Refining the Mountains and Rivers - Chapter 221 – Targeting the Whale Monsters
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Chapter 221 – Targeting the Whale Monsters

The Lord Priest was a smart and astute man. Qin Yu had only proposed auctioning off the last 50 Nascent Soul spots, but in a short time he had managed to expand this idea into a complete plan.

For instance, the auction was held at irregular intervals. At each auction, priority was placed on collecting soul beads. If one wished to use other treasures to replace them then their value had to be twice that of a soul bead. Moreover, they constantly sent people out, so that every time an auction occurred there would be a major commotion, causing a feeling of urgency to rise in everyone’s hearts.

Disregarding the ethics of this, the effect was extremely good. At the very least, every auction had a final bidding price that was horrifyingly high, and this left the Lord Priest smiling so much that his eyes disappeared.

And of course, to gain this sort of wealth, one needed a formidable strength to act as a safeguard. Otherwise you would be slapped back by others before your plan was complete. Luckily, Moon Praying Shrine had sufficient strength to swallow down this piece of fat. As for Qin Yu…he didn’t plan on staying in the sea region for too long, so there wasn’t anything for him to fear.

Sea God Palace, side hall.

Qin Yu held onto the Soul Mushroom and brought a soul bead near to it. Mist surged out from the soul bead and was totally absorbed in just several breaths of time.

Pa –

The soul bead shattered into dust.

This sight fell into the eyes of Qin Yu, the man who had caused the soul beads to reach a disgustingly high price outside, and he sighed inwardly. He forced out a smile. Right now, it was like eating gold mountain after gold mountain. If the Soul Mushroom wasn’t so valuable to him, he would have wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to earn as much as he could.

What left Qin Yu felt gratified was that as the soul beads were swallowed, the Soul Mushroom’s growth began to clearly speed up. There were some changes almost every day.  

Certainly, these changes were very minor, and he needed to observe carefully in order to spot them.

Luckily, Qin Yu was patient.

Once the Soul Mushroom reached a thousand years of age, he could refine a Partner Soul.

Just how precious a treasure was that? Even if he had to expend more time and effort, it was still worth it.

At this time, a respectful voice sounded from outside. “Priest Qin Yu, a special envoy from Sega City has requested an audience.”

Qin Yu’s eyes flashed. “Allow them in.”

He put away the Soul Mushroom and straightened his robes. With the sound of happy and hurried footsteps, Sang Yueyue’s blushing face soon appeared in front of him.

“Big Brother Qin Yu!” This little girl hadn’t changed at all, and her expression was just as excited as it was in the past.

Qin Yu smiled. “Yueyue, you came. How come you didn’t come to see me earlier?”

Sang Yueyue stuck out her tongue.

The woman had a helpless face. Who knew that the reason the young miss refused to appear earlier was that she was worried about being embarrassed over approaching Qin Yu with rewards from Sega City? This reason was far too nonsensical.

When daughters grew up they never stayed at home; this was something everyone knew. But, miss, your display today was far too extreme! If it weren’t for her obtaining news that Qin Yu might leave soon, then this little brat might not have ever come out. It was clear that she was patiently enduring it in order to benefit Qin Yu. The woman silently shook her head, thinking that her madam’s plan for allowing the young miss to come here might simply fail.

Seeing the young miss not speak, the woman decided to step forwards. “I greet Priest Qin Yu. My Sega City wishes to obtain a number of Nascent Soul spots. But, soul beads are too scarce right now, so I hope that Priest Qin Yu could bend the rules a little for us.”

This was wanting an advantage in the situation, and also doing so honestly and openly.

Sang Yueyue was immediately worried. “Seventh Aunty, how can you say that? If Big Brother Qin Yu helps others cross tribulation, it surely must be dangerous and so accepting rewards is perfectly justified. There are very few soul beads, but we can always find them if we pay a high enough price. Could it be that our Sega City is lacking in spirit stones??”

Qin Yu revealed a faint smile. He looked at the woman and saw that she had a pained expression on her face.

And it was a very pained expression!

“Yueyue, it’s not right for you to say that. Sega City helped me in the past, so this is a good chance for me to repay the favor. Unless you think that I’m some sort of ungrateful person with no virtues?” Qin Yu looked at the woman, “Concerning the side of Sega City, you need only a single soul bead to obtain a Nascent Soul spot. But, the most I can spare you is five.”

To have one instead of three, Sega City should be able to snatch several of them. And in addition to five more spots, they should be happy with this harvest.

And indeed, the woman revealed a smiling face. She bowed, “Thank you, Priest Qin Yu.”

“Humph humph! Priest Qin Yu is a truly magnanimous and generous man, he can casually relieve Sega City of most requirements with a wave of his hand. But, could it be that on the side of my capital city, you hold no sentiment towards us?” Turtle Origin walked in with a gloomy expression. The guards outside didn’t appear; it was clear they had been dealt with.

With his cultivation, wanting to quietly accomplish this wasn’t difficult.

Qin Yu had a calm expression. “I do hold some sentiment towards the capital city, but compared to Sega City, it is still a bit less. Senior shouldn’t try to deny this.”

Turtle Origin humphed, not refuting these words. When they tacitly agreed to allow Qin Yu to be hunted down by the Whale Sovereign in the past, that nearly exhausted any friendship they had.

Qin Yu changed the topic. “But, senior and His Majesty once acted to save my life. Even if you both had your own reasons for doing so, I am still grateful.” He hesitated for a moment and said, “Three soul beads. As long as the capital city is willing to put forth three soul beads, I will give you a Nascent Soul spot. How about it?”

The old turtle turned and left. “You had best keep your word! I am going to look for people right now!”

The woman shook her head. “Priest Qin Yu has fallen for his trap. The capital city has a special hunting ship so they possess the greatest number of soul beads out of all the influences. This time, besides Moon Praying Shrine, the capital city has also been selling soul beads in secret, so they gained a great deal of benefits too. They have no lack of soul beads, it’s just that they don’t wish to pay a high price.” As she spoke, she glanced at him. Everyone knew that Moon Praying Shrine earned the most, and a part of that surely entered Qin Yu’s pocket.

Before Qin Yu could say anything, Sang Yueyue quietly chimed in. “Isn’t he the same as Seventh Aunty? He came here with whatever sentiment there was and tried to take advantage of Big Brother Qin Yu…” She didn’t speak loudly, but everyone could hear her clearly.

The woman’s complexion stiffened.

It took Qin Yu a great deal of effort to suppress his laughter. He waved his hand. “Children shouldn’t speak nonsense.” Thinking about it, when Qin Yu had forced the white tiger to break into Nascent Soul, just how much time and effort had he spent to do it? And he wasn’t even able to obtain much benefit from it. But now, he could recklessly swallow all the heavenly tribulation he wanted and obtain soul beads to speed up the growth of the Soul Mushroom. And, there were also the countless treasures and spirit stones he was accumulating. Qin Yu was more than satisfied.

After several more words, he inquired about Leon. Upon learning that he was in seclusion back at Sega City, Qin Yu smiled and didn’t say anything else. A bit later, the woman grabbed onto Sang Yueyue and bid her farewells. She didn’t want to stay any longer. If she did, who knew what this little devil would say next?

Of course, she also wanted to go back and choose five people as soon as possible so that they could line up to become Nascent Souls. As she thought of this, the woman glanced back at the side hall. When in the history of the sea races had a scene of Nascent Souls popping up out from nowhere appeared?

This Qin Yu was truly mysterious and terrifying. If she carefully calculated it, it wasn’t a bad thing for the young miss to help him out so much. Even if the two of them couldn’t be together, it would still be a great harvest if Qin Yu was a bit closer to Sega City.

Certainly, the best result would be for something to happen between Qin Yu and the young miss. Thinking of this, the woman was left helpless. She felt regret over closely monitoring them in the past back in the capital city. If she knew about what would happen later, she would have closed her eyes and ears. There would certainly have been a story that developed between a man and woman alone together.

As she was wallowing in regret, she saw Turtle Origin return, a large number of people behind him. Roughly counting, there were over 30 in total. This meant that the old turtle had over 100 soul beads in hand! Even with so many soul beads, he still ran over and tried to bring up sentiment or whatever with Qin Yu. He simply didn’t care about face at all.

The woman’s complexion was ugly. If the capital city gained an additional 30 some Nascent Souls all of a sudden, who would be a match for them? Perhaps the madam might not be able to take revenge for her grudge for another several hundred years.

This wasn’t good. She definitely had to think of some way to obtain more Nascent Soul spots!

She suppressed her racing thoughts and first brought Sang Yueyue away.

Looking at Qin Yu’s stunned expression, Turtle Origin revealed a happy smile. “33 people, 100 soul beads. There is an extra one that I will give you as a gift of my regards.”

Qin Yu shook his head. “I think that senior has misunderstood me. When I agreed to three soul beads for a Nascent Soul, there was a limit to the number.” He raised a hand. “10 at most, that is my bottom line.”

Turtle Origin frowned. “10 isn’t good, it has to be at least 20! Priest Qin Yu, you should recall just how many Nascent Souls the sea region has gained all of a sudden. Each one of them is a wild variable and an enormous threat to the dominance of the capital city. His Majesty needs even more strength to stabilize the capital city. If Priest Qin Yu cannot satisfy His Majesty in this aspect, then I’m sure that His Majesty wouldn’t mind making a personal trip to Moon Praying Shrine to discuss this with you.”

This was a threat, a plain and open threat!

Qin Yu frowned.

In truth, if he just wanted soul beads, then he could accomplish his goal by only working with Moon Praying Shrine.

But to do so would arouse the anger of all others.

Imagine. If Moon Praying Shrine constantly gained Nascent Soul powerhouses, what would the other influences do? Would they all think that since they didn’t have a chance, they would simply destroy everything instead?

At that time, Moon Praying Shrine would surely suffer a great calamity and Qin Yu would inevitably die.

Thus, he had limited Moon Praying Shrine to 10 Nascent Souls. Then, he used their hand to expand this to the entire sea region. Like this, everyone could be happy.

That wily old fox Lord Priest must have also considered this, otherwise how could he easily agree to Qin Yu’s demands?

“Alright, then it will be 20 spots. But, I will choose the people.” Qin Yu lifted his hand and pointed, “You, you, and also you. None of you are good.”

The complexions of the seafolk that were pointed at changed.

“Why aren’t we good?”

“Priest Qin Yu, what is the meaning of this?”

“I refuse to accept!”

Qin Yu remained coldly indifferent. “It isn’t just you. As long as you are part of the whale monster race, I will not give you a single spot!”

The seafolk that were pointed at suddenly paled. It was only now they remembered that this person in front of them had a longstanding blood enmity with the Whale Sovereign.

Hey, but to suddenly and arbitrarily include us in that mess, isn’t that too unreasonable?

Turtle Origin frowned. “Qin Yu, these are people loyal to the royal palace.”

Qin Yu coldly said. “It is impossible! If senior doesn’t agree, then our agreement will come to an end here!”

Turtle Origin sucked in a deep breath, hinting for those seafolk to leave.

One of those seafolk put on a sad face. “Priest Qin Yu, I am not part of the whale monster race. I am of the great white shark race.”

Qin Yu lightly said, “My apologies, I am not one of the sea races so I have little understanding of them. As long as you resemble one of the whale race then I will similarly not agree.”

Soon, news of Qin Yu’s attitude towards the whale monster race spread throughout the entire sea region through the indignant huffs and puffs of several people.

The whale monster race wouldn’t be given a single spot. And even looking like them was also no good!

If it was just the former, then that was barely understandable. But the latter was simply excessive to the extreme.