Chapter 226: Love Goddess (Fixed)
"Yao Yao, we shouldn’t... I mean, we’re not ready for this," he began.
"Why not?" she asked, her grip on his robes tightening slightly.
"Well, we’re still young..." he said, grasping for reasonable arguments.
"Yao Yao is not young anymore. I even became a sect leader and you’re also a Grand Elder. How could we still be young? When will we finally be old?"
Xiang Yu thought to himself that that made sense. Dammit! Why did her IQ always go up only when it’s convenient?
"But what about proper preparation? And timing—"
"I don’t care about any of that," Li Yao interrupted firmly, her eyes never leaving his face.
Xiang Yu sighed deeply, his expression becoming more serious as he realized his casual arguments weren’t working. "Yao Yao," he said gently, placing his hands on her shoulders. "This is an important occasion. It’s something special that should be treasured and remembered for a lifetime."
Her intense gaze softened slightly at his change in tone.
"I want you to have the absolute best," he continued earnestly. "That’s why we should wait and do this properly—after our wedding, like our ancestors intended. It gives us something beautiful to look forward to, something that will make that moment even more meaningful."
Li Yao seemed conflicted for the first time, her determined expression wavering as she processed his words. After a long moment of internal struggle, she finally nodded slowly. "Alright... I’ll wait," she said quietly.
Xiang Yu felt a wave of relief wash over him. She was finally convinced. He even had to pull out the ancestor card.
Li Yao suddenly stood up, smoothing down her robes. "I should go back to work," she said, though her voice carried a hint of disappointment.
Xiang Yu escorted her to the edge of the spirit vein, watching as she took to the sky and flew away into the night.
As she soared through the darkness, Li Yao spoke aloud to the empty air. "You lied to me. It didn’t work."
[What lie? What does it have to do with me if you blew it?] the Empress spoke defensively. [Hmph, don’t ask me for advice again.]
"I’m sorry, I was wrong," Li Yao spoke contritely, but the Empress remained silent.
She wondered to herself why she had to do this. Her expertise was cultivation, not romance. What would her ancestors think if they found out she was playing cupid for teenagers?
"I was wrong. I’ll cultivate harder and listen to you from now on," Li Yao pleaded, but still received no response.
"I’ll even ask for more food from senior brother," she added desperately.
The Empress’s eyes lit up with interest. "It seems this girl can be taught," she thought with satisfaction.
[Alright, I’ll forgive you. Next time, I’ll show you another method,] the Empress spoke magnanimously.
"Really?" Li Yao asked hopefully.
[Of course,] the Empress replied confidently. She thought to herself that even if she’d never had any romance of her own, with the sheer number of romance novels she had read over the millions of years she had lived, even the goddess of love would have to bow down to her.
...
After Li Yao disappeared into the night, Xiang Yu returned back to the spirit vein and settled into a meditative posture. Since he no longer needed to perform the bloodline stimulation ritual, he had some free time before reset.
He decided to start with battle simulations to practice his techniques. Having already run many simulations throughout the day whenever possible, this wouldn’t take long. After about thirty minutes, he felt satisfied with the results.
He was still running simulations against Li Yao, but had adjusted the parameters. Instead of facing the relatively easy base Li Yao or the nearly invincible limit break version, he now battled against a Nascent Soul first layer Li Yao. The pressure she exerted was genuinely intense—he could barely keep up with her.
From what he could observe, considering her current cultivation speed and his improved cooking providing better spirit food, she would probably reach this level in just a couple of days. He had only just begun to match her current strength, yet he was already being left behind once again, not to mention her other forms, especially the limit break, no wonder he felt uneasy around her.
After completing the simulations, he moved on to his secondary professions. He didn’t dedicate extensive time to each one, instead focusing on crafting low-level items efficiently, aiming for about twenty experience points per profession. He continued this approach, cycling through each profession until he finally finished with the last profession just as the familiar system reset screen materialized before his eyes:
Day 57: (Day 4)
[Body Refining: 17th Layer (3000/17,000) (+3000/17,000)]
[Foundation Establishment: 2nd Layer (2000/12,000) (+2000/12,000)]
[Mind: Level 6 (2820/10,000) (+300/10,000)]
[Soul: Infant (41,400/100,000) (+200/100,000)]
[Spiritual Root: High-Grade Omni-Element (850/3000) (+50/3000)]
[Transcendent Dao Body: Level 1 (290,000/1,000,000) (+1220/1,000,000)]
[Chaos Body: Level 2 (5500/20,000) (+3200/20,000)]
[Bloodline: Dragon, Phoenix: True Blood (500/4000) (+500/4000)]
[Enlightenment: Sacred (2100/5000) (+100/5000)]
[Spirit Flame: Abyssal Void Flame: 5th Grade (21,400/50,000) (+40/50,000)]
[Sacred-grade Soul Spike: Minor Success (150/200) (+50/200)]
[Sacred-grade Ten Seasons Sword Art: Intermediate (240/300) (+80/300)]
[High-grade Lightning Strike: Major Success (360/400) (+40/400)]
[High-grade Fire Palm: Completion (60/500) (+20/500)]
[High-grade Water, Wood, Earth, Metal, Lightning Palm: Major Success (360/400) (+40/400)]
[High-grade Ice, Wind, Light, Dark Palm: Major Success (240/400) (+40/400)]
[Cook: 1st Grade (50/900) (+50/900)]
[Appraiser: 2nd Grade (120/800) (+100/800)]
[Alchemist: 4th Grade (120/600) (+20/600)]
[Blacksmith: 4th Grade (50/600) (+50/600)]
[Runesmith: 4th Grade (24/600) (+20/600)]
[Formation Master: 4th Grade (20/600) (+20/600)]
[Medicine: 6th Grade (20/400) (+20/400)]
[Spirit Farmer: 7th Grade (120/300) (+20/300)]
[Teacher: 8th Grade (10/200) (+10/200)]
[Experience Points Doubled]
[Teacher: 8th Grade (10/200) → 8th Grade (20/200)]
[Spirit Farmer: 7th Grade (120/300) → 7th Grade (240/300)]
[Medicine: 6th Grade (20/400) → 6th Grade (40/400)]
[Formation Master: 4th Grade (20/600) → 4th Grade (40/600)]
[Runesmith: 4th Grade (24/600) → 4th Grade (48/600)]
[Blacksmith: 4th Grade (50/600) → 4th Grade (100/600)]
[Alchemist: 4th Grade (120/600) → 4th Grade (240/600)]
[Appraiser: 2nd Grade (120/800) → 2nd Grade (240/800)]
[Cook: 1st Grade (50/900) → 1st Grade (100/900)]
[High-grade Ice, Wind, Light, Dark Palm: Major Success (240/400) → Completion (0/500)]
[High-grade Water, Wood, Earth, Metal, Lightning Palm: Major Success (360/400) → Completion (0/500)]
[High-grade Fire Palm: Completion (60/500) → Completion (120/500)]
[High-grade Lightning Strike: Major Success (360/400) → Completion (0/500)]
[Sacred-grade Ten Seasons Sword Art: Intermediate (240/300) → Major Success (0/400)]
[Sacred-grade Soul Spike: Minor Success (150/200) → Intermediate (0/300)]
[Spirit Flame: Abyssal Void Flame: 5th Grade (21,400/50,000) → 5th Grade (42,800/50,000)]
[Enlightenment: Sacred (2100/5000) → Sacred (4200/5000)]
[Bloodline: Dragon, Phoenix: True Blood (500/4000) → True Blood (1000/4000)]
[Chaos Body: Level 2 (5500/20,000) → Level 2 (11,000/20,000)]
[Transcendent Dao Body: Level 1 (290,000/1,000,000) → Level 1 (580,000/1,000,000)]
[Spiritual Root: High-Grade Omni-Element (850/3000) → High (1700/3000)]
[Soul: Infant (41,400/100,000) → Infant (82,800/100,000)]
[Mind: Level 6 (2820/10,000) → Level 6 (5640/10,000)]
[Foundation Establishment: 2nd Layer (2000/12,000) → Foundation Establishment: 2nd Layer (4000/12,000)]
[Body Refining: 17th Layer (3000/17,000) → 17th Layer (6000/17,000)]
...
Author’s Corner
In case you forgot, some of the intrinsic stats have exploded due to the bloodline evolution.
Next reset is going to be insane, idk how all the major stats synced and decided to evolve at once.
Li Yao is in the late stages of golden core and will start accumulating for a breakthrough to nascent soul, lets gooo.