The Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 573 - Stellar Horse Nightmare Beast! Scarlet Gigantic Python! Divine Artifact

Si-si!

The Scarlet Gigantic Python whirled around the sky. It swept its enormous body towards the Stellar Horse Nightmare Beast like a tornado and left a huge black rift across the sky.

The Stellar Horse Nightmare Beast galloped in mid-air like it was walking up stairs as it dodged the enormous tail. It charged towards the Scarlet Gigantic Python with its enourmous body, its movements like drifting clouds.

Beng!

The enormous shockwave caused the entire area to be filled with black smoke and pestilential vapors. Furthermore, it also created a few huge crevices in the ground.

The heaven and earth looked as if it had just exploded. There were sands and stones flying everywhere.

The battle continued on from the sky, all the way to the ground. Occasionally, they would be on the surface of the water. This terrifying battle made Qing Shui felt numb.

What upset Qing Shui the most was that so far, both sides had only been attacking each other physically. In the , it was recorded that both of these Demonic Beasts possessed poisonous attacks.

Soon after, Qing Shui managed to realize the reason behind this. Both of these Demonic beasts definitely had really high poison resistance so they used physical attacks instead.

Just as Qing Shui came up with that theory, the Stellar Horse spat out a red substance which resembled a sword aura. It was a few meters wide and more than ten meters long. The Stellar hourse slashed the Bloody Scarlet Python with it.

Si-si!

The Bloody Scarlet Python instantly curled up its body. Its entire head was protected by its curled body.

Chi-chi!

Red colored liquid exploded in the air.

"Such a sharp attack!" Qing Shui felt goosebumps as he looked at the Scarlet Gigantic Python dyed in blood. There was a huge reason behind what the Scarlet Gigantic Python did previously. It had curled up into layers and had only exposed a very small portion of its body. This would help reduce the damage caused to it. Even though its entire body was covered in blood, the wounds were distributed evenly around each portion of its body.

Just as Qing Shui thought that the Scarlet Gigantic Python was slightly inferior to the Stellar Horse, it abruptly sprung up like a bullet from its curling position. It was as fast as lightning.

Pu!

Python's Kiss!

Si-si!

The Stellar Horse quickly retreated. A grotesque wound had appeared on its huge body. The Bloody Scarlet Python, on the other hand, spat out a sharp red gas similar to the red substance that the Stellar Horse had previously spat out. The only difference was that this gas didn't look as stunning when compared to the Stellar Horse's substance.

Pu!

What made Qing Shui astonished was that the speed at which the two battled each other seemed to have slowed down significantly.

Poison?

As time passed, the injuries of the two beasts became heavier and heavier. Despite that, neither had any intention of stopping. However, there was someone who was feeling even more impatient than them at the moment.

As Qing Shui watched the way the two fought, he felt that it wasn't impossible for the to last for three hours. Qing Shui began to panic in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal.

He immediately felt like riding the Fire Bird for a desperate escape.

Qing Shui withdrew his spiritual sense. At present, Qing Shui was able to stay in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal for as more than a month in exchange for three hours of time in the outside world. He felt that he really needed to come up with a solution if he wanted to live.

Qing Shui didn't want to try and escape now. He felt that he would just end up alerting the two demonic beasts, which was the last thing he would want to happen. For all he knew, the two might end up retreating after fighting for only one hour? Hence, for now, the only thing he could do was to wait.

If Qing Shui looked at the outside world from the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, it would feel like time was flying. Since his spiritual sense was in the outside world, he would end up traveling at the same pace as the time outside. This was the reason he took back his spiritual sense.

Cultivate!

Qing Shui forced himself to calm down his mind and cultivate. Ever since he got crippled by the Residence of the Sky Tyrant Lord and had recovered his strength by relying on the Ancient Book of 'Rebirth', he told himself that no matter what, even if it meant putting his life in danger like now, he would never stop cultivating.

As long as he cultivated, there would be slight hope that he would survive. For instance, he might just break through to the Martial Saint grade out of nowhere.

There may only be a very small hope, but he would still fight for it nevertheless.

Qing Shui managed to beat himself. He cultivated as much as he could and only stopped when there were less than five days left. During that time, Qing Shui didn't pay any attention to the things that were happening outside.

However, Qing Shui wasn't able to make break through to the Martial Saint Grade in this time. For now, he would still have to face the problem in front of him. He released his spiritual sense only to find that the two were still fighting each other. Qing Shui smiled bitterly.

It's just that their injuries seemed to have gotten a lot worse. A few inches of the Scarlet Gigantic Python's tail were gone. Furthermore, there was even blood flowing out of it. The Stellar Horse Nightmare Beast, on the other hand, was blinded in one of its eyes, one of its legs were even crippled.

Their entire bodies were bathed in blood. However, it didn't seem like these injuries were fatal. As Martial Saint Grade Demonic Beasts, they both had really powerful self-recovery abilities. Despite that, the Stellar Horse couldn't do anything about its blind eye nor could the Scarlet Gigantic Python do anything about its severed tail, unless they obtained gifted earth-ranked treasures like the Bones of the Living Dead.

Qing Shui couldn't wait any longer. He got everything ready and raised his strength to its peak. Just when he was about to exit the realm, he suddenly saw something which he had long-forgotten.

The Primordial Demon Refining Furnace!

The Primordial Refining Furnace was carved with many simple and unadorned pictures of Demonic Beasts. At one point, Qing Shui deeply researched about refining demons. When he arrived at Central Continent, he had discussed it with Nian Feng's grandfather as well.

Therefore, he could be considered to have understood quite a lot about it.

Across the World of the Nine Continents, refining demons meant placing the Demonic Beast's corpses into the refining furnace then refining its bone marrows and skin to convert the essence within it into a form of energy.

Crystal Demonic Beast Card!

Actually, it's just something which had the same effect as Qing Shui's . Other than refining the Crystal Demonic Beast Card, it also had a certain chance of refining other objects. It was just that the chances of this happening were quite small. However, if it really succeeded, the objects which were refined would generally be really outstanding. It would more or less have the same quality as the Buddhist relics. Of course, the grade of the Demonic Beasts played a large part in it.

There was also information about refining demons within Qing Shui's sea of consciousness. It was an additional support skill which was included in the Ancient Strengthening Technique, although it was neglected by Qing Shui all along.

The beasts which were used to refine demons needed to be at least of the Demonic Beast Grade. There were two methods of refining demons, one was by refining the entire corpse of a Demonic Beast. It needed to be a complete corpse, on top of that, it wouldn't work if the Demonic Beast had died for too long. He would either get a Crystal Demonic Beast Card or a unique object, though the latter was quite unlikely.

This method of refining demons was exactly the same as the one in the World of the Nine Continents! It's just that Qing Shui never bothered trying to use it.

The other method was totally ignored by Qing Shui. This method of refining demons required two living Demonic Beasts. There was a chance that he could fuse part of their strengths and abilities with each other. The Demonic Beast which managed to survive from it would end up being tamed by the person who refined the demons.

However, there was only a one in a million chance of success!

At one point, Qing Shui has also thought about using this kind of method to get Demonic Beasts and become a Beast Tamer. But as soon as he saw the success rate, he immediately chickened out.

Actually, there was another reason why he backed off. During the process of refining demons, the person who was in charge of the refining process would be in danger themselves, especially when it came to refining very powerful Demonic Beasts. Furthermore, there were two of them. Hence, he would need to have an extremely strong spirit energy. If the gap in strength was too much, the person would explode and die immediately before the process properly begun.

These were the reasons why Qing Shui didn't want to try it. It would be pointless if he wereto just refine a few low grade Demonic Beasts.

Even now, it was not like Qing Shui wanted to try it. Instead, it could be said that things had gotten to the point where he was forced to try and use it. Those were two Martial Saint Grade Demonic Beasts, either one of them were capable of killing him in an instant!

When he was taking out the Primordial Refining Furnace, he felt that its weight didn't match up well with its size. Soon after, he gradually revolved his Qi of the Ancient Strengthening Technique. He channeled all of his Qi, which he had raised to its peak, into the Primordial Refining Furnace.

In an instant, the Primordial Refining Furnace started giving out seven-colored rings of lights. It looked really dazzling and bright!

"It's a Divine Artifact……."

Qing Shui stood there blankly. The strength in his body continuously gushed into the Primordial Refining Furnace without him noticing. By the time Qing Shui came back to his senses, he realized that more than half a day has passed.

He then realised established a unique connection with the Primordial Refining Furnace. This wasn't really all that surprising since this was one of the most obvious unique features about a Divine Artifact

Up!

Qing Shui used his mentally lifted up the Primordial Refining Furnace into mid-air through the connection he just established. Unfortunately, Qing Shui was not able to detect any messages with his spiritual sense.

He was unsure if there weren't any messages or it's just that he wasn't strong enough…...

Qing Shui tried to control the Primordial Refining Furnace through his unusual connection with it. After that, he slowly poured his spirit energy inside. Soon after, the Primordial Refining Furnace started expanding constantly. On top of that, it was also gave out a dazzling light.

The seven colored light would only appear occasionally. The colorful light which was coming out now all came from the Demonic Beast pictures on the Primordial Refining Furnace.

He looked at the Primordial Refining Furnace which has gotten considerably big as it floated in mid-air. It would even be able to contain both of the enormous Demonic Beasts together. It's just that in order to do so, the two would have to be embracing each other. Would that even be possible?

Qing Shui wanted to make the Primordial Refining Furnace a bit bigger. But it had already reached its maximum size, hence, he could only give up on his thought. After that, Qing Shui revolved his Ancient Strengthening Technique and recovered his strength and state of mind to its peak. More than half a day had already passed in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal.

After getting everything ready, Qing Shui released his spiritual sense and looked towards the outside world. He knew that he didn't have much time left.

Beng!

It was yet another loud noise. The Stellar Horse Nightmare Beast stomped the Scarlet Gigantic Python with both of its rear hoof, which had pitch-black flames on them. However, the Scarlet Gigantic Python once again demonstrated its defensive strategy. It curled up its entire body to protect its essential body parts.

After one stomp, the Stellar Horse wanted to retreat. But the Scarlet Gigantic Python didn't let it do as it wished. It wasn't the first time they had fought each other. Every time they fought, it would only end in a draw. Hence, the Scarlet Gigantic Python finally made its move.

What shocked Qing Shui was that it didn't spit out anything poisonous nor did it bite the Stellar Horse. Instead, it streaked across the Stellar Horse's neck at a speed as fast as lightning. It was so fast that even Qing Shui was unable to grasp exactly what was going on for a moment. In any case, the Stellar Horse was embraced by the Scarlet Gigantic Python.

Si-si!

Si-si!

The Stellar Horse struggled with all of its power. Meanwhile, the flames which looked liked a flock of black clouds underneath it got became dark like ink. However, despite its body burning fiercely, the Scarlet Gigantic Python wouldn't let go. Instead, it sped up its movement and kept on constricting.

This was the killer moves of all kinds of snakes. If Demonic Beasts of the same grade were binded by this move, it basically meant that they're done for.

If the Stellar Horse was binded like this near the start, it would be really easy for it to break free. But taking into account all of its injuries and its energy consumption, it should be really hard for it to break free now.

The outcome of the battle between the two most powerful Demonic Beasts in the Stellar Horse Lake was about to be decided!