Chapter 253: Possession [PART 2]
The moment Xiang Yu heard the creature’s voice, panic flooded through him. "I knew this was a bad idea," he thought, his mind racing as he tried to escape. But there was nothing to escape with, after all, he had no limbs. He wondered if this was truly the end, but suddenly everything shifted abruptly.
He found himself back in the void space. Though it appeared similar to where he had been moments before, something felt different. He could tell that he was back in the void flame. Relief washed over him as he noticed he could finally feel his body. Well, somewhat, looking at his body, he now resembled the fluffy creature he had possessed.
Taking in his new form, he wondered if he didn’t have any hands. He concentrated and tried to stretch out his nonexistent arms. To his amazement, hands suddenly protruded from his body. They weren’t exactly hands, but rather flexible tentacle-like extensions that responded to his will.
"It seems my plan was a success," he thought with satisfaction, though he was still uneasy. The memory of that incomprehensibly massive creature haunted his thoughts. To think that something as terrifyingly powerful as the void flame—something that could make even those mythical bloodlines tremble in fear—was actually coming from another being. Just how unimaginably powerful was that entity exactly?
He hoped they wouldn’t be able to track him down through the memories. But he wasn’t so sure about that. When he had stood before that creature, he had felt utterly exposed, as if every secret, every thought, every aspect of his existence lay bare before it. He could only pray that such a supreme being wouldn’t bother with someone as insignificant as himself. After all, with so many void flames, surely it wouldn’t mind if he took one, right?
After convincing himself to stay calm, he finally managed to properly assess his current situation. Looking at his new form, he noticed he bore some resemblance to that massive entity, though he was infinitely smaller in comparison. He wondered if this meant that he would eventually grow to become something like that creature.
As he thought of this, he suddenly remembered something important. That’s right, the possession technique he had attempted could result in two possible outcomes. He wondered which one it was.
If his soul had completely become the spirit of the flame, unable to return to his original body, that would really suck. Though he had to admit, he wouldn’t mind it too much considering how powerful he felt now. This wasn’t physical strength, but rather pure, overwhelming soul strength.
Wanting to confirm his situation, Xiang Yu concentrated on accessing his spiritual sea. In an instant, he appeared within his spiritual sea. Looking around at the familiar space, he sighed in relief. It seemed he was still himself, which meant his soul had undergone mutation.
Curious, he quickly summoned his system to see if any changes had occurred:
[Name: Xiang Yu]
[Realm: Body: 22nd Layer (2000/22,000); Spirit: Foundation Establishment 8th Layer (2000/18,000); Mind: Level 10; Soul: Infant (0/1,000,000)]
[Spiritual Root: Superior-Grade Omni-Element (2200/4000)]
[Bloodline: Dragon, Phoenix: High Blood (30/5000)]
[Soul Flame: Abyssal Void Flame: 3rd Grade (0/70,000)]
...
Looking at his stats, Xiang Yu first noticed that his body refining and spirit cultivation realms had increased once again, undoubtedly thanks to his bloodline breakthrough. He wondered if he could at least last a bit longer now against Li Yao’s newest form. But he quickly dismissed such concerns for later.
Examining his other stats, he was stunned when his eyes landed on the mind level. Wasn’t he at level seven just moments ago? How had it suddenly jumped so high? He knew that this had something to do with his fusion with the void flame, but still, he couldn’t believe the massive leap. No wonder he felt overwhelming strength flowing through his soul earlier.
Curious about the abilities of a level ten mind, he extended his divine sense within his spiritual sea to test its limits. What he discovered left him completely speechless. His divine sense actually covered several million miles.
Looking back at the mind statistic more closely, he noticed something peculiar, there was no longer any experience bar displayed next to the stat. In his mind, he theorized that this was probably the mortal limit for this attribute, much like what had happened with his battle instinct. Unless something extraordinary happened, he probably wouldn’t be able to advance beyond this threshold.
He exhaled slowly to calm himself down, still reeling from the shock of his divine sense range. Thinking about it logically, he recalled that Void Traversing level experts could extend their divine sense to cover entire continents. For level ten, which was presumably the absolute mortal limit, it probably encompassed the entire planet, or at least close to. Still, just like before, Xiang Yu decided not to test this ability in the physical world. He didn’t want those ancient monsters lurking in the shadows to come knocking at his door.
Moving on to examine the next stats, he noticed his soul cultivation and paused for a moment, blinking in confusion. "Infant?" His soul had actually regressed? But looking at the enormous exp requirement, this didn’t seem like the same infant stage he had experienced before. The experience needed was ten times greater than before.
It seemed that since his soul had undergone such a mutation, he could no longer follow the same developmental metrics as a normal human soul. By the standards of whatever entity he had become, his soul was merely an infant. Still, despite this apparent regression in rank, Xiang Yu didn’t feel like he had lost any of the perks and abilities that came with the nascent soul realm. In fact, he felt even more powerful than before.
It appeared that with his mutated soul, even at the infant stage, he was significantly stronger than nascent soul realm cultivators among normal humans. He estimated his current soul strength was probably equivalent to an adult stage human soul, though he wasn’t entirely certain since he had no reliable reference point for comparison.
Glancing at his other stats, he noticed that his spiritual root exp had increased and just sighed. This was probably the increase from his bloodline advancement—too bad it had occurred when his spiritual root was already well past the halfway point toward its next breakthrough. With another resigned sigh, he moved on to examine his remaining stats.
His eyes settled on what had previously been labeled as the spirit flame panel, which now displayed as "soul flame" instead. Xiang Yu wondered if this was the advanced form of the spirit flame. Looking at the flame’s grade itself, he was amazed to discover it had actually jumped an entire rank and entered the 3rd grade level.
Seeing this dramatic improvement, Xiang Yu felt genuinely glad that he had chosen to take such a dangerous risk with the possession. Since the flame had broken through to the next rank immediately upon his successful possession, despite having accumulated so little experience toward that advancement, this clearly indicated that having a conscious "artifact spirit" was at minimum a significant variable in its progression to third grade status.
If he had waited and allowed events to unfold naturally, the flame might have eventually developed its own independent spirit—one who may or may not have harbored hostile intentions toward him.
With that, he closed the system panel in satisfaction. Now, it was finally time to pursue the main reason he had possessed the flame in the first place...