Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 988 – Solving Problems

The facts proved that this class session of Stranded God Canyon had become a solo show for Qin Yu alone. All eyes were drawn to him.

After all, ten problems were being solved a day right in front of them. Even if they didn’t want to pay attention to it, that would be difficult.

No one doubted Qin Yu’s reputation anymore. Moreover, from the secret information everyone had secretly exchanged with each other over these past few days, it seemed that his background was even more unfathomable than they imagined.

Zhou Pei thought for a time. He decided it would be better to bleed a little more and offer something else, so that Qin Yu would forget all of the unpleasantness from before. Yes, he was that cautious of a person. When things involved his life, he had to ensure absolute safety.

Although he knew that it had been impossible for him or anyone else to meet Qin Yu in these past days, seeing Snowside was more than enough. He didn’t believe that Qin Yu would keep such a charming little maid by his side every day without enjoying her.

He understood the might of a pillow-speaker. So, the gift he gave was a cute ice fox with exquisite snow-like hair. It could make any woman who loved cute things scream with glee.

He expended a great deal of effort to make Snowside accept it. Zhou Pei then smiled and left. But, he couldn't figure out why she asked about the stone egg. Looking at things, it seemed that even Qin Yu didn’t know what the stone egg was.

Zhou Pei’s mood was suddenly much better.

Qi Lianshan opened his eyes and looked at rule lines that were gathering on the red cliff in front of him. He smiled. In the last several days, his thoughts of competing with Qin Yu had all been extinguished. A person had to know their place and where they stood in the world. This was a concept that had been pounded into him since he was a child.

But even if he couldn’t compete with Qin Yu, every time he solved a problem he could grasp the strength of the rules and become stronger. This had never changed.

So when he glanced around at the cultivators who were staring at Qin Yu’s back in awe and disbelief, he smirked with cold contempt.

All powerhouses in the world, even those mythical Rulers that controlled the endless heavens, had still started off small and weak and gradually grew to where they were today.

One had to have sufficient awe when they faced a powerhouse. But what was even more important was to make use of this pressure to constantly push oneself forward and grow. How could people allow themselves to be immersed in their own feelings of inadequacy and waste all this prime cultivating time?

These people…hum hum, their reputations were all exaggerated!

As Zhou Pei was comforting himself and Qi Lianshan was sneering at those around him, outside of Stranded God Canyon, some people were flying into a rage.

“Why is the loss rate of strength still increasing? Don’t you all know that every tiny bit it goes up represents a terrifying expenditure!?” A roar came out from a mirror. The one inside was a prideful man in white clothes. In short, he was a delicate person.

That’s right, he was delicate.

This sort of adjective was often used to describe women, but it fit him perfectly. Unfortunately, his delicate face was distorted by grief and even his fingers were shivering.

“Speak! Speak! You are all array formation powerhouses that my clan spent a great deal to hire. All of you are taking a salary from my family and yet you cannot even solve this problem! What use do I have in keeping you all around?”

Likely because he was breathless from anger, his last words were squeaky and somewhat hysterical.

But in the underground temple, the dozen plus cultivators that were maintaining the revolution of the array formation started to emit a cold sweat as their complexions changed.

They all knew of the young master’s temperament. He wasn’t just tossing these words around. If they couldn’t satisfy him then all of them would no longer be needed.

“Young master, please appease your anger!” Grandmaster Zhou, the one who was responsible for maintaining the operation of the array formation, spoke up. “Through our calculations, we have found the approximate reason for why the losses in the array formation have increased.”

“Tell me!” The white-clothed youth in the mirror clenched his jaws.

Grandmaster Zhou said, “Without accident, the reason is because of the problems of rules within Stranded God Canyon.”

“Problems of rules?” The white-clothed youth frowned. His forcefully suppressed anger blazed bright once again and his eyebrows started to twitch. “You’re telling me that someone in Stranded God Canyon is crazily solving so many problems that they are causing it to draw more strength?”

With a loud bang, something was heavily kicked away by the white-clothed youth. His face twisted with even more anger as he roared, “You old thing, do you think I’m stupid? I have also experienced the difficulty of the problems of rules in Stranded God Canyon. Do you think I wouldn’t know? With the energy loss rising to such rates, do you think that can be explained by one or two problems being solved?”

Grandmaster Zhou shook his head. “One or two of course isn’t enough.” He looked up. “When we summoned Stranded God Canyon, we had already completed our calculations for how much extra strength supplies would be needed if more problems of rules were solved. According to the increase in losses, if we were to contrast it against the normal usage, then we judge that at least ten extra problems of the rules are being solved every day.”

Leng Aoshuang might be short-fused but he wasn’t stupid, otherwise it would have been impossible for the Leng Family to go all-out in helping him. He looked through the mirror at Grandmaster Zhou and said, “Are you telling me that an accident has occurred in Stranded God Canyon?”

Grandmaster Zhou shook his head, “Stranded God Canyon has existed for countless years. It is a riddle that even our generation of array formation specialists still are trying to figure out. But even now, no one has managed to make a breakthrough. So young master, I have no way of answering your question. This is simply the most likely scenario we have calculated.”

Leng Aoshuang flung his arms into the air. “I don’t care if you can answer me that. Grandmaster Zhou, when will this situation end?”

Grandmaster Zhou shook his head, “I cannot tell yet.”

“You…” Leng Aoshuang suppressed his impulse to curse out loud. This surname Zhou was a man of ability who was highly regarded by his clan. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been dispatched here to manage today’s incident.

He drew a deep breath and coldly said, “Everyone, you should all be aware that this matter of Stranded God Canyon influences whether or not I can obtain a spot as a follower. This is the greatest issue at hand in my Leng Family right now, and mistakes are absolutely not allowed. So all of you must work together and ensure everything proceeds smoothly. If it does, then I will thank you again in the future!”

Pa –

The mirror shattered and the correspondence ended.

Leng Aoshuang had clearly only finished half his words. Even so, it wasn’t hard for everyone to figure out what else he was going to say.

Grandmaster Zhou could no longer maintain his composure. He forced a smile and turned, saying, “Everyone, the young master has been moved to genuine anger.”

If Leng Aoshuang was visibly angry, then that indicated things weren’t too serious. But if he suddenly calmed down and seriously beseeched everyone, that proved that he truly did care.

If they didn’t handle this matter well, then besides Grandmaster Zhou, everyone else would be out of luck. Even if they didn’t die they would still shed several layers of skin.

“Hah…” Everyone sighed woefully. They looked at the array diagram in the void and the striking red line which continued to rise up.

If it looked like a taut fishing line before, then now it had become a rope that was wrapped around their necks.

If it became any tighter, they would all suffocate.

…

Qin Yu couldn’t hear the wailing and begging of Grandmaster Zhou and the others. And even if he did, he wouldn’t care. Hey, you were the ones that dragged me into Stranded God Canyon. Now that you can’t withstand the consequences, you want me to obediently stop?

Hum hum, there is no such truth in this world!

So Qin Yu remained immersed in solving the problem of the rules like before. He had a desire to never wake up again.

Shua –

In the room, Qin Yu opened his eyes. A swift flash of electric light appeared in the dark. As he felt the fluctuations of the strength of rules that had just marked themselves in his soul, he smiled.

To be able to feel himself become stronger every day was an incomparably wonderful feeling.

Time waits for no man.

After leaving Stranded God Canyon, if he wanted to find another opportunity to advance his cultivation so rapidly, it would be unfathomably difficult.

Moreover, the competition for being one of East Zhou Duly’s followers was right in front of him. Every time he grew stronger, his chances were that much higher.

Qin Yu took a breath and pushed open the door. As he was about to go to the red cliff again, he was stopped by Snowside. “What is it?” He asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

Snowside curled her lips. “Don’t put on an unhappy appearance as if I’m delaying you. If you hadn’t asked me for help, I wouldn’t have bothered waiting here for you.” She rolled her eyes and said, “Today is the tenth day, don’t forget.” She turned and left.

Qin Yu slapped his forehead. It was fortunate that Snowside had reminded him, otherwise he really would have forgotten.

After solving 99 problems of the rules, one would open up the portal and be directly transmitted out of Stranded God Canyon.

This was a cultivation treasure trove. How could solving 99 problems of the rules be enough for Qin Yu? He had just started the great undertaking of taking in as many benefits as he could, so he couldn’t let things end like this.

In front of the red cliff, everyone smiled as they saw Qin Yu approach. They all had dense looks in their eyes.

Because today was the tenth day.

For the last nine days, Qin Yu had solved ten problems every day as easily as he drank and ate. In other words, if things went as expected, he would immediately become the first person to solve 99 problems of the rules since Stranded God Canyon was discovered and also be the first cultivator to leave by themselves.

Disregarding all else, just this point alone was enough for him to be marked down in the annals of history.

And what left everyone even more bitter was that once Qin Yu accomplished this, he would undoubtedly obtain the approval of the East Zhou Family and gain a follower spot.

After all, the leaders of the East Zhou Family wouldn’t be stupid enough to let go of such a person.

But there was a limited number of follower spots. Besides the ones that the East Zhou Family kept for themselves, there were at most three that were left for outside competition.

One of them had been reserved for a genius who had been born in a certain cultivation holy land, leaving only two spots.

If another spot was taken by Qin Yu, only one would be left for them.

But no matter how sad and unwilling they were over this, they could only patiently bear it and not reveal any of it.

Right now, everyone in Stranded God Canyon had come to a mutual understanding – Qin Yu was someone that they absolutely could not provoke. Unless they were tired of living, no one wanted to mess with him.

Even that normally sinister and ruthless Zhou Pei had vanished. He lived cautiously and it was heard that he delivered another present yesterday. Even if his heart bled he still forced himself to keep a smile on his face.

But in the eyes of everyone, this was already the best possible ending. If Qin Yu really did plan on squabbling with him over what happened, this wouldn’t be something that would end with giving away a few belongings.

As everyone smiled and nodded, Qin Yu stood before the red cliff and cleared his mind. He started to solve the problem of the rules.

It became clearer that the difficulty of today’s problem of the rules was more than ten times more difficult than the first one. Even if Qin Yu knew the answer it still wasn’t easy to analyze it backwards. He needed to be careful so that his previous efforts weren’t wasted.

As a result, he wanted to lengthen the time it took to solve the problems.

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