[Ding! New system function unlocked]
Surprise flickered across his face as he stared at the notification hovering in the air. What could this be? The Double Exp function was already absurdly powerful, allowing him to achieve what others would consider impossible cultivation speeds. Now there was something new?
His mental command acknowledged the notification, revealing:
[System Function: Double Exp (Cooldown: 24hrs); Fusion]
Knowledge flooded into his mind instantly, a comprehensive understanding of the new system function washing through his consciousness. Fusion would allow him to merge techniques and scriptures, combining their strengths to create something greater than the sum of its parts. However, there were limitations—techniques could only be merged if they had reached the perfect stage and were compatible with each other. Scriptures merely needed compatibility, without the perfection requirement.
A thought immediately sparked in Xiang Yu's mind. The Mountain Heart Scripture and Sutra were described as two halves of the same whole. Wouldn't they be perfect candidates for fusion?
To his surprise, when he checked their compatibility, the system indicated they couldn't be merged. This puzzled him briefly before understanding dawned. Perhaps they were considered halves not because they originated from the same source technique, but because they complemented each other—one cultivating the body, the other the mind. While slightly disappointed, he didn't dwell on it.
His attention shifted to his perfect techniques—the Basic Knife Technique and now-perfected Basic Sword Technique. The system showed they were compatible and could be merged immediately. A smile stretched across his face as he contemplated the power such a fusion might yield.
Then, a more ambitious idea took root. The system hadn't specified a limit on how many techniques could be merged at once. What if...
"What if I ask Martial Aunt for more weapon techniques?" he thought, excitement building. "If they're compatible with sword and knife techniques, I could perfect them all and merge them together."
The possibilities made his pulse quicken. Perhaps he could create something truly extraordinary—something like an invincible weapon master technique that would elevate his combat potential exponentially. With his mid-level enlightenment, perfecting additional techniques would be far easier than before.
His mind made up, Xiang Yu sheathed his sword and turned to Li Yao.
"Let's take a break," he suggested, his tone casual despite the plans forming in his mind.
Li Yao tilted her head, confusion evident in her expression. "Isn't it too early?" Their training sessions typically lasted much longer.
"No, it's just the perfect time," he replied with unusual enthusiasm. "We're going to prepare a feast."
"A feast?" Li Yao's eyebrows rose in curiosity. "Is today a special day?"
She mentally reviewed the sect calendar, unable to recall any particular occasion worth celebrating today.
Xiang Yu nodded with apparent pride. "Of course. Today is the day I perfected two techniques."
Li Yao's eyes sparkled with genuine appreciation. Perfecting even one technique was a monumental achievement for most cultivators—two was truly extraordinary.
"I'll go capture more wild boars!" she exclaimed, taking off with childlike excitement.
As she disappeared from sight, the smug smile on Xiang Yu's face revealed his true intentions. He wasn't actually narcissistic enough to throw a celebration merely for perfecting techniques. His real motivation was far more pragmatic: this would be his first opportunity to prepare seventh-grade spiritual food.
Walking toward the kitchen, he couldn't suppress a satisfied chuckle. With food of this quality, convincing—or more accurately, bribing—his martial aunt into sharing additional weapon techniques should be effortless. Given her obvious weakness for his cooking, she'd likely agree to part with several techniques.
Once he gathered and perfected those techniques, he could combine them all into something truly invincible. The thought of such power at his fingertips made him laugh aloud, his usually cautious demeanor giving way to genuine anticipation.
...
The kitchen hummed with focused energy as Xiang Yu channeled his newly acquired seventh-grade cooking mastery. Unlike his usual meal preparations, this feast demanded extraordinary attention to detail. His movements reflected the precision of his perfected techniques—each slice, dice, and julienne executed with flawless economy of motion.
The Abyssal Void Flame danced across his fingertips, responding to his will with newfound sensitivity. He adjusted its temperature with mere thoughts, controlling the black fire's intensity with unprecedented precision.
Li Yao returned with two massive wild boars slung effortlessly over her shoulders. While she cleaned and prepared the game, Xiang Yu gathered rare herbs from Elder Guo's personal garden. The elder wouldn't have parted with them before but after he realized Xiang Yu's cooking skills, the elder encouraged him to use the herbs as well.
As preparation intensified, Xiang Yu's creative vision expanded beyond individual dishes to encompass the feast as a whole. He orchestrated complementary flavors, balancing yang-heavy meats with yin-cooling vegetables, creating a symphony of tastes designed to nourish both body and soul. With seven different main dishes, twelve side plates, three soups, and a special dessert, this wasn't merely a meal—it was an event.
The kitchen transformed into a controlled battlefield. Multiple woks sizzled simultaneously as Xiang Yu's hands moved with hypnotic speed. Li Yao could only watch in awe as he wielded cooking implements with the same mastery he showed with weapons.
The most remarkable element wasn't the quantity but the quality. Each dish glowed with subtle energy—actual visible qi emanating from perfectly prepared ingredients.
When the meals were finally complete, Xiang Yu and Li Yao exhaled deeply, the exhaustion of preparing such an extensive feast settling into their muscles. The sweet aroma of their efforts had already begun working its magic, drawing Elder Guo and Elder Huang as if summoned by an irresistible spell.
"Why are you cooking so early? Is there a special occasion?" Elder Huang inquired, her eyes never leaving the tantalizing spread before them.
Li Yao answered with unbridled enthusiasm. "That's right! We're celebrating Senior Brother mastering two techniques to the perfect stage!"
"What?!" Both elders exclaimed in perfect unison, their shock palpable.
In the next instant, Elder Huang materialized beside Xiang Yu, moving with such speed he hadn't even registered her approach. She gripped his shoulders, shaking him with unexpected vigor.
"Is it true? Is it true?" Her voice rose with excitement as she continued shaking him. "Quick, show me, show me, show me!" she chanted.
Though surprised by her enthusiasm, Xiang Yu maintained his composure. This was precisely the reaction he'd hoped for, but he wouldn't reveal his techniques before playing his trump card.
"Martial Aunt, let's eat first," he suggested smoothly. "The food is getting cold. I had a breakthrough in my cooking and decided to prepare this feast for Martial Aunt as thanks for giving me the spirit flame." He finished with a respectful bow.
"What? For me?" Elder Huang's eyes darted between Xiang Yu and the sumptuous feast, taking in the extraordinary colors, textures, and aromas. She couldn't suppress an audible gulp as her cultivation instincts recognized the unprecedented quality of spiritual energy emanating from the dishes.
Suddenly aware of her undignified behavior, Elder Huang stepped back and composed herself. "You're right," she declared with forced dignity. "We should eat first before it gets cold."
Xiang Yu allowed himself a small, satisfied smile. His martial aunt's weakness for exceptional food was proving to be the perfect leverage. Once she tasted his seventh-grade spirit cuisine, her happiness would naturally transfer to him as the provider. By explicitly framing the feast as gratitude for her previous generosity, he was establishing a pattern—he rewarded those who helped him. The subliminal message was clear: more techniques shared would result in more extraordinary feasts.
His manipulation was subtle but effective. By linking his generosity directly to her previous gift, he was planting the seed for future exchanges, making her more inclined to share additional techniques that would accelerate his path to power.
...
Everyone sat down as Xiang Yu served the meal. Rather than individual portions, he placed a large pot at the center of the table, allowing diners to refill as desired.
As they took their first bites, a collective silence fell over the gathering. The food transcended mere flavor—it was a revelation. Each morsel exploded across their palates in a symphony of tastes, with every subsequent bite unveiling an entirely new spectrum of sensations. What made this feast truly extraordinary wasn't just the initial taste but what happened after swallowing.
The food seemingly vanished upon reaching their stomachs, dissolving completely into various essences that spread throughout their bodies. Some elements nourished the mind and soul directly, others accelerated healing processes, replenished stamina, or gathered as concentrated qi that settled naturally in their dantians.
This miraculous quality solved spirit food's greatest limitation—stomach capacity. Spirit foods had one big limitation which was that one couldn't consume as much as they wanted as they would eventually get full. By diffusing instantly without leaving physical residue, it allowed continuous consumption without fullness. Even Xiang Yu, despite lacking spiritual roots, could benefit from the soul nourishment, enhanced healing, and stamina recovery aspects of his own creation.
"This..." Elder Guo's voice faltered after his first taste. The mind and soul nourishing effects struck him profoundly. At the Golden Core stage of cultivation, one typically had to continuously feed spiritual energy to their core until it eventually shattered, sprouting a nascent soul that marked breakthrough to the Nascent Soul realm. This meal's soul-nurturing properties were actively accelerating his nascent soul's development. If he continued consuming such food regularly, the time needed to manifest a nascent soul would decrease dramatically.
But there was something even more significant occurring. Years ago, Elder Guo had suffered a devastating injury that destabilized his cultivation, damaging his qi pathways irreparably. Though technically at Golden Core stage, his combat abilities had deteriorated to mere Core Formation level, and his shattered core meant advancement was impossible—a broken core could never sprout a nascent soul.
Now, as he savored each bite, he felt healing essences flowing through his meridians, gradually realigning his damaged qi pathways. His core, long thought permanently damaged, showed signs of regeneration. It was subtle yet undeniable—hope blossoming where none had existed before.
Tears welled in his eyes as the realization hit him. All this because he'd once chosen to rescue a poor boy from a ruined town's pavement. The cosmic serendipity overwhelmed him, streams of tears rolling unbidden down his weathered cheeks.
The disciples noticed their master's unexpected emotion, exchanging confused glances.
"Could it be..." Elder Huang thought privately, quickly assessing the situation. She turned to the bewildered disciples with a reassuring smile. "Just enjoy your food. Senior brother is simply emotional because of how delicious everything tastes," she explained smoothly.
Accepting this explanation, the disciples returned their attention to their meals. Elder Huang gave her senior brother a knowing glance before resuming her own feast. Though she typically delighted in teasing him and would normally seize the opportunity to call him a crybaby, she chose to spare him this time.
...
As Li Yao continued savoring her meal, she suddenly realized the Immortal Empress had fallen unusually quiet.
"You still there?" Li Yao inquired mentally, her chopsticks pausing midway to her mouth.
[Stop talking, just eat,] came the abrupt reply, the empress's tone carrying unexpected urgency.
"What?" Li Yao couldn't mask her surprise. The empress's voice held none of its usual dignified poise, replaced instead by something almost... desperate? Why such concern over whether she ate? True, the food provided remarkable cultivation benefits with each bite, but the empress's keen interest seemed peculiar.
A warm thought blossomed in Li Yao's mind—perhaps the ancient empress truly cared for her wellbeing after all.
[Stop your delusions and eat,] the empress cut through her moment of sentimentality. [Our souls are connected, so when the food nourishes your soul, it nourishes mine too.]
Understanding dawned on Li Yao, the empress's unusual silence wasn't concern but self-interest—she was allowing Li Yao to eat undisturbed so she could maximize her own benefits from the soul-nourishing essence.
A smug smile curved Li Yao's lips as she picked up another morsel. "Now you get what I always see in Senior Brother?" she teased, her mental voice lilting with satisfaction.
[Yeah, yeah, just eat,] the empress replied dismissively, though lacking her usual aloofness.
Li Yao's smile widened as she continued eating. She'd never imagined the haughty Immortal Empress had this side to her—so nakedly appreciative of something as simple as food. It seemed the soul-nourishing essence was particularly valuable to souls who lacked physical forms to cultivate normally.
The feast stretched on luxuriously, the four cultivators indulging in Xiang Yu's extraordinary creation for nearly two hours before finally emptying the last dish. Though the food dissipated immediately upon consumption, leaving their stomachs physically empty, they all reclined in their chairs with the distinct sensation of fullness, their bodies heavy with pleasant fatigue from the extended dining session.
They simply couldn't stop until every morsel was consumed—the cuisine was too exceptional to waste. Each bite had been an investment in their cultivation. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶
Elder Guo settled back in his chair, expression serene as Xiang Yu collected the empty plates. His meridians and qi pathways, damaged for so long, now flowed with renewed vitality. He could feel his Golden Core strength returning, though he recognized the risk of exerting it prematurely. Better to allow his core to heal completely before attempting any significant moves.
Still, the progress was remarkable. He estimated his core would fully regenerate after just a few more such feasts. While daily banquets of this magnitude might be impractical, even Xiang Yu's regular meals would contribute to his healing—just at a slower pace. Having long abandoned hope for recovery, Elder Guo found himself unexpectedly patient. What was a longer wait when compared to the miracle of having any hope at all? And perhaps his talented disciple might achieve yet another breakthrough in his cooking skills.
Xiang Yu finished washing the utensils, his movements efficient and unhurried. As he dried his hands and turned from the basin, his expression shifted subtly—a calculating gleam entering his eyes.
The time had finally come for the main topic. Time to get his money's worth...
...