At the peaceful and serene Cang Lan Lake, Li Fuchen was quietly angling.
Up till now, Li Fuchen's soul spirit was already 90% green. Another 10% would allow his spirit to complete the evolution.
With the transformation of his soul spirit, Li Fuchen's consciousness became stronger as well. In the past, he could only project his consciousness on the fishing hook for less than 5 mins; now he could extend it to 7.5 mins.
Splash!
A normal treasure fish with the weight of 10+ kg rose through the surface of the lake.
***
During the mid afternoon, Li Fuchen began cultivating the Scarlet Fire Technique.
With the Scarlet Fire Technique at peak of the fourth rank, everytime Li Fuchen revolved the Scarlet Fire Technique, he could feel the intense fiery intent refreshing his body from within. It was hard to imagine what kind of effect there would be, once the Scarlet Fire Technique is at the ninth rank.
On the first day, Li Fuchen reeled in a 10+ kg normal treasure fish, then another normal treasure on the second day but it weighed 20+ kg.
On the third day, not only did Li Fuchen catch a first tier treasure fish that was 10+ kg, he broke through to the fifth rank of the Scarlet Fire Technique as well.
The blazing intent of the fifth rank Scarlet Fire Technique became much more obvious. Even though its firepower wasn't better then the seventh rank Red Jade Technique, but it wasn't that big of a gap.
'I knew it. The Scarlet Fire Technique is definitely one of the most domineering entry techniques."
With strike into nothingness, the intense heat arising from the punch force distorted the air; which got the approval of Li Fuchen.
With each day passing, Li Fuchen's harvest grew bigger.
Day 10, Li Fuchen explosively circulated his qi and pulled up a 5 kg second tier treasure fish!
Day 22, Li Fuchen caught yet another second tier treasure fish.
Day 30, Li fuchen caught a 100+ kg normal treasure fish! Its power was incredible and only after expending a tremendous amount of his strength, could Li Fuchen reel it in.
Day 31, A significant event happened.
After half a year, Li Fuchen's soul spirit finally evolved from the pale green grade to the green grade.
During the evolution, an indescribably magnificent sensation could be felt. Li Fuchen felt as though the soul spirit had grew a pair of lungs and learnt how to breath by itself.
At the exact same moment, all the martial arts that Li Fuchen had learnt, advanced in the bat of the eye.
Crescent Sword Style: Trance stage attained.
Tiger Cross Fang Slash: Trance stage attained.
Stone Shattering Palm Style: Trance stage attained.
Clear Breeze Sword Style: Trance stage attained.
Shao Shang Sword Style: Trance stage attained.
Mountain Splitting Palm Style: Trance stage attained.
Red Jade Sword Style: Perfection stage attained.
Red Jade Palm Style: Perfection stage attained.
This sensation was too incredible. It was as though all of the martial arts essence was comprehensively integrated and absorbed by Li Fuchen. And it was at this moment that Li Fuchen understood that every martial art was in fact deeply related to each other.
Pi Pa!
In his soul spirit, there were traces of green lightning scuttling around. With every scuttle, a patch of thought got cleared out in Li Fuchen's mind, pushing his Red Jade Technique from the seventh rank to the peak of the seventh rank, then to seventh rank pinnacle.
(TL note: The author suddenly added a 'pinnacle' state in the technique ranks)
Finally, a cloud of blazing flame was branded into his mind.
Li Fuchen didn't know what that brand was, but he knew it shouldn't be anything bad.
***
After a sleepless night, the morning sun rose.
Li Fuchen sat cross-legged at the side of the window, basking in the golden rays of the sun and began cultivating the Scarlet Fire Technique.
The Scarlet Fire Technique which was formerly astringent to cultivate, became extremely smooth today.
36 cycles of qi circulation later, the technique intent of the Scarlet Fire Technique broke through to the sixth rank first, then follow by the technique itself.
The sixth rank of the Scarlet Fire Technique was overbearing and wasn't any weaker than the seventh rank pinnacle Red Jade Technique.
Two weeks later, Li Fuchen persisted with his efforts and raised the Scarlet Fire Technique to the seventh rank.
A month later, he had attained the eighth rank.
It was just as if everything went back to the time when he just received the golden amulet. During then, Li Fuchen took only a brief period to progress from the third rank Red Jade Technique to the sixth rank Red Jade Technique.
As snowflakes fell from the sky, it was presently winter season.
Going all-out in revolving his eighth rank Scarlet Fire Technique, on the surface of Li Fuchen's body was an invisible layer of hot air. As the snowflakes came within a 1 meter radius of where Li Fuchen stood, it melted and when it was within a 1 feet radius, it had already evaporated into steam.
Clenching his right hand into a fist, a pale red flame-like qi could be seen shrouding Li Fuchen's first as looked as though Li Fuchen's fist was on fire.
Qi Manifestation. With the Scarlet Fire Technique at the eighth rank, Li Fuchen finally accomplished the feat of instant qi manifestation.
But presently, he was only at the seventh level of the Qi Realm.
From the density of the manifested qi, it looked even thicker than the qi manifested by Luo Kai who was at the eight level of the Qi Realm, and his sixth rank Iron Shell Technique.
It was already on par with Zhou Huailong and Luo Zhongtian.
Hong!
Li Fuchen put his entire strength into this punch, the wind force generate by this blazing punch melted a big stretch of snow, creating a path clear of snow for an instant.
'Golden amulet, where exactly did you come from?'
Ceasing his revolution of the Scarlet Fire Technique, Li Fuchen's consciousness floated into his mind.
Within the chaotic mind, a ball of green light was suspended in the center. And within the ball was a simple and unadorned golden amulet.
The golden amulet was full of mystery.
Not knowing if he had saw an illusion, at the area right beside the golden amulet, hints of tiny pale blue streaks appeared occasionally and then blended into the green ball of light.
'Is the next evolution of the soul spirit going to be pale blue?' Li Fuchen gasped a breath of cold air.
Every evolution brought about a huge transformation. After green was pale blue, and after pale blue should be blue. Even after reaching the blue soul spirit, Li Fuchen somehow knew there was an even higher grade of soul spirit.
He couldn't predict how much more terrifying his perceptive sense grow in to, once his soul spirit was pale blue. Don't even mention a blue soul spirit or higher grade soul spirit.
He reckoned he would be able to attain the highest rank of the Scarlet Fire Technique within two hours.
Phew!
Exhaling forcefully, Li Fuchen thought, 'Even with the golden amulet, I cannot slack. This golden amulet helped me with my perception, but I still have to strive for the best in other areas.'
With the snow getting worse, there were no signs of the Cang Lan Lake freezing up.
It is said that the Cang Lan Lake had never been frozen before. There was once a disaster level snow storm that hit the Cang Lan region, even then the lake didn't freeze.
Calmly holding onto his fishing rod, Li Fuchen gradually went into zen mode.
With the soul spirit at the green grade, Li Fuchen could attach his consciousness onto the fish hook for 15 mins, doubling the time.
Do not underestimate this extra 7.5 mins.
Often times than not, due to the insufficient time of consciousness attachment, Li Fuchen had to hurriedly pick a treasure fish without properly going through all his choices.
Apart from this, the radius of the conscious awareness went up as well. It used to have a perimeter of 10 meters, but it had now expanded to 15 meters.
Just before hid consciousness faded, Li Fuchen finally found a target.
It was a first tier treasure fish that was at least 50 kilograms.
After catching so many treasure fishes, Li Fuchen roughly estimated that for every kilogram a normal treasure fish has, it can release a strength of 20 kg.
First tier treasure fishes, it could bring out 50 kg of strength for every kilogram.
This 50 kg first tier treasure fish could at least wield a strength of 2000 kg. Had it been the Li Fuchen of the past, he would never have been able to pull this fish up.
After all the rod was very long and the effective strength being applied was limited.