Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 307 – The Competition Arrives

When the allotted time was finished, the Dao Arena cultivator who brought Qin Yu to his room met him at the door to escort him out. However, he seemed a bit absent-minded today, and traces of envy and excitement occasionally appeared on his slightly flushed face. Qin Yu didn’t know what happened nor did he have any interest in it. In order to defeat the puppet within the Battle Room, he had used everything at his disposal. Now, he still hadn’t fully recovered. His face was drained of blood and he appeared exhausted.

They stepped into the elevator and rode straight up, silent the entire time. After the doors opened, they returned to where he first arrived. Aunty Hong was already waiting for him. Qin Yu lifted his hands to greet her, but what he was puzzled at was that Aunty Hong seemed extremely excited about something for some reason. That was fine, but why were her eyes constantly looking over him?

“The three month period has passed. Dear guests, feel free to leave.” The Dao Arena cultivator nodded and hurried to leave.

Qin Yu frowned. He looked at himself and asked, “Aunty Hong, is there something wrong?”

Aunty Hong opened her mouth to speak but quickly shook her head and regained her senses. She looked at her surroundings warily and then grabbed onto Qin Yu and rushed onto the transmission array. Her hand was warm and there was a faint fragrance wafting his way. If he didn’t know that she was a reserved person who always showed considerable restraint, he would have been overthinking her current impatience.

Hum –

A light flashed and their figures vanished. When they reappeared they were already at the Beast Hunting Battalion.

Pa –

Within the transmission array, a fist-sized bead disintegrated to dust. The powerful transmission aura that lingered around the transmission array disappeared along with it.

Qin Yu’s thoughts stirred. It seemed that the reason that they were able to travel directly from the Beast Hunting Battalion to the Dao Arena and back was because of this pearl’s function. It clearly had some restriction on its usage though and now it had self-destructed.

“Qin Yu, it’s you, it must be you!” Aunty Hong’s eyes were wide and bright, her face lit up as if she had discovered a new continent. Her body trembled.

Qin Yu was startled by her look, especially one that looked as if it wanted to eat him up whole. He had a strange complexion, “Aunty Hong, are you alright? If you’re feeling unwell, you should rest. You didn’t need to personally receive me.”

Unfortunately, Aunty Hong didn’t seem to hear these words. She constantly spun around in place due to her excitedness. “I never thought, I really never thought that you could have hidden yourself so deeply.” But in the next moment, it was unknown what she thought but she revealed an anxious look. “Qin Yu, you won’t leave, right? Our inn has been quite good to you, and there is how highly the miss regards you. You shouldn’t be so cruel!”

What the hell was all this? Qin Yu’s mind was in a fog. And the miss’ regards? What was that? He forced a smile, “Aunty Hong, I really have no idea what it is you’re saying.”

Aunty Hong had a doubtful expression. “You really don’t know?” Seeing him nod in earnest, it seemed this wasn’t a lie. She frowned. “Besides you, who else is called Qin Yu? I don’t believe in such coincidences. Mister Qin, tell me honestly, in the Dao Arena, did you defeat a puppet in the Battle Room?”

Qin Yu thought about the guide and stone table that had appeared. But, wasn’t that something only he had seen? How come Aunty Hong knew about it? He started to think that things weren’t as simple as he originally thought. He hesitated for a moment and then nodded. “That’s right.”

Aunty Hong let out a long breath. “I knew it was you!” She blinked, “Could it be you don’t know what that means?”

Qin Yu nodded seriously.

Aunty Hong revealed a hesitant expression. After a long period of thinking, she clenched her teeth and said, “Whatever. If I hide this matter from you, I fear you will definitely be unhappy if you find out in the future.” She looked straight into Qin Yu’s eyes. “In the Dao Arena’s Battle Room, anyone that can defeat themselves is an extremely commendable and praiseworthy person. You should already be aware of how difficult it is. And those who display an outstanding performance will have their names ranked on the Self Vanquishing List. This Self Vanquishing List has another name, the Ancient Perishment Decree. The so-called perishment is to vanquish and destroy yourself, and from that destruction to be reborn. As long as a person is able to enter the Ancient Perishment Decree, that means that they are an unparalleled talent amongst their generation. Every time the decree changes, it will be spread throughout the world!”

She took out her handphone and tapped the screen several times. Finally, she placed a video in front of Qin Yu. Although the image was a bit blurry, one could clearly see the vortex in the skies, the stone tablet within the vortex, and that broad and boundless voice.

Qin Yu was shocked into a daze. He couldn’t help but hurriedly scroll down to where the comments were. There were all sorts of comments filled with envy, jealousy, hate, awe, worship – so many of them and so vivid in description that it could blind a person. He was absent-minded for a long time before gradually understanding that he had seemed to have quietly done something incredible.

“When the Ancient Perishment Decree changes, it means that another peerless proud child of heaven will slowly ascend within the Land of Divinity and Demons!”

“If anyone can find Qin Yu, that is the same as finding a future Blue Sea realm supreme elder!”

“Good preparations are the key to success. This Qin Yu has managed to awe the world with a single feat. His talent and potential are unfathomably deep!”

All sorts of praise already flooded the network. On various forums, the public accounts of large sects and families all wrote long posts indicating that they hoped Qin Yu would come to their place to cultivate and be given top treatment in kind. This was enough to cause the cultivators in the comments sections to become jealous red-eyed rabbits.

Qin Yu couldn’t help but wryly smile. The example of the You Family was still vivid in his mind. If he really went to these places, he feared that all of these people who wouldn’t hesitate to spend any price to obtain him would suddenly want to kick him into the abyss upon discovering the truth of his talent. And it was extremely likely that in order to hide their shame, they might just kill him off.

Aunty Hong had a tense look. She looked at Qin Yu’s face, trying to catch any change in expression from him. After all, with his current status, if he wanted to leave now there were countless powerful influences that would welcome him with open hands. Compared to them, while the inn might not be considered too weak, they didn’t have any core competitiveness. And, the most important thing was that between Qin Yu and the inn, there was only a cooperative relationship.

Regardless of what angle she looked at this from, it was the inn who was taking advantage of him. If he really wanted to leave, the inn wouldn’t be able to do anything at all. It was only because of this that she hurriedly spoke some words and even outed the miss.

But, Qin Yu’s current complexion really wasn’t normal at all. After the initial shock, there was only a calm expression tinted with a light helplessness. Could it be that he didn’t want to be revealed in this sudden surge of fame? How was this possible? This was the Ancient Perishment Decree! As long he wanted to, he could transform this fame into help for himself, paving a smooth path on his road of cultivation!

“Cough cough. Qin Yu, what do you think?”

Qin Yu took a deep breath. His expression was earnest. “Aunty Hong, I hope you can keep this matter a secret for me.” He paused for a moment and spoke even more bluntly. “The Ancient Perishment Decree’s Qin Yu has nothing to do with me. If I say it like that, you understand, right?”

What nonsense. If news of this was to spread out, everything would spiral out of control. All sorts of storms would start gathering his way. And, the most critical matter was that Qin Yu didn’t possess the talent that everyone on the network was praising over and over about.

If anyone were to find out, it would surely create an enormous storm and possibly provoke a fatal disaster. For instance, the Southern Overwatch Pass’ You Family would definitely take advantage of him when he was down. They would place Qin Yu in a deathtrap in order to prevent any possible retaliation in the future.

But Aunty Hong didn’t know any of this. Qin Yu only became increasingly mystical in her mind. In a single breath of time, countless pieces of information rose up in her head. Such a formidable alchemist had actually joined the Beast Hunting Battalion using the status of an ordinary soldier. If it weren’t for the miss exposing him, perhaps no one would know of this. Moreover, it seemed that right now he wanted to conceal his identity on the Ancient Perishment Decree and didn’t want anyone to know about it. In addition to his lack of understanding of the outside world…

Within great and powerful families, there were sometimes children born into their ranks who were unappreciated for various reasons. They were often persecuted and held captive due to their amazing talent. After painstakingly managing to escape, they didn’t wish to be discovered by anyone. Then, they honed their skills, tempering their minds and bodies, all so that one day they could return openly and honestly with their heads held high, to seek justice for their poor mothers who suffered villainy and died!

As for why their mother died from some villainous scheme – wasn’t that the plot of most drama series playing right now? Thanks to these television series and their long and meandering scripts that were filled with countless grievances and grudges, Aunty Hong had found a reasonable explanation for Qin Yu’s actions. As a result, she didn’t ask further. Her eyes turned dignified and her expression filled with sorrow and pity. “Mister Qin, don’t worry, I will make sure to keep this a secret for you. No one will find out you are in the inn.”

Qin Yu had originally come up with a number of reasons to explain himself. For instance, his cultivation was too weak right now, so if there was too much attention on him then he might be persecuted by someone. There were other explanations like this too. But, he never thought that all of them would be useless. Looking at Aunty Hong’s expression, it seemed that she had come to some conclusion in her heart, and that it was a very plausible explanation also. Although this was a good outcome that made things far less troublesome for him, Qin Yu actually didn’t know what he had said that made Aunty Hong immediately understand him.

“Cough cough. Then I’ll have to trouble Aunty Hong.”

Aunty Hong said with deep admiration, “Mister Qin, there is no need to be in a hurry for anything. You should train and increase your cultivation as much as possible first. After all, you have many days ahead of you. Although my inn isn’t considered some superpower, we can still protect one or two people without a problem. There isn’t a need for you to worry about anything else either. I will help you deal with it.”

Vaguely, Qin Yu could make some guesses from her words. He didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Well, whatever, as long as it made things less troublesome she could think what she wanted.

He spoke some words with a heavy complexion, reinforcing Aunty Hong’s thoughts. Then, he watched as she left. He rubbed his nose, his lips lifting in a helpless smile.

The Ancient Perishment Decree was an accomplishment that people bitterly pursued with all their might. But when it came to him, how come it was actually such a burden? Just because his talent was poor didn’t mean he didn’t have rights!

But, if the Ancient Perishment Decree was so important and created such a disturbance, then even the distant Immortal Sect should know about it.

Senior-apprentice Sister Ning, did she know?

Qin Yu’s eyes filled with a bit of warmth and longing. As he thought about the day when he first met Ning Ling, that original awkwardness had now become affection.

Senior-apprentice Sister Ning, I said that I would come and find you, so I will certainly keep my promise. Please wait for me. I will appear in front of you as soon as possible.

The beginning of Southshine Nation’s Youth Alchemy Competition soon arrived.

Such a grand and magnificent alchemy event naturally attracted the attention of countless young cultivators. All of them hoped to leap into the skies with a single feat here, seeking a brighter and broader future for themselves. Thus, the registration point could be called a sea of people, long snaking lines that extended as far as the eye could see.

Qin Yu stood amongst them. Waiting in line, he still wore black robes. Even though there were eyes filled with mocking and even ill intent around him, he directly ignored them all.

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