The Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 2186 - Windwhisk Willow, Domineering Beihuang Fan

Qing Shui followed the method on the book to run his energy and gradually sensed a hint of mysterious power slowly forming on his body. This was the power of the wind. It was a light cyan color, but after it circulated through Qing Shui's body, it was integrated and absorbed into his own Origin Qi. The things that followed gave Qing Shui a great shock.

That light cyan aura gradually started to turn into golden. At this moment, Qing Shui discovered that he wasn't able to control this power. It gradually moved around his body, making him feel that his body was getting increasingly lighter, but the power felt very strong.

Qing Shui then saw a line of words written in the seal script [1] appearing in his consciousness...

Windwhisk Willow, evolution.

Passive technique. Doubles one's speed and the martial technique can grow.

Qing Shui came back to his senses and noticed that everyone was looking at him. He handed that golden book to Beihuang Fan, "This is Liu Clan's Windwhisk Willow. You guys take a look. It's very easy to cultivate and seems to have some mysterious ability."

Qing Shui was right on spot with this guess. After the rest took a look at it, they obtained the passive ability, Windwhisk Willow. Amongst them, the one who got the least gain had his speed increased by 20%. Beihuang Fan had hers increased by 70% while the rest increased by 30-40%. Beihuang Yu increased by about 50%.

However, seeing that this was an ability that could level up, it took everyone by surprise.

This was just an increment in speed. Performing this movement technique would allow one to become even faster, and one would also have a powerful ability in battle. For example, there would be a certain amount of chance to dodge the other party's attacks. However, it wasn't clear how this actually worked.

Qing Shui looked at the other two books. One was a book of hidden weapon and another one was a Poison Scripture.

Qing Shui had gotten his hands on a Poison Scripture in the past, but it was different from this one. This Poison Scripture belonged to the Liu Clan, but after Qing Shui flipped through it, he realized that he recognized many of the poisons on it. However, the part on the poison preparation made Qing Shui's eyes lit up. There were slight changes or additions of non-toxic items which would increase the poison's toxicity by twice or more.

The Poison Scripture was comparatively thicker, and the records were including all great poisons as well as their cures. There were also some poisons which could not be cured. At the very least, the person who had created the poison wasn't able to come up with a cure for it.

Qing Shui flipped through it briefly. It was impossible for him to finish reading through it. He handed it to the others, but they weren't that interested in it. It was dangerous to deal with poison, and many people would die in their own hands.

Qing Shui took a look at the hidden weapons and realized that it was no way greater than his own. However, he saw some things which were useful to him.

In the end, Qing Shui kept the Poison Scripture and the book of hidden weapons. The others already felt that they had benefited a lot from learning the Windwhisk Willow. It wasn't an exaggeration to call it a divine technique. They now understood why the Liu Clan could become that powerful.

The people from the Liu Clan relied on this Windwhisk Willow. As long as their talent weren't bad, cultivating the Windwhisk Willow would allow them to be as elusive as ghosts. With the addition of hidden weapons and poison, their battle abilities would definitely be terrifying.

With the sharpness of the hidden weapons, the great toxicity and corrosiveness of the poison, even powerful cultivators wouldn't be able to fend them off.

Everyone was here in search of treasures and weren't that much interested in other things. Therefore, after seeing all the written statements of the Liu Clan's good reputation, they decided to leave. It wasn't very difficult for them to leave the place, but Qing Shui didn't plan on destroying the Maze Formation here. He even returned the formation outside to its original state, allowing the Liu Clan to continue to be preserved in this state.

After dealing with all these, the group noticed someone setting their eyes on this place the moment they came out. Their exit caught the other group by surprise and one of them shouted, "Someone came out!"

This shout attracted over ten people, and Qing Shui assessed them calmly. He knew that the other party couldn't have any idea on what they had done in the formation, and he had no idea why they wanted to stop him.

Qing Shui didn't recognize these people, but one thing was for sure—people who could enter this space were definitely no mediocre characters.

"Is anything the matter? If not, we'll be leaving. We still have things to do." Qing Shui said outright, not caring who it was directed to.

"You guys are from the Divine Palace, right?" A middle-aged man walked out and said outright.

Qing Shui frowned. He could tell that these people didn't come with good intentions. He said directly, "Is anything the matter?"

Qing Shui didn't give them a reply and the other man also frowned, "I'm Lie Yanglie from the Blazing Fire Immortal Palace."

"Lie Yanglie? I haven't heard of this name before, but I seemed to have heard of the Blazing Fire Immortal Palace before." Qing Shui thought about it seriously and said to the people next to him.

"Lie Yanglie is a strange guy in the Blazing Fire Immortal Palace. He is a unique existence and is very powerful. If there aren't any accidents, he's likely to become the next Palace Lord of the Blazing Fire Immortal Palace. The old man dressed in red who acted as a witness in the battle between the Divine Palace and the Firecloud Palace previously was also from the Blazing Fire Immortal Palace. His name was Miao Yonglong," said The Hill Moving Battle God.

At the mention of this, Qing Shui recalled the Blazing Fire Immortal Palace. He hadn't remembered them back then. Qing Shui smiled and said, "Why are you looking for me?"

Qing Shui was very calm, so calm that it was as if he had just met the most ordinary person or even a complete stranger. In fact, this man was just like a stranger to Qing Shui. He hadn't thought of having any contacts with him nor did he wish to do so.

"I want to have a fight with you." Lie Yanglie was displeased for having been disregarded twice. The Blazing Fire Immortal Palace was still slightly stronger than the Divine Palace and the Taiyi Immortal Palace in terms of their reputation.

"Not interested!" Qing Shui frowned and said directly.

"You must be scared." Lie Yanglie said, thinking nothing of it.

"You can think whatever you like." Qing Shui smiled and said, not minding it at all.

After saying that, he prepared to leave.

"Miss Beihuang, you want him despite the fact that he's such a coward?" Lie Yanglie looked at Beihuang Fan and said.

Beihuang Fan looked at Lie Yanglie and under Qing Shui's surprised gaze, she appeared in front of Lie Yanglie with a flash and smashed the longsword in her hand into Lie Yanglie's mouth without even drawing it out from the sheath. She shattered his teeth.

Lie Yanglie was astonished. He hadn't expected that Beihuang Fan could be so fast. He only knew that Beihuang Fan was an admired existence amongst people of her age, but that was to others. People like himself and the Demon Gate's Junior Sect Master wouldn't admit their defeat easily.

However, he hadn't expected that despite the fact that he had been fully focused on his defense, he still didn't manage to dodge the attack and his teeth were shattered. He appeared in a sorry state; his mouth filled with blood. However, these weren't enough to astonish him. What had astonished him was Beihuang Fan's abilities.

Beihuang Fan remained calm and collected, but she knew that the main reason she could achieve this was because of the Windwhisk Willow as well as the strength and speed boosts that Qing Shui had given her. The light circle that Qing Shui activated also increased one's speed, and it made Beihuang Fan a lot stronger. Of course, the main reason for her great speed was still the Windwhisk Willow since some of the abilities that Qing Shui had given were in other areas.

"Let's go!" Beihuang Fan didn't even look once again toward Lie Yanglie and walked away.

Qing Shui only felt one thing: dominance. So this was what dominance was like. Beihuang Fan's aura was calm and collected, as if she wouldn't take anything to heart. Only people like her would display true dominance when doing something like this, even more so than people who emitted a domineering aura. This was what true dominance was like.

None of the people from the Blazing Fire Immortal Palace made a move or said a word. They just watched on in a daze as this lady, who was like a goddess, walk out from their view.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_script