Li Fei crushed the deep-sea diamond shards with her bare hands and scattered them into a transparent vessel, mixing them with the leaves and stems of purple sprite vine and other materials. The dark-purple solution bubbled and gurgled, all sorts of sediment floating and sinking within.
Just one more ingredient — orange juice — and she could brew the Witch of Bliss's secret elixir.
Li Fei leaned back against the chair, closed her eyes, and amid deep breaths examined the System Panel that was about to undergo a complete makeover.
Level: 23
Morality: -31
Charisma: 483
Achievements: Wolf Den Annihilator; Angel of the Solitary Isle; Spell Encyclopedia; Philanthropist (I) (Command +5; after packaging evil deeds as good deeds, 10% of the losses caused by those evil deeds can be converted into Wealth Points) (Upgradable)
Since November, no more sea turtles had drowned, and Li Fei had been busy with cultivation and charity, leaving her experience points utterly unmoved.
But it wasn't as if she'd gained nothing.
The 1,013 patterns on her abdomen were medals she had watered with sweat and tears and other bodily fluids — capable of amplifying spell effects as well as forming all manner of occult runes, multifunctional;
Her Charisma had skyrocketed, ever drawing closer toward "passive mind control";
Her renown had broken through from [Rising Fame] to the city-level [Household Name], and bards were even spreading her story to distant lands;
Her exploration and development of Miss System had also been a great success — by her own planning, she'd produced a new achievement.
Besides that...
The young madam trembled, the slender toe-tip braced against the floor relaxing.
Eva, now a mother herself, languidly crawled onto the table, covered her mouth and smiled at the Mother of Fairies, her eyes silky with allure; then she gathered her russet-brown long hair behind her ears, lowered her head, and like brewing chewed-rice wine, slowly spat freshly-squeezed orange juice into the vessel. At last she licked her lips, her moist eyes fixed unblinkingly on Li Fei, brimming with intense adoration and infatuation.
Clearly, after three weeks of bitter cultivation, the witch had not only over-fulfilled the ritual and honed [Charm Mark Reconfiguration] to perfection, but her own willpower had been comprehensively tempered as well — at least in one-on-one situations, the young madam could, while breathlessly gasping praises like "Ling'er-jie is so amazing" and "I'm going to faint," simultaneously turn her head, pick up her phone, and tap-tap-tap away at the screen, sparring with Tingbao, arguing over the matter of principle as to whether "Lady Bumeng" or "Lady Lu" was the true king of kings.
As the final ingredient was injected, the large amount of sediment melted within mere seconds, and the elixir's hue turned extraordinarily vivid — like a poison from a fairy tale, the kind that would let a beauty stay forever young at the price of falling into eternal slumber.
And Li Fei understood that, by drinking this potion, she could step onto the final rung of the low Sequences.
Without hesitation she downed it in one gulp.
"Mn..."
As a sweet, blood-tinged taste filled her mouth, electric current and feverish heat spread inch by inch across Li Fei's skin. She gripped the armrests of the chair, her waist arching up, her jade-white feet taut, her gaze hazy and unsteady.
Her three thousand strands of black hair grew wild at a speed visible to the eye, dancing along with the pure mana escaping outward, like courting snakes casting bewitching shadows on the floor.
The battle-qi vortex also stopped spinning at this moment, gathering into a single mass, like a red-hot furnace, blazing heat sweeping through her four limbs and hundred bones. In the blink of an eye, her skin — brighter than moonlight — flushed with great patches of pink, fine beads of sweat dampening her pure-white lace openwork nightdress so it clung tightly to her body, while her deep, exquisite collarbones cradled two pools of glistening water.
The transcendent factors drifting in the different dimensions of space, as if sensing some unseen pull and call, transformed into a thousand streams that leapt joyfully into Li Fei's body, scouring her flesh, nourishing her soul, helping her complete the metamorphosis of her life-tier.
"Ahh—"
Li Fei suddenly threw back her head, letting out a long sigh that seemed both weeping and laughing; deep-red battle-qi light flashed across her body's surface and vanished, blazing mana burning in her pupils.
The wooden armrest was crushed with a "crack," and immediately the whole chair fell apart.
Drenched, Li Fei lay amid the wood shavings covering the floor, her sweat soaking the carpet, her body writhing like a snake, the thin nightdress completely stuck to her flushed skin. Each time she exhaled scorching breath, her graceful, enchanting body undulated with it, displaying feminine beauty to the fullest.
Wave after wave of potential burst from deep within her flesh, and together with the pure transcendent factors continuously pouring into her body, it tempered her bones, refined her blood, strengthened her organs, purified her soul... The Charm Marks too went berserk at this moment, ceaselessly reconfiguring and disassembling, over a thousand ever-shifting symbols roaming across her entire body.
Thud, thud, thud...
Li Fei's right hand kept pounding the floor, her pink, moist tongue-tip slightly out, panting again and again, her long, straight legs pressed tightly together yet unable to keep from kicking downward, her fingertips clutching the carpet and tearing it to shreds, accepting this sublimation from inside out, from body to soul.
When her ever-accelerating heart rate climbed to some critical point and then abruptly slowed, this evolution finally drew to its close.
As her body temperature dropped, Li Fei's taut body gradually eased. She closed her eyes and listened to the babbling-brook-like ding of blood wandering through her body, the clearer and richer hum of the battle-qi vortex returning to its proper track, and the symphony struck up by the mass of spell models in her mind ringing in resonance — even the heartbeat woven among them carried a tepid, ambiguous charm, enough to make any lady she met by chance imagine an entire romantic, beautiful love affair.
"What's wrong?"
Sofia, alarmed by the floor-pounding, hurried over carrying Little Yawen, but the moment she pushed the door open and entered, the sight of her mother-in-law — eyes hazy, silk dress soaked through — filled her vision.
Amid the bone-deep bewitching gasps, the flush on her skin receded like a tide, like a beach bathed in moonlight, jade-white and lovely, still shimmering with faint fluorescence; her surging, about-to-spill bosom heaved tumultuously, and together with those sprawled snow-white long legs formed a picture utterly obscene, voluptuous, and irresistible; escaping along with the rising sweat was a body fragrance fresh as green tea, yet more concentrated and alluring than osmanthus.
The Sequence 7 Witch of Bliss, in this moment, displayed her highly aggressive hunting instinct to the fullest — her aura, voice, and face, like strands of spider silk, silently bound Sofia's mind tight, seeking to drag this golden-haired, crimson-eyed, coldly elegant vampire law-officer into the abyss of sinking.
"Ssss-ha..."
The utterly defenseless Sofia almost instinctively bared her fangs, a pair of blood-red eyes staring at her mother-in-law's neck.
Ambiguous, sensual murmurs lingered by her ear, tirelessly hypnotizing and bewitching her mind; like a magical tea fragrance, it made that cold heart contract and beat again and again.
"Haah..."
Sofia's expression was dazed; as if possessed she walked toward Li Fei, wanting to fasten onto that neck more graceful and white than a swan's, to pierce the skin with her fang-tips, to swallow down the scalding sweat along with the blood, and grant her the First Embrace...
Regrettably, in the end she reined herself in at the cliff's edge.
The instant her icy fingertip touched the warm neck, the temperature difference snapped Sofia back to her senses. She jerked her hand back as if electrocuted, froze for half a second, then hastily covered the eyes of Little Yawen in her arms.
This kind of scene was not something a palm-sized little fairy could handle.
"Are you... all right?"
Sofia asked with concern and shame.
She had nearly committed a transgression against her mother-in-law right in front of her wife and daughter...
"It's nothing, I just ascended to Sequence 7, that's all." Li Fei smiled, then beckoned to Eva. "Are you hurt?"
"No."
Eva cautiously edged closer, poking Li Fei's shoulder with her index finger, and only after confirming there was no scalding sensation did she relax and burrow into the warm embrace.
Just now, worried that Li Fei was unwell, she had wanted to use her own body temperature to cool her down, only to have her tender skin scalded red by the searing heat. Had the Mother of Fairies not instinctively shoved Eva away, this little one would probably have toughed it out, and the consequences would have been hard to say — the Sequence 7 Witch of Bliss, merely from the out-of-control transcendent power escaping her, was enough to take a fragile fairy's life.
"Eva..." Sofia's face was full of guilt, her voice tinged with apology.
Just now her eyes had held only her mother-in-law, neglecting her wife...
"To love her is to love me." Eva understandingly covered her lips. "Mother ascended to Sequence 7 today; you should be happy."
"Ah, right..."
Reason returned to her mind, and Sofia finally realized what Li Fei's offhand remark just now truly meant.
How long had she even set foot on the path of the Transcendent? And she'd ascended to Sequence 7 just like that?!
A look of astonishment flashed through her blood-red eyes. For the first time in her life, Sofia felt the gulf-like disparity at the level of talent — a feeling she had always been the one to give others.
"So, aren't you going to say something to congratulate me?" Li Fei stretched out her lotus-root arm too, cupping that exquisitely sculpted face with her warm palm, expectation in her eyes, like close girlfriends sharing a joke intimate to the point of ambiguity, testing each other's orientation.
Though the temperature was dropping, the tea fragrance had grown thicker.
"I, I..." Sofia seemed incoherent, her tongue tangled in knots.
Her heart kept warning her that she absolutely must not do anything to betray Eva...
Smooch. Eva kissed the Mother of Fairies on her left cheek, demonstrating for her wife, her smile sweet: "Fei-bao is the best!"
"So cheeky." In a tone half-coquettish, half-reproachful, Li Fei charmingly rolled her eyes at Eva, then lifted her head to gaze at Sofia, smiling as she tilted her face, fully revealing the jade-white line of her neck while pointing at her own right cheek.
—This, this is just normal interaction, it's nothing... Deliberately refusing would only make it seem like there's a problem...
Sofia deceived herself, tucking her long hair behind her ear, her cold features carrying the vampire's unique allure drawing closer and closer to Li Fei, her pale skin actually surfacing with a blush.
"Mn!" A kiss.
After the two mothers offered their congratulations, Little Yawen — dancing with excitement — took advantage of Sofia's daze to forcefully break free of her restraint, plopping with a splat onto Li Fei's forehead. Then, beaming with joy, she imitated her mothers' actions, gnawing the tip of her nose with her gums.
Li Fei broke into a smile, gathering the family of three into her arms, savoring the joys of family.
The invited guest, Miss Grace, stood outside the door, silently watching all this, her cold little face wearing an unmelting melancholy.
Li Fei lounged leisurely in the bath, oblivious to the lover and family bathing with her, her gaze lingering on the System Panel, unable to tear away for a long while.
[Character Panel]
Name: Li Fei
Level: 23
Sequence Level: 7
(Strength +15, Agility +15, Constitution +15, Intelligence +15, Charisma +3, Luck +3, Command +3, Aptitude +3, Resistance +30%, Recovery Ability +45%, Skill Effect +15%; attribute buff effects enhanced; third round of constitution metamorphosis.)
(Third round of constitution metamorphosis effect: further strengthens body control, perception, immunity, lifespan, digestion ability...)
Experience: 9163/22000
Class: Witch of Bliss
(Gains the spell-like ability "Bliss"; Morality Value continuously decreases until it drops to -10; all-school casting speed +30%; all-school spell effect +15%; all-school spell penetration +30%; nerve reflex speed +10%; dynamic vision +10%; sensitivity +10%; physical penetration +20%; additionally increases explosive power, perception, balance, flexibility, wound-healing speed, stamina recovery speed, physical and magical resistance... third round of bloodline witchification.)
(Third round of bloodline witchification effect: further enhances mana affinity, body control... bodily fluids, voice, and breath's enthralling power toward ♀ increases, the transmission rate of Witch Dependency Syndrome increases...)
Lineage: Witch of Sinking
Mana: 1752
Strength: 107→122
Agility: 104→119
Constitution: 101→116
Intelligence: 129→144
Charisma: 483→486
Morality: -31
Luck: 11→14
Command: 12→15
Aptitude: 4→7
Note: Unequipped (naked gear).
Knowledge Tree:
1. Nature School:
Intermediate Natural Magic
Foundational Cycle Principle
Intermediate "Five Elements Meditation"
Intermediate Summoning Magic
2. Chaos School:
Introductory Chaos Magic
Intermediate "Five Elements Meditation"
3. Combat School:
Foundational Combat
Introductory Weapon Mastery
Intermediate "Furnace Battle-Qi"
Intermediate Resistance
Potential Points: 3
Spells: Depravity (Lv?), Bliss (Lv?), Sensitivity Aura (Lv10)...
Combat Techniques: Sword Mastery (Lv5), Cloud Dragon Fold, First Form (Lv4), Glass Cannon (Lv10)...
Evaluation: Invincible in the low Sequences.
[Message Panel]
[You killed a Bramble Turtle, gained 12 experience]
[You killed an Ice Frog, gained 11 experience]
[Store Panel]
Wealth Points: 204259
[Gacha Panel]
Remaining draws: 3
Day-and-night bitter cultivation, pot after pot of restorative soup, and the immense resources spent exchanging for "Furnace Battle-Qi" and customizing the witch class had ultimately yielded rich returns, making the witch more powerful than ever before.
Just from her Strength, Constitution, Agility, and Intelligence — those four attributes all breaking uniformly into triple digits — Li Fei could feel what terrifying combat power she now possessed, enough to sweep all before her in the low Sequences. Aside from her Morality Value continuously sliding, even her Aptitude had reached 7 points!
And the Witch of Bliss's dual buff to both spells and melee combat thoroughly proved that the path of the cash-customized class had not been the wrong one.
The newly mastered spell-like ability was especially eye-catching.
[Depravity], mastered at Sequence 8, Li Fei had never used in any proper setting; but the spell-like ability she had awakened this time would surely produce extraordinary effects even in actual combat.
Bliss (Lv???)
Spell Effect: Target sensitivity +50%, water-loss rate +100%, forcibly secretes dopamine and other hormones, the five senses blinded by an illusion of bliss; the higher the caster's Charisma, Intelligence, Sequence Level... the more realistic the illusion. (Affected by factors such as the target's Morality Value, Sequence Level, resistance, willpower, emotions, etc.)
Cooldown: None
Mana Cost: None
Fifty percent sensitivity! Even harder to bear than a level-10 Sensitivity Aura!
And it was instant-cast, no cooldown, no mana cost.
Considering Miss Top Courtesan's charisma — practically a humanoid walking computer component — plus added effects like endocrine loss of control and the blissful environment... so long as an enemy got hit, then if they could still bring out even five-tenths of their full ten-tenths combat power, they could be praised for having a will as firm as steel.
And the localized charisma added by Full Transformation — Succubus Empress, the Morality Value reduction from [Depravity], and the [Charm Mark Reconfiguration] secret art, which was likewise an instant-cast enthralling effect... could all work in mutual complement with [Bliss].
It's no exaggeration to say that Li Fei already possessed the ability to stand in place without moving at all and make many mortals sink into a kaleidoscopic dream until they died of dehydration — a witch in the truest sense.
And this was also the key point behind Miss System's "Invincible in the low Sequences" evaluation — no matter how fast a noble-class Transcendent's hand speed, they could not skip the motion of "tearing a scroll," whereas as fast as Li Fei's thoughts were, that was how fast her spell-like abilities activated.
With multiple spell-like abilities layered upon her, a low-Sequence Transcendent could not possibly remain undisturbed! With just one moment of distraction, Li Fei could make those noble lords who claimed to be invincible among their peers understand what a true hexagonal mage-girl was.
—If even a low-Sequence Witch of Bliss is like this, then wouldn't a mid-Sequence Twisted Witch be soaring to the heavens? It seems everything I've paid for the cause of charity — like my Morality Value dropping to -31 — was completely worth it...
—It's just that the Ascension Ritual is a bit hard to manage, and my potential points are stretched thin too...
Li Fei's lips curved up; amid the hazy steam she tilted her head back, stretching her arm straight upward, her charming, dazzling five fingers spreading open then slowly closing together, as if she meant to clutch all of heaven and earth in her palm.
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