Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 101 – Spiritual Objects of the Five Elements

The street was spacious and straight, and the wooden pavilion was gorgeously built. Although the name of Heavenseek Pavilion was widely known, it didn’t have any of the expected mystical and mysterious atmosphere.

Of course, this wasn’t Canyondwell City, but a large cultivator city within the boundaries of the Northern Dynasty called Song City.

The reason he had come this far wasn’t because he had extra time on his hands. Rather, since he had no choice but to visit Heavenseek Pavilion again, he certainly didn’t want to do so with his original identity. Since he had come much farther north and had even changed his appearance, even the ever-resourceful and knowledgeable Heavenseek Pavilion shouldn’t be able to find out his true identity, right?

“Welcome to Heavenseek Pavilion!” A female cultivator respectfully bowed, her warm voice as pleasant as a spring wing. Her appearance and clothing were all perfectly selected to match her surroundings. Forgetting all other aspects, Heavenseek Pavilion was actually quite adept at receiving guests. At the very least, this scenery left a person relaxed.

Qin Yu nodded. “I have some matters that I would like to find answers to through Heavenseek Pavilion.”

The female cultivator smiled. “Our pavilion will surely not leave you disappointed. Please follow me.”

She turned and led the way in. Just like in Canyondwell City’s Heavenseek Pavilion, they arrived at a separate room.

Scented teas, sumptuous desserts, everything was promptly and properly arranged.

The female cultivator knelt to the ground, her open white chest an eye-catching sight. She said in a soft voice, “Guest, please ask what you came for.”

Qin Yu hesitated. He slowly said, “I want to know how you can cultivate five different elemental sources of magic power.”

The female cultivator wrinkled her eyebrows, looking a bit perplexed. She hesitated for several moments and then said, “This question seems to involve extremely profound and intricate principles. I will need to consult with others on this matter for a moment. Please wait.”

Qin Yu nodded.

The female cultivator bowed and drew backwards. As she left the private room, she vanished from sight and walked into a corridor deeper in. Quickly, her smile disappeared, replaced by a dignified expression. She pulled a guard close and gave him an order in hushed whispers. Then, without stopping, she arrived at a black wooden cabin in the rear courtyard, and bowed, saying, “Master, there is a guest who wishes to inquire about the five elemental magic power sources.”

After a brief pause, a hoarse voice echoed out from the wooden cabin. “Determine his status first.”

The female cultivator bowed his head. “I have already passed down the order. There will soon be an answer.”

Just as she finished speaking, the guard she spoke to before came hurrying in. He bowed towards the wooden cabin, handed over the jade slip with both hands, and then left.

From start to finish he didn’t say a single word.

The female cultivator probed the jade slip, and then a look of astonishment crossed her face. She said in a soft voice, “Reporting to master, this person is the disciple of the mysterious alchemy Grandmaster. He is Qin Yu, from the destroyed Eastern Mountain Sect of the Southern Empire. Many years ago, he visited a branch division in Canyondwell City and there he purchased information on difficulties related to breaking into the Golden Core realm as well as four different solutions. According to our information network, Qin Yu’s status is currently that of Immortal Eclipse Valley’s Junior Uncle. He once succeeded in refining a fifth-grade pill and drawing down pill tribulation.”

If Qin Yu were here, he would definitely be left panic-stricken. This was almost all his background information, none of it omitted, in the jade slip.

The wooden cabin fell silent for a long time before the voice sounded out again. “Qin Yu comes from Immortal Eclipse Valley and is also inquiring into information related to five different elemental sources of magic power. If this is related to the Five Element Sword Array, then this is actually quite interesting.”

Whoosh –

The doors to the wooden cabin seemed to ripple and then a jade slip flew out. It seemed as if this wooden cabin wasn’t made from solid materials, but was actually condensed from some strange strength.

The hoarse voice continued, “Pass the information within the jade slip to him. At the same time, raise the rank of all information related to Qin Yu to…the second level.”

The female cultivator’s pupils shrank. She took the jade slip in both hands, bowed, and retreated.

“Immortal Eclipse Valley…it seems that we are connected by an inevitable fate!” For some unknown reason, hearing these words made a chill creep up from one’s heart.

As the female cultivator pushed open the door, her gentle smile had already returned. “I apologize for having you wait. I beg your forgiveness.”

Qin Yu waved his hand. “It’s fine.”

The female cultivator knelt down and placed the jade slip on the table. “The information that you want is in this jade slip. The price is marked at 100,000 spirit stones.” This wasn’t some lion opening its jaws for a greater price, but was the lowest price she could offer since the information was bestowed by her master. This price was only given after factoring in Qin Yu’s second level status.

Qin Yu frowned. He hesitated for a long time and finally nodded. “Alright. But I will need to use several treasures in place of spirit stones.”

The female cultivator smiled. “That is possible.”

Qin Yu pulled out a storage bag. There were more than 80,000 spirit stones inside. Then, after a brief moment of thought, he took out another storage bag and retrieved three magic tools from within.

The female cultivator inspected them. “Without a doubt, these three magic tools are top quality Golden Core rank treasures. They can be exchanged for 20,000 spirit stones.”

Qin Yu let out a breath of relief and pointed his finger.

The female cultivator nodded. “Guest, please feel free.”

Qin Yu took the jade slip and probed it with his divine sense. Soon, he was engrossed in it, constantly praising the contents in his heart.

Sure enough, this was the Heavenseek Pavilion that was renowned for knowing all!

The jade slip contained a detailed and comprehensive method of cultivating five different elemental magic power sources. The summary was as follows: by using spiritual objects of the five elements as the root, one could use a secret method to refine them into one’s dantian sea and condense five different elemental magic power sources.

Of course, it was impossible for the process to be this simple and it had extremely strict demands on the cultivator.

But this was enough!

This was because the greatest request in refining the five elemental spiritual objects was how powerful one’s soul was. And for Qin Yu, this wasn’t a problem.

Qin Yu read through the jade slip for a long time. After thoroughly memorizing everything within, he finally drew back his divine sense.

Kacha –

The jade slip shattered.

For some unknown reason, as Qin Yu looked at the shattered pieces of jade slip in his palm, he suddenly felt his heart beginning to race, as if a strange nervousness was getting ready to overtake him. He maintained his composure and said, “Your jade slip is quite mysterious. Although I didn’t feel any spell or aura on it, it was actually able to self-destruct.”

The female cultivator smiled. “You are not the first one to inquire into this matter, but since this involves secrets of Heavenseek Pavilion, I had no choice but to utilize this option.”

Qin Yu nodded. “As it should be.” He stood up and said, “The transaction is complete, so I will bid my farewells.”

The female cultivator led him out, smiling all the while.

After leaving Heavenseek Pavilion, Qin Yu didn’t stop. He sank into the crowds of people, soon disappearing from sight.

A moment later, he appeared outside Song City.

He looked down at the shattered jade slip pieces in his hands. A light flashed in his eyes. Along the way, he had tried several methods to investigate it, but he hadn’t managed to discover anything.

As if this were nothing but a pile of ordinary jade slip fragments.

But if they were, why did his heart race just now?

After mulling it over for half a minute, Qin Yu shook his head and suppressed these thoughts. Magic power roiled in his palm and the jade slip fragments were crushed into powder.

Whoosh –

He shot up into the skies!

….

In the rear courtyard of Heavenseek Pavilion, within the black wooden cabin, a hoarse voice chuckled. “What a smart and perceptive child. But if I couldn’t hide things from the likes of you, how could I have established myself in Heavenseek Pavilion? Interesting, how interesting! Perhaps this old man should lend you a helping hand one more time.”

The surface of the wooden cabin shimmered. A man with gray eyes and dressed all in black emerged. He knelt down on one knee and said, “Greetings, master.”

“Ghost, pass Qin Yu the information concerning the matter that is occurring in the demonic path’s sea region. Remember, be extra careful and make sure that he doesn’t discover anything is amiss.”

The black-robed man respectfully bowed. He drew back several steps and entered into the shadows of the trees and bushes. Like a mass of black water, he directly melted into them.

….

Not too long after leaving Song City, Qin Yu fell to the ground. He made sure that no one followed him and then he changed direction, hurrying that way with all his strength.

Five elemental spiritual objects…

In Heavenseek Pavilion he had found a way to condense five different elemental sources of magic power. But even with a road opened in front of him, there were still countless hurdles hindering his way.

Spiritual objects. The reason they were called ‘spiritual’ was because they had developed their own spiritual wisdom, and thus had formed their own consciousness.

In a way, they were similar to spirit treasures, but the chances of them being born were actually far, far lower!

They needed to be formed through pure heaven and earth energy, bred by the world, and finally give birth to spiritual awareness.

But not all objects of the heavens and earth had the qualifications to be promoted to spiritual objects.

And most important of all, the rank had to be high enough!

The higher rank an object was, the more difficult it would be for it to give birth to its own spiritual awareness!

Otherwise, once a tree gave birth to its own spiritual awareness, it wouldn’t be a spiritual object, but a monster.

Ordinary cultivators might never see such a spiritual object in their entire lives.

And what Qin Yu needed to prepare was five of them, and these five needed to have attributes according to the five elements.

The difficulty of this was no different than ascending to the heavens!

If he were to search all by himself, he was afraid that even if he spent all his years doing so, he wouldn’t be able to collect them all. Thus, from the very start, Qin Yu planned to purchase them at exorbitant prices.

When he was at Heavenseek Pavilion and replaced spirit stones with magic tools, he had done so deliberately. There was still a small mountain of spirit stones in his storage ring. And even if he didn’t have enough spirit stones, he also had a massive number of top grade pills, and if he didn’t have enough top grade pills, he could continue refining them.

In short, as long as he could purchase something with spirit stones, Qin Yu need not worry about it.

A day later.

Northern Dynasty’s Green Duck City.

Even though the name of the city was quite strange, it was actually very large. At this time, the sun was falling over the western skies and the fading light was stretching down the city walls, creating shadows that extended as far as the eye could see.

Qin Yu followed the light into the city. As he entered, a few stars were lighting up the skies.

A large cultivating city didn’t follow the usual cycle of day and night. It was still incomparably lively, and the city was lit up just like daytime.

Qin Yu found an inn to rest at. He passed over several spirit stones and the grateful servant quickly followed his orders, slapping his chest in guarantee that he would accomplish it. Soon, a detailed and comprehensive list of the city’s auction houses was respectfully handed to Qin Yu.

After sending the young servant away, Qin Yu sat down in front of a table and started carefully going over it.

Later, he rubbed his temples and mumbled, “I hope that there will be some harvests.”

He pressed his fingers down and the paper dissolved into powder.

The next day, Qin Yu left the inn. He spent 10 spirit stones to buy an admission ticket into an auction.

This was a small auction without anything outstanding. Correspondingly, those participating also had average cultivations. Only a young man and woman at the early Golden Core realm were sitting in the front, their eyes closed and their expressions cold.

There were a great number of Foundation Establishment cultivators in the back, and they spoke quietly.

Qin Yu was brought in by an auction house worker.

“Senior, the auction will start soon. Please sit at the front.”

Qin Yu nodded and took a seat.

The auction house worker bowed before leaving.

The two Golden Cores beside him opened their eyes in surprise. They were also long-time patrons of the auction house but they had never received such a courteous reception before. This person looked strange and seemed to have an average aura. He also seemed to only be at the early Golden Core realm. Could it be that he had some amazing background?

As these thoughts appeared, a smile appeared on their previously cold faces. These days, it was extremely easy to offend or provoke someone. It was always best to be careful.

Qin Yu nodded back in return.

Seeing that Qin Yu didn’t have any intention of talking, the two Golden Cores turned back after they made their greetings. They were even more sure that this person had some astonishing background.

Not mentioning anything else, just that calm demeanor was something ordinary cultivators couldn’t compare with.

Soon, the auction began.

The bids were fast. Most of them were competed over by the Foundation Establishment cultivators in the back. No turbulent waves occurred, and the auction progressed quickly.

It was only when an old, deep sea blue shell came out that the eyes of the two Golden Cores brightened up. They began to bid.

At the same time, they couldn’t help but glance at Qin Yu. Seeing that he had no intentions of bidding, they relaxed a little.

Finally, the sea shell was won by the female Golden Core cultivator. Although the other person was a bit disappointed, they could only force a smile and cup their hands in congratulations. The female cultivator was happy beyond compare. She nodded and then left. It was clear she had come for this item. After obtaining it, she had no intention of staying any longer.

Soon, the auction ended.

The cultivator responsible for managing the auction hesitated for a moment and then walked out. He cupped his hands together and asked, “Honored guest, may I ask how I can help you?”

A Golden Core cultivator’s time was precious. How could they waste away two hours alone and bored?

Qin Yu said, “I have a transaction that I want to discuss with your auction house manager.”

He had expressed his sincerity with his previous actions, so the auction house soon responded.

Two Golden Cores led Qin Yu into a chamber for further discussion. But soon after, the chamber opened and Qin Yu cupped his hands and bid his farewells.

As he left, the auction house manager could only bitterly smile. This was indeed a wealthy master, a truly wealthy master. Unfortunately, his standards were too high.

Five element spiritual objects. Even they had only ever heard of these things before and had never seen or handled them, so they naturally weren’t able to offer them for sale.

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