Sorting through his abilities on Mars took Yu Xian the better part of a day.
At the same time, by basking in the sun, he had accumulated an amount of energy equivalent to five full days of sunlight.
However, refining bloodlines like Yinglong, Xingtian, Bull Demon King, Chiyou, and Taotie required an immense amount of energy from within his body, and this meager reserve was far from enough.
In fact, with his current capacity to absorb light, simply basking in the sun was already the crudest method. After the Light Eater evolved into the Light Devourer, he could swallow light far more efficiently.
Yu Xian had never planned on relying solely on sunbathing to achieve his next evolution.
Having sorted out his abilities, he stood up and looked toward the sun. His body was enveloped in bubbles, and in the next second, he vanished into thin air. When he reappeared, he was already near Mercury. The entire planet was a hazy gray, like a celestial body that had died long ago.
"Pure Blood Cocoon, Light-Devouring Tree!"
Yu Xian glanced at Mercury, then manipulated his Primordial Pure Blood to wrap himself into an olive-shaped red blood cocoon.
Massive boughs then sprouted from the cocoon, transforming in the blink of an eye into an exaggeratedly gigantic tree. As sunlight fell upon it, the light was instantly absorbed by the leaves.
The originally red tree swiftly turned pitch-black, greedily devouring the surrounding light. Every ray within thousands of meters became nourishment for the tree.
Moreover, once the Light-Devouring Tree absorbed enough light, it did not immediately channel it to Yu Xian. Instead, it used the energy to continue growing, quickly extending tendrils outward to ensnare meteorites drifting in space.
A day later, a colossal black tree tens of thousands of meters tall was silently orbiting the sun, with Mercury trailing three hundred thousand kilometers behind it.
Anchored by Mercury's gravity, the tree did not drift uncontrollably into the sun—or plunge inside it—while still maximizing its exposure to direct sunlight, absorbing all light within a radius of five hundred thousand kilometers.
At the core of the Light-Devouring Tree, inside the Pure Blood Cocoon, Yu Xian felt immense energy surging in without pause. He immediately activated the Blood Demon Stream: Infinite Autophagy Method and began refining the various bloodlines within him.
As he refined these bloodlines, his combat strength began to climb steadily.
***
Earth.
After being attacked by Yu Xian, Edward felt an intense sense of crisis.
By nature, he was cautious to the extreme; otherwise, he wouldn't have bided his time in hiding for hundreds of years, revealing his ambitions only after acquiring absolute power.
Now that he had discovered an enemy on Earth who was weaker than him, yet seemingly not by much, the only thought on his mind was to grow stronger. He had to gain even greater power, and quickly.
Thus, he accelerated the pace of his conquest of Earth. With every nation he reached, he promptly slaughtered its ruler, selected ten lackeys, bestowed vampire blood upon them, and ordered them to proliferate more vampires as fast as possible.
Originally, he had intended to spare half the human population in every country and convert only the other half into vampires to maintain a reproductive balance, but now he had changed his mind.
In the eastern nations, every single human had to be converted into a vampire, sparing only a portion of the human population in Europe and the countries surrounding Rome Huchen.
Evidently, this was true and utter annihilation—the erasure of nations and peoples.
Some clever people saw through his design, but cleverness without power was utterly useless; they had no choice but to meekly submit to Edward's rule and obediently let themselves be turned into vampires.
One had to admit that Edward's method was exceedingly effective.
Once the conversion speed ramped up, humans were being turned into vampires with every passing second, and those newly converted promptly joined the ranks bestowing the Embrace, quickening the pace even further.
An endless torrent of power flooded into Edward's body. Unable to endure such vast amounts of energy himself, he hurriedly channeled it into the Demon Cross, causing the energy within the cross to swell even more colossal.
Had Yu Xian been here, he would have observed the Demon Cross's power steadily rising, creeping up from its original 90 to 91, 92, 93...
Under the Demon Cross's protection, Edward could personally bear roughly 10 points of combat strength. Thus, out of a combat strength of 100, Edward claimed 10 points for himself, while the Demon Cross held 90.
And now, bit by bit, the Demon Cross was replenishing the 10 points of combat strength it had lost.
***
The Island Nation.
Ether hid inside a house, wolfing down bread in large mouthfuls.
He had been ordered to scout enemy movements and locate compatriots who hadn't managed to return home in time. However, he never anticipated the outside world would deteriorate to such an extent: acting on Edward's orders, vampires were frenziedly capturing people and converting them, sparing neither the elderly, children, nor pregnant women.
Once outside, he had no easy way to contact headquarters inside the grotto-heaven; whatever difficulties arose, he had to resolve them on his own.
Currently, his greatest challenge was how to protect the compatriots sheltered in this house—people who had been doing business in the Island Nation, as well as some sailors who had arrived on cargo ships.
With Huaxia suddenly retreating into a grotto-heaven, they were unable to return home and were left completely bewildered.
Fortunately, Ether's arrival had given them a pillar of support, letting them know that their nation had not abandoned a single soul. The problem was that the situation outside was worsening by the minute, and since Ether was not a combat-oriented Transcendent, the group was thoroughly trapped.
"I'm going outside to assess the situation. All of you stay quiet here," Ether said, standing up after finishing his bread.
A pretty mixed-race girl whispered, "Ether-kun, please be careful. You must come back safely."
"Mm, I'll be back as soon as I can," Ether nodded.
Leaving the house, he swiftly transformed into a streak of light and soared into the high sky. Dark clouds blanketed the heavens, making daytime hardly distinguishable from night.
These dark clouds were deliberately conjured by Edward to facilitate the vampires' movements.
Ether pierced through the dark clouds and gritted his teeth, flying toward space based on his memory. He had watched the video Yu Xian uploaded, especially the one showing Edward returning from the moon. In that video, there were several inconspicuous bubbles.
Ordinary viewers had no idea what those bubbles represented, but Ether knew very well that they were extensions of Yu Xian's will. As long as he could find those bubbles floating above the atmosphere, he might be able to have Yu Xian send everyone back.
Yet he had never flown so high before, nor was he certain he could pull it off. But for the lives of several hundred compatriots, he had no choice but to risk it all.
As he calculated the angle of sunlight and the moon's shadows at that time in his mind, he constantly adjusted his flight path.
The Light Chaser talent allowed him to travel at near light speed, but that didn't mean he didn't need oxygen. Gradually, his breathing grew labored, and a heavy drowsiness washed over his mind.
Anticipating this beforehand, he bit down hard on the tip of his tongue. The sharp, searing pain cleared his head, and he continued flying upward.
"Brother Salty Fish, you've got to come through!"
With bloodshot eyes, Ether cut a brilliant streak of light across the upper atmosphere, flashing tens of kilometers away in an instant, drawing ever closer to the location of Yu Xian's bubbles.
Chapter 191