Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 0114 – Golden Steel Demonic Boar

The two of them walked onto the main street of Hundred Miles City. This street was extremely crowded, with all sorts of trinkets and curios for sale everywhere. Yiye Jiange distractedly looked around as she slowly ambled on, before lightly asking, “Qing Shui, are you very interested in demonic beasts and mounts?”

“Yeah, but they are just my fantasy. After all, I’m not a beast tamer!” Qing Shui laughed.

“Beast Tamers?” Yiye laughed, as she continued, “Actually, the words, ‘beast tamer’ are just an empty title nowadays. Real beast tamers have not been seen in this world of the nine continents for a very long time. As for the current ‘beast tamers’, they are merely experts who can understand some simple words of the beast language!” Yiye replied, somewhat disdainfully.

“Master, what do you think happened? I’m somewhat puzzled.”

“Now, all those so called ‘beast tamers’, despite being at Xiantian level, are merely fakes. I heard that long ago, real beast tamers could even tame demonic beasts at just the Martial Warrior level. Those were the true beast tamers. Nowadays, where would there be beast tamers that could tame demonic beasts far above their grade? Those fakes can only depend on the Beast Taming Pill to aid them in beast taming.”

“Beast Taming Pill? What’s that?” Qing Shui realized that his knowledge was truly too limited.

“The Beast Taming Pill is created using materials from a variety of demonic beasts. After consumption, it would increase the user’s aura two times, allowing demonic beasts to be cowed easier, for a period of 20 hours.”

“What? That’s it? There’s no other effects?” Qing Shui asked with suspicion.

“Nope!” Yiye laughed, as she shook her head.

“Beast taming pills should be very expensive right?” After all Qing Shui heard Yiye Jiange saying that the pills were concocted from materials provided by a variety of Demonic Beasts.

“More so than you can imagine. Beast taming pills are one of the most valuable pills that an alchemist can concoct. Even if you had the money, it may not even be for sale. After all, the beast taming pill requires the precious materials from over 20 types of demonic beasts. The inner cores, and inner organs, especially. Of course it is expensive.” Yiye laughed lightly.

“But if that’s the case, doesn’t that mean that anyone can tame beasts?” Qing Shui continued asking.

“Naturally. As you have seen, stronger cultivators almost all have their own mounts. As long as you can defeat a demonic beast, there’s a chance that they might follow you willingly. However, that chance is extremely miniscule, about 1 in 10,000. So for those with mounts, they have probably attempted beast taming for a few ten thousand times to a few million times.”

Qing Shui felt joy in his heart. 1 in 10,000 times was nothing if he had the will power. Like his Iaido technique, didn’t his present accomplishments come about after he had practiced over a few hundred million times?

After their walk, Baili Jingwei and Yiye Jiange departed. Before leaving, Yiye repeatedly reminded Qing Shui not to neglect his cultivation, and to remember to do her proud in the sect in the future.

After this matter, the Yu Clan and the Qing Clan became two of the clans with the most authority in Hundred Miles City. Especially the Qing Clan, it was as if they had originated from the city, and had established their roots there long ago. Qing Shui also became a special existence, with people envying him.

The Yu Clan and the Qing Clan’s relations got increasingly closer. This matter, not only did it not destroy the reputation of the Yu He Inn, but business was booming even more compared to before.

“Qing Shui, prepare yourself. It’s time to go to out of the City to get herbs, so we will leave tomorrow afternoon!” Qing Yi reminded Qing Shui during his daily morning practice.

Qing Shui remembered that it had already been half a year. Every year, the Qing Clan medicinal store would trade with the Hua Clan of Heavenly River City twice. “Mother, are we going to the Hua Clan tomorrow?”

“No, we should temporarily avoid going to Heavenly River City. Tomorrow, we are leaving for the Xinan southern mountain range. There are many outposts over there. Every year, they would spend majority of their time hunting and collecting herbs. This time around, we will trade with them, and maybe there might be some rare and valuable herbs found there.” Qing Yi tiptoed to ruffle Qing Shui’s hair. After all Qing Shui had grown taller during this span of time.

Qing Hu and Qing Bei wouldn’t be dissuaded, and demanded to go along. After the matter earlier blew over, they had returned. Accompanying them were many others. Aside from Qing Luo, Qing He and the Grandpa Lin who was the bookkeeper at the Qing Clan’s hidden library, almost everyone else had tagged along together with Qing Hu and Qing Bei, coming to Hundred Miles City.

Qing Shui felt very joyful in his heart. “Such large scale movement, it seems like our Qing Clan is going to expand their businesses over here at Hundred Miles City.”

“Aunty, bring me along! I promise I will be obedient.” Qing Bei tugged Qing Yi’s sleeves as she pouted adorably.

In the end, they brought Qing Hu and Qing Bei along for their journey. In addition to the two drivers, the four of them were seated within a carriage. The beast pulling the carriage was a low grade metallic bull beast. With a height of 3m and a thickness of 2m, it was the favorite type of carriage beast for merchants. Although its speed was slow, it’s was sturdy and muscular.

This time around, their journey to and fro would take over one month, and after some deliberation, they had chosen the metallic bull as their choice of steed.

The southern mountain range was in the south-western direction between Hundred Miles City, and the Qing Clan village. Behind the mountain was a vast range filled with countless beasts, aptly named “Beast Gorge”. Nobody knew the level of danger within the gorge. In there, aside from the demonic beasts, there were also towering mountain peaks, and deep and dark forests, as well as dangerous swamps. It was said that even cultivators at the Martial Emperor Realm wouldn’t dare to easily set foot inside the ‘Beast Gorge’. This place was one of the most dangerous places within the continent.

The distance was comparable to the distance between Hundred Miles City and Heavenly River City. However, with the metallic bull as their steed, their speed would be slowed by half. On the way over there, Qing Bei’s chatter sounded out unceasingly, while Qing Hu seemed somewhat out of it. We were unsure if he was thinking about Lan Yan`er.

“How far has your cultivation progressed?” The Qing Clan members started this topic of discussion along the journey to ease their boredom.

The roads outside of Hundred Miles City, were all desolate mountain paths. Luckily there weren’t too many ferocious or desolate grade beasts appearing around this area, which was why Qing Yi agreed to allowed Qing Hu and Qing Bei to come along.

Qing Hu rubbed his head as he sheepishly replied, “7th grade of the Martial Warrior Realm, I can’t be compared to Qing Shui.”

“Hehe, don’t be so hasty. Just work hard in your cultivation. I will prepare something good for dinner tonight, guaranteed to leave you satisfied.” Qing Shui’s thoughts shifted to the agility-enhancing fruits which would mature again next year.

“Alright, I know brother Qing Shui would only give me good things. Hehe, now although I’m at the 7th grade of Martial Warrior, most of those in the same generation are not my match. But I don’t know how long it will be until I can break through to the Martial General Realm.”

Qing Shui was happy seeing how earnest Qing Hu was in his cultivation. “Relax, just work hard and stop thinking about it, you will surely be able to reach the Martial General Realm in the future. On the contrary, if you keep forcing yourself, it would be even tougher to break through.”

“Brother Shui, don’t forget me if there is good stuff, hehe.” Qing Bei sat by the side of Qing Shui as she adorably hugged Qing Shui and stated.

“Even if I forget everyone, I can’t forget you. You are the big missy of our Qing Clan!”

Qing Shui’s words caused everyone in the carriage to burst into laughter.

————-

Wild Boar Mountains!

A week later, they entered the Wild Boar Mountains. These mountains only had a range of about 100 li, and couldn’t be considered too big. However, on the eastern side of it, it led to the Cloudmist Mountains. Fog and mist covered the Cloudmist Mountains all year round. Visibility was always extremely bad, and one could basically only see things three feet in front of them.

Wild Boar Mountains were filled with countless herds of boar-types beasts. When Qing Shui noticed the fearful numbers, he immediately abolished his earlier thoughts of underestimating the boars.

Matured boards were about 2-3m talls, and were immensely muscular. Their tusks were about 50cm long, and shone with a glint of cold light. Their size was double compared to the boars of Qing Shui’s previous world. A reddish tinge akin to bloodlust could be seen from their eyes, causing Qing Shui to suspect they really were mere wild boars.

Herds could be seen everywhere. In a small herd, there were about 20-30 boars within, and within a big herd, there were about several hundred boars. An attack by a herd of several hundred boars, maybe only a cultivator at the Xiantian level would be able to resist it.

Normally, for carriages that traverse this path, they would have to be mindful of attacks from wild tigers and wolf herds. Unless they were cultivators, most people wouldn’t choose to travel this area.

Qing Yi chose this route because she had prepared some Tiger Skeletal Powder. As long as the powder was sprinkled onto the carriage, the wild boars wouldn’t dare to come close.

On their way, everything was peaceful. Qing Shui could see the activities of the wild boars. Their appetite was humongous, and it seemed as though they could eat anything. Not only that, their growth rate was fast as well, hence there would always be some cultivators trying their luck to hunt the wild boars.

Suddenly, in the distance, Qing Shui could see the wild boars frenziedly rampaging around before dashing in every direction in a panic. It seemed as though they were fleeing for their lives.

“Could there be a high level demonic beast?” Qing Shui was filled with trepidation.

“Aunty, what’s happening?” Seeing the herds of wild boars frenziedly fleeing, Qing Bei asked in a puzzled tone.

“Hmm, maybe there’s a ferocious beast that appeared! It’s okay, at the most in this area there would only be high level ferocious grade beasts.” Qing Yi soothed Qing Bei.

After the herd of boars dispersed, the troublemaker appeared. After Qing Shui and the rest saw it, an unbelievable expression appeared on their faces.

In front of them was a golden-colored, metallic demonic boar. Looks wise, it was somewhat similar to the wild boars, but it did not have the tusks, and the ferocious glint of the wild boars in its eyes. It even looked somewhat stupid.

The golden-colored boar looked to be about 1m wide in size. When compared to a mature boar it looked extremely tiny and somewhat adorable, but its movements were incomparably nimble and agile.

“Golden Steel Demonic Boar!” A bright light flickered in Qing Shui’s eyes!