Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 0116 – Surprise of 4th Heavenly Layer

Qing Shui had no idea how long has passed before he suddenly regained his consciousness. The last thing that he remembered was the breakthrough he had undergone, as well as the Golden Steel Demonic Boar which was staring covetously at him.

He quickly scanned his surroundings, and realized that the Golden Steel Demonic Boar was nowhere to be seen, meanwhile he was in an area of gravel! After all, before he had fainted, he was attacked a few times by the Golden Steel Demonic Boar. When he was in a groggy state, he could feel a massive strength pounding into him!

“How am I still alive? Although I have broken through, that Golden Steel Demonic Boar could have easily killed me when I had lost consciousness.” Qing Shui was full of doubts.

“Forget it, I shouldn’t think about it too much. One is bound for good fortune after surviving a disaster. Well, I just got my breakthrough!” Qing Shui was still very happy. After all, he had been thinking of the wonderful life he would have after breaking through for many days and nights. He had been through disappointment time and time again, but his wish finally came through!

Thinking about his breakthrough, Qing Shui was beyond happy. He gently closed his eyes to feel the changes in himself. Qing Shui moved his body, and the speed was more than two times faster than when he ate the Agility-Enhancing Fruit!

“Hahaha!” Qing Shui laughed hysterically as he waved his hands, sending his fists out. A massive boulder that was over forty cubic meters was smashed into smithereens which shot out into every direction.

“Boom!”

A loud sound accompanied the smoke and Qing Shui’s hysterical laughter!

“No wonder it was so hard to break through. No wonder I was stuck for seven years without being able to break through. To think that the 4th Heavenly Layer is so strong!” Qing Shui could feel that the 4th Heavenly Layer of the Ancient Strengthening Technique was a whole 10 times stronger than that of the 3rd Heavenly Layer.

“No wonder it was said that the for the Nine Heavenly Layers of the Ancient Strengthening Technique, the 4th and 7th Heavenly Layers were the most crucial!” Qing Shui could feel the bursting energy from within himself, as well as the automatic churning of the Ancient Strengthening Technique.

To rise up to the 4th Heavenly Layer meant that Qing Shui’s Ancient Strengthening Technique had progressed to the intermediate level. Qing Shui was aware that for the progression from the 3rd Heavenly Layer to the 4th, as well as from the 6th to the 7th, there would be a definitive increase in the power. It was just that he had not expected the difference to be 10 times.

Each time he progressed another level between the 1st to the 3rd Heavenly Layer, his abilities increased by another fold. At the pinnacle of the 3rd Heavenly Layer, Qing Shui’s could at most generate a strength of slightly over twenty thousand jin, but the boulder which he had smashed earlier was estimated to be over twenty thousand jin. Qing Shui was able to feel the energy bursting from within him. (A cubic meter of a rock is about 5000 jin).

The feeling after breaking through was very mysterious. How could he describe it? It was like seeing a beautiful lady, and this lady had a very good favorable impression of you; or the feeling of having had s*x with an unparalleled beauty, and experiencing the afterglow of the mind and of the body after s*x. His body was filled with a melodious movement of the energy. At the 4th Heavenly Level of the Ancient Strengthening Technique, it would also move by itself usually, and once required, it can generate explosive powers.

The Ancient Strengthening Technique was the best skill which was defiant of the natural order. It did not merely increases one’s strength, but also their defence and recovery skills improved at a perverse rate!

Qing Shui used his inner sight on his Dantian, and realized that the ‘fog’ in his Dantian had disappeared. In its spot, there was a golden drop of fluid that was the size of a soybean!

“The liquefying of the Dantian!”

Qing Shui was elated. This was a qualitative change, from the gaseous state to a liquid state. This was also the reason why his abilities had an explosive increase by tenfold. It wasn’t to be underestimated because it was only the size of a small soybean, the power that it contained was really terrifying.

Qing Shui was aware, if he were to train hard in the future, with the increase of his abilities, this golden fluid drop would gradually increase until the point where it filled the whole Dantian. Thinking how this one drop was already so powerful, Qing Shui could not begin to imagine how terrifying it would be when his whole Dantian was filled up with such golden fluid.

The leveling of the Ancient Strengthening Technique would not merely include one’s battle powers, even his sexual prowess would have an explosive increase. His bones, the myriad of energy channels, veins, as well as his skin and flesh would all have a qualitative improvement.

“Hmm? Why is there a smell?” Qing Shui realized that his impurities were being cleansed again, with his whole body covered with a layer of dark grey grease. This had not happened when he broke through from the 2nd and 3rd Heavenly Layer. It had only happened when he first started the Ancient Strengthening Technique, as well as when he had entered the state of epiphany. This time around, it seemed like there was a great improvement to his body, and it resulted in a large amount of filth being purged out of his body!

Embraced by the happiness of the breakthrough, Qing Shui did not sense any weird smell initially, until he checked the state of his injuries. After a quick scan of the surroundings, Qing Shui quickly got some water from the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal to wash up!

“Damn it!”

Looking at the state of his skin after he had cleansed the grease, he thought to himself, why the hell would a guy need such good skin?

His injuries had fully healed, not leaving any trace of scars behind. The moonstone necklace given to him by Yiye Jiange was still around his neck emitting a soft blue glow. It was just that there was a slight crack in the moonstone!

“Could it be because of that Golden Steel Demonic Beast……?” The thought hit Qing Shui, but he quickly threw the thought away. After all, he had no way he could find that out. It was already a blessing from god that he was able to keep his life!

After entering the 4th Heavenly Layer, even the slightly toned and tough muscles that Qing Shui had initially were all gone. His skin had turned white as jade, but his masculine charm had increased a little. Although his physique was not very strong, and there were only a slight trace of muscles, Qing Shui was well aware of the terrifying power contained in this body.

The body returning to it’s natural state!

“It would be much easier to act as a weakling to dominate the strong in the future!” Qing Shui took out his spare clothes and put them on. After he had broken through, even his sense of superiority had increased, and he felt more audacious too. It was probably that when one is strong, so was his level of audacity. His confidence had increased, resulting in the increase of his charm as well.

Now, Qing Shui wished to be able to meet that Golden Steel Demonic Boar. With his increased abilities, Qing Shui now had the confidence to escape from it, or even defeat or tame it with his strength of over twenty thousand jin. He could not help but grin at the thought of getting a mutated beast as a ride. However, Qing Shui knew that it was almost hopeless for him to meet the Golden Steel Demonic Beast again.

Regardless, it was all thanks to this Golden Steel Demonic Boar that he could break through the 4th Heavenly Layer. Without it, god knows when he would have achieved this! As the saying goes, it was a blessing in disguise!

Seeing that the sun had already set considering it was noon when he left, thinking of his mother and company, Qing Shui dashed out. The feeling of his movements were like fleeting clouds and flowing water, and Qing Shui could not help but laugh proudly.

While following the winding path, he finally reached the exterior of the Wild Boar Mountains. Seeing the carriage of the Metallic Bull Beast, Qing Shui heaved a huge sigh of relief. The treacherous encounter earlier was akin to something that had happened eons ago.

It was the summer, and darkness would only come later. Therefore, even though the sun had already set, there was still some afterglow.

Even the wild boars in the surroundings were gone. They must have gone back to talk about their dreams, and to create baby boars with their female partners. Once Qing Shui appeared, Qing Yi and company cried out in joy and ran towards him happily.

Seeing that Qing Shui was safe, the rest of them were relieved. “Sigh, it was too bad that the “Golden Boar” had escaped. If not I’d capture it to pull the carriage for us.”

Qing Shui’s joke made Qing Yi speechless. Probably only her son would dare to suggest getting a mutated beast to pull a carriage. As for the part where he said that he had let the “Golden Boar” escape, Qing Yi subconsciously accepted it as Qing Shui having escaped from it. Although, it wasn’t that far off.

“Get on board, let us quickly leave this place. I don’t want to encounter that mutated beast again!” Qing Yi quickly urged the others to get on the carriage.

This time around, after boarding the carriage, the atmosphere was more stifling. Qing Shui smiled as he took a look at the rest before shutting his eyes. Qing Shui wanted to find what supporting skills he had gained from the breakthrough he had achieved.

Qing Shui stared at the two symbols that had turned golden in color!

“Culinary Art!”

“The Way of Nurturing Life”

Qing Shui smiled proudly as he really did feel extremely relaxed. While Qing Shui had no interest in the Culinary Arts originally, but after tasting the black fish and turtles that had grown in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, his opinions had changed. If he were to pick up this supreme culinary art, doubled with the speciality of the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, the mere thought of it got Qing Shui excited.

Food and s*x are man’s nature!

This saying fully expressed that eating and enjoying women were the most important things in life. Of course, if one were to call the act of enjoying the pleasures of women the act of leaving behind lineage, it would be sacred. The importance of leaving behind lineage were the words of the sages of the past, and had definite persuasiveness!

Qing Shui could not help but look towards the culinary art. There were many introductions under the golden symbols in his mind, out of which those which there were over 500 types of recipes, but Qing Shui had no interest in them now. Mmm, the names of many recipes sounded nice, like

Rainbow Phoenix Devouring the Swallow, Snowy Red Plums, Spring Hiding Within the Winter Moon, Qilin Egg, Divine Fish, Golden Roast Pork, Dragon Liver, Phoenix Tails and Lightly Steamed Thousand Year Turtle Meat~~ a plethora of delicious dishes.

Qing Shui continued to read on, and the stuff on the extreme bottom caught his attention!

The culinary methods for good food emphasized the looks, while its taste would be reliant on the ingredients, condiments, as well as the degree of the heat. Out of those, condiments were considered the most important, though the rest were required as well.

Qing Shui continued to read on. He hoped he would see the most useful stuff!

He saw that there were the recipes for the creation of several types of condiments!

How to create condiments for meat!

How to create condiments for seafood!

How to create condiments for vegetarian dishes!

How to create condiments for wild vegetation!

How to create condiments for soup!

How to create condiments for stew!

At the extreme bottom, Qing Shui also saw a few concentrated condiments which had made him speechless!

How to create specialized condiments for Dragon Liver and Phoenix Tails!

Condiments suitable for most mythological beasts!

Qing Shui: “……”

Looking at the various recipes for creating condiments, at one glance, most of them were not very difficult. It was just that there was too much variety, as well as it being important how they were used to complement each other. There were even those which required the use of medicinal herbs as ingredients, as well as those which required the use of parts that were found from Xiantian demonic beasts.

Qing Shui rubbed his nose. The ancient people were really powerful. It was already overwhelmingly shocking to find dishes like Dragon Liver, Phoenix Tails and Qilin Egg in the recipes. These were things that the dishes from his previous life could not compare with. For those, they were only dishes in name, and not the actual item. Qing Shui recalled that in his previous life, there was a dish by the name of Dragon Beard Noodles, which was just called pasta in the countryside……

Seeing that it was impossible to gather many of the ingredients in this recipe, Qing Shui was slightly depressed. “Where can I find the powder of dragon’s penis?!”

“Seems like I can only try to gather them or find other replacement ingredients to create substandard condiments!” Qing Shui felt that it was a great pity, but after thinking about it, he felt at ease.

Even so, Qing Shui knew that the famous chefs in the world would still vie for these substandard condiments. It was not impossible for the delicacies created with these condiments to be the leading delicacies across the world of the nine continents!