I really couldn't take it anymore. The author had discovered that many readers either fantasized about the Vidyadhara's abilities or had been given a Thought Imprint by listening to outdated information from certain uploaders.
So, here I will share the Vidyadhara as the author sees them and provide an analysis.
First of all, the Vidyadhara have no blessing from a Path, have not taken any other life-extending or life-shortening medicine, and do not suffer from illness. Their average lifespan is around 700 years.
These figures came from the three murals shown when the seal was removed in the main story quest "[The Dragon Twirls, Its Abyss Profound]," as narrated by Dan Heng.
Here, there is no clear explanation of how many years the Vidyadhara's childhood lasts. Online, it is generally believed to be around 200 years.
Even if the author calculated it according to the human childhood proportion of 20%, the Vidyadhara's childhood would still need to last 140 years.
Also, please clarify one thing beforehand: in Star Rail, whether among the Xianzhou Celestials or the Vidyadhara, no text has ever described either race as developing into fully grown adults within a short period after entering adolescence—by normal human standards, a few years. (Baidu has some information claiming that Xianzhou natives can develop rapidly, but there is no textual evidence for it. It most likely came from speculation on forums.)
Moreover, delayed development is the norm among the Vidyadhara. (This comes from Bailu's Character Story—Part Four.)
Therefore, the author is using the normal human developmental timeline as a ratio to estimate the age at which Vidyadhara become adults.
According to the data the author could find, "adolescents" generally refers to those aged thirteen to nineteen. Even allowing for error, that only amounts to six or seven years of development.
The average modern human lifespan is roughly eighty years.
With a rough conversion, the Vidyadhara need around sixty years to go from adolescence to adulthood.
Therefore, the protagonist, who is over 190 years old, is merely in the adolescent stage among the Vidyadhara—and more than half of that time was spent in childhood.
For the Vidyadhara's adolescent combat ability, the author refers to Bailu. Although she appears to be in childhood, this is mainly because the [Chimu Futsuna] on her tail restricts her development. In addition, she has already progressed quite far along the Abundance Destiny and possesses half of the Dragon Transformation Profound Methods.
Yet how strong is Bailu's individual combat ability? A single ordinary Mara-struck monster is enough to scare her into trembling. As for her ability to fight head-on, let alone the Cloud Knights, she can only bully ordinary untrained civilians by controlling water and lightning. (Though she really is fast.)
Even so, this level of combat ability is already higher than that of every Vidyadhara who has undergone no special training.
So don't claim that the Vidyadhara are naturally gifted with powerful supernatural combat abilities. In reality, the Vidyadhara merely have high talent. If they do not train properly, they cannot even beat the Foxians.
The same applies to the Xianzhou natives. Some text has stated that untrained Xianzhou natives are less agile than untrained Foxians. (The text came from a voice line in the Martial Arts Ceremony version, spoken by a defeated Xianzhou native who refused to admit defeat.)
The only text that can support the claim that the Vidyadhara possess superior physical qualities comes from the "Dragon Coiling, Qiu Leaping" pharmacological examination in [The Myriad-Self's Evidence Compendium].
The original text reads: "For short-lived species, this medicine simply grafts the power of the dragon ancestor into the body. Such a crude graft can indeed improve bodily functions for a short period, allowing the originally fragile bodily functions of short-lived species to undergo a qualitative leap. However, once the dragon-descendant cells introduced during the first inoculation all die to the immune system, the recipient's various physical indicators will suffer a massive decline. The only thing that can probably suppress or even reverse this decline is the other 'elixirs' developed by The Myriad-Self."
But in this context, "bodily functions" refers to physical rejuvenation and enhanced recovery, not hardened skin or immense strength.
Moreover, this so-called "leap" is in comparison to ordinary short-lived human species, not to Xianzhou natives.
Next, let's discuss the Xianzhou's martial arts system.
First of all, Xianzhou natives are generally martial-minded.
However, when put into practice, the Xianzhou NPCs throughout the Luofu map and the Martial Arts Ceremony all demonstrate one fact.
If Xianzhou natives do not join the Cloud Knights and have no family tradition to inherit, what they can learn is nothing but deceptive fancy moves. (There is far too much supporting text: advertisements from various martial arts schools, the Seven Calabashes incident, and so on.)
And don't say that those fancy moves would be formidable on other planets, either. Many of these people cannot even defeat ordinary mortal martial artists who are not Pathstriders. (This is not referring to Luka.)
Finally, the author must emphasize one point: the Cloud Knights are very strong. Even their rank-and-file soldiers are formidable, and their captains are exceptionally powerful.
Also, the author believes that the Cloud Knight participants in the Martial Arts Ceremony do not use overly advanced technological weapons. Instead, they use ordinary swords, weapons, and armor, because using military equipment in a martial arts competition would simply be bullying the visiting martial artists. (There is no textual support for this. The author simply feels that the Luofu should still have some dignity.)
P.S. Ignore the text of [Arena Tales from the Martial Arts Ceremony]. It explicitly says within itself that it is only half true, and half fabricated. Most likely, that reporter imagined it all.
They seem like fodder in the game because their opponents are even stronger. The Stellaron Hunters simply cannot be judged by the standards of ordinary Pathstriders, and the Express Crew is the same.
In summary:
The Vidyadhara cannot be categorized as dragon-blooded species in the traditional sense. They clearly cannot be said to possess naturally high combat ability. (If you disagree, please provide specific textual evidence instead of just saying the author is wrong. The author has read at least seventy or eighty hours of Honkai: Star Rail text and various useful and useless analyses. This book had already included Star Rail fan fiction before.)
At 200 years old, a Vidyadhara is only about equivalent to an ordinary human of eighteen. They are nowhere near adulthood.
On another note, the author discovered that many people do not know a basic setting of the Type-Moon universe.
Even Divine Era Magicians can be knocked out in a few moves by a modern Magecraft user who is inferior to them in every way if they are poor at close combat.
Rin Tohsaka directly knocked out Medea like this in the Unlimited Blade Works route.
And don't say that Medea has poor physical abilities. Her Strength is E, her Endurance is D, and her Agility is C.
As everyone knows, as long as one is a Heroic Spirit and has no special weakening debuff, even an E is still higher than that of a well-trained magus—unless the magus has a special buff. (Like the teacher against Saber.)
But when Rin defeated Medea, she merely used Reinforcement Magecraft to reinforce her body. She did not use any secret technique.
This is also the main reason why the protagonist, who is a magus, feels that his close-combat ability is too poor and that he would easily be defeated by a Hashira if someone got close to him.
(If you want to refute the above, please provide specific textual sources. After all, this novel is written by the author. As long as something is logically consistent, the author can decide anything that has not been established by the setting.
Also, don't tell people to go watch some XXX analysis video. How can you guarantee that what those uploaders say is the truth? If you want to refute this, please do the work and verify it yourself.)
Before you continue