Chapter 84: The Highest Praise. Fine, You Win
It was a straight blade, almost two meters long. The scabbard was inlaid with two purple gemstones and covered in intricate lightning patterns. Yu Xian did not even need to use Appraisal to know that this was a treasured blade.
He subconsciously glanced at the Dragon King Golden Toad. Is this a gift for me?
The creature still had its eyes closed. Yu Xian came to a realization, and a smug smile appeared on his face. This had been a contest between him and the Dragon King Golden Toad to see who would blink first. Since the creature had blinked first, it considered itself the loser. That was why it had given him a treasure, as if to say, "Fine, you win."
Yu Xian grabbed the treasured blade and smiled at the Dragon King Golden Toad. "Thanks. Let’s compete again next time!"
The Dragon King Golden Toad retracted its tongue, then slowly turned around and faced away from Yu Xian. Clearly, it did not want to have another blinking contest with him.
Yu Xian did not know whether to laugh or cry, but he was in an excellent mood. Restricted zones do not seem that dangerous. At least some supernatural creatures are quite friendly.
Seeing that the Dragon King Golden Toad truly had no intention of paying him any more attention, he left a bubble on the ground and told it he would visit again. Then, he continued on his journey.
Along the way, he sat cross-legged inside the bubble, constantly examining the treasured blade. The blade weighed roughly half a ton. An ordinary person would never be able to lift it, but for him, it was just right. Perhaps the Dragon King Golden Toad had already seen through his strength when it gave him the gift, which was why the treasure suited him so well.
He gripped the hilt and slowly drew the blade. Wisps of electricity coiled around the blade, giving off a white glow, and the sound of crackling lightning came from the blade.
Zzt! Zzt! Zzt!
Both the lightning arcs and the crackling gradually disappeared. Instead, there seemed to be a flowing streak of lightning along the edge. This was definitely a treasure!
Yu Xian looked at the blade and immediately used Appraisal on it.
Manji Thunderflash Blade
Rank
- Dragon Rank
Ability
- Each time this blade is swung, lightning strengthens the wielder's body. The next time the blade is swung, its speed increases by 1%, up to a maximum of 2,500% increase. At the same time, the blade becomes sharper.
Summary
- Too slow, too slow, too slow, too slow. Slash, slash, slash, slash. Without madness, there is no life.
As expected of the Dragon King Golden Toad, a treasure it gave away was anything but ordinary. This was far too powerful.
Although the Manji Thunderflash Blade’s attributes were extremely simple, they were incredibly powerful. Once Yu Xian fully stacked its speed, the frequency of its attacks would rise to a terrifying level.
Besides, Yu Xian also had spatial abilities. If he combined them with this blade, he would be able to cut down small fry with a single slash.
He put away the Manji Thunderflash Blade, leaned against the bubble, and looked up at the sky. The scene of that tongue shooting toward him kept flashing through his mind. That had been way too close.
For all he knew, the Dragon King Golden Toad could have been trying to attack him. Him possessing spatial abilities did not mean he was 100% safe. The Dragon King Golden Toad’s sudden strike was the best proof of that.
The first thing he thought of was his Bubble Clone. He created another bubble outside his own, then cast the Bubble Clone into that bubble.
After that, he used Silver Blood to strengthen his ability to absorb light, which instantly turned him pitch-black. Then, he adjusted the bubble he was in, making it completely transparent. In the blink of an eye, only one bubble remained in the air, and inside that bubble was his clone.
Yu Xian looked at his clone from a distance. "This should be enough to mislead someone, right?"
The rest of the journey was calm and uneventful. Perhaps humans were not part of many animals' diets to begin with, and he was also flying high in the sky, so the supernatural creatures on the ground showed no intention of attacking him.
It was not until daybreak that he finally stopped, watching from afar as the sun slowly rose in the east. He had to fly around many restricted zones, with some of them covering especially large areas. So, his route was not a straight line. He also could not fly too quickly. Otherwise, if he encountered an unexpected situation, he would not have enough time to respond. As a result, even after flying for an entire night, he had covered only one-third of the journey. Ice City was still far away.
Yu Xian wanted to give Nora a surprise, so after watching the sunrise, he left several spatial bubbles at different locations in the area before teleporting back home. Back at his villa, he appeared out of thin air on the balcony's lounge chair. He lay down naturally, feeling lazy and relaxed. "What a long night!"
A few minutes later, he went to school with Nora. At school, he simply lay on his desk and slept. Physically, he was not tired, but mentally, it was a different story. He needed to empty his head for a while.
When he woke up, it was already noon. He looked at the sunlight outside the window, then pondered the matter of mystic arts.
The method he had thought of on the spot last night, using a Bubble Clone as a substitute for his real body, was excellent. However, he had many details left to iron out. With his current mental strength, he could control only one clone. If he cast more than one, flaws would appear.
Moreover, he had to control this clone directly. It was not as though the clone would gain consciousness after he cast the mystic art. To put it plainly, the bubble clone was essentially a marionette, and he had to control its every movement himself.
At night, he could turn himself pitch-black and not reflect light, but during the day, that trick would not work as effectively. Another issue was that the bubble clone ultimately had no eyes. Its sensing range depended on the sensing range of the red spider lily petals inside its body. That range was very small, probably only one or two meters around the body.
This meant that Yu Xian could not control it from a long distance. Once it was too far, he would not be able to see around it.
Unless he created a large number of red spider lily petals and formed a sensing space across a radius of fifty kilometers, he could not move too far away from the clone. The bubble’s defense was also a little weak currently. These were all problems he needed to solve at the moment.
The first thing he thought of was incorporating Blood Shield and Blood Barrier into his spatial bubbles. Since he had even managed to transform Mirage Clone into Bubble Clone, there was no reason he couldn't do the same with Blood Shield and Blood Barrier.
Because of the success with the Bubble Clone, his thinking had completely opened up. Since there had been a first time, there could naturally be a second. He never even considered the possibility of failure.
Yu Xian placed his hands inside his desk drawer. He first created a bubble, then used Blood Shield, layering it over the bubble. The first step was a success.
He tried to shrink the shield and create more shields, wrapping them around the bubble. The idea was to create something like a bunker, leaving only a narrow gap at a certain height on the bubble so that he could see outside. When an enemy attacked, he could also rotate the bubble at any time, constantly shifting the position of the gap.
Perhaps because this method was rather opportunistic, he completed his idea quite easily. However, he soon discovered a new problem. Once the shield became smaller, it also became thinner, so its defensive power dropped quite a bit. On the other hand, shields that were too large were inconvenient to arrange.
In the end, this resulted in many more problems to solve. Of course, the biggest of them was that the arrangement looked ugly. A large number of Blood Shields covering a bubble's surface made it look like a red balloon, turning it into a far-too-obvious live target.