Refining the Mountains and Rivers

He held his sword with one arm, his fierce and swift gaze falling on the courtyard in front of him. He didn't lower his guard even though there seemed to be no danger here.

Just like Qin Yu, Soaring Sky's eyes fell on the two stone lions outside the doors. He thought for a moment and then walked over, placing a hand on one of them.

Even with the cold and indifferent nature of a Transcendent Sword Sect cultivator, his eyes still widened as he looked at the stone lion with shock.

"Origin God level spirit stone!"

Strictly speaking, not knowing the name of this kind of spirit stone and only giving it a classification of excellent was just a case of Qin Yu's own ignorance.

In fact, spirit stones whose quality transcended the limit and transformed to another level where cultivators at the God boundary and above could use them were given a set of classification standards in the cultivation world long ago.

The rules were simple. According to the purity and amount of spiritual energy within the spirit stone, if it satisfied the needs of a God boundary cultivator, it was at the God level, and if it satisfied the needs of an Origin God, it was at the Origin God level.

As for even higher levels, no one had seen them yet. Or even if they did exist, they were in the hands of the truly great individuals that stood at the peak!

Origin God level spirit stones was already the highest level that one could find in the world.

Their value was not low!

Looking at the myriad heavens, an Origin God cultivator could be considered an absolute powerhouse. They were extremely wealthy, so of course they were liberal with their money when it came to purchasing goods that could extend their lives.

Even with Soaring Sky's personality, after he confirmed that these giant and mighty lions were made completely of Origin God level spirit stones, his eyes couldn't help but turn red.

It wasn't that he lacked willpower. Rather, if this was another place and he saw so many Origin God level spirit stones, he wouldn't react so poorly.

But right now, Soaring Sky's strength was near depletion and he had suffered severe wounds. It seemed as if he could only wait for death.

It just so happened that he encountered these two Origin God level spirit stone lions that were set here to look over the courtyard. What else was there to say about it?

Don't say anything, just grab onto them and absorb!

It wasn't that Soaring Sky didn't have Qin Yu's caution, and it wasn't that he didn't understand that he should investigate first, but he simply didn't have the time to.

If he waited any longer, he didn't know whether he would last.

In the face of a life and death situation, what else mattered? Even if he didn't know everything about this situation, and even if knew this was a poisonous steamed bun, he still had to save his life before figuring out another solution.

The effects of an Origin God level spirit stone really were the best. After Soaring Sky spent some time absorbing one, his pale complexion improved and even his half-withered body recovered a bit.

If things continued like this, he would need one day at most to restore himself. It would even be possible to regenerate his severed limb.

But as he sighed inwardly about how he was finally welcoming the light after his recent bout of misfortune, the fog in the bamboo forest began to tumble once again.

Another passage was condensing!

Soaring Sky opened his eyes, a cold light surging in them as countless sword shadows tumbled around.

Several breaths of time later, a cultivator flew out.

In an instant, this person sensed he was facing a formidable enemy. Stimulated by the sword intent, a tyrannical aura broke free from his body.

Their eyes met and Soaring Sky furrowed his eyebrows. This was unexpectedly an unfamiliar face. He didn't have any recollection of this person.

But this other party wasn't slow. Even if he was in a weakened state, he still had the sharp senses of a sword cultivator. This person was definitely a powerful enemy!

However, as he thought about the news he heard before the Endless Sea opened this time, it was understandable for there to be so many powerhouses here.

"Origin God level spirit stone!"

The cultivator shouted out, his voice hoarse. As he looked at Soaring Sky, he revealed a cold and sharp look.

He could see that Soaring Sky was injured and in a severely weakened state.

He hesitated a bit. But soon, he sighed inwardly.

He had come too late!

If he came an hour earlier, or even half an hour earlier, his chances of killing Soaring Sky would have been much higher.

But now…

Although he could likely still kill him, there were sure to be dangers. After all, with the methods of the Transcendent Sword Sect, there was no shortage of techniques where they perished with their enemy.

He had survived with difficulty, finally making it out of the labyrinth and into this courtyard. If he were to suddenly engage in a life or death battle, that didn't seem too fair to him.

Of course, another important reason was that not too far away, there was still another lion made from Origin God level spirit stones.

This caused him to feel much better. At least it could be considered as both of them having equal harvests.

Sharing equal harvests with the Transcendent Sword Sect's Soaring Sky wasn't something shameful.

His figure flickered and he arrived near the lion. After probing it with his divine sense and determining there was nothing wrong, this mysterious cultivator acted just like Soaring Sky, tossing himself onto the lion and hugging it.

He was also injured. His injuries were far lighter than Soaring Sky's, but in this place that was filled with dangers, restoring himself to his peak condition was certainly the best choice.

The mysterious cultivator also made a mistake. He was careless, and his carelessness stemmed from the fact that he followed Soaring Sky as an example of what to do. He thought, if Soaring Sky hadn't checked things already, would he still dare to hug onto the stone lion?

Alright. Even if his injuries were heavy and he might not have had time to check, he had already been absorbing energy from it for so long and nothing had happened so far.

What else was there to worry about?

Soaring Sky closed his eyes, relaxing a bit. But he didn't dare to lower his guard. He had seen far too many situations of overconfidence where people's plans were flipped over.

Now, the most important thing was to heal his wounds as fast as he could…with that in mind, he went all out to absorb energy.

As Soaring Sky and the mysterious cultivator were racing against time to absorb spiritual energy, they had no idea that the power of the contract had quietly taken effect.

One end of the contract was on the two of them. The other end spanned a long and vast distance, going deeper and deeper, submerging into somewhere unknown.

…

People had come!

In the firewood shed, Qin Yu looked up at the direction of the front doors, a sharp light flashing in his eyes.

Out of the two people, one of them had a strange aura, but the other one was actually quite familiar.

Transcendent Sword Sect's Soaring Sky!

Thinking about it, that was also right. Although the realm within a realm's labyrinth tested luck, if everyone's luck was the same, then the key was one's strength.

Take Qin Yu for example. If his strength was missing, then let alone coming here, he would have been chopped to pieces by the soldier statue's saber long ago.

Although he wasn't sure how the other cultivators had come here, he believed the difficulty wasn't that different.

While he couldn't see what was happening outside the courtyard, according to the auras he sensed, Qin Yu estimated that Soaring Sky should have been the first cultivator to come here other than himself.

But before he entered the courtyard, another cultivator came. Both sides had a brief confrontation before they calmed down.

And this process only lasted a brief few breaths of time.

Even so, it still revealed many things. With the strength of the Transcendent Sword cultivator, the unfamiliar cultivator that came afterwards hesitated and finally chose to give up.

There was only one explanation then. Soaring Sky had received a heavy injury and this unknown cultivator saw an opportunity.

Qin Yu's eyes brightened.

The severely wounded Soaring Sky hadn't entered the courtyard after arriving here, but stayed outside…where the two excellent quality spirit stone lions were kept!

It had to be like this. They had to be drawing strength from those spirit stones to heal their own injuries.

In other words, that terrifying contract Old Turtle had sensed had likely been triggered.

And this was exactly what Qin Yu was hoping to see.

Although this was a bit sinister and cruel, the truth was that none of them were friends or knew each other. Moreover, Qin Yu had no sympathy for these people that tried to kill him.

If the Transcendent Sword cultivator could use his tragic end to find an exit out of here, Qin Yu would be gratified.

Since one came, and then other, then the other cultivators wouldn't be too far behind.

Qin Yu thought for a moment and focused his attention on the iron lump in his hands instead. He could only calmly wait as the matters outside unfolded on their own.

And what he needed to do was to clarify exactly what this iron lump was.

Now, Qin Yu didn't even need his intuition to tell him that this thing was truly extraordinary!

What nonsense, if it really was just a common iron lump, would it be able to absorb so much magic power?