## AST 1468 - Qing Shui’s strength, the Demonic Beast’s Sure-Kill Heavenly Technique

After slightly longer than a month, Qing Shui had consumed all of his Five Yang Pills and increased his raw strength by 120 sun. As of now, Qing Shui’s raw strength was over 3100 sun, almost 3200 sun. As for his Spirit Energy, it had increased by about four million sun.

Under the effect of the Quadruple Portion Medicine, a Five Yang Pill could increase the user’s strength by four million sun. This might not mean much for Qing Shui, but this sum was definitely something worth up to a hundred years of hard work under regular conditions.

Some of Qing Shui’s battle techniques didn’t undergo any changes. The Paragon Heavenly Technique was one of them. The Paragon Golden Armor, however, helped boost Qing Shui’s physical defense to a terrifying level.

Even when up against the people from the Five Tiger Immortal Sect, Qing Shui would be able to withstand their attacks, as long as they didn’t use their Paragon Heavenly Technique.

For the time being, Qing Shui found it extremely difficult for him to improve his strength further. Though Tantai Lingyan might be progressing a bit faster than Qing Shui, she felt that the speed of her progression was no longer as fast as before. Despite this, the speed at which they progressed could already be considered godly when compared to ordinary people.

For someone who made it this far in terms of cultivation, in order to see further improvement in their strength, he must slowly accumulate his training. It would take time for them to do so. The reason why Qing Shui was able to get this strong at this age was due to the fact that he had the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. Tantai Lingyan must also have valuable accessories of her own that were equally strong. It’s even possible that she might have more than one of the weapons.

Thanks to the Spirit Gathering Lamp, the Heaven Shaking Drum and the Coiled Dragon Statue, the Golden Scaled Dragon Elephant and Hellfire Phoenix now possessed strength worth more than a billion sun. The Dragon Slaying Beast was an exceptional case. Its strength couldn’t be defined with merely raw strength.

Now, Qing Shui could simultaneously use three formidable demonic beasts to battle at the same time. The Golden Scaled Dragon Elephant was a battle beast. It possessed strength which was worth a billion sun and had formidable defensive abilities and resistance towards attacks. Furthermore, its battle techniques were also really powerful. It was capable of controlling the tide of battles. Its ability to instantaneously evade attacks made it a better survivor in battles. Its ability which was capable of weakening its opponents made it able to suppress its opponents.

The Thunderous Beast wasn’t at all inferior to the elephant. Even though it might be a control type beast and had formidable innate talents, it still needed a long time to improve. Even with the realm supporting it, there was still quite a huge gap between its strength compared to the Hellfire Phoenix and the Golden Scaled Dragon Elephant.

The Seven-Headed Demonic Dragon Spider, on the other hand, had managed to catch up. Though it was yet to be as strong as the Golden Scaled Dragon Elephant and Hellfire Phoenix, no beast with strength less than five million sun could rival it. Similarly, the Spirit Gathering Lamp had also helped raise its strength by one time.

Ever since the Spirit Gathering Lamp and his other treasures had broken through, Qing Shui no longer only used the Dragon Slaying Beast in battles. He would feel really good every time he thought about it. There were also certain formations, innate skills, and techniques which helped significantly boost the strength of his demonic beasts.

One of the more unique pieces of equipment that Qing Shui had was the Thunder Battle Halo. Not only did it help raise the user’s offensive and defensive prowess in certain locations, it even helped boost the beast’s strength.

Taking all of these into account, the strength of the demonic beasts had increased significantly. The other thing which Qing Shui was delighted about was that the Golden Scaled Dragon Elephant, Hellfire Phoenix, Thunderous Beast, Seven-Headed Demonic Beast and Dragon Slaying Beast were now all equipped with Sure-kill Heavenly Techniques. The Seven-Headed Demonic Spider was equipped with two of them.

The Dragon Slaying Beast possessed the Sure-kill Heavenly Technique Rapid Shadows.

Rapid Shadows doubles the user’s speed. The user’s ability to break its opponent's defence is also doubled. There is a five percent chance that the user will launch an attack which the opponent won’t be able to avoid, leaving him with only the option to block. Passive skill. Consumes zero energy.

Now, Qing Shui viewed the tiny beast as a heaven-defying existence. Not only had its speed been doubled, the same thing had also happened with its ability to bite and tear things apart. Its most formidable feature was its passive Sure-kill Heavenly Technique. It was similar to Qing Shui’s Paragon Golden Armor. This was his most precious Sure-kill Heavenly Technique.

The Sure-kill Heavenly Technique of the Golden Scaled Dragon Elephant was also a passive technique. The Spirit Mark!

Spirit Mark: increases the intensity of the user’s battle techniques by two times while simultaneously reducing its energy consumption by 20%. The time span between when each battle techniques is unleashed reduced by 20%. The success rate of each battle techniques unleashed also increases by 20%. Once successful, its lasting effect would also increase by 20%. Passive skill. Consumes zero energy.

Qing Shui smiled. This battle technique would be a very useful technique for the Golden Scaled Dragon Elephant. The Golden Scaled Dragon Elephant was a battle beast. Furthermore, it was also an all-around battle beast. The Diamond Sword Qi lowered the target’s speed by 20%. Vajra Subdues Demon lowered the target’s strength by 10% whereas the Mighty Elephant Stomp, in addition to being a normal attack, also had a chance of confusing the target.

The was when the ability of Spirit Mark came into play. It increased the success rate and the duration of the attacks by 20%. This was already considered to be really powerful. When this technique was combined with the Dragon Slaying Beast, it would certainly be a formidable combination. If both the Vajra Subdues Demon and the Diamond Sword Qi also worked, Qing Shui might even want to battle against warriors of similar level to those from Five Tigers Immortal Sect.

The Sure-kill Heavenly Technique of the Hellfire Phoenix was an active skill. However, it was a skill which increased the user’s overall stats. The main aspect which the Hellfire Phoenix relied on was its wounding power. The skill was called the Nine Phantoms Slaughter.

Nine Phantom Slaughter: Double the user’s wounding prowess for fifteen minutes. When the user was under the effect of Nine Phantoms Slaughter, its energy consumption increased by ten times. It could only be used once per day.

The Hellfire Phoenix was indeed worthy of its title. However, the energy which it consumed was equally terrifying. Fifteen minutes was already quite a long time. This extent of energy consumption was something which it could barely take. In exchange, it got to double its wounding prowess.

The Sure-kill Heavenly Technique of the Thunderous Beast was also a passive skill: Thunder Punishment.

Thunder Punishment: Increase every aspect of the user’s ability. Passive. Consumes zero energy.

Qing Shui had experimented with it before. The “every aspect” which was mentioned included the user’s strength, speed, the intensity of the speed of Thunderous Strike and Violet Lightning Strike. However, there were some battle techniques which didn’t get to share the boost as well. Despite this, the majority of the user’s skills were doubled.

This was also one of Qing Shui’s most formidable Sure-kill Heavenly Technique among his demonic beasts. Furthermore, it was a passive skill.

Qing Shui was a bit puzzled with the Seven-Headed Demonic Dragon Spider. It actually gained two Sure-kill Heavenly Techniques. The first one was the passive Sure-kill Heavenly Technique, Demon Binding Force.

Demon Binding Force: A web silk binding ability which doubles the overall basic abilities of the spider. A passive ability, it consumes zero energy.

The Seven-headed Demonic Dragon Spider relied mainly on its spiderwebs. However, this didn’t mean that its physical body wasn’t powerful. Considering that it functioned mainly as a control type beast, its passive Sure-kill Heavenly Technique was still considerably powerful. A notable feature about the Seven-Headed Demonic Dragon Spider was that its spider silk was already very powerful to begin with.

The second one was Gale.

Gale: raises the user speed by two times upon usage. The effect is also for fifteen minutes. It can only be used once everyday.

All in all, Qing Shui was satisfied with his progress. However, despite having two Sure-kill Heavenly Techniques, the Seven-Headed Demonic Dragon Spider was not a match for the Thunderous Beast. Certainly, it couldn’t be compared to the Hellfire Phoenix or the Golden Scaled Dragon Elephant. Still, Qing Shui was already satisfied with its overall progress.

Originally, the thing which Qing Shui used to be upset with was that his demonic beasts never had Sure-kill Heavenly Technique of their own. Now, they had finally gotten them, but it wasn’t like how the legends had described it to be. Ten million sun worth of strength didn’t necessarily mean that the beasts would obtain yet another Sure-kill Heavenly Technique.

It’s only after that did Tantai Lingyan come to notice that it was just the principle that a person with ten million sun worth of strength would obtain a Sure-kill Heavenly Technique. As a matter of fact, these were also the strongest humans and beasts to ever be recorded in history through encyclopedias. However, other than merely gaining it, they would have to master it as well. It wasn’t that a Sure-kill Heavenly Technique would just pop up out of nowhere when that particular strength was achieved.

The Sure-kill Heavenly Technique which one mastered would usually be the one which he thought best suited his situation. This applied to both demonic beasts as well as humans.

This reminded Qing Shui of a long time ago, when he used to survive by relying on the demonic beasts. As time passed, his demonic beasts had become less and less useful. Now, Qing Shui was no longer inferior to his demonic beasts. Of course, there would be some gap between their strength compared to Qing Shui’s, as he was equipped with his Golden Battle Halberd and other techniques such as the Battle God Inheritance. By now, Qing Shui was even capable of battling warriors with strength two times his own.

But no matter what, under his support, his demonic beasts were also able to achieve a terrifying power, particularly the Hellfire phoenix. Under the state of Nine Phantoms Slaughter, its wounding prowess immediately went up to three billion sun.

If he were to combine it with his ability to weaken his opponents and run into the people from the Immortal Five Tiger Immortal Sect and battle like before again, he would definitely be able to manage them a lot more easily.

……

“What? The Divine Beast Sect has set their sight on the Divine Sound Sect?” Qing Shui looked at Tantai Lingyan. He was wondering if he had heard things wrongly.

“Yes, the Divine Sound Sect is already seeking help from us.” Tantai Lingyan answered Qing Shui.

The thing which Qing Shui was glad about was that she was willing to talk to him about this matter. It’s likely that she wanted to discuss with him about what they should do.

Somehow, Qing Shui had always had the feeling that he was bound to come across the Divine Beast Sect again. The only thing was that he had never expected for it to be so soon. Back then, before he departed from the Ancient Ruins, he didn’t inform the Lu brothers about anything. After being in hibernation for these few years, they had yet again set their sight at Divine Sound Sect.

During this time, the Demon Lord Palace’s reputation had further improved. Thanks to that, the Divine Sound Sect had also managed to gain a good reputation. There were already a lot of people who no longer viewed the Demon Lord Palace and Divine Sound Sect as some evil forces like how they used to.

It seemed like the Divine Beast Sect’s intention was to kick both the Divine Sound Sect and the Demon Lord Palace out of this desolate area. It’s also possible that they planned to eliminate Divine Sound Sect. Taking into account that the Divine Sound Sect was composed of beautiful women, could it be that their real intention was to turn the Divine Sound Sect into their harem kingdom?

Qing Shui felt that his thought was a bit sinister...

“The Divine Sound Sect is an ally of Demon Lord Palace. From that aspect, I feel that we should lend them a helping hand. What do you think?” Qing Shui asked with a smile.

“Is it because you are concerned about that friend of yours? I heard that she has come looking for you for a number of times.” Tantai Lingyan said this in a way which sounded like she was joking. But since the changes in her facial expression weren’t really obvious, it could only be felt from her tone when she was saying it.

During the time she had secluded herself, it was indeed true that Shen Ling had come to look for him twice. Qing Shui had a feeling that Hua Rumei was the one who told her about it. But the fact that she was able to spell it out made Qing Shui felt particularly happy. He smiled and responded, “Lingyan, if you don’t like me being friends with her, I will cut off my ties with her immediately.”

“I can’t be bothered about your problems.” Tantai Lingyan turned her head to the side, feeling a bit embarrassed. She only realized that the things which she had said sounded a bit like a woman who was striving for favour after she spoke.

Qing Shui originally intended to say something, but he was immediately interrupted by Tantai Lingyan, “Let’s put this question aside for now. We are heading off to Divine Sound Sect tomorrow.”

“Alright, we will listen to the advice from my Lingyan.” Qing Shui smiled and responded.

Tantai Lingyan was speechless. When they had first started to know each other, Qing Shui used to only address her as the Demon Lord. Then as their relationship slowly progressed, he started to address her as Lingyan. And now, ‘my Lingyan’ has become the way he mentioned her. This was precisely what Qing Shui had always been doing, taking advantage of a situation. What name was he going to give her next?

“Lingyan, since the Divine Beast Sect has dared to lay their hands upon the Divine Sound Sect, does that mean that they are actually not concerned that we will do something to them?” Actually, Qing Shui knew very little about Divine Beast Sect.

“Since they dared to make their move, I am going to assume that they don’t fear us.”

“But do we fear them instead?”

“Why fear them? I think both of the sides may have underestimated each other's’ strength.” Tantai Lingyan said in a light tone.