Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 305 The awakening of talent, Firebird's Crown

Qing Shui watched on as Firebird flew around cheerfully. He kept waiting for the day when the 1% rare chance of awakening it’s natural talent would happen.

Just then, a flash of red light appeared on Firebird's body. It let out a high-pitched warble, so clear and joyous, which Qing Shui could feel through his mind. He could also feel that Firebird was growing stronger. Even if it was only an increase of 10% of the full power, it was not a small matter to be looked down upon.

Qing Shui waited until the Firebird return back to its normal state. However, the miraculous awakening he waited for did not happen at all. Although Qing Shui already guessed as much, he still felt a bit disappointed. After all, he had hopes that it might happen.

Where there is hope, there is disappointment. The bigger the hope, the bigger the disappointment!

1% chance of awakening is too low. Even though the chance is 1 out of 100, he had bet his hope on that 1%. If Qing Shui was lucky, he would be able to see it. But if he was unlucky, he will not be able to see it even if he tried his luck for the thousandth time.

Qing Shui took out another Beast Pill for the Firebird. When it saw the medicinal pill, Firebird cried in excitement. It looks like Firebird has finally tasted the sweet benefit of the Beast Pill.

Qing Shui chuckled as he place the second Beast Pill into the Firebird's mouth. Just after it swallowed the pill, a flash of red light began to appear instantly. At this moment, Qing Shui could feel another 10% increase in Firebird's power, but the natural talent still did not appear. He knew this because the awakening of natural talent would not just carry only a 10% increment to it’s overall power.

The Firebird was still flying around the surroundings merrily... Qing Shui actually still had high hopes for Firebird to awaken its natural talent. It would be incredible enough if the Firebird's power vastly expanded beyond imagination, much less becoming a Phoenix. After its natural talent has been awakened, the Firebird's personal growth should be muchgreater.

The third pill he gave still has the same effect. Qing Shui felt that the power and glory of Firebird has distinctly increased into a whole new level. After all, the Firebird has already increased its power by 30%.

Fourth pill...

Qing Shui felt like giving up now. Ultimately, all he had was a tiny hope on the small 1% chance of awakening. Moreover, the concept of the awakening of natural talent is a bit confusing. He thought that the stronger the beast is, the chances of awakening its natural talent should be smaller.

Maybe the awakening of the natural talent requires blood awakening. It would be great if Qing Shui's precious Firebird could awaken its natural talents through blood awakening. This kind of awakening was able to allow Firebird to possess some of the Phoenix's tactical skill.

This was the fourth time Qing Shui is giving the pill to Firebird, but it still won't awaken its natural talent. He hesitated for a while before giving the fifth pill to Firebird and watched closely on its transformation. This would be the "last" time he feeds Firebird the Beast Pill.

In the end, Qing Shui became devastated. The only thing those five Beast Pills did was increase Firebird's power by 50%. He still felt disappointed even though Firebird looked happy and carefree.

Qing Shui knew that the chances would be higher through blood awakening, but he still wished that Firebird would awaken its natural talent successfully.

Firebird has already ate the fifth Beast Pill. Qing Shui looked at the hundreds of Beast Pills he was holding in his hand, and thought really hard about it. In the end he proceeded to take another pill and gave it to Firebird.

Firebird did not hesitate and happily swallowed the pill. In an instant, Qing Shui noticed the same flashing of red light on Firebird's body. He was ecstatic that Firebird had gained more than half of its power, but the natural talent still has not awaken.

It turns out that after five pills, the increased power will be significantly weakened, until there was no more effect shown. The question was: Will the effect of the rare natural talent awakening still exist?

On its seventh pill, the red light still appeared, but the power gained was getting smaller. Around this time, Qing Shui considered whether to keep feeding the Firebird those pills.

"Forget it, these pills are currently useless anyway. I don't care whether there is any effect or not, there is nothing left to lose."

Qing Shui made up his mind and fed the Firebird its eighth pill!

Ninth pill!

...

32nd pill!

Soon enough, the Firebird has already filled about thirty or more pills into his belly. The faint flickering red light was the only thing that gives Qing Shui a bit of hope.

Firebird still lovingly ate the Beast Pills regardless whether its power stopped increasing or whether it didn't like the pills anymore. The Beast Pills must be very delicious, Qing Shui thought. Or maybe the red light was making Firebird feel more comfortable.

Qing Shui thoughtlessly threw a Beast Pill at the Firebird. The red light flickered and stopped. He continued to feed it one more time, with no hopes of ever seeing the awakening of the natural talent.

67th pill!

68th pill!

...

Qing Shui's eyes grew red as his trembling hand was now automatically throwing pills at Firebird. He waited for the red lights to flicker, but there was nothing flashing.

This utterly made Qing Shui despair.

"What the f*** so that's it. No more flickering red light." Qing Shui said as he counted about twenty Beast Pills on his hand.

Just as Qing Shui was hesitating whether to keep feeding Firebird the remaining Beast Pills, he noticed that it was getting restless. Suddenly, the Firebird flew towards a huge Chinese Parasol Tree nearby.

Qing Shui ran and followed the Firebird with uncertainty. He looked up at the thick branch where it landed. Firebird repeatedly cried out in a loud pitch, with each pitch getting intensely louder.

Qing Shui began to worry that the pills may have side effects since Firebird swallowed a lot. What if something bad happened to Firebird? It would be a great loss to him.

Qing Shui looked on with distress as the Firebird kept on shrieking loudly. He felt helpless as he only noticed the side effects now.

Just then, Qing Shui felt a compelling energy emanating from Firebird. In an instant, the Firebird's body let out a burst of vigor, and at the same time, a flash of bright lights.

Three colored lights: red, orange, yellow!

Red as a fireball, orange and yellow as the clear, pure light!

At that moment, Qing Shui was blinded by the brightness of the light. It was too sudden, but Qing Shui instantly knew that Firebird has succeeded even when this is his first time witnessing the bright light.

His natural talent had finally been awakened!

Qing Shui felt like he was still dreaming. Everything that had just happened did not feel like it was real. But he knew it wasn't a dream, and it was real.The Firebird finally awakened its natural talent after eating around 80 Beast Pills.

The Firebird was enveloped in a beautiful tricolored light. Qing Shui gazed at it with heart full of hope. He was afraid that if he blinked, he would miss every beauty of Firebird's light.

As the light was glistening, Qing Shui carefully looked at Firebird, who was now sitting on top of a big branch of the Chinese Parasol Tree. He noticed that the Firebird still had its fiery red feathers, but the overall charm and poise had changed.

Qing Shui could feel it becoming much stronger than before. Unexpectedly, Firebird had now become a Martial King level beast. The Demonic Beast Core inside its body had grown stronger by many levels, no less so than that of the Black Champion Monarch Falcon.

Who knew this Firebird that was once helpless in the face of the Head of Immortal Sword Sect could definitely run away in the face of danger. If it decided to take on the battle, Firebird will not be considered a normal Martial King level opponent even if it didn’t use its Violet Flame Ball.

Qing Shui began to realize that Firebird could just use its claws, beak, and wings to defeat at least three elementary Martial King level opponents easily. This is considered a big improvement on the Firebird's character, no matter the speed or strength.

The first five pills has already sufficiently increased Firebird's power. But by combining the awakened natural talent, Firebird had been reborn with an extraordinary power.

Suddenly, Qing Shui could see a "crown" appearing on top of Firebird's head. It looked small because he was standing quite far from Firebird. But he was able to see the "crown" after carefully looking at it.

Qing Shui was familiar with the "crown" because the Black Champion Monarch Falcons are beasts that have a "crown" on their heads. The "crown" is no small matter as only strong beasts with noble blood can possess such crowns.

Just like the previous tiger, its forehead had a "King" word - the King of Beasts. The Phoenix is the Emperor of Birds!

Qing Shui called upon Firebird and noticed that their interactions had become more clear. It was a weird sensation, as if the Firebird has become one with him.

When Qing Shui saw Firebird swoop down from the branch as if it was soaring from the sky, he knew that there is something abnormal about Firebird's speed. At that moment, Qing Shui realized that Firebirds, or any beasts that possess Phoenix blood were able to acquire enormous benefits once they had awakened their natural talent.

When he got closer to look at the "crown", Qing Shui was shocked because the crown looked like the legendary "Phoenix Crown".

This was Firebird's natural talent awakening, Phoenix blood awakening!

Although it looked small on a big bird's head, and was as small as a human head's "crown", the crown was still dazzling. What's more, the crown looked mighty and very noticeable. It seemed as if Firebird has evolved to a legendary bird.

Like an ordinary bird becoming a Phoenix!

"This is unexpectedly a rare Phoenix Crown!" Qing Shui gasped in astonishment. He was already delighted when he saw the crown, but he didn't know it would be the Phoenix Crown.

It was a shame that the "crown" was a bit smaller than what Qing Shui had hoped for, but he was already satisfied with just having the crown. Although the crown on Black Champion Monarch Falcon looked invincible, Qing Shui felt that both crowns looked really different from each other.

Only birds could have the "crown". Moreover, Royal Crowns and Phoenix Crowns are still regarded as Imperial Crowns. Of course, the same type of "crown" can be differentiated in terms of quality. The size of the "crown" can also be affected by the power and rank.

Old blind man's Black Champion Monarch Falcon has a Royal Crown. Its "crown" was huge, at least ten times bigger than Firebird's Phoenix Crown. However, the rank between crowns is great. Both of them cannot be compared.

When Qing Shui reached out his hand and touched Firebird, he could feel heights of its abilities, especially its speed, which was much stronger than the Black Champion Monarch Falcon. The prominent aspect of the Firebird was its speed, which has improved by multiple folds.

Five Beast Pills were able to increase up to 50% of the power. That would contribute to the enormous growth on the strength, endurance, speed, and constitution of the Firebird. With the natural talent awakened, the power will be multiplied by many folds. Previously, only two things would improve: the speed, and the Violet Flame Ball that could stagger the elementary Martial King level opponents.

Firebird could never flee when faced with a Black Champion Monarch Falcon a while back. But now the tides have turned. Qing Shui felt relieved and could not hide his sense of pride.

"Ha ha, smashing the Yan Clan now has another assurance of success this time." Qing Shui thought about it gleefully.