The sun was warm, the breeze gentle, and the world seemed full of charm.
Yu Xian and Nora walked side by side down the street leading toward Superpower Academy.
Passersby who brushed past them couldn't help breaking into fond, knowing smiles at the sight of young romance.
Both were exceptionally good-looking and brimming with youthful vitality. Walking together, they looked like a prince and princess straight out of a fairy tale—truly a match made in heaven.
"I've always wanted to try doing this. It feels wonderful," Nora said with a smile, looking at a group of students heading to school not far ahead.
Growing up, she had always been driven to and from school in a private car. Even back in primary school, she had deeply envied the classmates outside her window who walked together, laughing and chattering.
Now she finally had a friend willing to walk to school with her, and she was truly happy.
Yu Xian merely smiled, though his attention was focused on appraising Nora's status panel.
——————
Name: Nora Rex
Code Name: Silly Goose
Race: Hybrid Mutant Vampire
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Lifespan: 5,322
Rank: Below Ant
Faction: Daughter of Duke Marcus Rex
Abilities:
[Daywalker: Grants immunity to damage from sunlight and enhances resistance against light-attribute attacks.]
[Blood Flame: Manipulates blood to ignite crimson flames reaching 1,500 degrees Celsius, possessing tremendous destructive power.]
[Summary: A pretty weakling.]
——————
Yu Xian already knew Nora wasn't particularly strong.
What truly surprised him was that Nora's lifespan was identical to his. Could it be that he and Nora would die on the very same year, month, and day?
Both were seventeen years old, and both had a lifespan of 5,322 years. That was far too much of a coincidence.
For some inexplicable reason, a comic strip began playing in Yu Xian's mind.
He and Nora graduated together, then stepped into the hall of marriage. They raised children together, growing old as their kids grew up. Finally, lying hand in hand in a hospital with contented smiles on their faces, they passed away on the exact same day while their children wept in sorrow around them.
Wait.
That script made no sense.
Both he and Nora were vampires. Even if they could have children, neither of them would die of old age.
"What's wrong?"
Noticing that Yu Xian had drifted off, Nora asked with a puzzled look.
Yu Xian turned to her and asked, "Tell me, if you and I were to die on the exact same day in the future, what do you think would..."
Before he could finish, Nora's fair face flushed bright red like an apple. Her eyes shimmered with watery warmth as she looked at him. The sight was so captivating that he completely forgot what he was about to say next.
The atmosphere suddenly turned subtly charged, and the two walked forward in silence...
...
...
For the next two weeks or so, Yu Xian went to and from school as usual, occasionally joining Zhang Kai on night patrol.
He first unlocked Super Stomach, followed by Super Taste. Just as he had anticipated, he regained the ability to consume ordinary food.
Yet it wasn't without its drawbacks.
Super Taste was simply too sensitive, which made him exceptionally picky about food. If an item contained excessive additives or used ingredients that weren't prepared properly, a single bite would make him gag because it tasted simply awful.
One evening, Yu Xian sat in a police car while Zhang Kai drove. Glancing at the fish balls in Yu Xian's hands, Zhang Kai asked, "Yu Xian, I've noticed you really love fish balls."
For two days straight, he had seen Yu Xian holding a little paper box filled with them.
"The fish balls from this shop are delicious," Yu Xian replied.
Among all the transcendent gourmet shops in the east of the city, only this single fish ball stall used authentic, top-grade ingredients and handled them with near-flawless care. They were so good he never grew tired of them.
Naturally, being delicious meant they were expensive. A tiny box held just six fish balls and cost 320 yuan.
Yu Xian wasn't short on money, which was why he ate them every day.
In truth, he had harbored another expectation for Super Stomach: supplementing energy through eating to awaken his innate talents faster.
Yet once the ability was actually unlocked, he discovered that Super Stomach could only digest food to replenish physical stamina. It couldn't generate the energy needed to accumulate heartbeats the way Light Eater did.
Because of this, he truly appreciated the real worth of the phrase "replenishes all the body's various needs" in Light Eater's description.
Evidently, the energy required for heartbeats was of an entirely different nature. Ordinary vampires could only accumulate it slowly by drinking blood and biding their time. But thanks to his innate Light Eater ability, he could directly and rapidly replenish this specialized energy, which was why he awakened talents at such an astonishing pace.
The two chatted, occasionally stopping the car to eliminate intruding transcendent creatures. They assumed the night would pass peacefully, but just as the vehicle reached the west of the city, a pillar of red light suddenly erupted in the south of the city.
The crimson pillar shot straight up from a residential high-rise over twenty stories tall, dyeing the entire night sky blood-red.
Yu Xian instantly conjured a bubble directly ahead of the police car. Having witnessed his ability before, Zhang Kai promptly slammed on the gas, driving the vehicle straight into the bubble. In the next second, they materialized inside a park in the south of the city.
"Let's go!"
The two leaped out of the car and sprinted toward the light.
The location wasn't far from the park, so Yu Xian didn't bother placing another bubble. By the time they arrived, a large crowd of residents had already poured out of the building.
"The red light came from the sixteenth floor! It's definitely Zhang Heng's place!"
...
"My apartment is right below Zhang Heng's! I just heard him laughing like crazy—sounded like he found a Forbidden Fruit at home!"
...
"A Forbidden Fruit? Doesn't that mean Zhang Heng's going to become a Transcendent?"
...
The surrounding residents were abuzz with discussion. Yu Xian and Zhang Kai exchanged a glance. Then, Yu Xian conjured a bubble to envelop them both, flying rapidly up toward the sixteenth floor.
The Forbidden Fruit never brought unalloyed blessings. The archives on the Qilin app were filled with countless tragedies caused by consuming it.
Sitting inside the bubble, Zhang Kai barked orders through his phone, instructing the arriving combat police to evacuate the crowd and cordon off the entire area to prevent catastrophic casualties.
On the sixteenth floor, inside what appeared to be the kitchen, a man hovered midair, bathed entirely in red light. The piercing crimson glow pierced through all physical matter, surging straight into the sky to form a massive pillar of light.
"Whatever his wish was, this is way too over-the-top," Zhang Kai couldn't help remarking at the sight.
Yu Xian frowned. "I have a bad feeling about this. In a moment, I'll teleport him straight outside the city. Captain Zhang, search the apartment to see if he left behind a diary or anything like that. We need to find out what his wish was."
"Understood. Be careful," Zhang Kai nodded. "If you can't beat him, pull back immediately. With your abilities, nobody can keep you from running if you want to."
There was an unspoken rule regarding the Forbidden Fruit: the bigger the spectacle, the steeper the price.
This light pillar was visible across all of Silver City, and on top of that, no one knew what kind of power the man had wished for. Yu Xian strongly suspected that the man would be utterly unable to pay the necessary price for his wish.
Zhang Shou had considered himself remarkably restrained, yet even he had been put through agonizing hell by the Forbidden Fruit.
Though Zhang Shou rarely spoke of it, it didn't take much imagination to realize that experiencing death was excruciating, not to mention that he frequently had to end his own life just to reset his status.
And the disturbance before them now was far greater than what Zhang Shou had caused. Yu Xian was already bracing himself for the worst-case scenario.
Chapter 72