## AST 2160 - Strength, The Man in Black Gown

Though he was unsure about the exact effect of the pills, Qing Shui was already satisfied with it. There were 14 pills in total. As the saying went “Quality over quantity”, since they were significantly fewer in numbers than the Aptitude Pills, Qing Shui felt that it should have a better function or effect.

Putting all of those aside, Qing Shui’s attention was mainly focused on the 50 Divine Square Cauldrons at the moment. Adding it to the ones which had originally remained from the last Divine Weapon’s upgrade, as of now, he had a total of 56 Divine Square Cauldrons. It only required him eight Divine Square Cauldrons to upgrade his Divine Weapon to the ninth grade. Originally, he was supposed to need 16 of them, but thanks to the Treasure Basin, the number was reduced by half.

Qing Shui put all of these into the Treasure Basins. Meanwhile, he began cultivating. The Continuous Combos, Stellar Transposition, and last but not least, exercising controls over the Flying Swords.

Qing Shui’s current strength was considered to be quite decent in a nutshell. So far, the Stellar Transposition had been a great killer-move to him since it ignored the opponent’s defense completely.

Qing Shui’s Golden Battle Halberd only boosted his strength in battles. Considering that the majority of weapons also did the same thing, Qing Shui’s Golden Battle Halberd could only be considered decent in terms of raising its user’s offensive prowess. However, thanks to its ability “Penetration” as well as the “Complete Penetration” which had a very small chance of happening, the Golden Battle Halberd was one of Qing Shui’s most precious weapon.

The ability “Penetration” was even more terrifying than the ability to ignore defense. However, its main problem was that the chances of it happening was too small. Otherwise, it would have been a heaven-defying move. Nevertheless, it was still quite decent as it could be used to finish off battles at crucial moments.

Qing Shui took out 10 Potential Pills. These pills were used to raise one’s strength right away. Each of them helped increase the user’s strength by 1%. Though there was no fixed limit to the amount of pills a person could take, it would slowly lose its effect as the user fed on more and more of it. This 1% covered everything of the person’s strength. Thus, Qing Shui was quite keen to give it a try and check out its outcome.

As soon as he took one in, he immediately felt a refreshing feeling across his body. His strength had increased by 1%. The strength in this context only included the person’s default strength. It didn’t take into account any sort of external boosts which the person received from other objects.

After that, he continued to feed on another one. He kept repeating it until when he had eaten the tenth pill, he realized that the amount of strength that was increased from the tenth one was less than one percent, roughly around 0.8%. Nevertheless, he still took on another one, only to find that this time, it only increased by 0.6%. Knowing that, Qing Shui stopped taking it. By now, he could more or less figure out that 10 was the maximum amount of pills which a person could take for the optimal results. By the time the person took on the 20th pill, it would have totally lost its effect on that person.

10% of the overall strength, Qing Shui found this outcome to be quite satisfying. His defensive prowess immediately went up to about 45 billion Dao Force, while his offensive prowess didn’t increase as significantly. It was only raised by about 300 million Dao Force.

It was still better than nothing. Moving on, Qing Shui moved his sight onto the Aptitude Pill.

The description only stated that it increased a person’s aptitude by one percent and it was available for use for both humans and demonic beasts. Qing Shui wasn’t sure what it meant exactly. Without hesitations, he took on one of the pills and immediately, he felt something unusual flowing across his body. It felt as though his body was revitalized. Not long after, he came to the realization that one of his most primal energy had been raised by 1%.

Before eating the pills, Qing Shui’s most primal strength, without the buff, had been worth 1,5 billion Dao Force. He was only able to achieve a power worth 3,4 billion Dao Force with the help of Potential Pill.

Upon eating ten of them, Qing Shui realized that there hadn’t been many changes to his body. He then continued on taking another ten of them and stopped when he felt that his body had reached a saturated state. He felt that taking anymore would only cause his strength to decline instead. His most primal strength had increased by a total of 20%, though that what was said, the abilities which it increased were basically the same as the Potential Pills.

48 billion Dao Force worth of defensive prowess!

Qing Shui took in three Growth pills and stopped when he realized that they didn’t help improve any of his skills. Eventually, he ended it by eating three Cultivation Pills. What lifted up Qing Shui’s mood was that these things seemed to be quite decent. On his first pill, he was able to increase his default strength by one hundred million Dao Force. But as he went on to eat the second and third ones, he realized that it was becoming less and less effective. Thus, he reluctantly came to a stop.

Nevertheless, Qing Shui was quite satisfied with its effect. His defensive prowess immediately broke through to 50 billion Dao Force, whereas his offensive prowess was now worth 4,2 billion Dao Force. Therefore, after using the Nine Continents Mountain, he would have achieved 21 billion Dao Force of wounding prowess.

However, Qing Shui was aware that soon enough, there would be chances for his strength to increase yet again. After all, he still had some Divine Square Cauldrons and Talisman Stones to spare. Since he had nothing to do, he immediately embedded the new talisman stones onto the Divine Square Cauldron. This act from him resulted in the previous Talisman Stones being consumed, improving the effects of the stones which initially only boosted the user’s strength by three percent up to five percent. The abilities of the Talisman Stones were hidden within the stones themselves. One would never be able to sense it physically unless they were in battles.

By the time he came out of the realm, it was already noon. However, the night market still hadn’t started. Tantai Lingyan also came out, looking like she was about to take a walk. Seeing that, Qing Shui asked, “Are you going out?”

“I am going to buy some stuff.” Tantai Lingyan said a bit unnaturally.

“Let me accompany you.” Qing Shui said.

“It’s not really appropriate for you...” Tantai Lingyan said, blushing with embarrassment.

“Forget that. I don’t feel safe letting you go alone. I will wait for you outside the store.” Qing Shui concluded with a grin on his face. By now, he had figured out what she was looking for. Since she was a woman, she was most probably looking for some undergarments.

The undergarments in this world were well-developed. They were significantly powerful than the ones found in his previous incarnation. Without doubts, the leopard patterns here were all made of true leopard skins.

Tantai Lingyan stopped insisting and nodded.

The light stones across the road were bright. They were currently walking along a business street with different varieties of shops standing tall on both sides of the street. Considering that this was a high-class street, there was almost no cheap stuff which could be found here. Certainly, the things sold here would also be of the best of the best. Regardless of whether they were shops that sold clothes, food, weapons, or herbs, they were all capable stores around the area.

This wasn’t where Qing Shui’s Imperial Cuisine Hall was located at, but it also wasn’t really that far away. No matter where he was, Qing Shui was confident that the Imperial Cuisine Hall would be able to run smoothly.

Suddenly, Qing Shui began to feel a bit uneasy. He right away moved his sight onto Tantai Lingyan and noticed that she was also having her brows slightly knitted. As of now, she was almost as strong as Qing Shui in terms of her cultivation. It was natural that she would also be able to sense it.

“Continue walking and pretend like nothing happened. We should go on to look for a quiet place.” Qing Shui said.

As of now, Qing Shui was confident that he could challenge the thing in the dark. When worst comes to worst, all that he needed to do would only be to escape. In Qing Shui’s opinion, running away was his forte. Besides, Tantai Lingyan still had the Sacred Jade Divine Stone Ring with her.

This ring was very useful for escaping, attempting a sneak attack, as well as assassinating the opponent.

He traveled past the whole street and arrived at a relatively quiet place. Immediately after that, both Qing Shui and Tantai Lingyan were confined by an enormous sword qi. At the same time, a tornado also appeared near the both of them.

The tornado was a real, genuine tornado. It contained power so strong that words couldn’t describe it. Without a doubt, it was a hidden technique unleashed by a warrior whose strength could rival the Golden Battle God.

Qing Shui grabbed Tantai Lingyan and jumped out of the tornado together with her. But right at this moment, an enormous sword qi was unleashed directly from the tornado.

The wind stopped. Qing Shui settled his sight on the distant man in a black gown.

“Hiding your head and showing your tail and all... Do you really think that you will be a member of the Demons Gate just because of that? What’s your plan here? To put all the blame onto the people of Demons Gate?” Qing Shui smiled and looked at the man opposite him. However, the opponent didn’t seem to possess any sort of demon’s qi.

“Die!”

The man in black gown made a blunt statement and immediately charged his way towards Qing Shui. By now, his enormous sword had already turned into a huge spiraling dragon towards Qing Shui and Tantai Lingyan, creating a vortex in the air.