Chapter 26: The Uses of Blood Energy
The afternoon class at the Supernatural Academy was, again, a self-study period. Teachers had already gone over everything that needed to be taught in senior year many times. Nowadays, aside from the endless quizzes and exams, the only thing left was self-study.
Another reason for this was that many teachers across the various schools were either dead or permanently disabled. Only a handful were still capable of teaching, and they simply couldn't be everywhere at once.
In the classroom, Zhang Shou was sound asleep with his head resting on the desk. A book covered his face, but the steady rumble of his snoring rang past that.
Sunlight streamed in through the window. Yu Xian, who was sitting beside Zhang Shou, was experimenting with Blood Energy. Hidden beneath the desk, his hands held a mass of Blood Energy. He manipulated the crimson energy, and it expanded and gradually formed two blurry humanoid figures. The two figures stood on his palms, wielding long spears and battling each other. Their weapons collided again and again.
The Blood Race's combat strength rested on two major foundations, and Blood Energy was one of them. Any vampire who awakened Blood Energy was treated as a key prospect and nurtured accordingly by the Blood Race.
Yu Xian knew very well just how important Blood Energy was. Besides, back in middle school, he had read plenty of web novels about vampires. The one that left the deepest impression on him was a novel titled After Awakening Blood Energy, I Rose to the Pinnacle of Life.
In the novel, the protagonist happened to save an important figure of the Blood Race and was granted the First Bite. However, because his innate ability was extremely weak, other vampires looked down upon him and ridiculed him.
Unexpectedly, his very first major ability turned out to be Blood Energy. As a result, he was regarded as a once-in-a-century genius within the Blood Race. He not only humiliated those who once despised him but also climbed the ranks, earning promotions and raises, and eventually married a wealthy and beautiful Blood Race heiress, reaching the pinnacle of his life.
The novel also featured several fictional blood arts. During his second year of middle school, Yu Xian had been obsessed with this novel, even fantasizing about himself as the protagonist.
Back then, he never could have imagined that one day he would not only become a vampire but also awaken Blood Energy as his third ability, a result even more exaggerated than a typical power-fantasy web novel.
The wisdom of old only grew more valuable with time. Sometimes, reality was even more absurd than fiction; fiction still followed certain logical constraints, whereas reality often followed none at all.
Ever since he had awakened Blood Energy, Yu Xian had been constantly pondering blood arts. The Qilin app provided some videos showing how vampires utilized Blood Energy, such as summoning a massive Scythe of Blood or the Chains of Blood, which could seal off an area. There was also the Blood Wing Art used for flight, the Cloak of Blood used to block out sunlight during the day, and the Red Cloud Black Sky Art used by the progenitor of the Blood Race when fighting in daylight.
Many of these blood arts were impossible to learn just from watching their videos. In the end, Yu Xian had no choice but to focus his attention on the Scythe of Blood. Although it was by no means simple, he felt he could probably manage a high-quality imitation of it.
By manipulating the humanoid figures made from Blood Energy to fight each other, he was actually training his ability to shape Blood Energy. The spears in the hands of the humanoid figures served to test the stability of the Blood Energy once it was shaped into a weapon.
Since he had no one to guide him, Yu Xian wasn't sure whether his approach was correct or how his imitation compared to the Blood Race's blood arts. Regardless, he had also developed another application for Blood Energy: creating bubbles.
If he gave Blood Energy adhesive properties, injecting a small amount of air into it would make it behave like chewing gum, allowing him to blow bubbles with it. If he created a large number of bubbles beneath the soles of his feet and compressed them, he could generate a tremendous force and greatly enhance his speed.
He also imagined embedding a large number of tiny bubbles in the inner layer of the armor woven from Silver Blood as a cushioning layer. Against opponents possessing immense strength, the bubbles would provide a pretty solid layer of defense.
The bell rang, signaling the end of class. Yu Xian retracted the Blood Energy into his body, then took out his phone to browse trending news and relax his mind for a moment.
Although he didn't feel physically tired due to sunlight, constantly focusing his mind brought him another kind of fatigue. It was similar to working in a factory on an assembly line. Even if the body wasn't exhausted, a sense of weariness would inevitably set in. It was best to balance work and rest. When it was time to relax, one should simply rest.
After chatting quietly with Nora for a while, Chen Ling turned around to look at Yu Xian. "Salted Fish, are you free tonight?"
Yu Xian nodded. "Yeah. What's up?"
He and Zhang Shou did not need to go on patrol every night. They were required to patrol only twice a week. Officers of the Combat Police unit handled the rest on rotation. Since the two of them had already gone on patrol last night, it definitely wouldn't be their turn today. Therefore, Yu Xian was free for the night.
Chen Ling asked, "There's a headliner performance at the beast-fighting arena tonight. Nora invited us to watch it together. Are you two in?"
Yu Xian glanced at Nora. Seeing her acting nonchalantly, he couldn't help but smile. "Since the dazed Goose is treating, I can't possibly miss it."
The beast-fighting arena was, in essence, a place where supernatural beings captured supernatural creatures from the wild and pitted them against one another in cages. Similar to bullfighting, these matches usually ended with the creatures' deaths.
Yu Xian had never watched a match in person, but many paid videos of such fights were available online. He had watched plenty of them before.
Those famous beast fighters were essentially celebrities. They not only endorsed various products but also had a huge fan base, and they could earn a lot of money from merchandise alone. Yu Xian felt that if he hadn't joined Qilin, once he had become strong enough to no longer fear the Blood Race, he probably would have become a beast fighter himself.
"You're the dazed goose." Nora dramatically rolled her eyes up at Yu Xian, though the corners of her mouth quietly curled upward.
Nora's status within the Blood Race had not declined because of Yu Xian. Instead, it had risen rapidly. If she had once been jokingly called the "Blood Race's little princess" at the Supernatural Academy, then now she was truly close to becoming a real princess of the Blood Race.
Yu Xian had used her blood to become a vampire, and he similarly did not fear the sun. This was a monumental discovery. If every vampire who received her First Bite could walk freely under the sun, the Blood Race would no longer be restricted to operating solely in the darkness of the night. They could assert their presence during the day as well.
It could be said that Nora was the Blood Race's new hope. Their progenitor had also taken notice of her, even considering bestowing his blood upon her.
The next period was still a self-study period. After the three of them agreed on where to meet that night, they fell silent and went about their own business.
Yu Xian kept his hands beneath the desk as before, but this time, he condensed his Blood Energy into a small, blood-colored dagger. Pressing the dagger against his palm, he tested its hardness and sharpness.
"If I keep compressing it..."
Yu Xian judged that the dagger was only comparable to a normal iron weapon. So he compressed his Blood Energy further.
Although most vampires were fragile, Yu Xian was an exception. For some reason, although his physique was comparable to that of a normal vampire, slender and even slightly lean, no one would ever guess from his appearance or muscle definition alone that he could effortlessly lift one to two tons of weight. To adapt to his own strength and speed, his skin, bones, and tendons had all become extremely resilient.
It had become even more pronounced after he awakened Blood Energy. Ordinary kitchen knives could no longer cut through his skin, and weapons like steel rods had difficulty causing him any real damage.
Yu Xian compressed the fifteen-centimeter dagger down to ten centimeters. He made a light slash. A faint mark appeared on his palm, but it disappeared almost instantly under the sunlight.