Ancient Strengthening Technique (Web Novel)
chapter-813

AST 813 – The Sixth Grade Of Nature Energy

There were numerous turtles of different sizes, colors, and species swimming in the swamp. The name ‘Ten Thousand Turtle Swamp’ was more than appropriate for this place.

Qing Shui couldn’t see all of the swamp clearly, even after activating his spiritual sense. His spiritual sense had grown remarkably strong, much stronger than he could remember. He could, however, generally sense the aura around his surroundings to check if there was a strong demonic beast inside the swamp. Thankfully, there was none.

Although he was able to gauge the presence of any demonic beasts, Qing Shui still couldn’t clearly sense the surrounding aura, which may have been due to some kind of water distortion or some effect of the Ten Thousand Turtle Swamp. After a while, he decided to go fishing in the swamp. Maybe he might be able to confront that demonic beast from before…….

He went to the usual fishing spot surrounded by swamp waters and took out his Pure Gold Fishing Rod. Qing Shui felt excited when he imagined what he could catch this time. He waited until everything was quiet before he threw the fishing line into the swamp. All that was left was to wait silently for the rod to catch something.

Time passed by slowly as he continued to wait patiently. The Pure Gold Fishing Rod possessed the miraculous ability to attract spiritualized things in the pond by grabbing onto them, and it could attract spiritualized creatures to swim towards the line as well. Ordinary aquatic creatures like fishes and prawn would instead fearfully stay away from the fishing line.

Even after 15 minutes had passed, there was still nothing. He could, however, sense a strange power from the rod flowing into his body, followed by the infusion of his spiritual sense into the fishing rod. The fishing rod and fishing line seemed as if they had become one with his body.

What a rare treasure!

The Pure Gold Fishing Rod was indeed a phenomenal treasure. When he thought about what he had just said, he laughed at his own foolishness. The past items he had fished out with the Pure Gold Fishing Rod had all been valuable. He just hadn’t expected the rod’s ability to combine his spiritual sense with itself, like a divine weapon trying to identify its master.

Nonetheless, the rod still remained as it should be – a rod.

He was still happy about it. The fishing rod had an important place in his heart, second to the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. It was more important than his other items, even the ‘Thunder God’, which he felt was inferior in quality to the Pure Gold Fishing Rod.

After another 15 minutes, the rod finally moved. Qing Shui wasn’t especially excited, because after linking his spiritual sense with the rod, he was able to tell that a turtle was on the end of the line.

Blood Turtle!

The Blood Turtle was a turtle species that was rarely seen in the wild. Consuming a Blood Turtle could produce the immediate effect of replenishing the blood cells in a human’s body, especially useful for those who with severe blood loss. In a sense, the Blood Turtle was considered a medicine of good quality, as it could be used as a food supplement to improve the quality of a human’s blood, strengthening the physical body in the process.

The Blood Turtle wasn’t what Qing Shui had been expecting, but he was still content to keep it inside the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. He didn’t have that particular species yet, but he did already possess a Scarlet Turtle, a related but more poisonous creature.

After that, Qing Shui captured a few turtle species and some uncommon aquatic animals. Unfortunately, he had already lost his interest in these creatures after a while.

Suddenly, Qing Shui could feel a spiritual presence through the line of the fishing rod that had been infused with his spiritual sense. Excitement coursed through his veins as he felt the impressive aura of a demonic beast moving through the waters.

It was the aura of an early Martial Saint demonic beast, which had Qing Shui simultaneously thrilled with joy and a little bit disappointed. He was disappointed because the current strength of the demonic beast was more or less worthless to him. On the other hand, he could tell with certainty that this demonic beast was the same one that had attacked him the last time he was here.

“Since you’ve come, let’s see what you’re made of!” Qing Shui waited as the demonic beast approached his direction.

However, the aura slowly began to dissipate, as if it were trying to escape from Qing Shui. Qing Shui was startled. He didn’t think the beast would be this cunning to try and evade his grasp.

He quickly retracted his Pure Gold Fishing Rod and locked his spiritual sense onto his target. Then, he took out the Water Repelling Pearl and immediately jumped into the Ten Thousand Turtle Swamp. He really wanted to know what kind of demonic beast had been able to severely hurt him back then.

The target was retreating at a progressively faster speed, so Qing Shui hastened his pace and continued the chase. The strength of his opponent posed no threat to him anyway. Even if the demonic beast was indeed dangerous, he would know beforehand through his spiritual sense.

The distance between the two was getting shorter. It was then Qing Shui discovered how deep the Ten Thousand Turtle Swamp was – he still hadn’t reached the bottom yet. After a period of time, Qing Shui could feel his feet suddenly touch the stone ground of the bottom swamp.

He had reached the bottom!

Qing Shui observed the uneven ground and noticed that the area within a few meters was dry. This must be the effect of the Water Repelling Pearl. Right now, he was more focused on looking for the demonic beast – he had no time to waste looking at the ground.

The aura of the demonic beast had completely vanished. He had been in the middle of his search when the aura had suddenly disappeared. It was strange indeed.

Nevertheless, Qing Shui continued to search around the bottom of the swamp for the demonic beast. The Ten Thousand Swamp seemed vast. The water near the surface was clear, but water at the bottom was sky blue and fuzzy. His silhouette flashed through the bottom of the swamp around where the demonic beast had vanished. After a while, he finally found the place where it had disappeared to.

This place seemed similar to the entrance of the palace under the lake below Goddess Peak. Without a doubt, he knew that the early Martial Saint demonic beast had gone inside, so Qing Shui quickly gave chase without thinking twice.

Inside this place was an empty space – there was no palace. There were, however, mountain-sized jade stones of the size and a bunch of trees thriving in this area. None of these were important, because Qing Shui had already set his eyes on the demonic beast in front of his eyes.

Qing Shui was shocked. The demonic beast wasn’t that big, and it was pitch-black in color. With a glance, he could see that the turtle was about ten meters in size, with a large tail about 15 meters long. The head of the turtle seemed slightly longer, like a large python intertwining with a large turtle.

Xuanwu……

A miniature Xuanwu, was it a coincidence?

In his past life, he had heard much about the legend of the mythical Xuanwu. So when he came to this world, he believed that there would be a demonic beast like the Xuanwu hiding from human sight. After all, people in this world had legends about dragons and phoenixes, so why not a Xuanwu as well? However, he was perplexed to see one right in front of him, in plain sight.

In Qing Shui’s past life, the Xuanwu was known as a spirit beast – a beast created from the fusion of a turtle and a snake. It was a powerful defensive beast, known as a protector of the North.

However, Qing Shui wasn’t sure whether the demonic beast in front of him was really a Xuanwu. After all, this one seemed to only possess the strength of an early Martial Saint, which was not as strong as he had thought. Even though the beast was moderately sized, it was still considered small compared to the average size of demonic beasts at the Martial Saint level.

Ssssuuu……

A panic-stricken cry was emitted by either the head of the vile snake, or the head of the turtle.

Even though it wasn’t strong physically, the spirit beast possessed the strongest Spiritual Qi that he had ever seen in a demonic beast, including his Diamond Gigantic Elephant and Fire Bird. The only weakness this beast had was its weak attack power.

This was probably because it hadn’t matured yet.

Qing Shui wasn’t interested in its attack power. He decided to tame the beast just because it looked like a Xuanwu.

Qing Shui temporarily named this demonic beast as Turtle Snake. Qing Shui felt that he should be able to tame a demonic beast of Martial Saint level, despite the fact he didn’t consider himself a beast tamer. However, he was still undeniably stronger than most beast tamers in the world.

Qing Shui could sense that the Turtle Snake was afraid of him, probably because it had sensed the powerful presence of his strength. However, Qing Shui noted that the Turtle Snake was intensely staring at the Water Repelling Pearl he was holding, as if it was being cautious of it.

The Water Repelling Pearl had been spat out by that gigantic old turtle’s mouth. Perhaps the Turtle Snake was afraid of this Water Repelling Pearl?

Qing Shui waved the item on his hand and said, “Are you afraid of this pearl?”

As he waved his hand, the Turtle Snake immediately took two steps backwards. Qing Shui had a sudden thought and approached the Turtle Snake slowly, but the beast quickly retreated again. When the distance between them less than five meters, something unexpected happened.

The pitch-black Turtle Snake plopped on the ground instantly.

Did it just surrender itself?

Qing Shui glanced at the Water Repelling Pearl that he had received from the gigantic old turtle. There was a possibility that it might not be a Water Repelling Pearl at all. Curiously, he activated the Heavenly Vision Technique and examined the pearl.

Divine Turtle Spirited Pearl!

Divine Turtle Spirited Pearl: A coagulated pearl of the 10,000 Years Spirited Turtle with a miraculous effect.

Qing Shui was surprised to know that the old turtle was actually a 10,000 Years Spirited Turtle. Even though the Golden Medicinal Turtle inside the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal was about 6,000 years old, it couldn’t fight like the old turtle.

The old turtle could be considered a battle turtle, a primitive battle beast of 10,000 years. Because of the old turtle, the woman in the crystal coffin crept into his mind once again. Who was the divine-like woman exactly? How long had she been in there?

What kind of ability did the old turtle possess? The old turtle was gigantic too, unlike the much smaller Turtle Snake in front of him. Even though the Xuanwu he had seen from the illustrations in his past life had similar features to the Turtle Snake, there were also many descriptions that depicted the details of the Xuanwu. The Xuanwu was supposedly a divine turtle that possessed an exceedingly powerful strength.

Qing Shui wasn’t afraid that the Turtle Snake would lash out at him as he walked straight towards it. He reached out his hand and touched the shivering Turtle Snake. The moment he touched the beast, an influx of superb Spiritual Qi abruptly flowed into Qing Shui’s whole body in the span of a few seconds.

In that instant, the Nature Energy and State of Immovable as Mountains that had already been circulating nonstop suddenly achieved breakthroughs.

This was definitely God’s doing.

The Nature Energy had finally reached the sixth grade! Qing Shui was excited to know that the Nature Energy had seemingly been absorbed into his body and was promptly circulating on its own. He couldn’t feel it outside his body, but the Nature Energy had indeed began to circulate in full speed in an instant.

Moreover, the Nature Energy required zero energy consumption, which filled Qing Shui with all sorts of emotion. Technically, he could use the Nature Energy forever, which was way more than he had expected. The Sixth Grade of Nature Energy was also twice as strong as the Fifth Grade of Nature Energy. Qing Shui stood still in surprise for a good minute .

A fantastic spirit beast indeed.

Even though the State of Immovable as Mountains had broke through to the fifth grade, he couldn’t sense an obvious change in the technique. Regardless, the dense aura inside his body had grown stronger, his overall strength had increased by 10%, and his imposing aura had increased exponentially. This all was most likely due to the effect of the State of Immovable as Mountains.

Suddenly, Qing Shui felt that he might be able to help the woman slumbering inside the crystal coffin with the energyless Nature Energy. But was she worth the effort?

He looked at the well-behaved and submissive Turtle Snake. The reason he could feel a surge of spiritual strength earlier was because of the Divine Turtle Spirited Pearl.

Since he had successfully caught the Turtle Snake, he decided to use his Heavenly Vision Technique to examine its attributes.

The Spirited Snake Turtle, a spirit beast of the Heaven and Earth with the ability of One-Sided Guard.

After looking at these few words, Qing Shui shook his head. This wasn’t a Xuanwu, but it didn’t really matter whether this was a Xuanwu or not. A spirit beast was already enough for Qing Shui.

Qing Shui then tried to put the Spirited Snake Turtle into the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. This was an amphibious demonic beast that he had already successfully tamed, so it shouldn’t be a problem to put it inside the realm.

The moment he successfully put the Spirited Snake Turtle into the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, Qing Shui could feel a slight change occurring inside the realm itself.

He flashed into the realm immediately.

And Qing Shui was stunned.

The Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal had grown twice as big as before, with the width of one thousand meters.

Could it be that the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal had upgraded too?

Qing Shui couldn’t be bothered to check on what the Spirited Snake Turtle was doing inside the pond that had doubled in size, and immediately headed straight to the stone monument to check on the inscribed statements.

Sixth level of the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, unlocked!

Seventh level of the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, locked!

There wasn’t a breakthrough?

Was this the effect of the Spirited Snake Turtle’s One-Sided Guard…….