Ancient Strengthening Technique (Web Novel)
chapter-901

AST 901 – Changes to Events, Wait and See

The Mu Clan had rejected them. Although they had done so in a tactful way, it was inevitable that the Yin Clan would feel humiliated. Therefore, while there didn’t seem to be any problems on the surface, if the chance were to arise, the Yin Clan wouldn’t mind stepping down on the Mu Clan.

Young Master Yin had tried to rely on the fact that he was considered quite strong in the Yin Clan to make it clear that he wanted Mu Qing to marry him out of her own free will. By saying this, he was making it clear to others that he was going to regain the pride that the Yin Clan had lost from this. If anyone were to interfere, that person would be going against the Yin Clan.

Since Young Master Yin truly liked Mu Qing, no one found this statement strange. On the contrary, it allowed the Yin Clan to regain some of their pride. He didn’t overstep his bounds and merely said that he must successfully court Mu Qing and his effort would definitely let him succeed. Therefore, even the Third Elder couldn’t say anything either. Young Master Yin hadn’t said anything too overbearing, so how could they possibly beat up the other party just because he liked their daughter?

Most importantly, Yin Yuanjiao was also tactful. Maybe it was because he knew that he could not win against Mu Qing in a fight and thus decided to not offend Mu Qing. Although he was impetuous, he still knew his limits. However, it seemed like he had hit a snag.

It wasn’t a problem for him to crush someone’s hand or even kill a nameless person in this city. However, this person was already the Mu Clan’s guest and if anything were to happen to this person while he was in the Mu Residence, it would be a slap to their face.

Therefore, the people from the Mu Clan weren’t very happy. Additionally, there some people from the Mu Clan who hated Young Master Yin.

The reason that Young Master Yin dared to act so bold was that he had investigated beforehand. He knew that Qing Shui was not a relative of the Mu Clan and had merely encountered Mu Qing by chance. They had then entered the Sky Penetrating Mountains together.

A kill was a kill. If the Mu Clan lost face, he could just admit his mistake. It was fine as long as he could eradicate this guy who was next to Mu Qing. He had carefully planned out everything, and even his fury was calculated.

He had underestimated Qing Shui because he didn’t believe that this young ‘giggolo’ would be his match. After all, a demonic genius like Mu Qing might not even be found in ten million people. It wasn’t that easy to encounter someone as talented as her.

But now he knew he found out that he was wrong, very wrong. One of his hands was crushed, while the other hand was badly fractured. This was just his opponent’s casual attack, or rather, they hadn’t even done anything.

What on earth was this fellow’s cultivation realm?

Young Master Yin wasn’t the only one who wanted to know this. All the others present were curious about this as well. Even though Mu Qing knew that Qing Shui was well-learned and even knew about formations, she had always thought that Qing Shui’s cultivation level wasn’t too high. At least, she thought that his cultivation shouldn’t be as high as her. But now, she felt that her way of thinking was very funny.

“Senior, I’m sorry to have caused you trouble. I wasn’t able to control my strength well,” Qing Shui smiled and said to Mu Qian, seemingly embarrassed.

This statement made Mu Qian feel a little awkward. He could tell what Qing Shui was hinting. Earlier, he had also wanted to test out Qing Shui’s abilities and he was sure that Qing Shui was stronger than that Young Master Yin. However, this wasn’t something he could say.

Additionally, Mu Qian had really wanted to make use of Qing Shui to teach Young Master Yin a lesson. After all, they couldn’t do it themselves. Since his daughter seemed to like Qing Shui too, he thought of it as giving Qing Shui a trial.

“It’s no trouble, no trouble. This is a spar. Injuries and deaths are inevitable.” Mu Qian said calmly before walking over to Young Master Yin.

At this moment, Yin Yuanjiao’s hands were basically crippled and he was dealt a great blow. He suddenly let out a loud cry and ran out.

There were no signs of chaos in the room, nor even a single drop of blood. However, Yin Yuanjiao’s hands were crushed and they were crushed to the extent that they were basically crippled. Only some sort of miraculous medicine could save his hands.

Yin Yuanjiao’s departure stunned everyone. On the other hand, Qing Shui was wondering if this Young Master Yin would go crazy.

He wasn’t worried that people from the Yin Clan would come here for now since there was still the Mu Clan. Moreover, even without the Mu Clan, Qing Shui had the confidence that he would be able to attack and evade them as he wished. This was because his Nine Palace Steps had already reached the small success stage. As for formations, it would still require a very long time.

However, with his current cultivation level, paired up with the Nine Palace Steps, only people who were much stronger than him could do anything against him.

…

“Eldest Brother, Young Master Yin was crippled by Qing Shui…”

Someone walked into another hall in the Mu Clan and reported. The people here were the strongest experts amongst the younger generation in the Mu Clan, except Mu Qing’s siblings weren’t here.

“Crippled? Haha, Fifth Brother was right. Qing Shui can now forget about having a good end unless he holes up in the Mu Clan and not head out,” the staunch man addressed as the Eldest Brother laughed and said.

“The Yin Clan definitely won’t let Qing Shui off, not even if the Mu Clan were to stand up for him. Sister Qing’s refusal of the Yin Clan’s marriage proposal had already caused them to feel humiliated. Now that Young Master Yin was crippled by the guy that she brought back, they definitely won’t take this lying down. After all, the Yin Clan isn’t any weaker when compared to the Mu Clan.” The skinny man dressed in embroidered clothes frowned and said.

“What’s so bad about that?” asked the staunch guy puzzledly when he noticed his Fifth Brother’s expression. Amongst all the siblings here and in terms of all their siblings, this Fifth Brother was the most intelligent one.

“I previously heard that Sister Qing and the others were learning formations?” the skinny man’s expression suddenly became unnatural.

“Formations? Like the type that the Sky Prison Sect uses?” the staunch man frowned and looked at his Fifth Brother.

“I think so. Does Eldest Brother know who she’s learning it from?” said the Fifth Brother as he gradually regained his calm.

“Qing Shui?”

“That’s right. Another notable fact is that there wasn’t even a corpse of the Sky Prison Sect’s ‘Flower Crusher’ left behind. They had entered at about the same time as Sister Qing and the others. Most importantly, we’ve received news that their target was Sister Qing.” The skinny man wearing embroidered clothes looked at his Eldest Brother and said slowly.

“The Flower Crusher’s abilities is quite high. Most importantly, if their group were to form the saber formation, there’s almost no one amongst the younger generation who would be able to do anything against them. Couldn’t they’ve died because of some powerful demonic beasts they encountered?”

“They had died at the hands of Sister Qing’s and that Qing Shui’s. I just received this news too.” A substitute member for their formations who had followed the Flower Crusher had spread this news. When the Flower Crusher was attacking Sister Qing and Qing Shui, this substitute member coincidentally needed to relieve himself and thus left for a short while. When he came back, everyone was dead. That were no demonic beasts, nor were there Sister Qing’s and Qing Shui’s corpses. Earlier, they were attacking Sister Qing and Qing Shui, so there can only be one answer. Sister Qing and Qing Shui had killed the Flower Crusher.” The skinny man sighed and said.

“Sister Qing’s abilities aren’t sufficient to kill this opponent. This Qing Shui isn’t simple,” the staunch and handsome man looked at his 5th Brother and said with a smile.

“Earlier, he had even crippled Young Master Yin with great ease. A person who dares to attack someone from the Yin Clan is either a person who is very strong but acts weak or simply an idiot. This Qing Shui is clearly not an idiot. Maybe everyone was wrong about him.” The skinny man tapped his left hand gently on the table, his expression was one that was full of caution.

“From now onwards, don’t do anything. Don’t talk about this matter either.” The staunch man hesitated for a moment before saying.

The others nodded. They had attained their goal, but they were still uneasy. However, it was still nothing since the others wouldn’t think that they had done any harm to others.

…

“Father, the Yin Clan will definitely find trouble for Qing Shui this time around.” Mu Qing looked at Mu Qian worriedly and said.

“Haha, don’t worry. Our Mu Clan isn’t any weaker than their Yin Clan. Moreover, they only have their lack of abilities to blame for this incident. They can’t blame others.” Mu Qian didn’t seem to care at all, as he said this.

“This thing has nothing to do with the Mu Clan. If the people from the Yin Clan send their people here, don’t worry, I’ll talk to them myself.” Qing Shui smiled and said.

“That can’t do. You’re my friend. How can I let you deal with this alone…” Mu Qing said anxiously. Although she was anxious, her voice was still euphonious and refined.

“Qing Shui, no matter how sorry our Mu Clan is, we can’t do this. Moreover, you’re my daughter’s friend. As long as I, Mu Qian, am alive, I’ll make sure that you’re safe.” Mu Qian looked at Qing Shui and said calmly, his tone was so firm that no one would doubt his words. It also had a powerful confidence.

Qing Shui smiled and nodded. The atmosphere lightened up a lot too.

“I heard that you’re teaching my daughter about formations,” after everyone sat down again, Mu Qian smiled and said, as if he was asking casually.

Qing Shui was stunned for a moment before he smiled and replied, “It’s not really teaching. I only know a little about this. Miss Mu seems to be interested in this, so I’m just sharing with her what I know about them.”

“Qing Shui, you’re too humble. Formations are very profound and it’s hard for ordinary people to come into contact with them. In the Eastern Victory Divine Continent, the sects and clans who know about formations are also limited. These sects and clans are all very powerful.” Mu Qian looked at Qing Shui and said with a smile.

Qing Shui smiled in return. He knew that Mu Qian was actually suspicious of his identity since no one knew of his background. Additionally, he seemed to be very close with Mu Qing, and as a father, it was natural for Mu Qian to want to know about Qing Shui.

“I’m not from a clan or a sect that specializes in formations. I’ve only had a lucky encounter previously and got my hands on a book related to formations, thus managing to pick up a thing or two about it. If Miss Mu isn’t interested in this, then I wouldn’t have thought about bringing it up.” Qing Shui explained.

Qing Shui then asked about some things related to refining demons. This made Mu Qian very astonished. He hadn’t expected that Qing Shui would know about refining demon too. He didn’t ask about Qing Shui’s cultivation realm but he knew that this young man was very strong. He wasn’t sure if Qing Shui was stronger than him but he felt that Qing Shui shouldn’t. It was because it would be too unbelievable if he was.

The meal lasted for about two hours. Mu Qing brought Qing Shui to a room for him to rest in. She had her own independent manor in the Mu Clan and there were several buildings there.

Qing Shui didn’t see Dong Yan and Sun Yan. He guessed that they should be still drinking. As he followed Mu Qing to her manor, Qing Shui was actually pondering about some matters.

For example, when they had brought up the issue of formations, Mu Qian had suspected his background. He must have suspected that Qing Shui was someone from the Sky Prison Sect or was someone who specialized in formations.

What Qing Shui didn’t know was that Mu Qian was aware that he wasn’t from the Sky Prison Sect and that he was someone which the Sky Prison Sect wouldn’t be able to forgive. It was because Mu Qian knew of the fact that Qing Shui had joined forces with Mu Qing to kill the Flower Crusher from the Sky Prison Sect. Mu Qian had known of this fact earlier than that ‘Fifth Brother’. He wasn’t afraid of the Yin Clan, but he was afraid of the Sky Prison Sect.

The Sky Prison Sect wasn’t on amiable terms with many sects and factions in the city, but the other factions couldn’t do anything about it. While some of the powerful sects from this area could go against the Sky Prison Sect, they wouldn’t eradicate them just because they had the ability to do so. If they were to battle it out, regardless if the result was a victory or a loss, they would still suffer heavy losses.