The Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 2184 - Liu Clan, Poison Willow Darts

Qing Shui gave it some thought before saying to them, "Alright, we'll go in together, but don't go further than five meters away from me."

Everyone nodded.

Qing Shui used a Five Spirits Formation and connected their auras together. With this, he would be able to sense everyone's location accurately, and it'd be easy to find them even if they were to be separated. Moreover, Qing Shui would be able to talk to them directly and tell them what to do.

Qing Shui took the lead and headed toward the valley's entrance. It was a little dark, but at the instant Qing Shui stepped inside, he sensed the existence of a formation. All of them also entered the formation at the same time, and the view presented to them went through a huge difference from what they saw outside.

This was a dilapidated village, a very ancient one. The place was in a battered state and Qing Shui guessed that this could have been a village from a very long time ago but had just been sealed up by a Formation Master, and thus resulting in the current state. Qing Shui felt that the entire village wouldn't have been sealed up for no reason at all. There must have been some reason behind it.

There could be many different reasons, for example, to seal up a powerful demonic beast that was unrivaled. In the end, the entire village had to be sacrificed to seal up the demonic beast. It could also be that the people in this village had been infected with some kind of poison. There could also be other reasons, such as the people in this village being very powerful or had some kind of terrifying blood lineage that threatened other's status and thus, ended up being sealed up by a Formation Master.

Regardless what the reason was, it must be because it was hard to use any other means to deal with the situation here, thus resulting in them putting up a great sealing formation at an extremely high cost. The people outside weren't able to enter, and the people inside weren't able to come out.

The reason why Qing Shui could enter now was that the formation, which had been there for very long, had already lost 80-90% of its prowess. This was also why they could enter so easily.

The overall feeling the village gave off was when the sun was setting and there was still an afterglow. This was the time the place had been sealed back then and although time continued to flow, the feeling the place gave off within the formation would always be that of this time.

Qing Shui looked around. This was an extremely powerful Trap Formation. Thankfully, with time, the Trap Formation had already lost its former abilities. Otherwise, Qing Shui and the others wouldn't be able to leave it or even to enter it in the first place.

This place was very quiet, and it was basically impossible for there to be any more life forms. After all, a very long time had passed. Qing Shui made an inference as he advanced slowly, and he looked at the dilapidated houses. There were no more trees and plants around.

Quite a number of the old houses had already collapsed, and even those that hadn't collapsed also appeared extremely old. The place felt eerie, without any living auras. This wasn't surprising. In Qing Shui's previous life, most people wouldn't dare to enter old houses that were several decades old.

The age of these old houses was very terrifying, but Qing Shui was strong. He didn't care if there were ghosts. Even if there were, they would be beaten up until they dissipated by his Nine Yang Dragon Soul.

Suddenly, Qing Shui sensed a strange wave in the air. He retreated one step and pushed away Beihuang Fan and another elderly man. At almost the same time, a cold gleam flashed at an unbelievable speed. That thing started burning in the air rapidly.

Moreover, it didn't take one to guess that it was also very sharp.

There were traps!

Qing Shui was speechless. He now felt that this place was very dangerous. The power of that cold gleam from earlier would be able to pierce through even an existence like Beihuang Fan.

Qing Shui activated the damage reduction effect of his Divine Weapon and also increased the defensive formations as well as using the Buddha Diamond Seal. This made everyone's defense increased by a lot more. This was not all. Qing Shui also brought out the Dragon Slaying Beast, Dragon Spider, Golden Scaled Dragon Elephant, and Dark Phoenix.

Beihuang Fan brought out the Sun Phoenix. With that, their surroundings were secured. Qing Shui applied his abilities onto the demonic beasts as well and this made the demonic beasts' resistance to attacks a lot more powerful than the humans'. Of course, Qing Shui was an exception.

Swoosh swoosh!

This time around, there were two of those cold gleams.

Upon sensing them, Qing Shui got the Dragon Slaying Beast to block one off and Sun Phoenix the other.

The Dragon Slaying Beast was sent flying but wasn't hurt. Sun Phoenix managed to stop it but received a little damage which wasn't severe. This was because Qing Shui had strengthened Sun Phoenix. Otherwise, if it was still at the level when it was first tamed, it would have been dealt with severe injuries even if it didn't die.

Sun Phoenix forced the hidden weapon out of its body. The injury it had sustained could be neglected. The weapon didn't penetrate through its body, and it didn't hit any crucial spots. Therefore, the injury wasn't serious.

Qing Shui picked up the hidden weapon that the Dragon Slaying Beast had managed to fend off.

It was a dart that was in the shape of a triangular prism. It was silver with sharp points on both ends and three sharp edges. The dart was also in a slight spiral shape and had a fine fuller which seemed as if it was used to store blood. However, Qing Shui knew that its ability to store blood was limited, and it was actually meant to store poison.

"This is the Poison Willow Dart." At that moment, the old man from the Divine Palace spoke up.

The old man was the oldest amongst them and was one who had past his prime.

The people from the Divine Palace all referred to him as Old Master Yuan. No one knew what he was actually called. Qing Shui asked happily, "Old Master, you recognize this Poison Willow Dart?"

"I only came across it before in an old book, but I'm very sure that this is the Poison Willow Dart. It's just that there hasn't been any poison placed onto this Poison Willow Dart." Old Master Yuan said calmly.

"Old Master, stop keeping us in suspense. What's the background of this Poison Willow Dart?" Qing Shui urged Old Master Yuan, and the others also looked at Old Master Yuan with curiosity.

"It's from a very long time ago. Not from the ancient times but the time beyond that. There existed a clan in the world that excelled in hidden weapons and poison—the Liu Clan. The Liu Clan were said to be great masters in both hidden weapons and poison. They would usually not use poison and had great expertise in their hidden weapons. Every part of their bodies was covered in hidden weapons, and they also excelled in speed. It was the power of their legacy that they were born to have great speed. This Poison Willow Dart was one of the Liu Clan's greatest move. It would usually not be brought out, but if it appeared, it would take one's life." Old Master Yuan said casually.

Qing Shui also excelled in hidden weapons and poison, but he rarely used them. He hadn't expected that a long time ago, there had also been a clan like this. He wondered if this clan still existed today.

Qing Shui suddenly thought of something and asked, "This village couldn't have been sealed up by the Liu Clan, right? Or that the Liu Clan had been sealed inside."

There was no basis for his guess as just a few Poison Willow Darts seemed to be insufficient to draw this conclusion. However, the traps in this formation were all Poison Willow Dart and although the ones they had encountered now didn't have any poison on them, no one knew if the ones later on would have any. If it was a poison without any remedy, then it would be bad.

The few of them fell silent. They didn't feel much for the Liu Clan which had existed in the past, but the Poison Willow Darts were a bit of a headache. It would be fine if they didn't have any poison on them, but if there were strong poison and they were hit and couldn't be saved, it'd be horrible.

Just as Qing Shui felt that the situation was very tricky, he unconsciously used his Heavenly Vision Technique.

Qing Shui broke into a smile. He could now see the locations, angles, and attacking area of those traps with the Poison Willow Darts. Qing Shui threw out the Poison Willow Dart in his hand.

Pa!

One of the traps were broken and quite a number of Poison Willow Darts flew out. However, these darts naturally didn't reach Qing Shui.