Ancient Strengthening Technique (Web Novel)
chapter-880

AST 880 – Fire Bird’s Powerful Battle Technique, Qing Shui’s Depression

The Fire Bird had now achieved the strength of one and a half stars. Although it only had half the strength of the Thunderous Beast, it could attack just as effectively as the Thunderous Beast.

Qing Shui activated his Fiery Golden Eyes to see the changes in the Fire Bird’s battle techniques. Its powerful battle techniques was why the Fire Bird could now attack as effectively as the Thunderous Beast.

Superior Flight: A flying ability exclusive to the Fire Bird. Incomparable endurance and speed that is top-notch amongst flying beasts. Enables high-speed flight over an extended period of time.

Qing Shui took a glance and noticed that the flying skill had an additional word to it – Superior. There were no changes to the description at the back. However, Qing Shui felt there must be some changes to it. Nonetheless, Qing Shui didn’t bother to study it any further as was good news.

Hell’s Inferno: The Fire Bird activates a powerful flame attack. This pitch black flame is capable of burning everything down and possesses a fearful destructive ability. This is the legendary Black Phoenix’s powerful battle technique.

“It has changed. It has all changed…..” Qing Shui looked at the Hell Inferno’s description, which had an additional ‘the legendary Black Phoenix’s battle technique’ description appended at the end of it.

Qing Shui suddenly recalled the changes in the Fire Bird’s feather. This change seemed to resonate with this new description. Could it be that the Fire Bird possessed the bloodline of the Black Phoenix and had started to awaken?

Black Phoenix, also known as Hell’s Phoenix, Dark Phoenix, Black Ember Phoenix, was a more evil type of Phoenix.They were formidable and known for their powerful Hell’s Inferno skill. They could defeat their opponents just by using that skill.

Phoenix Dance of the Nine Heavens: When the Fire Bird uses Phoenix Dance of the Nine Heavens, its flame damage will be doubled and the effects will last for half an hour. This technique can be used twice a day. During this period of time, damage taken will be reduced by many folds.

“They have all leveled up!” Qing Shui felt as if he had struck gold. No. In fact, to him this felt way better than that. Half an hour’s time was sufficient to end a normal battle. Moreover, this skill could be used twice. This meant that it could last in actual combat for an hour at once.

Qing Shui continued reading on with excitement.

Phoenix Dance: Passive battle skill with zero consumption. Tempered from Phoenix Dance of the Nine Heavens during the bloodline awakening. Strength is permanently increased by a fold and the consumption of all battle techniques is halved.

This was great as he no longer needed to worry about prolonged battles. Besides, he still had the Vital Essence Pill, although there was a limit in consuming the pills. Whether it was a human or a beast, one should not overdose on it as it could overwork the physical body. It would be fine when an appropriate amount is consumed because overexerting the body occasionally could be beneficial.

Phoenix Paradise: When the Fire Bird suffers a fatal injury, there will be a 30% chance of it being resurrected from the flames. A successful resurrection is as good as a transformation, as its strength will be increased by a fold.

Although Phoenix Paradise was extremely powerful, Qing Shui hoped that the Fire Bird would never be forced to use it. Although a 30% chance was not little, it was still extremely risky. Even if strength could be increased by a fold after the resurrection, Qing Shui would rather avoid the chance. He wasn’t going to let Fire Bird risk it.

……..

The next morning, Qing Shui woke up and did his morning practice a short distance from the cave. As for the corpses from yesterday, they should be gone by now since the Sky Penetrating Mountains had demonic beasts. It was impossible for the corpses to linger around there for more than fifteen minutes. Although those corpses were poisonous, they still couldn’t escape the fate of being scavenged by those poison beasts and poisonous insects.

Soon enough, people started to come out one after another. A few elderly men were out for their morning practices too. Although Mu Qing came out as well, Qing Shui had his eyes shut and didn’t react. Instead, he slowly practiced his Taichi Fists.

Qing Shui gave others the impression of being slow and casual, yet his movements were indescribably harmonious, very striking and impressive. It was as if he could blend into nature.

Way of Nature!

After breakfast, everyone pressed on with their journey once again. But this time, they took a detour to avoid the area where they fought the day before. There was no need to pass by there.

The deeper they went, the more dangerous it would be. This in turn caused their speed to decrease relatively tremendously. Luckily, the woman had Lightning Bees which saved the others from a lot of trouble.

Everyone was anxious and always on their toes. Before they realized it, twenty days had already passed. They were now 80,000 li inside, and almost reaching 90,000 li.

Twenty days had passed and Qing Shui felt that they had spent quite some time there. In these twenty days, the group had gained a handful amount of items, but it was Mu Qing and the others that had gained a lot. On the other hand, he basically gained nothing.

Although the woman insisted on sharing a portion with Qing Shui, he firmly stood his ground, declining the offer. Nothing was more important than obtaining a Sky Penetrating Grass, let alone Raging Blow, Sunstone and the Portrait of Beauty. Therefore, Qing Shui would never accept anything else again from that woman no matter what.

In these twenty days, they had encountered quite a large number of demonic beasts. They would basically kill a group of demonic beasts once every two days. Fortunately, Qing Shui’s Soulshake Bell was very effective in the current situation.

He wondered how the woman had survived in the past. From their recent experiences, he realized that this didn’t seem easy for them. Nonetheless, it was just a daunting experience without any mishap. Even without the Soulshake Bell, they could still make it through.

Perhaps, they had barely made it through before. She had the Lightning Bee, which allowed her to maximise the geographical advantage and to prepare ahead of time. Moreover, the woman had also scattered some medicine powder once.

The demonic beast that was covered in this powder would instantly become frenzied, flee, or even become unable to get up. He had only just realized that this was the ‘Bone Powder’ that could occasionally be obtained from refining demons. Not only that, it had to be a high-leveled demonic beasts and only their bones were refined. It was a very precious item.

This was also the reason why Qing Shui had never obtained the ‘Bone Powder’. It was the essence that could be found in the bones of powerful demonic beasts. The violent power in these bones could cause madness to the lower level beasts and it could only work on beasts with a lower rank.

Although Qing Shui was very remarkable in refining demons, he had very little knowledge on the matter. His meeting with Mu Qing had allowed him to learn a lot from her. He would ask her some questions from time to time and Mu Qing would always provide him with a detailed explanation.

It was the same situation regarding the ‘Bone Powder’, if he hadn’t met Mu Qing, it would probably take him forever to find out about it.

Other than that, the Fire Bird had performed powerfully in battle. Those raging flames of the Hell’s Inferno made Qing Shui feel extremely pleasant. Even though it attained the might of of 12 stars under the effect of the Spirit Gathering Lamp, the Hell’s Inferno’s terrifying battle strength had already exceeded 12 stars.

Everyone, including Mu Qing, watched the Fire Bird with admiration. Its performance was very powerful and very incisive. It was able to kill instantly and slaughter at an astonishing speed.

……..

Before Qing Shui’s eyes stood a mighty mountain; majestically tall and straight. It was way taller than the surrounding mountains. In addition, it was fully covered in forests that were mostly made up of ancient towering trees.

Qing Shui felt that the Spiritual Qi on this mountain was much more abundant than anywhere else. There was a saying that ‘The higher the mountain, the more abundant the Spiritual Qi. The deeper the water, the more abundant the Spiritual Qi was.’ Hence, he decided to roam around the mountain to search for treasures. It would be great if he could find the Sky Penetrating Grass that he needed. If he did manage to find it, he could leave this depressing place immediately. Otherwise, he planned on parting ways with Mu Qing and the rest on this mountain.

From time to time, Mu Qing would survey the surroundings and Qing Shui would expand his spiritual sense. Although ‘Lightning Bee’ had a good vision, its vision was slightly weaker when looking at longer distances. If enemies were hidden, they might go undetected. Lightning Bee was only as good as a pair of eyes, it could still be fooled by hidden opponents.

In comparison, spiritual sense was generally stronger than its vision as it detects consciousness. But of course, that didn’t mean spiritual sense would definitely be able to detect everything. The strong could hide from it. But for those weaker in strength, it was basically hopeless to hide from it even if they tried to physically conceal themselves.

Of course, if one had a mysterious cultivation, perhaps they might be able to avoid being detected by some else’s spiritual sense. But there was a limit to it, the disparity between the individual’s strengths could not be too great. Moreover, there was always an exception to everything, and nothing was definite.

The Treasure Hunting Pig traveled back and forth around the compound, squeaking occasionally. It didn’t sound like a pig at all.

The bright sun was up, yet the surrounding was very quiet. The silence was somewhat disturbing. Every now and then, the beasts would roar. Their roars echoed through the sky like the sound of muffled thunder.

This made everyone stressed and tense. It was so deep in the mountains, even a warrior would be terrified.

Within the deepest part of the mountains was the terrifying Sky Penetrating Mountains. The surroundings were covered with ancient forest. It was incomparable to the old forests found in the deep mountains in his previous world. The old forests in his previous world were already indescribably terrifying, let alone the forests here.

The skillful ones were indeed brave!

Rather, it was because of their cultivation. Only cultivation could make a person daring and fearless. This was true for Qing Shui too, as he still had many more demonic beasts, as well as magical treasures and powerful techniques in his possession. These were the things that gave Qing Shui the mettle to travel deeper into the mountains alone to search for the Sky Penetrating Grass.

There were a lot of natural treasures in this mountain. The Treasure Hunting Pig’s occasional squeaks brought joy to the group, staving their nervousness.

Humans die in pursuit of wealth, birds die in pursuit of food!

Ironically, this was a very normal sense of worth. Every person, more or less, had the same mindset. Humans actually have the spirits to take risks. It was precisely due to uncertainty that humans would take risks out of desperation.

They had come across quite a number of beasts as they were slowly approaching the top of the mountain. However, they were not in a flock. These beasts were quite powerful but unfortunately for them, they could only flee when they came face to face with Qing Shui’s group.

Squeak Squeak…..

Once again, the familiar sound of the Treasure Hunting Pig rang out, which made everyone gather around. Everyone, including Qing Shui, were stunned when they saw the treasure that came into their view. It was the Sky Penetrating Grass.

Furthermore, there were ten of them…..

It was a shame that they were a little too small. According to Qing Shui’s knowledge of medicinal herbs, they were only approximately three hundred to five hundred years old. This made Qing Shui’s heart sank. If it required another 3,000 years, that would mean he’d still had to wait another 11 to 12 years even with the Realm of Violet Jade Immortal’s passage of time.

Although he was very disappointed, Qing Shui still approached them and moved the whole patch of land. Under everyone’s surprised gaze, he put the patch of land into the Realm of Violet Jade Immortal.

Up until now, Qing Shui’s interspatial item was still a mystery to them. It was known that no living creature, including plants, could be stashed into the Interspatial Silk Sachet.

Everyone actually knew that what Qing Shui owned was not an Interspatial Silk Sachet, as interspatial items would not be able to contain living beings. Therefore, even if Qing Shui had only temporarily put it in there for the time being, it was evident that his interspatial item was extremely powerful.