Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 997B - Problem of Status

“Duly greets the family and all the Elders.” She stood in a vast grand hall, her attitude respectful.

“Fourth Miss, I’m sure you know why you were summoned here today. This Qin Yu, how did you meet him?” An Elder spoke from a high seat.

East Zhou Duly said, “I became acquainted with Qin Yu not too long ago during the competition for a spot in the Path of 10,000 Souls…” Without hesitation, she explained everything that happened without covering anything up.

She understood the family’s strength more clearly than everyone, so she naturally understood that trying to lie about anything was an extremely foolish action.

The grand hall fell silent. These people that controlled the colossus known as the East Zhou Family listened attentively, all of them with their own thoughts.

“That is what happened. When I saw Qin Yu today I was also shocked. I never thought he would be the same Qin Yu that was in Stranded God Canyon.”

When her voice fell, a cold and gloomy voice spoke up, “Fourth Miss, are you saying that not too long ago in the competition for a spot in the Path of 10,000 Souls, Qin Yu was ordinary?”

East Zhou Duly nodded, “Yes.”

“Do you think there is a chance that he purposefully hid his strength?”

East Zhou Duly hesitated for a moment. “I don’t think so…at the time, Old Ye was with me. His eyesight shouldn’t be wrong.”

The cold and gloomy voice continued, “In other words, in a short period of time, Qin Yu seemed to become an entirely different person and his strength has risen to a point where even you are shocked.”

East Zhou Duly nodded. Her heart sank.

“Everyone, I believe that something is wrong with this matter.” The cold and gloomy voice said. The master of the voice was East Zhou Buho, an extremely powerful Elder. His words naturally held a heavy weight to them.

“If Qin Yu’s strength suddenly rose so much, there are two possibilities. The first is that he encountered an inconceivable bout of good fortune and profited from it. But the chances of this happening are nearly negligible. At the very least, I don’t believe that a lucky chance exists in this world that can in essence cause a cultivator to be entirely reborn in such a short period of time…unless the Qin Yu of today is no longer the same person that East Zhou Duly knew from the past.”

The hall fell silent. Many Elders frowned, a dignified look in their eyes.

Because this was a possibility.

Seizing bodies and whatnot might be a mysterious phenomenon to others, but with their field of vision, such an act couldn’t be considered anything at all. If Qin Yu really had his body seized by someone else and he chose to come to the East Zhou Family now, then his motives were surely not pure.

East Zhou Duly took a deep breath. “I acknowledge that might be a possibility, but I firmly believe that the Qin Yu I met today is the same as the one I met before.”

“Humph! How much do you understand about seizing bodies? How many times have you seen it before? It is normal if they are disguised exactly the same and even their soul auras can be the same.” East Zhou Buho coldly sneered. “The Path of 10,000 Souls is not just your personal matter. The family spent a great deal of resources to obtain this spot, so how can we allow such an accident to occur?”

He cupped his hands together, “Patriarch, in my opinion we must confirm Qin Yu’s identity without a doubt, otherwise he cannot be allowed to join.”

“Elder Buho speaks reasonably.”

“Being careful is correct.”

“This master and servant have mysterious origins and there are points of doubt everywhere. They must be clearly investigated.”

“As things should be.”

East Zhou Duly’s heart sank. She looked up at several Elders who were on good terms with her father, hoping to gain their support.

An Elder coughed lightly and said, “Although Elder Buho makes sense, we cannot forget that Qin Yu isn’t an ordinary cultivator who is trying to obtain a follower post.”

He swept his eyes around, “If I must be blunt about it, then compared to other cultivators that would crazily chase the position of follower and not hesitate to pay any price…that is nothing to Qin Yu. As long as he wishes to, he can casually leak a rumor about his location and immediately harvest olive branches from countless other influences. In addition, they would likely give him rich rewards.

“If Qin Yu becomes a follower of another competitor in the Path of 10,000 Souls due to our suspicions, and even vents his anger on the Fourth Miss, how many harvests do you all think our East Zhou Family will have this time?

“Everyone, do not forget that he solved the problems of the rules to the 99th problem not just once, but several times, and it is likely that he is directly responsible for the disappearance of Stranded God Canyon. If such an opponent were to enter the Path of 10,000 Souls, his destructive power and deterring strength would be terrifying beyond imagination!”

The hall fell silent again. The people who supported East Zhou Buho furrowed their eyebrows together and kept quiet. The Path of 10,000 Souls was of vital importance. They could shout out their support but they had to avoid the charge. If they truly did stir up trouble, the consequences would be difficult to withstand.

East Zhou Buho coldly sneered. “Elder Sigan, are you saying that our East Zhou Family can only freely allow this to happen and do nothing at all?”

East Zhou Sigan lightly said, “I don’t mean that. I’m simply saying that we should be discreet when dealing with Qin Yu so that no hatred forms between us.”

Both sides stuck to their own interpretation, and each one had their own reasoning.

Finally, the Patriarch made a ruling. Qin Yu’s status had to be determined, but it needed to be done so using gentle and soft methods so that he didn’t feel disgusted.

This was a result both sides reluctantly accepted. With that, the problem became how to determine Qin Yu’s status.

That night, East Zhou Duly knocked on the doors of Qin Yu’s large courtyard. As Snowside watched with a respectful yet strange look, she entered his room to privately speak.

Snowside closed the doors and curled her lips, feeling a bit of a headache. This boy Qin Yu’s ability to attract butterflies was far too strong. action

The initially incomparably formidable East Zhou Duly who was like a goddess in her eyes, had knocked on their courtyard doors in the middle of the night to visit. This would inevitably greatly increase the difficulty and risks of her ‘borrowing the seed’ plan.

Regardless of what nonsensical thoughts Snowside was thinking, East Zhou Duly entered Qin Yu’s room and took a seat. After a brief hesitation she directly said, “Qin Yu, what I am about to say might make you feel anger or shame, but I have no other choice. I hope you can understand it.”

Qin Yu looked at her, “Is it because of my origin?”

East Zhou Duly’s eyes brightened. As expected, with his intelligence he grasped the key point. “Yes. The Elders of my family are unable to feel completely assured about your status.”

Qin Yu wryly smiled. When he had Snowside draw up an imaginary background for him, one that was great and unfathomable, that was all in order to deal with any test that might come from the East Zhou Family. He never thought that things would develop in the direction they did today.

Now, almost everyone believed he had a great background. But East Zhou Duly knew his true origins. It hadn’t been that long since they last saw each other, and yet his change in status was far too much. It wasn’t strange for the East Zhou Family to suspect him.

But even if bragging about a fake origin caused difficulties, he still had to do it, otherwise he could only find another way to enter the Path of 10,000 Souls.

Undoubtedly, East Zhou Duly was his best choice. It was unknown whether he had enough time to become a follower of someone else, but even if he did find someone, would they not investigate his background either? Would they not investigate why he left the East Zhou Family? It was clear all sorts of problems would occur.

In essence, he couldn’t tell the truth. Otherwise East Zhou Duly might not join hands with him to deceive her family.

Qin Yu apologized in his heart and bitterly smiled. “I’m sorry, but for certain reasons I cannot publicly declare my status without my teacher’s permission.”

East Zhou Duly furrowed her eyebrows together, “You really can’t tell me?”

“I can’t!” Qin Yu decisively stated. Of course he knew that he couldn’t reveal any hesitation at such a time. “East Zhou Duly, I will honestly tell you that I have some personal reasons for wanting to enter the Path of 10,000 Souls, but I also have no malicious intent towards you.”

East Zhou Duly lightly sighed. “I believe you, but the family isn’t willing to take any risks.” She paused. After hesitating a little she stood up and said, “The East Zhou Family will definitely use other methods to verify your origins. If there is any place where you are offended, I hope that you can forgive us. But, I ask that you rest assured. I will do my best so that the family agrees with you becoming one of my followers.”

Qin Yu delivered her out the door.

When Snowside closed the courtyard doors, she blinked her eyes and said, “What is it? Your complexion looks a bit heavy.”

Qin Yu rubbed his eyebrows, “It’s nothing.”

Snowside had only been acting according to his will. Now that something went wrong, he couldn’t blame her for anything.

Telling her would only make her feel pressure, so why do it?

Qin Yu looked down at his palm with a thoughtful look. Could the status of an Origin God’s disciple be considered transcendent enough?

Cough cough. This could only be considered a type of self-ridiculing at a time when he was feeling helpless.

To the East Zhou Family that controlled a hundred worlds, while an Origin God was precious, they weren’t some kind of heavyweight existence or anything.

It was impossible for them to be like dogs running around, but casually pulling out a hundred of them was easy.

It seemed that his chances of using Xue Zheng to overcome this trial were nearly zero.

Qin Yu felt a bit irritated. He really didn’t like this state of being powerless and only being able to drift around according to the will of others.

But he didn’t have a better plan…where was he supposed to find a transcendent teacher now? He didn’t even have time!

As Qin Yu felt restless, the colossus known as the East Zhou Family started to move. With their amount of resources and skill, they could easily burst out with unimaginable energy.

They needed to determine Qin Yu’s origin in a situation where he was unwilling to speak about it and where they couldn’t find any other information. Just what way was there?

To the average person, this was a deadlocked situation. But the East Zhou Family was not average, so they naturally had their own ways.

The Great Revelation Art was an extremely mystical and esoteric skill. This was a supernatural technique that utilized the dark flow of karmic cause and effect of the world to deduce the future and past.

To call it a supernatural technique wasn’t appropriate. Because its operating principles, even in the eyes of an almighty cultivator, were nonsensical babblings that made no sense at all.

When it came to accurately predicting the past and future, it was simply utterly unreliable. But, if it was only used to determine the origin of a person, the credibility was actually extremely high.

After all, anyone that had a great background or astonishing origins had to be entangled in layers upon layers of auras. They were filled with an honored atmosphere that could not be touched at will, otherwise a backlash was certain to occur.

In simpler terms, even if the person they were probing wasn’t terrifying themselves, the backer behind them, as well as their relatives, teachers, friends, and so forth, had their auras mixed in with their own. Once the two sides were close enough and a certain limit had been reached, if someone were to then touch this invisible aura, it would definitely be sensed and the prober would have to endure their anger.

So this in itself was an extremely risky matter.

The East Zhou Family found an extremely formidable Grandmaster. To call him Grandmaster wasn’t a joke either. He had become famous a long time ago and had continued standing until now. For his reputation to spread out so far away, he had a record that was full of effusive praise.

This sort of Grandmaster had a lofty status. Even the East Zhou Family with their strength wouldn’t dare to easily make such a request. This time, if it weren’t for the fact that this Grandmaster needed the help of the East Zhou Family, he would never have agreed to use the Great Revelation Art to trace Qin Yu’s origin.

After all, Qin Yu solving the problems of the rules to the 99th problem several times and even causing Stranded God Canyon itself to vanish in the end was all public knowledge. And according to the rumors, this Qin Yu had an extremely terrifying background and his teacher was a transcendent existence.

If a person could be described as ‘transcendent’, could they be ordinary? If he was unlucky, he might even lose his life because of this.