With his first target found he prepares himself for the incoming fight. His target was a water rat type creature called Razor Fang Water Rat. It has 2 long sharp front teeth that have a yellowish hue. A long razor whip like tail and sharp claws that savagely tear through flesh.
The water rat is extremely blood thirsty and although live in a giant nest, they hunt alone and only co-operate when their nest is under attack. This is the information he got from his system.
The maximum rank a water rat can be is peak rank 2 which would be the king and only 1 can be their per nest. Low and middle Rank 2's are special protectors of the nest and king and would never leave to hunt. Only rank 1's are allowed to hunt and leave the nest. The one in front of him is a low rank 1 water rat.
'Their system is similar to bees with the rank 1's being drones, rank 2 being guards and the strongest rank 2 being the leader. If there wasn't multiple rank 2's I might have considered raiding the nest since these type of water rats has an obsession with shiny and weird things and collect them.
There could be a lot of unknown treasures stocked up in there. I could send in the shadows to clear them out but they would make good for training, so I will deal with them myself when I am strong enough. It's hard to find a place with a lot of creatures piled into one place, it would be a waste to have others destroy it before I can make the most out of the free opponents.'
Getting prepared he goes to the surface to refill his lungs. Before grabbing his scythe and moving forward towards the water rat.
After his time swimming within the water the past day he already created his own type of movement technique for fighting in water. By using a thin layer of Qi on his feet he is effectively able to step on the water and he combines that with his fast-swimming technique by moving like a dolphin.
These combined allow him effective manoeuvrability underwater and to create a platform under his feet to attack with.
Fully prepared with a new breath of air he dives down towards the rat which it around 10 meters deep.
'Ok let's do this. My first underwater fight. I have around 50 minutes before my breath runs out but that doesn't include the oxygen I will expand during the fight and any that I accidently release. I should aim to finish within 20 minutes.'
With the time limit set in his head he rushes forward. The rat having a sensitive nose quickly locates him and thinks of Fen Chang as easy food. Rushing forward using its tail to propel its self it becomes like a torpedo.
Seeing it rush Fen Chang stops, gets a solid footing and prepares to swing his scythe hoping to get in an easy shot while its coming in. The rat opens its mouth showing off its razor-sharp teeth that can easily cut through steel.
He swung his scythe at the perfect time as the scythe cut through the water creating a streak. Just as the scythe was about to cut its target the rat having superior senses and agility quickly trashes about its tail and it just barely dodges the attack before managing to get a swipe attack with its claws on his arm.
Seeing his attack miss and the large gash mark on his arm made him understand water fights better. Unlike on the surface there the movement under water is 3 dimensional as its just as easy to go up as it is to go left and right.
This allows for more agility and freedom to dodge and attack. The rat made use of that fact and used its tail to change direction even when normally they wouldn't as they would be on the ground or mid-air.
He could also feel his scythe wasn't as powerful as before, the pressure from the water caused his body to move slower and require more power but the water itself caused the scythe to have resistance when cutting across.
'This is going to be hard. I need to make better use of the movement and stop limiting my thinking to how I normally fight. This will be useful practice as when I can fly battles would also have similar freedom of movement. This rat is also clearly agile and has good senses, my normal way of trading blows or baiting wont work against this kind of agility. I need to adapt.'
Smirking when he found a weakness in his attack, he gets even more pumped for the fight.
The rat quickly turned around and went in for another attack. He barely has any time to react before his body gets launched through the water by the rat's whip like tail.
Ignoring the pain in his arm he once again got into position to attack during its follow up attack. The rat goes in for a claw attack aiming for his chest.
The rat charged straight at him but just before it reached, it suddenly swerved up to avoid his strike once again and managed to leave a scratch mark along his chest.
After last time he instantly got ready for the nest attack. He knows that the rat has the speed and manoeuvrability advantage in the water so his only chance at winning is to dodge and attack. Defending isn't an option due to the water's restriction and the rat's ability to adapt its movement. Trading blows is also not good as he would take too much damage before he is able to get a hit in.
It came in fast once again and used its tail to smash Fen Changs body once again. This time was a little different. Due to keenly observing the rats movements last time it did a tail attack he was able to tell by the small movements it made that it was going for that attack.
He blocked using his scythe avoiding damage, but the force still sent him off balance and winded him causing him to lose a good chunk of air.
He wasn't able to get his balance quick enough before the next attack came in at hit him.
This continued for 10 minutes, with Fen Chang getting battered by the tail and scratched by its claws. But slowly though those 10 minutes Fen Chang was getting more and more used to the moveability underwater.
His blocks and dodges started becoming more effective. His awareness of the rat's movements allowed him to predict its next move faster. After the 10 minutes the rat was annoyed and went in for another tail attack.
This time how ever he managed to dodge. He used the waters 3-dimensional movement to just avoid the tail before swiftly spinning with his scythe allowing him to cut off its tail.
It screeched in pain and anger as its eyes turned red at the sight of its severed tail. It charged in faster and with more power than its previous attacks.
Seeing this he gets back into position and cocks back his body ready to unleash his strike. The rat charged forward with its huge body splitting the water and its knife-like teeth ready to shred him to pieces.
Just as the rat was about to hit, he used the power in his legs to lift off the water platform he created and used his middle body core strength to position himself to float upside down effectively dodging the attack while also giving him a direct line of attack to the rats head and back.
Still in the same attack position but upside down he forces himself through the disorientation of being upside down and slashes down. A streak of light was created as the scythe severed the water.
The slash of the blade easily cut through the rats hide at the back of its neck. Within the instant his blade went down, the rats head could be seen drifting away from the rest of its body as they slowly lose their momentum within the water.
Seeing it dead made Fen Chang almost sigh and take a deep breath but he suddenly realised by the burning sensation within his lungs that he is still underwater and his current air is running out fast.
His exhaustion plus all the hits made him lose lots of air, fighting back the feeling of lack of oxygen he forces his body to swim to the surface.
Once on the surface he takes a lot of long deep breaths before swimming to the island in the middle. He gets out of the water and flops himself onto the shore and just lays their panting while his blood was flowing out of his wounds.
He opens his storage ring and eats a healing pill and within seconds the bleeding stops. He just takes a small break for around 20 minutes before looking at the lake with a resolute gaze.
He takes another deep breath and dives back into the water searching for another target.
…
By the time it was night Fen Chang had managed to kill 20 low rank 1 rats and managed to just about kill a mid-rank 1 rat. Though that was at the cost of almost dyeing and loosing a lot of blood.
During the night he tended to his wounds and ate a special pill that helps boost his natural healing temporarily, in hopes that his body starts to adapt to the pills boosts permanently.
During the night there was another massive blizzard that continued through the next day. It had once again frozen the lakes surface and lowering the temperature in the water to deadly levels.
Even then he continued his hunting though this time he mostly focused on mid rank 1's and exploring. During the second day of hunting, he manged to fight 10 mid rank 1's and over 40 low rank 1's.
He managed to also find a few herbs and some old weapons of which a few where even grade 3.
On the third day of hunting the blizzard continued not lessening even a bit. In fact, it got worse with temperatures around the lake reaching -50 degrees Celsius.
His ice Qi grew more powerful with each fight. The Qi he would normally absorb to cultivate and refill his reserves with is now only deadly ice Qi due to the blizzard.
His ice Qi now powerful enough to instantly freeze low rank 1 beasts allowed Fen Chang to kill his prey even quicker.
On the fourth day the blizzard started lightning up and by the evening it was gone. It left meters deep snow and a sheet of ice at least 3 meters deep over the lake.
The fifth day Fen Chang was satisfied with his underwater scythe skills as he was now able to compete with high rank 1 beasts to a draw before retreating. So, he decided to practice with his sword underwater.
By the sixth day his sword skills underwater where near his scythe skills. Due to his previous experience with the scythe it made him learning the sword underwater much quicker.
He spends the day instead on the island in the middle cultivating in hopes of breaking through to high level 4.
On the seventh day feeling refreshed after breaking through to high level 4 he decided to hunt with his bow. Using the piercing power of the ice Qi he managed to shoot through the 3-meter ice and pierce low rank 1 rats with ease in 1 shot, those that didn't die instantly were killed by the potent ice Qi.
Slowly throughout the day he increased his accuracy and power and was able to kill a middle rank 1 with 1 shot.
Seeing his progress within a week made Fen Chang feel proud and decided to take a day break as he knows that a break once in a while is more beneficial to progress.
So, on the eighth day, he set up a nice cosy warm fire, a giant tent with a huge bed and prepared a feast for himself by hunting a few middle rank 1 boars in the forest.
The rest of the day he spent looking at the beautiful scenery. The beautiful frozen tranquil lake, the towering tree on the island and the snow beautifully stacked on the tree tops. He even made a few snow men and other things out of the snow.
He also spent a fair few hour's ice fishing next to a fire watching the day peacefully go by.
After his feast he called out his favourite maids and Yan Yin before he had a nice night lost in pleasures he hadn't had for a while.