Chapter 235: Huge Changes [PART 1]
As soon as the system notification appeared, Xiang Yu found himself floating inside his spiritual sea, but something was different this time. He wasn’t experiencing this through his consciousness form anymore, instead, he was actually in his soul form. It seemed the synchronization was finally complete, and he had become truly one with his soul.
He examined his hands with fascination, flexing his fingers and feeling the soul energy within. The feeling was strange but he didn’t dislike it. But before he could fully explore this transformation, he suddenly felt a tremendous tremor shake through his entire being.
Looking around in alarm, he noticed that his spiritual sea was trembling, as if there was an earthquake. Then it started expanding at an incredible rate. Before, his spiritual sea had been quite large, but now it was growing even more, pushing outward in all directions.
The expansion continued for some time before finally beginning to slow down. It didn’t stop entirely though, instead continuing to expand but at a much slower pace.
Then, the sea of qi within his spiritual sea started trembling as well, and Xiang Yu watched in amazement as it also began rapidly expanding to match the new boundaries. Its size started doubling repeatedly—from the initial one mile radius to ten, then fifty, then one hundred, until he could no longer see the distant shores, just like he couldn’t see the edges of the "land" portions of his spiritual sea.
Xiang Yu thought to himself that the seventh level of mind cultivation should theoretically correspond to the Void Traversing realm. If his reasoning was correct, divine sense range was proportional to one’s spiritual sea size, then it was reasonable to assume his spiritual sea had grown to continental proportions.
He decided to test this theory, carefully expanding his divine sense throughout his spiritual sea. When his awareness finally covered everything visible—excluding the dark void that his spiritual sea continued expanding into—he estimated the distance to be approximately seven hundred thousand miles wide.
He wondered whether to test if he could extend his divine sense to such distances in the outside world, but he immediately dismissed the idea. For starters, he probably wouldn’t be able to sustain such an enormous range at his current cultivation level, even if it was theoretically possible.
More importantly, he was certain there were Void Traversing realm and higher cultivators somewhere in the eastern continent, and he definitely didn’t want to attract their attention by broadcasting his divine sense.
Switching his focus to examine his transformed spiritual sea more carefully, he noticed something particularly interesting about its new structure. The "land" portions had become relatively small after the expansion. There was now a modest patch of land on one side, then a massive body of water stretching across the middle, and another patch of land on the far opposite side.
Most intriguingly, at the point where the first patch of land met the water’s edge, there appeared to be some sort of construct beginning to take shape. It looked like the foundation of a bridge, though only the initial supports and base structure were visible.
Xiang Yu wondered if this bridge was the path to the realm beyond the Void Traversing Realm. Was he supposed to construct a complete bridge across to reach that distant land on the other side?
He decided to consult the Empress about this development when Li Yao returned.
...
As he was observing the bridge’s foundation, Xiang Yu felt a sudden shift in his consciousness, as if he had randomly stopped existing for a moment.
He then found himself floating in an endless void.
In this endless stretch of nothingness, time seemed meaningless. After floating there for what felt like an eternity, he saw something in the distance—a blinking light far away. It looked like a star in space. The light pulsed rhythmically, growing steadily brighter as it approached.
The blinking light got closer and closer, growing bigger and bigger with each pulse. As it drew near, Xiang Yu could feel its warmth and power radiating outward, cutting through the endless darkness.
Then, the light reached him. When it finally made contact, it exploded in brilliant radiance that brightened everything around him, dispelling the empty void completely. Suddenly, he was back in his spiritual sea, clasping desperately at his head. He felt as though his head was going to explode as wave after wave of insights poured into his brain.
After some time, he finally seemed to relax slightly, though he still showed obvious signs of strain.
He thought to himself that the jump from Sacred to Divine level enlightenment was simply too massive—it felt as though the entire universe was being turned upside down and rebuilt from scratch. At the Divine level, his previous Sacred enlightenment seemed like nothing more than a child playing with mud. No wonder he could never gain even a single point of exp to his divine ability at that level.
He couldn’t believe he had ever considered himself a genius at such a pathetic level.
A smile spread across his face as he finally let go of his head. Now, he was a true genius. Even as he simply stood there, he could feel the experience points of his techniques naturally increasing without him needing to actively practice or even think about them. Just passive comprehension alone was incredible.
But this realization made him pause for a moment. If the Divine rank was like this, then how much more powerful was the Heavenly rank?
Before he could fully process this thought, he found himself standing in what appeared to be an empty void once again. Well, this time, it wasn’t really empty. Before him materialized a huge giant, so enormous that it defied comprehension. The giant was growing larger and larger by the second, expanding at an impossible rate.
Compared to this colossal being, Xiang Yu was like a speck of dust floating in an ocean. The giant continued to grow exponentially, becoming so massive that it eventually encompassed the entire void, swallowing everything in existence.
Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, everything returned to normal and he was once again floating peacefully in his spiritual sea.
Xiang Yu smiled knowingly. "Is that the difference between Divine and Heavenly?" he chuckled to himself. So what if the gap was that enormous? With his system, he would eventually reach that level. No! He was going to surpass it entirely.
Xiang Yu floated in his spiritual sea for some time, slowly absorbing the thousands of insights flowing into his mind. The enlightenment upgrade to the Divine level was truly like having his mind opened to a completely new universe.
As the flood of new insights gradually slowed to a manageable trickle, he finally felt himself relax completely. He decided it was time to leave his spiritual sea and see what changes had occurred in his physical body.