The Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 1735 - Entering The Northern Ocean Dragon Mercy Path

Qing Shui stopped talking. He knew the reason behind Shui Yunfeng's words. Furthermore, he reckoned that this time, it'd very hard to leave the Northern Ocean Dragon Mercy Path.

Qing Shui didn't look worried, while Shui Yunfeng already expected death. He couldn't recover from his unmentionable disease without Qing Shui. He was a wise man of justice. Since it was already mentioned, he would surely do it.

The Sunset Palace Mistress and Muyun Qingge appeared depressed. They didn't have clear stances in such a situation. They could only put all their hopes on this man due to the strength discrepancies.

It was unfair to say that Qing Shui was not worried and never expected this. Still, he was a man with principles and limits. Since both of the Mistresses had already clarified that they were not interested in Yan Ziyun, then he wouldn't allow anyone to take a share. Yan Ziyun's statement of exchanging was clearly a humiliation to him and to the Mistresses. If he were to choose again, he would still make the exact same decision.

The Mistresses knew Qing Shui's intention for sure. His words provoked Yan Ziyun, leading to the current situation. He did all this to defend their dignity.

However, anyone knew that once Yan Ziyun wanted the Mistresses, sooner or later there would be troubles. Since both of them were not Ocean Demons, Yan Ziyun could openly snatch them away……

Qing Shui noticed the expressions of Xuan Yun and Huang Wu along with their gang, who were seemingly amused by his misfortune. That was because of the unpleasant affair between Qing Shui and the Wavemoon Cavern. Things were better with the Xu Clan, but there's still awkwardness.

The Watermoon Cavern was not on good terms with the Wavemoon Cavern and the Xu Clan. As Qing Shui and Shui Yunfeng were together, it was normal to also be hated and the others took their misfortune as joy.

Qing Shui could only secretly curse them for being shortsighted. The existence of three main powerful forces in this region prevented the outsiders from intruding, regardless of the harmony among the forces. Plus, the more the forces were, the safer the region was. Outsiders could only have a tiny share or even none at all.

If there's only a single force, then nearby forces with similar strengths would probably try to interfere, as it was very easy to gain a share.

The three forces were not friendly to each other on normal days. Yet, they're united upon facing enemies. However, it's a different story facing the Ocean Demons. There's 80% possibility that they wouldn't get their hands dirty, considering the Ocean Demon Palace was way too formidable.

……

……

Qing Shui noticed the huge crowd around him, roughly more than a thousand who were scattered in the far distance. The emergence of Ocean Demon Palace was beyond expectations, yet, that even signified the existence of good treasure here. Else, the Ocean Demons wouldn't have come here.

Initially, Qing Shui planned to fight against the Ocean Demon Palace via combining with other forces. Now, it was apparent that there's no other hope to rely on than himself. Qing Shui heaved a sigh while looking at the Mistresses, "Will it be a huge mess?"

"Mm, but we aren't afraid," Sunset Palace Mistress smiled.

Qing Shui looked at her with a smile, "Why aren't you afraid? Is the Ocean Demon Palace not formidable?"

The Sunset Palace Mistress shook her head, " Of course they are formidable, but I have faith in you."

A simple statement warmed Qing Shui's heart. This was a feeling of being trusted. Shui Yunfeng was surprised and moved by Qing Shui's unrivaled luck with romance. It's a massive fortune to meet even one beautiful lady, yet he had already seen four of them.

A halo gate appeared and immediately caught everyone's eyes. This halo gate was a thousand meters tall and wide. It stood on the seabed, carved with ancient patterns, giving out an aged and simple sensation.

It was not Qing Shui's first time seeing such a huge gate. All entrances to the ancient historic relics were similar. However, this gate seemed a little too huge. This was the main gate to the Dragon Mercy Path.

The way of entering was simple:to achieve a certain strength to resist its repelling power. This was a linking boundary.

After glancing at the people around, the men of Ocean Demon Palace entered one after one. The remaining men, however, didn't make a move following the entrance of the Ocean Demon Palace. Instead, they laid their eyes and focused on Qing Shui.

It was known that Qing Shui rubbed the nerves of Ocean Demon Palace or even made mortal enemies with them. Hence, everyone was thinking Qing Shui dared not enter.

In fact, it made no difference whether he entered or not. Since the Ocean Demon Palace had marked him down, there's no way he could escape. Yet, everyone was wondering if this young guy had the guts and responsibility.

Qing Shui looked at the Mistresses and Shui Yunfeng, "Let's enter!"

The Mistresses nodded. Shui Yunfeng nodded and led the way to the linking boundary. He even made the first leap.

Qing Shui dared not to hesitate any longer, he basically jumped simultaneously with Shui Yunfeng.

Subsequently, the Mistresses and the followers of Shui Yunfeng jumped into the entrance.

After a dizzy journey, they arrived at a spacious land. The whole process took place quickly. As they landed safely, they noticed the men from Ocean Demon Palace not too far away.

Upon Qing Shui and his men's arrival, Yan Ziyun threw a cynical smile at Qing Shui. There's a faint murderous spirit in that smile, but to others, it appeared extremely confident.

Qing Shui was uneasy looking at his face. At once, Qing Shui used Art of Pursuing to increase his speed. In addition, Qing Shui had abundant hidden techniques to raid others. Putting the techniques aside, there were a lot of hidden raiding tools in alchemy and training of the demons.

Qing Shui had accumulated many Demon Refining Crystal Cards. Among them was a superior crystal card to be combined with the Art of Pursuing. It was obtained during training some extremely heavy and powerful demonic beasts.

Sluggish Crystal Card! Applicable to any living target, 20% decrease in speed and response, lasts for 15 minutes.

When he had first obtained this item, he was rather depressed and unhappy that it couldn't improve his own strength. He knew this item could decrease the enemy's strength, which indirectly indicated improvement in own strength.

However, it wasn't long until Qing Shui realized the formidable power of this crystal card. It was absolutely daunting when combined with Qing Shui's Art of Pursuing, Emperor's Qi, and Heavenly Talisman.

The crystal cards were ranked according to their qualities. Those of low quality would be canceled directly upon encountering those with formidable power. Yet, it's difficult for the effects of high-quality crystal cards to be canceled. They ranged from 1 to 1,000 in grade.

Crystal cards were only ranked based on grades, without differentiation based on types and their associated power. Each of them had its respective power with a different grade. The demon-refining masters in Main Continents had a vast amount of crystal cards, yet, there was a shortage of the high-grade ones, despite the high nominal prices.

The perfect-grade crystal cards were rare and invaluable. Those crystal cards could not be canceled by any external power within an effective period. There's no one known to be able to cancel them.

For instance, the Sluggish Crystal Card of perfect grade could immediately reduce over 90% of speed, instead of only 20% speed reduction. This eventually reduced the speed to less than 10%, which was unable to recover instantly within a certain period.

Nevertheless, the perfect-grade crystal cards were dependent on human personalities. The probability of getting it was one in ten thousand. There're many demon-refining masters in the Main Continents yet the perfect-grade crystal cards were still scarcely found. Even if they existed, one would be reluctant to use them until it's too late to stay alive, such things happened frequently…...