As a perfectionist, Thales would have preferred to handle things more flawlessly, but he was simply too terrified of Yu Xian.
He did not fear Edward, nor did he fear Hai Liwei; even the dragon clan merely earned his wary respect. The only one he feared was an anomaly like Yu Xian.
The first time he took notice of Yu Xian, Yu Xian had been utterly insignificant—just a petty Heaven-rank minion whom Thales could have crushed with a flick of his fingers.
The second time he paid attention to Yu Xian, Yu Xian had already defeated Edward and become a bona fide Star-rank powerhouse, yet Thales had remained confident he could still suppress him.
The third time he saw Yu Xian, Yu Xian's combat power had been merely a hundred-odd—a reassuring figure that made Thales feel he could still easily handle him.
Yet the fourth time he saw Yu Xian, the guy's combat power had somehow surged to three hundred in the blink of an eye. Incomprehensible. Utterly absurd.
He had watched with his own eyes as Yu Xian left with Nora, only to return with his strength having skyrocketed. It was practically like cheating in a game.
Since when did combat power become so easy to raise?
Was this a game?
It wasn't like writing a novel where an author could just make up whatever nonsense they pleased.
At that moment, Thales knew he could wait no longer.
If he kept waiting, heaven only knew what bizarre abilities Yu Xian might develop, or how high his combat power would soar.
What if one day he woke up to find Yu Xian leading an entire mob to gang up on him, beating him to death before he even figured out how he had been exposed?
Thus, anxiety had gotten the better of him. When he discovered Little Nora and Niman being besieged by the dragon clan, he had lost his head, intervened while posing as Niman's friend to kill members of the dragon clan, intending to shift the blame, escalate the situation, and put pressure on Yu Xian.
In truth, as soon as he came to his senses, he realized he had been rash.
He knew Hai Liwei too well: such a clumsy attempt at sowing discord would never work, and it only heightened his own risk of exposure.
Moreover, so few people knew Yu Xian was in Crescent Bay that even a cursory investigation could trace back to him. He knew he could no longer stay among the Sea Clan—he had to run.
Though the timing wasn't ideal yet, he had no choice but to abduct Shui Yuetian first and wait for an opportunity in a safe location.
For Shui Yuetian was the sole key to opening Helick's Great Trove; she was Helick's only bloodline descendant—she was Helick's daughter.
Helick's Great Trove was far too famous. To protect Shui Yuetian from the harassment and covetous greed of treasure-hunting fanatics, Helick's great-great-grandmother had publicly claimed that Shui Yuetian was the youngest daughter she had borne herself.
In the entire Sea Clan, no more than ten people knew the truth—and Tangyi, as Helick's right-hand man during his lifetime, happened to be privy to this secret.
***
Earth.
Over the course of three minutes, Yu Xian sent over a dozen messages to Shuishui, but every single one vanished like a stone dropped into the sea.
Having confirmed that Shuishui was unreachable, he stood up, looked at Little Nora, and said, "Little Nora, stop playing. Something must have happened to Sister Shuishui."
As he spoke, a golden luminescence radiated from his body. Little Nora understood at once and instantly transformed into a ray of golden light that merged into Yu Xian. Wrapped in the golden glow, Yu Xian's appearance rapidly altered.
The Heavenly Golden Feathers formed a magnificent suit of golden armor covering Yu Xian from head to toe, with a beaked visor masking the lower half of his face, leaving only a pair of eagle-sharp eyes exposed.
Yu Xian examined the changes over his body, then flicked a feather on the armor over the back of his hand with a finger. A clear, melodious chime resonated at once, and through that flick he gauged the armor's hardness.
Adamantine Feathers already possessed a hardness on par with a Star Divine Artifact, yet the Heavenly Golden Feathers were even a cut above. Not only was the material harder, but it also held spatial enchantments; in different spaces, its defensive capability would be enhanced even further.
Moreover, as Yu Xian waved his hand lightly, he could feel an indescribable smoothness.
It felt rather like a fish swimming through water. His hand gave him a distinct sensation of "slicing through space," and his speed received an extraordinary boost because of it. If his previous speed had approached two hundred times the speed of sound, his speed now had soared to at least two thousand times the speed of sound.
And this was not even his limit—merely his speed under ordinary exertion.
Yu Xian realized that every single ability of the Victorious True King Bird was completely beyond normal standards. The Heavenly Golden Feathers alone possessed three distinct properties, and the other abilities were just as terrifying.
Now, he could effortlessly perceive the existence of space. Previously, he could only sense spatial coordinates, but now he could perceive space itself.
As it turned out, the spatial energy of the universe was not evenly distributed.
In some regions, spatial energy was denser, while in others, it was thinner. Furthermore, space itself was moving!
Though it was exceedingly slow, Yu Xian could feel that the entire universe was actually rotating. And as it rotated, spatial energy radiated outward—which meant the universe was indeed expanding.
Yet for their current universe, this expansion was fatal.
Crescent Bay was like a glass shard, while the universe itself was like a balloon expanding as it spun. The glass shard was tiny, yet it had pierced into the balloon. If the balloon remained stationary, that might be fine.
But the balloon continued to expand and rotate, destined to have a larger gash carved open by the glass. Once its instability reached the breaking point, it was bound to burst with a sudden "pop."
Yu Xian could not perceive the space of the entire universe; the reason he had noticed this was that he had been preparing to use the Victorious True King Bird's ability, Realm-Breaking Skyward Body, to traverse to Crescent Bay.
Yet the moment he locked onto the spatial coordinates of Crescent Bay, he had frozen in place, realizing that this universe was doomed to perish, with no way whatsoever to prevent its death.
In truth, what had formed in Yu Xian's mind was not a balloon, but a mother stabbed in the abdomen: she continued to spin, and the blade lodged inside her would only carve out a larger wound, irreversible and beyond salvation.
"I can't save this universe, but at least I can save my friend!"
Snapping out of his shock, Yu Xian thought to himself. Then, via Realm-Breaking Skyward Body, he flashed through space in an instant and arrived at Crescent Bay.
Standing on the ground of the 26th floor of Star Tower 79 in Crescent Bay, he wore a look of profound shock.
In the past, when he used spatial teleportation abilities, the surroundings would simply shift in an instant. This time, however, he had traversed through space itself—almost as if space had been compressed, with myriad stars along the path transforming into a radiant corridor of light, through which he had passed in a flash before stepping onto this solid ground.
The two contrasting experiences gave him a deeper comprehension of space. Space was really no different from water or air. Since people could manipulate water into waves or manipulate air into wind, perhaps he could also manipulate space into unique forms of attack.
Yet now was not the time to ponder this. He took a deep breath, and countless bizarre scent molecules rushed into his nose. Although his ability was severely hampered because numerous people wore various items that shielded against supernatural detection, it still allowed him to gather plenty of useful information.
For instance, outside a certain shop, the bull-headed constable from earlier was investigating a corpse—the corpse of Tangyi.
Chapter 250