Chapter 44: New Stat
"Senior brother, are you inside?" Li Yao’s voice penetrated into Xiang Yu’s consciousness like a lifeline pulling him from the depths of an endless void.
In the next second, his eyes flickered open, adjusting to reality with disorienting suddenness.
"Senior brother, I’m coming in," her voice announced as the door swung open. Li Yao paused in the doorway, observing Xiang Yu still seated in his meditation posture, awareness slowly returning to his features.
"Senior brother, are you okay?" Concern colored her tone. "You didn’t come to train, so I thought something happened."
Xiang Yu blinked several times, his mind still half-trapped in that boundless emptiness. The transition back to physical reality felt jarring, like being violently yanked from a dream. "Training?" he asked, confusion evident in his voice.
Only then did the realization strike him. Sunlight streamed through the open doorway, illuminating his quarters with morning brightness. How was it already dawn? He had only intended to practice for one hour—how had the entire night slipped away? That sensation of peaceful non-existence... the memory sent a chill down his spine. How dangerously seductive it had been.
He exhaled slowly, deliberately steadying himself. "Oh, training. I was just practicing the technique given by Master. I lost track of time, sorry," he explained as he rose to his feet with careful movements, his body stiff from hours of motionless meditation. "We can go now."
The two disciples walked slowly toward the training grounds. Xiang Yu remained distracted, his thoughts circling back to what had happened during his practice of the Mountain Heart Sutra. Was that what falling to mental demons felt like? His greatest desire was survival, so perhaps his mental demons manifested as contentment with mere existence—feeling nothing, doing nothing, just... being.
His expression hardened as a troubling thought crossed his mind. If Li Yao hadn’t called out to him, he might truly have fallen into that trap. That wasn’t the survival he wanted—he had no desire to become a vegetable merely existing. He wanted to truly live, to survive without sacrificing other aspects of his life. Well, except for his body, of course, but that was different.
With a contemplative sigh, he mentally summoned his status screen, curious whether anything had changed after his night of meditation. To his surprise, something had indeed changed:
[Mind: Level 1]
[Enlightenment: Low (50/1000)]
[Battle Instinct: (20/100,000)]
[Scriptures: Mountain Heart Scripture: 4th Layer (48/400); Mountain Heart Sutra: Level 1(1/1000)]
A new stat had appeared—[Mind] at level one. Even more surprising was that his Enlightenment had increased by two points, and his Battle Instinct had jumped by four points. The Enlightenment increase wasn’t entirely unexpected, given the high-level scripture he’d practiced, but the Battle Instinct gain was remarkable. Apart from his initial one point, he hadn’t been able to raise this attribute without the system’s doubling effect. Now it had increased by four points—almost half of what he had possessed the previous day.
He examined the new entry in his scripture section with fascination. The [Mountain Heart Sutra] was only at level one, yet required a thousand points to advance. Still, he was genuinely surprised he could learn it at all. If he had to guess, both scriptures were at least high-grade. Perhaps he’d succeeded because he had already mastered the Mountain Heart Scripture—considered the other half of this cultivation method.
Despite his close brush with mental demons, Xiang Yu recognized the sutra’s tremendous value. It offered a pathway to increase his Enlightenment and Battle Instinct more rapidly. Though the danger of falling into that seductive void remained, he simply needed to exercise greater caution in the future.
...
Xiang Yu and Li Yao moved across the training ground in their familiar dance of steel against steel. Today, Xiang Yu wielded his knife instead of the sword since his sword technique had already reached the halfway point to completion. Besides, he needed to push his knife technique further to maintain its lead. If both techniques reached the same level simultaneously, the sword would no longer mooch off of the knife’s advanced insights which would slow down his pace.
As his blade met Li Yao’s with practiced precision, Xiang Yu noticed a subtle yet significant change in his combat awareness. The exchanges felt more fluid, his responses more natural. This wasn’t about raw power—he remained hopelessly outmatched by his junior sister in that department—but rather his adaptability had markedly improved. The doubling of his battle instinct certainly played a role, but he suspected the newly acquired mind stat contributed equally to this enhancement.
When his battle awareness revealed openings in Li Yao’s guard, his mind seemed to sharpen with laser-like focus, filtering out extraneous stimuli and distractions. The world narrowed to just that one crucial moment, that single opportunity. Was this what Elder Guo meant about giving his all to whatever path he chose? The clarity felt invigorating, yet he recognized that this enhanced focus would apply equally to escape should he choose that option instead. His nature remained unchanged—survival still drove his every decision—but his execution had become more decisive, more complete.
If a single stat in the mind stat produced such noticeable improvements, what might become possible as it advanced further? The prospect of reaching level two or beyond sent a thrill of anticipation through him.
Li Yao blocked a particularly aggressive strike from his knife, creating distance between them with a graceful backward leap. She observed her senior brother with analytical eyes, noting the subtle shift in his approach. Unlike previous sessions where hesitation plagued his movements, today he attacked with greater assertiveness, actively capitalizing on opportunities rather than second-guessing them. Though still far from the aggressive fighter she hoped to mold him into, this willingness to counterattack represented significant progress compared to his former habit of waiting to confirm each opening—by which time the opportunity had invariably vanished.
From his private chamber overlooking the training grounds, Elder Guo watched the disciples with growing satisfaction. His weathered eyes tracked Xiang Yu’s movements carefully, noting the improved clarity and purpose behind each strike. A slight nod of approval moved his beard as he reconsidered his initial assessment of the boy’s potential. He had clearly underestimated Xiang Yu’s comprehension ability—the disciple had not only managed to learn the Mountain Heart Sutra but was already integrating its benefits into his combat style.
If the boy continued at this rate, combining his extraordinary battle awareness with the mental clarity provided by the sutra, he would undoubtedly develop into a formidable combat expert.