Ancient Strengthening Technique (Web Novel)
chapter-808

AST 808 – Setting Out On The Return Journey, The Road to Southern City

They had already decided to return to the Qing Village but there was still some time left. The flying beasts were able to fly to the Qing Village from the Greencloud Continent’s capital in a very short time. After all, these flying beasts had been eating their fair share of medicinal pills and herbs that could raise their agility. They were all the most important people to Qing Shui, so he would definitely enhance their mounts to as powerful as possible.

Qing You and Qing Shi’s Earth Rock Beast didn’t consume any Crimson Pellets of the Nine-Headed Moon Wolf’s Core, unlike Canghai Mingyue’s Golden Winged Thunder Condor, Di Chen’s Blue Luan, Di Qing’s Azure-eyed Silver Falcon, Yiye Jiange’s Snow White Crane and Wenren Wu-shuang’s Water Cloud Swallow. Huoyun Liu-Li also owned a Golden Winged Thunder Condor now. It was a gift from Canghai Mingyue but it had been a fledgling and wasn’t suitable to be used as a mount until now. It was the fledgling of Canghai Mingyue’s Golden Winged Thunder Condor.

Taming the young of demonic beasts was very easy. They could be tamed as long as they were fed. It was a pity that demonic beasts took too long to mature so not many people could afford to wait. The Golden Winged Thunder Condor was no exception either. Huoyun Liu-Li had been riding on Canghai Mingyue’s mount everywhere she went. Besides, she had never been apart from Canghai Mingyue so not having a mount wasn’t really a big deal to her.

Although Huoyun Liu-Li’s Golden Winged Thunder Condor wasn’t fully grown yet, it had been growing quite fast under the effects of some medicinal pills and herbs. It was a pity that it couldn’t fly over a long distance with people riding on its back yet or else it would bring great harm to it.

Shi Qingzhuang seemed to have never thought of owning a mount, along with Mingyue Gelou. But now Mingyue Gelou was already a cultivator of Martial Saint level, so she could tame a flying beast if she wanted but she had just never really gotten around to do it.

Di Chen’s Blue Luan had the strength of Grade Five Martial Saint while Di Chen’s Azure-eyed Silver Falcon was a Grade Three Martial Saint. On top of that, it was a Fantastic Beast. Qing Shui had only known about this after he had previously sent her to the Central Continent. He only knew that she had a flying beast before that. Otherwise, how could she come all the way from the Central Continent by herself?

The Azure-eyed Silver Falcon didn’t have a powerful offense but it had an absurd battle technique like the Long Distance Teleportation. Every teleportation could cover about a hundred li with the usage limit of three times per day. This was also the reason why Di Qing could come from the Central Continent to the Greencloud Continent all by herself.

Yiye Jiange’s Snow White Crane was also a Beginner Martial Saint level demonic beast now. This was the effect of consuming the Crimson Pellet of the Nine-Headed Moon Wolf’s Core that Qing Shui had given to Yiye Jiange. So this could basically be considered the greatest potential of the Snow White Crane.

The Snow White Crane had been following Yiye Jiange around all this time. So even though Yiye Jiange had become powerful, she didn’t want to change her mount either. Hence, Qing Shui had been saving a portion of anything that could raise a demonic beast’s strength for her.

Wenren Wu-Shuang’s Watercloud Swallow was about the same as Yiye Jiange’s Snow White Crane. On the contrary, Luan Luan’s Little Bai was only a Beginner Martial King due to its aptitude but it had officially became little lass’s mount.

Qing Shui wasn’t worried about Luan Luan. She already had the strength of a Beginner Martial Saint and her strength would continue to increase rapidly after this. So for now, she didn’t need that many demonic beasts, unless there were demonic beast groups just like that group of Earth Devouring Mice. Taming a group of beasts was quite terrifying. Otherwise, she could tame some powerful demonic beasts or those with better potential instead.

Qing Shui was planning to use flying beasts of Martial Saint grade and above as method of transportation for their return journey. The other flying beasts would be put away. The Fire Bird and Diamond Gigantic Elephant had a very formidable strength and speed anyway and there weren’t too many people from the main Qing Clan either.

Qing Shui still had more than ten Crimson Pellets of Nine-Headed Moon Wolf’s Core on his hands. Luan Luan also had about ten of them, which were specially given to her by Qing Shui because these pellets were most precious items to Luan Luan who had the Heart of Seven Orifices.

Before they returned to the Qing Village, Qing Shui had basically performed a round of Gold Needle Marrow Cleansing and Constitution Nurturing as well as Gold Needle Acupuncture on the Qing Clan’s third generation.

Gold Needle Acupuncture was also known as Gold Needle Acupoint Clearing, it gave acupuncture to the most basic acupoints. If lucky enough, a few basic acupoints may be cleared. Qing Shui knew about the wonderful benefits of clearing acupoints because most of the acupoints on his body had been cleared. Even some of his special acupoints such as the Yongquan Acupoint or Zhongfu Acupoint had also been cleared and needless to say, the effects were tremendous.

Even clearing basic acupoints could yield very tremendous effects, such as strengthening the meridians. So one would receive decent benefits as long as acupoints were cleared.

Qing Qing, Qing Bei and Qing You were better than the rest because eight of their acupoints had been cleared. The rest could only clear less than six. But after the marrow cleansing and constitution nurturing, their cultivation had been raised by quite a lot and their speed of cultivation had also been improved. This had in turn boosted their confidence immensely and motivated them to cultivate.

Qing Ming and Qing Yan were more than four months old now and already knew how to laugh. Their melodious laughter soothed Qing Shui’s mood. Whenever Qing Shui was free now, he’d basically be playing with those children.

In his previous world, the thought of being able to have a few children never even crossed Qing Shui’s mind. Of course, he would also never have thought that he’d have a few women, let alone women that were as beautiful as an immortal.

Shi Qingzhuang had changed the most among them. Ever since she had a daughter, a smile was often seen on her face especially when she was looking at Qing Yan. She’d have an extremely blissful and content smile on her face every time the fair little lass grinned and laughed. Qing Shui had never seen her smiling like this and had never even thought that she would be able to smile like this.

母性的伟大真的难以估计。

The greatness of a motherhood was indeed mysterious.

“Qing Shui. Look, Yan’er looks like she will be able to recognize people soon.” Shi Qingzhuang told Qing Shui while holding Qing Yan in her arms.

“Oh? Lass, say ‘daddy’.” Qing Shui gently pinched the little lass’s cheek.

“Pfft, she’s still too young to speak.” Shi Qingzhuang laughed at Qing Shui.

Qing Shui suddenly lifted Shi Qingzhuang up. “Come, let me hold both of you mother-daughter so you can feel the three of us being together.”

“Qing Shui, be careful of the lass.”

He turned a few rounds while holding them before putting them down again. The little lass seemed to be very amused. He looked at Shi Qingzhuang who was forever clad in a fiery red dress and softly asked, “Qingzhuang, can I ask you a few questions?”

“Ah, do you have to be this polite? You can just ask whatever you want to ask.” Shi Qingzhuang gave him a faint smile.

“Well, I realized that all of your clothes were red. Why are your undergarments white……?”

“What color do you like?”

Qing Shui had thought that Shi Qingzhuang would huff at him in embarrassment. Little did he expect her response to be this. He embraced her gently. “I like whatever you like. I’m just curious.”

……….

A little more than a month passed again. The bitterly cold winter season had already arrived. Qing Shui and the rest were all prepared to return to the Qing Village. The matters of Heavenly Palace had been placed in Elder Ge’s hands while the matters of Qing Clan were placed in the hands of the few Martial Saint elders from Qing Clan.

All of them set out on the return route to the Qing Village. Their flying speed wasn’t very fast so they had to hurry back earlier. This was also mainly because there were little children with them. Although Qing Shui would use the divine energy to protect them, they still slowed down the speed. On top of that, they only hastened on with their journey during the daytime while stopping to rest at night.

The little children were all riding on the back of Fire Bird. Fire Bird had an unusual back that formed a leeward spot and Qing Shui had already pitched a small tent there for Qing Ming and Qing Yan to stay in it so they won’t be affected by any wind. Qing Zun and Qing Yin could also be put in there if they fell asleep. The back of the Fire Bird was quite wide. The gigantic Fire Bird had a width and length of nearly a hundred metres. There wouldn’t be any issues even if a few dozen people were to ride on it. Its fiery red and thick feathers were soft and were emitting warm heat. The two little fellows who were lying on it couldn’t stop giggling.

Qing Shui had taken the route in the sky above the city. Although he wasn’t worried about encountering demonic beasts now, he still hoped that they wouldn’t be encountering any during their journey because there were children with them.

走城郡上空相对会安全一点，不过城与城，郡与郡之间都会有着一段不近的荒原，当然不能和州与州之间的千万里荒芜相比较，但这段距离也不近，有的更是要跨过巨大的山系，在这些山系当中也许会有强大的妖兽存在。

It would be slightly safer to travel in the sky above the cities. However, there was quite a distance of wasteland in between cities and in between countries. Although these were nothing compared to the ten thousand li of wasteland in between continents, they still spanned over quite a distance. On top of that, they still had to cross over enormous mountain ranges and there might be some powerful demonic beasts dwelling within these mountain ranges.

Powerful demonic beasts also existed on the Greencloud Continent and many places were still undiscovered. The Flowerfruit Mountain was one of them and he remembered about the Chieftain level demonic beasts there. Just how much was the restriction on the Flowerfruit Mountain? How much strength was needed to break that restriction? What was there in the deepest part of the Flowerfruit Mountain?

As the saying goes, ‘curiosity killed the cat’. Once curiosity was piqued, nothing could stop it. Just like Qing Shui right now. He had a strong impulse that made him feel obligated to visit the deepest parts of the Flowerfruit Mountain.

He suddenly recalled about the palace under the Goddess Peak of the Flowerfruit Mountain and that exceptional beauty within the crystal coffin. That lady was akin to a divine being. Qing Shui remembered about the cold qi within her body and had a hunch that she must’ve been poisoned by a type of yin poison or cold poison. He had no idea how long had this lady been lying in the crystal coffin but he had a very strong impulse to wake her up and he didn’t know why.

Perhaps it was because he had made a promise to that old turtle. He still had the Water Repelling Pearl it gave him. That old turtle that guarded the lady at the palace entrance had already been a psychic since long ago and even its strength was unmeasurably deep. But this would still have to wait, because Qing Shui wasn’t too confident yet.

They only exited the continent city in a week’s time. Their speed had slowed down even more than before. When they passed by the Southern City, Qing Shui and Canghai Mingyue brought the two little fellows to pay a respect to Canghai and his wife. Qing Yi and the rest went along too.

“Father, mother, look at whom I have brought to see you.” Canghai Mingyue couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down her face. She had Qing Zun in one hand and Qing Yin in the other.

“Zun’er, Yin’er, greet your grandfather and grandmother.”

Qing Yi stood at one side as she murmured something.

“Senior, rest assured. I will take good care of Mingyue.” Qing Shui said softly as he offered an incense stick.

Another month passed and they had safely arrived at the Qing Village. New Year was just about half a month away. Qing Shui and his clan landed at the foot of the mountain on the west side.

Looking at the Qing Residence, which remained unchanged, a smile appeared on everyone’s face. They entered the Qing Residence. The courtyard was mostly overrun by weeds and now that it was winter, they were all withered.

Other than looking after the children, the rest started to clean the courtyard and the house. Since the bedroom was coated in a layer of dust, they had no choice but to change the bedsheets. Canghai Mingyue, Di Qing and the others had some new bedsheets in their Interspatial Silk Sachets.

Qing Shui helped Canghai Mingyue to tidy up the bedroom so that the two little fellows, Qing Ming and Qing Yan had a place to sleep. Mingyue Gelou and Shi Qingzhuang’s room was just next door so they were able to tidy up all the rooms very fast. The rest were also able to finish tidying up very quickly.