Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 889 – Alive, Location of the Sky Penetrating Grass, Obstruction

At that moment, Qing Shui did not look at the ‘Sky Sword’. He also did not notice that at the point that the Qi from the sword headed towards his Niwan Palace, the Yin-Yang fish in his Yin-Yang Image suddenly lit up. Black then white, in an instant they merged together and that archaic yet majestic light shattered the sword’s qi.

After an unknown amount of time, Qing Shui finally stirred as if he had woken up from a deep dream. He looked towards his Niwan Palace and discovered that nothing had changed but when he saw his Yin-Yang Image he was stunned.

The size of the Yin-Yang Image had increased significantly. From the initial size of a walnut, it had grown continually, constantly evolving. He could tell that it had grown by at least one third.

It was more intense, more robust, more encompassing. As he observed the current state of his Yin-Yang Image, he could feel that his spirit energy had become stronger once again. There was clearly much more spirit energy in his sea of consciousness.

It was a blessing in disguise after all. He managed to benefit greatly from this incident and there was a distinctive boost in the amount of his spirit energy. But, Qing Shui could not deny that the ‘Sky Sword’, the sort of sword made of spirit energy, had really driven him to a corner. Forced to confront death, one will survive and this definitely described his current situation.

He could not help remembering the words that the Abbot from the Golden Buddha Temple said to him. He had an affinity with Buddha. Was him entering that sense of emptiness a sign of his affinity?

After he withdrew from his sea of consciousness, he found that he was still standing at the same spot. He saw the dead Five-eyed Lion Wolf King and his Five-Headed Demonic Spider was calling him repeatedly.

Qing Shui smiled and patted his Five-Headed Demonic Spider. Qing Shui was rather surprised that he could sense some anxiousness in its immature-sounding voice. Previously, when he was at the entrance of the Crystal Palace, interacting telepathically with the old turtle he felt like he was ‘talking’ to metal. Even when that turtle sighed, he could not feel any emotions in its ‘speech’.

Was this because of the mutation of his Five-Headed Demonic Spider?

Qing Shui looked at the unrecognizable carcass of the recently dead Five-eyed Lion Wolf King which had already been corroded by the Corrosive Poison Web. He salvaged its core, some bones and its blood…

Chi Chi!

Qing Shui heard his Five-Headed Demonic Spider and turned to communicate with it. It asked for the core and Qing Shui immediately handed the core to it. The core was valuable but it was nothing compared to the value of his Five-Headed Demonic Spider.

His Five-Headed Demonic Spider swallowed it happily. Qing Shui waited patiently but realized that the core only increased his Five-Headed Demonic Spider’s strength by a very small fraction. Thankfully, it boosted its spirit energy quite significantly.

“It seems that becoming a Martial Emperor will make it harder to increase one’s strength,” Qing Shui contemplated.

Would his Beast Pill still have the same effect on a Martial Emperor? If so, that would mean that it was really a very powerful medicine.

He got the results of his experimentation rather quickly. Even feeding his Five-Headed Demonic Spider five Beast Pills did not raise its strength by even 10%, the increase was only 5%.

Qing Shui did not know if he should feel disappointed. That mere 5% increase was still numerically much larger than any other 50% increase in strength he had observed. Oddly, his Five-Headed Demonic Spider seemed visibly very happy.

At that point, he realized that once he reached Martial Emperor, many of his items might lose their value to him…

This battle had given a large boost to Qing Shui’s confidence. He also gained quite a lot. With his stronger spirit energy, the prowess of his Primordial Flame Ball also went up significantly and his connections with his demonic beasts were also enhanced.

Qing Shui looked towards the lofty mountain ahead and he ventured forward with his Five-Headed Demonic Spider. Since they had already defeated the Five-eyed Lion Wolf King, they would not meet any other powerful demonic beasts.

Lower Grade One Martial Emperor demonic beasts were active within the area 100,000 li from their 300,000 li boundary. Whereas 500,000 li from where they were, there were demonic beasts which were more powerful than it. This was the information that he got from his Five-Headed Demonic Spider.

Even if they were more powerful, they were probably at Grade Two Martial Emperor or the peak of Grade One Martial Emperor. Though demonic beasts at Grade One Martial Emperor were already enough deterrence to humans.

The conditions were very strict for one to reach the realm of Martial Emperor. Even a million people could not match the existence of a single Martial Emperor.

Regardless demonic beasts or humans, Martial Emperors exist as supreme beings. Qing Shui found it incredible that he and his Five-Headed Demonic Spider actually managed to kill a Martial Emperor demonic beast. This lethal combination of his ability to reduce the opponent’s overall stats and the power of his Five-Headed Demonic Spider definitely made it much easier to kill other demonic beasts who were on the same level as his Five-Headed Demonic Spider.

The precipitous and dangerous paths were merely like flat ground to Qing Shui and his Five-Headed Demonic Spider and they quickly sprinted towards the peak.

Qing Shui had a feeling that the Sky Penetrating Grass would be at the very top of the mountain so he rushed all the way to the top. If it wasn’t there, he could search for it as he came down.

Both of their speeds were very fast so they did not take much time to reach the peak of the tall mountain. The wind was always strong at the peak of any mountain, in addition to that the vegetation on this particular mountain was rather dense, so it made the task of searching quite difficult for Qing Shui.

Standing at the particular peak he was, he saw that there was another northern peak which was visibly taller so he quickly rushed towards that point.

When he reached that spot, he realized that the area was not small. Luckily, Qing Shui’s spiritual sense was much stronger than before. He activated his spiritual sense and started searching. He had an unique spiritual sense which was extremely keen. This was not something that others could follow.

Even so, such a scanning process would mean that he missed some details. Everything has its pros and cons. Just as eyes could be fooled by illusions, similarly, one’s spiritual sense could also be fooled.

For example, if the medicinal herb hid its Spiritual Qi, it could easily deceive one’s spiritual sense.

However, Qing Shui knew that the Sky Penetrating Grass exposes its Qi so he used his spiritual sense. His main aim was the grass and even if he missed whatever chance encounters, he did not care. There were so many mountains and the area was huge, if he really searched with his eyes, how much time would he need?

Qing Shui was very decisive when it came to knowing what to give up and what to keep.

Qing Shui finished searching the huge area very quickly but was disappointed. Each time he sensed a wave of potential Qi, he only found some metallic rocks or moderately valuable medicinal herbs.

Unfortunately, they were of little interest to Qing Shui. Despite that, he still stored them in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. If one tried too hard, higher hopes would lead to greater disappointment.

With how things were, he was prepared to stay in this area much longer. Anyway it did not hinder his cultivation and he could gather some other good items. The concentration of Spiritual Qi in the Sky Penetrating Mountains meant that it could support many rare and aged herbs.

Within a day, Qing Shui finished searching the entire mountain. He managed to get quite a few items, it was quite a harvest but Qing Shui longed to immediately get his hands on a Sky Penetrating Grass but he knew that it was just wishful thinking.

After three months…

Qing Shui was already searching at the range of 480,000 li. The mountains around this area were also getting taller. It gave Qing Shui the impression that he would be able to find the Sky Penetrating Grass soon. However, it was getting dangerous, so he proceeded slowly. He had to familiarize himself with the place so that he could outmaneuver any of his enemies.

He sighed again as he stood on another mountain peak, his Five-Headed Demonic Spider was beside him. He did not know how many mountains he had conquered over these few months. He obtained many items but just not what he was looking for.

Qing Shui was already numbed to the disappointment. Previously, he had always held his hopes high whenever he saw a tall, lofty mountain. However, he lost his sense of anticipation after multiple failed attempts to find the grass.

Now, he had changed his mentality. He only aimed to search through every mountain he came across, without considering whether a particular mountain contained the grass. He just wanted to clear each mountain as fast as possible.

Another half a month passed…

Qing Shui spotted a majestic white mountain range which seemed to be the tallest among the Sky Penetrating Mountains, however, it was just his supposition. The edges were so steep that one could only reach the peak by flight.

Suddenly, Qing Shui sensed that he could definitely find the Sky Penetrating Grass there, he perceived this through his sea of consciousness, so it stirred up his excitement once again.

As he watched the mountain from a distance, Qing Shui could even feel himself trembling a little from his excitement. He had already become nearly apathetic to the matter and now he suddenly regained his anticipation.

A feeling was not enough to make Qing Shui so excited, rather it was a mysterious perception somewhat confirmed by his spiritual sense. He had had this feeling before.

Every now and then, there was a small chance of his spiritual sense extending beyond its normal range. During such an occasion, his Lingtai Accupoint would be activated and everything around him would appear clearly within his spiritual sense. Even though it only lasted a short second, he definitely felt the presence of the Sky Penetrating Grass.

Qing Shui was filled with intense emotions as he stared ahead. Unfortunately, he also felt the presence of a strong demonic beast near the Sky Penetrating Grass, it was a huge gorilla-like monkey.

Long-armed Vicious Monkey King!

Even though Qing Shui only had a glimpse of it, he could recognize that gigantic white Monkey King. It was about 30 meters tall, it was like a herculean giant with sinewy arms that drooped down to its ankles. Its legs were similarly thick and muscular. Qing Shui could instantly tell that the demonic beast was fearsomely strong and that his Five-Headed Demonic Spider was no match for it.

Just then, he heard the immature-sounding voice of his Five-Headed Demonic Spider.

It told him that it could not defeat the Long-armed Vicious Monkey King.

Qing Shui asked how large the difference between their strengths were and was speechless when he came to know his demonic beast did not even have half the Long-Armed Vicious Monkey King’s strength.

Qing Shui did not know what to do. If that difference was so great, the effects of the debuffs wouldn’t change the outcome of the battle. The web of his Five-Headed Demonic Spider might not even be able to trap that demonic beast and he suspected that the Violet Lightning Strike might not be able to paralyze that demonic beast long enough for them to utilize any lethal moves on it.

However, the Sky Penetrating Grass was just within his grasp, it would be such a pity if he just gave up on it. They definitely could not leave, they’d just have to fight… but that was courting death because the Long-armed Vicious Monkey King was at least a Grade 2 Martial Emperor.