Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 284 - Crouching Tiger Stone Tablet in the mountain range, another step for the Tiger Form

“Alright, everyone practise on your own, I will explain the next ten steps in three days. Now, everyone may strike while the iron is hot and spar or discuss among yourselves,” the elder laughed softly. These ten moves actually took up three hours!

Qing Shui found an empty space to practise after the elder walked down the stage. He first increased his presence gradually, contained it, and let it pour out as he pulled out his sword.

He was about to leave after speedily practising and stabilizing the ten moves, since he could still train in the Realm of the Violet Immortal at night. He only needed to remember the key points for now, the rest of the daytime was for the stone tablets.

He looked up, and discovered many people around looking at him in amazement, and looked back at them doubtfully!

“That’s crazy, how could he be so awesome only after the first practice!” Someone exclaimed.

“How do you know it’s his first time?” Another was clearly in disagreement.

“Would you reach this level if I gave you three years?” The first was tutted nonchalantly. Apparently they were not strangers.

Qing Shui shook his head. There was no meaning in these words, he had been linking everything now to the Ancient Strengthening Technique, so he treasured all that he had now.

“You’re not allowed to leave!” A gentle voice sounded.

Qing Shui saw a beautiful lady stopping him. Her skin was fair as jade, her eyebrows like crescents, an especially attractive pair of eyes with distinctive black and white, and the pale emerald flowy dress on her gave her an air of indifference.

“Why not?” Qing Shui frowned, looking in bewilderment at the fairly beautiful woman who stopped him.

“Younger Sister Ling`er is not well. You made her upset and cry; she is seldom close with anyone, who are you to treat her so?” The lady was displeased and stared at the attractive man in front of her.

“Mental!” Qing Shui did not like the unreasonable way she talked, and was shocked for a while, before talking back with displeasure and leaving.

“I like that, there’s actually a man who talked to Xi Yue like that!”

“The way he acted so indifferently is so charming, if only he called me mental, too!” A woman with huge bosoms looked at Qing Shui’s back view in yearning.

“Mental!” A weak voice was heard.

“Who was the damned one who spoke? Step out, don’t you dare dream of sleeping on my bed.”

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Xi Yue got back her senses a good while after Qing Shui left, and walked off with a strange expression. She knew Yan Ling`er must have some feelings for that chap.

Even though she did not say, Xi Yue could see and decided to act out that scene just now, and Yan Ling`er was not able to stop her in time.

She did not expect that chap to call her mental, though. Ever since she was born, the world revolved around her. She was the darling daughter at home, the apple of her parents’ eyes. Her slender and beautiful appearance made her one of the most beautiful even in a thousand or million, even Yan Ling`er was less womanly than her.

“Ling`er, I’m sorry, I caused you trouble instead!” Xi Yue said to Yan Ling`er who was standing there looking at her in a daze.

“Sister Xi Yue, it’s me who should apologize. I made you feel so wronged,” Yan Ling`er replied disappointedly.

“Alright, let’s not be so polite among us sisters!” Xi Yue pulled Yan Ling`er and walked away!

Qing Shui was already on his way to the stone tablets. He did not take what happened just now seriously, but was annoyed by how pompous that woman acted. It was most irritating when people acted so unreasonably even when they were clueless about the situation, and still behaved so loftily.

Actually Qing Shui had mistaken her. After all, she had acted from a friend’s perspective, and Yan Ling`er’s appearance and every other factor was better - trying to reason with Qing Shui after he made her cry was not wrong. It was a pity Yan Ling`er was part of the Yan Clan.

It was almost noon when Qing Shui arrived at the stone tablets. There were not many people here, though many of them here were like couples, moving in pairs!

Qing Shui didn’t know whether to cry or laugh when he heard the conversations!

“Fei Fei, look, even the tiger’s whip was carved out so exquisitely!” A handsome man commented in amazement.

“What nonsense; that’s the hind leg. You’re so bad, how could there be such a big tiger’s whip…” The attractive lady replied coquettishly.

“Why don’t you see mine? It’s definitely huge!” The man broke into a guffaw.

“I’ll cut it off if you dare to show!” The woman laughed flirtatiously.

Qing Shui felt happy for the couple after listening to this. He was fairly envious looking at them interact harmoniously. Qing Shui actually had a strong liking for such a coquettish wife and a simple life.

Qing Shui thought about it and found out that he had not even attained such an average goal; Shi Qing Zhuang was his wife on official papers, but she was such an aloof girl. Who knew when she would be gentler? Zhu Qing and him was an accident. He was strange to her, more obsessive than not, and Mingyue Gelou, to him, was lacking a certain something.

Arriving at the stone tablet at the Tiger Mountains, a ferocious tiger sat on it, a crouching tiger dominating over the mountains like a king, making use of the natural height of the mountains to overlook the ground below.

Everyone knew that the ferocious tiger would be like a flying dragon in the sky when it ascended the mountains, but it was actually the most powerful in the crouching position. When the tiger crouches, it meant that it was the king of the mountains, the ruler, already in the peak status, that even an ascending tiger could not compare.

A coiling dragon and a crouching tiger, a tiger crouching on the mountains!

Qing Shui stared seriously at the air and expression of the ferocious tiger crouching; from the glint in the tiger’s eyes, it was no longer a lone tiger. It was a towering, huge tiger, its presence like that of a mountain, and its every attack like a huge mountain.

This was the entrance to attain mastery of the Beast Form Fist. Qing Shui felt refreshed in that instant, as if one had walked into a dead alley, but the obstacle that lay before disappeared suddenlyto give way to a wide street that was spacious and infinite.

That moment, Qing Shui felt an additional strength in his body, an especially wispy strength, but Qing Shui was elated.

The completed Tiger Form was like a deer cantering into a higher world, and that power within his body was the strength of the ferocious crouching tiger in the mountains. It was a strength of “presence” that lived within the body and added into the moves!

Qing Shui slowly experienced it, and lifted his head. He actually completed a Ferocious Tiger Lunging the Mountains drawing in an afternoon and the results were satisfying.

Back at his lodging, he discovered Yan Ling`er below, and beside her was the woman who stopped him earlier in the day. Qing Shui was tired, and walked up silently.

“Brother Qing Shui!”

Qing Shui had just walked up a step, and turned back reluctantly. “Yan Ling`er, what do you want?”

Hearing Qing Shui’s words made Yan Ling`er feel especially wronged. She looked at Qing Shui, “I just wanted to be friends with you. Do you really dislike me that much? I don’t know why you hate the Yan Clan, but I don’t even have the right to speak in the Yan Clan. You will understand when you go there in the future.”

“Ling`er, why be so accommodating to such an ungrateful person?”

Qing Shui looked at the woman who was staring at him angrily, and ignored her. That made the woman feel empty, even worse than being called mental.

Qing Shui thought about it and agreed silently, what’s there to play with with her, looking helplessly at the lass whose life might suffer in the future.

“It is for your own good, or you’ll feel more terrible in the future. You will understand next time,” Qing Shui left those words and walked up, leaving the two woman looking dazed.

“Does he have anything against your family?” Xi Yue asked Yan Ling`er moodily.

“He’s so young, and our families are not even in the same country. He only saw one sister of mine being bullied while selling tea leaves outside, and had a bad impression of my family…”

“That means he has a cold exterior but is warm-hearted,” Xi Yue remarked wistfully.

“He is a good man. He even taught me swords the first time we met, but started to ignore me after finding out I’m from the Yan Clan.” Yan Ling`er recalled the Qing Shui she saw the first time; a totally different person from the one now.

“Do you know why that sister of yours is selling tea leaves?”