Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 1101 – Sealed Northern Ice Emperor Region, Spiritual Drops Alchemy Recipe, Golden Fragrance Jade

Qiu Feng was stunned when he heard what Qing Shui had said. He never expected such a story behind that. He recalled that the woman did feel like she reached a realm of transcendence above all mortal temptations.

“Brother, I know you are a passionate person. I’m sure you will find that lady when you reach the Four Continents. Meanwhile, I will help you get information on her whereabouts,” Qiu Feng said after he hesitated for a while.

“Then, I’ll have to thank you, Brother Qiu,” Qing Shui said with a smile.

“For now, I won’t talk about matters in the Four Continents. When you’ve reached the Four Continents, I’ll tell you what you want to know. For right now, I can’t tell you anything because that’s a rule,” Qiu Feng said apologetically.

“I understand. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be so unfamiliar about the matters in the Four Continents. It’s alright, anyway, we’ll be heading there soon,” Qing Shui replied.

“That’s right. Beast Blood Tribe has a powerful presence in the Four Continents, because of what you did today, they might have an enmity against you. Please be careful,” Qiu Feng pointed out as if he suddenly remembered what he wanted to say.

“Uh, okay. Brother Qiu, we are going to leave tomorrow. We will be heading to the north. But once we are done with that, I will come and look for you again,” Qing Shui said lightheartedly.

“Leaving? Even though I am not sure what you’re planning to do, you have to be careful if you’re heading north. Even though Five Continent is bound by the laws of Heaven and Earth. But there are some super experts out there who have the ability to ignore those restrictions,” Qiu Feng advised.

“Thank you!” Qing Shui was serious when he said this. Qiu Feng’s advice meant a lot to him as that sentence revealed to him that there were other people in Five Continents who could also ignore the laws of Heaven and Earth and perhaps even people who had returned from the Four Continents.

There were many powerful and influential clans and sects in the north like the Beast Blood Tribe, Lion King’s Ridge and other clans and sects guarding the Transportation Arrays. That was where the most powerful experts in the Five Continent gathered.

“You basically eliminated the entire Beast Blood Tribe in the Northern Sea City. Since those men are the most powerful members of the Beast Blood Tribe around this area, the other members would definitely find out soon. You have to be on your guard. Considering your strength, you should be fine as long as you’re alert,” Qiu Feng reminded Qing Shui, standing when he saw that Qing Shui was about to leave.

Qing Shui bid Qiu Feng farewell and walked toward his own courtyard. Qiu Feng did not invite Qing Shui to join the Formation Immortal Sect, neither did Qing Shui bring that up. They were currently on good terms so bringing that up was unnecessary as it would make everyone unhappy.

Furthermore, at best Qiu Feng could only invite Qing Shui to join their sect but not pressurize and force him, otherwise it might have the opposite effect and the party might just go ahead and join another sect.

When he returned to his own courtyard, it was already afternoon. Everyone had gathered around and they greeted Qing Shui happily when they saw that he had returned. Even though they only stayed for a day, they had already seen the sea and their previous yearnings were greatly reduced.

“We’ll leave tomorrow,” Qing Shui announced directly.

“Okay! There is no reason for us to stay anyway,” Luan Luan replied immediately.

Qing Shui rubbed his nose and the other women laughed. Yiye Tian saw how Qing Shui was also quite helpless when dealing with his daughter. But what he noticed more was Qing Shui’s fondness for the girl. He felt like laughing too but out of happiness, a happiness bloomed from his heart.

……

They left on the second day. The Northern Sea was incredibly large, it took one Nine Continents Steps Effect to barely cross the entire Northern Sea. Meanwhile, they observed the ocean below as they were walking in the skies above the Northern Sea.

After they used four consecutive Nine Continents Steps Effect, they reached a wintry land covered with snow. In the World of the Nine Continents, there were many places which were usually covered with snow. However, there are at least one or two warmer months where the temperature would rise and the snow would melt away. After that short period, it would start snowing again.

This time, Qing Shui landed in a place where the temperature was slightly higher. Everywhere was covered in melting snow, icicles were dripping and everything seemed on the verge of spring.

The droplets from the melting ice converged at the two sides of the streets and flowed down towards a small river. After that, the confluences flowed to the center of a mountain and converged again to form a large waterfall which hung over a valley…

The cities in this region were all situated on higher grounds to avoid floods. They rested for the night and continued north. Each time they stopped at a place, Qing Shui would get some information from the inns or the shopkeepers. No matter where it was, as long as he had money, he could still get a lot of the things he wanted.

The further north they went, the colder it got. In the Main Continent, they recognized their north edge as an extremely cold place. Who would have known that here was truly what one would call the coldest point. Cold plateaus spreaded over the land and everything was frozen, including the mountains. That ice wasn’t even normal, it was permafrost that had been around for over 10,000 years.

After 10 days…

They have finally reached the northern region. Snowflakes danced across the skies while the frigid winds lashed at them. It was no wonder that the people from the North were so strong. Environment makes a man. Any person that grew up here would adapt to such a harsh environment. Even if they are not cultivators, their body constitutions would definitely be stronger than the average man. Even a normal cultivator may not have such a constitution.

It could be considered a natural advantage!

They did not need to ask for directions as Yiye Jiange and Lin Zhanhan were both familiar with the place. Lion King’s Ridge was in the Sealed Northern Ice Emperor Region and that was a very unusual place.

The Sealed Northern Ice Emperor Region had a different name in the past. According to the legend, there was once an ice emperor. He was very powerful and skilled in ice-based attacks. He was so powerful that even the people from the Four Continents recognized him as a terrifying presence. In order to commemorate him, the name of this place which was Sealed Northern Region was changed to Sealed Northern Ice Emperor Region.

The flow of spiritual Qi in the Sealed Northern Ice Emperor Region was among the top places in the Five Continents. It was comparable to that in the Eastern Victory Divine Continent but there are a mixed bag of people living in the region. Power was quite centralized among a few groups and they rejected people from other regions. As a result, only people of a certain caliber could stay in the Sealed Northern Ice Emperor Region.

“Grandfather Lin, have you ever heard of any Transportation Array guardian sects in the Sealed Northern Ice Emperor Region?”

They were at the peak of a snowy mountain and surrounded by an endless scenery of snow and ice. It was beautiful but a normal person would feel hopeless here as the many vicious demonic beasts that prowled the snow would trap them there.

“Those people are so powerful that we don’t have any contact with them. We don’t even know much information about them. We don’t even know much about Lion King’s Ridge. If it weren’t for the animosity between my clan and that sect, we wouldn’t even interact with them. Heavenly Talisman Lin Clan may be quite influential but we are only at that level, we might have been famous once but that is already a thing of the past,” Lin Zhanhan said as he shook his head.

“Grandfather Lin, you’re right. Yiye Clan only had a little more interaction with the Beitang Clan of Lion King’s Ridge because the latter wanted to get our techniques on Beast Taming. But their main purpose was still Jiange.” Yiye Tian frowned with anger as he brought this up.

After all, those people have almost wiped out the entire Yiye Clan. Anyone one would be angered by this. Qing Shui clearly understood what it was like to be unable to take revenge, to be helpless because one was not stronger than one’s enemies.

This was the same way Yan Clan had treated Qing Clan in the past. When he saw their expressions, he consoled, “We will definitely make Lion King’s Ridge pay for everything they did. Beitang Lie and the others already owe us a large debt that Lion King’s Ridge must return.”

Qing Shui now understood that at that time, Yiye Clan and Lin Clan must have been nothing in the eyes of the people from Lion King’s Ridge. But they would never have anticipated that their doom will be brought by these two clans they once thought insignificant.

Now that Lion King’s Ridge had expanded in terms of influence and their businesses, most of the people had probably already forgotten about Yiye Clan and Lin Clan. The few people who could remember the events then were probably the culprits from Beitang Clan.

It wasn’t surprising that Beitang Lie could recognize Yiye Jiange once he saw her. Yiye Jiange was a person that anyone could easily remember. Besides, it was precisely because he had his eyes on her that she could escape, he wanted her to be brought back alive then.

They cleared up an area and pitched their tents. They decided to camp at this peak for the night. As the harsh weather was nothing to them, they just treated it as scenery.

Recently, Qing Shui found that there was no improvement in his Ancient Strengthening Technique. Previously, he knew that it was at the Peak of the Seventh layer, he could still feel it advancing a little. However, for the past few days, he could not sense that his Ancient Strengthening Technique was advancing after he reached the small success stage of Nine Yang Golden Body.

Within his tent…

Previously, he had spent a significant amount of effort to breakthrough to the Seventh layer, he even had to go to Eastern Victory Divine Continent. Now that he wanted to reach the Eighth layer, he knew that it would only be more difficult but he had no idea how should go about doing it. He reckoned that it would take a long time. Perhaps, he will breakthrough when he reached the Four Continents or perhaps, he may never breakthrough to the Eighth layer in his lifetime.

Within the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal…

The Bodhi Tree was thriving and had grown three inches. Practicing his spiritual energy over this period of time had become more enjoyable than before. Even his Fire Bird and Thunder Beast would rest near the Bodhi Tree.

There was already another Mysterious fruit and the previous one he saw was ripening soon. But Qing Shui did not pluck it down to eat. He had also accumulated quite a lot of Jade Spirit Fruits, Plum Blossom Wine and Vermilion Fruits.

His Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal was now very large. Furthermore, he did not even need to worry that those things will rot or degrade. Besides, it takes a long time to accumulate those things. As for the fish and turtles in his realm, he would feed them to his friends and families as long as it would help boost their strength, even if it is a little.

Qing Shui decided to practice some alchemy. He wanted to obtain the Spiritual Drops Alchemy Recipe this time. He knew that his experience was almost sufficient, he felt that he had delayed this for some time. The many events had reduced the time he could spare to practice alchemy, otherwise, he would have already successfully produced it by now.

After forty days in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, a clear crisp sound filled the air. Qing Shui had quickly obtained the alchemy recipe after his experience reached the required level. Qing Shui was delighted.

He entered his sea of consciousness!

Spiritual Drops: 10,000 year Spiritual Limestone, Mysterious Fruit, Five Element Fruit, Feathered Spirit Grass, Spiritual Crystal!

He was only 500,000 experience points away from getting the alchemy recipe for Golden Fragrance Jade!