Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 254 – Heart beating wildly with excitement, the Golden-Ringed Battle Armor is completed!

“Wait for me to finish this, then we’ll head home.” Qing Shui said as he smiled at the two women.

After he said that, he started working again, not realizing how ambiguous his words had sounded. The man below hadn’t left yet and was watching him with great jealousy. The woman who could not even be touched by the 3rd young master from the Qi Clan actually belonged to this demonic-looking youth who was smithing. How could he not be amazed?

Canghai Mingyue nodded at Qing Shui soundlessly. She found herself numb and could only quietly accept Qing Shui’s unintentional and vague words.

Although Qing Shui didn’t see Canghai Mingyue’s reaction, he could sense it through her actions. She kept a small smile on her face, lowering her head so she could watch the process of smelting the Tempered Metallic Essence in silence.

If it was smelted by someone who didn’t know Smelt Synthesis, the most they could do was make the two pieces of Tempered Metallic Essence into a bigger piece. Smelt Synthesis was the most ancient art of forging. The Tempered Metallic Essence’s density and purity essence were greatly increased, fundamentally changing the essence!

Qing Shui didn’t mind that the two women were watching him since it wasn’t such an unusual thing for people to see. If Xiantian cultivators were willing to cultivate it, they could actually form the Flame of Xiantian.

Primordial flames shot out of Qing Shui’s hands. The silver flames which were half a foot high emitted some heat outwards, slowly heating up the furnace.

Placing two pieces of Grade 10 Tempered Metallic Essence into the furnace, he single-handedly started smelting. After breaking through the 4th layer of the Ancient Strengthening Technique, the primordial flames went from an inch to half a foot long while also growing thicker in size. The heat had also increased exponentially. Not only that, but considering the amount of times he had used the flames, it wasn’t exaggerating to say it was brought to the point of perfection.

Gradually, the two pieces of Tempered Metallic Essence melted into one, thus increasing the volume in size. At this moment, Qing Shui’s other hand reached in, abruptly making the flame burn with more intensity!

A terrifying temperature emitted from the furnace, Qing Shui utilized all his strength and released his primordial flames, this caused Qing Shui to have no choice but to admit some things are indeed flame-resistant, for e.g. for this smelting furnace. However, based on Qing Shui’s current flame intensity, there was no way he would be able to melt it. It’s thermal conductivity is exceptionally good but what’s a pity was that it was not flame-resistant, if not it would have been used to forge other flame-resistant items.

Increasing the intensity of the flame was to help remove the Grade 10 Tempered Metallic Essence’s impurities, leaving only the essence behind to create a better quality Tempered Metallic Essence.

As time slowly passed, a fine layer of sweat formed on Qing Shui’s forehead. When a black glossy flash of light appeared, Qing Shui knew he had succeeded. However, Qing Shui never expected Smelt Synthesis to be so labor intensive. At the same time, he also understood why gems were very difficult to smelt. The success rate was super low and it required too much effort to do so.

He took out the piece of cooled Tempered Metallic Essence, casting a look at the result with a great sense of satisfaction. It was much stronger than a Grade 10 Tempered Metallic Essence. With his current level of smithing, he could only make do with this for now. Anything better would had been a waste.

Seeing that there weren’t many people left at the Blacksmith Store, Changhai Mingyue and Huoyun Liu-Li browsed around in boredom. Qing Shui put a few pieces of the Tempered Metallic Essence away.

“Let’s go, there’s no need to come back in the afternoon. I think they have already eaten at home.” Qing Shui said to the two women.

“I want to eat at your place today. You have to cook for me.” Huoyun Liu-Li chirped happily, the shimmer in her eyes making Qing Shui’s heart tingle.

Qing Shui grinned ferociously at Huoyun Liu-Li before turning to look at Canghai Mingyue, seeking her opinion. Qing Shui realized that every single time, he looked to this young miss to make a decision. The more he thought about it, the more dazed he became!

“We’ll go with whatever you say!” Canghai Mingyue smiled as she raised her head.

Right then, Qing Shui remembered that Canghai Mingyue was a strong woman. Never would he have expected to hear such gentle words before his line of thought ended.

After washing his hands, Qing Shui led the two women out of Blacksmith Store and locked the doors.

“Let’s buy some food over there. You can take a look and see what you would like to eat.” Qing Shui led the women towards a small residence where a food store was situated downstairs.

Both the food store and the food market were similar. They were both grand indoor establishments which primarily sold fresh vegetables, fruits and other essentials.

Qing Shui accompanied the two women, Canghai Mingyue and Huoyun Liu-Li, to choose two types of vegetables from the wide and complete selection the store had. They didn’t bother to browse the variety of meats available. Qing Shui, upon spotting a wild Silkie unexpectedly, went and bought one so that he could make Silkie soup back home.

When he laid eyes on the ingredient, Qing Shui recalled that one of the ingredients for the Beauty Pellet was the blood of a thousand year old Silkie. He felt depressed as he thought about it. Was there even such a thing as a living thousand year old Silkie? Just the existence of a hundred year old Silkie alone would already be enough to cause people’s eyes to pop out.

This was the women’s second time coming to this place, yet it felt like it had been ages since that first time. As all sorts of thoughts flooded her mind, Canghai Mingyue unconsciously gazed at Qing Shui.

As if sensing her feelings, Qing Shui threw a meaningful glance at Canghai Mingyue with confusion in his eyes. When their eyes met, Canghai Mingyue frantically averted her eyes. At that moment, her heart was beating wildly with excitement, giving rise to a weird sensation. It felt peculiar, yet she enjoyed and longed for the feeling.

A large aquarium with dozens of swimming Snakeheads and five turtles froclicking happily in the waters came into their view as they entered the living room.

“Let’s make Steamed Snakehead and Turtle soup!” Qing Shui grinned and said.

“We have enough to eat already, leave the poor little creatures alone!” Canghai Mingyue replied softly. Her eyes were trailing the movements of the strong, healthy and beautiful Snakeheads and turtles.

Qing Shui rubbed his head. He never thought that despite how beautiful and strong they were, they were still women. Their natural-born maternal instincts ran strong, and would not be completely lost even when faced by cruelty and lechery.

They probably would have enjoyed the meal more if they didn’t watch him preparing it. If they did and saw how the small lively creatures were killed, they would definitely starve themselves instead of eat.

With the spices from the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal at hand, the food wouldn’t taste horrible no matter how he cooked it. Both Canghai Mingyue and Huoyun Liu-Li took on the role of his assistants. Unable to control himself, Qing Shui succumbed to his thoughts, cherishing that last moment when he was alone with Canghai Mingyue in the kitchen. Except currently, the memory felt so far away.

Canghai Mingyue kept avoiding eye contact with Qing Shui. She realized that when their eyes met every time, her heart would palpitate with desire, and she would get a bit flustered.

It was a rare opportunity for the three of them to share a meal together once again. However, no one helped themselves to the dishes on the dining table. Qing Shui felt that it was already a difficult task to be taking food from the same plate as Canghai Mingyue. Thinking back to his past life, Qing Shui and his companions had went to eat on a steamboat. There was a beautiful lady looking down disgustedly upon a few villagers from the rural area. She disliked the very idea of sharing food with them.

Qing Shui stared at his plate, lost in his own thoughts.

“Qing Shui, are you alright? You zoned out while eating. Which beautiful lady were you thinking about that’s left you looking so depressed?” Huoyun Liu-Li teased in a playful manner.

Qing Shui smiled with embarrassment. “Well it’s because I feel extremely blessed to share a meal with the two prettiest girls in the world. Why would I even think of someone else?”

“Hehe, such a rare thing for you to say. It’s too bad you usually say those words when you’re trying to put on a show. Hmph!”

Qing Shui was mesmerized by Huoyun Liu-Li’s cheeky laugh. This was his first time seeing this exceptionally beautiful lady laughing so boldly and it was very attractive. Qing Shui didn’t think it was wrong for her to call him that, even he knew his acting was terribly lame.

“Qing Shui, we’re going home!”

Bidding farewell to the two women, Qing Shui walked towards the Blacksmith Store. He planned to use the afternoon to hurry up and forge the battle armor and helmet, as well as the bracelet. He couldn’t care less anymore and wouldn’t mind settling for a one-color grade. For his sake, he needed to raise his strength to a greater extent. Even if it was for Canghai Mingyue and Huoyun Liu-Li, he just had to do his very best.

Locking the doors after he returned to the Blacksmith Store, he took out a smelted Grade 20 Tempered Metallic Essence. The armor was made up of different parts which needed to be forged separately, and would be assembled together to complete it.

Qing Shui used the same Tempered Metallic Essence to create the frame of the armor. Then, he used the smelted golden-ringed patterned Snakeskin on the frame itself. The reason why he forged this heavy armor wasn’t just because of the defense, but also due to the unknown special effect and additional attributes. Although one of those didn’t add much, it would be different if there were more than ten of them available.

As he was smithing, he realized that forging armor was an incredibly troublesome process.

Luckily there was a blueprint that he could follow to slowly guide him through the process. This time around, he wanted to do it perfectly. The more difficult it was, the more Qing Shui felt he could exhibit his power to the best of his abilities.

The parts were forged one by one. Each of them were made using the Thousand Hammer Technique. Then the golden ringed patterned snakeskin was applied and finally, combined together to smelt once more. However, the upper and lower body of the armor needed to be smelted separately since they weren’t joined together. After Qing Shui was done smelting the upper half of the armor, an unexpected sudden ray of familiar golden light flashed before his eyes!

Stunned, Qing Shui stared at the dazzling battle armor. Although it was only the upper body, it still looked extremely majestic and had an awe-inspiring presence, very much like real golden battle armor.

The defence increased by 10%, but it was only limited to the area under protection. The stamina also increased by 50, strength by 30 and agility by 10!

Qing Shui cast aside the happiness in his heart, and continued to work on forging the lower body of the armor. It hadn’t occurred to him that after forging the upper and lower body armor separately, he might be able to add more attributes to the armor. This gave him hope to deal with the Immortal Sword Sect later.

The lower body armor was much easier to forge when compared to the upper body piece. His speed was considerably faster and it only took him half of the time needed to complete the upper half.

Using the Heavenly Vision Technique swiftly, he saw that it actually gave the same benefits that the upper body armor had given!

Qing Shui felt an incredible sense of accomplishment, best described as the satisfaction he felt when he made love to a beautiful woman. They were entirely different approaches but it all still came down to the same result. After all, if he kept wallowing himself in a woman’s charm, he would be bored of it soon enough. Furthermore, there weren’t many people with that kind of ability, so being able to do the things that you like was considered to be an enjoyment and a way to prove your worth.

It was similar to his pleasure in seeing both Canghai Mingyue and Huoyun Liu-Li wore the boots he had forged. The steady heartwarming feeling he felt was an everlasting one.