Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 826 – En Route To The Central Continent

Before its current breakthrough, the Nine-Petal Lotus had been able to speed up the growth of creatures within the radius of 100 meters by 20%, but only if they lived in the waters of the pond.

After the breakthrough of the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal to the seventh grade, the Nine-Petal Lotus’ level had also increased, and it now affected a radius of 200 meters. The speed of growth had also been increased by 10% – now speeding up the growth of water creatures by 30%.

Despite the increase in the Nine-Petal Lotus’ area of effect, it was impossible to affect every living creature in the water, as the pond had also grown larger in size. Fortunately, the Blood Coral, Golden Bull Grass, and Nine-Headed Lion Grass were within that range. A 30% increase in growing speed was a huge boon for the water creatures and organisms – of course, this was nothing compared to the improvements to the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal.

The Golden Buddha Aura Lotus seemed to remain the same. However, Qing Shui was happy to see that the lotus had grown back a petal. Essentially, this meant that he had gained an additional chance to avoid death. One life-saving petal was enough to be regarded as an item of high value.

Qing Shui proceeded to look around the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. The multiplicative time ratio of the realm had increased, but the time limit to remain inside the realm hadn’t changed at all – it was the same six hours of time outside.

It seemed as if the time to remain inside the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal had hit its limit. Perhaps it might increase in the future. However, the possibility of that happening was slim, since it hadn’t changed even after the critical breakthrough to the seventh level.

Oh!

Ice Snow Sacred Fruit!

Now there were two Ice Snow Sacred Fruit Trees inside the realm!

He thought he had mistaken about what he had seen, but not after a second look. One of the trees contained two budding fruits, and the other one contained two ripened Ice Snow Sacred Fruits.

The Ice Snow Sacred Fruit had a certain chance of advancing the cultivation base of a demonic beast to another realm once the fruit had been eaten. If not, then the demonic beast would instead gain 200 countries of strength. However, only Grade Two Martial Saint to Peak Martial Saint demonic beasts would be affected. The effects would occur up to the Grand Perfection Stage of Peak Martial Saint.

It would take 500 years for the tree to bloom the flowers of the fruit and then another 100 years to form the fruit. After that, it would take another 500 years for the fruit to ripen. Overall, each fruit would take at least 1100 years to ripen from start to finish.

Despite being a valuable item, 1100 years was a lengthy amount of time. However, 400 years in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal was equivalent to one year in the real world. In other words, the fruit would take less than three actual years to ripen. Fortunately, Qing Shui had something else that could strengthen the quality of the fruits – the Flower of Life.

Five Flowers of Life could increase the life force and quality of the plants within a radius of 500 meters by 10%.

Doing so would reduce the time needed to grow a plant by 10%. The sixth Flower of Life would soon blossom in less than a year. After all, the fifth flower had already gone through the final stage of full bloom.

With a total of six Flowers of Life, the plants within 600 meters would receive an increase of 20% to their life force, and a 20% increase to their quality. As more Flowers of Life began to bloom, the time for growth would be cut by 10% and the quality increased by 10% each time. Besides a plant’s breed, its age was the next-most important factor used to measure its quality for medicine refining.

A 10% change with the Ice Snow Sacred Fruit was more or less 100 years of time in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. If he continued to wait for the sixth Flower of Life to blossom, then he could save 20% of the time, which was about 220 years. In real time, that would be a little more than half a year. By then, the Ice Snow Sacred Fruits would have left two more years before it could reach the mature stage.

Qing Shui looked at bowl-sized flowers. They were blood red in color, with a hint of vividness in them. One look at the Flowers of Life and anyone could tell that they were really uncommon and precious. The healthier a flower was, the prettier and glorious it would seem.

The sixth flower was beginning to blossom, but not quite fully yet. It would fully bloom in about a year. Qing Shui was more than happy about the sixth Flower of Life – not only would the flower improve the quality of the medicinal herbs, he could also use the flower for medicinal refining too. In the future, Qing Shui was most anticipating the blossoming of the tenth flower, which he planned to keep for Luan Luan. It could be used to increase one’s lifespan by 200 years.

With the time ratio of 400:1 relative to the outside world, it would take 6500 years for the tenth Flower of Life to blossom starting from the first Flower of Life. In other words, it would be 20 years in real time. Currently, there were already five flowers, so it would take 4900 years for the tenth flower to bloom. In real time, that would be about 12 years of time.

This amount of time was still acceptable. Luan Luan’s total lifespan had already been increased to about 150 years after she had consumed the Peach of Immortality, Wondrous Fruit, Vitality-Enhancing Fruit, and the Yang Pellet given by Qing Shui.

The Peach of Immortality and the Yang Pellet could increase one’s lifespan by 50 years. These were the best items that Qing Shui had for increasing a human’s lifespan. Medicinal pills or fruits that could increase a lifespan by 50 years were already considered extraordinary items. Although it wasn’t quite at that level, the ‘Wondrous Fruit’ was still valuable nonetheless.

Because only one of the Flower of Life could be consumed, Qing Shui decided to leave the tenth flower for Luan Luan. After another one grew out, he would give that Flower of Life to his mother. Currently, Qing Yi’s lifespan was about 500 years, so there was still time for the flower to grow out.

Qing Shui took two of the Ice Snow Sacred Fruits and stored them in his inventory. When he thought about the Wondrous Fruit, he remembered that he had picked some within the past few years. It was almost time for the fruits to ripen, so he went to their location immediately.

The Wondrous Fruit was best consumed by children under the age of 12 in order to increase their potential ability. Each child could only eat one fruit, which was enough to increase 10% of every potential ability. Moreover, their speed of cultivation would be increased by 10% as well.

Luan Luan and Yuchang had eaten them before. As for Qing Jun and his other children, they were all too young and weren’t quite ready to eat the fruits. However, he did leave some of these potential-enhancing items for Canghai Mingyue, Shi Qingzhuang, and the other ladies, just in case he couldn’t return in time to give them to the children. The Wondrous Fruit didn’t take a long time to ripen – one fruit would fully ripen in just a year.

Beyond the Wondrous Fruits, there was a landscape of luscious vines. The Wondrous Fruit was part of a plant of vines that were as thick as an adult’s waist. The coiling of the vines seemed to resemble a giant scarlet python slithering about.

There weren’t any changes to the number of fruits that had been produced – there was still one fruit hanging on the vines. However, one fruit was enough for now. Since the ratio of time in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal had been increased, the vines could produce two fruits in about one year.

Right now, Qing Shui was standing in front of the Five Qi Sun Grasses to observe their growth. The Five Qi Sun Grass was a foot and a half tall and was comprised of five flowers colored red, orange, yellow, green, and blue all bunched together. Essentially, each flower of the Five Qi Sun Grass seemed to be surrounded by a faint light which looked quite magical. Qing Shui wouldn’t have thought that the Five Qi Sun Grass was a miraculous medicinal herb if he hadn’t seen the subtle light being emitted. The group of 50 Five Qi Sun Grasses lying together in a flowerbed seemed extremely beautiful.

Qing Shui spent the remaining time focusing on his cultivation. He needed to have a full grasp of his newfound abilities, so he decided to continue practicing the Roc Form, the Thousand Crane Slash, and the Thousand Hammer Technique.

Qing Shui decided he would also require some time to master the new alchemy recipes. Since the time ratio had increased, he had spent exactly 100 days cultivating his skills, equivalent to six hours in real time. (Author’s Note: With the 400:1 ratio, Qing Shui was allowed six hours in real time = 2400 hours in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. Since 24 hours = 1 day, theoretically, Qing Shui had spent exactly 100 days in total.)

With the increased time limit, Qing Shui felt that he had sufficient time to train his skills. Each day for six hours in real time, he could spend 100 days worth of time in his cultivation. In the future, Qing Shui would never need to cultivate in the real world, except for his mandatory morning exercise. He could spend his time on other activities, like searching for treasures, understanding the World of the Nine Continents, or socializing with other people so that he could benefit from their help.

The time spendable in the realm had gone from 50 days to 100 days. Even though really only a day had passed, he had spent approximately two and a half months inside the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. When he got out from the realm, he gradually forgot about the incident in the crystal palace. Immediately, Qing Shui summoned his Fire Bird and flew straight to the east.

He would be leaving the Greencloud Continent for the Central Continent or the Eastern Victory Divine Continent. His sole purpose was to find the Sky Penetrating Grass of 5,000 years or above, and he had a feeling that he could find the medicinal herb more easily in the Eastern Victory Divine Continent that was known to be filled with an abundance of Spiritual Qi.

Qing Shui felt that the search for Sky Penetrating Grass would prove to be quite difficult based on his impression of the Five Qi Sun Grass. He planned to find the 5,000 Years Sky Penetrating Grass first, and if he could not find it, he would find some suitable substitute for the ingredient. Whether it would actually work, only God would know.

Nine Continents Step!

Qing Shui continued to fly towards the east, entering the marsh area about 10,000 li ahead. Theoretically, the Nine Continents Step would be able to transport Qing Shui just outside the marsh. By midnight, the Nine Continents Step could be used again. Hopefully, Qing Shui thought, the Nine Continents Step could bypass the marsh as fast as possible.

Six hours of the outside world could be spent in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. Qing Shui would always go into the realm for three hours before midnight to train. As for the remaining three hours, he could go in anytime he wanted.

Qing Shui decided not to return home now – he hadn’t spent too long outside just yet. His family already knew that he was out. If he were to go back now, he would have to leave again soon anyways.

Di Qing had already left the Qing Residence to travel back to her home. If she had promised to come back to Qing Clan back then, then he would have been going to the Central Continent with her right now.

While en route to the Central Continent, he took some time to train his skills. The days were uninteresting, but he was quite motivated to strengthen himself. Occasionally, he would think about the woman from the crystal coffin, and how he was defenseless against her attack. He hated that kind of feeling, even if he tried to ignore his emotions. Even if he were to be bitten by an ant, he would still feel the pain trickling through his skin.

Even though he was furious, he didn’t exactly hate that woman. He loathed himself for being weak – if he had been stronger, he wouldn’t have been so easily controlled by the poison. She had the right to treat him that way, despite Qing Shui saving her from the poison. But he had made some horrible moves on her, so if she were to kill him, he deserved it. After all, how could she stand an outsider disrespecting her like that……

During that time, he had run away as quickly as possible without turning his head to look at her. He didn’t want to die and that woman clearly didn’t want to be acquainted with him, which was why he had left so quickly. He didn’t want the woman to think he had other plans for her.

Still, he was furious because he had allowed the woman to wound him like an ant being kneaded by a finger…….

He was also furious because he had been inferior in her presence. Furious because he had lost his sense of self-respect…….

20 days had passed since that episode!

Everywhere he went was a barren wasteland that stretched as far as ten thousand li. If it were 20 days in the real life, eight years had passed in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal.

Qing Shui had conveniently achieved full control over his powers days ago. Yet, he couldn’t reach a breakthrough for any of his techniques. Based on his current cultivation realm, he would require some time and the right opportunity to achieve any kind of breakthrough. Without such an opportunity, Qing Shui might not be able to reach a breakthrough even if he were given an additional 1,000 years to cultivate. The path of cultivation was a difficult road to walk on.

For Martial Saint warriors, eight years was a short amount of time compared to their lifespan of a thousand years.

The Diamond Gigantic Elephant had gained an extra 1000 countries of strength and Qing Shui had gained an extra 200 countries of strength from the progress of his cultivation. His overall ability had a slight upgrade as well.

Qing Shui could see the border of Central Continent in the horizon. It had taken about a month to finally reach the Central Continent, even with his current speed.

He had always thought he was qualified to enter the circle of powerful clans, but it turned out he was dreadfully wrong. Qing Shui’s current power was still far from reaching the standard of the most powerful clans in the world, let alone that of the woman in the crystal coffin. He recalled the mysterious Tantai Clan in the Southern Viewing Continent, and that woman he had met before – Tantai Xuan. If he were to compare his powers to hers, he would lose, despite her being weaker than the woman in the crystal coffin. When he had seen Tantai Xuan last time, the World Cleansing Demonic Lotus had been nowhere to be seen.