The Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 1542 - Seven Yang Pill's Completion, Strongest Hope

After finding a place in a corner, each of them took one side so that they couldn't look at each other. The arrangement resembled two rooms. Hence, there was no need to use a tent.

But Qin Qing still decided to make a tent...

This dealt a heavy blow to Qing Shui. As he looked at her preparing the tent, he said lightly: "Sister Qing, I think this tent has no use if I wanted to do anything."

"This tent isn't to stop you but to act as a warning line. If you cross it, I'll attack." Qin Qing smiled at him.

Qing Shui nudged his nose while smiling: "Are you telling me that I can take action if I can beat you?"

"I dare you." Qin Qing glared at him and entered the tent.

"Sister Qing, can I come inside your tent to take a rest?"

"You're not allowed to!"

Qing Shui felt helpless. He took out a bed and placed it outside, laying on it to take a nap. The color of the sky had already become completely dark now. The two of them didn't have dinner. It wasn't that they didn't have an appetite, but rather that it wasn't a problem even if they didn't have meals for half a month.

Qing Shui left the demonic beasts behind as night guards. Although it was entirely safe here, it was better to guard against the unexpected. After that, Qing Shui entered the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal.

Today, Qing Shui planned to refine the Seven Yang Pill. The medicinal pill had basically matured now, and since he had also obtained many medicinal herbs these past few days, he couldn't help but want to refine it.

There was huge dividing gulf between the Six Yang Pill and the Seven Yang Pill. It was said that for Yang Pills, the actual results of the refined medicinal pills weren't stable. A medicinal pill refined for the second time wasn't the same as that of the first time. There were many different branches of medicinal pills types that could result. Hence, although the final result was the same, the strengths differed.

The Spirit Pool could be used for refining medicine, and it was even better to use it along with the Spring of Life. Qing Shui arranged the medicinal herbs, but didn't begin refining immediately. Instead, he walked over towards the dead body of the giant Poison Dragon.

The Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal could preserve the original shape and nature of objects as they were brought in. It could basically keep the original form of inanimate objects for eternity. Therefore, this Poison Dragon's dead body wouldn't rot even if it was left here for 1800 years.

Dragon Crystal, Core, Dragon Bones, Dragon Tendons...

Although it was a Poison Dragon, some of the materials from its body were incredibly precious. They were ultimate materials for refining poison or Poison Armaments. The core, blood, bones, liver, etc.. were also things most liked by Poison Makers.

Qing Shui had the Venomous Datura, crystals, and methods to refine highly toxic poisons from the Poison Scriptures. He always felt a little conflicted in the past and still felt disdain towards using poison. He thought that using poison was a crude approach.

This was the reason why others on the continent weren't willing to have close relations with Poison Makers. They felt that humans who always kept thinking about the myriad of poisons weren't proper people. Even Alchemists had to play with poison on some occasions.

Qing Shui had already created a Spirit Pool inside the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. This Spirit Pool had made the area of the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal bigger again. The changes that the Spirited Snake Turtle had brought to the realm weren't one time things. As it matured these past few days, it had caused yet another change in the realm.

The current Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal was already quite big, and its diameter was already no less than a hundred kilometers wide. Although it wasn't boundless, being Qing Shui's independent space, it was already quite a vast region.

Qing Shui had also gathered a few things from the Three-Headed Jade Water Snake King. The Golden Cicada Grass Herb had even bloomed. As for the Poison Dragon Flower, it presented a beautiful scene inside the Spirit Pool.

Qing Shui looked at the Ancient Demonic Fruit Tree, the Diamond Fruit Tree, and a few other medicinal herbs, as well as the stockpiled Nine Revolution Golden and Fortune Golden Pellets. All these things were quite invaluable, and he had set them aside for his family.

Finally, Qing Shui adjusted himself and prepared to refine the Seven Yang Pill. Qing Shui discovered that his current strength was quite far from those old fellows. Pretty much every time, he needed the Thunderous Beast and the Dragon Slaying Beast to step in as well. If there were too many enemies, he had to take some of the hits.

Although his defensive strength was quite strong, his offensive strength was very weak, which greatly diminished his overall ability. If Qing Shui could promote his strength a bit, then even if those old fellows used a Sure Kill Heavenly Technique, they wouldn't be able to hurt him.

Seven Yang Pill - Qing Shui had to entrust all hope to this. Qing Shui found that even he was a little excited, as there was a vast divide between the Six Yang Pill and the Seven Yang Pill.

Although the increment in strength brought by the Six Yang Pill wasn't much, its purpose had been fulfilled with the action of the Four-Fold Medicinal Pill. Therefore, Qing Shui was quite looking forward to the qualitative leap the Seven Yang Pill would bring.

The dry and dull refining had begun. It failed even before the first day had ended, which made Qing Shui stare in a daze, because it was too quick. He felt a bit pressured due to failing at the beginning.

After all, these medicinal herbs were too precious. Even a single failure made Qing Shui's guts churn, but this failure was also indispensable. Each failure led to the preparation that would finally lead to success.

BANG!

The second time had also ended in a failure. Moreover, there wasn't even a single bit of progress. Qing Shui stopped to look at the pill formula of the Seven Yang Pill's alchemy recipe, to closely examine the chosen materials and again sort them out.

"The sequence is wrong. The Earth Hear Lotus was put in too early." Qing Shui felt gloomy after finding the error. This one mistake in the sequence had caused two failures.

The refinement went exceptionally smoothly this time. It didn't fail even after six days had passed. Qing Shui had also become tranquil and didn't bother about the question of whether he'd fail or succeed, rather meticulously placing the remaining medicinal herbs into the Demon Refining Furnace to achieve a perfect mixture.

Ding!

A sharp and clear pleasant sound echoed out. Qing Shui felt like he had woken up from a dream as he foolishly gazed at the Golden Flint Iron Cauldron in front of his eyes. He didn't expect that he'd succeed, as it didn't seem like a possibility due to the previous two failures.

But thinking over it, if he hadn't failed before, he wouldn't have reached this refining nirvanic state. This time's medicinal refinement was quite a significant realization. He was aware of it earlier, but this was the first time he had felt the method to grasp that magical state. This way, his odds of succeeding in medicinal refinement would increase a lot.

Seven days!

Seven days for a Seven Yang Pill, and it seemed taking seven days was already quite a feat as well as the actual limit. Once a medicinal refinement technique reached a boundary's limit, it was difficult to make a breakthrough.

It didn't mean that it was better to take more days for the medicinal refinement. Rather it meant that when using a medicinal refinement technique of the same grade, more days meant more difficulty in refining the medicinal pill. Typically, the more days it took, the better its quality.

Qing Shui didn't know how many times he had promoted his medicinal refinement skills these past years. If it were before, even if he didn't fail, it would've taken several months to refine it, as medicinal refinement also needed strength.

Qing Shui anxiously opened the Golden Flint Iron Cauldron. A sweet scent wafted towards his nose, with an indescribably pure spirit. The Seven Yang Pill's appearance didn't change much, it just looked more golden as if it were a burning golden flame.

Qing Shui directly analyzed it.

Seven Yang Pill!

Effect: It can substantially promote one's constitution, raising raw strength by 200 sun or overall strength by 100,000 sun. It has the precise result of reinforcing the dantian, meridians, as well as the five viscera and six bowels. Its effect is more significant towards humans with special body constitutions, which can even allow the Seven Yang Pill's effect to double.

A person can eat ten of them in their entire lifetime, one each year, or else they would go into conflict with the other Yang Pills.

Qing Shui was amazed. The Six Yang Pill could raise one's raw strength by ten sun or overall strength by a thousand sun. Even with his special body constitution, one pill could only give a raise of 25 sun in raw strength, but one of these could unexpectedly increase it by 200 sun.

The dividing range between the Six Yang Pill and the Seven Yang Pill was indeed vast, at least 20-fold. When Qing Shui had gotten hold of the One Yang Pill and Two Yang Pill, he hadn't thought that the disparity of the latter ones would be so huge. This Nine Yang Pharmacopoeia was an excellent thing.

Qing Shui couldn't describe what he felt at this moment. Because of his special body, the Yang Pill's effect would double and add in the effects of the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal and the Four-Fold Medicinal Pill as well. He could make the Seven Yang Pill display its effects within a short period of time.

Thinking about the Poison Dragon Flower, Qing Shui discovered that his strength had once again reached a crucial checkpoint. This time he could perhaps reach the peak of the Elementary False God Stage.

The Golden Flint Iron Cauldron had two pills inside it. Qing Shui was quite satisfied with this amount. Typically, there would only be one of them, so he was amazed that there were two this time.

After that, Qing Shui began medicinal refinement again. He kept adding Golden Snake Grass each time as he didn't want to waste time. Moreover, he didn't lack them.

By the time twenty Seven Yang Pills were done, there wasn't much time remaining to refine another one. After hesitating a bit, Qing Shui directly used four of them. At worst, he could take them outside of the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal.

Although the course of events of absorbing them was a little painful, he had smoothly absorbed them in two days' time.

Four pills had raised his raw strength by 1000 sun.

On average, each pill had raised his raw strength by 250 suns. This alone had already surpassed the Six Yang Pill's effects. Qing Shui felt that the latter Eight Yang Pill's effects would also allow his strength to increase exponentially.

A Seven Yang Pill could raise the raw strength by 200 sun or the overall strength by 100,000 sun. If his overall strength had indeed increased by 100,000 sun, Qing Shui would've become speechless. To the current Qing Shui, 100,000 sun of overall strength wasn't even equal to 300 million suns of strength.

Therefore, Qing Shui was very satisfied right now. As for the remaining sixteen pills, he'd decide what to do about them after refining more tomorrow. Qing Shui could use ten days to make use of forty Seven Yang Pills. The effects of the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal regarding this aspect was something he was delighted with, which reduced the time related with medicinal resistance.

When he came out, he heard a voice. It sounded like as if someone was performing a sword dance. Leaving the cave dwelling, Qing Shui gazed at the sword dance being played outside.

Her sword dance didn't possess much strength but it seemed similar to Taiji swordplay, just sped-up. Her beautiful body danced along intensely, and Qing Shui stared at the alluring breath her body exuded.

Qing Shui looked at her without even blinking once. His self-control was quite strong, but his gaze possessed an indescribable fanaticism. And this spellbind wasn't that of avarice but rather awe towards beauty.

Sensing Qing Shui's gaze, Qin Qing stopped and retrieved her longsword: "You woke up!"

"Mhm, why did you stop?" Qing Shui asked her even though he knew the answer.

"I don't like being watched by a person so much."

"If I was your enemy, and kept looking at you, you'd just keep waiting without doing anything." Although Qing Shui's expression wasn't clear on the surface, his heart nevertheless felt happy.

It was because a stranger's gaze couldn't influence her and since he was able to disturb her state of mind, no matter the reason, it meant that he had affected her.