It could see them?
Yu Xian was stunned. If even ordinary creatures could see the spider lily's petals, they would lose all value for stealthy scouting.
He immediately visualized another seed, then condensed a spatial bubble at the tip of his index finger. Placing the seed inside the bubble, a spider lily soon blossomed within it.
Manipulating the petals to drift out of the bubble, he looked up at the backs of Nora and Chen Ling. "Nora, Chen Ling, look back here."
Both girls turned around at the same time and exclaimed in pleasant surprise, "Wow, so pretty!"
"..."
Yu Xian's expression instantly slumped. They really could see them.
Still, it made sense that they were visible. After all, the seed he had visualized was a "visible" seed rather than the original "invisible" one.
"Salty Fish, is this your new superpower?" Chen Ling asked curiously.
As she spoke, she even tried to reach out and touch the petals floating in the air, but her fingers passed right through them. Evidently, the petals possessed no physical substance.
"What are these petals useful for?" Nora was clearly more focused on practicality.
Yu Xian sighed. "These petals are like my eyes. Wherever they drift, I can see the view there."
"Then why are you making them float downward? Pervert!" Nora hurriedly clamped down her skirt, her face turning crimson.
Yu Xian scrambled to defend himself. "I swear, I wasn't controlling them just now! They have minds of their own—they're drifting around randomly!"
"Hmph."
Nora rolled her eyes at Yu Xian, turned back around, and continued studying the Sunflower Sunward Divine Art.
As expected, only the guilty knew just how guilty they truly were.
Yu Xian sighed and slumped across his desk, unlocking his phone. Since he had already "learned" the Spatial Perception Art, and having nothing else to do, he decided to pick up a few more spells. It seemed pretty easy anyway.
The class bell rang, and Yu Xian immersed himself in the vast ocean of spatial spells.
Spatial Jump Art: Allows short-distance jumping and shifting back and forth between two coordinates, using mental power as an anchor.
Spatial Dimensional Gate: Constructs a stable spatial portal between two coordinates, allowing multiple people to enter.
Spatial Vortex Art: Stirs up space within a designated area, shredding and strangling all matter caught within.
Spatial Folding Art: Folds two spaces together to create an endless loop.
Spatial Labyrinth Art: Based on the Spatial Folding Art, folds space on a grand scale to create a complex, exitless spatial labyrinth to trap enemies.
Spatial Expansion Art: Expands a portion of space to form a larger area; one of the foundational skills for crafting storage pouches.
Shrinking Ground to an Inch: Compresses space beneath one's feet, crossing a thousand li in a single step, bringing the farthest ends of the earth within arm's reach.
Universe in the Sleeve: Permanently widens space to form an independent pocket world containing heaven and earth, sun and moon.
...
Yu Xian decided to tackle the easy ones first before moving on to the difficult ones, exchanging his merit for the Spatial Jump Art.
The primary reason was that, currently, he had to return inside a spatial bubble first before he could perform spatial teleportation. While this might look like just one extra step, in actual combat, a single extra step was often the difference between life and death.
The Spatial Jump Art remedied this exact flaw. He could preset anchors in numerous spatial bubbles in advance; even if he wasn't inside a bubble, he could return to one at any time, thereby dodging the vast majority of attacks.
Ten minutes later, his body flickered where he sat. In just a few seconds, he shuttled through dozens of bubbles and ended up right back in the classroom.
A look of disbelief still lingered on his face. This spell seemed a little too easy.
"Am I some kind of spellcasting genius?"
Yu Xian stroked his chin, musing to himself with a touch of delight.
After all, it really was too effortless. An anchor could be established with just a casual flick of mental power, and constructing anchors inside the bubbles in particular was as simple as opening one's mouth to eat.
Unable to resist, he posted in the discussion forum asking whether spatial spells were difficult to learn. Within a few minutes, a whole swarm of people began venting their frustrations beneath his thread.
Codename Tianquan: "Are spatial spells hard? Hard? They're f***ing impossible! Do you know how long it took me to learn the simplest Spatial Expansion Art? Ten years! Ten whole years! And do you know how long I've been studying the Spatial Jump Art? Fifteen years! Fifteen whole years, and I still haven't f***ing mastered it!"
Codename Fairy: "Put it this way: for someone without spatial talent, learning spatial spells is like a fish trying to learn to run on land, or a wingless human trying to soar through the sky. You tell me if it's hard or not."
Codename Balding: "Look at my codename. I went bald trying to learn spatial spells. Without talent in sensing space, just calculating coordinates gives you a splitting headache. I really envy those geniuses who don't have to calculate coordinates."
Codename Orange: "Trying to learn Dimensional Gate pinched my head until it turned into a rectangle! I regret ever joining the Support Division, and I regret ever studying spatial spells. Why did spatial spells even have to exist in this world?!"
...
Looking at everyone else's complaints, Yu Xian found it completely impossible to relate to them.
What?
Studying Spatial Jump for fifteen years and still not learning it?
What?
Space requires calculating coordinates? Can't you just sense it to pinpoint the location?
What?
Dimensional Gate is so hard your head gets pinched?
The corners of Yu Xian's mouth curled up. Going by Fairy's words, he really was a spatial genius.
"I laugh with pride, I laugh with glee, I laugh so delightfully..."
He gleefully read through his comrades' rants, the smile on his face growing more and more brilliant. So this was what a top student felt when looking down on slackers—it actually felt pretty great.
Next, he exchanged his merit for the Spatial Expansion Art. Sure enough, it was equally simple; with total ease, he expanded his desk compartment until it was the size of a classroom. If he were willing to spend more Spatial Blood Energy, he could even expand the compartment to be broader than the entire school.
"Isn't this super easy?"
Yu Xian murmured with a beaming smile. At the thought that it had actually taken Tianquan ten years to learn it, a wave of secret smugness washed over him. Cheating was fun for a moment, but cheating all the time was fun forever.
Holding his phone, his gaze fell upon Shrinking Ground to an Inch. Like Universe in the Sleeve, this was a spell on the level of a great divine ability.
After spending a vast amount of merit, he successfully exchanged for the spell. However, once he opened it, he was dumbfounded—the entire text was steeped in Daoist and I Ching terminology. He recognized every individual character, but strung together, he couldn't make heads or tails of any of it.
"To think that the reason I can't learn Shrinking Ground to an Inch is because I'm uneducated."
Yu Xian studied it for a long while, opening the I Ching to cross-reference character by character, but finally gave up with a throbbing headache. Shrinking Ground to an Inch was simply too hard.
Sure enough, one could lack strength, but one absolutely could not lack education. Otherwise, even if a divine manual lay right before your eyes, being unable to understand it meant being unable to learn it—it remained completely useless.
Still unsatisfied, he browsed through the cultivation insights posted by others, only to discover that Shrinking Ground to an Inch didn't just require education—it required realm.
Can't learn it. I really can't learn this.
What "The Dao models after nature," what "Unity of Heaven and Man," what "An open mind as vast as the void"...
He was only seventeen years old—what kind of realm could he possibly have? He hadn't even figured out romance yet; this thing called "realm" was far too remote from his life.
Chapter 76