Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 572 - Fishing at Stellar Horse Lake

The things which he left behind the most of were the Spirit Concentrating Pills. This was also the largest quantity of medicinal pill which Qing Shui had. The experiences which he gained in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal mostly came from refining the Spirit Concentrating Pills.

“Teacher, be careful along the way!”

“Have a safe journey!” Lan Tong soft said while hugging Qing Shui

Qing Shui smiled and patted her back. He was well aware that this hug didn’t involve any affections between a man and a woman. He could clearly felt that Lan Tong was only feeling a bit attachedand reluctant to part with him.

The Fire Bird lifted off and quickly moved further and further away. Soon, Qing Shui has already left their sight.

Nian Feng waved from atop the Drunken Immortal Inn when Qing Shui flew by.

Qing Shui didn’t stop for even a moment as he rushed towards the Green Cloud Continent. Qing Shui felt very strange. For two months, he had been having a faint feeling that something was calling him. The feeling got stronger and stronger as it time went on until now.

Qing Shui felt that this kind of summon resembled that of someone close to him missing him. However, it was a little different in that Qing Shui felt as if it was a cry from a newborn baby. He felt really puzzled because he didn’t know what was going on, but at the same time he was also looking forward to it.

When he passed by Xing Hai Country, Qing Shui said goodbye to Qingyu Clan and had dinner with them before setting off once more for Green Cloud Continent.

He once again arrived at the boundless wasteland. Everything felt like it just happened yesterday. The only thing different about it was that when he came here, he was with Di Qing, but he was alone when he left. However, Qing Shui didn’t feel unhappy about it. In fact, he felt a lot more relaxed.

The long journey had finally begun. However, what was different about it this time was that other than spending a day in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, he dedicated the rest of his time to letting the Fire Bird fly extremely fast. In any case, they had gotten more than enough rest while in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal.

The sun was shining high in the sky while Qing Shui was lying on the back of the Fire Bird and feeling really sleepy. Suddenly, he thought about the medicines he was refining. He still hadn’t managed to find the ingredients for the Everlasting Pellet. Even though the experience points needed to refine the next medicinal pill was quite little, but it still needed two hundred thousand experience points which was equivalent to the current Sixth level of the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. It would take him at least six months time to accumulate enough experience points, even with the aid of the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal.

The thing which made Qing Shui feel confused was the Aroma Concentration Pill.

This was the name of a kind of medicinal pill. To Qing Shui, it was a name which Qing Shui was more familiar with. As for the effect of the pill, he wasn’t so sure about it.

Qing Shui felt really demotivated when he heard the name of the medicinal pill. But then again, since refining it required two hundred thousand experience points, it shouldn’t be too bad.

During daytime, Qing Shui felt really bored when he was on the back of the Fire Bird. So he would read ,,. From time to time, he would also read some books about medicinal herbs.

Occasionally, he would also fiddle through the Spring Palace Portrait and Nine Waves Great Golden Buddha since he was just doing it to pass time. However, whenever he was in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, he would cultivate madly as if he was possessed by a demon.

At present, Qing Shui didn’t ask for a significant improvement in his cultivation. All he wanted was solidify his foundation regardless of whether it was battle techniques or skills. For the time being, he wasn’t hoping for a break through. He was just hoping to be able to perfect his basic skills and make a bit of progress at his current cultivation level.

One month!

He actually made it past a distance which would usually take two months to travel within a month. Of course, when they were on their way there, they needed to rest for at least half a day every now and then. While at present, he only rested for three hours everyday to recover as much as possible with the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal.

Along the way, he didn’t run into any Martial Saint grade Demonic Beast. Frankly speaking, if Qing Shui was alone, he would be able to avoid a low grade Martial Saint Demonic Beast.

There was a time when Qing Shui avoided a group of Demonic Beasts. It was a flock of powerful poisonous bees that were flying through the sky. There were countless of them. Hence, Qing Shui straight away hid himself in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal.

Within this one month, what made Qing Shui happy was that out of the seventy crystal lions, two of them gave out two crystals. This made Qing Shui felt extremely happy.

The crystals were the size of a finger. They were sparkling and translucent like jade. The spiritual energy which they gave out had majestic and bizarre fluctuations. It also felt really mysterious. Qing Shui took out a small delicate porcelain bottle which was specifically used to contain medicinal pills and put the crystals inside it.

These small bottles would usually be sealed up. If a medicinal pill was contained inside it, it was guaranteed that it’s medicinal effect would not fade away. Actually, the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal could also do the same thing since the realm itself already had this kind of function. Added on the thousand year old medicinal herbs and the spiritual being in the world, the aura which was exuded from it might even be able to increase the potency of the components within it. For example, if Qing Shui kept an alcohol inside, the quality of the alcohol which was placed inside the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal would end up a lot better than the ones left in the outside world for the same given amount of time.

“Oh! Stellar Horse Lake!” With just one glance, Qing Shui could already recognize the faraway place which was quite popular.

There were multiple Stellar Horse Lakes in the world. This was because across the World of the Nine Continents, the lake would appear in desolate and uninhabited places. The condition of the environment around it was really harsh. The place would need to have abundant spiritual energy. On top of that, the mountains, water, wind, woods, cold and hot weather , all of these were distributed accordingly.

Qing Shui didn’t carefully follow the original path when he was returning to the Green Cloud Continent. He changed his direction and travelled an extra thousand miles to the west. This was the reason why he was able to discover the Stellar Horse Lake.

The lake in front of him wasn’t really that big. Its circumference was only around a few thousand metres. The lakewater was as red as blood. This was also one of the most unique features about the Stellar Horse Lake.

Furthermore, when Qing Shui looked at the lake from high up, it actually looked like a living bloody horse. It was an incomparably stunning scene. However, the Stellar Horse Lake was an ominous area. There were no sign of any human habitations around the areas of the Lake ranging from a few thousand miles to a million miles.

This was because the Stellar Horse Lake itself was already a highly toxic place. Every single living thing including the plants. and the beasts which lived near the Lake all contained poisons.

Furthermore, there were still more things which were particularly toxic.

The true reason why the Lake was famous wasn’t because of the lake itself. On the contrary, it was because of the so-called Stellar Horse. Legend has it that a lived in the Lake. This was how it got its name.

The Stellar Horse was also known as the Demonic Beast of Nightmare or the Nightmare Beast. It was a terrifying demonic beast. Its entire body looked as red as blood. Its face resembled that of a war-horse despite being a few times bigger. It was capable of moving in the sky, and all four of its hoofs had pitch-black flames underneath.

The Stellar Horse was a spiritual beast in between the heaven and earth. It wasn’t capable of breeding. No one actually knew of how the story about the Stellar Horse got passed on. The only thing they were clear about was that they would only exist in the Lake.

Even though the spiritual energy in the air was really abundant, Qing Shui was well aware that warriors below Xiantian Realm would have zero chance of surviving here. He ordered the Fire Bird to go down.

“Well, since I have run into it, I think I’ll just stay here for a day and see if there is any good stuff!”

The strength of the Diamond Gigantic Elephant was still increasing gradually. At present, he had also come to realize that the Three-Headed Dark Cloud Armored Beast which he ran into previously wasn’t actually a peak first grade Martial Saint Demonic Beast. This was because a peak first grade Martial Saint human warrior was as strong as the Three-Headed Dark Cloud Armored Beast. Hence, Qing Shui suspected that it should be just an ordinary first grade Martial Saint Demonic Beast.

Prior to this, he had always felt that the Diamond Gigantic Elephant was really powerful. But after running into a Martial Saint grade Demonic Beast himself, he finally understood just how weak the current Diamond Gigantic Elephant was. Even though its strength would multiply greatly once it broke through to the Martial Saint grade. Qing Shui felt that compared to human warriors, it would be more difficult for Demonic Beasts to break through into the Martial Saint grade.

Qing Shui shook his head. At the moment, the Diamond Gigantic Beast was completely incapable of causing damage to a Martial Saint grade Demonic Beast. Houtian and Xiantian realm was already a wide gap. But the difference between Martial King and Martin Saint grade was an even larger gap.

The entire area looked really empty. Occasionally, there would be a few poisonous plants which weren’t really useful. Eventually, Qing Shui set his sight on the Stellar Horse Lake.

The bloody red water looked just like fresh blood. Even Qing Shui felt a bit scared when he was around it. The water was dyed bright red. It was so strikingly bright that one was unable to see the lake itself clearly.

Qing Shui fixed his sight at the red lakewater. Slowly, he began to feel that it was an inferno. The surface of the lake looked like an enormous sea of fire. On top of that, he felt as if he could see an enormous horse at the centre of the sea of fire. It was galloping through the sea of fire like a fish swimming in water. From time to time, it would give out a large neigh. The pitch-black flame on its hoof looked really weird.

In an instant, Qing Shui felt as if he just woke up from a dream. He remembered the time when he caught the Crystal Lions. He felt really regretful for not going fishing with the Pure Gold Fishing Rod at that time.

Qing Shui looked around the isolated Stellar Horse Lake and took out his Pure Gold Fishing Rod. He felt the need to do some fishing activities this time. For all he knew, he might get a ton of unexpected gains.

He released his spiritual sense. Even though the chances of the Stellar Horse Nightmare Beast appearing was really low, Qing Shui still felt that it was necessary for him to act safely. It would be really bad if a Stellar Horse was to really come out.

Qing Shui found three spots with water puddles. He stood on the surface of the mountain and released the fishing line of the Pure Gold Fishing Rod. He placed the fishing line of the rod inside the indistinct “water”.

After enough time for water to boil passed, the fishhook started moving. Qing Shui gradually pulled it up,

Stone?

It was a stone which looked as red as blood with the size of a pigeon’s eggs.

Bloody Chicken Stone?

Qing Shui felt that the fire element fluctuation on top of it was very powerful. He immediately threw it into the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal so that he would be able to investigate it in the future.

The cork on the fishing line moved once again.

This time, Qing Shui quickly pulled up the Pure Gold Fishing Rod. As soon as he saw it, he felt incomparably surprised.

It was an animal which contained poison, the Scarlet Turtle!

The Scarlet Turtle was the size of a fist. Its entire body looked as red as blood. It was a unique species in the Stellar Horse Lake. Qing Shui carried the Scarlet Turtle and instantly went into the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. He quickly made a pool from the leftover spots in the realm. Of course, it was a lot smaller than the previous “pool”.

Qing Shui felt really helpless because he didn’t dare to place these poisonous materials in the pond. Hence, the only way for him to solve it was to build a smaller pond. Furthermore, the distance between the two ponds were also really far away.

Qing Shui poured in the water from the Realm of the Violet Jade Water instead of the bloody red Stellar Horse lakewater because he despised it. When he put in the Scarlet Turtle and saw it swimming in it happily, he smiled.

For things with spiritual energy, it didn’t matter if they’re good or bad, poisonous or not poisonous. A poisonous beast was also considered as both a spiritual and a precious beast. Hence, the place which had poisonous things in it must also be a place with abundant spiritual energy.

The Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal was really suitable for growing poisonous things. It wouldn’t cleanse the toxicity within the poisonous substance. On the contrary, it could make the toxicity within it even stronger.

After he came out, Qing Shui once again started fishing. Originally, Qing Shui didn’t express much interest towards these poisonous substances. He changed his mind after reading through the descriptions about poisons in the and the .

Refine the Poison Avoidance Pill!

The Poison Talisman!

At present, he got yet another Blackjade Poisonous Spiderweb. These were all the poisonous ingredients which were required to make the talisman. If he was able to use it appropriately, it would definitely be able to instill even more fear in his opponents.

Later on, he managed to catch another two Scarlet Turtles in a row. Qing Shui immediately threw it into the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal before he continued fishing.

After a short while, the cork started bobbing. It was a lot heavier than before.

Hu!

Qing Shui again, abruptly pulled it up. But this time, Qing Shui was scared by it.

It was a snake!

A poisonous mamba!

This time, it was a mamba snake which looked as black as ink. It was four metres long . This was already considered to be quite large for a poisonous snake. It was as thick as an adult man’s arm and looked really glossy. As the snake’s eyes gave out a cold light, Qing Shui immediately threw it into the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal.

After that, he continued fishing!

Bloody lotus flower!

Scarlet Scorpion!

Jellyfish!

Tricolor toad!

Snowy Heart-like Jade!

Heartbroken Grass!

……

From this experience, Qing Shui noticed that there were quite a lot of things in the Stellar Horse Lake. It’s just that other than the bloody red stone he got earlier, the rest of the things were all poisonous.

In fact, only him and a few poison makers were able to make it to this place. It was very dangerous for ordinary people to come to this place unless they were confident that they were powerful enough to withstand the harsh condition.

As time gradually passed by. Qing Shui obtained quite an impressive amount of living creatures and plants from the poisonous water. Furthermore, a lot of from were ones which were listed in the .

For the time being, Qing Shui hadn’t tried refining poison by himself. However, he had already read the a few times. He particularly remembered the sections about “Poison identification, “Poison Refinement” and “Matching Poisons” deep in his heart.

“Porcelain bottle?”

Qing Shui looked at the porcelain bottle which he pulled up. It looked as white as jade and was the size of a fist. There wasn’t any mud stained on it. To one’s surprise, it wasn’t stained with any water as soon as it left the bloody red water.

“What’s this?”

This thing looked as white as jade yet possessed a magnificent and noble aura. It was definitely not something made in the Stellar Horse Lake. Even though Qing Shui felt really curious, he didn’t open it up. He immediately threw it into the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal.

Suddenly, an uneasy feeling rushed towards Qing Shui’s heart. Furthermore, the feeling was getting stronger and stronger. Without any hesitation, Qing Shui kept the Diamond Gigantic Elephant into the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal and led the Fire Bird to retreat.

This was because Qing Shui felt that his uneasiness originated from Stellar Horse Lake.

Despite his effort to retreat, he still felt uneasy. Eventually, he decided to enter the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal.

BANG!

Right at the moment when Qing Shui was about to enter the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, a bloody red water curtain exploded out on the surface of the lake.

A Scarlet Gigantic Python which was around six meters thick and a hundred meters long appeared in the sky above the Stellar Horse Lake. Its head was so large and malevolent that it didn’t even look like a python head anymore.

When Qing Shui saw it from the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, he was stunned.

Scarlet Gigantic Python!

As Qing Shui saw the enormous body and the overwhelming aura exuded from it, he secretly jumped in joy for being able to notice earlier. Simultaneously, he also felt really blessed to have the heaven defying Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal with him.

Considering that the Scarlet Gigantic Python was able to circle around the sky without any wings, it was definitely a Martial Saint grade Demonic Beast. Moreover, Qing Shui could sense that the strength of the bloody scarlet python was stronger than the Three Headed Dark Cloud Armored Beast. Most importantly, the aura it exuded also felt a lot more dangerous.

When the bloody scarlet python rose all the way up to the sky, Qing Shui was totally stunned.

It really did exist!

Stellar Horse!

Nightmare Beast!

A war-horse which was around thirty meters long with a body which resembled that of a fiery jade rushed out of the water with a loud neighing noise.

The four pitch black flames under its enormous legs looked like flame clouds. Its huge head didn’t really resemble a horse. It looked more like a camel except it was much more fearsome.

The legendary nightmare beast was a battle beast which came from hell, but it was just a rumor. The reason why it was called a Demonic Beast from hell was because it looked too evil.

Its body looked really strong and smooth. Its body was just like the Scarlet Gigantic Python, sparkling and translucent like jade. However, Qing Shui was aware that both of the big guys were evil and sinister.

“Fight quickly so that I can leave this place!” Qing Shui prayed bitterly.