Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Far away from Starfall Archipelago, deeper south into the sea, the sea region here had become even more mystical and terrifying after losing the suppression of the alliance's array formation.

The angry waves raged to the skies. From time to time, one could see giant beasts of astonishing size breaking through the surface and howling into the skies.

But deep in this terrifying sea region, there was one place that was incomparably calm. Whenever any turbulent undercurrents approached they would instantly be erased.

As if this place was shrouded by an invisible and invincible might. It allowed nothing to provoke its dignity!

Going deeper down through the icy waters, one eventually passed through a black screen. Then, light suddenly appeared. It shined from the bottom of the sea, illuminating everything.

A stone altar stood atop the black sand that covered the bottom of the sea. It was extremely large, like a great city that stretched over the land with no end in sight.

The reason for this description was that the construction of the altar was incredibly rough and simple. It looked like random stones had been moved and piled on top of each other.

Strange runes covered the surface of these stones. But because too much time had passed, even though they had the protection of the altar, they had still become blurred after being endlessly washed over and eroded by the sea waters.

One could clearly feel the rich aura of passing years from these stones, an aura so thick that it nearly condensed into essence.

But this aura had no scent of corruption or decay. Rather, it was filled with a light vitality.

It was as if green buds would drill out from these worn stones in the next moment and blossom and bear fruit.

And the light at the bottom of the sea came from this altar. Or to be more accurate, it came from these seemingly ordinary stones.

Illuminated by light, one could clearly see that countless monster beasts were lying peacefully around the altar.

These giant beasts came from different races and had varying appearances and diets. A considerable portion of them recognized each other as natural enemies. If they were to meet in the sea, they would immediately engage in fierce battle without hesitation.

But now, all of these monster beasts were quietly lying in place. One could see signs of awe and reverence on their fierce and gruesome faces.

Perhaps the only thing that could be considered similar about these monster beasts was that they were all large. The smaller ones were thousands of feet, some were tens of thousands of feet, and the largest ones were even more amazingly large.

The easiest way to measure the strength of sea beast monsters was their size. Even if this wasn't 100% accurate, it was reliable most of the time.

If someone came here and saw this sight, their eyes would pop out of their head.

Suddenly, the rays of light that emanated from the altar stones began to condense. They gathered together, forming the outline of a giant eye.

The stone altar was large to the point where it seemed like the foundation of a city, but this eye occupied 90% of it. It was hard to imagine how terrifyingly large the eye's master must be.

As light condensed and the eye appeared, the monster beasts around the altar all roared out loud and bowed their heads.

The giant eye slowly rotated. Then, it looked over the monster beasts. Its line of sight pierced through the ice cold sea waters to the endless nothingness beyond it.

Suddenly, a great roar came from the sea bed. With the sea bed altar at the center, the incomparably deep sea turned riotous.

The peaceful sea waters became the incarnation of great beasts. They roared and revolved as a horrifying vortex appeared on the sea bed.

Its volume rapidly grew as more and more sea water was drawn in. The energy within the vortex grew at a staggering pace!

…

Qin Yu vowed that this was the worst transmission experience he had ever endured since he was born. If it wasn't for his mortal body being powerful enough, things wouldn't have ended with just a pale face. He would have vomited blood on the spot!

He could hear the sounds of hacking coughs in his ears as well as people taking in great gasping breaths. The four Alliance Elders were fine but most of the other cultivators who had come here couldn't compare with Qin Yu. A female cultivator in a long white dress was openly vomiting on the ground.

A sour scent stung the nose. The smell caused several people who were just barely holding back to also retch out loud. This could be called a splendid scene.

After all, for peak beast trainers who had such an honored status to end up in such a distressed state this was definitely a rare sight.

The four Alliance Elders silently watched everyone's actions. After looking around and not sensing anything off, they finally relaxed.

In the finals, 100 participants had entered the martial field. Only 87 had returned alive; the other 13 had perished.

These 13 deaths would undoubtedly bring new troubles to the alliance, especially since they had just managed to quell the anger from the last incident. But, they still did this because their purpose was to confirm whether or not there was a spy sent by the sea in the final ranking list.

Before entering the mystic realm, the sudden change of temperature in the hall and the fierce transmission everyone experienced were both additional methods of screening. If any participating cultivators revealed anything off, the four Elders would immediately suppress them.

Luckily, there was no problem this time.

After waiting a moment and allowing everyone to compose themselves, an Alliance Elder said, "The existence of this mystic realm is the foundation of the alliance. The jolt you all felt just now is a screening method to prevent people with bad intentions from mixing their way in."

If someone was able to break into the top ten rankings, then in terms of pure talent and ability, they might be no weaker than the Alliance Elders. Moreover, Luo He, Qin Yu, and the others were all young and would surely have great achievements in the future. This explanation was to avoid them being dissatisfied in any way. Who wouldn't do something that was free and so effective?

Another Elder smiled. "Alright. If you're done resting, let's get moving. Take a good look along the way; you might have some harvests."

The third Elder had a stern expression, "You can look and you can remember. But, keep this in mind. Anything you see and hear within this mystic realm cannot be disclosed outside. Otherwise, once the alliance finds out, you will be severely punished!

After stepping out from the hall they had arrived in, Qin Yu discovered that this building looked the exact same as the hall they were transmitted from. Even the materials were similar. The only difference was that the crystal used to construct this hall was faintly red. It seemed to be wreathed in flames yet produced a chill instead.

But soon, Qin Yu couldn't care about this. This was because not too far away from the hall, he saw a strange tree.

The reason he thought it was strange was because this large tree's branches had already withered and died. One could even clearly see its cracked and desiccated bark.

The bare branches were like the claws of a skeleton reaching towards the sky. But what was astonishing was that fresh flowers bloomed on these branches.

That's right. Qin Yu could determine that these fresh flowers came from the dead wood. As the breeze blew, he could even smell a faint fragrance.

It wasn't just Qin Yu who saw this strange tree. Everyone had their eyes wide open, their faces full of disbelief.

The Elder from before who had told them to take a good look faintly smiled. He said, "Don't be so surprised. The truly unbelievable is yet to come."

As the group travelled along, Qin Yu saw numerous scenes that subverted his cognition.

For instance, burning rivers. These rivers winded across the earth like massive fire dragons. The blazing flames they emitted scorched and twisted the air. But, countless fish swam through these rivers, happily and freely, as if they couldn't feel the heat at all.

For instance, an active volcano that spewed out black smoke and dust. It erupted with a roar, but what shot out was not lava but massive chunks of ice and snow. The ice landed on the ground, causing a layer of frost to rapidly spread out.

For instance, a great bird that flew across the skies. It had a body covered with magnificent feathers that shone like a rainbow beneath the sunlight. It looked as if it were a statue carved from crystal. But when it lowered its head and looked at the walking cultivators below, it revealed two hollow and white eye sockets.

Qin Yu even saw a massive meteor falling down from the skies, dragging a tail of flames behind it. This was a giant meteor. Even from afar, one could feel the terrifying strength it contained.

Qin Yu didn't doubt that as long as the meteor crashed into the earth, it would instantly turn the surrounding calm plains into a purgatory of flames and death. But he discovered that the four Alliance Elders only glanced at it before turning away and hurrying along the path.

And below the meteor, the goats and green cows that were lazing about on the plain didn't move at all. They slowly chewed and ate.

The meteor landed!

Qin Yu subconsciously narrowed his eyes. However, the expected heaven-shaking thunder and the terrifying explosion of power didn't erupt. Rather, it was as if everything he saw had only been an illusion.

But Qin Yu was sure that he hadn't seen anything wrong. The meteor that fell from the skies was definitely real.

Moreover, he noticed that the reactions of everyone else around him were similar to his own…if it was an illusion, they shouldn't all be suffering from it!

As Qin Yu furrowed his eyebrows in contemplation he heard a loud thundering sound from above. The meteor that had landed had once again appeared in everyone's sight, following the exact same trajectory it did before as it crashed down once more.

The alliance's mystic realm was filled with unbelievable sights everywhere. It was a place that completely subverted one's expectations.

Qin Yu had a feeling that this mystic realm was hiding an incomparably astonishing secret. And now, the place that these four Alliance Elders were leading them to was likely related to this secret.

At this time, Qin Yu had unknowingly forgotten about his original goal for coming to this mystic realm.

His mind was fully focused on this secret. He wanted to get closer to it and understand it!

This sort of invisible influence and interference was truly terrifying. However, Qin Yu hadn't noticed it at all.