Chapter 2: Golden Amule

Chapter 2: Golden Amule

“Did you hear? Guan Xue and Li Fuchen are dissolving their engagement.”

“Such a poor thing. First his talent vanished, now even his fiancée is gone, this must be the most devastating blow one can receive.”

“Hmph, he should have just humiliated himself. Now, he has even sullied the Li Clan.”

“Hush, here he comes.”

On the side of the road, all the murmuring stopped abruptly.

Li Fuchen walked pass these people with an emotionless expression on his face.

Regarding the dissolution of the of the betrothal, Li Fuchen was not at all in shock. But when Guan Xue showed the talents she possessed, it all began to slowly change. Although she still retained that gentle and respectful expression, the pride within was difficult to mask. It was the kind of pride that only an absolute prodigy possessed. Being the inept that he was now, he was comparable to that of a peasant to her, which made his heart feel slightly sour.

The only thing he couldn’t accept, was that the Guan Clan burning the bridge after crossing the river.

When the Guan Clan first arrived in Yunwu City, they were constantly oppressed by other clans. If not for the support of the Li Clan, the Guan Clan wouldn’t have been able to establish themselves in Yunwu City. By supporting the Guan Clan, the Li Clan even offended one of the other four major clans, the Yang Clan.

“Is this what they call human nature?”Li Fuchen thought to himself.

***

As usual, Li Fuchen arrived at the peak of the mountain behind the Li Clan’s quarters.

He relished the heights, it may have been due to his desire to have strength, overlooking all beings.

Today’s weather seemed a bit strange, the winds were ripping the clouds rapidly, and streaks of gold could be seen within.

“If there comes a day, where I could punch through the clouds, I would be able to die with no regrets.”

Li Fuchen made a fist and punched towards the sky with a perfect form, imagining that his punch was penetrating the golden ranks of the clouds, going straight to the stars.

As he laughed to himself, Li Fuchen decided to descend the mountain.

All of the sudden, he stopped, stunned.

He saw the ranks of golden clouds shoot open, a beam of gold had pierced through. The ray tore through the sky towards him at the speed of light, it felt as if time had stopped. Between the heavens and the earth, all was silent.

Li Fuchen wanted to run, but his body didn’t respond.

The golden ray was blinding, forcing Li Fuchen to shut his eyes. In the next moment, he felt an intense heat between his brows before blacking out.

Li Fuchen was in a dream, in this dream he was galloping across the lands, invincible and unmatched. With a flick of his sword, the light produced shone throughout the heavens. The strength of one of his punches penetrated the grounds through the depths of hell.

“What a pleasant dream!”

Un-furrowing his brow, Li Fuchen’s expression was full of vigor.

When Li Fuchen finally awoke, the sky was not even dark yet.

“What just happened?”

Puzzled, he touched his forehead, he could feel his soul’s consciousness being sent into his mind.

Boom.

A tremor shook within his mind, a scene that was never before was in his consciousness. Everything was in a mess and in the center, was a bunch of grey mist. Amidst the mist was a small golden amulet, which caused his soul spirit to feel better than ever. The grey mist seems to have condensed and formed into a ball of grey light.

“This within my mind… Is this grey mist my soul spirit? What is that golden amulet?”

Li Fuchen’s heart was full of doubts, such a scene had defied what he knew.

With a shift in vision, he was pulled towards the golden amulet.

The amulet had no signs of wear or tear, but revealed an endless feeling of simplicity. It felt as though it had been here since the beginning of time, and would continue to exist forever.

Not knowing how much time had passed, with his willpower waning, Li Fuchen’s consciousness was expelled out of the space in his mind.

“It’s late, I should head back first.”

With a sense of doubt, Li Fuchen headed back home.

***

Passing through the training grounds, Li Fuchen saw Li Yunhe. He was sparring with a Li Clan disciple. With great ease, Li Yunhe used only a single palm strike to send his opponent flying. He then turned and looked at Li Fuchen with a smile.

“Li Fuchen, interested in sparring? I just broke through to fifth level of the Qi Realm and am lacking a target, you seem like you can take more punches.”

As one advances, it becomes harder to breakthrough the Qi Training Realm… Seeing how he could break through to fifth level, it must be related to him having achieved breakthrough to the fourth rank of the Red Jade technique.

“I have some business to attend to, maybe in a few days.”

After finishing his sentence, Li Fu Chen left right away.

“This fella.”

Li Yuehe’s expression turned dark. This was the first time Li Fuchen did not spare any respect.

“Hmph, an inept will always be an inept, seems like not being able to cultivate for a whole year has destroyed his will. He did not even have the courage to fight with me.”Li Yunhe mocked.

***

After dinner, Li Fuchen hurried back to his room.

When his consciousness entered his mind, Li Fuchen was surprised to find that the originally grey mist had become a grey ball of light with only a streak of mist surrounding it.

“Does the grey mist becoming a grey ball of light benefit me?”Li Fuchen pondered

Leaving these thoughts aside, with his consciousness leaving his mind, Li Fuchen began to cultivate.

Fifteen minutes passed…

Half an hour passed…

Li Fuchen opened his eyes. He was both astonished and pleasantly surprised.

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Previously he could only concentrate his cultivation for a short span of time, but tonight, he persisted for half an hour and there was no pain in his head. “Could it have been because of the grey mist in my soul spirit? Now that it is gathered into a ball of light, it made cultivation easier?”, Li Fuchen’s perceptiveness brought him to reach this conclusion.

This night, would be a night to remember.

***

At first, Li Fuchen thought the amulet was only there to keep the soul spirit gathered and not dispersed. But in the next few days, he knew he was wrong.

Not only could the amulet gather spirit, it can even evolve it.

Now his soul spirit had fully formed into a ball of light and was slowly mending into a pale green state. With the evolution of his soul spirit, his head felt clearer like endless blocks in his head were cleared. Not only was his perception better, he could understand analogies much faster.

***

Night time…

He was revolving the Red Jade Technique, Li Fuchen’s palm was facing the sky, gradually absorbing the Qi that was within the heaven and earth.

Half an hour later, three new meridians were flowing freely within Li Fuchen’s body. These three meridians with Red Jade Technique combined, formed complex channels of Qi flow.

“The Red Jade Technique is at the fourth rank already?”Li Fuchen was shocked.

With the progress of each rank, it would get harder to cultivate the Red Jade Technique. Without grasping the essence of the technique, even with the three meridians unblocked, it would still be hard to cultivate. But he actually broke through to the fourth rank before unblocking his three meridians.

“Not cultivating the Red Jade Technique for one year, I predicted I would require at least a few months before breaking through. I didn’t expect to only need three days.”

Li Fuchen was filled with excitement, not only did the evolution of his soul spirit make him more nimble, it improved his perception. In the past, his perception was good, but it is now unprecedented.

***

Li Fuchen would cultivate Red Jade Technique at night and study martial arts during the day.

Snap!

In the yard, Li Fuchen executed a palm strike on the sturdy wooden stake, the force of the strike penetrated deep within, causing the top half of the stake to split wide open. If this strike were to be performed on a human, it would result in casualties.

“Stone Shattering Palm completion, not even Li Yunhai has accomplished this right?!”

The Stone Shattering Palm was a low-tier, yellow class palm arts, strong and overbearing. Li Fuchen Qi Realm was still low, if he was at the seventh or eighth Qi Realm, a single palm strike could shatter even giant boulders.

While the cultivation of palm arts was done in the yard, Li Fuchen preferred to cultivate his sword arts behind the Li Clan’s back mountain.

At the peak of the mountain, with the raging wind, the trees were swaying forcefully.

Wielding the steel sword, Li Fuchen’s form was perfect, at this moment, his expression was as cold as ice, his eyes were imbued with sparks. There was no hint of emotion, only passion for the arts of the sword.

Stab!

The sword stabbed into the trunk of the thick tree, and with a flick of his wrist, Li Fuchen did a horizontal slash and the top half of the tree flew upwards. Before it started falling, Li Fuchen followed up with a jump as slashes pursued.

Swish, slash!

In mid air, the sword produce a flash in the form of a cross and cut the trunk into pieces.

Low-tier, yellow class sword art, Tiger Fang Cross Slash completion.

In five days, the Stone Shattering Palm and Tiger Fang Cross Slash achieved completion. With this, Li Fuchen’s perception had reached an unprecedented state, every martial art seemed unable to hide it’s secrets from his eyes. Using only a short span of time, he could cultivate them to the completion stage.

“Sword arts is the base of all fundamentals, it is the key if one wishes to enter the Cang Lan Sect, it seems my perception for sword arts is better than palm arts.”

Although they had the same class and tier, sword arts were harder to comprehend than palm arts. This is due to the sword being an object, which will always be harder to wield than using one’s own hands. But once one’s sword arts was at completion, its strength cannot be matched by any palm arts.

With a stroke of the sword, there would be death if not wounded at worst, that’s how menacing it is.

“My Li Clan is the weakest among the four major clans of Yunwu city. Now that the Guan Clan has drop all ties with us, the Yang Clan will be eyeing us now. The city lord has a better relationship with the Guan and Yang clan, but if I can enter the Cang Lan Sect, it will help put my Li Clan back to the top.”

Taking in a deep breath, Li Fuchen’s eyes flashed a menacing look, “I will surely enter the Cang Lan Sect and let everyone see that my Li Clan is not to be looked down upon.”

In the past, the Cang Lan Sect was nothing but a goal for Li Fuchen, but right now, it was his ambition.

The one in control of the world is the high and mighty sect.

Yunwu city, where the Li Clan resides is just one of the many cities that the Cang Lan Sect governs.

The Cang Lan Sect is a sword art sect, seventy percent of the sect practices the way of the sword, be it the clan’s people or the peasants that look up to Cang Lan Sect disciples. One must know, once one becomes a disciple of the Cang Lan Sect, one can rapidly rise up in the world.

In the past years, the Li Clan has been on decline, it is due to not having anyone joining the Cang Lan Sect for the past ten years. Yet, the other three major clans would have at least one or two of their descendants join the sect every other year. Comparing such, the Li Clan is naturally weaker, so their priority among the clans gradually slipped away.

TL Note:

Martial Arts Classes

Yellow class, Mystic class, Earth class, Heaven class

Each class is separated into:

Low-tier, Mid-tier, High-tier, Peak-tier

Each martial arts have a learned stage:

Sub-completion, Completion, Sub-perfection, Perfection, Trance