After learning of Edward's vicious ruthlessness, a sudden sense of urgency gripped Yu Xian.
Edward could gain his and Nora's abilities by drinking the blood of special vampires like them. Although Yu Xian had previously enjoyed the country's protection, preventing the Blood Clan from daring to lay a hand on him, Edward certainly knew of his existence now.
This meant that from now on, both he and Nora were Edward's prey.
Although hiding inside the Huaxia grotto-heaven was relatively safe for the time being, what if the worst happened?
Yu Xian patted his cheeks and rose from the sofa. He couldn't just sit and wait for death. He had to race against the clock to increase his strength; whatever the future held, becoming stronger was never the wrong choice.
First, he had to figure out his strengths and weaknesses.
Compared to Edward, Yu Xian felt his greatest advantage was his spatial ability—he could flee to another world at any moment. His disadvantage was that his rank was far too low. His strength score of 0.08 corresponded to Tiger rank. On Earth, Tiger rank was by no means weak, but it all depended on who the opponent was.
In fact, before Star Rank, God rank, Dragon-rank, and Tiger rank were all mere ants.
Thinking of this, Yu Xian understood. For now at least, there was no way he could instantly reach Dragon-rank, and God rank was even more distant. If he wanted to boost his strength, training his spatial ability was far more realistic.
Then he remembered Zhenwo Changjing saying that thoroughly mastering an ability could purify it. Would purifying an ability benefit him right now as well?
Yu Xian never kept his questions to himself these days. He immediately looked at Zhenwo Changjing and asked, "Auntie, if I constantly use and train my abilities right now, would that be beneficial too?"
"Isn't that obvious? The higher the purity of an ability and the better your control, the more powerful it naturally becomes," Zhenwo Changjing replied with a smile.
Yu Xian pressed further, "Then how should I train my abilities to master them as fast as possible?"
"You won't be able to learn the clever method. But there is a crude method: combat. Whether it's sparring or a life-and-death battle, both can rapidly raise your proficiency with abilities," Zhenwo Changjing answered.
Yu Xian felt looked down upon by Zhenwo Changjing. He possessed a Super Brain, after all. What did she mean he wouldn't be able to learn the clever method?
Looking at Zhenwo Changjing, he asked indignantly, "Auntie, why don't you tell me the clever method? What if I can learn it?"
"The clever method is very simple: glance at an ability once, comprehend its origin, understand its structure, grasp every single detail, and finally... master it!" Zhenwo Changjing answered with a smile.
Yu Xian stared at Zhenwo Changjing in silence. That wasn't a clever method at all—that was a freakish method.
If he could learn, understand, and master an ability with a single glance, he wouldn't be hiding in the Huaxia grotto-heaven right now. He'd be strutting across Earth in plain sight, waiting for Edward to walk right into his trap.
Still, combat...
Yu Xian's mind instantly filtered through a vast pool of suitable opponents.
With his current strength, Gong Qian, Gan Jiang, Mo Ye, and Xiong Da were all excellent sparring partners. Gong Qian could help him hone his dodging, Gan Jiang and Mo Ye could help him practice technique, and Xiong Da could go toe-to-toe with him in brute clashes.
Xiong Da might have appeared to lose to Nora, but he had actually lost to the defensive gear forged by Zhenwo Changjing. Without that gear, Nora probably wouldn't have lasted two seconds against him.
However, he needed to find a suitable place to spar.
Given their destructive power, a few mountains wouldn't be enough to withstand their rampage if they went all out. The natural environment in the Huaxia grotto-heaven was precious right now; it couldn't be wrecked casually.
As for sparring outside the Huaxia grotto-heaven, Edward would be thrilled.
After pondering for a moment, Yu Xian muttered to himself, "As expected, the urgent priority is refining a grotto-heaven world. Otherwise, I won't even have a place where I can go all out."
With that, he created a spatial bubble in front of him. Stepping inside, he appeared deep beneath the surface of Mars the very next second.
First was absorbing spatial power.
He certainly couldn't siphon spatial power from the Huaxia grotto-heaven, but the universe outside was so vast; absorbing a tiny bit shouldn't hurt.
Emerging from the spatial bubble, he sat cross-legged atop it and activated the divine ability Stealing Heavenly Secrets to absorb the surrounding spatial power. Gradually, the mutated blood energy serving as his Dao foundation became clearer and more translucent.
Once he had absorbed spatial power to his limit, Yu Xian returned directly to the Huaxia grotto-heaven.
He reappeared in the back garden of his three-mu Chinese-style villa. Slowly lifting his right hand, a tiny bubble formed at the tip of his index finger, which rapidly swelled in size.
Half an hour later, a colossal bubble hovered above the back garden.
"Step one complete. Next is step two!"
Looking up at the giant bubble, Yu Xian muttered to himself.
He then entered the interior of the bubble and first cast the Art of Vast Without Exterior.
The internal space, whose boundaries had still been visible, instantly turned into a boundless expanse of white. Next, Yu Xian cast the Art of Minute Without Interior. Outside, the formerly massive bubble rapidly shrank until it measured only about two meters across.
After casting these two spells, he emerged from the grotto-heaven bubble.
Next, he used the divine ability Encompassing Sumeru on the grotto-heaven bubble. The internal space expanded drastically; what had originally been the size of a village could suddenly accommodate a small town.
After confirming the space had been expanded to its limit, Yu Xian entered the grotto-heaven bubble once more. Another bubble appeared in his hand, from which gushed a tremendous torrent of seawater.
Somewhere in an ocean on Earth, a bubble was siphoning seawater. All the seawater entering that bubble was teleported over to Yu Xian, gradually filling the barren grotto-heaven bubble with water.
When the water reached a full ten meters in depth, Yu Xian sat atop a bubble and flew swiftly to the dead center of the grotto-heaven bubble. A deluge of rocks and soil immediately rained down from the bubble he was sitting on.
As before, deep in the mountains somewhere on Earth, several palm bubbles were rapidly digging up earth and stone, tossing it all into a spatial bubble.
A day and a night later, a beautiful island grotto-heaven world took shape.
Yu Xian laid down turf across the island and planted a profusion of flora. After decorating the entire island until it looked pristine, he stepped out of the grotto-heaven bubble.
"Art of Neither Loss Nor Damage!"
Yu Xian pressed his hand against the bubble's surface and activated the ability.
Instantly, everything within the grotto-heaven bubble was recorded and stabilized into permanence.
He let out a slight breath of relief. After toiling for a full day and night, he did feel rather fatigued. Furthermore, casting spells from the Art of Grotto-Heaven wasn't without cost.
Both his mental energy and Blood Energy had been heavily depleted.
Still, the construction of the grotto-heaven world wasn't completely finished yet. After resting for a brief moment, he pressed both hands against the surface of the grotto-heaven bubble and simultaneously released the Art of Neither Deficiency Nor Excess and the Art of Blending All Phenomena.
Once those two spells were fixed in place, no matter how much they destroyed the vegetation inside the grotto-heaven bubble, every plant would grow back within minutes.
Just like that, a perfect battlefield and vacation resort was complete.
Yu Xian stepped inside the grotto-heaven bubble, retrieved a beach chair from his storage ring, unfolded it on the sandy beach, and sat down. Watching the rolling waves of the sea, he couldn't help letting out a long sigh of contentment.
The preparations before battle were finally done. Next up: rallying the team.
Chapter 171