"Follow me." Those three words were clearly not meant for Li Fei alone.
Grace didn't follow right away. Instead she stared wistfully after the two graceful figures walking back into the bedroom, one behind the other.
She felt the magic power churning on its own, grown purer than before, and fell into silent thought.
Since ancient times, the Eastern Continent had passed down tales of "furnace cauldrons" and "human tonics." Enlos had its own special bloodlines, constitutions, Innate Talent specializations, and class ranks that could produce similar effects.
Take the holy, noble angel race. Get close to one of them, and the pure life magic drifting off her unbidden will nourish your body. That made every angel sister a fairly mild, flying tonic.
Or take the powerhouses of Sequence 2. Every drop of moisture in their bodies held vast, magnificent power. Cleansing sinew and marrow was nothing to them. Given enough time, they could even assimilate anyone who joined them in body and mind, bringing that person closer to the laws themselves. Yes, every Sequence 2 was a living wonder, a walking stroke of fortune. A domineering tonic. A great elixir.
There were even rumors that a person infected with Witch Sickness would become a slave beyond all cure, never to rise again, but her aptitude would improve to some degree. The extent depended on the carrier's bloodline quality and the severity of the infection. Clearly, witches were wicked, uncanny tonics.
But Li Fei was different from all of these.
Grace keenly sensed that cuddling up to her did nothing for one's cultivation base in itself.
Drawing on her own experience, and on scraps of information she'd fished out of her senior Lilith with a few indirect questions, she found this:
Once the feelings you invested in Li Fei reached a certain level, and with the right opening, you could form an indescribable bond with her.
More precisely, it was as if Miss Top Courtesan had scattered a tea seed deep in your soul.
Every joy, anger, sorrow, and delight the host felt because of Li Fei was nourishment for the seed, driving it to keep growing. And once the tea flower bloomed, the fragrance that spread from it fed back into the host, moistening soul and flesh alike.
Of course, that tea flower was a picky eater. Positive emotions like joy, happiness, and sweetness were mere appetizers. Jealousy, loss, grievance, the longing to hurt her or be hurt by her, the indescribable thrill of watching her throw herself into someone else's arms… those twisted, negative emotions were the flower's favorite food. Every time it got a taste, its branches trembled and it released a scent so cloying it bordered on rot, sending the host's cultivation base surging upward.
Which meant that to fully exploit Li Fei's value as a tonic, you first had to be wholly, unreservedly infatuated with her, and then help your beloved enjoy herself with someone else. Only then could the seed be nurtured to the fullest and repay you with tea fragrance flooding your body… Such an unorthodox method of tonic completely overturned Transcendent common sense. It didn't nourish the body from the outside in. It started from the heart and benefited the Transcendent from the inside out, making it even more Forbidden and sinister than Witch Sickness.
In a sense, every host with a tea seed planted in her had gained an immensely powerful Legacy. Miss Grace named it [Heart-Seeded Tea] for the time being. If Bai Mengtian or Li Fei were to name this Legacy, it would surely have to include the words "shattered dreams."
Grace didn't know who had planted the first tea seed, or how many people had received this Legacy. But she could tell that something had gone wrong with it over the last two days.
Her cultivation base was rising, yes, but it was about to put her on the same road as the aggrieved par… no, Teacher Zhihua. Counting the guilt and self-reproach she felt as an interloper, a coercer, even a criminal, the gain shouldn't have been this small. Last night's relay race, which Grace had run alongside in person from start to finish, had benefited her greatly too, but it still wasn't quite enough.
—Could it be…?
A guess surfaced in Grace's mind. Leading a fidgeting Su Ling'er by the hand, she slowly climbed the stairs.
*
The woman with raven hair and a white gown had reached the room first, her fiancée with her.
Qin Zhihua drew out her hairpin, and her ink-black hair tumbled down like a waterfall, glossier and softer than silk. It stripped away some of her poised, dignified bearing, but made her look all the gentler for it.
Cold moonlight spilled into the room, setting off the woman of ice skin and jade bones in even more serene elegance. Her luminous skin seemed to glimmer with specks of light, a beauty beyond description. She simply stood there in silence, gazing at her beloved, yet it was as if a graceful ink-wash painting had unrolled itself without a sound, with Qin Zhihua as the noble orchid within it: ethereal, clear, with the classical Eastern beauty of a peerless national treasure.
That breathtaking face left Li Fei dazed for a moment, but she snapped out of it quickly. Folding her arms, she put on a tough glare and squared off against Lady Zhihua.
Beauty-trap tactics won't work on me, got it!
In the silence between them, the ever-composed Miss Qin slowly flushed, a faint pink that was easy to miss.
—What are you blushing for?
Li Fei frowned in suspicion.
Lady Zhihua's refinement went all the way through, and her poise was flawless. Since her coming-of-age ceremony, Li Fei had almost never seen her blush. Every frown and smile hid a tenderness like flowing water, but she always expressed it with reserve.
Even the Young Madam hardly dared to yank her hair too hard. It would feel like burning a zither to boil a crane.
Under her beloved's puzzled gaze, Qin Zhihua bit her lower lip lightly, turned, and took an item of clothing from the wardrobe.
Then, as Li Fei watched, the cultured, dignified, elegant Miss Qin lowered her eyes, lifted a lotus foot, and slipped on a pair of sheer black stockings. They were the kind with openwork lace garter trim, and their combat power rivaled the red stocking tops Lady Annie had chosen yesterday.
Without a doubt, this worked better than any decoction for purging the effects of Azure Mint.
—Ugh… A noble daughter of a great house, and she's willing to go this far… No martial ethics at all…
Li Fei had time for just one wail in her heart before the last dying wisps of mint were boiled away, replaced by the flutter of a deer crashing about in her chest.
Rich tea fragrance spread through the room along with the pounding of her heart.
Looking into those moist, hazy eyes and the charming line of those ambiguously pursed lips, full of things left unsaid, Qin Zhihua, still suppressing her shyness, let out a breath of relief.
She knew her beloved was back.
Pulled back by her own hands.
Her strange competitive streak had barely been satisfied when Qin Zhihua heard footsteps outside the door.
Only then did she remember that the fruits of victory couldn't be enjoyed alone.
The thought had barely surfaced when Lady Zhihua knit her brows and clutched her lower abdomen.
The True Qi that had been sluggish these past few days awoke without warning, as though some strange ignition switch had been pressed. It was vital and brimming with energy, multiplying and growing at an absurd speed like an erupting volcano. Her dantian kept swelling with protrusions, as if new life were dancing inside it, and her whole body quivered along with it.
"Mm…"
Grace, who had just reached the bedroom door, also doubled over, her porcelain-white hand gripping the doorframe.
Her magic was running wild.
It was as if the gains that had sneaked away over the past few days had all come rushing back overnight, with interest.
The familiar tea fragrance drifted out from the room and curled around the tip of her nose, confirming Grace's guess.
—Sure enough… Besides the host's own emotions, the emotions of the "tonic" lady who planted the seed also determine how much the host benefits…
Having deduced more of the secret, Grace felt no joy at this windfall. Her head only felt heavy, and her cold, world-weary face was etched with a gloom that wouldn't lift.
Because it meant that the more fun Li Fei had with other people, the faster her cultivation base grew.
If she'd had a choice, Grace would have preferred to give up this opportunity.
In the end she lowered her gaze, pushed the worried Su Ling'er into the room, followed her in, and locked the door with practiced ease.
*
Su Wen suddenly looked out the window, trying to find, among the countless stars, the one where she was.
The Mirror Immortal, who had been listless these past two days as if she'd taken the wrong medicine, was suddenly bursting with energy again. Her giggles echoed at Su Wen's ear, and her visualization technique advanced steadily, so that her spirit seemed to enjoy endless Flourishing Growth.
But the Empress Dowager couldn't be happy. She lightly pressed a hand to her aching temple, a sour bitterness spreading through her mouth.
*
Qiao'er, interning overtime so she could learn the job as soon as possible, came home under the stars.
But the moment she dragged her tired body through the door, she heard Li Fei's singing voice, rising and falling.
The clay figurine twirled in her chest too, singing and dancing along to the fragmented melody.
With a dull thud, the thick stack of documents under her arm scattered across the floor. The quiet girl, who had picked up a more capable, intellectual air these past few days, stood rooted to the spot in a daze, her eyes flickering.
Somehow, Qiao'er heard a cat's meow, and then saw a green leaf drift down from out of nowhere.
She reached out and caught it, and a flash of green light filled her vision.
Qiao'er had an epiphany and comprehended Entry-level Nature Magic and Entry-level Stealth.
*
The blonde girl pretending to sleep opened her deep blue eyes.
By the light of the stars, Lilith raised an arm and gazed at her open palm, where a vortex of magic swirled, vibrant and brimming with life.
She could feel the uncanny flower in her heart blooming to its fullest.
Magic that shouldn't belong to a newly promoted Sequence 6 was being purified at an absurd speed.
Yet for some reason, a single line of tears slid from the corner of the girl's eye.
*
The living room lights were off. The troubled mother paced back and forth in front of her daughter's bedroom door, and in the darkness her footsteps sounded heavy and hesitant.
A mother's intuition told Lady Annie that if she didn't do something, she and her most precious daughter might never return to the closeness they'd once had, when nothing was left unsaid between them. They would only drift further apart.
Yet after she'd invited Lilith's junior to stay the night, as if possessed, she felt she couldn't face the daughter she depended on.
"How did it come to this…"
Lady Annie sighed forlornly and leaned her back against the closed bedroom door.
A flimsy door, yet it was like a bottomless chasm, cutting off a mother and daughter who had once sustained each other and leaving them in two separate worlds.
The anxious mother suddenly felt the groove under her ring grow hot and itchy.
So she pinched the soft, delicate finger and turned the ring back and forth.
Suddenly, a faint glow lit up below her line of sight.
Lady Annie raised her hand in bewilderment and found that the source of the light was her own fingertip.
Specks of magic gleamed where they had no business appearing.
The mother with no aptitude stared at her fingertips and sank into even deeper confusion.
*
The woman swept the hair back from her nape and looked over her shoulder at the floor-length mirror.
The tattered tattoo on the back of her neck, which had only just been quiet for a few days, had begun growing again. Like wriggling threads, it spread in every direction, finally weaving itself into a net, exquisite and small, yet covering everything.
She had a premonition that the net's first prey might be herself.
*
Lady Gnaea's warning had indeed been right.
Emotion was like a spring: the harder it was compressed, the harder it snapped back.
Like Don Quixote, holding fast to the creed that a knight never dies, Li Fei raised the lance formed from her succubus tail and, with a cry of "Urrah—!", charged fearlessly at three graceful, snow-white windmills.
It was a battle of darkened skies and dimmed sun and moon, of retreat after retreat, of rivers of blood floating pestles.
The Lady Knight was admirably brave, but her enemies were too strong and too cunning. Not only did they outnumber her, they coordinated flawlessly, so the knight was toppled again and again, crying out in humiliation, "Ku… kill me!"
But no matter how brutal and thorough the suppression, Li Fei always wobbled back to her feet and struck at her foes with all her might, brimming with the heroic resolve of one who would not return until Loulan was broken.
In the end, Spell Encyclopedia Lady had no choice but to take a day of sick leave and recuperate at home.
The haggard Young Madam leaned against the headboard, her little face deathly pale, as if she'd lost ten pounds overnight. She was the very picture of a frail, pitiable invalid.
Lady Zhihua, sitting at the bedside, clearly knew how to cherish a delicate beauty. Spoonful by spoonful, she fed her fiancée white congee simmered until it gave off its rice oil, patient and gentle in every motion. She had even lavishly added a Sequence 4 Serpent-woman scale to the pot.
With water and rice in her belly, plus the high-quality Serpent-woman scale, Li Fei caught her breath. A look of tragic desolation crossed her face.
"I feel like I had a very long dream…"
"Good girl."
Qin Zhihua ruffled Li Fei's hair.
"A great dream lasts a thousand autumns, and the years never come back…"
Li Fei thought of the Bunny Hop she'd missed, and the first cuddle of the new year. Heartbroken, she wished she could shave her head to prove her resolve.
"I'm going to make up for everything I lost these past few days with my own hands."
Qin Zhihua's eyelids fluttered. She lightly pinched her fiancée's crystalline little earlobe and said softly,
"If you're not good, next time I'll put Azure Mint in your congee again."
"Poison… ahem, I'll be good, okay?"
Li Fei swallowed the words "poisonous woman" that had nearly slipped out, blinked, and put on an angelic gaze.
"Rest well."
After a few more instructions, Lady Zhihua glided away. She really had been busy lately, and getting even half a day off hadn't been easy.
Miss Tail poked her head out and crept up to the window. Only after watching Lady Zhihua's back disappear did she lazily give Li Fei the "all clear" signal.
Li Fei let out a breath, lifted the quilt gingerly, and got up, careful not to wake Su Ling'er, who was still sound asleep.
Clearly, in a battle between Transcendents, the first to fall were always the ordinary people caught in the crossfire.
Her snow-tender toes were still trembling faintly. After a tentative poke at the carpet, her boneless porcelain feet finally planted themselves firmly enough to hold Li Fei up.
She took a few steps, her calves quivering, her whole body swaying as if a gust of wind could knock her over.
She puffed out her cheeks and muttered,
"Azure Mint is terrifying… And you two, you didn't even know how to go easy on me…"
Grumbling under her breath, one hand on her waist and the other on the wall, Li Fei struggled her way out of the bedroom.
____
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