Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 1560 - Circle, Reunion with the Woman of Mysterious Aura

Everything became clear to Qing Shui when he heard what Tang Yilong said. His intention was to let people become aware of Qing Shui’s relationship with the Tang Clan and from then on, connect a line between himself, Tang Clan and Qin King Manor.

After a moment of thought, Qing Shui found this a viable option. The Tang Clan had decent strength. Qing Shui has also heard about Tang Clan from Old Man Qin before. He seemed to think highly of their strength.

Qing Shui saw Tang Yilong looking right back at him with a serious look. In his eyes, he didn’t seem to be worried that Qing Shui wouldn’t agree to it. But at the same time, he also didn’t mean to underestimate Qing Shui. It could be seen that he was sincerely wanting for them to form an alliance together.

Though both parties might not be from the same dynasty, there were quite a few existing cases where two clans of different dynasties would form alliance with each other. The reason why the Gu Clan was being criticized was because the way they helped outsiders had been too despicable.

A normal battle between martial warriors. A just and honorable battle, it would be fine as long as they could stand firmly on their own.

It’s only personal matters when two clans built relationships with each other. In his previous incarnations, there were a lot of people who had foreign friends too. Hence, it wasn’t really such a huge deal for two clans from different dynasties to make friends with each other. There were a lot of dynasties across the nine continents. A lot of people would have soulmates in different dynasties.

“Alright, I will agree to this. But I hope that each party can manage to do the things they are responsible for nicely.” Qing Shui said after a moment of thought.

“Of course, Qin King Manor should know better than anyone how the Tang Clan is. We would never hesitate to provide aid to our friends in need, nor do we play any mind tricks. You have boundless potential awaiting you in the future, the Tang Clan will definitely cherish this opportunity.” Tang Yilong said cheerfully.

Talking up to this point, Qing Shui felt very happy. The Tang Clan valued him quite highly. In other words, this meant that he was quite influential to them. Most importantly, despite already achieving all of this, he was still very young, which was an asset… In the future, Qing Shui was bound to achieve many more great things.

Qing Shui didn’t say anything more. Instead, he recovered his original look and said with a smile, “My name is Qing Shui, I look forward to getting to know and being friends with all your people.”

“It will be so!” Tang Yilong said in a happy tone.

“Brother Qing, in order to let more people know about it, I will have to do more things.” Tang Yilong said after a moment of thought.

“I know. This can only be done by your side. I won’t get involved in this.”

“No problem, let’s toast and be great friends forever!” Tang Yilong said happily.

After that, Qing Shui paid the Tang Clan a visit. At Qing Shui’s arrival, the Tang Clan responded with a warm welcome. They were well aware of what this young man was capable of and his potential in the future.

The current Clan’s head of the Tang Clan came out of his own accord to greet Qing Shui. From the man’s look, it seemed like he was just past the threshold of being middle-aged. He was unable to cover up the wisdom and experienced look across his body. Without much thought, Qing Shui was able to figure out that Tang Yilong had managed to inherit the genes of this man.

Of course, Tang Tong’s strength was not something to be underestimated. Qing Shui was unable to sense his strength precisely. This came to tell that he might potentially be stronger than himself at the moment. Despite this, Qing Shui was confident that he could beat him.

Qing Shui’s ability didn’t lie on how much he managed to achieve with his strength with all his abilities combined. His most formidable ability was his ability to control the situation and coordinate his moves which enabled him to kill opponents who were a few times stronger than himself.

There were two other old men who were with Tang Tong. They were both his senior. This came to tell that the Tang Clan thought quite highly of Qing Shui. Qing Shui’s way of doing things has always been that he would return the kindness which people showed him in by ten fold. So long as no grudges have been made between himself and other parties, he would be able to accept sitting down with the other people. As the saying went, taking advantages of each other and helping each other out, only people who shared the same goal could walk the same path together.

Two irrelevant people would never be able to walk up the same path together. They wouldn’t be able to find a topic which could satisfy the both of them.

Tang Yilong has already made his words clear. Hence, he only briefly went through his plans this time. The two found things in common when they were talking to each other. Qing Shui had quite a good first impression of the Tang Clan. This generation of the Tang Clan had quite a decent public reputation.

Qing Shui believed in his own instinct. Also, Qing Shui briefly mentioned about some of his own problems. For example, the things which he cared the most about. Of course, they were also only trying to casually ask a few things about him. It was just that Qing Shui took the opportunity to spill all of it.

Qing Shui knew that they could interpret the meaning of his words. He took relationships very seriously. If anyone was to do anything to harm people near him, he would risk everything to let the person pay ten, or a hundred times of what they originally gave to the people near him.

Naturally, Qing Shui wouldn’t speak about this. He was only talking about some of the sects which he was targeting. But judging by who Tang Tong was, he would naturally be able to interpret it. However, he had no way of refuting it either. Qing Shui was also being very polite. Furthermore, the things which he said was what an old man would usually say. He didn’t feel that annoyed with them.

“The way Qing Shui solved his problems is very similar to mine. I usually do things his way too. I never provoke anyone, I am not a narrow-minded person either. But everyone has a limit; as for mine, it’s my friends and families. It’s always said that the stronger a clan becomes, the less important they would view these. But this isn’t the case for me. It’s always said that the final stage of martial arts require you to throw away everything and become ruthless. If that’s the case, I would rather not have it.”

“Qing Shui, I am not going to deny the fact that the Tang Clan looked for you because we admire your potential. This was normal. Though I might sound realistic when I said it, but this is how the world works. It’s always said that relationships supported by merely benefits do not last. But in actuality, those that didn’t have benefits in it would usually turn out to be more fragile instead. There’s a balance in this. The balance between friendships and benefits. I can guarantee you that I will do my best to maintain it.” An old man looked at Qing Shui and said with a smile.

“I can understand what you mean by that. In fact, I agree to what you say as well. Friends are meant to help each other. To be more blunt, it’s a way of taking advantages from each other since we are of use to each other. Throughout our entire life, we can’t say that we have a long time to live, nor is it that short. No one would want to waste their time on useless people. Between men, feelings are nurtured from things like this: following time, our relationship developed with originally benefits as its core would evolve to slowly view benefits as being less important. This is when we know our relationship has improved.” The society from Qing Shui’s previous incarnation was harsher than the society he was in now.

……

Following on, during this time, news about Qing Shui being in Holy Might Dynasty and his relationship with the Tang Clan and Qin King Manor was as if it had its own wings and was spread out at fast speed.

All this time, Qin King Manor had been quite honest in the Great Qin Dynasty. They never shared any close relationships with others in private. The main issue was that Qin King Manor had always been royal clan members, or at least, a part of the royal clan.

But the incident with the Gu Clan had made Qin King Manor realize that the relationship between the royal clan and Qin King manor was a bit unique. Qin King Manor was being used by the royal clan, but they wouldn’t mind if they disappeared as well as it wouldn’t really influence the royal clan much.

Prior to this, back when Qing Shui was still in Qin King Manor, Old Man Qin had mentioned about this problem before. Since the royal clan did something like this, Qin King Manor has also started planning things on their own. They didn’t intend to bully others, but when someone wanted to try, at least they would have the strength to fight back. This was for self-defense.

At the moment when news spread out, the royal clan of Great Qin Dynasty had also been made aware that their relationship with Qin King Manor had made huge improvements. The Tang Clan wasn’t a clan. It was a circle. Qin King Manor had merely joined in to be a part of the circle.

This had also come to show how highly the Tang Clan viewed Qing Shui. Though this circle might not be huge, the Tang Clan was considered one of the main responsible parties in it. Originally, the people among this circle consisted mainly of well-secluded clans, but then the Tang Clan began to reveal themselves and come out to the surface. Qing Shui had also spent this time walking around looking at the other clans. In conclusion, he was quite satisfied with the things he saw.

Qing Shui wasn’t stingy about it. He gave the Tang Clan a few of his medicinal pills. It wasn’t to flatter them; it was one of his ways of representing his strength. It was to tell them that not only did he have decent strength, he also possessed unique skills in refining medicines.

……

Unknowingly, a month’s time had already passed. Qing Shui was already there waiting for the woman at the restaurant since morning. From time to time, he would look around for her in hopes that he could see the familiar figure.

It was almost noon; though he hadn’t managed to see the woman, it was still really early and Qing Shui was being very patient. Even if the appointed time was after a month, being a day or two late was quite a normal thing.

Qing Shui hoped that he could meet her today. To warriors, promises were very important. Qing Shui feared that the woman wouldn’t be able to recognize him, hence, today, he faked his look as the middle-aged man again.

Soon, it was already noon. Qing Shui had already been here for the entire morning. Crowds could be seen coming in and out of the Prosperous Longevity Inn. He was alone enjoying his drink there. For a moment, he felt as if he had forgotten about everything which he was supposed to do.

Suddenly, Qing Shui turned around and saw the familiar figure at the staircase. The person soon approached him when she spotted this area.

The woman still carried the mysterious aura with her like usual. The aura which she carried didn’t resemble the kind which humans should have, causing Qing Shui to be puzzled with how he felt. Though he was a bit excited, he was also a bit scared at the same time.

Humans often held fear towards things which they couldn’t understand, particularly when it had to do with spirits or ghosts. In his previous incarnation, Qing Shui used to be a person who didn’t believe in ghosts. But now that he was here, things were different as everything which he used to understand didn’t apply to this place.

Though he was aware that ghosts didn’t exist, if it was to appear one day, it would still be a really frightening experience. Qing Shui never thought that this would suddenly come to his mind now, causing him to feel a sense of chill across his backbone.

The woman was wearing a conical bamboo hat which covered her entire face and neck. However, her revealing shoulders were like knives. She had a well-rounded, slender body. It fit the title of having a devilish body figure. Though her body was well-rounded, it wasn’t to the point of being called fat. In her sense, she was well-rounded at just the right places. For instance, her breasts were huge to the point it pushed her clothes forward. They weren’t excessively huge. Sometimes, it wasn’t that the bigger one’s breasts were, the better. It had to have the right shape and the appropriate size for it. In Qing Shui’s perspective, the woman managed to fulfill just that. They were just at the right size, causing her overall beauty to reach its peak.

Her clothes had managed to cover up the beautiful curve across her body, though it was only partly. In between each step she took, it felt as if there were traces of alluring flames around her. She as a whole, was like a Snow Lotus Herb.

Qing Shui was stunned. The reason being that he could sense the woman’s aura being very chaotic. It had gotten to quite a dangerous point. She was barely controlling it. If one day, she was to lose control of it and allowed her aura to continue being so chaotic, she might be in danger.

Qing Shui stood up. By this time, the woman had already arrived. Qing Shui smiled and said, “I am fine. I managed to make it here today.”

“How are things on your side?” Qing Shui gestured her to sit down.

“Yes, I am done with my errands here. Everything is fine now. I can bring you there. Oh, right, why didn’t you reveal your true face to the public?” The woman’s voice sounded sweet and clear, like usual.

“Oh, you managed to see through it. On that day, I met you with this face. The reason why I didn’t show my true face is because I was afraid you wouldn’t be able to recognize me. How did you know that this wasn’t my actual look?” Qing Shui smiled and asked. Qing Shui already had his own answer deep in his heart. She might really be Yiye Jiange’s friend.

“Will you believe me if I tell you that I have seen you before?” The woman’s voice carried a bit of intention to smile.

“I don’t think you have seen me in person. It’s more likely that you have seen me from a drawing before.”

“Well, you are right about that.”

At the moment when the woman finished speaking, her body shook and she almost fell down. Qing Shui instinctively went forward to pull her arm. As soon as he did so, he was able to feel the violent surging aura within her body.