Back in the cave Fen Chang takes a better look around and notices some other things he didn't before. Within the walls of the cave there are lots of ore veins which are mostly of grade 2 with what looks like a single possible grade 3 ore vein.
Fen Chang writes down the location and where the tunnel is and will be sending it to his father so he can send people to come and mine it. With nothing else worth noting down he grabs the crystal with Su Da's body and stores in inside his storage ring and also grabs the glowing crystal on the ceiling. He was feeling nice and left a replacement lantern for the miners to be able to see in the future.
Taking off his clothes once again he jumps into the water. As his body lands in the water, his heart starts racing and his mind thrown into panic. It took a minute before the panic had receded but this still caused Fen Chang some concern.
'Damn my body went into shock due to the cold again. This might be problematic should I need to use cold water to escape or anything in the future. I should train my body to resist the cold more and allow my mind to instantly get over the cold shock. This is going to be so fucking painful to train.'
…
Once out of the water Fen Chang doesn't get dressed and leaves himself wet and without much to protect him from the harsh cold and snow falling down onto his skin.
Fen Chang didn't immediately go hunting as he could already feel his body becoming stiff. Instead, he started to do some exercises as well as constantly jumping in and out of the water.
For the next hour Fen Chang went through a lot of pain as his skin was constantly battered by the cold. At points his fingers and skin started turning purple and many times his body temperature almost went to fatal levels.
Whenever this happened, he ate one of his hundreds of healing pills to heal the damage done by the cold. After the hour Fen Chang felt that his body was resistant enough against the cold, to at least allow him to move around and fight.
He set off running through the snow-covered forest. His vision slightly blocked by the heavy snow fall. Fen Chang spent the whole rest of the day until at least midnight hunting and training his body.
When he got back to his cave under the waterfall his body was covered in blood with many cuts and pasted over wounds. His body was completely blue from the frost and his hair nothing but strands of ice.
He got into his cave and ate some food and tended to his wounds. Normally he would warm up with a fire and eat hot food. This time however, due to wanting to train his body to resist the cold he didn't do any of that and left himself frozen to the bone.
He lied down on the cold hard rock with the entrance to the cave left wide open as the bone chilling breeze from the outside rushed in preventing his body from warming up at all.
Waking up the next morning Fen Changs body was covered in a layer of frost and required him to use a lot of strength to force his frozen body to move.
Feeling the stiffness all over his body and the sharp freezing pain all the way down to his bones he ate some more healing pills and used his Qi to deal with the deadly ice Qi that seeped into his body.
Fen Chang has noticed a big difference compared to yesterday with his body though. His body was overall quite a bit more durable from the frost constantly hounding down on it and from his fights. His Qi has started to change slightly as now has a slight ice element due to the ice Qi in the environment constantly invading his body. His body also seems to hurt less that yesterday though only slightly.
Fen Chang is a bit confused by his Qi and starts to think about it. 'So my Qi is slowly gaining a cold ice element. This should allow all my attacks to have an ice effect with it and boost the power of ice attacks. It seems I am able to control it as well, like I could choose not to have ice element attacks and them be regular but the extra element will increase damage anyways. Right now its only a small amount and is minimal so I will need to spend longer absorbing the ice Qi in the area before my Qi gets its traits.
Normally this would be impossibly for normal Qi but due to my cultivation technique that allows me to have all the elements my Qi is a lot more adaptable.'
After doing some tests with his Qi Fen Chang can see its affects. Right now when he attacks using a Qi attack such as a fist or a slash attack the iey Qi will seep into the victim slowly freezing their body. It also increases penetration slightly when using his arrow if he coats the arrow with the ice Qi.
Due to not having any martial techniques he can't fully explore the uses and only has basic Qi attacks with no special effects but still. Fen Chang was pleased with its uses and knows it will grow stronger as he absorbs more and finds treasures with ice Qi in them.
Like these 2 weeks have passed and Fen Chang is casually waking through the forest headed towards a giant frozen lake. During these 2 week many things have happened.
…
Su Da has settled into her job as her manager of his inner world and is learning steadily. She has greatly increased the production within the inner world as she can automatically plant, water and harvest plants. Only high-ranking herbs are now left for the slaves to watch over as they require special cultivation.
The buildings are also going much quicker as Su Da can use her power to move large amounts of material into place for the builders to save a lot of time and man power. During the first week alone the sky scraper that houses the grade 1 herbs has doubled in height with it now being 40 floors high and the size of 2 football fields in width and length.
The other towers have had similar progression in terms of their height but the main focus being on the grade 1 herbs and mortal herbs/crops along with training grounds for the army.
Fen Chang himself has also experienced a lot of changes. His fighting with the scythe has become extremely precise with his style getting more and more efficient every day. This is the style Fen Chang is going for. He wants his fighting style to be minimalistic, fast, and conserve stamina and reduce strain.
His training with the weights and the constrains of the cold forced him to learn a fighting style than minimised stamina consumption and wasn't too heavy on the body.
His body strength also underwent a big change, with his constant fights his skin and organs are much more durable. His cold resistance has shot through the roof and his body can now handle -10-degree weather without so much an itch of discomfort.
His Qi has undergone a transformation of sorts. The constant ice Qi assaulting his body daily has allowed his Qi to form a type of resistance to it and can now easily absorb Ice Qi as sustenance for growth.
The ice Qi allows his attacks to have more penetration and a bone chilling after effect slowing down the target. Due his cultivation technique allowing him to have every element of Qi and it being connected with his inner world. The addition of a new Qi element has evolved his inner world. His inner world can now create icy environments filled with rich ice Qi.
The final thing that he experienced was a change in his cultivation. Due to being peak level 3 from the talent absorbing Fen Chang was close to level 4. After 1 week of exhausting his Qi and fighting allowed him to finally reach the barrier between level 3 and 4.
He managed to break through the barrier with ease due to his pills providing surplus amounts of Qi and instantly allowed him to get to middle level 4 right after breaking through.
He then spends the second week doing his normal training and hunting while also looking out for his next hunting area as he now wants to start hunting mid rank 1 beasts.
…
Fen Chang has now found a spot where he wants to set up base and hunt for the next while. It was a giant lake with an island in the middle on it perfect for him to camp on. The entire surface of the lake is frozen with at least 2 meters of ice on the surface.
With scythe in hand, he made his way over the ice. Fen Chang was extra careful as there is a blizzard going on so his visibility it very low but due to the blizzard going on for the past 4 days it has allowed him to be better prepared in case of an attack.
Once he was half way across the ice Fen Chang felt a huge gust of icy wind. He immediately started sprinting towards the island as when the wind hit him, he self an infusion of Qi meaning it wasn't naturally made and was from a creature.
There was only 1/4th of the way left when a giant dark silhouette was visible within the snow storm. Getting prepared to attack he quickly stops and cocks his body ready for a devastating swing while also having his feet in a position to dodge and move at a moment notice.
This was part of Fen Changs fighting style, to have his body in a position of attack or run allowing him to make the decision last minute without affecting the power behind his attack or the speed when fleeing.
The silhouette quickly revealed itself when it was around 7 meters away from him. It was a giant light blue and white bird. It had majestic wings with beautiful feathers and fan like tail feathers.
Fen Chang quickly analysed the bird and found it was called Snow Falling Dove. It was known for hunting using its natural ice Qi by freezing or weakening prey before coming in for the kill. It mostly hunts in blizzards and heavy snow fall when its ice Qi will be most effective.
Luckily for Fen Chang the dove was only in middle rank 1 still but the pressure its giving off shows that its close to breaking through to late rank 3. Reviewing the information within his head he quickly sorts out a plan.
'This thing is weak when it comes to physical attacks and its defence is also weak. Its speed, agility and ability to use ice Qi though make it a tough opponent. Unfortunately for it I am perfectly happy trading blows and am not affected by the ice Qi.'
Smirking Fen Chang alters his stance in milliseconds to a fully attacking one but also trying to play the stance off as him being affected by the ice Qi. The dove thinking it got its prey trapped dives down for the kill.
It only has tiny claws which aren't used for attacking so instead it gets its beak open ready to try to bite at Fen Chang instead.
Because it dived its momentum was almost too fast for Fen Chang to track but he doesn't need to track it he just needs to feel it. Its beak quickly arrived at his torso and is about to close its beak to try to crush his chest.
The moment he feels the cold beak touch his skin he slashes. He ignores the feeling of his bones being crushed in his arms and forces them to move within the beak's clutches.
The scythe came slashing through the dove's mouth as a light blue blade of light came followed the slash before creating a crescent moon shape and continuing in the direction he slashed at.
The dove's body was quickly slashing in half. Its blood still having the momentum drenched Fen Chang and parts of its body just barely grazing his sides.
Fen Chang just stood they're with a triumphant look as this was the results of his training and after a few seconds to take in the pleasant feeling he stored the body that slid across the ice before turning back towards the island to scout it out.