Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 1163 – Yan Jin sprays tea in Qing Shui’s face, Sworn siblings?

Even though Qing Shui’s current forging skill was only to the point that he could double a weapon’s stats, this was enough for Firecloud Blacksmith Store’s reputation to spread far and wide.

Qing Shui managed to exchanged his skills for quite a number of materials. Whenever he worked on a requested weapon, whether using the materials from the requester or using his own materials, he wanted to be paid in items and not cash. All the requester had to do was to offer something that Qing Shui was interested in whether it was raw materials, medicinal herbs or some bizarre and unusual items.

A few days passed quickly and Qing Shui managed to amass close to 300 weapons, 200 sets of armor and even more jewelry. Normal battle armor could not be compared with Black Tortoise Golden Scaled Battle Armor or Skirts as they lacked the additional boosts. However, once their stats were doubled, they were considerably impressive.

Such armor was only suitable for powerful cultivators as they had the strength to withstand the weight of these things thus they were quite useless for low-level cultivators. However, there existed legendary and god-level weapons and armor which do not follow the laws of the natural world. Oddly, if a normal person managed to get such items, they could use them and become very strong.

Old man Wang’s body was improving daily. Other than practicing his usual martial arts, Stone started to practice metallurgy for at two hours daily using the Thousand Hammer Technique.

Both grandfather and grandson were quite proficient in metallurgy now. His hope for them was not that they would become incredibly skillful at forging but that they would be able to lead happy and carefree lives without people being envious of their skills. This was because they did not have anyone to protect them now, neither could he protect them himself.

Usually, people do not attack blacksmiths, unless they themselves were a blacksmith. This was the reason that Qing Shui looked forward to them successfully opening their blacksmith shop though definitely not on Divine Weapon Street.

One day, Qing Shui looked for Old man Wang and Stone. He told them his thoughts, but he let them decide what to do.

At his age, Old man Wang naturally knew that it was for the best, he sighed and replied, “We’ll follow your arrangements!”

“Okay, then let’s do it today. Stone, listen to me carefully. With those bottles of medicinal pills, you will definitely reach Xiantian. As for how far you will go in the Art of Forging, it all depends on how many strikes you can make with your hammer!”

“Thank you, mister! I’ll engrave your words in my mind.” After saying that, Stone kowtowed to Qing Shui in the manner of a disciple.

“Alright! Work hard! We’ll meet again if it is fated. Take care of your grandfather. Your lives are going to get better.”

Qing Shui passed them all the necessary items and let them leave via the south courtyard even though no one would notice both of them as they were not known in Divine Weapon Street.

Qing Shui was left alone in his Firecloud Blacksmith Store. He sat leisurely at a small table, drinking tea. Just then, someone came in. He was a little surprised but it wasn’t actually that odd at this time of the day.

Dressed in an eye-catching green elegant dress, the expression on her flawless jade white face was as calm as still water. Her most beautiful features were her pair of eyes, which were as tranquil as a lake in autumn. Whenever she blinked, her eyes twinkled as the bright stars in the sky. Accompanied by her beautifully sculpted nose and high bun, she looked as pretty as a painting.

The person that walked in was none other than the ravishing beauty, Miss Yan. When she saw Qing Shui, a faint smile appeared on her face, “Mr. Qing Shui!”

“Hi, how did Miss Yan find time to visit my small shop?” Qing Shui replied with a smile as he stood up. The woman was scarily powerful, she was even more powerful that her brother Yan Yangzhao. Qing Shui didn’t know how she even got so powerful.

“Aren’t we friends? So now, you don’t even welcome your own friends?” While Yan Jinyu jested, she walked toward Qing Shui.

“I’ll welcome you any day. Actually, I keep wondering when you’ll even appear.” Qing Shui gestured for her to sit.

Yan Jinyu paused for a moment realizing how glib Qing Shui was. She didn’t think too much about it because if she knew that if she did she would be on the losing end.

“Don’t you consider me your friend?” Yan Jinyu asked honestly as she looked at Qing Shui with her limpid eyes.

“Miss Yan, why would you say that?” Qing Shui avoided her pair of beautiful eyes furtively. Those eyes seemed to have a power over him, but he didn’t want to stare at her in a daze.

“I find it very odd. Why won’t you help me even though you can? I think I’m quite sincere and you even acknowledge that we’re friends. But when my brother came, you not only helped him to repair his sword for free, you even gave him that rare wine. You don’t know how cocky he acted in front of me when he came home… I am just saying, I am not blaming you. I just don’t understand…” Yan Jinyu gave Qing Shui a puzzled look.

If Qing Shui told her that he didn’t have the confidence to help her when she came, but he reached a breakthrough when her brother came, he still had no way of explaining why he did not charge him and even gave him wine!

“Uh, actually your brother put me in a difficult position. With his sword on my neck, do you think I could refuse him?” Qing Shui said bitterly with a very convincing act.

“Don’t bullshit me. He would never do that. If he really tried that, my father would beat him until he was half dead,” Yan Jinyu replied, teasingly.

“Ah. Well, actually your brother and I call each other brothers. I think it is quite alright to give him a gift and help him out!” Qing Shui said, feeling that he had found a good reason.

She had never met a younger man who could banter and talk nonsense with her. It was very relaxing being with this man, so she didn’t hate him and even found it interesting talking to him.

“Oh. Since he is my older brother and also yours. Then, I am your older sister.” Yan Jinyu looked at Qing Shui with a tranquil expression.

Qing Shui rubbed his nose and said, “It doesn’t work that way. We are friends.”

“Are you rejecting me?” Yan Jinyu didn’t know what to feel, she just found it very strange. When had she ever taken the initiative to start a conversation with someone? She was even trying to use her connections, yet he was still rejecting her.

“Miss Yan, come and have some tea. I could never ostracize you. Seeing such a beauty like you, I can’t help wanting to hide you in my pocket… I meant that as an analogy.” Qing Shui took one of the snow white cups and poured a cup of tea for her. The tea leaves were high quality oolong that he produced in his Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. None of the tea in his previous life could even compare.

There were many benefits to drinking tea, even in his previous life. Some people would even say that one could survive three days without rice but not even a single day without tea. The fact that many people drank tea daily showed the importance and significance of tea drinking. Tea can keep one awake and boost one’s thought processes and memory. Tea can alleviate exhaustion and improve one’s metabolism. It could also help maintain the health of one’s heart, blood vessels, digestive tract, etc.

The tea leaves which were cultivated in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal had even greater benefits. That tea could help recover one’s spirit energy. If one drank it often, it could even increase the amount of one’s spirit energy, albeit only by a little but it was better than nothing. It also had a detoxifying effect.

Yan Jinyu felt a little unhappy after that younger man got the better of her but when she smelled the fragrance from the tea, she was astonished. She took the cup of tea from Qing Shui and took a few sips before looking at Qing Shui, amazed.

She had tried the wine that her brother got from Qing Shui but this tea tasted even better than the wine though it wasn’t fair to compare them. The tea and that wine were the best she had ever tasted. To top that off, this tea seemed to have beneficial effects. As a daughter of the Yan Clan, she had tried all sorts of valuable teas and wines, yet none could compare to what this man had.

“Miss Yan…”

“You sound too polite. Since we are friends now, don’t call me like that in the future.” Yan Jinyu smiled at Qing Shui.

Qing Shui really didn’t understand this woman. She was so collected, in terms of her mannerism, expression and eyes. Her beauty was the sort that would bewitch the people around her but Qing Shui felt that women like her were like poison. The allure of such women was even more potent than those flirtatious and licentious women. Once a person fell into their trap, who knows when he could get out.

He was confident, but he did not wish to try, nor did he have the mood to try!

“What should I call you?” Qing Shui smile as he took a sip of tea.

“I don’t care, you can decide.” Yan Jinyu also took a sip of tea.

“Jinyu!”

“No!”

“Younger Sis Jinyu!”

“No!” Yan Jinyu realized she was feeling the urge to beat him up.

“Little Niece, Jinyu!”

Puey!

Tea sprayed from Yan Jinyu’s mouth, directly onto Qing Shui face…

“Ah! I’m sorry!” Yan Jinyu put down the tea cup and quickly wiped Qing Shui’s face with her handkerchief.

After she wiped his face twice, Qing Shui took the handkerchief from her and said, “I’ll do it!”

The faint fragrance on the handkerchief was like the smell on her body. After he cleaned his face, the handkerchief was a little wet. “Your handkerchief is dirty, why don’t you give it to me? I can use it as a towel…” he smiled.

Yan Jinyu was dumbfounded. She reached for it, but she couldn’t help blushing when she remembered how she had spat her tea in his face.

“You look decent and proper but why do you like to spout nonsense?” Yan Jinyu couldn’t hold back her laughter when she thought about the names Qing Shui came up with.

“I don’t dare to say anything now, I’m afraid you will help me wash my face again.”

“Stop saying that! I have never been so embarrassed in my life. Your punishment is that you must call me Sister Yan,” Yan Jinyu said, taking the good opportunity she had.

“Why do I have to change the way I address you. If you really need help, just tell me and I’ll definitely help you. We are friends.” Qing Shui actually didn’t want their relationship to get closer at this point in time.

“No! You need to call me Sister Yan!”

“I can. But then we must go through the ceremony to be sworn siblings. You will be my sworn sister in the future and I will treat you as such.” Qing Shui found that it wasn’t a bad thing, after all this sister was also a powerful cultivator.

Yan Jinyu was a little startled at first, but she smiled and said, “Alright. Close the door. We’ll start the ceremony!”

“But, we must get a witness!” Qing Shui laughed.

“That’s not necessary. Heaven and Earth will be our witness,” Yan Jinyu replied.

The courtyard they were in was exactly in the right position. Since Qing Shui had made this proposition, he decided to go through with it. He closed the door and went to the center of the courtyard with Yan Jinyu. He kept telling himself that he was not the one to use their connections and that he wasn’t a woman pleaser, it was this woman who tried to use her connection…

“Am I older or are you older?” Qing Shui grinned at Yan Jinyu. This felt unreal to him, he had no idea why Yan Jinyu would want this.