Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 1166 – Hexacolor Rainbow Art of Forging，Reaching Ten Nimbus，A powerful blade

Qing Shui immersed himself in that wondrous feeling. Forging had already become such an enjoyment that he could lose himself in it.

Ding!

Qing Shui did not know how long he had been hammering, but he finally heard a bright crisp sound, which was then accompanied by a resplendent glimmer. It immediately woke him from his trance-like state; a state where he felt like he was a drop of water in the huge ocean, or a stirring ancient tree, or a bird flying in the sky. It was as if he was suddenly conscious of what he was doing.

The glimmer from the blade was bright. Even though Qing Shui recovered his senses very quickly, he didn’t see the colors of the light, but he was sure it was not only five colors. After all, his Ancient Art of Forging could only improve, thus logically, he concluded that it had reached the next level.

Qing Shui did not examine the blade in his hand but rather entered his Sea of Consciousness and looked at the state of his Ancient Art of Forging.

Hexacolor Rainbow Art of Forging!

Under the description, he read something that delighted him. There is a small probability that he would be able to successfully create a legendary grade armor, weapon, or accessory. Qing Shui was amazed by this as he did not expect to suddenly reach the Hexacolor Rainbow Art of Forging. It was indeed a right decision to help Yan Jinyu forge this Four Elements Greencloud Sword. That woman seemed to have good fortunes and associating with her somehow brought luck to Qing Shui as well.

Previously, thoughts about reaching the Hexacolor Rainbow Art of Forging did occupy his mind but as it become harder and harder to achieve, he gradually stopped thinking of when he would reach that breakthrough and how he could do it. For him, the most important thing was to become stronger, the art of forging was actually only secondary.

Now that he had reached this breakthrough, he was definitely worthy of the term Master Blacksmith. In the Western Oxhe Continent, there were probably a very little amount of people who could exceed him in his skills on forging. This was something he was pretty confident about.

Even though there was only a small probability that he would be able to produce a legendary grade armament, the main point was that it was finally possible. Qing Shui didn’t know how strong a legendary grade weapon was, but still, it cannot be compared to a Divine Artifact. He only knows that legendary grade weapons, armors and accessories were considered top-tiered. He couldn’t control his excitement when he thought about it.

That was not the only good news. He felt that his strength had increased after the breakthrough and it was quite significant. His natural strength had increased by a shocking two Nimbus and this was brought by his breakthrough on the Thousand Hammer Technique!

Qing Shui was suddenly enlightened. Using his hands like hammers in the Thousand Hammer Technique required the tactful use of both his arms and hands, as he also need to moderate the synergy of his strength and creativity.

He could even feel some changes in his State of Immovable as Mountains. Qing Shui felt that the enhancement brought by the Seven-colored Pellet had increased from 7x to 7.2x. He could tell that it was probably because he also reached a breakthrough on his Immovable Mountains. He knew that it had increased his strength now by two folds. Additionally,the Immovable Mountains could directly affect the use of heavy weapons in terms of the execution of strokes, as well as the overall aura and grace while using these weapons.

This was a dramatic change for the Ancient Art of Forging. The breakthrough from the Pentacolor to Hexacolor Rainbow Art of Forging could be described as a normal person who suddenly became an immortal.

With the sudden increase of his base strength to ten Nimbus, Qing Shui felt a little lightheaded as this breakthrough came from a fortuitous event and it was a bit too sudden. This degree of increase might be insignificant to others but for Qing Shui, it was different as his overall strength was amplified by his Seven-colored Pellet and Arhat Rosary Beads.

This pleasant surprise really gave him too much excitement, that he couldn’t help but to think of Yan Jinyu. She was really his lucky star as he wouldn’t be able to reach this breakthrough without her.

After regaining his composure, Qing Shui looked at the blade he had forged. This was the sword that helped him breakthrough to the Hexacolor Rainbow Art of Forging. Even though it was still incomplete, he was already in awe of his own creation.

Using his Thousand Hammer Technique, he removed the impurities from the alloy of the Greencloud Stone and the Thunder Rock, refining both metals to create an incredible blade.

It could increase the user’s strength by five folds and their spirit energy by two folds. It also gives the user a 20% chance of doubling their attack damage (including damage from spirit energy). There was also a 10% chance that the attack would be imbued with an electrical effect. Using this sword also reduces stamina consumption by 20%.

This was the attributes of the blade, which was more or less close to the final completed form of the Four Elements Greencloud Sword. Usually, there won’t be much of drastic changes from this nearly complete form once it was completed. Even at this point, its stats was already far better than his Big Dipper Sword. He was already feeling a little envious, it could boost his strength insanely if he could use this sword.

Qing Shui had an impulse to keep the sword for himself, but he quickly erased that thought. He knew that he would feel guilty if he did that and it could definitely affect his cultivation. Even if he forged this sword for a stranger, he would still give the complete product to his customer, let alone Yan Jinyu. That woman had already brought him a lot of benefits and she was also his sworn sister, so he knew he just had to do his best to forge the sword for her.

Qing Shui felt a little despicable for having the thoughts of keeping the sword for himself. But he had already done well as a cultivator, holding a blade he could use and one which was so much better than his usual weapon, was a great temptation to any cultivator. It was a temptation that was greater than any beautiful woman.

Four Elements Greencloud Sword had four Seal Formation, namely Earth, Fire, Wind and Water. Thus, theoretically, it could activate the Gloom Covering Skies and Earth, the Fire Snakes Frenzied Dance, the Fly Sand Rolling Stones and the Soaring Dragon Sea Quake. However, he did not know how it would perform these in reality.

Qing Shui didn’t stop practicing how to carve seal formations ever since he arrived in the Five Continent and started being able to carve seal formations. He spent most of his time in his Firecloud Blacksmith Store to research and study how to carve these seal formations.

The Fire Snake seal gave the user a certain percentage of success to activate the Fire Snakes Frenzied Dance. Once a target is ensnared, they would end up in a horrible fate. Qing Shui was most pleased with this particular seal formation.

Qing Shui did not know how powerful the Tornado Seal would be. He only knew that wind was one of Nature’s most powerful arsenal. Winds could come together and generate horrible hurricanes and tornadoes which could level mountain ranges.

As for the Water Dragon Seal, it was the symbol of a sea dragon from the sea. One could only imagine the power that is embodied in such a symbol.

Qing Shui had studied many seal formations. Generally, the nature of each seal was related to one of the Five Elements. Even the Lightning Wind Seal could be categorized under one of the Elements. In fact, everything in this world was categorized under at least under one of the Elements.

Qing Shui only started carving the seal formations after he rested and thought about it for some time. The first seal formation he carved, which was the Fire Snake Seal, went well. As the blade possessed a Thunder Rock, he associated it with Thunder Fire. Because of this, he decided to carve the Fire Snake Seal first.

Qing Shui had to estimate well the size of the seal formations as all of them had to be linked together. If they were too small, the cyclical flow between them would also be small. Whereas, they might conflict with each other if they were too large.

He stopped after a bit of time had passed. He took out a few swords created from Metallic Essence, they were about the same size as the Four Element Greencloud Sword. Then, he started to carve the four seal formations on the swords.

With Qing Shui’s current forging skills, he easily upgraded the normal Metallic Essence into Tempered Metallic Essence and shaped the swords to look like the Greencloud sword. They all had the attribute to increase the user’s strength by three folds and some additional special attribute. Unfortunately, the material was too inferior, so they would be easily worn down with any expert user.

Qing Shui’s aim was to practice carving the formation seals so that they connected well. First, he had to connect the essence between two seal formations. He had to let each seal to have individual cycles before he linked them to create a larger cycle.

Luckily, he continuously practiced carving seal formations all this time and had also practiced how to link two seal formations. However, he had never tried to add a third or fourth seal formation, so he didn’t dare to hastily carve one on the Greencloud Sword.

Qing Shui tested adding the third seal formation, guiding the flow from the existing two seals into the cyclical flow of the third. It was like solving a geometrical means mathematical question, it was easy to overlook some details.

Failure!

Failure!

Success!

“My God! Another failure!”

Qing Shui looked at the massive pile of weapons he had wasted with his failed seal formation carvings.

He was able to link the cyclical flow between three seal formations quite confidently. However, each time he added the fourth formation seal, it would shatter the entire sword. Swords don’t get easily damage through impacts with other swords but conflict within the internal energies of the sword can easily shatter it.

Qing Shui calmed himself down and thought deeply.

“Five Elements Talismans… Does this mean that I have to follow the general principles of the Five Elements.”

Under the sequence of Gold, Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, the elements engender each other, while also countering an opposing element. The Fissure Seal belongs to Earth, the Tornado Seal belongs to Gold (Wind is generally considered under the Gold Element), the Fire Snake Seal belonged to Fire and the Water Dragon Seal belonged to Water.

The Fissure Seal engenders the Tornado Seal and the Tornado Seal engenders the Water Dragon Seal. Whereas, the Water Dragon Seal counters the Fire Snake Seal while the Fire Snake Seal engenders the Fissure Seal!

Suddenly Qing Shui understood something after he contemplated about it more. The Four Elements Greencloud Sword has to follow the flow of the Four Elements. Qing Shui picked up another sword and started carving.

This time he carved all five elements on the sword this time. The reason Qing Shui failed previously was because he could not handle the countering elements with his current standard.

Then he tried again, as he put in every effort he had. He failed again but Qing Shui smiled because he knew that he was on the right track. There wasn’t anything wrong with the Four Elements, it was just the limitation of his skills. If he added one other seal formation, it might not activate but it could at least reduce the conflicting energies between the Fire Snake Seal and the Water Dragon Seal.