Darkness, warmth, and an endless stream of power surged from his heart.
Yu Xian's combat strength steadily climbed from 43... 44 points, 45 points, 46 points, 47 points...
When the Taotie bloodline was refined, he gained two new innate abilities: Energy Storage and Efficient Conversion. The former allowed an organ similar to a primordial pouch to grow inside his body, capable of storing immense amounts of energy, while the latter could efficiently convert this energy into all kinds of nutrients his body required.
Notably, the Taotie bloodline Yu Xian obtained was not a genuine Taotie bloodline either; its primary components came from a tiger and a pig.
The tiger was a White Tiger whose primordial pouch could store vast amounts of energy, wielding earth-shattering power with every gesture. If not for terrible luck, it would almost certainly never have died in the Abyss.
Unfortunately, the Taotie bloodline had not acquired the complete White Tiger heritage, only the portion related to its primordial pouch—which was precisely why the Forbidden Fruit had cobbled together the Taotie bloodline using its lineage.
The other beast was a Titan Pig. Regrettably, it was not of the golden imperial clan among pigs, but merely an ordinary demonic beast.
In simple terms... a pigman.
Titan Pigs possessed bodies far larger than normal pigmen, and their appetites were astonishing, capable of devouring an entire mountain in one breath. Consequently, they needed the ability to efficiently convert food into physical stamina.
Clearly, the Abyss had acquired this ability, and thus the Taotie bloodline possessed it as well.
Gaining these two abilities felt like a fish taking to water for Yu Xian. His tolerance for energy surged dramatically, allowing him to absorb the Light-Devouring Tree's energy even faster.
If he had previously gained one point of combat strength every three hours, he could now refine one bloodline and gain one point of combat strength in just a single hour.
As he wholeheartedly continued refining more bloodlines, a palm suddenly entered his perception.
With his current tolerance, refining bloodlines no longer required him to sleep. In fact, his brain had surplus computational power to handle other matters.
Upon sensing the presence of the palm, he immediately converted the distant spatial bubble that had detected it into an eyeball bubble.
The atmosphere.
The eyeball bubble looked ahead. Before it lay the edge of the atmosphere and the pitch-black expanse of outer space.
Puzzled, Yu Xian steered the eyeball bubble in a circle, but saw no one. Looking upward, there was still no one. Then, he directed the eyeball to look downward.
That look gave him quite a start: Ether was plummeting at incredible speed, clearly having fallen unconscious from lack of oxygen.
"Holy crap, what is Cheng Pi doing here?"
Startled, Yu Xian quickly steered the bubble down in pursuit.
Fortunately, Cheng Pi's falling speed was not considered fast to him. In moments, the bubble caught up with the falling Cheng Pi and instantly expanded, taking him inside.
A surge of oxygen flooded into the bubble, and Cheng Pi's lips, which had turned purple, gradually returned to their normal color.
However, Cheng Pi remained unconscious. Yu Xian had no choice but to manifest a palm bubble inside and gently pat Cheng Pi's cheek.
Still not awake?
Yu Xian exerted a bit more force, slapping until a red handprint appeared on Cheng Pi's cheek, but Cheng Pi was still in a coma.
Clearly, Cheng Pi's oxygen deprivation was too severe and might have damaged his brain. Merely restoring oxygen could not repair the damage to his brain, which was why he remained unable to wake up.
In fact, he might remain a vegetable from now on, never to awaken again.
Yu Xian pondered for a moment. Inside the Pure Blood Cocoon, a tiny bubble appeared, and drops of blood were transported to Earth through the bubble.
The palm bubble slowly condensed a needle of blood. Yu Xian manipulated the blood needle to pierce into Cheng Pi's brain, where it swiftly branched into countless tiny roots to examine the condition.
"He really did suffer brain damage."
Yu Xian quickly discovered that a portion of Cheng Pi's brain cells had permanently died due to hypoxia.
Strictly speaking, Cheng Pi had become a vegetable—and the kind with an extremely low chance of ever waking up.
Yet this was clearly no obstacle for Yu Xian. He controlled the blood to form fangs and bit into Cheng Pi's neck. Then, blood surged into Cheng Pi's vessels, instantly turning his skin pale.
This was the first time Yu Xian had formally performed the Embrace on someone. Though he operated remotely through the Primordial Pure Blood, he still keenly sensed his growing control over Cheng Pi, while the power inside his own body received a slight boost.
Once Cheng Pi became a second-generation Shiny Vampire, Yu Xian would have absolute control over his life. Moreover, the biggest difference between him and Edward was that none of his blood scions could ever be wild.
The Primordial Pure Blood inherently contained the power of the Final Origin Blood.
Even if someone transformed into a vampire on their own via his blood scions' blood, he could still command them. Unlike Edward, who had had zero control over wild vampires prior to awakening the True Ancestor blood.
A moment later, Cheng Pi woke up. He immediately sensed the changes in his body. As light shone upon him, his stamina rapidly recovered. At the same time, he inherited two of Yu Xian's innate abilities: fire manipulation and water manipulation.
Yu Xian's abilities were remarkably comprehensive, but that did not mean a second-generation Shiny Vampire could inherit all of them, just as Marcus and the others could not completely inherit Edward's abilities.
"Salty Fish, did I mutate?" Cheng Pi realized he was inside a bubble and, seeing the palm bubble in front of him, asked with uncertainty.
Yu Xian's voice emerged from the bubble: "I'm sorry to say, you didn't mutate. You just died and got revived by me. The price is... you've become my blood scion. To put it simply..."
"I became a light-devouring vampire?" Cheng Pi's eyes widened, cutting Yu Xian off before he could finish.
Yu Xian paused, then replied, "Yeah. Starting now, you're a... light-devouring vampire."
"Thank you."
Cheng Pi was a bit slow on the uptake, only now realizing that Yu Xian had saved his life.
The two of them had known each other back when they were nobodies. He had watched Yu Xian grow stronger step by step until he became a hero in the hearts of the nation's people.
Before leaving the Huaxia grotto-heaven, the news had been saturated with reports about Yu Xian. Cheng Pi knew many people had begged for Yu Xian to Embrace them, but Yu Xian had never once answered directly; clearly, it was no simple matter.
Yet to save him, Yu Xian had made an exception and turned him into a vampire. It could be said that from this moment on, his life belonged to Yu Xian.
"Don't mention it. We're friends, aren't we?" Yu Xian replied.
He truly had no intention of controlling his friend. When he revived Bat, he had not controlled Bat; now that Cheng Pi had been transformed into a second-generation Shiny Vampire, he would not restrict Cheng Pi's freedom either.
Of course, if either of them went around doing evil, he certainly would not let them run wild—after all, that would be tantamount to him committing crimes indirectly.
Next, Cheng Pi explained the reason he had flown up to find him. Upon learning that Cheng Pi had taken the risk just to save people, Yu Xian became even more certain in his choice; sure enough, he had not saved the wrong man.
As the ancient saying went: One who carries firewood for the masses must not be left to freeze to death in the snow and wind.
If he had not saved Cheng Pi, that would have been a truly grave mistake.
Chapter 192