## AST: Chapter 115 – 4th Layer of the Ancient Strengthening Technique

“Golden Steel Demonic Boar!” Qing Shui’s eyes lit up!

Qing Shui looked towards his mother, and saw surprise and panic in her eyes. Qing Shui guessed that his mother had also recognized this beast as the Golden Steel Demonic Boar. The reason that Qing Shui could recognize it was because he had once come across the Golden Steel Demonic Boar in the <>. The last few pages introduced the different types of mutated beasts.

Mutated beasts generally mutated from demonic beasts, desolate beasts, ferocious beasts, or even wild beasts! Mutated beasts were very unique, but they were really precious and overwhelmingly powerful. Qing Shui could clearly recall the description of the Golden Steel Demonic Boar, as it was listed first in the section covering mutated beasts in the <>.

The Golden Steel Demonic Boar was the mutated version of the wild boar, which had gone through mutation after eating certain special fruits or unique rocks, or even possibly after absorbing the Qi of the Heaven and Earth.

The <> wrote that the Golden Steel Demonic Boar was strong as refined steel, and that even a 1st-level Xiantian cultivator would not be able to inflict the slightest harm to it. It had immense strength and teeth which could tear off everything, even to the extent of crumbling tough wrought iron to bits. Its movements were like the wind, fast and nimble, and it was unknown just how much strength it actually possessed!

To be frank, Qing Shui was very worried. It would be very bad if this “Golden Boar” were to go crazy. Qing Yi’s face had long since paled. After all, the opponent was so strong that it was perverse, and it was still a hundred meters away from them.

Qing Shui saw that pair of eyes of the “Golden Boar” which were slightly big, cute and filled with hints of intelligence. Qing Shui was well aware that mutated beasts tended to have intelligence, as their whole body were full of treasures and their cores were even more precious than that of demonic beasts. It was too bad that Qing Shui was only thinking about escaping then.

“Mother, let’s get off the carriage and you’ll lead them to back off. It’s already set its sights on us, so I will find a way to draw it away.” Qing Shui leapt off the carriage as he urged.

“Qing Shui, you bring them away, Mother will go draw its attention!” Qing Yi descended from the carriage with Qing Hu and Qing Bei, as she quickly stated with an air of indifference.

“This time around, we will definitely not leave. We will deal with it together.” Qing Bei pouted as she said in anger.

Qing Hu did not say anything, but the look in his eyes showed that he would definitely not leave.

“Alright, you guys are making it sound as if it’s a life or death situation. When have I ever done anything that I have no confidence in? Mother, trust me, bring them and hide. I’ll be back in a while.” Qing Shui said with ease.

Qing Yi looked at Qing Shui in doubt as she shook her head. This time around, she insisted on not believing in Qing Shui.

“I still have a Clear Wind Fruit. You should be assured now!” Qing Shui quickly took out and raised the only Clear Wind Fruit he had on him before eating it quickly. He quickly dashed out under Qing Yi’s looks of surprise as he concurrently turned to urge her to bring them away.

Qing Yi felt helpless. Now that things had come to this, she could only bring Qing Hu, Qing Bei, as well as the two drivers to retreat quickly!

The summer afternoon was still scorching, without a trace of wind. When Qing Shui was about fifty meters away from the golden boar, he quickly turned sideways to the left and dashed forth.

The “Golden Boar” looked at Qing Shui as its big eyes lit up. It might have thought that Qing Shui was challenging it as it pounced towards Qing Shui suddenly, at the speed of lightning.

“Damn, its speed is so fast?” Even under the effects of the Agility-Enhancing Fruit, Qing Shui was still slower than the golden boar by a lot.

However, after the Ghostly Steps had evolved into the Free Spirit Steps, the nimble movements with which he could dodge with had turned increasingly profound and mysterious. With this, Qing Shui kept changing his directions non-stop as he dashed towards the deeper part of the Wild Boar Mountains.

It would be a lie to say that he was not afraid. Amidst the scorching summer sun, while Qing Shui was covered in sweat, he was covered in cold sweat. The golden boar was chasing very close behind Qing Shui, and the distance between them was not even two meters.

Qing Shui had no choice but suffer in silence as he had to keep close attention to the golden boar’s movements constantly. Qing Shui was aware that there were cores in demonic beasts, and that they can use their cores to augment their attacks, and spew out “Core Qi” that was similar to the Qi of a Xiantian cultivator. However, the impact would be much stronger than that of the regular Qi of a Xiantian cultivator.

This mutated beast, “Golden Steel Demonic Boar”, had an inner core which was said to be even more powerful than a demonic core. Qing Shui’s worry was that this “Golden Boar” would have some kind of hidden trump card which would land him in big trouble, or even to die without leaving a trace.

Qing Shui did not dare to let it charge straight at him. Changing directions with each step, dodging around, even if the “Golden Boar” were to suddenly attack with the strength summoned by its inner core, he would be able to avoid getting hit in his vitals.

After around 15 minutes Qing Shui gathered all of his focus, as he and the beast went into the deeper parts of the Wild Boar Mountains at an incredible speed.

“The Agility-Enhancing Fruit is only able to last for 15 minutes. Once I lose its effect, this golden boar will be able to catch up to me easily. Once the effect wears off, my strength will also take a plunge, and the chances that I will be killed will increase by 30%.”

After another desperate dodge from the sudden pounce of the golden boar, Qing Shui suddenly unleashed a strike towards its head!

From the side!

Boom!

Qing Shui garnered all his strength into that punch as he smashed his fist into the head of the “Golden Boar”. A loud sound exploded as if he had hit against a metal plank! Qing Shui’s arm trembled and turned numb from the impact.

After the golden boar received such a heavy attack, the imaginary scene where it was sent flying did not appear. Although Qing Shui had known from the <> that it was hard for Xiantian cultivators to inflict any harm on it, it was still unbelievable when he had experienced it in person.

Qing Shui’s punch had an immense strength of over twenty thousand jin while this demonic boar beast was only about a meter in size. Moreover, the punch had landed on its head.

Looking at this golden boar, forget about cracking its skull, the punch had not even changed its direction. Qing Shui felt a sense of utter defeat. It was too big a blow.

It seemed like the punch had infuriated the golden boar instead. It grunted in fury, and the speed at which it pounced towards Qing Shui became even faster. Its legs moved towards Qing Shui at an unbelievable speed.

“Sh*t!” The movements of the boar was very mysterious, as if it had suddenly appeared in front of him in an instant. Qing Shui felt that there was no way that he could escape.

Another deep wound appeared on his previously injured shoulders as fresh blood gushed out. It was too bad that Qing Shui was too busy to care about it, as he tried to dodge while looking for the weak point of the golden boar.

In just a moment of carelessness, he received another wound at his left rib. Three of his ribs were broken, and Qing Shui was in so much pain that he gasped. His whole body had long been drenched with sweat.

There were a few times when Qing Shui had wanted to attack the eyes of the golden boar, as he discovered that the eyes were its only weakness. It was just too bad that even with the agility from his Solitary Rapid Fist, he would still not able to accomplish it. Qing Shui sighed in his heart, feeling regret that he did not have any hidden weapons with him, and that he would probably lose his life this time.

Although Qing Shui’s body had strong recovery abilities, the wounds on his body were increasing at an alarming rate. However, although the wounds on his body were increasing, the Ancient Strengthening Technique was also channeling faster and faster.

The effects of the Agility-Enhancing Fruit had disappeared. This was also the reason why the wounds on Qing Shui were increasing at a faster rate. Qing Shui was feeling helpless, and could even feel that death was upon him.

Using his reflexes he dodged and fended off the attacks. Were it not that Qing Shui’s body was strong, he would have probably already fainted. But, no matter how strong he was, he had also reached his limits.

Scene after scene flashed past Qing Shui’s eyes. When his mother had carried him and secretly cried when he was young while telling him stories of the Yan Clan, thinking that he wouldn’t understand; thinking of his mother’s suffering and expectations of him; of the times when he was laughed at and called a failure by the people from the Qing Village; and later…when he defeated Situ Bufan; when he went through the coming of age ceremony; when he entered Hundred Miles City; when he first met Shi Qingzhuang and eventually had s*x with her; when he met Wenren Wushuang; when he killed a Xiantian cultivator; and when he gained a strong master who was a peerless beauty…

The scenes flashed again, showing him the time when his body had changed when he started to pick up martial arts, picking up the Ancient Strengthening Technique; experiencing epiphany and impurities cleansing; leveling; unexpectedly attaining the Yin-Yang Pendant; entering the realm of the Violet Jade Immortal; figuring out alchemy; as well as learning the Ancient Technique: Flames of Yin-Yang and the Primal Chaotic Divine Needle Technique……

Thereafter it was his attempts at alchemy; creating the Golden Sore Ointment; treating Yu Donghao with the amazing Primal Chaotic Divine Needle Technique; the charming scene when he was treating Wenren Wushuang; when he treated Baili Jingwei… the mere thoughts of these warmed his heart…

“I have already survived so many obstacles, and there is a glorious future awaiting me. I can’t accept this, I can’t accept this!” Qing Shui struggled as a strong aura and potential exploded from his body like never before.

The Qi from the Ancient Strengthening Technique had been frantically circulating without any notice. It was as if it was spurred on by an irresistible force, akin to someone using their finger to poke a hole through the previous barrier; it was unstoppable. It was as if all the conditions had fallen into place. After his Qi circulated for 48 cycles, it did not show any signs of stopping, and continued to circulate another cycle.

49 cycles of circulated Qi！

In that instant, Qingshui felt a gush of the pure and boundless strength of Heaven and Earth flowing into his Baihui acupoint, rendering his body numb. It was as if countless information was being transmitted to his head, causing him to have a splitting headache. The Baihui acupoint was a governing meridian in the human body, as well as the Danzhong acupoint of the ren meridian. They were two of the most mysterious and widest acupoint channels in the human body. Not only that, but these 2 acupoints were so critical, that they were referred to as “Death Acupoints”

“I’ve broken through, broken through the obstacle which has troubled me for seven years!”

“I’ve entered 4th layer of the Ancient Strengthening Technique!”

Qing Shui felt as if he was dreaming. It was his last thought before he lost consciousness.