## AST 886 – Formidable Techniques, Musings

People feel energetic when they have something to celebrate about. This was exactly how Qing Shui felt at the moment, not tired at all. On the contrary, he felt so energetic that he felt like going back to kill the Golden Jiao or even try to tame it…

Yet, this was just wishful thinking. Humans had to learn to be content with what they had. Taming a demonic beast required the backing of a large amount of spirit energy. This was the reason why Beast Tamers didn’t possess that many demonic beasts but tried their best to choose suitable ones. Otherwise, if one was able to tame an army of demonic beasts, wouldn’t he be undefeatable? As everyone had a limited amount of spirit energy, even the greatest Beast Tamers could only own a limited number of demonic beasts.

Qing Shui was already content now. He could sense that he had already reached the maximum number of demonic beasts he could control with his current spirit energy. The connection between a beast tamer and his demonic beast was based on telepathy that required a large amount of spirit energy. This was why Qing Shui had only tamed the Five-Headed Demonic Spider after he had become more powerful. Otherwise, he could have only used it to refine demons.

This was also the reason why Qing Shui had never stopped training his spirit energy. He had been imprisoned by the woman in the crystal coffin precisely because his spirit energy was too weak, but he had reaped a huge benefit from that.

Without that woman, his Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal wouldn’t have reached the seventh level and his spirit energy would not be this powerful. He would’ve never gotten some of the medicinal herbs in his possession or thought about going to Eastern Victory Divine Continent. The source of his strength today could, in some sense, be boiled down to that woman.

Unfortunately, Qing Shui did not know what to think of her…

His primary goal of going to the Sky Penetrating Mountains was to search for the Sky Penetrating Grass. Everything else was secondary. As long as his strength kept rising, he held an open-mind towards the situations that presented themselves.

He reached the dwelling of the Five-Headed Demonic Spider very quickly, but the cave was actually huge. Qing Shui followed the Five-Headed Demonic Spider into the cave and as they went deeper, the surroundings got darker.

On the bright side, things like gold, jadeite and other precious stones dazzled brightly precisely because it was dark. Qing Shui did not expect to find these things here in the spider cave, especially not treasures like these. This gave him a rather strange feeling.

There were in fact some unique people in the Central Continent who required gold and precious gems for their cultivation because these things possessed a sort of Spiritual Qi. Oddly, the Five-Headed Demonic Spider did not belong to this category. When Qing Shui asked it about the shining precious objects, it seemed unable to give him a straight answer.

Anyways, he had a lot of space in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. No one would ever complain that he had too much money, so Qing Shui logically stored all of these things into his realm. The items included demonic beast crystals that could be used for forging equipment, alchemy and demon refining. Even though they were inferior relative to the core of a demonic beast, they were still very valuable, especially if they originally belonged to a powerful demonic beast.

The amount of items couldn’t be considered too much or little. There were many demonic beast cores, perhaps the leftovers of the demonic spider’s meals, but there wasn’t anything in particular that piqued Qing Shui’s interest. His Five-Headed Demonic Spider did not have a fearsome level of strength before its breakthrough and he doubted that just one demonic beast could keep anything special. With this in mind, he didn’t feel any disappointment.

Since he was already in the location and it was getting late, Qing Shui decided to explore the place. He could rest for a day before searching for the Sky Penetrating Grass again. With his Five-Headed Demonic Spider, he could save a lot of time.

Demonic beasts ha a very strong sense of smell and very keen senses in general. With his Five-Headed Demonic Spider, no other demonic beasts dared to approach.

Since he didn’t have much to do Qing Shui decided to investigate his Five-Headed Demonic Spider’s stats.

First up was its speed. Qing Shui wanted to see how he matched up. He consumed a Gale Pellet and an Agility-Enhancing Fruit, but he was still unable to match the Five-Headed Demonic Spider’s speed. It was on a whole different level…

Now, Qing Shui could clearly see the difference between a Peak Martial Saint and a Martial Emperor. Next, he had the Five-Headed Demonic Spider enter its Flying Spider Silk mode, which could increase its speed by five times. He wanted to see what sort of speed that would be.

Qing Shui had cold feet once he saw it. It could definitely kill him in seconds if it wanted to…

There was a large unbridgeable gap between the realms of Martial Saint and Martial Emperor. Everything was laughable when compared to absolute strength, because one would not even have the time to react.

Before its breakthrough, Qing Shui had already witnessed the terrifying prowess of its Corrosive Poison Web. There was now even a green glowing aura on the web. Despite its incredible increase in strength after it reached the Martial Emperor level, Qing Shui guessed that the faint green aura must be the result of consuming the Crimson Pellet.

When the web fell, Qing Shui tried to use his Primordial Flame Ball to burn it, but this time round, he found out that it took a really long time for his Primordial Flames to burn through the web…

Qing Shui was both happy and a little dispirited at the same time. Yet, he thought about how it was just natural that a Martial Emperor demonic beast should have such talents. Otherwise, it would be unable to compete with other beasts of the same level. If he could simply burn and destroy the spider’s web, he wouldn’t have struggled dealing with the Golden Jiao.

Anyway, his Primordial Flame Ball had always been like that. It was already very powerful, especially after he had reached the large success stage for his Heart of Roc. All in all, since the Five-Headed Demonic Spider was his, if its Corrosive Poison Web was powerful, it would still be beneficial to him.

He knew he would become stronger once he reached the next breakthrough. For now, he would have to depend on his Five-Headed Demonic Spider. He would treat it as his closest combat companion and bring it wherever he went— just like how beast tamers treated their demonic beasts like their children.

Without him noticing, nightfall came. Qing Shui and his Five-Headed Demonic Spider returned to the mountain cave and he pitched a tent. When it was the right time, Qing Shui brought his Five-Headed Demonic Spider into the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal.

The Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal was rather crowded now. There were around 500 spiders and 1000 Jade Emperor Queen Bees…

Qing Shui walked around his Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, observing. Even though there was a large area of untended terrain after his Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal had leveled up, he managed to create a boundary for his herb garden.

The Jade Spirit Fruit Tree was thriving in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. The tree was considerably hardy and hadn’t been affected too much when he had retained only its main “spiritual” roots and transplanted it in the realm.

Qing Shui walked over to where his Magnificent Mountains and Rivers Screen was standing and sat down on his Hu Wei Imperial Tutor Chair, facing the eight hanged Portraits of Beauty. Qing Shui looked at each of them sequentially.

The first portrait was Di Chen. He suddenly realized that he hadn’t seen her in a long time. After she left with her master, he had not met her even once. He wondered how powerful she was now and longed to see her soon.

Each of the ladies in the drawing was a peerless beauty. Qing Shui could not decide what his relationship with Di Chen was. It probably couldn’t be considered stable.

This time, when he had passed through the Central Continent, he hadn’t look for her but now, he wondered if he had done the right thing.

Wenren Wushuang was at the Qing residence. Qing Shui was certain that he would never leave her and would accompany her until they were both old because she was all by herself.

Yiye Jiange was his friend and his master. More importantly, she knew him very well. She was his wife in name, but Qing Shui did not know how to deal with her. She seemed to lack worldly desires, or at least at the moment. Perhaps if he could eliminate the Lion King’s Ridge in the future, that might change.

Hai Dongqing!

Qing Shui had almost forgotten about that lady. She had said that she would wait for him no matter how long it took. He wondered if that was true and how he should respond. He found his relationship with that woman rather miraculous. Actually, the fate that he shared with each of these incredible women was greatly mysterious and miraculous to him.

Qing Shui smiled when he looked at Canghai Mingyue. She was already his pampered wife. He could remember how stunned he was when he had seen her for the first time: her beauty that could topple kingdoms, that innate disdain in the expression of her eyes. He already had two children with her. They must have grown much taller by now.

Lady Duanmu!

Qing Shui also had not seen this woman in a long time. He forced himself not to think about it because their problems were not easily solvable. He did not mind her age and the fact that she already had a daughter. However, she seemed very bothered by that. Thinking about her daughter, Qing Shui knew that it was difficult for them to reach a proper resolution. No one could help her if she could not overcome her own prejudices.

Maybe this was because he was too young now. Could things change after ten or twenty more years?

Qing Shui shook his head, realizing that he had quite a few troubles, especially when it came to relationships. The helplessness he felt when he thought about such matters made him uncomfortable. It was as if he simply could not control himself.

Qing Shui hoped nature would take its course, but there really were some things he could not do. He shook his head again and looked to the last portrait. It was the drawing of the woman in the crystal coffin. Her icy facial features were bone-chillingly beautiful and remained so even after they shared that wondrous experience.

Qing Shui could not help but remember the events of that day.

Suddenly, Qing Shui felt as if his soul had been transported to another place. As he looked around, he knew that he had reached a sort of environment that was similar to the ‘dream among the sea of flowers’. This was an illusory plane and Qing Shui felt an unspoken misery.

Within the illusory plane, he saw a crystal hall! It must definitely have been that woman in the crystal coffin. After all, he was looking at the woman’s portrait. Qing Shui was suddenly afraid of meeting that woman again. He did not know why, even though he knew that she could not kill him in such an illusory plane. He wasn’t even afraid that she would kill him, especially since she had spared him previously.

Qing Shui stood in the middle of the crystal palace. Not far from him, he spotted an extremely beautiful woman with an exceptionally icy stare which displayed her fierce independence. She was the woman that looked the closest to a true goddess.

Her hair was gathered in a high bun, her eyebrows curved gently, and her features were naturally beautiful even without any makeup on. She had a heavenly goddess-like beauty. Her white dress could not hide her gorgeous figure— that distinctive shoulder, the curve of those breasts that could steal one’s soul, a waist like flowing satin— which seemed perfectly sculpted by God. Even her pair of exposed jade legs held a faint crystal-like glow…

She exuded a holy aura that repelled any sort of desecration. This was the type of woman that Qing Shui thought no one should approach. It wasn’t that she was a cold person but rather that she had an innate aloofness that seemed to stem from her soul.

Qing Shui could not come up with a proper explanation for her appearance. He only knew that this was a sort of connection through their consciousness despite their distance. The only thing he could infer was that this occurrence was related to the Portraits of Beauty.