Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Different situations called for different actions. In any case, he didn’t feel any guilt about what just happened, even if there were some disrespectful thoughts that popped up out of nowhere…

Cough cough…that woman was likely the same. Since they both suffered the same problems, no one was to blame.

Qin Yu shook his head and suppressed his tumbling state of mind. He found the room corresponding to his card, activated the spell, and walked in.

After stepping inside, Qin Yu’s complexion changed. His mind hummed and he became a little dizzy.

This was soul tempering power!

But its intensity was dozens of times higher than what he felt before. The eighth floor of Nine Nether Pagoda really was worth its mind-shaking price.

As far as he could see, there were still the same rough and large stones that were used to construct Nine Nether Pagoda. But, the tiles that paved the floor were pure black in color, and their surface was smooth and without any unevenness.

It was like a giant black mirror that could clearly reflect someone.

Of course, because it was pitch black, even though a figure was reflected in the ground and its outline was clear, it still couldn’t be clearly seen.

Qin Yu looked down at his own shadow and furrowed his eyebrows. For some unknown reason, he felt something weird about his shadow…as if it had become a stranger.

But was a shadow only a meaningless illusion?

Qin Yu didn’t believe that, because he had already experienced an attack from his shadow before.

It was like a different consciousness that existed within himself, in another dimension…

Perhaps it could be called the shadow version of Qin Yu, or maybe it could be understood as his heart demon?

But no matter what it was, all beings in the world had a shadow. And a terrible secret seemed to dwell within them.

Of course, very few people were able to touch this secret. Or perhaps…most of those that touched this secret had already been swallowed up.

They still lived in this world. Their soul aura and body were still the same as before, without any change.

Even those closest to them wouldn’t realize anything. But their true consciousness had already turned into a strange existence.

This was a terrifying thought!

Qin Yu drew in a deep breath and composed himself. As he continued to look at his shadow, that strange feeling vanished.

He squatted down. Closer to the ground, while the shadow was still blurry, he could barely make out its facial features.

It was entirely like him. The slightly furrowed eyebrows, the careful eyes, everything was the same.

Hu –

Qin Yu let out a light breath and glanced around. The space of the room hadn’t increased. But when he thought about how the eighth level was less than half the size of the first and second floors, it was already good to maintain such a large room.

Round cushion, bed.

Thinking about it, the furnishings in every room of Nine Nether Pagoda were the same.

After entering the room, Qin u could feel an astonishing level of soul tempering power being released from the pitch black ground.

And the round cushion…

He hesitated for a moment and then walked over and sat down. He stuffily coughed, his face turning pale.

The moment he sat down on the round cushion, the soul tempering power that penetrated through his flesh and blood suddenly rose drastically.

With the intensity of his soul, he nearly wasn’t able to withstand it. The Cosmic Seacross Bell suddenly flickered in this quietness.

Then, a majority of the blazing strength that wrapped around Qin Yu’s soul dissipated. It was shifted to the Cosmic Seacross Bell. Its dilapidated and rusty surface began to light up.

As if it had been thrown into a burning hot forge, aided by the burning flames, the rust on the surface of the bell started to slowly burn to ashes.

Hu –

Qin Yu let out a long breath, his expression relaxing a little. With the Cosmic Seacross Bell shifting away nearly half of the soul tempering power, he was barely able to resist the rest with his soul force.

Of course, it didn’t feel good, and perhaps because of the soaring levels of soul tempering power, its influence on Qin Yu had grown stronger. He began to grow restless as a scorching heat gradually appeared in his heart. The face of the woman he encountered before appeared in his mind, beyond his control.

Even the two demon women receptionists who tried to entice him before started to flicker in his thoughts.

He licked his dry lips and took a deep breath, doing his best to push away all these random thoughts.

However, this was far too difficult a task. With Qin Yu’s soul force, he was barely able to withstand the pressure on him, much less when he added in the fact that he had the bloodline of abyssal demons running through his body.

The eighth floor had been full before and he was only able to come in because a vacancy had appeared. That would be the woman he bumped into in the passageway…in other words, she had previously been the one using this room…

Then taking a different route of thinking, just what had that woman done in this room?

As this thought appeared, Qin Yu’s heartbeat started to accelerate and his breathing quickened. Blood vessels filled his eyes, turning them crimson in color.

He gently shivered and his face distorted with struggle. He seemed to fall into some kind of critical situation.

And at this time, the peaceful shadow behind him started to ripple. The waves were small and nearly imperceptible. If one didn’t carefully look, it would have been impossible to discover.

These waves seemed to sense something. Or perhaps they were receiving some kind of aura from Qin Yu’s body and obtaining a certain judgment.

Drip –

Drip –

Blood began to flow out from Qin Yu’s eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. His face twisted and his eyes seemed to be soaked in blood.

He loudly gasped for breath, his fists tightly clenched into balls. His knuckles crackled and popped.

Drops of blood fell into the shadow below. Like falling into water, new waves appeared. Then, as if finally determining something or perhaps finding some new key information, the waves within the shadow grew much more intense.

It crazily tumbled around, like a sea shrouded in a violent storm. It was like a deeply slumbering beast was regaining consciousness within and was about to come out.

But all of this continued quietly and without sound. Everything that happened within the shadow seemed to occur in another world. Although one could clearly see it, it didn’t emit any sounds.

Finally, the tumbling reached an extreme. A cold force within the extremely distorted shadow broke through a certain limit and entered the real world.

A black arm slowly drilled out and grabbed hold of Qin Yu. While his mind had fallen into illusion and his thoughts were on the verge of collapse, it wanted to take hold of this chance to drag him into the shadow world.

Pa –

The black arm grabbed Qin Yu. When the two sides touched, a clear sound was finally heard. It was clear and blurry, as if illusion and reality were crashing into each other.

Shua –

On Qin Yu’s twisted face, a sharp light flashed deep in his crimson eyes. It was like a bolt of lightning suddenly exploded in a dark storm, tearing apart layers of clouds and releasing destruction and light that recklessly spread throughout the world!

“Ahh!” A pitiful scream came from the shadow on the ground. The hand that grabbed hold of Qin Yu seemed as if it had grabbed onto a bar of red hot metal. It loosened its grip, wanting to return to the shadow world.

But after expending so much effort and almost allowing his desire to burn through his consciousness, how could Qin Yu allow it to escape so easily?

“Stop!”

With a shout, the black arm suddenly paused. Although it was only a brief moment, it was more than enough time for Qin Yu. He fiercely turned around and grabbed this black arm that had crossed boundaries to reach him.

“The shadow world is your main stage, but this is the abyss. Strictly speaking, although it isn’t a place where I can exist, it should be even harsher on you!” Qin Yu’s eyes were red and twisted with cruelty and savagery. He was like a madman who ate the flesh of others.

And at this moment, he really wanted to eat this great threat that hid within his shadow.

Because the moment he came into contact with the black hand and the two sides had a direct connection, this thought popped into his mind without warning.

He could eat his shadow, and once he ate it, it would bring him an incomparably great harvest. Qin Yu had no idea what this harvest was, but this fact alone was more than enough!

Bang –

Without any hesitation, Qin Yu activated the Blood Refining Art. A wild plundering strength broke free from his body.

The shadow on the ground roiled like boiling water as it tried to break free from Qin Yu’s imprisonment. But soon it discovered that all its efforts were futile.

With roars of unwillingness and hatred, the boiling shadow immediately returned to tranquility.

The transition between extreme chaos and deathly silence occurred abruptly and without warning. It was like an invisible strength had suppressed everything.

At the same time, the connection between the shadow world and the abyss was also severed. The arm that reached out from the shadows was cut off. It exploded into a thick black liquid that fused into Qin Yu’s body.

An ice cold aura emerged from his soul. The blood red color in Qin Yu’s eyes quickly receded. He gasped for breath, fear etched on his face.

After noticing the abnormalities with his shadow, even though Qin Yu remained silent, he had already decided to do something to resolve this hidden anger.

In the past, in Dragon City’s arena, he had entered the shadow world once and was almost eaten and replaced by the other party. Although he managed to retreat, he had never forgotten the helplessness and anger he felt. He would never allow himself to be placed in a similar situation again.

So after thinking about it, he decided to lure the snake from its hole. At the very least he would be able to take the initiative.

Moreover, Qin Yu had never heard about the existence of the shadow world even now. It was either this sort of thing was rarely experienced…or the power of the shadow world was extremely limited and it couldn’t arrive directly.

Of course, all of these were Qin Yu’s suspicions and he wasn’t absolutely sure about it. Since the opportunity was so fleeting, he didn’t have enough time to verify it.

Luckily, facts proved that Qin Yu’s guess was right. What was unfortunate was that while he had been able to cut off the other party’s arm, he hadn’t been able to thoroughly eradicate this hidden danger.

Thinking about the unwilling roar of hatred he heard in the end, he took a deep breath and furrowed his eyebrows – just what kind of secret was hidden within the shadow world?

After today’s events, even if he didn’t manage to slay the other party, the pain of losing an arm wouldn’t be easy to forget. For a period of time, there shouldn’t be any other attempts from the shadow world.

But he had to clarify this matter as soon as possible. Otherwise, with some hidden danger secretly eyeing him from his shadow, a problem was bound to occur sooner or later.