Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 743 – Returning to Qing Clan, Another Year

After collecting the items, Qing Shui headed further inside. The Zuoshi Clan’s treasure chamber was of a considerable size. It was a pity that there was not much kept inside. It might be because it had not been long since they returned to Pingyang Country.

The things here were mostly gemstones and demonic beast’s cores. What that made Qing Shui happy was that there were some Peak Martial Saint level demonic beast’s bones, blood and stuff. Now, his requirements for Peak Martial Saint level ingredients were taken care of.

Other than the mechanism right at the start, there were no other mechanisms. However, It was a really vicious one. If not for the fact that he had the Ten Thousand Poisonous Violet Sable, he had no idea how long he would have needed to escape the mechanism.

After sweeping up all the good stuff here, Qing Shui left immediately. He called out the Diamond Gigantic Elephant at the entrance and brought down the place with a series of Mighty Elephant Stomps.

He then mounted the Fire Bird and left.

It’s time to head home!

He had not left home for very long, but Qing Shui now missed home. After using a Nine Continents Step, he got the Fire Bird to fly toward the direction of Greencloud City at the fastest speed possible.

Everything in Pingyang Country was no longer important. The things here were considered settled and he might never come here again. Even this time was merely an accident.

This time around, it only took him over two days to return. When Qing Shui saw the state of ruin the Qing Residence was in, his heart still throbbed even though he knew that the members of the Qing Clan were fine.

Qing Shui didn’t head for the Heavenly Palace. Instead, he directly flew toward the secret chamber and quietly waited outside. He knew that Luan Luan’s demonic beasts were in the vicinity and would pass the news of his arrival to her.

As expected, not much time had passed before the sound of something stirring came from the lake and Elder Ge came out from the water’s surface. When he saw Qing Shui, he let out a loud laughter.

“You’ve won!” Elder Ge knew that since Qing Shui could stand here, he had clearly won. However, he still felt a little surprised, his gaze toward Qing Shui was filled with happiness.

“Mmm, I’ve won.” Qing Shui smiled and said.

“Let them come out. It should be quite stuffy in there.” Qing Shui smiled and continued.

“Compared to what you had to go through, the stuffiness here is nothing. Moreover, there’s no discomfort in just staying here for a short period of time.” Elder Ge smiled and took the lead to head down.

Coming here once again, Qing Shui’s feelings were completely different than before. The previous time he came, his feelings were very heavy but this time, he felt very happy. Having experienced the recent events, Qing Shui and the others were able to take things better in their stride now. They knew what they needed to treasure, what they should not be too bothered by. This was a rise in their mental states.

He entered the place in the same way as before.

“Daddy!”

“Daddy!”

When the two kids saw Qing Shui, they ran over happily, shouting as they did. Qing Shui carried them up, one in each hand. Many people headed over from afar. Being able to see Qing Shui here was great news to them, and everyone were extremely happy.

“Alright, everyone can make preparations to head out now.” Elder Ge smiled and announced.

“Alright!”

“We can finally go out!”

“It’s so stuffy in here!”

…

Although it was not unbearable in here, they were all cooped up and there was the mental torment which didn’t make them feel well at all. At present, having heard of Qing Shui’s victory, everyone was overjoyed since the word ‘victory’ was very important at this point.

The opponents were from a great reputable hidden clan and even the weakest of such clans were like the unattainable stars. Now that Qing Shui has won, not only did it raise the reputation of the Qing Clan, but given that how Qing Shui was the Heavenly Palace’s Patriarch, the Heavenly Palace’s reputation would be increased by a lot as well. It was a pity that the Qing Clan’s and Heavenly Palace’s overall abilities were still too weak. However, with Qing Shui around, they were safe. Now all they had to do was to develop.

Qing Shui carried the two kids and started to send them out. By the time everyone had left, half the day was already gone. Elder Ge and the others returned to Heavenly Palace while Qing Shui returned to the Qing Clan with his family members.

After Elder Ge brought the people back to the Heavenly Palace, they started working on the reconstruction. The people involved in this operation were the 10% who had stayed behind. These people were the core members of Heavenly Palace and were extremely loyal. They were the soul of the Heavenly Palace itself and the Heavenly Palace would be dependent on them.

Elder Ge looked at the state of ruin of the Heavenly Palace, tears uncontrollably falling down his face. The Heavenly Palace had a legacy of a few thousand years. But now, everything had been turned into ruins.

Thankfully, the people still remained. What was lost would be recovered quickly. Elder Ge himself joined the recovery operations, overseeing the situation, giving compensation and encouragement as required.

It might be because the Qing Clan’s manor was bought by them, although they felt pained to see it destroyed, losing the manor was nothing to them as long as their family were safe.

The Qing Clan had not been here for long, but all the clans in the vicinity came forward to offer their consolations. There were even a few clans who had offered to gift Qing Shui with a brand new manor in the vicinity.

Qing Shui had offered to pay a high price to buy it over from them. However, they refused to accept, claiming that they were happy if the Qing Clan would accept the manor and stay in it.

Qing Shui didn’t reject any further and led the Qing Clan to move into a manor not far away from the Qing Clan’s previous manor. He mentioned that they will return the manor once their home was rebuilt.

They had polite exchanges and told Qing Shui that the workers would arrive very soon and the Qing Clan’s manor would be rebuilt in at most half a month. Qing Shui smiled and nodded.

He was happy to receive their help. With power, such attention would be available everywhere. Moreover, while it seemed as if they were losing out, they were actually the ones getting the benefits. After all, all of them wanted to get affiliated with the Qing Clan.

Qing Shui knew that they were merely passerbys in their lives and thus didn’t continue to stand on ceremony with them. Moreover in Greencloud City, it was not a bad idea to maintain good relationships with them. After all, no one was useless.

Qing Shui and his family, as well as the Martial Saint level elders all moved into this manor. This was a manor belonging to the Huang Clan and Qing Shui could tell that this was the best one they had. Since they showed such sincerity, Qing Shui would naturally not treat them badly.

After moving in, everyone looked for their own rooms and familiarized themselves with the new environment. Qing Shui didn’t rush to look for him own room. After all, he was not short of a place to stay.

Qing Yi looked at Qing Shui, a satisfied smile hanging on her face. However, she also looked toward Qing Shui with a hint of pity. She felt that her child had lived a very, very hard life. Since young, he hadn’t been one to give in to fate and was able to put in hard work. And the truth was, he did really put in a lot of hard work. It was as if he had never stopped to take a break before.

For her, for Qing Qing, and having to deal with many events. This time around, it was for Wenren Wu-shuang. With a son like this, she was very satisfied with her life.

Qing Shui lifted his head. Wenren Wu-shuang had walked up to him subtlety. There was a hint of joy in her beautiful eyes which appeared to be a little moist. He had done enough for her and had treated her well enough.

“Wu-shuang, I’ll leave you to have a talk with Qing Shui.” Qing Yi smiled and left.

“Thank you.” Wenren Wu-shuang still said this. She didn’t know how to express her gratitude. Even though Qing Shui wanted to woo her, the two of them were after all, still unrelated.

She also thought of the time when she had lost her memory. She was really heavily indebted to Qing Shui and the Qing Clan. They had treated her like their real kin. Thinking back on everything, Wenren Wu-shuang started to feel both grief and happiness. With such an outstanding man and a nice family to care for her, it was sufficient.

“How are you going to thank me? You can’t always just be giving words of thanks.” Qing Shui smiled and looked at Wenren Wu-shuang. If it was Di Chen, Qing Shui would give a small punishment. But with Wenren Wu-shuang, after having gone through that short episode of memory loss, the distance between the two of them had increased slightly.

“How do you want me to thank you? I… don’t have money…” Wenren Wu-shuang looked at Qing Shui, as if she was smiling, but yet not smiling.

“Mmm, lass, you also know how to joke now. Come, let me reward you with a kiss…” Qing Shui slowly inched in closer.

“Rascal!”

Wenren Wu-shuang shot out and pushed Qing Shui away gently. Qing Shui also stopped. Moreover, there were still people around. However, it didn’t seem like he should be doing something like this even if there were no people around.

Not long later, the ladies arrived. Huoyun Liu-Li didn’t care about the other people present and just hugged Qing Shui. Her tall figure pressed into Qing Shui’s arms as she said nothing, just hugging him tightly.

“Why? You’ve missed me so much?” After a while, Qing Shui gradually smiled and said.

“That’s right, I’ve missed you. I’ve missed you a lot.” There was a hint of moisture in Huoyun Liu-Li’s eyes. As she let go of Qing Shui, teardrops fell from her eyes.

“Aren’t I perfectly fine? Why are you crying?” Qing Shui quickly wiped away her tears. When women cry, it was really a heartbreaking scene to watch.

“They also missed you a lot and were worried for you too.” Huoyun Liu-Li smiled and said to Qing Shui, tears in her eyes.

Qing Shui picked up their hands and put them altogether. From their gazes, Qing Shui could feel the surging feelings of love.

Humans would only know what they had in the past were truly precious and beautiful after having been through life and death moments. Only after losing these things would they regret not having treasured them in the past.

Time passed by, and half a month had gone by. The Qing Clan’s manor was rebuilt and the renovations were complete. Everything was brand new and only waiting for them to move over.

As thanks, Qing Shui sent the Huang Clan some Vermillion Fruit Wine and some turtles from the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. However, he didn’t give any spices. It’s better not to divulge everything he has, to save him some trouble in the future.

The new year would be coming in about ten days. It was the start of the year again and Greencloud City was filled with the festive mood. Qing Shui enjoyed such a lively feeling.

“Daddy, let’s go out and play!”

Qin Yin tugged Qing Shui and he squatted down, smiling.

“Where’s your mommy?” Qing Shui smiled and asked.

“Mommy, brother, aunt and the others are at the back.” Qin Yin blinked her beautiful eyes which were like crystals and looked very pure.

“Then why didn’t they bring you along?”

“They asked me to come ask daddy along.” Qin Yin pouted her cheeks and looked at Qing Shui.

“Alright, let’s go. Daddy will bring you to join them.” Qing Shui smiled and carried Qin Yin. He knew that Canghai Mingyue was training these two, occasionally giving them the chance to train their abilities.

In a while, Canghai Mingyue and the others, as well as Qing Zun came out. When the few ladies saw Qin Yin’s pouting expression, they came over and gave her kisses, trying to cheer her up. It didn’t take her long to smile happily.