"To think it would increase..."

Yi Chen muttered in disbelief and soon took out the other fish he had in his storage ring.

====== STATUS =======

Species Name: Silver Flangella

Type: Fish

Remark: Most common in these waters [Regenerate: 10,000 EXP]

=====================

The very next instant, the mission panel once again flashed in front of his eyes.

[Progress: 25.4% -> 25.9%]

"So, from gaining understanding of the realm...it didn’t just mean physical exploration," Yi Chen muttered as his expression began to brighten.

He soon realised where he was going wrong.

’Wait...’ he furrowed his brows all of a sudden and stared at the panel in front of his eyes.

"Yes, it’s worth a try." He nodded to himself and the next second repeated the remark.

[Remark (2/3): Lives in colonies (Regenerate: 25,000 EXP)]

"It works!" Yi Chen exclaimed in jubilation when he saw his progress percentage increasing yet again.

He immediately generated the final remark before doing the same for the orange fish from earlier.

As a result, just in a matter of seconds, Yi Chen’s progress percentage rose significantly.

[Progress: 25.9% -> 27.3%]

"From what I recall, there are still four or five more varieties of fish in my usual hunting spot; there might be even more if I explore farther..."

With a clear goal forming in his head, he no longer felt the cold because of the excitement coursing through his body.

The very next instant, he dived straight into the ice-cold water with anticipation rising in his heart.

Not wanting to waste much of his time, he directly checked the status panels of the fishes while underwater.

Realising that checking the status of the species he had already found didn’t help in raising the progress percentage, he ventured deeper and farther into the waters.

From fish to different types of weeds to distinct stones to the waterbed.

He kept checking their status panels and assimilating more and more information about them. As a result, his progress percentage kept increasing monumentally.

[Progress: 27.3% -> 28.9%]

.

.

[Progress: 28.9% -> 30.2%]

.

.

[Progress: 30.2% -> 33.3%]

.

.

.

[Progress: 33.3% -> 37.6%]

Gasping for air, Yi Chen was currently sitting on an icy platform that was projecting out from the bottom of a frozen cliff. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Huff...Huff...

However, instead of exhaustion, he had a beaming smile evident on his face as his eyes were fixed on the mission panel in front of him.

"37% already..."

He muttered while glancing at the vast water body in front of his eyes.

He had only explored a small portion of it in the last five hours. Despite that, his gain in progress percentage far surpassed his earlier ones.

"I’ll come back again after lunch..." he thought while getting up and soon returned to the campsite.

While on the way, he realised that going to and from wasn’t the ideal way of doing things, so when he reached the campsite, he prepared enough fish for Gao Zhen for both lunch and dinner and told her that he would be late.

"Alright." She nodded with a smile, seeing the spark returning in Yi Chen’s eyes, "Looks like whatever you’re doing seems to be working."

"It really is." Yi Chen chuckled at her words.

Realising that he didn’t want to reveal anything further, Gao Zhen just smiled and didn’t question him further.

After they were done with their dinner, he took his leave and returned to the coastline. He planned to stay here until tomorrow morning, so he had a lot of time on his hands.

"Now let’s find out what’s at the other end of the water body," Yi Chen muttered to himself and dived straight into the water.

Earlier, because of the lack of time, he didn’t venture far, but now he had more than enough time to test things out.

Using the Bursting Fire Steps, he propelled himself forward, moving straight towards the horizon.

’If I find nothing even after ten hours, I’ll just assume that it’s endless and return,’ Yi Chen thought to himself while continuing on with his journey.

Along the way, if he had a rare encounter with a new type of fish, he would immediately use his status panel to learn everything about them.

’It would have been a huge problem if I didn’t have enough EXP points with me...’ he thought with a grin while glancing at his balance.

[EXP: 2,230,000 -> 1,530,000]

He was glad he kept it in reserve and didn’t pour them into levelling up his innate ability.

A few hours passed, and Yi Chen continued moving in the same direction. By now, his previously excited expression had subsided, and a dull one had taken its place.

With nothing but an empty horizon in sight for several hours, it was only natural for this to happen.

’Ugh...so boring,’ he thought bitterly while keeping up his pace.

BANG!

His head immediately collided with an invisible wall, making his vision turn blank as he almost drowned in the water.

*Gasp* *Gasp*

"W-What the fuck!" he cursed the moment he swam back to the surface, taking in large mouthfuls of air.

"I almost died just now..." he thought while angrily banging on the invisible wall right in front of him.

"Is placing a warning sign so fucking difficult!" he cursed once again in irritation while shaking his head. He realised how unreasonable his words were and clicked his tongue in frustration.

THUD!

He kicked the wall hard the next moment as his anger finally subsided a little.

"...At least I confirmed that this water body isn’t endless," he thought to himself while glancing at the progress bar that had jumped to forty percent because of this.

[Progress: 37.6% -> 40%]

A second later, he formed a thin layer of fire around his body using the Crimson Fire Arts as steam started coming out from the water around him.

A few minutes later, he nodded to himself and muttered, "Now let’s explore all that I can in this water body..."

With those words, he dived underwater to explore it in earnest.

Now that he was aware of the physical limits of the water body, it was easier for him to explore the entire water body.