The Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 1624 - Night Demon, Ye Mei

From the silhouette, Qing Shui could tell that the other person was a woman. While the night didn't hinder Qing Shui's might, the other person was almost completely wrapped in black clothing, revealing only a pair of cold eyes.

Qing Shui didn't know the other's age, but he could estimate by their vitality aura that she was in her strongest and growing stage. This must mean she wasn't old, and from her graceful posture, Qing Shui speculated that she must be young.

Qing Shui and Tantai Lingyan were about 100 meters away from each other. Tantai Lingyan looked at the mysterious intruder and spoke up, "If I'm not mistaken, you were the one who summoned me."

"That's right. I could feel that we are people of the same class and hence, thought that we should gather. What do you say?"

The woman replied with a low voice that held mysterious strength. It was neither pleasant nor unpleasant to the ears. Her eyes remained fixated on Tantai Lingyan and Qing Shui.

"You are Night Demon!" Tantai Lingyan said.

"You have the blood of Demon King flowing within your body as well. You should have known about our mission. I wonder how you feel with regards to my previous proposal. It is by a stroke of luck that we met." The woman continued.

"You're alone?" Tantai Lingyan continued prompting. She continued to ask but it did not arouse the repulsion of the other. After all, she was summoned by that woman. It would only be baffling if Tantai Lingyan agreed to everything without question.

"I won't conceal it from you. It hasn't been long since I attained the Night Demon Inheritance and I've been cultivating here alone." The woman kept her stare on Tantai Lingyan and Qing Shui as she spoke, as though she was trying to see through any fluctuations or doubts in their hearts.

"Do you know about the blood of the Demon King?" it was Qing Shui's turn to speak.

The woman had been paying attention to Qing Shui, but she couldn't figure out Qing Shui's strength nor could she feel it. She knew that she was no match for the two. However, with the thought that she was also a successor of Demon King Inheritance, she figured that they would likely not harm her.

"Successors of the Demon King Inheritance will likewise gain the blood of the Demon King. Only the blood of the Demon King can make his successors stronger." The woman said frankly.

"Then you must know that the more powerful the Demon King's blood is, the more you'd lose your nature; the more you'd become irritable and unpredictable. Your bloodlust will make you lose recognition of even your family and relatives." Qing Shui said with a smile.

She had heard of it even without Qing Shui's speech, but everyone knew that you couldn't spin and weave at the same time. The strength of the Demon King Inheritance improved rapidly and it was very strong. As for the blood of the Demon King, that was nothing but a legendary tale. As long as you had a strong will, you wouldn't suffer from the backlash. Thus, everyone claimed they had restraints over themselves. Not to mention that the blood of the Demon King was more rumors than fact.

"I've heard of it, but it hasn't been confirmed to be true." The woman hesitated for a moment.

"What is your mission? Do you plan on keeping to it?" Calmly, Qing Shui asked the woman.

The woman suddenly felt herself locked in all aspects of consciousness. She found it difficult to even move. She looked Qing Shui and Tantai Lingyan, puzzled. "Why? Even if I don't want to accomplish the mission, I've already benefited from the inheritance. Wouldn't I lose credibility if I didn't finish the Demon King Inheritance's mission as promised?"

Qing Shui had already gauged the might of the woman. At the very least, she was not a threat to Tantai Lingyan and himself. As long as she didn't have the same strength as them, then mishaps wouldn't find them this quickly.

Night Demon's strength lied in combat at night. It was good at hiding, agility, assassination, ability to confuse, and more. Qing Shui laughed as he regarded her. "The Demon King Inheritance could only show you your destiny. It didn't mean that you had to be evil just by attaining it. What is your Inheritance's memory? If I'm not wrong, it must have been about murder. You should take a look at how many of those deserved to be killed, and how many of them were actually innocent."

Resigned, Qing Shui replied. In terms of the strength within the Nine Continents, right and wrong were in the hands of powerful people. The difference between those who were righteous and those who were not was that the righteous would disguise their behavior and find a high-sounding reason, while the evil didn't see a need.

"My Lingyan is the same as you, but she will not be able to associate herself with undesirable elements. You must control your instinct. It can't control your conscience while you still can. Otherwise, what's the use of being strong in the future? You'd just be a killing, living-dead demon."

Tantai Lingyan took a helpless glance at Qing Shui. She didn't know that with just that single glance, she had almost taken Qing Shui's soul away. When did she become his? Qing Shui could only stare at her.

Tantai Lingyan reached out and knocked against Qing Shui's head. "I would've killed you several times over if you had been my enemy."

Qing Shui smiled back and said, "That's why I'm glad we are on the same side."

The woman in front of them was caught in a dilemma. She had never been in contact with a successor of the Demon King Inheritance before. However, there were memories of it in her inheritance. It was by sheer luck that she had attained the inheritance and so, the nature of her personality still remained the same.

Qing Shui continued, "I don't care if you are a successor of the Demon King Inheritance or not, but I don't wish to see you doing anything that's against morals. I won't let you off easily if that happens."

"Then what should I do? I have been alone. I was happy when I felt someone with the same aura as me and had even started treating her like family. I have no family myself. I thought I wouldn't have to be alone anymore." The woman suddenly looked lost and desolate.

Qing Shui understood the kind of loneliness she spoke of but kept in mind that Night Demons were sly. Qing Shui couldn't bring himself to believe her words. Yet, since the words had left the other's mouth, he allowed Tantai Lingyan to decide.

Tantai Lingyan looked at the woman and said, "I'm fine with either. You could leave should you choose to, or I can welcome your stay. This way, we can have more people in our ranks. You should choose for yourself!"

The woman was hesitant but recalling the aura pressure from before, the decision was easy since it was unfavorable to her to do otherwise. "I will follow elder sister." She spoke after some thought.

The woman removed the scarf, revealing a cold yet beautiful face. The phrase, birds of a feather flock together couldn't be any truer. Tantai Lingyan was an ice-cold beauty and this lady was also distant in personality, though there was still a disparity between them. Their appearances and temperaments were different and the woman's age must have been younger than Qing Shui himself. She might not even be old enough to be called a woman.

"My name is Ye Mei. What is elder sister's name? Is this my brother-in-law?"

Qing Shui smiled. He was more than willing to hear those words from the young lass but Tantai Lingyan interjected, "I'm Tantai Lingyan. He's Qing Shui and we're just friends."

Although Ye Mei could tell little from Tantai Lingyan's aura, she suddenly gained immense strength from the inheritance. Even so, this was still foreign to her, but she could still discern certain things, like how Qing Shui fancied Tantai Lingyan.

Qing Shui yawned. "Let's stay here for the night and return tomorrow."

Qing Shui was perplexed. The woman should have gained its slyness from the Night Demon Inheritance as well. If not, then this Night Demon would have failed. Yet, Ye Mei seemed simple and innocent. This was strange. Could it be that it was because she had just started?

Ye Mei took the initiative to hunt for prey. Since they weren't afraid of her escaping, on top of her familiarity with the area, they naturally agreed.

Looking at Ye Mei's disappearing figure into the depths of Night Demon Mountain, Qing Shui laughed. "Could you tell anything from her?"

"Night Demon has a sly personality which is very difficult to restrain. I didn't think she was trying to disguise it nor was she strong. It'll be good to keep our guards up, or maybe what we see is really what we get." Tantai Lingyan said indifferently.

"She came back without going far. Did you feel it?" All of a sudden, Qing Shui said to Tantai Lingyan.

"It seems she wasn't as simple as she looked after all. Without incidents, we must have other company here." Only Qing Shui was within audible range from Tantai Lingyan's words.

"If there are outsiders, they should be deep in the Night Demon Mountains. I don't feel any other aura. Who do you think they are?"

"I don't know."

"Could it be someone she's intimate with? Within this quiet mountain, being alone with the opposite gender isn't too bad." Qing Shui chuckled.

Tantai Lingyan's eyes looked at Qing Shui coldly, and he laughed awkwardly. "Don't look at me like that. I'm nervous."

It wasn't long before Ye Mei came back happily with two wild rabbits in hand. "Sister, Brother Qing Shui, I have caught two rabbits. Let me go clean them up and then we can start roasting them."

The two nodded naturally. They knew that Ye Mei must have other ideas in mind, and decided to check out her motives.

Ye Mei roasted the meat skilfully, though it wasn't comparable to Qing Shui. However, she was still great. It wasn't long before Qing Shui realized something was wrong. Ye Mei's heartbeat was racing just a little faster than usual.

"Sister, this is for you." Ye Mei handed Tantai Lingyan the hind leg of a rabbit.

Then, she handed Qing Shui another hind leg. She took only one foreleg for her own consumption.

"Ah, not bad. You've got decent skills." Qing Shui said while eating.

He understood now. Ye Mei's scheme was within this meat. Poison. The meat in this rabbit had been contaminated with poison. He recalled that Night Demon was best at hiding, assassination, poisoning, and confusion. Night Demon's poison was definitely on a league of its own, but she chose the wrong target to mess with.

Discreetly, Qing Shui sounded off to Tantai Lingyan. "There's poison in this rabbit. We will cooperate with them later; this poison would restrict the use of Origin Qi for two hours."

As Qing Shui and Tantai Lingyan ate the hind leg, Qing Shui began eating an even larger one and praised as he ate, "It's delicious! I'm going to be blessed with good food in the future."

"Yeah, you will definitely be blessed with it in the future." Ye Mei's tone had completely changed, as though it had matured a lot within a short span of time.

Qing Shui looked at her in surprise and Ye Mei smiled. "Do you feel any discomfort?"

Qing Shui's expression shifted. "You poisoned us?"

Tantai Lingyan frowned, feeling an urge to laugh as she watched Qing Shui's realistically exaggerated performance.

Ye Mei was still confident about her poison. she smiled happily. Her voice was loud and piercing, but it wasn't unpleasant to the ears. Qing Sing felt the aura of another in the distance.

As expected, someone else was out there. Tantai Lingyan's voice sounded to him this time. "The person approaching has Demon King Inheritance too."