"Move a tree and it dies; move a man and he lives!"
In the next second, Yu Xian's Super Brain produced the answer.
Perhaps the lifespan shown earlier wasn't his true lifespan, but rather the ultimate lifespan limit for all living beings in that world.
When the lifespan counter dropped to zero, a world-ending catastrophe would erupt, and any life-form remaining in that world would be doomed to die.
Yet as long as one left that world, one could continue living—and potentially live for a very, very long time.
Lifespan was by no means fixed.
Only when a lifespan hit zero was there real cause for alarm.
Just as when the giant serpent's lifespan dropped to zero, it was promptly slain by Asonis.
Still, there was likely a decimal point after that 'zero'—representing a remaining few hours or something similar. It was just that his Appraisal skill couldn't display smaller units, leaving him unaware of how much longer a target could survive once the number reached zero.
After all, following Yu Xian's appraisal, the serpent had fought an entire battle against the Martial Ultimate Zombie King before being killed by Asonis, meaning there was still a brief window for self-preservation.
For instance, if it had realized its lifespan had hit zero and immediately burrowed underground to flee or hide, it might have escaped Asonis's gaze and survived.
Having figured this out, Yu Xian made a mental note: whether anything was going on or not, he would cast Appraisal on himself regularly. Not for any other reason, but simply to see if his lifespan had shifted.
If it ever dropped to zero, he would instantly switch worlds and stay away until his lifespan returned to normal.
***
Five in the morning.
Yu Xian quietly returned home.
He cast Appraisal on himself at once. Sure enough, back in this world, his lifespan reverted to the original '5322.' Curiously, even though the number had shrunk, it brought him an odd sense of relief.
This trip had yielded massive gains.
Not only had he successfully fished Zhang Shou out of the other world, but he had also claimed the serpent's legacy.
The newly awakened talent in particular made up for Yu Xian's shortcomings in reconnaissance. Now he had Super Smell for close quarters and Myriad Eyes for distance; he no longer had to fear teleporting straight into an enemy's ultimate attack.
Dawn was just breaking, and a light mist drifted through the morning air.
After taking a shower, Yu Xian settled onto a lounge chair on the balcony, watching the eastern sky gradually pale as bubbles appeared and vanished at his fingertips.
In just one minute, he updated all the bubbles scattered across this world to the Myriad Eyes version.
Then he closed his eyes. Countless images flashed into his mind, each representing what an eyeball bubble saw. He focused his attention on the view from one particular bubble.
The image showed a massive lake.
Because the sun had not yet risen, the water looked pitch-black, as though a terrifying behemoth lurked beneath the surface. The stillness carried a deeply ominous chill.
Suddenly, an enormous dragon head broke through the water.
To be frank, Yu Xian jumped. He hadn't expected the Extreme Dragon to actually emerge from the depths.
Before he could react, the gem on the dragon's forehead flared with a brilliant blue light. In a flash, a beam of energy blasted from the gem, cleanly blowing the eyeball bubble out of the sky.
The vision abruptly went black. Yu Xian recoiled instinctively, beads of sweat breaking out across his forehead.
Evidently, the Extreme Dragon had detected his gaze and attacked without hesitation.
"Fierce... Truly worthy of being one of only two beings I can't see through."
It took Yu Xian a good while to recover. Wiping the cold sweat from his brow, he muttered to himself.
In truth, after successfully appraising both the Martial Ultimate Zombie King and the giant serpent, he had realized he was capable of appraising targets above Dragon-rank. Yet that only made the Extreme Dragon seem all the more mysterious in his eyes.
That was why the first thing he had done after upgrading his bubbles was peek at the Extreme Dragon.
He just hadn't expected it to notice him so quickly.
It was about time.
Yu Xian didn't harass the Extreme Dragon any further; provoking it into genuine anger would end poorly.
He stood up, walked into the kitchen, and began preparing breakfast. Once he finished eating, he would be heading to school with Nora.
***
The next three days passed uneventfully.
Indeed, excitement was fleeting; only the ordinary held lasting truth.
Zhang Shou did return to school, however, which livened up their days a bit.
Mostly, Yu Xian didn't want Zhang Shou interrupting his private time with Nora, so on a sudden whim, he decided to grant his good brother a little perk.
Thus, Zhang Shou was blessed with a one-second school commute: the moment he stepped out of his door each morning, Yu Xian teleported him straight to campus.
Faced with a bro who abandoned brotherhood the moment a girl was involved, Zhang Shou secretly swore to shatter Yu Xian and Nora's world of two, sparking a war of wits and wills between them.
For example, Zhang Shou stopped using his front door, instead leaping straight off his balcony, willing to burn one of his lives just to deny Yu Xian the chance to teleport him.
To his dismay, Yu Xian monitored the entire city using Super Smell; the second Zhang Shou revived, he was teleported right to school anyway.
Zhang Shou refused to give up. The moment he landed on campus, he dashed for the exit, only to get trapped within the school's infinitely layered spatial pockets, unable to take a single step beyond the grounds.
In the end, Yu Xian and Nora successfully arrived at school, leaving Zhang Shou utterly defeated in their contest.
Nora was entirely in the dark about their skirmish. So when she saw Zhang Shou kneeling on all fours before the school gates in an 'onz' pose of total dejection, she tilted her head at Yu Xian, her mind full of question marks.
Yu Xian, wearing the grin of a victor, sauntered past him with his nose in the air, leaving Zhang Shou pounding the pavement in fury.
During morning study hall.
Yu Xian leaned on his desk with his eyes closed, while an eyeball bubble tucked inside his desk cubby stared at a phone held by a palm bubble, engrossed in a drama series.
He had discovered that using the Mantle of Falsehood easily filtered out foul odors. With the reinforcement of his conviction, he could even turn putrid stenches into pleasant fragrance, achieving the effect of deceiving his own senses.
This way, he didn't need to wear a bubble over his head looking like an astronaut.
Besides, he could never have too much defense. With the dual protection of the Dragon Shield and the Mantle of Falsehood, he felt entirely secure, no longer worried about defensive gaps.
He wasn't merely watching a drama right now. With his Super Brain, multitasking was second nature.
In that world ravaged by corpse qi, an eyeball bubble drifted high in the sky, observing everything on the surface. He was searching for silver and gold.
The world was vast; there was no way every scrap of gold and silver had been carted off.
As long as he looked diligently, Yu Xian was confident he would find plenty.
When the first period ended, a bubble appeared in Yu Xian's palm, followed by gleaming chunks of metal materializing out of thin air inside it.
Back in that other world, two palm bubbles were rapidly excavating the earth and tossing the unearthed gold into an eyeball bubble, which instantly relayed the haul directly to Yu Xian.
Yu Xian squeezed the gold into a solid lump, and an even bolder idea formed in his mind.
Since he could actually dig up gold in another world, then... what about outer space in this world?
Outer space was bound to hold far more gold and silver. Others lacked the means to mine it, but he had the capability!
In an instant, he seemed to see a golden highway stretching out before him. If his reasoning held, he would never have to worry about money ever again.
When scavenging, one naturally went where the competition was lowest; the less competition, the greater the harvest.
Space was obviously a massive cosmic scrap heap, and no scavenger had tapped into it yet.
This business was completely viable!
The more Yu Xian thought about it, the better the plan sounded. He decided then and there to give it a shot.
Chapter 125