The Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 1445 - Memory Recovered, Father and Son Reunited, Obstacles

The others left, the man was standing some distance away from Qing Shui, seemingly not afraid of being surrounded by Qing Shui's group.

"They are not here anymore, now you can say whatever it is that you wanted to say to me." The man said eagerly.

"I'm not sure if your loss of memory was caused by drugs. If you'd let me, I can try healing you. If it really was caused by drugs, I may be able to restore your deepest and most cherished memories. You can think about it." Qing Shui smiled and said.

The man was taken aback a little. If he had lost his memory due to drugs, why would the Patriarch wipe his memory? Moreover, the Patriarch mentioned before that the memory loss was due to natural causes. If it really was caused by drugs, then nothing more could have been said.

Qing Shui was sure that the man is Yan Zhongyue, his own father. He had found him way earlier than expected. Well, this was a good thing, after all.

Seeing him did not make Qing Shui feel especially happy or excited. If it had not been for his mother, he would have forgotten. But now Qing Shui could forgive him because he had lost his memory. Everything could be forgiven.

"I trust you!"

The man smiled at Qing Shui. He felt that there was a special connection between the young man standing in front of him, who looked like himself. That was what his instincts told him.

Qing Shui took out the Life and Death Needles and walked towards the man with his guard down. The man did not move, also letting his guard down. Qing Shui smiled and started the acupuncture with the needles.

The Force of Rebirth has incredible recovery properties. The pure Qi of the Ancient Strengthening Technique has Nature Energy and Battle God's Qi that could expel all things with Evil Qi. There were only two kinds of drugs, righteous and evil, or buff and debuff medicines.

The buff medicines were obvious, the debuff ones had negative effects. Nature Energy and the Qi of the Ancient Strengthening Technique could cure the effects, but the Force of Rebirth could reverse the effects and promote recovery, curing the bad effects at the same time.

Qing Shui closed his eyes, sensing his own energy shuttling back and forth within the man's body. If it had been caused by drugs, the energy would be blocked. Breaking through the blockage would solve the problem, but that would require a lot more energy.

As it turned out, it had been caused by drugs after all......

He confirmed it the moment he felt a strong resistance. However, he could not understand why someone that powerful would plot something towards Yan Zhongyue. What was the motive behind this?

Qing Shui kept on sensing, all while curing the effects of the drug.

Qing Shui continued curing the drug effects as timed passed. About one and a half hours into the procedure, Qing Shui's body shook. He stopped, then looked at the man.

"How long does your Patriarch have left to live?" Qing Shui knitted his brows and asked.

"20 years, I think. What does it have to do with this?" The man was puzzled.

"Do you know why your powers develop so quickly? Have you heard of Mind Plunder?" Qing Shui looked at the man and said.

"The Patriarch says my constitution is special. Mind Plunder is a powerful Divine Sense that takes over one's consciousness, but it only has a 0.01% success rate, so virtually no one uses it." The man answered, still puzzled.

"When I was curing you just now, I noticed that you are of Sarira Physique*. Having this makes cultivating faster, especially when using cultivating techniques that are compatible you. But there is something special about this physique. When using Mind Plunder on people with this physique, the chances of success are a hundred times higher than normal. Moreover, if your power is more than 50 million Sun, the chances increase by another tenfold."

The man's eyes began to reflect the mixed feelings inside him. His power definitely exceeded 50 million Sun, and it was only achieved 6 months ago after a big breakthrough. After hearing Qing Shui's words, he was able to link together everything that had been going on. He had finally understood, and he knew Qing Shui was not lying.

The more he thought of it, the more terrifying it became. Back then, the old man who had saved him had an evil aura around him - his physique was special, so he could sense it. But the old man kept helping him no matter what, and the man turned out to be the leader of the Justice Alliance of Soaring Dragon Continent. The man treated him even better than how he treated his other subordinates. This made him careless. It made him think that anyone who treated him well were good people. He forgot that only family would give love so unconditionally, but now he understood.

The old man wanted to use Mind Plunder and take over his body. The old man had been plotting, committing for decades, and he had received the benefits for decades, but the price of it was his own life.

"Oh, and your memory loss was caused by drugs. I haven't gotten rid of the drug's effects. After I'm done, you'll recover some of your memories, you wanna try?" Qing Shui repeated.

"Before that, please tell me, how's my family doing?" The man asked Qing Shui, feeling uneasy.

Now he is sure that the young man in front of him was someone special to him, possibly even his own son! He had lost his memory, so anything is possible.

"They're doing quite well." Qing Shui said softly.

"Then I'll try it!" The man said.

Qing Shui could understand what the man's thoughts were. If his family was not doing well, he would choose to go on without his memories rather than bearing the pain.

Qing Shui performed acupuncture once more, this time more swiftly. He finished after thirty minutes. His hands shuddered slightly when he was done.

The cause of that was, of course, because he had heard the man muttering several names.

Qing Yi...... Qing Qing......

Qing Qing's full name was Yan Qing Qing. But no one knew if she was still Qing Yan Yan, since no one called her that anymore.

The muddle-headed man screamed these two names, teardrops flowing from his eyes. Men only wept when deeply hurt, and do not easily shed tears unless his heart was broken.

Even the strongest people have had times when they are weak. Qing Shui did not expect him to recover so many memories. This just showed how strong that memory was.

"They are still doing fine right? It's been forty years, even my little girl is all grown up now!" The man looked at Qing Shui, nostalgia shining from within his eyes.

"They're doing very well. What are your plans?" Qing Shui did not ask how much he had remembered, but judging from the looks of it, he remembered a lot. This much was expected, as he did have confidence in his own skills.

"I can't find you anywhere in my memory." The man said puzzledly to Qing Shui.

"Even if you didn't lose your memory, it's impossible for me to be in there. How much have you remembered?" Qing Shui thought and said.

"I remember everything, all of them! I am Yan Zhongyue, member of the Yan family of Yan City in Yan Jiang Country of the Greencloud Continent. My wife, Qing Yi, is a member of the Qing Family and I have a daughter......" The man said slowly and calmly, but there was still a hint of excitement in his voice.

Qing Shui sat there blank-minded. He had not expected him to make a complete recovery, but nonetheless, this was a good thing.

"The Yan Family has let them down, I let them down too." Yan Zhongyue let out a huge sigh.

"The Yan Family that let them down is already gone, even the Xiao Family was wiped out." Qing Shui said.

"With you here, those things were normal. Good riddance to those who deserved to die. Now can you tell me who you are?" Yan Zhongyue asked curiously and worriedly.

"My name is Qing Shui. I finally found you, Father." After knowing that Yan Zhongyue had lost his memory, everything had become forgivable. If not, Qing Shui would never have forgiven him. This was his father, his one and only birth father. With him here, their family was complete and his mother would not have any regrets.

Yan Zhongyue had actually thought about it - the mysterious bond between family members. Before Yan Zhongyue could talk about it, Qing Shui beat him to talking about his childhood with Qing Qing, but he already knew it all.

"My son, I am proud to have been blessed with a remarkable son like you." Yan Zhongyue laughed heartily, very heartily indeed.

As he laughed, Yan Zhongyue put his hand on Qing Shui's shoulder. This was his son, even though his son was already all grown up on their first meeting. However, it did not affect how close they were. This was the true meaning of blood relations.

"You all went through so much suffering, all because I was powerless." Yan Zhongyue said bitterly. He knew how much effort was needed for someone to achieve what Qing Shui has under those circumstances. Even if someone helped Qing Shui all the way, he knew that his efforts were greater than anyone else.

"It was not harsh at all, as long as I had my family. Mother misses you very much. Why not leave the Soaring Dragon, even if it means losing the Dragon Headed title?" Qing Shui looked at Yan Zhongyue and said.

"I can't go back now, they would never let me go. I would only be bringing harm to the entire family." Yan Zhongyue said while shaking his head.

Qing Shui had become a lot more powerful. Along with the Dragon Slaying Beast, the Nine Stances of Ancient Battle Technique, Phoenix Finger and Cripple, he would stand a chance even if he was matched up against the Patriarch.

"Let us work arm in arm as father and son, we won't lose to him!" Qing Shui said firmly.

"He is very strong, we should not risk it. Definitely not." Yan Zhongyue would not allow any accidents.

"If we work together, we can stand equal against the Patriarch." This time, it was the Demon Lord who Spoke.

The Demon Lord's words calmed Qing Shui down. Even without her words, Qing Shui would not allow Yan Zhongyue to return to the Soaring Dragon.

"You won't get away. The Patriarch treated you with so much care, how dare you plot revenge against him?" It was at this moment, the dozens of old men returned.

"Haha, you can't stop us from leaving." Qing Shui smiled at them.

"What if you have to go through us?"

An old voice rang all of a sudden. Another few dozen people appeared; they looked even more elderly.

"Grand Elder! Left Custodian! You came, what a relief!" An old man exclaimed in joy.

"Dragon Head, if you return with us now, we will ignore what just happened." Left Custodian said coldly.

The Left Custodian was normal and looked like a typical old man, but with more rigid expressions. His eyes were as sharp as a hawk. He did not look like a man of justice at all.

These men were clearly stronger than the previous ones, but they were still nothing to Qing Shui. Even so, fighting them would be a pain, because the men who had just appeared were not weak at all.

*Note : Sarira is a Buddhist term - Śarīra is a generic term referring to Buddhist relics, although in common usage it usually refers to pearl or crystal-like bead-shaped objects that are purportedly found among the cremated ashes of Buddhist spiritual masters