The Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 653 - Gale Pellet, Descending Heavens Talisman

There was a distortion in the air and a pitch black shadow streaked through the air. Accompanying it was a horrifying sharp cry that seemed to pierce through everything.

Using his full strength, Qing Shui could unleash an attack with the strength of 2300 countries. Without the assistance of any external artifacts, he could achieve the defense of 1800 countries; if he used the Seven Star Armored Vest, he could have the defense of 3600 countries, it was a pity that it only lasted an hour. Furthermore, there was still the Godly Armor Shield…...

He was still lacking in attacking strength. However, with the Seven Star Armored Vest, he now had a decent defense, although it only lasted for a while. This time however, Qing Shui had a significant increase in speed. This caused Qing Shui to be especially happy. Speed determined everything as Qing Shui still had hidden weapons as his hidden ace.

He could not help but think of Yuan Su. He had met her multiple times and had received many significant benefits from her. Especially this time, just the Demon Beast Advancing Pellet was sufficient. Regardless of the importance of this pill to others, Qing Shui knew that he benefited greatly from this pill.

Furthermore, the Divine Marionette pellet was very tyrannical. Back then, he was 'given' the Divine Marionette pellet and Poison Scriptures by that red-clothed bandit that he killed. This caused Qing Shui to feel that he would never forget that a group of red bandits once existed.

It was also a coincidence that he chose to use the Divine Marionette pellet on the Diamond Demonic Boar. Back then, he did not expect that it would become as strong as it is today. Life is very wonderful and has many coincidences.

Thinking of Yuan Su's condition, he thought that, if she was willing, Qing Shui will help to treat her once this matter blowed over. Once she opened up her meridians and her cultivation reached the Xiantian realm, Qing Shui believed that with her talents in creating Alchemy Recipes, as well as the herbs that the Alchemist Sect provided, her abilities will rapidly soar. Perhaps she would not even require much time before she made a name for herself. This was a woman who was not inferior to Luan Luan and her Heart of Seven Orifices, just that she had a different innate gift.

Qing Shui temporarily stopped thinking about Yuan Su, he still intended to attempt to refine the remaining two Alchemy Recipes, hoping that they would bring an even greater surprise to him.

Gale Pellet!

The anticipation that Qing Shui had for this pill was not as much as what he had for the Demon Beast Advancing Pellet. However, he felt that the Gale Pellet was already quite perversely strong. it temporarily raised speed by one fold.

The ingredients provided also had three sets. However, he did not know how many pills would be refined in each attempt. He secretly hoped that it would succeed and that there would be more pills.

Qing Shui wholeheartedly prepared himself before attempting to refine the pill. With the increase in abilities, his concentration had significantly improved, which led to his Spiritual sense becoming stronger.

He placed in the Qiongsi Flower!

Millenium Heart Perforating Lotus!

The Core of a Gale Beast!

…...

Bang!

There was a dull sound of something exploding in the furnace. Qing Shui stopped speechlessly!

It failed, causing Qing Shui to feel helpless. After all, this alchemy recipe was only in the experimental phase. No one had ever succeeded before, thus, it could not even be confirmed if it was an actual alchemy recipe.

Earlier, Qing Shui was hoping that there to be more pills. Right now, Qing Shui only hoped that he would succeed. By just succeeding, Qing Shui would be incredibly happy. He stopped to examine the recipe before attempting to refine it again.

The consequences of failing to refine pills were quite severe. The ingredients would all be wasted, regardless of how precious they were. If the furnace was not an exceptionally good one, failure might even result in the furnace exploding.

One hour later!

Bang!

Another dull sound rang out. This time, Qing Shui was stunned for 15 minutes.

The second attempt failed. As long as it was a working Alchemy Recipe, Qing Shui would rarely fail twice. Qing Shui was now contemplating if it was even possible to succeed with this Alchemy Recipe.

He did not immediately attempt the final refinement and instead looked at the Alchemy Recipe seriously. One by one, he analyzed the properties of every medicinal herb in it before thinking through the refining process earlier.

Following that, Qing Shui started the refining again!

This time, Qing Shui was truly not confident. He made changes to what he thought was the problem, the order of adding the ingredients. In his second attempt, he had already changed the order of three of the herbs. This time, he changed the order of another three herbs.

The formation of an Alchemy Recipe originally required thousands or millions of experiments before succeeding. The innate gift of a demon-leveled character like Yuan Su was rarely seen. Even out of millions of people, it would be hard to find one.

The more he changed, the less confident he felt. After the first failure, Qing Shui felt that the problem in the sequence of ingredients was very obvious, thus, he made changes. After this round of changes, Qing Shui felt quite satisfied. However, he felt more uncertain of the refinement's success.

He casted off all stray thoughts in his head. Whether it succeeded or not did not matter. Actually, Qing Shui preferred pills that had a permanent effect, rather than these types which temporarily boosted abilities.

He attempted to refine the Gale Pellet once more. Qing Shui placed his hopes on the final Alchemy Recipe instead, the Fate Pill. Success or failure of the current situation would depend on it. Qing Shui would not allow that to fail as that would be a huge game changer for them.

After he calmed himself down, Qing Shui began to meticulously refine the Gale Pellet.

He raised his Spiritual Sense to its peak.

Everything followed a particular sequence. This time, Qing Shui was past caring about the success or failure, letting go of all expectations. He was just attempting. After all, it was not possible for him to keep succeeding forever.

Slowly, all Qing Shui's eyes could see were the medicinal herbs and their properties. They seemed to subtly merge within his vision and that was a very enjoyable subtle feeling.

Ding!

As the familiar sound rang out, Qing Shui awoke from that feeling. The primordial flames in his hands were extinguished and Qing Shui laughed happily.

He was happy not only because the refinement of the Gale Pellet succeeded. It was also because he discovered that his ability to refine Medicinal Pills seemed to have improved by a level, or perhaps it was his Spiritual Sense making a huge breakthrough.

That feeling was like a blind man suddenly being able to see. It was definitely a huge breakthrough.

Opening the Golden Flint Iron Cauldron, he discovered that there was actually five green-colored pills in there. They were about the size of soybeans, were mellow, gave off a jade-like glow and its smell was particularly strong.

After that, Qing Shui did not attempt to refine the Fate Pill. He refined the Pure Jade Pellet instead. Qing Shui had taken a large amount of herbs from Yuan Su the previous time. With Qing Shui's ultra high success rates, he would obtain a substantial amount of Pure Jade Pellets after completely refining all the herbs.

This time, he needed a large quantity of Pure Jade Pellets. As everyone in the Di Clan would need to carry poison antidotes, Qing Shui intended to give them the Pure Jade Pellets. Di Xuan in particular would definitely require a lot more.

Continuously refining pills, three days passed in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal!

Qing Shui discovered that his ability to refine Medicinal Pills had increased significantly and his success rates of refining the Pure Jade Pellet had also greatly increased. That kind of increase in efficiency felt especially good.

Drawing Talismans!

Qing Shui still did not refine the Fate Pill. Instead, he chose to attempt drawing a new kind of Heavenly Talisman. Originally, Qing Shui intended to wait till he raised his 'drawing level' to the level of drawing bones before learning other kinds of Heavenly Talismans.

However, with this unforeseen situation, in addition to the increase of his abilities, he was already able to learn another type of Heavenly Talisman. The most important thing was that this Heavenly Talisman was very suitable for the current situation.

Although time was tight, Qing Shui still decided to give it a try!

Descending Heavens Talisman!

This was a kind of Heavenly Talisman that decreased all abilities. It worked in a way similar to the Godly Force Talisman and Divine Shield Talisman, just that the Descending Heavens Talisman decreased all the abilities in one go and was meant to be used against an opponent.

It was a Heavenly Talisman that reduces all the abilities of the opponent, a Grade One Talisman would reduce all abilities by 1%.

It may seem very little, but if a Grade Ten Talisman could be drawn, it could reduce all abilities by 10%. There were many advantages to cultivating the Heavenly Talisman. The multiple kinds of Talismans may not have much of an impact individually, but when layered together, they were still quite effective. Of course, when they were at a low level, they would not have much effect.

Ever since he cultivated the Heavenly Talisman, Qing Shui knew that it not only required plenty of high-grade materials, it also required plenty of time.

The most important thing was to not bite off more than one could chew. That was the reason why most people who choose just one or two Heavenly Talisman as their main focus, the rest were just supplementary.

A reduction of 1% may seem tiny but to experts with abilities of more than 5000 countries it was still substantial.

The image on the Descending Heavens Talisman was a huge flying beast. It was pitch black, robust and powerful. Qing Shui did not know what Demonic Beast it was, it seemed to be a Roc-like creature. From the drawing, a tyrannical air could be felt. A snow-white sword could be seen hanging above the flying beast. Its gentle radiance caused the Demonic Beast below to panic.

As he had achieved the level of drawing flesh and blood, Qing Shui could naturally see the uniqueness of the drawing when he looked at it. He quietly observed it. Qing Shui enjoyed seeing this level of drawings, it gave him the feeling like he was immersed in them.

This bird of prey was incomparably bold and powerful but Qing Shui felt that regardless of what it did, it would not be able to escape the sword. Although the sword did not look big, it was a sword that would kill.

It was dignified and solemn!

The sword resembled moonlight! Qing Shui felt that this was the key to drawing the Descending Heavens Talisman. It looked like he was going to have to put in some effort on that sword.

A day passed!

He has looked at the drawing for more than a day, never stopping to take any breaks. Only at this moment did Qing Shui slowly open his eyes and let out a long breath.

Following that was the lengthy process of drawing the talisman. Aside from drawing talismans, he would draw the 'Hundred Forms of the Tiger". Occasionally he would take a walk around the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal while not thinking about anything, maintaining the state of a blank mind. Qing Shui felt particularly relaxed during those moments.

He was drawing non-stop every day, and slowly making improvements every day. He had already wasted countless of Talisman-shape Beast Skin, there was already a big pile of wasted Talisman materials.

Drawing Talismans was a cultivation path that burned through a lot of resources. It was a good thing that Qing Shui could afford to do so.

One month later!

Qing Shui focused wholeheartedly on the Talisman-shaped Beast Skin in front of him. He held the Golden Calligraphy Brush in his right hand and expertly drew the same image as the one in the Descending Heavens Talisman, especially that divine-like sword. A Descending Heavens Talismans was smoothly and naturally drawn.

Success!

His month of effort had paid off!

Qing Shui was currently consolidating what he learned and at the same time, preparing more to keep for future use!

He let out a long breath and happily put down the Golden Calligraphy Brush in his hands. He had only taken a month to draw the Descending Heavens Talisman. This was already considered very good but Qing Shui had already been drawing talismans for a significant amount of time. Furthermore, his talents in drawing talismans surpassed other people. The most important thing was that by drawing the Hundred Forms of the Tiger, he was able to raise his drawing abilities.

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