As soon as Xiang Yu stepped into his spiritual sea, the soul infant rushed toward him, circling around with unmistakable joy. Its tiny form bobbed through the luminous currents, radiating childlike excitement at his arrival. He reached out, gently patting its tiny head.
"This time, I won't be cultivating with you," he announced, his tone apologetic but firm.
The infant's expression immediately crumpled, its previously jubilant features morphing into profound disappointment. The transformation was so dramatic that Xiang Yu felt an unexpected pang of guilt.
"I'm really sorry, but I have to do something else today," he explained, studying the infant's crestfallen face. "You understand me, right?"
Xiang Yu reasoned that since they were fundamentally connected—the infant being essentially a manifestation of his own soul—it should comprehend his necessity. Still, he recognized that the soul wasn't yet mature enough to properly process such nuance. It possessed understanding but lacked emotional development.
To his surprise, the infant's expression shifted again, determination replacing disappointment. Its miniature features hardened with resolve, as if accepting a challenge.
"Just practice by yourself this time," Xiang Yu encouraged, "I'll visit you later."
As his consciousness withdrew from the spiritual sea and returned to his physical form, Xiang Yu couldn't suppress a deep sigh. Though the infant was literally a part of him, he still experienced an inexplicable sense of guilt at always leaving it alone.
In the next moment, he felt his mind experience points incrementing slowly. A smile tugged at his lips—it seemed the little guy was quite the hard worker. "Now it's time for me to work hard as well," he thought, his gaze drifting to the boar floating aimlessly in the spirit spring beside him.
He swam through the luminous waters and carefully lifted the creature, its substantial weight barely registering against his enhanced strength. With deliberate movements, he carried the animal out of the spring and placed it on the dry stone floor of the cavern.
After his farmer experience had doubled for the first time, Xiang Yu had gained numerous insights into agricultural practices. He'd discovered that farming wasn't limited to crop cultivation but encompassed animal husbandry as well. Though he hadn't obtained specific methods for creating spirit beasts, he'd acquired fundamental knowledge about domestication and animal care.
Now he wanted to confirm one particular piece of information. Laying the boar on its back, his eyes widened in surprise. The creature's belly displayed a deep blue coloration that contrasted starkly with its predominantly brownish hide. This unusual pigmentation hadn't been present before.
Intrigued, he activated his fifth-grade appraisal ability:
[Name: Zero]
[Species: Wild Boar]
[Status: Poisoned (Qi-Poisoning)]
[Info: Subject zero of Xiang Yu's spirit beast making experiment]
Xiang Yu was initially impressed by the enhanced capabilities of his fifth-grade appraisal. It had finally evolved into a genuine assessment tool. At this level, he suspected he could probably appraise other cultivators now—something he made a mental note to test later.
More importantly, the appraisal confirmed his growing suspicion. The boar wasn't transforming into a spirit beast as he'd hoped—it was suffering from qi poisoning. According to the agricultural knowledge he'd gained, animals that remained in qi-rich environments without the natural ability to process spiritual energy were susceptible to this condition.
Qi poisoning occurred when spiritual energy attached itself to creatures unable to properly absorb it, resulting in meridian blockages. If left untreated, the condition could prove fatal.
While Xiang Yu now understood the diagnosis, his newly acquired knowledge didn't extend to treatment protocols. The farming profession had taught him only identification fundamentals—the expected next step would be consulting a specialized veterinarian. But with no access to such experts, he decided to attempt treatment himself.
"After all," he thought with confidence, "how hard could it possibly be?"
...
Quite hard, apparently.
After numerous failed attempts, Xiang Yu stared at the ailing boar with mounting frustration. The creature's condition was deteriorating despite his best efforts—its breathing had grown shallow, and the unnatural blue discoloration had spread beyond its belly, now creeping up its sides in vein-like patterns.
He'd tried everything he could conceive. The healing pills—even seventh-grade ones—had proven not only ineffective but actively harmful, their concentrated qi further aggravating the poisoning. In desperation, he'd even attempted a crude surgical intervention, making a small incision to release the excess energy, but quickly abandoned this approach when the boar's distressed squeals echoed throughout the cavern. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂
Running his fingers through his hair, Xiang Yu mentally cataloged his previous failures.
Then, a moment of inspiration struck him. His eyes widened as he recalled a particular talisman blueprint stored in his memory—the qi dispersion talisman. This formation was designed to dissipate spiritual energy in an area, primarily used as protection against qi-emission attacks like fireballs and energy projectiles.
With renewed determination, Xiang Yu retrieved a blank talisman paper from his spatial ring. He settled into a cross-legged position, focusing intently on the complex patterns etched in his mind. Spiritual energy then started flowing from his spiritual sea through his meridians and into the paper.
The process took longer than anticipated—nearly five minutes of unbroken concentration. Sixth-grade talismans were significantly more complex than their lower-tier counterparts, requiring intricate layering of energy pathways and stability nodes.
"This should work," he murmured, carefully placing the talisman on the boar's distended stomach.
With a stream of energy, he activated the talisman. A wave of dispersive force radiated outward in a ten-meter sphere, instantly thinning the qi density in the area. Xiang Yu felt the shift as the spiritual pressure around him temporarily diminished, creating a momentary vacuum before the natural energy began flowing back into the space.
He quickly examined the boar, hoping to see improvement. Initially, the blue discoloration seemed to fade slightly, and the animal's breathing eased. But his satisfaction was short-lived. As the ambient qi naturally restored itself, the boar's symptoms returned to their previous severity. The talisman had only affected the external energy, not the qi that had already penetrated the creature's body.
"Of course," Xiang Yu sighed, understanding the limitation. "If a talisman could disperse internal qi, I could render even a Nascent Soul cultivator temporarily powerless just by slapping one on them."
Though the experiment had failed, it had sparked a new avenue of thought. Xiang Yu's gaze drifted to the herbs growing near the spirit spring—specifically to several stalks of "Lightwell Flower," a seventh-grade herb he used for creating healing pills. The luminous plant pulsed with concentrated light energy, its properties focused on infusing bodies with restorative power.
The herb's bright nature suddenly triggered a connection in his mind. With purposeful strides, Xiang Yu approached the plant, carefully selecting the most vibrant specimen. He placed his hand over the glowing blossom and activated an ability he hadn't used in some time.
[Divine Ability: Yin-Yang Harmony]
The effect was immediate and dramatic. The brilliant flower withered before his eyes, its radiance dimming as darkness spread through its petals. The transformation progressed rapidly, the plant's very nature inverting as yin energy overwhelmed its inherent yang properties.
Feeling the familiar drain on his consciousness, Xiang Yu quickly disabled the ability before it could render him unconscious. Even this brief activation had exacted a significant toll—his vision swam momentarily, and his limbs felt suddenly leaden.
After taking several deep breaths to stabilize himself, he examined the transformed herb in his palm. Where once a luminous bloom had radiated healing light, now rested a midnight-black flower that seemed to absorb the ambient glow around it.
Curious about his creation, Xiang Yu activated his appraisal ability:
[Name: Midnight Flower]
[Grade: 7th Grade]
[Effect: Energy absorption]
[Info: A rare special herb that's formed when a Lightwell Flower bathes in yin energy for a long time.]
As soon as he saw the description, Xiang Yu realized his experiment had succeeded. The Lightwell Flower, inherently aligned with the light element, had been fundamentally transformed by his Yin-Yang Harmony divine ability. Where once existed a plant that radiated healing light, he had created its perfect inverse—the Midnight Flower, a dark element herb that absorbed Qi rather than emitting it.
Even now, the midnight-black blossom in his palm seemed to pull in the ambient energy around it, creating a subtle vacuum of spiritual power.
"This should counteract the Qi poisoning perfectly," Xiang Yu thought, examining the flower with satisfaction.
His breakthrough to sixth-grade alchemy had increased his success rate for seventh-grade pills to eighty percent. Although the odds were high, there was still room for failure, especially since he was attempting an entirely new recipe. Cautious by nature, Xiang Yu decided to prepare a backup flower in case his first attempt at crafting a pill failed.
He waited patiently for his depleted energy to recover. Thanks to his soul infant working diligently in his spiritual sea, replenishment came swiftly. When his power had restored to acceptable levels, Xiang Yu activated the Yin-Yang Harmony divine ability again, carefully monitoring the timing to use precisely the correct amount of energy needed. With practiced control, he successfully created a second Midnight Flower without collapsing from exhaustion.
Xiang Yu positioned his alchemy furnace and began preparing the pill. Creating a seventh-grade pill demanded considerable skill and concentration—even with his high success rate, each pill required approximately ten minutes of intensive focus.
Despite the complexity, his first attempt succeeded flawlessly. Given his eighty percent success rate, this wasn't entirely surprising, but considering he was working with an entirely new recipe, the smooth process exceeded his expectations. He had needed to modify the standard healing pill formula to accommodate the Midnight Flower's unique properties. He had anticipated some complications but it seemed he was overthinking it.
Already familiar with the formula, the second pill took only eight minutes—still lengthy by normal standards, but notably faster than his initial attempt. His hands moved carefully through each step of the complex process, his spiritual energy flowing precisely where needed.
"Time to take your medicine," Xiang Yu said, turning toward the boar whose condition had deteriorated even further during his pill refinement.
The animal's breathing had grown shallow and labored, the blue discoloration now covering most of its body in web-like patterns. Xiang Yu carefully approached with one of the dark pills he had mentally designated as "Qi Absorption Pills."
With gentle but firm movements, he pried open the boar's mouth and helped it swallow the medication. The response was immediate and dramatic—the blue pigmentation that had spread across its body began receding at a visible rate. The process started with the fainter areas around its back, gradually working inward toward the brightest blue concentration in its belly. Within seconds, the unnatural coloration had completely disappeared.
"A success," Xiang Yu thought triumphantly as he inspected the now-normalizing boar.
As if responding to his accomplishment, a new entry materialized in his system interface:
[Medicine: 9th Grade (10/100)]
...
Xiang Yu had almost forgotten about the Medicine profession, having struggled to find a way to acquire it for so long. But now, seeing it appear in his system interface, he understood the logic perfectly—he had successfully diagnosed and treated a patient. Like his other self-acquired professions, it arrived without the comprehensive insights that would come from a system-assisted breakthrough. He'd need to wait until the next reset when his experience doubled to gain the complete understanding of its capabilities.
As he contemplated this new development, sudden movement caught his attention. The boar, which had just been healed of its Qi poisoning, began thrashing about in distress. Its stubby legs kicked frantically, and distressed grunts filled the cavern.
"What now?" Xiang Yu muttered, immediately activating his appraisal ability. Surprisingly, the results showed the creature was healthy, contradicting its obvious discomfort.
Moving closer with cautious steps, Xiang Yu observed something extraordinary. The boar was actually absorbing Qi. Actually, it was the Qi Absorption Pill in its stomach that continued functioning even after clearing the toxic energy.
Having depleted the poisonous Qi within the animal, the pill now drew energy from outside the boar's body, causing external qi to flow into the creature.
"The pill has no off switch," Xiang Yu realized, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
He understood there must be a limit to how much qi the pill could absorb, but simply waiting presented a problem. If he allowed the process to continue until the pill reached capacity, external qi would still enter the boar's body on its way to the pill. Without proper pathways to handle this energy, the creature would inevitably develop qi poisoning again, requiring another absorption pill, creating an endless cycle.
One solution would be to let the poisoning recur, then treat it with a lower-grade absorption pill that would absorb less qi. This would indeed solve the problem but Xiang Yu had an even better idea.
He harvested another seventh-grade Lightwell Flower from the spirit vein and began refining a seventh-grade healing pill.
After the pill completed its formation, he approached the distressed boar and gently coaxed the medication into its mouth. The animal swallowed reluctantly, its body immediately going still as the pill's effects began working.
For several seconds, the qi absorption ceased completely. Xiang Yu held his breath, watching intently. Then, to his satisfaction, the absorption resumed—but at a noticeably slower, more controlled rate.
"Did it work?" he wondered, immediately activating his appraisal ability to confirm his theory:
[Name: Zero]
[Realm: Level 1 (Early)]
[Species: Spirit Boar]
[Status: Healthy]
[Info: The first spirit beast made by Xiang Yu. A boar that has evolved to handle spiritual energy]
A triumphant smile spread across Xiang Yu's face as he read the information. His experiment had succeeded.
His solution had been brilliantly simple in hindsight. Since the absorption pill continued drawing external qi through the boar, he had introduced a healing pill to counterbalance this effect. The healing pill provided energy to satisfy the absorption pill's demands, but since the pill had already been filled to some extent, some qi still remained. The remaining healing qi then repaired the boar's internal structures.
As external qi continued flowing through the animal toward the absorption pill, the healing energy restructured the boar's body around these channels, effectively creating permanent qi pathways. Once the healing completed, the boar retained these new pathways—natural conduits that allowed it to absorb spiritual energy instead of being poisoned by it.
The boar was poisoned earlier because it had no way of refining the qi. But now that there were qi pathways, it just needed to imitate how the pill absorbed the qi earlier, since the absorption happened on its body, it wasn't hard for the boar to imitate it while trying to free the qi stuck in its body.
The creature had effectively evolved, transforming from an ordinary animal into a genuine spirit beast capable of absorbing and utilizing qi.
"Quite smart, if I do say so myself," Xiang Yu thought, unable to contain his satisfaction.
Just as he was savoring his success, a system notification materialized before his eyes:
[The [Farmer] profession has evolved into [Spirit Farmer]]
[You have discovered a lost profession, choose a reward]
[1: Upgrade an existing system function]
[2: Unlock a new system function]
...