Chapter 123: Soul [PART 2]
[Realm: Body: 12th Layer (3/12,000); Spirit: Qi Gathering 7th Layer (2/700); Mind: Level 5 (1/5000); Soul: Infant (1/100,000)]
As soon as the new stat appeared in the status screen, a torrent of knowledge flooded Xiang Yu’s mind.
The soul, he now understood, developed through three distinct stages: infant, nascent, and adult. Under normal circumstances, when a cultivator reached the Golden Core stage, their core would migrate to the spiritual sea. There, bathed in nourishing qi, the core would transform into an egg. This egg would gradually absorb qi until it finally hatched, producing an infant soul.
This infant soul would then feed on the eggshell—essentially consuming the Golden Core itself—and advance to the nascent stage, marking the breakthrough to the Nascent Soul realm. However, if a cultivator’s core was damaged or insufficiently powerful, the infant might emerge without adequate nourishment, resulting in a kind of pseudo-Nascent Soul stage.
This was precisely the stage Xiang Yu had unexpectedly entered. Though it didn’t grant him the overwhelming power of a true Nascent Soul cultivator or even that of a genuine pseudo Nascent Soul. All it did was provide some defense against soul attacks.
Ironically, this defense would likely prove ineffective against genuine Nascent Soul realm experts, who were the primary wielders of soul attacks in the first place. At the moment, this advancement seemed practically useless.
But Xiang Yu wasn’t discouraged. The system’s doubling effect was the key—if it continued working on his soul attribute, he might eventually advance to the adult stage. Such progress would render him immune to any soul attacks below the Soul Formation realm, which represented the pinnacle of power in the entire eastern region.
A question nagged at him as he studied the floating infant soul that resembled himself in miniature: what would happen if he reached the Nascent Soul stage without advancing his qi cultivation to the corresponding level? Would he somehow skip ranks to become a true Nascent Soul cultivator?
He sighed, reasoning that it probably wouldn’t work that way. The Nascent Soul realm didn’t rely solely on soul strength—it required mastery of qi as well. At best, he might be able to match such cultivators in pure soul combat, but would still fall short in conventional battle.
Then, a tantalizing possibility dawned on him. If he could learn soul attack techniques, wouldn’t that make him virtually invincible against anyone below the Nascent Soul realm? After all, cultivators at lower stages lacked any form of soul defense. This realization sent a tingle of excitement down his spine.
"I should research this further," he thought, his mind already racing with possibilities. But first, he needed to assess his overall progress. Withdrawing from his spiritual sea, Xiang Yu summoned his system interface to examine what other changes had occurred during the daily reset.
...
The first thing Xiang Yu noticed upon returning to his physical form was the extraordinary power surging through his body. Examining the reset screen, he couldn’t help but feel a rush of satisfaction—his suffering had yielded unprecedented results.
He had earned a staggering one thousand experience points in body refining, his highest single-day gain ever. After doubling, this achievement had propelled him into the twelfth layer of body refining.
As he had anticipated, advancing beyond the tenth layer of body refining represented a threshold similar to crossing a major realm. Though he could still feel his strength increasing incrementally, he intuitively understood that his current self could effortlessly defeat his previous self. While he lacked precise metrics to measure this growth, the sheer sense of power flowing through his veins was undeniable.
His qi cultivation had made equally impressive strides, gaining three hundred points which, after doubling, launched him into the seventh layer of qi refining. This milestone marked his entry into the late stages of qi refinement, bringing him tantalizingly close to the Foundation Building realm. The prospect of such rapid advancement, previously unimaginable, now seemed within reach.
Both his spiritual root and Chaos Body continued their steady improvement. Though he hadn’t discovered a method to directly enhance his spiritual root during daily cultivation, it had nevertheless begun developing at an accelerated pace, with tangible effects on his cultivation efficiency. As for his bloodlines, they had surpassed the halfway point and would reach the common blood level after the next reset—another significant advancement that would further strengthen his foundation.
His various professions showed equally impressive progress. His cooking skill had reached the third grade, bringing with it new insights and recipes. However, as he had anticipated, creating third-grade spirit food remained impossible without access to mid-level herbs or spirit beast ingredients. This limitation drew his gaze toward the boar still swimming aimlessly in the spirit spring beside him. He shook his head in mild disappointment before returning his attention to the status screen.
To his surprise, his appraiser profession had advanced to seventh grade before the reset without him even noticing. The seventh grade was already quite impressive so he found himself eager to discover what additional capabilities the sixth grade might bring.
His talisman-making had broken through to the seventh grade as well, granting him insights into new talisman formulas while improving his mastery of existing ones. The urge to test the destructive potential of a seventh-grade explosion talisman tugged at him, but he suppressed the impulse for now.
A thought occurred to him as he reviewed his progress. He had originally given Li Yao eighth-grade talismans as a personal gift to thank her for providing the bloodlines. Since then, however, he had donated similar talismans to the sect, somewhat diminishing the specialness of his initial offering. Perhaps he should craft some seventh-grade explosion talismans exclusively for her, alongside several hundred for his personal use.
His remaining professions—alchemy, formation mastery, and blacksmithing—hadn’t experienced breakthroughs yet, though they had all surpassed their halfway points and would advance after the next reset. The diversity of his cultivation path proved advantageous; with so many different attributes developing simultaneously, he could expect breakthroughs in at least one area every couple of days, maintaining a constant sense of progress.
The other techniques continued their gradual improvement, though at a slower pace since he wasn’t actively practicing them. While he recognized the need to allocate time for their development, he wasn’t prepared to sacrifice his focus on his professional skills, which remained his most valuable assets in the cultivation world.
With these considerations in mind, Xiang Yu formulated a revised cultivation schedule. The period from reset to dawn would remain dedicated to mind cultivation. Morning until lunch would be devoted to alchemy and blacksmithing.
The afternoon until dinner would focus on formation making and talisman crafting. After dinner, he would continue his bloodline stimulation, painful though it was. Throughout it all, he would continue using his appraisal skill at every opportunity, and his cooking practice would remain integrated with his daily meal preparation.
...
Author’s Note:
What do you guys think about the soul execution?
I didn’t want to make something instantly OP but it still has the potential to be OP.