Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 376 – Terrifying Evil Spirit

The purple-gold crowned cultivator was silent. One could clearly see that he was struggling with the situation internally. This left the two guardians confused. With the strength of their group, they could easily kill a peak Divine Soul, so why was the young master being so cautious?

Qin Yu took a deep breath. Within his dantian sea, the Five Element Nascent Souls began to shake as magic power surged out and his heart started to powerfully beat. He was prepared for anything to happen. These 11 people might be powerful and the three guardians terrifying, but if he went all out then he could wield a combat strength of 48 dragons, equivalent to an initial Blue Sea powerhouse. He wouldn’t necessarily be unable to withdraw. Moreover, if he were to use the power of the burning heavens, Qin Yu’s combat strength would rise to the point where he could even hold his weight against a Revered Blue Sea!

The purple-gold crowned youth’s eyes looked around. There was a flash of hesitation, confusion, and then he finally said, “Fellow daoist, I don’t want to make things awkward between us. As long as you agree to join us, then once we leave Bronze Bell Ancient City I will allow you to freely leave.”

“Young master!” A guardian shouted out, a dark and cold expression on his face.

The purple-gold crowned youth raised a hand. “I have already made a decision. There isn’t any need to speak further.”

Qin Yu was also surprised. He wavered for a moment but once he glanced over the old woman, he suddenly made a decision. “Alright, I agree.” Once a battle broke out, even if he could withdraw he would still need to pay an enormous price. If he was severely wounded it would be difficult enough to maintain his life, much less search for Ning Ling.

The purple-gold crowned youth smiled. “I don’t know why either, but fellow daoist seems a bit familiar…whatever, let’s go and find that thing first.”

He waved his hand and the two guardians stepped forward. As they passed by Qin Yu, they coldly glared at him as if giving him a warning. The two of them walked to the center of a deserted street. Then, they each took out a bronze mirror. They poured magic power into the bronze mirrors and a remnant soul flew out from each.

The two remnant souls were incredibly incomplete. Only by borrowing the power of the bronze mirrors and the strength of the two guardians were they able to barely condense. Still, they seemed as if they would break apart at any moment. Their eyes were empty and blank and they had clearly lost their consciousness. Still, after they appeared in Bronze Bell Ancient City, they instinctively revealed looks of horror and panic as they glanced towards one direction.

“It’s here!” The two guardians revealed looks of pleasant surprise.

The purple-gold crowned youth smiled. “Let’s go.”

Qin Yu followed behind, keeping a certain distance from the group. He had no intention of leaving right now, otherwise he was sure these cultivators would start to wildly attack him. Once they found their treasure he would then leave. If these people decided to betray their promise at that time, then he would let them taste what it meant to lose what they had just obtained.

The two guardians led the way. They followed the path according to the remnant souls, soon arriving in the center of the city where the giant bell tower was. The remnant souls screamed as if they felt immense fear. The two guardians put away their bronze mirrors and said, “Young master, it's here!” action

The entire group revealed happiness. Even the old woman who remained silent all this time had a flash of light pass through her eyes.

Qin Yu knew that the place they were looking for was this bell tower in front of him. But no matter how much he searched it with his senses, he still couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary.

The young female cultivator called Xie Yu saw the confusion in his eyes and sneered, “Stop wasting your time. If you weren’t with us, you wouldn’t be able to find anything even if you spent a hundred years here.”

The purple-gold crowned cultivator didn’t have any thoughts of reprimanding his cousin right now. He said in a low voice, “Be careful. I’ll have to trouble the two guardians to do this. Everyone else can stand behind.”

He stepped a thousand feet away. The old woman followed them. As Qin Yu moved backwards, he noticed a pair of cloudy eyes tightening on him.

A chill ran through his heart as he felt even more dread towards this old woman.

At this time, the two guardians began to move. Their expressions were dignified as they carefully took out refined metal components from their storage tools.

Once these things were only half arranged, they started to float upwards and release waves of ripples in the void.

What an amazing and tyrannical array formation!

The two guardians were quick in their movements. In ten breaths of time, the entire array formation was completed. As a fist-sized fiery red crystal was placed in the core of the array formation, it was finally fully activated.

In an instant, with the bell tower as the central point, the space around for thousands of feet was directly smashed apart. Within the dark nothingness exposed, there were actually countless black and white threads entangled with each other. Looking carefully, one discovered that these weren’t black and white threads. Rather, they were countless hairs gathered together and wrapped in layers.

Qin Yu’s mind shook and a chill grew in his heart. He could feel something terrifying emanating from these hairs.

The array formation had already been activated and there was no need to control it. The crystal at the core of the array formation erupted with a blinding crimson light. This light transformed into blazing flames in the air, wildly burning through the hair that was twisted together.

“Ahh!” Countless shrill screams suddenly resounded in the world. It was like these countless hairs each had their own soul and were struggling in pain within the flames.

These sharp screams pierced through the ears and summoned the greatest fears from depths of a person’s heart. Even Xie Yu who had taunted Qin Yu began to shiver as her face paled.

Qin Yu had a firm will, yet even he couldn’t help but wrinkle his eyebrows together. He had to summon his complete divine sense to forcefully suppress the waves of fright.

The only one who wasn’t affected was that old woman. Her originally dull eyes now flashed with a sharp light. The space above her head faintly twisted as the phantom of a giant tree flickered in and out of existence.

Suddenly, amongst the countless winding hairs, there was a deep roar. This was different from the screams of the hairs. This voice was incomparably rough and coarse, like two giant boulders wildly rubbing against each other. It was so terrifying that it caused everyone’s scalps to tingle with fright.

“Whoever…disturbs my sleep…deserves death…” The hairs that were being burned by the flames began to disperse outwards as a horrifying aura erupted.

Qin Yu’s heart shrank. In the skies above Bronze Bell Ancient City, massive black clouds began to gush out from the void. Lightning cut through the vast skies and there was a loud rumble as the suppression of the elements came.

This was the suppression of the Infinite Realm’s rules!

In other words, this aura had surpassed its withstanding limits.

The complexions of the two guardians changed. “This is bad!” Their feet started to move as they tried to draw backwards, but at this time, two strands of that terrifying hair howled towards them and wrapped around them. In the next instant, countless hairs drilled into their bodies, wildly swallowing their flesh and blood!

“Ahh! Die for me!”

“Screw off!”

The auras of the two guardians erupted. Dazzling divine light exploded from their bodies and their combat strength rose past the peak of Divine Soul, all the way to almost 10 dragons. This was already a combat strength in the realm of Blue Sea and reached the withstanding limit of the Infinite Realm. Most guardians had a combat strength of around 10 dragons; any stronger and they would be suppressed.

Countless hairs were shattered into powder, but even more remained in their bodies. The two guardians revealed looks of despair. If things continued like this, they would last at most a dozen some breaths of time before they were sucked dry of blood. Even their souls would be unable to escape.

“Young master, we cannot continue protecting you!”

“I ask young master to look after my family!”

Before their voices fell, the two guardians imploded. A terrifying strength instantly destroyed all of the surrounding hairs. The terrifying aura violently contracted backwards as it emitted pained screams.

“Ahh! How can this be? How can this be?” Xie Yu was panic-stricken. “The information said that we can obtain a treasure after refining a dead evil spirit. But it is actually still alive and its strength is so terrifying!”

The purple-gold crowned youth shouted out, “Everyone attack! We must suppress and kill it, otherwise we will all die here!”

He lifted a hand and a sword emerged from thin air. He grasped it in his hand and slashed downwards.

Space shattered. The might of this sword could compare with the two guardians, and in terms of killing power, it was even a bit stronger. But, this sword strike only managed to cut some hairs. Then, within the blazing flames of the array formation, a terrifying shadow appeared.

This was a giant head. Its face was covered in cracks and wounds, all of them traces left over from being stitched up. It was as if this giant head was stitched together from countless faces. And, what was most terrifying was its thick hair that dragged behind it for hundreds of meters. Black, white, gray, it was all mixed up together. Some was withered and dried, some was glossy and bright, there were even some hairs that seemed small and immature.

Even though all this hair grew together, it clearly wasn’t from the same person. Or, to be more precise, it was the hair of thousands of people gathered together! With this hair and the stitched face placed together, this was a horrifying sight that left one’s mind shaking in fear!

The giant mouth opened and a thunderous voice boomed outwards. There were even hairs coming out from its mouth, “You will all die…”

Bang –

Bang –

Bang –

A mass of hairs slammed across the array. The metal components of the array formation began to tremble and buzz.

The purple-gold crowned youth’s pupils contracted. “It wants to break the array formation! Stop it!”

Without any extra urging, brilliant divine light covered the giant head. Even Xie Yu with the worst psychological state erupted with her eighth level Divine Soul cultivation. When everyone joined forces, their killing power was naturally amazing.

The metal components stopped trembling. Everyone’s eyes brightened. Could that wave of supernatural attacks have managed to kill the monster?

Qin Yu stamped his feet on the ground and exploded backwards. The purple-gold crowned youth followed close behind, grabbing onto Xie Yu as he did. As for the other cultivators, their responses were a step too slow. The metal components of the array formation disintegrated without warning. Then, the ground broke apart and terrifying strands of hair rushed out, clinging onto the cultivators.

“Ahh!”

“Save me!”

With sad ear-piercing screams, six cultivators were swept away. The hairs drilled into their bodies and they began to rapidly wither.

Whoosh –

A massive bunch of hairs swept towards the quiet old woman. It was as if that giant ugly head knew she was the strongest and mobilized more hairs against her.

The old woman slammed her walking stick into the ground. With her as the center, a terrifying tide rushed outwards, roaring in all directions. Pitiful cries sounded out from below the earth. The hairs that tried to sneak attack her were all smashed into pieces.

She raised a wrinkled hand and thrust her palm forwards. A green rune appeared before erupting with dazzling divine light. The light covered the long hair, directly burning it away. At this time, the old woman’s complexion changed. She shifted several dozen feet to the side and a column of gray energy fell down where she had just stood. The energy quietly melted away the ground, leaving behind a fathomless hole.

“Humph!” The old woman raised the walking stick in her hand and then in the space behind her, an ancient scholartree phantom appeared. A mighty and powerful divine light erupted, shining upon that ugly head.

This divine light contained a massive amount of life aura and vitality. But as it fell on the giant head, it was like acid, corroding away large tracts of flesh and blood and causing giant swaths of hair to fall down.

Xie Yu was still shocked. As she saw this scene she was immediately overjoyed. “How fierce! This is truly worthy of Granny Scholartree; she was able to directly suppress that monster. Burn it, burn it to death!”

The purple-gold crowned youth still had a dignified expression. For this evil spirit to easily kill two guardians, its strength absolutely wasn’t limited to this.

Qin Yu also felt the same. While this Granny Scholartree had the advantage right now, he feared the evil spirit likely had other methods at its disposal.

At this moment, a change suddenly occurred. The ugly head that was being burned by divine light suddenly opened its eyes.

Completely unlike its scary appearance, its black and white eyes gave off an extremely beautiful feeling. They were gentle and warm, making one feel close and intimate with it.

Xie Yu was captured in this feeling. But in the next moment, a sharp scream awakened her from her daze. She immediately shook as fear filled her eyes.

Granny Scholartree’s originally old appearance started to decay at a bewildering speed. Wisps of white gas gushed out from her body and dissipated.

“Killing curse!” She screeched miserably, horror etched on her face. This was because the white gas that constantly left her body was the little bit of vitality she had left.

She had been paid an enormous price to escort these juniors into the Infinite Realm. She thought that with her cultivation it would be enough to suppress any dangers they encountered. But, she realized she had been too negligent. She didn’t expect that she would come across an evil spirit that knew how to use a killing curse. There was simply nothing she could do to resist it.

“Run!” As she screamed, the scholartree phantom behind Granny Scholartree ignited and began to burn. These flames were clearly intangible, and yet they wrapped around that ugly head and caused it to scream.

Qin Yu’s eyes were filled with shock. When Granny Scholartree burned the scholartree phantom, she actually erupted with a terrifying aura comparable to a Revered Blue Sea.

He turned and fled without hesitation.

Kacha –

Kacha –

Kacha –

The world around Bronze Bell Ancient City seemed as if it were a mirror being shattered. Countless horrifying cracks appeared.

The strength of a Revered Blue Sea surpassed the withstanding limits of the Infinite Realm; this space would soon collapse. Moreover, up above in the skies, a giant blurry face condensed in those tumbling black clouds. This was the rendering of the Infinite Realm’s incomplete rules. If they continued to stay here, even if they managed to survive the destructive collapse of the heavens and earth, they wouldn’t be able to escape the suppression of the Infinite Realm’s rules.

The purple-gold crowned youth grabbed tightly onto Xie Yu and ran away. A sword phantom wrapped around the two and he soared away at a mind-boggling speed, actually leaving the scope of the ancient city a step ahead of Qin Yu.

Qin Yu’s heart skipped a beat. He stepped forwards and slammed into a crack in the protective barrier, forcefully breaking through it. In the next moment, with the walls of Bronze Bell Ancient City as the boundary, the entire space within collapsed. The giant face condensed in the black clouds above emitted a pained and angry roar.

The originally collapsed space contracted to 1000 feet in size, forming a black sphere. Countless arcs of lightning raged across its surface, its aura so deep it left one in despair.

This was the obliteration from the arrival of the Infinite Realm’s rules!

Qin Yu, the purple-crowned youth, and Xie Yu stood outside the ancient city. Their faces were pale as they watched on.