Ancient Strengthening Technique

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A human warrior cultivating the Ancient Strengthening Technique has transcended dimensions and arrived on Kyushu. Together with twelve ravishing beauties with looks that were unmatched in their generation, will he be able to stand on the summit of this world?

This novel is about the main character, named Qing Shui, who transcended dimensions and arrived in the Kyushu continent. Storms of blood and wind, resulting in corpses and bones strewn about are extremely common here. The young warrior Qing Shui forged ahead in his path to cultivate, using 10 years to train himself, only to seek vengeance for the one who had forsaken his mother!

Associated Names
One entry per line
AST
Portraits of Beauty
上古强身术
美女图
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
Against the Gods (7)
God Of Slaughter (6)
Chronicles of Primordial Wars (3)
Great Demon King (3)
The Silly Alchemist (3)
Dragon-Marked War God (3)
Recommendation Lists
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  5. Novels I have read

Latest Release

Date Group Release
05/26/16 Wuxiaworld c100
05/25/16 Wuxiaworld c99
05/24/16 Wuxiaworld c98
05/23/16 Wuxiaworld c97
05/19/16 Wuxiaworld c96
05/19/16 Wuxiaworld c95
05/17/16 Wuxiaworld c94
05/17/16 Wuxiaworld c93
05/16/16 Wuxiaworld c92
05/14/16 Wuxiaworld c91
05/13/16 Wuxiaworld c90
05/10/16 Wuxiaworld c89
05/10/16 Wuxiaworld c88
05/09/16 Wuxiaworld c87
05/09/16 Wuxiaworld c86
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146 Reviews sorted by


kskx4
kskx4 rated it
March 20, 2016
Status: c91
If you can get past chapter 50 then everything becomes so interesting, well atleast for xianxia/huan fans. I mean I read chinese novels so that I can read about a MC who is bold and beats the sh*t out of anyone who tries to harm him or people close to him.
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Raphael
Raphael rated it
November 11, 2015
Status: --
This does not look like all the other xianxia ever. It is not filled with cliches depicted all over other WN’s. Also either the TL needs an editor or the one he has needs to recheck his work at least twice over because some sentences are badly written.
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blank1134
blank1134 rated it
August 19, 2023
Status: Completed
I don't get why authors like to reincarnate their MCs in their stories. The story is already good in itself and I wish they don't start any reincarnation stuff in their stories if their only using it as an intro otherwise just remove the early reincarnation bit and focus on telling the story.

The story started out pretty nice. Coming to the world of cultivation a lot of mysteries already surrounded the MC and I like how it was paced out.

Middle part of the novel is a bit cringey and felt... more>> stretched but still interesting.

In the end it felt like the author is just adding random stuff already, just to make the story stretch out but there is still some parts that is good enough. But it felt mediocre at best. Other than that I still enjoyed reading this novel. <<less
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nightfox18
nightfox18
March 21, 2023
Status: Completed
One of the longest novel that I have read until now. The world progression is good and characters do have some development as well. Although it feels like MC is jumping from one beauty to the next at the start, it slows down later down the road when MC becomes fully mature. Good novel overall.

HAPPY READING!!
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ricey8
ricey8
August 8, 2020
Status: c25
Started off pretty decent. The early concept of the novel was fine and nothing worth criticizing. Then I made a mistake of visiting the wiki page and oh boy, all I’m going to say is he has a huge, a HUGE af harem. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not hating the novel because of that but huge harems exceeding 10+ spouse is really not my thing. Personally I dropped the novel cause of his harem size but I’m not saying the novel is bad. I do want to continue... more>> reading it but the harem size makes me reluctant to continue reading. I’m just writing this to warn future readers who, like me, can’t finish a novel due to the huge harem. <<less
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deathmine31
deathmine31 rated it
July 12, 2020
Status: Completed
O baby. It's the typical sh*t with a rushed ending. Its also not a conclusive ending. Its so average but what grinds my gears about this is that the women don't know they are catpure targets for the MC. The kids, too many. Only one of his blood related kids as any plot concerning him (or was it a her).
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TDM
TDM rated it
January 26, 2020
Status: c452
Thus far, I've decided that it is a story about the luckiest, and least talented, reincarnator-cultivator ever. He doesn't make use of his previous life (a world full of technical and scientific knowledge). But pretty much whines about how unlucky he is to get a 2nd life without mysical-magical cheats.... until... he stumbles across a magic necklace that gives him the cheat power of a pocket dimension that he can hide inside, and store things in, full of magical cultivation resources and techniques, that also gives him the benefit of... more>> nearly a full month of time to train while only a couple hours pass in the real world.

In spite of these many insane advantages, he is BARELY able to keep ahead of his contemporaries who make due without his pile-o-cheats.

On a scale of 0 to Z, I rate this a solid "meh"... harem elements and mystical happenings to keep you entranced instead of doing anything productive. Enjoy? <<less
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mKrytz
mKrytz rated it
December 17, 2019
Status: Completed
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Sigon
Sigon rated it
October 28, 2019
Status: c13
I was able to read only to chapter 13, because this is one of those types of novels that I can not read. I did not have time to evaluate the plot, the characters or anything else because of the terrible way for me to narrate, namely from a third person. When, throughout the chapter, the author tells that MS knew, he did not know, he thought. Voicing every action and thought is what I hate the most. That which could be squeezed into one paragraph was painted for the... more>> entire chapter. A lot of verbiage kills all the desire to read it, as well as a lot of talking about the level of the author himself. In chapter 13, they even told me what the wolf thought about and why he acted so. <<less
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Nimda
Nimda rated it
October 3, 2019
Status: c2201
TL;DR
'Ancient Strengthening Technique' is terrible.

NOTICE: I HAVE NOT COMPLETED THIS NOVEL AND I HAVE NOT READ THIS NOVEL IN A WHILE THEREFORE SOME THINGS CAN BE INACCURATE.

Firstly, I'll suggest a few things about making novels (before I continue reviewing) to those who may desire to create a novel but don't know how to, or is afraid of what the public may say or people like me who are really critical about what we read and do not desire to see plot-holes or novels of poor quality.

You'd need to first... more>> of all, plan out the basic components of what the novel is going to be, its' main segments, and you would need to keep in mind what you want the novel's 'tags' or 'genres' are going to be so that you can limit some of your lovely creativity. Once you have this sorted out, you should be fine to go, if you desire to know more about reading novels and writing them (unfortunately I am not of Asian origin and I do not know any Asian novels therefore I will limit myself to novels that I know and are not bad.), you can read these novels:
• The Lord of the Rings
• Harry Potter
• Percy Jackson & the Olympians (Novel Series)

(or well, maybe you can read this webnovel since although I haven't completed reading it, it's a decent read to look at and see how the author is writing, and it is definitely clear in the 'ranking system' that most martial arts novels have; "Evil Emperor's Wild Consort".)

Writing Quality - 2/5
The quality of the writing from the author is lacking for what an author should be like -- an author should always read back what they've written before and patch up as many plot-holes as possible and/or write down things that they could work on later (but not too late), if they do not do this, the story will feel weird as the readers can feel weird and/or confused about what X or Y may be (you authors do not want this, trust me).

Theme - 1/5
This intertwines with what I had previously mentioned in "Writing Quality", the author hasn't (or it doesn't seem so) 'read back what they've written before and patch up as many plot-holes as possible and/or write down things that they could work on later'.

As the user ZoorYuvonHeim has said in his review.
'This is proving to be an erratic story.

If you see from the tags, it wants to be everything at once. However each chapter can only do a couple things at a time. The result is an erratic story that is flopping through minor arcs about relative topics.

So far, its more of a Fantasy Romance Drama than an Action Martial Arts story. It does incorporate the elements listed, but it can prove to be odd at times. Either too in-depth on pointless areas, or lacking far too much on others.'
Which is correct, the theme (or themes) of the story is all over the place and where you can get away with having the base story without having these unnecessary arcs about topics that don't fit the main theme (which honestly, I have no idea what it is, any more.)

Story Development 3/5
The development of the story is relatively smooth from transitioning from one thing to another (as far as I am aware since I haven't read it in a while) and I have no complaints about that, the reason why this particular section is 3/5 is because of things that are mentioned in the 'Theme' and the 'Writing Quality' sections because I don't desire to repeat myself on this review.

Character Design 2/5
The protagonist's character is developed pretty well, however, the other characters aren't good at all.

World Building 1/5
... yeah, not going to go down into this rabbit hole, maybe later? Pay attention to when I attempt to complete this review since this review can be considered as a rush. <<less
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whiterazor
whiterazor rated it
September 25, 2019
Status: afterword
This is a really good story for those that just want to spend some time "in another world"..... yeah I think this is the best definition and advice for me to those that are wondering if the should read/continue to read this novel.

The ending might be a little too much indecisive but, just like the author said, "sometimes life is indecisive".

I really can't say this is the best novel plot-wise that I've bumped into, but is definitely of one the novels that I enjoyed the most to just read and... more>> follow the protagonist life and adventures. <<less
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HarutoraRyu
HarutoraRyu
September 13, 2019
Status: c2400
Garbage. Absolute garbage. MC is probably the worst kind of garbage I have ever seen. Obviously it has something to do with author. Writing is sh*t to say the least. It is like a p*rn with thousands of words of backstory. However, even in p*rn men are more respectful to women than this MC is. MC gets h**ny when he sees a hot woman but if some other guy does it, they are villains. MC flirts around with women, touches their private parts and what not but if a woman... more>> makes a move on MC that woman is a whore. Every kind of s*upid sh*t goes on so that MC can get to the next f*ck. This is basically the extent of "romance" in this novel. As for cultivation and fighting, meeehhhh... seen ten thousand times better. <<less
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Lynkaster
Lynkaster rated it
September 12, 2019
Status: Completed
story : 3/5

characters : 3/5

writing style : 2.5/5

... more>> world building : 3.5/5

statrs with a good setting, the hero is a classical harem xuanhuan MC. The world is cut a bit like an old rpg with the MC starting at the noob village. Each new "region" he will get a new girl.

now, this is where this novel go south : the harem grow too big, the girls lose all characters halfway since there's, what, 30 ? 40 ? more ? so much that around the last 1/5 of the novel, the author introduce girls but then remember that it's already a pain so he's not gonna add more into the harem and just let the encounter/relation at an "ambiguous friend". On that note, there is WAY too much characters in this novel, juste try to remember the girls name, should be enough...

the second thing that make this novel lose interest is the scale that just keep going way too far, too easily. I get that those kind of heroes get stronger easily, but in this work, an item can get you a x2, x3, x4... to your overall power. Oh, right, it's like in those games where there's no luck in the equation, if your strengh is at 2 500 100, you'll definitely beat a guy with less than that, no matter what.

I'm really not against OP MCs and all the power up thingy but really, it's disproportionate here.

If you've come here to read it, then it means mostly that you're looking for a xuanhuan about OP MC with Harem. That's what you'll get, but the story is good only till the middle. There's also that super convenient trope (making me remember legend of condor hero), the drive to make the MC move forward and go to the next region is often.. a woman, either she's stronger than him, has been kidnapped, has a promise, etc...

You'll also get... let's say more than 1 but less than 5 moments that makes you really want to flip the table (beware the r*pe tag,
Spoiler

r*pe victims aren't gonna end well... For these moments (and mostly the first time), the readers were pretty dissatisfied (since in the beginning stage of the story and it's here to "shape up" the MC I guess) so the author put a little event in the last part of the story.

[collapse]

Now let's finish this review with this last part. Like I've said before, the other half of this story lost a lot of interest and particularly the last 1/5, it's clearly rushed, as if the author just couldn't take this cr*p anymore ^^'

tltr : read this if you're looking for a xuanhuan with OP MC and harem (big harem) but expect a really rushed ending and characters that lose their appeal after the introduction of too much new ones.

not recommend if you still have other good read. <<less
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wargrelet
wargrelet rated it
July 21, 2019
Status: c1440
Didn't like it very much but read it just to pass time MC actions many times feels like hypocrisy

like what the hell man?? If you like a girl and have the strength just tell her if not don't just take advantage and leave her and I very much hate the idea of him being portrayed as Buddha or something like that it was in novel

But then with luck I came across a Fanfiction of it and I will say that I am very glad to came across it is just... more>> about 100 chapters now and I very much love it, its MC is a diff person and he is more sensible than that dumb-tit Qing-Shui

and is very clear of what he want. <<less
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Mythstis
Mythstis rated it
June 11, 2019
Status: c2290
Review for being up to date. (I made an account not even 10 minutes ago just go do this review)

First and foremost, I REALLY tried, I mean I read and am still reading at this point just so that I can finish it regardless of how it is. With that said, I really did try to like it but man... DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME!!!

While at first it seems interesting, it gets repetitive REAL QUICKLY. I mean you can cut out names and paste other names of previous "villains"... more>> and they do the exact same thing.

  1. I don't know if the author just didn't bother counting or something but a lot of the time conversions and even the Cultivation bracket is horrendous.
  2. So much nonsense in a novel that I was utterly flabbergasted at the ludicrous amounts of random stuff that happens. I mean, there is no rhyme or reason for certain things that happen and you ask your self "wait what just happened? Why did this guy think it was a good idea to do this even though his friend who just did the exact same thing died in front of him?"
  3. Everyone and their mothers (daughters) included absolutely gets infatuated with the MC. I mean you name it, its like the author portrays women as brainless idiots who fall head over heals over the MC over the SMALLEST things. The inner dialogue is VERY CRINGE.
  4. Everything is legit tossed in his lap. If he needs something it somehow "miraculously" appears. No rhyme or reason for why he gets this xxxx herb, or why he suddenly "chances" upon xxxx animal, its bonkers how everything is laid out in front of him.
  5. The story itself really... it just doesn't make sense. Its really... so random. Without too many spoilers, Main plot, revenge. Thats done, next plot - help xxx person. Thats done, next plot - revenge. Thats done, go to xxxx to help xxxx person. Side plot, oh MC is now an Alchemist, Blacksmith, insert w/e profession and he's an expert.
  6. Character development is as simple as they train, they upgrade, they improve. xxx day passes, they train they improve. Even the story is... MC has s*x, gets revenge, has s*x, helps xxx, has s*x helps xxx, has s*x, rescues xxx. Help xxx person who somehow miraculously ends up being the one person that helps him in his time of need oh then has s*x. DONT WASTE YOUR TIME! READ SOMETHING ELSE!
<<less
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NovelDevourer K
NovelDevourer K rated it
May 4, 2019
Status: c750
what a waste. It wouldhave been a nice novel if only the author knew their math and also the author is probably suffering from dementia, they say one thing in the previous chapters and then change it in the succeeding chapters (ex. They say that every increase in grade for the martial saint requires an increment of 100 countries then they suddenly changed it into 200).
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Falta de Criatividade
Falta de Criatividade rated it
May 1, 2019
Status: --
As too many people already complained about MC's hypocrisy regarding potential harem members, lack of personality of already harem members, multiple many year long absences, totaly messed up "inferiority complex" which seems to dissapear for many chapters only to return stronger, nonsense acquirement of convenient skills, unnecessary and irrelevant reincarnation and brainless young master rapists everywhere, I will not write about those.

... more>>
Spoiler

Besides the mentioned above, the novel dissapoints in every possible way of consistency. Skills MC "forgot" (while having eidetic memory) to train because he thought were useless (they actually didnt exist before that point). Women MC loves intensely yet forgets about them 20 chapters after leaving city. Skills suddenly having new effects which werent mentioned before. Skills dissapearing, never to be mentioned again (Heavenly palace sword art, anyone?). Aging and overall math. Realms of skills fluctuate. Special itens stored then forgotten. MC gifts earrings to girl on the verge of death because he owed her a pair (major plot point), even though he already gave her the pair he owed a couple dozen chapters before.

[collapse]

Tl;dr - Author failed to keep track of all the different women, pills, passives, skills, accessories, weapons, etc he threw at the MC and we got this mess. <<less
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master spoiler
master spoiler
April 26, 2019
Status: c2000
world building :8/10- cant give more than that, well in this world as you go ahead your continent starts becoming too small and this is like a never ending cycle, this leads to lengthening of arcs and many plot-holes.

MC: 5/10: everything he has is because of his plot armor, no brain used at all, only uses his d*ck to f**k every possible female character out their (except his sister and mom) and is a total douche bag.

harem: 4/10: well almost all of them have a backstory (thats what makes... more>> this novel have 1000s of chs) but they are their for nothing else then riding and giving birth to mc's kids. And harem is one of the largest in any light novel out their, this leads to many many many s'x scenes.

plot: well some parts are worth mentioning like his fathers who is op but has lost is memories, MC meets him in ch 1440's and his first contenent, rest is all about how he hooked up with princesses and damsels in distress,

shoulld you read this? Well, for s'x scenes. Yes. For comedy. No. For story. No. <<less
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bushwhacker2k
bushwhacker2k rated it
April 6, 2019
Status: c348
After chapter 300, everything goes downhill.

He just spurns all new women that approach him (to the point that the author literally spends more time talking about how he spurns women than he spends talking about his actual relationships).

The protagonist just ends up as a hypocrite, contradicting himself constantly. He wants to explore the world and flirt with women, but he also wants to settle down with a single woman and have a family.

He has a tendency to leave his women for literal years, to the point that they practically cease... more>> to exist. The rate at which some of his relationships progress is so slow that it basically just serves as a reminder that the girls even exist when they show up, not to actually have anything happen.

The author is OBSESSED WITH RAPISTS. Every place he goes there are rapists lurking around every corner. I put up with it initially because things are usually dealt with quickly enough, but after chapter 347 the author decides that things just aren't edgy and dark enough.

Spoiler

A girl he might have gotten into a relationship with (elder sister of one of his girls) gets r*ped and probably dies, she may even commit su*cide. I didn't stick around to find out, the story had already completely fallen off the rails at this point.

[collapse]

The author has no comprehension of flow or pacing, he opens up with something super dark and edgy and then suddenly cuts to in-depth technical details of Qing Shui's abilities/training (which I got sick of earlier in the series, it's far too excessive), which are impossible to focus on after the really forced tension.

The world-building is pretty mediocre. It's fairly vague how powerful someone/something is until it's actually confronted.

CONCLUSION: If you are looking for something kind of nihilistic and pretty edgy, you'll probably like this. If you're looking for a good xianxia story about family, romance or just a good-quality story in general, you should look elsewhere. <<less
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XSekundesX
XSekundesX rated it
March 9, 2019
Status: c1047
The series started pretty much like many other series about reincarnation: Resurrected, loving family, surpassing difficulties and getting the lady that you fell for. But it started going off track really fast. There are a few points that made me put this novel on pause (I still haven't given up but it's not certain I'll come back) :

  • Intensive Training Periods
    The author sometimes spends 3~7 chapters fully on the protagonist reflexives thoughts about his training, planning and training results. That by itself isn't really a problem, but these infodump chapters aren't really much different from each other and it usually feels like you are reading the same stuff over and over again. There are also characters that disappear only to come back stronger than the protagonist even the protagonist having been training for so much time with so many cheats.
    Spoiler

    He worked so hard using so many cheats and even so Yu He went from Houtian to Martial Emperor in like 3 years where the protagonist took more than 15 years of real time, not counting the time from his training inside the Spatial Realm. The protagonist even affirmed that the Ancient Strengthening Technique was a perfect fit for him.

    [collapse]
  • Protagonist's Mentality
    Spoiler

    The author insists on the protagonist's inferiority complex even when he's already banged like 12 women that are world-class beauties. It feels really off about his personality because when he trains Nature Energy, Spirit Energy and stuff like that he always says that his personality becomes more relaxed and confident and you can clearly see that's not really happening, his mentality didn't really change since the beginning of the novel and that causes a LOT of his relationships go through troubles. If he sees a woman that looks too beautiful and not to his tastes he automatically assumes she's a sl*t and treats her like garbage. It happened more than once. He's very often a hypocrite and can't seem to get over some stuff, even everyone telling him to get over it. I don't know if these parts are the author's intention or just the author's consistency. He's also supposedly has eidetic memory (perfect memorization), but keeps forgetting stuff like abilities and items that can solve the situation really easily but never even mentions them in that moment.

    [collapse]
  • Calculations
    I used to believe math was the same everywhere on the world and this novel seems to break this rule. The author seems insistent on using numbers to show levels of strength and time relativity. The thing is: I don't know if it is really the author's math or problems during the translation, but many times the math doesn't make any sense. Those who read until chapter 31 can already see signs of this. Later the protagonist and companions get skills and equipment that boosts their power in the % basis. However, that's not only one or two skills but more like 13 of them and without a calculator it's not really feasible to follow his calculations, which are pretty constant.
  • Romance and Family
    Spoiler

    Besides what I already wrote in his mentality, there's simply way too many characters and the protagonist clearly can't really manage his lovers and family. This is really showing the protagonist starts going to other continents. A lot of people is forgotten, and not only minor characters. The way romance develops and feelings grow cold from being apart sometimes doesn't feel natural and sometimes really feels like the author forgot about someone and is just giving an excuse. He keeps getting married to girls, even thought they all start like "I won't marry to a guy that wants more than 1 woman!" they always keeping welcoming more and more woman smiling all happily because "Strong men have a lot of wives" even tough the situation is going out of control. I mean where I stopped it feels like there's more Quing Shui's women and children than there's other people from the Quing Clan.

    [collapse]
These are the main points that made me take some distance from the novel. I believe with professional editorial work, this novel would have a great potential, but without it, it lacks a lot of stuff and is "OK" at best.
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