Xiang Yu continued circulating his qi. He had to admit that the 5th grade spirit food was really overwhelming, providing so much concentrated qi that it was becoming harder to manage. To be honest, most of the qi was being wasted because his medium grade spiritual root simply couldn't handle it, but still, it wasn't a loss for him as he could absorb what he could and slowly refine it.
After refining all the qi circulating within his body, he could finally relax. He let out a deep exhale as he opened his eyes, releasing remnants of qi that dissipated into the air around him.
He looked at the sun and realized that it had just reached noon, meaning it was time to practice his techniques. He didn't waste time and immediately started practicing the five elements palm techniques, his palms letting out slight glows as he alternated between the elements.
Crimson light flickered from his fire palm, followed by the blue shimmer of water, the earthy brown glow, metallic silver and grey shine, and verdant green of wood. He continued this for some time, his movements growing more fluid with each transition until he suddenly stopped.
His qi sense that was covering the entire pavilion detected someone entering. Xiang Yu was instantly on alert. He could sense that the other person was quite strong, probably just as strong as Wang Wei if not stronger. He wondered what such a powerful cultivator was doing here—could it be that the elder had sent another person to finish the job after the other one failed?
This was really bad. It wasn't that Xiang Yu was afraid of the intruder; from his battle sense, he could tell that he could win. But he was afraid that if this one was also killed, the elder might send an even stronger one. He frantically considered his options.
Just as he was thinking of this, the intruder had already flown to his location. The man floated above Xiang Yu who was still in his meditative posture, "Is this the person?" the man asked, more to himself, "Well, no matter." He raised his sword, which started emitting a soft blue glow that quickly grew violent and crackled like lightning. He then made a downward slash.
A burst of energy left from his sword, coming down towards Xiang Yu who remained in his position, seemingly unaware. The slash landed on his location and dust and debris rose in a violent cloud. The man observed his work for a moment before slowly descending to the ground. When he landed at the location, confusion crossed his face. "Where did he go?" he asked as he noticed that there was no one where he had hit.
In the next second, he felt an incoming attack from behind. He quickly turned around, blocking the attack. Sparks flew from both swords as they met, but he easily lost out in strength, being thrown several meters back across the ground. He stared at Xiang Yu who was approaching him with his sword raised, "You!" he stammered in shock as he tried to rise from the ground, "It was you, you're the one who killed Wang Wei."
"Wang Wei? Was that his name?" Xiang Yu spoke coldly.
"It really was you," the man's eyes widened in realization. He then reached to his pocket, but before he could do anything, Xiang Yu instantly appeared before him.
"No you don't," he spoke as he sliced the man's head clean off. Xiang Yu thought to himself that there was no way he would let the man use his trump card.
As he observed the man's body lying on the ground, he reflected that he had been really nervous. He hadn't expected the man to actually attack him from the air; he had to wait for him to come to the ground so he could attack. This man didn't seem as overconfident as the other one, as he instantly tried to use his trump card when he realized that he couldn't win. If he had realized that when he was still in the air, he would've flown away and revealed Xiang Yu's secret. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
He then looked at the body as he wondered what to do now. The elder seemed to have a way of knowing if his subordinates were killed so he was probably going to send an even stronger opponent. Xiang Yu just sighed deeply. He hoped his master and junior sister would return soon; otherwise, he didn't know what would happen to him.
He then searched the man's body, looking for anything of value. After searching thoroughly, he found a similar talisman like the one he had gotten from Wang Wei and he kept it. He then found some pills—one of them was a foundation building pill and the others were mostly demonic pills which he instantly burned with his void flame, watching as they turned to ash.
He also found some martial arts manuals, but they were mostly demonic techniques which he had no interest in cultivating. After getting rid of the demonic techniques, he was left with a single manual: [High-grade Lightning Strike]. After inspecting it, it seemed to be a sword technique combined with some footwork that used lightning to deal fast and deadly strikes. It appeared to be the technique the man had used to attack him.
...
Outside the heaven testing pagoda,
Elder Mei Zhiyuan's expression suddenly turned sour, squeezing the glass he was holding until it shattered. He was sweating greatly, his face covered in disbelief and fury. How was that possible? The person he had sent had died. It hadn't even been that long since he sent him—how did he fall so fast? He wondered if there really was some sort of protective formation guarding the pavilion that he had overlooked.
The other cultivators nearby seemed to notice his strange mood. Their curious glances forced him to straighten himself and calm down, wiping away the cold sweat that had formed on his brow.
"Do you think the elder is jealous of Li Yao?" whispered one disciple to another.
"Who knows," came the noncommittal reply.
"Well, it's understandable. Li Yao has just reached the eightieth floor while none of his disciples have even entered the rankings."
The elder heard these whispers but he didn't say anything. He thought to himself that it seemed he would have to abandon the plan of killing Xiang Yu for now; he didn't want to lose any more of his men.
He then suddenly had a smile creep across his face as he observed Li Yao's name rise in the rankings. He thought to himself that it didn't make much difference if he let Xiang Yu live for a few days. After all, once their mission was complete, everyone was going to die anyway...
After Xiang Yu got rid of the attacker's body, he got back to training. He also made sure to have his qi sense on the lookout so he could make a run for it in case someone even more powerful came. Instead of continuing to practice the elemental palm techniques, Xiang Yu first studied the new Lightning Strike technique.
This was because he wanted to see if he could get some insights on the lightning element by practicing the technique. That way, he would be able to create a sixth elemental palm technique to add to his growing collection.
Studying the Lightning Strike technique wasn't that hard. Xiang Yu already had some knowledge of the sword, so it was quite easy to pick up the basic movements and energy pathways. The illustrations in the manual showed precise positions for channeling the lightning energy through the blade, which he followed carefully.
He then spent some time circulating his qi, trying to transform his pure qi into the lightning element. Unlike the other elements he had transformed before, the lightning element was really hard to get the hang of. He guessed it was because it was a mutated element, different from the primary five elements.
When he finally succeeded in the transformation, he felt the violent lightning qi flowing through his qi pathways. The qi was quite unstable and was even hurting him when he tried to channel it, causing him to have to refine it even more. His meridians tingled painfully as the energy coursed through them, like countless needles pricking him from within.
After a few more hours of concentrated effort, he finally had the hang of it. He felt the lightning qi flowing softly through his meridians. When it finally spread to his sword, the energy showed its true nature, sparkling and crackling violently along the blade's edge. He was very pleased with the progress—he could finally control the lightning.
Still, he felt that it was quite dangerous. If he didn't handle the unstable lightning correctly, it might explode and hurt him from within. This meant that he needed more practice to master it compared to the other techniques. Still, the raw power was really impressive, he could feel that just this single technique could probably deal more damage than all the others combined.
He then summoned his system to see if the technique had been registered:
[High-grade Lightning Strike: Beginner (5/100)]
Seeing as it was registered into the system, he moved on to the fun part. Now that he had learned how to transform his qi into lightning, it was time to create the lightning palm technique. After doing it so many times with the other elements, he was already used to the elemental palm technique template, just replacing a few values. After trying it a few times, he succeeded. He was now able to infuse lightning qi into his palm to attack.
As he observed his glowing blue and silver palm that crackled every now and then, sending small arcs of energy between his fingers, he thought to himself that the lightning element was really destructive. He needed more practice to make sure that it didn't hurt him when using. If he managed to completely master the element, it would be quite powerful.
[High-grade Lightning Palm: Beginner (5/100)]
...
Xiang Yu continued practicing the elemental palm techniques throughout the night. As for the lightning strike sword technique, Xiang Yu was already quite versed in the sword itself, so the only thing he needed to work on was just the lightning element itself, which he was already working on through the lightning palm technique.
He continued his practice until it was finally reset time:
[Body Refining: 11th Layer (180/11,000) (+40/11,000)]
[Qi Gathering: 2nd Layer (150/200) (+50/200)]
[Mind: Level 4 (124/4000) (+40/4000)]
[Transcendent Dao Body: Level 1 (12/1,000,000) (+2/1,000,000)]
[Enlightenment: High (357/3000) (+23/3000)]
[Spirit Flame: Abyssal Void Flame: 6th Grade (2535/40,000) (+5/40,000)]
[High-grade Lightning Strike & Palm: Beginner (10/100) (+10/100)]
[High-grade Fire Palm: Beginner (50/100) (+10/100)]
[High-grade Water, Wood, Earth, Metal Palm: Beginner (30/100) (+10/100)]
[Cook: 5th Grade (420/500) (+20/500)]
[Experience Points Doubled]
[Cook: 5th Grade (420/500) → 4th Grade (0/600)]
[High-grade Water, Wood, Earth, Metal Palm: Beginner (30/100) → Beginner (60/100)]
[High-grade Fire Palm: Beginner (50/100) → Minor Success (0/200)]
[High-grade Lightning Strike & Palm: Beginner (10/100) → Beginner (20/100)]
[Spirit Flame: Abyssal Void Flame: 6th Grade (2535/40,000) → 6th Grade (5070/40,000)]
[Enlightenment: High (357/3000) → High (714/3000)]
[Transcendent Dao Body: Level 1 (12/1,000,000) → Level 1 (24/1,000,000)]
[Mind: Level 4 (124/4000) → Level 4 (248/4000)]
[Qi Gathering: 2nd Layer (150/200) → 3rd Layer (0/300)]
[Body Refining: 11th Layer (180/11,000) → 11th Layer (360/11,000)]
Instantly, Xiang Yu felt the qi in his body rise for a second before settling down. He had broken through to the third stage of qi gathering.
He then felt a huge wave of insights flowing into his mind as his cooking broke through to the 4th grade. The knowledge poured directly into his consciousness—ingredients he didn't know about, different ways to manipulate qi and spirit flame, thousands of recipes for 4th grade spirit foods as well as hundreds of recipes for special foods with unique cultivation benefits. Each recipe appeared in his mind, complete with preparation methods and the precise qi manipulation required.
He was very impressed with the insights he had gained and couldn't wait to try them out in the morning.
He then noticed that his transcendent dao body had actually increased by two points. He guessed that it was probably because he had managed to transform his qi into lightning. Although the increase was small, it was quite impressive that such a stat could increase at all.
He observed that his enlightenment was almost reaching the thousands and it wouldn't be long before it broke through to the Superior realm. After the high realm was superior, sacred, then divine, following the same grading as techniques. Xiang Yu wondered what realm his junior sister was in.
Speaking of improvements, his abyssal void flame had also improved quite a bit, reaching five thousand points. It wouldn't be long before it broke through to the fifth grade. He couldn't wait to see what improvements it would bring.
As for the techniques, they all had improved quite a bit, and the fire palm had even reached the minor success stage. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶
Satisfied with the progress, he summoned his full system screen to admire the comprehensive view of his growth:
[Name: Xiang Yu]
[Realm: Body: 11th Layer (360/11,000); Spirit: Qi Gathering 3rd Layer (0/300); Mind: Level 4 (248/4000)]
[Species: Human]
[Spiritual Root: Medium-Grade Omni-Element]
[Physique: Transcendent Dao Body: Level 1 (24/1,000,000)]
[Enlightenment: High (714/3000)]
[Battle Instinct: Mortal (100,000/100,000)]
[Spirit Flame: Abyssal Void Flame: 6th Grade (5070/40,000)]
[Professions: Cook: 4th Grade (0/600)]
[Techniques: High-grade Lightning Strike & Palm: Beginner (20/100); High-grade Fire Palm: Minor Success (0/200); High-grade Water, Wood, Earth, Metal Palm: Beginner (60/100)]
[Scriptures: ]
[System Function: Double Exp (Cooldown: 24hrs); Fusion]
Xiang Yu was very satisfied to see that his system panel wasn't so barren anymore and was filled with techniques, high-level ones no less. The only disappointing thing was his empty scriptures section. He wondered how to get more scriptures but decided to dismiss the thoughts as it was time to cultivate the mind.