The Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 1290 - Recognizing an owner. Stepping towards the Great Gate of Heavenly Dao

"I dripped my Blood Essence on top of it before but I received no response from it," the woman said in an upset tone.

"You need to continue using your Blood Essence until it successfully recognizes you as its owner," Qing Shui explained patiently.

"I see, so that's the case. No wonder I never succeeded. Hey, how did you learn that? Is it true? You aren't trying to just make me happy, are you?" she gave Qing Shui a weird look.

Qing Shui smiled. He did not really need to say anything more. He once again used his Heavenly Vision Technique to take a peek at the Five Elements Divine Flag in his hand.

Five Elements Divine Flag (Husband)!

It did not have a grade. For now, zero checkpoints could be placed on the map. The amounts of checkpoints allowed could increase according to the ascension in grades. The user could travel back and forth between these places. The time needed and its grade had a bit of limitation.

State: Yet to recognize an owner.

Method to recognize its owner: Has to offer a blood sacrifice with the user's own Blood Essence until the owner recognition process succeeds.

It needed to be refined with Blood Essence for it to ascend a grade.

It could teleport the person with the Five Elements Divine Flag (Wife) to each other's side.There were no limitations apart from the fact that only the two people with the flags could use them.

……

Qing Shui pierced himself with the Golden Needle. After that, he forced out the Blood Essence from his Central Palace Blood Essence Pool and dripped it on the Five Elements Divine Flag. One drop, two drops…...

The Blood Essence in a person's body was particularly precious. With every bit of Blood Essence he dripped on the flag, he would feel his heart aching. After all, it was already considered quite excellent if a drop of this blood essence could recover after a few days. When necessary, he might even need medicinal pills to help boost the recovery rate.

Very quickly, he has already dripped ten drops of his Blood Essence on it. Even Qing Shui's face began to look pale. The woman beside him also had her brows slightly knitted.

A hundred drops!

The instant the hundredth drop of Blood Essence fell on it, the Five Elements Divine Flag suddenly shone really brightly. A powerful Spiritual Energy spread out into the surroundings. The entire Five Elements Divine Flag looked incomparably brilliant.

Qing Shui only took another peek at the Five Elements Divine Flag after the light disappeared.

Five Elements Divine Flag (Husband)!

It did not have a grade but it can be refined with Blood Essence once a day. For now, zero checkpoints could be placed on the map. The amounts of checkpoints allowed could increase as the ascension in grades. The user could travel back and forth between these places. The time needed and its grade had a bit of limitation.

State: Already recognized its owner.

Can teleport the person with Five Elements Divine Flag (Wife) to the other's side without restriction. Limited to the two people who own the Five Elements Divine Flags.

Qing Shui dripped another drop of Blood Essence right away. After that, he operated his Divine Force and spread it all the way around the Five Elements Divine Flag. He completed one refinement. Maybe because it was the first time, or maybe it had something to do with his blood Essence but he felt that the refinement this time had caused its range to significantly increase. It might take just a few days for it to achieve First Grade.

"Martial Aunt, why don't you let that one recognize an owner as well? I'll tell you the way to refine it." Qing Shui asked with a smile after thinking for a while.

The woman smiled and nodded. After that, she began forcing out her Blood Essence. Drop after drop of Blood Essence fell down on top of the Five Elements Divine Flag. However, Qing Shui became confused because it actually successfully recognized its owner on the eightieth drop.

After she succeeded, Qing Shui gave her a weird look. There seemed to already be a bit of unusual connection between them. It felt really strange. It was even to a point where they felt as if their blood has connected with each other. Unknowingly, that would make the two feel a bit closer but..this actually made Qing Shui panic a bit.

It seemed that the woman might have also felt it. However, she was really natural about it. As for the refining method, Qing Shui did not feel the need to explain it to her because she was already able to sense the message that Qing Shui was able to see.

She only felt like the flags looked like a pair and was unconvinced by Qing Shui's words. She had assumed that Qing Shui was avoiding the flag because he thought it was really precious. Only now did she find out that his words were real. Furthermore, there seemed to be a mutual reaction between them now. For example, they were able to feel each other's minds as well as sensed if the other party was in danger.

After the woman had also finished refining the flag, she finally realized how precious this thing was. If she had not run into Qing Shui, she would have seen it as a defective product. After all, very few items would actually use Blood Essence to recognize its owner. Furthermore, even if someone were to drop Blood Essence on it, very few people would actually manage to drop more than ten drops. The main issue was that they did not know if they would succeed or not if they continued. Normally, one drop was all it took for it to succeed. Hence, if that failed, they would give up on it.

After he Five Elements Divine Flag recognises an owner, it would be able to enter the Dantian. Right now, it was floating on top of the Golden Pellet.

On one side of the Golden Pellet, there was the Big Dipper Sword. On the other side, it was the Nine Continents Mountain……

Suddenly, a change occurred to Qing Shui's Spiritual Sense. The Dantian in front of Qing Shui changed. The Golden Pellet was gone. It was replaced by a small person in golden armor. On top of the armor was an image of the Diamond Earth Bear. It held the Big Dipper Sword in its left hand and supported the Nine Continents Mountain with its right. Around its shoulder, there was the Five Elements Divine Flag attached it. The tiny person gave out an earth shattering aura. To Qing Shui's surprise, the tiny person actually had the same face as himself.

The scene changed. Qing Shui found himself in mid-air. Around him were powerful warriors and demonic beasts. As he swung his hand, the enormous Nine Continents Mountain crashed into them with a rumble. Then they immediately disappeared. He swung his hand again and took out something that resembled a grey colored enormous dragon. At the moment when he swung it, it caused the earth and sky to change color. The Primordial Flame Dragon Whip, this was then the true Primordial Flame Dragon Whip...

The scene change once again. It went back to the past when Qing Shui was jeered at by everyone. He was young and he only had his mother's love to support him. That was until he started working hard later on. After that, he experienced a lot and a lot of things. How many times had he wandered around the borderline of life-and-death? In the middle of those scenes, his wives and close female friends also appeared.

……

It was a simple summary of the paths that he had taken all this time. Despite this, these scenes actually managed to display the various nature a person had.

Qing Shui was stunned, was this an illusion? Or was it trying to tell him something? He did not know how long it had been. He once again looked toward his Dantian. He watched as the tiny person in the golden armor slowly turned back into the old Golden Pellet. As this happened, he was released from those scenes.

By the time that he came back to his senses, the sky was already dark. It was almost night. He remembered clearly that prior to this, it was not even mid-noon yet. It just felt like a short while but half a day have already passed.

Qing Shui saw that the woman was still standing by his side. In fact, she was still in the same position as before. At this moment, she was looking at Qing Shui in surprise. He did not know that she was actually feeling extremely agitated deep down now.

"Time flies. I was just distracted for a while and the sky is already dark," Qing Shui said, a bit embarrassed.

At this moment, the woman speechlessly rolled her eyes, "If being distracted is all it takes to step over the entrance to Heavenly Dao, how many people would have already turned into exceptionally expert warriors? You are a wolf, why are you trying to pretend to be a sheep?"

Qing Shui was stunned. If this was put into his own language, it would mean that he knew what was going on but pretended to know nothing, like he was acting a play in front of her.

After he heard her words, Qing Shui was shocked. The matter that shocked him was those words about him stepping over the Great Gate of Heavenly Dao. That path was the change to his Dantian that he had witnessed himself. Maybe it was also that vision of his terrifying strength in the future?

"I stepped over the Great Gate of Heavenly Dao?" Qing Shui looked at the woman, confused.

"The things that you saw just now meant that you have entered the huge entrance to Heavenly Dao." The woman looked at Qing Shui with a faint smile.

"You can also see the things that I saw?" Qing Shui asked curiously.

"I benefited a lot from you today because of the Five Elements Divine Flag. Previously, I also saw the things that you saw. Furthermore, I can also be strangely considered to have stepped across the Great Gate of Heavenly Dao. I was able to feel very clearly the things that you felt just now, especially your emotions. But don't worry, there's nothing else I can sensed other than that. If you don't believe you can try using the link to sense my emotions as well. In any case, I would still have to thank you.. You are truly a real man with great persistence." At this moment, her joyous look was something really hard to describe. This was the first time that Qing Shui had seen such a surprised expression from her.

Qing Shui was stunned. He never thought that things like this was possible. But it was not bad that things were this way. Especially regarding the last part, was she praising him? He smiled and replied, "Martial Aunt, what benefits do I get from stepping over the Great Gate of Heavenly Dao?"

"You will find out if you try." The woman smiled. The moment she finished speaking, she attempted to hit him with a palm.

Qing Shui instinctively grabbed her hand. As soon as his hand moved out, everything became clear to Qing Shui. The woman did not try to avoid him. Instead, she let him grabbed her arm as he liked.

Qing Shui came to a realization. Currently, his every move carried with it an immense feeling of being one with nature. This was a mysterious feeling, the same feeling an ordinary person would feel when he destroys a small mountain in one blow.

Once he had stepped across the huge gate to the Heavenly Dao, he would be able to fight against people twice his strength who had not stepped across the huge gate. For example, warriors with ten thousand sun worth of strength that stepped across the gate could beat warriors with strength worth twenty thousand sun who had not managed to step across it.

This was the miraculous aspect of the Heavenly Dao. It was a very mystical strength. Since ancient times, only extreme prodigies were actually able to step into the huge Heavenly Dao gate.

"Other than that, if you plan to break through all the way to the False God realm, you will have to step into the huge gate of the Heavenly Dao." The woman explained with a smile.

Upon hearing her words, Qing Shui realized that he was still holding her arm. He embarrassedly let it go. On the other hand, she acted totally natural about it. However, she mentioned, "Do you feel that I'm already old?"

"Absolutely not!" Qing Shui immediately went on to assure her.

"I'm definitely considered young among people who cultivate. I'm still quite young." The woman immediately went back to her room in the manor when she finished speaking.

Qing Shui scratched his head. Why did she say that?

He had somehow got himself another Martial Aunt. In fact, he used to call Zhu Qing Third Martial Aunt in the past. However, their relationship had changed and Zhu Qing would not really let Qing Shui call her that. However, Qing Shui would jokingly call her Martial Aunt when they were enjoying themselves. It would make her reach her climax very fast.

And now, he just got himself another Martial Aunt. But this one was too mysterious. Qing Shui has never once seen through her thoughts. She has managed to hide herself too well.

But these things were no longer important. The most important thing was that he crossed over the huge gate to Heavenly Dao. This way, he would be able to absorb the feedback strength from the Golden Scaled Dragon Elephant.

Thinking up to this point, Qing Shui felt agitated. He has actually stumbled into the huge gate toward the Heavenly Dao by making the Five Elements Divine Flag recognized him as its owner. Even though he has taken quite a lot of few advantages from this woman, he still felt she benefited more from him.

Heavenly Dao, the divine path toward the sky. Even if he was to only able to sense a bit of it, he would already have great benefits. People who could truly make it into the gate were extreme prodigies. Not only that, they all had extremely sentimental characters. Hence, only very, very few people around Qing Shui's age would step into it. This was a kind of paramount state. Stepping across the huge gate toward the Heavenly Dao was one of the most crucial parts of cultivation. This very path had actually blocked countless everyone.

As for entering the huge Heaven Dao's gate, his cultivation in the future would speed up significantly. Eventually, he would be able to head for the huge gate of False God.

Previously, when Qing Shui looked at the Eighth Heavenly Layer, it gave him a feeling of a person looking at an extremely straight mountain from the bottom, looking at the mountain peak that pierced its way straight through the sky. Unfortunately, he could only dig some staircases little by little with his chisel and slowly make his way up. This kind of project could be said to be totally hopeless. The reason being that the time needed to achieve it was immeasurable.

Once he stepped into the huge gate of Heavenly Dao, it was as if a staircase had appeared along his way toward the Eighth Heavenly Layer. Even though the end could not be seen, he could see that he was progressing toward it step by step. Compared to before, the difference was as like the gap between the Heaven and the Earth.

There was finally hope for Eighth Heavenly Layer! Qing Shui did not lack persistence. Compared to before, it was a lot easier now. Now, he only needed to clench his teeth and climb up.

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