Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Bang -

Terrifying flames instantly erupted. At this moment, the burning feeling caused Qin Yu to profoundly understand what a pain worse than death meant.

Fortunately, it wasn't the demon blood crystal that was burning away, but the cool aura probing his body. Or, to be more accurate, this burning sensation was a byproduct of the cool aura and demon blood crystal fusing together.

When the cool aura was exhausted, the flames were also extinguished. Qin Yu sucked in a deep breath, feeling overjoyed as if he had survived a disaster. But then, his eyes fiercely opened and startled anger filled his face!

The cold aura that permeated his body was like a shark that smelled blood. After a brief pause, all of that cool aura started to hurtle towards the demon blood crystal. At the same time, the amount of cool aura rushing into his body from the outside suddenly rose by dozens of times over!

Even with Qin Yu's firm will, he was still scared so silly that his soul could have leapt up three feet. It was just a wisp of cool aura, but that was enough to reach the limits of pain he could withstand. Now all of the cool aura was racing towards the demon blood crystal. If it all ignited at once, even if he didn't burn to death he would surely die from pain!

As for not resisting? Qin Yu had already tossed this thought into the recesses of his mind. He could barely manage to keep his own life, so what did he care about what consequences happened afterwards? But just as he was about to resist, before he could erupt with strength he suddenly froze in place. The cool aura merging into his body suddenly turned into an invisible imprisonment that nailed him in place.

Bang -

A blazing conflagration occurred. It was like the world's most gorgeous and enchanting smoke and fire was tumbling and swirling around, weaving itself into a most beautiful image.

Unfortunately, all of this was occurring within Qin Yu's body so it was doomed that no one would be able to appreciate this sight but him. And what was even more of a pity was that all Qin Yu could think of was why he wasn't dead right now; he had no thoughts of appreciating such beauty.

It was really a pity…

Outside the crater, after all the new disciples leapt within, space began to rapidly fluctuate. Then overlapping layers of fluctuations began to occur.

If one looked at these overlapping spaces, they would discover the exact same dark nothingness. But soon, changes started to reveal themselves.

Countless faint lights appeared in the darkness. They wriggled and grew. Some of these lights reached the level of a candle and continued to brighten. Of course, the vast majority of these stopped changing once they reached that level.

Although the three Holy Palace Elders didn't have much hope for this new batch of disciples to begin with, when they saw this they couldn't help but twitch their lips.

Forget discovering some talent from this group, the performance of these people indicated that this was simply wasting their precious materials! It was no different from tossing out resources in vain!

It had to be known that opening the examination just one time consumed a considerable amount of resources. And as they thought about how there were almost 2000 examinees here today…the three Holy Palace Elders wanted to clutch their hearts.

The loss this time was big!

After the candlelight level was the bonfire level. Out of the almost 2000 new disciples, only several dozen people managed to achieve this. The only thing that left the three Holy Palace Elders feeling some semblance of comfort was that even though the majority of these dozens of people had stopped growing, there were still seven flames continuing to grow in the darkness.

After the bonfire level was the star level; this was considered the standard for qualification. As long as they put in sufficient time and effort, their Demon Body would have a chance of reaching a high realm.

But this was only a chance. The probability of success was around 20-30%.

Out of the seven dark spaces, two were unable to make a breakthrough in the end. Although their flames were much more vigorous they weren't able to gather enough to reach the star level.

Moments later, five stars appeared in the darkness. Although they started off dim and gloomy, for better or worse they were several small fish; they at least had some harvests today.

The three Holy Palace Elders let out a light breath. In their hearts, they believed that this was already the absolute bare minimum for not fully disgracing themselves. They couldn't ask for much more from these new disciples.

But joyful surprise often occurred when one no longer had any hope. Within the darkness, the five stars began to brighten together once more.

The three Holy Palace Elders were startled. A happy expression lit up their faces.

After the star level was the quarter moon level. A disciple with this level of talent had a 90% chance of reaching a high realm in the Demon Body, and they even had a chance of attacking the top level.

But they didn't hold out for much hope. The difference between the star and quarter moon level might only be a single level, but there was an essential fundamental difference.

The first star stopped brightening.

Then a second, a third.

Only two dark spaces began to brighten. They were like true stars in the dark winter night, dazzling to the eyes.

Quarter moon…it wasn't too far off!

The crater fell silent. This included the three Holy Palace Elders. They all subconsciously held their breath.

If one could step into the quarter moon…for those that cultivated the Demon Body, this was a fork in the road of their destiny.

Whether they would stay stranded on the ground or soar into the skies, it would depend on this moment.

Even if this didn't matter to them, many people still felt nervous. They clenched their fists, gulping.

Suddenly, a star trembled as if it wanted to erupt. But even though it tried several times, it couldn't take that key step to the next level.

The Three Holy Palace Elders sighed. The star soon quieted down, with no further changes occurring.

Thus, there was only one star left.

It brightened, it continued to brighten.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl within the silence. After an unknown period of time, that star began to tremble.

The transformation had begun!

The star from a moment ago had been stuck at this level. If this star couldn't break through, all of the effort would have been for nothing.

Perhaps it was only a single breath of time or even shorter, but that trembling star suddenly radiated a more dazzling light.

Once the light restrained itself, a quiet curved quarter moon appeared in the darkness. It was extremely small, similar to a willow bud that gave off a fragile feeling, as if it could break apart at any moment.

But no matter how small it was, a quarter moon was still a quarter moon. There was an essential difference from before.

A Holy Palace Elder stroked his beard and smiled, true gratifications coming from his eyes.

Finally, there was a harvest…a real harvest…

The Demon Body was one of the most difficult abilities to cultivate in this world; it represented the Demonic Path's unsurpassed body tempering technique. If one had a quarter moon rank talent, then if that person gave his best they might be able to touch upon the Sovereign level.

This was already the largest harvest.

After all, in the current Holy Palace, the highest Demon Body rank was also the Sovereign level.

"This is a happy surprise. At least we haven't wasted the materials our disciples collected with such effort. After a moment, we will call out this quarter moon disciple. His future cultivation will be carried out in the Holy Palace." Another Holy Palace Elder said with a smile.

The third Elder's eyes flashed. "I still haven't had an outstanding disciple yet. I hope you two can help fulfill my wish."

The smile suddenly disappeared from the face of the Elder who was stroking his beard. "You don't have an outstanding disciple but you think I do? We're not discussing this!"

The second Elder coughed several times. "The three of us are responsible for overseeing today's examination, and according to the rules we all have the qualifications to receive this disciple. Since this is the case, how about letting this junior decide?"

He seemed to be confident in himself.

The three Elders locked eyes, a fierce and wild combat occurring in their gazes. Each one humphed and didn't mention the subject anymore. All of them were thinking, once this quarter moon disciples emerged, what kind of conditions could they use to move him?

But what happened afterwards caused the three of them to completely abandon such small thoughts. The Holy Palace Elders that normally bragged about how calm they were suddenly widened their eyes.

Because that curved quarter moon began to brighten. Although the range was small, it was actually firm and steady, like a flower blooming in the warm spring.

Could it be…this still wasn't the limit?