## AST 824 – Unwilling, Helpless, Great Boost In Strength

At the moment, Qing Shui was feeling incomparably bitter, the woman should have been extremely furious by now. Prior to this, she couldn’t move her body because of the cold poison which had intruded into her body. Similarly, he was also unable to maintain control over his. Just like this, using that kind of method, he muddle-headedly helped neutralize both her cold poison and the excessive poison which she transferred to him.

Everything that happened before was clearly carved within Qing Shui’s mind. The woman slightly wrinkled her brows and during the entire process, the only noises she made were weak breathing noises. In the instant they interacted for the first time, she must still have felt excruciating pain, regardless of her cultivation level.

If she could move at that time, she would have definitely killed him without any hesitation. Now that he was at the brink of death, he was glad he had taken the opportunity to enjoy a night of joy with such a godly woman, as compensation for himself.

He refused to die but his strength all over his body was completely restrained. He was completely immobilized. On top of that, there was a pair of formless hands choking his neck.

Qing Shui gazed at the pair of cold beautiful eyes. Like before, there was no sign of change in the emotions on her face. Other than the violent gasping noises she made in the crystal coffin, all along, she didn’t mutter even one word.

Qing Shui was getting more and more dizzy. He was unsure if he should regret saving the woman. But now, he was really furious. Not only did the woman not give him an opportunity to speak, she wasn’t even keen on opening her mouth.

She should know about her own condition. Previously, he has also tried all sorts of methods to not violate her. In any case, it was true that he saved her. Even if she had wanted him to die, she should at least give him an opportunity to speak. Even prisoners would get to have a great meal before their execution.

Right at the moment when his throat was about to be crushed, the woman swung her hand and immediately threw Qing Shui. Qing Shui once again crashed into the wall far away and spurted out fresh blood.

The woman maintained the same look even after throwing Qing Shui. She turned around, stood there with her back facing Qing Shui and didn’t even give him another glance. She was just like a ten thousand year cold ice, very beautiful, yet unapproachable.

Qing Shui was really furious. Now, if the woman was to give him an opportunity to speak, he wouldn’t mutter out even one word. He despised this kind of feeling, from the woman’s action, he knew that she was giving him a chance to leave.

Qing Shui stood up and didn’t shoot another glance at the lady. For now, he didn’t have any good feelings for the woman, nor did he have any interest in her. He unsteadily walked towards the palace gate.

All the while, the woman just stood on the same spot without any sign of movement. She didn’t shoot another glance at Qing Shui either. Her eyes started trembling slightly and bit by bit, started to turn a bit ignorant.

Qing Shui walked out of the palace gate and conveniently tossed the Water Repelling Pearls at the old turtle. After that, he walked away without even turning his head. He didn’t want to have anything to do with the woman, the same also went for the old turtle.

He wanted to wipe away everything related to the woman. He didn’t want to owe her anything. If they were ever to run into each other again in the future, they would just be strangers. He wouldn’t think about killing this woman but he also wouldn’t mind becoming an enemy with her.

He travelled as far as a million miles just to come here, yet this was all he got. When he first arrived at this place, he never thought for things to turn out this way. At the instant when he was going out, he seemingly heard the old turtle sighed.

As soon as he went out of the pond, he ignored the water on his body, immediately summoned the Fire Bird and flew away from Flowerfruit Mountain. However, the direction he flew into was towards the eastern side. Every men wouldn’t feel satisfied if they encountered things like these.

Prior to this, they were still having intimate interactions. But in the blink of an eye, he got thrown away like a pair of worn out shoes or maybe even worse. Slowly, Qing Shui calmed down. Over time, he stopped feeling angry.

The two didn’t really share any relations with each other. They didn’t really know each other, all the things which happened between them didn’t really feel all that weird either. It’s always said that one should never have too much curiosity. Just like him, he almost got himself killed for being too keen on things and as a result, he didn’t get to learn about anything.

Not knowing how long he has flew for, the injuries on Qing Shui’s body began to stabilize. He also didn’t feel as upset as before. In any case, the woman didn’t have any intent of killing him. Or else, she would have been able to kill him easily.

How strong was she? Was she a legendary Martial Emperor?

Maybe because she knew that he saved her, maybe because of this and that she was aware that he didn’t do it on purpose, she didn’t kill her. Qing Shui was certain that it was definitely not because he was her first man.

The reason why she didn’t kill him might have had to do with her pride as a warrior.

Qing Shui kept on flying and only stopped after the sky turned dark. This was a swamp zone. With one glance, the entire place was filled with mud. There was only an island-like small area of land among the mud. It had a relatively small area.

As Qing Shui spotted the biggest land among the mud, he ordered the Fire Bird to descend on the land. The land contained an area of only about ten thousand square meter. It was square shaped with its width and length about a hundred meters. As the Fire Bird opened up both its wings, it almost covered up the entire land. But at the moment it retracted back the pair of wings, the land was still relatively wide.

There were also quite a few of flying beasts among the mud, for example, the Huge Swamp Chameleon. That was an enormous demonic beast. When in the mud, it was like a fish back in water.

There were also a few Swamp Poisonous Python. It’s entire body was brown colored. It was nothing inferior to the Huge Swamp Chameleon when it came to getting in and out of the mud. Added on that it had poison all over its body, it was considered an extremely dangerous demonic beast in the Swamp land.

Additionally, there were a few small and dangerous poisonous beasts, for example, the poisonous frog, poisonous snake, poisonous worm. Even though they weren’t that poisonous or rather, couldn’t be ranked among the most toxic poisons, it shouldn’t be looked down upon.

Poison can sometimes be really terrifying, once one came into contact with it, they might end up forever incurable.

The “land” was filled with rocks. It was a bare land with no plants. Qing Shui stood in the middle. He summoned back the Fire Bird and began looking around.

Kongg!

An enormous python with mud all over its body abruptly scuttled out of the swamp. It carried along a huge curtain of mud along with its body with thickness of a water jar and threw itself at Qing Shui.

Qing Shui released his Qi Force and dissipated the mud. After that, he executed a Tiger Strike with his hands. The loud tiger roaring noise shocked the approaching huge python.

Pa!

A depressing noise resounded. The python got blown backwards from the attack. It didn’t make any noises. It sunk down into pond and lost all sign of movements. It’s as if it never appeared before.

The only thing left behind was an enormous and fresh trace of mud.

Qing Shui turned blank for a moment. After that, he revealed a smile like he was mocking himself. After a night of joy, he has gained such a significant boost in strength. But even so, he still didn’t stand a chance when in front of her.

He tried to sense the violent strength within his body, it actually got from the original three thousand and five hundred countries worth of strength up to the current five thousand countries. His defensive strength has also gotten from the original five thousand countries up to eight thousand countries.

Under the effect of Diamond Qi, Diamond Protection and Diamond Crossing Rivers, he immediately achieved a net worth ten thousand countries of offensive strength and sixteen thousand countries of defensive strength.

Nature Energy increased raw strength by 60%, the Immovable Mountains increased by fifty whereas Frenzied Bull’s Strength thirty. The Heavenly Thunder Slash provided an additional 30% of strength, the Shield Attack twenty. On the other hand, the Heavenly Talisman provided 50% boost in strength and defense whereas the Combination Sword Technique helped provide a 40% boost to offensive strength.

The Thunder God helped boost all of the abilities listed above by one fold.

At the moment when Qing Shui took up the Big Dipper Sword and Thunder God, his offensive strength would achieve almost forty eight thousand countries, which in other words, was almost five stars worth of offensive strength.

Putting on the Lunar Silk Garment on the other hand, could help boost his defensive strength up to seven stars and with the addition of the Seven Stars Armour, it would achieve a terrifying amount as much as fourteen stars.

The Nature Energy, Immovable Mountains and Frenzied Bull’s Strength helped boost every aspects of the main abilities. Not only did they help boost offensive strength, they also provided additional defensive strength as well as speed whereas the Heavenly Thunder Slash ,Shield Attack and Combination Sword Technique only helped increase raw offensive strength.

In any case, Qing Shui was still amazed by his current strength. In general, that was the strength he should possess

Qing Shui took out the Big Dipper Sword and Thunder God. After that, he slowly operated the Immovable Mountain. For Diamond Qi, Diamond Protection and Diamond Crossing Rivers, they all revolved automatically on zero consumption, hence, he didn’t need to purposely operate them.

Grade Six Nature Energy was just the same. That being the case, he managed to save up a bit of time.

Immovable Mountain!

Frenzied Bull’s Strength!

……

Seven Stars Armour!

Qing Shui could feel his body brimming with explosive strength and a kind of firmness. It was as if there was some sturdy substance guarding his body. It felt like his body could block any sorts of attacks.

It’s just that the woman’s face once again appeared on his mind. Her cold yet bone-piercing beautiful face. The pressure that she exerted on Qing Shui made him felt really helpless.

Even with his current strength, he still felt quite far away from her. Previously, he didn’t move, not that he didn’t want to but he was unable to.

As he thought about the previous incident, he felt aggrieved and couldn’t help but executed one of the Combination Sword Technique styles.

Beng!

The formidable force sunk down the entire land below his feet and caused the mud to burst up and covered up the whole sky. The surrounding looked as if it was rocked by a major disaster. Qing Shui stepped up into the air. He summoned the Fire Bird and began to fly forward aimlessly.

He didn’t want to quiet down. Standing at the back of the Fire Bird, random thoughts kept on circulating around his mind. Despite the significant power boost, the Ancient Strengthening was still yet to break through to the Seventh Heavenly Layer.

Now, Qing Shui was really thirsting for strength. It’s not that Qing Shui wanted to take back his pride from the woman once he was stronger, it’s just that this woman made him realized that there were a lot of people as strong as her across the World of the Nine Continents. He wanted to stand at the top, stand above everyone in the martial arts world.

Lion King’s Ridge and Demon Gate… Qing Shui felt that there would certainly be people who were as strong as this woman. In other words, this had also made him realize the gap in strength between himself and those people.

The Ancient Strengthening Technique had long since achieved the pinnacle Sixth Heavenly Layer, it’s just that there was no trace of it breaking through. Other than that Qing Shui’s mind was fluctuating very intensely.

Progressing from the Third Heavenly Layer up to the Forth Heavenly Layer was already a really tough process. But in return, the strength boost he got was more than tenfold. Furthermore, the Godly Force in his Dantian also liquified as a result. This was the breakthrough of the Ancient Strengthening Technique from Elementary grade to Intermediate grade. Going from the Sixth Heavenly Layer to the Seventh Heavenly Layer on the other hand, was progressing from the Intermediate level up to Expert Level. Hence, Qing Shui was really looking forward to it.

Would he break through to Martial Emperor?

As Qing Shui thought about this, he felt emotionally stirred. But considering that he hadn’t broken through or rather, he didn’t feel anything close to breaking through even after all this time, it made him aware that it wouldn’t be easy for him to break through to the Seventh Heavenly Layer.

If he didn’t break through to the Seventh Heavenly Layer, his current potential for strength increase would be limited. The only things he could rely on were the boosts provided by a few supplementary techniques. For example, the boost provided by Nature Energy and Immovable Mountains or a few unexpected gains.