Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Two days after the Great Stone Family had been looted, another great event happened at Great King City. Those with any hint of a noble bloodline would occasionally think about the Samo Family, a family who had managed to change their current status. Their first in line to be successor, Samo Doye, had a bloodline that was infinitely close to that of the true nobles. He had been assassinated after a banquet, his head brutally chopped off and his body bathed in blood.

With that, it was like a massive rock crashed into a lake. The originally tense Great King City became even more chaotic. All of the obam forces contracted their strength one after another. As they waited, ready for any battle to explode, they also secretly mobilized their information networks to find the behind-the-scenes murderer who had done all of this.

As the behind-the-scenes manipulator, Qin Yu had no idea what was happening around him. Right now he was hidden away in an underground chamber, attempting to study metal alchemy.

The so-called metal alchemy was a specialized refining system different from the refining used to create weapons and equipment. Although it still used all sorts of precious items as materials, the final product of metal alchemy often only had a single use and they tended to be disposable consumables.

Of course, while the items successfully refined from metal alchemy could only be used a single time, their power was also correspondingly terrifying.

For instance, Qin Yu was right now refining the 'Doom of Stars'. The refining method, including the name, had come from a mark left inside the jade pendant embryo egg.

Through the mark, Qin Yu received some blurry memories. From the viewpoint of the mark, it seemed that the existence who had left this mark behind had personally experienced a battle.

In the memories, the first thing to appear was something similar to a metal puppet. It held a black sphere in hand.

The metal form raised a hand and the sphere howled out. Then, there was a terrifying detonation like an erupting volcano.

In a flash, everything within line of sight was destroyed. Blazing scarlet flames recklessly tumbled around, releasing a heat that was enough to turn everything to ashes.

This scene was incomparably clear. It was obvious that the existence that left behind this mark had been left an extremely deep impression of this battle.

After an unknown period of time, the flames were extinguished. The metal puppet's head had been captured. The scene drew close and what followed was the sounds of chewing.

"Hum hum…Doom of Stars, this name is overbearing enough…but its strength is lacking…"

This voice came from the master who left behind the mark. Even though countless years had passed, even if this was only an incomplete memories, even though Qin Yu knew that if this mark had been left behind, the main body of that existence must have perished already….

When he heard this voice he still couldn't stop himself from shaking, endless fear and awe rising from his soul.

It was like directly facing a predator that stood at the peak of the food chain. The opposite party had already locked onto him and could hunt him down with just a thought.

Qin Yu wasn't sure if it was because this existence had eaten the metal puppet's head, but the refinement method for the Doom of Stars had been preserved in the mark.

According to how precious the materials were and the level of refinement, the Doom of Stars was divided into three different ranks: elementary-level, advanced-level, and ultimate.

In the memories, what Qin Yu saw was the ultimate rank. But with his current strength, let alone finding such precious materials, even if he had them he didn't have the ability to refine them. If he were to try, he would blow himself up and meet a cruel death.

If he refined the primary-level Doom of Stars, that in itself was sufficiently terrifying. If he were to be a bit more careful, there was a chance he could successfully refine it.

At that time, when he held a Doom of Stars in hand, he would have another extra hidden card. It would be enough to save his life at a critical moment.

Of course, the reason Qin Yu chose to refine the Doom of Stars was also because his harvests had been immense when he looted the Great Stone Family's storehouse. Leaving these materials alone would be far too pitiful. Turning them into a part of his strength was the correct choice.

Bang -

With a dull ringing sound, a liquid ball floating in the air suddenly solidified. After a burst of black smoke, it fell to the ground.

Another failure…

Qin Yu rubbed his forehead, forcing out a smile. He had already failed several times. Although he had stolen the materials, he still couldn't bear to lose them. And in the refining process, he also had to use many of his own treasures.

As he thought, metal alchemy was a trap worthy of its name. If one wanted to learn it, they would have to honestly take real gold and silver and burn it away.

But luckily, Qin Yu wasn't without harvests. With each failure he had become increasingly familiar with the entire refinement process. He gradually began to realize the key point of refining the Doom of Stars.

He shook his head and flicked his sleeves, putting away the materials. Qin Yu let out a breath and pointed a finger at the air. Ripples spread out, removing the isolating barrier around him. With a thought, he transformed into an obam again and stepped into his room.

He still had materials to refine the Doom of Stars but he couldn't continue like this. He needed to cause a bit more chaos. He needed to stir up the insecure obam at the Little Sweet Mountains a bit more so that they had no choice but to return to Great King City.

These days, An Ke obediently stayed in the courtyard. It wasn't that he didn't want to run away, but this was Great King City and what lay behind the doors were human-eating obams. As a human slave, if he didn't followed beside his master, then once he was discovered by others he would be ruined.

"Master, what orders do you have?"

Qin Yu nodded, "Has there been anything happening in the city recently?"

An Ke said, "Master, Great King City has not been peaceful recently."

After listening to what happened recently, Qin Yu had a sudden thought. Besides him, there were other people causing turbulence in Great King City.

And their methods were far more brutal and cruel than his. As he attempted to refine the Doom of Stars these past days, numerous heads had rolled down in Great King City.

Those slain were all obam who possessed honored statuses within the various influence. The entire city was placed under martial law. A great search had been launched but the murderer had yet to be found.

Qin Yu's courtyard had been searched three times. Fortunately, his disguise was near perfect and no one suspected him.

Then, who was killing the obam?

Qin Yu's eyes flashed and he immediately thought of the strange ship he saw at the Little Sweet Mountains.

Celestial Retribution?

Qin Yu didn't care about the life and death of the obam. To be clearer, the more that died the better.

Because the effect would be even better.

One plundered wealth and another stole lives…it was perfect!

Qin Yu allowed An Ke to leave. He lifted a hoof and tapped his chin. Who should he choose tonight?

During the night, another influence in Great King City met with disaster. Flames soared into the skies at the footsteps of the Giant Stone Family. It was said that the one who did the looting was a strong male human powerhouse. He possessed incomparable strength and the 13 obam experts who stood guard were all left severely wounded.

But this wasn't the end of the play. Deep into the chaotic night, as the 13 injured obam experts were taken away to be treated, they were suddenly ambushed. None of them survived.

After the reckless slaughter, a human man and woman broke into the dark night and vanished into the boundless Great King City.

This time, Great King City was left thoroughly shaken. The City Lord Mansion issued an order. All forces were to gather together and kill the human infiltrators no matter the cost.

But none of this mattered too much to Qin Yu. After looting again he entered his underground chamber and started to refine the Doom of Stars again.

…

Great King City, somewhere within a large-scale slave farm.

Deep inside, there was a dark cage where a man and woman sat across from each other. They were dressed in clean prisoner clothes and the inside of the cage was extremely clean. It was countless times better than the dirty and strange-smelling slave cages outside.

"Senior-apprentice brother, let's go into hiding for now. The obam have already united and have laid down an inescapable net for us. If we continue venturing out it will be far too risky." Silent Kite slowly said, unable to conceal her worry.

Wistful Deer faintly smiled. "Junior-apprentice sister, there is no need to worry. The experts of Great King City are still at the Little Sweet Mountains. If we are careful then there is no need for us to fear these obam."

He lifted a hand, preventing Silent Kite from trying to change his mind. "I know that junior-apprentice sister wants to be discreet. If these were ordinary times then I wouldn't have any opinion on this. But teacher and our colleagues are fighting with the Great Dragon Overlord. The only thing we can do now is to force the many obam experts away from the Little Sweet Mountains, so that we can relieve as much pressure as we can from teacher."

Silent Kite seemed touched. She took a deep breath and nodded, not saying anything else.

Wistful Deer said, "Don't worry. Since I am insisting on continuing, I am confident in our success." His eyes brightened as if victory was close at end. "Right now, most of the obams' defensive strength is concentrated within the city. Then, let's go against the flow and go for a walk outside instead."

…

Bang -

There was a dull ringing sound. The 26th attempt at refining had failed. Qin Yu's face darkened and he couldn't help but rub his forehead.

Just a point and he would have completed the first step. Damn it all!

Just what was the problem?

Qin Yu took out a jade slip. It contained a detailed record of all his experiences refining the Doom of Stars.

After referencing it, Qin Yu fell silent. He revisited several places and added some speculation about his failure.

When learning new things there was no shortcut to take. Only through constant experience and summarization could he avoid making similar mistakes.

Hu -

Letting out a breath, Qin Yu put away the waste products and started to prepare the 27th refinement attempt.

But at this time his complexion changed. Within his soul space, the strange force field formed of the rising sun and setting moon felt a strange fluctuation.

Hum -

The force shield trembled. Before the fluctuation arrived it was directly scattered.

Qin Yu's complexion changed. The moment he fluctuations were scattered he sensed something. A blurry scene appeared in front of him…this fluctuation was a strange sort of divination technique. It could predict with high probably the next actions of the person it was being cast on.

Was this the obam race?

But this race relied upon awakening their bloodline to constantly strengthen themselves. They didn't have many achievements in supernatural arts, so how could they grasp such an exquisite technique.

No, that wasn't right!

Qin Yu suddenly thought back to when he was at the Little Sweet Mountains and what happened before the Great Dragon Overlord locked onto him.

It was clear that the seemingly ignorant and backward obam race controlled some weird but powerful secret arts.

This was bad!

Because of the sun and moon force field, he was able to scatter the divination technique. But, those two cultivators from Celestial Retribution hiding in Great King City might not necessarily be able to do this.

The strange images he saw should be what they were going to do.

Qin Yu had an unsure expression. He thought back to Hu An who had given his life to block the fallen humans for him and sighed gently.

Whatever. He would consider this as returning a favor to Celestial Punishment. Moreover, if these two people lived they could share the pressure with him.