A Skewed Talent

Night. Sitting inside the hexagonal gazebo in his private garden, Yu Xian repeatedly attempted to meditate, constructing a fairly straightforward magic circuit in his consciousness. Compared to meditating for Eastern arts, constructing magic circuits was noticeably a touch more difficult. Moreover, the magic circuit he was trying to form this time was not spatial magic, but light-and-shadow magic. Eastern arts centered around meditation, with guiding Spatial Blood Energy being relatively simple. Magic was the exact opposite: it placed far more emphasis on guiding the Spatial Blood Energy, using meditation mainly as an aid to assemble the circuit. "Mirage Clone Art!" The moment Yu Xian successfully formed the magic circuit in his mind, he barked out the command. Magic placed tremendous weight on a sense of conviction. Shouting the name of a spell aloud provided a massive boost to the casting, amplifying its power by nearly a third. Even though Yu Xian felt doing so was completely idiotic—practically announcing to your opponent what move you were about to use—he obediently played along in order to cast it successfully. Yet after waiting a few moments, a cool breeze blew past, and nothing stirred around him. "Failed? But there wasn't a single flaw in the magic circuit I constructed." Refusing to give up, Yu Xian scoured his surroundings. He searched every inch of the hexagonal gazebo, the goldfish pond, and the surrounding flora, but let alone a clone, he didn't even catch a ghost of a shadow. During the day, he had thought himself a genius of arts and magic, only to be slapped in the face by reality that very night. Some magic prodigy he was—what a joke! The Mirage Clone Art was the simplest of light-and-shadow magics. In essence, it harnessed the principle of mirages to generate a swarm of light-and-shadow duplicates around the caster. Yu Xian had originally planned to master it within ten minutes, but three hours had slipped by, and he still hadn't gotten the hang of it. "Appraisal!" Yu Xian raised his hand and promptly cast Appraisal on himself. He simply couldn't believe he hadn't learned the Mirage Clone Art. —————— Name: Yu Xian Codename: Salty Fish Race: Shiny Vampire Gender: Male Age: 17 Lifespan: 5,322 Rank: Low Snake Faction: Huaxia Dragon Dynasty - Qilin Department - Combat Division - Evil-Slaying Squad Abilities: [Light Eater, Silver Blood, Spatial Blood Energy, Appraisal] [Other Shore Omniscient Divine Art: Consumes mental energy and Spatial Blood Energy to create a visible spider lily seed and project it to designated spatial coordinates. Once the spider lily blooms, everything within reach of its petals can be perceived.] [Spatial Jump Art: Uses mental energy as an anchor to leap and move back and forth between different spatial coordinates.] [Spatial Expansion Art: Consumes Spatial Blood Energy to expand and stretch a portion of space, forming a far larger area.] [Spatial Vortex Art: Consumes Spatial Blood Energy to churn space, generating a crimson spatial vortex that shreds all matter within that space.] [Spatial Folding Art: Consumes Spatial Blood Energy to fold and overlap two spatial coordinates, forming a spatial loop.] [Spatial Labyrinth Art: Consumes a massive amount of Spatial Blood Energy to fold space on a vast scale, creating a disorganized space with no exit to trap the target.] [Summary: Distinctive creatures among monsters are called Shiny variants, and you are... a Shiny Vampire!] —————— It really wasn't there! Staring at his status panel, Yu Xian felt thoroughly disheartened. Because spatial arts had come so easily to him, he had fallen under the illusion that he wouldn't need to rely on the innate skills that awakened every ten days—that he could master countless skills through self-study alone. But lying to himself was pointless. Following this failure, Yu Xian was essentially certain: he hadn't learned spatial arts effortlessly because he was some kind of genius, but because the spatial aspect of his Spatial Blood Energy was simply too overwhelming. Of course, since Spatial Blood Energy was his own ability, strictly speaking, he could still be considered a genius with a heavily skewed specialty. He reclined on the bench of the hexagonal gazebo. Though he had taken a bit of a hit, he wasn't truly sad; after all, managing to learn so many spatial arts was already an immense gain. Besides, sitting in a luxurious grand villa and remembering that this entire three-mu estate belonged to him made it impossible to stay in a foul mood. Even if he ever did feel down, a glance at the goldfish pond outside the gazebo, feeding the plump goldfish swimming inside, or strolling through the garden to take in the scent of flowers and admire the scenery would quickly cheer him up. Sometimes, one had to admit that having money genuinely stripped away many troubles. "Since other arts are a headache, I'll just focus on studying spatial arts." Yu Xian quickly made peace with it. Spatial arts were already among the very pinnacle of arts, matched only by the likes of time and destiny. Others couldn't learn them even if they wanted to, so being able to pick them up effortlessly was already plenty fortunate. Even if he sacrificed variety in his repertoire, spatial arts made up for it in sheer power! The only real pity was that Qilin's internal repository didn't actually contain many spatial skills. Naturally, casters with a spatial affinity were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns, which meant fewer spatial arts had ever been developed or passed down. That Qilin held several dozen spatial skills was already proof of an extraordinarily deep foundation compared to extraordinary organizations worldwide. For most minor countries' superhuman forces, failing to produce even a single spatial art was the true norm. The long night stretched ahead—the perfect time for quiet study. Taking out his phone, Yu Xian opened the Qilin app and began slogging through the Sixty-Four Hexagrams of Fuxi. He had to catch up on the cultural knowledge he lacked; otherwise, even if divine cultivation manuals were laid right before him, he would miss his chance simply by being unable to understand them. While he was busy cramming formulas into memory, Nora's guardian, Luo Qi, appeared outside his estate gates. As Nora's guardian, Luo Qi harbored deeply tangled feelings toward her. Part of him felt like a father, part of him felt like an older brother, and at times, he even regarded her as his exclusive possession. He had been her guardian ever since she was six years old, watching her grow from a wide-eyed, adorable, innocent little angel into the bright, cheerful, sunlit young lady she was today. To a vampire who could never look upon the sun, Nora was the sun in his heart. Lately, Nora had begun refusing the private chauffeur rides. At first, he hadn't realized anything was amiss, assuming she simply wanted to temper herself. After all, the bastard who had stolen her blood had now joined Huaxia's official ranks, meaning the Duke's assignment for Miss Nora had inevitably ended in failure. It was a good thing if the setback spurred her to strive harder. Yet over the past few days, an uneasy feeling had gradually grown inside him. Nora seemed to have taken a liking to going to school. While she hadn't hated it before, she had attended purely to blend in with the crowd, with zero enthusiasm whatsoever. Now, she left the house every morning with a smile on her face. It was far too abnormal. And today in particular, Nora had actually started cultivating internal strength. Where had she gotten an internal cultivation technique, and could it carry hidden dangers? Luo Qi had immediately summoned the human bodyguards assigned to protect Nora from the shadows. After a round of intimidation and threats, he discovered that Nora was actually walking to and from school with that bastard every single day—and she had even ordered the bodyguards to keep it a secret! *Aaaaaaaaargh, that damned mongrel!* The Blood Clan sparing Yu Xian's life out of magnanimity was already an act of extraordinary mercy, yet Yu Xian dared lay a hand on Miss Nora! Luo Qi's entire face contorted with rage on the spot.