Ancient Strengthening Technique (Portraits of Beauty)

After using the Spring Comes Upon A Withered Tree, the old man was as if he had rooted to the ground. It was as if he the roots he had sent out could extend to a large area around him.

Grand Melody Eruption Technique!

The longsword that lady, who was like demoness, held onto, suddenly struck out with a profound melody. Everywhere it pa.s.sed by, the surroundings would turn into a grey-white color that seemed to be a sickly color, without any hints of vitality.

Eternal Spring Palace"s Second Elder didn"t dare to let down his guard and suddenly extended out his two hands. Two rows of huge green wood, that were several tens of meters long, grew out before his palms, surrounding them.

Eternal Spring, Grow!

Explode!

The lady abruptly swung the longsword in her hands, letting out a soft bellow!

Boom boom boom…

A series of loud explosions rang out and the protection from the green wood gradually shrank. However, its destructive prowess got increasingly weaker as well. By the time the green wood had disappeared, there wasn"t much prowess of the Grand Melody Eruption Technique left either. Despite this, it still pushed the old man back two steps.

Soul Capture!

The lady swung her hands fiercely again and her wrists moved with great agility.

Although the Eternal Spring Palace"s Second Elder had the Grand Silent Buddha, this time around, its effect didn"t seem to be as powerful as before. The Divine Sound Sect"s attacks were mostly spirit energy attacks and in this world, people who primarily cultivated their spirit energy were generally fewer in numbers.

Divine Sound, All-Pervasive!

The lady"s seductive body sashayed as if she was in a slow dance. It seemed as if she was performing a sword dance, yet it was also as if she was a fairy who was gliding across the air. Her beautiful appearance would make one lose themselves while watching her.

Entangled Roots!

The silhouette of the old man from the Eternal Spring Palace seemed to become even smaller and he was encompa.s.sed by a gigantic tree which exuded strong vitality.

"Everyone press on and seize these few ladies so that the demoness will be distracted. This can let Second Elder defeat her at a faster speed," shouted the Eldest Martial Brother from the Eternal Spring Palace.

"Yes! We must use these ladies to threaten her. I don"t believe that she won"t submit to us then." Another voice shouted out as well. The frequency and the strength of their attacks increased tremendously.

"Sisters, we must hang onto our defense and not let Eldest Martial Sister be distracted. Eldest Martial Sister, there"s no need to care about us. Otherwise, it"ll just be a useless sacrifice. Kill as many of them as you can. If you wish to leave, they won"t be able to stop you anyway. You can find another chance to seek vengeance for us in the future," the lady playing the zither said slowly. She appeared very calm, as if she didn"t care about life or death.

"You can go be a cuckold in the other world! Look at that big green hat that you"re wearing! [1]"

After saying that the lady appeared in the middle of the group with a flash, cutting off a person"s head with a single strike.

"Second Elder, save me!"

"Demoness! You"re courting death!"

Eternal Spring Palace"s Second Elder brought out a strong and old-fas.h.i.+oned wooden cane.

Witherwood Chant!

A stream of yellow aura locked onto the lady"s body.

Sure Kill Heavenly Technique!

The old man used his Sure Kill Heavenly Technique.

The abilities of the old man and the demoness were both at 10 million sun. They were each powerful existences in their respective sects and with a strength of 10 million sun, they would be considered to be powerful existences no matter where they went. At their level, even if they were to have a Sure Kill Heavenly Technique, they would only have one.

The old man had now used it up.

The Witherwood Chant could rapidly weaken the target in all areas. Moreover, once used, the target would be weakened by 30%. The more powerful the target, the faster they would be weakened. Even if they didn"t move, their depletion would still increase by five times, until their strength had been weakened to the level of an ordinary person. One day later, if the target was still alive, then they would automatically recover.

Prison of Wood!

The old man swung his hand once again and the surroundings became a huge prison made from green wood, imprisoning everyone.

After doing all this, the old man appeared a little weak. If the lady were to attempt to break through in this case, she would definitely deplete a lot of her power. After being hit by the Witherwood Chant, even if she were to break through the prison, she would also lose 90% of her strength. When that happened, he would be able to deal with her with great ease.

In a battle between cultivators, strength and endurance were very important but so were battle techniques. Victory or defeat could be easily determined with powerful battle techniques, just like the Sure Kill Heavenly Techniques.

The lady had a Sure Kill Heavenly Technique but it was a pity that her strength had been weakened by a lot. Therefore, even if she were to use it, she wouldn"t be able to reverse the situation. The rate of her depletion would become even faster. Sure Kill Heavenly Techniques tend to use up 10% of the user"s strength. For those who were powerful, losing 10% was nothing to them and it could last very long. However, it was different now that she had been hit by the Witherwood Chant. If she were to use 10% of her strength, she would probably be left with not more than 40% of her power.

The loss of her strength made her feel anxious. She wasn"t afraid of death but that she wouldn"t be able to die a peaceful death. She was afraid that she might not even have the option of suicide.

"Haha, demoness. Look, your sisters are also barely hanging on now."

"With you, I"ll be able to attain a breakthrough. The heaven is treating me quite well. If it was earlier, I"d let you become my woman. But now, I"ll let you become an ownerless Dao companion in our Eternal Spring Palace," the Second Elder laughed proudly.

Clank clank!

Just then, two abrupt notes from a zither rang out.

Clank clank…

The lady suddenly felt that not only had the weakening power in her body stopped weakening but it was instead, increasing. Power was burning up in her blood. It wasn"t just her. The other few ladies who were struggling to hang on also slowly felt more at ease. Prior to this, they were facing the possibility of having their defense being broken through at any moment.

The countenance of the Eternal Spring Palace"s Second Elder changed drastically. He felt that an expert from the Divine Sound Sect had appeared.

The lady had actually thought that a senior from their sect had come but yet it didn"t seem to be the case. She knew many of the seniors in her clan. However, someone with such mastery of music, the person should be a member of the Divine Sound Sect.

Clank clank…

Surges of battle will rose and not only did the lady"s power regain its peak, it was still rising to greater heights.

Phoenix Cry (Battle): Can increase the target"s battle will, allowing the target"s abilities to be fully unleashed or even to bring it beyond its full potential.

Phoenix Cry (Eruption): Can increase target"s battle prowess, giving certain chances of letting the attacking power be doubled.

Phoenix Cry (Break): Can increase target"s chances of neglecting the opponent"s defense to a certain degree.

Phoenix Cry (Retreat): Can reduce the target"s battle will, causing the target to be unable to perform as well as usual.

The person playing the zither was naturally Qing Shui and what he had performed was the Phoenix Cry Sonic Attack.

With Qing Shui"s current powerful spirit energy and with such a high quality five-string zither, the prowess of the music he played was even more powerful. He wanted to test out the Phoenix Cry Sonic Attack and thus didn"t even bother using the Emperor"s Qi. Otherwise, it would be better for him to just take action directly.

The lady now didn"t think too much but swung her snow-white longsword to perform the Grand Melody Eruption Technique, destroying the surrounding green wood prison.

Not only had Qing Shui"s Phoenix Cry Sonic Attack caused the lady"s power to swell up drastically but her attack would even occasionally have double the damaging prowess…

This was not all. There was also a certain percentage of neglecting the opponent"s defense to a certain degree. When these two factors were put together, the attack could be lethal.

Moreover, Qing Shui would also play the Phoenix Cry Sonic Attack to reduce the battle will of those people from the Eternal Spring Palace, causing their strength to suffer from some setbacks.

By increasing one side"s attacking prowess and reducing that of another, the two sides who were initially at a similar level, now could not be compared.

Divine Sound Lock!

Divine Sound Soul Pursue!

Explode!

This time around, the attacking prowess happened to double and the difference in their abilities was tremendous. A loud sound rang out.

The eyes of the Eternal Spring Palace"s Second Elder popped open as he saw his body exploding. At that moment, he saw that his body had disappeared. Then, he was instantly engulfed by darkness.

The remaining people were no match for the lady and weren"t even able to escape. Very soon, all of them died at her hands.

"May I ask which senior has extended a helping hand? I"d like to request a meeting." After doing what she had to do, the lady quickly spoke in Qing Shui"s direction.

Qing Shui walked out from a concealed spot. He had already put away the five-string zither and he appeared next to the lady with a flash.

After seeing Qing Shui, the lady was stunned. She had initially thought that it had been a senior from her clan. But upon seeing that it was a man, she knew that this person wasn"t from their clan. There were no men in the Divine Sound Sect.

She had thought that since the person had such a powerful mastery of music, the person should be a senior from her clan. However, she now knew that it wasn"t the case. Moreover, this man was very young and she had the feeling that he wasn"t relying on Youth Retaining Arts but was truly young.

"Divine Sound Sect"s Shen Ling pay respects to Senior. Thank you for saving our lives," the lady said respectfully.

"There"s no need to stand on ceremony. I know a little bit about music as well and had taken a liking to you guys. Those people are inhumane despite wearing human skins. They deserved to be killed," Qing Shui smiled and said.

"Senior doesn"t just know a little about music. I consider myself to have some achievement in music but when compared with Senior, it"s like comparing the difference between light from a firefly and the bright moon." When the lady said this, she really felt that she was a failure.

"I"m called Qing Shui. I might not be older than you in age. It"s better that you don"t be calling me senior and just call me by my name," Qing Shui smiled and said.

"You"re Imperial Cuisine Hall"s Qing Shui?" The lady asked in astonishment.

Qing Shui was stunned. He hadn"t expected that he had become so famous. He smiled and replied, "Miss Shen knows me?"

"You"re very well-known. You"re really as young as the rumors say. I just hadn"t expect that you were so outstanding in the area of music as well. That came as too much of a surprise. You"ve saved us. How should we repay you?" The lady"s seductive eyes were especially attractive. As she looked at Qing Shui now, her eyes were flas.h.i.+ng with a spiritual glow.

"You really want to repay me?" Qing Shui smiled and looked at her.

The lady nodded, "Of course. We must repay the help you"ve rendered. You"ve shown us great kindness."

"Can I raise any request?" Qing Shui looked at the lady and asked, smiling. He didn"t even blink.

The lady"s expression was a little strange. She knew of her own charms and out of ten men, nine would want to have their way with her in bed from the moment they first saw her. The tenth person would either be an eunuch or impotent…

Shen Ling gave it some thought before saying, "That"s right. I can promise any of your requests."

The other ladies wanted to say something but Shen Ling waved her hand to stop them.

It was because she saw that Qing Shui"s gaze was very clear. If a person was having desires or thoughts, it was impossible for them to hide or suppress them perfectly. This was especially true when it was in the area of relations between men and women.

"Tell me how to go to the Demon Lord Palace. I think I"m lost. As long as you can tell me the direction to the Demon Lord Palace, I"ll treat this as my request. What do you think?" Qing Shui smiled and said.

This was the first time that Shen Ling felt that she no longer had any charm. For this, it was the same for both men and women. If the other party were to insist on pestering them or have strange thoughts, then they would feel that the other party was shameless. However, if the other party were to be very serious, they would feel that they had no charm and that the other party wasn"t interested in them. They might even feel angry at the other party for having poor judgment, for not liking them…

This was how it was between men and women. Other than toward their own kin, people would more or less have some kind of thoughts toward friends of the opposite s.e.x. This was just thoughts that they would have. Of course, there were also close brotherly friends.h.i.+ps between people of opposite s.e.x. But such brotherly friends.h.i.+ps were exceptions.

[1] Wearing a green hat is used to describe that a man was made a cuckold of.