his messes.”

Xu Ao hesitated and sighed. “In the end, this was all an accident. No one would have thought that Eclipse Yan would be so narrow-minded.”

Fan Jianghai forced a smile. “Still, I can forgive Eclipse Yan. He was just about to succeed in the refining, but now he even had to watch as the Samsara inheritance was taken away. If it were anyone else, I’m not sure they could withstand this either.”

Xu Ao rubbed his temples. “Enough. Let’s not speak of that anymore. Send out an order to suppress the disciples so they don’t come into conflict with the Eclipse Clan juniors. Perhaps everything will calm down once the Old Ancestor comes out from seclusion.”

Fan Jianghai was silent for several breaths of time. “Senior-apprentice Brother Xu, why do you think the Old Ancestor chose this time to go into seclusion?”

Xu Ao had a heavy expression. He said in a low voice, “Junior-apprentice Brother Fan, this isn’t something that you or I need to worry about!”

Fan Jianghai frowned. He helplessly shook his head. “Alright. I will go make arrangements now.”

He immediately left.

When Xu Ao was finally alone, he no longer forced himself up. He slumped back into his chair, his expression uncertain. If Fan Jianghai could realize it, why wouldn’t he? If the Old Ancestor went into seclusion at this time, it was likely that he had some hidden intent. Did he want to take advantage of this matter to intentionally beat him up a little and tell him not to be too ambitious?

After thinking about it for a long time, Xu Ao took a deep breath. His eyes were firm and decisive.

He had received the graciousness of the Old Ancestor and that was the only reason he had reached his current position. Although he had a wild dream of ascending the throne of Immortal Eclipse Valley, if the Old Ancestor didn’t permit him then he could only lay this dream down.

Right now, the most important matter was to maintain the stability within the valley.