Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 35 – Barren Mountains and Wild Lands Lead to Good Cultivation

As the crowd cried out again and again, Qin Yu watched, silently sneering. It seemed it had become known that the person who commissioned the auction had already vanished. But, no matter how those people searched, none of them would ever suspect that Blacksky Demon was in the Soul Burying Flag, and that storage bag was in the inkjade scepter.

This demonic treasure was not a true material object but was formed from pure demonic energy. It was an object that existed somewhere between reality and illusion, thus it was able to contain the storage bag and also be placed into the Soul Burying Flag. After Qin Yu discovered this he decided to revise his plan, thus leading to today’s events.

Now it seemed things had turned out quite well.

Three days later, the chaos in Billowing Wave City began to die down. Qin Yu left his inn room and followed the streams of people out of the city. Ten miles away, he turned and looked at the giant city on the horizon. He secretly swore to himself that the next time he came here he would no longer be as cautious as he was. Instead, he would rely on his own strength so that others didn’t dare to move against him!

Woosh –

He stepped into the thick forest and found the chicken overlord waiting for him. Without delay, he headed towards the northeast.

Half a month later, a travel-worn Qin Yu stopped before a mountain range that stretched into the distance. As he carefully looked around, his eyes shined, revealing a look of satisfaction.

The mountains were dangerous and perilously difficult for mortals to venture into. Even better was that there was an extreme lack of spiritual strength here so cultivators would have no interest in this land. And, it was also considerably far from the area where the demonic path was running rampant. It was a good place to live in seclusion and cultivate.

Qin Yu entered deep into the forest and investigated for another day. He actually found another even more wild and barren place in the forest. This was a large valley surrounded on all sides by mountains, and with the steep cliffs and high edge that hid this valley, it was nearly impossible to find.

This was it!

When others chose a place to go into seclusion and cultivate, the spiritual strength available was their first consideration. But to Qin Yu, this wasn’t a problem at all. He was someone who walked the path of a pill addict from the start, so he didn’t desire some paradise filled with spiritual strength.

He chopped down trees and built a house. With his Foundation Establishment cultivation and the power of his Demon Body, all of this was easily accomplished. Half a day later, a wide wooden house was built on the flat land and Qin Yu used a few pieces of leftover wood to make some simple tables and chairs. Now that he had a place to live, what he needed to do next was a little more troublesome. He needed to lay down some simple array formations to conceal himself and his aura from the outside world.

This was also one of the reasons why Qin Yu had exchanged for so many spirit stones earlier.

The school of array formations was broad and profound. Qin Yu hadn’t studied it so he naturally didn’t have any skills in it. However, the array formations he needed to arrange weren’t considered too complex. There were several simple protective array formations contained in the Eastern Mountain Sect’s inner court disciple status token, so as long as he had enough spirit stones it wouldn’t be too difficult to copy and lay one down.

After spending three days and burying 400 spirit stones underground, the great valley was covered with a thick fog that covered it up.

Qin Yu ascended a mountaintop and looked down at the first array formation he had personally arranged in his life. He also observed the thick mist in the valley. It didn’t seem too out of place and blended in with the clouds in the skies. He smiled at his success.

Returning to the valley, Qin Yu looked up at the shining sun in the skies. He had a faint feeling for the mysteries of array formations. If he had a chance in the future he would definitely need to study them well.

Now he needed to grasp time and cultivate!

He stepped into his wooden house. He was incomparably familiar with the place he had built himself, so without further ado he sat down on a round cushion.

He ate some pills and started to cultivate!

When the top grade pill was digested, magic power surged through his body. This was a comforting feeling that ordinary people wouldn’t be able to experience, so this was also one of the reasons why he never felt that cultivating alone was a difficult and arduous task. Unfortunately, most of the pills he had had been sold at the auction house, so after several days he could only temporarily cease his cultivation.

As a cultivator that possessed the little blue lamp, it was shameful for him to be lacking pills. Qin Yu summoned Blacksky Demon and took out the storage bag. After sending him away, he plopped the Fleeting Flame Furnace on the ground and began.

With 12,000 sets of materials, he could attempt making 4000 Spiritual Essence Pills, Essence Augmenting Pills, and Body Forging Pills. According to his current success rate he could refine around 6000 pills. In addition to the little blue lamp’s purifying abilities, if this wasn’t enough to send him to the Golden Core realm then he might as well buy a block of tofu and choke himself to death on it.

Half a month later, 900 new pills had been produced. Qin Yu fell to the ground to rest. Perhaps it was because this was his own house, but he slept well. He awoke at night. He took out the little blue lamp and began to upgrade the pills. Although he had seen this scene countless times before, every time he saw the foot-wide sea-blue light appear, covering the ordinary pills in a pale blue light, he couldn’t help but cry out praise from the depths of his heart.

The little blue lamp was truly a treasure that could seize the good fortune of the world!

He sighed with emotion and continued to cultivate.

When it came to cultivating, taking top grade pills was an addictive process. Like this, he cultivated and cultivated and soon two months passed.

When Qin Yu broke through to the sixth level of Foundation Establishment, he suppressed the joy in his heart and furrowed his eyebrows. He felt as if he had forgotten something. Soon, he slapped his head and wryly smiled. “This place is protected well and I didn’t spare spirit stones in arranging the array formation, yet I forgot to plant the spiritual plants.”

Though he had wasted over two months of growth, it was better late than never. Qin Yu quickly took out a thick darksteel broadsword from his storage bag and left the wooden house, beginning his career as a farmer.

But, he never expected that this sudden inspiration would push open a great door for him, giving him a great assistance on his road of cultivation!

…

Creak –

The doors to the wooden house were pushed open and a black-robed youth stepped out. He was a bit taller and his back a bit straighter, and his slightly na?ve appearance had matured a little. As he stood at the entrance he stretched his waist and his bones cracked. A breeze rolled over his robes and a faint smile curved up his face.

This youth was Qin Yu!

Now, two years had passed since he started his long seclusion. His cultivation had reached the ninth level of Foundation Establishment, just a step away from breaking into Golden Core.

A bamboo dragonfly fell onto his shoulder. Qin Yu lifted a hand and poured magic power into it once more. It spread its wings and flew away, soon vanishing from sight. The bamboo dragonfly had a thread of his divine sense. If people were to intrude into the mountain valley, he would instantly awaken from his cultivation. The only problem was that he needed to renew its magic power every other month.

This giant valley field had been opened up. A mountain spring was connected for irrigation. The various types of spiritual plants slowly grew, the fields of green forming a shimmering medicine field.

When it came to growing spiritual plants, although it might seem simple from the outside it was actually incredibly difficult and complex. This was especially true when they blossomed and began pollinating. He had to be extra cautious during this period to prevent cross-pollination. Even with the detailed records of the Medicine Codex helping him, his path of being a spiritual plant farmer hadn’t been smooth at all. He used up a great deal of time and effort to feed and grow them.

Unfortunately, spiritual plants grew far too slowly, and the more precious, higher rank plants grew even slower. For instance, using three types of Golden Core spiritual plants as an example, it had taken them two years to pass the seedling period and they were still dozens of years away from reaching maturity.

Recalling this, Qin Yu subconsciously frowned. As he thought about the various raw materials for pills he would need in the future, he could only reveal a bitter smile. It seemed that even with the little blue lamp in his possession, his road of cultivation wouldn’t be perfectly flat all the way through!

He took a look through the medicine field. After determining there weren’t any major problems, he walked in and began maintaining and trimming the plants. He turned the soil, plucked out weeds, caught insects, and irrigated the ground. There were all sorts of minor adjustments needed, such as making sure that some plants weren’t watered too much. Otherwise those plants would wilt and die. On the other hand, there were some water-based plants that needed to be watered every day in order to normally grow.

These trivial matters didn’t cause Qin Yu to lose his patience. He calmly performed his tasks as if he were taking a stroll through a park, giving off a feeling that he was in a state of peace and relaxation. This was also a form of cultivation and what he cultivated was his heart and the path of righteousness. With this, it would be even smoother when he swallowed and refined pills in the future.

After finishing managing the last section of the medicine field, Qin Yu rose up and let out a deep breath. He walked to a canal and frowned as he saw two dry and withered saplings.

He jogged over to take a look. Although he had cared for them in accordance to the Medicine Codex, the condition of these spiritual plants worsened with each day. Regret showed on his face as he feared they wouldn’t be able to last much longer. These two saplings were seeds that came from Blacksky Demon’s storage bag. When he first planted them there hadn’t been any problems. But once they grew to their current size, they immediately fell into this sick and wilted state.

If they were ordinary spiritual plants then Qin Yu wouldn’t have cared. But, he had looked through the Medicine Codex and determined that these were an extinct ancient spiritual planet – the Thousandgold Mulberry. Coincidentally, the ancient beast dominion art that he obtained from Blacksky Demon also listed a ranked list of 100 ancient insects. In this ranked list, the 73rd ranked insect was the Purpleback Bluewing Ant which just happened to feed on the Thousandgold Mulberries.

In the Southern Empire, it was rumored that the number one immortal faction, Immortal Eclipse Valley, had a Purpleback Bluewing Ant as their guardian beast.

If he could cultivate a Thousandgold Mulberry…..

But unfortunately, these two Thousandgold Mulberries that he had carefully cared for were about to wither away and die.

Qin Yu was filled with helplessness. Thinking about it, he decided that he would dig up these two Thousandgold Mulberries and place them in a basin in his room. If they were going to die anyways then he might as well give it a try. Maybe their wilting was related to the sunlight?

The wooden house was very simple, but the wooden rack used to hold the pills was quite exquisite. There was a bamboo tube that was driven by flowing water. It would rotate from time to time, ensuring that the little blue lamp that hung on it would enhance all the pills on the wooden rack together.

Looking around, Qin Yu casually placed the two Thousandgold Mulberries near a corner of the rack. Then, he turned and entered his cultivation room. He sat down on a round cushion and calmed himself. After a long time, when his mind was calm once more, he flicked his sleeves and five jade bottles appeared in front of him. Each jade bottle held 30 Essence Augmenting Pills for a total of 150 of them.

During this period of seclusion, Qin Yu would use these 150 top grade Essence Augmenting Pills to attack the Golden Core realm! He lifted a bottle and opened it, immediately taking out four Essence Augmenting Pills and swallowing them. After many experiments, he discovered that four pills was the best number to quickly absorb the most medicinal efficacy possible. Any more and it would be a waste.

Bang –

Medicinal efficacy flowed through his limbs and bones, fusing with his flesh and blood and turning into spiritual strength. Then, this strength was absorbed into his dantian sea where it continuously integrated into the base there. With his ninth level of Foundation Establishment, the volume of the base didn’t increase. Rather, it began to turn a deep blue and emit a jade-bright light that gave off a sense of endless majesty and grandeur.

Time passed, a day at a time. The great dao base within Qin Yu’s dantian sea reached an amazingly vivid blue. Waves of light flowed around it like water, circulating increasingly fast and increasingly urgent.

Suddenly, Qin Yu’s eyes popped open and he swallowed down 10 Essence Augmenting Pills. At this time he couldn’t care about wasting any more. This was because a cracking sound was emitting from his dantian sea, like the first crack of winter ice. The waves of light spinning around the great dao base began to converge unto it.

The entire great dao base darkened. There was only a spot within the center that glowed like a scorching sun, blazing with a light that was hard to look at. At this time, it was like the great dao base had been a thick layer of earth, and after endless hours of accumulating strength, something was about to be born and break free from that earth!

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