[You have slain Fred Zoller. +1,574 EXP.]
Morality: -13 → -15
Charisma: 232 → 252
"Stop her!"
Beatrice had finally finished her incantation. More than a dozen gargoyles materialized — grey-bodied, bat-winged — and shot through the air like streaks of shadow, hurtling toward the Siren at terrifying speed, temporarily neutralizing the greatest threat.
"Useless — absolutely useless! That's all the experience I get?"
Li Fei's expression curdled. Past Level 10, the experience threshold had jumped a tier; even with the kill-steal bonus from her fallen allies factored in, it still wasn't enough to push her to Level 12.
And to make things worse: the moment she stepped out of Qin Zhihua's protective reach, two ice arrows had found her in the final seconds of the fight. The Guardian Mage Robe's defensive charges were now completely exhausted.
Only two cards left... How much longer could she hold out?
In the silence of an unspoken sigh, Cowell finally carved a gap in the encirclement. His silhouette vanished into the dense forest.
The others followed on his heels in quick succession, their presence swallowed from the Sea Clan's sight — at least for now.
"Heh heh... how much longer do you think you can struggle? Although — that human woman... her beauty rivals even our Queen's..."
The Siren licked her lips. Her spellcasting motions were elegant as a work of art — and the gargoyles died one by one, their lives harvested with precise, unhurried grace.
The dense ranks of fish-slaves poured into the forest in their grotesque, lurching gait. A portion of them halted, clustering around the bodies of Zoller and Simon in a writhing mass. The sounds that followed — wet, crunching, rhythmic — were unmistakable. Within moments, the ground had vanished beneath a heaving mound of fish-slaves, still surging and shifting, swallowing the bodies whole.
From above, more dark shapes were converging from every direction across the island, tightening the net.
...
The instant she finished summoning the gargoyles, Beatrice didn't pause for even a heartbeat. She drew a beautifully carved wooden staff from her side.
Once Li Fei had also ducked into the forest, Beatrice whirled without looking back, sweeping the staff through the air. Mana poured into the earth behind her.
Second-tier spell: Quicksand Trap.
Glurg — glurg — glurp!
Squelch — squelch — squelch!
The earth went soft and horribly adhesive — almost liquid. The fish-slaves had barely pushed through the treeline when they plunged in like dumplings dropped into boiling water. They thrashed and screamed, fighting to pull free — but the wave of fish-slaves pouring in behind them only stamped their struggling companions deeper into the quicksand, and then sank in themselves, following the same fate down into the mire.
With the pursuers momentarily stalled, Cowell slowed his pace enough to regroup with Sherlock. He was about to speak when Li Fei's voice cut him off — low, urgent, and flat:
"Split up. Every person for themselves."
"Take care of yourselves. When we're back in Loxibrook, I'll buy you all a—"
"Don't finish that sentence."
Li Fei ground the words out through clenched teeth — a piece of slang from home — and was already sprinting toward the right front of the forest. "Farewell."
After the hurried goodbye, the party split into two groups once more. Cowell scooped Sherlock up in a princess carry without ceremony and launched himself at full speed toward the left front. The remaining members fell in behind Li Fei without a word.
"I'll clear the path."
Qin Zhihua, her white robes stained through with blood, moved like a flicker of light and shadow, drifting to the head of the group. "This area should be Black-Stripe Tiger territory. Stay alert."
Black-Stripe Tigers — Sequence 8 Transcendent creatures. They resembled albino Bengal tigers, though far larger and more powerfully built, with coats of black-and-white striped fur, razor-sharp claws, and a terrifying burst of explosive speed. They had long been an indispensable fighting force within the Nature-aligned armies. The name itself had once been something else entirely — but due to the ambiguity of the original term, it had been formally renamed centuries ago.
"We can't leave the forest together."
Li Fei's expression was blank, her eyes dim and distant. "Six people are too conspicuous a target. If the Siren on that sea serpent locks on to us, we're finished."
In a moment of life and death, Li Fei's mind had never moved faster — her thoughts racing with a clarity that bordered on cold.
She had chosen the right-front path a few minutes ago because she had faintly heard a tiger's roar from that direction.
The logic was simple: the forest would be fully encircled before long. But breaking out of the forest and into open ground, with a Siren soaring overhead in the night sky with an unobstructed field of vision — that was as good as a death sentence. She would hunt down anyone who tried to run.
So the question became: who would the Siren go after first?
Either she would chase down whoever broke out of the forest first — or she would direct the Sea Clan forces to hunt the early runners, hold back, and then personally pursue the very last group to emerge.
As long as her group of six was delayed by the Black-Stripe Tigers for a little while, knowing Cowell's character, he wouldn't deliberately slow down to wait — he and Sherlock would almost certainly be the first ones out. After that, she simply had to ensure her own group wasn't the last to emerge. That would minimize the odds of the Siren coming after them personally.
Sorry.
Li Fei's voice came out slightly hoarse. "In a moment, Zhihua and I will go first — draw the Sea Clan's attention. Beatrice, Fufu, Grace — Ling'er-jie is in your hands."
Morality: -15 → -17
Charisma: 252 → 272
The instant the morality stat dropped, the faint flicker of guilt dissolved into nothing.
"That's not happening."
Beatrice said urgently, "Even young as she is, Fufu has the strength of Sequence 5! Fufu and I will draw them off — the rest of you find a way to escape."
"Ling'er-jie is unconscious. Having her with you will slow you down no matter what."
Li Fei's voice was gentle. "And besides — Bai Mengtian is my friend. She gave me a trump card for exactly this kind of situation."
"But—"
Beatrice turned to say something more — and met Li Fei's gaze.
A beauty that could shame the moon itself.
An expression of incomparable tenderness, and absolute resolve.
That face — flawless as a divine idol — imprinted itself into Beatrice's heart like a sigil carved by the hand of a high-Sequence powerhouse.
"Zhihua-jie, I—"
Li Fei had been planning to say I can handle this alone — the performance had to be complete, after all. But before the words left her mouth, Qin Zhihua's voice reached her through the night breeze, carrying the faint trace of a smile:
"I'll be with you."
Beatrice's nose prickled. Her eyes grew hot. She stared at Li Fei — who had resolved to use herself as bait — and at Qin Zhihua, who had agreed without hesitation to walk into what might very well be their deaths, and felt something hollow open up inside her chest.
ROAR!
From behind an enormous ancient tree, a massive dark shape lunged out of the night at the group, releasing a savage, domineering snarl.
Qin Zhihua raised her sword with a single, casual sweep. The blade-light was cold as moonlight — and the Black-Stripe Tiger lost its balance in mid-air, tumbling to the ground with a thin red line carved across its throat.
But it didn't die immediately. It convulsed on the ground, letting out a thin, piercing wail.
Li Fei was already moving — a blur of shadow — and drove her dagger into the tiger's eye socket with practiced efficiency to finish it off.
But the commotion had roused the others. From every direction, long howls began rising and overlapping — Black-Stripe Tigers were creatures of the pride, not solitary hunters. They dwelt in groups.
The forest erupted in tiger roars. The ancient trees trembled. Branches and leaves swayed in the moonlight, casting twisting, ghost-like shadows across the ground.
Qin Zhihua's face held not a trace of fear. Sword in hand, she advanced to meet the great tigers that bounded toward her one after another. Her robes billowed like a spirit-woman beneath the moon — otherworldly, untouchable, the blood already staining her silk only adding to her wild, dangerous beauty.
Her sword-light carried no killing intent — and yet it always found the space between the brow, the chest, the throat. Tiny flares of crimson blinked at the blade's edge and vanished.
Before long, the group was stepping over a carpet of tiger corpses and pressing toward the edge of the forest.
"Wait a hundred breaths before you come out — any direction is fine. Just remember to run toward the center of the island."
Li Fei gave a light smile and a wave of her hand. "Until we meet again."
Then she reached out and took Qin Zhihua's hand. Together, they leaped out of the treeline — two figures with black hair streaming, offering themselves to the moonlight without reservation.
Through the shifting curtain of leaves and shadow, Beatrice saw the enormous serpent coiled across the night sky stir — and begin moving rapidly toward Li Fei and Qin Zhihua's position.
"No..."
She pressed a hand over her mouth. Tears fell in a steady stream.
In that moment, every part of Beatrice wanted to throw everything aside and follow them — even though there was no longer any space in the world between those two for her to step into.
But she turned and looked at Fufu, and at the unconscious Su Ling'er, and trembled — and held herself back.
She couldn't let their sacrifice mean nothing.
A breath of wind lifted her hair. Beatrice reached out on instinct — but the girls' retreating silhouettes were already beyond her reach. Through blurred, tear-soaked eyes, she watched the short-haired girl with the bow and arrows step silently out of the forest without a word, moving quickly to close the distance to Li Fei and Qin Zhihua.
...
— WHY?!
Why not go after Cowell?!
Even Beatrice would've been a better target!
WHY IS IT ME?!
Li Fei caught a glimpse out of the corner of her eye — the shadow of the serpent diving toward them, growing larger by the second — and screamed at the inside of her own skull with hysterical abandon.
Mortal wisdom had its limits.
Li Fei had calculated everything, betrayed her teammates, watched her Morality score crumble rung by rung — all for one more sliver of a chance at survival. And she had forgotten: in the eyes of the Siren named Josephine, backed by a limitless ocean of Sea Clan forces, the outsiders who had racked up mountains of blood debt had never had any hope of escape to begin with.
It also just so happened that Sirens came only in one gender — and accordingly, only had one type of preference.
Who left first? Who left last?
Irrelevant. None of them were getting away.
But the most beautiful one — that one had to end up in her hands.
Moonlight fell on Josephine's alluring, faintly wicked face — but she wasn't looking at the moon. Her gaze was locked on Li Fei, her eyes suddenly flying open wide, pupils elongating into vertical slits — the sign of extreme agitation and excitement among the Siren clan.
"I was wrong..."
The Siren — cold-blooded by nature — was exhaling visible puffs of white vapor. She seized a lock of her own hair — the hair she ordinarily treated as a precious treasure — and tore it out by the root, venting the roiling turmoil inside her in the only way she could manage:
"I thought her beauty could rival the Queen's."
She shuddered. "Her beauty surpasses the Queen's."
Having spoken words that would be considered sacrilege, Josephine's face twisted with the force of her ecstasy.
Capture her alive. She must be taken alive.
If she could have her — not only would the pleasures be beyond compare, she could even rent her out to other clan members!
Ten sapphires a session... no. Twenty.
And for five extra gems, she could have the other two human women tied up nearby — forced to watch!
With that kind of wealth accumulating without end, even the gates of the higher Sequences could be pried open!
Josephine's eyes went glassy and distant. She seemed to see mountains of sapphires and pearls growing legs and running toward her arms. She seemed to see the childhood sweetheart who had left her for another, kneeling low to kiss her tail fin in groveling shame...
Her long, sinuous fish tail — which had been hanging loose — had at some point risen to stand fully erect, stiff as a pillar of ice, contracting with each sharp, heaving breath. A viscous liquid seeped between the scales, making each individual plate shimmer in the moonlight like a piece of jade polished by decades of devotion.
"Sakawa..."
Josephine murmured something in the Sea Clan's tongue — her low, resonant, honeyed voice washing over her kin like a tide.
Surround them. Do not harm them.
...
Three figures sprinted through the dark — twisting, doubling back, changing direction again and again — but no matter how they moved, they could never shake the burning, relentless gaze locked onto them from the sky.
"Zhihua-jie... this is my fault."
Li Fei spoke between ragged breaths, eyes full of tender warmth. "Looks like I'll have to wait until our next life to marry you..."
Qin Zhihua said nothing — only smiled. Her eyes held something that looked almost like relief.
To die for the person she loved — or to die alongside them — and before the end, to have made a vow that felt like something from a dream, free at last from family honor and arranged marriages and ten thousand rules... She did not find that kind of ending unwelcome.
"Grace — you shouldn't have come."
Then Li Fei turned to the short-haired girl, her expression soft with affection and faint reproach.
Grace — who had followed without a word — held Li Fei's gaze stubbornly, her teal eyes tangled and conflicted.
Could someone this warm, this gentle — someone who smiled like sunlight and was willing to sacrifice herself for others — could she really be capable of murder and robbery?
Could my brother... really have been killed by her?
Having built up the goodwill she needed, Li Fei stopped running. She stared up at the serpent's shadow haunting the night sky and said, voice flat:
"She wants to take us alive..."
After more than ten minutes of desperate flight, Li Fei had pieced together the Siren's intentions.
If she had simply wanted all three of them dead, she only needed to keep her distance and rain down spells from the sky. Not even Qin Zhihua could have protected them through that — and Zhihua would have burned through all her True Qi trying to shield Li Fei and died first.
But the Siren had done none of that. She had only followed — close and patient — directing Sea Clan forces to box them in on all sides. The intention was crystal clear: exhaust them first, then capture them once they had nothing left to give.
The aerial advantage of a flying unit was overwhelming, and a Transcendent's senses were impossibly sharp. After ten-plus minutes of running at full effort and still failing to lose the Siren, Li Fei cut out the last of her wishful thinking without hesitation.
Running wasn't working anymore. She had to neutralize the Siren first — or at the very least stall her. Otherwise, once their stamina ran dry, they would be completely at her mercy.
So, Miss Grace, Miss Qin Zhihua — I've been putting on quite the performance here. Isn't anyone going to volunteer to stay back and buy time?
"Both of you go. I'll cover the rear."
As expected, a voice came — calm and final.
Qin Zhihua's autumn-water eyes held Li Fei's silhouette within them. A smile curved at the corner of her mouth as she reached into her robes and produced a small porcelain vial.
Li Fei had seen one before — the same kind Old Jiang had pulled out in the final moments of his life.
Thud. Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud...
She had gotten what she wanted — and yet Li Fei felt the world tilt violently beneath her. It was like being strapped to a runaway train, the speed climbing out of control, her heart rate spiraling upward with it until her chest could barely contain the hammering.
With Qin Zhihua's strength... after taking a Forbidden Drug like that, paired with a flying Transcendent item, she might actually be able to bring down the Siren. But Dragon's Might calculated its mana cost based on the attribute value it was amplifying — if Li Fei used Dragon's Might on Qin Zhihua, she would be drained to a husk. And without it, the Siren would certainly die...
But even if she couldn't kill the Siren — as long as she could keep her occupied, Li Fei herself should be able to get away.
Taking the Forbidden Drug and staying behind to fight — Qin Zhihua's fate would have only one possible ending. But so what? With this young lady's charisma, she could always find more prey — but she only had one life. Was there any deal more profitable than this? Ha. Haha. Ha...
So why does my chest feel like it's being wrung out?
Li Fei stood frozen. Rationality and emotion slammed into each other inside her skull with violent force. Her eyes flickered — bright one moment, dark the next.
"If we are bound,
Then for a hundred years we are bound.
If you die at ninety-seven,
I will wait for you three years at the Bridge of Sighs..."
Qin Zhihua was humming the song Li Fei had once "written" for her — and her face held a radiance Li Fei had never seen on her before. Bright and uninhibited and utterly free. Like a golden canary finally sprung from its cage — even knowing it might be devoured by a predator in the very next second — flying anyway, without hesitation, toward the songbird that had always perched outside the window. Telling her with that sweet voice: even locked inside the cage, I never forgot the courting song you sang to me.
The Morality value flickered wildly. The numbers began to blur.
In the instant before Qin Zhihua raised the crimson pill to her lips, Li Fei's hand shot out and closed around her wrist.
Qin Zhihua turned in astonishment. The smile brilliant enough to light up the night sky flooded her eyes.
— I am a greedy, lecherous, vain, capricious, selfish, lawless, insatiable, and thoroughly cowardly bad girl.
— And so, Miss Zhihua, you are required — for all of eternity — to flatter me, praise me, worry about me, indulge me, care for me, delight me, and protect me.
"I'm not leaving you behind."
Li Fei smiled — and deep within her pitch-black pupils, something burned like fire.
____
________________________________________
🌸 Help Love Bloom!
Our girls need a little push... and you can help!
💖 Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 50 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter to warm your hearts.
🚀 Community Reward: If we reach 20 supporting members, we'll have a +5 chapter marathon across all stories! The romance won't stop.
👻 Come to our secret corner: Search for GirlsLove on (P). You know that's where the magic happens... 😉