"Why have you stopped running?"
The sea-serpent swept overhead, its shadow swallowing the three of them whole as it circled in slow, lazy arcs. The Siren's laughter drifted down from above — bewitching, melodious, deeply wrong.
Had Li Fei opened her System Panel in that moment, she would have found the Morality value — which had been flickering wildly — had settled once more, locked firmly at -17, as though it had never moved at all. And in the description for [Depravity], three words stood out in particular: irreversible.
What the hell did I just do?
Regret bloomed in Li Fei's chest.
I can always find another trump card. But I only have one life.
Beneath Qin Zhihua's gaze — deep, warm, and full of feeling — Li Fei exhaled in silence.
Fine.
I dug this grave myself. I'll lie in it with a smile.
She stepped forward, voice sharp and cold:
"Do you have any idea who I am? If anything happens to me, these waters will run red with blood — the whole world will be turned upside down!"
The sea-serpent descended a little closer, bringing the figure on its back into focus.
It was a Siren of devastating, almost sinful beauty — her slender upper body bare, skin white as fresh snow, a long and elegant neck curving down to a breathtaking valley of a décolletage, at the center of which hung an enormous, resplendent sapphire pendant.
"Ha. Don't worry," Josephine said, sweeping her gaze across the three of them, laughing until her whole body swayed with it, her chest quivering like panna cotta. "We'll have swept the island clean and withdrawn within three days. If that Bai Mengtian is so fearsome, by all means have her come find us in the deep sea to take her revenge."
...So, bestie. Why is it that every single time I try to use your name as a shield, it never works even once?
Self-proclaimed she-devil. Honestly hilarious.
A round of silent complaints at her best friend's expense did at least lighten the dread coiling in her chest. Li Fei let out a long breath — and reached into her robes for the vial of secret medicine.
[Class Elixir — Witch (Special Edition)]
Advancement Requirements: ♀; Charisma 100
Description: ♂ who consume this will die from bodily collapse. ♀ who do not meet advancement requirements will gain Charisma +10 and develop "Witch Dependency Syndrome." ♀ who meet advancement requirements but have not completed the Ascension Ritual will gain Intelligence +500 for 5 minutes, with a permanent Morality -10. ♀ who meet advancement requirements AND have completed the Ascension Ritual will acquire the [Witch] Class upon consumption.
Li Fei met every requirement for advancement perfectly — and had never once attempted the Ascension Ritual. A single sip of this elixir would give her Intelligence +500. Combined with the potion, she could absolutely blast open a path to survival with [Abyssal Lava] and harvest a mountain of experience along the way.
At that very moment, the Siren's voice floated down again:
"Humans — you have nowhere left to run. Why not surrender gracefully? Our kind has always cherished beauty. We could grant you our bloodline — and with faces like yours, I imagine you would be very well loved. Would that not be a fine fate?"
At the same time, the gurgling, grunting mass of fish-slaves was drawing steadily closer on all sides.
Had Li Fei known that the Siren Queen was radically, categorically heterosexual, she would have dropped to her knees in gratitude on the spot — it was just a change of bloodline, and the work itself was nothing new. A pity she didn't know.
She glanced at the grotesque horde of Sea Clan creatures closing in, raised one finger toward the sky, and smiled coldly.
"Go to hell, bitch."
Her thumb flicked the stopper free. Li Fei tilted her head back and drained the Witch Elixir in one swallow.
Mm...
Oh...
Come on then — let's burn...
The instant the elixir went down, a chorus of women's voices rose and overlapped inside Li Fei's mind — vivid, intoxicating, endlessly layered. It was like being some obscenely wealthy noblewoman who had bought out the entire Golden Kumquat Tavern for the night, drowning in a sea of beauties pressing close on all sides, honey-sweet voices purring in her ears without pause.
Her heartbeat slowed — but each pulse grew vast and powerful, and she could faintly hear the joyful singing of blood rushing through her veins. Her hair — ten thousand black strands — began to writhe on their own, like serpents waking from winter sleep in search of a mate, brushing against her ears and cheeks in something uncanny and bewitching.
Her already near-perfect figure rose by two centimeters before the naked eye. Her waist narrowed further. Her chest swelled another fraction. Her long legs remained taut and perfectly proportioned — and even her snow-soft skin grew more luminous and supple, as though faintly glowing.
Evolution is the miracle of life.
And in this moment, a miracle that should have taken a species ten thousand years to achieve was compressed into barely ten seconds — Li Fei was transforming, body and soul, in the most violent possible sense of the word.
No — something's wrong...
She felt the magic surging to life inside her, felt the tide of vitality flooding through every vein — and her eyes flew wide in shock. Then, within her pupils, threads of red light began to rise and swirl — churning without cease — before coalescing at last into the shape of ❤.
System! What is happening?!
Li Fei screamed inwardly.
A pane of light materialized before her eyes.
[Character Panel]
Name: Li Fei
Level: 11
Sequence: 9
(Strength +5, Agility +5, Constitution +5, Intelligence +5, Charisma +1, Fortune +1, Command +1, Aptitude +1, Resistance +10%, Recovery +20%, Skill Effect +10%; Attribute Buff Potency increased; Constitution Metamorphosis.)
(Constitution Metamorphosis Effects: Enhanced physical control, perception, immunity, lifespan, metabolic efficiency...)
...
Class: Witch
(Each level grants additional Intelligence +1, Charisma +1; Morality continuously declines until it reaches -1; All-school spell level +1; All-school casting speed +10%; All-school spell effect +10%; All-school spell penetration +10%; Bloodline Witchification.)
(Bloodline Witchification Effects: Enhanced mana affinity, physical control... bodily fluids, voice, and breath can charm ♀...)
Lineage: Witch of Depravity
(Unlocks lineage skills, items, specializations, etc.)
...
Innate Talents and Specializations:
1. Depravity:
When Morality decreases, Charisma increases. (Irreversible)
2. Enthrall Fortune:
The more beautiful, the luckier. (Every 100 Charisma grants +1 Fortune) (Upgradeable)
3. ???
...
What — what just happened?
I never went through the Witch Ascension Ritual!
Li Fei was shaking with horror. She could not begin to comprehend what was happening to her — and she had absolutely no power to stop it.
BOOM.
While Li Fei had been drinking the elixir, Grace had not been idle.
A soft, brilliant radiance surged from within her. She uncorked another Lucky Potion, and the light swelled wider still. She drew her bow, nocked an arrow — and when she loosed the string, every thread of light wreathing her body poured into that single arrow at once. The streak of luminescence that flew from her fingertips split the night sky like a falling star — impossibly bright.
Chaos Arrow — the higher the Fortune, the greater the destructive power.
"Too slow."
Josephine laughed, cool and amused. Without even needing her command, the sea-serpent beat its wings and dodged in advance.
But the streak of light carved a brilliant golden arc through the sky — and locked onto Josephine's chest.
"Stubborn little wildcat."
Josephine's expression darkened. Mana condensed into a volley of ice arrows, biting cold radiating from each one, hurled directly into the path of the oncoming light.
Crack — crack — crack—
In a rapid cascade of shattering glass, the streak of light punched through two ice arrows — and shattered against the third.
A faint black haze wreathing her entire body, Grace swayed on her feet and nearly fell. She bit her lip, eyes burning with frustration.
The Sequence gap was simply too great. Even after invoking her lineage's secret technique to borrow an entire month's worth of future Fortune in advance, she had failed to deal meaningful damage — not because she was unwilling to borrow more, but because her current ability could not exert any greater influence over Fortune itself.
Josephine's expression was not pleasant either.
Shards of shattered ice had grazed her chest, drawing a line of delicate crimson across pale, soft skin.
"Fei — you—"
Qin Zhihua had witnessed Li Fei's transformation. Her eyes were filled with a quiet, helpless worry.
She had already understood: Li Fei had drunk a secret elixir and forced her way to Sequence 9. But the oak tree at home had not yet matured. She assumed Li Fei had abandoned the Druid path in a desperate moment, choosing a different Class instead — an agonizing sacrifice, one that might twist her entire Transcendent journey from this point forward.
And there was more. She could feel it — the pull Li Fei had always exerted on her, already so overwhelming, was climbing with every passing second. As though even fate itself might bend and fall toward her.
Such a staggering leap in Charisma brought a dangerous, even forbidden possibility to mind.
"What a treasure you are..." Josephine had also noticed the change in Li Fei. She gazed at the human woman whose beauty could overturn kingdoms, and her pupils elongated into vertical slits once more, a dazed, entranced light swimming within them. "The most radiant gem in all the ocean could not compare to a single strand of your hair."
That beauty — forbidden, sinful — was the kind that ignited wars and drove the world to ruin.
Without realizing it, Josephine's fish tail had gone rigid as stone, sheened all over with a thick, glistening secretion. Her expression twisted. She urged the sea-serpent lower, toward the woman of incomparable, world-ending beauty, and from within those cold, serpent-slit pupils blazed a burning, scalding hunger:
"I will have you."
"No."
Qin Zhihua turned her head, cold and absolute, and without a moment's hesitation swallowed the crimson pill. Then she drew a pink paper parasol from her robes and flung it upward into the night sky. The parasol spun rapidly, accelerating to a breathtaking speed as it climbed.
The next instant, the ancient-souled, celestially graceful young woman stepped into the air — and when her footing failed, she caught the spinning parasol with one last desperate leap, launching herself from it like Chang'e ascending to the moon, crossing dozens of meters in a single heartbeat.
Incomparable killing intent shattered Josephine's reverie. Her widening pupils flooded with terror — she realized, in a flash of belated clarity, that in her moment of enchanted distraction, sword-force had already reached her.
Shiiing.
The longsword had barely cleared the scabbard when a blade-will — desolate and absolute — surged upward like a pillar. The sea-serpent let out a hoarse, strangled cry under the bone-deep killing pressure, beat its wings in a frenzy, and fled upward.
If Grace had not been content to rely entirely on "Bai Mengtian's trump card" — if she had given everything she had in that one shot — how could Qin Zhihua hold anything back?
Power demands sacrifice. Even if Li Fei had ascended to Sequence 9, she could not have escaped with her life through that alone — she certainly had more cards unplayed. Qin Zhihua did not care what those cards were. She did not want Li Fei to pay another price. Not a single one more.
With fifty years of my life — buy her one thread of a chance.
The sword loosed — and she had no regrets. The jet-black hair that had fallen to her waist turned grey and white in an instant. Qin Zhihua had not merely taken the Forbidden Drug — she was burning her True Qi at a self-destructive pace, wringing out every last drop of potential, consuming her very spirit and vitality to the dregs, all to pour it into one single, transcendent sword strike.
Sword-force spread across the wilderness like a vast tide, laced through with threads of crimson light — all of it surging upward.
What was torn apart along with the night sky was the enormous serpent — barely a few dozen meters away.
"No!"
The Siren's shriek split the air. A rain of blood fell — bones, flesh, ruin.
Qin Zhihua's eyes softened with something like relief. Then her body gave way. She fell, white hair streaming behind her, toward the earth below.
In the instant before she hit the ground, the jade ornament at her waist blazed with light. A gentle radiance wrapped around her and cushioned the fall. Even so, Qin Zhihua lay on the ground, barely breathing, utterly unable to rise.
With immense effort, she turned her eyes toward Li Fei. Her bloodless lips barely moved, the sound barely audible:
"Go... quickly..."
"When I catch you... I'll make you..."
A trembling, inhuman shriek descended from above. Qin Zhihua snapped her head up in alarm — and saw a figure, half-human, half-fish, still hovering in the night sky.
Josephine was drenched in blood, her hair wild and unbound, her body covered in dozens of fine lacerations.
The brilliant sapphire at her chest had gone dark — cracked through with hairline fractures.
That gem was called the Ocean's Heart — Josephine's most precious life-saving treasure. It could trigger [Ocean Shield] in a moment of mortal danger, functioning as a single-use [Guardian Mage Robe]. Had it not been there, Qin Zhihua's strike would almost certainly have been a double kill.
Hardly recovered from the terror of near-death, Josephine's face was a twisted mask of fury. She crushed the ruined gem in her fist, eyes blazing with madness and volcanic rage — until her gaze found Li Fei. Then, barely, it cooled.
As long as I take them alive, I can buy back any gem in the world ten times over.
"Surprised?" Josephine's voice dripped ice. "I also possess 'Aptitude' — and not only did my Queen gift me the [Ocean Shield], I have also mastered the [Flight] spell. You cannot escape."
She smiled, and the smile held nothing warm. "Now — even surrender won't save you. The only fitting end... is to chain you on a glacier and use you one hundred times over before my fury is sated."
"Is that so?"
A voice reached her — elegant and glacially cold.
It carried something impossible — some quality that defied explanation — so that even two simple syllables made Josephine's heart lurch involuntarily, her already-trembling fish tail snapping rigid as an iron bar.
The black-haired Witch stood complete in the darkness. Moonlight fell on a face beautiful enough to topple kingdoms and dynasties alike.
"Do you know — in my entire life, this is the first time I have ever looked at a beautiful woman and felt... absolutely nothing."
The black-haired Witch fixed her gaze on the Siren and curved the corner of her mouth upward. It was the simplest possible gesture — and it sent blood rushing to Josephine's head in a hot flood, her mind swarming with endless, fevered imaginings.
In the midst of that burning, consuming stare, the black-haired Witch lifted the hem of her mage's robe. On long, snow-white thighs, lace-printed garter stockings formed a sight that stopped the heart.
[Bai Mengtian's Handmade Garter]
Equipment Rating: Firefly
Attributes: Charisma +1
Enchantment Effect: Soul Burn (Lv10)
Soul Burn (Lv10): For 3–10 seconds, reduces all Mana cost and spell cooldown by 100%. Duration scales with soul strength. Activation inflicts severe damage to the soul.
Gurgle — gurgle!
Screech — screech!
The Sea Clan's guttural calls were almost on top of them now. Silhouettes crowded in from every direction. They had delayed for just a moment — and the encirclement was closing again.
Li Fei regarded the approaching threat with complete indifference. If anything, her smile grew wider — though the absolute resolve in her eyes was the same one she'd had the first time she walked into a den of Moonlight Wolves.
"Let's burn together!"
In a cry that was manic, euphoric, and slightly unhinged, brilliant light exploded from within her eyes. Li Fei felt as though some [Banishment] spell had hurled her into the heart of a star — her soul scorching in white-hot flame.
And she laughed. Laughed like a witch who had set fire to a cathedral with her own hands — who had rampaged through the smoldering ruins, desecrated the sacred, and painted a bloodstain on the face of an angel's statue — laughing in celebration of absolute, joyful ruin.
Before Grace's disbelieving eyes, a mass of churning, roiling lava materialized. Within the deep, primordial firelight, dark shapes twisted and writhed. The scorching reek of sulfur filled the air, and a presence that made the bones tremble spread across the entire landscape.
A Sequence 9 body — releasing a Tier-6 spell.
That single sight shattered every framework Grace had ever built for understanding the world.
She stared at the wild, blazing, incomparably beautiful black-haired Witch — and tears spilled from her eyes without warning. Her voice came out trembling:
"Don't..."
Grace had spent her future fortune on a single arrow. Qin Zhihua had gambled black hair for white in one desperate strike. And now Li Fei was working a miracle like this — what price would she have to pay?
But the pleading, tear-soaked voice was swallowed whole by a manic, rapturous cry.
"Let's die together — shall we? Let's die together!"
The black-haired Witch laughed through her tears, weeping and grinning all at once. In the span of a blink, she condensed a fireball of lava dozens of meters across — and hurled it at the Siren like a comet.
"No!"
Josephine screamed and dove aside — but there was no outrunning the roaring inferno. In less than an instant, the Abyssal Lava was almost upon her.
She's even more insane than I am...
The deranged, intoxicating shriek still echoed in her ears as the last thought flickered through Josephine's mind — and then the howling magical flames consumed her entirely.
____
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