Chapter 288: Body Refining 23rd Layer
Xiang Yu felt his body transform as it started upgrading to the twenty-third layer. Wave after wave of power coursed through his muscles and bones, each pulse making him feel more and more stronger than before.
He thought to himself that he didn’t have a proper measure for his physical strength, he wondered if it could possibly reach the void realm level.
He decided that his next simulation battle would not be against Li Yao, but against another person in the void realm. Since he already had a scan of Liu Feng in the battle simulation function, he decided that he would raise his cultivation to void realm and fight against him.
The reason he didn’t want to try with Li Yao was because she was simply too OP and always fought high above her cultivation realm, making her a poor scale for measuring normal power levels. Although Liu Feng was also considered a genius in his own right, he was at least somewhat manageable and would provide a more realistic benchmark for void realm combat strength.
He then shifted his attention to examine his qi cultivation realm. When he saw the numbers on his status screen, a smile spread across his face. He was finally improving at a somewhat acceptable rate for once.
During the spirit root breakthrough to sacred grade, he had successfully broken through to the ninth layer of foundation establishment and gained a little over halfway through the required experience points for the next level. He had been expecting to breakthrough to the tenth layer only after this reset, but he had actually managed to breakthrough on his own. It seemed he had underestimated his upgraded spirit root.
Combined with the effects of his daily spirit food consumption and the sect-wide qi gathering formation, such rapid advancement was definitely to be expected. Looking at the experience requirement for his current level though, he felt a little overwhelmed - not because it was particularly high, but because it would probably continue increasing dramatically with each subsequent breakthrough.
With how it was going, the tenth layer of Core Formation would probably require a million experience points to complete. Well, there was no point in worrying about it as it was all ultimately for his own benefit anyway. Besides, by that time, his cultivation talent might have increased so much that advancing would only take a day or two.
Looking at his current one hundred thousand point requirement, he estimated he should be able to enter the core formation stage within three days at most.
Speaking of talent improvements, he suddenly noticed that he didn’t see his spirit root listed anywhere in the reset screen. He let out a disappointed sigh. "Feels like I’m back to square one," he thought.
Still, his bloodline breakthrough was just a single reset away, so it would start doubling again soon. Though he still felt that losing the spirit root bonus temporarily was somewhat wasteful. Well, there was nothing he could do about it now.
Moving on to his other stats, his intrinsic stats like enlightenment, both physiques, soul, and his abyssal void flame were still very far away from their next breakthroughs, so he didn’t think about them much.
In the techniques section, he noticed that his elemental clone ability was improving quite rapidly, probably because he kept it constantly active throughout the day. The technique was now just two resets away from its next upgrade, which made him quite curious about what changes it would bring.
Would he receive an increase in his total cloning capacity? Probably not, he reasoned, considering the current limit existed because his mind couldn’t partition itself any further than it already was. And now that his mind cultivation was capped at level ten, there was no way to expand that limitation.
He guessed the upgrade would probably focus on improving the overall quality and capabilities of the individual clones rather than increasing their quantity.
For his other combat techniques, both Soul Spike and Ten Seasons Sword Art had successfully entered the perfect stage. Checking his status screen, he confirmed that he had indeed gained sword intent. However, he didn’t receive any special bonus for perfecting the Soul Spike technique, which confirmed that only weapon-based techniques possessed an intent realm.
For the new twenty weapon techniques he had been practicing to gain access to all the weapon intents, they were progressing tremendously well. He estimated he would be able to perfect most of them within two resets max.
...
Moving on to what had now become his favorite section of the system interface, Xiang Yu eagerly examined his professions. His teacher profession had broken through to the fifth grade, flooding his mind with even more advanced insights on teaching methodologies as well as improved ways of acquiring and processing knowledge.
As all the teaching insights flowed into his consciousness, Xiang Yu felt that there was still something he was missing - like an itch he couldn’t quite scratch, just an inch beyond his reach.
"Does the teacher profession have a lost origin?" he wondered aloud.
The light clone made a note to investigate this later. Xiang Yu felt that if this theory proved true, considering how the teacher profession didn’t just boost the way he taught others but also his own learning capabilities, he might finally be able to grasp the workings of the time domain.
He might even be able to complete his void domain, though he wasn’t particularly interested in completing the void domain since he already possessed it intrinsically.
His medicine and spirit farmer professions had both broken through to the fourth grade as well, and he gained even more insights for both.
His alchemist and blacksmith professions had finally entered the first grade stage, though Xiang Yu still wasn’t particularly impressed by these professions at the moment since he simply didn’t have access to any high-level resources to properly test them out.
He really needed his new business to take off, otherwise he would rot here with all his skills.
Well, even if he couldn’t create higher level items due to the lack of quality resources, these professions’ breakthroughs could still improve how efficiently he worked when making low level items. Every small improvement in efficiency would compound over time, allowing him to produce more items in less time while maintaining higher quality standards.
Moving on to examine his most important professions, both runesmith and formation master had also just entered the first grade level, filling Xiang Yu’s mind with an overwhelming wealth of insights about first grade formations and runic inscriptions.
At this level, he could theoretically create defensive formations capable of blocking attacks from even a Mahayana realm expert.
He felt at the top of the world.
But he quickly calmed himself down, forcing his excitement to settle. He still needed these professions to reach at least the immortal grade level before he could feel somewhat confident about his personal safety in this dangerous cultivation world.
Now that he thought about it, first grade formations should be capable of blocking Mahayana realm cultivators, and immortal grade formations should logically block immortal realm experts, right? Then what exactly did heavenly grade formations do? Did they block half-step immortal cultivators? But wasn’t a peak Mahayana cultivator also considered a half-step immortal?
He sighed deeply and shook his head. Well, he would figure it out later. There was no point in speculating about it now. Besides, when his formation making breaks through to the heavenly grade, he would gain insights on what it could do.
Speaking of, he remembered that he had finished crafting the new second grade formations and inscribing runes on them. It was time to set them up around the sect to upgrade their defenses once again.
The wind clone retrieved all the formation disks and set out to install them.
Xiang Yu thought to himself that they were upgrading their defenses almost every day now. As long as he wasn’t extremely unlucky to encounter some OP invincible demon god that has been asleep for a million years, he should be relatively safe for the most part.
He then waved his hand dismissively, causing the system screen to vanish from his sight. The remaining professions didn’t particularly interest him at the moment - he still couldn’t fully utilize his appraisal abilities after all.
He made a mental note to find more practical applications for the appraisal profession later.