Refining the Mountains and Rivers

The phantom of the great wolf appeared between the two mountains. Its vicious jaws opened, a deep tunnel that connected into the ancient Nascent Soul cultivator’s cave dwelling.

Faint traces of pure world strength flowed out from it.

Qin Yu’s thoughts raced. He thought about the deficient world essence energy in Severed Spirit Mountain, the loss of strength in the array formation’s spirit stones, and also the recently restored spiritual strength.

Perhaps all of these occurrences were because of this cave dwelling!

War Bear turned and gravely said, “Everyone, the first to enter might obtain the initial opportunity, but also might fall into perilous danger. I would like to be the first one to enter; are there any objections?”

Gu Shengping said, “I broke through the cave dwelling’s outside array formation, but according to my judgments there should still be risks within. Fellow daoist War Bear’s cultivation is deep and your mortal body is potent too, so I believe you are the appropriate person to enter first.”

Daoist Wuyuan and Fairy Xiang hesitated for a moment before nodding.

Qin Yu didn’t have an opinion.

War Bear cupped his hands together. “Then everyone, let us meet each other again in the cave dwelling!”

Whoosh!

He shot up into the skies, flew into the jaws of the great wolf without hesitation, and vanished into the dark.

Gu Shengping turned and said, “Fellow Daoist Bear is standing firm in front, so I should move to continue breaking the array formations. I will be the second to enter; what does everyone think?”

Daoist Wuyuan’s eyes flashed. “I actually think that fellow daoist Gu should stay behind to better deal with any changes in the array formation and prevent any accidents that might occur.”

Gu Shengping’s complexion darkened. He coldly said, “If so, then you should all go together. I will follow in the rear!”

Fairy Xiang lightly said, “Fellow daoist Qin Yu should stay together with fellow daoist Gu. At least that way, you will have someone to watch your backs.”

Daoist Wuyuan nodded. “Then let’s do that!”

Gu Shengping hesitated for a moment. He coldly snorted and didn’t say anything else.

Qin Yu thought about it. He nodded.

“Then, we’re heading in.”

Whoosh –

Whoosh –

Daoist Wuyuan and Fairy Xiang flew away.

A light glimmered in the depths of Gu Shengping’s eyes. He turned, already impatient, and said, “Following this, you should stick close to me. Otherwise if something were to happen, don’t blame me for not warning you ahead of time.”

Qin Yu narrowed his eyes. “Fellow daoist Gu, rest assured that I will keep my eyes on you.”

This was tit for tat.

Gu Shengping’s heart skipped a beat. He coldly coughed and said, “Let’s go!”

Qin Yu’s figure flashed. He followed right behind Gu Shengping. Although he seemed calm, he was fully vigilant.

After entering the wolf’s jaws, their surroundings seemed to darken, as if all light was being swallowed by the wolf’s shadow. Then, an inexplicable tearing feeling pulled at them from all around. This feeling was extremely violent and strong, and even Qin Yu with his powerful Demon Body felt slightly ill. After several breaths of time, the scenery changed once more and Qin Yu appeared in a garden.

Withered leaves covered the ground. Without people tending to the garden, weeds had grown all around, and the landscape of the garden had been ruined. Not too far away there was a rock garden sculpture that was covered in vines. Only a few corners were visible, mottled in different colors.

Daoist Wuyuan and Fairy Xiang stood about a dozen meters away. The ground was covered in cut vines, and they were deep in thought. As they saw Qin Yu arrive, their eyes brightened for a moment before darkening once more.

“Where is fellow daoist Gu?”

Qin Yu frowned. Gu Shengping had been right in front of him, but now he had disappeared to who knows where.

Daoist Wuyuan and Fairy Xiang suddenly had ugly complexions.

When they arrived, War Bear had vanished somewhere. And, the signs of severed vines on the ground should have meant that he left on his own initiative.

And now, Gu Shengping had also vanished without a trace, and the ancient Nascent Soul cultivator’s cave dwelling had just opened. Something strange was happening here!

Daoist Wuyuan said in a low voice, “Everyone, it looks like we had best cooperate here.”

Fairy Xiang nodded. “That’s the way it should be.”

Qin Yu nodded and started walking towards the two. But soon, his expression darkened. He had already walked what should have been several meters, but the distance between him and Daoist Wuyuan and Fairy Xiang not only didn’t decrease, but it increased instead.

He stopped and flicked his sleeves. Magic power crazily swelled forth, sweeping all the fallen leaves away. They danced in the air, falling in a haphazard fashion. But, the way they landed was exactly the same position and angle as before they were sent flying away. Even the distance between each and every leaf hadn’t changed.

Array formation!

Qin Yu’s expression turned dignified.

Daoist Wuyuan and Fairy Xiang’s eyes widened. At this time, it wasn’t hard to guess that there must be countless wild horses galloping wildly through their hearts.

They never imagined that Qin Yu, someone reeking with killing intent, someone they thought had unfathomably deep strength, was actually an array formation idiot who couldn’t even make his way out of a mere sealing array formation.

How had he cultivated until today?

Sealing array formations were widely used all over, and there were even cultivators like Gu Shengping who specialized in array formations. Thus, cultivators that lived mind-bogglingly long lives would often learn a little about these array formations at the very least so they wouldn’t fall victim to them in the future.

It was normal for those at the Energy Refining realm to not know anything about sealing array formations, and even those at the Foundation Establishment realm might not be knowledgeable about them. But at the Golden Core realm, especially late Golden Core masters, if ten out of ten didn’t know about them, then at least nine out of ten did. This was just too rare an occurrence! And even though this Qin Yu didn’t seem to know much, he still joined them in rushing into this ancient Nascent Soul cultivator’s cave dwelling!

And, who didn’t know that these ancient cultivators liked to turn their cave dwellings into giant webs full of sealing array formations!

As the two looked at Qin Yu, a bit of pity appeared in their eyes. As they said, those who didn’t know anything, didn’t fear anything. Did this fellow not know how to spell the word death?

Daoist Wuyuan coughed. “Fellow daoist Qin, I think it is best that you stay here and not recklessly move about.”

Fairy Xiang nodded. “Although there aren’t any strong sealing array formations here right now, no one knows whether or not there are some powerful traps up ahead. Bursting in without knowing anything would be dangerous.

Qin Yu’s complexion turned ugly.

Daoist Wuyuan and Fairy Xiang turned to leave. They didn’t act differently, only turning around and walking away. Yet, they seemed to do so easily and comfortably, as if the array formation in this garden didn’t exist at all. After taking a few steps, their figures seemed to blur into a fog and they soon vanished from sight.

The gloominess on Qin Yu’s face dispersed. He looked behind him, and his face darkened once more.

When he entered here, he already discovered that Gu Shengping had disappeared. But at that time, he had discovered something else that made his heart race, thus he had been a bit slower in responding. The magic power in his body seemed to accelerate. It wasn’t him doing this, but the magic power in his body moving on its own volition, as if it were in a cheerful mood.

This was a summoning of magic power. There seemed to be something within this cave dwelling that shared some sort of origin with him, and was summoning him. Was this real? Or was it a camouflage, or even a trap that was laid down by the ancient cultivator?

After thinking for a moment, Qin Yu narrowed his eyes. He stepped towards the direction of the summoning, and as he did it was like stepping into a flowing stream of water. He could still feel the strength of the sealing array formation in this garden, but this strength no longer held any influence over him.

Qin Yu’s eyes brightened. He took several steps forwards and as he passed the rock garden sculpture, he also disappeared.

After a moment, several leaves on the ground parted and a small pitch black snake the width of a thumb drilled out. It swept its cold eyes around, and after pausing for a moment, revealed anger. Then it drilled back into the leaves.

….

Outside the garden, on a small bridge covered with vines, Daoist Wuyuan carelessly flicked his sleeves and took back a small black snake. His face was much gloomier than before.

Fairy Xiang’s eyes flashed. “What is it?”

Daoist Wuyuan shook his head. “It’s nothing.” He quickly walked forwards several steps. But then he cried out in alarm. A vine had wrapped around his feet and pulled him to the ground. Then, he was dragged out of sight.

Fairy Xiang shouted in startled anger. Formidable magic power fluctuations erupted from her.

Several dozen feet away, Daoist Wuyuan casually stood up, The vines that had wrapped around his body had all turned black and withered.

He looked around at the magic power shaking up the area. He turned and left, his speed over twice as fast as before.

This ancient cultivator cave dwelling had been discovered by War Bear first, so he had already expected that War Bear would have some hidden plan in advance. As for Gu Shengping and Qin Yu vanishing one after another, that started to shake the original confidence he had in his plan. He decided he needed to speed things up, otherwise he feared that by the end he wouldn’t even have a bit of soup left over from this large piece of meat that was the ancient cultivator’s cave dwelling.

…..

After passing the rock garden sculpture, there was a gravel path before him. Even though it was also covered with withered leaves, as he walked over it he could still clearly feel how sharp and hard the ground was. Qin Yu didn’t doubt that if he didn’t follow the summons of the magic power, the moment he stepped onto this trail, a terrifying strength would have erupted from below him.

At the very least he would have been wounded!

Sealing array formations, sealing arraying formations, sealing array formations, since it was so important he needed to repeat this to himself three times over!

Qin Yu promised himself that after this incident ended, he must carefully study it.

Or he would be placed in this passive position too often!

But at this moment, he was even more curious as to what sort of thing was able to summon his magic power. Qin Yu hadn’t changed his cultivation technique and was still using the three incomplete pages of the Eastern Mountain Sect’s True Wood Arts from before. And, he found it extremely difficult to imagine how an ancient Nascent Soul cultivator’s cave dwelling would be related to the Eastern Mountain Sect.

Moreover, this summoning seemed to be extremely beneficial. It didn’t harm Qin Yu in the least, and instead helped him travel through this sealing array formation-ridden cave dwelling, giving him seemingly open access to it. But, who knew just what lay hidden ahead? It might be a great harvest, or could be a great trap that was waiting to chomp him in half.

Qin Yu bitterly smiled.

The road of sealing array formations…keep on repeating it!

The trail was very long, as if it passed through the entire cave dwelling. As he walked through, he passed by three gardens and many large buildings. It was clear that this place used to have many occupants in the past. But, what was strange was that there wasn’t a single skeleton here, so where did all the people who initially lived here go? Could it be that they had left before this cave dwelling was sealed away?

Qin Yu felt that something was wrong.

If there really were people who left, then it would have been impossible for this cave dwelling to be so perfectly preserved until today. There would have been countless Golden Core cultivators red-eyed with envy that would have flipped this entire place upside down.

But if no one left, and he couldn’t see a single skeleton…tsk, this was just too horrifying!

Suddenly, Qin Yu stopped. Standing on the gravel trail, his head quickly veered to the side. A touch of white had appeared amidst the withered leaves, a striking contrast of color. Qin Yu flicked his sleeves and withered leaves and branches flew away to reveal a headless skeleton beneath.

He had thought it was strange that he hadn’t seen any skeletons before. But at this time Qin Yu didn’t relax. Rather, his complexion became even more serious and grim.

The quality of this skeleton was far too new!

Using the world ‘quality’ to describe a skeleton might not be respectful, but this was just a statement of the facts. And, the most important fact was that the skeleton’s skull had been recently cut off.

Qin Yu’s five senses had always far surpassed others’. So even though he was standing dozens of feet away, he could still clearly see the skeleton that had almost been fully buried by the withered leaves.

He could also clearly see the cut.

Daoist Wuyuan and Fairy Xiang had gone in the opposite direction. Then, the person who cut off this skeleton’s head must be War Bear or Gu Shengping. And, the question was, if they ran all the way here, why did they cut off a skeleton’s head? Moreover, this skeleton clearly wasn’t here when the cave dwelling was sealed away. It proved that before today, at some other time, there had been others who had come here!

Things had become even stranger.

Qin Yu hesitated for a moment and continued onwards.

Simply put, no matter what happened, since he had already entered, he had no other choice.

Staying silent and still wasn’t Qin Yu’s usual style. Since this cave dwelling was covered in layers of mysteries, then he would just slowly uncover them. The truth would eventually reveal itself.

Sha –

Sha –

In the quiet, only the sounds of footsteps walking over fallen leaves reverberated in the ears. The sound was bleak, desolate, dry, and as one heard it, they inexplicably felt their heart tense.

Shua –

Qin Yu stopped. He seemed to have reached the end of the gravel path. Covered by a thick layer of leaves, a floating mountain was partly visible in front of him. His eyes flashed, but after taking several steps his breath suddenly froze. He seemed like a piece of dead wood that merged together into his surrounding environment.

The aura-restraining law formula and aura-restraining pendant were being revolved at maximum power.

From up ahead, he could hear sounds!