Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 924 – Secrets of the World of the Nine Continents, Mu Qing’s Successful Nine Palace Eight Trigrams Formation

He was trying to explain his relationship with the Mu Clan and at the same time was expressing sincerity. Qing Shui was very sincere, even the Elder did not feel anything wrong.

The Elder said Qing Shui would have large achievements in the future. Qing Shui had never questioned his own strength, but what he required was time. However, the words the Elder said had weight and could even be taken as a promise of sorts.

Qing Shui did not think that the Godly Sword Sect was going to propose an alliance to the Mu Clan. Although he had had a hunch about it before, he had felt that it was impossible. The Godly Sword Sect was Jun City’s strongest. On the surface, the Mu Clan was incomparable to their level of strength.

However, the Godly Sword Sect had a purpose for this proposal. The Elder’s sight was set on the long term, he would not deviate from his long term plans for short term gains. Especially when this young man was a crucial existence in this plan, in the long run, the possibilities were endless.

Hearing what Qing Shui said before made the Elder happy, he really wanted to hear those words. He believed that Qing Shui would be able to fulfill that promise, especially in the future.

Thinking back to the Elder’s yard filled with a sea of flowers, Qing Shui felt he had to leave something behind. Immediately, he thought of the Spirit Gathering Formation and took several Beast Parchment directly from the Realm of Violet Jade Immortal and gave it to the Elder. “This being our first meeting, this is a gift I have brought for you, I hope the Elder will like it.”

These were things that Qing Shui had drawn. He had given them to Mu Qing, Dong Yan, Sun Yan before to assist them in cultivating.

In addition to noticing that the Elder liked flowers and herbs, giving the gift to the Elder now was more an act of reassurance. Mu Fengyang could tell, this gesture from Qing Shui was for the Mu Clan. Currently, Mu Fengyang could not put his feelings into words. Grateful? No, it had gone way beyond just being grateful. If there was ever the chance, he would not hesitate to tread through fire for Qing Shui.

The Elder declined for a bit, but received it with joy. From one glance, the Elder could determine that the Spirit Gathering Formation carried massive benefits. The Elder was especially happy about its functionality.

“Qing Shui, perhaps in the future when your strength and abilities become more refined, you will be able to enter the other four continents. Rumor has it that there are several Sects and Clans with people well versed in formations,” the Elder said while happily storing the Beast Parchment away.

“The other four continents?’ Qing Shui knew all the names of each continent in the World of the Nine Continents. However, he was unsure what the Elder meant by the other four continents.

The Elder was also surprised for a moment. What had seemed to be casual talk, especially given Qing Shui’s current strength, should have been known to him. However, given Qing Shui’s puzzled expression, that did not seem to be the case.

“The World of Nine Continents is divided into two levels. Greencloud Continent, Central Continent, Eastern Victory Divine Continent, Northern Sacred Lu Continent, Southern Viewing Continent are part of the first level. Western Oxhe Continent, Vast Sea Continent, Soaring Dragon Continent and Dancing Phoenix Continent are part of the second level.” The Elder explained after seeing Qing Shui’s expression.

“Why is it that being here or even being in Central Continent, that there’s no news about the situation on the other four continents?” Qing Shui became curious; the more he thought about it, the more doubt surfaced in his mind.

“That’s because the two levels have been isolated from each other and they rarely interact with each other, thus there is almost no news about the situation on the other four continents. Although rumor has it that the four continents are their own corners that seems a bit wrong. However, anyone wanting to reach the four continents must enter through the Northern Sacred Lu Continent. But a restriction applies, people can only go through using a special method.”

After listening to the Elder, Qing Shui was stunned for a bit. Thinking back, his doubts from earlier had cleared up in his mind.

“Elder, are you always aware of the situation in the four continents?” Finally encountering someone with knowledge of the landscape of the World of Nine Continents, Qing Shui could not miss this opportunity to gain some insights.

“I know very little but I will tell you what I know. The other four continents and the five continents here are isolated but there are still powerful individuals that travel over, very little travel the other way. From what I am told, the strength that resides with the four continents is very powerful. The rumor is that the four continents are rich with Spiritual Qi which benefits cultivation greatly. Thus when the strongest of the five continents reach the minimum strength required to enter the four continents, they will travel there to cultivate. Given the natural abundance of Spiritual Qi, the quality of materials is also high. Hence, technique and battle equipment are also of high level and quality.

The following conversation described that the other four continents were powerful, but was not saying that everyone from the four continents were powerful masters or Martial Emperors. It was a similar situation to the five continents where the majority of the population were normal people. However, the major difference was that people who cultivated would level faster compared to normal. It was like how Eastern Victory Divine Continent and Southern Viewing Continent had more ample amounts of Spiritual Qi than Greencloud Continent. Cultivating would be faster and have greater results but the advantage was very little.

Having ample Spiritual Qi could produce better quality Gifted Earth Treasures and Divine Weapons. Those things appeared naturally in the world, finding one required luck. But when someone had their hands on one of the treasures, their, along with their family’s, position would often rise very quickly. This usually resulted in a family gaining power and influence.

Qing Shui suddenly thought of the girl in the Crystal Coffin, perhaps she was not originally from here…

……

The more notorious a person’s name, the more likely the name can provide protection. The incident where Qing Shui annihilated the Sky Prison Sect was already a hot topic of Jun City. Further, when the Mu Clan and the Godly Sword Sect became an official alliance people were already in an uproar. Now that the Mu Clan and Godly Sword Sect’s presence was as firm as a castle, those who had animosity towards the Mu Clan were stopped dead in their tracks.

Returning to the Mu Clan’s manor, Qing Shui had spent most of his mornings on members of the Mu Clan, especially Dong Yan and Sun Yan. The family members of the Dong Clan and Sun Clan had already left but since Dong Yan and Sun Yan were here, he informed them of everything.

The news had already spread like it had wings. Not to mention that the news of the existence of an evildoer like Qing Shui and the fact that Qing Shui had used formations, had exposed Qing Shui as a Formation Master with more than what meets the eyes.

Formation Masters were a powerful existence, just like the original Sky Prison Sect, riding roughshod over people. No one could oppose them because of their formations but the Sky Prison Sect was annihilated by Qing Shui.

This means that Qing Shui, as a Formation Master, was much stronger than the Sky Prison Sect. Without a doubt, it also made Qing Shui’s character even more of a mystery. That’s because such a powerful youngster was not just young, but also mysterious. He originated from Greencloud Continent, which was the weakest continent of them all. Which family could have had such a genius? Given all the above, it made Qing Shui more of a mystery.

In addition, people were also aware that members of the Mu Clan were practicing formations under Qing Shui’s guidance. This made many Sects and Families envious. Formations were something legendary from the other four continents and were only mastered by the greatest Formation masters.

Talking with the Elder at the Godly Sword Sect made Qing Shui curious about the other four continents. What surprised Qing Shui the most was the passage to the other four continents was not in the Central Continent but was in the Northern Sacred Lu Continent.

Even he had never been to the Northern Sacred Lu Continent. Although he had really wanted to go because that place was where the Lion King’s Ridge resided.

……

In the blink of an eye, ten days had already passed by. In another ten days, it would be New Years. In these last twenty days, members of the Mu Clan had used the majority of their time, other than time spent to eat and sleep, to cultivate. In addition to Medicinal Pills, the Mu Clan had also taken their savings out.

As for the preparations for New Years, there were people taking care of it. But for those who had put their time into cultivating, they seemed to have forgotten about New Years. Their achievements from the past twenty days were big, that is in terms of practicing formations.

The one who made the greatest progress was, of course, Mu Qing. She had abruptly reached a higher grade and was barely qualified to learn Four Phases Steps. Her combat abilities had doubled. Not only was her strength doubled but her lethality was already increased.

In addition, Mu Qing had also learned how to craft formation flags. Other things like Five Elements Minor Formation, Spirit Gathering Formation and Spirit Sealing Minor formation were also drawn for her.

Qing Shui also taught Mu Qing the Nine Palace Eight Trigrams Formation. Qing Shui was not scared that she would be able to learn it, rather he was afraid that she could not. Qing Shui was not successful in placing the formation but taught her the method anyway. Whether or not she would be successful was entirely up to her.

“Qing Shui, why does the formation have no reaction?” Mu Qing said to Qing Shui while scrunching her eyebrows.

Qing Shui took a look and saw that she was placing the Nine Palace Eight Trigrams Formation. He had never mentioned to her that he had never been successful with it, but continued to let her practice and learn how to place it. She was a determined individual. In one day she had already spent a long time researching and placing the Formations over and over again.

“Maybe the technique is missing something crucial!” Qing Shui said.

“No reaction, perhaps the Eye of the formation does not have enough Spirit Power. What if I placed a Spirit Gathering Formation in the middle?” Mu Qing spoke her thoughts out loud while looking at Qing Shui.

Those words that Mu Qing uttered caused Qing Shui to freeze. Mu Qing saw Qing Shui’s expression and thought that he must be agreeing tacitly. She thought she had guessed correctly, so she went ahead to place the Spirit Gathering Formation as the Eye of the larger formation.

The Spirit Gathering Formation was unlike normal formations because it lacked killing power. On top of that, it was also a very simple formation and could be added onto other formations at will. The only exception was that the Spirit Gathering Formation could not be in the center of the Spirit Sealing Formation since they would counteract each other.

Mu Qing quickly set up a small Spirit Gathering Formation as the Eye of the larger formation. When the Spirit Gathering Formation activated, one could sense the Spirit Qi of Heaven and Earth gathering over. Although it was not much, it was a never ending supply of Qi that could continue supplying energy until the Formation Flags were exhausted.

The better the quality of the materials used for the formation, the more powerful and long-lasting the formation became. Pebbles could be used for some formations but the effect would be lessened. In addition, the formation would not last for a very long time. Some formations’ energy exhaustion was too high, while others did not have much drain. For example, Death Formations were amongst the highest energy draining formations and Trap Formations had very little drain. Thus, using pebbles for some formations would be a definite cause of failure.

Some large formations use mountains as formation points. Although mountains are just larger rock formations, they are gathering places of massive amounts of Spirit Qi. Some powerful Formation Masters would consider using the environmental elements, such as mountains and rivers to form their formations. The power that resulted from these formations was ridiculously strong.

Suddenly, a stream of Spirit Qi burst out of the formation, directly causing it to activate. Since Qing Shui and Mu Qing were both within the Eye of the formation, they were exposed to the formation. Mu Qing looked over at Qing Shui with joy.

Mu Qing was pleasantly surprised, but Qing Shui was more surprised than she was. At this instant, he felt muddleheaded. The shock from seeing what was in front of him left him in disbelief. Although Mu Qing’s Nine Palace Eight Trigrams Formation was of the lowest grade, it was successful. More importantly, Qing Shui could set up the formation now and the power of it would definitely be stronger than Mu Qing’s formation.

“Why didn’t you tell me that the Eye of the formation had to be a Spirit Gathering Formation. Do you know how many times you caused me to set up this formation today? Well, I guess it was not too bad. Now I am well practiced in setting this formation up.”

Qing Shui was left stunned, without looking towards the overjoyed Mu Qing and said “It is not that I didn’t want to tell you, but because I have never successfully placed the formation before.”

Qing Shui’s words stopped Mu Qing in her tracks. She could only look at Qing Shui shocked, her mouth slightly opened. Qing Shui looked towards the pearly white teeth and tender tongue, trying to control his feelings and thoughts.