Ancient Strengthening Technique (Portraits of Beauty)

AST 893 – Golden Snake Pellet Recipe, The Success of Du Meridian Strengthening Pellet, Swallowing the Pellets

"An alchemy recipe?"

It had been a very long time since Qing Shui had last gotten a new alchemy recipe. Although the next alchemy recipe, "Violet Qi Pellet", had also appeared once, he still thought that his alchemy recipes were scarce.

He quickly took out the Beast Parchment. Three words greeted his eyes as soon as he unfolded it – Golden Snake Pellet!

Qing Shui quickly took a look at the recipe. The first medicinal plant needed was the Golden Snake Gra.s.s. As he continued to read the recipe, he discovered that all the medicinal herbs listed were already fully available in that Interspatial Silk Sachet.

Qing Shui was now certain that the owner of this Interspatial Silk Sachet was definitely an alchemist. Additionally, he was not just an ordinary alchemist, but a rather powerful one. It was a pity. He probably didn"t think he would die here.

Qing Shui looked at the effects of the Golden Snake Pellet. The Golden Snake Pellet allowed one to successfully break through to the next grade. For example, a Grade One Martial King would become a Grade Two Martial King and a Grade One Martial Saint will become a Grade Two Martial Saint. This pill was only effective for grades below Martial Emperor. Only one pellet could be consumed per year. This pill can be consumed by both demonic beasts and humans.

After reading for awhile, Qing Shui discovered that this pill was no longer useful to him even though this medicinal pill was really not bad. He didn"t know how many of these Golden Snake Pellet could be concocted in one go. If only one pellet could be concocted from one Golden Snake Gra.s.s, then he might as well forget about it. It really wasn"t worth it.

Qing Shui put down the Golden Snake Pellet recipe along with the Interspatial Silk Sachet once again. He had gained a few more Golden Snake Gra.s.ses now. He was initially planning to fish a little for these few days. Maybe he would be able to fish up more Golden Snake Gra.s.ses. That way, he would be able to concoct the Du Meridian Strengthening Pellet immediately.

It seemed like the heavens were really helping him now. So after he took a break, Qing Shui started to concoct the Du Meridian Strengthening Pellet. There was nothing to wait for, now that he had a 100% success rate.

The Du Meridian Strengthening Pellet was in no way inferior to the Ren Meridian Strengthening Pellet. The only differences were the sequence and the main ingredient, so the concoction went exceptionally smooth.

In addition to the Golden Snake Gra.s.s, there basically wasn"t any pressure. The concoction succeeded very soon. Looking at the violet colored medicinal pellet, people who lacked knowledge would definitely think that it was a Ren Meridian Strengthening Pellet.

He took a look at the effects of the Du Meridian Strengthening Pellet. The effects were the same too.

Du Meridian Strengthening Pellet: Increases spirit energy and spirit energy control by 5% to 10%, depending on each individual"s body absorption. Consuming both the Ren Meridian and Du Meridian Strengthening Pellets at the same time will yield unexpected effects.

The Ren Meridian Strengthening Pellet had the additional effect of clearing the Tiantu acupoint while raising strength. However, the Du Meridian Strengthening Pellet would only increase spirit energy and spiritual offense.

Even so, Qing Shui still placed all of his hope on that last bit about consuming both of them at the same time. Unexpected effects, he wondered what those could be.

The Ren and Du Meridians were the two most important meridians in the human body. They were also known as the Heaven and Earth Meridians. If Heaven and Earth blended together and Yin and Yang were also harmonized in his body, Qing Shui had a hunch that it would definitely cause a tremendous change.

Perhaps if he consumed these two pills at the same time, he would gain the opportunity to break through to the Seventh Heavenly Layer. Qing Shui suppressed the excitement in his heart as he placed the Du Meridian Strengthening Pellet into a porcelain bottle.

Both the Ren Meridian and Du Meridian Strengthening Pellets had been successfully concocted. He would consume them when he returned to the Deity Cave of Immortal. Hopefully he would be able to successfully breakthrough this time around. That way, he would truly gain a foothold in the World of the Nine Continents.

The Violet Qi Pellet came out at once too. Its experience was still stuck at one million points, he realized that acc.u.mulating experience now seemed to be way more difficult than before.

He didn"t know what effect this Violet Qi Pellet would have either. It was better for him to rest his body and mind for a few days. By the time his body reached its peak condition, he would be able to consume the Ren Meridian Strengthening Pellet and the Du Meridian Strengthening Pellet.

The next day, Qing Shui practiced his Taichi Fist and Back Connecting Fist on the beach. The Back Connecting Fist always reminded him of that Long-armed Vicious Monkey King. Although he had only seen a single punch from that gigantic Vicious Monkey King, he knew that its punch was at a much higher realm than his Back Connecting Fist. The Howling Moon Silver Ape in that temple that he had seen a long time ago simply couldn"t be compared to this Long-armed Vicious Monkey King.

That Golden Jiao never appeared again after going into the water. Qing Shui didn"t spend any more effort on it for now either. He was prepared to leave in two days.

He wasn"t going to cultivate nor refine demons right now. He was just going to practice his Taichi Fist at most. He did the same too when he was in the Realm of Violet Jade Immortal. He"d just walk around to nourish his heart and calm his mind.

During day time he would fish. Sometimes things were just this odd. It was easier to achieve something when one wasn"t adamant about it. On the contrary, one wouldn"t be able to achieve what they desired no matter how hard they tried when they were adamant about it. This kind of phenomenon was difficult to explain with words.

After obtaining that Interspatial Silk Sachet, Qing Shui was no longer obsessed with getting his hands on the Golden Snake Gra.s.s. Nonetheless, he was still able to get five of them in just these two days……

This made Qing Shui feel a little incredulous. He then planted all the Golden Snake Gra.s.ses he found into the water.

Two days pa.s.sed by a flash, yet these two days still felt quite slow to Qing Shui. That Golden Jiao still hadn"t appeared in the past two days. Qing Shui didn"t have any intentions of taking a look at the bottom of this inner sea either.

The most important thing now was to consume the Ren Meridian Strengthening Pellet and the Du Meridian Strengthening Pellet.

Qing Shui made his way towards the Deity Cave of Immortal along with the Five-Headed Demonic Spider. He could quickly cover 10,000 li without even using the Nine Continents Steps. After all, he had the Five-Headed Demonic Spider beside him. With nothing to worry about, he was able to return to the 100,000 li zone in just a little more than a day.

The outward journey and the return journey felt entirely different. In just a short amount of time, he was able to arrive at that Deity Cave of Immortal by noon.

The Deity Cave of Immortal was usually quite concealed, unless they had been discovered by someone. Just like that Deity Cave of Immortal in the Wolf Fang City, it had pretty much become a well-known place by now.

The entrance to this Deity Cave of Immortal remained as concealed as usual. He had killed a few Violent Blood Bears here before. He discovered that it was very peaceful and quiet here this time. There were only a few small beasts after he entered but they would flee quickly.

Even though the inner hall was underground and should have been very dark, there were still some light stones and luminous pearls so it wasn"t dark at all here. On top of that, light also seeped through the cave entrance.

The Five-Headed Demonic Spider was left outside the great hall. With it around here, Qing Shui wasn"t worried about any demonic beasts coming to bother him. He sat cross-legged at the inner hall entrance and started to slowly activate the Ancient Strengthening Technique.

Qing Shui only stood up after about two hours. He took out the Ren Meridian Strengthening Pellet and the Du Meridian Strengthening Pellet before quickly consuming them. It wasn"t like the two had to be consumed at precisely the same time. As long as they were both consumed within the same 15 minute, it could be considered as consuming at the same time.

Qing Shui was gambling this time. He was aware that consuming two pellets at the same time would definitely be very dangerous. This was why he had used a period of time to rest his body up and only decided to consume the pills once his body had recovered to its peak condition.

Besides, this was the Deity Cave of Immortal. When strong medicinal pellets were consumed here, the body could resist the potency of the medicinal pellets with the help of the cave"s powerful suppression. This would also aid the absorption process a little.

As soon as the two medicinal pellets were swallowed, a wave of heat and a refres.h.i.+ng sensation simultaneously rose up. Each sensation coursed along their respective meridians. Its speed was slow yet vigorous.

Qing Shui didn"t dare to be slow as well. He stood there as he activated the Ancient Strengthening Technique. Rather than trying to deliberately absorb that wave of energy, he used the Ancient Strengthening Technique to further strengthen his meridians. But then again, every small cycle of the Ancient Strengthening Technique would absorb some of that energy.

The two waves of energies became increasingly strong. He was being fully imbued by that violent energy to the brim. Other than that, the waves of refres.h.i.+ng sensations had directly flowed to the "Niwan Palace" that was deep in his sea of consciousness. Even that mysterious Yin-Yang Image was glowing with a magnificent radiance. Although it was glowing magnificently, the color was still dull and simple.

The energy within his body was growing stronger. Qing Shui unconsciously took a step forward, using the suppression of the Deity Cave of Immortal to resist that powerful surging energy.

One would still need to ensure that their meridians were powerful and tough enough before utilizing the Deity Cave of Immortal"s suppression. Otherwise, they would still explode. Qing Shui was quite confident about the toughness of his own meridians but he still didn"t dare to be reckless.

Nature Energy activated automatically, allowing Qing Shui"s body to behave as if it had an air vent. This was one of the effects that could be achieved when Grade Six Nature Energy was activated. It was now playing a very useful role. For instance, if a person was trapped in an airtight cell, he wouldn"t suffocate in there if a hole about the size of a pea was made.

If a huge balloon had a tiny pinhole in it, then you wouldn"t be able to blow it until it exploded!

That was like a type of diversion, yet it was different. This was because Nature Energy was the purest energy between the Heaven and Earth. With Nature Energy, some impure Qi could be condensed, refined and transformed into essence. The useless parts would then be expelled. That way, more s.p.a.ce could be made available in the meridians and the Dantian.

Grade Six Nature Energy was quite powerful after all, it was able to actually stabilize his body almost immediately. Qing Shui sensed that the violet energy in his body was still increasing. He was happy yet anxious at the same time.

The increase was simply too rapid. This made Qing Shui worried. Would he really die from his body exploding? The Heavenly Dan of his Upper Dantian was also rapidly circulating right now. The golden brilliance shone at the meridians in the surroundings.

Qing Shui"s skeleton turned into a faint golden color at this very moment. Qing Shui foot moved a step forward. His face was already crimson.

………

The energy within his body was still increasing violently. Qing Shui was already all the way in the middle of the hall. His body was already at its limit.

It would be a complete lie if he said he wasn"t worried. Qing Shui clenched his teeth as he once again helplessly took another step forward!

Pu!

A wave of crimson Qi force exploded from his left shoulder. Only his clothes stopped the blood from splattering all over the place. Qing Shui had no choice but to divert his Qi force to preserve the overall situation by s.h.i.+fting the damage to only one part of his body.

He circulated the Ancient Strengthening Technique with even more vigor. Every small cycle would let the Qi force in his body dissipate a little, yet it was increasing even more.

Just when Qing Shui wanted to use the same method again, a loud and clear noise rang out from his Upper Dantian area. This shock very quickly turned into exultation.

It turned out that the Grade Five Upper Dantian that never had any activity had broken through at this very moment. The violent energy within his body rushed towards his Upper Dantian like waves.

Qing Shui was dazed. His Grade Six Upper Dantian had experienced some qualitative changes. Although it wasn"t as powerful as the Dantian in his abdomen, it finally looked like a real Dantian now. That golden pearl had dissolved and it was the factor that allowed for the Upper Dantian to become stronger.

All of a sudden, Qing Shui"s body felt extremely relaxed. Even so, he didn"t dare to slack off because the violent energy was still increasing in his body. The Nature Energy was also circulating rapidly.

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AST 894 – Seventh Heavenly Layer, Solidifying the Dantian, Forming Pellet, The Carp Leaping Over Longmen to Become A Dragon

The scorching aura and the cooling aura continued to increase in his body without any changes. At this moment, Qing Shui could only smile bitterly, hoping that he would be able to get through this stage successfully. Every day there would be people in the world of the nine continents who would die from their bodies exploding due to there being too much energy in their bodies. This was the result of human’s greed.

Very quickly, his Dantian was filled up with powerful energy and the energy in his meridian channels continued to increase. Qing Shui continued to walk on.

The earlier spot on his shoulder had recovered due to his powerful self-recuperating skills but other parts of his body continued to be torn through. However, at this moment, Qing Shui’s brain was especially clear.

And in his body, slight changes continued to happen non-stop. His Upper and Lower Dantian continued to comprehend the changes, blocking the huge energy for Qing Shui.

If not for the fact that his Dantian had undergone a change earlier, Qing Shui wouldn’t know what would have happened. At least, his progress would have been delayed by a lot.

Pa!

An area of his bones cracked and the immense pain made Qing Shui clench his teeth to hang on. The process of breaking through was not only dangerous but painful as well. That unbearable torture made some people feel as if they would rather not go through any breakthroughs.

Such a forceful method to borrow the powers of external objects to attain a breakthrough was painful. If it was a natural flow whereby the powers gradually increase and overflows, there wouldn’t be any pain to the breakthrough. One might even feel that it was comfortable.

However, not many people were able to go through such a natural breakthrough process. Most people would usually need to rely on external items to force the breakthrough. In the earlier stages, most people could naturally obtain a breakthrough in the earlier stages but even if they were to forcefully push the breakthrough, it wouldn’t be as painful since the level was low.

Qing Shui circulated his Focused Concentration to its peak, not only to increase his abilities but also to primarily control the powers in his body to the finest detail.

Pfft!

Finally, Qing Shui couldn’t hold it in anymore and spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. His internal organs had already been injured by the powerful essence and now, his entire body was an enormous barrel of energy. If he was not careful, he might just explode into pieces.

Suddenly, just as Qing Shui was feeling that all hope was lost, suddenly a tremendous change once again occurred to his Dantian!

Liquefy!

His Upper Dantian which has just leveled up was actually starting to liquefy. Some liquid state appeared in it and the energy in his body once again gushed into the Upper Dantian, forcing it to continue on with the changes.

Qing Shui heaved a sigh of relief for now. However, at the same time, he was also puzzled. When his Upper Dantian was formed initially, it was a golden colored pearl. Back then, that was just opening up the Central Palace. It was not the real Upper Dantian.

However, to think that once the Heavenly Dan broke through to the sixth level, under the tremendous energy, the golden pearl would dissolve and become the real Upper Dantian, just like the Lower Dantian.

It was only now that Qing Shui was considered to have two Dantians, two real Dantians.

To cultivators, Dantians were like a storage medium. How strong a person was and how much power could be unleashed were more or less directly related to one’s Dantian. If one didn’t have any Dantian, the person would be the same as ordinary people and could only cultivate the crudest physical training techniques, unleas.h.i.+ng physical prowess. In fact, cultivators who really trained up their bodies also required powerful Dantians and meridian channels.

Once a person’s Dantian was destroyed, the person would become a cripple, robbed of all his skills. However, a cultivator’s Dantian was not so easily crippled. It would not be crippled from just one hit. In fact, one’s Dantian was even “st.u.r.dier” than the other organs.

Now that Qing Shui had two Dantians, his abilities had increased to become twice as much as before. Moreover, his abilities were still increasing…

He was even hoping to let this maniacal growth stop. He felt that the chances of him breaking through to the Seventh Heavenly Layer were very small while the chances of his body exploding and him dying were much higher.

Although Qing Shui craved to reach the Seventh Heavenly Layer, he was now pushed to his wits end by that horrifying power. This time around, if he couldn’t attain a breakthrough, he could only die.

His greed was all to blame, hoping to get a surprising takeaway by taking two together. He was too greedy. It might have been much better if he were to take it one by one…

In that moment, many thoughts flashed past Qing Shui’s mind. It was only while his Upper Dantian was still crazily absorbing the tremendous power that he could have the luxury of thinking about something else.

He thought of his mother. He had not seen her for a very long time. The woman who had given birth to him and raised him up was the closest person to him in the World of the Nine Continents. If he were to die, he didn’t know what would become of his mother.

And then there were his women and kids. Something surged in Qing Shui’s body while the Qi from the Ancient Book of “Rebirth” also started to circulate automatically.

In that moment, Qing Shui sensed that his meridian channels seemed to have strengthened many times and even his Dantians seemed to have swelled up to be multiple times bigger. He closed his eyes slightly and with an intense thought, released a hint of powerful battle intent.

Time pa.s.sed by slowly and the powerful energy once again filled up Qing Shui’s entire body. Qing Shui clenched his teeth and forced himself to bear with the weight of the tremendous energy. Even his spirit energy also blatantly dashed toward the Niwan Palace in his consciousness.

Very quickly, Qing Shui was covered in injuries once again. Right now, it was as if he was walking on a tightrope, in a critical situation and could possibly turn into ash at any moment.

However, Qing Shui continued to give it his all and he no longer cared if he could attain a breakthrough. He completely scattered his focus, as if he was sending out his spirit energy to every part of his body.

Gradually, Qing Shui started to forget about himself, forget what he was doing.

Suddenly, Qing Shui’s body twisted. If he were to open his eyes, he would definitely give himself a big scare since his body had almost exploded at that moment.

And it was also at that moment that the huge Golden Buddha Image appeared behind Qing Shui, releasing a magnificent golden light, encompa.s.sing Qing Shui.

Pfft!

An indescribably crisp sound rang out. It was a comfortable sound that was accompanied by echoes. A circle of brilliant glow appeared around Qing Shui.

At that moment, his entire body seemed to have exploded and a hint of black aura appeared in the area. It was at this time that Qing Shui abruptly opened his eyes, appearing extremely deep and strange, as if he had demonic power.

He clothes simply exploded, leaving only the Nine Continent Boots completely intact. However, Qing Shui didn’t seem to have noticed it and was at a loss from the tremendous surprise.

In that moment earlier, Qing Shui had woken up completely. He just happened to witness the moment the Upper and Lower Dantians merged together, as if the heavens and earth had merged together.

In that moment, he felt that his entire body had gone through a tremendous change, as if his entire body was reborn, strengthening limitlessly at a rate that could be seen by the naked eye… All the mix of power in the Upper Dantian gushed out toward the Lower Dantian.

Solidifying!

Forming a pellet!

Right now there was a glowing bright golden pellet in Qing Shui’s Dantian, the size of a walnut. It was exuding the purest gold light and was gradually spinning. Qing Shui was overjoyed to sense the powers it contained.

Now, Qing Shui could be sure that he had attained a breakthrough to the Seventh Heavenly Layer. When he was at the First to Third Heavenly Layer, his Dantian was in a gaseous state and when he was at the Fourth to the Sixth Heavenly Layer, it was in a liquid state.

When he broke through from the Third Heavenly Layer to the Fourth Heavenly Layer, his Dantian had liquefied. It was the change from the elementary to the intermediate phase and right now, it was moving from the intermediate to the expert phase.

Solidifying was one of the most obvious traits.

Forming a pellet… Although Qing Shui had thought about it before, he was still very astonished to see it happen. The Upper Dantian didn’t form a pellet and was still in a liquid state.

It took only a short period of time to cross the breakthrough, but to Qing Shui it was as if he was reborn into a completely new person or that he had just lived for millions of years.

This was a feeling and a change to one’s realm. Now, he learnt many things by himself without a teacher and he had even understood things he had never been able to understand previously. Even his vision seemed to be wider now.

After lowering his head and realizing that he was naked, he quickly entered the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal and changed into a fresh set of clothes. To think that the Lunar Silk Garment was destroyed…

This made Qing Shui fall into a short daze. That was given to him by the Heavenly Palace’s Old Ancestor and he felt a little unwilling to part with it but it was now destroyed…

In order to ascertain if he had really attained a breakthrough, Qing Shui circulated the Ancient Strengthening Technique and realized that the barrier which he had been stuck at was now gone. He also sensed his abilities now and was very sure that he had attained a breakthrough.

It might because he now had an Upper Dantian, his abilities were now above his expectations. Having attained a breakthrough to the Seventh Heavenly Layer allowed his physical strength to reach a strength of 40 stars…

For a very long time, Qing Shui was full of disbelief over this number. However, the powers in his body told him that everything was real. Moreover, both his attacks and defenses were also both at 40 stars.

His physical strength was at 40 stars… As expected of the expert phase of the Ancient Strengthening Technique. The Seventh Heavenly Layer was a critical phase where the Dantian would solidify and form a pellet.

Although he knew that he would get an increase of at least ten to twenty times stronger than he was before, after attaining the breakthrough to the Seventh Heavenly Layer, it had increased by 40 times! Qing Shui was very satisfied with this result.

He thought of his Upper Dantian. This time around, it had really played a huge role. Moreover, the reason his abilities could increase by this much might be closely related to the breakthrough he had in his Dantian.

To have a physical strength of 40 stars… After enhanced by the Diamond Qi, Diamond Protection and Diamond Crossing Rivers, his abilities would reach 80 stars. Now all of these, including the Nature Energy, were all circulating automatically.

Grade Six Nature Energy!

Now, under normal situations, Qing Shui’s strength would reach 104 stars!

The Unmoving Like A Mountain increased his physical strength by 50%, the Frenzied Bull’s Strength increased it by 30%, the Heavenly Thunder Slash increased power by 30%, the s.h.i.+eld attack increased power by 20%, the Heavenly Thunder Slash increased power and defence by 50%, the Combination Sword Technique enhanced power by 40% and the Thunder G.o.d increased overall abilities to be two times stronger.

Taking all these into consideration, even without any weapons, Qing Shui’s abilities were at a strength of 192 stars. He could perform the Combination Sword Technique using his hand as a sword and if he were to solely hold onto the Thunder G.o.d, he would be able to attack with a strength of close to 400 stars.

This was about the current level of the Five-Headed Demonic Spider.

If he were to add on the Big Dipper Sword, he could attack with a strength of over 400 stars. After attaining a breakthrough, Qing Shui could now sense the Five-Headed Demonic Spider’s abilities very clearly. It was now not as unfathomable as before.

Qing Shui’s moved his body slowly. He wanted to get used to the explosive increase in his body’s powers. After such a tremendous breakthrough, he could not accurately use his powers. There was a need for some time to familiarize himself with this newfound power.

Back Connecting Fist!

The powers in Qing Shui’s body were extremely raging and he needed to release them. He started performing the Back Connecting Fist in the empty s.p.a.ce in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal.

Force Thrusting Back Connection!

With this attack, a layer of tremors appeared on his fist. Fist Dipper. Qing Shui’s blood was boiling. The powers from that punch gave him an indescribable agitation. This was great power. This felt too good.

It was like his own kid. If he we to close his eyes, he seemed to be able to think of it as a young la.s.s, just like Luan Luan and Yuchang or like Qin Yin and Qing Yan.

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AST 895 – Formation Unlocked, Nine Palace Steps

Qing Shui spent one whole day practicing. After his abilities had increased tremendously, he was unable to hold it in. It was as if he had found something he liked a lot and could not bear to part with. It was as if he was scared that if he were to stop practicing, it would disappear.

Now, his worries for personal gains or losses were especially strong. He felt that if he did not stabilize it, it would disappear.

Right now, Qing Shui was acting just like he had gotten his hands on an interesting toy, clutching it tightly, for fear that it would be s.n.a.t.c.hed away if he were to loosen his grip.

Taichi Fist!

After his abilities improved, all the battle techniques underwent a huge improvement. Battle techniques were means, while a person’s abilities were his “powers”. Only when one had become powerful, would he then be able to unleash the greatest prowess of these battle techniques. Otherwise, the battle techniques would just be an act.

The transformation into the Seventh Layer was like a breaking through of a coc.o.o.n to become a b.u.t.terfly or the transformation of a Jiao into a dragon or even like the act of drawing eyes on the painting of a dragon [1]. It was a leap into the sky, the act of the carp leaping over Longmen to become a dragon.

Thousand Hammer Technique!

Hidden Weapon!

Sword of Sixth Wave!

…

Qing Shui gradually came to a stop only after having performed all of his battle techniques. At this moment, he was feeling immense joy, not knowing how to express it. He suddenly felt like looking for someone to share his joy.

When his abilities increased, so did his spirit energy. Entering his consciousness, he now saw the of the Yin-Yang Image being about two times as big as before. He thought of how it was only the size of a date in the beginning but was now the size of a bowl.

Niwan Palace！

When Qing Shui saw his Niwan Palace, he was astonished. To think that there was also a golden pearl the size of a bean in the Niwan Palace. Although it was small, it was emitting a brilliant glow and the spirit energy it contained surprised Qing Shui.

There was also a qualitative change to his consciousness. Qing Shui could now sense that his spirit energy had increased by many times compared to before.

Before he attained this breakthrough, he had hoped that he could reach the Grand Perfection Stage for the Heart of Roc, for his spirit energy to be increased to ten times stronger. With that, the prowess of his primordial flame b.a.l.l.s would also be increased to be ten times stronger.

Now that he was at the Seventh Heavenly Layer and the spirit energy he had increased to about forty times stronger… Before this breakthrough, even if his Heart of Roc had reached the Grand Perfection Stage, it would be far from comparable. This was a qualitative change.

This was a huge leap in his abilities and the benefits this breakthrough brought had exceeded Qing Shui’s expectations. He had initially thought that the limits would be at 20 times stronger, or just slightly more. He had not expected it to be 40 times stronger. The Upper Dantian was a great contributing factor to this.

Unknowingly, he started to submerge in the cycle of training, eating and sleeping. Very quickly, one week pa.s.sed by. Thankfully Qing Shui had great control over his powers. If not for the fact that this increase was too fast, he had no need to spend such a long time to familiarize himself with his newly found power. It was good that his spiritual sense was very powerful and the speed at which he familiarized with the powers in his body was very rapid. However, despite this, it took him a week to familiarize himself with it all.

In this breakthrough, Qing Shui’s height unknowingly grew by an inch. His slender body was very well-proportioned, his muscles not extremely bulging but that st.u.r.diness was like steel.

When he calmed down, Qing Shui suddenly recalled that the Ancient Strengthening Technique had awakened some skill within him. Thinking of this, he suddenly looked towards the depth of his consciousness agitatedly.

The formation has lit up!

Qing Shui was very agitated. After having seen the Sky Prison Sect’s formation, he had been very interested in formations. He took a look and only found the formation lit up. It had appeared before his breakthrough but it was only now that he could start learning it.

There were many words below the formation. Qing Shui read on and saw that the first introduction was about the Eight Trigrams Orientation.

The Eight Trigrams Orientation refers to Qian, Kun, Li, Kan, Zhen, Xun, Gen, Dui.

Qian: represents the bottom right, the northwest, the right leg, right foot, the large intestine, the head and others. Kun: represents the top right, the southwest, the right shoulder, right arm, the spleen, the stomach and others. Li: represents upward, south, the head, the heart, the eye and others. Kan: represents bottom, the perineum, the kidney, the ear and others… Dui: refers to right, west, right ribs, right arm, mouth, lungs and others.

The Eight Trigrams Orientation not only relates to the directions between heaven and earth but there were even representative spots on a human body. The world started off in a state of chaos before it gradually split into two, which was Yin and Yang respectively. It then further diverged into variations from the initial state into interleading states of four and then further diverging to form the eight trigrams. The eight trigrams would continue to combine with each other, forming 64 combinations.

Qing Shui could still be considered to understand this quite well and he merely glanced through the descriptions of the acupuncture points and would only stop to read through in detail those which he had not come across before.

Nine Palace Steps!

When Qing Shui said this, his heart throbbed and he quickly went to take a look.

The power of the formation was closely related to the people who formed the formation. The people who were moving within the formations must have the abilities to advance and retreat with ease. The Nine Palace Steps were extremely profound and could let the people who set up the formation move around freely in the formation, borrowing the powers of the Heavens and Earth.

The Nine Palace Steps was a footwork that was created from the basis of the Eight Trigrams Orientation. It had a powerful damaging prowess when the users were escaping and going against their enemies, being able to unleash the strongest battle prowess in just a slight movement.

Next was the technique for the Nine Palace Steps. Everything in the Nine Palace Steps was related to the Eight Trigrams Orientation and with the amazing footwork, the user could gain great advantages in terms of speed and positioning, unleas.h.i.+ng the greatest prowess they could.

Qing Shui started to learn the Nine Palace Steps. He had a strong level of mastery in the area of footwork and the Eight Trigrams Orientation and thus picked it up very quickly.

Qing Shui only scanned through it and didn’t try to put in too much effort to pick it up. He was just intending to take a glance through everything and check out what amazing stuff was there.

After the Nine Palace Steps, there were some formations. However, there were not many of them. The first one was the Singularity Bane.

Singularity Bane allowed the users to tap on simple setups to kill enemies by relying on the Nine Palace Steps and the “positionings” in the surroundings. This was not really considered a formation but had some traits of a formation and primarily relied on the Nine Palace Steps’ profoundness.

Duality Minutest Formation, Five Elements Minor Formation, Five Elements Major Formation, Twelve Celestials and Demons Formation, Spirit Gathering Formation, Spirit Sealing Minor Formation, Great Heavenly Stars Cycle Formation, Bei Ming Hidden Killing Formation, G.o.dly Dayan Formation, Great Cosmic Formation, Amoghasiddhi Formation, Five Demons Pestilence Sword Formation, Eight Trigrams Formation, Five Elements Eight Trigrams Formation, Nine Palace Eight Trigrams Formation, Four Perfections Formation, Twelve Heavenly Gates Formation, Ten Paramitas Formation, Immortal Vanquis.h.i.+ng Formation, Five Elements Spirit Sealing Formation, Five Elements Yin-Yang Great Reversal Formation, Big Dipper Formation, G.o.d Slaying Devil Devouring Formation…

Qing Shui almost looked through all the formations in one glance, but most of them were greyed out and he could only cultivate a few of them. Some of these formations were very familiar to him, while others were not. However, just by looking at their names, he felt that they seemed very powerful.

He even saw the “G.o.d Slaying Devil Devouring Formation” and "Immortal Vanquis.h.i.+ng Formation". These names sounded very much like a bluff but Qing Shui could not be bothered with that. He could finally pick up formations and would naturally not let go of this chance. Qing Clan might be able to become powerful through formations.

Seeing that he still had some time, Qing Shui decided to first check out the few formations he could cultivate. There were only five of them.

Duality Minutest Formation, Five Elements Minor Formation, Spirit Gathering Formation, Spirit Sealing Minor Formation, Nine Palace Eight Trigrams Formation!

Only when Qing Shui saw these formations did he feel that the Sky Prison Sect’s saber formation was but child’s play. Real formations could kill opponents by binding them without even needing them to move their hands.

There were many things that could be used to set up formations, including rocks, flags, demonic beast’s bones, gemstones, demonic crystals, trees, boulders.

True masters of formations could make use of everything in the surroundings, including gales, rain or even lightning. An absolute expert in setting up formations could trap and wipe out a clan or an aristocrat clan…

Formation masters were a supreme existence but formations required the support of spiritual energy. Therefore, a heaven-defying formation required some heaven-defying items to be activated.

Formation masters were required to have great talent. There was no lack of people who cultivated formations in the world of the nine continents but there were very few who could excel through formations.

However, no one would offend low level formation masters either. They didn’t wish to find themselves trapped and killed in their own homes…

Qing Shui spent his remaining time cultivating the Nine Palace Steps and the five formations.

The Nine Palace Steps was a tedious process. Qing Shui had known of Nine Palace Numerology from very long ago but had not been able to reach this stage. In the past, he was only able to pull off the Trinity Steps and could even barely reach the Four Phases Steps, let alone being able to achieve the Nine Palace Steps.

One Origin Steps, Duality Steps, Trinity Steps, Four Phases Steps, Five Elements Steps, Six Lunar Steps, Seven Star Steps, Eight Trigrams Steps, Nine Palace Steps.

This was the different levels for the Nine Palace Steps from the lowest to the highest. In the past, he had managed to reach the Four Phases Steps but back then, it was too hard. Moreover, he didn’t know the actual way of using it. It was only now that he learned that such footwork was used like this and the effects were really heaven-defying.

When he was feeling sick and tired of practicing, he would sit down and take a look at the formations but it was just taking a look.

The Duality Minutest Formation was a binding formation like the one he knew of. This formation was split into six gates, namely, life, death, dark, light, illusion and perish. The gate of death was in the northeast, the gate of life in the southwest, gate of illusion in the extreme east, gate of darkness in the extreme south and the gate of light in the northwest.

People who were trapped would be at a loss if which gate to head to.

The gate of death was hard to enter but easy to stay alive; the gate of life was easy to enter but one would be trapped easily. The perish gate was the key to destroying the formation and shan’t be mentioned now; the illusion gate and would allow the enemy to lose his way easily, finding himself trapped. The dark gate was that pitch black darkness and brought about terror that one would find hard to handle; the light gate in the northwest was the only one which could be pa.s.sed through.

Usually, there would be both the gate of life and gate of death in most formations but there were also legendary death formations. However, these were too vicious and most people would not set up such a formation unless they have some huge grudge with the opponent.

Another thing was that death formations had not been pa.s.sed down successfully throughout the course of history. Moreover, sometimes, “death formations” could also possibly be overcome by absolute power. Only when the person trapped was sufficiently powerful, would he be able to break through some powerful formations. Otherwise, there would be no other ways to breakthrough these formations since even if people outside the formations were to use brute force to break through, they would also cause the people inside to suffer from fatal injuries. This was the reason why formations were very profound.

…

Unknowingly, it was time for him to leave the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. After cleaning up, Qing Shui left, feeling satisfied. It had only just turned dark and when he went out, he saw the Five-Headed Demonic Spider quietly staying in the hall.

When it saw Qing Shui, it ran over happily, letting out a cry which made Qing Shui feel a sense of amiability. Having stayed here for such a long time, he had only been able to communicate with the Five-Headed Demonic Spider through his consciousness. Hearing that soft voice it made him feel very warm inside.

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