Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 2416 - The Strength of Qing Shui's Nurture God Realm, The Caves' Abilities

The thunderbolts became increasingly thicker, and the seven-colored thunderbolts appeared extremely magnificent but yet also extremely terrifying at the same time. Qing Shui's body kept on absorbing the powers from them to temper his body.

Boom!

A thunderbolt that had the thickness of a person's arm landed on Qing Shui's body, causing him to shake a little. Qing Shui guided the thunderbolt to temper his muscles and bones, as well as his internal organs.

Two bolts, three bolts...

Gradually, Qing Shui felt that it was getting a little hard to bear. Right now, although the thunderbolts were still as thick as a person's arm, there were seven bolts of them. Each time they came crashing down, he would feel so numb, as if he had been knocked by a small truck.

Boom...

After the seven thunderbolts, there was a short interval before the next one. Qing Shui only recovered after a very long while. But thankfully, there was a short break. Otherwise, it was hard to say if he would be able to hold on. He might have really been in trouble.

Boom!

A thunderbolt that was as thick as a person's lower thigh came down.

Qing Shui guided the thunderbolt into his body and abruptly opened up his Dantian's violet cave, the Upper Dantian's Niwan Palace, and the Middle Dantian's Central Palace Blood Essence Pool.

Boom!

He now had the feeling as if waves of explosion were happening in him. It didn't feel very comfortable, but the feeling was exhilarating and straightforward. It was as if he had released everything that was pent up inside.

Qing Shui saw a layer of faint gray oil coming out from the pores of his body. It wasn’t much, but a thin, faint layer of it adhered to the surface of his skin.

To think that he was still able to experience the effect of impurities cleansing. This should be a deeper level of impurities cleansing.

Boom Boom!

The thunderbolts started to come down faster as if signaling the coming of a thunderstorm. Qing Shui opened up all ten of his caves. Right now, his ten golden caves were connected to Qing Shui's body and could be said to be a part of him.

Boom boom...

The seven-colored thunderbolts passed through Qing Shui's body and entered the ten caves. Suddenly, all ten caves glimmered in rainbow colors.

Boom boom...

After about 15 minutes, the surroundings fell silent and the clouds in the sky scattered. Qing Shui’s facial expression broke out into a happy smile. His Nurture God Realm had settled down. This tribulation was meant to stabilize the Nurture God Realm after the breakthrough.

The Nurture God Realm increased the body's toughness as well as the abilities of the existences in the caves. The Nurture God Realm depended on the number of caves one opened up. If there were only four, then it would be a Level Four Cave Realm. If there were eight caves, then it would be a Level Eight Cave Realm. If there were ten caves, then it would be a Level Ten Cave Realm. Each additional level increased a relative amount of abilities gained from the caves.

For example, a Level One Cave Realm provided one increment in abilities, and a Level Two Cave Realm provided two increments in abilities and so on. The Level Ten Cave Realm provided ten increments in abilities. The number involved was just a coefficient and didn't mean the folds or fractional [1] increments. Someone had tried to do a calculation before. It was bigger than percentages but smaller than folds. With each level, the increment was close to thirty percent. The actual amount was different for everyone, but the difference wouldn't be too great. This was with the exception of special caves. In the past, there had been an ice crystal cave amongst the caves a person opened up. At the first level, the person's strength doubled. Moreover, the ice sealing ability of the demonic beast in the cave had increased by multiple folds.

Right now, Qing Shui was at the first level of the Nurture God Realm. The first level of the Nurture God Realm meant that all caves were at the first level. It wasn't just one of the caves that had reached the level.

Qing Shui looked at his caves in great anticipation, hoping to see how much stronger his caves had become.

Fifty percent... fifty percent... Two folds!

Everything else had also increased by fifty percent. The tenth golden cave had actually doubled his abilities. Moreover, this was just the first level of the Nurture God Realm.

Qing Shui was very agitated. Other people's Level One Cave Realm would only increase their abilities by about thirty percent. Those who were a little more talented could get away with more, but those who weren't couldn't even reach fifty percent. Qing Shui's caves had passed through two paths and become golden caves. After going through Gold Cave Refinement, the increment he received reached fifty percent.

This didn't seem to be much of a difference. But as one's Nurture God Realm increased, for example, at the fifth level of the Nurture God Realm, things would be different. The gap would be massive.

What Qing Shui found most unbelievable was actually the tenth cave. Its abilities had actually increased by two folds, and this was only at the first level of the Nurture God Realm!

Qing Shui couldn't help but think of Tantai Lingyan. She had jade-colored caves, and he wondered how much additional strength her caves had given her and what realm she was at now.

The other time they met, which was half a year ago, Qing Shui felt that she had attained a breakthrough. She should have reached the Nurture God Realm and thereafter, left this place.

The strongest realm currently known was the Nurture God Realm, and someone had reached the tenth level.

It seemed that the person had also opened up ten caves and reached Peak Nurture God Realm. After the Nurture God Realm, it was the Regulation Realm. The Regulation Realm was a legendary realm. After attaining it, one could decide on certain regulations. However, this was a legendary realm, and there were people who didn't believe that it existed. Therefore, the strongest realm known to people was the Nurture God Realm.

It was only now that Qing Shui tried to sense his current strength. He wanted to see how much stronger he had become after attaining a breakthrough and stabilizing his strength. Half a year ago, the connection of his nine caves had already increased his strength by quite a lot—with it being almost doubled what it used to be. This time around, he had connected the tenth cave and to top it off, attained a breakthrough. He could sense that his strength was terrifying now.

Qing Shui's current strength was 200 billion dao force, and his defense was at two trillion dao force.

The Heavenly Fate Treasure Pagoda of Defense increased his defense by twenty percent. Therefore, Qing Shui's defense reached 2.4 trillion dao force.

The Heavenly Fate Treasure Pagoda of Violence and the Parry Heavenly Fate Treasure Pagoda increased his deflecting ability by another two hundred billion dao force. Qing Shui now had a defense of 2.6 trillion dao force.

Qing Shui's Divine Weapon Flying Sword could fend off an additional 3.2 billion dao force, and increase his defense by 5.4 billion dao force. Qing Shui's current defense had reached a bit more than 2.6 trillion dao force. 

In addition to the Battle God Halo, formations, Area Dominance, battle techniques and other attributes, Qing Shui's defense had already attained a breakthrough to five trillion dao force.

Right now, even Qing Shui found it a little unbelievable. To think that he had become so powerful. This was the difference between the Nurture God Realm and the Cave Realm. Moreover, this was when he had just stabilized his Nurture God Realm. He could still get a lot stronger in the future.

He had ten caves and in principle could reach Level Ten Cave Realm. People who only had seven, eight, or nine caves would only be able to cultivate to reach level seven, eight, or nine. Therefore, Qing Shui's capital could be considered the greatest.

Qing Shui smiled happily. Right now, he had the capital to head to the Upper Three Regions as well. It seemed that it was time for him to leave.

With there being ten caves, Qing Shui put the Golden Primordial Bear's spiritual body into the tenth cave. Right now, the Golden Primordial Bear's strength was no longer the state when it had just attained success in its cultivation. It was now also part of Qing Shui's terrifying battle prowess.

There were also the Divine Battle Puppet, Dragon Slaying Beast, Diamond White Tiger King, Primordial Dragon Elephant, Dark Phoenix, Long Zhu`er, Thunderous Beast, Dragon Slaying Beast, and one Black Ice Divine Worm. All ten caves had a "God" in them. The Nurture God Realm was self-explanatory—a wonderful thought of being able to nurture these creatures into gods.

Other than the tenth cave with the Golden Primordial Bear, the other nine’s strength increased by fifty percent, which was already half of their previous battle prowess. At this level, the Nurture God Realm had already displayed how terrifying its nurturing strength was.

It wouldn't be long before one of his demonic beasts or the Divine Battle Puppet would be able to kill the previous Qing Shui when he was at the Cave Realm. This was the difference in realms—a gap that couldn't be crossed.

[1] Relative to percentages, where one fractional portion = 10%.