Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 415 - Breakthrough, The Most Poisonous “Iridescent Fairy”

Concocting poison and medicine were quite similar to each other in a lot of ways. Sometimes, 1,000 year medicinal herbs or other medicinal herbs with medical property would be used when concocting poison. Poisonous substances would sometimes be used when concocting medicines as well.

Qing Shui had only skimmed through a little bit of the Poison Scriptures. He knew that this should had fallen out of Wu Yitian’s body when he had performed the Mighty Elephant Stomp Technique earlier just now.

Fortunately, this “Poison Scripture” was also made out of demonic beast’s leather. Otherwise, it would already have been crushed to powder by now. Qing Shui had discovered that one of the best things about the World of the Nine Continents was the better an item was, the more unlikely it was to be damaged.

Looking at the sky, it was about time to return. The biggest harvest of the day would be this “Divine Marionette” and the Poison Scriptures. Qing Shui was more excited about this “Divine Marionette” thing.

He had seen this kind of thing from historical books before. This type of special medicinal pills had been lost in the world since a long time ago. Now, they could only be found within places like those cave dwellings of “deities”, just like the cave dwelling where Qing Shui had found the Big Dipper Sword.

So this thing was extremely valuable. The “Divine Marionette”, just like its name had suggested, were two medicinal pellets for two people’s consumption. It allowed one to gain control over another party.

Qing Shui sat on the back of Fire Bird, gradually making his way towards the Hundred Miles City. He looked at the two pellets in the brocade box. The smaller grape sized one was golden in colour. The other, which was one half larger than the smaller one, was bluish green in colour.

The person who consumed the bluish green colored pellet would be manipulated. His future growth and breakthroughs would not be affected in any way, but he would not be able to defy the orders made by the person who consumed the golden coloured pellet.

The most important fact was that the person who consumed the golden colored pellet would gain an additional 10% strength of the person or demonic beast which had consumed the bluish green pellet, but this was only limited to strength, speed, defense, and spirit energy! The strength of the person or demonic beast that consumed the bluish green pellet would not be reduced in any way.

“If I have the chance to use this Divine Marionette, I will not only be able to gain the obedience of possibly the strongest Martial King Grade 10 cultivator or a tamed demonic beast, I would also gain 10% of their strength, speed, defense, and spirit energy. Their strengths won’t be reduced as well.” Qing Shui marvelled at the greatness of this “Divine Marionette”.

“10% strengths of a Martial King Grade 10 can be considered quite a significant amount. If I manage to find demonic beasts that possess some innate talents, like ones that are especially violent, have fleshy shields, or even especially fast, then the 10% increment would not be a small number as well.” Qing Shui’s eyes lit up at the thought of it.

Soon enough, Qing Shui reached to the Qing Clan’s Medicinal Store, but it was already a little past noon time. He was quite happy to be able to eliminate the red-clothed thief. To leave a thief like him wandering around the Hundred Miles City would be disastrous.

At the same time he had also learnt that sly and tricky people like Li Hong was way more terrifying than those people who were open about their confrontations. He had only heard about these before, but this time, he could finally be considered to have truly witnessed this kind of people.

“Brother Shui is back,” said Qing Bei upon the return of Qing Shui.

“Oh, this is…?” Qing Shui saw Qing Bei and Qing Qing holding Little Changfeng’s hands, who was tottering around.

“Uncle!” the little chubby guy had already started babbling and was able to greet him “uncle” under the “guidance” of Qing Bei.

“Hello!” Qing Shui was laughing as he pinched the cheek of the little guy. He then waved goodbye at him and disappeared into the house* with Qing Qing and Qing Bei.

Qing Shui never had much opportunities to play with this little guy. There were quite a lot of people in the Qing Clan so this child never lacked any attention. On top of that, it seemed like this first child of the Qing Clan’s fourth generation had been especially well-fed.

Actually another important reason was that Qing Shui would remember about Little Yuchang every time he saw Little Changfeng. Then, he would remember the scene when Mingyue Gelou was taken away.

She had wanted to stay by his side so badly, but he was powerless. For the sake of giving him a way out of such difficult situation, she had used a death threat. But Qing Shui knew that her heart had already sunk to the bottom of the valley at that moment. She had slowly made her way up from the bottom of the valley to meet him. He had also originally thought that he could give her the reliance she needed, as well as the kind of happiness that she wanted. But instead, all he did was to once again let her returned to the bottom of the valley, and it was even worse than before…...

Qing Shui walked briskly back to his own room, his heart aching a lot. This was one of the things that made a man felt worst. It was far worse than being stabbed a few times by knife.

“What’s wrong with you, Qing Shui?” Qing Yi asked him worriedly when she came out and saw Qing Shui’s slightly pale face.

Her gentle voice was like a stream of river going into Qing Shui’s troubled and dried up heart. It watered and nurtured the dried up patch of his heart. Qing Shui forced a smile. His palm clenched into a fist and was already sticky.

He knew that the skin of his palm was already torn from his nails digging into it.

No one understood a son better than his own mother. Qi Yi could already guess what was on his mind from Qing Shui’s facial expression. This was not the first time he had shown such an expression ever since Mingyue Gelou was taken away.

“Qing Shui!” Qing Yi was even sadder than Qing Shui in her heart from seeing her son in such a state. Her son had been cultivating endlessly all the time and almost never had any time to have fun, all for the sake of helping her to collect the debt that the Yan Clan had owed her. Now that her wish had come true, his son’s issue had, in turn, reared its ugly head. What was more, It was something far more troublesome than the Yan Clan. Qing Yi was also well aware of the Sword Tower’s influence.

“I am alright, mother. You don’t have to worry. You still can’t trust your son? Mingyue and the little lass only have to suffer for a little while.” Qing Shui smiled. His words caused tears to roll in Qing Yi’s eyes.

As a listener, her heart already ached, let alone Qing Shui. She knew that Qing Shui’s heart must be bleeding, but she also knew he would never show his weakness. He would definitely never show his weakest side in front of her, especially in regards to this incident.

Qing Shui had purposely distracted himself from thinking about Mingyue Gelou and the little lass, but sometimes, he couldn’t help it even if he wanted to. Whenever situation like that happened, Qing Shui would vent his suppressed emotion out through force.

It was similar to how he really wanted to go to a mountain right now and then flatten the ground with the Mighty Elephant Stomp technique. Before this, he had always pounded the ground with his fists.

……….

After reassuring Qing Yi a few more times that he was fine, he went upstairs towards his bedroom. As soon as he returned to his room, he started to rapidly circulated the Ancient Strengthening Technique along with Frenzied Bull’s Strength, Diamond Qi, and Nature Energy combined into it…...

Qing Shui didn’t think about anything else. He just wanted to calm his heart down. He had wanted to practise his Taichi fists, but the blood in his entire body was about to boil. There was no way he could calm that kind of agitated heart down.

Even that Unnamed Duo Cultivation Technique was going out of control at this time. He had no idea when had it started circulating by itself. It was going faster and faster, causing for Qing Shui’s eyes to turn slightly red. He was starting to panic a little right now. Could it be that his strength was being raised too rapidly, thus causing an instability in his mental state?

That wasn’t right. His heart state, mental state, and spiritual sense should be higher than his cultivation. He suddenly remembered about the palace building at the heart of the Crimson Gang’s old nest on the Parallel Mountains.

He also remembered the “sandalwood” that was as thick as a wrist in the great hall. Qing Shui felt as if his blood was boiling over. He wanted to suppress it but he couldn’t, no matter what.

He also couldn’t stop that Unnamed Duo Cultivation Technique. The qi belonging to the Unnamed Duo Cultivation Technique flowed within his body, and it was circulating increasingly fast.

“How did this happen?” Blood rushed to Qing Shui’s face and his eyes were bloodshot. These were obviously the symptoms of a burning lust. He hurriedly took out a Five Dragon Pellet and swallowed it.

After a while, Qing Shui realised that he still wasn’t relieved. More importantly, there was already a steel rod tenting his pants. This made him wanted to curse.

“F*ck, this stupid technique……” Qing Shui knew that this was caused by that Unnamed Duo Cultivation Technique.

“What do I do about this…...:” Qing Shui was a little anxious yet couldn’t help but remembered about Mingyue Gelou. If she was around, he could go find her. But now, Qing Shui had the sudden impulse to turn the sky over.

Creak!

Just right at this time, the door was pushed opened. Qing Shui was startled and saw that it was Shi Qingzhuang standing at the entrance.

“Qing Shui, what’s wrong with you?” Shi Qingzhuang saw the Qing Shui’s face tinted by an unusual shade of red, even his eyes were burning like a flame.

Qing Shui was a little relieved after seeing Shi Qingzhuang. Or else he really wouldn’t know what to do. “I am like you last time…..” he explained in pain.

Shi Qingzhuang was startled. Her hands that were supporting on Qing Shui’s burning arms trembled. Her cool and beautiful face was instantly tinted red.

She lowered her head slightly, only to see the ridiculous tent pitched at the lower half of Qing Shui’s body. She couldn’t help but to recall the scene from last time as she stared at Qing Shui embarrassedly and at a complete loss with her cold eyes.

Was that worry, fear, rejection, or restlessness……?

“Qingzhuang, you…..” when the situation arose, Qing Shui still felt a little awkward. After all, after that one experience he had with Shi Qingzhuang a few years ago by accident, they had never done it again. To think that this time was the same reason again...

Even if it wasn’t for this reason Qing Shui would still be embarrassed to ask. Although she was his own fiancee, the time that he had given her wasn’t up yet. He had promised to not lay a finger on her within this period of time.

Shi Qingzhuang didn’t utter a single word. She gazed at Qing Shui with a strong and steady expression on her face, before slowly lowering her head into Qing Shui’s arms, into the embrace of those burning arms.

Qing Shui embraced that soft and delicate body, conveniently locking his bedroom door. He carried Shi Qingzhuang in his arms and walked towards the bed. At the same time, he was already locking his lips with those slightly cold thin lips.

Shi Qingzhuang shut her eyes tightly and let Qing Shui did whatever he wanted.

Qing Shui greedily sucked on her soft tongue and taking in the bejeweled nectar within her mouth. One of his hands was fondling and kneading on her perfectly round and perky buttocks, making Shi Qingzhuang quiver in delight.

…………

Qing Shui’s spiritual sense had been very clear. The moment he ejaculated, he felt that qi of Unnamed Duo Cultivation in his body to suddenly circulate even rapidly.

Bam!

As if the qi flow of the Unnamed Duo Cultivation Technique had just broken through a wall of obstruction, the burning sensation in Qing Shui’s entire body rapidly dissipated. At the same time using his inner vision, he had only been able to sense the qi flow of the Unnamed Duo Cultivation, but that qi flow had now became a fine thread of red qi force instead.

“A breakthrough?”

Qing Shui could also feel that the Ancient Strengthening Technique had successfully entered the 138th cycle. The excitement in Qing Shui’s heart was unable to calm down for a long time.

Shi Qingzhuang had already fallen asleep. Embracing the woman curled up in his arms, Qing Shui had a lot going through his mind. but it was mostly the Unnamed Duo Cultivation Technique.

He had gotten his hand on this technique from a perverted Xiantian cultivator when he was travelling on the road towards the Skysword Sect with Wenren Wushuang. Right now, he felt that it was this Duo Cultivation Technique that had broken through.

It had allowed Qing Shui to successfully breakthrough to the 138th cycle this time, but not only that, Qing Shui also felt even more of an increment in his strength than before because of “this cycle”.

Just like this, Qing Shui’s mind ran wild for more than an hour. He felt Shi Qingzhuang stirring in his arms, about to wake up.

Women looked attractive when they were half asleep. However, the languid expression on the face of a woman when she had just woken up was even more beautiful. Shi Qingzhuang blinked her long lashes two times, but she averted her gaze in panic as soon as those cool eyes met with Qing Shui’s.

“Why did you avert your gaze?” Qing Shui pressed his forehead against hers and asked tenderly.

“You looked so scary just now!”

Qing Shui was speechless.

By the time Qing Shui and Shi Qingzhuang put on their clothes and exited the room, it was already dusk. After their activity, Shi Qingzhuang had napped for a little more than an hour. Four hours had passed just like that.

Qing Shui looked at Shi Qingzhuang’s face that was “glowing” a little. That kind of expression basked in the afterglow of sex was especially obvious; anyone would be able to tell from one look.

Shi Qingzhuang slightly lowered her head after seeing Qing Shui staring at her. She appeared to be a delicate lady to him at this very moment, making him feel extremely warm on the inside.

“Auntie said that you were depressed so she sent me upstairs to comfort you…..”

“Thanks for your trouble…..”

………

Time quickly passed, and soon, a month had come by within the blink of an eye. It was almost the end of the year. The Qing Clan had originally intended to return to the Qing Residence earlier for New Year’s celebration. However, they had no choice but to postpone their journey for another two days due to the heavy snowfall from yesterday.

Qing Shui biggest improvement over this past one month was the “Mighty Elephant Stomp” technique. Although it hadn’t broke through to the Great Perfection Stage, it had fully stabilised in the realm of the Large Success Stage.

He didn’t have any plans to further study on the other fighting skills of the “Elephant Form” because he realised that the “Diamond Qi” was the most vital element to the Elephant Form. So instead, Qing Shui planned to cultivate the “Diamond Qi” of the Elephant Form to a satisfying level first before continuing his cultivate on other “Elephant Skills”.

Qing Shui had also read through the Poison Scriptures and kept notes in his mind, but he had not tried to concoct any. He was most interested in one of the poisons named the “Iridescent Fairy”, which was one of the few most lethal poisons. It was said to be able to easily poison a Martial Saint cultivator to death.

The “Iridescent Fairy” was concocted from the most toxic body parts gathered from highly toxic insects like the Iridescent Centipede, Iridescent Spider, Iridescent Scorpion, Iridescent Snake, Iridescent Toad, Iridescent Lizard, and Iridescent Wasp.

It was said that the most beautiful things were the most toxic. All these 7 types of poisonous insects were seven colored and extremely beautiful, but they were also extremely rare. The objects of iridescent colors had always been most scarce in the World of Nine Continents. Any ordinary person who entered 10 meters within the radius of these highly toxic insects would instantly die. Fortunately, these insects only dwelled within the deserted deep mountain forests.

They had already agreed to leave for the Qing Residence tomorrow!

The morning practice next day went on as usual. Qing Shui was exceptionally happy to see the three generations of Qing Clan doing their morning practise. They had already come to realise the importance of cultivation. It was no longer just for the sake of completing a mission. They didn’t need to be supervised or have it enforced on them either.

This was considered to be the greatest improvement on their cultivation.

“Sister, we’re heading back to the Qing Residence today. That was the place where we, the Qing Clan, have lived the longest in. You will definitely like it there.” Qing Shui told Qing Qing who was just beside him.

“Right. Little Bei had also mentioned that houses stretched as far as the eyes can see, and there is also a forest and… oh yes, we can go hunting too…..” Qing Qing replied to Qing Shui with a longing voice. She had already been getting along very well with Qing Shui and the people of Qing Clan. Most importantly, Qing Qing had almost completely blended into this big family of Qing Clan.

“Of course, as soon as it is winter. When they were little, they loved to climb the mountains and hunt for deers. Deer meat is very delicious.”

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