Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 609 -Duanmu Clan, Duanmu Lingshuang, the Central Continent has peak Martial Saint warriors

Qing Shui blankly stared at the enormous gate sparkling under the sun. It’s a scene which no one would be able to imagine without seeing it for themselves.

For a clan like the Duanmu Clan, it’s normal for them to have this kind of gate. Qing Shui shook his head. After that, he turned around to look at the veiled Di Chen only to see her smiling back at him.

“My dear wife, wanna go in?” Qing Shui said to Di Chen with a humble smile.

Di Chen shot a faint angry glare at Qing Shui before walking with him towards the enormous gate with a face full of smiles.

Qing Shui rubbed his nose as he followed after the beautiful body figure and walked side by side with Di Chen towards the enormous gate of the Duanmu Clan.

There were two rows of guards with similar attires guarding the huge gate. Even their size and height looked similar to each other. Qing Shui tried to feel them out and found that the weakest one was at least a Xiantian grade warrior.

“A Xiantian warrior acting as guard looking after the gate?” Qing Shui was shocked at the boldness of the aristocratic clan.

In his past incarnation, Qing Shui was just an ordinary man. He had no idea how wealthy people thought, nor did he ever have the thought of living a life of wealth. Actually, humans were all the same, they’re contradicting beings who never knew what would truly satisfy them.

People who are easily satisfied would never compare themselves to people who were extremely rich and powerful. On the other hand, people who aren’t easily satisfied often set high expectations themselves. For example, when they get an income as much as three thousand a month, they would want more. The same thing would happen even if their income were to be raised all the way to five thousand per month. Ten thousand… Twenty thousand… They still wouldn’t be satisfied…

Perhaps, this may be considered one of the deep-rooted bad habits of humans?

For the current Qing Shui, he was already quite a reputable person in the World of the Nine Continents. Unknowingly, he has managed to climb up to such a relatively high position.

“Excuse me, who could you two be looking for?”

An energetic voice immediately caused Qing Shui to come back to his senses. Qing Shui realized that the person stopping them was a middle-aged man, who looked a bit older than Qing Shui himself.

“I’m looking for Lady Duanmu!” Qing Shui responded with a smile.

“Would you happen to be Young Master Qing Shui?” The middle-aged man questioned Qing Shui in surprise.

“Uncle, you know about me?” Qing Shui never expected the person to immediately recognize him. Even though he figured out that things would turn out like this eventually, he was still a bit shocked by it.

“I am not worthy! You can just call me Old Man Chi! The Lady has instructed us to bring you to her as soon as Young Master Qing Shui arrived. Young Master Qing Shui, and young lady, welcome!” The middle-aged man explained courteously.

“Sorry for the trouble!”

Qing Shui and Di Chen followed the middle-aged man into the Duanmu Clan. Upon entering it, Qing Shui could feel the luxurious and imposing atmosphere around the manor. Even though the Heavenly Palace was not much inferior compared to it, the Heavenly Palace had to rely on the advantages of the land where it was built. On the other hand, it’s not a simple task to build such a luxurious building in the flourishing Duanmu City.

The majority of the building was green colored wood. Other than having an imposing atmosphere, it also had an abundance of elegant and artistic flavor to it. There were also countless pavilions and kiosks by it. Furthermore, mountains and various water features could be seen almost everywhere.

After walking past the big front yard, passing by an enormous fake mountain and an arched bridge, the first thing which caught Qing Shui’s eyes was a large area of battle arenas. There were a lot of them in a variety of sizes. Currently, there were a lot of people sparring with each other. This was the reason for the shouting noises which he heard from back then.

The courtyard was filled with warriors wearing the same uniform. Even though there were fewer people here compared to Heavenly Palace, each and every one of them were elite warriors. Despite that, Qing Shui felt that it still shouldn’t be any less than a hundred thousand people.

There were beasts carts constantly passing in and out of the courtyard. After all, the courtyard itself was just too enormous. Undeniably, only a very few people would ride the cart, most people would swiftly travel around on their own feet.

They once again walked a distance of around a thousand meters to the left and took a turn at the corner. For a moment, they felt as if they had left behind the chaos in the secular word. The environment here was really graceful and quiet.

This was a beautiful isolated part of the courtyard. It had the most valuable trees and flowers from across the World of the Nine Continents in it.

Very quickly, they arrived at the entrance of a small courtyard which had four young girls guarding in front.

“May I know who you are?” The woman on the right side taking the lead as she took a big step forward and started questioning them.

“All of you can step down!”

Right at this moment, there was a familiar voice, the women slowly withdrew from their post. Qing Shui could already see Lady Duanmu who was approaching him, beside her was Duanmu Lingshuang.

Dressed in azure colored clothes and an azure colored veil, as soon as Duanmu Lingshuang saw Di Chen, an unusual excitement flashed across her eyes before quickly glancing towards Qing Shui. On the other hand, Lady Duanmu smiled in joy: “You guys are here.”

Qing Shui smiled and responded: “Sorry for the disturbance.”

“No, no, you are not bothering me at all.” Lady Duanmu said joyfully.

Qing Shui’s gaze settled on Duanmu Lingshuang. He noticed that she still wore her veil even when she was at home, he then proceeded to look at Di Chen who was beside him. One looked elegant like a goddess whereas the other one possessed an ice-cold charm.

Qing Shui couldn’t help but think about the time when Duanmu Lingshuang was at Flowerfruit Mountain. The most unforgettable thing to him was her expression when she addressed him as her husband, Qing Shui would never forget it for the rest of his life.

Back then, upon hearing his unreasonable request, the woman had pursed up her lips tightly. Even though her face still looked a bit pale, it’s a lot better compared to before. Qing Shui thought back then that she was behaving too coldly so he decided to tease her a little. When he saw this situation, he knew that it’s time to stop. After all, it would be bad if he went overboard.

“Dear husband……”

An ice-cold shivering voice went into Qing Shui’s ears.

That scene back then flashed back in Qing Shui’s mind.

On the other hand, every time Duanmu Lingshuang saw Qing Shui, she would remember the scene in Flowerfruit Mountain as well. Not only did she expose her face in front of Qing Shui, but she was also even forced to call him that……

She should have hated him, but then again, he saved herself and also her mother. What she found particularly memorable was Qing Shui’s silhouette when he saved her from the Flowerfruit Mountain. Not only did he try to protect her from danger, he even used his own body to cover for her.

Qing Shui slightly lowered his head as he followed them to the pavilion at the front of the courtyard. The living room was clean, untainted by even a speck of dust. It was comparable to Di Chen’s chamber. He had been there before to get her Immortal Bed.

Since it was still early, they decided to talk for awhile while they sat around a small table. Qing Shui and Di Chen sat next to each other whereas Lady Duanmu and Duanmu Lingshuang sat close to each other.

“Since you guys finally came, why don’t you stay here for a little longer.” Lady Duanmu smiled at Qing Shui and Di Chen. She sounded really friendly when she spoke, hence making everyone felt relaxed.

Slowly, the atmosphere got even more lively and casual.

“Lady Duanmu, which are the strong powers in Central Continent? How strong are they? Will you mind sharing?” When Qing Shui first arrived, he heard of a few sects from Elder Ge, but he wasn’t clear about how strong they truly were.

When Lady Duanmu heard what Qing Shui said, she wasn’t really surprised by it. On the contrary, she smiled gently and explained patiently: “There are too many powerful sects in Central Continent. It’s not something that can be counted, they exist in every country. Within the eighty-one cities, there will inevitably be a few that are particularly strong. For example, the Buddha Sect, the Demon Gate, the Tang Manor, the Dragon Emperor Mountain, Sky City and Moon City……”

“The location of Central Continent was such that it was the closest to every other continent. Hence, it was the most populated one. Consequently, it was also the most chaotic one. People from all continents were mixed in it like fish and dragons, and the most chaotic one was Ghost City. The reason why it’s called that was because most of the people living in it were guilty of monstrous crimes. It’s very hard to find an ordinary, good person there, for it was a city ruled by bandits. Every day, there would be public massacres or annexing of the local powers. A lot of people wanted to cleanse Ghost City, but all of their efforts only resulted in failures. Perhaps, it was because the people who were truly strong refused to take action.” Lady Duanmu explained casually. Di Chen and Qing Shui was also engrossed as they listened.

“Madam, how’s the strength of the Buddha Sect?”

“The Buddha Sect is located in the Buddha City in Central Continent. It’s recognized by all as the strongest sect within the Central Continent. At the very least, no one would say that other sects were better than them. They don’t hole themselves up within Buddha City, and they can be seen everywhere. However, only very few know about the situation in the Buddha Sect.” Lady Duanmu explained gently.

Duanmu Lingshuang was a very cold and beautiful woman. She hardly ever interrupts people when they were talking. Di Chen, on the other hand, had a very calm nature, she tended to stay aloof from worldly affairs. Eventually, this all resulted in only Qing Shui and Lady Duanmu speaking.

Basically, the way it worked was that Qing Shui would ask questions from time to time while Lady Duanmu would answer him one by one.

“Lady Duanmu, from the list of sects that you mentioned before, is there any peak Martial Saint warriors in them?” For now, Qing Shui still wasn’t clear about how strong a peak Martial Saint was. Even Lady Duanmu herself was unclear about it. Despite that, he still couldn’t resist his curiosity and asked.

“I, myself, am not sure about the strength of a peak Martial Saint warrior as well, but I have heard before that the Central Continent does have peak Martial Saint warriors.” After thinking for a while, Lady Duanmu smiled.

When it was almost noon, two girls served them some food.

“It doesn’t taste as good as the one you made! Please make do with this!” Lady Duanmu had eaten the meal that Qing Shui prepared before, so much so that she felt a bit regretful now. The food that she once regarded as tasting good had now become bland to her.

“Ah, I have forgotten about it! The reason why they tasted good was because I have good materials. Just like the tea leaves. I’ll prepare some for Lady Duanmu a bit later.” Qing Shui smiled as he looked at the food, he was sure that only professional cooks would be able to prepare these dishes.

“Nah, forget about it! I have finally managed to get rid of my addiction to it, if you are to give me more of those materials and when I finished them, I would end up being really miserable.” Lady Duanmu responded in a joking manner even though she meant what she said.

“There are a lot of them. These are for Lady Duanmu, I’m sure you wouldn’t be able to finish it even after ten years. Oh! Of course that’s saying if Lady Duanmu and young mistress were the only people taking it. If there were more, this wouldn’t really be true.” Qing Shui laughed as he continued on the conversation.

……

Just like this, Qing Shui and Di Chen settled down in the Duanmu Clan. One week passed very quickly. Qing Shui spent most of the time strolling around Duanmu City with Duanmu Lingshuang and Di Chen.

Lady Duanmu, Yu Ruyan was Duanmu Ling’s wife. Duanmu Ling was an extraordinary genius in the Duanmu Clan. Furthermore, he also possessed the mystical ‘Three Yang Constitution’. He was the successor of the clan, and he was also the direct successor from the next generation. In the future, the leadership of the clan would pass from Duanmu Ling’s grandfather directly to him, skipping past Duanmu Ling’s father and his generation.

This was also the reason why people started envying him and plotting against Duanmu Ling. Not only were there outsiders, more importantly, there were also people from within the Duanmu Clan. Duanmu Ling’s death enraged Yu Ruyan and resulted in her displaying her terrifying strength.

Just like this, every single complaint the people had against Duanmu Ling faded away in the face of her tremendous force. Undeniably, the current glory that Duanmu Clan had was all this very woman’s doings. Without her, there would be nothing, the Duanmu Clan would immediately be removed from the list of super powers.

Humans are selfish beings. Even though they were well aware of the pros and cons of it, many people still wanted Yu Ruyan dead. Only with this would they be able to take control of the Duanmu Clan. In other words, they would rather be a chicken’s head than a phoenix’s tail.

Duanmu City!

Heaven Street!

This street was the most beautiful street in Duanmu City. It was a street where all kinds of beast carts were forbidden from passing through, there was also a strong cultural atmosphere around the street. It was considered to be an ancient street which was conserved really well.

Qing Shui, Di Chen, and Duanmu Lingshuang were walking along the street. The entire place was filled with different kinds of people. It didn’t lack any handsome men or beautiful women. It was truly a lively street.

Di Chen stood beside Qing Shui, it was not clear if this was a coincidence, but Duanmu Lingshuang stood on the other side. This actually resulted in Qing Shui being in the middle of the two women.

Furthermore, the two women also had their faces covered up. But just with their beautiful body figure and those beautiful pupils resembling that of a goddess, it was already more than sufficient to attract the attention of the people around them.

“Isn’t that Lady Duanmu?”

“Yeah, who is the man?”

“Lady Duanmu actually is sharing the same man with another woman? I want to be that man……”

“He is a super gigolo!”

……

For a moment, Qing Shui became the center of attention. Di Chen smiled gently and looked at Qing Shui. Qing Shui, on the other hand, only extended his hand out and grabbed her hand, causing her to panic and withdraw it frantically while grumpily rolling her eyes at Qing Shui.

“Lingshuang! What a coincidence!”

Right at this moment, an attractive male voice was heard. Even Qing Shui couldn’t deny the fact that this voice sounded really pleasant to hear.