Li Fei opened her eyes. Even through the tent walls, the hazy light of dawn was already visible, soft and diffuse.
Intelligence: 21 (18) → 22 (19)
Mana: 322 → 325
Charisma: 233 → 234
After five consecutive nights of Meditation, the method was steadily drawing out her latent potential — purifying her soul, breathing a vigorous new life into it.
It was a bit like the all-consuming grind before the college entrance exams back home: falling for someone by day, cramming through the night, waking up every morning with a pounding headache and temples that throbbed like they had a grudge. Even so, Li Fei hadn't let the Meditation lapse for a single session. Helping others was one thing — her own cultivation couldn't be allowed to fall behind.
Unlike every other morning, though, today Li Fei felt no trace of fatigue. Her eyes were bright and clear.
That was thanks to Madam Zhihua, who had taken pity on her and lit a brazier of rare incense — the kind she normally couldn't bring herself to use — renowned for its calming, mind-clearing properties.
"So the Charisma stat... really did grow by two points on its own, huh."
Li Fei swept a glance at her System Panel and murmured to herself.
She had noticed it: beyond the Charisma boosted by the garter, the Meditation method, and [Depravity], there appeared to be an additional two points she couldn't account for. She wasn't sure whether it was her body naturally maturing toward adulthood, or whether the refinement of her tea ceremony skills had begun to influence her presence — giving her movements a subtler, more captivating charm with every gesture.
Either way, higher stats were always a good thing.
Li Fei turned her head and shifted her gaze to the two beauties sleeping on either side of her.
It had to be said — Madam Zhihua's tent was enormous, and extraordinarily comfortable. Large enough for three people to sleep in together without crowding; the material and craftsmanship were something special, too. Not only did it keep the warmth in during winter and the heat out in summer while repelling insects entirely, it had a rather delightful visual trick: from the inside, you could see the shifting play of light and shadow from the world outside, but from the outside, the walls were completely opaque — impenetrable to any prying eye. A masterpiece of outdoor... camping equipment.
Li Fei savored a long, indulgent inhale of the delicate incense still drifting around her nose and lips. Then she lowered her gaze — glancing left at Madam Zhihua, serene and breathtaking in sleep like a fairy-tale princess — then right at Su Ling'er, who had at some point wrapped both arms around Li Fei's foot and was currently drooling onto it. Li Fei held her breath and bent down.
A sleeping beauty, after all, had to be woken with a kiss.
When Madam Zhihua jolted awake with flushed cheeks, her first kiss stolen in her sleep, Su Ling'er was simultaneously jolted back to consciousness — suffocated awake by a snow-soft sole pressed squarely over her nose and mouth.
"Good morning."
Qin Zhihua's eyes were still hazy and half-dreaming, melting helplessly under Li Fei's warm, tender gaze.
...
Breakfast was reheated soft-shell turtle soup, alongside steamed buns, flatbreads, and boiled eggs.
Li Fei took in the island scenery at dawn, sipping her soup to the distant murmur of waves, and finished with the soft-boiled egg at the bottom of the bowl. She felt thoroughly, contentedly warm all the way through.
After the meal, the number of Terrain Awareness casts Li Fei needed to prepare had grown to seventeen — Cowell's four-man team had announced plans to head toward a cave known as the Evil Eye Cavern, claiming "there might be a fortune in there, enough to come home and find a pretty wife." Their route happened to run close to the herb-gathering party's path, and they weren't in a hurry, so when Qin Zhihua politely extended an invitation, Cowell readily agreed to travel together for a while longer.
"Young Mistress, you seem to be in a very good mood today."
Su Ling'er studied Qin Zhihua with curious eyes.
In her experience, the eldest young miss was always composed and graceful — even when genuinely happy, her smile never broke into something broad or unguarded, her poise never faltering. But this morning, Qin Zhihua wore a radiant expression Su Ling'er had never seen on her before, and there was even a lightness in her step that hadn't been there before.
Like... a golden canary finally let out of its cage.
"Mm."
Qin Zhihua glanced over at Li Fei, who was sitting astride Fufu's back, sharing a silent moment of eye contact with the unicorn, and felt something she had never felt before — as though her entire body had become weightless. Even the True Qi flowing through her meridians moved more freely than it ever had, without a single point of resistance or stagnation.
The emotion flickering in her eyes made Su Ling'er catch her breath. "Young Mistress is so beautiful," she murmured. "I wish you could look like this every single day."
The words had barely left her mouth before a shadow passed over Qin Zhihua's bright expression.
Every day?
It suddenly occurred to Qin Zhihua that tomorrow — the day after at the latest — she would be returning to Loxibrook. Returning to Qin's Apothecary, which felt no different from a cage.
She had grown up under the strictest of disciplines — every movement, every word monitored by the family matrons. The effortless poise she carried had been carved out of a childhood as dim and mechanical as a marionette's.
Even after being taken on by her unruly master and sailing across the sea to Loxibrook, nothing had truly changed. Her family lineage, her betrothal, her reputation — they clung to her like parasites burrowed into the bone, refusing to let go, leaving her no room to breathe.
The family elders took turns coming to keep watch over her. While managing the apothecary's business, they never forgot to lecture her at every turn — reminding her to restrain herself, to uphold propriety, never to do anything that might bring shame upon a family of their standing.
Qin Zhihua was profoundly, endlessly grateful for that night her thoroughly drunk master had grabbed her by the wrist and hauled her into the Golden Kumquat Tavern.
Li Fei's beauty could overturn kingdoms, and her talent for verse had no equal — but what had truly captured Qin Zhihua's heart was something else entirely: that wild, unrestrained freedom. She had grown up in luxury without ever daring to step a single inch outside the lines drawn for her, and she simply could not fathom how someone who had fallen so low could still smile like that — a smile that came from somewhere real and unafraid.
She was also grateful for that chance encounter at the Mercenary Guild — a kiss that cost Li Fei no more thought than eating a piece of bread had struck Qin Zhihua like a bolt of lightning, splitting the bars of her cage open with brutal, sudden force, letting the canary glimpse blazing sunlight for the first time, and hear the shameless, joyful roar of the ocean.
But happiness was always brief. Once this expedition was over, everything would return to what it had been. The betrothal would not be dissolved. The canary would climb back into its cage, and the audience would marvel at how perfect she was.
Su Ling'er, entirely unaware that she had just stepped on a landmine, was glancing around idly when she suddenly pointed toward a sea cliff in the distance, her beautiful eyes going wide. "The water — something's strange with the water."
Everyone turned. A series of concentric ripples were spreading outward from the base of the sea cliff — but the terrain blocked the view, making it impossible to see the source of the disturbance.
"We're currently on the southern coastline of Viranean..."
Beatrice unfolded the map and studied the markings. "Down there should be a sea strait — treacherous currents, so violent that even the Sea Clan would struggle to survive in those conditions."
"Everyone, hold your positions. I'll go take a look."
A sharp gleam flashed through Old Jiang's eyes. That aged but unbowed frame suddenly erupted with a surging, mighty presence — and in an instant he was moving, impossibly fast, hurtling over the cliff's edge and diving downward like a hawk falling from the sky.
...
A mercenary column was making its slow way back toward the portal, a long chain of captives trailing behind them — Sirens, their bodies painted in blood.
"Nice haul," the guard posted at the portal said with a grin. "Teleportation fee is one gold coin per person — prisoners included, of course."
"Here."
The mercenary reached slowly into his coin purse and handed it over. The guard took it, lowered his head to count — and a long blade punched clean through his chest.
The guard seized the blade with both hands, veins bulging at his temples. His mouth opened — but only a gush of bright blood came out. No words followed.
The other mercenaries drew their weapons in perfect silence. Together with the "prisoners" — whose faces had twisted into something savage and unrecognizable — they fell upon the unsuspecting guards and cut them down.
In his final moments, the guard's eyes flew open in terror. He stared into the utterly flat, emotionless eyes of the man killing him, and managed with great effort to choke out: "Mind... control..."
The mind-wiped mercenary wrenched his blade free without so much as glancing at the body crumpling to the ground, then charged expressionlessly toward the remaining guards. In moments he was riddled with arrows and then run through by multiple spears.
He died without a sound, eyes open and vacant.
"Fools!"
The high-Sequence powerhouse stationed at the portal was instantly roused. A volcanic surge of mana erupted from them — the very earth cracked apart, and the air for miles around began to warp and bend.
The massive flood of mana poured outward like a collapsing mountain, then began to compress, condense, and finally stabilize — taking shape as an arrow blazing with the radiant divine fire of a scorching sun.
In the same instant, from every direction across the island, heaven-shaking presences surged into the sky. Battle-qi and mana materialized into towering columns of light, each one vying to outshine the sun itself.
"The time has come for you to pay for your crimes."
A Siren of staggering, almost terrifying beauty gazed up at the seventh-tier spell — [Dragon-Slaying Arrow] — hanging across the sky, her eyes cold as midwinter ice.
At some point, an exquisite pearl crown had appeared in her endlessly swirling hair. One thousand and one luminous, flawless pearls blazed with light — a radiance that matched the [Dragon-Slaying Arrow] blow for blow.
BOOM.
Blinding light spread like a tide, washing over the entire landscape. The seventh-tier spell [Dragon-Slaying Arrow] detonated in a thunderous roar — and was obliterated.
The Siren Queen lowered her gaze, staring at the dark-gold trident in her hand. For the first time, a flicker of emotion disturbed the ice of her pupils — but it froze over again almost instantly, swallowed back into boundless cold.
A sacred, noble golden radiance burst from the trident — as though a long-dormant star had reawakened. Its vast, overwhelming might swept across the land like a tide of judgment, a pressure so immense it felt like imprisonment.
"No!"
The high-Sequence powerhouse bellowed — a sound that made the mountains tremble — but they could do nothing to stop her.
"Let us see, then, who the true savage is."
The Siren Queen raised her head and hurled the trident directly into the teleportation portal. The moment the golden-light-wreathed trident was swallowed by the corridor, it unleashed an unmatched brilliance — gold and blue erupting together, forming a violent, churning vortex that blotted out the heavens and the earth.
When everything finally settled into stillness, nothing remained inside the teleportation corridor but a hollow, lightless void — the cerulean glow that had always shimmered within it was gone.
The portal had been destroyed. The price: a royal clan's ancestral weapon.
"In the name of the Kraken, I declare vengeance upon those who have harmed us, slaughtered us, and humiliated us."
The Siren Queen spread her arms wide, baring sharp fangs. Her voice — melodious yet laced with a bone-deep killing intent — carried to every corner of the island.
...
"Run!"
Old Jiang's silhouette burst back over the cliff's edge, riding a gust of raw wind. His face was livid, his hair scattered wildly — the gentle, kindly old man from before was completely gone.
"Eeee — eee —"
From the bottomless depths of the strait below came a sound — eerie, sharp, disturbingly like the cry of a newborn infant.
Before anyone could react, the stench of blood and brine hit them in a wall. A deep teal serpent — dozens of meters tall — swayed its enormous head up over the cliff's edge, bringing with it a feral, ancient pressure that made the blood run cold.
"Eee. Eee."
Eyes the size of doorframes — black as pitch — swept across the group with slow, terrible patience. Then without warning they fixed on Old Jiang, and the massive head lunged with a speed the naked eye could barely track. The upper and lower jaw split apart at a horrifying angle, revealing a cavernous, blood-red maw.
"Run run run run RUN!"
Where everyone else was still frozen in shock, Li Fei had already moved — the moment she spotted Old Jiang hurtling back over the cliff. She slapped Fufu's hindquarters with frantic urgency and hissed at the others to get moving.
Beside her, Cowell's four-man team was the next to respond — though even this broad-jawed, dependable warrior kept shouting warnings as he fell back, with no intention of simply outrunning his companions and leaving them to their fate.
BANG.
With a crash like muffled thunder, a semi-translucent barrier of True Qi emerged across Old Jiang's body. He threw a blow directly into the serpent's lower jaw — True Qi that extended dozens of meters beyond his body looked utterly pitiful against the grotesque enormity of the creature. Old Jiang was sent flying, coughing blood, and slammed into the earth hard enough to carve out a shallow crater. A dense, rapid-fire sequence of bones snapping rang out from his body.
"Getting old..."
Old Jiang coughed up more blood, laughing bitterly at himself, and fished out a porcelain vial from his robes. He tilted his head back and swallowed the crimson pill inside.
Transcendent medicines worked with no delay — the moment the pill hit his throat, a far more violent, surging True Qi erupted from within him, threaded through with wisps of blood-red light. Every blood vessel in his body swelled and expanded, straining against suddenly taut, elderly skin.
The old man climbed to his feet. He straightened his spine. With a soft sweep of his sleeve, a gentle yet utterly irresistible force spread outward — and launched the entire group back more than thirty meters in a single motion.
He turned back. He smiled at Qin Zhihua — those eyes, stained a grotesque, vein-burst red from ruptured blood vessels, somehow still managed to carry warmth.
Old Jiang could no longer speak. He only shaped the word "run" with his lips — and then the blazing True Qi swallowed his face entirely.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
The earth shook again and again. Old Jiang, burning on a forbidden drug, charged upward into the open air with unstoppable momentum and clashed head-on against the high-Sequence Transcendent creature, again and again. A trail of blood-red afterimages hung in the sky. Occasional showers of blood rained down. The force of each collision was enough to cause the entire cliff face to begin crumbling apart.
Fufu carried Li Fei, Su Ling'er, and Grace in a desperate sprint for escape. Beatrice tore open an [Acceleration] Spell Scroll and followed close behind. Only Qin Zhihua — barely managing to circulate enough True Qi to keep pace — kept glancing back over her shoulder again and again, tears streaming down her face.
"Run! Don't let Old Jiang's sacrifice mean nothing!"
Li Fei grabbed Qin Zhihua by the shoulder and screamed.
For the first time, Qin Zhihua pulled free of Li Fei's grip. She stood stubbornly, staring toward where Old Jiang was fighting.
Only when a second great serpent rose up over the cliff's edge and closed its jaws around the old man did she finally turn away in silence, becoming a white blur as she caught up with the others.
The brutal image of the end of the man who had watched over her for more than a decade was branded permanently into Qin Zhihua's heart.
...
"Oh."
Upon receiving Kalida's report, Bai Mengtian continued to lie sprawled across the enormous bed, looking thoroughly hollowed out by wine and indulgence. "The portal's broken? Let me sleep it off first and then I'll go take a look."
"There's clearly been a major incident on Viranean. If it isn't repaired quickly, there will almost certainly be severe casualties."
As the head of the constabulary, Kalida's personal lifestyle was — to put it diplomatically — a subject that required many tallying marks to describe. But she did, at least, genuinely care about the welfare of the people under her jurisdiction.
"It's not like I'm the one who broke it. If they die, they die."
Bai Mengtian flapped a hand dismissively, still refusing to move. "Am I some kind of public servant? Let me say it plainly — the Nature Goddess herself couldn't get me out of bed today, unless she's willing to personally give me a good..."
"Fine, then."
Kalida threw up her hands. "Looks like your little sister has no one looking out for her."
"Hm?"
Bai Mengtian jackknifed upright. "She's supposed to be selling wine — why is she over there?"
"Took a bunch of her little girlfriends on a honeymoon trip with the eldest young miss of the Qin family."
Kalida shrugged.
"That little—"
Bai Mengtian ground her teeth, both arms extending outward — letting City Lord Elizabeth and her daughter help her get dressed — and muttered to herself: "Repairing the portal won't be quick. Looks like I'll have to go to Turtle Island myself and fish her out first... If she happens to get herself killed, honestly that's not too bad — resurrections aren't complicated, and she can sell herself to pay off the resurrection fee. But if she ends up in some kind of steamy situation before I can get there, that would be a real problem."
"Ugh... that blasted place is kind of far. A precision teleport is going to take some doing..."
"Hang in there, bestie! Your big sister is on her way!"
____
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