After confirming the food was working for Elder Guo, everyone finally allowed themselves to indulge. The tension that had gripped them dissolved, replaced by the simple pleasure of enjoying an extraordinary meal.
Elder Huang eagerly scooped up a generous spoonful, her eyes gleaming with anticipation. "You have no idea how much I've missed this," she declared. "It's been exactly one hundred hours, fifty minutes, and twenty seconds since I last had Xiang Yu's cooking. If not for my high mind level, I would have gone into withdrawal and suffered qi deviation."
When the first morsel touched her tongue, she froze. She had expected improvement, certainly, but this? This was an entirely different realm of culinary mastery. The flavors cascaded through her senses like a waterfall of pure spiritual energy. She wanted to ask how he had achieved such profound advancement in his cooking, but her hand moved with a will of its own, continuously delivering more food to her eager mouth.
A warm sensation spread throughout her body as the spiritual energy permeated her meridians. This wasn't the gentle enhancement she had experienced before—this was a substantial, powerful surge. Her core swelled with qi, expanding noticeably as it filled to capacity and then pushed beyond its former boundaries. In one breathtaking moment, she broke through to the third layer of Core Formation realm.
But Elder Huang didn't pause to savor this achievement. The food before her demanded her complete attention, and she continued eating with single-minded focus.
Elder Guo ate in contemplative silence. He could feel his cultivation advancing rapidly—he had already reached the fifth layer of Qi Gathering and stood on the precipice of another breakthrough. His disciple's cooking was truly remarkable, far exceeding his expectations. He wondered if he had possessed this resource earlier, could he have saved the Sect Master?
Li Yao and the Empress were experiencing their own joyful revelations. Unlike the others, Li Yao's Heavenly-grade spiritual root, coupled with the Empress's guidance, allowed her to absorb one hundred percent of the meal's properties. She had already broken through to the sixth layer of Core Formation, and her core continued to fill rapidly.
[This is good stuff,] the Empress remarked appreciatively within Li Yao's consciousness. [I'm starting to think that I should have chosen your senior brother instead of you,] she added teasingly.
"Hmph! Do you think you would ever have met him if not for me?" Li Yao retorted as she continued to savor each bite.
For Xiang Yu himself, the experience was less dramatic. He consumed his food, pausing periodically to circulate the absorbed energy before resuming his meal. While the others experienced breakthrough after breakthrough, he simply accumulated power steadily, his medium-grade spiritual root limiting the rate at which he could process the spiritual energy.
When everyone had finally finished eating, Xiang Yu extended his qi sense discreetly, assessing the results of his culinary efforts. Elder Huang had advanced from the second layer of Core Formation to the fourth—an astounding leap that made him a little envious.
This was the stark difference that superior spiritual roots made: she could advance multiple layers in a higher realm while he struggled to reach the halfway point in a much lower realm.
Shifting his attention to his master, Xiang Yu noted with satisfaction that Elder Guo had progressed from a mortal state to the seventh layer of Qi Gathering. It seemed the rumors of his exceptional talent were true—with just a few more quality meals, he would likely rebuild his Foundation, perhaps even today since it was still morning. Xiang Yu still had lunch and dinner to prepare, though perhaps not in such lavish quantities.
Finally, he turned his qi sense toward Li Yao, detecting no cultivation whatsoever. "Hmph, like I would believe that," he thought skeptically. Just as this thought crossed his mind, their eyes met, and she smiled knowingly at him. Xiang Yu returned the smile, inwardly acknowledging her perceptiveness. "A genius is really different," he thought. "She felt my qi sense instantly."
"Martial nephew," Elder Huang broke the comfortable silence, her gaze sharp with curiosity. "I noticed you circulating your energy earlier. Can you cultivate now?" she asked directly.
"Here it comes," Xiang Yu thought, but he had already prepared for this inevitable question.
...
"I actually wanted to talk to martial aunt about this," Xiang Yu spoke.
Li Yao's eyes widened with shock. "Senior brother can cultivate?" Disbelief colored her voice as she instantly materialized beside him, her movement so swift it appeared like teleportation. Without hesitation, she placed her hand against his chest, brows furrowed in concentration.
She hadn't sensed any cultivation from him earlier, but perhaps she hadn't been paying proper attention. Determined to confirm her suspicions, she decided to inject a thin stream of qi into his body to trace its path through his meridians. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢
[I wouldn't recommend that,] the Empress cautioned within her mind, but the warning came too late. Li Yao had already sent a pulse of energy into Xiang Yu's body.
Her expression shifted suddenly from curiosity to confusion. "That's strange, I can't sense the qi I sent in anymore," she murmured, perplexed by the unusual phenomenon. Undeterred, she attempted a second injection of energy, only to gasp in pain as her own qi rebounded forcefully. "Ouch!" she yelped, snatching her hand away as though burned.
Xiang Yu immediately reached for her withdrawn hand, concern etched across his features. "Is everything okay?" he asked, genuine worry in his voice.
"Umm, yeah," she replied uncertainly, still nursing her tingling fingers. "What was that?" she asked.
[Hey, I told you to stop, but you didn't listen,] the Empress chided within her consciousness. A resigned sigh followed. [It's some sort of high-level concealment technique.]
Li Yao's surprise intensified at this revelation. [Don't ask me about it because I don't know either,] the Empress added, catching Li Yao completely off guard.
This unprecedented confession from the Empress—who typically maintained an air of omniscience—left Li Yao deeply unsettled. Usually, the empress would tell her that she couldn't answer at the moment, never admitting outright that she didn't know. What could possibly make even the Empress acknowledge that she didn't know?
"Actually, I managed to cultivate the twenty techniques you gave me and unlock the physique you were talking about," Xiang Yu continued.
The room fell utterly silent as everyone processed his statement. Elder Huang rose swiftly from her position, excitement overtaking her as she grasped Xiang Yu's hands in her own.
"Is it true? Is it true?" she asked breathlessly, her eyes shining with fervor. "Show me, show me!" Her voice trembled with barely contained enthusiasm.
Xiang Yu gently extracted his hands from her eager grip, his expression turning serious. "Actually, this is what I wanted to talk to you about," he began cautiously. "The physique doesn't seem to be as we had expected."
Elder Huang's enthusiasm dimmed slightly, replaced by confusion. "What? It's not?"
"The physique I unlocked doesn't help much in cultivation," he admitted. "It just gave me a trash spiritual root."
Elder Huang's expression fell at this news, her earlier excitement dimming visibly. Xiang Yu noted her reaction with satisfaction—while he'd resolved to reveal some of his abilities, he still had no intention of exposing his true power.
Being perceived as too strong might lead to unwanted responsibilities and attention, exactly what he sought to avoid.
"But I still got something else," he added, watching as Elder Huang's interest immediately rekindled.
"Something else?" Her eyes brightened once more, the disappointment vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.
"That's right," Xiang Yu confirmed. He reached into his spatial ring and extracted a sheet of paper. Closing his eyes, he channeled his concentration, focusing his spiritual energy.
For several moments, nothing appeared to happen. Then gradually, intricate patterns began forming on the paper's surface, glowing softly as they etched themselves into the material.
"That is..." Elder Huang's voice trailed off, her eyes widening in astonishment.
When the process completed, she snatched the paper from his hands, examining it with the intensity of a jeweler inspecting a rare gem. "A ninth-grade explosion talisman?" she exclaimed, disbelief coloring her voice.
"That's right," Xiang Yu nodded. "The physique didn't help much with cultivation, but it makes me a genius in secondary professions. That's how I was able to improve my cooking so fast."
Elder Huang nodded slowly, as if pieces of a complex puzzle were finally falling into place. She quickly retrieved several papers from her own spatial ring, arranging them meticulously on the table. "It makes sense now," she murmured, her focus entirely on the documents before her. "No wonder... but how does this work..." Her voice trailed off as she became absorbed in her analysis, seemingly forgetting everyone else's presence.
Elder Guo approached Xiang Yu, leaning in confidentially. "Your martial aunt is a researcher," he explained with a bemused smile. "She sometimes enters trances like this, so don't mind her." Xiang Yu nodded.
Suddenly, Elder Guo's expression shifted as realization dawned. "Wait—you can make talismans? Was it you that caused that huge explosion?"
Xiang Yu scratched his cheek awkwardly, "Yeah, it was probably me," he admitted sheepishly. "I'll go bury the hole."
Elder Guo wrapped an arm around Xiang Yu's shoulders, his laughter filling the room. "Hahaha, you can do that later!" His grip tightened affectionately as pride swelled within him. To think that his disciple had created the powerful explosion that had disrupted the demon authority, indirectly saving him in the process!
"Ahh, I've figured it out now!" Elder Huang suddenly exclaimed, emerging from her scholarly trance. "The scrolls say that the one who can unlock this physique will be 'at the top of the world,'" she announced, her voice charged with academic excitement. "But they don't state how."
Everyone's attention focused on her as she continued her explanation.
"To the untrained ear, this might sound like being the strongest. After all, in a cultivation world, being 'the top of the world' typically means being the most powerful," she elaborated, pacing slightly as she laid out her theory. "But not in this instance."
A satisfied smile spread across her face as she reached her conclusion. "What this scroll means is being 'top of the world' literally. In a cultivation world, being 'top of the world' could also mean being above the cultivators themselves," she declared triumphantly. "And who's above cultivators? Alchemists, weapon refiners, formation masters!"
She gestured excitedly toward Xiang Yu. "If you have mastery in all these professions, you can be considered above cultivators since they need these resources to grow stronger. Now it makes sense that the requirements are high comprehension—such is indeed needed to master so many professions!"
Everyone nodded in apparent understanding, seemingly satisfied with her explanation.
"Is what she's saying true?" Li Yao asked the Empress privately.
[Probably. I haven't researched that physique all that much. It was considered a myth where I came from,] the Empress replied.
Despite her response, the Empress harbored deeper suspicions. The explanation sounded logical, but something still felt missing. There was no way cultivators in the immortal realm would pursue this physique merely for secondary profession benefits.
While such skills might indeed place one "above" others in the mortal world, the dynamics were entirely different in the immortal realm, where natural treasures were typically valued over refined ones.
Was she overthinking? Probably not. Her gaze drifted toward Xiang Yu, sensing that the mystery likely centered on him specifically. However, seeing no immediate reason to voice her suspicions, she kept these thoughts to herself for now.
...
In the Wuming Cult,
The sect master sat alone, his face contorted with shock and disbelief. His fingers gripped the armrest of his throne so tightly that the black jade began to crack beneath his strength.
"How is this possible?" he whispered to the empty hall, his voice teetering between rage and bewilderment. "Mei Zhiyuan... my masterpiece... defeated?"
The notion seemed absurd, inconceivable. At full power, Mei Zhiyuan's strength rivaled that of a late-stage Golden Core cultivator. With his regeneration abilities, not even peak Golden Core cultivators should have been able to harm him.
"How could a small-time sect like the Azure Cloud Sword Sect possess a Nascent Soul realm cultivator?"
His mind raced through possibilities, reconstructing his careful plans that had now crumbled to dust. He had discovered a hidden treasure trove of a demonic faction expert from the past—a fortuitous encounter that had changed the trajectory of his life. There, he had first learned about the Demon God and used the resources he'd found to establish himself as the cult leader.
For years—countless, painstaking years—he had traced the whereabouts of the Demon-Sealing Tower. He had sacrificed, schemed, and waited patiently. And when success was finally within his grasp, this unforeseen disaster struck.
His expression hardened as a thought came to mind. "The orthodox faction," he hissed, eyes narrowing with suspicion. "They must be scheming against me."
It made perfect sense. The orthodox faction must have secretly aided the Azure Cloud Sword Sect. How else could such an inconsequential sect have triumphed against his chosen disciple? This wasn't a coincidence—it was a conspiracy.
Slowly, an evil grin spread across his features. "Since that's how they want to play," he whispered, a dark chuckle rising from his throat, "they shouldn't blame me for being ruthless."
His laughter echoed through the empty hall.
...
In the Immortal Realm,
A beautiful young woman strolled through an exquisite field where high-grade herbs that mortal cultivators would kill for grew as mere decorative plants.
She approached an open lake—though calling it merely a lake would be a grave understatement. This was a massive spirit spring being used casually as a lake. Its surface shimmered with multicolored energy, occasionally releasing wisps of pure spiritual essence into the air.
At the edge of this extraordinary body of water sat an elderly man, fishing rod in hand, his expression serene and detached from worldly concerns. Despite his apparent age, an unmistakable aura of immeasurable power emanated from him.
"Uncle, have you got it yet?" the young woman asked, her melodious voice carrying both respect and impatience.
The old man didn't turn to look at her. "Not yet. The heavenly records seem to have disappeared," he replied, his voice calm.
"You know that I really need this flame, right?" She stepped closer, her perfectly composed face showing a hint of urgency. "It's the only way I can increase my power to compete with the other geniuses from rival factions. Do you want our Heavenly Palace to be looked down upon?"
The elder man simply stroked his beard, internally sighing at youth's eternal haste. "Kids these days," he thought to himself.
Without warning, he flicked his wrist, sending a small object arcing through the air toward her. "That's the last known location of the flame. You can start from there," he stated, immediately returning his attention to his fishing as if she had already departed.
The young woman caught the object with perfect grace. After examining it carefully, she bowed respectfully and turned to leave.
"It's hard to pry into matters related to the Heavenly Dao," the old man murmured to himself once she had gone. "Even someone like me, who should be able to investigate heavenly secrets, remains restricted."
His gaze drifted across the shimmering waters, concern briefly crossing his ancient features. "I hope the other party is just using a treasure to conceal their destiny. Otherwise..."
His musings were suddenly interrupted as his fishing rod bent sharply. "Oh, I caught something!" he exclaimed, his face lighting up with childlike delight as he reeled in his catch.
[VOLUME 1 END]
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