The Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 870 - Formidable 'Raging Blow'

Qing Shui remained silent and didn't look at the lady. She had already come over next to him. If he did not respond, he felt that he would be unable to accept it.

"Look, we've already found one stalk. Is that not enough?" asked the lady as she faintly knitted her black brows. Even when she was frowning, she maintained an air of elegance.

"I need at least one more stalk." replied Qing Shui with a bitter laugh, as he looked towards the lady.

"Look, we found a stalk from the Deity Statue. Let's search some more. There might be other Deity Statues, right?" the lady tried to console Qing Shui.

He knew that the lady was trying to dissuade him from entering the depths of the Sky Penetrating Mountains alone. Deity Statues were not at all easy to chance upon. Finding one today was already an enormous stroke of luck.

"Thank you, but nothing will happen to me." Qing Shui still did not accept the Sky Penetrating Grass from her, and instead passed her the "Raging Blow" and Sunstone.

"What's the meaning of this? Those are for you. Keep them. Although I won't prevent you from going, you should think over it clearly. You're not an impulsive person." Sighing, the lady took a step forward, stuffing the Sky Penetrating Grass in his hand before walking toward the exit.

Qing Shui hesitated for a while before keeping the items in the Realm Of The Violet Jade Immortal. Following her out of the inner hall, he saw the lady standing at the cave entrance. As if nothing had just happened, she said, "Let's go to another place to search. There just might be Sky Penetrating Grass there."

"Wait, here's something for you." Qing Shui hurriedly shouted towards her. These items were too precious, and he couldn't bear taking them for free. He had to compensate her, so that he wouldn't owe her, or at least owe her somewhat less.

The lady smiled as she looked at Qing Shui and replied, "It's alright. There's no need to be so courteous. Travelling here together, I can consider you half a friend. Treat this as me helping you this time."

"If you don't accept, I'll just return those items to you," said Qing Shui softly.

This sentence forced her to have no choice but to nod her head.

Qing Shui had already made preparations for this the previous night. Therefore, he directly threw an Interspatial Silk Sachet over to her. "It's inside. However it's best if you see it later. There's a piece of paper inside that has everything already written down."

"Okay, no problem!" replied the lady as she kept the Interspatial Silk Sachet. Although she did not know what he had given her, she felt that it was incomparable to the items from the Deity Statue. Therefore, Qing Shui had asked her to open it later.

When they exited the cave, it was already quite late. Hearing the whistles in the distance, Qing Shui, the lady, and the Treasure Hunting Pig rapidly headed to the gathering point. Qing Shui looked at the skies. As they were around the mountainside, the sun seemed to set exceptionally early. Since the surroundings were all tall mountains, the valley had long periods of darkness.

When they arrived, everyone was already present. Furthermore, there were two freshly killed wild mountain goats. Although this place was very dangerous, there were still some wild animals. Under this kind of pressure, most wild animals were not affected. Pressure was a thing that the more one could resist, the more one felt. Perhaps it could be said that the pressure here was a sort of intangible intimidation.

Regardless of how dangerous a place was, there would always be an uncountable number of low grade demonic beasts and wild animals. They were the lowest on the food chain, but the most numerous, as this was the only way for them to continue existing.

Making food was already a habit for Qing Shui and he would do it at least once a day. Within this period of time, he had obtained some ordinary spices from the mountains and taught the others how to use the spices. This made those old freaks start to love making food. Although they were far from Qing Shui's cooking skill, they were already able to create a flavor that made them slightly emotional...

Roasted lamb and stewed lamb soup. The meat was tender and soft, with a good taste. The roasted lamb was golden yellow in colour, and neatly arranged on a tray. The meat was flaky and soft, oily and textured, with a fragrant smell. It was extremely delicious...

This was a platform halfway up a mountain. The view was extremely good, and the air was fresh. Standing here, one would feel great. Pitching their tents up and finishing up their food, a few old men started to compete with each other over who had found the most items.

Qing Shui returned to his own tent, as it was about time for him to enter the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal to train.

Upon entering the Realm of Violet Jade Immortal, he looked at the Eighth Portrait of Beauty on the ground. It was opened up, the cold and indifferent gaze of the woman in the painting staring at Qing Shui.

Sighing, Qing Shui picked the painting up and hanged it on the Magnificent Mountains and Rivers Screen. Eight portraits of Beauty were hung, mutually contrasting with one another, dazing Qing Shui for a moment as he looked at them.

Sunstone, a Grade Eight Sunstone that increased one's base strength by 200%. It was not the slightest bit inferior to the Violet Gold Divine Shield, The main benefits of the Violent Gold Divine Shield were its few supplementary abilities, or else it would be too inferior to this glorious Sunstone.

It was a pity that he had already inlaid the black gemstone and did not have the ability to inlay more gemstones now. Perhaps the Pentacolor Art of Forging would allow the usage of more gemstones!

Subsequently, Qing Shui took out the Peak Earth Grade combat technique, "Raging Blow". He never had any prejudice towards the grade of the combat technique. As a person who was able to master the Basic Sword Techniques up to the Early Heaven Grade, he would not be overly focused on the grade of a combat technique.

Combat techniques were differentiated into Houtian, Xiantian, Legend and Divine grades. Within the Xiantian and Legend grades was the Earth grade, and the "Raging Blow" was of this grade. Although most people would call this a divine technique, experts would treat this as something of little value.

There were four stages within each grade of combat technique: Heaven, Earth, Xuan and Huang. Heaven was the highest and Huang was the lowest. The "Raging Blow" was generously classified as being in between Xiantian and Legend. To be more specific, it was a Heaven Stage combat technique of Xiantian grade.

Some combat techniques were slightly special, making them stronger than the Xiantian grade but far inferior to the Legend grade. Hence, some people deemed it as an Earth grade, and it was gradually recognized by that name.

Qing Shui slowly opened the Raging Blow. At first look, he already liked its name. Upon opening it up, he saw only one move. This meant that the Raging Blow was just a single hammer move.

Qing Shui carefully inspected this move and discovered its difference from other hammer moves. Originally, he had felt that this hammer move that had appeared in the box of the Deity Statue was slightly unusual. Upon seeing it now, he discovered the mysteriousness within.

The Raging Blow wasn't the name of some hammer technique. This technique had similarities to some of Qing Shui's hammer techniques like the Heaven Shaking Strike, Heaven Falls and Earth Rends, Jolting Heaven Strike and his other hammer techniques with the greatest killing power.

However, there was something slightly different about this. Qing Shui stared at the Raging Blow and, unknowingly, his mind started sinking into it. Even the aura of his subconscious mind started to have a subtle change.

Suddenly, Qing Shui clenched his right hand, his left foot slightly moving forward, and smashed his right fist forward. This fist looked extremely awkward, but produced a surprising feeling when it was executed.

That was the feeling of power, the special feeling of violence!

Raging Blow!

So that's how it is!

At this time, Qing Shui was very excited, as he had discovered that the power of this fist had combined all the hammer techniques he had known. The Heaven Shaking Strike, Heaven Falls, Earth Rends, Jolting Heaven Strike, and the Mountain Splitting Strike were all combined together. However, although the current level of fusion was minimal, this kind of force still had 50% more might than any single technique.

"That strong?"

Qing Shui felt simply incredulous. The Raging Blow was akin to a Divine technique to him. With just a small amount of training, it was already much stronger than the Basic Sword Techniques that he had trained for so long.

Qing Shui did not quite understand. The progress of his Basic Sword Techniques was ordinarily quite slow, but he felt that it seemed to have no end. In principle, that was probably true, but a human's potential and life span were both limited, so he did not know how many moves he could combine together.

This hammer technique, Raging Blow, was simply like sweet rain after a drought for him, causing Qing Shui to enter a feverish and fanatical state that he was unable to stop.

Displaying this move over and over again, the speed at which Qing Shui unleashed the strike gradually grew quicker and quicker. The strength of the fist also seemingly increased slowly, before he started to launch the fist from different angles.

Qing Shui knew that he had replaced the hammer with his fist as he displayed the strike. The flowing feeling of water was akin to entering a dream, and it seemed that he could not stop. It was like rocking on the the sharp edge of a wave. He didn't want to stop and if he did, it would feel like vomiting blood.

An unknown amount of time passed before Qing Shui slowly stopped, just like an intense fire burning out. He proceeded to immediately lie down on the ground and sleep. He had overdrawn his spirit, and the Yin Yang Image unexpectedly had not replenished the consumption, causing his spiritual energy to show signs of collapse.

When Qing Shui awoke, he did not know how much time had passed. He had already recovered, with his spirit full. He had originally thought of eating some pills to recover, but he was not facing an enemy at this time, so resting immediately would have great benefits for his body.

Standing up, he calmed himself down before clenching his right hand suddenly and sending out a fist. The fist still looked awkward, but it produced a feeling of stealing the work of a heavenly craftsman!

The great art conceals itself!

Qing Shui recalled the feeling he had gotten when he had launched the fist. He previously felt as if the blood in his body had instantly churned and boiled. The gigantic power that suddenly rose up made him feel as if in that instant, his entire body had an energy that was unable to be completely used.

Raging Blow!

However, this strike seemed to be especially wasteful in its consumption of spiritual energy. The most important point was that the move was a little slow. An expert would feel that it would be slightly too easy to dodge, and this might be the reason why it could not become a Legend Grade combat technique!

Medicinal pills and martial arts were the fastest ways to increase one's combat capabilities and power. This definitely applied to the current Qing Shui. The Raging Blow allowed his normal attack to increase by 50% in power. This extra 50% was calculated after all this power-ups!

The previous training wasn't comprehension but something that was even better. The improvements he made could be seen as a humongous leap. This allowed him to master the Raging Blow to a pretty high level in such a short period of time.

Time to make something to eat, because he was famished.

While Qing Shui was training in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, in another tent, a lady was currently sitting in a daze. She stared blankly at the items on the table. There were many things like the Peach of Immortality, Five Elements Fruit, Vermillion Fruit and many medicinal pills and even wine. All of these items were incomparably precious, especially those mysterious pills…

Who exactly is he?. The lady sunk into a deep thought. People were just inherently like that. Although curiosity killed the cat, people would still be unable to resist and wanted to know more and satisfy their curious hearts.

The lady knew that she had never felt anything like this before. In the past, if others wanted to talk to her, she did not have the mood to listen, much less having her curiosity piqued. However, the current her did not know what this feeling was.

Perhaps the two of them were the same type of people, and that was why they were so close…

The lady shook her head and kept all the things on the table. The value of these items far exceeded the value of the Sky Penetrating Grass, especially those few mysterious pills that were important to her.

Thinking of the moment he had insisted on giving them to her, she started laughing!

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