Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 1190 – The Yang Stone, Lured into a Trap, Drawing the Sword

Yan Yangchi’s words shocked everyone, but they were mostly pleasantly surprised by the news. The Fifth Princess was exuding a charming aura right now with her slightly flushed but blissful face.

It went without saying that Yan Yangchi was also very happy. Their relationship had gone on for a very long time, but they had never held their wedding ceremony. Cultivators didn’t want to be chained down by commitments. But now that they felt that their relationship was stable, they decided to get married.

“Congratulations, Big Brother, Sister-in-law!” Yan Yangzhao congratulated them with a smile!

Due to the status of the Fifth Princess getting in the way back then, they couldn’t get married. So everyone still called her the Fifth Princess. Furthermore, the Fifth Princess didn’t really get to mingle with the Yan Clan much, aside from Yan Yangchi obviously.

“Congratulations, Brother,” Qing Shui said with a smile.

Everyone else congratulated them happily.

……….

The wine party went on until very late as everyone drank to their heart’s content. In the end, everyone stayed the night, including the Fifth and Seventh Princesses. However, Qing Shui still spent his night in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal.

On the very next day, Qing Shui’s Firecloud Blacksmith Store was opened for business. He was even planning to take some requests. Since he had been forging for Yan Yangchi and the rest before, he hadn’t manage to do any other requests. But he could finally do so from now on, probably one request a day or perhaps a few requests in a day. Anyway, this was for the sake of earning a reputation.

“Why don’t you take on my request as the first for today?” The Seventh Princess glanced at Qing Shui.

“Sure but you’ll have to prepare the materials yourself and offer me something that interests me as a reward.” Qing Shui smiled at the woman who actually gave others a very favorable impression.

“We’re so well acquainted each other, do we still have to talk about that?” The Seventh Princess was speechless.

“Alright, tell me what you want. If you aren’t impressed by what Sister Yan is wearing right now, then you’ll have to prepare your own materials.” Qing Shui was only joking just now.

“Of course they are to my taste. But I have my own materials for a weapon. Is it alright for you to use this when forging my weapon?” The Seventh Princess asked happily and then showed him the scarlet stone she had in her hands.

“A Sunstone!” Qing Shui exclaimed in shock after seeing it.

“That’s right. It was a birthday present from the Eldest Princess. I haven’t been able to find someone who can temper it,” the Seventh Princess explained to Qing Shui with a smile.

Once again, the Eldest Princess was mentioned. Qing Shui was getting curious about this woman. It was said that sometimes even the formidable Great Yu Dynasty had to rely on this woman for their reputation. A peak Grade Two Dynasty, the strongest existence within it was a Grade Three State Master. The bare minimum strength of a Grade Three State Master was 10,000 nebula. But how much was the maximum strength of a peak Grade Three State Master? What strength was required to be a Grade Four State Master?

Qing Shui was still clueless about everything. Should Tian Jiange’s strength be considered a borderline Grade Three State Master or only a Peak Grade Two State Master? Based on his own strength, he was probably a Grade Three State Master now. Even so, it was still incomparable to the enormous amount of strength that those State Masters from the Dynasty Sect held.

Apart from that, it would be his own strength. The Demonic Beast Armor Manifestation had barely made it into the Grade Two State Master state. Qing Shui was only worried about his own strength right now. Based on his strength, he could probably be considered a Grade Three State Master.

There were only two Grade Four Dynasties in the Wester Oxhe Continent and the mysterious Heaven Secrets Academy. There were definitely Grade Four State Masters in the Grade Four Dynasty, let alone the Heaven Secrets Academy. The only thing that made Qing Shui wonder was if any Grade Four State Masters also existed among the Grade Two and Grade Three Dynasties.

Qing Shui felt that along the path of a State Master, the higher you went, the greater the gaps were between the levels. Even a Grade Three State Master was a divider, that is to say that there was a wide gap in between a Grade Three State Master and Grade Four State Master.

“What’s with you? If you can’t do it then we’ll use something else,” the Seventh Princess hurriedly said when she saw Qing Shui in a daze.

Qing Shui was baffled. This Yang Stone was something that had fallen off when the outer layer of the sun had burnt out and could only be found in some unusual locations. It was just like a meteorite from the sky, except that this Yang Stone was more precious. However, the biggest problem with this kind of material was the fact that it was very difficult to melt.

These were waste rocks that were once overflowing with the energy in the core of the sun and had fallen off after the energy had been completely been burned out. However, these waste rocks were some of the most powerful materials used for forging and they were priceless.

Since it had been burned out, it would of course no longer have to be melted with the same temperature as a sun. In fact, it only required a hundred millionth of that temperature. Even so, there were still very few blacksmiths who could melt it.

The Seventh Princess had only taken it out because she wanted to have a weapon forged with a Yang Stone so badly since the Eldest Princess was using a Yang Stone Sword.

When she saw the expression on Qing Shui’s face, a wave of embarrassment washed over her because she realized that she had made things difficult for Qing Shui, so she had hurriedly said that.

“I am not sure if I am able to but I will give it a try. However, the success rate isn’t going to be high, so don’t get your hopes up. Take out the weapon that you have used before and let me see it. If by chance I am able to forge it, I’ll forge one for you.” Qing Shui didn’t really mind. He wanted a challenge too. Now that his strength had been increased tremendously, he wasn’t certain if he was able to melt it now. After all, he was cultivating the Primordial Flame.

“Sure!” The Seventh Princess took out a red longsword that she had used before, it was a fire type too. Although she had taken out her weapon and handed it over to Qing Shui, she didn’t put too much hope in it. She was aware of the difficulty and even regretted that she had taken the Sunstone out earlier.

The rest went on with their lives while Qing Shui forged in the Blacksmith Store at his own pace, since he was already accepting orders. He’d accept and forge one weapon for State Masters every few days. They were a minority and there were very few of them among the population of over a hundred million. Hence, he forged those weapons that could amplify power by one or two times to sell. However, they were not to be bought with money but instead traded for herbs, materials or any bizarre items that Qing Shui fancied.

There were also weapons that amplified power threefold among them but not any higher than that. However, since these weren’t observable with eyes and couldn’t be sensed by average people, Qing Shui could only wait until someone who needed them walked in.

Threefold was already the limit. There weren’t many weapons or armor in the store, this sometimes happened because this store emphasized quality over quantity.

Apart from that, Qing Shui wasn’t sure how long he could keep this store open. He realized that it seemed like the Heaven Secrets Academy was an important step if he wanted to ascend to new heights. Either that or he could go through the other two Grade Four Dynasties. But of course, it would be better if the Great Yu Dynasty could upgrade to a Grade Four Dynasty.

Qing Shui was going to think about it after opening the Blacksmith Store!

The people of the Yan Clan left in the evening. They had to make preparations for the wedding of Yan Yangchi and the Fifth Princess. The Fifth Princess and the Seventh Princess had also followed Yan Yueyin and Yan Jinyu back to the Yan Residence so things grew quiet here again.

He had used up his time in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal today, so he could only wait until the next day if he wanted to enter. After the sky turned darker, Qing Shui sat alone in the pavilion while thinking about his future plans.

He wondered if the so-called Eldest Princess and Crown Prince would attend the wedding of Yan Yangchi and the Fifth Princess that was going to happen in a month’s time. Normally in this kind of situation, they would come but it was difficult to say since they had a special status.

Qing Shui suddenly recalled that the Seventh Princess was going to ask for the Eldest Princess’ assistance in searching for Di Chen’s whereabouts, so he had a feeling that perhaps the Eldest Princess might show up for Yan Yangchi’s wedding.

The Eldest Princess might not come back when Yan Yangchi and the Fifth Princess got married, but they could arrange for the wedding to take place around the time when the Eldest Princess’ usually returned. Perhaps next month would be the time the Eldest Princess would usually return.

Qing Shui had a feeling that it was a very plausible case. To Qing Shui, it seemed like this mysterious Eldest Princess was a very important figure and he could probably understand more about external affairs through her and she might even able to find Di Chen.

At a sudden wave of intense undulations, Qing Shui raised his hand just when a wave of faint golden gas was unleashed!

Pa!

A wave of energy exploded loudly. Qing Shui’s figure flashed as he charged towards the source of the unleashed energy!

He had already expected someone to find trouble with him because his participation in the battle would definitely offend other parties such as the Yu Clan or the people with the Third Prince.

During the daytime, he had already learned some of the Yan Clan’s matters. Such as how the Yan Dinglang’s branch was punished by his clan. Even some Supreme Elders that supported Yan Dinglang were punished by the clan. It was pretty much considered to be over for them.

The Yu Clan had retreated into seclusion. Even so, that wouldn’t stop them from using dirty tricks, such as ambushing Qing Shui or plotting an assassination against him, just like what was happening right now.

Qing Shui had already expected this day to come, but he didn’t think that it would be so soon.

He expanded his spiritual sense and it spread out in all directions like tentacles. The speed of the other party was very fast, as if they were getting Qing Shui to follow them.

“Hmm, not human?”

Qing Shui saw that the thing that had ambushed him then fled, while tempting him to follow it somewhere, turned out to be a shadow beast that was about the size of a fully grown bison. The shadow beast was very weak in strength, yet it had extremely formidable speed. Similar to the Treasure Hunting Pig, which was superior in defense and its survival capabilities while the shadow beast was superior in speed and survival capabilities.

At first, Qing Shui was puzzled at how it could be this fast despite how very weak it was when it ambushed him. It turned out that its objective was to lure him here.

Qing Shui could pretty much be considered a courageous and highly skillful person, so he was interested to know just who it was that wanted to kill him.

He was originally planning to stop this shadow beast and this was doable with the current speed he possessed. Besides, he also had the Sacred Jade Divine Stone Ring. Even without it, he could catch up to it with only the Nine Palace positioning.

The shadow beast had a very formidable speed. It brought Qing Shui over a thousand li in a flash and even soared high into the sky.

Although Qing Shui was confident, he still expanded his spiritual sense. But due to its high speed and the limitation of spiritual sense, by the time he discovered the target, he was already surrounded.

“I didn’t expect you to be brave enough to come out here all by yourself.” A chilling voice traveled to Qing Shui’s ears.

Qing Shui stopped to look at the four old men who surrounded him from all directions, trapping him in the middle.

If Qing Shui wanted to escape right now it would be as easy as flipping over his palm. He could flee immediately by putting the capabilities of Sacred Jade Divine Stone Ring to use. However, he was more interested in knowing who these people were.

“Who are you all? Why have you led me here?” Qing Shui asked while looking at the four unknown old men.

The four of them were fully dressed in gray robes and had quite robust figures. Their eyes were deep and they were shining with incisiveness that didn’t give in to their age. The auras around them were very deeply icy and dark, so deep that it shocked even Qing Shui.

“Who are we? The only thing you need to know is it isn’t a good thing for a young man to be too much in the limelight.”

Actually Qing Shui was already sure that these people were definitely related to the Yu Clan by now. But they weren’t necessarily from the Yu Clan because if this matter were to fall through and be exposed, it would be devastating to the Yu Clan.

“Are you all sure that you can kill me?” Qing Shui laughed all of a sudden while looking at them.

“Hahaha, only one of us will be enough to kill you. The four of us are only for insurance.” The man seemed to be very amused.