Chapter 278: Natural Habitat
The ice clone carefully packed all the meals he had prepared for Li Yao into a special food storage device made by the metal clone. He could also use this chance to test its usability.
The meals were quite a few, enough to last two full weeks. And they were all heavenly grade.
He walked up to the runesmith clone and picked up the void sword along with a collection of talismans. For the talismans, Xiang Yu had gone all out. He had managed to create ten second grade talismans, choosing them because they were easier to quickly produce while still maintaining fairly high power. Additionally, he had crafted a single attacking rune engraved into a specialized rune disk.
With this arsenal, Xiang Yu thought to himself that Li Yao should be perfectly fine unless she was ganged up on by multiple soul and body integration experts. Although the second grade runes and talismans could theoretically be used against tribulation realm experts based on pure specs, Xiang Yu didn’t have much confidence in their effectiveness at that level.
Hell, he didn’t even believe they could work reliably on a soul and body integration realm expert unless they were caught completely off guard. It wasn’t that they would lose their destructive power, the issue was that the higher the cultivation realm went, the larger the difference in power became. The speed of such high-level cultivators was simply too overwhelming, and they could escape the talisman’s effective range before the attack could properly activate.
For them to work against truly powerful opponents, you needed to catch someone completely off guard and plant the talisman directly on them at close range. Well, he figured Li Yao could figure it out. If she could use that domain she demonstrated in their simulation battles to freeze space around her enemies, she should be able to get close enough to plant a talisman on someone before they could react.
He then walked over to where Xiang Yu’s main body was seated, with Li Yao still comfortably sitting on his lap. The main Xiang Yu took all the prepared items, and the ice clone immediately returned to his cooking duties.
"This here is the food I packed. It’s all heavenly grade," he said, presenting the containers with pride.
The moment he said that, Li Yao’s mouth started watering visibly as she moved closer to examine the glowing food containers. Xiang Yu quickly flicked her forehead with his finger, pushing her back slightly before she could get too close.
She held her head with teary eyes as if she had been wronged.
"The food I packed here should be able to last you two full weeks. Don’t eat all of it at once, do you understand?" he asked with a serious expression.
She nodded violently.
"You don’t understand at all," Xiang Yu thought as he shook his head with resignation.
"You’ve reached the mid stages of Nascent Soul, right?" he asked, and she nodded again.
"You can eat the food freely, but make sure to preserve some portions to help you replenish qi once you breakthrough to the Soul Formation realm. Otherwise, it won’t end well for you if you’re attacked immediately after your breakthrough when you don’t have any spiritual energy left," he explained.
She nodded more seriously this time.
He then handed her the food containers and she packed them into her spatial ring.
Xiang Yu then lifted the void sword, still safely contained within its newly crafted scabbard.
"So pretty," Li Yao said admiringly as she observed the scabbard’s elegant design.
"Isn’t it?" Xiang Yu spoke smugly.
"Don’t lose it," he said seriously as he handed her the weapon.
"I’ve engraved a soul binding rune to prevent others from using it. If it’s taken or knocked away from you, just think of summoning it and it’ll return to your hand," he explained.
She took the sword reverently and hugged it against her chest.
"And lastly..." Xiang Yu spoke as he took out the collection of talismans and the rune disk. "These are your final trump cards. Only use them when you have absolutely no other options available. Especially the rune disk - if you play your cards right, you might actually be able to take out a soul and body integration realm expert," he explained.
Li Yao took the trump cards and stored them in her spatial ring. She then looked at Xiang Yu expectantly.
"What is it?" Xiang Yu asked, confused by her expectant gaze.
"Aren’t you forgetting something?" she asked with a slight pout.
"Nah, that’s pretty much everything. Stay safe I guess," he said casually.
"Not that, baka..." she said as she leaned in and kissed him.
"I meant this..." she said softly as she pulled away.
"Bye," she said with a warm smile as she unsheathed her sword. She didn’t unsheathe it fully - just a small part, about two inches. Instantly, the space around her fractured like broken glass and she was swallowed into the spatial tear, disappearing completely.
...
Xiang Yu stared at the healing space before him, watching as it slowly mended itself back together. It was that feeling once again, the overwhelming attraction and resonance, and now it was even greater than before. The sensation was almost magnetic, pulling at something deep within his very essence.
The last time they had gone through space, he had felt the void flame showing interest in space. But now that he was technically the void flame himself after merging with it, he felt an irresistible urge to dive directly into that spatial tear. Almost without conscious thought, he stretched out his hand toward the closing rift.
But suddenly, he caught himself at the last moment, quickly retrieving his hand before the space healed completely. His heart was pounding and he found himself sweating nervously. That had been dangerous - who knew what would have happened if he had actually touched the unstable spatial energy.
But suddenly, his panic subsided and he stopped trembling entirely. A look of understanding spread across his face as pieces fell into place.
"I see, I get it now. I’ve been going about this the wrong way," he thought with growing excitement.
He thought to himself that the original abyssal void flame had stayed floating aimlessly in the depths of space for countless eons. So it could be said that it genuinely loved space. This explained why he was so intensely attracted to spatial phenomena. It was his natural habitat.
He smiled with satisfaction as the realization struck him. He thought to himself that he had finally figured out a viable way to acquire a domain of his own. Even if he kept researching time manipulation for years, he wouldn’t be able to unlock it nearly as quickly as he wanted.
Even after receiving detailed advice from the empress, he was still incredibly far from figuring out the complexities of time control.
But what if, instead of pursuing time, he tried to acquire a space-related domain instead? His natural habitat was the void of space, so he already had an inherent affinity with spatial forces, making it much easier to grasp.
"I know just the place," the light clone thought as it closed its eyes.
Instantly, the light clone found itself transported into an endless stretch of absolute nothingness. He was now inside the void flame’s personal space.
He then settled into a meditative posture and started trying to comprehend the nature of space within this unique environment. From what he had understood from the empress’s earlier explanations, he just had to develop a deep understanding of something fundamental, then use that knowledge as a base foundation to expand and project a domain.
The base concept determined the rules and fundamental laws of the domain. Then you could introduce another power source to act as the enforcer of those rules. Alternatively, if you possessed sufficient mastery, you could use the base concept itself to enforce your established rules - though this approach was much more difficult to achieve.
Generally speaking, it was much easier to use another power that you had good control over as the enforcer, compared to trying to use the base concept itself, which required even deeper understanding and mastery.
Li Yao’s second heaven domain, for example, worked on the basis of a playground concept. She then created specific rules through various mini-games and enforced them through her lightning abilities.
He wondered what fundamental concept to use as a base for his own domain, what rules he should establish within it, and most importantly, what power he should use to enforce those rules effectively.
...
Author’s Corner
Does it make sense? I’ll explain more later.
I’ll seamlessly switch between Xiang Yu’s clones without warning sometimes because all that thought process is occurring simultaneously and is synced up.
Yes, I know Xiang Yu is confusing void with space, I’ll also expand on this later.