Chapter 75: Extension of Spatial Perception
Although Yu Xian was somewhat displeased, he was not angry enough to fly into a rage and start thinking about killing Bat. After all, Bat had been honest. When Yu Xian questioned him, he did not try to hide anything. Instead, he openly admitted that he had played a trick on him. For now, Yu Xian could only let it go, as long as it did not happen again.
What came next was Nora's choice. Nora was actually rather motivated. After discussing it with Chen Ling, she decided to try cultivating the Sunward Sunflower Divine Art.
Many vampires among the Blood Race dabbled in other power systems on the side, but most of them achieved only mediocre results. When it came to cultivation, for example, most found it nearly impossible ever to reach full mastery of a technique, their magic usually limited to casting minor parlor tricks.
The main reason for this inefficiency was that these systems were designed for the living. Strictly, vampires weren't living beings. They leaned closer to the undead, or rather, creatures of darkness.
The greatest difference between Nora and normal vampires was that she had been born to a living mother. As a mixed-blood, she possessed a living side. That was the fundamental reason she continued to age and grow. Thus, she had the potential to become remarkably talented at learning other power systems.
All of this was merely Bat's personal theory. For now, no reliable cases supported his hypothesis. Aside from Nora, other vampires born among the Blood Race were not mixed-bloods. Their mothers had been vampires as well. In that sense, Nora was truly one of a kind.
Moreover, aside from Nora, the Blood Race treated vampires born through natural reproduction as princes and princesses. Those frogs at the bottom of the well looked down on others from their imagined heights and had no interest in other power systems.
Yu Xian downloaded the manual for the Sunward Sunflower Divine Art and forwarded it to Nora. Nora immediately opened it on her phone and carefully went through it.
The Supernatural Academy did have its merits. At the very least, students were taught about the Eight Extraordinary Meridians and related subjects as early as elementary school. Thus, Nora found the very cultivation manual that Yu Xian couldn't make heads or tails of perfectly legible. Her half-foreign background notwithstanding, she understood every single word.
Yu Xian saw that both Nora and Chen Ling were absorbed in studying the manual and returned to basking in the sunlight. From time to time, he could hear Chen Ling quietly asking about the location of a particular meridian. Nora would patiently explain it in detail, sometimes even pointing out the pathways directly on Chen Ling's body.
As Yu Xian gazed out the classroom window, a thought occurred to him. Now that my Blood Energy has mutated into Spatial Blood Energy, can I try learning spatial magic?
If his Blood Energy were still ordinary, it would probably be suitable for only blood arts. But in Spatial Blood Energy, the "Spatial" part came before "Blood Energy." Clearly, the spatial aspect had surpassed the blood aspect.
He immediately took out his phone and searched the Qilin's archives for spatial magic and spatial arts. Since mages and sorcerers were among the more common supernatural professions, magic and mystic arts were not particularly restricted. Success depended largely on individual aptitude, and many mages and sorcerers were willing to take apprentices. As a result, Qilin maintained a massive repository of them.
For example, in the Demon Slaying Squad, all seven members, including Dubhe, were technically sorcerers. Aside from practicing the mystic arts passed down by their respective masters, they also frequented Qilin's archives for additional mystic arts that suited their individual needs.
Yu Xian typed the word "spatial" into the search bar. A massive wall of results immediately popped up. It spanned everything from witchcraft and magic to mystic arts, immortal arts, and martial techniques.
He carefully browsed through each entry, searching for something that suited him. Although the merit points needed to redeem most of these abilities were relatively low, he had no idea what his aptitude for magic and mystic arts would be like. So he planned to start with an ability that he urgently needed and test the waters first.
A few minutes later, his gaze stopped on an entry named Spatial Perception. It was a Serpent-rank mystic art. After casting it, the user could mark a specific set of spatial coordinates as the epicenter to perceive all information in the surrounding area. In theory, the stronger the caster's mental strength was, the larger the area they could perceive and the more detailed the information they could gather.
Yu Xian did not hesitate and immediately exchanged for the mystic art. Then he carefully studied the instructions. First, meditate to form an invisible spatial seed in your mind. Next, perceive the spatial coordinates where you wish to deploy it. Release the spatial seed into that coordinate, allowing it to take root, sprout, and blossom into a spatial flower capable of perceiving everything.
Yu Xian frowned. He simply closed his eyes and tried to imagine this invisible spatial seed. Wait. If it's invisible, how am I supposed to imagine it?
The more he thought about it, the more contradictory it seemed. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't form a mental image of such a seed.
The class bell rang. Helplessly, Yu Xian opened his eyes and decided to ask about it on the discussion board instead. Unfortunately, the responses were all variations of "If you find out, let me know too."
One particularly honest member even informed him that Spatial Perception had been stored in Qilin's archives for more than five hundred years. From the day it was acquired until the present, not a single member of Qilin had successfully learned the mystic art.
Yu Xian stared at the message in disbelief. He had finally found a mystic art through which he could observe distant locations, yet he was being told that nobody had ever managed to learn it.
Could this mystic art be a fake?
Furious, he immediately contacted Xiao Cheng. "Deputy Director, I'd like to file for compensation! Nobody managed to learn Spatial Perception. I want a refund!"
Xiao Cheng snorted.
—A refund? Forget it. I can tell you with absolute certainty that this mystic art is genuine. In fact, it's a bona fide Dragon-Rank mystic art. Its true name is Piercing Insight into Distant Shores, created five hundred years ago by the Earthbound Immortal, Master Kongkong. If none of you can learn it, that only proves your foundation is too shallow.
With that, he hung up. Yu Xian could only stare helplessly at his phone. Although the merit cost for exchanging the mystic art wasn't particularly high, failing to learn it still felt like a huge waste. After thinking it over, Yu Xian simply reopened the instructions for Spatial Perception and carefully reread them word by word. When he finished, however, he was still baffled.
He couldn't help but ask, "Nora, Chen Ling, let me ask you something. How exactly are you supposed to imagine an invisible seed?"
Chen Ling shook her head. "No idea. That's completely self-contradictory."
Nora seemed confused. "Does it absolutely have to be invisible? If you can't do that, why not just imagine a visible seed instead?"
Yu Xian froze. Right. If I can't visualize an invisible seed, why don't I try visualizing a visible one?
The idea was so simple that he immediately put it into practice. He searched for a picture of a seed on his phone, memorized its appearance, and meditated.
At first, the process was anything but smooth. However, he gradually entered the proper state of mind, and the image of a seed appeared within his consciousness. At the same time, he discovered that the Spatial Blood Energy within his dantian was moving on its own, naturally forming a tiny crimson seed.
With a flicker of his thought, the seed instantly appeared inside one of the spatial bubbles outside Silver City. Then it rapidly took root and sprouted. Growing with astonishing speed, it eventually blossomed into a red spider lily within the spatial bubble.
Next, countless petals detached from the flower's center and drifted outward in all directions. The petals became extensions of Yu Xian's perception. Through them, he could "see" an ant searching for food on the ground, a grasshopper hidden beneath a blade of grass, slowly moving its antennae, and an aphid chewing on a leaf.
Suddenly, a snake seemed to notice one of the drifting petals. It paused and stared at it for a moment before abruptly turning around and slithering away.