The Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 916 - Violet Star Stone, Penta-color Ancient Art of Forging Technique

Looking at the bloody wound, she took up a fresh towel and submerged it in a bucket of warm water with a natural motion, yet in a way as if she had never treated a wound before. She then took the wet towel and cleaned the blood surrounding the wound and proficiently applied medicine to the wound. After that, she unwrapped a new roll of bandage and began re-wrapping the treated wound with the bandage.

Qing Shui's wounds had actually healed up for the most part but the surface still appeared scarred and pulsing with blood. The wound was healing from the inside toward the outer skin. It would take a little bit more time for the surface to seal up into a scar. The Golden Buddha Aura Lotus was quite miraculous in nature but even miracles would take time to act despite it only being briefly.

Qing Shui glanced at the woman fixing his wound with the bandage while having her head lowered. She was a woman of desirable beauty and he felt quite close to this beauty not in a sense of distance but spiritually. He didn't feel this way because she was tending to his wound, but because of the accumulated effort she had displayed over the course of their interaction from when they first met each other.

Sometimes it would be easy to be touched just by simple gestures.

"Miss, I'm going to rest. You should rest early too," Qing Shui said as he casually put on his clothes. She had to go back anyway and he had planned to go into the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal to recover in the meantime, because he was worried that the two old demons would come back for him sooner or later.

Even so, it would take a few days or possibly a few weeks for them to come back!

"Rest well then. Be careful of your wounds. I will call you when dinner's ready," Mu Qing said softly, as she glanced at the lethargic expression on Qing Shui's face.

He nodded and left the building after that. Mu Qing watched his back with an indescribable feeling as he walked away, unsure of what to feel of the current situation.

Qing Shui returned to the building opposite of hers, closed the doors and locked himself in his bedroom before entering the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal.

For the following days inside the realm, he intended to recuperate slowly and quietly while cultivating his skills to pass the time. When he entered the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, the first two things he could see were the violet stone and the golden Sky Prison Sabre he had thrown in earlier.

Qing Shui approached the items and sat on the ground. He held the giant sabre in his hands, determining the materials used to forge this weapon to be of high quality through a brief moment of analysis. A weapon of upper quality was naturally powerful, which explained why the sabre was able to shatter his Violet Gold Divine Shield quite easily.

The Violet Gold Divine Shield was an ancient artifact and now the shield was no more. Qing Shui used to think that the Violet Gold Divine Shield would never break but it seemed he was wrong. He couldn't quite believe that the shield had actually shattered - the reality seemed hard to comprehend for now.

Qing Shui quickly used the Heavenly Vision Technique on the sabre!

Sky Prison Sabre: Weapon forged from the extraterrestrial meteorites with the ability to triple the user's power.

A great weapon indeed!

Qing Shui stared at the giant sabre for a good minute before he sighed heavily. The Thunder God could only double his power at most and it was considered his most powerful weapon to date. Unfortunately, the Sky Prison Sabre was unsuitable to use, at least in Qing Shui's case.

Not everyone could use the Sky Prison Sabre that could gain an increase to the user's power and have their power quadrupled in an instant. One must raise their sabre mastery to a certain degree, as well as having a perfect compatibility with the sabre before using it in battle…..

Much like the Dragon-Headed Cane and the simple 'stick' he had acquired from the Flowerfuit Mountain, Qing Shui could only analyze these weapons but not use them as his main weapons. He could however use them in another way, which was to dismantle the weapons and use them as materials for tempering his own weapons.

The Sky Prison Sabre was forged from meteorites but to Qing Shui, the material of the weapon itself was nothing more special than any other meteorite he had seen. Unless he had planned to give it to someone else as a gift, Qing Shui could smelt the weapon and use it to forge new equipment or temper it with the other artifacts.

Qing Shui took another look at the Sky Prison Sabre but ultimately decided to put it aside for now, as he currently didn't have the capability to smelt the weapon into forging materials. It was a bit unfortunate to smelt such a powerful weapon into forging materials in any case.

After that, he picked up the warm violet stone that was the size of a cobble. This material was left by the Violet Gold Divine Shield when it shattered. It was the first time he had really felt the stone when he held it in his hand.

However, he wasn't quite sure why there would be a stone inside the Violet Gold Divine Shield. Could there be more secrets that he hadn't uncovered about the shield?

The stone wasn't exactly round in shape, yet it wasn't exactly an oval either. It was more like the shape of a gourd, only gradually slimmer at the ends. The stone was pure violet, much like the color of the Soulshake Bell.

What was this?

Qing Shui was bewildered for a while but continued to use his Heavenly Vision Technique to look closer.

Violet Star Stone!

It was a stone he did not recognize at all. Fortunately, there was a description, so he continued to read it.

Violet Star Stone: A legendary miraculous stone, one of the most priceless stones in the world. It has the ability to allow smiths to advance to another level in the realm of forging by placing the Violet Star Stone into forging materials during the forging process.

Qing Shui's hand shook as he held the valuable stone. He didn't know such stones existed in this world. This was essentially godsend to his current problem…...

He continued to look at the words below the description, which explained the similarity between the breakthrough in the Art of Forging and breakthrough in power. On a certain level of breakthrough, one must possess an unique or special item to push the breakthrough forward to the next level. This Violet Star Stone was one of the more valuable items that existed in the world, as it could allow smiths to advance to the next level during the forging process with its miraculous energy. The smiths would be able to comprehend the crucial key to the breakthrough of the next level, effectively increasing the level of forging to another level.

Qing Shui recalled that his Ancient Art of Forging had been stuck in the Quad-color for a long time - unable to reach a breakthrough. He finally knew that the Ancient Art of Forging also required an external force to push through the next level, just like the breakthrough of his power. At the same time, he was also wondering if a breakthrough was possible in a circumstance where the external force was absent.

However, he didn't wish to test his theory as he already had a Violet Star Stone. He had a feeling that the breakthrough would play a crucial role for him and the upcoming battle, because there were two more powerful cultivators from the Sky Prison Sect that he needed to destroy.

Qing Shui put down the precious Violet Star Stone for now. He still wasn't ready to forge yet due to his condition - his body needed ample rest and recovery. At that moment, Qing Shui finally felt at ease with himself after a brief moment of gloominess.

Even though the wound hadn't completely healed, he could still do simple cultivation practice, like the Taichi Fist. The Back Connecting First however, was a bit too extreme for his current state. The Golden Buddha Aura Lotus was still in effect, partially recovered in just one and a half days. In three days, he would be recovered for most things.

Three to five days of recuperation was adequate. Qing Shui laid on the ground and recalled his memories about forging. He had already reached a terrifying level of forging after countless times of refining, tempering, smelting and forging artifacts and materials. The Quad-color Art of Forging was still powerful nonetheless.

With so much time to pass, Qing Shui decided to train his fist techniques for the next few days. Then he would enter the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal to take a look around. Seeing the demonic beasts roaming the grounds of the realm had left Qing Shui overwhelmed with a sense of achievement and satisfaction. Everything inside the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal belonged to him - those were his essentials and the demonic beasts were his arms and legs.

Qing Shui passed his time leisurely by drinking some wine and eating good food. He had quite a bit of freedom during his time in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal as well. When he had nothing to do, he would go and view the Portraits of Beauty he had collected. Unfortunately, he could not enter the dream among the sea of flowers as freely as he wished and until today, he still had no clue as to what that phenomenon was about.

Just like the situation with Di Chen, Di Qing and followed by the woman in the crystal coffin, he would always be pulled into the same dream-like state unconsciously. But after he attempted to look at Di Chen's portrait once more, he couldn't enter the dream among the sea of flowers like he did the first time. It was the same case for Canghai Mingyue and Wenren Wu-shuang too. Initially, he wanted to communicate with his wives back at home through this method but it seemed like it was impossible to do so.

And so, five days had passed. Qing Shui had already begun his cultivation training on the third day after he felt a bit better. Two days later, his power had fully restored with his strength returning to its peak form. Despite his recovery, he hadn't started forging with the Violet Star Stone yet.

At the moment, Qing Shui seemed to be in a troubled state. The stone must be inserted into an item during the forging process but what had him frowning with a deep furrow was the choice of equipment for tempering - either the Thunder God or the Big Dipper Sword. The Big Dipper Sword could be used to unleash the Sword of Sixth Wave technique, whereas the Thunder God could be used to unleash a deadly strike on his opponents.

He was a bit indecisive right now because whichever weapon he chose to refine with the Violet Star Stone would achieve a breakthrough to the next level, reaping a greater benefit for the weapon itself. In any case, he would be able to gain a substantial benefit should either the weapon become stronger and more powerful.

After pondering for awhile, he ultimately decided to temper the Thunder God!

Qing Shui used some decent materials from the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal to warm up his forging skills before starting the tempering process on the Thunder God. Essentially, he intended to temper the Thunder God by quenching it, thus cleansing the impurities from the weapon to avoid unnecessary interference in the later process.

Currently, he was overwhelmed with excitement after he had placed the Violet Star Stone next to the Thunder God. He began using the Primordial Flames and started refining the weapon and the stone by smelting them. The Violet Star Stone would melt away a little but only for a bit. After that, he took a small portion of the melted stone and added the liquid to the Thunder God one drop at a time.

All of that seemed tedious and time consuming because it would require a long period of time for the stone to melt completely. Ordinary blacksmiths would not be able to melt the Violet Star Stone without a special kind of fire to breakdown the composition of the valuable stone.

Qing Shui's power was still fairly adequate to smelt the Violet Star Stone but with tremendously exhausting effort. The smelting process was also a testament to Qing Shui's endurance in using the Primordial Flames, which he had continuously done for three days, until the stone had completely melted into liquid form.

When the Thunder God was made to fuse with the liquefied Violet Star Stone, Qing Shui found himself extremely nervous and his heartbeat rose to an abnormal rate. He was afraid that something would go wrong during the fusion - and that his Thunder God would go awry, which could lead to its inability to break through or worse, breaking the Thunder God entirely…..

In such a circumstance of fusing materials to a powerful weapon, paranoia was normal.

The liquefied stone slowly enveloped the Thunder God as it fused into the weapon. Qing Shui expanded his spiritual sense to get a hold of any changes during the fusion. At that moment, he thought he had seen the silhouette of an old blacksmith forging the weapon, with each strike from of the hammer clearly visible inside Qing Shui's consciousness.

The strength and force instilled in each hammer strike, the form. Everything was distinctive and clear inside his sea of consciousness.

The imagery of the hammer strike flashed clearly into his mind and Qing Shui began to follow the striking form unconsciously, almost an exact copy of the old blacksmith's movements. With the spiritual sense in its active state and Qing Shui's retentive memory, he was able to learn the forms exceedingly fast. One could also say that he had inherited the blacksmith's form through the extraordinary ability of his spiritual sense.

The forging process of the old blacksmith was a meticulous procedure, yet Qing Shui was enjoying himself, as if he was a sponge absorbing water at a ridiculous rate. He was absorbing every single bit of knowledge like a madman, leaving nothing behind.

The forging process inside his consciousness was nearing the end. He had almost completed the process with his eyes closed, with every hammer strike perfectly landing on the Thunder God. Qing Shui was using another Thunder God, he currently had two in his possession.

When the last hammer strike fell onto the Thunder God, a gleaming light of five colors flashed from the hammer as he lifted the forging hammer, which promptly forced Qing Shui to open his eyes. The hammer stopped in mid-air as he stood there looking elated at the newly formed Thunder God.

The Ancient Art of Forging had achieved a breakthrough towards Penta-color, as evidenced by the gleaming of the five colored light emitted from the hammer.

The Thunder God was violet in color, with a subtle layer of violet halo enveloping the weapon. The strong aura and a mysterious power of the Thunder God had Qing Shui's heart racing as he shivered with excitement.

Currently, the Thunder God seemed like it had a more obstructive force than it used to. Just by the appearance of the weapon, he could tell that the current Thunder God was stronger and more formidable. The aura alone was enough to strike terror to one's heart.

He couldn't tell much from observation through with the naked eye, so he quickly activated his Heavenly Vision Technique to analyze the weapon.

Violet Star Thunder God!

"Hmm, even the name's changed!"

The weapon could triple the user's power as well a 10% increase to the attack speed. Additional skill: Ten Thousand Great Thunderbolt.

Ten Thousand Great Thunderbolt: Ability to paralyze opponents for a short period of time.

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