Chapter 220: More Breakthroughs
Xiang Yu continued anticipating and dodging Li Yao’s relentless attacks fluidly. Each movement she made appeared in his mind before it happened, allowing him to counter it with ease. At one point, her sword sliced through the air toward his neck once again. Without hesitation, he ducked beneath the blade and caught her head firmly in his grip.
"I understand it now,"
Still maintaining his hold on her head, Xiang Yu launched himself upward. His legs rose high above while his hand remained pressed firmly against her skull, positioning her below him. At the peak of his jump, he kicked against the empty air, using the momentum to drive her downward with tremendous force. Li Yao’s face crashed into the ground, creating a deep crater as dirt and stone scattered in all directions around her sunken form.
He thought to himself that he finally understood how this new power worked. It was genuine precognition. It allowed him to see exactly one second into the future. After conducting numerous tests during their sparring, he hadn’t noticed a single incorrect prediction.
This was completely different from the prediction he could perform before, which only showed him the most probable move an opponent might make and could still be wrong. This new ability was actual precognition, showing him precisely what would happen.
From what he had observed, he still hadn’t unlocked everything his maxed battle instinct had to offer. It seemed he needed to continue growing stronger and stronger to unlock more advanced features. He wondered what would happen when he finally unlocked its full potential, could he see a full minute into the future? In life-or-death battles between high-level cultivators, even a single second could determine victory or defeat. No, even a millisecond could mean the difference between life and death.
"Huh!" Xiang Yu suddenly leaped backward several meters from his current position.
In the next second, the exact spot where he had been standing over Li Yao erupted in a massive explosion. Dust and debris came flying in all directions.
As the dust gradually settled and the area of the explosion became visible again, Li Yao emerged from the crater. But this time, she was completely different from before. She looked much older, her features more mature and refined. Her hair had transformed into a brilliant blue color, and her eyes now glowed with the same ethereal blue radiance. Most striking of all was the arrogant expression that had replaced her usual demeanor.
...
She gazed at Xiang Yu from across the battle-scarred terrain, her blue eyes studying him intently.
"You finally showed yourself," Xiang Yu spoke with a confident smile, casually cracking his neck.
But in the very next moment, she was standing directly before him, having crossed the distance in an instant. Her sword was already slicing through the air toward his neck, the blade singing as it cut through the atmosphere.
"Eh? Eh? Eeeh?"
Xiang Yu’s expression shifted to one of genuine surprise as the gleaming blade drew closer and closer to his throat. His eyes widened in shock at her impossible speed, clearly caught off guard.
But just before the razor-sharp edge could make contact with his vulnerable flesh, his expression transformed completely. A knowing smile spread across his features.
"Tsukamaeta!"
Instantly, his entire body underwent a transformation. Scales erupted across every inch of his skin, covering him from head to toe in a protective armor. The sword collided with his now-hardened flesh with a sharp metallic clang, as if striking solid steel rather than human skin. The impact sent vibrations through Li Yao’s weapon and up into her hand, the force transferring back to her.
Xiang Yu didn’t wait for her to recover from the unexpected recoil. Making a fist with his scale-covered hand, he delivered a devastating punch directly to her abdomen. The blow connected with tremendous force, launching her backward several meters through the air like a projectile.
Before she could even attempt to regain her balance or land properly, he appeared directly behind her with supernatural speed. Without hesitation, he delivered another powerful punch that sent her rocketing upward into the sky, her form becoming a distant speck against the clouds.
Xiang Yu folded his legs beneath him and launched himself high into the air with explosive force, his powerful muscles propelling him after his airborne opponent. With both hands clasped together above his head, he delivered a devastating double-fisted blow that sent her crashing back down toward the ground with an earth-shaking impact. Dust and debris erupted in all directions as she struck the surface, creating a massive crater.
A triumphant smile spread across Xiang Yu’s face as he descended gracefully back to the ground. He had finally caught up to Li Yao’s level of power. After all this time of being outmatched, he could finally fight her as an equal. No, he could even defeat...
Before he could complete the thought, his precognition suddenly activated. He saw his own head being cleanly severed from his shoulders in a swift motion. When the vision ended, he quickly attempted to sidestep the incoming attack, but found Li Yao standing before him once again.
This time, her appearance had changed dramatically. Her hair had transformed from blue to pure white. Her eyes had turned into a lifeless silver that seemed to gaze through him rather than at him. Most unsettling of all, her face and the rest of her skin bore visible cracks with brilliant lightning crackling beneath the fissures.
But the most surprising thing wasn’t her transformed appearance, it was that she appeared to be standing completely upside down. Wait a moment, upside down? Why was the sky now where the ground should be?
Just as he was trying to process this impossible sight, he saw her hand approaching his face. He desperately tried to command his body to move, to dodge, to do anything, but his limbs refused to obey. His body remained frozen in place as if paralyzed.
She grabbed his hair with iron fingers and lifted him up effortlessly. It was only then that the horrifying realization struck him—he had long been separated from his body. His head had indeed been severed, just as his precognition had shown him.
His eyes rolled back and consciousness fled from the simulation. He opened his eyes back in the spiritual sea.
He remained silent for several long seconds, processing what had just occurred. Finally, he let out a deep, resigned exhale. Li Yao was truly a monster. Even at his current level, he still couldn’t match her.
He wondered why his precognition hadn’t worked against her. But after some thought, he realized it had actually worked. The problem was that she was simply too fast for the knowledge to matter. He had known the attack was coming, but he couldn’t do anything to prevent it.
He let out another heavy sigh as he reflected that this outcome wasn’t completely unexpected. In fact, he hadn’t expected to get nearly as far as he had in the first place. He was honestly quite surprised by the level of power he had displayed during their battle.
He wondered if just a breakthrough in bloodline level could do that. Curious about his current status, he quickly summoned his system interface to see if anything had changed after the bloodline breakthrough. And changed it indeed had:
[Realm: Body: 17th Layer (1000/17,000); Spirit: Foundation Establishment 2nd Layer (1000/12,000)]
[Transcendent Dao Body: Level 1 (290,000/1,000,000)]
[Chaos Body: Level 2 (5000/20,000)]
Seeing these stats, he was quite taken aback by the dramatic improvements. He had actually broken through twice in his body refining cultivation and once in his qi refining realm. Well, remembering how his body had been almost completely destroyed and regenerated countless times during the bloodline advancement, this level of advancement indeed made perfect sense. In fact, one could argue it was actually quite modest considering the trauma his body had endured.
Even his Transcendent Dao Body had improved by almost two thousand points—the most exp it had gained at once. Still, he felt a pang of regret that it didn’t change the situation much as the physique was still two resets away from leveling up to the next stage.
His Chaos Body had also increased by almost three thousand points. With stats like these, no wonder he had been able to overwhelm Li Yao at first during their battle.
Still, he couldn’t shake a feeling of unease. Even with these improved stats, he hadn’t been able to withstand even a single attack from her transformed state. Just what kind of monster...
...
Author’s Corner
Lol, lil bro really wondering that.
Well, time to give Li Yao some new power ups