Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 632 – The Limitations of Medicinal Pills, Five Hundred Thousand Silver Per Cup

In the end, Qing Shui received ten Yang Pellets, ten Pure Jade Pellets, and thirty Meridian Clearing Pellets!

Qing Shui was extremely pleased with the medicinal pills on his hands. He also had a undescribable superior feeling and a sense of self-satisfaction for creating these pellets.

He took half of those pellets for himself because he didn’t feel the need to keep most of them, regardless of the success rate for refining the pellets. On that account, Qing Shui decided to leave half of the pellets for Yuan Su instead.

Since he had successfully refined the three types of pellets, he decided to test the effect of each type. Qing Shui didn’t feel like it was necessary to test out the Yang Pellet, but he felt that he must first tryout the Pure Jade Pellet.

Having had the experience of consuming a Five Dragon Pellet before, he wanted to know if the Pure Jade Pellet would be as miraculous as it was claimed to be. He walked towards the side of the pond that he had dug up earlier using his special skill. On the edge of the lake, there were already a few poisonous beings that had grown to a proportionate scale.

Qing Shui reached into the hole and picked up a poisonous scorpion. Then he pricked himself with the scorpion’s tail, allowing himself to be poisoned. However, he wasn’t too worried about his body reacting to the poison adversely, because this was a normal procedure for testing the toxicity of a poisonous substance. For this procedure, it was necessary to prepare beforehand antidotes in the form of medicinal pills or at the very least have someone on standby, just in case of accidents.

And because of these testing procedures, a lot of martial warriors who specialized in using poisons would inevitably die from testing poisons on themselves if they were not careful enough. Qing Shui, on the other hand, had already prepared a plan to get rid of the poison completely by using his current Nature Energy.

After a while his dominant arm of Kung Fu had turned black, and he was beginning to lose his consciousness. Fortunately, his Ancient Strengthening Technique kicked in and began circulating his Qi swiftly to protect the heart area from being tainted. At the same time, the Yin-Yang Image in the sea of consciousness had also begun its circulation in a faster motion. This was surprising as his arm had stopped turning black at a certain point even without any resistance from Qing Shui.

Qing Shui was ecstatic to know that his Ancient Strengthening Technique and Yin-Yang Image had the ability to display such a miraculous feat to get rid of the poison. In the past, he had to use his Nature Energy or consume the Five Dragon Pellet immediately once he had been poisoned.

The poisonous beings in the Stellar Horse lake were still very toxic regardless.

Qing Shui took out a ‘Pure Jade Pellet’ and consumed it!

As soon as the pellet went down his stomach, he immediately felt a sense of coolness in his aura. The cooling effect could also be felt throughout the body in an instant, which dispersed and spread the aura through every meridian in his body.

In that exact moment, Qing Shui could feel a cooling sensation around his arm – his blackened arm had gradually recovered its original color.

Even after the poison was removed completely, he could still feel the pleasant cooling sensation inside his body. Qing Shui decided to test out the toxicity of another poison and went to grab a poisonous jellyfish from the lake.

After he attempted to poison himself with the poisonous jellyfish, he noticed that the poison could not enter his body……

Qing Shui could affirm that it was due to the cooling aura in his body that the poison was completely restrained and could not penetrate into his body.

After half an hour later, the cooling sensation had finally faded away slowly. Despite that, Qing Shui felt as if something about his body had changed. He thought that he probably had gained a higher level of resistance to the poison, but whether the resistance level could be increased further by consuming a few more ‘Pure Jade Pellets’ was still unknown.

All in all, Qing Shui was satisfied with the ‘Pure Jade Pellet’, but he was still skeptical whether his body could resist any kind of poison within the 30 minute timeframe after consuming a ‘Pure Jade Pellet’. Even though it was just for a brief moment, he was able to feel the high resistance level of the cooling aura inside his body against the potent toxicity of the poisons.

After he was done, he then proceeded to analyze the ‘Meridians Clearing Pellet’.

Although the success rate of refining the ‘Meridians Clearing Pellets’ was quite low, the amount yielded in the end was the most of the three types of pellets. He had succeeded in refining the ‘Meridians Clearing Pellets’ ten times, producing three pellets each time. The other two types could only yield one pellet at a time, so Qing Shui had 30 ‘Meridian Clearing Pellets’ but only 10 each of the other two types.

He took one of the ‘Meridians Clearing Pellets’ and consumed it before he started to focus on feeling the effects of the pellet and the changes associated with the effects. Gradually, the ‘Meridians Cleaning Pellet’ had turned into a stream of milky white Qi, which seemed vast due to the high density of the Qi.

The milky white Qi then streamed along the meridians by going through the main meridians first. Qing Shui felt comfortable with the Qi along his meridians as he felt the Qi going through some of the smaller meridians that were still blocked. Surprisingly, the milky white Qi seemed to have an ability that unblocked these smaller meridians as if it slowly melted the blockages clogging the meridian pathways. After a while, the smaller meridians in one point were all cleared, and the effects of the pellet gradually dissipated.

In an instant, Qing Shui’s smaller meridians that had been cleared quickly filled with the Ancient Strengthening Technique that could increase the energy and the strength of his body by a slight amount. Despite the slight boost, Qing Shui could still feel the change in his body quite clearly. He then focused on the smaller meridians on the other parts of his body and thought that he could gain a decent amount of strength if he could unclog them as well.

He also thought about Canghai Mingyue, who already had her meridians completely unblocked, and how her speed of cultivation had reached a terrifying level. Qing Shui was nevertheless unfazed because Canghai Mingyue was a true prodigy, whereas he had become one due to the aid of his ungodly treasures. Otherwise he would never have made it this far. To put it bluntly, he would have still remained a useless cripple if it hadn’t been for those treasures.

Qing Shui decided to consume one more ‘Meridians Clearing Pellet’ to see if the other smaller meridians would be unblocked. However, as soon as the milky white Qi was released from the pellet, it didn’t move anywhere and stayed still inside his body. Qing Shui tried to move the Qi around but it was futile. He also tried many other ways to move the Qi, but they were all fruitless. In the end, he had no choice but to give up and stop consuming another Meridians Clearing Pellet for the time being.

After he had some food, Qing Shui began cultivating his Combination Sword Technique. Over Qing Shui’s time in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, his Combination Sword Technique had improved by a decent amount. He had also become adept in the Three Move Combination Sword Technique due to his strong understanding of the basic skill of the technique. Much like a building, additional levels could be added in the future with a more solid structure if the foundation of the first level was built precisely and sturdily.

However, the Four Moves Combination Sword Technique was ten times harder to master than the previous Three Moves Combination Sword Technique. Qing Shui had a hunch that he would not be able to master the Four Moves Combination Sword Technique successfully in such a short period of time.

He continued to immerse himself in the training diligently. Inspiration with a bit of willpower and opportunity would eventually lead to success!

After a day had passed in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, Qing Shui noticed that the ‘Meridians Clearing Pellet’ he had consumed the second time had begun its circulation inside his body and cleared another point of smaller meridians.

Qing Shui took another ‘Meridians Clearing Pellet’ and found that it was storing inside his body again. It was the same thing that happened a day before. After that, he finally realized that the ‘Meridians Clearing Pellet’ could only be consumed once per day, and he could only stop consuming the pellet until all the meridians in his body had been cleared completely.

There was a limited time for the full absorption of the pellet, which means the pellet would only be consumed after a period of intermittence. Nevertheless, Qing Shui was still satisfied with it.

Qing Shui still had a lot of remaining medical herbs that he had received from Yuan Su the other day, so he decided to consume one ‘Meridians Clearing Pellet’ a day in the Realm of Violet Jade Immortal, and then refine some more in his spare time. For the remaining hours, he would continue his cultivation.

This period of time was full of progression yet uninteresting, and it passed by quickly. He had about a hundred of the ‘Meridians Clearing Pellet’ in his hands, and he had already eaten about thirty pellets during his time in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal.

This meant that he had cleared a total of thirty points of the smaller meridians inside his body. It wasn’t a small amount when he thought about it, because only about a hundred pellets were needed in order to clear every meridians in his body. Soon all the meridians inside his body would be cleared, just like Canghai Mingyue.

The thirty points that had been cleared had also increased his strength by almost the strength of one country, which was still a considerable amount. Qing Shui also did not use the crystals produced by the Crystal Lion to strengthen his refinement of the medicinal pills. Although he had accumulated a large amount of these crystals, he felt that it wasn’t the time to use them yet. After all, these crystals were all too valuable and precious. He planned to use them when he was able to acquire a better medicinal pill or poison recipe for refinement.

However, Qing Shui was saddened that the ‘Great Revitalizing Pellet’ had a costly limitation. The pill could lead to a temporary increase of his strength by one fold, but at the cost of weakening the effect by one month.

Unfortunately, the effect would be decreased by half for those at the Martial Saint grade and above. For those with the strength exceeding 1000 countries, their strength would only be increased by twenty percent for a temporary moment. Qing Shui was unsure for those with the strength even more than that, but he felt that those with the strength exceeding more than 3000 countries would not even receive the effects at all…..

This was the limitation of the King Grade medicinal pills. This was like how an extremely powerful warrior who had consumed the lowest level of medicinal pill would feel nothing at all.

Qing Shui took out 60 pellets for Yuan Su thinking that she might have some use for them. Moreover, she might need them more than he did. Qing Shui left the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal with a happy smile on his face.

As he stepped into the hall, he could hear noises from outside that he wasn’t able to hear from his room. The Four Seas Inn was open everyday at every hour, so there would be a lot of people coming in and out constantly. The night life in the World of the Nine Continents was always lively.

Qing Shui closed the door to his room and glanced at the hall on the ninth floor. There were a few people chatting around the tables while drinking wine, including two pairs of couples at the corner engaging in a lively conversation with each other.

“Sir, can I help you?” A waitress who had come up to the top level smiled at Qing Shui.

“Oh, I would like to order some food please, and that will be all. Ah, please bring me a cup of wine as well.”

“Alright, please wait for a moment!” The waitress then turned around and left.

Qing Shui found a table next to the window and sat down. He could see the scenery of the streets from where he sat, which he found quite enjoyable.

In a few moments, the waitress had brought up four dishes for him – two meat dishes and two vegetarian dishes. She had also brought a few wine cups even though he had requested just one.

Qing Shui then took a jar of Nv‘ er Hong from the Realm of Violet Jade Immortal and put it on his table. It was the best quality vintage wine he had on hand. It was encased perfectly in a wrapping despite being the most common wine in the main continent.

Also, whichever family had given birth to a daughter in the main continent, they would have to store some Nv‘ er Hong in the cellar or other grounded places from the day of her birth until she was ready to get married. By then, the Nv‘er Hong wine would be taken out for everyone to drink as a celebration of her marriage. The taste of the Nv ‘er Hong stored for more than a dozen years was still nevertheless wonderful.

When a few people spotted Qing Shui taking out a Nv‘ er Hong, they had a puzzled look on their faces. After all, any wine provided by the Four Seas Inn would be a couple times better than a Nv‘ er Hong of a couple years old.

Qing Shui didn’t feel the same way. He opened the wine bottle casually and let out a heavy wine aroma in the air. In an instant, the room was filled the fragrance that could intoxicate those who smelled it.

“Wow, that smelled great. Even a divine wine would not smell as great as this one. Am I seeing things? Who knew Nv ‘er Hong could smell this good.” A random person said in a surprising tone.

“That is Nv ‘er Hong alright. This vintage wine is at least a thousand years old and above, and it must have been stored in a place filled with an abundance of Spiritual Qi in order for the wine to reach the optimum taste and fragrance.” An old man explained while staring the wine Qing Shui was holding.

“A thousand years and above? Who in their right mind would preserve Nv ‘er Hong for a thousand years? ”

………

Qing Shui poured a cup for himself and drank the wine. This preserved wine was indeed extraordinary as he felt extremely satisfied with the taste. No wonder they said that preserving a second-rate Nv ‘er Hong for a thousand years would yield one of the best wines in the world.

“Excuse me, brother. I was wondering if you are willing to sell a bit of your vintage wine to us. How much will it be?” A sudden towering voice appeared out of nowhere as if someone had knocked over a broken gong.

Qing Shui was looking outside at the view when a voice rang out. When he came into the restaurant the first time, he had already scanned around the hall to get a grasp of the surroundings and the people around it. There was one Peak Martial King, while the others did not pique his interest.

He turned around to find a moderately young man with a less than pleasant facial appearance standing there behind him. Qing Shui was already annoyed when he heard his towering voice, and to see how he looked like was even more off-putting.

The young man had a full face of pockmarks and fierce three-pointed eyes that were gleaming with a murderous aura. His nose was quite big as it appeared to be stamped over a large area of the face. His lips were so thick that someone might have thought that he had been beaten heavily on the face.

Even though Qing Shui had only scanned the area for a brief moment, he could still remember everything by memory. This young man was at the same table as the other two people, so he took a glance at their table and affirmed his memory.

As they said, ‘things of a kind come together’. Qing Shui could not believe that such an ugly person could attract other ugly people and form a group together. Being ugly was one thing, but being ugly and having a fierce expression that was just asking to be beaten was quite another. This was the exact expression that the other two were showing to Qing Shui when he looked at them.

Qing Shui could not help but smiled. The top level of the Four Seas Inn was reserved for those of special privileges. Those at the Peak of Martial King or at Martial Saint and above were able to access the top level for free. Those of the Martial King level would need to pay half price to access the top level, and Xiantian martial warriors would only get 30 percent off the full price.

After Qing Shui had gathered the information about the three men’s power, he could tell that the man in the middle was a Peak Martial King, whereas the other two were just a Grade Nine Martial King and a Grade Eight Martial King respectively.

However, their clothing appeared to be the same as that of the three youngsters from the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect he had met last time. Qing Shui had a feeling that these three seemed to resemble the three youngsters from that time…..

“I will sell it for five hundred thousand silver per cup!” Qing Shui said as he lifted his head up and drank the wine in the cup.

The young man in front of Qing Shui still had a smirk on his face, but it was beginning to appear unfriendly. Cultivators who specialized in poison typically would not measure their power by conventional methods because of their reliance to their poison. A proficient Poison Master could be easily defeat a strong warrior regardless of each of their cultivation grades, which was why a lot of martial warriors would not go into the trouble to challenge these Poison Masters

“Are you joking with me?” The ugly young man in front of Qing Shui widened his three-pointed eyes as a faint fragrance lingered in the air.

Qing Shui glanced at the young man’s wrist where the fragrance originated.

Suddenly, Qing Shui felt like fainting. He recognized this dizzy sensation immediately as his limbs went slightly numb. The toxicity of this poison was stronger than the poison from the poisonous scorpion he had tested earlier in the Realm of the Violet Immortal.

Nature Energy!

The Yin-Yang Image began circulating faster than ever!

The Ancient Strengthening Technique also circulated itself and removed all the poisonous Qi inside his body.