Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 1435 - The Eleventh Portraits of Beauty, Fatal Strike

The comfortable feeling almost made Qing Shui forget about the treasure box. Luckily, he used his other hand to pull it over forcefully at this moment. The box seemed to have some sort of restriction that could render telekinesis ineffective. Otherwise, they would not be staying here in such a state.

Once they entered the stone door, the Demon Lord immediately broke away from Qing Shui. When she moved away, he could smell her fragrance on his face. Moreover, he could feel that her heartbeat had increased a bit.

Even though his memory within the Crystal Coffin was as clear as day, those memories were not comparable to the present. Thus, the feeling he now had been better than those good memories of the past.

When Qing Shui and the Demon Lord entered the stone door, the three elders suddenly rushed towards them. Moreover, their speed was ridiculously fast. However, at this time, the Demon Lord used the blood-red long sword in her hand and blocked the attack from the opposition.

Roar!

At the same time, the giant Stone Beast had recovered. The Divine Sense that was given to it was to protect the treasure box and the door behind it. Now that the treasure box was gone and two people had entered the stone door, the Stone Beast was furious.

Unfortunately, the elders all rushed towards the door just behind the Stone Beast. A loud roar resounded as a grey aura was released from the Stone Beast’s body.

Bang!

The loud noise even reached to where Qing Shui was. On the other side, it was a direct explosion that scared the three elders to the point that they retreated a bit. However, the strong force of the impact had made the three of them vomit blood. The three of them were critically injured.

….

Once the Demon Lord entered the stone door she immediately moved away from Qing Shui, and coldly looked at Qing Shui. Her face didn’t have any expression and just appeared cool and elegant. Qing Shui could not see what she was currently thinking at all. Was she angry? It did not seem like it. Perhaps happy? That was definitely not the case.

“I have already moved as far back as I could, but you kept sticking closer, This time I won’t blame you,” Qing Shui smiled as he said.

As she heard Qing Shui’s words, the Demon Lord clenched her fist. However, she just directly looked at the surroundings without replying to Qing Shui’s words.

Qing Shui shook his head. He still couldn’t cause a strong fluctuation of emotions in her, such as joy, anger, rage, etc…. Even if she lost control of her emotions just a bit, or even several times, he wouldn’t mind. What he feared was her staying emotionless just like before. If at this time she could lose control of her emotions and give Qing Shui a beating, he would actually be happy.

This was a confession of emotions. Without opening her heart, there was no way for him to understand her. If he failed, that was okay as he would just try again. Qing Shui stopped thinking and just looked at his surroundings. They were now at the deeper palace of the shrine.

It was similar to the palace before, but it was slightly bigger. This location had the same sized Stone Beast, however, it was shaped like a Hound Beast. In fact, it was even a Three-Headed Hound Beast.

The Stone Beast’s body was jet black. Its distance from them was far and stood just there without moving. However, if there was any living thing that got within its attack vicinity, it will strike down and destroy it. On the other hand, if you were not within its attack vicinity, even if you threw things at it, it would have no reaction. Unless you threw something alive at it, then it would attack.

Living things, just don’t throw living things!

Qing Shui seemed to have grasped something. Retrieving the box required another method and even though it may not succeed, it was still worth a try.

They had already gotten one treasure box and now was a good time to see what items were inside. This box was not very big, it was two meters long, approximately two feet in width, and one foot in height.

This could only be considered as a small box.

“Come, we should see what’s inside,” Qing Shui looked at the Demon Lord and said.

Towards this woman, Qing Shui felt a bit lost. He thought that he could be a bit more thick-skinned in front of this woman, but he was only improving bit by bit. Every time he saw that cool and elegant face, the words that he could normally say shamelessly wouldn’t come out of his mouth.

The Demon Lord seemed to be also interested. She did not reject and walked closer to the box.

There was a stone porch not far with a height that almost reached a man’s waistline. Placing the treasure box there was perfect.

It was an ancient looking box. It looked very old but it could not hide its bleak elegance. Even the most extravagant box would be overshadowed by this treasure box.

Opening the box, there was not much activity. Inside were a scroll and a book, probably a battle technique. The book was inlaid with gold on the edges, it was lavish looking yet not overdone. However, Qing Shui was stunned when he saw the scroll.

Portraits of Beauty!

Another Portrait of Beauty and this was the eleventh portrait already. He had not found one in such a long time. Qing Shui was ecstatic, he wondered if he already knew who was in the portrait.

Qing Shui took out the scroll and unrolled it slowly.

He saw a tall and slim woman in the portrait who wore a golden phoenix pleated skirt. From top to bottom, there were two radiant and lifelike golden phoenixes. Her hair was tied up high, which matched well with her slender snow-white neck that made her look more divine.

The loosely fitting phoenix pleated skirt could not conceal her gentle and charming curves. Her beautiful curves yet graceful demeanor had captivated Qing Shui’s visual senses with a huge impact.

With a body that was well proportioned, eyebrows that were shaped to perfection partnered with her eyes full of vigor, soft skin that was as white as the moon and shoulders that appeared like they were chiseled for a statue. She was standing there with charm and grace, appearing as a unique existence that was elegant beyond the vulgarity of the common world. Even from a distance, one could feel the cultured and refined aura that she exudes.

The golden phoenix skirt gave her a bit of a luxurious but graceful air. It made her appear like a divine woman from the Ninth Heavens.

Mu Qing!

It was Mu Qing, Qing Shui was happy and proud internally. She was already his woman, and more precisely his wife.

A divine beauty full of elegance and charm. Although Qing Shui thought that she did not have the divinity like that of the Demon Lord, the elegance from within that she exudes gave off a similar feeling.

At the same time when Qing Shui was looking at the portrait, the Demon Lord also took a look, but she did not say anything.

“This Portrait, can I have it?” Qing Shui asked as he looked at the Demon Lord.

“The box is also yours.” Demon Lord said directly.

“I’ll give you some drawings, do you want them?” Qing Shui thought for a bit and said.

“I don’t want it!” The Demon Lord said swiftly.

“What if the drawing is you?” Qing Shui directly took out a stack of drawings, the one on top was directly displayed towards the Demon Lord.

To reach the level of Drawing Souls, Qing Shui’s artistic abilities in his current drawings were indistinguishable from the craftsmanship of the Portraits of Beauty.

This was something that Qing Shui had drawn recently. Each drawing had different expressions.

The Demon Lord could not help but to reach out her hand and receive it. She had never seen her own portrait. She had never asked anyone to draw her, as even those who had seen her would not be able to draw her. Besides, most people didn’t know what she looks like since she would mostly wear a veil or a conical bamboo hat.

She also did not use a mirror that much. To suddenly see a portrait of herself felt like meeting a stranger as she hadn’t seen her own face in a very long time. She was a natural born beauty. Women from the previous life would not head out without makeup, but she did not have that sort of worry.

She looked at them one after the other. There were ones where she was eating and there quite a few others too. These actions of her were all from recent times. She knew that these were all drawn by Qing Shui and to be able to draw her to this level, his drawing expertise must be very high. She could tell from a glance, it was at a level that could capture the essence and expression of the person since her own drawing technique used to be very good. This also required deep feelings towards the person…

When the Demon Lord was done looking at them, she raised her head to look at Qing Shui. Qing Shui also just looked at her, he could not figure out what she was thinking.

Grateful?

Not.

Emotional?

Not likely also.

…….

“You are no longer allowed to draw me. These, I will confiscate,” the Demon Lord said and took all the drawings.

Qing Shui looked at her, stunned. He had thought of 800 different reactions but this certainly was not one of them.

The speechless Qing Shui could only look at the battle technique book that was inlaid with gold on the edges. The words ‘Fatal Strike’ was written on the cover of the book in seal script. Qing Shui picked it up and looked at it, there were only a few pages inside. Suddenly, he laughed.

Fatal Strike was an attack buff, it could increase the attack of battle techniques. Just like the Sure Kill Heavenly Techniques, it could only be used once a day, moreover, it needs to be cultivated. It was not important whether the attack was a physical or spiritual one, it would still increase the attack. The increase was dependent on the cultivation level.

On the book, it was said that cultivating to a higher level was not only a double in attack, however the later levels were not that easy to cultivate.

Qing Shui looked at it once and handed it to the Demon Lord, “This is for you!”

“No need, I have already memorized it.” The Demon Lord shook her head.

“Even if you have memorized it, I will still give it to you. I already took the other one, so treat this as a memento.” Qing Shui said without hesitation and handed it directly into her hand.

The Demon Lord looked at the man who was acting more shamelessly and getting more impertinent. However, she discovered that she did not feel anything particular about him. No man had ever acted this way in front of her.

He was not ashamed in front of the Demon Lord. He also tried his best to show the best side of himself to her.

Only Qing Shui would be so daring. After all, they had already done the most intimate thing that could happen. As his starting point, this was already an advantage to him.

The Demon Lord drew out her hand, naturally returning the “Fatal Strike” book without saying a word.

Qing Shui was relieved in his heart. Although he didn’t know what kind of feeling this was, he also did not know what she was thinking. Maybe it could not be considered as happiness or disappointment, but instead a bit of improvement.

Actually, Qing Shui was not certain whether he would have dared to pull out her hand to give her something directly. If it weren’t for those drawings, there was probably a high chance that she would have hit him. Fortunately, she did not have the heart to attack him because of those drawings.

The Demon Lord sighed within her heart. She didn't even know why she had to sigh.

“We should go over there and check things out. I imagine that those three elders would not be able to enter for a while. Let’s see how many boxes we can get.” Qing Shui stored the treasure box into the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal and said.

This place was similar to the one before it. Qing Shui tried the same method as before to see if he could use some tool to bring the box over.

After he retrieved his Demon Binding Ropes, he threw it over. However, once the Demon Binding Ropes latched onto the treasure box, it was immediately repelled back…

The result was not unexpected for Qing Shui, though he was a bit depressed. He retrieved the empty treasure box that he had stored away earlier. He studied it for a while before he finally realized that a special type of metal was used to create the box. It could resist powerful abnormal effects, moreover, the material was extremely sturdy. It was an excellent crafting material.

Perhaps they had to reenact what they had done previously, but this had a huge risk. He could not come up with a better solution, so he summoned the Thunderous Beast again. He wanted to see if Thunderbolt had any effect on the Stone Beast or not.

After his experiment, Qing Shui could only retrieve the Thunderous Beast. The Stone Beast was immune to the Thunderbolt’s side effects.