Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 753 – A Few Materials, The Southern Sea City, Ye Clan

They spent three months traversing from the north to the south before they could reach the Southern Viewing Continent. The distance was even longer than crossing between two continents. This was the fastest and the limit that the Fire Bird could travel after it acquired a huge boost to its speed.

Qing Shui could now feel the vastness of the World of the Nine Continents. With his current ability and the Fire Bird’s current speed, it would be impossible for both Qing Shui and the Fire Bird to travel the whole nine continents.

During the three months of their travel, Qing Shui had already went into the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal to open the box. The contents of the box had made Qing Shui excited for quite a long time, so when he finally had the chance, he opened the box to look inside and observe its contents.

There was one giant tooth, one piece of beast bone, one piece of beast parchment, and one core inside the box. Nothing else was in there, but that was enough to made Qing Shui maddened with joy.

These must be the remains of a Nine-Headed Moon Wolf. Qing Shui was quite certain about this because of the spiritual qi that lingered within these materials. Moreover, the box was from the Divine Wolf Shrine located at the Wolf Fang Mountain, so essentially the materials should be the remains of a Nine-Headed Moon Wolf.

When he took a closer look at the words inscribed on the beast parchment, he was ultimately convinced that he was right – these were the materials salvaged from a Nine-Headed Moon Wolf. Qing Shui was extremely elevated because this was only his speculation before but now it had became a fact.

He decided to put away the wolf tooth and the wolf bone for the time being. Using the Quad-color Rainbow Art of Forging to refine those would be a waste of resources. Nevertheless, those materials from the Nine-Headed Moon Wolf could be used to refine medicinal pills as well as for the temperament of equipments. Lastly, there was the core of the wolf. The core was considered a great item that could be devoured directly by a demonic beast. However, Qing Shui wasn’t brave enough to let his demonic beast to try it at the moment.

This was because he feared that the energy stored inside the core would be too much for his demonic beast to handle, which could result in death by self-detonation. Fortunately, Qing Shui was an experienced alchemist. He could separate the core into equal portions, which would be a lot safer. Furthermore, if the core was separated into smaller pieces, a demonic beast may be able to learn the battle techniques of the Nine-Headed Moon Wolf multiple times which could increase the mastery of the techniques with each fusion. However, doing this would also sharply decrease the chance of absorbing the techniques. Still, separating the core would be more beneficial than to risk the chances of self-detonation.

The beast parchment must have been left in this box by a divine craftsman with an ability beyond comprehension. Qing Shui had a suspicion that the craftsman’s ability was exceptional due to the divine words inscribed on the beast parchment – the craftsman was one of his kind regardless of his profession. Moreover, the craftsman must have a proficient cultivation base, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to forge the divine artifacts as well.

Qing Shui stored the items away for the time being. He might have a use for them in the future when his Ancient Art of Forging would undergo another breakthrough. As long as the Ancient Art of Forging managed to reach the Five-color level, he would attempt to forge his equipment once more. He might try to fuse the wolf fang into his Big Dipper Sword and Thunder God in hopes to increase the ability of these two weapons.

………

Although the Southern Sea Country wasn’t the main capital of the Southern Viewing Continent, it was definitely the largest and the strongest country of this continent. In essence, Southern Sea Country could be considered as the representation of the Southern Viewing Continent as they had the best in almost everything – in terms of businesses, martial power, the scenery, or the ambience.

The south part of the Southern Sea Country was a vast and boundless Southern Sea. No one knew what lay beyond the Southern Sea, or even the most southern part of the sea because of its extensiveness. In the past, there were a couple of explorers who tried to venture through the Southern Sea, but most people who went beyond the sea had either never came back or they would come back after the first 10 years of journey, albeit only one out of nine would survive. In the end, they would spend 20 years in the sea, but only came back with no new discovery of what lays ahead the boundary of the sea. Thus, they would say there was no end beyond the horizon.

However, it might be possible that the end existed but nobody had been able to reach there yet because they lacked the ability to do so. Just the number of years taken by the voyagers to venture through the Southern Sea could tell that it was absolutely vast.

No one in this world had stopped thinking about this mystery. The Southern Sea and the Eastern Sea, no one had ever seen the other side of this seas.

Qing Shui didn’t pay that much attention about this mystery. Based on his experience from his past life, he presumed that the World of the Nine Continents was spherical as well but much larger in comparison to the Earth he knew.

The moment they entered the boundary of the Southern Sea Country, Ye Yan screamed in a pleasant surprise. There was an indescribable liveliness in her excitement – she never thought that she would be able to come back again, or to be precise, to be able to come back very soon.

“Uncle, the Ye Clan is at the very north of the Southern Sea City. If we go through all the way there, we can reach the Southern Sea City in no time.” said Ye Yan in a happy tone.

“Oh, it’s good that you know where it is. If not, we might need to ride on a beast carriage to reach there.” Qing Shui replied with a smile. The Southern Sea City was quite vast after all. If he needed to find a clan somewhere in the city, it would be an extremely difficult task.

It had been a few days since they had entered the Southern Sea Country. The city was situated at the very south side of the country, almost adjacent to the Southern Sea. The city was quite easy to find because of this and most of the cities and countries were also easy to find.

“Uncle, it looks like we still need a beast carriage after all. The Ye Clan is at the very northern side of the city. But the city is too big, so I’m not really sure about the exact location.” said Ye Yan, feeling embarrassed.

Qing Shui comforted her with a smile and commanded the Fire Bird to land on the ground. It was a normal thing to be unsure, since the city was indeed huge. He called a beast carriage immediately. The coachmen in the city should be able to know Ye Yan’s residence due to their knowledge about the surrounding areas and the neighboring clans’ location.

“Ye Residence, right? The distance from here is too far. My beast carriage has never went through a journey that long. It will take about a week to reach there.” An old coachman smiled while he shook his head.

Normally, beast carriages would travel from one distance to another in a day’s time. If the passenger has to go somewhere far, they would need to go to the nearby skydeck to find a flying mount. Otherwise, they would need to find a beast carriage that would be able to go to further destinations.

After Qing Shui showed his gratitude to the old man with a smile, he hopped onto his Fire Bird and continued their journey ahead. They flew in a moderate speed and also kept watch on the road as they estimated the path to the residence.

“Uncle, there it is. I see the goddess statue there. Let’s get down, the Ye Residence shouldn’t be too far from here.” said Ye Yan as she pointed at the giant statue below.

“Oh, that’s good.” Qing Shui commanded the Fire Bird to descend once again. There was a large skydeck just beside the giant goddess statue. A number of large beast carriages and flying beasts were constantly on the move after they had stopped by for a while. This place seems to be always busy throughout the year.

He called his Fire Bird back to the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. After that, Qing Sui continuously stared at the goddess statue. It was the biggest statue he had ever seen – it was about 500 meters in height. It was so tall that he could see it clearly as they flew in the sky awhile ago.

The statue was obscure – the carvings on the facial features weren’t clear. Even so, this statue emitted an almost sacred-like charm. He didn’t expect to feel a subtle aura of suppression like this from the giant goddess statue.

“Uncle, don’t you think this goddess statue is huge?” Ye Yan laughed, but at the same time, she seemed quite anxious.

“Haha, let’s get on the carriage. You must be excited to go home soon. You missed your elder sister, right.” Qing Shui gave her a smile. He understood how she currently felt, because he had those same feelings numerous times when he was away from home.

Ye Yan smiled in embarrassment. Qing Shui quickly called for a beast carriage, and this time, the coachman was willing to send them towards the Ye Residence.

On their way to the Ye Residence, the little girl seemed to be fidgeting as she sat inside the carriage. Once in awhile, she would peek outside through the small window from the carriage, as if saying the beast carriage was travelling too slow.

Qing Shui tried to tell the story of the goddess statue to Ye Yan, but he decided that he shouldn’t because even he didn’t know the true story behind it. Moreover, all Ye Yan could focus now was going back home, so she wouldn’t be able to concentrate in listening to him even if he were to tell the story anyway.

After an hour had passed, the beast carriage finally stopped. When they peeked out from the window, they could see a luxuriously decorated manor in front of them. There was a certain delicate beauty in it, but the air of luxury had almost overshadowed the beauty of the manor

There was also a large tablet inscribed with two words on the gate: Ye Clan!

After Ye Yan went out from the carriage, she immediately cried when she saw the familiar gate in front of the manor. She had finally came back. Ye Yan found it hard to describe her emotions right now. There was excitement, and there was hope…..

Qing Shui stood beside Ye Yan, but remained silent. He understood how she felt perfectly, this was a moment of immeasurable joy and excitement.

“Uncle, Grandpa Cang…. Let’s go in.” said Ye Yan with a bright smile on her face.

The beast carriage dropped them off about 100 meters away from the residence before it turned around and went back to its station. After that, they all walked towards the gate of the Ye Residence. As they got closer to the gate, the gatekeepers standing by seemed to noticed them walking towards the residence.

One of the gatekeepers with sharp eyes brightened up when he saw Ye Yan.

“Second young miss!”

“Second young miss is back! Quickly, inform the clan mistress.”

………

In an instant, the Ye Clan was in a mess. A number of people rushed into the residence hastily, while the remaining few quickly surrounded Ye Yan with excitement on their faces.

“Uncle Xiong, Yan ‘er is back.” Tears rolled down on Ye Yan’s cheeks as she addressed a middle-aged man of good-nature that walked towards her.

“Second young miss, it’s good to have you back. The clan mistress thinks about you everyday. She has turned the entire Southern Sea Country upside-down to search for you.” The middle-aged man patted Ye Yan’s head gently while he held back his tears.

Qing Shui could feel the love the middle-aged man had towards Ye Yan. It was as if he had finally seen his own child coming back safe and sound.

“Is my elder sister well?” asked Ye Yan worriedly.

“She is well, but she has grown thinner. She has been running about looking for you these past few years. It was only the day before yesterday that she finally came back after days of looking for you. She planned on going out tomorrow to look for you, saying something about looking for you even if she has to travel around the World of the Nine Continents.” The man known as Uncle Xiong smiled.

“So no one has come to find elder sister and state their conditions?”

“No. When clan mistress couldn’t see you in person, she killed those few men immediately in the midst of anger.”

“No wonder no one came to discuss about the conditions.” When Ye Yan thought about the Wu clan, she must have figured out that they couldn’t send her back due to the fear of being killed. If they were to send her back, Ye Yan would explain everything and her elder sister would never forgive them or let them go alive. To save their hides, all they could do was to make her disappear completely. Ye Yan turned around to look at Qing Shui, the man she called as ‘uncle’, her life savior. If not for Qing Shui, she might not be able to come home for the rest of her life.

Perhaps the men from the Wu Clan didn’t have the courage to kill her or to send her back, which explained why they let her stayed at the Tianyuan City for almost three years……

Just then, a group of people rushed out quickly from the Ye Residence which was lead by the seemingly young clan mistress. She was wearing a plain white warrior garment, her hair was tied up with a hairpin made of white jade. She had an elegant appearance, with a pair of bright eyes on her white jade-like face. This woman had the aura of a young lady and the graceful poise of a mature woman. When she finally saw Ye Yan, her eyes that was similar to black gemstones was full of tears. She quickly ran towards Ye Yan with tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Yan ‘er!” A pleasant and attractive voice called out to Ye Yan.

“Elder sister!”

Ye Yan ran towards her elder sister quickly and then gave her a tight hug.