Chapter 65: Qi Gathering 1st Layer
Xiang Yu settled into a lotus position. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and stilled his thoughts. Unlike others who needed to study a Qi Refining scripture to be able to gather qi, Xiang Yu simply allowed his body to follow its natural instincts. The transcendent dao physique was a perfect conduit for spiritual energy, allowing him to gather and refine all sorts of energies easily without the need for a scripture.
As his breathing slowed to a gentle rhythm, Xiang Yu felt a strange tingling sensation across his skin. The qi around him had begun to respond to his presence. Threads of energy pressed against his skin, seeking entry. Then, without conscious effort on his part, his pores dilated, and the qi flowed inward.
The feeling was quite foreign to Xiang Yu but still pleasant nonetheless. The qi was neither hot nor cold but somehow both at once. It carried a vitality that made every cell in his body vibrate with new life. Each breath drew more energy inside, all of it naturally flowing toward his lower abdomen—his dantian.
The pleasure of the experience was unlike anything Xiang Yu had known before, only a few levels below the feeling of his enlightenment increasing. But unlike the feeling of his enlightenment increasing, this feeling was more physical as it occurred on his physical body directly instead of just his mind. Now he understood why cultivators would seclude themselves for decades, lost in the ecstasy of meditation. If ordinary cultivation felt this refreshing, how much more profound must the higher realms be?
Time lost meaning as Xiang Yu continued absorbing qi. Minutes stretched into hours, but his awareness remained fixed on the growing reservoir of energy in his dantian. With each passing moment, the sensation intensified, the spiritual energy condensing into a glowing pool within him.
Suddenly, he felt resistance. His dantian had reached capacity—a natural limit for a body that had never channeled qi before. Just as panic threatened to break his concentration, something shifted.
The gathered qi began to move on its own. Pressure built within his core, uncomfortable but not painful, and then—release.
The accumulated energy surged outward from his dantian in all directions. Xiang Yu could perceive the qi carving pathways through his body. His meridians, that had been dormant since birth, finally awakened. Channels opened throughout his body, creating a network for the energy to flow.
He felt a transformation occurring within his body, his cells becoming attuned to the spiritual energy now coursing through him. His body hummed with newfound power, and something clicked into place.
Xiang Yu’s eyes fluttered open, adjusting to the dim light of his chamber. Forty-one days after his transmigration, he had finally reached the Qi Gathering realm. Officially beginning his cultivation journey.
He raised his hand before his face, slowly clenching his fingers into a fist. He could feel qi responding to his will, flowing into his arm and hand. The raw physical strength increase after breaking through to the Qi Gathering realm wasn’t that much, but the realm still had its own benefits. Now he could reinforce his muscles with qi, enhancing his physical abilities.
After the initial wave of excitement subsided, Xiang Yu centered himself once more. Since it was still dark outside, he returned to his meditative state. He didn’t want to waste time now that he could finally cultivate.
Throughout the night, faint wisps of energy could be seen dancing around his motionless form, being endlessly drawn to his body. He stayed in this state until the first rays of dawn pierced through his window.
Xiang Yu opened his eyes gently, taking a moment to appreciate the golden light spilling across his chamber. With a deep exhale, he released the last of the tension from his body, feeling more alive than ever before.
"This is truly addictive," he thought, he really wanted to just sit down and do this for the rest of his life. With his transcendent dao physique, he no longer needed food to sustain himself—he could theoretically cultivate without interruption. Still, he couldn’t just do that. The others would certainly notice if he vanished entirely, and questions would follow which he didn’t feel like dealing with at the moment. If he wanted to cultivate all day, he needed to find a good reason for his retreat.
...
Xiang Yu dismissed his scattered thoughts with a shake of his head. Those could wait—what he cared about at the moment was seeing his results. With just a thought, he summoned his system interface, eager to see how his breakthrough had affected his overall status:
[Name: Xiang Yu]
[Realm: Body: 11th Layer (1/11,000); Spirit: Qi Gathering 1st Layer (5/100); Mind: Level 4 (1/4000)]
[Species: Human]
[Spiritual Root: Medium-Grade Omni-Element]
[Physique: Transcendent Dao Body: Level 1 (1/1,000,000)]
[Enlightenment: High (60/3000)]
[Battle Instinct: Mortal (100,000/100,000)]
[Spirit Flame: Abyssal Void Flame: 6th Grade (630/40,000)]
[Professions: Cook: 5th Grade (70/500)]
[Techniques: ]
[Scriptures: ]
[System Function: Double Exp (Cooldown: 24hrs); Fusion]
Xiang Yu noticed that not much had changed from before. The only notable change was the new "Spirit" section that had appeared under his realm category. Seeing how the system created a new section for his qi cultivation, it seemed that it was indeed true that one could still continue their body refining even after advancing to the Qi Gathering stage.
Most cultivators likely abandoned body cultivation after developing their qi pathways, either because they reached their physical limits or because the increasingly demanding requirements outweighed the benefits. After all, it was easier to just meditate and gather qi to advance rather than lifting weights just to barely advance in body cultivation.
For Xiang Yu, however, such concerns didn’t bother him at all. With his transcendent dao physique he didn’t believe that he’d reach the limit for his body anytime soon, and with his system’s exponential growth, even painfully slow progress would eventually yield results. He wouldn’t be abandoning either path.
As his eyes scanned down the list, Xiang Yu suddenly noticed something he’d ignored before. The techniques and scriptures sections were completely empty. Though he understood that it was because of the fusion, it still stung his heart to see the section so empty.
Still, it wasn’t like they were gone completely, Xiang Yu could still feel their effects. For the Mountain Heart Sutra, he could still continue body refining, for the sutra, his mind level that had hit a bottleneck had actually resumed its advancement. As for the other techniques, he could still feel their mastery within him. He could feel his perfect level mastery of every technique, in fact, it felt even stronger than before.
Testing this theory, he reached for an imaginary knife, flowing through a complex series of cuts and parries. The movements felt natural, perfect, as though they’d been engraved into his very essence rather than merely memorized.
He concluded that the transcendent dao physique must have integrated their fundamental principles. He wondered if it had an innate mastery of weapons.
Despite this rationalization, Xiang Yu couldn’t suppress a twinge of regret. The system’s most powerful function was its ability to double accumulated experience, and without techniques or scriptures listed in the interface, he couldn’t leverage this advantage. Leaving it like this would be quite a loss.
"I need new techniques," he decided. His martial aunt had recently given him eighteen techniques so he couldn’t request for more so soon—not without explaining how he’d managed to master the previous batch, which would raise uncomfortable questions about his abnormal learning speed. There was no way this sort of speed could be attributed to just genius level enlightenment.
After pondering several approaches, Xiang Yu settled on a strategy. He would confess to an error in judgment, admitting he’d been overly ambitious in requesting twenty techniques simultaneously. To preserve his reputation, he would claim to have perfected two of them but recognized his folly in attempting to master so many at once. Now, he would explain, he sought deeper knowledge—a few high-level techniques rather than many basic ones.
"Yes, that should work," he concluded, a smug smile spreading across his face. His martial aunt didn’t seem like a petty person and would likely appreciate his apparent humility and willingness to acknowledge mistakes.
His self-congratulation was interrupted by a gentle knock at his door.
"Senior brother?" Li Yao’s familiar voice called from outside.
In an instant, Xiang Yu’s blood ran cold. He realized that he had made a critical oversight—now that he had broken through to the Qi Gathering realm, his spiritual energy would be perceptible to other cultivators. Without concealment techniques, his newfound cultivation base would be instantly exposed. Li Yao, with her extraordinary cultivation, would detect his breakthrough immediately.
Before he could formulate a plan, the door swung open with a decisive push, and Li Yao stood framed in the doorway...