Chapter 66: 5th Grade Spirit Food
"Senior brother?" Li Yao’s voice filled the room as the door swung open. She stepped inside with a concerned expression. "You didn’t answer for so long, so I thought something happened." She offered a quick apologetic bow for entering uninvited, but as her gaze settled on Xiang Yu, her expression shifted. "Senior brother...you..."
Xiang Yu’s heart rate intensified. Had she detected his breakthrough? His mind raced through possible explanations, excuses, anything to divert her attention from his newly acquired qi. But before he could stammer out a response, Li Yao continued unexpectedly.
"Were you practicing that scripture you received from Master?" she asked, her head tilting slightly in curiosity.
"What?" Xiang Yu couldn’t hide his surprise. Relief washed over him as he realized she hadn’t noticed his cultivation breakthrough. He quickly composed himself. "Yeah, that’s what I was doing," he confirmed.
Li Yao studied him for a moment, making him slightly nervous. "You should practice it less," she finally said. "I heard that mind techniques are very dangerous."
Xiang Yu rose from his seated position, offering a reassuring smile. "Yes, I’ll be more careful next time." He seized the opportunity to change the subject. "Why did you come here?"
"Well, the Heaven-Testing Pagoda will be opening soon, so I won’t be able to practice with you like usual anymore," she explained, a hint of reluctance in her voice. "I just came to say goodbye."
Xiang Yu nodded slowly. He had nearly forgotten about the Heaven-Testing Pagoda. "How long will it last?" he asked.
"About a week," Li Yao replied. "But don’t worry, I’ll come back as soon as it’s over." She maintained her cheerful expression, though internally she knew this was a lie. Her true plan was to go in search of the Rebirth Pill immediately after the testing concluded. But he didn’t need to know that.
Xiang Yu acknowledged her words with another nod. "Master and Martial Aunt will be the ones overseeing the event," she continued. "Master said that you should take care of the pavilion when he’s away."
Disappointment flickered across Xiang Yu’s features. If both Elder Guo and Elder Huang would be absent for a week, his plans to request new techniques would have to wait. He suppressed a sigh, resolving to address that problem later.
"Junior sister, since you’ll be gone for a week, let me pack some meals for you," Xiang Yu offered.
Li Yao’s eyes immediately sparkled with anticipation when she heard him mention food.
As he made his way to the kitchen, Xiang Yu reflected on Li Yao’s upcoming challenge. She was the quintessential protagonist archetype in this cultivation world—talented, determined, and destined for greatness. Yet even main characters faced trials and tribulations. The Heaven-Testing Pagoda would undoubtedly present challenges, perhaps even dangers. The least he could do was provide her with meals that would aid her recovery if she encountered trouble.
In the kitchen, Xiang Yu moved at frightening speeds. Preparing meals for an entire week would have been daunting for most, but his advanced cooking skills made the task manageable. Now, with qi flowing through his meridians, he could finally combine his spiritual energy with his Abyssal Void Flame, accelerating the cooking process and enhancing the quality of his dishes.
For the first time, Xiang Yu attempted to create 6th grade spirit food. To his surprise, even though he had not prepared 6th grade meals before, his fifth-grade mastery made it seem so effortless, as if he’d done it thousands of times before.
As he finished preparing the main meals, an idea struck him. He decided to prepare one additional dish.
When he returned to Li Yao, she had already completed her preparations for departure. "Junior sister, here are the meals I prepared for you," he said, presenting her with a neatly packaged collection of containers. "I recently had a breakthrough in my cooking, so they might be a little different from before."
As Li Yao accepted the meals, her eyes widened slightly at the spiritual energy emanating from the food. Even the empress’s soul residing within her salivated at the potent qi infused in each dish. Li Yao quickly composed herself and stored the meals in her spatial pouch.
"Take this too," Xiang Yu added, extending a small, carefully wrapped package.
"What’s this?" she asked curiously.
"This one is a special dish I made. It has some special properties," he explained. Seeing her eyes light up with excitement as she reached for it, Xiang Yu pulled his hand back slightly. He cleared his throat. "This one is not for eating casually. You should only take it when you absolutely have no other choice. Otherwise, you’ll have wasted it."
Li Yao’s expression shifted to surprise, but before she could respond, the empress’s voice echoed in her mind.
[Your senior brother is right. Though I would really like the essence in that spirit food, you should keep it as a trump card. Who knows, it might even save your life.]
Li Yao was genuinely shocked by the empress’s assessment. Had her senior brother truly reached such a level of skill? She nodded solemnly and accepted the small wrapped meal.
Xiang Yu watched her, wondering if she really understood him. That meal was a fifth-grade creation he had poured all his skill into, teetering on the verge of breaking through to fourth-grade quality. If she didn’t use it at precisely the right moment, its potential would be wasted. But he dismissed his concerns—what serious dangers could possibly threaten someone like Li Yao?
The two disciples exchanged formal farewells, and Li Yao departed, her slender form rising gracefully into the air as she flew away. Xiang Yu watched until she disappeared from sight before returning to his room.
Though disappointed by the delay in acquiring new techniques from Elder Huang, he recognized that cultivation was the best use of his time. Settling back into his meditative position, Xiang Yu closed his eyes and began absorbing qi once more, the energy flowing into his body easily.
...
In the Scripture Pavilion, Elder Mei Zhiyuan’s lips curved into a satisfied smile as he gazed out the window.
"Perfect," he murmured to himself. "Everything is falling into place."
He had noticed that Elder Huang of the Phoenix Ascension Pavilion and Elder Guo of the Mountain Heart Pavilion had been spending considerable time together at the Mountain Heart Pavilion. After using some of his connections, he had successfully arranged for both elders to oversee the Heaven-Testing Pagoda event.
With both elders absent for the duration of the event, the Mountain Heart Pavilion would be virtually defenseless, guarded only by that unremarkable senior disciple. Just a trash mortal with no spiritual roots.
Any other time, elder Mei would never have thought of the boy as anything worth considering at all, but this time was different. Even though the disciple did not specifically do it, he was still partially involved in the death of one of his most valuable pawns, he just wouldn’t let this grudge go.
Now that the boy was alone in the pavilion, he would use this opportunity to eliminate the loose end that had been troubling him. That useless pawn had failed in his mission to deal with Li Yao, and had instead lost his life in the process. But now Elder Mei could rectify that failure and remove both disciples in one coordinated strike.
For the senior disciple, he had already selected a trusted subordinate who would infiltrate the Mountain Heart Pavilion, making quick work of the lone disciple.
As for Li Yao, he had deployed a different strategy. Several of his most capable subordinates had been instructed to enter the Heaven-Testing Pagoda as participants. Their mission was clear: find the girl and ensure she never emerged from the testing grounds. In such a dangerous environment, deaths were not uncommon. Her demise would be attributed to the rigors of the test itself, arousing no suspicion.
Elder Mei reached for a delicate porcelain cup and took a measured sip of spirit tea, savoring both its refined taste and the imminent success of his schemes.
"As long as nothing unexpected occurs," he whispered to the empty room, "everything will proceed according to plan."