Ancient Strengthening Technique (Web Novel)

AST 1490 - Sea King’s Palace, Linhai City, Success in refining the Six-Yang Pill

Many places were enveloped in the winter’s embrace, with white snow covering over everything. The sky here was not hazy, and the sun hanged high over the world, while the earth shone with an iridescent glow. However, this sun provided little heat, only allowing people to feel warmth mentally. It was actually more like an icy sun with no practical effect.

The geography of the World of the Nine Continents was exceedingly complex, in which there were a countless number of unimaginable sceneries and locations, all of which well and truly existed. The frostiness of this area far exceeded Qing Shui’s estimates and thoughts. The frozen cold tundras of his past life could only be a warm spring in comparison to this place.

The Ice Domain Dynasty was truly worthy of its name.

“Brother, we are not in much of a hurry here. If you have matters to tend to, do go ahead and leave!” Lang Xuan told Qing Shui upon entering the Ice Domain Dynasty.

“This is the southernmost region of the Ice Domain Dynasty. The various powers and the capital are all towards the north. Do you want me to send you there?” He continued, before directly handing over a map to Qing Shui.

Qing Shui opened it to see a map of the Ice Domain Dynasty. It was relatively detailed. As in the Nine Continents, maps were extremely precious items. After seeing it for a while, he did not decline and simply took the map. It would be very useful and important in the Ice Domain Dynasty

“Then I have to thank Brother!”

“There’s no need to be so courteous between us. To be honest, I would lay down my life for you for saving Yaqian.” Although Lang Xuan said this in a casual tone, it was obvious that he was not merely jesting.

“Since this is the case, then I won’t be courteous with Brother any longer. You guys go on ahead. I will stay in the Ice Domain Dynasty for a while. Perhaps we will meet again soon at the royal capital.” Qing Shui did not ask about where Lang Xuan was going to settle, but since he did not tell Qing Shui, then he also would not ask.

Bidding Lang Xuan and his wife farewell, Qing Shui’s four-person entourage flew towards the north. He still had no clue about where to settle, but he knew that Yiye Jiange had already stayed in the Ice Domain Dynasty for over a year. This was told to him by Xue Nuo.

“Initially, did Jiange not tell you what she was trying to accomplish in the Ice Domain Dynasty?” Qing Shui looked at Xue Nuo, hoping to be able to get a hint, some kind of lead to increase the hopes of finding her significantly.

“En, I just remembered. Big sis seemed to have mentioned something about going to the Sea King’s Palace?” Xue Nuo burst out in excitement.

Qing Shui was stunned. Perhaps Xue Nuo could not understand the implications of what she herself had said, but Qing Shui immediately understood. Initially, Yiye Jiange had left because of the Seven-Headed Crystal Beast, which had now become the Nine-Headed Crystal Beast.

Yiye Jiange and the Nine-Headed Crystal Beast had obtained a legacy within the strange palace, while Xue Nuo was now saying that she could have gone to the Sea King’s Palace in the Ice Domain Dynasty...

Qing Shui thought that Yiye Jiange most likely went to the Sea King’s Palace to do something because she had obtained the legacy, but he temporarily put aside those thoughts as finding her was the top priority.

“Little miss, that Sea King’s Palace should be in the Ice Domain Dynasty right!” Qing Shui asked questioningly.

“Oh, the Sea King’s Palace. I still know about this. The Sea King’s Palace can be found in the Ice Ocean Domain. Technically the ice sea is not territory belonging to any dynasty, but a relatively large portion of the ice sea is within the Ice Domain Dynasty.” Xue Nuo hurriedly said.

Qing Shui thought of the map Lang Xuan had given him, quickly took it out, and immediately discovered a large water body, labelled Ice Ocean Domain on it.

The Sea King’s Palace rested at the bottom of the sea, amidst the mountain ranges within the domain, as there were still mountain ranges within seas. The Ice Ocean City was a miraculous location, with rumors and legends that it not only connected to the largest sea, but also linked to many domains within the Nine Continents, below the ground of the sea itself.

Xue Nuo quickly described some common knowledge and rumors of the ice sea. The ice sea’s supreme rulers were the Sea King’s Palace. The rumors also had it that the powers that formed the Sea King’s Palace did not comprise of solely humans, but also mystical Immortal Demons. Some of them even possessed human traits, merely resembling Demonic Beasts in parts of their appearance.

Qing Shui was not at all shocked to hear this, as Immortal Demons were already smart enough to speak. This would be a world-shocking existence in his previous life, whereas in this world, it was not be strange at all, as common as speaking to a normal person.

Qing Shui had once heard that some of the more terrifying sea domains were ruled over by Mermen, Sea Wyverns, Divine Rainbow Dragons, Drakaina and other terrifying and legendary existences. However, the number of people who had the opportunity to see these mythical rulers was exceedingly miniscule, to the point where no one was clear on whether they truly existed.

Qing Shui would not ponder on these beasts’ existence. It was an unimportant matter to him as once one was strong, encountering these beasts would not be problematic. Perhaps only those with strength could interact with existences of that level, while those without the requisite strength could only listen to hearsay, without any idea of the truth.

“Where do we go now? The Ice Sea Domain?” Yin Tong asked at this moment.

“Let’s head to the cities near the Ice Sea Domain and decide on where to stay before thinking of our plans. The Ice Sea Domain is probably not somewhere we can casually tread into. We should go take a look before we discuss any plans.” Qing Shui pondered before he replied.

“En, the Sea King’s Palace in the Ice Sea Domain is very powerful, and they bar all outsiders from entry. Though they don’t belong to any specific power, no one would dare to antagonize them for no good reason. Additionally, they will normally avoid heading up to land, or at least avoid being discovered on land. However, those who trespass into the depths of the Ice Ocean Domain never have a good ending.” Xue Nuo spoke as if she was afraid to barge into the Ice Ocean Domain.

Qing Shui stared at the map, and found that the city closest to the Ice Sea Domain happened to be right next to the royal capital, named Linhai City.

This name was pretty simple, it indeed is close to the sea.

Having finalized their target, the group directly rushed towards Linhai City, but with the massive size of the Ice Domain Dynasty, this trip took exceedingly long, even with Qing Shui using the Nine Continents Steps.

The situations from before and now were totally different. Since there were already a few clues and trails to latch on to, there was a rush for time. Despite this, it still took nearly a month for them to finally arrive at Linhai City.

On their way to Linhai City, they stopped at many different places, but each stop was short, so there were no accidents along the way. Xue Nuo and Ling Fei were already on very close terms, and with the additional two months spent together, Xue Nuo, Qing Shui and the rest had more rapport.

Xue Nuo had begun to talk to Qing Shui as her older brother, as the spouse of her big sister. She acted like a little sister more and more in front of Qing Shui, seemingly having excessive trust in him and acting spoiled and shameless whenever appropriate. Qing Shui knew that this is all due to Yiye Jiange, a scenario of loving the crow on the house because of a love for the house. Hence, Xue Nuo treated Qing Shui as kin, and as a good person.

Immediately, they found a hotel and went straight into their rooms to rest, as the sky was no longer bright, and the continuous travel had brought about both mental and physical fatigue.

Qing Shui, in comparison, was a lot more relaxed and less fatigued. After all, he spent everyday within the Realm of the Violet Immortal, without missing rest or practice time.

Entering the Realm of the Violet Immortal today, Qing Shui made a decision to refine the Six-Yang Pills.

It had been a long time since he had refined the Five-Yang Pills, and now the time seemed ripe, so Qing Shui decided to refine the Six-Yang Pills. If he succeeded, he would prepare to refine the Seven-Yang Pill after some time. The Seven-Yang Pills would probably be similar to the Four-Yang Pills, a dividing line that drastically increased their medicinal efficacy.

Thinking about it shortly, restoring his mentality to peak conditions, and beginning his preparations, Qing Shui would refine the Six-Yang Pills before thinking any further. Now, what he needed to accomplish after the refining was to save and prepare these pills to allow him to have a greater amount and variety of pills as the needs of the many people in the clan grew.

Qing Shui was exceedingly familiar with refining medicine, to the point where he could do it with his eyes closed. However, the pills he had been recently refining all had extremely high requirements, where a single failure would result in massive losses.

These losses would always make Qing Shui feel pain in his heart, but he could still afford these losses. However, although he could afford these losses, he was still unwilling to have them, as certain materials were only available in limited quantity.

Only after preparation did Qing Shui circulate the Ancient Strengthening Technique through a full cycle and adjust his state to its peak. He then took out his prepared materials: the Spring of Life, water that the Great Sacred Buddha Stone soaked in, the Golden Snake Grass...

Though the refining process was dry and boring, only Qing Shui could tell the difficulty within this process. It required him to put all of his focus into it, use his spiritual sense to observe the changes in the medicine, slowly infuse the medicine, and change both its quantity and quality.

…

Qing Shui dared not have a single moment of folly, one day, two days…...

Peng!

The cauldron directly exploded on the fifth day, but once again remained undamaged. After all, the Golden Flint Iron Cauldron was by no means an ordinary cauldron, which would simply explode.

He had thought about this many times. There was virtually no hope for a success on the first try. To have been able to hold on till the fifth day was already a happy miscalculation, but it was still a pity and put Qing Shui in a bad mood. Five days of being engrossed wholly, without rest or relaxation had been completely wasted. In a more positive light, this was the accumulation needed to build towards a successful refining.

Unknowingly, two months had already passed, but Qing Shui was still refining the pill. He had already reached the final step of coagulation twice, but failed in both instances.

Taking a break, Qing Shui lay flat on the ground, contemplating. Normally, to fail at the final step was caused by the medicinal effect of the various medicinal herbs being insufficient, or some flaw in the refining process. However, Qing Shui had already attempted the best refining methods he knew of, to no avail.

Of course, there were two other techniques used by beginners, like natural coagulation. Of course, a true alchemist, once he had his own coagulation techniques, would not allow for the pill to naturally coagulate after refining, as that was the worst method.

The degree of coagulation was an indication of an alchemist’s abilities. Some coagulation arts could only increase the rate of success of coagulation by an additional ten percent, some by fifty percent, eighty percent, onefold, twofold etc. Qing Shui’s Ancient Alchemy art increased the rate of success by a whopping tenfold, and could be considered a godlike ability for alchemists.

The only reason why natural coagulation was considered the worst method, despite its ability to bring about out the best effects of the refined pill, was due to its pitifully low success rate. Thus, the more valuable the medicine, the more reluctant an alchemist would be to attempt natural coagulation. However, Qing Shui decided to give it another try, allowing it to naturally coagulate.

Ding!

A clear sound rang and Qing Shui was stunned. He felt like cursing out loud. His struggles all this time had just been him being toyed with. But he was also exhilarated. After all, the refining had been a success with the most natural process of coagulation. The effects were naturally transcendent, exceeding those of alchemy techniques by a large margin.

Without caring for his fatigue, he immediately opened the Golden Flint Iron Cauldron, only to see two Yang Pills, shining with a golden gloss at the bottom of the cauldron. It was a great surprise to have obtained two pills from one refining, but he used the Heavenly Vision Technique to pry into their effects.

Six-Yang Pill!

Effect: Improves physique by a large degree. Increases physical strength by ten sun or overall strength by one thousand sun. Has a reinforcing effect on the Dantian, meridian channels and internal organs. Has a stronger effect on people with unique physiques, even allowing the Six-Yang Pill to increase many times in efficacy.