Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Qin Yu closed his eyes, his mind condensed into a point. The highly concentrated degree of his mental state made his perception incomparably sharp. Then, according to the method the Ancient taught him, he found the power hidden deep below the arena. It was like a rock beneath the sea, slowly rising up to the surface.

Hou –

A loud roar entered his mind. Qin Yu’s surroundings suddenly changed as his mind went somewhere else. He found that he was in a grand underground palace buried deep below the earth. A giant blue altar stood in front of him, emitting a pale light. Countless runes flowed across its surface. Then, these runes rushed out in all directions, covering every inch of the underground palace.

The function of these runes was to isolate and imprison, and their target was the massive sleeping dragon on the side of the altar. Its body was so large that even if it were folded up countless times it would occupy the entire altar. At first glance, all one could see were massive black scales that looked like lines of bulging rocks.

At this time, the great dragon’s eyes suddenly opened. With loud and harsh rustling sounds of scales rubbing on scales, the great dragon slowly stretched out its body and its giant head rose up. Its deep blue eyes were like the endless sea. It stared tightly at Qin Yu, as if thoroughly drowning him.

If it weren’t for the fact that Qin Yu had learnt the details about this great dragon from the Ancient, then he would never have been able to tell that this was only a formidable dragon soul with no physical body of its own. To be able to condense a body that was almost the same as tangible substance, the soul force of this great dragon’s soul had surpassed Qin Yu’s understanding.

When the great dragon’s eyes locked onto him, Qin Yu felt as if a mountain had fallen upon his shoulders. He was pressed down so hard that he nearly exploded and he was unable to move at all. Without daring to delay, he immediately released the Ancient race’s aura from his body. On the altar, the great dragon’s eyes revealed a look of excitement.

“For countless years, the long and deep slumber nearly made me forget what the concept of time was. But now you have finally arrived…the clansman that my master determined would arrive.” The great dragon’s deep voice echoed through the underground palace, like endless peals of thunder.

The suppression that Qin Yu withstood instantly vanished. He took a deep breath and said, “Now, I need your help.”

The great dragon looked down. “Although you are stained with the aura of my master, if you want my help, you need to have my master’s mark.”

Qin Yu lifted a hand and spread his fingers. A dragon claw marking, one that was reduced numerous times over, appeared on his palm, flashing with a faint light.

The great dragon nodded. “That is my master’s mark. You have the strength to temporarily open the altar. What needs to be done? Tell me.”

The arena.

Standing high above, Qin Yu opened his eyes. His stretched out arms slowly rose up. Although the speed was slow, it had the pressure and dignity of a thousand soldiers. At this moment, his actions attracted the attention of the entire audience. Countless cultivators revealed looks of surprise, but there were even more that couldn’t hide their disdain.

The blood red face that arrived was a terrifying strength that originated from beyond their world. According to people’s guesses, it likely came from the abyss and was either a Great Lord or Imperator level existence.

This sort of existence could cause the heavens to collapse, the earth to sunder, and endless creatures to perish with a single thought. Even if this was only a projection, it was impossible to resist.

Unless this black-robed cultivator was a legendary super powerhouse that had truly stepped into the Divine Dao and had even condensed his godhead, there was no other way he could change the outcome.

But was this possible? It was clearly wishful thinking.

The puppet cultivator from the Dark Parliament felt his heart skip a beat. A dignified look crossed his face. He thought back to their previous confrontations with Qin Yu. Qin Yu was someone who had always been able to change their impression of him each time. He was like a mountain hidden deep in the fog; it was impossible to see how high it was.

Could he also reverse this situation? No, no, that was impossible. Even if the Dark Parliament’s seven Senators all came here personally and each one of them released their greatest hidden cards, they could only just contend with this blood red face.

If Qin Yu could achieve this by himself…then his danger level would immediately be moved to the highest rank without hesitation. There would only be one path left in front of the Dark Parliament to deal with him – they would have to bring about his complete ruin!

Otherwise, such a terrifying and mysterious enemy would likely bring unimaginable disaster to the Dark Parliament in the future.

“I hope I am just overthinking things…” The Sage-controlled puppet whispered.

But now that Qin Yu had obtained the help of the Ancient, it was impossible for things to go the way Sage wanted them to.

As Qin Yu’s arms rose up in the air, the arena started to shake.

Everyone was able to sense this. They subconsciously widened their eyes and looked at Qin Yu with disbelief.

The vibrations grew increasingly intense. It was like some deeply slumbering existence imprisoned far below the earth was escaping its shackles and working itself free…and in truth, this wasn’t their imaginations, but reality.

The dark star ice serpent restlessly roared out loud. It could feel an aura from deep below the arena locking onto it from a distance. This was a level of suppression that came from the very essence of its life. It wanted to turn around and flee.

It looked up at Qin Yu. At this moment, it would instinctively seek out the being it thought was the most formidable for help.

Qin Yu nodded in return. The dark star ice serpent relaxed a little. Although it was still nervous, it had at least stabilized itself.

Thinking about it, Qin Yu said, “in a moment, relax your heart and mind and do not resist. Otherwise you will experience hardship.”

The dragon soul wouldn’t care about the dark star ice serpent. If Qin Yu hadn’t greeted it ahead of time and given some suggestions, then it might have directly seized its body instead. The dragon soul wouldn’t have gone through so much trouble, splitting off a part of its concentration to protect the dark star ice serpent’s weak and small soul.

Because of the arena’s strength, Qin Yu wasn’t able to send a secret sound transmission. So, everyone clearly heard his words.

What was the meaning behind his words?

Before people could contemplate this, the ground below the arena thundered as if something had detonated. The entire arena fiercely shivered.

Kacha –

Kacha –

The incomparably hard stone of the arena directly shattered. Countless cracks formed, leading to the fathomless darkness below.

Hou –

A dragon’s roar rang out. A massive great dragon phantom flew out from the crack. The presence and might of the dragon race flooded out. Everyone felt their chests turn heavy as their faces paled.

“Great dragon!”

Countless cultivators cried out in alarm.

It had to be known that in this world, besides some ancient texts that contained records of the dragon race, they had simply never appeared.

But from deep below Dragon City’s arena, a genuine great dragon had flown out. Even if it was only a soul without a physical body of its own, it was still a mythical great dragon. This was without a doubt!

After it roared, the great dragon soul swept its eyes over the entire audience. Wherever it looked, people lowered their heads and avoided its gaze. The formidable spiritual oppression in those deep blue dragon eyes made it so that no one dared to look directly at it.

Its eyes paused on Qin Yu. Then, the great dragon dove down. Its target was unexpectedly the dark star ice serpent that had curled up into a ball and was shivering.

With its strength, it shouldn’t be in such a distressed state. But it just so happened that the dark star ice serpent lineage that the Hidden Fog Sect cultivated possessed a thin strand of the great dragon bloodline within. This was also the reason why they developed sharp claws.

As for the dragon soul from the underground altar, in reality it was an artificially created being. It was refined from countless fragments of great dragon souls. After passing through a series of mutations, its soul level was comparable to the initial dragon ancestors.

The dark star ice serpent was withstanding an absolute suppression that came from the plane of the soul. For it to not fall unconsciously and maintain its awareness already proved that its willpower was firm.

A look of surprise flashed in the dragon soul’s eyes. It never expected that a monster beast with an extremely thin dragon race bloodline was actually able to maintain consciousness beneath its soul pressure.

From the look of things, this monster beast wasn’t completely useless. The dragon soul was much more satisfied with the dark star ice serpent and decided to give it some benefits. Although the dark star ice serpent wasn’t a descendant of the dragon race, if it became stronger then it should be able to help master with some minor matters.

The dragon soul was as quick as lightning. In the blink of an eye it arrived by the side of the dark star ice serpent. Without stopping, it fused into the spirit beast’s body.

The dark star ice serpent’s massive body stiffened. It raised its head high, pain shining in its eyes. Then, immediately after, its black scales began to pop off, revealing wriggling flesh and blood beneath.

At the same time, the dark star ice serpent’s body cracked and popped. The sounds of breaking bones and tendons erupted, nearly linking into a single stretch.

The dragon soul was transforming its mortal body, making its mortal form that much more similar to a dragon’s. This was so that the dragon soul could better display its true strength.

Hou –

Hou –

Pained roars followed as blood rained down, dyeing the earth red. The dark star ice serpent’s claws thrashed around, leaving deep scratches and causing rocks to fly up.

During this process, the dark star ice serpent’s body grew at a speed visible to the naked eye. Its cracked flesh and blood multiplied in size and then started to develop new scales.

During the transformation, the dragon soul was even more satisfied with the dark star ice serpent. This quality of this monster beast’s body was higher than expected; it could save it a considerable amount of strength.

If so, perhaps it could deliver another lucky chance. As the dragon soul’s thoughts changed, so did the dark star ice serpent.

The flesh and blood on the top of its head rapidly bulged. The pain that the dark star ice serpent experienced had increased several times over. Its massive body rolled on the ground.

But its eyes were actually filled with joyous surprise. After its initial panic, the dark star ice serpent soon realized that its mortal body was being strengthened. And at this time the dragon soul was also directly promoting its bloodline.

Once it gave birth to a second horn, it would become the incarnation of a flood dragon, a close relative of the dragon race. In fact, if it constantly cultivated and strengthened its dragon race bloodline, it might even have a chance of transforming into a true great dragon.

However, for this sort of bloodline level improvement, and with the crude and direct method that the dragon soul had decided to use, the pain one experienced was proportional to the harvests. Even if the dark star ice serpent knew it was a good thing, it almost collapsed several times over.

When it felt that it could no longer persist, the agonizing pain vanished like a falling tide.

The dragon soul’s voice echoed out, “Little kid, leave the rest to me.”

Then, it took control of the dark star ice serpent’s mortal body.

Shua –

Its eyes opened, rapidly turning deep blue. At the same time, the aura that the ‘dark star ice serpent’ released began to rise at a terrifying speed.

In a flash, it surpassed several boundaries. The surrounding space constantly broke apart as countless tiny cracks appeared and vanished in an endless cycle.

This was because space itself wasn’t able to withstand the fluctuations of its strength. And this was when the ‘dark star ice serpent’ was in a passive condition. Once it attacked with all its strength, the chaos and destruction that would ensue could be imagined!

The dark star ice serpent looked up, its deep blue eyes locking onto the heavens.

The blood red face in the skies seemed to sense a threat. Its eyes trembled and slowly opened.

There was endless red within. It was like an endless pool of blood and also a sea of surging magma, containing nothing but slaughter and death.