Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 341 - A Flea? Stone Monument of the Black Armored Jumping King!

Qing Shui looked below and realised that the reward for the Fifth Wave were just those, but he was satisfied. The Art of Pursuing, Divine Arm Clearing Technique and Divine Foot Clearing Technique were sufficient for him.

He had memorized the Art of Pursuing and was able to execute it, all he needed was more practice. Now, he had to first be familiar with the Divine Arm Clearing Technique and Divine Foot Clearing Technique. It would be better if he could reach the small success stage.

When he first started to practice, Qing Shui noticed that the Divine Arm Clearing Technique was especially easy to grasp. There were a few vital points on his arms that were already opened, which was an advantage Qing Shui picked up when he first practised the Solitary Rapid Fist. Hence his arm felt smooth and unblocked when he trained the Divine Arm Clearing Technique.

Acupuncture Point Clearing Art usually involved “Explosion Qi”, where the Qi Force would burst forward during cultivation. The exploding Qi Force would require consistency, using a small probability to unblock a certain vital point until all 3 vital points were cleared, and one reached the small success stage.

Once he started training, Qing Shui put his whole heart into it. His almost photographic memory made it easy for him to remember the crucial points.

Of course, there was an inseparable link between comprehension, mastery and perception.

He trained in small parts and sections, and because he just started, Qing Shui realised that it was especially easy for the Qi Force of the Divine Arm Clearing Technique to be interrupted. Was it because of a lack of force, or the inability to connect it?

After many trials, Qing Shui discovered that the dumbest idea was also the more useful idea. Of course that was to just patiently practise again and again. There would be some improvements occasionally even though often interrupted, but it was easy to reach that same position again. There was, of course, also many interruptions without any improvements, which meant that Qing Shui had been training in vain.

Qing Shui did not know if it was his stubbornness or perseverance that kept him going again and again, and he persisted despite all the interruptions time and time again.

Just like that, Qing Shui only barely managed to circulate ⅓ of the Divine Arm Clearing Technique after the second time he emerged from the Realm of Violet Immortal. Not to mention clearing any specific acupuncture point, it was basically impossible to ‘clear’ any acupoints without first achieving a smooth and unobstructed Qi Flow.

In the morning Qing Shui woke up, washed up and went to the square. There were many people present, including Gongsun Jianyun, even more than the number yesterday.

“Good morning!”

Gongsun Jianyun smiled and greeted Qing Shui!

Qing Shui nodded, and started practising the never-changing 24 moves of Taichi. There were now too many components in the Taichi Fist, which resulted in a relative increase in its power.

The Taichi Fist that had almost cleared the Obscure Realm, the Frenzied Bull Strength that hadn’t improved for long, and the Tiger Form which was at the state of immovable mountains. The most important part of all though was Qing Shui’s unfathomable state of concept, that mysterious state that was unable to put it into words and could only be felt by oneself.

Suddenly, Qing Shui thought of the “Art of Pursuing” which he had just learnt, and attempted to incorporate it into his Taichi Fist. The Art of Pursuing could be fused into any type of technique.

Fusing was not difficult and did not take up much time, and he completed it within less than an hour. It was a pity that the fusion and combination did not achieve much effect. After all he only learned the Art of Pursuing not long ago.

After finishing up, though he did not feel as happy as yesterday when he experienced “Minute Subtlety”, he did achieve a fair amount of improvements. As long as there were improvements, they were steps along the path of progression and accumulation of experience.

One day when he turned back to look, he would realise that he had gone very, very far ahead.

After that, Qing Shui spent half an hour as he talked to Gongsun Jianyun about the beginnings of Taichi - mental states, mental attitudes, experiences, even sparring with them and answering some of their questions at the end of it.

Gongsun Jianyun and the others had imitated the moves for quite some time, but after Qing Shui’s explanation today they realised how amusing their training was. Even if they trained for 100, or a 1000 years, their training would be irrelevant if they never understood the truth and essence of Taichi.

Thankfully, Qing Shui’s words today enlightened them and allowed them to come to a deeper understanding. It was as if they had been loitering outside a big gate, and now, they had pushed opened the door and walked into a spacious yard.

This was experience, the opening of a new realm!

As Qing Shui left, he also taught them ‘pushing hands’ of Taichi, and reminded them to push each other every now and then, to better gain experience of the Taichi Fist.

However, Qing Shui had not gone far before he was stopped by some people!

An old man filled with vigour appeared. He blocked Qing Shui’s path, and he had a complicated expression on his face.

”You are Qing Shui?” The man looked coldly at Qing Shui.

”Wow, quick, look, that’s Xi Ri! He used to be the youngest elite.” Someone noticed them and exclaimed loudly.

”It’s true, Old Gu, hurry, Qing Shui and Xi Ri have met each other.”

The shouts seemed to have pissed Xi Ri off, and his brows furrowed.

Many others heard the shouts and ran over, even Gongsun Jianyun and his group crowded around them.

In the spacious square, the commotion was especially eye catching, and very quickly even more people started to squeeze in.

“So he is Xi Ri!” Qing Shui looked at the man before him quietly. The man who had a good disposition seemed to be immersed in great agony.

It’s no wonder Yan Ling`er asked him to show mercy; it was easy for a man who protected his sister to gain the sympathy of little girls like Yan Ling`er.

Seeing this man who was half a size bigger than him, Qing Shui could feel that his abilities were indeed superior, but Qing Shui was still confident in stealing a victory over him.

”You know who I am, you must know why I am here for you.” Xi Ri now calmly replied.

”I don’t know!” Qing Shui responded straightforwardly with the three words.

”Xi Ru was shocked for a moment, but did not have much of a reaction. He then lightly said, “I want to duel with you, you can’t escape the responsibility of causing Xiao Yue’s death.”

His determined tone made Qing Shui doubt if he was actually part of it.

Qing Shui fell silent. There was no meaning in refusing his challenge, but Qing Shui lifted his head after a while. “What’s the use of challenging me?”

”A peace of mind, and a justification! Or i would never be able to face myself.” Xi Ri replied with a firm resolve.

”Alright, I will accept your challenge. I’ll see you here 3 days later! But what will you do about those who forced Xi Yue to her death?” Qing Shui asked calmly.

“They all are dead!”

”Very well. Are you going to just kill the few of them? How about their families? Aren’t you going to deal with those who raised those beasts?” Qing Shui smiled faintly.

”Of course, but that would need time. I would have to wait, but I can’t wait to fight against you.” Xi Ri watched Qing Shui, his bright eyes burst with desperate thoughts of a duel right now.

“Very well, what if you are accidentally killed by me?” Qing Shui asked seriously.

Xi Ri thought about it with similar seriousness and slowly replied. “I will submit. Life and death are decreed by fate, wealth and rank are matters of destiny, and to insist on certain things would mean I need to sacrifice others.”

Qing Shui appreciated his views, and nodded. “We will battle here 3 days later, be responsible for your own life and death!”

Qing Shui then left. His destination was the stone monuments area at the back mountains, as he had planned to look at a few more stone tablets before he left!

On his way.

He sighed at his monotonous life, and Qing Shui quickly walked towards the area of stone monuments.

Since the last time, it seemed to Qing Shui that it had been a long time since he went to the stone monuments at the back mountains. It wouldn’t become tranquil just because Qing Shui did not visit, but to be honest, there were not many who came here to truly appreciate the martial techniques.

The stone monuments here had beasts, flowers, plants; it was a place to relieve boredom amidst the fine scenery as there was seldom a tale of one who learned a powerful technique from these monuments.

In actual fact, there were many couples who came here to relax; this was like a square in his past life, while the square here was an actual battle ground.

Qing Shui casually walked past many plants that he had seen before, and among them were many strange flowers and plants which only required one quick look, thus Qing Shui briefly glanced through them. The flowers and plants took up 400 of the 1000 stone monuments.

While looking at the 400 stone tablets of greenery, Qing Shui had also spotted more than 300 beasts carvings, but he did not look at them from long before he left, for the first few tablets he had seen were just a summary of the rest.

This made Qing Shui feel that the 300 beasts stone monuments were meant to deepen one’s realm, or to ease people into entering the mystical realms.

Qing Shui took a look, and realised he had already seen more than 700 stone tablets. This time, Qing Shui saw one he had waited for. It was a gigantic beast stone monument, and he went blank when he spotted it.

It was a black beast with a savage expression, and had strong, thick legs. Qing Shui thought of a bug in his past life, which was also a pest.

A flea!

However it was enlarged countless times here; the originally thick and short feelers were now enormous, the 2 feet long, big, sharp mouth was in the shape of an awl, its abdomen area was wide, with 9 sections, and the hind legs were abnormally chunky. One look and one knew it was filled with explosive strength, but it was at a half-squat position now, which gave off the impression of a tautness when threatened. The instantaneous explosive force would definitely be terrifying.

There was a layer of steel armour on its enormous body, the blackness emitted the lustre of metal. Coupled with the dark, savage eyes, Qing Shui did not expect an enlarged flea to appear so ferocious and murderous.

Qing Shui only knew that fleas in his past life were wingless, unable to fly, but had strong jumping abilities. They were able to jump a distance and height 350 times that of itself. Qing Shui looked at the “flea” on the stone monument and thought, if it had such an ability now, with its length of at least 3 metres, every jump would be at least 1000 metres away...

Most importantly, its head was a big thick awl, half a metre long with black shining hair, which exuded a sharp murderous air.

”This was the fastest most dangerous assassination beast on land!”

“Black Armored Jumping King！”

A thick voice broke Qing Shui’s train of thoughts. He turned back and saw a foreign middle aged man smiling at him.

“I am Xu Shijie, I wonder if Little Brother Qing Shui is interested in a talk.” The man smiled and asked, from around 2 metres away from Qing Shui.

Qing Shui knew at once that he had come for him specifically!

“Mister Xu, I wonder if you could explain a little about this ‘Black Armored Jumping King’?” Qing Shui asked, as he evaded the question.