With his physical power reaching 1000 kg, Li Fuchen distinctly felt his skin and flesh becoming denser and with a flex of his muscles, it turned tough like a rock. In additional to that, shallow footprints were left in the yard after Li Fuchen walked through it, he estimated that he gained quite a bit of body weight.

'Once the body refinement technique reaches the later stages, would my body weight be a few times or even ten times more than average person's?' Li Fuchen was very curious about the unknown.

He felt it was very well possible.

The reason for why a human body had limits was mainly due to its fragility, and was thus unable to handle overpowered strength. With body refinement techniques, it allowed the body to go through a transformation and withstand stronger forces, just like a demonic beast.

With the Crimson Battle Form at the first rank, Li Fuchen attempted to progress towards the second rank.

The qi circulation method for the second rank was much more complex, one careless move could cause the meridians to collapse. So during the qi circulation, one needed to be meticulous and leave no room for mistakes.

And yes, body tempering pills were still required.

But the importance was whether one could endure the extreme pain during the second rank cultivation process; as one needed to be submerged in boiling water during the cultivation.

Without the help of qi, a human was still a mortal and was nowhere near to being immune to scalding boiled water.

In order to do so, a willpower the likes of iron was needed.

***

A huge tripod was set up in the yard, under it was a firewood the size of a limb burning intensely.

(TL note: A tripod is an urn like object that is used for cooking during ancient times)

With the tripod filled to the brim, Li Fuchen was seated within, leaving only his head sticking outside of the water.

With the scorching blaze, the water in the tripod began to boil. Li Fuchen's skin was cooked like a prawn, entirely red, and his face was constantly twitching in pain.

The pain was excruciating, as if his entire body was set ablaze.

He wanted to give up countless times but he ultimately persevered.

As one of the famous sayings went, 'One can never achieve glory and wealth, without having been through trials and tribulations.

If he cannot even endure this small setback, he would definitely regret in the future.

Forcibly enduring the pain, Li Fuchen circulated his qi cycle after cycle, trying to overcome the pain with qi force.

Finally after 2 hours.

Pang!

With both hands hitting the edge of the tripod, Li Fuchen leapt out of the tripod.

One could see the numerous blisters on the surface of Li Fuchen's skin. A layer of skin was on the verge of sliding off, this was a kind of torture that was indescribable.

Had he not been through the suffering of the dispersal of his soul spirit, Li Fuchen would never have been able to persist until now.

With his entire body covered in blisters, it made Li Fuchen fall into the dilemma of choosing to suffer pain while standing or sitting, or perhaps even laying down.

He!

Ignoring the pain, Li Fuchen settled in a stance, preparing to execute the Crimson Battle Fist Style that was written inside the Crimson Battle Form.

The Crimson Battle Fist Style was able to activate all the muscles and bones within the body, which was something that wasn't possible with just qi circulation.

***

Evening came, Li Fuchen's blisters turned into dead skin and started to peel off, leaving some light scarring with no traces of scalding marks.

Cultivating sword arts in the morning, the Scarlet Fire Technique during mid noon, and the Crimson Battle Form during the late afternoon. Then ending the day with a soak in medicinal wine, Li Fuchen spent each day filled with fulfillment.

All the pain and suffering had now transformed into his martial arts foundation.

With the progression of the second rank Crimson Battle Form on the fifth day, cracking and popping sounds could be heard from Li Fuchen's body.

Every inch of his flesh and bones were transforming.

Jumping out of the tripod, Li Fuchen effortlessly grabbed a stone that weighed a thousand kilograms and lifted it.

This meant that Li Fuchen's strength had exceeded 1000 kg and he had officially stepped into the second rank of the Crimson Battle Form.

But between stepping into the second rank and reaching the completion stage, there was still a long way to go, but Li Fuchen depleted his supply of body temper pills.

Its either you give up or go all out, Li Fuchen used all his remaining 6000 contribution points to redeem more body tempering pills.

A total of 24 pills.

At the rate of 3 pills a day, in exactly 8 days, Li Fuchen would once again be out of body tempering pills.

Currently, Li Fuchen could lift a 1500 kg boulder with ease and could easily make a pit in the ground with a punch. He had an abnormal density of muscles and flesh, which make him invulnerable against forces less than a few hundred kilos.

"I have run out of both contribution points and body tempering pills. I need to think of a solution."

Li Fuchen knew he couldn't return to fishing at Cang Lan Lake, as he was sure, people would notice him and he sure wouldn't want to fish for nothing.

"Perhaps I can go searching for ores in an Ore Mountain"

The Cang Lan Mountains were full of rich minerals and ores; countless of ore mountains resided within it.

Ore mountains produced a variety of metallic ores, which were separated into classes like yellow class ores, mystic class ores, earth class ores, etc…

Take for example, steel swords. They were forged using the mid-tier, yellow class, steel ore.

Just like treasure fishes, contribution points that were rewarded by ores went by weight too.

Low-tier, yellow class ores went for 1~3 points per kg.

Mid-tier, yellow class ores, 5~10 points per kg.

High-tier, yellow class 15~30 points per kg.

Peak-tier, yellow class went for 50~10 points per kg.

Mystic class and earth class ores were rarely seen, and even you went looking for it, you may not find any. There was once when an outer sect disciple found a 1 kg of peak-tier, yellow ore, he was awarded 50,000 points for it.

***

Keng Qiang Mountain was a large but abandoned ore mountain in the Cang Lan Mountains.

When Li Fuchen arrived, it was already the afternoon of the third day since he set off.

The sun shone on the vast and heavy Keng Qiang Mountain, giving off a layer of metallic color. Perhaps due to the extreme hardness of the rocks, there was an absence of life as even weeds found it difficult to grow here.

"Keng Qiang Mountain is one of the largest abandoned ore hills, there should be quite a bit of treasures overlooked." Glancing at the mountain, Li Fuchen nodded to himself.

Inside of the Cang Lan Mountains, only abandoned ore mountains were accessible to outer sect disciples. Those that were still in the midst of mining operations were forbidden. Thus searching for ores was like a task in finding omitted treasures.

Although the Keng Qiang Hill was a single mountain, it actually was the merger of a few big mountains and dozens of small hills. In between these mountains were valleys that intersect each other, and those that were unfamiliar with the routes would get lost easily.

Following a mountainous trail, Li Fuchen entered the Keng Qiang Mountain.

"With no surprises, there are ores all around."

Just a few steps in, Li Fuchen found a raw iron ore. It was a low-tier, yellow class ore that was worth 1 point per kg.

Playing around with the stone, Li Fuchen simply threw it away.

Raw iron ores just weren't valuable, unless when there were a few hundred kilos.

Trekking deeper into the mountain, there were many ores laying around that fell off the wall. Keng Qiang Mountain was excavated a long time ago, back then cracks appeared during the mining and since then after the long years and environmental erosion, collapses happened quite frequently.

It could have been the heavy and depressing atmosphere that shunned outer sect disciples from Keng Qiang Mountain.

"Hmm? Its a Snow Silver ore."

In the depths of a dark gorge, Li Fuchen swept the surroundings and found a piece of dark silver ore.

The Snow Silver ore, a high-tier, yellow class ore. Each kilogram was worth 20 contribution points and this piece was around 4 or 5 kg.

With a spur of thought, Li Fuchen lifted his head and looked at the sides of the gorge.

Li Fuchen spotted on the left cliffs, that there was a spot of land that looked untouched which that was tens of meter high.

With his heartbeat thumping, Li Fuchen had an idea of what he should do next…

Hi everyone! Thanks for reading my translations.

As announced on discord, from now I will only release 3x a week, due to my new work affecting my speed.

This week I will release, Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday.

From next week onwards, it will be every Mon/Wed/Fri.

Thanks!