Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 460A – Curse of Identity

Chapter 460A – Curse of Identity

Looking at things from another angle, the Mirage King Bead was like a fruit wrapped in layers upon layers of hard shells. Once its defenses were broken through, one could taste the sweet and tasty juices within.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Yin, Yang, Chaos, Nothingness.

These were the defenses of the Mirage King Bead. After Qin Yu thoroughly broke into the deepest layer, he found that what appeared in front of him was a phantom of the Mirage King Bead. Without a need for anyone to tell him anything, he understood that this was like a puzzle game, and after reaching the end of the game, this was the reward he earned.

However, the Mirage King Bead seemed to be a little too playful. The reward was itself.

Qin Yu naturally wouldn’t be polite. In any case, this was something he earned. His divine sense marked the phantom of the Mirage King Bead. Then, it faintly trembled and shattered.

Afterwards, the Mirage King Bead atop the blue stone platform actually crumbled into countless pieces, turning into a cool strength that drilled in between his eyebrows and fused with his soul.

Near his ears, he seemed to hear a pained cough. But Qin Yu didn’t have the thoughts to pay attention to this. As the cool strength fused with his soul, his consciousness trembled and fell dark.

The moment Sun San attacked was when his consciousness had blanked out. From this, it could be seen that Qin Yu’s enemies had planned for every possible scenario, even adding a final contingency for the impossible probability. Unfortunately, Solitary Westgate’s appearance had crushed this contingency to pieces.

Qin Yu was still alive so he could naturally enjoy the good fortune that the Mirage King Bead brought him. At this moment his soul was shivering and instinctually crying out in joy as it absorbed the strength of the Mirage King Bead, constantly transforming and sublimating.

This was an extremely mysterious taste. In a hazy trance, he had no idea how much time passed. When he opened his eyes once more, there was a battle occurring in his soul space.

In this battle, one side was the curved purple moon and the other was a black mass of fog not too far away. They were like two wild beasts struggling over scraps of food. They both wanted to seize and monopolize the remains of the Mirage King Bead’s energy that Qin Yu hadn’t absorbed.

Purple moonlight condensed into columns of light. Like solid pillars, they swept out at the pitch black mist. However, as they approached, they were tied down by countless black tentacles.

The beams of light and the black tentacles seemed to have diametrically opposed attributes of strength. Where they touched each other, loud sizzling sounds could be heard. The light beams shook, but they couldn’t free themselves from the imprisonment of the black tentacles. At the same time, the black tentacles couldn’t cause any true damage to the light beams.

Both sides refused to back down, but neither side stopped swallowing the Mirage King Bead’s energy. Slowly, the energy was sucked up by both sides. The purple moon shined bright and it seemed to increase in size. The pitch black fog didn’t have any change to it, just that the darkness seemed even deeper and richer.

When the last wisp of energy was split up and absorbed by the two sides, they both seemed to realize they had suffered no loss and backed away. The light beams faded and the pitch black fog withdrew its tentacles.

The purple moon hung high in the skies as usual, sprinkling down purple brilliance like before. There was no change to it after it absorbed the leftover strength of the Mirage King Bead. Not too far away, the black fog tumbled again and again until a figure finally stepped out and all the remaining fog fused into his body.

“Undying!” Qin Yu’s eyes brightened with joy.

The purple moon had played a vital role in breaking through the Mirage King Bead. The only reason that Qin Yu allowed the black fog to compete with it was because he felt Undying’s aura within.

When he first fled from the Immortal Sect, the Primordial Singular Energy Art’s yin yang energies had exploded, causing tremendous damage to Undying and placing him in a state of deep slumber. He never thought that the remaining energies from the Mirage King Bead would help awaken Undying today. To Qin Yu, this was naturally a wonderful thing.

At the very least, since Undying had regained consciousness, he would have another life-maintaining card in hand.

Undying still had a face that had no facial features at all. Even so, he always effortlessly expressed his rich emotions. “The losses are great, the losses are really great this time!” Without any trouble, it was easy for a person’s mind to conjure up the bitter expression on Undying’s face.

Qin Yu smiled. “The graciousness of saving a life, I will naturally remember it. If there is a chance in the future, I will make sure to pay you back.”

Undying nodded in satisfaction. “Little master, I’m glad we happily settled things like that. Well, although I just woke up, I am still very tired, so unless there is anything else to say, I am going to sleep again.”

He turned and vanished from sight.

Qin Yu’s eyes flashed. Undying was a life form he had summoned by accident and even now he hadn’t unraveled his identity. But at the very least, it seemed that Undying didn’t have any ill intent towards him. As for the future…that was a matter for the future, so why worry about it too much? All things would be proven with time.

Qin Yu smiled. He looked at the purple moon above his head and slowly closed his eyes.

On the blue stone platform, Qin Yu’s eyes opened and a sharp light flashed within them. He felt that his condition had reached an unprecedented new state; the energy of the Mirage King Bead had helped promote his soul to the next level. Qin Yu’s final flaw in his road towards the Blue Sea boundary had finally been filled in. He had a premonition that perhaps soon he would be able to complete his breakthrough.

Mei Ruliu was the first to walk forwards. He had a fully apologetic expression. “Fellow daoist Qin Yu, I really am sorry about all of this. Sun San had served me for thousands of years and I never expected that he would be bought by others. Concerning this matter, I will definitely investigate it clearly and give you an explanation!”

To have someone of Sun San’s status defect without hesitation and even force him to be desperate enough to risk his life to kill Qin Yu, even an idiot could guess just who the culprit was.

But Mei Ruliu still asked this question. This was a matter of propriety. Still, even if this investigation continued for 10,000 years, there was doomed to be no result from it.

When Qin Yu’s consciousness awoke, he learned of everything that happened. When he thought of that highly courteous and humbly smiling Sun San, he felt a chill brush past his heart. He never expected that he would also be one of the Immortal Sect’s people. It seemed that if he wanted to feel at ease in the future, he would have to be cautious and more cautious. Who knew? Perhaps the next person he passed by on the road would suddenly turn around and reveal their fangs.

At this time, Qin Yu came to an epiphany. If he didn’t want to fall into an endless cycle of assassinations and battles, he would need to do as the Master of the Dao Arena said and discard his identity of ‘Qin Yu’. However, with attention from all over, it was incredibly difficult to vanish without a trace. And if he did disappear, that would provoke that most terrifying search mission from the Immortal Sect.

Perhaps the best plan would be to have this status of Qin Yu die, and also thoroughly die in public view. Only then would the Immortal Sect feel relieved. At that time, he could escape and grow in the dark.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t easy to fake his own death. He would have to take things one step at a time and see where it led him.

All of these thoughts only took several moments in Qin Yu’s mind. He looked up at Mei Ruliu and cupped his hands together. “City Lord, there is no need to speak so seriously. This matter has nothing to do with you.”

He stood up and bowed towards the direction of the Dao Arena. Since that person didn’t appear it was clear he didn’t want to be involved with him. If so, there was nothing much to say.

Kang Mingqiao laughed. “Fellow daoist Qin Yu, congratulations on your victory today. But, there is something I must tell you. The Mirage King Bead you swallowed was already my treasure.” He laughed and turned, saying, “Grandmaster Tao Yuan, you don’t have a problem with that, right?”

Tao Yuan paled as if he had eaten ten pounds of flies. He gnashed his teeth. “A bet is a bet. Since I lost, I accept the losses.”

After speaking these words, he turned and left, completely disregarding any sense of honor or manners. Anger was one part of it, but an even greater reason was fear.

Chu Taidou had lost, so he would be the first to suffer a horrible fate. Whether it was being skinned alive, boiled, burnt to ashes, or any other punishment, Tao Yuan didn’t care at all. What he cared about was how to reduce his own punishment as much as possible.

Moreover, he could no longer stay in the Zhao Empire. His actions today had clarified his position of standing on the side of the Immortal Sect. If he didn’t leave as soon as possible, the wild dogs from the Demonic Path’s Shadow Division would happily take their daggers and quietly slit his throat.

The Immortal Sect and Demonic Path coexisted together; this was an undeniable fact. But, both sides desperately wanted the other side to suffer and die; this was also a never-changing truth. As the two most powerful and lofty influences in the Land of Divinity and Demons, both sides had exhausted all of their skills to place as many hidden agents as possible within each other’s sphere of influence. To some degree, this was something tacitly consented to by both sides. This was because only by clearly understanding the dynamics of the other side could one prevent unnecessary misunderstandings.

However, if these hidden agents rose up to the public eye of their own initiative, this was the same as giving up their qualifications to have the other side allow their existence. Following this, both sides would kill these agents without hesitation.

If he wanted to live, fleeing quickly was a key point. However, luck also played a great role in survival.

For instance, Tao Yuan would be such a person with horrible luck. Just after he left Four Seasons City, he would fall into the hands of Hou Yuangou who was hiding in the darkness. He was someone who wasn’t an almighty being but could be considered a worthy opponent of one, a super Demonic Path powerhouse whose avatar was slain by Purple Moon. Because of that, he hadn’t been in a good mood ever since.

“Brat, consider yourself unlucky. Who told that old witch Purple Moon to be so heavy-handed against me? Doesn’t she know that ever since I was a child, I’ve been someone that is petty and needs to take revenge no matter what?” As he spoke, he turned towards Four Seasons City and bowed, expressing his heartfelt awe towards the apex powerhouse there. Without waiting for permission, he turned and picked up Grandmaster Tao Yuan who couldn’t move or speak and could only stare into the distance with a horrified expression. Then, he left.

As for Chu Taidou who had fainted, it was unknown how much willpower he used, but he managed to wake himself up. Without caring for Tao Yuan who had fled on his own, he kept his eyes stubbornly locked onto Qin Yu.

He gasped for breath and lifted a hand, revealing a black ring on his finger. “I have a supreme alchemy treasure from the Immortal Sect that can increase the strength of my divine sense several times over, and even then I was only just able to cross the path of chaos. Qin Yu, you aren’t even a Blue Sea realm cultivator so it’s impossible for your soul to be formidable to such a heaven-defying degree.” Chu Taidou had a strange and queer smile on his face. “You have a supreme treasure of the soul, am I right?”

Qin Yu had no expression. He quietly watched as Mei Ruliu ordered cultivators to take Chu Taidou away by force. From beginning to end, he never showed annoyance, anger, or any other negative emotions. Even if he did have vicious thoughts in mind, he had to maintain a certain level of tolerance for someone he considered a dead man standing. Without accident, this should be the last time he saw the still gasping for breath Chu Taidou.

Mei Ruliu feebly coughed and smiled, as if he didn’t know that someone would soon die in the shadows. He stood up straight and announced Qin Yu’s victory along with Kang Mingqiao. Then, as the holder of the ten soul treasures gambling stake, he took them out and handed them to Qin Yu in front of everyone.