Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 1991 - Beggar, Drinking Poison in the Hopes of Quenching One’s Thirst?

Qing Shui looked at Qing Ci and smiled, “You are someone related to me. Since you are my disciple, I will naturally treat you like how I treat my daughter. I will bring you to meet my family one of these days. My family is quite crowded with people. I am sure you will love it.”

Qing Ci eagerly nodded. She had always been alone. The reason why she had ended up like this today was she lacked a powerful clan to support her. She didn’t hate Lang Clan. In fact, she felt that it was not even worth her time to hate someone like this. The person had changed. He was a totally different person compared to how he was before. She could no longer find any sense of familiarity from him.

“Big brother, you have also seen it for yourself, my current situation. The moment I arrived here, I have already made enemies.” Qing Shui said to the Barbarian Emperor.

“It has always been said that only the mediocre people wouldn’t be envied by others. This is perfectly natural. In fact, it only comes to show that you are very outstanding. I believe that soon, these people wouldn’t even be courageous to become enemies with you.” The Barbarian Emperor seemed to not care at all.

“Big brother, aren’t you overestimating me a little?”

“Haha, this isn’t overestimating. Though I admit that I may not have the brightest eyes, sometimes, I believe that I am also quite accurate with my predictions.” The Barbarian Emperor said in a joking manner.

……

On the following day, Qing Shui taught Qing Ci the Meridians Knocking Soul Pulling and realized that her innate talent for medical expertise had a lot of potentials. This was quite a surprise to Qing Shui. After Yuan Su came Qing Ci. However, there were still quite a lot of differences between these two in terms of their talents. They specialized in different areas, which was also a good thing. With that being said, it seemed that the Imperial Cuisine Hall in this area might have gotten itself a suitable candidate.

Back in his house, there was Yuan Su. In the Dancing Phoenix Continent, he had Sou Hun to help him with things. Linhai City? Tian Yi. And now, if he was not mistaken, the next candidate should be Qing Ci.

Naturally, Qing Shui walking the path of physicians alone would be inferior to him walking it with more people. If all of those people were all his own, then together, they would form a formidable force. He must pass on the reputation of the Imperial Cuisine Hall. However, this wouldn’t be a simple thing to do in an area as big as the World of the Nine Continents.

After all, across the World of the Nine Continents, very rarely would there be something that would be popular across an entire continent. Even a powerful clan would only be powerful in a particular region. Once they left that area, they would have to restart their entire progress and earn a reputation for them once again. Even those with power would be unwilling to torture themselves like that. Hence, normally, once a clan had planted their root within an area, very rarely would they want to leave that place.

A lot of hidden dragons and tigers roamed within the Nine Continents World. One should consider their ancestor’s blessings to be able to stand on their own ground in a particular region. In this boundless world, one mere region was already enough for one to spend their entire life traveling on. As for wandering across the entire continent, usually, it would just be a nice dream to a lot of people.

Both the Shang Clan and the Lang Clan had established themselves firmly around this area. Since their heritage had been passed down for so long, they would naturally have their own principles for living. Hence, Qing Shui never intended to eliminate them. In fact, whether or not he was capable of doing it also remained a question. Just as the saying went ‘A centipede never falls down even if it dies’, why bother dwelling around this problem?

With both of them being aristocratic clans, they would have their own things to be worried about. Hence, Qing Shui knew what he should do. He mustn’t eliminate all of them at one go. However, this was also a battle which must be fought. Furthermore, Qing Shui had to make sure that he defeated his opponent to the point that they couldn’t fight back.

Since he had nothing to do, Qing Shui decided to go outside and stroll around Great Shang City. It had been a week since he arrived here and this was his first time walking around the city. He took his time walking as he observed everything that was going on on the side of the road.

Qing Shui had always been concerned about the forces which he was about to form. What kind of strength would it require to be the most suitable candidate?

He needed loyal people and also those who were able to take in everything he taught them in a short amount of time. It wasn’t something simple, finding someone who met both of the requirements. However, both of those must be done at the same time.

“Young master, please give me some food.”

At the moment, when Qing Shui heard the voice, he saw a boy with ragged clothes standing in front of him. As he observed the boy, he should be around his teenage years. He should reach his adulthood soon. What had surprised Qing Shui even more was his body physique. Though it was not some heaven-defyingly powerful body physique, it could already be considered to be above-average.

This was a beggar that he was looking at. Even in cities as rich as Great Shang City, there would still be beggars. Unexpected, Qing Shui didn’t feel any sense of mistreat from the boy’s eyes. He also lacked the kind of humble expression on his face. His eyes seemed very clear and tough. This really surprised Qing Shui.

Just as Qing Shui was about to dig in his pocket to look for some spare cash, he stopped. He looked at the boy and asked, “Judging by your figure, you should be a person who is still fairly strong and can earn a living. Why didn’t you try to do some other things instead of just being a beggar?”

The boy looked at Qing Shui with a surprised expression. It was rare for a person to talk to him like that. Most of the time, they would either gave him a disdainful look or just directly told him to go away. Some would even scold him, which was expected. Occasionally, some people would also give him some pocket money.

“If I had been by myself, that would have been no problem. But I have siblings of my own, all of which are still young. I can’t afford their living expenses by working alone. If I were to tell them to be beggars and beg for money like me, I would be worried that accidents might happen. Hence, I have got no choice but to do it alone. This way, at the very least, I can take care of them.” The young man looked at Qing Shui directly and said. He didn’t know why, but somehow, he felt convinced by this man.

It was only after the young man had finished speaking when Qing Shui realized that there were a few more children on a spot not too far away. They were all about three to four years old. Qing Shui thought to himself that the teenage boy in front of him seemed to be quite a decent person. After a moment of thought, he asked, “How many of you are there?”

The teenager didn’t know what Qing Shui wanted to do. Nevertheless, he still answered, “There are forty of us, the eldest one is about twenty years old whereas the youngest ones are those that you saw right there. The remaining ones are about the same age as me.”

Qing Shui’s eyes turned bright, “Can you bring me to them?”

Qing Shui noticed that the young man seemed to be worried and moved on to say, “I don’t mean anything bad. I might be able to change your life. Don’t you desire to be above other people?”

The young man started becoming hopeful. He was feeling very special about the man currently standing in front of him. This man might truly be able to change his fate. Who didn’t have dreams? Who would want to forever be under other people? No one would ever want to be a beggar.

The young man brought Qing Shui to meet the remaining people. The reason why Qing Shui wanted to take a look at them was also he wanted to test their talents. It was fine even if it was just average. Qing Shui didn’t need them to have exceptional talents, but at least, it mustn’t be too bad.

Among these people, there were three that were about twenty-one or twenty-two years old. The remaining ones were about fifteen to sixteen. There were also a few that were ranged from three to seven years old. Despite their young age, these brats were very independent.

Among them, there were about ten of them with decent physiques but as expected, they were just decent. The remaining ones were average. There were none with body physiques that were below average. Actually, it was not that common to see people with useless talent. Just like geniuses, people like this also came short in quantity.

“Do you want to be an expert and stand above other people?” Qing Shui asked the group.

However, none of them spoke. Instead, they just expressionlessly stared at Qing Shui.

Qing Shui swung his arm and immediately crushed an enormous rock not so far away into pieces.

In just a moment, the eyes of these teenagers changed. Each of them had their own dream of being a hero but they knew that the cruel reality had taken away their dreams from them. It was basically impossible for them. Furthermore, they were beyond the age of cultivating.

“We are well past the age to cultivate. Though there are still some who are quite young, we know that there is no free lunch in the world. What do you want from us?” The young man who was about twenty years old asked. He was one of those with a decent physique. Qing Shui also noticed that he had some cultivations within him. Three to four ordinary people together were definitely no match against him.

“In my eyes, there is no such thing as an age to cultivate. I can ensure that you guys can attain decent strength within a short amount of time. As for the free lunch, naturally, there wouldn’t be such a thing anywhere in the world. I need you guys to do me a favor. Vow loyalty and devotion to me, and I will bestow to you some martial techniques.” Qing Shui looked at the young man filled with admiration. If he was correct, he should be the leader of these people.

The young man turned silent. This was exactly what people would think as ‘to drink poison in an attempt to quench one’s thirst’. Considering that his entire life had been so miserable, if he were to stand back up again, there would surely be a price which he must pay. Sometimes, this was how things were to ensure fairness. How much you gain would be how much you lose in return.