“Did you hear? Guan Xue and Li Fu Chen 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 even sullied the Li clan.”

“Hush, here he comes.”

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

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

Regarding the dissolution of the of the betrothal, Li Fu Chen 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, but the pride within was difficult to mask. It was the kind of pride that only a genius possessed. Being the inept that he was now, that is comparable to that of a peasant, he could only feel this slight sour feeling in his heart.

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

When Guan clan first arrived at Yunwu City, they were constantly oppressed by other clans, if not for the support of Li clan, Guan clan wouldn’t be about to establish themselves in Yunwu City. By supporting the Guan clan, Li clan even offended one of the other four major clans, Yang clan.

“Is this what they call being exploited?”, Li Fu Chen was thinking to himself.

***

As usual, Li Fu Chen 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 seems a bit strange, the winds were ripping the clouds rapidly, streaks of gold could be seems within.

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

Li Fu Chen made a fist and punched towards the sky with perfect form, imagining his punch penetrating the golden layers of clouds straight to the stars.

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

All of the sudden, he stopped, stunned.

In his sight, the layers of golden clouds was shot open, a beam of gold pierced through it. 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 Fu Chen wanted to run, but his body didn’t respond.

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

Li Fu Chen 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 from his sword shone throughout the heavens. The strength of one of his punches penetrated the grounds through to the depths of hell.

“What a pleasant dream!”

Unfurrowing his brow, Li Fu Chen expression was full of vigor.

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

“What just happened?”

Puzzled, he felt his forehead, he could feel his soul’s consciousness being lifted into his mind.

Boom.

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

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

Li Fu Chen heart was full of doubts, such a scene has exceeded any definitions.

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

The amulet had no signs of wear or tear, but reveal an endless feeling of simplicity. It feels as though it’s been here since the beginning of times and will continue to exist forever.

Not knowing how much time have passed, with his willpower waning, Li Fu Chen consciousness was expelled out of the space in his mind.

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

With a sense of doubt, Li Fu Chen headed back home.

***

Passing through the training grounds, Li Fu Chen saw Li Yun He and he was sparring with a Li clan disciple.

With ease, he only needed one palm strike to send his opponent flying, Li Yun He then looked at Li Fu Chen with a smile, “Li Fu Chen, interested in sparring? I just broke through to Qi stage fifth layer and am lacking a target, you seem like you can take more punches.”

Qi training stage, difficulty increases with each layer. Seeing how he could break through to fifth layer, it must be related to his fourth layer Red Jade technique.

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

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

“This fella.”

Li Yue He’s expression turn dark. This is the first time Li Fu Chen did not spare any respect.

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

***

After dinner, Li Fu Chen hurried back to his room.

With his consciousness entering the mind, Li Fu Chen was surprised to find the originally grey mist had become the grey ball of light with only a streak of mist surrounding it.

“Does the grey mist becoming a grey ball of light benefits me?”, Li Fu Chen pondered

Leaving these thoughts aside, with his consciousness leaving the mind, Li Fu Chen began to cultivate.

Fifteen minutes passed…

Half an hour passed…

Li Fu Chen opened his eyes, his was both astonished and pleasantly surprised.

Previously he could only concentrate his spirit for a short span of time, but tonight, he persisted for half and hour and there was no ache in his head. “Could it had been because of the grey mist in my spirit? Now that it is gathered into a ball of light, it made my cultivation easier?”, Li Fu Chen was perceptive which was why, he could reach this conclusion promptly.

This night, would be a night to remember.

***

At first, Li Fu Chen thought the amulet was only to keep the spirit gathered and not dispersed. But the next few day he knew he was wrong.

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

Now his spirit is fully formed into a ball of light and slowly mending into a pale green state. With the evolution of the spirit, his head felt clearer like endless blocks in the head were cleared. No only was his perception better and he could understand analogies much faster.

Night time.

Third layer Red Jade technique revolving, Li Fu Chen’s palm is facing the sky, gradually absorbing the Qi that is within the heaven and earth.

Half and hour later, three new meridians were flowing freely within Li Fu Chen’s body. These three meridians with third layer Red Jade technique combined, formed complex channels of Qi flow.

“Red Jade technique, fourth layer already?”, Li Fu Chen was shocked.

With progress of each layer, it would get harder to cultivate 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 layer before unblocking his three meridians.

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

Li Fu Chen was in excitement, not only did the evolution of the spirit made him nimble, it improved his perception. In the past his perception was good but it is now unprecedented.

***

Li Fu Chen would cultivate Red Jade technique at night and study the martial arts during the day.

Snapped!

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

“Stone Shattering Palm completion, not even Li Yun Hai could accomplish this right?!”

The Stone Shattering Palm style is a yellow class low tier palm arts, strong and overbearing. Li Fu Chen qi stage is still low, if its at seventh or eighth qi stage, a single palm strike can shatter even giant boulders.

While the cultivation of palm arts was done in the yard, Li Fu Chen prefers to cultivate the sword arts behind Li clan’s back mountain.

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

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

Stab!

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

Swish, slash!

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

Yellow class low tier sword art, Tiger Fang Cross Slash completion.

In five days, Stone Shattering Palm style and Tiger Fang Cross Slash achieved completion. With this Li Fu Chen’s perception has reached an unprecedented state, every martial arts seems unable to hide it’s secrets from his eyes. Using only a short span of time, he can cultivate them to completion.

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

Although having the same class and tier, sword arts is harder to comprehend than palm arts. This is due to the sword being an object, which will always be harder to wield than to use one’s own hands. But once sword arts is at completion, its strength cannot be matched by palm arts. With a stroke of the sword, there will 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 Guan clan has drop all ties with us, the Yang clan will be eyeing on us now. The city lord has better relationship with Guan and Yang clan, but if I can enter the Cang Lan sect, it will help my Li clan back to the top.”

Taking in a deep breath, Li Fu Chen eyes flashed of a menacing look, “I will surely enter Cang Lan sect and let everyone see that my Li clan is not to be looked down upon.”

In the past Cang Lan sect was nothing but a goal for Li Fu Chen, but right now, it is also his ambition.

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

This Yunwu city where Li clan resides is just one of the many cities that Cang Lan sect govern.

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

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