Chapter 403: Exploiting The System
Li Yao lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.
She wondered what her husband was doing right now.
Was he preparing for another breakthrough?
Every time her husband broke through, he became stronger and stronger.
She used to be so far ahead of him, but these days, even when she broke through first, he would catch up instantly and then surpass her.
"Senior brother, how am I supposed to tie you up like this?" she spoke to herself with a sigh. Then she smiled. "But maybe this isn’t so bad. I do like some resistance too."
[-_-]
She got up from the bed, and clothes materialized on her body.
She looked at her hand, flexing it experimentally. She thought to herself that she could use the power of Heavenly Way to a limited extent in her base form. She suddenly paused.
What if she could use all the powers from her different forms while just in her base state? Wouldn’t she become unbeatable then? Every form had its own advantages, but in the end, it was all just her, so why wouldn’t she be able to?
[Why don’t we build your bridge?] The Empress’s voice cut through her thoughts.
"No thanks, too much work," she said dismissively.
"What was I thinking about... oh that’s right, I need to watch senior brother practice." Li Yao jumped up with excitement. She walked over to the window and opened it. From there, she could see Xiang Yu sitting next to the spirit spring, showing a strained expression.
"Is he okay?" she wondered if she should interfere but eventually chose to just watch. Her husband was so strong, even capable of bullying her, so he would probably be fine.
...
Just a few seconds before reset, Xiang Yu stopped playing around with Li Yao and called all his other clone bodies to attention. All of them entered a meditative state as if waiting for something.
When they saw the [Calculating Settlement] message, they became even more focused.
Xiang Yu thought to himself that the system always created exp from nothing, meaning it was the other half of the Absolute End concept - the Absolute Source.
Normally, he wouldn’t be able to sense the existence of the system and thus the concept. But when he was undergoing reset, he should be able to glimpse something as the exp flowed into his body.
He focused all his attention on his body, waiting to see when exp entered.
Suddenly, main body Xiang Yu opened his eyes.
He held his chin, thinking.
He had glimpsed something, but you couldn’t even call it a glimpse really. It had been for just a fraction of a nanosecond, barely worth anything. Even so, there was something there. He just needed to find a way to take advantage of it.
He sighed loudly.
Today was a failure, he thought as his other clones returned to their usual duties. His face hardened, but he wouldn’t let this stop him. He would get it tomorrow for sure, he thought, clenching his fist.
...
Inside Xiang Yu’s spiritual sea, his soul rushed deep into the murky darkness, going deeper and deeper.
As he moved, he could feel the pressure on his soul doubling with every step he took, but he didn’t care.
Here, he was going to exploit his system for the very first time.
Well, it wasn’t really an exploit, but who cares.
Just as he felt that his soul couldn’t handle all the pressure and was about to collapse, the time of reset arrived. Instantly, he felt energy flowing into his soul, ready to upgrade it. But since he was inside the murky darkness, his soul was being devoured by the darkness and couldn’t progress.
Xiang Yu smiled.
He remembered it was the same with his bloodline back then.
Back when he was advancing to true blood, the bloodlines were stopping each other from advancing. But since the system had already marked them as true blood level, they fought until the benefits of upgrading just showed themselves without either blood taking his body completely to itself.
He hoped it would be the same here. Otherwise, he would really be cooked this time.
His soul screamed in pain as it constantly got torn apart and repaired endlessly.
The pain to the soul was really different. Xiang Yu had believed he was already used to pain due to how he always tortured himself to gain power, but all that was nothing compared to this. It felt just like how you would imagine it to feel having your soul torn apart.
There really wasn’t any other way to explain it.
This process continued for almost an hour.
As it continued, it seemed as though his resistance to the murky darkness was increasing.
Suddenly, a wave of energy burst out from his soul.
The wave spread outward, destroying all the darkness it came across and creating a pure void.
Well, it wasn’t really destroying but layering in, as he had discovered earlier. The wave reached the radius of about ten thousand miles before stopping.
Xiang Yu looked around him. He had succeeded. This was...
In the real world, Xiang Yu smiled as he glanced at his stats:
[Soul: Adult (100,000/3,000,000)]
It was just as he had expected.
But the pain was really on another level. He wondered if he would be able to do this again, especially since the further into the Absolute End he went, the more concentrated the concept was.
The Absolute End was part of a concept that could turn nothing into something, so it came as no surprise to anyone that it could turn something into nothing.
Should he really continue risking it?
As he was thinking of this, he suddenly felt something and clutched his head.
Oh no. Since he had expanded such a large area, all the weight was being placed on his mind. He felt a searing pain going through his head. Though not quite yet to the level of the soul being torn apart, it was still extremely painful.
And since it was happening in his head, it was messing with his ability to control his energy properly.
Xiang Yu released his head and entered a state of deep meditation.
He needed to take back control of his energy first. With his stellar constellation body, he was pretty much a walking supernova. It would be really bad if he couldn’t control his energy properly.
As he calmed his energy, the weight on his head kept growing larger and larger, causing Xiang Yu’s expression to contort in pain. He wondered when it was finally going to happen.
Had his hypothesis been wrong all along?
As he was wondering this, it finally happened. He felt something pop in his head, then click into place. He then felt his mind get hit by a wave of clarity.
[Mind: Heavenly (1/1,000,000)]