Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 1074 – The Legendary Sacred Jade Divine Stone, The Divine Cast Stone

The beauty of the low grade Sacred Beast Pill was that it enabled the weak beasts to self-defend or even become powerful with the assistance of a powerful cultivator. However, without the assistance of a powerful cultivator, this low grade Sacred Beast Pellet would basically be ineffective because it would be like a poison to powerful demonic beasts. Hence, it would be very difficult to make the beast consume it.

However, Qing Shui loved this a lot. This Sacred Beast Pill was simply too useful and also the best thing he had for now. It was a pity that it was only a low grade Sacred Beast Pill. If it was a high, supreme, or even a legendary grade Sacred Beast Pill, it could not only tame the beast but the beast would also act like a Divine Marionette and allow the strength of the tamer to significantly increase. Too bad this was only good for one time use.

The Divine Marionette from back then was a special thing. Its ability was particularly powerful to allow Qing Shui’s strength to grow continuously along with the demonic beast.

Just this Sacred Beast Pill alone was a priceless treasure due to its rarity, even the Lion King’s Ridge possessed only a very limited number of them. On top of that, these pills also had certain restriction in which an ordinary person was only allowed to use it once. Perhaps people with powerful spirit energy may be able to tame a few demonic beasts since the spirit energy used for taming demonic beasts was closely connected to strength. Hence, even if an ordinary person had many Sacred Beast Pills and other’s help, it’d still be useless. It was still better for one to improve their strength by relying on themselves in cultivation. External items were only good for enhancement.

The rest of the medicinal pills were not surprising to Qing Shui. However, they were still quite decent for treating injuries or for detoxification. If these were heard by the late ‘Old Fourth’, he would definitely be so pissed that he would come back to life again from his death.

He only briefly glimpsed through the rest of the things. Even the most decent ones among them were dispensable to Qing Shui.

An exquisite little jade-colored stone appeared before him all of a sudden. It seemed to be brimming with Spiritual Qi.

Qing Shui’s eyes lit up and he immediately took the stone in his hand as he wondered what could this item be. It was jade in color and looked like the type of thing that was small, yet appeared to be very impressive. After he pondered for another moment, he quickly activated his Heavenly Vision Technique and examined it.

Sacred Jade Divine Stone: A miraculous object of the legend. A type of Spiritual Stone of Heaven and Earth that allows one to leap as he wishes within the radius of 100 li. Can be used ten times a day.

Usage: Hold in hand, walk around as you wish!

Qing Shui was flabbergasted. He remembered the changes in the countenance of the tall and burly old man. He must had considered if he should flee at that time. When Qing Shui thought about this again, he realized how using the Marrow Nibbling Golden Silkworm back then was a wise move.

Leaping 100 li every time was considered very powerful, even Qing Shui’s current spiritual sense couldn’t be expanded any further. This was even under the circumstances that Qing Shui was powerful enough. If he leapt two times with the Sacred Jade Divine Stone and then escape with a flying beast, it would be very difficult for his opponents to pursue him. This could be considered a Divine grade object for fleeing because it allowed the user to go anywhere he desired, even if he was paralyzed.

“Good stuff. Too bad it has to be held in hand.” Qing Shui looked at the jade stone that was only about three inches long. He then walked as he wished and instantly appeared at another spot in the Realm of Violet Jade Immortal. How magical!

Qing Shui recalled that he already had the Nine Continents Steps which would grow powerful along with Nature Energy. Hence, he felt that this item was a little wasted on him. Although this item allowed one to go wherever their heart wished, it still had to be held in the hand.

Qing Shui had seen introductions about this Sacred Jade Divine Stone in some of the books he read before. This Sacred Jade Divine Stone in his hand, that wasn’t any bigger than his palm, could be considered as very huge in size. Books had mentioned about the possibility to forge it into a ring to be worn around the finger. This was the most convenient way to use it, since it had to be held by hand when being used.

Perhaps this was also the reason that created an opportunity for Qing Shui. Otherwise, the other party would have a higher chance of escaping if he had it in the palm of his hand at that time.

However, forging the Sacred Jade Divine Stone required one to have a very powerful Art of Forging. Otherwise, the burly old man definitely wouldn’t have kept this stone in its original form up till now.

The Sacred Jade Divine Stone was extremely hard and heat-resistant. It was no simple task to merely melt this stone and Qing Shui wasn’t too surprised about this either. He wondered if he was capable of forging it as this Sacred Jade Divine Stone wasn’t too huge. It was only about one inch thick and three inches long with nearly the width of two inches. If he were to forge it into a ring, he could make quite a number of it.

Qing Shui was getting excited about this idea. He ought to do it. If he could forge it, it would definitely be the most practical item to have and also the most useful thing for self-preservation. The distance within 100 li was decent enough and on top of that, it could be used for up to ten times a day. Perhaps the effects would be even better if he succeeded in forging. He wasn’t worried about the effects being lowered, because he only had to focus on forging it successfully. Even at its worst, it would still retain the ability of this Sacred Jade Divine Stone as property.

The only thing he had to worry about was whether he could successfully forge it.

Qing Shui set the Sacred Jade Divine Stone aside as he continued to look at the other items. There weren’t too many of them left. His harvest had already exceeded his expectation by far and he felt especially cheerful right now.

“Hm, this is the Divine Cast Stone?”

Qing Shui’s eyes widened while he looked at the old looking stone that was about the size of a fist. It wasn’t very eye-catching and even the Spiritual Qi on it was very obscured. However, everything was clear to Qing Shui the moment he saw it.

The tall and burly old man wasn’t able to forge it in time, or perhaps he hadn’t found a suitable forgesmith. Qing Shui couldn’t help but to laugh with the Divine Cast Stone in his hands. This thing was indeed something really good.

The Divine Cast Stone could raise the success rate of forges by half and also add some attributes to it. It could be considered a relatively valuable item, just like the Silver Snake Grass in alchemy. However, it was more valuable than the Silver Snake Grass and even the Golden Snake Grass. But of course, this was from the perspective of a forgesmith.

Just the value of this Divine Cast Stone that was about the size of a fist should be enough to match the low grade Sacred Beast Pill.

Qing Shui wasn’t too confident at first but now, he felt that he shouldn’t have any problems. He was only worried if the current primordial flames would be enough to melt this Sacred Jade Divine Stone.

If Qing Shui and everyone else around him could wear one of these Sacred Jade Divine Stone Rings, he would feel a lot more assured in his heart. Then there were also at least four bottles of low grade Sacred Beast Pill. Qing Shui had decided to save a bottle for his mother and also help her tame a powerful demonic beast.

Qing Shui then remember his elder sister. However, he didn’t really have to worry as her Four-Eared Macaque was a formidable being. It would definitely grow into something impressive one day. There was no need to give Yiye Jiange and Luan Luan a ring either.

Qing Shui also made up his mind to help Wenren Wu-shuang tame one demonic beast. As for the remaining two bottles, he decided to leave them for the Qing Clan because only by doing so, he would be able to leave them without any worries.

With a clear plan in his mind, Qing Shui was very happy and he also felt very relaxed. He then quickly took a look at the other two Interspatial Silk Sachets. Other than the bottle of low grade Sacred Beast Pill in the Old Sixth’s Interspatial Silk Sachet, he was only satisfied with the alchemy recipe found in the Old Fifth’s Interspatial Silk Sachet. Other than those, nothing else had piqued his interests. Although the weapons, medicinal pills, ores and armors were quite decent, they were pretty useless to Qing Shui.

Nothing could beat those four bottles of low grade Saint Beast Pills. This battle was really worth it as the Lion King’s Ridge indeed had a deep root. But Qing Shui had a feeling that this tall and burly old man definitely had some kind of special position in the Lion King’s Ridge that perhaps allowed him to embezzle. He must had had some other plans to bring these low grade Saint Beast Pills into the Ancient Ruins. For example, the Old Sixth could be thinking of snatching Yiye Jiange’s Seven-Headed Crystal Beast. Even if he didn’t, he probably thought of doing something to the ancient desolate beasts.

Qing Shui cultivated and refined some things. He only started to smelt the Sacred Jade Divine Stone after he was fully recovered. He was stunned as soon as he tried to melt it, the powerful primordial flames were unable to melt the Sacred Jade Divine Stone.

He faintly realized something. Why didn’t that tall and burly old man attempted to forge something, even when he had both the Sacred Jade Divine Stone and Divine Stone Cast. Could it be that he was unable to melt the Sacred Jade Divine Stone?

He possessed the strongest primordial flames between Heaven and Earth and he was in disbelief. Qing Shui immediately used the Demonic Beast Armor Manifestation. Under its effect, the primordial flames were brought to their peak.

Time ticked away little by little. Although Qing Shui had melted some metal that took a very long time to melt in the past, he’d usually know if something could be melted in two or four hours. Even if it was time consuming, at least he knew if it was possible to melt them.

But now, another two hours had passed, the outcome still made him very depressed. Without much choice left, Qing Shui immediately manifested the Golden Buddha Image. This way, his spirit energy could be doubled once again and the intensity of his primordial flames would also be doubled.

This was already Qing Shui’s trump card. As long as he could melt the Sacred Jade Divine Stone, he was confident that he would be able to forge it.

In just a short while, beads of sweat already formed on Qing Shui’s forehead. Unwilling to give up, he persisted for another four hours and even consumed a Vital Essence Pill in between. In the end, he still had to reluctantly stop. At least now he knew why that old man from the Lion King’s Ridge didn’t forge this stone into a ring.

He couldn’t help but to think of this as a pity. If he wanted to melt this Sacred Jade Stone, he would at least have to increase the temperature of his primordial flames by onefold.

He couldn’t do anything aside from shaking his head. However, there were actually some other methods. For instance, cultivating the Heart of Roc to the Great Perfection Stage, having the Demonic Beast Armor Manifestation breakthrough the infancy stage or consuming a Fate Pill to double his spirit energy.

Although there were quite a number of methods, it was a pity that most of them wouldn’t work because they were not within his control. It was very difficult to breakthrough within a short period, so much that even Qing Shui himself couldn’t believe the probability of it happening.

Unable to smelt the Sacred Jade Divine Stone, he could only spend all the remaining time on cultivation and of course, refining demons and forging as well.

………

By the time Qing Shui came out, it was almost midnight. The chilly wind here was stronger at night and he could even hear the wind howling.

It was very silent here tonight, so silent that it was almost terrifying. If Qing Shui wasn’t brave enough thanks to his high skills, his surroundings were enough to frighten him to half death just by standing around here.

Now that it was already the next day, Qing Shui had decided to take a walk around since he wasn’t sleepy. The environment was so poor and the Yin Qi was so thick. He wondered if it was because there were some treasures with Yin attribute lying around.

This was just his intuitive thought. He then casually wandered around, as he searched if there were any mountains, caves or crypts. It was pitch black here at night. Even with Qing Shui’s powerful strength, he couldn’t see everything clearly like he could during day time.

There were quite a lot of caves here, however there weren’t many living things around, especially demonic beasts. They were very rarely seen here. This place seemed to be forsaken and Qing Shui eventually realized that there were really nothing here he could search for.

The sky gradually turned bright. Without realizing it, Qing Shui had already wander around for about six hours. He had some leftover fish that he retrieved from the Realm of Violet Jade Immortal for a simple meal.

Qing Shui, who made no discoveries after a six hours search, decided to venture deeper. Just when he was about to perform the Nine Continents Steps, he stopped. He almost forgot what he had seen yesterday when he used the Nine Continents Steps, that scaly demonic beast that resembled a small hill.