Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 367 – Strength of the Burning Heavens

Whoosh –

A tentacle shot out from nowhere, wrapping tightly around Nine. He screamed out for help but all that happened was him being dragged alive into the cave.

Outside, the leader who witnessed this felt as if he had fallen into an icy lake, his blood nearly freezing over.

Devilization…

The leader was the first to regain his senses. As the one with the broadest depth of experience, he inadvertently remembered an ancient text he once glanced through. Within it, it had once mentioned a secret concerning the devil apostles: when a devil apostle reached a certain degree of strength, surpassing some unknown limit, there was a chance that an incident would occur where a devil descended upon their mortal body.

Although there were some slight differences between what he saw in front of him and the pictures from the ancient text, the panic-stricken leader firmly believed in it. Since the devil had chosen to descend here, that Highness was likely more or less dead. In other words, they had completed their mission.

“Run! None of us have the qualifications to interfere in what is happening right now. We must report this back to our superiors and allow them to come themselves!” The leader said, immediately turning around and leaving.

The subordinate cultivators quickly followed behind, relaxing a little.

Within the soul space, Spirity’s complexion was ugly. “You did that on purpose?”

The shadow slyly smiled. Though the shadow had no facial features, one could still clearly sense what expressions he was making. “No. I was simply negligent for a moment and allowed that person to flee.” It turned its head. “You must hurry up and decide. If those people escape, problems will occur.”

Spirity sucked in a deep breath. “Alright. I’ll agree with you. But if you pull anything, I’ll kill you!”

The shadow bent over and said, “I’ll have to ask you not to worry about that.”

Shua –

The shadow vanished without a trace.

In the next moment, within the cave that billowed with demonic energy, a shadow emerged from below Qin Yu’s demonic figure. The shadow rapidly condensed into reality. It carried a black short sword in its left hand and a bronze mirror in its right. A flag was inserted in its back. This was an unusual image, as if this shadow were a character from some archaic theater play.

Stretching its body around, the life form summoned by Qin Yu knelt over and looked around. “Mm, master’s current image is quite aggressive.”

With that, it darkly chuckled a few times and then stepped out, vanishing from sight.

The summoned life form had given Qin Yu the ability to Shadow Step, so it naturally displayed this ability with much greater ease. With several flashes it soon overtook the fleeing cultivators.

“I really did miss this…” With a gentle sigh, as if remembering countless cherished memories, the summoned life form instantly vanished. In the next instant, a head shot up into the sky. A headless corpse ran a few more steps forwards before it loudly stumbled to the ground.

“Enemy attack!” After the leader discovered this he roared out loud and his pupils violently shrank. This was because he never noticed anything wrong from beginning to end.

If he had been the enemy’s target…thinking of this, large beads of sweat formed on the leader’s head.

17 Divine Souls had stepped into the wilderness together, united in one mission. This should have been an easy hunt, but no one imagined it would devolve into this current situation.

Including the leader, there were only seven people left. No…at this time, there were only six.

Then, there was a dull popping sound. The head of a battle-ready Divine Soul cultivator went tumbling through the air, his face still filled with shock and disbelief.

Puff –

Another Divine Soul’s head was sent flying away!

This time people finally saw the flash of black. But, it was simply too fast and there was no warning when it appeared. action

A creepy tingly feeling crept over the leader’s head. He shouted, “Scatter and run!”

Whoosh –

He was first to rush away. The three other people reacted next, each one choosing a different direction to fly towards.

Safety? Caution? There was no time to care about such things right now. The leader directly teleported away, his figure vanishing in spatial ripples.

As he teleported away, the leader relaxed. It looked like that terrifying killer hadn’t chosen him as their target.

A kaleidoscope of colors exploded in his eyes and the familiar feeling of tearing space rapidly started to fade away. The leader knew that the teleportation was about to end soon. He took a deep breath. Once the teleportation ended, he was ready to use it again to flee.

But the leader didn’t have a chance to teleport. His head veered down and he saw a black short sword piercing through his heart. As blood gushed out from him, he finally clearly saw who the killer was.

How come this person doesn’t have a face…what about my soul…why can’t I run away…as these thoughts flashed through the leader’s mind, everything became dark.

The summoned life form slowly extracted the Hundred Nether Sword. As it did, the Soul Burying Flag behind it started to slowly wave around. Soul fragments flew out from the corpse, slowly flying into it.

“I was a second slower than my calculations…these things are good, but if I want to make them more convenient for use, I’ll have to find a chance in the future to further refine them. However, there are more important things to deal with right now. The Demon Body’s backlash…hoho, I’m really looking forward to how all of this will end. Perhaps that little young master of mine will make another great gain this time. It truly leaves one envious.”

Shua –

The summoned life form vanished from sight. Several breaths of time later, it appeared once more, floating above the blood pond. It looked downwards and crossed its leg in a meditative pose. The Hundred Nether Sword and bronze mirror were placed away somewhere. Then, it started to form hand seals. As it moved, the temperature of the blood pond began to rapidly rise until it eventually started to seethe and boil. Countless air bubbles broke through the surface with loud gurgling sounds.

Rich blood energy rose up, surrounding the summoned life form. Then, blood phantom after blood phantom began to condense. As they appeared, they fell to a single knee and obediently submitted themselves. Soon there were 12 blood phantoms. The summoned life form stopped its hand seals and coldly said, “Draw more monster beasts here. I want the surrounding 10,000 miles of this wilderness to turn into a death trap!”

The 12 blood phantoms silently stood up and howled away in 12 different directions.

The summoned life form thought out aloud to itself, “Things will soon be busy. But with just the blood pond alone, it might not be busy enough.” It lifted a hand and pressed down. A large drop of blood slowly rose into the air, condensing into a blood-colored pearl.

“Mm, that’s more or less right.”

The summoned life form suddenly turned its head, “You’ve been watching for such a long time. When do you plan on coming out?”

Shua –

Spirity’s phantom appeared. Her expression was dignified. “Just who are you?”

The summoned life form smiled. “What a familiar question. Then, who are you?”

A terrifying aura surged around Spirity. This strength was far, far stronger than what she had displayed before.

The summoned life form still smiled. “Partner Soul, are you sure you want to fight with me at such a time?”

Spirity furrowed her eyebrows.

“Put away your hostility. I was summoned by the young master and my destiny has merged with his. I have no intent to harm our little young master…at least, not now.”

Although it seemed to ruin its meaning by adding those last words, Spirity seemed to relax. She restrained her aura and looked deeply at the shadow one more time before vanishing from sight.

The summoned life form raised a hand and wiped nonexistent sweat from its forehead. It mumbled to itself, “This little girl isn’t ordinary at all. Moreover, this feeling is so familiar; could I have met her before? Hehe, but out of those I’ve met before, if they haven’t turned to dust by now, they absolutely aren’t good to provoke. Oh, young master, young master, I am even more curious about you now.”

And by this time, the first monster beast arrived!

This was an ape. Its body was covered in fiery red hair. Before its roar fell, the summoned life form flicked its finger and said, “Be good, uncle will let you eat some candy.”

A blood bead fell into its mouth. Of course, this description didn’t seem too appropriate, because the blood bead actually tore open the ape’s lips and broke its two front teeth to violently rush into the ape’s body.

The ape howled in pain but its eyes soon glossed over and it toppled to the ground. Blood markings began to rapidly grow over its body.

A second monster beast appeared. It was a massive bird that was 17-18 meters wide with its wings spread out.

“Good little bird, open your mouth and let uncle give you some candy.”

The third monster beast followed soon after. Then a fourth, a fifth…

At this time, if someone stood 100,000 feet in the air and looked down at the wilderness, they would find that it seemed like a giant pot of boiling water. Countless monster beasts rampaged towards the center from all directions, each one of them wildly howling. Ancient trees were shattered in their wake and even mountains seemed to be trampled flat. But in each direction, one could see blood phantoms moving about, the aura they emitted causing the monster beasts to go crazy with desire.

“Good! Have some candy!

“Don’t be anxious, don’t be anxious, everyone has a share. Open your mouths wide!

“Hey you, what are you so flustered about? This one’s for you.”

The summoned life form was extremely talkative, and occasionally it would lower its head and neurotically mumble to itself. All around it was a massive amount of monster beasts that had collapsed or were soon to be collapsing.

Endless blood water gathered from all directions. Right now, the length and width of the blood pond was over a thousand feet; it could almost be considered a lake of blood.

And at this time, a strange fluctuation arrived. The phantom of an altar appeared in the skies above the blood lake.

The summoned life form looked up, doubt in its voice, “100,000 portions of blood essence is enough for a projection to appear? Your appetite seems much smaller than before.” It seemed to fall deep in thought. Several breaths later, it chuckled, “A mere 100,000 blood essences can counterbalance the backlash of the Demon Body? That’s much less than I thought. Maybe we can look for some more.”

It formed more and more hand seals. The 12 blood phantoms all seemed to sense something. They flew out in a wider range, needing to draw in more monster beasts.

20,000 miles…30,000 miles…40,000 miles…100,000 miles!

Within the entire surrounding 100,000 miles of wilderness, all of the monster beasts started to seethe with excitement. They were like drops of water in a river, so many that it was impossible to calculate their number.

As time passed, the blood lake grew increasingly larger.

2000 feet.

“Not enough! Not enough! It’s still not enough!”

3000 feet.

“Keep going! Keep going! We need even more!”

4000 feet.

“A mere 400,000 portions of blood essence, that is too little, way too little!”

One day, two days, three days…the blood lake finally reached an astonishing range of 10,000 feet. And at this time, there was not a single monster beast left in the surrounding 100,000 miles of wilderness. In areas further away, the monster beasts had already sensed the terrifying aura and fled for their lives. It could be said that with the blood lake as the center, there were no more monster beasts in over 100,000 miles of the wilderness!

Black clouds appeared in the skies above, causing the weather to darken. Strong winds rose up from nowhere, causing the air to cry and whistle. At this time, the blood lake was emitting a rich slaughter energy. If a cultivator with a weak soul approached, their soul would likely be directly exterminated. This was because this lake contained not just a million portions of blood essence, but also the resentment and hatred of countless monster beast remnant souls.

On the blood lake, as more and more blood essence gathered, the blood altar became increasingly real, as if it had already become physical. A pair of eyes even seemed to appear on the surface of the altar.

And at this time, the eyes on the altar slowly opened. “The sacrifice you offered may receive rewards…bestowed, the power of the burning heavens.” These simple syllables reverberated through the heavens and earth. In the next moment, the 10,000 foot large blood lake started to shrink without warning. Finally, it turned into a blood stone the size of a grain of rice that flew into the altar and disappeared.

Then, the altar slowly started to fade away, like a shadow in the water, soon vanishing from sight. As it vanished, even the smell of blood and the rich slaughter energy in the air disappeared with it, as if everything before this had been nothing but an illusion.

The summoned life form tsked in admiration. “A mere million portions of blood essence and he was actually bestowed with the strength of the burning heavens? What is going on with this world? It’s completely incomprehensible. Whatever. In short, today’s transaction was a massive gain!”

Shua –

It turned and vanished from sight.