"Normal treasure fish, 160 kg. First tier treasure fish, 46 kg. Second tier treasure fish, 9 kg. A total of 16,000 contribution points." The task elder took in a deep breath and declared clearly.
16,000 points, an amount that would require at least a year of his time to gather.
"Thank you elder." Giving a bow to the task elder, Li Fuchen left the task hall.
Before redeeming any body refinement techniques, Li Fuchen went to the resources hall to buy some healing pills for his injuries.
With the assistance of these healing pills, Li Fuchen could recover completely in 3 days. He reattached the bones in his left arm back in place and was careful to not use any force temporary, otherwise the bones may fracture again.
***
Today, Li Fuchen arrived at the outer sect's martial hall.
The martial arts manuals here went as high as peak-tier, yellow class. Mystic class martial arts would have to be redeemed at the inner sect.
As if viewing flowers on a horseback, Li Fuchen walked past rows of book racks.
(TL note: View flowers on horseback: means glancing and judging without detailed information)
He got to know that low-tier, yellow class manuals were minimally valued at 30 contribution points.
Mid-tier, yellow class manuals at 100 contribution points.
High-tier, yellow class manuals at 300 contribution points.
As for peak-tier, yellow class manuals. They were worth at least 1000 contribution points.
Spending some effort, Li Fuchen finally found the rack that shelved all the peak-tier, yellow class body refinement techniques.
"Tiger Demon Body Refinement, 4000 contribution points."
"Steel Clothed Shirt, 3000 contribution points."
"Golden Bell Canopy, 3500 contribution points."
"Seven Star Forged Body, 4500 contribution points."
"Crimson Battle Form, 5000 contribution points."
Sweeping his view from manual to manual, Li Fuchen creased his brows. Body refinement techniques were too costly, and the prices were almost a few folds more than regular peak-tier, yellow class martial arts.
What Li Fuchen didn't know was that under the same grade of manuals, techniques were much higher priced than martial arts.
"I shall take the Crimson Battle Form!"
Either he didn't pick any, if not it should be the best, this was Li Fuchen's principle.
The manuals on the racks were just empty shells with introduction without content. Li Fuchen was required to redeem a manuscript copy of the book from the martial arts elder.
When the martial arts elder heard that Li Fuchen wanted to redeem the Crimson Battle Form, he shook his head and advised, "You better repick another body refinement technique! Throughout the entire outer sect, only a few disciples are able to practice the Crimson Battle Form. Even then, most of them gave up. For the past ten years, only three individuals cultivated the Crimson Battle Form to the highest rank. You better not bite off more than you can chew."
"Is the Crimson Battle Form that hard to cultivate?" Li Fuchen asked.
"The Steel Clothed Shirt, at the highest rank grants one the physical strength of 2000 kg, about the same as the Golden Bell Canopy. The Tiger Demon Body Refinement is at around 2500 kg, the Seven Star Forged Body is at around 3000 kg. But the Crimson Battle Form grants not only 5000 kg at the highest rank, but also makes the body impervious to swords and spears. It is almost at the grade of a low-tier, mystic class body refinement technique and so it's normal that it is difficult to cultivate. Apart from all that, the Crimson Battle Form requires the practitioner to have an abnormally high willpower, thus many can't persevere."
"Since it is hard to cultivate, I will choose the Crimson Battle Form." Li Fuchen didn't intend to give up.
"Alright then, I have already advised you, whether you listen, is up to you." The martial arts elder shook his head. When most of the outer sect disciples picked the Crimson Battle Form, they were confident in themselves and thought they could break the record. But if records were so easy to break, they wouldn't have been there in the first place.
Obtaining the Crimson Battle Form manual, Li Fuchen left in a haste and headed towards the resource hall.
Cultivating body refinement techniques involved the use of body tempering resources in large quantities, if not you would just be wasting your time.
Luckily with 11,000 contribution points left, Li Fuchen didn't need to worry about lacking cultivation resources.
Body Tempering pills cost 500 gold a piece, but only required 250 contribution points to redeem. Li Fuchen exchanged for 20 pills in one go.
"I wonder how difficult this Crimson Battle Form truly is."
***
With everything prepared and in place, Li Fuchen began the initial cultivation.
It was as the martial arts elder describe, the Crimson Battle Form was indeed hard to cultivate.
The Crimson Battle Form was separated into three ranks. The first rank granted 1000 kilos of strength, the second rank 3000 kilos, and the third rank 5000 kilos of massive physical power.
The first rank required one to cultivate both the internal and external body.
Circulation of qi for the internal portion and getting hit by hard objects for the external portion.
As a 1st grade outer sect disciple, Li Fuchen had special privileges and could order odd job disciples to carry out task for him. But whether any reward was given, was up to the individual.
Peng peng peng peng…
In the yard, Li Fuchen's upper body was bare as he was wearing only shorts.
With two odd job disciples, one in the front and the other at the back. They both used rods to hit Li Fuchen's body, leaving red marks that overlapped each other.
2 hours later, Li Fuchen was drenched in cold sweat from the swelling, aching and stinging, and his face was pale white.
"Ok, you may return, come back again tomorrow."
After the two odd job disciples left, Li Fuchen went into the house and followed the instructions of the Crimson Battle Form to circulate his qi.
After dozens of circulation cycles, Li Fuchen swallow one body tempering pill.
It melted in the mouth and began nourishing Li Fuchen's body.
With 36 cycles of qi circulation, Li Fuchen realized that the bones in his left arm was almost completely healed. Before cultivating the Crimson Battle Form, the effects from the body temper pill had gradually decreased, but now its effect had once again returned to its prime.
"The human body has its limits but body refinement techniques help the body to break past this limit, and it is by a huge margin."
***
For the next few days, Li Fuchen repeated this torture from the body refinement process.
A week later, Li Fuchen's physical strength reached a stunning 750 kg but Li Fuchen felt a bottleneck at the same time.
Every individual's qi circulation worked differently and the Crimson Battle Form only acted as a guide to higher levels. Whether one can attain completion was up to their perception, willpower, and destiny.
Fortunately, Li Fuchen wasn't lacking in these three aspects
Three days later, Li Fuchen broke past the bottleneck, as well as his body's physical strength limits. As such, his power continued to surge higher.
800, 850, 900 kg…
The further Li Fuchen progressed, the more he felt frustrated as it was harder for him to settle down in peace during cultivation. As if an formless energy was interrupting him constantly.
At times, his qi would go on a rampage and Li Fuchen would have all kinds of infuriating emotions.
At times, Li Fuchen's lower body would be erect for no reason, developing an overflowing lust.
In the end, Li Fuchen endured it all.
920, 950, 970, 990 kg…
On this particular day, Li Fuchen's eyes and body were flushed red, as though being boiled and full of fuming hot steam.
This was the overexertion of qi circulation.
Ah!
A long hum could be heard, as within Li Fuchen's body, there were sounds of a combustion. The next moment, all the redness slowly faded from Li Fuchen's skin and his eyes and everything went back to normal.
"No wonder the Crimson Battle Form is so strenuous to cultivate. It is because the practitioner needs to bear so much negative emotions. Those that do not have enough determination would definitely lose focus during cultivation."
Losing focus during the cultivation process would cause subsequent sessions to be much harder.
Thinking about it, Li Fuchen started to envy Yang Kai and the others who had the chance to soak in the Tempering Pool. As they could obtain the strength of nearly a thousand kilograms without any troubles or problems.
Of course, Li Fuchen wasn't obsessed with it, as when one cultivated the Crimson Battle Form, they too cultivated the heart's will. With their willpower becoming stronger, it would definitely be beneficial for future cultivation.