Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 97 – The World’s Killing Intent

Though entering the cave dwelling was extremely difficult, leaving was actually quite simple.

War Bear’s complexion darkened. “In the past, I left using this array formation. If you all don’t believe me you can examine it yourself. After placing in spirit stones, the array formation will automatically activate.” He glanced at Qin Yu and bitterly smiled. “My dozens of years of scheming cannot compare to several days of fellow daoist Qin’s efforts. I plan to stay here and keep looking for other harvests. Farewell!”

As he spoke, he turned and walked away, soon vanishing from sight.

Gu Shengping walked forwards and carefully examined the array formation. After a long time, he nodded, indicating that there wasn’t a problem with it. He, along with Fairy Xiang and Daoist Wuyuan were all heavily wounded, and they needed to urgently find a place to safely recover from their wounds. They definitely wouldn’t stay behind here. A brilliant light flashed into the skies, strong winds howled, and the figures of the three people twisted within the array formation before they disappeared.

Qin Yu suddenly sneered, “Fellow daoist War Bear, you are secretly hiding over there, do you plan on sneak attacking me?”

The surroundings remained silent.

Qin Yu’s eyes turned cold. After calmly waiting for several breaths of time, he mumbled to himself, “Maybe I was overthinking things.”

He turned and stepped onto the array formation, flicking his sleeve and sweeping away the powder and then placing his spirit stones within.

The air began to surge. Qin Yu grasped a spirit stone; after this one, everything would be complete. But at this time, he shouted out loud and said, “Found you!”

He raised his hand, taking out the imperial spirit bag and forming mudras with his fingers, “Go!”

Crash –

From not too far away in the forests, War Bear’s figure rushed out as he fled in a frenzied panic.

Qin Yu took advantage of this moment to draw back his hand, safely placing in the last spirit stone. Light shined all around, and he vanished.

Shua –

War Bear stopped. His face twisted. He didn’t know how, but he felt he had been played by Qin Yu. However, he soon calmed down again, and a fierce smile lifted up his lips.

“Qin Yu, you think you can get rid of me like this? How delusional!”

….

600 miles outside Severed Spirit Mountain, space twisted and wild winds blew up. Countless stones and tiny branches were broken and sent fluttering in the wind. Qin Yu appeared, and with a flick of his sleeve he dispersed the remaining shockwaves of the array formation. He looked towards a direction and then stimulated his magic power to fly away. action

After some time, Qin Yu returned to his mountain valley. As he felt the array formation was still in perfect condition, he breathed a sigh of relief. He flicked his sleeves and opened the array formation and stepped into the fog. Without alerting Yun Xueqing, he walked straight to the ant raising room and let out the Purpleback Bluewing Ants that were slumbering deep in the imperial spirit bag. Faint traces of spiritual strength rippled in the air, and one could clearly feel as this spiritual strength was absorbed by the Purpleback Bluewing Ants.

Qin Yu carefully checked the ants, and after making sure that there weren’t any problems with them, he relaxed a little. Still, he couldn’t help but frown. This was the first time that the Purpleback Bluewing Ants entered the stage and they had accomplished great merits, but now they were in a deep sleep, and this naturally left Qin Yu a little worried.

Perhaps this was because of the black worms.

He opened the Ancient Beast Dominion Art and searched through the ancient hundred insect list, looking for the records related to the Purpleback Bluewing Ant. After sifting through it for a long time, he didn’t find much. Helpless, he could only temporarily lay it down and wait for the ant king to regain consciousness before he could further inspect it for any problems.

Just as Qin Yu was about to leave, his expression twisted. He flew out from the wooden house. He saw that between the heavens and earth, the normally stable spiritual strength was beginning to move around restlessly, as if it were a pot of boiling water. High above his head, the bright sunny day began to rapidly darken as black clouds formed and gathered. Because Qin Yu had previous experiences, he was able to determine that this was…heavenly tribulation from a breakthrough.

Or, it was more accurate to say that this was the heavenly tribulation of a Foundation Establishment cultivator breaking into the Golden Core realm. Looking at the position of the tribulation clouds, the only person it could be was the other person in the valley: Yun Xueqing.

Shua –

An elegant shadow flew out. As Yun Xueqing saw Qin Yu, she immediately revealed an excited expression before turning awkward and then apologetic.

Qin Yu said, “Miss Yun, don’t mind me, just continue crossing your tribulation in peace!”

Yun Xueqing took a deep breath and nodded.

Kacha –

Tribulation thunder descended!

Yun Xueqing was clearly left a bit panicked and she lifted an umbrella-shaped magic tool. The output of magic power didn’t come fast enough and the magic tool wasn’t brought to its greatest strength before it collided with the tribulation thunder.

Lightning flowed out in all directions. As it smashed into the umbrella-shaped magic tool, the magic tool let out a keening wail before it was destroyed by the lightning.

Yun Xueqing cried out in alarm!

Qin Yu flicked his sleeves and the 36 Skythunder Bamboo magic swords came howling out from the dense fog. Purple lightning filled the air. Lightning mutually attracted lightning, and even heavenly tribulation wasn’t an exception to this. The purple lightning smashed into the thunder tribulation, and over half of it was drawn away from Yun Xueqing. The 36 Skythunder Bamboo magic swords bathed in the tribulation thunder and emitted intermittent cries.

The pressure dramatically fell. Yun Xueqing was finally able to steady her mind and firmly keep off the tribulation thunder.

The black clouds scattered and sunlight came sparkling down. The aura of heavenly tribulation vanished from sight.

Qi Yu frowned. Inexplicably, he felt a sudden and terrifying oppression, as if the world itself was pressing down on him! But luckily, this oppressive feeling lasted for a mere moment before disappearing.

This was…a warning from the world.

He had once heard that when people meddled in the tribulations of others, they would incur a warning from the world. It was even said that when these people crossed their own tribulations in the future, those tribulations would become more difficult to a certain extent, and this was a punishment handed down by the world. But just now, in that terrifying oppression, Qin Yu had felt a trace of killing intent. Yes, that was right, although it was weak, Qin Yu could confirm that there was a suppression killing intent just now. In fact, he could even feel that this killing intent seemed a bit hurried, a bit impatient, but it was being held back by some sort of restriction, thus it had no choice but to give up.

And this world meant the entire world!

Instinctively, Qin Yu thought back to the heavenly thunder that had been swallowed by the little blue lamp. All sorts of confused thoughts appeared in his mind. It seemed that from the moment he obtained the little blue lamp, he had stepped onto a road that was different from other cultivators’. And, the end of this road was rejected and loathed by the world. In the end, beneath the rage and fury of the world, those travelling down this road would be exterminated without even their souls or bodies left remaining.

Horror rose up from the depths of his soul. Like a grassland fire, it spread through all his thoughts in a single blink of the eye! Sweat began dripping from his pores, turning his black robes wet. A sound suddenly roared out in Qin Yu’s mind:

Sacrifice the little blue lamp, sacrifice it! As long as you sacrifice it, you will be recognized and approved by the world, cared for by the world. You will possess an incomparably bright future!

His consciousness was like a lone wooden boat tumbling in a rough and stormy sea, capable of capsizing at any moment. But at this critical juncture, a voice broke through his thoughts.

“Senior Qin…Senior Qin…”

Qin Yu’s consciousness suddenly found a direction. Following that sound, he wildly shot forwards. It was unknown how much time passed, but just as he was completely exhausted and about to give up, his consciousness returned to his body and the world lit up with brightness once more.

Hu –

Hu –

Qin Yu gasped in great heaving breaths. He didn’t know where that sound had come from, but he had an intuition that if he chose to sacrifice the little blue lamp, he would have thoroughly lost it.

Yun Xueqing’s face was full of worry. “Senior Qin, are you alright? Are you okay?”

Qin Yu grabbed her hand. As he looked at her, he felt gratitude deep in his heart. If it weren’t for her, he really might have never woken up. Although it could be said that Yun Xueqing crossing tribulation was the cause of all this, Qin Yu was well aware that even if today’s events hadn’t occurred, what would come would have eventually come.

And at this time, there might not be someone like Yun Xueqing to call out to his consciousness.

Thus Qin Yu still felt grateful. If she fell into any troubles in the future, he would definitely save her! After several deep breaths, his complexion remained pale like before but he had stopped heaving. “Miss Yun, congratulations!”

After realizing that Qin Yu didn’t want to talk too much about this, she smartly didn’t ask him about it. “I have to thank Senior Qin for helping me. If it weren’t for you, the consequences would have been unimaginable.”

Qin Yu’s smiled. “Right now you are also a Golden Core. We should speak like peers.”

Yun Xueqing laughed. “That’s right, I suppose I can call you fellow daoist Qin now. Back in Immortal Eclipse Valley, you really hid yourself quite deeply.” She stuck out her tongue and playfully said, “The reason I was able to break through my bottleneck was thanks to the rich spiritual strength in this valley as well as the peaceful environment. In short, I have to thank fellow daoist Qin.”

The chicken overlord drilled out from somewhere, several pieces of straw still stuck to its head. As it saw a young man and woman happily talking to each other, it smirked with satisfaction.

Since when had this overlord’s judgment been wrong? Just when I left you two alone for a moment, you finally couldn’t resist it!

Looking around, that repugnant wild wolf wasn’t present either. The chicken overlord paused for a moment. Then, it immediately shook its wings, becoming much more high-spirited and arrogant.

Look! Look! Look at just who is a coward! This overlord isn’t even afraid of heavenly tribulation, but some idiotic wolf was so scared that its legs shook and it still couldn’t crawl out from its den!

Today was the day that this overlord proved its might!

As the chicken overlord was overcome with emotions, it didn’t notice that the young man and woman speaking to each other were actually exchanging their final farewells.

Yun Xueqing apologetically said, “Fellow daoist Qin, I will leave now.”

Qin Yu smiled. “Right now is indeed the best chance.”

War Bear and the others were injured so it was impossible for them to appear. Right now was the safest time to leave.

Yun Xueqing didn’t understand the meaning behind his words. She could only assume that Qin Yu was referring to her breakthrough into the Golden Core realm, and she awkwardly smiled. “I’m sure that my father is worried to death over me. Moreover, since I smoothly made my breakthrough, I would like to let him know as soon as possible. Fellow daoist Qin, my family comes from Snowfall City. If you have a chance, you must come and visit so that I can express my thanks.”

Qin Yu nodded. “A promise is a promise.”

Yun Xueqing flew away.

The chicken overlord blinked its eyes, completely puzzled and confused over what had happened. According to its own experiences, once a male contacted a female, they would chirp to each other several times and after that, shouldn’t they run off into the woods somewhere? So why would the young woman just go off by herself? It shot a glare at Qin Yu and suddenly found a reason as it started to scold him for being a brutish man lacking in charms.

The duck had reached your lips but you let it fly away! Although you followed by this overlord’s side all this time, you still haven’t inherited any of my true abilities!

Young child Qin, hehe, you’re lucky I don’t dare to say these things, otherwise I would flap in front of your face and peck your head off!

Of course, all these arrogant thoughts were carried out in its heart, and when Qin Yu turned around, it would happily swing its tail about, being docile and timid.

If the wild wolf were here, it would definitely roll its eyes and scold the chicken for being a cunning villain!

Entering the training room, Qin Yu sat down, a pondering look crossing his face. With a calm mind, he fell into thought for a long time. He was almost certain that whether it was the oppressive killing intent that appeared after he helped Yun Xueqing or the raging tide that almost drowned out his consciousness afterwards, it was all because of the little blue lamp.

And what guided all of this was most likely the world itself.

And he, he had stepped onto a road that wasn’t tolerated by the heavens and earth!

A brilliant light flashed and the little blue lamp appeared in his palm. Qin Yu looked down at it. After a long time, he took a deep breath. “So what if the world doesn’t tolerate it? A cultivator cultivates in order to go against heaven’s will and change their own destiny. The road they walk down is originally to defy their fate! The only reason I am here where I am today is because of the little blue lamp, and it is the origin of my foundation. Even if the world demands it from me, I will not hand it over!”

Although he didn’t know whether it was an illusion or not, a faint blue light flashed across the little blue light.