Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 173 - Human

Soupman frowned. It wasn’t because he was unhappy or outraged, but rather because his expectations were far too different from the reality of the situation, thus it naturally spilled over in his emotions. Soon, he responded. It seemed that this heavenly tribulation had been…blocked. Before he could begin to imagine the reasons why, a smile bloomed on his face. Soupman even had a feeling as if he had been saved from imminent death. However, he soon discovered that something wasn’t right.

Where was the fourth heavenly tribulation? After it came into contact with the sphere of spirit stones it had vanished from sight, and following that there wasn’t a single sound. Just how was that possible? Could Soupman have been too panicked, so certain illusions developed in his mind? But then, he turned his head and saw Old Sea with his jaw dropped open and his eyes popped wide.

It wasn’t an illusion!

Whoosh –

The seafolk that surrounded Nine Layer Building all cried out in an uproar, each one with a shocked expression etched on their face. Everyone stared at each other and thought, ‘Am I seeing things or is this a dream?’

And after that, they determined that what happened was a fact. It was the cold hard reality that had occurred in front of them. That heavenly tribulation, that heavenly tribulation which was so incredibly powerful that it could cause heavy losses to a Nascent Soul, had vanished in a completely bewildering way.

The seafolk of the capital city believed that they had seen many things, and that in the sea region, they had an extremely wide field of vision. But, they had never heard of anything like this before!

Rumble rumble –

Before the seafolk could continue pondering about what happened, the black clouds high above flashed brilliantly once more and another stroke of heavenly tribulation came crashing down. It seemed as if it had been provoked, or even threatened, but the tribulation thunder was no longer in the form of pure thunder. Rather, it took on the shape of a heaven-splitting axe as it came ruthlessly smashing down!

As soon as this heavenly tribulation cut downwards, even though it was extremely far away from the crowds, countless seafolk still felt their hearts skip a beat and their scalps tingle. Fear gushed out from the very depths of their soul, so fast that they couldn’t contain it.

Even the strong Soupman felt dread and apprehension. His eyes widened as he watched the tribulation thunder approach and then vanish into the spirit stone sphere.

Then, nothing happened…

It was a spooky calm!

No one could explain just what had occurred.

Heavenly tribulation! This was the terrifying heavenly tribulation that horrified cultivators the most! Yet, they had vanished one after another. Countless seafolk cried out in their hearts, ‘Hey, did you get lost on the way?’

Of course this was just a nonsensical joke, but at this time, the seafolk felt as if their minds were reduced to mush and they really didn’t know what to think.

“How fierce!” The young girl cried out in alarm, her deep blue eyes filled with shock.

The woman was stunned. She glanced at the guard captain and they could each feel their heart shake. Compared to what they had heard, this Honorable Ning was…even more unfathomable then they thought!

In Moon Praying Shrine’s carriage, the white-dressed woman was sobbing with joy, and the Vice Priest across from her was clenching his fists tightly, his face flushed red with excitement.

The priests had made the correct bet!

This Honorable Ning was truly an unheard of character. If he were to help, the Saint Flower would absolutely have a chance of earning new life.

The fourth and fifth heavenly tribulation vanished. The black clouds above the city suddenly fell silent. Just as many seafolk were thinking that a terrifyingly great power was fermenting within, the black clouds began to chaotically stir. As if sensing a threat, the sixth heavenly tribulation quickly fell. This one was only the thickness of an arm, far inferior to even the first heavenly tribulation; it dissipated in an instant.

Just what was this situation? No matter how they looked at it, it seemed as if the heavenly tribulation had retreated in fear…many seafolk were scared as they thought about this and instantly suppressed this thought. They all believed they were overthinking things. This was heavenly tribulation! How could it possibly run away from a cultivator in fear? Yes, they must have gotten the wrong idea!

Although they all told themselves this, their eyes when they looked at the spirit stone sphere still revealed a deep awe and reverence.

Six bolts of heavenly tribulation….well, yes, while the last strike seemed a bit suspicious and was barely passable, it was still what it was. Six heavenly tribulations had passed. Honorable Ning, Honorable Ning, when are you going to make an appearance?

They waited, waited, and waited some more…until even their necks started to ache. The spirit stone sphere remained the same as before, without any intent of cracking apart.

Soupman furrowed his eyebrows. Right now his mind was full of questions and he wanted explanations. But every time the words came to the tip of his tongue, he swallowed them back down. With things having reached this step, he actually had no idea just what Ning Qin had been trying. If he were to disturb him and mess something up, that would be a disaster.

He took a deep breath and calmed his thoughts. Soupman’s eyes narrowed as he watched on without expression. He would wait. He didn’t believe that this young fellow would be able to hide inside and sleep away.

Time passed slowly. Just as the seafolk watching began to feel bored, the skies turned a vast and blurry white and winds began to stir up once more.

It was snowing?

The seafolk watching were stunned silly.

This was…completely unrealistic…

Rain, snow, those were things that appeared in the low and humble human world and could only be truly experienced there. Why would such a sight appear in the capital city?

This was the sea floor! The bottom of the sea!

“Spirit…spirit…spirit stones…” It was unknown who cried this out first, but their sharp and keening cry was also filled with endless distress and grief.

Following that, this distress and grief infected all the watching seafolk.

The giant sphere formed of countless spirit stones floating in the air began to collapse from the surface in. It seemed as if it was quickly undergoing the erosion of countless years. White powder blew into the air and sprinkled down to the world. In just a few breaths of time, the streets, buildings, courtyards, everything was covered in this powder.

The shock of this scene rooted the seafolk in place. The white powder dyed their hair white, created white beards for them, and even formed white coats for them all.

Spirit stones were crushed, crushed, and crushed again.

The massive sphere of spirit stones was shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye. It grew smaller and smaller, diminishing without any mercy.

Many seafolk watched in a daze. Tears quietly spilled from their eyes.

Money, so much money. It was gone, just like this it was all gone.

Although it wasn’t their money, they still felt an unbearable pain. At the same time, a burning anger ignited in their chests.

You bastard!

If you don’t want it, then you could give it to me. Why did you have to destroy it all!?

My cute and precious spirit stones, my preciouses!

The upper-class citizens of the capital city had seen a great deal of things in their lifetimes, so they awoke from their daze a step ahead of the others. There was a complex light in their eyes but they gradually calmed down. Moreover, a vague thought appeared in their hearts. Was the vanishing of the heavenly tribulation related to the spirit stones?

And, the ones who thought this also included Soupman.

He had dealt with money all his life, so his eyesight was without doubt. With just a glance, he estimated that there were at least 300 million spirit stones that had disintegrated. This was a heaven-shaking amount of spirit stones, and the spiritual energy contained within them was equally boundless and hard to imagine!

Let alone Ning Qin, even His Majesty would find it impossible to absorb and exhaust all of the strength within those spirit stones in such a short period of time.

If so, then there was only one reasonable explanation. Soupman’s heart began to race. If his hypothesis was true, then Ning Qin had a method to use spirit stones to counterbalance the effects of heavenly tribulation. Then, could he imitate this method and help His Majesty cross heavenly tribulation too?

He knew that this idea was an overly hopeful assumption, and there was also the difference in cultivation. Moreover, Ning Qin needed 300 million spirit stones to resist that heavenly tribulation, so His Majesty might need 3 billion or even 30 billion. But, as long as there was hope, even if he had to clear out the entire royal treasure and seize all assets from every royal, he still would give it a try.

Soupman took deep breath after deep breath, barely managing to suppress his excitement. Right now his mind was completely filled with this thought. Even the matter of the sudden appearance of the Sea Mausoleum’s aura had been cast aside. If this could help His Majesty smoothly cross tribulation, then that was simply…far too wonderful to imagine!

Old Sea could faintly guess Soupman’s thoughts from his burning gaze. He sighed inwardly, a bit worried. After all, this matter involved too many factors, and even he didn’t dare to guess what sort of result would occur.

But a moment later, as the curtain to this act fell, Old Sea discovered that the worries he had now were completely meaningless.

Spirit stones disintegrated at an increasingly fast pace. The volume of the sphere shrank accordingly. When it was around a hundred feet wide, faint traces of blood fog appeared with the collapsing spirit stones. Then, more and more blood fog gushed out, until it finally wove together in a vast veil that covered the remaining portion.

After several breaths of time, when the last pieces of spirit stone turned to powder and fell down, all that was left over was a mass of fog around 70-80 feet wide. Then, as it contracted and expanded like it was breathing, beating with the rhythm of a heart, the volume shrank each time.

50-60 feet.

40-50 feet.

30-40 feet.

Gradually, a blurry figure appeared in the blood fog. Even though it was only a general outline, it was enough for everyone to recognize that familiar figure.

It was Ning Qin!

Soupman narrowed his eyes. He watched as the blood fog was reabsorbed, and because he thought that this was because of certain cultivation methods, he didn’t care too much about it.

But soon, a strange look appeared on his face and grew increasingly deep. Then, his eyes popped up to reveal absolute shock and disbelief.

It wasn’t just Soupman, but Old Sea, Chief Manager Wu, Clearwood, and many other seafolk were stunned silent as they stared at the shrinking blood fog.

As the blood fog thinned, the figure within was gradually revealed. The black robes which had always covered that person seemed to have been destroyed by some strength and were now hanging in tattered shreds on his body. Thus, Ning Qin, Honorable Ning’s true visage, was revealed for the first time.

Originally, the watching seafolk were only quietly excited that they could see Honorable Ning’s true appearance. But as the blood fog disappeared, they revealed expressions of surprise.

Honorable Ning seemed too much like a human…

No matter how one of the seafolk cultivated, or whether they used the manifestation pond to transform into human shape, they still retained some characteristics of their tribe. For instance, Princess Lushy had scales between her eyebrows, or for instance, Committee Member Gudra’s astonishing defensive turtle shell.

This was what distinguished humans from the sea races.

But Honorable Ning’s body was far too clean, so clean that there wasn’t the tiniest trace that belonged to the sea races. Moreover, because his soul and consciousness had been isolated from his mortal body, he hadn’t been able to perfectly restrain his aura. Now, as the forces that had been concealing him vanished, that pure human aura which was different from the sea races’ appeared in the capital city.

Human…a human…

Honorable Ning, the third ranked Purple Card, the legendary Spiritual Bestower, the powerful existence who had caused the sea spirit baptism to continue for nearly 10 hours…he…was a human!

The shock of this realization was even more incredible than the destruction of the 300 million spirit stones. Thus, everyone within line of sight that saw this had their jaws drop down, all of them in utter chaos.

In that far and distant building, the black-armored Whale Sovereign stood there. As his astonishment passed, a satisfied smile began to pull up the corners of his lips.

No wonder he had felt what he had. ‘It was you all along!’

Bang –

The window collapsed. A black bolt of lightning seemed to shoot through the void!

The Whale Sovereign’s gaze was faint without any warmth at all. Killing intent soared to the heavens!

It was true that he could accept these defeats and not care about them at all. But, that didn’t mean that he wasn’t angry, especially when it was a small insect who had once threatened him and caused him a loss before managing to escape.

So, he would kill this human.