The afternoon was mostly dedicated to self-study.
After taking care of the issue at the perfect creature factory, Yu Xian quietly slipped back into his seat.
He closed his eyes and carefully sensed the changes within his body. Earlier at the factory, having Yu Lie and Xiao Cheng around had made things exceptionally safe, but he had still been wary of letting his guard down completely, which was why he hadn't inspected his physical condition in detail.
Now, he needed to conduct a comprehensive checkup on himself to confirm his status.
First and foremost, his Silver Blood and Final Origin Blood could not merge. Two distinct types of blood now flowed through his veins: Silver Blood and Final Origin Blood.
Even though the Final Origin Blood was converted from Silver Blood through the perfect creature's heart, the two remained sharply distinct, resembling two rivers of entirely different colors flowing side by side through his vessels.
Yu Xian attempted to blend the two streams, but no matter how thoroughly he tangled them together, the moment he released his conscious control, the blood parted on its own.
Furthermore, the total volume of blood in his body remained fixed. The more blood he transformed into Final Origin Blood, the less Silver Blood he had left. Newly generated blood was not Silver Blood either, but merely ordinary vampire blood.
And when Yu Xian tested it, he found that ordinary vampire blood could not be converted into Final Origin Blood through the heart of the perfect creature.
Simply put, he first had to ingest more silver to transform ordinary blood into Silver Blood, and only then could he convert that Silver Blood into Final Origin Blood.
He had originally considered capturing swarms of creatures to bring them all under his control via Final Origin Blood, but upon learning the conditions required to produce it, he dismissed the thought entirely.
Silver was simply too expensive.
*No way!*
Subjugating so many perfect creatures earlier had burned through nearly three-tenths of his total Silver Blood reserve. He absolutely had to get Qilin to reimburse him.
Yu Xian pulled out his phone and messaged Xiao Cheng directly, explaining how Final Origin Blood was produced while submitting a request for reimbursement for the silver he had expended.
At Qilin headquarters, Xiao Cheng sat in the conference room. When he saw the message from Yu Xian, a smile broke out on his face.
He looked at the others around the table and chuckled. "Just a moment ago, we were racking our brains over how to reward Little Yu. And look... here's our answer."
He turned his screen to show Yu Lie, who couldn't help laughing upon reading it. Since silver was so vital to Yu Xian, they might as well award him a ton of silver upfront this time, lest the boy's own ability drive him into poverty.
Back in the classroom, Yu Xian quickly received Xiao Cheng's reply.
Seeing that Qilin had decided to grant him a ton of silver, he let out a quiet sigh of relief. With that, he wouldn't have to worry about running out of silver anytime soon.
Next, he stowed away his Qilin phone, pulled out the newly bought ordinary smartphone, and began to slack off.
***
With the perfect creature factory destroyed, a mountain of loose ends remained to be tied up—tracing the origin of the factory's supplies, investigating the background of every member, uncovering the funding sources, and more.
However, Yu Xian had no need to handle such tedious chores personally; leaving them to the tactical police unit and the local office personnel was more than enough.
After slacking off all the way until the end of the school day, Yu Xian walked home with Nora. The two chatted and laughed the entire way, but just as they were approaching Yu Xian's front door, his brow furrowed slightly. His pace slowed, and eventually, he came to a dead halt.
"What's wrong?" Nora asked, seeing the grim look on his face.
"Lao Zhang's distance suddenly shifted," Yu Xian replied. "Something must have happened to him."
He had placed bubbles inside the ears of every member of the Evil-Slaying Squad, allowing him to track everyone's approximate location at any time from anywhere.
Just moments ago, Zhang Shou's position had abruptly jumped to somewhere very, very far away—farther even than the Transcendent Containment Facility.
Yu Xian couldn't even tell where that place was; he only knew it was extraordinarily remote.
"I'm sorry, but I need to go see what happened to Lao Zhang," Yu Xian said, turning to Nora with worry in his eyes.
Nora smiled understandingly. "Go ahead. You know bodyguards are following me all the time anyway, and I'm very strong too!"
By the end, she even gave a proud pump of her fist, as if showing off her real strength.
"See you tomorrow, then!" Yu Xian smiled faintly.
Nora waved and nodded. "Mhm, see you tomorrow!"
Exchanging a parting smile, Yu Xian immediately used a bubble to teleport himself to Qingniao's location.
With the situation unclear, he couldn't recklessly teleport straight to Zhang Shou, nor did he dare disturb him out of nowhere. If Zhang Shou got distracted on his account and failed to survive a crisis he otherwise could have weathered, Yu Xian would be guilty of a terrible blunder.
***
West Gemini Mountain.
Qingniao was busily scanning the area for any sign of Zhang Shou when the bubble in her ear suddenly ballooned. She stopped in her tracks, watching Yu Xian emerge from inside.
"Qingniao, what happened?" Yu Xian asked without preamble.
Shifting back into human form, Qingniao perched on a tree branch and said, "I don't know what happened either. Dead Doctor's ability hard-counters zombies, so over the past few days, he and I have been handling zombies in West Gemini Mountain separately. His efficiency at killing them is even higher than mine.
"We always regroup around noon and in the late afternoon, but when I came looking for him just now, he was gone."
"Looks like an unexpected incident," Yu Xian murmured to himself after hearing her explanation.
If Zhang Shou had actually discovered something, he definitely would have discussed it with Qingniao. Since even Qingniao had no clue, Zhang Shou must have been whisked away with extreme suddenness—practically in an instant.
"Qingniao, don't worry about this. I'll bring Lao Zhang back. Just keep going with what you were doing," Yu Xian said after a moment's thought, reassuring the anxious girl.
He then shrank the spatial bubble and returned it to Qingniao's ear. In the next moment, crimson light enveloped his body, teleporting him straight back to his home.
***
At home.
Xiao Jiuzi and the dragon-shaped perfect creature were standing by in the courtyard.
Yu Xian enveloped both perfect creatures in a spatial bubble, then stepped inside himself.
Though he worried the level of danger around Zhang Shou might exceed what he could handle, there were times when one had to walk straight into the tiger's den knowing full well a tiger was there. Besides, with the Dragon Shield and two Dragon-rank pets at his side, he wouldn't necessarily come out on the losing end.
The next instant, he remotely commanded the bubble in Zhang Shou's ear to swell rapidly, instantly teleporting himself, Xiao Jiuzi, and the dragon-shaped perfect creature across space.
In a flash, the scenery flipped. He found himself standing on pitch-black soil beneath an overcast sky choked with dense, suffocating death qi.
"Salty Fish!"
Zhang Shou was currently directing several tentacles from Touch of Healing to fend off zombies. Seeing Yu Xian appear out of thin air, he shouted in sheer excitement.
At his yell, the surrounding zombies hopped forward even more aggressively, wearing down the Touch of Healing tentacles at an accelerated rate. He had no choice but to hastily recast the spell and summon another batch.
Yu Xian swept his gaze over their surroundings, noticing zombies continuously rousing from slumber beneath the dark earth.
Landing on the ground, he asked, "Lao Zhang, what's going on here?"
"I have no idea!" Zhang Shou said in a rush, looking completely aggrieved. "I saw a zombie pop out of thin air earlier, so I struck it with my tentacles. Who knew that while the zombie died, the space around it vibrated violently? By the time I came to my senses, I was already stuck in this godforsaken place!"
After hearing him out, Yu Xian analyzed, "In that case, the zombies in West Gemini Mountain were most likely teleported from right here. The space around that zombie probably wasn't stable yet, and your attack triggered even greater spatial turbulence, ending up dragging you back here along with it."
Running into a zombie as it "spawned" was already an astronomical rarity, and triggering spatial turbulence in the process made it even more ridiculous.
His luck truly took the cake.
Chapter 117