Refining the Mountains and Rivers

The large turtle’s speed was astonishing. As they swam forwards, they didn’t meet a single variation sea monster or even a fish. This old turtle was absolutely at the level of a High Ancestor within the sea. His aura was like a rising sun, causing everyone who noticed him to not even dare to approach.

After an unknown period of time, there was the sound of falling water. The seawater parted around Qin Yu. As he opened his eyes, he saw boundless mist in front of him. He knew that he had arrived at the edge of the Netherworld Sea Region.

But without the Netherworld Ship, how would they leave?

Soon, the big turtle taught Qin Yu just what it meant to be incomparably mighty. He saw the large turtle open its mouth wide, suck in a deep breath, and then spit it all out.

Rumble rumble –

Winds and clouds changed color and the sound of roaring waves filled the air. In that moment, within the boundless mist in which one couldn’t even tell where the sun was shining down from, a straight channel was blown into creation. The big turtle flew out from the channel leisurely, appearing completely comfortable.

From behind, deep within the Netherworld Sea Region, a terrifying eyeball locked onto them. It hesitated for several moments and finally chose to leave.

The big turtle suddenly quickened his pace, parting from the scope of the mist within the blink of an eye. He ruthlessly twisted his head back and said, “Brat, just what did you do to draw in something like that!”

Qin Yu’s entire head was wet with fog. He tilted to the side, “What does senior mean?”

The big turtle coldly sneered, “Little boy, stop pretending to be an idiot. If you continue to test my patience, be careful that I might throw you off!”

Qin Yu bitterly smiled. “Listening to senior, it sounds as if I have provoked some fierce existence  within the Netherworld Sea Region. But with this junior’s cultivation, how do you think I could have possibly done that?”

The big turtle lightly frowned. This sounded reasonable. If this brat really did provoke that thing, he would have died even if he had eight lives. Moreover, he was a cripple now, so he was even more worthless. The turtle’s complexion became increasingly ugly. After a long time it let out a cold humph. If that thing didn’t come for the boy, then did it come for him? The big turtle hadn’t truly fought in several years, and now it felt its fighting spirit begin to stir.

Alright, this old turtle will remember this. I’ll settle this with you in the future!

Qin Yu was being fully honest, though he didn’t sense the rising anger within the big turtle. He cursed in his heart. Although he didn’t know what had happened, his instincts told him that the ‘thing’ which the old turtle was speaking of had come for him.

Was it the demonic path’s Saint Furnace? Or the tumor?

Within the Netherworld Sea Region, these were the only two things that Qin Yu had gone out of his way to deal with. After thinking for some time, he took a deep breath and placed these thoughts to the side. Since he had already left, in the worst case situation he simply wouldn’t come here anymore.

The big turtle had a calm expression as he hurried along. Qin Yu certainly wouldn’t stir up trouble by asking needless questions. They continued forwards.

After ten days, the big turtle slowed down and dove deep into the sea.

Qin Yu opened his eyes and a sharp light flashed through them. Soon, his eyes widened and shock filled his face. A brilliant radiance lit up the dark sea waters. There was a titanic coral growing on the seabed like an ancient tree, emitting a soft and gentle light. And at the center of this coral was something that only existed in legends…a city beneath the sea!

It spread out along the seabed, a kaleidoscope of colors weaving together. It was at least ten times larger than any city Qin Yu had ever seen in his life. This city had no walls because deep beneath the sea, this city was a supreme existence that no types of life forms dared to attack.

The architecture of the city was different from anything Qin Yu had seen before. Many of the buildings were composed of seabed sand and dirt, shells, and coral. There were none of the straight lines and upright structures that were in human cities, but rather many buildings were shaped in sloping curves. A faint barrier of light surrounded the city, isolating out the water. However, the barrier didn’t stop the sea races from entering or leaving. Qin Yu clearly saw several beautiful deep sea carp swimming around the edges of the capital city and then continuing to swim about happily.

After arriving, the big turtle was clearly in a much better mood. As it turned and saw Qin Yu’s shocked expression, it proudly said, “Boy, you humans aren’t the only ones who can build cities. This is the capital city of my sea races, a great sun deep beneath the sea that will never be extinguished!”

Before the old turtle’s massive form had approached the capital city, the city guards were already alerted. They came out of the city to welcome the old turtle. The sea monster leading the group had taken human form. His body was incredibly muscled and strong, and two snow white fangs jutted down from between his lips, indicating his high status amongst his fellow sea mammoth clansmen. He wore thick armor that contrasted his impressive figure.

But in front of the old turtle, the guard was as docile as a sheep. He respectfully said, “Mister Turtle, you’ve returned.” Behind him, the normally unruly and cold city guards had all lowered their heads, so low that they seemed as if they would break their necks.

The old turtle casually waved a claw and an eerie light flashed. As it dispersed, an old man with a hunched back appeared with a turtle shell on his back. With his thin body and moustache, he didn’t seem to be someone that could be described as terrifying.  Of course, no one dared to laugh or even look at him. All of the sea races kept their eyes low and heads down, being as respectful and solemn as they could.

Qin Yu endured this for a long time, but in the end he couldn’t stop his lips from twitching a little.

The old turtle maliciously glared at him, a thick threat in his eyes. Qin Yu immediately understood why these sea races had put on such a performance.

Thinking of it, they had probably learned their lesson already!

“Find a place to settle this boy.” After he spoke, the old turtle flew into the capital city. That weird thing from the Netherworld Sea Region had actually dared to have thoughts on him. If so, then this matter wasn’t simple at all. He had to inform his majesty promptly so that preparations could be made.

The sea mammoth leader bowed. “Mister, please take care!”

It was only when the old turtle vanished from sight that the captain looked up, a warm smile on his face. “Little brother, my name is Meng Li, what is yours?” For someone to be able to quietly lead the guards of the capital city for so many years, this fellow naturally had his skills. Although he seemed like a clumsy fellow who only knew brute force, the reality was that he had extremely exquisite thoughts.

Qin Yu cupped his hands across his chest. “…Ning Qin.”

If he were to give his real name, he feared that these people in front of him would immediately become enraged. He swept his eyes around, thinking that it might be a good time to leave. But, he also knew that since this was the capital city of the sea races, there were likely countless sea race powerhouses here. So, he suppressed those thoughts momentarily.

Meng Li sensed that Qin Yu was hiding things, but he didn’t care. All he needed to know was that this human was someone brought here by Mister Turtle; his name didn’t matter at all. He kept an amiable expression on his face and slapped Qin Yu’s shoulder. “Come, I’ll personally lead you into the city.”

After giving orders to his subordinates, Meng Li brought Qin Yu into the capital city. They chatted a lot and the two of them seemed to get along quite well. Of course, Qin Yu was trying to glean some information the entire time. He had no idea why the old turtle had brought him all the way here.

Meng Li’s smile didn’t fade in the least. The more Qin Yu was like this, the more unusual he felt Qin Yu was. His attitude became even warmer and more intimate.

The sea races’ capital city was filled with flowers. Countless sea monsters walked or swam about. While many of them were incomparably ugly fish monsters, there were also blindingly beautiful half-human half-fish women. Sensing the look of astonishment in Qin Yu’s eyes, Meng Li pulled him close and quietly said, “Those are the merfolk race. The majority of their people are women, and each one of them is an unparalleled beauty. And, what they are most adept in is how to please a man.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “Brother Ning, if you want, I can lead you somewhere later this evening. Trust me, you absolutely will not regret going.”

Qin Yu revealed an awkward expression but also a bit of desire. He hesitated for several moments and finally shook his head. “There’s no need. I just arrived at the capital so it’s best if I’m a bit more discreet.” Since the sea mammoth leader wanted to get closer to him, he didn’t object too much. In any case, he had no idea how long he would be staying here in the sea race capital city for, so having some good connections was never wrong.

The capital city was mind-bogglingly large. The law forbade everyone besides the royal family and those with permission from flying. Everyone had to travel by walking or swimming. A great deal of time was spent travelling, so to fix this problem, short distance transmission arrays were set up. There were a great deal of these distributed in various areas of the capital city, and one could freely use them after paying a few spirit stones.

In this city beneath the sea, the truth was that there were many humans present, and some of these humans lived very good lives. As they walked about, they had their own crowd of sea race followers. Even so, they weren’t allowed to use the transmission arrays within the capital city. Rumors said that long ago, one of the previous emperors had lost one of his favored daughters, and this was a punishment he had passed down upon the humans.

Concerning this, no one amongst the sea races dared to violate this rule. Even Lord Meng Li, captain of the capital city guards, could only shake his head and force a smile. He turned around and apologetically said, “Brother Ning, this is quite embarrassing but it seems we can only choose a place nearby. But this area is the edge of the capital city and there aren’t really many good dwellings here.”

The capital city’s edge was quite good actually.

Qin Yu sincerely said, “Brother Meng is too polite. As long as I have somewhere I can stay, I will be more than satisfied.”

Meng Li sighed. “Then I will have to temporarily inconvenience Brother Ning. Once Mister Turtle returns, we can properly settle you somewhere else. In the future, if there is a day when I might need a bit of Brother Ning’s time, I hope that you won’t blame me for this blunder today.”

Qin Yu waved his hand and put on an expression as if he had been touched. Meng Li cheered inwardly. It was true that he needed to take good care of anyone that Mister Turtle brought back, but before he had determined how important Qin Yu actually was, emptying out an entire residence for him was just too costly.

A residence within the capital city wasn’t easy to obtain at all.

There were many places where an inch of land was worth more than its weight in gold. Even though Meng Li was skilled in making money, he didn’t dare to casually toss it about. But now, it seemed that he had managed to trick this Ning fellow. At the very least, he wasn’t complaining, so that was good. He just needed to leave behind a good impression today, and even if this Ning fellow were to rise up in the future, there would still be many ways to recover from this.

After quietly praising his own wisdom, Meng Li led the way to the edge of the city. After some time, they walked into a narrow valley. The two stopped at the end of a courtyard and pushed open a door. The courtyard was quite small, but it was clean and tidy, and flaming corals grew luxuriously all around.

Meng Li spoke several more apologetic words. He told Qin Yu that he had several official matters to attend to, and would make another visit in a few days once he wasn’t busy.

After sending Meng Li away and seeing his figure vanish, Qin Yu’s smile disappeared. A calm light lit up his eyes. Who said that the sea monsters were all brainless brutes? This Meng Li was actually quite sharp.

But, he had never planned to stay in the sea race capital city for long, so it was the same wherever he lived. In fact, the more remote the area, the less noticeable it was, the more convenient it would be for him to move.

Good.

Shutting the courtyard doors, Qin Yu closed his eyes. His divine sense flowed out like threads of silk, sweeping through the entire courtyard. After a long time, he determined that there weren’t any problems. Then, he opened his eyes, entered his room, and sat down to meditate.

He had just entered the capital city today so it wouldn’t be good for him to leave so soon. He would wait a bit and consider his plans first. It had to be known that for a human cultivator to openly and honestly walk through the capital city was actually incredibly difficult.

There was no passing of sun and moon at the seabed, but the coral would change colors along with the shifting of yin and yang. When the blazing red coral in the courtyard turned a cold and quiet blue color, that meant night had arrived.

Shua –

Qin Yu opened his eyes. At the very least, he had determined that there was no one spying on him around. It seemed that the old turtle didn’t care about him too much and thus didn’t have any plans against him. This relaxed Qin Yu’s heart. It would be much easier to leave like this.

And at this moment, a vague sound echoed in Qin Yu’s ears, accompanied with a bit of yin chill.

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