Li Yao sat with her eyes closed deep in meditation.
Xiang Yu and the Empress sat around her, careful not to disturb her. After some time, Li Yao slowly opened her eyes.
"How did it go?" they asked at the same time, looking at her with expectant faces.
"In a month, the protection will fall," she said.
The two had serious expressions, each doing calculations internally. They then began to speak among themselves.
"A month? What do you think?" the Empress asked Xiang Yu.
"There’s only one way," Xiang Yu said.
"I think so too," she said.
The two then turned to look at Li Yao. "If we go all out, we can definitely make a god in a month," they said in unison, then began giggling to themselves.
"What’s wrong with you guys?" Li Yao asked, but they just continued.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked in concern, but they then turned to each other again.
"What’s your plan?" Xiang Yu asked.
"Hmm, I’ve reached a critical point in building the bridge. Should be done by tomorrow," she said. "How much food do you have?" she asked.
"Should be enough by tomorrow," Xiang Yu replied.
The Empress nodded. "Good, then we can challenge the Tribulation realm tomorrow and by night, we can stuff her and have her attempt Mahayana."
"Sounds good," Xiang Yu said.
"After entering the Mahayana realm, she’ll instantly advance to Earth Immortal realm since she already has a law," the Empress explained. "Now we just have to find a way to quickly advance the law of Heavenly Way to a hundred percent and she can instantly enter the God realm.
Do you have any ideas?" the Empress asked.
"I do but I don’t know if it’ll work," he said.
"What is it?" she asked.
"My Transcendent Dao Body will soon enter level six and I might receive the law associated to it," he explained. "I have a way to advance my laws faster. I was thinking I could use this to advance this new law and then use it to stimulate the law of Heavenly Way, forcing it to grow rapidly. What do you think?" he said.
She held her chin in thought. "The law of transcendence... that’s perfect," she said in excitement.
"Transcendence?" he asked.
"That’s right, it’s the law associated with your Transcendent Dao Body," she said. "Unlike the law of Heavenly Way that focuses on order and restrictions, the law of transcendence focuses on transcending the restrictions and being free," she explained.
"I see," Xiang Yu said. He thought to himself that it sounded impressive.
"If you really can do this, then it really might be possible," the Empress said.
Xiang Yu nodded and the two continued talking for a long time. After that, they then turned around.
"Wife..." Xiang Yu called out sweetly as he reached out to her, though his expression definitely wasn’t sweet.
The Empress did the same.
"Little Yao," she called.
Li Yao looked at the two outstretched hands and their smiles and felt she was in danger.
"Wife, why don’t you take my hand? Are you afraid that husband will harm you?" he asked.
"Little Yao, have I ever done anything to harm you?" she asked sweetly.
"You’re about to," she thought.
She decided to escape. She appeared above the sect - she didn’t know what was going on with those two but she needed to get away.
[Target is attempting to escape]
"On it," Xiang Yu said as he disappeared, appearing behind Li Yao who was attempting to break through the sect barrier.
"Wife... I really didn’t want it to go like this," Xiang Yu said in regret, though his expression didn’t change. "You’re an adult now, you should learn that actions have consequences," Xiang Yu said as tentacles spread from his body and captured her instantly.
"Consequences?" she thought. "But I didn’t even do nun—"
...
One of Xiang Yu’s research clones stood before a huge crystal.
It was about two meters wide and ten meters tall. Now that he thought about it, it was more of an enlightenment stele than a crystal. Well, the small details didn’t matter.
Now that the product was finished, it was time to open it up to the public.
He waved his hand, using the Absolute Source law to create things with qi. He created some usage tickets. He would put these in the dungeon tower and have the disciples uncover them as they went deeper into the dungeon, or if their RNG was really good.
With that, he disappeared with the inheritance crystal to create a temple for it.
At the same time, the original farming clone rose from his position.
He picked up the herbs he was carrying and walked over to the area of the alchemy clone and placed the herbs there. He thought to himself that these were just for making the initial test products - he would give them to some well-performing students in the secondary professions pavilion as test subjects.
Well, they weren’t really test subjects since his theory had been perfect.
He then walked back, thinking to himself that it was time for him to begin advancing the Spirit Farmer profession. The other research clones would continue working on producing some Heaven and Immortal grade herbs for the spiritual root upgrade pill and also for mind level.
Xiang Yu also wanted to try some of those mind pills to increase his mind level. He doubted it could do much for him since he much more preferred the expanding space method, but you never know.
And even if it wasn’t useful to him, it might be for his wife.
Speaking of Heavenly and Immortal grade herbs, Xiang Yu remembered that his Spiritual Farmer profession had unlocked the Growth Booster 9.0. He didn’t bother to use it since he had already done the calculations - for the Immortal grade herbs, it would still take a few decades.
For Heavenly grade, it was about a month or two. Not worth it.
Well, technically, it was a huge boost, but he was about to upgrade his Spirit Farmer profession and get even more benefits so it didn’t matter.
...
A/N: Li Yao betrayal, training, and revenge arc.