## AST 1045 – The New Year, Qing Shui’s Hesitation, Grade Eight Soulshake bell

After hearing Hai Dongqing’s words, Qing Shui got a little anxious. According to ordinary circumstances, it would be difficult to anyone who wanted to head to the other Four Continents, not just her.

Could it be that he had no choice but to make them stay here for another five years?

This problem was rather complicated as he had promised to bring them to wander about the World of the Nine Continents. However, he did not think that it would be divided into two portions and a round trip would take ten years to do so.

If Di Chen wasn’t there, he wouldn’t have been so worried. He was at a loss now since he had originally planned to head there five or even ten years later. However, since he intended to go over, he decided to go ahead with his decision.

“With your husband around, there will be hope, trust in me!”

Qing Shui took out two Hallow Pills as he said this and had Hai Dongqing consume them. It was successful; the two Hallow Pills increased Hai Dongqing’s strength by 200 stars. This surprised Hai Dongqing so much that she could not utter a single word out.

Qing Shui then handed her the Battle Skirt and the Violet Jade Sword to Hai Dongqing, which she happily donned. She then sensed her strength and looked at Qing Shui. She wondered what level her man had attained.

When she heard that Qing Shui wanted to go over to the other Four Continents, she was already suspicious. She doubted if he had 5,000 stars strength. However, the moment she held the weapon, she understood everything.

“Do you feel confident now?” Qing Shui laughed while looking at the speechless Hai Dongqing.

Hai Dongqing nodded her head with all her strength.

“It’s late now, we should rest.” Qing Shui hugged Hai Dongqing with a smile and disappeared to the back of the courtyard after a few flashes.

……

The next day, they bid farewell to the Hai Clan and rode the Golden Scaled Dragon Elephant to Qingfeng City. Time was running short. He should rest properly before the new year and start to make some plans. Once he left, they was no saying what would happen.
Before noon, they had reached Qing Clan at Qingfeng City.

When Qing Shui and Hai Dongqing appeared in the Qing Clan, many people recognized her. Back then, during the funeral of the Old Ancestor of Heavenly Palace, she came together with the Hai Clan. Furthermore, she knew some people in Greencloud Continent, Di Chen and Di Qing were amongst them.

As he introduced her to his mother and family, Qing Yi pulled on Hai Dongqing’s arm and said, “I don’t know what is so good about this brat, all his women are so outstanding and beautiful.”

Qing Yi shook her head helplessly and continued to speak to Hai Dongqing. Qing Yi was being very welcoming and that made Hai Dongqing relaxed. Hai Dongqing then gave out the gifts that she had prepared for Qing Clan. Even the children got gifts, in fact, each and everyone of them was given gifts. She had insisted on asking Qing Shui in advance. Not only did she prepare gifts for Qing Shui’s children, but she even prepared gifts for Qing Zi’s children as well ……

Qing Shui saw Hai Dongqing carrying Qing Yu and Qing Yun. The two girls and Qing Long did not reject Hai Dongqing at all. As she carried the children, she looked extremely happy.

She really did love children.

……

It was only three months till the new year and it made Qing Shui feel a little helpless. He didn’t know if Wenren Wu-shuang would be back by the new year and it was difficult for him to look for her now. He would not be able to go to Northern Sacred Lu Continent to check things out, he did not have much time left and could not afford to be delayed.

In the end, Qing Shui chose to stay behind and wait, since he had no other choice. Feeling helpless, he could only busy himself with cultivating.

A month passed by in a flash.

Hai Dongqing stayed with Qing Family and went back home to live for two days before she came back again.

Cultivation… After such a long time, it was clear who was talented in what aspects. Thus, he would not allow them to learn to big a variety of skills. In the past, he had done so to see in what areas they were talented in.

During this process, the skills they were talented in would improved very fast. Unknowingly, they spent a long time cultivating what they were interested in unconsciously became the cultivation they majored in. after that, they would continued to cultivate in one or two other areas.

The Formations and the Nine Palace Steps were necessary to learn and Qing Shui did not know if he should be happy or depressed. Yuchang was very gifted and extremely interested in poisons. As long as one could stay alive and lived a better live than others in the Nine Continents, no means were too despicable—poison was a type of strength.

Within this month, Qing Shui had started imparting knowledge of poison to Yuchang. Qing Shui actually disdained the use of poison but it had saved him a couple of times. In crucial times, poison could be depended on to defeat the opponent. He was strong in mixing and using poison as both poison and medicine were closely related.

Qing Shui taught her how to obtain, avoid, detoxify, and mix poisons……

That meant that Yuchang had to learn the Nine Palace Steps and Hidden Weapons Technique. Simultaneously, another child who was fond of this was Qing Ming. Qing Shui facepalmed himself. Both his daughters liked walking among the darkness and dancing on blades.

Qing Mu was especially interested in assassination, fatal blows and hidden weapons. He did not know when this little fellow learned that smearing poison on her sword would increase its potency. It was because of this that she developed a strong curiosity towards poison. This made Qing Shui worried and he did not dare to be too far away from her.

It was also because of this that he was unable to control them and so he could only give them lessons. Qing Mu was small but she had a bad temper and was a little iniquitous. The thought of this gave him a slight headache.

After all Yuchang was older, learned faster and with her gift on top of that, Qing Shui placed his focus on her. He also gave them each a Jade Lion. This item was good at resisting poison. Aside from that, Qing Shui used the Violet Jade to forge a necklace and bracelet which was capable of resisting poison as well.

The Battle Armor and the Battle Skirt that Qing Shui gave to Qing Clan had formations and talismen scripts carved on it. There were two types of formation , a Spirit Gathering Formation and a Spirit Sealing Formation.

It was when he was at the Jade Mountain Village, he had to seal Chi Ao and Chi Feng’s aurahe successfully carved the Spirit Formation onto the pendant. After that, he learned the Spirit Gathering Formation and tried carving it on the Battle Armor, the Battle Skirt, and the Battle Boots. Fortunately, it could be considered to be successful.

Having the Spirit Gathering Formation carved on the Battle Armor and the Battle Skirt was equivalent to being in the Spirit Gathering Formation while wearing them. This could allow cultivation speed to increase and also increased the speed of recovering strength. Relatively speaking, the use of the Spirit Gathering Formation was extensive.

The carvings of Talismen characters on the Battle Armor and the Battle Skirt were a type of Talismen Scripts. It looked abstruse and impressive. Not only did it not affected its beauty but it could also increase the brightness of the color, this was indeed killing two birds with one stone.

Unfortunately, the effects of the Spirit Gathering Formation was unable to overlap, if the Battle Armor was worn inside a Spirit Gathering Formation, the effects would not multiply.

The carvings on the Battle Armor made it convenient as it was like being in the Spirit Gathering Formation during battles. It possessed a lot of advantage, in short, it was very strong.

In a month, the Coiled Dragon Statue and Heaven Shaking Drum had reached the Third Grade and that made Qing Shui very happy. The Spirit Gathering Lamp did not seem to have move or change. On the other hand, the Soulshake bell had risen to the Eighth Grade and Qing Shui was nearly moved to tears.

The realm of the Grade Eight Soulshake bell was already brilliant and it could be used against twenty demonic beasts. There would be chances of the enemy demonic beasts going mad, rebelling, going into a frenzy or even lead to a sudden death.

“Okay, there is no definite probability, this should be good thing!” Qing Shui thought, it now should be able to deter any demonic beast.

This was great as it was crucial that the Soulshake bell increased by another grade. The Lion King’s Ridge was a great beast tamer sect , and if the Soulshake bell increased by another grade, it would be receiving coal in winter.

[TL note: Receiving coal in winter means receiving help when it is most needed.]

He hoped that by the time he went to the Lion King’s Ridge, the Coiled Dragon Statue and Heaven Shaking Drum would have reached the Fifth Grade. He did not dare hope for a higher grade than that since the Spirit Gathering Lamp had stopped at the Fifth Grade for way too long.

The tempering of the Spirit Channeling Jade never stopped but its progress was very slow. Despite this, it could still increase the speed of cultivating by quite a quite lot. It was better than nothing as many little things could add up to something great.

The realm of the Demon Binding Ropes should be increasing soon. In any case, the time taken for it was more or less the same as the Soulshake bell. Once these items were used, it could change the entire situation.

It was almost the new year and Qing Shui had made up his mind. By the end of the year, he would bring Yiye Jiange, Luan Luan, and Lin Zhanhan to the Northern Sacred Lu Continent. As for the Ancient Ruins, he would check up on the situation there before allowing them to come along.

There may be good opportunities in there but it carried some risks. As for the other Four Continents, Qing Shui estimated that the probability of him going alone was great. They would only be able to go five years later. That would be a good as he could fetch them on his own by that time.

The Ancient Ruins was in the Northern Sacred Lu Continent and he could not move the Qing Clan anymore. At least there was the Buddha Sect and the Demon Gate to look after.

Qing Shui thought deeply and realized that he could not bring many people. However, Little Fatty had to come along.

It was once again the end of the year and the festivities of the new year grew stronger and stronger. The area was decorated with lanterns and colored banners and everybody had a festive smile on their faces. However, there was still no trace of Wenren Wu-shuang.

The World of the Nine Continents celebrated the new year in mostly similar methods with some variations. Although he was celebrating it in the Central Continent this year, his whole family was there and this made him feel that it was no different than celebrating at the Qing Village.

Compared to the adults, the children would find this as a happier thing. Over the few days of new year, he would let them play crazily. Aside from visiting friends and relatives, those who held up the Qing Clan could not afford to fall behind in their cultivation. There was not many places they would have to go. They would go to the Demon Gate and Buddha Sect Little Fatty. However, they did not visit the Huoyun Clan.

There were no eternal friend or eternal enemies but within this short period of time it would be difficult to change. He was either considered famous or he had a bad reputation among them.

When Qing Shui saw the old man of Buddha Sect, it was already the third day of the new year. The old man was skinny but he was kind to Qing Shui. He knew that the old man didn’t have too much time left.

At the Buddha Sect, Qing Shui felt that this old man was trustworthy. The gift he was gave him for the new year was the Lifespan Pellet and the Physique-Enhancing Fruit. Qing Shui did not have too high of a regard for these two items. However, to others, these items were far too precious since it could increase their lifespan.

“Old Master, I am going to the Northern Sacred Lu Continent. After delivering the Great Formation, I will be heading to the other Four Continents. However, I can’t let go of things here and I’d like to ask you if you can look after them.” Qing Shui did not beat around the bush and went straight to the point.

“You don’t have to worry about this, although I’m not the strongest here in the Five Continents, nobody is willing to fight this weary old body to the death.” the old man smiled.

“If you have any wishes, you can let me know, I may not be able to help you now but I might in the future.” Qing Shui took the initiative to ask, hoping that the old man would view his request with great importance.

“As long as I’m alive, I will not let anything happen to the Qing Clan.” The old man said while smiling.

“I believe you. Could it be that you do not have any wishes?” Qing Shui laughed.

“The Buddha Sect was strong in the other Four Continents previously but it is a pity that I don’t know when they started to became bottom feeders. I believe that you are capable. Therefore if you have the chance, I hope you will be able to help Little Fatty at the other Four Continents and not let the Buddha Sect be so pathetic there.”

“Just wait till I have the ability and I will definitely help. It would be difficult to do so at this point, but I promise that the day will come.” Qing Shui assured the old man.