Chapter 201: 5th Grade Formations
This time, while having lunch, Xiang Yu was surprised to see both his martial aunt and junior sister joining them at the table. Unlike what he had expected, they weren’t buried under mountains of paperwork and cleanup duties.
"Weren’t you guys busy dealing with the cleanup?" he asked.
"Yeah, we would be," Li Yao said between bites. "Luckily, the other sects decided to help us out before they left."
Xiang Yu nodded in understanding, though a knowing smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. Well, they had all participated in the battle, so it would be rude of them to just let the Azure Cloud Sect handle all the aftermath alone. Still, he couldn’t help but think they probably did it out of fear rather than courtesy. They must’ve feared offending Li Yao after witnessing her overwhelming display of power. They probably wouldn’t have cared much about helping with cleanup if she hadn’t demonstrated such terrifying strength.
He thought to himself that with the alliance from the five major sects and Li Yao’s formidable strength, their Azure Cloud Sect wasn’t that far from becoming the undisputed power at the top of the eastern continent.
"Wait, they already left?" he asked.
"Yeah, they just left," Elder Huang replied this time.
"Don’t worry, I’ve already finalized all the contracts. I’ve even received our first batch of supplies." She reached into her robes and handed him a spatial ring.
Xiang Yu smiled as he accepted the ring. He had almost forgotten to ask for the first batch of supplies. Luckily, his martial aunt was as reliable as ever.
"Martial aunt, didn’t you say you would have your wedding if we survived?" Li Yao spoke up suddenly, her eyes sparkling as she looked between Elder Huang and Elder Guo.
"I kept my promise, didn’t I?" Li Yao said, smiling mischievously.
She thought to herself that she wanted to see the wedding ceremony, she felt she could learn a thing or two for her own future wedding. It wouldn’t be far off, after all. She just had to conquer the world and make everyone submit to her senior brother like he had told her to do.
[He did not say that,] the Empress’s voice cut through her thoughts with exasperation, but Li Yao ignored her.
Elder Huang’s cheeks flushed slightly pink as she glanced toward Elder Guo, who was trying to look nonchalant while eating. "I wanted to have it tomorrow, but we’ve decided to move it to the day after tomorrow," she said.
"Why the change?" Xiang Yu asked.
"I’ve reached a critical point in my cultivation..." she began.
"You mean..." Li Yao’s eyes widened.
"That’s right, I’ll be attempting to enter the Golden Core realm tomorrow," Elder Huang announced.
"Congratulations!" Both Xiang Yu and Li Yao immediately stood up from their seats to offer their sincere congratulations, their faces bright with genuine happiness for her achievement.
"Thanks," she smiled warmly, touched by their enthusiasm and support.
Xiang Yu thought to himself that it was really surprising. He hadn’t expected his martial aunt to have already reached this level of cultivation. He didn’t use his qi sense on them much during daily interactions, so he hadn’t been keeping track of their exact cultivation progress.
"What are you so surprised about? With your spiritual food, I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner," Elder Guo spoke.
Xiang Yu thought that it made sense. Using props when cultivating really did make advancement much easier. Fourth-grade spirit food was even useful to Soul Formation experts, so it was indeed reasonable for a Core Formation cultivator to breakthrough to Golden Core quickly after consistently eating such high-quality meals. In fact, at her consumption rate, the progression could be considered quite slow.
Elder Guo smiled internally. He thought to himself, "Hmph, so what if you’ve reached the Golden Core stage? I’ve also secretly broken through to the Core Formation realm. It won’t be long before I also enter the Golden Core stage." His inner monologue continued with satisfaction, "By that time, you won’t be able to bully me anymore at night." But the more the thought lingered in his mind, the more his confidence faltered. "Well, maybe not as easily"
After they finished their meal, Xiang Yu reached into his sleeve and retrieved several space rings. "These are today’s resources, handle them just like usual" He spoke as he handed them to his martial aunt.
"These should help with your breakthrough," he said as he handed some pills to her.
He had created all types of pills for their various trading agreements, so he happened to have a couple specifically designed to assist with breaking through to the Golden Core stage.
As his martial aunt carefully stored the pills away, Xiang Yu suddenly remembered something important. The Golden Core stage breakthrough came with a heavenly tribulation. He made a mental note to refine a fifth-grade pill specifically for helping with the tribulation.
He thought to himself that although there were other lower-level pills available that could provide some help during tribulation, his martial aunt deserved nothing but the best.
...
After dinner, Xiang Yu focused his attention on formation making. It was finally time to upgrade the sect’s defense once again. He didn’t want an incident like before to happen again.
He decided to create two fifth-grade formations, one for attack and one for defense.
Settling into his workspace, Xiang Yu carefully began crafting the formations. His hands moving carefully as he etched the blueprint patterns into the formation discs. The process was mentally exhausting, demanding his complete concentration as spiritual energy flowed from his spiritual sea into the formation disks. Time passed as he worked tirelessly, sweat beading on his forehead from the intense focus required for such high-level formations.
After what felt like an eternity of meticulous crafting, he was finally finished. As always, the results didn’t disappoint him at all, in fact, they exceeded his expectations by a considerable margin.
...
Author’s Corner
"He didn’t want an incident like before to happen again." referring to when the soul clone breached the sect formation.