The Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 610 - Jin Shang, Jin Clan, an eccentric old woman, Medicine Emperor Yi Clan of Lingxi Country

Qing Shui turned his head to the direction of the voice. Four young men who walked towards him. They should be in their thirties. The person who spoke was the man in the middle.

The man wore a snow white warrior's attire. There was a warm smile on his handsome face and his skin was really white. His eyes shone with a black light, while his sharp brows curved upwards. This man possessed a huge amount of heroic spirit.

He had a straight nose and lips which had just the right thickness. This was a very good looking man. At the moment, he was looking right at Duanmu Lingshuang. He was the type of man who would always be recognized as very handsome.

In comparison, the three men beside him were slightly inferior. However, they still possessed a noble aura. Their clothes looked really clean and they behaved in a very elegant manner. At the very least, that's what they appeared to be so.

Earlier, Qing Shui heard the man calling out Lingshuang's name. Who would have thought that this cold woman would have such a close male friend?

Duanmu Lingshuang looked at the man with an unwavering gaze. She still maintained her calm and tranquil look and didn't say a word. Qing Shui, who was at her side, found it a bit funny.

Qing Shui looked at that handsome man once again. He did not discover anything strange. It seemed that this was not the first time such a situation occurred, that was why he was still able to shift his gaze and look at Qing Shui and Di Chen with a smile.

His eyes shone as he smiled and said, "I'm Lingshuang's friend, Jing Shang. Nice to meet you. Let me give you a treat so that we can get to know each other. How do you feel about this?

The man spoke as though he was already really familiar with Qing Shui. However, Qing Shui didn't find the way he talked annoying. He was really good at subtly manipulating people's emotions.

"I'm Qing Shui, Miss Duanmu's friend. Erm… why don't we do it on another day?" Qing Shui said with a smile.

"Alright! It's a shame I'm not able to sit down and have a chat with you. But we still have time! We can do so on another day. Allow me to take my leave now." Jing Shang smiled as he was spoke to Qing Shui. Despite that, the expression in his eyes also showed consideration to Di Chen and Duanmu Lingshuang so that it wouldn't seem like he was only speaking to Qing Shui and neglecting the other people present.

Before Jing Shang left, he took a look at Duanmu Lingshuang one more time, from his expression when he looked at her, Qing Shui could already tell that Jing Shang liked Duanmu Lingshuang. Not only that, he might even be obsessed with her.

He was such an outstanding man, but of all the choices he had, he chose to like an ice block. Qing Shui shook his head, he felt really sorry for Jing Shang. It would definitely be a hard task to get a woman like Duanmu Lingshuang.

"Young lady Duanmu, how do you feel about Jing Shang?" Qing Shui asked after thinking for a while.

"What do you mean?" Duanmu Lingshuang grumpily shot a glance at Qing Shui. She actually made such an expression with that ice-cold face of hers. It made him feel as he was looking at an icy flame.

"I'm asking about your impressions of Jing Shang, he seems to be pretty tough." Qing Shui smiled and looked at Duanmu Lingshuang, without avoiding her gaze.

Duanmu Lingshuang avoided Qing Shui's playful gaze and explained patiently, "The Jin Clan is an aristocratic clan in the Duanmu City. He is one of the outstanding members among the current Jin Clan young generation. Whether the Jin Clan is able to improve even further will all depend on him."

Even though Duanmu Lingshuang only gave a brief explanation, she still managed to aptly summarize all the information about the Jin Clan and Jin Shang. The Jin Clan was an aristocratic clan and Jin Shang was the most outstanding young man in his generation. He was also the person who would take over Jin Clan in the future.

"You seemed to be really biased against him?" The three of them continued walking along the street, Qing Shui was just asking out of curiosity.

"I'm really biased against you too!" Duanmu Lingshuang responded without turning around.

Qing Shui touched his nose. If it was not for the things he did for her, he reckoned that he would have long since been kicked out of the clan's gate by her. On the other hand, Di Chen who was beside him only smiled humbly while looking at the surroundings. This place was really quiet.

"Sister Chen, let's go and take a look at the ornaments." Duanmu Lingshuang smiled at Di Chen.

After all, it had already been a week. The two girls got along quite well with each other. The interesting thing was that one was really quiet whereas one was always cold. This left Qing Shui at a lost on how they managed to communicate with each other.

"Alright!" Di Chen smiled at Qing Shui, then she went into the ornament shop with Duanmu Lingshuang.

Qing Shui followed the two girls. From time to time, he would look around to see if there was anything which piqued his interest. There were also a few street stalls on both sides of the street.

After all, only those who were wealthy would be able to afford a proper shop along such a street. In comparison, the street stalls were far more numerous than proper shops. The things that they sold would also only be some small items.

Just as Qing Shui was about to walk into the shop with the two girls, he saw a dispirited old woman setting up a street stall on the ground. Similarly, there were some ornaments on it, mostly consisting of necklaces. A lot of them looked really old and shabby, which made wearing it purposeless. Therefore, a lot of people wouldn't even bat an eye when they passed through the stall.

What truly caught Qing Shui's interest was that the old woman was also a cultivator. Qing Shui felt that her strength should be around the Xiantian Grade but he was a bit unclear about it. Even though she was old, she looked really sturdy and strong. She also looked really clean with her plain and simple clothes. However, there was a small boy beside her who was about five to six years. He was really thin and had a really weak pulse, he had already fallen asleep beside the old woman..

Qing Shui squatted down by the stall and looked at the things on the ground. Not only was each and every one of the ornaments shabby, some of them had even had been destroyed. Despite that, there were still some faint spiritual fluctuations.

They consisted of amulets, silver necklaces, white stone necklaces, black iron necklaces, glowing pendant…… To his surprise, there were some stuff which he could recognize!

Suddenly, Qing Shui felt an inconsistent yet powerful spirit fluctuation. He followed his senses and looked at the direction where the fluctuation came from. It was actually a gray pendant! It looked really old and dilapidated, it was even missing a corner. There was a Nine Palace Image drawn on it.

Nine Palace Pendant!

"Granny! How are you related to the person beside you? He should have been sick for a long time right?" Qing Shui started searching for the pendant while casually asking the granny a few questions.

In that instant, Qing Shui felt a sudden and formidable aura flashing across the old woman's body. After that, she let out a sigh, "He is my grandson. He was born with deficiencies."

"Why didn't granny bring him to the alchemists? You should know things would just get worse if it continued like this." Qing Shui examined the child and estimated that he would only be able to live for at most another six months.

"I have sought their help before. He was born frail and weak. Furthermore, his organs have even started dying. Unless there were heavenly pills of some sorts or maybe miraculous pills like the Bones of the Living Dead to make up for the deficiencies in his body, he would never be healed. Unfortunately, such things were too rare, in addition, it would also require the alchemists to process them…" As the old woman spoke, she once again let out another sigh.

At this moment, the old woman looked at Qing Shui. She had never thought that she would be able to have such a long conversation with this young man, she also felt a lot better than before. When she looked at Qing Shui again, an expression of amazement flashed across her face. But very quickly, her expression went back to normal.

"Thank you, young man, for accompanying an old lady like me. Have a look and see if there's anything you want here. Take as many as you wish." The old woman raised up her head and said.

"Granny, if I were to tell you that I can cure him, will you believe me?" Qing Shui asked the old woman seriously.

The old woman stared blankly at Qing Shui. She felt both surprised and confused.

"Granny, I'm saying that I'm able to cure your grandson, are you willing to let me do so?"

The old woman looked at Qing Shui. After a while, she answered, "To be honest, I doubt it. There have already been many alchemists who tried and were completely helpless. I no longer hold any more expectations. Little brat, since you said that you can do it, I'll choose to believe you this time. So long as someone says that they can cure my grandson, I will let them treat him."

"Qing Shui!"

At this moment, Di Chen and Duanmu Lingshuang approached him. Di Chen gently called out to Qing Shui.

"Oh, you two came out already. Wait for a while, let me cure this little child first." Qing Shui smiled and replied.

"Alright, no problem, we will keep an eye out for you to prevent anyone from bothering you." Di Chen smiled and said.

Qing Shui took over the little boy from the old woman's hand. He was so light and thin that he was pretty much skin and bones. He immediately took out a bed from his Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. It's the kind that had a board to lean against on one side. There was a thick mattress on top of it.

Qing Shui placed the little boy on the bed before rubbing both of his hands as he began operating his Saintly Hands. Both of his palms slowly became transparent. After that, he softly patted the little boy's body. Thread after thread of translucent crystal-like specks went into the little boy's body.

The moment, Qing Shui took out the bed, the old woman was already stunned and shocked. When both of Qing Shui's hands turned translucent, the powerful vital energy which was spread out from his palm made her felt extremely joyful and excited.

An enormous flying beast flew past, it was a lion that was fifty meters long. Its entire body was snow-white, even the mane around its neck was colored white.

When an elderly man looked down from the Snow Lion, he spotted Qing Shui who was continuously patting the little boy's body with his translucent palms.

The old man's eyes flashed and he quickly let the snow lion descend to a nearby spot. The old woman, on the other hand, only looked at the enormous snow lion for a short while before focusing on Qing Shui again.

She had a feeling that this young man would definitely be able to cure her grandson. This way, even if she died, she could leave in peace. There was finally an heir to take over her Mo Clan. Unknowingly, the old woman started tearing up.

Her son got married really late. He married when he was two hundred years old. Ever since his son was born, the couple both headed to the 'Evil Dragon's Den' to look for medicinal herbs which could cure their own son. However, there was no news of them ever since.

If it wasn't for the need to take care of her grandson, the old woman would have gone to the Evil Dragon's Den herself. Who would have thought that she would run into a young man with such a strange set of skills. He was actually able to cure her grandson without any medicinal pills…….

Slowly, more and more people started surrounding them. However, because of the continuous effort of the old woman, Di Chen and mainly Duanmu Lingshuang's efforts they're only allowed to watch from far away. Everyone knew who Young Lady Duanmu was. Hence, no one actually dared to cause a commotion here.

An old man approached them, after hesitating for a while, he decided to approach them!

"Mister, please refrain from coming any closer. You might interfere with the treatment." Duanmu Lingshuang's ice cold voice rang.

"I won't bother him. Can you please let me get a bit closer? I'm an alchemist, I might be able to help out." The old man replied after thinking for a while.

Qing Shui was still gently patting the child. As soon as he felt the old man's powerful aura, he muttered to himself in his mind, "Who is this? Why are there so many formidable cultivators?"

"Lady Duanmu! Let him come over!" Qing Shui said humbly.

After Duanmu Lingshuang heard what Qing Shui said, she moved aside. The old man smiled and nodded at Duanmu Lingshuang before proceeding to Qing Shui's side.

"Mister, can you tell me about the symptoms of this child?" Qing Shui continued working with his head down and patted the child's back as he asked the old man.

The old man looked towards the child who was laying on the bed and probed him with his own spiritual sense. Everyone who had reached Xiantian Grade would definitely have this kind of spiritual sense. It's just that some would have sharper senses, whereas some would end up with more limited ones. There were huge advantages if one had a keen spiritual sense. For example, one would be able to sense the energy and the situation of one's body and they could also tell if the energy spreading out from their organs were strong enough or whether they're normal.

"Born weak and frail, his organs have started dying… No chance…… Of survival……" The old man looked at the thin little boy blankly. Eventually, he began to stutter at the end.

After that, the old man looked at Qing Shui in shock, "Mister, you can cure this?"

"Since you're an alchemist, I've given you the permission to come closer. So, will you be able to help me out?" Qing Shui didn't answer his question. Instead, he continued doing the same things as before.

"This…. This……"

"Since you are not going to be of help here, stop bothering me." Qing Shui immediately interrupted the faltered old man. After all, he felt a bit unnatural with a Martial Saint warrior beside him.

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