Refining the Mountains and Rivers

As White Phoenix pointed out, the Lost Garden was a very dangerous place. This was an objective fact.

Under such circumstances, being here with one's cultivation sealed and having to protect others with no means of self-protection swelled the risks involved.

If just surviving in the Lost Garden was hard, then solving the real problem itself was at least three times harder.

After all, having to protect a group of people was undeniably harder than just surviving by himself.

Tan Hai was now in this predicament. He had to protect a girl, Cang Zhu. She was someone who often bullied him when he was younger. However, he had no other choice and he viewed her almost like his sweet little cousin.

They were very close but he had no other thoughts of her. Tan Hai once questioned himself on why he was bullied by her, but he could not find an answer. In the end, he concluded that he must have owed her from a previous life.

Hence after his initial outburst and anger, he ended up giving in to her crazy idea and they headed into the Lost Garden.

Ptui!

Tan Hai raised his hand to wipe the corners of his lips after spitting out a mouthful of blood. He tilted his head and faced Cang Zhu, whom he was giving a piggyback. He bragged, "I have always resisted beatings since I was a child. You know this very well, so don't worry."

Cang Zhu pursed her lips. Her face was very pale as she forced out an unconvincing smile, "Yes, I know that. Brother, I am sorry for troubling you this time."

His footsteps came to a stop and he sighed, "It has been so long since you last called me brother. I finally got to hear it again."

A look of embarrassment crossed Cang Zhu's face and she subconsciously reached out and pinched his waist ever so slightly.

Tan Hai smiled and heaved her up his back again as he said, "Don't you know who is reliable? Don't worry, I swear to you that I will get you there."

He raised his head and looked into the distance. Mountain peaks peeked out through the clouds. Cang Zhu fell silent. After a while, she tugged on his shirt and sighed, "Brother, let's go back."

The corners of Tan Hai's lips curled upwards slightly but his smile was not prideful as he teased, "What? Did you lose your faith in me? Cang Zhu, you should know that I have always disliked being underestimated. I will definitely get us over this mountain!"

…….

……

The black-robed man's mouth twitched after he made an incredulous discovery. He was neither sneering nor mocking, but he could not control his expressions.

He found traces of Cang Zhu, but this came at the price of two subordinates' lives. However, his emotions right now were not attributed to the loss of lives. He could not care less whether two or twenty people had to give up their lives for this.

The important thing now was Cang Zhu's intended destination. She was headed there…No, he had to stop her!

"Let's go!"

He bit his lip as he commanded. His black robe swept through the air as he leapt while the group of subordinates behind him shivered.

……

Elder apprentice brother lowered his head and stared at the little dragon in his palm. It had shrunk to the size of a small snake. His eyes were full of admiration and happiness.

As expected, as the most powerful bloodline of the dragons, the little blue dragon had amazing potential even though it had not yet matured.

At this point, it had almost completely absorbed all energy from the source of life. Once it awoke from its deep slumber, it could really be a mighty being at the top of the food chain.

Master had the best foresight, he was never wrong!

Elder apprentice brother flipped over his palm and put the blue dragon away. His eyes sparkled. The blue dragon was evidence of master's foresight. How about master picking junior-apprentice brother Qin Yu?

As the eldest disciple, he knew how much his master doted upon Peachy. At the same time, there were also a few things he had never heard his master mention before.

For his master to leave Peachy in Qin Yu's hands showed how much master trusted him.

As he thought about this, elder apprentice brother smiled slightly. He wondered what his junior-apprentice brother was doing right now. However, since master did not give more orders, there was no need for him to intervene.

It was time for him to settle another matter.

He had to help the blue dragon through its initial transformation and solidify the foundation that it had. This was the primary goal for his trip to Lost Garden. As for his second objective…elder apprentice brother's eyes fell onto Lei Xiaoyu.

Lei Xiaoyu's eyes were currently closed but her breathing suddenly paused as she felt his gaze on her. Her eyes flung open and she asked, "Elder apprentice brother, what are you looking at me for?"

Her tone was a little sharp.

Elder apprentice brother smiled, "Junior-apprentice sister, we should go."

"I don't want to…"

"It is master's orders."

Peach Blossom Spring allowed different voices and opinions and even allowed its disciples to keep secrets.

However, the Spring Master's orders were supreme and no one could question nor go against him.

Lei Xiaoyu glared at him and snapped, "Whatever, there is no hope for my condition anyway."

Elder apprentice brother shook his head, "If you don't try, how would you know?"

……

The frozen ice broke and Qin Yu stepped out. This time, there wasn't a big monkey with a stone spear anymore. Everything was peaceful.

He glanced around his surroundings before taking in a deep breath and exhaling. He stretched his neck and twisted his waist strongly.

Crack!

Instantly, his bones cracked loudly. It was a wondrous feeling to have the tension in his body released.

Qin Yu looked down at his palms. His hands were clean and smooth but they concealed a mysterious and terrifying power beneath.

When he killed the fire-breathing snake, Qin Yu broke a few bones in his arms and legs. However, he could easily kill it with a single hand now.

The increase of his cultivation strength was measured by the comprehension of rules. Under the influence of the Rule Trial Field and the stone pagoda's help, Qin Yu's cultivation speed was lightning fast.

When the Spring Master instructed Qin Yu to conceal his identity and head into Lost Garden, he wanted Qin Yu to take the opportunity to train and forge himself into a strong and sturdy cultivator.

In hindsight, no saint would have ever imagined that his disciple would improve so much. The speed at which Qin Yu grew was unfathomable.

When he first entered the Lost Garden, Qin Yu had felt pressured by his seniors and the people with Nine Heads. Not long ago, he had also felt uneasy when he witnessed White Phoenix spew icy cold breath to kill the other cultivators.

As such, he had played a small trick to let his senior-apprentice brother give up on finding trouble with him in the future.

Now, Qin Yu no longer held White Phoenix's strength in high regard.

While he had never seen elder apprentice brother and Nine Heads fight in person before, these men had to have terrifying strength to be ranked at the top of the young generation of cultivators.

Qin Yu was still weaker than these men at this point. However, he also knew that these men had to have other hidden cards in their hands to be standing where they were now.

It would be easy for them to kill him.

Nonetheless, Qin Yu was calm. Even though his strength did not match up to them now, it would be able to in the future. Qin Yu was confident that he would be able to do a trial fight against strong cultivators like elder apprentice brother and Nine Heads soon.

Cough!

While he was ambitious, he had to maintain a calm mind. He could not afford to be prideful and he had to remain low-key to develop his strength. He did not need many sources of life, but a few more would be sufficient.

Regardless of their grade, anyone who heard that he desired roughly ten or so sources of life would think that Qin Yu was mad.

Qin Yu merely required some time to get more sources of life.

"Cough! Master, while you were in seclusion, I found another source of life. The aura from it is quite thick and I think you would not be disappointed by its grade!"

Not long after Qin Yu came out of seclusion, Old Turtle did not hesitate to give him his next directions. With such harping and guidance, it was guaranteed that Qin Yu would continue to improve.

However, why did Old Turtle's attitude suddenly turn respectful? Where did his indifferent and virtuous demeanor from before go? Was he sick of acting?

Qin Yu could not be bothered to ponder over this. Time was too precious.

The Lost Garden was open, but it would not remain in this state for long and no one knew when it would close again. According to the records on the jade slip master gave him, the quickest recorded closing of Lost Garden was after less than a month.

In this worst case scenario, Qin Yu had already used half the time he had here. If his luck was bad, he would soon be able to sense the closing of the Lost Garden.

Qin Yu's heart was filled with nervousness as he thought about this. There was no time to waste.

He swiftly leapt into the air and took off. With Old Turtle guiding him, he could easily navigate around.

However, not everything in the world would go as one wished.

Qin Yu trusted Old Turtle's directions because of the accumulated trust built up over time.

Yet unluckiness did not discern right from wrong.

He was in trouble!

It was right when Qin Yu flew by what Old Turtle determined to be the safest plot of land. All of a sudden, a mass of bright hot flames shot up, swallowing the entire sky and pulling Qin Yu down into the mountain range.

The large area of lush green ancient trees, together with the flora and fauna on the grounds of the forest were instantly reduced to ashes. The ground cracked open from the blistering heat of the flames.

But this scene was quickly replaced by an even more astonishing one. The dried and cracked ground suddenly sucked in all the water vapour in the air and seedlings broke through the earth to absorb all the nutrients available and grow into trees.

This entire process lasted a mere few minutes. The burnt ground was restored to its original state of dense forests and it even appeared more lush than it was before.

If Qin Yu had not experienced it for himself, no one would have believed what happened to this mountain range a few minutes ago.

Qin Yu had witnessed all this and he was now shrouded in a ball of flame that rapidly pulled him to the ground. With a muffled bang, he smashed down heavily and red magma quickly pooled around him.

The menacing flames enveloped his body, and despite Qin Yu's current strength, he was helplessly burnt by the fire.

His skin split open painfully from the heat but he instantly recovered. His goal of forging a strong base had been successful, and at the same time as his physical body strength grew, his recovery speed had also been raised dramatically.

Despite the healing, it was still a painful process. Furthermore, this recovery process came at the expense of his strength. Stomping hard onto the ground, the magma beneath Qin Yu's feet parted and he shot into the sky like an arrow.

He had to leave this place first.

This was definitely the right decision, but the force that pulled him to the ground refused to let him go. Its prey could not escape so easily.

The force had not only sensed the bloody aura of death around its prey - it also sensed an attractive scent around Qin Yu.

It was the taste of source of life!

Boom!

The pool of magma surged and boiled beneath Qin Yu uncontrollably.

He forcefully threw a punch out towards the magma, causing a large area of it to part. He used the recoil to fly into the sky but was pulled back again.

Woosh -

In the corner of his eye, a black figure zipped past. Qin Yu did not have time to think; he retreated back as fast as he could. In the next instant, the area he was originally in burst into flames. The force from the explosion threw magma in all directions.

He spotted the black shadow again!

It was thick, large and very dark.

What was that?

Qin Yu's expression stiffened. The black shadow unsettled him and it seemed tough. Most importantly, time was precious and he could not waste a single second.

His sole objective was to find sources of life continuously and absorb them to further his cultivation.

However, he was sucked into magma out of the blue and had to fight against the mysterious black shadow.

Qin Yu could not lament at Old Turtle's misjudgment now and he could not be bothered to question Old Turtle about it.

At that instant, Qin Yu only had a single thought. He had to use all his strength to get rid of his enemy as soon as he could. He exhaled sharply and his figure burst through the air as he headed in the direction of the black shadow.

He reached out and grabbed it.

Buzz -

Streaks of invisible force waves vibrated and combined into a strong tearing force that blasted at the ground.