The Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 1438 - Goddess Divine Set, Nine stances of Ancient Divine Battle Technique, Tyranny

Looking into the treasure chest, the contents were quite unexpected. It was full of spiritual accessories, but there was only one complete set. There was a necklace, a ring, a bracelet, a snow coat and some snow boots, but nothing else.

These items were flowing with spiritual energy. Suddenly, Qing Shui noticed the writing beside the stone statue, written in sealed script.

Divine Goddess Set!

The words seemed as though they were scorched by lightning. That didn't matter too much, as they were just some powerful clothes and accessories. Qing Shui then looked at the set with his Heavenly Vision Technique.

Increases defense five fold. Increases speed five fold and the power of all abilities one fold.

Such an amazing item already and moreover, all of them could still be evolved. These items were already considered Divine grade, but Qing Shui was not sure which level of the Divine grade they belonged to.

For example, the clothes had an extra attribute. They could automatically nullify a fatal strike once, but the wearer was required to use his own blood to link with the Spiritual Qi.

Linking with blood was different from item bonding in games. Here, linking with blood was so that the equipment could recognize its owner. Only then could the Divine artifact activate its powers.

Equipping the whole set granted additional powerful abilities. No wonder it was a set......

Qing Shui took out a Gold Needle and pricked the Demon Lord's finger, linking her blood with the equipment. For a brief moment, the items glowed magnificently. It was not as magnificent as the ones before, but it had some sort of majestic aura to it, making it appear more spectacular.

"Now only you can use these. I don't want to hear you say you don't need them." Qing Shui stuffed the items into her hands, with no intention of helping her put them on. In the World of the Nine Continents, putting a ring on a woman's finger had a special meaning. Qing Shui would very much like to do it, but he was afraid she would get annoyed.

The woman was not reserved at all and began putting them on.

"Should I put that on for you?" Qing Shui asked, cautiously.

The woman hesitated, taking a look at Qing Shui's face. Unexpectedly, she nodded. Qing Shui held the ring in one hand, her hand in the other, and slowly put the ring on. Qing Shui had a serious look. At that moment, his thoughts were blank. It was an indescribable feeling...very blissful.

Looking at Qing Shui's gentle and handsome face, the woman suddenly felt her heartstrings being strummed. It was very subtle, just like dropping a pebble into the ocean - the ripples were small but continued to spread.

As he put on the bracelet and necklace, the woman remained calm and did not avoid eye contact with Qing Shui. This gave Qing Shui a bit of disappointment. If the woman would just avoid eye contact and show a little nervousness, it would give him a sense of accomplishment, but now it just seemed like it was nothing.

Qing Shui put on the snow coat for her - she did not reject his actions, but she put on the snow boots herself. Qing Shui did not insist that he should do it either. Looking at the woman, she exuded a brand-new look: as cold as ever, but with a goddess-like aura.

"How many palaces does this Ancient Divine Shrine have anyways?" Qing Shui said, looking at the stone door of the fourth palace.

"Normally there are six." The woman replied. She had explored Ancient Divine Shrines herself. Both her and Hua Rumei's weapons were found in Ancient Divine Shrines. That palace did not have things like Stone Beasts, only Trap Formations. The woman was quite knowledgeable about Trap Formations and her mastery of formations could be seen from what had just happened.

"Then we should hurry, maybe we can get out before it gets dark." Qing Shui thought and said.

The woman nodded, and walked into the fourth palace.

An empty palace?

Nothing came into sight after walking into the chamber: no formations, no stone beasts. Qing Shui was not careless. He activated his spiritual sense, trying to sense the changes in the surroundings, but there were none.

"It's empty, so there's no need to search. Let's go to the next one." The woman said and slowly walked towards the fifth palace.

Qing Shui was puzzled. Why would the fifth palace be empty? Qing Shui reached out his hand and pulled the woman back, "Wait a minute!"

Qing Shui took out two Revealing Talismans and stuck them onto themselves.

The talisman could reveal certain hidden things. Even Qing Shui couldn't explain the power of this Heavenly Talisman. It was just that mysterious. After using the Revealing Talisman, the both of them were stunned.

Nine Stances of Ancient Divine Battle Technique!

The place was originally empty, but after using the Revealing Talisman, nine diagrams appeared all over the walls, indicating the Nine Stances of Ancient Divine Battle Technique.

The human characters of these diagrams had nine different postures, with the lineages on the body linked together, forming a strange looking network. This was a set of techniques that could also be used in battle. Its name sounded powerful and it gave off a mysterious feel.

Qing Shui memorized it silently. The first diagram disappeared after 15 minutes.

He reminded the woman to just memorize it without thinking too much, because these diagrams didn't last long. Of course, she knew that too.

Time passed, one by one, as they looked at and memorized the diagrams. When the last one finally disappeared, Qing Shui let out a breath. If not for the Revealing Talisman, they would have missed this Nine Stances of Ancient Battle Technique.

"How's it going?" Qing Shui turned towards the woman.

"Almost done memorizing it." The woman said softly.

They marched towards the fifth palace. As soon as they walked in, they were confronted by two Stone Beasts - a giant tiger and a giant elephant. More importantly, these two beasts were unrestrained, and charged straight at Qing Shui.

There were no more stone doors!

The first things Qing Shui looked for were the treasure chest and stone door. There was a chest, but nothing else behind it.

"There's no stone door, what should we do now?" Qing Shui looked at the woman as he dodged the attacks. He then summoned the Dragon-Slaying Beast to distract one of the Stone Beasts.

Unrestrained Stone Beast had terrifyingly bottomless strength. They were basically like the Dragon-Slaying Beast on steroids: not as sharp, but incredibly strong.

"It'll only appear after we dispose of these two beasts. If this is the last palace, it won't appear at all." The woman said while dodging.

The Demon Lord's power became insanely strong after equipping the Divine Goddess Set. Each of her attacks was as strong as Qing Shui's Paragon Strike. That was how scary she had become......

Her speed also increased tremendously, making it easier for her to dodge attacks, only using strength to block and divert attacks when necessary. She was adapting to the sudden power increase.

Qing Shui had to admit that the woman was terrific. She had adapted to her new powers in no time. Even so, it was still impossible to block all of the Stone Beasts' attacks; these two beasts were a lot stronger than the previous two.

The woman's attacks only managed to make the Stone Beasts flinch slightly. It seemed impossible to harm the beasts with her level of attacks.

The Demon Lord was indeed training her hands. Real-time battles like this were the best way to learn how to control power. With the Divine Goddess Set's defence, dodging was easy. Even if she were to be rammed, she could easily deflect it away.

Qing Shui also had scary defence skills. His Taichi mastery made him even more formidable.

He had only thought of this recently after seeing the Demon Lord use the opponent's momentum to deflect attacks. Then he had realized that he could use Taichi also.

Nine Palace Steps activate!

Qing Shui shuttled back and forth, building up mysterious strength in his hands and using the opponent's force against them.

All of a sudden, the two giant Stone Beasts started charging towards Qing Shui.

Qing Shui caught hold of the giant elephant, and diverted its force towards the Stone Tiger, crashing the Stone Elephant into the Tiger.

Smack!

Stone Beasts were not that intelligent because they only relied on Divine Sense. The Divine Sense mainly granted only the will to attack. Taichi was a Divine Technique and had existed since ancient times. Of course, modern Taichi had become more powerful, but the original concept of Taichi itself was already very powerful.

The world was a mixture of Yin and Yang. Taichi itself was Yin and Yang and thus considered a powerful, all-embracing Heavenly Technique.

For a moment, Qing Shui and the Demon Lord had difficulty damaging the two Stone Beasts. On the other hand, using the Stone Beasts' attacks on themselves did do some damage. The huge impact stunned both the beasts briefly.

The Divine Sense had weakened!

To Qing Shui's surprise, the two beasts started slowing down and getting weaker as well. He knew it was because the Divine Sense was in their brains. That was their weakness! Even though they knew the beasts' weakness, they did not have enough firepower. The last strike had only weakened the Divine Sense by a little bit.

"Woman, try using your Nine Stances of Ancient Divine Battle Technique on the beasts' heads." Qing Shui said without turning around.

The Demon Lord twitched slightly but did as he said in the end.

Crack!

Unexpectedly, the Demon Lord's Supreme Devil Long Sword easily penetrated the Stone Beast's skill. However, its head was too big, so the stab was just like a needle prick.

Qing Shui was surprised for a moment and barely dodged an attack from the Stone Beast.

The Demon Lord was also briefly stunned. Previously, this weapon could not even scratch the Stone Beast, but now, by only slightly using the Qi of the Nine Stances of Ancient Divine Battle Technique, she could just barely stab the beast.

After the Demon Lord removed her sword, Qing Shui clearly felt that the Stone Beast's strength had decreased by about one percent.

One percent was not much, but this was only one attack. Reducing its power was just a lucky side effect. The next stab reduced its strength by another one percent.

Qing Shui was amazed by this.

The Nine Stances of Ancient Battle Technique was so powerful. If this went on, the whole place might fall apart.

The third stab, however, only decreased its strength by half a percent, and the next one by a third of a percent.…...

At last, after decreasing ten percent of its strength, any additional attacks would only decrease its strength by around a tenth of a percent. However, the Stone Beast had already lost most of its Divine Sense.

Crash!

The giant Stone Beast collapsed, breaking into pieces. Qing Shui realized that there was nothing special about these lumps of rock. It was only because of the Divine Sense that they had been so strong, as simple as that.

The situation became much easier with the Nine Stances of Ancient Battle Technique. Qing Shui could use the divine Taichi Form, and the Nine Stances of Ancient Battle Technique. However, it was a shame that he could not even compare with the Demon Lord. The power gap was just too big.

After the battle ended, the Demon Lord seemed to be lost in a mysterious world. Qing Shui did not disrupt her. At this moment, a stone door appeared, but Qing Shui did not move. He did not want to interrupt the Demon Lord's epiphany.

This was a kind of epiphany, not exactly enlightenment, but it had the same beneficial effects.

Five minutes later, the Demon Lord 'woke up' and saw Qing Shui standing some distance away. "Sorry for the wait."