Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 894 – Seventh Heavenly Layer, Solidifying the Dantian, Forming Pellet, The Carp Leaping Over Longmen to Become A Dragon

The scorching aura and the cooling aura continued to increase in his body without any changes. At this moment, Qing Shui could only smile bitterly, hoping that he would be able to get through this stage successfully. Every day there would be people in the world of the nine continents who would die from their bodies exploding due to there being too much energy in their bodies. This was the result of human’s greed.

Very quickly, his Dantian was filled up with powerful energy and the energy in his meridian channels continued to increase. Qing Shui continued to walk on.

The earlier spot on his shoulder had recovered due to his powerful self-recuperating skills but other parts of his body continued to be torn through. However, at this moment, Qing Shui’s brain was especially clear.

And in his body, slight changes continued to happen non-stop. His Upper and Lower Dantian continued to comprehend the changes, blocking the huge energy for Qing Shui.

If not for the fact that his Dantian had undergone a change earlier, Qing Shui wouldn’t know what would have happened. At least, his progress would have been delayed by a lot.

Pa!

An area of his bones cracked and the immense pain made Qing Shui clench his teeth to hang on. The process of breaking through was not only dangerous but painful as well. That unbearable torture made some people feel as if they would rather not go through any breakthroughs.

Such a forceful method to borrow the powers of external objects to attain a breakthrough was painful. If it was a natural flow whereby the powers gradually increase and overflows, there wouldn’t be any pain to the breakthrough. One might even feel that it was comfortable.

However, not many people were able to go through such a natural breakthrough process. Most people would usually need to rely on external items to force the breakthrough. In the earlier stages, most people could naturally obtain a breakthrough in the earlier stages but even if they were to forcefully push the breakthrough, it wouldn’t be as painful since the level was low.

Qing Shui circulated his Focused Concentration to its peak, not only to increase his abilities but also to primarily control the powers in his body to the finest detail.

Pfft!

Finally, Qing Shui couldn’t hold it in anymore and spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. His internal organs had already been injured by the powerful essence and now, his entire body was an enormous barrel of energy. If he was not careful, he might just explode into pieces.

Suddenly, just as Qing Shui was feeling that all hope was lost, suddenly a tremendous change once again occurred to his Dantian!

Liquefy!

His Upper Dantian which has just leveled up was actually starting to liquefy. Some liquid state appeared in it and the energy in his body once again gushed into the Upper Dantian, forcing it to continue on with the changes.

Qing Shui heaved a sigh of relief for now. However, at the same time, he was also puzzled. When his Upper Dantian was formed initially, it was a golden colored pearl. Back then, that was just opening up the Central Palace. It was not the real Upper Dantian.

However, to think that once the Heavenly Dan broke through to the sixth level, under the tremendous energy, the golden pearl would dissolve and become the real Upper Dantian, just like the Lower Dantian.

It was only now that Qing Shui was considered to have two Dantians, two real Dantians.

To cultivators, Dantians were like a storage medium. How strong a person was and how much power could be unleashed were more or less directly related to one’s Dantian. If one didn’t have any Dantian, the person would be the same as ordinary people and could only cultivate the crudest physical training techniques, unleashing physical prowess. In fact, cultivators who really trained up their bodies also required powerful Dantians and meridian channels.

Once a person’s Dantian was destroyed, the person would become a cripple, robbed of all his skills. However, a cultivator’s Dantian was not so easily crippled. It would not be crippled from just one hit. In fact, one’s Dantian was even “sturdier” than the other organs.

Now that Qing Shui had two Dantians, his abilities had increased to become twice as much as before. Moreover, his abilities were still increasing…

He was even hoping to let this maniacal growth stop. He felt that the chances of him breaking through to the Seventh Heavenly Layer were very small while the chances of his body exploding and him dying were much higher.

Although Qing Shui craved to reach the Seventh Heavenly Layer, he was now pushed to his wits end by that horrifying power. This time around, if he couldn’t attain a breakthrough, he could only die.

His greed was all to blame, hoping to get a surprising takeaway by taking two together. He was too greedy. It might have been much better if he were to take it one by one…

In that moment, many thoughts flashed past Qing Shui’s mind. It was only while his Upper Dantian was still crazily absorbing the tremendous power that he could have the luxury of thinking about something else.

He thought of his mother. He had not seen her for a very long time. The woman who had given birth to him and raised him up was the closest person to him in the World of the Nine Continents. If he were to die, he didn’t know what would become of his mother.

And then there were his women and kids. Something surged in Qing Shui’s body while the Qi from the Ancient Book of “Rebirth” also started to circulate automatically.

In that moment, Qing Shui sensed that his meridian channels seemed to have strengthened many times and even his Dantians seemed to have swelled up to be multiple times bigger. He closed his eyes slightly and with an intense thought, released a hint of powerful battle intent.

Time passed by slowly and the powerful energy once again filled up Qing Shui’s entire body. Qing Shui clenched his teeth and forced himself to bear with the weight of the tremendous energy. Even his spirit energy also blatantly dashed toward the Niwan Palace in his consciousness.

Very quickly, Qing Shui was covered in injuries once again. Right now, it was as if he was walking on a tightrope, in a critical situation and could possibly turn into ash at any moment.

However, Qing Shui continued to give it his all and he no longer cared if he could attain a breakthrough. He completely scattered his focus, as if he was sending out his spirit energy to every part of his body.

Gradually, Qing Shui started to forget about himself, forget what he was doing.

Suddenly, Qing Shui’s body twisted. If he were to open his eyes, he would definitely give himself a big scare since his body had almost exploded at that moment.

And it was also at that moment that the huge Golden Buddha Image appeared behind Qing Shui, releasing a magnificent golden light, encompassing Qing Shui.

Pfft!

An indescribably crisp sound rang out. It was a comfortable sound that was accompanied by echoes. A circle of brilliant glow appeared around Qing Shui.

At that moment, his entire body seemed to have exploded and a hint of black aura appeared in the area. It was at this time that Qing Shui abruptly opened his eyes, appearing extremely deep and strange, as if he had demonic power.

He clothes simply exploded, leaving only the Nine Continent Boots completely intact. However, Qing Shui didn’t seem to have noticed it and was at a loss from the tremendous surprise.

In that moment earlier, Qing Shui had woken up completely. He just happened to witness the moment the Upper and Lower Dantians merged together, as if the heavens and earth had merged together.

In that moment, he felt that his entire body had gone through a tremendous change, as if his entire body was reborn, strengthening limitlessly at a rate that could be seen by the naked eye… All the mix of power in the Upper Dantian gushed out toward the Lower Dantian.

Solidifying!

Forming a pellet!

Right now there was a glowing bright golden pellet in Qing Shui’s Dantian, the size of a walnut. It was exuding the purest gold light and was gradually spinning. Qing Shui was overjoyed to sense the powers it contained.

Now, Qing Shui could be sure that he had attained a breakthrough to the Seventh Heavenly Layer. When he was at the First to Third Heavenly Layer, his Dantian was in a gaseous state and when he was at the Fourth to the Sixth Heavenly Layer, it was in a liquid state.

When he broke through from the Third Heavenly Layer to the Fourth Heavenly Layer, his Dantian had liquefied. It was the change from the elementary to the intermediate phase and right now, it was moving from the intermediate to the expert phase.

Solidifying was one of the most obvious traits.

Forming a pellet… Although Qing Shui had thought about it before, he was still very astonished to see it happen. The Upper Dantian didn’t form a pellet and was still in a liquid state.

It took only a short period of time to cross the breakthrough, but to Qing Shui it was as if he was reborn into a completely new person or that he had just lived for millions of years.

This was a feeling and a change to one’s realm. Now, he learnt many things by himself without a teacher and he had even understood things he had never been able to understand previously. Even his vision seemed to be wider now.

After lowering his head and realizing that he was naked, he quickly entered the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal and changed into a fresh set of clothes. To think that the Lunar Silk Garment was destroyed…

This made Qing Shui fall into a short daze. That was given to him by the Heavenly Palace’s Old Ancestor and he felt a little unwilling to part with it but it was now destroyed…

In order to ascertain if he had really attained a breakthrough, Qing Shui circulated the Ancient Strengthening Technique and realized that the barrier which he had been stuck at was now gone. He also sensed his abilities now and was very sure that he had attained a breakthrough.

It might because he now had an Upper Dantian, his abilities were now above his expectations. Having attained a breakthrough to the Seventh Heavenly Layer allowed his physical strength to reach a strength of 40 stars…

For a very long time, Qing Shui was full of disbelief over this number. However, the powers in his body told him that everything was real. Moreover, both his attacks and defenses were also both at 40 stars.

His physical strength was at 40 stars… As expected of the expert phase of the Ancient Strengthening Technique. The Seventh Heavenly Layer was a critical phase where the Dantian would solidify and form a pellet.

Although he knew that he would get an increase of at least ten to twenty times stronger than he was before, after attaining the breakthrough to the Seventh Heavenly Layer, it had increased by 40 times! Qing Shui was very satisfied with this result.

He thought of his Upper Dantian. This time around, it had really played a huge role. Moreover, the reason his abilities could increase by this much might be closely related to the breakthrough he had in his Dantian.

To have a physical strength of 40 stars… After enhanced by the Diamond Qi, Diamond Protection and Diamond Crossing Rivers, his abilities would reach 80 stars. Now all of these, including the Nature Energy, were all circulating automatically.

Grade Six Nature Energy!

Now, under normal situations, Qing Shui’s strength would reach 104 stars!

The Unmoving Like A Mountain increased his physical strength by 50%, the Frenzied Bull’s Strength increased it by 30%, the Heavenly Thunder Slash increased power by 30%, the Shield attack increased power by 20%, the Heavenly Thunder Slash increased power and defence by 50%, the Combination Sword Technique enhanced power by 40% and the Thunder God increased overall abilities to be two times stronger.

Taking all these into consideration, even without any weapons, Qing Shui’s abilities were at a strength of 192 stars. He could perform the Combination Sword Technique using his hand as a sword and if he were to solely hold onto the Thunder God, he would be able to attack with a strength of close to 400 stars.

This was about the current level of the Five-Headed Demonic Spider.

If he were to add on the Big Dipper Sword, he could attack with a strength of over 400 stars. After attaining a breakthrough, Qing Shui could now sense the Five-Headed Demonic Spider’s abilities very clearly. It was now not as unfathomable as before.

Qing Shui’s moved his body slowly. He wanted to get used to the explosive increase in his body’s powers. After such a tremendous breakthrough, he could not accurately use his powers. There was a need for some time to familiarize himself with this newfound power.

Back Connecting Fist!

The powers in Qing Shui’s body were extremely raging and he needed to release them. He started performing the Back Connecting Fist in the empty space in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal.

Force Thrusting Back Connection!

With this attack, a layer of tremors appeared on his fist. Fist Dipper. Qing Shui’s blood was boiling. The powers from that punch gave him an indescribable agitation. This was great power. This felt too good.

It was like his own kid. If he we to close his eyes, he seemed to be able to think of it as a young lass, just like Luan Luan and Yuchang or like Qin Yin and Qing Yan.

[1] Originates from a Chinese legend where a Chinese carp leaped over Longmen from the Yellow River, turning into a dragon. The ‘Long’ from ‘Longmen’ has the same character as the Chinese character for dragon. Some may also translate Longmen as the Dragon’s Gate. This saying is used to describe someone who had soared to great success. It can also be used to describe one who goes against all odds to advance forward, striving for excellence.