The Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 1564 - Consuming the Dragon Pill, Explosive Increase in Strength, Muyun Qingge

Regardless of other people's intentions, Qing Shui would consume it no matter what. He had a physique that was impervious to poison. He even had Nature Qi and a Nine Yang body. If he didn't consume the pill, it would be too much of a waste.

Qing Shui returned to the Violet Jade Immortal Realm after going out for a while. This time, he should have used roughly around nine days of time to refine the medicine. After calming down his state of heart, he suddenly felt a sense of drowsiness assailing his senses.

Eight hours later, Qing Shui woke up. His body recovered to its peak state. He then opened up the cauldron and took the four dragon pills and placed them into four different bottles. Each of this pill was priceless, but only a rare few could consume it safely.

For the remaining pill, Qing Shui directly consumed it.

An instant later, Qing Shui could sense that there were two powerful streams of auras, one fiery, one ice-cold, being manifested within him.

An Ice-fire hell? Qing Shui bore the piercing pain of his meridians and circulated the energy from the Ancient Strengthening Technique wanting to refine the two auras. Also, there was a black-colored qi spreading in his body, but that would dissipate almost after every round of circulation.

Qing Shui knew that it was the poison Qi. But because his physique was special, the black-colored Qi had no way of spreading in his body. Hence, without the threat of poison, Qing Shui could focus fully on refining the two tyrannical auras.

The auras grew hotter and colder, as Qing Shui was trying his best to resist. He made use of the pressure from the two auras to forcibly connect some of his minor meridians. Doing so actually could alleviate some of the pressure.

Occasionally, Qing Shui would insert a golden needle in to seal parts of the auras so his body wouldn't bear such a heavy burden.

Qing Shui knew that this sealing was only temporarily, and so he didn't really seal that much. Instead, he would force the auras to different parts of his body and use the pressure to connect more of his meridians to lighten the burden.

Qing Shui's entire body was drenched in perspiration. He closed his eyes and steadied his breathing. After every few moments, he would insert a needle into his body.

As time flowed by, the number of golden needles in his body increased. The speed of insertion increased as well. The golden needles not only improved the flow of his circulation through the meridians, but it also made them more stable as well. In fact, they could even stimulate his potential and increase the rate of refinement.

Qing Shui closed his eyes in concentration. The robe on his body now was already torn and tattered as droplets of blood oozed out of him. His entire body was inserted with golden needles.

Qing Shui also didn't expect that even with his current strength, he would still need to face such a huge dilemma. Initially, he thought his physique should be strong enough to absorb the energies within the pill. But clearly, it was not the case.

BOOM!

A major nameless meridian suddenly connected and the pressure on him drastically lessened. That heavenly meridian managed to contain a large portion of the auras and quickened the pace of the refining absorption. However, Qing Shui felt a little giddy.

There were many meridians in the human body but as for the major ones, only a few important ones existed. As for the others, they are usually minor in width and were basically uncountable in number.

The twelve heavenly and earthly meridians are considered mysterious meridians that could only be connected through certain circumstances or fate. This meridian which Qing Shui just connected was none other than the first out of the twelve earthly meridians.

This time around, the dragon pill actually brought him such great benefits, mapping out the twelve earthly meridians. Although he only managed to connect one, the others would eventually be connected as time passed.

The twelve earthly meridians were different from the twelve heavenly meridians. One must meet a specific requirement every time one connected them. The first earthly meridian was the most difficult to be connected. After successfully connecting it, the other meridians could be connected as long as one gradually increased in strength. As long as the conditions were met, the difficulty would naturally decrease.

This was also the reason why Qing Shui was happy.

The pressure on him reduced. Qing Shui used all his strength to stir his Origin Qi to refine all these auras. As time flowed by, the two mysterious auras finally ceased. Qing Shui finally heaved a sigh of relief.

Pu!

As he refined the last strand of aura, a light sound rang out from his Dantian. Instantly, Qing Shui felt his Dantian being filled. He could feel that his entire strength had just enjoyed an explosive increase.

Qing Shui smiled. He had succeeded. His strength had, in fact, increased even more than one-fold. The most important thing was that Qing Shui discovered the Paragon in his Dantian grew more and more corporeal and was now like a real miniature human.

Also, he gained one more paragon heavenly technique!

Paragon Eruption: Passive-type technique, enemies won't be able to remove it. Increase all your attacks other than Seal of Roc by one-fold. Attacks have a chance to ignore enemy's defense completely.

Finally, another mysterious sure-kill technique appeared. Moreover, this was a passive one. The only thing that made Qing Shui unhappy was that this couldn't increase the attack power from Seal of Roc.

Although it was a little regretful, he was still very happy in his heart. He had already cultivated the Snake-Elephant Movement to the point of perfection. One must know how tyrannical Qing Shui's strength was. Now with the Snake-Elephant Movement, he could ascend to the heavens with a single step.

Qing Shui sensed his current strength and was pretty satisfied with it.

His raw strength already reached a terrifying four hundred million suns.

Qing Shui's rough estimated power can actually hit about five hundred million suns. The Nine Continents Mountain can increase speed and attack by three times, and with shield energy, his power can reach roughly 1.5 billion suns after augmentation.

With his spirit energy in the Arhat Beat (x2), the Seven-colored pellet can now increase raw strength by a factor of (x50), Paragon (x60), Nine-nine nebula divine formation (x4), and Seal of Xuantian (x2). Paragon Eruption doesn't include techniques like Seal of Roc and Nine Continents Mountains and wouldn't directly augment it.

His fearsome spirit attack reached a strength of 2 billion. This was not including Battle God Halo and boost by formations. Feeling his current strength, he felt a sense of indescribable comfort. Although he was still some distance away from divinity, he was getting closer and closer.

The explosive increase in his strength brought him an unprecedented confidence.

Lowering his head and glancing at his body, he realized that his body was reeking of blood. He wrinkled his nose and hurried to cleanse himself and changed into a new set of robes. Only then did he feel comfortable.

Next, Qing Shui focused all his attention on practicing battle techniques, wanting to get familiarised with his new strength. If he was fatigued, he would go into the Violet Jade Immortal Realm for a walk. Right now, the interior space within the realm was getting vaster and vaster. He looked at everything in it as a sense of self-satisfaction and pride appeared in his heart. Everything here belonged to him. This was also his safest refuge and his foundation, with things that could propel him to a brighter future.

During the second morning, Qing Shui exited the realm. As he did so and exited his room, he discovered that Muyun Qingge was already awake and was staring into the horizons as though she was contemplating something.

Qing Shui stared at her beautiful figure and walked over.

"You are awake." Muyun Qingge lightly spoke but didn't turn her head.

"Do you have some worries weighing you down?" Qing Shui hesitated a bit before he decided to ask. When he looked upon her lonely silhouette, he could sense that there was a heavy burden in her heart.

Muyun Qingge turned and regarded Qing Shui, "Who wouldn't have worries in their heart? It doesn't matter. In any case, you have changed so much just after not seeing you for one night."

Qing Shui smiled. At this moment, he could feel how terrifying this woman was. She was actually able to sense the increase in his strength. According to logic, one could only do that when their strength surpassed their target by a lot.

Qing Shui then calmed down upon thinking of her race. He wouldn't be shocked by her strength and if she really was from the mermaid race, it would all only be logical.

Qing Shui stared at the faint astonishment in her eyes when she realized his strength increased. He then smiled, "I concocted a pill that can allow your strength to increase one-fold."

He spoke as he watched her reaction. He didn't have anything to hide. In fact, he didn't mind gifting her one. After all, she did him a huge favor by bringing him to find Yiye Jiange.

Although Qing Shui cured her of her injuries, that wasn't any great kindness in his book. Hence, he wanted to use some other method to repay her favor.

As for Qing Shui's women, there were too few among them who could use this. Qing Shui was still a little worried. Yiye Jiange should be able to consume this pill but he was still worried about the toxins. The risk was too great.

Muyun Qingge was different, she was powerful and had a unique physique. Although he couldn't be 100% sure that she was of the mermaid race, she should be related to them.

She might be the offspring of a human and mermaid...

In the water, there were many races that retained some small characteristics specific to them. The majority of their appearances are no different from humans. Humans are intelligent creatures, but so are those from the aquatic races. They abide by laws and grow stronger in strength and intelligence as they slowly transformed. However, no matter how much they had changed, it was impossible for them to become completely like humans.

Qing Shui's power of acceptance was very strong. He had heard of the aquatic race since a very long time ago. The dragon race was also a mystical existence - they could not transform their appearance no matter how strong they were. At most, they could only reduce their size at will but their figures would still be that of a dragon.

There were many demonic beasts who were the same as well. The characteristics of these beasts were the same - their strength was incomparably powerful.

Those that were extremely similar to humans are none other than the Mermaid and Drakaina races. Other than these two, the special characteristics specific to other demonic creatures would still remain with them.

Hence, Qing Shui could narrow down that Muyun Qingge belonged to either the Mermaid or Drakaina race.

"To think you are truly a powerful alchemist. Don't forget that with the rapid rise in strength, you must build up your foundation well." Muyun Qingge smiled.

"Mhm. Come, I wish to gift you a Dragon Pill. However, there's a risk you might lose your life if you consume it. The toxicity of this pill is very high and for those who don't have a unique physique, they might even implode upon consuming it." Qing Shui spoke.

"This pill is too valuable. Just keep it with you, I have no use for it." Muyun Qingge shook her head and smiled.