Chapter: 1043 (1/2)

AST 1043 – She’s the Lady On The Portrait of Beauty, Dongqing’s Breakthrough

Qing Shui looked forward to the Twelve Heavenly Meridians as he thought about it…

He slowly picked up the painting scroll and unrolled it by slowly pulling downwards. As the painting was revealed, the person on the portrait came into Qing Shui’s view, starting from her dark silky hair. Qing Shui’s heart stirred when he saw her eyes and he quickly unrolled the scroll of painting at once.

The lady in the portrait was dressed in plain white clothes. Her sleeves were a little long and less than half of her palms was uncovered. Even so, it was aesthetically harmonizing for Qing Shui to look at. Her body figure was gorgeously slender and she had the aura of a sacred saint.

Qing Shui stared into the beautiful orbs of the lady on the painting. Her eyes weren’t as brilliant as the stars. They weren’t otherworldly like Yiye Jiange’s or deep like Canghai Mingyue’s. They also weren’t extraordinarily refined like Di Chen’s or elegant like Hai Dongqing’s. Qing Shui couldn’t quite put a finger on it. If he really had to put it into words, then her eyes were somewhat elegant, somewhat refined, somewhat pure and deep.

The sacredness of her orbs was alluring. She seemed to have a wave of strange energy within her that could make one have the urge to worship her. She was a woman of unparalleled beauty, and this wasn’t even taking into account her appearance. She was beautiful for her aura and the feeling she gave to others.

Tantai Xuan!

The ninth Portrait of Beauty was Tantai Xuan. Although he wasn’t completely surprised, he was still a little surprised. He wasn’t that surprised because he had already thought beforehand that Tantai Xuan’s beauty was on with those of the ladies in the Portraits of Beauty.

He was surprised because he had coincidentally met her before. The beauty he had met was actually the ninth Portrait of Beauty, even though he had only been fated to meet Tantai Xuan once.

Qing Shui was a little puzzled. He had met some ladies only after he had seen their Portraits of Beauty, and he had met some ladies before seeing their Portrait of Beauty. Yet he had still met them all the same, why did he always seem to be able to meet them?

Each lady on the Portraits of Beauty was gifted with outstanding talents. They were destined to be extraordinary and they were all peerless beauties. Hence, it wasn’t too strange for anyone who got their hands on the Portraits of Beauty to be able to meet the real ladies on the portraits. But then again, the chances of that happening shouldn’t be this high. He thought about how, if he had missed this opportunity, he would have never known that Tantai Xuan was one of the beauties from the Portraits of Beauty.

The Portraits of Beauty were the most perfect women that the Art Maestro had sketched out, from their body shape to their grace, attire, and skin. These were all complete fantasies. To be able to meet this kind of beauty was a great fortune to one’s eyes.

Qing Shui had met Tantai Xuan once at the Southern Sea Country, but she was wearing a veil back then, so he had only seen those divinely graceful eyes of hers and the outline of her gorgeous face. However, he was also able to see her beautiful jade-like nose, and her alluring and graceful lips from the painting that caused Qing Shui to be in a daze for a very long moment.

Among the nine women on the Portraits of Beauty, he had been involved with eight of them. However, Qing Shui posited there was one more woman by his side that was also on the Portraits of Beauty. He was already able to guess it, although it might not necessarily be the case.

He had already collected nine out of the twelve Portraits of Beauty. One of the beauties in the remaining three portraits should be by his side. He was quite confident about it due to the Twelve Heavenly Meridians.

The Southern Sea and the Southern Viewing Continent. What were the chances of him visiting the locations? He was about to leave for the other four continents. It seemed like he wasn’t going to be involved with every one the ladies on the Portrait of Beauty after all.

“Forget about it. I’m not going to think about this for now!”

Qing Shui got up and hung this Portrait of Beauty on the Magnificent Mountains and Rivers screen, side by side with the eighth Portrait of Beauty. Looking at these Portraits of Beauty was already a great pleasure in itself. No wonder that Ting Haiyang had been hiding this portrait. If he hadn’t needed to save his own hide, he probably wouldn’t have taken it out.

However, he mentioned that he had gotten this from a peddler, meaning he didn’t get his hands on it through an honest method. He must have pulled some strings!

Cultivate and then refine!

The Coiled Dragon Statue and Heaven Shaking Drum had reached Grade One quickly. He was also very pleased to see that the Spirit Gathering Lamp’s effects had been increased by quite a lot. However, they were still only Grade One, so he would have to give them some time. The Spirit Gathering Lamp was currently only Grade Five, which depressing Qing Shui.

During the first five grades, it leveled up very fast. However, after it hit Grade Five, it hadn’t leveled up for a very long time. Even so, the additional strength that it had gained was very powerful. Qing Shui was very satisfied about that, so he was also hoping that the Coiled Dragon Statue and Heaven Shaking Drum could reach Grade Five soon too.

Qing Shui had cultivated the Great Golden Buddha Palm to the Sixth Wave. It could now be considered Qing Shui’s greatest killing technique. Of course, this was other than the Marrow Nibbling Golden Silkworm in the Central Palace Blood Essence Pool, because Qing Shui wasn’t too sure about it either. That little thing was terrifying enough even in its current state.

Other than that, the Demonic Beast Armor Manifestation seemed to have reached a bottleneck. Although it was in its infancy, it had grown another meter in size compared to the Earth Diamond Bear. However, its rate of growth had slowed down. In any case, it was already quite decent right now. One shouldn’t be too impatient when it came to cultivation.

……….

The next day, Qing Shui got up and made his way to Cold Ice City. Time was running out and New Year was just around the corner. After New Year, it would be about time for them to leave for the Northern Sacred Lu Continent. He was slightly nervous, but still really looked forward to it.

The number of times he had visited Cold Ice City could be counted on his fingers. Qing Shui had deep and good memories of this city. Despite the freezing temperature there, he felt warm in his heart because his beloved Hai Dongqing was here!

He felt lonely out there because that the person he loved wasn’t in that place. His loneliness stemmed not from the city he was in, but rather his innermost heart.

Snowflakes were dancing in the air of Cold Ice City as usual. The current snow wouldn’t stop for at least another three days. Qing Shui made his way towards the familiar manor. That was the manor that Hai Dongqing stayed alone in. The current heads of the clan were Hai Dongqing and Hai Dongying.

Hai Dongying usually handled the affairs of the clan. Hai Dongqing would only step forth when there were issues that he couldn’t handle.

The manor was very quiet. Two guards were standing silently at the entrance.

“Sir, please halt!”

One of the guards who appeared like a snowman moved in front of him and blocked Qing Shui’s path. He was very polite. Qing Shui was equally covered in white snow right now.

Qing Shui knew that Hai Dongqing was around. He could sense her aura.

“I am here to look for Miss Hai.” Qing Shui informed the guard with a smile.

“What is your name, Sir? I shall help you notify her.” The man who was blocking Qing Shui’s path asked politely.

“Just tell them that I am Qing Shui!”

“Qing Shui?”