Chapter 169: Half Blood
As soon as Xiang Yu’s consciousness returned to his physical form, he felt a wave of energy sweep through his body. His body felt as though it were engulfed in flames—not from pain, but from the dual evolutions happening simultaneously: his Chaos Body advancing to level two while his bloodlines upgraded to half-blood status.
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Parts of his body seemed to disintegrate before reconstructing themselves, molecules breaking apart and reforming even more powerful. Though such a process would have been excruciating to others, for Xiang Yu it barely registered as discomfort. After enduring his daily bloodline stimulation ritual, this transformation felt almost gentle by comparison.
When the Chaos Body’s evolution completed, knowledge flowed into his mind. As usual, his physical strength and energy regeneration had increased significantly. They had almost doubled making him feel lighter.
More intriguingly, he’d gained immunity to another element: ice. He wondered briefly if this followed some predetermined sequence, occurred randomly, or perhaps resulted from absorbing Xiuying’s ice energy earlier. With insufficient information to reach a conclusion, he set the question aside for later.
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Next came his bloodline transformation. Hot energy surged through his veins as both dragon and phoenix essences saturated his system. The process continued until every drop of ordinary human blood had been replaced by these bloodlines, turning him into something fundamentally different from his previous self. But surprisingly, he didn’t feel any different than he had before.
The phoenix bloodline’s benefits manifested immediately. His affinity with fire increased dramatically. Raising his hand, Xiang Yu watched it transform into pure flame—no flesh or bone, just living fire responding to his will. He attempted to extend this transformation to his entire body but discovered his control wasn’t yet refined enough. He noted that complete elemental transformation would require more practice.
His regenerative capabilities had improved exponentially, and he could feel his enlightenment expanding, insights flowing more naturally into his consciousness.
The dragon bloodline’s contributions proved equally impressive. His body toughened significantly, he could feel his strength increasing with each passing moment until it finally stabilized.
Xiang Yu couldn’t help but feel as though something had fundamentally changed in his dragon bloodline. Focusing on his arm, Xiang Yu watched as scales appeared on his skin. Just as he had transformed his hand to flame, dragon scales now emerged across his skin, overlapping in perfect formation. Curious about their durability, he retrieved a spirit weapon and struck his arm—gently at first, then with increasing force when the scales showed no damage.
Finally committing his full strength to the test, he swung with maximum power. The blade cleaved cleanly through his arm, severing it completely. Rather than panicking, Xiang Yu observed with interest as flames erupted from the stump, forming a fiery outline that rapidly solidified into a perfectly regenerated limb.
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"I can cut it if I use all my strength," he mused, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "Is it weak, or am I strong?" The scales had impressive durability, but clearly had their limitations. Like the phoenix transformation, mastering this ability would require more practice.
Continuing his assessment, Xiang Yu noted that his soul attribute had finally crossed into the thousands. Curiously, he hadn’t observed any visible growth in the infant soul during his earlier visit to the spiritual sea. He wasn’t too bothered about it though, maybe its development had shifted from physical to internal.
His spiritual root had also progressed well, finally going beyond the halfway point. He couldn’t wait to see what changes this would bring after advancing. Yet, he couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed.
After the next reset, this attribute would likely stagnate again without a method to actively improve it. Still, he refused to dwell on this limitation. His cultivation speed was already proceeding at a remarkable pace (cope).
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His Qi Gathering was progressing remarkably well, but Xiang Yu had largely dismissed its relevance to his current development. The qi realms contributed minimally to his overall strength at this stage, unlike his body cultivation which stood poised to break through to the fourteenth layer after the next reset. At that point, he would basically be a monster?
Speaking of monsters, he wondered which realm Li Yao was in after her departure? Knowing her, he wouldn’t be shocked if it turned out she was already in the Nascent Soul realm.
His Transcendent Dao Physique continued developing steadily, though it remained distant from advancement. Would the Chaos Body reach level three before the Transcendent Body managed to hit level two?
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The Abyssal Void Flame had begun accelerating its development once more, but his estimations suggested the mysterious creature he’d seen within it would likely remain dormant even after entering the fourth grade. Since fourth grade still fell within the mid-levels, it probably wouldn’t trigger any fundamental changes. True awakening would likely require reaching the high-level grades. Since that was so far away, he decided not to think about it.
His techniques had improved impressively even though the experience points reset upon exiting the battle simulations. His Sacred-level Enlightenment proved its worth, allowing him to grasp complex concepts and integrate them into his fighting style even without the muscle memory. This accomplishment was particularly noteworthy since techniques typically relied almost entirely on physical conditioning. Still, Xiang Yu found himself dissatisfied with his progress rate. He would need to push himself even harder.
Surprisingly, despite the low exp gain, his cooking skill had broken through to the second grade. Insights into second-grade spirit food flooded his mind. Xiang Yu was quite surprised by the insights received. In the higher realms, the difference between each realm was like heaven and earth. Second grade cooking was an entirely different realm compared to third grade. He could only imagine how revolutionary first-grade cooking would be when he eventually reached it.
With his current culinary mastery, if publicly known, he could easily be hailed as a god of cooking. Even high-level experts would have to pay their respects to him. But Xiang Yu harbored no desire for such recognition, that would just be begging for trouble.
His professional skills continued advancing promisingly. Alchemy, Formation Master, and Blacksmith would all probably break through after the next reset. Talisman Making might advance even sooner—perhaps before the day’s end. His newly acquired professions, Spirit Farmer and Medicine, had finally reached eighth grade, unlocking valuable insights that made them finally useful.
Closing the system interface with satisfaction, he noted his body had stabilized from its growth. A confident smile spread across his face as he decided to test his newfound strength. Feeling particularly bold, he opted to challenge the simulation of peak Golden Core Meiling—surely it wouldn’t prove too difficult after such comprehensive improvements. With all his enhancements combined, his combat capability had increased nearly tenfold from his previous state.