## AST 974 – The Journey Of A Thousand Li Begins With One Step, Breaking Out Of The Cocoon

Qing Ming grabbed the claws and exerted his strength. Nonetheless, the claws didn’t even budge an inch. A two foot-long Skywolf Claw was indeed quite heavy.

“So heavy. That’s not fun.” He clapped his hands and didn’t spare the Skywolf Claw another glance.

Qing Shui knew that he wouldn’t be able to do his morning practice today and decided to let his two sons start practicing the Back Connecting Fist technique in the morning while his two lasses would be practicing the Taichi Fists technique.

He currently had no idea if the two little lasses would enjoy practicing it but Qing Yin seemed to be very interested in the Taichi Fists technique. She had a gentle and quiet personality and was a particularly meek little lass. Most importantly, she was very intelligent. Hence, Qing Shui had already made up his mind since the beginning.

He would let her cultivate solely the Taichi Fists technique, nothing else.

Qing Yin seemed to be unusually fond of the Taichi Fists technique. Her eyes shone especially brightly after hearing Qing Shui mentioned the words using the weak to defeat the strong, to cleverly accomplish a great task with little effort and to let the opponent strike first and bring the opponent down when the opportunity arises. Qing Shui also gave a round of demonstration on the spot. She watched Qing Shui’s silhouette, which was deeply embedded in her mind.

While Qing Yin liked the Taichi Fists technique, Qing Zun and Qing Ming were still more interested in the Tiger Form and the Back Connecting Fist. Qing Ming’s eyes sparkled when he saw the Skywolf Claws that Qing Shui had given to Mingyue Gelou as a gift earlier.

“Daddy, can you make me a pair of claws too? A smaller and lighter one, so I can play with it!” Qing Ming blinked his bright eyes at Qing Shui.

This little guy didn’t like swords or spears. He was only interested in claws, spikes, daggers, slingshots, and bows and arrows. These weapons were good for ambushes. Qing Shui couldn’t help but remember Canghai Mingyue’s words again. ‘Gelou is someone with virtue and dignity. Who do you think Ming’er takes after…….?’

He saw a ferocious eagle in the sky. But of course, to Qing Shui, it was no different to a normal bird. He picked up Qing’er in his arms. “Watch closely, my son.”

Qing Shui picked up a stone as soon as he finished his sentence and launched the stone by flicking his fingers. The stone in his hand immediately flew in a curve across the sky rapidly and hit the eagle. With a miserable shriek, the eagle fell out of the sky, flapping its wings. However, it was not dead.

Qing Shui didn’t want to expose a young child to such a cruel scene. After all, Qing Ming was still too young. This was his first time witnessing an eagle in the sky being hit by a stone. Many people could hit a flying bird in the sky. However, if it was a flying beast with Xiantian strength in the sky, only a small amount of people could hit their target with hidden weapon techniques since their targets were flying in the sky.

“Daddy, you’re too amazing! I’ve made my decision. I don’t want a bow anymore. Can you teach me this?” Qing Ming’s face was full of hope.

“You are my son. If you want to learn something, I’ll definitely be more than happy to teach you. But learning this is very difficult. If you can’t endure the hardship, then it is better than you don’t learn this. I will teach you something else.” Qing Shui laughed at the little fellow in his arms.

“No. I want to learn this. I will work hard.” Qing Ming stubbornly insisted on learning this.

“Fine then. Learning this will require stamina first. Hence, you will need to cultivate the Back Connecting Fist technique and some other fundamentals diligently every day. You will only be able to launch the stone further and harder if you have stamina. After that, you will also have to practice another set of fist techniques that will allow your hands to be more nimble so that you will have better accuracy.” Qing Shui explained to Qing Ming in the simplest way.

The intelligence of children in the World of the Nine Continents would develop at an early age. Qing Shui had also started his cultivation when he was five years old back then. He started off by asking Qing Ming to cultivate the Solitary Rapid Fist. Of course, Qing Zun would also be learning it. However, Qing Shui had decided that he’d be focusing on the ‘Basic Sword Technique’ as his main means of cultivation. The Solitary Rapid Fist had a very big effect. The biggest effect was enhancing the flexibility of the cultivator’s hands.

The younger the child, the more effective the Solitary Rapid Fist would be. This was also why Qing Shui no longer let the few girls cultivate it. Qing Shui had instead told them to spare some time on researching formations everyday now instead.

To be exact, everyone was researching formations except for these few little fellows. He figured that they could wait for another few more years. However, the rest still had to research it. While they were at it, they’d coordinate with each other every day to practice the Five Elements Minor Formation for a short while.

If they were going to raise the Qing Clan’s strength, then formations were definitely something that should not be neglected. Other than that, it’d be the Nine Palace Steps, and it should be picked up from a young age. The next generation was indeed setting out on a completely different level compared to everyone else.

This morning practice was only a starting point. He wanted them to study formations and Nine Palace Steps for a while during the daytime, while acting on the next step of his plan. Qing Shui, was currently setting up many Spirit Gathering Formations in the backyard and other places.

In addition to medicinal pills that could enhance the cultivation speed and the Spirit Gathering Formations, there were also Tiger Vitality Pills, Constitution Nurturing Pills, Rainbow Trout Fish, Plum Blossom Wine, Vermillion Fruit Wine and some other things. So with him around in the future, their strength should be able to increase a lot faster.

Qing Shui had taught the ladies how to make a few types of soups, and also put in quite a lot of fish and prawns into the huge pond in their residence. By now, no one was really too surprised by all of these things. They pretty much knew that Qing Shui had a lot of treasures with him.

Since Qing Shui had made the plan, naturally he would also monitor it. But the so-called monitoring meant that he would only guide or briefly assess them. The children’s cultivations also depended on him.

After breakfast, Qing Shui held Qing Yu in his arms and made his way to Cang Wuya’s place. Fei Wuji was already married with a child, a son who was older than Qing Yu.

“Is everything going well?” The smile on Cang Wuya’s face was especially benevolent after he saw Qing Shui.

“Everything is going well!” Qing Shui smiled as he entered the room with Cang Wuya. This old man had always been like family since long ago. He was someone like a grandfather to Qing Shui and could be considered as Qing Shui’s senior.

“Is Martial Uncle Fei still well?” Qing Shui enquired with a smile.

“Yes he is. The Old Ancestor should be resting in peace now. Grudges of the past have been settled. Wuji is also married and has built a family of his own.” Cang Wuya chuckled. He seemed to be very happy.

Qing Shui was also smiling, but he knew that Cang Wuya would miss his son. It was fair to say that Fei Wuji was Cang Wuya’s son and Canghai Mingyue was Cang Wuya’s granddaughter now.

Qing Shui earnestly invited Cang Wuya to move to the Qing Residence if he had nothing else to do. However, Cang Wuya smilingly told him that he’d be coming over to stay for a period of time some time later. After taking his leave from Cang Wuya’s place, he went off to find Elder Ge.

Currently, Elder Ge was the one responsible for taking care of everything in the Heavenly Palace.

Elder Ge enjoyed drinking, so Qing Shui had brought quite a lot of good wine for this visit. For someone like him who possessed the Realm of Violet Jade Immortal, he could have all the good wines he wanted in the world. Over his meeting with Elder Ge this time, he had given some cultivation techniques to the Heavenly Palace Sect.

The Heavenly Palace was nominally the most powerful sect in the Greencloud Continent. Despite this, it couldn’t match up with some clans in the other continents. The disparity between them was simply too great. But why was it able to survive in the Greencloud Continent?

Qing Shui guessed that this had an intimate relation to the Greencloud Continent. The Greencloud Continent could be considered the poorest among all the continents. It was also the continent with the thinnest amount of spiritual qi. There should’ve been someone who had thought of coming here and dominating the continent. Many were willing to be the head of a dog rather than the tail of a lion, but then they also knew that the outstanding would usually bear the brunt of attacks. So they’d ask around for the most influential power of the region first at every place they stopped by. This was because being the most outstanding one wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing. This should be one of the indispensable conditions for Heavenly Palace’s survival.

Although having the strong and weak was a very normal phenomenon, the disparity between this Greencloud Continent and the other continents was simply great to the point that it was astonishing.

He stayed there half a day. Their discussion in the Heavenly Palace was accompanied by wine. Although the population in the Heavenly Palace had been reduced by more than 90% compared to before, their strength had instead become more powerful than before and was ever increasing every day. Their strength was simply too weak in the past. After Qing Shui took over the Heavenly Palace, he left some medicinal pills and some other things, and also implemented an incentive system. In each of the Heavenly Palace’s nine halls, other than the original Elder Custodians, a few positions for Guardian were designated for the top ten disciples among the younger generation, according to their strength. They’d receive generous rewards as long as they got ranked in competitions. This could motivate them to greatly improve their strength.

However, enhancing the strength of a great sect was a very difficult task. It was not something that was achievable within a short period of time but rather over a few decades or even centuries. Fortunately, Qing Shui had his own methods which didn’t require such a long time. Even so, it’d still take a decade or even two to three decades.

The few women by Qing Shui’s side were from the Misty Hall and they could also be considered Peak Martial Saints. Currently, the Misty Hall was the strongest among the Nine Palace’s nine halls……

……….

By the time he returned to the Qing Residence, it was already almost late in the afternoon. The children still had to learn how to read. The Qing Clan had scholars that were specialized in teaching the children, but they didn’t necessarily know martial arts. There were some scholars that were also powerful in martial arts, but the ones in the Qing Clan didn’t really know any martial arts.

When Qing Shui settled down, he thought of that woman from the Skysword Sect again, Zhu Qing. Actually, when he returned, he had left out one woman from his story to them. Yun Duan. It wasn’t like he wanted to hide anything. Then there was also Zhu Qing. No one in his family knew about her. There shouldn’t be anyone who knew about her.

He was thinking that it was about time to ask her to return here. Since he was going to stay for a period of time in the Qing Residence, he should ask her to come gather with them and at the same time, announce her status to the family.

Returning this time didn’t require a lot of time. On the contrary, it was faster compared to before. But Qing Shui still decided to stay over a few days, or a little longer. Maybe he’d wait until Qingqing had settled her things or returned after she got married.

While he was at it, he’d help the Skysword Sect. Despite everything, he used to be part of the Skysword Sect and he owed some favors to Baili Jingwei. The Skysword Sect was Baili Jingwei’s, so he should help him so that he could witness the expansion of the Skysword Sect.

The subsequent three days were very crucial. His plans were progressively being carried out. Cultivation was also added in little by little to slowly blend it in. The Nine Palace Steps was very important. When they were free, they’d study formations.

Someone from the Guo Clan came after two days. It was Guo Polu and the Guo Clan’s head. Many from the Qing Clan also joined in. The atmosphere was quite lively and very easy going. A date was very quickly set. The people from Guo Clan didn’t want to leave Yan City but Guo Polu wished to stay in the Continent’s Capital, specifically in the Qing Residence.

The Qing Clan naturally happily agreed to it. In the end, it was decided that the wedding banquet would be held at the Guo Residence. Although the Guo Clan was fine with anywhere, Qing Shui still decided to hold it at the Guo Residence in the end since it was the Guo Clan taking a wife.

This decision made the Guo Clan feel extremely grateful, because this way they would have the honor. Otherwise, it would seem as if their people were marrying into the wife’s clan. Although some said that the Guo Clan was playing up to the influentials, the people from Yan City didn’t think that way. Many knew that that Guo Polu was marrying that young miss from the Yan Clan who sold tea leaves on the big street, and they were sighing in amazement that a kind soul would indeed be rewarded fruitfully.

The big day was set as half a month later. The Guo Clan returned first to make preparations and the Qing Clan also returned soon after. Qing Shui was very happy and very satisfied with the Guo Clan’s decision. If Guo Polu and Qingqing could stay in the Continent’s Capital, the Qing Clan couldn’t be better. Of course, Qing Shui wouldn’t make this unfair for the Guo Clan. After all, they’d be future in-laws. The Guo Clan only had one heir in each generation, such a clan was very rare in the World of the Nine Continents.

Humans were very selfish creatures. Qing Shui didn’t only have one woman, but he was really fond of the fact that Qingqing’s man had her only. This was why Guo Polu was the best man for her. Most importantly, he and Qingqing were deeply in love.

Just like how Qing Shui thought that Duanmu Lingshuang marrying to Hu Yanlin was a very good thing. Regardless of the relationship between him and Lady Duanmu, he’d still work hard. When that time comes, Duanmu Lingshuang would be part of his family too…….

Fortunately, the lifespan of people on the World of the Nine Continents was long and they could also retain their youthfulness longer. Otherwise, Qing Shui wouldn’t know if he could afford to wait.