Ancient Strengthening Technique (Web Novel)

AST 247 – Alchemy Recipe? 1st level of the Soulshake Bell.

Qing Shui stared at the beautiful face of the girl. Although her exquisiteness and beauty wasn’t as soul-stirring as Canghai Mingyue, and her charm also couldn’t be compared to Huoyun Liu-Li, her looks could still be considered high grade.

“Hehe, this recipe is not bad but others couldn’t find a use for it because of the ingredients being too tough to acquire. Take a look, if you feel that it’s suitable and worth it, I’ll gift them to you. If not, we will discuss again. How about it?”

The girl extended her snow-white hands which was previously covered by her voluminous sleeves.

Qing Shui accepted the silver page of the recipe passed over by the girl, while staring at her beautiful smile. When he finally turned his gaze onto the silver page, the two words on the top of the page left him stunned.

Beauty pellet!

Qing Shui was very clear that the next pellet to be unlocked in his sea of consciousness was none other than the beauty pellet as well.

He quickly glanced down at the rest of the recorded information. The ingredients needed were, “ Jade Bamboo, Female Zhenzi, 1,000 year Earth Essence, Musk Fragrance, 1,000 year cockatrice’s blood, and 5,000 year turtle’s blood!

As he studied the info, he sensed that the locked recipe in his sea of consciousness underwent some changes, as though there were more info added to it. The previously half-filled experience bar underwent a total transformation as the locked beauty pellet recipe became unlocked. Replacing it was a whole new empty experience bar that required 500,000 points of exp to fill.

Windwater Primal Pellet!

It was another pellet that Qing Shui was familiar with. However, Qing Shui knew that the people of this world wouldn’t know of this as it was something that originated from [Western Fantasy]. He couldn’t be sure of the effects though, because the effects of the Five Dragon Pellet and small revitalizing pellets were all different from what he knew in his memories.

Qing Shui wanted to take a look at the alchemy recipe right away, but after thinking that the girl was still there, he decided to wait for her to leave before seriously contemplating the recipe. It wouldn’t be too good if he stood there dumbly with such a pretty girl in front of him.

Thus, he glanced quickly at the recipe as he discovered that the Beauty Pellet doesn’t really have many effects. The only prominent effect was that it could maintain one’s looks for 30 years!

Qing Shui was speechless. Why would the Beauty Pellet be unlocked after the Large Revitalizing Pellet? Initially he still thought that it was because the Beauty Pellet had some other special effects that wouldn’t lose out to the Large Revitalizing Pellets. He was sorely disappointed…

“Since I’ve already seen your recipe, I will accept it as trade. However the effects of merely maintaining looks for 30 years is crap.. And are there even any 1,000 year cockatrices still alive…?” Qing Shui inquired somewhat despondently.

“Are you an alchemist?” The girl was surprised by Qing Shui’s questions, and counter-asked him.

“I could be considered one, however I can only concoct specific types of medicinal pellets. Sadly, all the recipes I have with me require ingredients that are almost impossible to gather.” Qing Shui replied with a sigh, thinking of the recipe for his Five Dragon Pellet and Large Revitalizing Pellet. He had the exact same limitations for the Beauty Pellet recipe.

“Since that’s the case, could you sell me a Beauty Pellet when you successfully concoct it in the future?” The girl fluttered her eyelashes, looking at Qing Shui with hopeful eyes.

“You think I can succeed?” Qing Shui puzzledly glanced at the girl. He still remembered the girl saying that it was almost impossible to successfully concoct this pill. Then why would she say something that hinted otherwise now? Was she afraid that he wouldn’t agree to a trade with her?

The girl shook her head lightly as she smiled, “Truthfully speaking, logically, I don’t believe that you would succeed. However, my intuition tells me otherwise. Not only that, I believe you won’t take too long to finish concocting one successfully.”

Qing Shui speechlessly gazed at the girl. Women’s intuition was the most fearsome thing in the world.

“So what are the Beauty Fruits? Have you heard of them? Qing Shui knew that this ingredient was the most crucial ingredient needed to successfully concoct the Beauty Pellet. He could use other ingredients to substitute for the other ingredients listed in the recipe but not so for the Beauty Fruits.”

“Strangely enough, I’ve never heard of this or came across any reference despite the fact that I’ve read over ten to hundred thousands of books.” The girl decided to reply truthfully, not afraid that Qing Shui would change his mind about trading with her.

“Maybe they are not called Beauty Fruits in this world of the nine continents?” Qing Shui frowned as he asked.

“Hmm, I don’t know about that. That may be so but we have no pictures for reference thus, whenever the ingredient ‘Beauty Fruit’ appeared in a concoction recipe, the recipe would be declared as ‘dead’, causing people to be helpless. There was someone who found a fruit named Green Fruit which is said to share similar properties to the Beauty Fruit, and it sold for an astronomical price. To the masses, the Beauty Fruit was also known as the Green Fruit. In the end, during alchemy concocting, the many experiments failed one after another and it was eventually declared as a scam. This thing caused the Green Fruit to become notorious in the field of alchemy, almost all alchemists knew of the existence of the green fruit after that.”

“After the concoction is successful, I’ll gift you a pellet. But you’ll have to treat me to dinner.” Qing Shui smiled as he departed.

Seeing Qing Shui departing, the girl knit her brows slightly before she too, decided to depart the area.

Qing Shui headed back to his residence as he clutched the page describing the concoction process of the Beauty Pellet in his hands. He wondering why his experience bar was instantly filled the moment he read it. Maybe, observation was a kind of experience as well, and that was why it happened…

After returning to his residence, the first thing Qing Shui did was enter his spatial realm before sinking deep into his sea of consciousness.

Improved recipe for the Beauty Pellet:Beauty Fruit, Energy Enhancing Fruit, Agility Enhancing Fruit, Endurance Enhancing Fruit, Physique Fruit, Jade Bamboo, Female Zhenzi, 1,000 year Earth Essence, Musk Fragrance, 1,000 year cockatrice’s blood, 5,000 years turtle’s blood, 1,000 year Lingzhi, 1,000 year Ginseng, and 1,000 year Fleeceflower Root.

“Why is the recipe in my mind so much more comprehensive than that recorded on the page?” Qing Shui questioned, bewildered.

And as he continued looking down at the effects, he was no longer as bewildered, because the effects of the Beauty Pellet recorded in his sea of consciousness was too broken.

Maintaining looks for 30 years, and an increase of 20% of power!

Not only could it maintain looks for 30 years, it also had the effects of the Large Revitalizing Pellet. No wonder this pill was unlocked after the large revitalizing pellet. Qing Shui was suddenly seized by an impulse to laugh.

Qing Shui wanted to laugh because the ingredients that were difficult to obtain by others, could be easily obtained by him. Currently his spatial realm already contained most of the ingredients, and those herbs were about 300 years of age. Taking into account his Flowers of Life, even though he only currently had a single stalk, he could save at least 10% of the time needed before he harvested the ingredients.

His greatest advantage was the realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, as not only he could enjoy the time-dilation effects the spatial realm, there would also be rare and exotic trees and fruits popping out when he levels up the spatial realm.

He didn’t care too much about the maintenance of looks for 30 years, but upon reading that one’s power would be boosted by 20%, Qing Shui’s heart was filled with fire, he HAD to find the Beauty Fruits. This should be a King-grade 2nd-level medicinal pellet, and just it’s beauty effects would cause countless people to go crazy about it.

Retreating out of his sea of consciousness, Qing Shui was slightly depressed. He already had no mood to continue forging, and as of now, he could only stare helplessly at the alchemy recipes in his hands. How could he not be depressed? The Five Dragon Pellet only lacked a Moon Grass, the Large Revitalizing Pellet lacks a Phoenix Tail, and now, for the Beauty Pellet, he lacked a Beauty Fruit.

Deciding not to think too much, Qing Shui then decided to turn his attention to cultivating. For the Ancient Strengthening Technique, he was still at the 89th cycle of circulated Qi, unable to break through to the 90th. After which, he practiced a round of all his other techniques. After he finished his regime, just as Qing Shui decided to exit the spatial realm, he abruptly recalled about the soulshake bell which he stored here earlier.

In the day, Qing Shui didn’t really get to experience the effects. Now, he took up the soulshake bell, wanting to test it on his firebird. Then again, he felt that he shouldn’t go overboard because if something went wrong, it would be too late for any regrets.

Holding the bell, he injected his energy from the Ancient Strengthening Technique into it as he began to shake the bell ever so lightly.

“Ring, ring.” A shrill, hair-raising and ear-piercing sound echoed in the air.

….. there was no effect?

Qing Shui saw that the firebird far away had no visible reaction to the shaking of the bell. The Energy he had injected into the soulshake bell to shake it has already been depleted. If he wanted to use it again, he would have to inject more energy within again.

And this time round when he injected more energy into the bell, the bell actually turned a violet colour. With a gleam in his eyes, Qing Shui activated his Heavenly Vision Technique as he turned his gaze onto the bell.

At the first level, the Soulshake bell had a certain probability to cause demonic beasts within 200m to enter a state of frenzy, unable to differentiate between friend or foe, attacking everything in its vicinity.

Qing Shui remembered clearly that he saw nothing when he used the Heavenly Vision Technique to probe the Soulshake bell for the first time. This time round, it even listed out the distance and the effects. So, this bell was real! This was exactly what he wanted.

Once again, he shook the bell. This time round, the intensity of the ear-piercing sound was clearly several times louder than before. The amount of energy injected this time round was more than double that of before. Naturally, he didn’t aim the bell at his firebird. Looking at the bell that was currently glowing with beautiful colours in his hands, he knew that this was the bane of all demonic beasts. He wonders, when this bell reached level nine or ten, would the power of the bell be able to cause the demonic beast to die on the spot immediately as it stole their souls away.