Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 1048 – Six-Headed Crystal Beast, Battle

The result was beyond Qing Shui’s expectation. He thought that at least one of the Five-Headed Windfire Wolves would be inflicted by the Soulshake Bell or even run away from the battle, but all of them were still at their original spot, unmoved and unharmed. Despite the unexpected outcome, the wolves displayed signs of fear but only slightly.

Upon seeing the Six-Headed Crystal Beast behind these wolves, Qing Shui found something odd about it. The Crystal Beast remained calm and unfazed while the Five-Headed Windfire Wolves were visibly shaken, as evident by the fear in their eyes, but there was nothing unusual that had happened.

This was the frightening effect of the Six-Headed Crystal Beast – a dignified presence of a king.

Woo woo….

Suddenly, the Six-Headed Crystal Beast let out a short howl. The four Five-Headed Windfire Wolves, which were known for their speed and fire-based attacks, broke away to four different directions and rushed towards Qing Shui in an instant.

Qing Shui took a step quickly!

Nine Palace Steps: Nine Palace Confusion Steps!

Qing Shui flashed passed the wolves and avoided from being surrounded. He unleashed a Combination Sword Technique with his Big Dipper Sword as he jumped behind one of the wolves, seemingly to test their strength before he could think of a strategy against his opponents.

Among the heads of a Five-Headed Wildfire Wolf, the middle head would always be the largest. The other four heads surrounding it were slightly smaller but comparatively similar in size with one another, except for the middle head. These four heads were also blood red in color. The bloody red eyes were cold but fierce as they focused their sight at Qing Shui.

The slightly smaller four heads were situated to face all four cardinal directions, with the fifth and largest head in the middle. One of the heads was facing Qing Shui directly, baring its teeth before it unleashed an attack from its mouth.

A shot of blood-red flame, which was three meters long and as thick as an adult’s thigh, travelled towards Qing Shui in a quick motion.

Bloodflame Burst!

This was the Five-Headed Windfire Wolf’s strongest attack, which was also considered as its most lethal attack. Even though one of the smaller heads initiated the attack, the flame travelled in an unprecedented speed, almost instantaneously.

The ‘bloody fire’ of about ten feet long looked like a ferocious serpent soaring through the air. The tail of the fire seemed bushy, almost like a giant umbrella that swung towards Qing Shui with the intention to sweep him up into its grasp.

Primordial Flame Whip!

Qing Shui clearly knew that using physical strength alone would be anything but helpful towards his victory, so he decided to strengthen his psychic abilities by unleashing a few moves on his opponents.

The flaming whip that was thick as an adult’s arm swirled in a zig-zag motion, like a water dragon rushing out from the sea to ram against the Bloodflame Burst. At the same time, Qing Shui’s silhouette flashed away as he evaded the attack of the giant tail.

All the while he was fighting against the Five-Headed Windfire Wolves, the Six-Headed Crystal Beast did not make any move and stood somewhere nearby to observe the fight. The gesture of the Crystal Beast was quite unusual for a demonic beast. In spite of that, the crystal eyes on the giant head in the middle was extremely nimble.

Bang bang……

A series of clashing sounds rang out. The Bloodflame Burst had been scattered away by Qing Shui’s Primordial Flame Whip. As the flame was scattered by the whip, the other three heads of the Five-Headed Windfire Wolf simultaneously shot out three consecutive Bloodflame Bursts, which formed a triangle as the flames were aimed towards Qing Shui’s direction.

Primordial Flame Whip: Twin Dragons Pursuing Pearl!

The Primordial Fire Snake spouted by Qing Shui’s Big Dipper Sword were split into two, intercrossing each other as they rushed towards the incoming Bloodflame Bursts!

Bang!

The other three Five-Headed Windfire Wolves followed suit and spouted Bloodflame Bursts at Qing Shui as well. At that moment, the whole surrounding was filled with rotating flaming snakes. A series of explosions rang out in the air like the rumbles of thunder.

The Five-Headed Windfire Wolves were as agile as the wind as they managed to trap Qing Shui in the middle by surrounding him every single time. Of course, he would shift his position continuously and evaded the Bloodflame Bursts entirely.

Primordial Fire Snake: Rotating Snakes!

Before the Primordial Flame Whip that Qing Shui had unleashed could be retrieved, it exploded in mid-air which scattered the Primordial Flames into countless strips of fire. They were about the thickness of an adult’s finger, which rained down around his surrounding like lightning strikes. Qing Shui was protected in the middle, while the scattered Primordial Flames acted as a shield that blocked all the Bloodflame Bursts aimed at him.

Woo woo woo…..

The Six-Headed Crystal Beast let out an abrupt long howl.

Woo woo…..

The Five-Headed Winfire Wolves replied with a series of wolf cries. In the next instance, the largest head on one of the wolves facing Qing Shui spouted a stream of blood-red colored flaming cloud towards his direction in an abrupt motion.

Bloodflame Cloud! This was another form of the Bloodflame Burst but only the head in the middle of the wolf had the ability to unleash this skill.

A ten meter wide blood-red flame swirled in a wavy motion, like a slight tidal wave of the ‘blood sea’. It was a horrifying image as the Bloodflame Cloud was crashing towards Qing Shui as if it could devour him. The swirling cloud also emitted a strong force of constriction onto him, intending to confine his movements to prevent him from evading.

An attack based on spiritual energy!

The surroundings around Qing Shui was still raining with the scattered Primordial Flames. However, as the Bloodflame Cloud drew closer, the scattered Primordial Flames were slowly absorbed by the cloud as soon as the flames touched the incoming blood-red cloud of flames.

It was at this moment that Qing Shui had began to take the situation more seriously. He was initially relaxed when he realized he was facing a group of fire-elemental opponents. However, now that he had discovered that his flames were still lacking despite possessing the formidable Primordial Flames, he wished with all his might that his Heart of Roc would reach the Grand Perfection Stage as quickly as possible.

Suddenly, Qing Shui swung his Big Dipper Sword to the sky!

A giant Golden Buddha Palm appeared from the sky and hold off the bloody cloud in an instant!

Bang!

Internal explosion!

A thundering explosion echoed in the area. The ‘bloody cloud’ had vanished, and so did the golden palm. At that moment, Qing Shui laughed. The Nine Waves Great Golden Buddha Palm was indeed powerful and domineering.

After he tested his abilities for a while, he was able to understand his powers and skills a little more. The Six-Headed Crystal Beast was still glaring at him with hostility and Qing Shui never once let down his guard against this fierce spectator at the sideline.

Nine Waves Great Golden Buddha Palm: Six Waves Golden Palm!

The Big Dipper Sword was struck with an immense strength as it unleashed the Six Waves Golden Palm against one of the Five-Headed Windfire Wolves!

Woo woo……

The wolf that was being targeted started to shiver in fear as it watched the Golden Buddha Palm inched closer to end its life. The look on its eyes were of desolation and despair.

Pu pu……

Howl……..

After everything went quiet, Qing Shui was stunned. All he could see was a pool of mud left on scene and he couldn’t believe that this was his own doing. This was the formidable prowess of the Nine Waves Great Golden Buddha Palm.

Woo woo…..

The remaining three Five-Headed Windfire Wolves let out a series of deep howls. Demonic beasts of such strength were smart to an extend and those with exceptional talents would be able to communicate telepathically, just like the Five-Headed Demonic Spider and the old turtle in the Crystal Palace.

Qing Shui had already killed off one of the wolves and he didn’t intend to stop at that. He was overwhelmed with an extreme sense of pride and a surge of confidence after he tested the Nine Waves Great Golden Buddha Palm, which could use his spiritual power to initiate and ignore the limitation posed by the regulations of the world.

His Big Dipper Sword could double his psychic attacks as well.

Even after one of the Five-Headed Windfire Wolves was killed, Qing Shui took a quick glance at the Six-Headed Crystal Beast and found its large crystal eyes unexpectedly calm and unwavered. This caused Qing Shui to palpitate with fear for a moment.

The eyes were looking at him with indifference.

“I know you can understand what I’m saying. Why don’t we make a deal?” Qing Shui spoke as he linked his mind with the Six-Headed Crystal Beast.

It was a brief moment of silence after that. Qing Shui became suspicious. Perhaps his opponent couldn’t understand him. That can’t be, he thought. Qing Shui still couldn’t tell what this demonic beast wanted in the end. The voice he used in the telepathic communication didn’t sound like a human’s voice. It was a metallic voice, like a stiff tone of a musical note.

This must be the next advancement of his telepathic communication!

“How bold of you. If you can come out alive in this fight, then we can talk about your conditions!”

A voice of a young lady rang out in his sea of consciousness. The voice was metallic and unlively, which was something that surprised him. He didn’t expect that the good looking Six-Headed Crystal Beast was a female of all things.

Qing Shui wasn’t quite sure what to make of the telepathic communication, because the metallic voice he had heard could be of a male and female and in different ages too. However, it wasn’t all that bad as this was the best way to communicate with demonic beasts but only of those with formidable power and intelligence.

Qing Shui looked at the three Five-Headed Windfire Wolves that were already crouching on the ground. He knew they couldn’t move anymore because in the world of demonic beasts, the strong would always be revered. This truth was more cruel than that of humans. Once they had submitted themselves to the ruler, they must submit with absolute obedience, just like how these wolves were submitting themselves to the Six-Headed Crystal Beast. They could never run away no matter what happened to them.

He gave up trying to kill the remaining three Five-Headed Windfire Wolves as they didn’t pose as threats to him anymore.

Qing Shui wanted to tame a demonic beast that was as powerful as this Six-Headed Crystal Beast but it would be extremely difficult to do so. In any case, he had to defeat this beast first before he could even tame it as his own.

He raised his Big Dipper Sword and conjured a Primordial Flame Ball as big as an adult’s head from the sword tip.

The intense ball of flame cackled as it grew larger. With a stabbing motion that was aimed towards the Six-Headed Crystal Beast, the Primordial Flame Ball was instantaneously released, leaving a trail of ghastly flames behind it.

Woo woo…..

The giant middle head cried out in a low howl. The head below it opened its mouth and shot a trail of azure blue flames swiftly to counter against Qing Shui’s Primordial Flame Ball.

Bzzt bzzt…..

The clashed of the two flames sounded like the discharge of electricity, yet like the loud strikes of lightning and thunder. The surrounding area was filled with the ghastly images of the flames, which was then followed by the visible explosion of the air!

Primordial Flame Whip!

Qing Shui’s Big Dipper Sword pulled out a 50 meters long, pure grey serpent that was as thick as an adult’s arm. The color was of the purest grey color he had ever seen, and there was no trace of black shadows against the grey surface of the Primordial Flame Whip. As soon as the life-like whip was pulled out, the whip lashed towards the Six-Headed Crystal Beast without hesitation.

Woo woo…..

The middle head of the Six-Headed Crystal Beast opened its mouth and let out a few howls once again. In that instant, a circle of transparent crystal surrounded the Crystal Beast like a force field which shielded the Crystal Beast inside from harm.

Clack!

The crystal shield vibrated slightly, which was to be expected as an attack based on spiritual energy would slowly dissipate once the attack had been intertwined. It would continue to dissipate until one of them eventually run out of spiritual energy to continue, or unless the attack had managed to hit the opponent directly.

However, one fact remained: The Six-Headed Crystal Beast have, as its name implied, six heads.

Woo woo!

One of the beast’s head opened its mouth and spouted some sort of liquid onto the crystal shield which was quickly absorbed by the shield itself, thus stabilizing it from shaking any further.

Then at that moment, the Six-Headed Crystal Beast flashed towards Qing Shui, with two of its head breathing out two azure-blue Fire Snakes that spiralled quickly towards his direction.

The Fire Snakes were thin, but they spiraled in a form of a drill as it flashed towards Qing Shui like a meteorite falling to the Earth.

Primordial Flame Dragon Drill!

Qing Shui raised one of his hand, while the other conjured the Primordial Flames in a vibrating motion. This was the strongest Primordial Flame attack he had – the Primordial Flame Dragon Drill!

Strangely, the Primordial Flame Dragon Drill was soundless this time, as if everything had become surreal. However, Qing Shui was aware that the flames were extremely lethal, and he wouldn’t dare test the fatality of the flames even if he was curious about it. He wasn’t worried anyway, as he would only be inflicted with 30% of the damage if the flames were to touch his body.

The prowess of the Spirited Snake Turtle and the Arhat Rosary Beads had Qing Shui beamed with excitement. He didn’t actually expect that the Spirited Snake Turtle would become this strong one day!

The Fire Snakes had been neutralized!

Qing Shui was surprised. Even though he hadn’t used the ace in his sleeves, the Six-Headed Crystal Beast didn’t use its entire power either. The power of a demonic beast would last longer in most cases but Qing Shui hadn’t exhausted much of his energy, so he wasn’t worried that he would run out of strength for the time being. However, he had a feeling that the Six-Headed Crystal Beast would eventually fall as it wouldn’t last forever for the remaining time of the battle.