Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 294 – Separation Failure

Chapter 294 – Separation Failure

More and more posts followed but it was clear that they were all sarcastic taunts mocking her. The maid’s eyes started to redden as she earnestly replied to a few of them. But soon she stopped, left speechless, as tears dripped down her face.

Pa –

A hand slapped the top of her head. The maid looked up with her tearful eyes and trembling lips to say, “Aunty Hong…they…they scolded me…”

Aunty Hong sighed. She reached out and hugged the maid. “That’s enough, you silly girl. The truth will forever be more powerful than any words. Moreover, these people are only a bunch of cowards that only dare to type out such nonsense in a virtual world. Don’t pay any attention to them.”

“But…but I…”

“Aunty Hong knows you are worried, but with things having come to this step, we can only patiently wait. Before, when saving the miss, didn’t we have no confidence in Mister Qin? But what was the result? He ended up refining the Nine Mystic Heavens Pill and saving this miss’ life.”

The maid sobbed several times and nodded with effort. “Mm. I believe in Mister Qin. He will definitely succeed!”

Aunty Hong faintly smiled, stroking her soft hair. But, there was a trace of worry in her eyes. The Divine Blood Pill was much more difficult than the Nine Mystic Heavens Pill. Even if the miss sent him a second portion of god blood, the chances of success were no more than 20%.

Her gaze fell onto the courtyard and she sighed inwardly. “Mister Qin, everything depends on you.”

At this time, whether it was in Waterfall City, Philosophy Watch, or many other places in the vast world, there were people wondering: just what was Qin Yu (Grandmaster 19) doing? There were even some bored people who opened up long posts encouraging everyone to freely guess and leading to numerous lively replies.

Some people thought he was deep in contemplation, trying to figure out how to refine the god blood. Some people thought he had already failed and was wallowing in hopelessness. There were even some people who thought that this mysterious grandmaster was considering whether to flee to another region and find a way out of this.

Of course, all of these people were wrong.

Qin Yu was cultivating.

To be more accurate, he was swallowing pills to supplement the strength he lost. Of course, it was inevitable for his cultivation to rise and benefit during this period. Although he had refined pills for the inn for less than a month, Qin Yu had already obtained considerable benefits. Just by looking at the Overwhelming Pills, Essence Juncture Pills, and Blood Spirit Pills that he refined, it was easy to understand that these pills all matched his current needs.

After reaching the step of Five Element Nascent Souls, he needed five times the amount of spiritual energy that an ordinary cultivator would need. If he didn’t have the support of pills, then depending on his current talent he could only despair.

After digesting the last bit of medicinal efficacy in his body, he felt that whether it was his magic power, body, or soul, everything had been restored to its peak state and was even a bit stronger than before. Qin Yu slowly opened his eyes, a sharp light flashing within them.

He had already attempted to refine the god blood that the inn had given him five times. He wasn’t ready to completely give up on it, so he put it away and then took out the Divine Blood Pill materials that were given by Philosophy Watch.

After five failures, Qin Yu had received tremendous harvests. Although the two portions of god blood were of different attributes, in the end they both walked down different paths to the same destination.

His finger cut through the void and flames flickered into existence. With a flick of his sleeves, the fire entered the Fleeting Flame Furnace, causing it to ignite with heat. Heaven and earth spiritual strength surged, pouring into it without end.

When it came to alchemy, Qin Yu’s original talent could only be considered average. But with the help and teachings of Immortal Eclipse Valley’s Daoist Wang and the samsara inheritance from the Eighth Furnace, his alchemy foundation had become deep and solid. In addition, after obtaining the little blue lamp he had refined countless pills. A common saying was that practice makes perfect. In reality, Qin Yu’s true alchemy skills had already reached an extremely high level.

He began refining the pill!

The Divine Blood Pill used god blood as the foundation, thus this was the first material added. He brought forth the jade bottle and erased the seal with his fingers. Then, a deep wave-like blue light came flowing out. It seemed as if it had a mind of its own as it tried to run away.

Qin Yu had already expected this. He lifted his hand and a spell erupted, suppressing the god blood and forcing it into the pill furnace. At the same time he lifted his other hand and made a law formula, causing the strength within the Fleeting Flame Furnace to suddenly erupt and a massive amount of heaven and earth spiritual strength to wildly pour into it.

God blood was noble and proud, inherently arrogant. It wouldn’t surrender so easily and allow itself to be refined by a cultivator. Thus, the present blazing flame that Qin Yu created was only a brute method in his mind. First he would frighten it, suppress it, and then slowly deal with it. Of course, he could use conciliatory methods to obtain the god blood’s approval, but the effect might not be any better. If so, he might as well use something more direct and simple.

As he expected, the god blood was enraged. It began to violently resist. The Fleeting Flame Furnace shivered and dull thumping sounds rang out from within, as if there were a storm occurring inside. As if…the pill furnace would explode soon!

Qin Yu had a calm expression. He continued to form law formulas with his hand, constantly controlling the temperature of the Fleeting Flame Furnace and increasing it. At this moment, he seemed to hear an angry roar in his ears. Then, the dull crashing sounds within the pill furnace started to slowly fade away.

Qin Yu lifted a hand and added in the first material. The wood-like cold grass flew into the Fleeting Flame Furnace where it rapidly melted in the heat. Faint traces of cold energy dispersed into the air. Although it was only a tiny amount, it was still an icy cold temperature capable of freezing all.

But now, this low temperature didn’t collide with the horrifyingly high temperature of the Fleeting Flame Furnace. Instead, it was rapidly absorbed by the god blood. The god blood suddenly condensed, now looking like a deep blue bead of ice within the flames!

Good. It was indeed what he had thought. This god blood might be of different attributes, but its essence was the same. However, if both were essentially the same, how could they have completely different attributes?

This thought suddenly appeared in Qin Yu’s mind, and he then discovered that he couldn’t think of it any longer. It wasn’t that he couldn’t, but that he didn’t dare to. Perhaps it was a dark and secret feeling of awe and wonder. With his current cultivation, he didn’t have the qualifications to contemplate such things.

His heart chilled and he decisively pushed down these thoughts, stabilizing his mind so that there wasn’t a single wave.

He took out the second material, hidden earth root. It was originally the size of a child’s arm, but it had shrunk a great deal and was now only the thickness of a finger.

The refinement process continued smoothly. Qin Yu avoided many small twists and turns and had added in a total of 11 materials. The pill furnace remained peaceful. Besides the god blood, the Divine Blood Pill required 17 other materials to be added together. In other words, as long as he added in six more materials, the refinement process could be considered successful.

Qin Yu didn’t reveal any happiness. Rather, his expression became even more dignified. This was because in his five previous failures, besides the first two initial attempts, he had failed in adding the 12th material.

The 12th material – rivermoon.

It was called rivermoon and its shape was like a pool of water, with a full moon reflected on its surface. Who could have imagined that such a strange thing was in actuality a fruit produced on a branch?

With a bit of effort, he broke apart the fruit. However, what flowed out was not juice, but dim moonlight. It was like a faint haze of mist being shrouded by moonlight in the dark of night, blurry and mysterious.

Qin Yu’s complexion was somber. He reached out a hand, grasping and condensing all of this moonlight in his palm. Then, it formed into a phantom of a moon. With a flick of his hand, this moon phantom flew into the Fleeting Flame Furnace.

Within his divine sense, this moon phantom wasn’t like the materials where it was directly absorbed by the god blood. Rather, it floated within the pill furnace, sprinkling down soft moonlight like a spring rain upon the god blood.

And beneath this moonlight, small changes started to occur in the 11 other materials that had already fused together with the god blood. They seemed to become closer to each other, becoming more unified.

After the moon phantom was…the sun!

Before Qin Yu refined the Divine Blood Pill, he never imagined that the path of alchemy would have such a mystical refinement method, one that drew upon the essence of the sun and moon.

He lifted a hand and a crimson fruit appeared in his palm. It emitted a dazzling light, as if it were a sun. He tapped its surface and spiritual strength erupted, pouring into it. On the surface of the fruit, golden lines began to light up before it violently exploded. Then, those exploded fragments were wrapped up in heaven and earth spiritual strength and poured into the Fleeting Flame Furnace.

Hu –

It was like a blazing hot wind was rushing into the pill furnace. Next, right beside the moon phantom, a sun phantom appeared. Sunlight and moonlight sprinkled down and Qin Yu’s fingers sped up as he formed more and more seals. Then his complexion changed.

Bang –

Within the Fleeting Flame Furnace, there was a dull explosion followed by a light fragrance. This scent was extremely strange. When one smelled it, it was delicious and sweet, but once it entered the body it transformed into something gross and disgusting that made one feel unbearably nauseous.

Qin Yu’s complexion paled. Within the great dao base of his dantian sea, the little blue lamp flashed with light. The ill feeling through his body rapidly abated. Then, a wisp of red, like a piece of silk, submerged into his right hand’s index finger.

This red line…

Qin Yu frowned, his expression dignified. He could determine that he only felt sick and nauseous just now and nothing else. But as he looked at the thin red line that had flowed into his finger from all over his body, he couldn’t help but feel dread rising in his heart.

This was…a world curse!

Qin Yu was stunned. He seemed to instinctively understand the origin of this red line. It was the punishment one had to suffer after disobeying the world’s will and failing to defy the heavens.

God blood – that was not something cultivators should use!

If it weren’t for the little blue lamp, then Qin Yu might not have felt any changes occurring to his body immediately. However, that red line would have hidden in his body and given him an enormous surprise in the future.

But why did this not occur during his five previous failures? And did the inn know of the consequences of failing to refine the Divine Blood Pill? And if they knew, why didn’t they warn him beforehand?

Qin Yu’s face darkened. After a moment of silence, he flicked his sleeves and opened the Fleeting Flame Furnace, taking out the burnt waste materials. He would need to think about these things in the future. Right now, what was important was placing all his focus on refining the Divine Blood Pill.

He looked up at a clock mounted on the wall. This was a simplistic magic tool powered by a spirit stone and could accurately calculate the time. Every mark on the clock represented two hours. There was still some time left before night arrived. Qin Yu took out a pill and swallowed it.

Two hours later, he opened his eyes. He lifted his hand and deep blue light flowed around his palm. The little blue lamp slowly appeared. With a thought, it flew forwards on its own. The light it emitted flowed out like water and covered the waste materials.

Perhaps it was because it had swallowed so much tribulation thunder, but the little blue lamp’s abilities seem to have increased and the speed at which it purified waste materials was much faster than before. Pieces of ice-like participles slowly peeled off. Qin Yu already had previous experience in doing this and thus collected them early.

Soon, all that was left over was the largest piece of black. It was like a block of coal. No matter how the deep blue light covered it, there was no change at all.

Qin Yu frowned. The previous five times he had smoothly peeled off the god blood, as if it were no different from the other materials. This time seemed to take much longer.

One hour.

Two hours.

Four hours.

When the skies in the eastern horizon began to light up, the pitch black mass remained the same beneath the deep blue light. There were no changes to it at all. Qin Yu’s complexion had thoroughly fallen and his eyes were filled with stunned confusion.