Whoosh——
As Qin Zhihua drew back the curtains, bright morning light flooded the bedroom. The young mistress's lashes fluttered. She opened those lively, spirited eyes of hers — though they carried just a hint of quiet grievance.
She wriggled her body. It felt like ants were crawling all over her.
It had to be said: Lady Zhihua possessed the dignified virtues of a wise consort of antiquity. She required the young mistress to cherish her vitality and rest at least three days each week.
And so, under Lady Zhihua's earnest encouragement, the young mistress had consumed four Wisdom Fruits last night… and just like that, the era of late-night Meditation had returned.
After exchanging good-mornings, Li Fei trudged moodily to the dressing room and slid open the wardrobe. A wave of fragrant incense greeted her nose, and inside hung a riot of colorful clothes — all fine quality, the vast majority housewarming gifts from her sisters at the tavern.
Considering the special occasion today, she chose the decisive victory pink gown, then plopped herself down in front of the vanity mirror. The fairy maids, who had been waiting eagerly, flitted up and down to dress and style her.
Li Fei let the fairy maids fuss over her while she gazed absentmindedly at the full-length mirror beside her. Seeing the fairies' thoroughly satisfied expressions, she was suddenly reminded of last night — of dressing Chloe herself.
She couldn't help but give a little shudder:
Wait — I was the one being a big silly the whole time?
A quarter of an hour later, Li Fei sat at the dining table, poking at her congee. About ten side dishes were spread across the table. The ones closest to her were soy-sauce fried eggs and crispy-fried serpent-woman scales.
"The apothecary is about to open. I won't be back until tomorrow."
Breakfast done, Qin Zhihua set down her chopsticks and ruffled Li Fei's hair.
Su Ling'er had also changed into a bright yellow flowing skirt and stood prettily to one side, waiting to head out with the young mistress. She watched the interaction between the young mistress and the young madam from the corner of her eye, and felt her cheeks grow inexplicably warm.
"Do you need my help?" Li Fei asked obediently.
"No need. It's better for you to focus on your cultivation right now."
Qin Zhihua's voice remained gentle as ever — only her gaze slid away, carrying a faint tinge of something bittersweet.
Li Fei suddenly realized: Qin Zhihua had deliberately left her time and space for the Ascension Ritual…
"Mm."
She couldn't help but pull Lady Zhihua into a hug. Her long-absent conscience gave a quiet, unexpected pang.
To change the subject, Li Fei buried her head in Zhihua's arms and mumbled in a muffled voice:
"What's the new shop called?"
"Four Seasons Apothecary."
"Four seasons like 'four seasons of beautiful scenery'?"
Li Fei smiled, feeling a quiet flicker of surprise.
In Chinese characters, the character for 季 (season) breaks apart into 子 and 禾 — the lower halves of the characters 李 and 秦 respectively. Though the Eastern Continent's language followed similar grammar to Chinese, its written structure was ultimately different.
"Mm. I'm not sure why, but that name just came to me."
Qin Zhihua nuzzled Li Fei's cheek, then rose to her feet. "Alright. I need to go."
"Mm…"
Li Fei quietly saw her and Su Ling'er out the door, her heart filled with a taste she couldn't quite name.
She trudged back and sank onto the sofa, casting a heavy, gloomy shadow.
Two minutes later.
"Wuhoooo! Zhihua-jie isn't home today!"
The courtesan queen, bouncing gleefully on the sofa cushions, finally delivered a performance worthy of her moral stat.
"First — send in my leave requests! Go to both the Magic Academy and Teacher Annie's place, and tell them I'm going into seclusion to break through to Sequence 8!"
"Ram, is there any bubble tea at home? Bring out a whole bucket."
"Eva… actually, never mind, you're taking care of yourself. Honey, get me some fries — one serving with meat sauce and cheese, one with tomato. Grab some other snacks too."
"Sasha."
After rattling off her orders, Li Fei finally settled herself regally in the center of the sofa, her snow-white slender legs crossed, her crystal-pale toes bobbing up and down. Her gaze turned toward the former queen of the Secret Garden:
"You don't need to go to Viranean today."
"Yes, my lady."
Sasha bowed her head, docile as a little milk kitten — nothing like the arrogant creature who had once bellowed at Li Fei, "Human female, bear me fairy children." The pride was entirely gone.
In Li Fei's estimation, wild fairies were — charitably speaking — pretty-faced little bandits, and — less charitably — female goblins filtered through a high-beauty-standard lens. The kind from Goblin Slayer.
Their leader Sasha had been coddled her whole life and was, at heart, deeply fragile. After being captured and subjugated day after day and night after night, she'd despaired quickly. Li Fei had only needed to casually toss a few sweet dates labeled "tenderness" to effortlessly PUA her into dependency —
To cure her, the Fairy Mother planned to try fighting poison with poison: she was curious what fascinating reaction might occur when Witch Dependency Syndrome and Stockholm Syndrome coexisted in the same host.
"Come here. Let me take a look."
The Fairy Mother beckoned pleasantly. The violet-haired fairy approached with a mix of anticipation and nerves, letting Li Fei tilt her chin up without resistance.
Sasha's looks clearly ran well above her race's average: violet hair reaching her waist, full red lips, skin paler than frost — she carried a ripe, mature beauty. Her figure was equally outstanding, with a lush and statuesque build, the kind of proportions that reminded one of Teacher Melodia.
"Poor little thing. These past few weeks have been tiring, haven't they."
Li Fei stroked the crinkled, translucent butterfly wings and spoke in a soft, gentle voice.
"It is my honor to serve the young mistress."
Sasha felt a warm, flustered disbelief — as if she couldn't quite believe she was being treated so kindly.
"From now on, let's rotate who goes to Viranean. You only need to go once a week."
Li Fei smoothed out her wings, then snapped her fingers. Ram staggered in, struggling with a massive bucket of bubble tea, then immediately turned around and hustled back to fetch the ritual materials the courtesan queen had brought home last night, handing them over.
A low-Sequence witch's "infectious ability" was not particularly strong. To spread Witch Dependency to a target, one had to either increase the dosage or rely on external means — such as esoteric arts, rituals, and the like.
Li Fei had completely given up on using Locked Emotion Blood; sustaining self-generation for seven consecutive days was a feat akin to scaling heaven. So last night she had exchanged for a single-use ritual that could, for the few hours it lasted, dramatically boost the transmission rate of Witch Dependency.
While the ritual materials weren't rare — she could have sponged them off Lady Zhihua for free — considering the purpose of said materials, asking her to procure them would have been no different from demanding that Qin Zhihua purchase green fabric and then personally hand it to the young mistress to sew into a green hat for herself. That was a bit much, really… The young witch had a feeling that if she dared breathe a word of it, Lady Zhihua might, the next time she pressed a death acupoint, genuinely consider channeling True Qi directly inward…
For the sake of domestic harmony, the considerate young mistress chose to spare Elder Sister Qin's feelings and bought the materials with her own private savings.
"Hey. Come inside with me."
Cradling the ritual materials, Li Fei's voice took on a silky, teasing edge.
Sasha followed behind Li Fei, nervous and expectant, a hazy, dazed light rising in her blue-violet eyes.
Traces of Qin Zhihua's scent still lingered in the room — only now smothered beneath something far more potent.
Li Fei grabbed the giant bucket of bubble tea and tilted her head back to gulp it down — only to wait several seconds and discover that not a single drop remained.
The ritual had succeeded.
Looking at Sasha — wings more crumpled than ever, violet hair completely soaked through — Li Fei felt a warmth of kinship stir inside her.
Just as a high-ranking blood noble develops an instinctive bond with the kin upon whom they've bestowed their "First Embrace," a witch who has spread Witch Dependency likewise develops a kind of innate, wordless resonance with those she has infected. As her Sequence level rose, this invisible connection would only deepen.
"Mmph…"
Li Fei stretched out a long, languid yawn, casually pulled on her sleeping gown, and pushed the door open. "Bring me some water. That terrible bubble tea only made me thirstier."
Ram had anticipated this. Li Fei drank three full glasses of cool boiled water in a row, replenishing every drop of moisture she'd lost.
She ruffled the fairies' heads and said with a grin, "It's not that I'm playing favorites — I genuinely couldn't bring you along this time."
— The Fairy Mother was no stranger to catching more than one at a time in a blindfolded game of tag. But this time it was too dangerous. She had no intention of letting her own dear fairies catch Witch Dependency.
"Tidy up the room," Li Fei instructed. "Make sure it's cleaned properly."
"Mm."
The fairy maids flew into the room one after another, bustling up and down: opening windows to air it out, while two others bundled Sasha up in the bedsheets and heaved her away with great effort to be washed — a display of excellent professional competence and perfect teamwork.
Ram gathered several of Qin Zhihua's garments to personally launder them herself — certain mood-setting tools had inevitably been employed to ensure the ritual went smoothly.
Her morality stat had dropped to -24, but Li Fei paid it no mind. She accepted the materials and vessels Eva handed her, and sauntered leisurely toward an empty bedroom to begin preparing the Ascension Elixir.
Transcendent alchemical concoctions were a deep and precise discipline — one that involved not only the intrinsic properties of the ingredients themselves, but also mystical arcane factors. The slightest misstep could turn a healing draught into a poison, or transform an antidote into something bizarre, unspeakable, and indescribable — isn't that right, Miss Grace, lover of poking throats?
But rank advancement elixirs were the exception.
Perhaps because mastering Transcendent knowledge, completing the Ascension Ritual, and gathering the elixir ingredients were all sufficiently demanding, the Laws had apparently gone lenient on the brewing step itself. As long as you crushed the various materials together and stirred them into a mess before pouring it down your throat, it would work fine. The order didn't matter. Rough measurements were close enough. You could even add a little white sugar if the flavor was too awful.
That said, out of caution, Li Fei still followed the knowledge she had exchanged at the Witch Coven assembly. Methodically, she ground the serpent-woman scales to powder, crushed the Bone-White Flowers into paste… and finally added a few drops of freshly collected, still-warm orange juice, then poured in half a glass of water.
As Li Fei's breathing gradually slowed, an extraordinary transformation took place inside the transparent vessel. The scattered fragments dissolved and fused together at a visible pace, until at last they became a single cup of deep, fathomless black elixir.
The same color as Li Fei's conscience.
"To every effort, its reward… my hard work has, once again, paid off."
Li Fei solemnly raised the Witch of Depravity's elixir — hers and hers alone — took several slow, deep breaths, and tipped her head back to drink it down.
——Salty-sweet. And a taste like the open sea.
Before she could even savor it, Li Fei felt every muscle and fiber of her body begin to writhe and shudder — even her internal organs pulsing at some strange, otherworldly frequency.
The free-floating mana particles in the void surged into Li Fei in an endless tide. Pure magical energy welled up from within her in a ceaseless flow, radiating even beyond the surface of her skin, making every inch of her glow with brilliant light — every single cell leaping with joy, brimming with surging, vibrant life.
"I can hear the melody of evolution…"
Li Fei murmured. A rustling filled her ears — that was her ink-black hair growing wildly; her heartbeat quickened and hammered, yet it no longer felt dull or heavy. Instead, it carried something almost enchanted, like a Siren's voice luring sailors to cast themselves into the sea. Her blood surged and flowed, chiming like a crystal-clear brook; the spell models in her sea of consciousness blazed with brilliant light amid a resonant hum.
Seconds later, Li Fei felt a wave of tingling, numbing, pleasure-pain wash over her. She let out a cry, her long hair whipping wildly around her, her dilated pupils shifting through shape after shape.
Amid the torturous yet blissful, alien sensation, her body underwent a violent transformation from the inside out. Her bones grew more luminously white, the impurities burned away — they seemed to have been forged into something like divine iron, yet as light as a bird's hollow bones. Her blood deepened to a crimson so vivid it was almost unreal, faintly luminous. Her muscles and meridians were remade, granting her greater strength, longer life, and far greater adaptability.
At last, Li Fei collapsed to the floor, her body writhing, her fingertips digging into the carpet and raking back and forth. The sounds coming from her were half-crying, half-laughing — she felt and savored this chrysalis breaking, this butterfly emerging.
"Rua!"
Half a minute later, Li Fei snapped upright from the floor with a carp-flip kip-up, feeling the magical energy surging full through her body. She was positively itching to find some unfortunate target to unload ten Fireballs on.
With nowhere to vent her bursting energy, she couldn't help but bounce around the room — until at last she smacked her head with a resonant thunk against the ceiling, and only then settled down, pressing a hand to her forehead.
Li Fei puffed out her cheeks, gave up, and lay down on the bed. She called out softly:
"System."
The words had barely left her lips when the panel materialized.
[Character Panel]
Name: Li Fei
Level: 19
Sequence Level: 8
(STR +10, AGI +10, CON +10, INT +10,
CHA +2, LCK +2, CMD +2, APT +2, RES +20%,
Recovery +30%, Skill Effect +10%; Attribute bonus effects enhanced;
Second Round Constitution Metamorphosis.)
(Second Round Constitution Metamorphosis Effects: further enhanced body control, perception, immunity, lifespan, digestive capacity…)
EXP: 5724/6000
Class: Witch of Depravity
(Gains spell-like ability "Depravity"; Morality continuously decreases until it reaches -5; All casting speed +20%; All spell effects +10%; All spell penetration +20%; Neural reflex speed +5%; Dynamic visual acuity +5%; Sensitivity +5%; Physical penetration +10%; Additional bonuses to burst power, perception, balance, flexibility, wound healing speed, physical recovery speed, physical and spell resistance… Second Round Bloodline Witchification.)
(Second Round Bloodline Witchification Effects: further enhanced mana affinity, body control… bodily fluids, voice, and scent Enthrall Fortune toward ♀ increased; Witch Dependency transmission rate increased…)
Lineage: Fallen Witch
Mana: 479 → 549
STR: 28 → 38
AGI: 30 → 40
CON: 26 → 36
INT: 57 → 67
CHA: 377 → 379
Morality: -24
LCK: 6(5) → 8(7)
CMD: 3 → 5
APT: 1 → 3
Note: Base stats, no equipment.
Achievements: Wolf Den Exterminator; Solitary Isle Angel
Innate Talents & Specializations:
1. Depravity
When Morality decreases, Charisma increases. (Irreversible)
2. Enthrall Fate:
The more beautiful, the luckier. (Every 100 points of Charisma grants +1 additional point of Luck)
(Upgradeable)
3. ???
Knowledge Tree:
1. Nature Affinity:
Introductory Natural Magic
Introductory Cycle Principle
Foundational"Five Elements Meditation"(Advancing to Sequence 8 unlocks Intermediate"Five Elements Meditation")
All casting speed +30%; All spell effects +10%; All spell penetration +20%; Mana recovery speed +10%; Enhanced Meditation efficiency, mana affinity, and spell resistance.
Can enter Meditation state; while in Meditation, mana recovery speed increases by 60%, and gradually improves INT, CHA, EXP, mana cap, and perception.
Note: Foundational"Five Elements Meditation"can increase INT by up to 20 points, CHA by up to 10 points, and mana cap by up to 200 points.
Foundational Summoning Magic (Advancing to Sequence 8 unlocks Intermediate Summoning Magic)
2. Chaos Affinity:
Introductory Chaos Magic
Foundational"Five Elements Meditation"
3. Combat:
Introductory Combat
Introductory Weapon Mastery
Potential Points: 10
Spells: Depravity (Lv?), Dragon's Might (Lv1), Sensitivity Aura (Lv8)…
Combat Skills: Sword Mastery (Lv2), Cloud Dragon Fold — First Form (Lv1), Glass Cannon (Lv10)…
Evaluation: Ever consider the Succubus Witch path?
[Message Panel]
[You slew a Thornshell Turtle, gaining 12 EXP]
[You slew a Giant Pincer Crab, gaining 10 EXP]
[Shop Panel]
Fortune Points: 476,673
[Gacha Panel]
Remaining draws: 14
The System Lady would always answer Li Fei's call.
Calling Bai Mengtian might go unanswered — she might be busy, or simply not pick up. But the System Lady had never once let Li Fei down. No need to say who the real sister was, hehe.
The Witch of Depravity curved the corners of her lips, and in a mood of ease and satisfaction, began to look over the panel.
____
________________________________________
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