Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 246 – 1,000 year Coldsteel, banging into others like a hooligan.

So the soulshaker bell requires one to inject their Qi into it, after which the bell chimes would be produced by Qi, achieving the effect of “soul shake”. Not only could it be used to deal with demonic beasts, humans are no exceptions as well.

However, Qing Shui could sense that the bell had a much greater effect on demonic beasts, because the human cultivators outside showed no adverse effects to the “soul shake” chimes while demonic beasts of the same grade would panic and lose their minds.

Qing Shui was thinking, if he fled on the back of his firebird, and if his enemies pursued him on flying mounts, he would merely need to shake this soulshake bell at his enemy’s mount. At that time, wouldn’t the effect cause the flying mounts of his enemy to panic, leading to the death of the cultivator?

Qing Shui glanced at the two pea-size holes on the soulshake bell, and he knew that it was extremely difficult for the two holes to be used to aim at the one’s target. After which, he infused the energy from the Ancient Strengthening Technique causing the bell to chime again.

Obtaining yet another life-saving measure caused Qing Shui to feel very cheerful. The threat posed by demonic beasts was never ending in the world of the nine continents. One of the reasons why humans were so strong could be attributed to the presence of the many demonic beasts in this world.

After putting the soulshake bell in his spatial realm, Qing Shui began practicing his forging techniques. He still had many items that he wanted to create – boots, armor, pendants… Just thinking of them caused Qing Shui to be excited. His personality was always as such, as long as he had a goal, he would work to achieve it like an idiot. An example was his practicing of the [Basic Sword Techniques], if not for this, how could he cultivate it to the True Realm, not to mention the current Obscure Realm.

It was also this unyielding spirit that allowed him to break through to 1,000 hammer blows, and thus allowing him to create one-color graded weapons.

After contemplating, Qing Shui’s thoughts turned to the recent 1-colored graded sword that he sold. He was extremely looking forward to the payment which was the alchemy concoction recipe. Maybe she was someone who had a very high status in the Joyous Sect or maybe, it was because Qing Shui didn’t feel that she would deceive him over a weapon. Regardless of anything, Qing Shui couldn’t be bothered to think about it so much. It shouldn’t be a difficult task if he wanted to find her.

“Hmm, let’s start forging. From now onwards, I have to forge at least 2 weapons each day. Or at the very least, 1 weapon and another item.” Qing Shui silently set a target for himself.

It was already afternoon, and there was no one in the store. Qing Shui hammered blows after blows, training his forging techniques.

1,000 hammer blows to manifest the faint ray of light. Qing Shui involuntarily sighed. Not only did he fail to reach the 1-color grade, the attributes this time were so weak that it was negligible.

Qing Shui didn’t intend to eat lunch, and decided to devote all his efforts to seriously forge another jagged sword. Qing Shui knew that the most important thing was for him to stabilise the quality of his forged items. It wasn’t easy to breakthrough to the realm of creating a 1-color graded weapon. If he didn’t take the time to establish his foundation now, he would only regret it in the future.

Seeing how serious Qing Shui was, Huyou didn’t bothered Qing Shui. Qing Shui devoted all his efforts into forging the sword, trying to create a ‘flawless’ weapon, doing his utmost to ensure that each and every hammer blow was to perfection.

But even so, it was a pity that on the 1,000th hammer blow, the depressing faint light shone again. Qing Shui sighed as he activated the Heavenly Vision Technique to study the jagged sword he just created.

Strength +60, Endurance +50!

Looking at these attributes, Qing Shui was thunderstruck. Initially, he thought that before reaching the 1-color graded realm, the highest he could reach was +30 for any attribute. Although the two jagged swords he forged weren’t at the 1-color graded realm, at the very least, he roughly knew the distance between his current forging abilities and that legendary realm.

Qing Shui didn’t continue after forging the two swords. Because it took up a lot of mental strength forging the two jagged weapons, and if he were to continue, the quality of the finished product would surely not be as good as them.

After which, he placed the two weapons on the shelf of his store.

A few hours later, a young man with a leather pouch walked into his store. Qing Shui knew this person, he was none other than the young man with the pearly white teeth.

After seeing the young man, Qing Shui broke into a smile. From their encounter back then, Qing Shui knew that this person would come back again. Looking at the leather pouch that seemed extremely bulky, Qing Shui could guess the intentions of the young man. He gestured for the young man to come forward and the young man took the initiative to speak.

“Mister, do you mind taking a look at this 1,000 year coldsteel?” The young man laughed as he passed a bag over to Qing Shui.

“1,000 year coldsteel?”

Qing Shui opened the leather bag, seeing a huge piece of substance akin like ice, shining with a brilliant light, as he reached out to hold the coldsteel.

“Careful, it’s so cold that it burns my hand!” The young man hurriedly warned.

However, it was as though Qing Shui couldn’t feel the cold. He firmly held the coldsteel in his hands, feeling the spiritual energy from it with his Saintly Hands. Combining with his knowledge of the unlocked blueprints, he knew that this material was extremely well suited to forge boots because the spiritual energy he sensed in it seemed to be tinged with a hint of wind-element, gently breezing.

Other than that, Qing Shui could also feel traces of extreme coldness. Although it didn’t affect him, ordinary humans would surely be burned by the ice chill of the coldsteel. How powerful would it be if this material was forged into a flexible weapon such as the whip.

Only after several moments did Qing Shui open his mouth. “Speak, what do you want for this?”

“Can I exchange the coldsteel for a weapon in your store?” The young man replied, somewhat cautiously.

Because the young man knew that no matter how good the material is, there was no way for it could be sold for 5 million taels of silver. Although it was a rare forging material, not many blacksmith would have the use for it as their qualifications were not high enough to use it. That was also the reason why it’s material value was not as high as one would expect.

“Sure, take your pick, you can choose any weapon in my store. Take note that there are some with weaker attributes, you should hold the weapon you want in your hand and test it out before choosing. Not only that, if you still have materials at the same grade as this 1,000 years coldsteel, you can just directly bring it to me. Regardless of money or weapons that you want, anything is fine.” Qing Shui smiled. After all, the forged weapons like the jagged sword were nothing in his eyes, but they were extremely valuable to others. Just as the saying went, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.

The young man happily nodded, “Sure, I have some friends who have pieces of 1,000 year coldsteel as well, I’ll refer them to you.”

And just as what he expected, the young man took the recently forged jagged sword with the biggest attributes. He also didn’t expect that 3 jagged swords would be traded in one day. However, Qing Shui was extremely joyful. After all, the value of the soulshake bell was many times more compared to these swords.

“It seems like I need to forge more of these swords.” Qing Shui silently remarked. Only with more weapons would he be able to attract even more people and thus collect even more rare and valuable materials. After which, Qing Shui put the coldsteel as well as over 10 pieces of forging materials into his spatial realm. Since he was in no mood to continue forging, he decided to close the store for the day.

Qing Shui loved bustling city streets the most, seeing the crowd milling about, Qing Shui ‘shut’ his consciousness off and turned into a brainless zombie, following the flow of the crowd. It was a good method to take things off his mind by listening to the sounds of the various conversations on the street.

Qing Shui loved the feeling of being a mindless zombie. Usually, he would spend all his free time in cultivation, striving to reach his goals. He really loved the feeling of milling about with no objective in mind, without any pressure, spending his time free of worries, no matter how short it was. However, it was a pity that he couldn’t do so majority of the time. The pressure of real life didn’t allow him to do so. Thus, he treasured every moment he could, it was only during this time that he was the most relaxed.

Enjoying the feeling of relaxation, Qing Shui didn’t look up, he chose to walk lowering his head, he merely followed the flow of the crowd. He will naturally ‘wake up’ whenever he felt like it.

After the time it takes for an incense to burn out.

“Bang.”

Abruptly, he felt as though he banged into something extremely soft and bouncy. Looking up, Qing Shui smiled bitterly as he looked into the eyes of the girl who now had a shy expression on her face. This girl was none other than the one who took the weapon earlier.

Since it was the summer, the clothes people wear now are usually extremely thin. Qing Shui involuntarily sneak a glance at the extremely erected nipples of the girl. To think that he actually accidentally banged into that. What a marvelous feeling.

This incident also caused him to recall Xiang Yuan, the loli whom he accidentally banged into twice. He wondered how was she doing now, had she already forgotten him and had she also grown more matured?

Rubbing his nose awkwardly, Qing Shui laughed. The girl rolled her eyes and coldly stared at Qing Shui.

The girl was somewhat gloomy, she merely came to deliver a concoction recipe, but yet this happened. She was also puzzled why the Qing Shui who was not in the blacksmith store and the Qing Shui who was in the blacksmith store seemed to a person with personalities at both ends of the spectrum.

The girl thought that if she stood in front of Qing Shui, Qing Shui would definitely halt his steps. Who would have thought that this man was just like a hooligan, and bang into her?

“Are you okay? Why are you in a daze? Do you bang into people often..?” The girl replied somewhat despondently.

“Not so often, in the past, there was also a girl like you who I accidentally banged into.” Qing Shui grinned embarrassedly.

The girl, “… ”

The girl took a silver-color leaflet out and passed it over to Qing Shui. “Do you think that this is sufficient? If not, we can negotiate further.”