Chapter 298: Fission
Elder Guo Shantian slowly walked up the mountain, holding the hand of the little girl walking beside him.
Despite her young age, the girl’s face held none of the innocent wonder typical of someone her age. Instead, she had an intelligent gaze and maintained a serious and focused expression.
“We’re here,” Elder Guo announced as they finally reached the mountain peak.
He turned to study the girl walking beside him, a pleased smile spreading across his face. He thought to himself that the child was truly remarkable. He had told her to walk up the mountain as a test. Even if she had failed, he would have still taken her in as a disciple.
Who would have thought that she was not only talented in qi cultivation but also blessed with a naturally strong body for body refinement? He had a smug smile spread across his face, it seems my Mountain Heart Pavilion is truly destined for greatness.
“Xiang Yu, where are you?” Elder Guo called out, his voice echoing across the mountain peak. “You better not be lazing around again!”
He raised his voice slightly, adding with mild exasperation, “Come out and greet your new junior sister. Don’t embarrass me.”
A heavy sigh escaped his lips as he wondered what his other disciple might be doing at this moment. He sincerely hoped the boy hadn’t forgotten to eat and died off somewhere in a corner.
Several moments passed in silence before a small figure emerged slowly from behind one of the pavilion buildings. When Elder Guo spotted his first disciple, his face brightened noticeably with relief.
Well, at least he’s still alive. That’s something, I suppose, the elder thought to himself.
“Xiang Yu, this is Li Yao,” Elder Guo said, gesturing toward the little girl. “She’ll be your junior sister from now on, so treat her well.”
He then turned to the girl, continuing his introductions. “Li Yao, this is Xiang Yu. He’s your senior brother. Although he looks lazy and untalented, he’s still your senior brother, so you must show him proper respect.”
“Lazy? Untalented?” Xiang Yu clutched at his chest, his face twisting in pain. “Master, so it’s like that. Off with the old and on with the new?”
“What old and new? I’m simply telling the truth,” Elder Guo replied, waving his hand dismissively. “If you don’t want to be called lazy and untalented, then pick up a cultivation manual and actually try practicing for once. I’m leaving now – you two can get to know each other properly.”
Without another word, the elder launched himself into the air and flew away, leaving the two.
Li Yao fixed her new senior brother with a hard, calculating stare. She thought firmly to herself that she didn’t need any friends, especially not ones that looked like this pathetic boy before her. With just one glance, she could tell that he possessed absolutely no cultivation ability whatsoever. To be unable to cultivate at such an age was truly pitiful.
As these dismissive thoughts ran through her mind, Xiang Yu began walking closer to her position. Li Yao wondered what he could possibly want from her. She continued staring at him with obvious anger and disdain, but he seemed completely unbothered by her hostile expression. He approached until he stood directly before her, close enough that she had to tilt her head back slightly to meet his eyes.
“Hi,” he spoke softly,
“My name is Xiang Yu. Yu(羽) as in the character for feather”
[It’s done!]
The empress’s voice suddenly cut through Li Yao’s memories.
Li Yao’s eyes snapped open, finding herself back in the sprawling mountain range. She could feel the overwhelming rush of insights as her enlightenment finally settled into the immortal rank.
“I’ve also managed to break through to the peak of the nascent soul realm”
She took a steadying breath and added, “I’ll start attempting the Soul Formation realm now.”
[Wait…] the empress spoke hesitantly.
“It’s okay, I understand,” she replied. “I won’t give in to any mental demons.”
Without waiting further, Li Yao began stimulating her qi.
Almost immediately, crackling bolts of lightning started appearing throughout the surrounding area, dancing across the rocky terrain. Massive dark clouds also began gathering overhead from all directions, swirling together and growing thicker by the moment until they formed an enormous, ominous thunder cloud directly above Li Yao’s position.
Within a radius stretching several miles, wild lightning strikes began hammering down, leaving charred craters and destroying everything they touched.
Li Yao continued stimulating more and more qi within her spiritual sea, causing the lightning energy around her to become increasingly agitated and unstable. The lightning energy in the clouds above continued building up more and more charge until they could no longer be held back.
With a thunderous roar that shook the entire mountain range, the accumulated lightning energy descended from the heavens in a massive bolt, aimed directly toward Li Yao.
The tribulation had officially begun.
…
After carefully examining all the bloodlines from the tower and running each one through his heavenly-grade appraisal to gather detailed information about their specific capabilities, Xiang Yu finally managed to compile a comprehensive list of bloodlines he considered most useful for his fission and fusion plan.
Starting with the legendary-tier bloodlines, he identified three that possessed the most compatible abilities to merge with either of his existing bloodlines: The Shadow Tiger, the Golden Turtle, and the Storm Eagle bloodlines
The Shadow Tiger bloodline caught his attention first, particularly for its natural stealth abilities that he believed might be compatible with his phoenix bloodline.
From the Golden Turtle, Xiang Yu was most interested in its extreme defense ability and its ability to instantly manifest protective qi barriers around its body. He felt these abilities would integrate seamlessly with his dragon bloodline.
Although some abilities seemed like duplicates at first glance, such as the turtle’s defensive shell and the dragon’s natural scale armor, each possessed its own unique implementation method so merging them would definitely be beneficial.
From the Storm Eagle, Xiang Yu went for its strong eyesight, as well as its enhanced flight speed and aerial maneuverability which were compatible with his phoenix bloodline.
Something to note was that bloodline abilities functioned very differently from learned techniques. Rather than being external skills that required training, bloodline abilities were intrinsic and woven into one’s being.
When he successfully merged these abilities into his existing bloodlines, they would naturally adjust and scale to match the power level of the receiving bloodline. While this might not happen right away, Xiang Yu predicted that the system would help with the readjustment after reset. Especially since his bloodlines were positioned to break through to the noble blood stage.
Moving on to the noble-tier bloodlines, Xiang Yu selected four that offered the most compatible and useful abilities: Frost Wolf, Rock Bear, Swift Deer, and Crystal Ape.
The Frost Wolf initially seemed like an incompatible choice for merging with his fire-based phoenix bloodline, but since he wasn’t merging the entire bloodline, he could select just the most useful ability which in this case was the cold resistance ability.
While he already possessed an even stronger version of this resistance through his Chaos Body, it was still a good thing to give it to the bloodline as it would strengthen it.
From the Rock Bear, he identified several valuable abilities. Its natural armor technique, enhanced physical strength, and superior endurance would be perfect for his dragon bloodline.
Additionally, the bear’s remarkable recovery ability could benefit his phoenix side. Normally, this recovery manifested as healing through hibernation, but with his system’s splitting function, he could separate the healing component from the hibernation requirement, creating a more versatile regenerative ability.
The Swift Deer’s exceptional speed and agility would boost his dragon bloodline, while its decreased qi consumption for movement abilities would boost his phoenix bloodline.
From the Crystal Ape, he got enhanced intelligence and accelerated learning speed for his phoenix bloodline. He also got its instinctive tool-crafting abilities and supernatural sense for detecting precious metals and gems for his dragon bloodline.
Xiang Yu was particularly curious whether these crafting and detection abilities might provide benefits for his secondary professions.
After selecting abilities from the noble-tier bloodlines, Xiang Yu continued picking through the lesser bloodline categories, choosing minor abilities that would fill specific gaps or provide useful supplementary effects.
He also made sure to maintain balance between his two primary bloodlines, ensuring that neither would become disproportionately enhanced compared to the other as that would be a whole other can of worms.
Once he felt satisfied with his selection of abilities from across all bloodline tiers, Xiang Yu took a deep breath and prepared himself for the fusion process.
…
Author’s Corner:
Sky’s idea is quite hard to implement at the moment so I came up with this. Although it just benefits Xiang Yu at the moment, it has some potential.
Daily (2/2)