Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 114 – Shan Wugu

Qin Yu stiffened.

A giant black hand appeared out of thin air, ruthlessly grasping towards him.

Bang –

Purple lightning erupted. Qin Yu swayed to the side, barely avoiding the attack. With a pale complexion, he looked up and ran away.

Shua –

A black figure appeared above the sea. It was ten feet tall and was condensed into a solid material body. There wasn’t the slightest bit of color in its pitch black eyes; they were like bottomless black holes that could swallow a person’s soul whole. The man locked his eyes on Qin Yu, as if he were staring at a delicious prey. A scarlet tongue slithered out, licking his lips before he opened his mouth wide and gave a deep howl.

A horrifying sound wave spread outwards at a wild and ultrahigh frequency. It vibrated like countless knives, capable of tearing everything to shreds.

Qin Yu cried out loud before plummeting into the sea.

The sea corpse monsters swarmed around him and fished him up. Although they drooled with desire, none of them dared to do anything to him.

Looking at the delicious bloody morsel in front of him and smelling the scent of humanity, the high level specter revealed naked greed in its dark eyes. It was already impatient to suck clean this man’s brains and swallow his soul. Not just that, but this mortal body filled with strength would soon become his body.

It opened its great mouth and the scarlet tongue came shooting out like a bolt of lightning.

Shua –

Qin Yu’s eyes flashed open, icy cold.

In the next moment, the Skythunder Bamboo arrived. An eye-searing purple lightning erupted like a purple sun rising above the sea, incinerating everything to ashes.

The sea corpse monsters screamed miserably. All of the specters hidden within them were directly combusted into nothingness.

The high level specter wanted to run away, but after taking just a few steps, its body became increasingly small.

After several breaths of time, the lightning retracted. Qin Yu reached out a hand and a translucent bead fell into his palm.

There seemed to be fog tumbling inside. Probing it, he found that a mind-boggling amount of pure soul strength was contained within.

Qin Yu furrowed his eyebrows. He never thought that he could produce something like this after purifying a high level specter with thunder.

This round bead could be directly refined and absorbed to enhance one’s soul force. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a rare treasure.

Should he take advantage of his time here to gather a few more of these and then refine them once he left? If he did, the potency of his soul force was sure to rise rapidly. But, even though he had all these grand ideas, reality proved much harsher than it seemed. Qin Yu had understated the danger sensing abilities of the high level specters in the Netherworld Realm. After killing a high level specter he was contaminated with its aura, and before Qin Yu could even approach, the other high level specters had already fled far away.

After a moment of thought, Qin Yu realized what was happening. Disappointment flashed across his face. However, if things were like this, the incomparably dangerous Netherworld Realm had become a much safer and flatter road for him. This could also be called an unexpected harvest.

Tamping down these thoughts, Qin Yu focused his attention on searching for traces of the demonic path cultivators. The truth was that after coming this far, Qin Yu began to understand what this land was. The Netherworld Realm formed its own separate space, so the amount of space inside was far greater than it seemed from the outside. In addition to the yin yang five elements being in chaos, it was possible to make a circle if one walked around for too long.

One day.

Two days.

Qin Yu revealed a happy expression. He lifted his hand to reveal a shining talisman. When Han Shanye escaped, in his panic he hadn’t noticed that Qin Yu had placed a talisman mark on his body. Unfortunately, with Qin Yu’s lack of skill in controlling talismans in addition to the great distance between them, it was hard to accurately determine Han Shanye’s location. But at this time, the talisman in his hand was shining, indicating that connected party was nearby.

Qin Yu carefully probed his surroundings. Moving around according to how bright and dark the talisman became, he soon found the right direction.

The dao of talismans was truly useful!

Shua –

Qin Yu quickly rushed forwards.

….

Deep in the Netherworld Realm, there was actually a small island. It was dark red in color, as if it had formed from countless drops of blood.

Slaughter energy lingered about it, shocking the heart and soul!

This was an infamous island. It was called Blood Red Island, and was known for roaming the Netherworld Realm.

Currently, black demonic energy roiled endlessly on this land. Array formation marks on the ground surged with dark red lights. Specters flew about the island before rushing inwards like moths drawn to the flame. At the core of this array formation, there was a giant furnace. Blood red veins covered its surface like the meridians of a human. They greedily crept about, inhaling in all the specters that rushed over. In the final moments, the specters would awaken from their trance. Then, sensing the terrifying aura of the furnace they would all scream out in horror, but in the end nothing they did could change their final destiny.

All around the island, a light layer of black ice had formed atop the seawater. As long as a person stepped onto it, they would be exposed to a vicious poisonous attack. This was the furnace’s strength radiating outwards. As it started to awaken, this was its instinctual sense of self-protection.

Sea monsters had been caught. They reeked of sorrow and dread as they were imprisoned. Their complexions were deathly pale and fear surged in their eyes.

As if they had endured a great fright!

Just outside the furnace’s array formation, two groups of cultivators stood across from each other. When their eyes met, there was a cold and visible rage. But looking at their auras, they were undoubtedly both demonic path cultivators.

Han Shanye was standing at one side. At this moment he was whispering to a young and arrogant cultivator in front of him. Although the cultivator was young, his aura was actually considerably overbearing. The young cultivator didn’t speak. Only by furrowing his eyebrows from time to time, a cold chill rose in the air, like invisible sabers cutting across one’s skin.

The demonic cultivators across from him were clearly inferior. Whether it was numbers, morale, or average levels of strength, they were suppressed in all aspects. The strongest amongst them was a seventh level Golden Core cultivator, but that cultivator’s face was pale at this moment, and it was obvious he had suffered a severe injury.

Beside him, a tall and strong figure sat cross-legged. His wide and muscled back was revealed but his face was hidden in shadows. Even so, from his clothing and his steady and powerful heartbeat, one could determine that he was a considerably young person. The other demonic cultivators stood in tight guard around these two people, and from time to time they would look up nervously.

It looked like these two groups of demonic cultivators didn’t get along very well.

The arrogant cultivator looked up, his eyes sharp and bright, like an eagle looking down upon the world from the heavens. “Shan Wugu, Northgate Demon wounded himself to save you from danger, so shouldn’t you be searching for a way to treat him right now?”

Northgate Demon hurriedly said, “My injuries are fine, there is no need for Deepblue Saint Son to trouble yourself over me!” He anxiously opened his eyes and whispered, “Saint Son, don’t fall for his trap!”

Shan Wugu lifted a hand, his voice calm. “Northgate, even if there is only a small chance, I will do everything in my power to save you and make sure you live.”

He raised his voice, “Deepblue, is there something you want to tell me?”

Deepblue said without expression, “Leave the island and head a hundred miles north. There is something there that can save Northgate Demon.”

Hu –

Shan Wugu stood up. The wind stilled, revealing half of his face, even as the rest of him was wreathed in shadows.

Northgate Demon shouted out, “Saint Son, please reconsider!”

Shan Wugu smiled. “Don’t worry. I will return soon.”

Shua –

Demonic light flashed. He flew away rapidly, soon leaving the island.

The subordinate demonic cultivators watched him go, their eyes turning red with emotion as they were all moved to admiration. As they looked at the demonic cultivators across from them, their gazes were filled with even more resentment.

Deepblue’s looks didn’t change, besides a trace of disdain in the depths of his eyes. Shan Wugu was truly worthy of being Shan Wugu; he was exceptionally skilled in luring in the hearts and minds of others. But in this world, only those that lived could gather the gratitude of others. As long as you die, then all of these people will become my subordinates without hesitation.

None of them will even shed a single tear for you!

Deepblue slowly said, “Men, add more fuel.”

Two demonic cultivators grabbed hold of a sea monster. Ignoring its horrified cries, they tossed it into the range of the array formation. The sea monster began to melt like a candle in an inferno. Its body turned into muddled flesh and blood that poured into the grooves of the array formation where it was absorbed by the furnace. This entire process lasted only several breaths of time, but to the sea monsters watching, this was the most brutal and torturous punishment in the world. Hate and loathing filled their eyes.

Deepblue didn’t care about them at all. The hatred and loathing of the weak was meaningless to them, and in fact, the more they hated him, the more they loathed him, the better the effects would be.

This time, the reason the Saint Lord hadn’t hesitated to use up a portion of his cultivation and open a channel to send them to the Netherworld Sea Region was all in order to draw strength from the specters here and use the sea races as a sacrifice to awaken the deeply slumbering Saint Furnace. Up until now, matters had gone smoothly. In another ten days or so, the Saint Furnace would fully awaken.

At that time, he would have accomplished a great merit.

Deepblue suddenly frowned as he recalled something disappointing. Han Shanye was just impossibly useless; he had managed to lose several of his skilled subordinates.

Humph. There were more important matters to deal with right now so he would temporarily let this person go. The most crucial task in front of him was to eliminate Shan Wugu from the equation.

In the demonic path, a single Saint Son was enough!

….

With dark clouds above his head and a sea of blood beneath his feet, Qin Yu walked forwards. He had a grim expression as the jade slip in his hands glowed with light.

He wasn’t too far.

Suddenly, Qin Yu’s pupils shrank. He looked downwards.

Atop the sea of blood, at some unknown time, a layer of black frost had appeared, as dark and murky as ink. It exuded a chilling cold that stabbed into his body like needles. This chilling cold possessed a vicious and violent destructive force. It froze the blood and spread at an alarming rate.

Poison!

Qin Yu furrowed his eyebrows, but he soon composed himself. If other cultivators faced this poisonous black ice, it would likely leave them distressed.

They might even lose their lives.

But for Qin Yu, starting from a certain day in the past, all the poisons in this world had become meaningless against him.

Turning his hand, a foot of blue light spread out. It drilled into his body, turning into an invisible strength that chased after all the violent poison in his body. All the poison turned into thick lines that flowed from his limbs and bones and into his right hand’s index finger. His fingertip became even paler, just like jade that glowed with a faint halo of light.

Qin Yu looked up. Between the flickering black clouds, specters flew about, their eyes glazed over.

Without a doubt, the five element spiritual objects he had chased after were here.

But, this meant that he had to be even more cautious. If the demonic path was moving so secretively, they had likely made tremendous preparations.

Once he moved forwards, he would surely be wandering into a lake of dragons, a cave of tigers!

Although Qin Yu was confident in his own strength, that didn’t mean he could recklessly do whatever he wanted. To pay the smallest price possible to achieve his goals, that would be the best outcome.

But how to do this?

As his thoughts raced, Qin Yu’s complexion suddenly changed. He moved to the side several steps, avoiding the attack of demonic energy. His fist came smashing out.

In the blink of an eye, two fists smashed into each other.

There was a horrifying collision of strength followed by the creaking of bones. The shaking strength rolled out, causing Qin Yu to cough and draw backwards. The person attacking didn’t think that Qin Yu would be able to respond so quickly. The man’s jaw dropped in surprise, wariness in his eyes.

On the sea surface, the black ice was ravaged by the shockwaves of the two people and began to break apart in large tracts.

Shua –

Qin Yu dispersed the shaking force in his body. His body curved backwards, as tight and tense a large bent bow, ready to erupt with a fatal strike in the next second. Looking up, he saw the cold and indifferent eyes staring at him. But at this time his eyebrows dug together, his pupils widened and his body froze. In a battle between masters, a brief break in posture could decide the outcome. This should have been the best time to attack, but the person across from Qin Yu was equally shocked. The two people stared at each other, and it was only when the sound of breaking air sounded out that the two of them regained their wits.

There was no time to say anything; they could only shoot a look at each other. Shan Wugu turned, suppressing his shaking thoughts. He said, “There is no need to worry. This is a good friend from my past.”

Deepblue’s complexion darkened. He swept his eyes over Qin Yu and coldly said, “Shan Wugu, you and I should be dealing with matters secretly, so how did your friend find this place? You must explain yourself.”

Shan Wugu lightly said. “Meeting here is just a coincidence. What sort of explanation does Saint Son Deepblue want?”

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