Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 290 - White Frost Nectar, Don't Do Unto Others What You Don't Want Others To Do Unto You

After reaching the tree, Qing Shui still returned as usual. It was just that when they had almost reach their destination, Qing Shui reached out his hand and took Huoyun Liu-Li’s, grinning as he overtook her amidst her glares.

Canghai Mingyue was full of smiles at the side while Huoyun Liu-Li pouted angrily, “Hmph, can’t you give in to me a little?”

“Liu-Li, ‘Sliding Steps’ and ‘Slow Steps’’ may seem magnificent and will be good for sneak attacks, the energy expenditure is very high. That’s why while it is very important to train it well, you must really be careful when using it against your opponents. After you use it, even if you cannot pin them down, you must at least be able to inflict injuries onto them.” Qing Shui smiled gently and said.

“Mmm mmm, Old Master also said the same thing earlier, but I just wanted to show off a little in front of you. Hmph, even if you don’t compliment me, you should have gave in a little.” Huoyun Liu-Li said bitterly.

At that moment, Cang Wuya came out, looking at them, full of smiles. After he had the three of them performed the Cloudmist Steps once, he broke into wider smiles, especially Qing Shui’s Cloudmist Steps which surprised him so much his stood there agape.

If it was not that he had seen it for himself, it was impossible for him to believe that there was someone with such great talent. However, after giving it some thought, he decided not to think too much about it. Qing Shui harbored great powers, and he would only have been able to do this with a talent that surpassed that of others.

Today, the three of them continued to learn the Cloudmist Steps, since if one were to be too greedy, they would not be able to accomplish much. It was why Cang Wuya did not say much but just looked at them from the sides, giving pointers at any point of them so that they would take lesser detours.

Today, Qing Shui left slightly earlier. He had initially planned to head to the stone monument area, but decided against it since time was not to his advantage. However, he had already arrived at the back of the mountain.

“Forget it, I’ll take it that I’m giving myself a short break today and take a walk around the back!” Qing Shui found himself a lousy excuse as he headed towards the opposite direction from the stone monument area.

The back of the mountain was a desolate area despite it being very vast. However, this was where couples tend to rendezvous. While it was already deep in autumn, it did not affect the passion between the couples as the seasons would not be able to affect the passion of an affectionate couple.

During his walk, he surprised a few couple, especially a couple who were deeply engrossed in their entanglement in a remote area. The man used his strong body to lift up the smaller sized lady with snow white skin, but they were closely bound together, moving in sync in large movements, perspiring it out.

But because of Qing Shui’s sudden appearance, the man came earlier than expected and finished the act. The man glared at Qing Shui, pissed, and blocked the lady’s naked body with his own.

Qing Shui immediately apologized and quickly left, thinking, “I better not scare that dude such that he won’t be able to raise it up forever. I’ll feel too sorry for him then.”

There were a layer of vegetation covering on the desolate hill, which was why most of the time, forests would be the ideal location for a rendezvous. However, there would always be those who would do it behind big boulders like the couple from earlier.

Other than men, there were only women. Food and sex were but human nature, the most important things. Qing Shui shook his head, and just as he was about to head back, he saw a large spread of pine tree forest in the distant. While said that there was a piece of forest, there were only two trees. It was just that they were so big that it would give one the impression that it was a forest.

The location was just nice at the highest spot, and the two humongous pine trees had their branches widely spread out, covering everything. One would be able to reach the lowest branches just by reaching out one’s hand.

But at that moment, what that had attracted Qing Shui was something on the branches which looked like white frost. As they looked very beautiful, Qing Shui moved even quicker towards the pine tree forest.

It was Frost?

Suddenly the words White Frost Nectar appeared in Qing Shui’s mind, “Wouldn’t the white stuff on this pine tree’s branch be White Frost Nectar then?”

These words would make easily connect to a few lines of poetry, and Qing Shui recited them out naturally, “The leaves thickens; their white deas turns to frost. He whom I love, must be somewhere along this stream. I went up the river to look for him, but the way was difficult and long. I went down the streams to look for him, and there in mid-water, sure enough, it’s he! [1]”

“Can I be considered the said person you love?” A seductive and coarse voice rang out from somewhere which was neither near or far away from him.

Qing Shui was surprised. When he came here earlier, he attention was fully captivated by this pine tree such that he had not noticed that there was someone else under the flourishing pine trees.

However, he could immediately tell from the voice to whom it belonged to. He threw a strange look towards the source of the voice, and while he was very astonished, when he turned his head, he had regained his natural expression.

Gongsun Jianwu!

It was the lady who had delivered the challenge letter to him previously, a lady with a demonic figure like that of a vixen’s. Today, she was dressed in a black colored suit which hugged her body tightly, showing off that wonderful curves which was so seductive that one would spew blood. Coupled with that pair of beautiful eyes which could draw away one’s soul and that curve of her faint smile, it was extremely charming!

Her red lips which were slightly apart revealed snow white beautiful teeth, so white that it was glaring. Qing Shui quickly draw back his gaze after a short while. He was afraid of making a fool of himself. This lady’s beauty was much like that of a vixen’s, and the vixen-like aura was exuded from all over her body naturally, not because she was trained in a certain set of martial technique.

Qing Shui knew that this lady was the typical type of ladies who could bring the fall of countries and trouble to its people. Compared to the historical records of Bao Si, Daji, Chen Yuanyuan [2]... she would definitely not lose out.

Qing Shui realized that he did not have a favorable impression of a lady of such extreme quality. He was slightly repulsed to such ladies who overly displayed their seductiveness, and he would feel that they were bad women.

A woman like her was very beautiful, and would be a fine creature to a man in bed. Even a person like Han Qingye would be hard to win her. While this kind of woman did not had a Nine Yin Body and might not be one of those Divine Bodies, the level of attraction and seduction that guys would have towards her would not be any lower than towards them.

Qing Shui felt that a woman like her should be spending her time on some guy’s bed every night. He subconsciously was averse towards a lady like her, even if she was really beautiful.

“Why are you here?” Qing Shui did not reply her question. He did not want to have anything to do with her. Moreover, he was now on a semi-opposing state with her Gongsun Clan.

“Haha, it’s known to all that this is my private land!” Towards Qing Shui’s cold words, Gongsun Jianwu did not care about it in the least as she continued to smile brightly like a flower.

She liked to see the Qing Shui’s gaze which did not give a hoot about her, and she would be even happier if he were to speak to her coldly. It was because no one else had ever treated her like this before.

“This pine tree forest at the back of the mountain is your private land?” Qing Shui was a bit perplexed.

“That’s right, Palace Mistres had given this place to me as a reward. Everyone in the Starmoon Hall knows this.” It was her unchanging smiling face, and her seductive coarse voice.

To Qing Shui, these seemed to be like an enjoyment, but even more so, a torture!

“Why do you want this pine tree forest at the back of the mountain?” Qing Shui asked, not knowing what to make of it.

“For cultivation!” Gongsun Jianwu said straightforwardly.

“ You must be here to absorb these Qi of White Frost Nectar, right? Qing Shui asked, his interest piqued.

“White Frost Nectar? Hmmm, you are also aware that I’m here to absorb this Qi!”

“Oh, do you know how old these two pine trees are?” Qing Shui suddenly thought this and quickly asked.

“I think it’s 3000 years!” Gongsun Jianwu said as she looked at Qing Shui, puzzled.

“Too bad it’s only been 3000 years, so this White Frost Nectar can only be considered being of an inferior quality. But it’s still a medicinal herb which is over 1000 year old.” Qing Shui thought to himself.

“Mmm, I’m leaving, you can carry on!” Qing Shui felt that he had spoken for long enough with this lady.

“Ermm, can I ask you for a favor?” Although Gongsun Jianwu had put it across as a request, her expression and tone were very calm and natural, as if she was just describing some events.

“What favor?” Qing Shui asked, puzzled.

“If you’re able to defeat my 2nd brother, I hope that you can go easy on him and don’t injure him too badly, is that alright?” Gongsun Jianwu said seriously.

“Did you tell your 2nd brother not to give me too bad a beating?” Qing Shui asked calmly, looking at that beautiful face which seemed even more breath-taking when being serious.

“I…”

“Members from Gongsun Clan are important, Miss Gongsun’s family is the most important, while I can only wait to be bullied? Don't do unto others what you don't want others to do unto you.” Saying that, Qing Shui smiled and turned to leave.

“Don't do unto others what you don't want others to do unto you…”

When Qing Shui returned to his residence, the sky was already turning dark. Each time he passed by Yan Ling`er’s residence, he could not help but think of the pure and cute girl. It was a pity that he would need to bring her pain in the future. Thinking of this, he would always think of Yan Clan uncontrollably.

Qing Shui had already tried very hard to let himself forget this feeling of vengeance, but sometimes, it was really hard to forget. Before his wish was fulfilled, he would probably need to take a few decades or even his whole life to put this down.

Qing Shui knew that vengeance could make one lose one’s senses, cloud one’s eyes. It was why he vented all his energy in training. It was only by doing so could he not think of anything else.

In a blink of an eye, another two days passed. For the past two days, Qing Shui would still head over to Cang Wuya’s place to practice the Cloudmist Steps in the day and enter the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal at night to do his training. While it was only two days time, to Qing Shu, he had a full one month worth of time.

He had already managed to be reach the stage of ‘fluent’ for the Cloudmist Steps. If other people were to find out that someone could reach this stage within just a month, their jaws would definitely drop. However, to Cang Wuya, it was even more astonishing since to him, Qing Shui had only taken two days time to reach this level…

The realms to the mastery of techniques were divided into beginner, familiar, fluent, master, ancestor, truth, obscure, heaven and providence! Each realm were further segregated into elementary stage, intermediate stage, expert stage, and great perfection stage!

However, Qing Shui’s Nine Animals Mimicry Techniques was a supporting technique and was not graded in the same was as how the world of the nine continents did. It was only divided into small success stage, large success stage and and great perfection stage. However, Qing Shui felt that the great perfection stage for the Nine Animals Mimicry Technique was likely to be comparable to the Truth Realm in the world of the nine continents.

When he woke up in the morning, he washed up and headed to the square to start off his morning practice. Today was the day for his battle with that Gongsun Jianyun from Gongsun Clan. In this world, once one party had challenged another and had fixed the time, regardless of whether the other party was agreeable or not, the challenger would always appear punctually at the said location. The challenged party had to turn up within two hours time, if not, it would be seen as a forfeit.

Now, Qing Shui carried on with his morning training as if it had nothing to do with him at all, while that Gongsun Jianyun was already waiting on one of the arenas nearby. So long as Qing Shui took a step up on the arena, the battle would already have started, and one would be responsible for one’s own life or death. This was the brutality of challenges in this world.

If he did not accept it, he would be deemed a coward and would not be able to raise his head in front of others. And once he accepted it, it would be down to the individual or heaven’s blessings in the event of injuries, paralysis or even death.

There was still some time before late morning. Qing Shui did not throw a single glance towards Gongsun Jianyun who was on the arena. He merely focused on his own Taichi, full engrossed in his practice.

“Do you guys think that he will accept 2nd Young Master Gongsun’s challenge?”

[1] Extraction from one of the poems listed in the ‘Classic of Poetry’ which is a compilation of 305 Chinese poetry dating from 11th to 7th centuries BC. A translated version of this poem, named ‘The Reeds and Rushes’ by Arthur Waley can be found at the site: http://www.joyen.net/article/listen/2/201005/2634-h

[2] Concubines of Chinese Sovereigns or Generals in ancient China, well-knowned for their great beauty.