Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 22 – Lucky

Strong winds blew past his face as he used Gale Step to the limit. Qin Yu’s complexion was dignified and countless thoughts raced through his mind. He immediately fell to the ground and tumbled to the side, avoiding a black icicle that stabbed up from the ground and began spreading outwards!

With a tinkling laugh, the woman appeared in front of him, her eyes bright. “I even thought you were just a boy who turned and fled. It seems that this big sister has underestimated you.”

Qin Yu smiled, “Big sister is exaggerating things.”

The woman’s smile turned brighter and more beautiful, “So tell me, how did you see a flaw?”

Qin Yu pointed his fingers, “The calluses that big sister specially formed on your hands are completely similar to the calluses that a mountain woman should develop over years of labor. However, the back of big sister’s hands might be tanned, but there isn’t a single scar at all. I used to cut firewood in the past so I am well aware of just how easy it is to hurt the back of the hand.”

He paused for a moment and his eyes began to heat up. “Of course, big sister’s chest is also a flaw. With such fair and delicate snow white skin, how could a mountain woman possibly accomplish that?”

The woman’s eyes filled with praise, “Little brother is truly intelligent, so much that even big sister here doesn’t want to kill you. But, because of my mission, I can only wipe my tears away and do it. But don’t worry little brother, once you are struck by big sister’s poison you won’t feel any pain at all. Just close your eyes and everything will pass in an instant.”

At some unknown time, the icicle that stabbed out from the ground had dissipated by half. Faint traces of black gas rose up like a living creature, quickly twining around Qin Yu’s calf. His complexion changed, revealing anger and fear as his breath began to weaken.

The woman fluttered forwards. “Remember, this big sister’s name is You Qi.”

The short black knife came cutting down at Qin Yu’s neck.

But suddenly, the woman cried out in alarm. With the knife in front of her, there was a loud bang as several wisps of cold light flew out in all directions. One of the wisps of light cut between her eyebrows revealing a trace of white skin and red blood beneath. Amazingly, her current appearance was also a disguise; this wasn’t her true appearance at all.

The woman didn’t retreat and there wasn’t the least bit of warmth in her icy eyes. The short knife continued slashing down at Qin Yu, but she suddenly froze, pain covering her face.

Bang –

The ground sunk down as dust rose into the air. Qin Yu threw himself forwards like a fierce and desperate beast, ignoring any display of mercy as he viciously punched at her soft stomach.

You Qi floated backwards and spat out a little bit of blood as she landed backwards. Her blood shimmered with a hint of purple. Killing intent rose up in her eyes, but at this time, a heaven-shaking eruption exploded from behind her and a blazing aura rose up into the heavens, turning the skies red!

You Qi’s complexion changed and she turned and left without hesitation. “Black ice poison has no cure. Since you’ve been touched by it, your only choice is to die in pain!”

Bang –

A mass of black smoke rose up and she disappeared without a trace.

Qin Yu looked towards the direction of Ning Ling and the others. Once he was sure they were out of trouble, he immediately began moving deeper into the mountains. He could not go back now, otherwise if he were to expose the secret of the little blue lamp then he would undoubtedly die!

Soon, a pale Ning Ling appeared in the area. The air was still quivering with fluctuations of power.

But whether it was Qin Yu or You Qi, neither of them were here any longer.

Xu Wei landed on the ground. As he sniffed the area his complexion changed, “Black ice poison!”

Ning Ling’s heart shook, “What did you say?”

Xu Wei stiffened as her eyes locked onto him. He quickly said, “I have seen this at Master’s before; it is indeed black ice poison.” After a moment, he gulped and said, “Senior-apprentice Sister Ning, we must leave. The black ice poison gas here hasn’t scattered yet. If we are touched by it, then…this poison has no antidote!”

Ning Ling turned even paler. She took a deep breath, “You leave first.”

Xu Wei hesitated. Finally, he couldn’t resist the rising fear in his heart and left first.

Ning Ling was left confused and dazed. She carefully looked around and her complexion changed. She quickly walked forwards and bent down, finding a few drops of blood hanging from the weeds on the ground.

The faint purple color wove together with the green grass, making it seem mottled.

This was…could Qin Yu have escaped somehow?

Ning Ling’s eyes turned bitter and a feeling of emptiness suddenly rose up in her heart, as if she had lost something extremely important in her life.

As Qin Yu walked forwards, his body continued to emit loud cracking sounds as chips of black ice fell off his body. Even the air he breathed out emitted a horrifying chill.

The black ice poison had erupted!

If it weren’t for his body possessing a powerful resistance to poisons, he would have already been frozen into a giant slab of ice.

Bang –

Bang –

Two powerful auras erupted from behind. Even from a dozen some miles away, he could clearly sense them.

The Eastern Mountain Sect Master and Huang Dangui had moved. Since they had taken action, the nearby crisis should be resolved too.

Qin Yu clenched his teeth and resisted the chill that bit into his bones. His eyes swept around and he quickly found a crack in a cliff.

He scooted his body in and sat down. He took out several poison warding pills and swallowed them down.

Incredibly, the medicinal efficacy of these poison warding pills froze solid and shrunk down; it was simply unable to help him at all. He became increasingly cold as he lost feeling throughout his body, but he steadfastly defended his mind, maintaining that final bastion of clarity. He knew that if he were to fall asleep here, he might never wake up again.

But soon, Qin Yu found that he had overestimated his willpower and underestimated the horror of this black ice poison as his consciousness began to blur. He could only take out the little blue lamp and wryly smile as he lost consciousness.

The night was dark like water. As the sea-blue light appeared, the iron-hard ice began to rapidly melt beneath the light.

Qin Yu’s figure gradually appeared. Besides his chest that faintly moved, he seemed to have lost all other signs of life. His face was pale white to the point that it would terrify anyone who saw him.

Suddenly, his eyes popped open and he violently coughed as if his lungs and heart would come out from his mouth. He vomited mouthfuls of blood that were mixed with giant clots of black blood.

The little blue lamp had banished the black ice poison, but during that period of time, serious damage had occurred to Qin Yu’s organs.

It was a long time before Qin Yu stopped coughing. He gasped, joy filling his heart. Just a little bit more and he would have died. If night had come an hour later, then even if the little blue light dissolved the poison there would have been nothing left but a corpse.

He forced himself to eat several pills, then he placed the little blue lamp back in his storage bag and closed his eyes, falling asleep.

Several green shadows lurked across the ground. These were wounded hungry wolves that had been struggling with another pack for food during the day, but were defeated and chased away.

Their stomachs that burned with hunger and their aching wounds drove them to seek food. Otherwise, with their weakened bodies they would degenerate into prey for other wild beasts.

With their amazing sense of smell, they tracked the scent of blood and the trail led them to a crack in a cliff. Although it was a bit high off the ground, their leaping ability easily allowed them to overcome this.

But the several hungry wolves paced back and forth, none of them daring to rush in. Faint traces of a yin chill flowed out from the crack, and although it wasn’t much, it stirred up an incomparable instinctual fear within them.

Fortunately, the cold aura was constantly dissipating. The hungry wolf leader bent low and tightened its powerful hind legs. The pain of its wounds reopening caused its eyes to shine with a bit more ruthlessness.

Bang –

Its hind legs jerked up and the wolf leader’s slender and vigorous body cut a perfect arc through the air as it directly leapt into the crack. It roared in excitement as if it had found a delicious meal, but then with a light cracking sound, it stopped.

With mournful whines, the several hungry wolves outside tucked their tails between their legs and fled.

In the crack, Qin Yu loosened his hands and allowed the still warm corpse of the wolf to fall to the ground. He panted for breath, gritting his teeth as he said, “Not even the black ice poison can kill me; did you think I would die to you here?”

But, he actually felt a deep sense of fear in his heart.

If it weren’t for the aura of the black ice poison frightening the pack of wolves so that they didn’t dare to enter, and if it weren’t for him waking up at this exact time, then even if his body had restored a bit of strength…he would still have become a meal for the hungry wolf leader.

In this world there were far too many possible accidents that could occur. If he wanted to live longer, it was important to remain careful.

No matter what happened in the future, he couldn’t allow himself to fall unconscious without any defenses at all!

Qin Yu let out a deep breath and struggled to rise up. There was no cure to black ice poison and those that managed to run away would eventually die. This was why there were very few people who knew about how terrifyingly destructive it was to the body. Currently, Qin Yu was like a leaking balloon that was riddled with holes all over.

Luckily the Foundation Establishment realm Body Forging Pills had a certain effect of healing the body. In addition to some treasures that Qin Yu had on him, it wouldn’t take too long to completely recover.

He opened the storage bag. With a flash of light, a beautifully colored fruit appeared in his hand and emitted a wonderful fragrance. This was an Azure Cloud Fruit that he had picked up from the underground space and it had an amazing ability in healing the body.

As he took several bites of the Azure Cloud Fruit, warmth spread through his limbs and bones. Qin Yu sighed in comfort. Four hours later, his bones cracked as explosive strength filled him once more.

He turned and punched out. With a loud crack, a part of the mountain cliff broke apart. Qin Yu drew back his fist. Besides being a little bit red, it was perfectly fine.

The Azure Cloud Fruit had repaired his body that had been destroyed by the black ice poison. In essence, this was similar to breaking down his body and rebuilding it, and this had caused the intensity of his mortal body to unexpectedly rise to a higher level. Now, the power of his punch was no less than a magic technique of the Foundation Establishment realm!

In his battle with that witch You Qi and his subsequent experience with the black ice poison, this allowed him to deeply realize the advantages of possessing a powerful body. He resolved his mind to cultivate the power of his mortal body. In any case, his cultivation was formed from piles of pills to begin with, so he wasn’t afraid of delaying his cultivation.

“I should return.” Qin Yu mumbled to himself. He flicked his sleeves, causing wind to stir up around him and erase all traces of his presence. Then, he leapt out.

…

When the disciples were attacked they had been less than a hundred miles from the sect entrance. The Eastern Mountain Sect was stirred into a furious rage by this. Seven groups of disciples were sent out in all directions and what they did shook the heavens and earth. Let alone mountain spirits and water monsters, not even ordinary wild beasts were able to escape being slaughtered.

Everyone thought that such a massive furor was because their disciples had been attacked, but, only a few high-level figures of the sect actually knew that the true reason was because of Ning Ling.

When the Eastern Mountain Sect Master and Huang Dangui learned that Ning Ling was in danger, they were immediately drenched in a cold sweat. It was good that nothing happened to her, otherwise they didn’t dare to imagine the consequences.

As for Qin Yu who was still missing, although the two of them had issued orders to find him, they didn’t place much importance on this matter. To then, Qin Yu was nothing but a slightly lucky disciple who lacked potential and also had poor morals. If he died he died; it wasn’t a big deal at all.

The key issue right now was how Ning Ling viewed this matter. If she were to casually complain to her family about this then the entire Eastern Mountain Sect would be in great trouble!

They inquired into her well-being, but saw that she had a gloomy and dark expression. However, they also saw that she didn’t hold any bad feelings towards the Eastern Mountain Sect, so the Eastern Mountain Sect Master and Huang Dangui glanced at each other before tactfully leaving.

“Ning Ling, rest well. We will definitely investigate this matter and give you an account.” The Eastern Mountain Sect Master vowed.

Ning Ling nodded. She suddenly asked, “Has Sect Master learned anything about Junior-apprentice Brother Qin Yu’s whereabouts?”

The Eastern Mountain Sect Master shook his head. “We’re still looking, but according to what you described, the one that attacked should be a demonic cultivator. If Qin Yu fell into their hands, I fear that…”

Ning Ling bit her lips, her face pale.