## AST 342 - When The “Core Qi Method” Meets Gongsun Jianwu

“Of course!” Xu Shiji answered in delight.

“Although the Black Armored Jumping King is not considered a big sized mutated beast in the world of the nine continents, it is one of the most dangerous beasts. It can’t fly, but it can spring a distance of a thousand meter within an instant, making it one of the fastest beasts within short distance. Its explosiveness, speed and hardness of its body in particular become its greatest weapon. The hardness of those drills, which are about half a meter long, are no less than that of a divine weapon. Not many cultivators below the Martial Saint level could survive an ambush.”

Qing Shui hadn’t expected this “flea” to be this damn powerful. But it made sense when he thought about its intimidating speed. It did indeed seem that both its speed and formidable body could not be matched by cultivators below the Martial Saint level.

This Black Armored Jumping King’s body was fully covered in an armor of unparalleled, solid hardness. Those enormous drills were sharp as a divine weapon, and with that ultimate, explosive speed... even an open attack could be fatal, much less an ambush.

“Mister Xu, right? How can I be of service?” Qing Shui asked with a smile. He knew that when people came looking for him, nothing good usually came out of it.

Xu Shiji assessed their surroundings. There weren’t a lot of people around them, and others were not really paying attention over here. In the distance, the two elderly men facing towards them from the other stone monuments were obviously not interested either.

He pondered for a while before he got straight to the point, “I hope you can at least cripple Xi Ri during your match. Of course, we are willing to offer you a satisfying reward too.”

One look at this middle aged man and Qing Shui could guess that he must be from one of the clans which had their people murdered by Xi Ri. He frowned because he had promised Yan Ling’er that he would go easy on Xi Ri. It wasn’t right to deceive her in the blink of an eye.

Besides, that degenerate was actually from a clan like this. Qing Shui had unintentionally heard some stories about the incident. Although he had some history with the beautiful lady before, he figured she should have been adored by a man rather than being forced to death like this.

Qing Shui wasn’t fond of clans like these. He had never been fond of the wealth in his previous world and he still wasn’t now.

Xi Ri didn’t do the wrong thing. If he was in his shoes, he’d do the same too. Actually, he didn’t even need to put himself in his shoes because he felt the same about his elder sister, whom he had never even seen in the Yan City before. Qing Shui admired Xi Ri. This was how a man should be; he must persevere, even if it was sometimes the wrong thing to do!

“Anyways, both of you have already arranged a duel of life and death. As long as Little Brother Qing Shui goes for the arranged match, you will get a satisfying reward.”

Xu Shiji’s offer was extremely appealing to Qing Shui. After all, he could get some great benefits just by letting thing run its course. As for Yan Ling’er, he could offer a lot of explanations, like an accidental slip of the hand.

Due to their equally matched strength, he had no choice but to defend himself or else he would be the dead one. Besides, he could always ignore Yan Ling’er……

However, another belief inside of Qing Shui told him to uphold promises and resist temptations, and that greed could make one lose sight of oneself.

This belief quivered his very soul. At the same time, a wave of boundlessly powerful vital energy began to rapidly circulate within his body. It was the Nature Energy!

Qing Shui smiled. He hadn’t expected the Nature Energy to have such effects - calming and cleansing the soul by casting away all distracting thoughts and psychological barriers!

“I cannot promise you that because I don’t even know if I could defeat him!” Qing Shui duly answered before turning back to the stone monument and continuing his observation on the Black Armored Jumping King.

“If you can kill him then……..”

“My apologies, I don’t want to promise things that I am unsure of!” Qing Shui frowned slightly and interrupted Xu Shiji without even turning his head.

“I see, then I shall stop bothering you, Little Brother. If you have made up your mind to accept within these three days, then feel free to look for me at the Xu residence. You will definitely receive a satisfying reward.” Xu Shiji was still unwilling to give up.

Humanity is anchored upon benefits; it was a wonder how many lives the single word called ‘greed’ had destroyed.

Xu Shiji had left while Qing Shui was still gazing attentively at the stone monument of Black Armored Jumping King in silence. Activating the Heavenly Vision Technique allowed him to see some hidden things.

To think that this demonic beast actually possessed such powerful and explosive strength… Qing Shui carefully observed the bent angle of those gigantic hind limbs, the skeleton structure of its body, and the “Core Qi” circulation route of the demonic beast’s core.

Qing Shui suddenly spotted many dense and tiny cyclones-like things on its gigantic legs.

“Acupuncture points?”

“This many?”

“Demonic beasts can clear acupuncture points too?”

Many thoughts flashed through Qing Shui’s mind at that instant. He repeated his observations a few times to ensure that he wasn’t mistakenly seeing things. The reason behind the powerful jumping strength and explosive energy of this Black Armored Jumping King must be due to the many acupuncture holes being cleared.

“Then, does that mean that if I cleared all the acupuncture points on my legs, I can acquire the same powerfully explosive energy and intimidating speed?” Qing Shui felt the blood in his entire body heating up.

He slowly started the circulation in silence according to the “Core Qi” route that was indicated on the stone monument. Right at the start, he felt a kind of “sudden eruption” as the qi in his body circulated in a frenzy. Qing Shui was amazed as the rush was even stronger than the Divine Arm Clearing technique.

“So this is the Black Armored Jumping King’s Acupuncture Point Clearing Art?” Qing Shui gleefully thought and continued to cultivate!

Qing Shui was completely immersed in the cultivation art as time ticked by. He laughed when he completed the circulation and also found out that this wasn’t the Acupuncture Point Clearing Art.

It was simply the Springing Art of the “Black Armored Jumping King”. A cultivation art that was capable of elevating leaping, sprinting and skimming to a terrifying speed within just a short period of time. The reason behind many of its cleared acupuncture points should be related to its natural gift. Perhaps this thing was born with this kind of powerful jumping strength, leg power, and explosiveness!

When he was circulating this kind of “Core Qi Method”, Qing Shui felt like both his legs were being inflated by air. This rhythmic bursting force made Qing Shui extremely excited.

It made him wanted to unleash it immediately, but then he held himself back. Noon had passed and Qing Shui walked towards the next stone monument.

It was another demonic beast which Qing Shui had a small impression of. He vaguely recalled that it was a thick skinned and enormous rhinoceros with an extremely strong defense. Its weapon were the three enormous horns, cold and glowing with silver.

But he failed to see its distinctive feature after observing for a while. He couldn’t even see what he could learn from it. After observing it for another moment, Qing Shui moved on to the next stone monument.

There was nothing out of the ordinary about the next three consecutive stone monuments. Although he felt a little disappointed, this was within his expectations. After all, there were a thousand stone monuments here.

The next few stone monuments were the same, and Qing Shui had lost his mood to look further so he decided to leave. Only half of the afternoon had passed. Qing Shui eventually found himself at the “White Frost Nectar” place where he met Gongsun Jianwu.

He was planning to get two branches of “Snow Frost Nectar” in case he needed them in the future. At any rate, this “Snow Frost Nectar” of at least a few thousand years was also considered a good medicinal ingredient for him.

After walking a short distance, Qing Shui could sense someone doing their sword practice within the pine forest. He came to a halt. He knew that it was definitely Gongsun Jianwu practising with her sword.

Qing Shui frowned and was ready to leave. He didn’t want to be involved with another woman again. From the moment Gongsun Jianwu had placed the talisman around his neck, he had known that that he must avoid her.

Qing Shui, who had been an unsuccessful man in his previous world, discovered that it was difficult for a woman—especially those extremely beautiful women—to fall in love with him. Though some men seemed to have great luck with women and could even make many of them put down their pride and pursue them. Qing Shui just couldn’t wrap his head around it and thought that they were simply love struck fools and flower vases [1]!

After becoming capable in this world, Qing Shui had discovered that men with capabilities lacked women the least.

Self confidence was a type of charisma itself. Qing Shui was aware that he was a very confident person, and on top of that, he had a quite handsome face. He simply couldn’t understand those people without much capability who could still talk big in his previous world. Just where did their confidence come from?

In the end he discovered the simplest answer: anyone with money, good food on the table, the sense to dress well and use luxurious goods - those aspects would be enough for them to become confident, charismatic, and very caring.

And not inferior like himself……..

The moment Qing Shui turned around, Gongsun Jianwu’s voice rang out.

“Am I really that detestable for you to be avoiding me like this?”

Qing Shui didn’t utter a single word and continued walking away.

“Why? Why are you treating me this way……”

“You and I are both people of different social statuses. I didn’t want us to be unhappy in the end.” Qing Shui stopped and said after thinking about it.

“I am not asking anything of you and won’t force you into anything. Are you afraid of liking me?” There was a trace of bitterness hidden in Gongsun Jianwu’s voice.

Qing Shui was remained silent for a while before he spoke up. “I am not really interested in women like you!”

That statement rendered Gongsun Jianwu speechless.

“Can’t we even be the most normal of friends?” she sighed.

Qing Shui thought about the fact that he’d be leaving soon. It’d be another two or three years before he would return. By that time, she might have already found the person she loved.

“Of course. Actually, we can pretty much be considered as normal friends.” Qing Shui gave her a smile.

In Qing Shui’s subconsciousness, he slightly rejected women who seemed like they could reduce a man’s lifespan, just like her and Qing Hanye. He felt like they were ‘bad’ women because they make people think of the bed as soon as they see them, even fantasize about or bring up the impulse of fooling around with them.

“Really!”

Gongsun Jianwu walked out. Fully dressed in her black pleated skirt with her hair done in a high hair bun, she looked a little like the Queen of Nightclub, and also a bit like an enchanting demoness.

He sighed again at the pleasant surprise in her tone of voice. Qing Shui can’t speak for the others, but he knew himself well. Aside from childhood friends, relatives, and old friends from his hometown, platonic friendships between a male and female were almost non-existent. Because to Qing Shui, there were other motives right from the start for a man and woman to be friends.

Of course, there were exceptions, but only very few!

Qing Shui casually exchanged a few words with Gongsun Jianwu, broke off two branches of Snow Frost Nectar, and left. However, he hadn’t noticed the loneliest of looks on her expression when he turned around to leave.

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[1] “Flower vase” is a slang “just a pretty face”.