The Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 756 - Advancing by Leaps and Bounds, Qing Shui's Formidable Demonic Beasts

Qing Shui watched as the Jade Emperor Queen Bee rapidly grew in size and abilities. As the situation progressed, Qing Shui became more hopeful about the result.

There weren't any signs of slowing down even at the peak of Grade Four Martial Saint. Qing Shui could only stare at the growing Jade Emperor Queen Bee as he waited for its next breakthrough.

Qing Shui lost track of time as he focused all of his senses towards perceiving the subtle changes occurring with the Jade Emperor Queen Bee.

Buzz!

The Jade Emperor Queen Bee cried another loud buzz. Qing Shui smiled as he watched the Queen Bee's body release a dazzling jade light. It had successfully broken through to Grade Five Martial Saint!

As expected from a mythical beast core, an entire level could be gained from consuming a mere 1% of the original core.

Qing Shui only hesitated a second before feeding another pill to the Jade Emperor Queen Bee. Although he knew that continuously feeding the pills to the Queen Bee was impossible, he was still curious of what the limit of the breakthroughs was. He would need to keep the rest of the pills for the upcoming mission.

Once again, a jade-colored light flashed from the Jade Emperor Queen Bee as it grew to nearly ten meters in size. The Queen Bee had broken through again.

Qing Shui grew more excited as he watched the growth of the Queen Bee. The strongest attacks of any Emperor bee was its Poisonous Killer Sting and its Venom Attack. What Qing Shui was looking forward to was not the Queen Bee's massive growth in strength, but rather its poison.

The Poisonous Killer Sting was a great countering ability due to its potency. However, the attack was still limited by the Bee's ability, even after several breakthroughs. Pitting the Poisonous Killer Sting against a Peak Martial Saint wouldn't be very effective. Qing Shui had originally just wanted to test the effectiveness of and the resistance levels imparted by the Moon Wolf pills, so having the Jade Emperor Queen Bee's abilities be raised was an extra side benefit.

Qing Shui felt as though he was in a fantasy as he witnessed an unfathomable result occurring right in front of him. The Jade Emperor Queen Bee had another breakthrough to Grade Six Martial Saint after consuming two pills! Normally, two pills would only allow the user to reach the bottleneck between two levels. Consuming more pills, even after an extended period, would not have any additional effects.

Grade Six Martial Saint!

Qing Shui debated internally as he clenched his teeth, but finally decided to feed one more pill to the Jade Emperor Queen Bee. Again, an aquamarine light appeared but the Queen's ability progressed by a negligible amount.

Although Qing Shui felt a bit of regret about wasting one pill, he confirmed that two pills was the limit. Fortunately, there were around hundred more pills, so even though he had used three, there was still plenty to go around. Qing Shui made a mental note to save some for Luan Luan, so that her ten Earth Devouring Mice would gain formidable strength. Afterwards, Qing Shui would have no need to worry about where she went in the future.

Suddenly, the Thunderous Beast appeared and started to circle Qing Shui with excitement. Its purple body was especially beautiful, with its build displaying its matchless strength.

Qing Shui immediately retrieved a pill and fed the Thunderous Beast. At the same time, the Ten Thousand Poisonous Violet Sable leapt onto Qing Shui shoulder and started making creaking noises.

Qing Shui also retrieved a pill to feed the sable and then looked on in anticipation. Qing Shui had the highest hopes for these two beasts, especially for the Ten Thousand Poisonous Violet Sable.

Surprisingly, the Thunderous Beast had its breakthrough first. A loud boom akin to the sound of thunder striking earth broke out as the Thunderous Beast's body released a dazzling violet aura. Its body began to grow at a rapid rate while exuding a powerful pressure on its surroundings. The pressure was so strong that it even attracted the attention of the Fire Bird and the Diamond Gigantic Elephant.

The Thunderous Beast reached Grade Two Martial Saint. This growth completely exceeded Qing Shui's expectations.

The Thunderous Beast was now about fifteen meters long and four meters tall. The originally cute Thunderous Beast had become a giant monster, giving off an impressively oppressive force.

Without any hesitation, Qing Shui fed the Thunderous Beast a second pill. Suddenly, the Ten Thousand Poisonous Violet Sable flew into the air, startling Qing Shui.

Previously, the Sable couldn't fly, but after gaining the benefits from one pill, had now gained the ability to do so. Much like for the Queen Bee, Qing Shui cared more about its poison and speed than its strength. The Ten Thousand Poisonous Violet Sable was like a tiger that had grown wings, its abilities becoming massively enhanced.

Again, Qing Shui fed the Sable the second pill, so he wouldn't have to remember to feed it again.

Bang!

A purple aura was once again emitted from the Thunderous Beast's body, but his time the light was even sharper. As Qing Shui watched his beasts breakthrough, the excitement he felt was the same as when he experienced his own breakthroughs.

The second pill caused the Thunderous Beast to breakthrough three levels to Grade Five Martial Saint!

Qing Shui didn't even the time to grasp the Thunderous Beast's new abilities before the Ten Thousand Poison Violet Sable had broken through again. Although their innate strength was lower than that of other beasts, Poisonous Beasts specialized in their venom.

However, the Ten Thousand Poisonous Violet Sable was a Five Coloured Poison Beast, one of those special types of Spirit Beast that exist between the heavens and the earth. Although the second pill had only enhanced its power to Peak Grade Three Martial Saint, its actual capabilities could strike fear even into Peak Martial Saints.

Qing Shui felt content after seeing the Ten Thousand Poisonous Violet Sable successfully breakthrough. Before its power spike, the Ten Thousand Poisonous Violet Sable was already a force to be reckoned with against beginner Martial Saints. Now that its capabilities had multiplied by almost ten times, the difference to its past self was like night and day.

Qing Shui paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. He planned to feed the pills to the Diamond Gigantic Elephant and Fire Bird a bit later. Right now, he wanted to observe the abilities of the Thunderous Beast.

Seeing the violet aura-clad Thunderous Beast made Qing Shui full of expectation.

Heavenly Vision Technique!

Violet Thunder Protection: The Thunderous Beast's unique ability that activates automatically to double its strength with zero energy consumption. When the Thunderous Beast is under physical attack, it has a chance to paralyze the enemy.

Qing Shui could only smile after seeing the first skill, which was even more troublesome than a hedgehog's spikes. It directly raised the Thunderous Beast's fighting ability by one fold. The Thunderous Beast's Violet Thunder Protection was just like the Diamond Gigantic Elephant's Passive Fighting Technique and the Fire Bird's Phoenix Dance. Their aptitudes towards fighting were pretty similar.

Qing Shui continued reading downwards, hoping there were more surprises in store for him.

Thunderbolt: A thunder attack emitted from the beast's core, with a two meter attack range. The attack causes a slight Paralysis effect as well as Deceleration and Reaction Delay debuffs. These effects are stackable.

A skill that can cause dullness to the enemy!

Thunderbolt actually had such an effect. In battle, speed and reaction time were generally more important than direct strength, but if the Thunderous Beast could reduce an opponent's' capabilities in all these areas, the reuslt would be devastating…

Holding back his excitement, Qing Shui continued to read the third skill.

Violet Lightning Strike: Harnesses the core's power and releases a powerful lightning strike to disable the opponent. It has a one hundred percent chance to paralyze the enemy, with the length of the paralysis depending on the opponent's abilities. This skill can only be used every twenty four hours.

A hundred percent chance to paralyze the target! This was a deadly trump card for the Thunderous Beast. Qing Shui felt his blood boiling at the thought of how broken this skill was!

Although the ability could only be used once every twenty four hours, this was just one hour's time in the Realm of Violet Jade Immortal. However, if it was a real battle, the chances of using this ability a second time were slim to none.

Using this skill to instantly kill an enemy would be effortless. The unexpected growth of the Thunderous Beast caught Qing Shui off guard. What he had originally thought would take another year's worth of training was already complete. These pills directly increased the Thunderous Beast's strength by the equivalent of five hundred years of cultivation. Qing Shui could not be more satisfied.

That each of the Thunderous Beast's skills was so powerful was a true testament to its innate talents. Putting his excitement aside, Qing Shui read the Thunderous Beast's final skill.

Lightning Recovery: The Thunderous Beast grew up in the Golden Buddha Aura Lotus, harnessing an extremely powerful self-recovery ability. Using Lightning Recovery, the Thunderous Beast can immediately heal half of the injuries on its body. Its natural restoration speed will also increase by fivefold for an hour. After two uses, the cool down time will be two hours.

Another powerful technique. As long as the Thunderous beast wasn't killed instantly in battle, this skill could immediately heal half of its injuries and furthermore increase the speed of injury recovery by five times.

The Thunderous Beast's natural recovery had always been strong, but now it could be even more perverse. Once Qing Shui thought about the Golden Buddha Aura Lotus, he immediately understood the reasoning behind the skill. The Thunderous Beast had grown up absorbing the essence of the Golden Buddha Aura Lotus and it wasn't a stretch to call it a Medical Beast.

With four extremely practical and overly powerful combat skills, the Thunderous Beast's fighting prowess had grown to be terrifying. Essentially, it had become a surprise assassin. Qing Shui could also rely on its Thunder Strike to electrocute enemies that were stronger him to death.

Overall, the Jade Emperor Queen Bee and the Thunderous Beast had reached Grade Five Martial Saint. The Ten Thousand Poisonous Violet Sable had reached Grade Three Martial Saint. Qing Shui's heart became calmer as he realized the gap between his fighting power and that of the Eastern Palace Clan was decreasing. His hopes for the future grew as the unrest in his heart settled down.

With about ninety more pills, Qing Shui's heart was filled with satisfaction. He called the pair of Gold-Silver Coloured Butterflies over and fed them both two pills.

Of course, he fed the pills one at a time.

The two beasts that were originally Peak Grade One Martial Saints became Peak Grade Four Martial Saints. Their body lengths increased to ten meters, but the change didn't distort their beauty. The sight of one gold and one silver butterfly together was especially beautiful.

"Their combat skills should be more powerful now!" Qing Shui thought as he observed the changing Gold-Silver Coloured Butterflies.

Qing Shui called the Diamond Gigantic Elephant and Fire Bird over. Originally, he these two beasts were his backup plan in case of failure, but he had gained another reliable battle force in his arsenal with the growth of the Thunderous Beast.

Right now, Qing Shui hoped that the Diamond Gigantic Elephant and the Fire Bird would see large increases in abilities as well. The Thunderous Beast and the Ten Thousand Poisonous Violet Sable were not enough by themselves in the upcoming fight...

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