Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Bathed in a baptism of endless thunder, Lei Xiaoyu's pupils turned silver white, her face icy cold and without emotion. Then, she lifted her hands and pressed them down.

Badun screamed out loud and his body blew apart, changing into countless blood phantoms that howled out in all directions. This was his greatest life-maintaining technique and once he used it his cultivation would be greatly damaged. He would forever lose a part of his soul and his future cultivation would be affected.

But at this time he used it without hesitation, because the moment Lei Xiaoyu raised her hands, he felt a breath upon him that left him wallowing in despair.

If he didn't run away he would immediately die!

Rumble rumble -

Endless lightning flooded the world, weaving into a boundless net that covered the land without a single opening.

Badun had blown into countless blood phantoms. But no matter how many there were, there was no way for him to escape this omnipresent attack.

Beneath the thunder, the blood phantoms evaporated like steam!

The silver light in Lei Xiaoyu's eyes rapidly faded away and her hair returned to black. She fell to the ground, vomiting mouthfuls of blood.

That strike just now had exhausted all of her strength…the most essential reason that the Lei Family's bloodline hadn't awakened over dozens of generations was that the ruler of thunder bloodline was peerless and overbearing, and it had extremely high requirements for the cultivator themselves.

With Lei Xiaoyu's current boundary, being able to erupt with this much power was all because of her formidable bloodline. But at the same time she needed to pay a steep price.

She poured onto the ground and curled tightly into a ball. Her aura rapidly declined. It was like a candle precariously flickering in the wind, about to extinguish at any moment.

Qin Yu shouted out loud, "Xiaoyu!"

He drew in a deep breath and roared. Ice thorns drilled out from his body. This was the power of eternal cold that invaded his body being forcefully expelled.

Cui Yongji's eyes twitched. As he looked at Qin Yu, an irrepressible fear rose up within him.

This was a lunatic! A lunatic that wouldn't die!

Badun had already died so it was impossible for him to win. He had to immediately escape. If things continued like this, he really would die.

As for the blood moon…Cui Yongji couldn't care about it right now. With his skills, if he ran away he at least had a chance to survive.

"Junior, we will meet again in the future. I vow that I shall make you pay the price for today!" Cui Yongji screamed with hatred. His body began to dissolve like ice beneath the summer sun, turning into a pool of black goo that freed itself from Qin Yu's confinement. It squirmed around, about to flee.

"You cannot leave!" Qin Yu looked down at the black goo that was tightly sucked into the wound on his chest. He raised his right index finger and coldly said, "If you cannot stop this person from leaving, your existence is no longer necessary!"

A black vortex appeared in his transparent index finger. As it rapidly revolved, one could faintly see a blurry face within it.

It seemed to be a copy of Qin Yu's face. It was extremely similar, but it was pale and solitary, without any vitality at all. As if the significance of this face's existence was only to destroy and slaughter, to make the world feel fear and doom.

The black pool of goo that Cui Yongji turned into was dragged out into a long line. The tail end remained caught in Qin Yu's flesh and blood. Now, this tail was being pulled backwards.

"No! What kind of monster are you!? I have become the incarnation of an invisible body, free from all imprisonment, and yet I cannot free myself!" Within the black goo, Cui Yongji's face appeared. He looked at Qin Yu with a panic-stricken expression.

As a seizer of the Great Dao, he had always been a nightmare for other cultivators. This was the first time he felt the taste of despair from someone else.

The swallowing strength coming from Qin Yu grew stronger and stronger. Cui Yongji thought he could hear the sound of grinding teeth. If he didn't run he really would have no time!

"Ahh!" With a miserable scream, Cui Yongji's invisible body was split in half, divided in two.

The freed half shrank into a ball that howled into the distance.

The other half lost all ability to resist and was swallowed up immediately.

Qin Yu looked at the direction Cui Yongji ran away in. Without hesitation, he turned and rushed towards Lei Xiaoyu.

This stretch of the world turned pitch black…the blood moon was arriving!

In the darkness, Qin Yu felt as if he were bathed in polar ice. The blood in his body almost froze solid.

He furiously shouted out loud. His two scarred hearts wildly beat, forcefully maintaining their movement.

Lei Xiaoyu's weak voice was clear in the darkness. "Big Brother Qin…leave…you must leave…the blood moon is coming…"

Shua -

In the blink of an eye, everything they saw was bathed in a blood red sheen.

This was the first time Qin Yu was shined upon by the blood moon. The chill in the air grew ten times, a hundred times colder.

Kacha -

Kacha -

He could hear his own blood freezing!

He was close, he was so close, Lei Xiaoyu was right in front of him!

Pa -

Qin Yu landed on the ground, causing the earth to collapse. He reached out and grabbed the stiff Lei Xiaoyu. He looked up at the skies. Just this simple movement caused him to consume a tremendous amount of strength as his neck released harsh creaking sounds.

"Come out for me!"

With a roar, the sun and moon force field within his soul space dispersed outwards. The chill in Qin Yu's body was directly isolated outside.

Then, he stepped forward, soaring into the skies with Lei Xiaoyu in his arms as he headed straight towards the tree hole entrance.

But now, bathed beneath the light of the blood moon, the dead tree had begun to revive.

The bare branches that aimed at the skies were touched by red light. They became as nimble as tentacles.

With excited screams, countless tentacles howled forth. They were about to weave into a net, blocking Qin Yu's path into the tree hole.

They were in midair and life or death would be decided in an instant. Yet, Qin Yu's consciousness fell into a state of incomparable calm.

He knew that he couldn't enter the tree hole if the tentacles were blocking him.

There was not enough time. He would be a breath of time slower. This difference of a single breath represented the division between life and death.

Breathing in deeply, Qin Yu lifted his hands. A look of firm resolve flickered in his eyes.

Since there is not enough time, then I will add another breath of time to this world.

A finger fell. At this moment, the rules of the path of time were triggered.

Qin Yu spat out a mouthful of blood. The scarlet tentacles that shot towards him froze in place.

Whoosh -

With the tiniest sliver of error, Qin Yu brushed across the blood red tentacles and broke into the tree hole, tumbling across the ground.

Outside the tree hole, the frozen time was restored. The dead tree flew into a rage. The tentacles frantically whipped at the earth.

But the silver light emanating from the slash marks at the entrance caused the tentacles to stop 50 feet away. At that point, they no longer dared to come closer.

Hu -

Hu -

Qin Yu gasped for breath in great heaving gulps. He felt as if he had been cut open by a knife and every inch of his flesh and blood twitched from pain.

His field of vision flashed black. He fiercely bit down on his tongue to maintain consciousness. Then, he looked down and examined Lei Xiaoyu's condition.

"Big...Big Brother Qin…"

After entering the tree hole and escaping the light of the blood moon, the chill in the air vanished. Lei Xiaoyu squeezed out a smile on her pale face.

"I…am finally…not…a burden…"

Qin Yu placed a hand on her body, saying, "You saved my life, so of course you aren't a burden."

He took a breath and forced himself to stay awake. He continued to say, "Xiaoyu, if you feel tired then close your eyes and go to sleep. Once you wake up you won't be in so much pain."

Lei Xiaoyu blinked her eyes, "I'm afraid…that I won't be able to wake up."

Qin Yu smiled. "I promise that you will wake up. Trust me."

After staring at him for a moment, Lei Xiaoyu closed her eyes and fell asleep. A tear she had been suppressing slid down from the corner of her eye.

Qin Yu knelt on the ground. He had reached the limits of his willpower yet he didn't dare to fall unconscious. The moment he did, Lei Xiaoyu would die.

Because of the awakening of the thunder bloodline, her current condition had become as bad as it could possibly be.

After taking several great breaths, Qin Yu bit his fingertip and then placed it between Lei Xiaoyu's lips.

If one drank the blood of an Ancient, they would become a blood servant of the Ancients. This was a more primitive and yet higher level method than signing a blood slave contract.

A blood servant could withstand injuries for an Ancient. Sometimes they could even substitute for the Ancient at some moments.

For example, the witchcraft bug in Lei Xiaoyu's body. If he were the one affected by it, then he could have a blood servant withstand the backlash for him instead.

Of course, if the blood servant really did die, then the Ancient would also have to pay a considerable price.

But for Qin Yu, turning Lei Xiaoyu into a blood servant was in order to withstand a part of the witchcraft bug's swallowing.

With her alone, she wouldn't be able to overcome this hurdle!

Ancients were able to commune and share with their blood servants to begin with. It was just that there was an extremely small number of Ancients that were willing to wound themselves to save their blood servants.

Forcefully stopping the outflow of blood, the feeling of collapse and weakness within him increased. His mind buzzed.

Blood servant markings began to appear on the surface of Lei Xiaoyu's body.

Qin Yu could immediately feel the swallowing power from the witchcraft bug within Lei Xiaoyu's body. It was like a needle being jabbed into his brain.

He spat out a mouthful of blood. Before he fell unconscious, his last thought was: how had Lei Xiaoyu endured the pain produced by the swallowing of the witchcraft bug for all these years?

When Qin Yu woke up again, the blood moon hung high in the air and the withered tree was anchored to the mountain summit, brutally fighting against two bone beasts.

It was clearly at a disadvantage whilst fighting one against two. But by relying on its powerful regenerative abilities and massive body, the dead tree remained undefeated.

The potent restorative powers of the Ancient race's Undying Body began to display itself. Although Qin Yu still felt weak, he could move without problem.

He quickly examined Lei Xiaoyu's condition. While her aura was weak, she had stabilized and wasn't in a life-threatening state at the moment.

He finally relaxed. Then, he looked up at the two bone beasts that were fighting the dead tree. One of them was the one he had investigated in the abyss, but the other was unknown.

Mm?

Looking carefully, it seemed a bit familiar.

After shaking his still dizzy head, Qin Yu finally remembered where he had seen this second bone beast before. It was similar to the decayed skeleton he had seen when he was looking for slash marks. The only difference was that this bone beast's body was a whole size larger.

Looking at the battlefield, the bone beast he investigated still had plenty of strength remaining. As for the other crazy one, it didn't hesitate to use up all its strength to damage the dead tree's tentacles.

From how things looked, this enmity was clearly extremely deep.

Qin Yu rubbed his nose. He thought back to the foreboding feeling he sensed when he destroyed the decayed skeleton…could this second bone beast have come for him?

Huh? This was truly an unexpected misfortune. Who would have thought that a decayed skeleton would still have friends?

Uh…perhaps it wasn't as simple as being friends. One large and one small corresponded to a male and female. Maybe they were a couple when they were still alive.

If so, this bone beast's hatred could be explained.

Qin Yu rubbed his forehead and bitterly smiled. He quickly restrained all the random thoughts popping into his mind.

While it seemed that the dead tree hadn't yet lost, it was all because one bone beast wasn't doing its best. If it really seized the right opening, the course of battle would change in an instant.

And, he couldn't forget that besides these three parties fighting, there were at least ten other terrifying creatures that were eyeing the battle.

If the dead tree received heavy losses, these other terrifying creatures would definitely take advantage while it was down. Qin Yu didn't care about the wellbeing of the dead tree, but if it was eliminated, he and Lei Xiaoyu would suffer disaster.

He could not allow this to continue!