Ranks

"That's too long." "Two and a half hours? By the time your guardian gets here, the aberrant worms will have picked our bones clean." Yu Xian knew full well his identity had been exposed in front of Nora. Once her guardian arrived, the others might be fine, but he would be in grave danger. Besides, only ten minutes or so had passed since the aberrant worms first revealed themselves, yet students in many classes had already been completely wiped out. If the aberrant worms gathered their forces and launched a concerted assault upward, he was confident he could grab one or two people and jump from the building to escape, but the rest would almost certainly die. "Old Zhang, take a few of the boys and hold the door. I'll see if I can scrounge up a weapon." Yu Xian glanced at the wire mesh, thinking for a moment before speaking. If he rolled the wire mesh tight enough, it might serve as a makeshift club. "I have weapons here!" Nora chimed in hurriedly. As she spoke, she bared the bracelet on her wrist. The next instant, a red handgun materialized out of thin air. "Spatial equipment?" All the students stared at Nora in astonishment. Though descriptions of spatial equipment could be found online, everyone present was seeing the real thing for the first time. "What other weapons do you have?" Yu Xian took the handgun, tested his aim at the distance, and ultimately handed it back to Nora while asking. A handgun held only a few dozen rounds. He had never fired a gun in his life; he probably couldn't kill a single aberrant worm even if he emptied the entire magazine. Nora fell silent for a moment before drawing a half-meter-long blade. "This is a silver blade. While it isn't exceptionally sharp, it's highly effective against vampires. Be careful with it." "A silver blade?" Yu Xian took the blade, a faint, knowing smile playing on his lips. Nora lowered her head, blushing instantly. She knew Yu Xian had undoubtedly deduced something. "Thanks. This blade arrived right on time!" Yu Xian said nothing more. Besides, this blade truly could not have come at a better moment. Then, under the stunned gazes of everyone present, he kneaded the blade into a silver sphere roughly the size of a shot put. Opening his mouth, he took a bite out of it and chuckled. "Just in time—I was getting hungry." "..." Nora looked up at Yu Xian as if beholding some unfathomable monster. Unafraid of the sun, and eating silver as food... Was this still a vampire? Could Luo Qi and the others have made a mistake? This was simply absurd. *** After absorbing all of the Silver Blood, Yu Xian felt a soothing warmth spread throughout his entire body. His five senses were thoroughly enhanced; he could clearly perceive even the slightest rustle of wind or grass within hundreds of meters. Then he took a deep breath, and his body rapidly turned pitch-black. "Yu Xian?" Seeing this, Zhang Shou could not help crying out in alarm. "Don't worry, I'm fine," Yu Xian said. "Better than ever, in fact." To everyone else, he appeared completely black, primarily because he had used the Silver Blood to enhance his ability to absorb light. While he had been capable of absorbing light before, the absorption had not been perfect, so some light rays were still reflected, allowing others to see him. Now, having used the Silver Blood to bolster his body's light-absorbing capability, not a single ray of light bounced off him. As was widely known, when an object reflected no light at all, it emitted no photons that the human eye could detect, becoming what was known as a "perfect black body." Yu Xian was now in precisely that state. During the day, people could still make out his silhouette, but if night fell, likely no one would be able to spot him standing in the darkness. Furthermore, in this state, his stamina recovered at an incredible pace. Even if he were injured, he could heal in the blink of an eye, because "food" was simply too abundant. "I'm going down to deal with those aberrant worms. You all stay here and don't wander off!" Once he grew accustomed to the state, Yu Xian offered everyone a slight smile, turned, and walked away. Only after Yu Xian headed downstairs did Chen Ling ask curiously, "Yu Xian must have eaten a Forbidden Fruit. What do you think his ability is?" "Classmate Yu Xian probably didn't eat a Forbidden Fruit. Becoming a Transcendent through a Forbidden Fruit starts at the Eagle rank at the very least. If he were that strong, handling the aberrant worms in the school wouldn't take this much effort," Nora could not help remarking. Ever since the Forbidden Fruits appeared in the world, many lucky individuals had gained an assortment of abilities through them. Different power systems had their own unique tiers and realms, resulting in utterly chaotic power classifications. In the end, several dozen of the strongest Transcendents held a meeting and established a unified ranking system: Insect, Ant, Wasp, Sparrow, Snake; Eagle, Wolf, Tiger, Dragon, God. The Insect rank was the lowest, while the God rank was the highest. Even the lowest Insect rank possessed the strength to effortlessly slaughter ordinary humans. Yet as a certain heavyweight had put it: "Don't think having a bit of power gives you license to run wild!" The Insect rank. In truth, it was meant to remind those who had just obtained transcendent power: In the eyes of the truly strong, you are still nothing more than an insect! "Then what rank is Salty Fish right now?" Zhang Shou looked at Nora, asking out of curiosity. Nora pondered for a moment before guessing, "Probably high Insect rank or low Ant rank. Do you think... could he be a vampire?" "A vampire? Hahahaha, no way! He isn't afraid of light and loves eating silver—how could he possibly be a vampire?" The others were amused by the thought and burst into hearty laughter. Though Nora badly wanted to argue, she could not find a single justification herself. Not fearing light could be explained by being a Daywalker. What about not fearing silver? Could Yu Xian possess a Silver-Eater talent as well? Don't forget, if Yu Xian had truly turned into a vampire using her blood, only a few days had passed. It was fundamentally impossible for him to awaken a second talent so soon. On top of that, he had the ability to turn his entire body black. That made three abilities already. No matter how one looked at it, he truly did not seem like a vampire. The more Nora thought about it, the more convinced she became that Luo Qi and his people had bungled the investigation. While Yu Xian had indeed mobilized a large sum of money, perhaps he had used it elsewhere—such as buying silver for food? Silver had been driven up by the Blood Clan to prices comparable to gold, which would explain why Yu Xian spent so much. Nora decided she would have to set things straight with Luo Qi and the others later. She couldn't let Yu Xian be wrongly accused. *** Downstairs. Yu Xian walked along the sixth-floor corridor. His fingers danced as though playing a piano, and three aberrant worms were instantly sliced to pieces. Though the blood in his body had not fully converted into Silver Blood, at least forty percent of it was now Silver Blood. With an ample supply of Silver Blood, he could release razor-sharp silver threads. These silver threads were not pure silver, but a special metal formed from the mixture of his own blood and silver. While soft and pliable, they were both exceptionally sharp and resilient. Most importantly, the silver threads moved according to his will. Even the walls of a classroom or solid steel could be severed with ease, feeling no different from cutting through tofu. More and more aberrant worms emerged from the classrooms, but before they could draw near, Yu Xian's silver threads cut them down. An aberrant worm parasitizing a teacher stepped out just in time to witness this. Fear flashed across its eyes, and it bellowed at the top of its lungs, "Everyone come out! There's an enemy! Kill him!" Aberrant worms poured out from several classrooms further down the hall. Spotting Yu Xian, they roared and charged forward. With a mere thought from Yu Xian, a silver thread shot from his fingertip and swept across. The oncoming aberrant worms were all bisected at the waist by the lethal thread, collapsing into severed halves. Yu Xian glanced toward the end of the corridor. The Chinese teacher who had just cried out was already nowhere to be seen. As expected, compared to those parasitizing students, the aberrant worms inhabiting teachers were far craftier. Just then, the rumble of artillery echoed from the distance. Clearly, the Silver City authorities had not been completely wiped out; they had finally gotten their bearings and begun to fight back.