Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 784 – Turning Point, 64th Wave

Having reaped an unexpected result, Qing Shui felt that his power would have the chance to improve further in the future. Moreover, he had understood that he could resist the hypnotic effect on his mind, the dizziness, paralysis and poison effects under the state of Focused Concentration – much like the ability of the Nature Energy.

Qing Shui had never thought that he would be able to gain insight on a technique such as the Focused Concentration through the acquisition of the Nine-Headed Lion Grass. The Wave Essence had also gained a considerable amount of upgrades as well. Because of that, he was somewhat able to withstand the Wave Force by adjusting the strength of his Taichi to fuse with the Wave Essence. The ocean wave would slowly rise up like the shape of a boat that could swallow him into the tide but each time it happened, Qing Shui would still be standing there unharmed.

He had already put away his Big Dipper Sword. At that moment, he was trying to feel the thrusting force within the waves.

The formation of waves was caused by the energy passing through the water. Qing Shui was more or less trying drifting with the tide or in other words, letting the waves push him around as they pleased. The water was of the flexible nature. From what he had observed, he realized that the Taichi Fist had a similar concept – the force of the user would always match the strength of his opponent. Gradually, Qing Shui had familiarized himself with the behavior of the waves, which in turn had slightly changed the development in the realm of Taichi.

Today, he just went along with the waves while closing his eyes. He had an absolute expression of calmness on his face as he was shuttled back and forth by the waves. Qing Shui was unconcerned with the sea spray as the water hits the cliff walls. If the rough wave were to shove towards his direction, he would evade it without trying to face it head-on. There were other ways one could achieve their goals without the necessity of confronting these things forcefully.

At that moment, the gears inside his brain had turned faster. He was able to easily figure out some things that he would normally find quite difficult to comprehend. Even though he had gained a considerable amount of power in the past two days, he had also improved the adaptive capability of his body, which was an overall improvement to his strength as well.

The sudden change had Qing Shui excited. However, his main goal today was to cultivate his Wave Essence. So in the end, he would still need to clash himself with the strong waves. Now that he had grasped the quintessence of the Wave Essence, the progress of his cultivation had become smoother without much effort.

A day had passed just like that. He had learned a great deal today, and he was certainly satisfied. Having a breakthrough wasn’t the first thing in his mind – the journey towards a great future would always start with the first step. If he could persist through the continuous advancements, then there would be a greater hope for the next breakthrough.

Qing Shui decided that he would aim to break the wave with the sword tomorrow. When it was about time to enter the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, he quickly entered without hesitation.

This small mountain seemed to be a restricted area for the villagers. But since there was no one within the perimeter of ten li for the past two days, he continued to stay and cultivate his techniques. Moreover, this island was way above the sea level. It was an ideal position for him because the strong waves would crash to the back side of the mountain instead to the front.

After a period of exhausting cultivation, Qing Shui came out from the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. The moon in the sky was abnormally bright, accompanied by a sea of stars gleaming next to one another. He felt like he was dreaming as he stared at the beautiful sight, which he would never be able to see during his past life.

Qing Shui decided to go fishing next.

As he took out the Pure Gold Fishing Rod and threw the line to the sea, he made up his mind to fish during this hour for the remaining days in this island. Fishing was a perfect balance of movement as he was required to idle his bait for a few moments before he would reel the line to lure potential prey to the hook. Perhaps for the next few days, he might be able to hook up something special or something peculiar. Even though he could maintain a calm demeanor on the exterior, his heart would fidget with excitement, hoping to fish up something different than usual.

“It moved! That fast?” Qing Shui was shocked. The time to drink a cup of tea hadn’t even passed yet after he had sunk his line into the waters. He quickly reeled in his Pure Gold Fishing Rod to see what he had caught.

Golden Bull Grass…….

When he saw the Golden Bull Grass, he was stunned. He had caught a Nine-Headed Lion Grass last time and now he had caught another Golden Bull Grass despite already owning one. In fact, Qing Shui was elated to have caught another Golden Bull Grass. Having too much of a great item could never hurt. Moreover, he had only one Golden Bull Grass in his possession. With another one on his hand, he could use it as the seed and grow more of its kind.

The first attempt was an auspicious start. He also finally understood that this kind of Myriad-form Grass wasn’t an ordinary plant. It was more like a spiritual type between a beast and a plant that lived within the waters while floating through the sea. Even though it could not be compared to the herbal treasures that were usually found on the ground, it was still quite valuable in the market. Because of its rarity in amount, as well as the least used ingredient in most alchemy recipes, its value would be slightly lower than those of the herbal treasures.

And then he caught a lobster!

A lobster a foot long…..

Qing Shui took another closer look at the giant lobster – or whatever it was. He didn’t know what kind of species it was, so he decided he would call it as a ‘lobster’ for the time being. Qing Shui knew it couldn’t be compared to the normal prawns in the sea when he felt the lobster emitting a subtle Spiritual Qi around its body.

He threw it into the pond inside the Realm of the Violet Jade as an addition to his water species collection. That way, he was able to add a bit more liveliness to the realm as well.

Time passed by quickly as he continued fishing. When the sun had peeked through from the horizon in the east, he noticed that it was already morning.

He put away his Pure Gold Fishing Rod and started his daily morning exercise. The Back Connecting Fist had already reached the peak of the Large Success Stage. The technique was only a step away from a breakthrough but for now, it would still remain in the Large Success Stage level.

Today, he felt extraordinary when he performed the Sword of Fifth Wave again. He swung the Big Dipper Sword effortlessly as if it was his own arm. One could say that he might have fused his arm with the sword to become as one being.

Thump thump……

Qing Shui was knocked away once again. However, he was pleasantly surprised as he stared blankly at the sword in his hand. He didn’t experience a breakthrough – not yet but he was able to feel his power increasing a great amount. It was truly a miraculous feeling.

Perhaps it was partly due to the state of Focused Concentration but he knew it was also due to the concept of being able to perform the Sword of Fifth Wave with high-proficiency, in which he was able to perform the technique without room for error. He felt content and most importantly, he felt like he had become more adaptable towards the situation.

At the precise moment, he also felt a slight change psychologically, which had boosted his confidence as well.

Break!

Thump thump……

Qing Shui had been in that state of mind for the entire day. He was able to withstand each set of the devastating waves while maintaining that mentality in his head. Nevertheless, it was still a great improvement to his overall physical strength.

Up until now, Qing Shui had already sliced through the 28th wave. During the second wave, he felt a slight increase to his power and he had also understood a little bit more about the Wave Essence in terms of its application and usage.

Then during the fourth wave, he could feel the same sensation a bit more clearly – and it felt stronger than it was for the previous waves. For the subsequent waves, Qing Shui was beginning to realize some sort of pattern to what he had been sensing from the beginning.

Because he had the same sensation throughout the eighth and the sixteenth waves, he felt quite satisfied knowing that his powers were still increasing, which led him to think that he had acquired something extraordinary from the whole day of cultivating the Sword of Fifth Wave.

Ten days had passed, Qing Shui could now apply the Sword of Fifth Wave using a different type of power that was essentially a different power than it was before. When he displayed the technique to slice through the wave, the overall poise of the technique was the epitome of perfection.

As of now, Qing Shui had already broken through the 60th wave. But as he progressed further, he found it increasingly difficult to break through the waves. However, he had found a pattern during the cultivation of the Sword of Fifth Wave. When he had broken through about four waves in the beginning, he seemed to have unlocked some sort of barrier to the Second Wave Essence. As he went through the eight wave, it was the Third Wave Essence. Through the 16th wave, it was the Fourth Wave Essence, and around the 32nd wave, the Fifth Wave Essence was unlocked. The number of waves for the unlocking to occur would always double the previous number where the Wave Essence had been unlocked.

So right now, Qing Shui had a theory – if he could break through 64 forces of waves in one attempt, would he be able to break through the Sword of Fifth Wave to the Sword of Sixth Wave successfully?

However, based on his current ability, he could only break through at most one wave per day. Even though he had already reached the Fifth Wave cultivation, one wave per day was the most he could muster. If he was still at the Fourth Wave, he would need about a month and an extra week and a half to break through the 33rd wave. The Sword of Fifth Wave was already at its peak, so he would need about a week more time to be able to break through the last four waves

Since he had stayed for quite a period of time, it wouldn’t matter if he stayed a bit longer. If he was able to reach a breakthrough, then it would be great. If he couldn’t, there was nothing to regret as he had already acquired other great things during his stay in this island.

Not only had he acquired three Nine-Headed Lion Grasses, he had also managed to acquire a total of three Golden Bull Grasses. Moreover, he had also captured ten different kinds of valuable sea creatures, as well as one Silver Fish Grass – a type of Myriad-form Grass, which was known to be quite valuable. Despite that, Qing Shui had no idea what he could use it for, so he decided to grow it for the time being.

As the time passed, he had already been on this island for about half a month. It seemed like he intended to stay for a full month before he would finally leave for home.

If he hadn’t observed the waves in the first place, he wouldn’t have had this kind of realization and ultimately, he wouldn’t stay for such a long time. If he had immediately gone back home after his stay at the Ye Residence, he would have made it back in time to Shi Qingzhuang and Mingyue Gelou before the birth of their children. Moreover, the thoughts of coming to the Southern Sea would have never surfaced. But because he knew he wouldn’t be able to make it before the ladies had given birth, he decided delay for another month before he could go back. However, it seemed that he had to delay for three months in order to cultivate his Wave Essence. By the time he had gone back home, their children would be about four months old……….

63rd wave!

One last wave to go. As long as he was able to break through the 64th wave with the motion of the Wave Essence, then the Sword of Fifth Wave would be able to break through to the Sixth Wave.

All things were known to be connected with each other. The only problem was to find the linkage between them, because some links were direct and obvious, while the others were indirect and required longer time for thorough observation and derivation.

“I hope I can break through the 64th wave tomorrow. It will be the best outcome if I can do that.” Qing Shui looked at the dark sky. It was almost night time.

Despite being alone at the peak of the mountain for 20 days, he did not feel any sort of negative emotions. He had faith in his belief and goal – like a navigation marker in a boat, he would strive towards his goal and continue to move forward.

After three days had passed…

As he was trudging along the motion of the waves, he took the Big Dipper Sword in his hand and swung it valiantly. The elongated Sword Qi sliced through a giant wave, with Qing Shui tailing behind like a silhouette following closely to his body.

Thump!

He was still knocked back by the 64th wave crashing through his body. At that moment when he had clashed with the 64th wave, he felt that his power had finally reached its peak. His power seemed miniscule in the face of the giant raging wave thrashing through the water.

“How is this so difficult?”

The foundation of the Sword of Fifth Wave had experienced a devastating change. Perhaps because of that, the subsequent waves had become progressively tougher to handle.

If he was able to push through the last set of waves, then perhaps the Sword of Fifth Wave might be able to see through the next realm.

Qing Shui’s persistence knew no boundaries – indeed, it was terrifying, especially when during the progress of his cultivation. Once he had set his eyes on a gleam of hope, he would never let it go. Of course, that would only occur during his cultivation. His relationship or romance, however, had never seen a 100% determination like his cultivation did……..

Qing Shui was adamant on breaking through the 64th wave. If he couldn’t break through the Sixth Wave Essence despite being able to slice through the 64th wave, then he would admit his oversight and proceed to go back home without uttering a word of lament.