The Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 1437 - Overwhelming Slaughter, The Third Treasure Chest

Was Qing Shui scared when he heard such words? Of course not. After going toe-to-toe with the Stone Beasts here twice, Qing Shui realized that it was so much easier fighting against humans. He was probing the people who suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

The person leading the group was an old man. He had a fairly common look, yet the aura he emitted felt really elegant. The only thing that had come short was that the words he had said didn't fit his temperament in the least.

It has always been emphasized that one's temperament could only be shown through the way he conversed with others. This man however, without doubt, was considered an exception. This man's elegance totally faded away as soon as he opened his mouth.

The others were all old men, and they seemed unusually young when they appeared next to Qing Shui and the Demon Lord.

Each of these people were famous figures from Soaring Dragon Continent. Though Qing Shui may not know how many people the Soaring Dragon Organization sent out, he believed that it was very likely that some of the people here were from it.

"Foolish. Do you think that we will give them to you?" Qing Shui smiled and asked.

The old man was stunned upon being scolded by Qing Shui. He soon broke into laughter, however, his laughing noises resembling that of an owl. In just a moment, his eyes turned very sharp, "Brat, you are the first person who actually dared talk to me, Bao Jun, that way. I assure you that I will let you suffer a tragic death."

……

Bao Jun... Qing Shui felt that this name sounded really aggressive. But at the same time, due to the similarities between the two words, it allowed Qing Shui to very easily connect that to the "Bao Juhua" from his previous incarnation.

(TL note: Bao Juhua stands for exploding anus, asshole exploded due to penetration)

"Bao Jun? Never heard of it. Bao Juhua? Yes." Qing Shui shook his head and said.

While speaking, Qing Shui moved forward by one step and stood in front of the Demon Lord. He was already prepared for a battle. The people standing in front of him were no easy opponents to deal with.

A faint mysterious aura began circling around Qing Shui. This was Qing Shui's Nine Palace Step. Since a battle was already inevitable, Qing Shui didn't hesitate to go all out. He immediately tossed two Heavenly Talismans at both himself and the Demon Lord. While doing that, he also operated his qi to activate Phoenix Battle Intent.

"Kill, die!"

The moment that old man in the lead had finished speaking, he flickered out black pearls from his hands. They were about the size of a fist and fast. The technique he had used to shoot them with was also very exquisite.

Actually, Qing Shui had already long been on guard for these attacks from his opponents. Right at the moment when the old man had raised his hand, Qing Shui was able to immediately react to it. He swung his hand.

Golden Sword!

Beng!

Qing Shui was already really skilled in his Hidden Weapon Technique. He immediately figured out that he could stop the enemy's attack with it as soon as he saw the movement of the old man's hands. Despite how fast his Golden Sword might be, however, the enemies' attack consisted of not just one pearl, but a few of them simultaneously.

Fortunately, Qing Shui would only need to stop one of those pearls approaching him.

Beng-beng…...

A series of explosions rang. Though they were a lot weaker compared to those before, the explosions were still really powerful. Since the explosions were really close to them, the opponents were all faced with a predicament. Two of them were even injured. The injuries that they suffered might not be that heavy, but they weren't something which could be treated lightly either.

This was precisely what Qing Shui was after. His intention was to make the opponents feel uneasy when they wanted to unleash things like this, which was definitely something he had achieved.

"You darned brat!"

Out of humiliation, Bao Jun flew into rage. Qing Shui hadn't really given him any way out of the embarrassing situation. Deep down, Bao Jun was fearful of how Qing Shui managed to stop the pearls.

Qing Shui extended his hands and took out a huge bundle of Heavenly Talismans, which all served the purpose of weakening the enemies. He tossed them all at the opponents. Compared to before, Qing Shui had become much more skillful. As soon as he entered the enemy's territory, he immediately turned into a form of energy and made his way into the body of his opponents.

"Erm, Palace Lord… Wait, it sounds a bit awkward calling you the Palace Lord. Would you mind telling me your name? We are about to make our move." Qing Shui asked the Demon Lord.

Qing Shui was aware that he mustn't move away from these people. If he did so, the old man would have the opportunity to use his formidable pearls.

Emperor's Qi!

The 10% reduction in strength from before had already made them really uncomfortable. And now, they have yet again lost another 20% of their strength. By then, Qing Shui had already initiated his attacks.

Nine Continents Mountain!

The enormous Nine Continents Mountain blocked the sights of both the opponents and the allies. Qing Shui chose this moment to summon the Dragon Slaying Beast and tossed it to the opponents.

Though the Nine Continents Mountain got misplaced, the Dragon Slaying Beast immediately went up to make up for it. The moment the opponents had spotted the Dragon Slaying Beast, the tiny yet violent demonic beast, things were already too late for them. An old man was trying his best to resist the beast, but little did he know, the people whom the Dragon Slaying Beast found threatening was unfortunately doomed to be killed instantly.

Pu!

The old man from before intended to block it with his armor and weapons. But the main problem was that the speed of the Dragon Slaying Beast was too quick. If the old man had chosen to unleash an all-out attack, he still might have had vivid hope of surviving. However, he was bound to die if he was to block it. Against the Dragon Slaying Beast, the old man's defense was bound to be broken by the Dragon Slaying Beast, unless his was equivalent to that of the Stone Beast.

Once the Dragon Slaying Beast entered a crowd, it could already be considered to be invincible. Not only did it not fear to attack, its attacks were also unstoppable. It was only after yet another three warriors got defeated that the opponents began to realize the problem. But by that time, both Qing Shui and the Demon Lord had long since progressed their way into the crowds as well. Their executed sharp and acute attacks, and all of it accompanied with Qing Shui's effort from before to weaken the enemies. Within an instant, the enemies had reduced from more than ten of them to only three. The Dragon Slaying Beast alone had already taken out four of them.

The opponent's strength went down by 30% while the strength of Qing Shui as well as his allies went up by 20%.

"Die!"

Suddenly, the old man screamed loudly. The energy in the air began surging violently. Qing Shui wasn't good with his Hidden Dao. He controlled the Nine Continents Mountain with his consciousness and, at the same time, recklessly rushed to the Demon Lord with his formidable Nine Palace Steps and embraced her with his body.

Beng…...

The only thing which Qing Shui had heard was the familiar noises of explosions. After that, he started feeling hot in his throat. With great effort, he moved his head away from the Demon Lord so as to prevent staining his blood on her. Qing Shui's entire body was covered around the Demon Lord.

The entire world turned quiet. The Dragon Slaying Beast had been struck by the explosion, but it didn't appear like it was injured. It seemed as if this tiny beast was more damage resistant than the Stone Beasts. Rather, there might be a sort of unique Essence across its body which enabled it to resist incoming forces. Along with the fact that its body was small, it could float along with the wind just like an unbeatable ant.

The enormous impact from the explosion blasted the Nine Continents Mountain backwards and it heavily struck Qing Shui. The Nine Continents Mountain was a treasure, even the Stone Beast would be destroyed upon collision with it while the Nine Continents Mountain remained unscratched. With Qing Shui's and Demon Lord's mere flesh and blood, it was likely that they would be obliterated.

The Demon Lord looked at Qing Shui, who was heavily injured. This man still chose to protect her even at the most crucial moment….. She wasn't really injured from the explosion from before. At this moment, she was staring at the man who was meditating with his eyes closed to recover his injuries.

The most dangerous moment a man could face wasn't when he was thinking for himself, but when he was thinking about how to protect his woman. Even the Demon Lord, who was a fool in love, could understand why. But out of what reasons would they do it? When a man was willing to risk his own life to protect a woman, there must be love mixed in it.

Did she love him though?

What was love?

The Demon Lord was unable to comprehend what it was. She had never thought about this question before, so much so that for most of the time, she felt that she didn't possess all the seven emotions which a human was given with. It had been so long since a man ever crossed her thought, she hadn't really felt the sort of emotion, even if she had once shared an intimate relationship with Qing Shui before. She has forgotten most part of it. The only thing that remained was a vague idea of what went on.

She wasn't sure whether it had anything to do with her habit, if it had to do with her mindset towards sex, or if there were other factors to it. No matter what kind of problems she ran into, she would always face it alone. She had never once thought about relying on others. As for the feelings between men and women, there wasn't anyone so far whom she looked up to. Another thing was that the feeling of getting into a relationship has never once crossed her mind. Just like a man surrounded with female pigs, she had slowly lost the enthusiasm to be in a relationship. But if things were the other way around, if they were surrounded by beautiful women, it would be another story. The hormones across men's body were closely related to the circumstances they were in. Men were animals that made judgements based on their feelings and what they saw.

As for this woman, she was surrounded by both types of men, but none of them were able to make her wholeheartedly dedicate her love to. Also, she hadn't really put much thought into it. People has priorities, and for her, this was definitely not on her list of her important stuff.

It was only now she started to feel good about this man. He also has got quite a decent look, and most importantly, he wasn't that irritating either. Or not exactly… He could be quite annoying at times, but it seemed like for most of the time, he did it on purpose.

"Are you having some sort of dirty thoughts about me? I will resist you." When Qing Shui opened his eyes, he noticed that the Demon Lord was also looking back at him. He couldn't help but asked.

The woman continued to look at him like usual. She didn't reveal any changes in her expression, nor was she panicked. It felt just like when an extremely beautiful ice flame was clashing against her elegant aura. Instead, Qing Shui had been the one to get a little embarrassed.

"How are you feeling now?" The woman asked softly.

"Oh, it's alright. This kind of minor injury is nothing to me." Qing Shui said happily. To think that this woman would actually show concern to others well-being. This was quite a rare sight.

"Someone should be coming here really soon. Why don't we proceed down another level? I suppose it will be safer there. But to do that, we will have to penetrate through the Maze Formation in front of us.

Qing Shui took a look at the Maze Formation and the place where the old man disappeared into prior to this. There was nothing left behind there. The old man blew up everything there in the end. This made Qing Shui felt really unfortunate. It would have been great if he could get his hands on some of the Ancient Divine Explosive Pearls. Unfortunately, he could do nothing but fantasize about it.

Qing Shui took a look at the formation here and moved his gaze towards the Demon Lord,"Can you make it through there?"

"Yes!"

Qing Shui smiled. Then you must take good care of me. If you were to lose me, I would really be in a pinch." Qing Shui summoned back his Dragon Slaying Beast while speaking.

While speaking, the Demon Lord extended her hand. Her sleeves were a bit long, allowing only half of her white hand to be shown. Qing Shui was stunned. He quickly let out his hand to grab the woman's hand. At the same time, he also felt really excited, she had actually voluntarily tried to grab on his hand.

Just as Qing Shui was about to touch her hand, the woman moved her arms. Qing Shui was now grabbing on the woman's sleeves.

"That's it, grab on tight!" The woman said gently.

Qing Shui stunned. He got upset and didn't respond to what she said.

While following the woman's footsteps, it's like they were walking past a maze. This very moment had perfectly demonstrated the woman's powerful ability in positioning as well as formations. She was someone who was able to cultivate from Nine Palace Step to peak Eight Trigram Steps in a short period of time. Naturally, she must possess a really high level of intelligence.

After around fifteen minutes or more, the Stone Gate was within sight. There was a treasure right behind the Stone Gate. Upon seeing that, Qing Shui smiled. So there were treasures here as well. It was just that he would have to pass through the formation first before he could manage to spot it.

There were no Stone Beasts on this floor. Naturally, it would be really easy for him to collect the treasure.

"Let go." The Demon Lord saw Qing Shui still holding her sleeves even now.

"So long as I am close to you, I will feel really excited and happy. I really hope that I can just continue holding on to you like this." Qing Shui released his hand while saying that.

The shock received by being so close to such a intelligent, ice-cold and beautiful woman was indeed really huge. Very often, he would also feel his heart beating really fast and his face blushing. Even at times when he was making some shameless statements, he would only say it while barely holding on.

Usually, the Demon Lord would either remain silent or ignore the person totally. Initially, Qing Shui also felt a bit awkward being treated like this, but he managed to get used to it after experiencing it for a number of times.

The Demon Lord once again chose to ignore him. After that, she hinted him to open the treasure.

Qing Shui didn't refuse. He immediately opened up the third treasure. As soon as the third box was opened, Spiritual Qi could be sensed spreading out from it. Qing Shui stunned as soon as he saw the things that were in there.