The Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 1894 - The Grand State Master Had Arrived

"There's always a solution to a problem. Perhaps this matter isn't as tricky as you think." Qing Shui smiled, his tone remained calming to the ears.

Without realizing it, they had already reached the doors to the manor. Despite the sky being dark now, the small manor was lit up quite brightly. There were Light Stones or something similar placed inside the room. Even though this place wasn't frequently cleaned up, it was still clean nevertheless. Besides, a woman of such strength like her would have everything she needed inside her Interspatial Silk Sachet.

"Brother Shui, it's late already. You should take an early rest!" The woman stopped at the doors to the small manor and said to Qing Shui with a smile.

Qing Shui nodded at her words and responded with a smile. Even though he had no thoughts of tainting her, the urge and desire of a man were still strong within him. Because of that, the best thing to do for the moment would be to evade her at the appropriate time. Otherwise, he would eventually succumb to his desires should he stay too long by her side.

As the saying goes, it would be much easier for women to approach men than the other way around. Women would only require significantly less effort to pursue men. However, there were actually a lot of times when women did not need to put an effort into pursuing men. As long as a woman shoot a few charming glances toward a man, he would make a move on her and if she did not resist his advances, then what came next would easily be spontaneous and natural.

Qing Shui felt no need to prove whether men were really animals driven only for sex or not. However, he truly felt that men were impulsive, have strong visual sense, and mostly lacking any sort of immunity when faced with sex appeal. When that happens, the consequences would not matter. If they weren't afraid of shortening their lives, what else was there to be afraid of? They weren't even afraid of throwing away their lives too. If this wasn't the case, then there wouldn't be a proverb that said, 'If one should perish under a Peony flower, one would still be charming as a ghost'.

"You too!" Qing Shui replied before turning around and left.

The woman gazed at Qing Shui's back silhouette until he slowly walked toward a far distance. She did not move even after his silhouette had completely disappeared and continued to stand there in a blank trance. Her mind was in a bit of a mess as she felt anxious. She had no idea why and how she had turned out like this. She didn't know what to make of her current thoughts too.

This was the first time she had felt this way, which was the feeling of slight uneasiness. She knew it wasn't completely due to the matters concerning the Grand State Master despite it being one of the reasons she felt that way. Most importantly, she felt that Qing Shui had played a huge part in her emotions. This man had caused her to feel confused for a brief moment.

She couldn't tell whether she liked the feeling this way or not either. This man had a mean side to him that other men had. This might be the true character of a man, yet he had a strong control over his nature and behavior. He was very well-disciplined too. Qing Shui was considered a true man due to his ability to bear accountability and responsibility.

When he was in front of her, he would not act like those men who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths that she had met in the past. This man was the most natural-acting youth that she had met in her life. She would always feel that the others were pretentious around her no matter how graceful or impressive they were, as if they wanted to show a more perfect representation of themselves in front of her.

However, the more they do that, the greater they would fail. Perhaps it might be true that he had never liked her, yet she herself had thought that it might not be the case. After all, this man had twice or thrice lost his focus in front of her. There was lust in his eyes, yet there was a sense of rational in them too.

Her body had been touched by him before even though it was for the sake of treating the poison. Moreover, he had given her acupuncture through her clothes but only a few times where he had to touch her slightly. Perhaps those gestures did not mean anything, but she knew she couldn't possibly forget his touches for a while.

In any case, what had been touched was touched. This sort of thing didn't mean anything. As a martial cultivator, being touched would always happen during a battle. Would taking a punch on the chest count as being touched? No one knew whether this woman was more concerned with her life or her innocence when she took a bloody hit leading to internal injuries. She could only force a laugh whenever she looked back at the situation.

Her strength was powerful, perhaps formidable. All this while, she had been fighting with demonic beasts. She would rather allow her body to be touched by a demonic beast than exchanging blows with a man, which was why Qing Shui was the first man who had been able to touch her. This was also the reason why she felt confused in the first place.

She didn't feel like she was being taken advantage of, yet when she realized that this man was a bit of a rascal as well despite being an excellent man, she couldn't possibly return his kindness with ingratitude by beating him up, could she? He didn't seem like he had intentionally touched her. Moreover, the thought of fighting him had never crossed her mind even once.

Shaking her head, the woman turned around and headed toward the small courtyard as she dismissed the complicated thoughts in her head. It would better for her to think of a way to settle the matter regarding the Grand State Master instead.

…...

Some things could never be evaded no matter how much one wanted to. Two days later before the woman could return to the State Master Manor, a person had come to see her.

Correct, a person. This person seemed to be a stalwart middle-aged man. The most prominent feature this man had was his extraordinarily black, long hair. Most people would get the impression that he was a tough type. It would be hard to differentiate whether this type of people was in the justice path or the evil path.

He had a pair of deep eyes as well. His eyebrows were black and thick, which would always leave a deep impact on one's memories after seeing them just once. This man had a square nose and bits of stubbles around his wide mouth. He couldn't be considered as an extremely handsome man, yet he was definitely not an ugly person either. Overall, this man gave an impression that he was a strong and powerful person.

"Dongfang State Master!"

The man threaded through the air and stood mid-air on top of the Imperial Cuisine Hall as he called out toward the direction where Qing Shui, the woman, and the others stood.

Even though the man standing in mid-air did not resemble a celestial who had descended to the mortal world, he had an air of dominant temperament exuded from within.

"What business does the Grand State Master has with me?" The woman moved two steps forward and looked up to gaze at the man hovering in mid-air.

The Grand State Master twitched his thick eyebrows upon hearing her words and replied, "There are too many problems concerning the empire. I come to look for you because I want to discuss some things with you."

Although his reason for coming was a good explanation, the difference was that the Grand State Master had personally come here instead, which was the weirdest part of it all. Under normal circumstances, the Grand State Master would not come here despite needing to discuss something with her. Because of that, the woman knew that her assumption was correct in the first place.

"I have some things I want to discuss with the Grand State Master too." The woman smiled.

The Grand State Master briefly lost his composure upon seeing the smile on the woman's face. From Qing Shui's perspective, he was able to tell that this man could not escape from lust despite his strong demeanor.

Even so, this was considered normal. There weren't many in this world who could actually elude themselves from lust. The Celestials in the stories or myths of his past life couldn't even escape from that kind of desire, much less the mortals themselves.

"That's good. Let's go back and discuss together!" The expression on the Grand State Master's face seemed to have relaxed a little.

The Grand State Master gave off an impression that he was a stern man. His manner of speech at the moment was certainly serious and non-frivolous.

"I want to discuss in this place. This matter is quite easy for the Grand State Master." The woman slightly shook her head.

"Please go on!" The Grand State Master slowly uttered those words after hesitating for a while.

"I hope that this matter will not involve others, and certainly not them." The woman pointed at Qing Shui and the others after she finished talking.

The Grand State Master creased a frown on his forehead and shot a sinister glance as he looked at Qing Shui. Even though his gaze wasn't that obvious, one would definitely be able to sense it if their spiritual ability was sensitive enough.

Moreover, Qing Shui had been paying close attention to this man as well, which was why he was able to notice his sinister glance. He then slowly walked to the woman's side and said, "Foolish woman. I know you mean me well. Do you really think that this will be enough to make this evil man stop? Didn't you see how sinister this bastard's eyes were just now?"

Qing Shui had already decided that he would not stand by and do nothing because he had actually seen this man quietly sizing up the women surrounding him. Due to that reason, Qing Shui had made up his mind that he could not stay quiet in defeat anymore. This person must be exterminated. Otherwise, Qing Shui wouldn't feel at ease if he were to leave in the future.

Qing Shui's words quickly threw the man off balance as he looked at the woman with a ghastly expression, "Do you like this kid?"

The woman knew that things had gone awry with one look at the situation. At that moment, she didn't know what to say as she looked at Qing Shui. Afterward, she turned to the middle-aged man and said, "Grand State Master, I want to go back to the Heaven Chess Immortal Palace. As of now, I would like to resign from my position as a State Master."