Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 242 – Ancestor of the Immortal Sword Sect, Flower of Life

Qing Shui looked on as Huyou practiced the Tiger Form. For a beginner, he was above average, and one must not forget that Huyou was someone with no cultivation. Luckily, his well-built sturdy and muscular frame was also stronger compared to ordinary humans.

“Do not go all out in your attacks. Always keep 30% of your strength in reserve.” Qing Shui explained.

He demonstrated the Tiger Form three times, adopted the various postures, and explained the crux of the Tiger Form with each demonstration.

Near the end of the training session, Huyou could finally approximate something resembling the Tiger Form. One must always start off with the postures and forms when cultivating before moving on to the spirit.

After the practice, Qing Shui returned to the blacksmith store and started training his own set of forging techniques, he only had one objectives in mind now and that was to increase his own level of power.

Qing Shui didn’t know that in the region of the Southern City, the fame of his store has already been steadily increasing. Especially the incident of him slaughtering the Immortal Sword Sect youth, everyone in the region was talking about it.

Qing Shui just opened his store for business for a short while and there were already many people inside his store. Qing Shui was extremely happy, even if they weren’t here to shop for weapons they might be here to sell him the materials such as gemstones that he needed. After all the sign board outside his store was extremely conspicuous.

“Mister Blacksmith, how much are you willing pay to for this?” A youth placed a black metallic substance on the table as he inquired.

Qing Shui didn’t really know much about the different kinds of metal, he basically knew nothing about them. However, he discovered that the Saintly Hands technique had another application.

He could use the Saintly Hands to understand the composition of the interior of substances. For example, treasured objects usually have a “spiritual strength” in them. The stronger the spiritual strength, the more valuable it would be. And upon combining the Saintly Hands technique with his Heavenly Vision Technique, he could be able to come out with a rough estimate of the value.

Qing Shui smiled as he reached out to touch the black metal. A pity that it wasn’t anything valuable, but still, the strength of the metal was still many times better compared to common metals.

“100 taels of silver.” Qing Shui spoke.

The youth was stunned for a moment before he replied, “Ok, sounds fair. Black Steel usually sells for around that price.”

Looking at the blackish metal, Qing Shui couldn’t help but agreed that it was aptly named. After which, he kept the black steel in his possession and passed over a bank note worth 100 taels of silver to the youth.

Everyone couldn’t help but exclaim in amazement when they saw Qing Shui’s buy-in price was so good. Other stores would only buy the black steel at 80 taels of silver.

“Do you truly buy in anything?” A voice rang out.

The owner of the voice was a smart-looking young man about 30 years of age. He had thick eyebrows and almost no facial hair. At this moment, he had a smile on his face, as he looked at Qing Shui.

“Anything that’s written on the signboard. Don’t worry that i’m able to pay. For items of exceptional value, I will use other items of equivalent value or higher to exchange for them. I won’t let the seller suffer any disadvantages.”

The smart-looking youth nodded upon hearing the serious words of Qing Shui. However, he unexpectedly stated, “Sadly, i don’t have any. If i did have, I would surely exchange them with you.”

“Heh, i thought you had something really good, so it was all empty talk. Come back when you do have something then!”

Qing Shui smiled, and turned his attention back to the forging materials which he had been working on earlier. Currently, only the jagged sword was left in the store as all the items forged by Huyou had been completely sold. Some of the customers in his store was only here for the purpose of trying out the sword. Qing Shui didn’t mind their requests and happily allowed them to do so.

————-

Within the Immortal Sword Sect!

“Sect leader, are we going to allow that brat to continue be so arrogant? Humiliating our Immortal Sword Sect’s disciple out there so openly, and this time round, he even killed them in broad daylight.” An old man with reddened cheeks, and flowing white beard was looking at a middle aged man as he spoke.

The middle aged man stood up from the purple Taiyi Chair. And as he stood up, an overbearing presence blasted out, as sharp as needles, penetrating into the hearts of others. He was clad in robes adorned with the designs of stars. His eyes were in the sharp of crescent moon and in them, and filled with melancholy. The straight upright looking nose of his as well as the gentle arcs of his lips had a lone arrogance. He appeared extremely masculine.

“Elder Ying, I know you feel unbearable especially considering what happened to your grandson. The brat in question is nothing to me. However, his backer is Canghai! It’s Canghai. Do you know that?”

THe tone of his voice was filled with helplessness and unwillingness. As the leader of Immortal Sword Sect, he was a peak-level existence in the whole of Southern City. However, a smelly brat out there actually caused their reputations to be ruined and they had even lost two elders.

Losing elders was a small matter. After all, the Immortal Sword Sect didn’t need useless elders. However, the Ancestor of the Immortal Sword Sect had repeatedly urged their members never to infuriate the person name Canghai.

“Cang hai? Was he the person that crippled Elder Feng and Elder Hu back then?”

“Yes that’s him. He’s also the one that Ancestor said that we are never to antagonise. Back then after Elder Feng was crippled, he was also stripped of his rank inside the Sect. The grandson of his was also forcibly exiled to the “Earthriver Island!”

Elder Ying involuntarily shuddered when he heard the words “Earthriver Island”. After which he replied weakly, “Could it be that we are allow the brat to do as he wishes? Now on the outside, people are already starting to badmouth our Immortal Sword Sect, rumors and gossips filling the skies.”

“We don’t need to care about what others say, however we should tighten our control for inner matters of the sect. I already know what they did when they went out, if you all still dare to act on your own will, actively seeking him out to deal with him, be prepared to bear the consequences of your own actions.” The middle aged man departed after he spoke.

Elder Ying involuntarily felt his heartbeats quickened upon hearing the words of the middle age man. The overbearing might the middle age man had excluded earlier, struck fear into their hearts.

The middle aged man with the overbearing aura raised his head, looking up at the blue skies and sighed as he continued walking to where he wanted to go. The footsteps of this man was extremely fascinating to behold, every time before his step landed, his other foot would already be in the air. His movements appeared slow but was extremely fast in reality, his movements technique was incredibly mysterious.

Very quickly, he arrived at the entrance of the Zongtang Hall. Everything within the Zongtang hall was painted black or grey, emitting a dull and oppressive atmosphere. Visibly hesitating on the doorstep, the middle aged man urged himself forwards as he finally stepped into the hall. In the middle of the hall, there was a series of stairs leading downwards, the middle aged man followed the stairs as he descended below.

After a few moments, the middle aged man found himself in a place where there were sculptures of all previous sect leaders of the Immortal Sword Sect. This was the sacrificial hall of the Immortal Sword Sect.

“Ancestor!”

The middle aged man lightly called out.

After which, there was silence as the middle aged man stood there quietly. After the time it took to brew a cup of tea, a old man slowly ambled over.

This old man had cloudy eyes and appeared somewhat senile. In his hands there were a dragon-headed golden-colored staff, aiding him in his steps. However, even when he was right there, no hints of his presence could be felt. He was robed in white and had a head full of white hair, appearing akin to a mighty expert that came out from his seclusion.

“Ancestor!” The middle aged man knelt by the feet of the old man.

“Chi`er, what happened?” The eyes of the old man were still shut, no one could see what the emotions in his eyes. But even so, one could feel deeply uncomfortable about looking at this old man. Although the old man had similar appearance compared to Baili Jingwei, the aura he exuded was completely different.

But despite his looks, his voice sounded benevolent.

“Ancestor, Chi`er is useless, I caused the reputation of the entire Immortal Sword Sect to be besmirched but am helpless to do anything, Chi`er beseech Ancestor to punish me.”

“Get up.” The old man helped the middle aged man up.

The middle aged man then told the entire story to his Ancestor not daring to leave out any details, or add in any embellishments. Naturally he also made Qing Shui out to be even more ruthless and cruel.

“For all that’s involved in this incident, regardless were they ordinary disciples or elders, confine all of them inside the Earthriver Island.” The old man calmly spoke out.

The middle aged man respectfully replied, “all shall be as Ancestor wills.”

“Canghai ah Canghai, i’ve tolerated you for over 30 years. Although you’re from the Heavenly Palace, you should know there’s some line that you cannot cross. Moreover, you also…”

“Chi`er, you can go back first. I will handle this matter.”

After the middle aged man departed, the body of the old man flashed as he disappeared from sight.

———————

Qing Shui spent the entire afternoon and forged two more jagged swords. This time round, the enhancement of attributes could be comparable to the Bluebronze sword he forged earlier. Not only that, the first sword was slightly better – +30 to strength, +20 to endurance! The second jagged sword shared identical enhancement with his bluebronze sword but Qing Shui was already very satisfied. He lost himself in his fantasy – if he could somehow caused the enhancement of attributes to go up to hundreds, or even thousands, especially for speed, how great would that be?

At night, Qing Shui entered into his Realm of Violet Jade Immortal and was immediately thunderstruck. He could sensed that something was somehow different but was unsure of what exactly the reason would be.

The sense of vitality inside his spatial realm had evidently increased immensely. This feeling was extremely clear, and even the field of herbs he implanted that was throbbing as they drew on the vital qi prevalent in the air.

Abruptly in the distance near the crystal pond, Qing Shui noticed a one-metre tall tree sapling the size of a thumb. Although the size was somewhat small, there was already scarlet blood-red flowers blooming. The sizes of these flowers were about the same as the flowers that bloomed on the nameless tree. However, these blood-red flowers exuded an overpowering sense of vitality!

Qing Shui immediately ran up to the stone steele as he knew that there would always be updated on it whenever his spatial realm receives an upgrade. And when he finally arrived in front of the stone steele, he only saw three glaring words engraved on there.

Flowers of Life!