Chapter 319: Void Crystals
Within Xiang Yu’s spiritual sea, his soul sat in deep concentration when suddenly, a single drop appeared before it. He slowly opened his eyes, watching as the drop slowly fell. The moment it touched the sea below, an incredible feeling of rejuvenation washed through his soul.
This was True Qi.
He had actually managed to condense true qi. A thrill of excitement coursed through him as he wondered if he could now begin building his bridge to the integration realm but he quickly tempered his mind. That single drop had taken nearly an hour of intense concentration to form. To begin constructing a bridge, he would need an entire sea of true qi.
Right now, he possessed just a single drop. It wasn’t even a drop in a bucket, it was a drop in a huge sea.
Still, this was just the beginning. He felt that the process would become easier and more efficient as he continued practicing. He closed his eyes once more and resumed the process of converting his qi into true qi.
Outside, in the physical world, his body remained motionless while his hand held a space crystal.
When he had told the empress about his encounter with the demon god, she had encouraged him to use both the space and time crystals as materials for the weapon he planned to create. Well, not that it mattered as he was already planning on it. In fact, he had an even more ambitious idea in mind.
He had asked the empress if she knew where he could obtain more crystals like these. She had told him that such crystals weren’t naturally occurring. They were artificially created, meaning he would need to rob someone to get more.
Though initially disappointed, her words had sparked a realization. What if he could create his own crystals? He understood the void deeply, so why not attempt to forge void crystals? And if he could master the creation method, perhaps he could craft crystals for all ten elements.
If he combined space crystals, time crystals, void crystals, and elemental crystals, although the elemental ones seemed weak, he felt that the resulting effect of them being together might create some sort of chaos effect. Add soul crystals to the mixture, and he might forge a heaven defying heavenly weapon.
He knew the idea sounded insane, but the potential rewards were too tempting to ignore. After much deliberation, he had decided to pursue this audacious path.
As he held the space crystal, studying its intricate structure and the way it interacted with the world around it, something began to materialize in his other hand. It started as nothing more than a tiny black dot, so small it was barely visible.
The dot remained stable for several heartbeats before suddenly expanding, tearing through the space around. Xiang Yu quickly clenched his fist, dismissing the void energy before it could expand even more.
"Not like that," he thought, shaking his head.
He needed to summon void energy and keep it contained without allowing it to harm the surrounding space. The energy had to remain stable and controlled, not wild and destructive. Only when it achieved perfect stability could he begin the process of sealing it within layers of concentrated qi, slowly forming a proper void crystal.
If the void energy wasn’t stable enough, the resulting crystal would become like a bomb, the last thing he wanted with him when he was making his ultimate weapon.
...
As he tried again, Xiang Yu thought to himself that this was going to be quite challenging.
Void energy was quite unstable, well, technically, it was one of the most stable energies he’d ever encountered, but it carried a fundamental flaw. The void energy despised the existence of anything else. It wanted only pure void to exist, making it incredibly difficult to stabilize within an area that contained both space and time without it breaking everything apart.
He could extend his void domain, creating a space independent of both space and time to craft the crystals there. But this approach had a critical weakness, the crystals would become unstable the moment they were brought outside the domain and would instantly explode. He needed a method to make void energy stable even when surrounded by normal space.
If he could solve this puzzle, it might even help him optimize his domain abilities.
When he activated his domain, unlike other cultivators whose domains remained within a fixed range, his domain constantly expanded as it devoured the space around it, continuing without end. While this might seem advantageous, the space inside the void domain was actually virtually infinite since there was no space or time within it. This meant he didn’t need the expansion at all.
That was why he would deploy his domain within a small range, then pull both himself and his opponent into it. But now that it expanded on its own, it actually cost him additional resources. He was consuming energy to both maintain the domain and continuously expand it, making the entire process quite inefficient.
He had discovered this inefficiency after using his new fire domain, noticing how few resources it consumed in comparison. While the difference could mostly be attributed to the void domain being significantly stronger, the unwanted expansion was also a major factor. Even worse, his void domain consumed his soul resources, which were arguably more valuable than the qi and mind power consumed by the fire domain.
If he could figure out how to make void energy work within space without actively wanting to devour everything, he would be able to use his void domain more efficiently and significantly increase his combat strength.
Slowly, a small void orb formed above his palm. Xiang Yu controlled it carefully, making it swirl in tight circles, chasing after its own tail to avoid trying to consume the space around it. This technique worked for a brief moment but eventually failed as the void orb slowly chipped away at the space around it even as it chased its tail in circles.
Xiang Yu sighed deeply and concentrated even more intensely, preparing for another attempt.
An hour later, Xiang Yu was still trying. He had made dozens of attempts, each with a unique approach and different containment methods. Some seemed to work initially, showing promise as the void energy remained stable for longer periods. But eventually, they would all fail as the instincts of the void took over, driving it to consume and devour everything in its vicinity.
"Instincts? That’s right, I get it now," Xiang Yu spoke aloud, his eyes lighting up with sudden understanding.
...
A/N: I feel like Xiang Yu’s Chapters are always about his powers and feel like class sessions lol. What do you guys think about these sorts of Chapters where we explore the abilities and how they work?