Inside the multifunctional gravity chamber—seventy degrees of heat, thin oxygen, [Triple Gravity]—a pile of tin cans were doing push-ups, up and down, sweat ceaselessly streaming down from the gaps in their iron armor.
Barrett produced an ice pop from who-knows-where and slurped it clean in two or three gulps.
Perhaps having eaten it too fast, he made a show of rubbing his sinewy, knotted arms and furrowed his brow.
"Sss... feels a bit cold, doesn't it? Let's crank the temperature up some more."
Under the teacher's control, the mana patterns on all four sides deepened in color, like branding irons heated red-hot; the rolling heat waves steamed the standing water on the floor into white mist, until even the air began to warp.
"Heli, your form's off—add two hundred."
Barrett pointed casually at a second-year student, then strolled over to Kova, bent down, and—astonishingly—a sleazy expression surfaced on his honest, big face:
"As for you girls... no need to do five hundred. How about four hundred? And if that's still too many, three hundred's fine too."
Beneath the tightly sealed helmet, the veins on Kova's forehead throbbed, and she let out a roar:
"I can do a thousand!"
"Very good."
Barrett nodded with satisfaction, glanced around once more, and stroked his chin: "All the female students will go by this standard—one thousand."
The faces of the students present all crumpled.
Though it was ostensibly extra training for the female students, if the rest dared to stop after just five hundred, the consequences would be severe.
...
It wasn't until dusk that a group of listless students, heads drooping, finally walked out of the gravity chamber, marking the end of the final day of special training.
"Shower together?"
Wiping her head with a towel, Kova raised an eyebrow and proposed to several of the female students.
"I've still got some things to do, I'll take my leave first."
Amid the disappointed expressions of the female students, Li Fei gently declined the offer.
It had to be said, Kova was indeed quite dashing, brimming with valiant spirit—however, Li Fei was only interested in PPL; an iron T was not her ideal type.
A little over ten minutes later, Li Fei, still drenched in sweat, covered her face as she walked into an inn beside the War Academy, clattered up to the second floor, found Room 2013, and pushed the door open.
Only after stepping through the door did she pull off her veil. After casually locking the door, she walked straight toward the little fox whose fluffy big tail was swaying nonstop.
Margaret was wearing a pink long dress today. On her exquisitely sculpted, jade-like face sat a pair of round, bright eyes, and the pair of fox ears atop her smooth golden hair flicked this way and that, lending her a harmless, naively lively air.
But were it not for Miss Top Courtesan's self-taught fox-taming technique, the soft and adorable-looking little fox would reveal her unruly, coarse side.
"Where's the goods?"
Slapping a goldsmith's note with a face value of ten thousand into Margaret's hand, Li Fei spread her palm open.
The little fox opened her big golden eyes wide and, with a mysterious air, took out a wooden box.
She opened the wooden box; inside was a blood-red plant root and stem, called Blood Jade Vine.
"Still two ingredients short..."
Li Fei solemnly and carefully put it away.
[Twisted Witch]
Secret Potion Recipe: Serpent-woman scales of Sequence 6 or higher, 30 grams of Blood Jade Vine sap, 15g of gargoyle fang powder, seven drops of Hellhound source blood, orange juice of at least 200 Charisma.
Ascension Ritual: Commit a deed of deceiving the world and stealing a name, and influence an entire nation.
Now that the mid Sequence was involved, both the value of the raw materials for concocting the secret potion and the difficulty of the Ascension Ritual had clearly risen by more than one whole tier.
The former was still manageable: serpent-woman scales were in stock, orange juice could be self-produced, and the other three ingredients could all be obtained so long as one was willing to spend money—of course, Li Fei had no intention of buying gargoyle fangs and a Hellhound heart for the time being. Why waste money on things she could acquire by force?
The latter was rather more troublesome.
Loxibrook, though able to crush many a nation on the level of military force, still only counted as a single city to this day, all because Tingbao lacked ambition and refused to found a nation and become emperor. This meant Li Fei would have to switch to a different country to wreak havoc, in order to have a chance at ascending to Sequence 6.
Fortunately, this matter was not urgent. Compared to the Ascension Ritual, what mattered more were money and experience.
As Li Fei inspected the goods, the little fox—who loved the scent of a girl's sweat—nuzzled her nose this way and that, sniffing the tea fragrance on Li Fei and muttering:
"How did you sweat so much, and it's green-tea-scented too..."
"Isn't this exactly what you like?"
Li Fei smiled faintly.
Though cultivation in the gravity chamber was arduous, the results were also immediate. After three days of special training, Li Fei—whose four-dimensional attributes had already broken a hundred—was forcibly pushed up by another two points of Agility, one point of Strength, and one point of Constitution. No wonder the Sun family's combat power had soared so fast.
"Fox-nonsense, I most certainly do not..."
Margaret refused to admit it, but the golden, glittering big tail behind her practically swung out an afterimage.
"You can't touch there—I'm your disciple's beloved wife, after all."
Li Fei slapped away her increasingly ill-behaved hand, then lay down on the bed.
"Don't you Easterners all revere your teachers and honor the Way? What's wrong with being a little filial to me?"
The little fox planted both hands on her hips and spoke with self-righteous confidence.
"That does seem to make a lot of sense. In that case..."
Li Fei lightly tapped her lips with her index finger, a coquettish charm in her drawn-out tone: "Take off my shoes for me."
As she spoke, a straight, beautiful long leg lifted up, the sweat-residue-tinged skin so white under the lamplight as to be almost dazzling.
"I won't."
Margaret was still talking tough.
"Do you still want your reward or not?"
Li Fei shot her a sidelong glance, brimming with charm, and wiggled her leg to convey her urging.
Margaret hesitated a moment but, in the end, still obediently sat at the edge of the bed, pulled open the zipper on the inner side of the long boot, and yanked hard. As the long boot—its insole soaked through with sweat—dropped to the floor with a "plop," a wisp of white steam rose up. Within that perfectly judged body odor lingered an intoxicating tea fragrance; the little fox needed only one sniff for both her ears to stand bolt upright—clearly, she was getting carried away.
The thin white cotton sock had been utterly soaked through with sweat and clung to the skin, clearly revealing the slender, exquisite contours of the foot, along with the faint lines of the toe-clefts. The tips of the toes seemed to curl slightly, as if from bashfulness, looking positively delectable.
"Mn..."
Pressing the soft, piping-hot sole against the fox's tail, Li Fei massaged her with a slightly heavy force, making the little fox clutch the hem of her dress tightly, her little face turning flushed and red.
"How has Qin Lan been doing lately?"
Li Fei, who cared a great deal about family, immediately opened her mouth to inquire about her sister-in-law's movements.
"She... mn, gentler... she hasn't dared make the matter sound too serious, and she's still using her own private savings to make up the dropping revenue... but it's about to be exposed soon."
The little fox spoke vaguely:
"She begged me a few times before, asking me to introduce some business... she even wanted me to go ask Qin Zhihua to put in a good word."
"But recently, it seems she's given up."
"Help her out a bit, give her some hope, then pull it away—grind down that pride of hers."
Li Fei smiled sweetly: "Once she's at the end of her rope, I'll help her turn over a new leaf."
From the intelligence she had gathered over so long a time, Li Fei knew very well what consequences Qin Lan would face if people from the Qin family came.
Even though she had done nothing wrong and had worked diligently and conscientiously for the Qin family, that didn't matter. After all, apart from firmly believing in the principle that "those not of our kind must surely be of a different heart," the Eastern Continent also held male superiority and female inferiority as an old tradition. The Qin family would not care about the protestations of some mere collateral-branch woman.
In the past, seeing that she had a talent for commerce, they had sent her out, making her leave home and homeland to manage overseas business; now that the business had gone bust, and she'd also lost the "chastity that a maiden values more than her own life," the best outcome for Qin Lan would be to be taken back, married off to some great house as a concubine, or even bestowed upon a capable subordinate—which would count as putting her remaining usefulness to good service for the Qin family.
Unlike Li Fei, who could discover Lady Qin Lan's shining points—such as her beauty and her commercial ability.
With Isabella unwilling to leave the trade for the time being, and the Black Gold organization charging too steep a price while ultimately being outsiders, then for the sake of keeping Yusura in check, Qin Lan became the best choice. Setting aside her ability to run Qin's Apothecary into a thriving enterprise, just her present conduct of cooking the books and deceiving the Qin family was enough to move Li Fei's heart.
Such talent—it really would be a pity not to have her take charge of the Sparkfire Charity Fund.
"But what's in it for me?"
Margaret pouted, very much displeased.
"I'm permitting you to assist me, giving you the chance to toy with the fate of a cold, aloof, reserved older sister, and you're still not satisfied—you still want benefits?"
Li Fei's face turned stern, the sole now made even hotter by the smothering of the fox's tail pressing down hard on the base of the tail and grinding heavily: "You trying to turn the world upside down?"
She knew this fox's temperament very well—S when met with softness, M when met with hardness. Had she not come to her senses early, would there be any place left for Lady Zhihua right now? She'd have been tied up in the fox's den long ago.
Margaret puffed up her cheeks, but in the end turned bashful and docile, lying on her side at the edge of the bed in an awkward posture, her fluffy tail hooking around Li Fei's ankle.
"But, I'm in a good mood today."
Li Fei suddenly chuckled and slowly rose to her feet. Her soft, nimble sole hooked upward and flicked, flipping the little fox into the middle of the bed.
Caught off guard by the move, the little fox tumbled a few times and finally landed face-down on the bed with an "mn." Restless, she turned her neck and rolled her moist eyes upward.
"Let me give you a Thai massage."
Li Fei smiled gently, yet her pair of soft, slender, sweaty feet stepped on the little fox without the slightest mercy, sinking her deep into the soft sheets.
Soon, a "creak, creak" sound came from the bed.
Deep in the night, Lady Hathaway's silhouette vanished into the darkness.
Having seen the guest to the door, Miss Top Courtesan let the night breeze blow for a while before leisurely returning to the lounge.
Tonight's atmosphere was livelier than usual; the sisters' gazes drifted, intentionally or not, toward Isabella.
This vampire lass had undergone no small change compared to days past.
She wore a loose beige knit short-sleeve, her silver-white long hair draped over her shoulders; the hem of her coffee-colored pleated skirt covered her knees, and her slender, taut calves were as pale as scallion-white jade. On her feet were forest-girl-style strappy low-heeled sandals, lending her a few more shades of pure, gentle elegance than usual.
The nail art on her fingers had also been washed off, leaving only a lustrous pink.
"What's going on, sisters?"
Li Fei sat down right next to Isabella and asked curiously.
"Our pillow princess seems to have a sweetheart, oh~"
Eleanor covered her mouth as she laughed, her voice carrying a teasing, delighted note.
"Oh? Do tell."
Li Fei feigned puzzlement.
"Today, the eldest daughter of the house of Edwin Earl gave her a bad review! Because she wouldn't let her touch."
The water-element witch who had swum up to the ceiling—her body below the neck turned into a puddle of water, her inverted-hanging water-blue long hair trembling amid the tittering giggles.
Amid the laughter and chatter filling the room, Li Fei understood the origin of the matter.
You see, not every sister was as fortunate as Miss Top Courtesan, with such a versatile business style and the qualification to freely pick her clients and run hunger marketing. Under normal circumstances, whatever kind of sister one was, she would attract similar or "complementary" clients.
For instance, the dainty, delicate Miss Isabella—a vampire PR girl always being "metal-smelted"—was almost incapable of receiving soft, adorable, easily bashful girls; otherwise it would easily develop into a situation where everyone lay under one blanket staring blankly at one another. You've got to be kidding—people came here to seek pleasure and revelry, not to hold candlelit heart-to-hearts with a little sister!
Therefore, Isabella's patrons were all the kind of wicked women who liked to bully others, basically nothing to do with the word "lady."
However, the Golden Kumquat Tavern had its rules, with very thorough protection for its employees, so clients could only resort to enticement—such as, "You don't want tonight's performance to come in dead last, do you?" and the like. When Miss Top Courtesan had just entered the trade, ignorant and naive, it was precisely by such base means that Margaret had gotten a grip on her, causing her Morality Value to drop completely from 1 to zero. And as for those who dared to use violence, or coerce by relatively vile means, they would all have their fingers snapped and be thrown out the door, and blacklisted for life.
This led to Isabella, in her past work, always being sweet-talked and swindled by wicked women, moved by talk of performance figures, and in the end snuggling up with the vampire lass.
But tonight, the earl's eldest daughter ordered many bottles of expensive liquor, and Isabella was still resisting—she even paid the bill out of her own pocket...
What did that indicate?
They were all fallen women, huddling together for warmth in this place of dust and wind, and naturally all understood one another's temperaments and hidden sorrows; they easily guessed the answer.
Clearly, Isabella seemed to have taken a fancy to some woman, and had plans to wash her hands of it all, leave the trade, and marry.
"Aiya, whose honest girl is it, then?"
Li "Honest Person" Fei spoke in a slightly downcast, vexed tone: "I really like big sister Isabella too, you know."
"You, you, don't listen to their nonsense."
Isabella's gaze drifted, and she spoke in a soft, gentle voice.
"In any case, no matter what decision you make, we'll all support you."
With a cherishing, treasuring attitude, Li Fei cupped the vampire lass's pair of soft, boneless, slightly cool jade hands and spoke warmly and tenderly: "Good sister—one blanket, one lifetime."
——So, good sister, when do you plan to come support my charitable cause?
Beneath a sincere gaze warm enough to melt a vampire, the thick tea fragrance transformed into an invisible hoe, swinging diligently at the crack-spreading corner of Lady Gneia's wall.
...
Back home, Su Ling'er, who had been severely sleep-deprived these past days, had already fallen asleep on the sofa.
Miss Witch of Bliss, relying on her Transcendent physique, could rapidly recover her vitality no matter how recklessly she carried on, so long as she drank more water and rested more. But Su Ling'er had no such ability; after being half-begged, half-bewitched by Li Fei into joining several games of hide-and-seek and the like, she had even lost a few catties of weight.
The young madam did not wake her. She gently stroked her faint dark circles, then brushed aside her bangs and left a lip print on her forehead, before carrying the soundly sleeping Su Ling'er back to the room in her arms.
Next, Li Fei took out the porcelain vial and shook it by her ear.
Over these five days of ascending to Sequence 7 and mastering the Advanced Meditation method, after persistent, relentless grinding, only the last Mind-Clearing Pill remained inside.
Just enough to use.
Li Fei took the Mind-Clearing Pill and quietly began to meditate.
When she opened her radiant eyes once more, the Advanced Meditation method had already been cultivated to the realm of minor consummation.
...
Mana Value: 2652
Strength: 123
Agility: 121
Constitution: 117
Intelligence: 194
Charisma: 506
Luck: (18) 15
After ascending to Sequence 7, each point of Intelligence could now add 8 points of Mana Value, so the 50 points of Intelligence and 500 mana cap raised by the Advanced Meditation method forcibly pushed Li Fei's mana value cap up to over two thousand six hundred—for a low-Sequence mage-girl, this was surging mana that could only be described as terrifyingly so.
Besides this, although the System had previously noted that Meditation could increase experience points, Li Fei had never truly experienced it. Until now—perhaps because of the improvement in her aptitude, or perhaps the breakthrough in the realm of her Meditation method—Li Fei could indeed increase experience points while in a meditative state, but it was very slow; even with the Mind-Clearing Pill aiding her meditation, she couldn't even gain a single point of experience per minute.
From this Li Fei deduced that perhaps a Transcendent of outstanding aptitude could obtain a large amount of "experience" through meditation—they had no such thing as levels, so the feedback they received was a deepened comprehension of transcendent knowledge and spells, along with a certain attribute boost.
"Advanced Meditation method, grand completion... Charisma broke five hundred, and Luck rose along with it."
Amid the murmuring whispers, Li Fei slowly rose to her feet, a thin sweat seeping from her palms at some unknown moment.
Her own state had already been adjusted to its peak; once she finished making the last few preparations, she should set off for the Folded Space, to gather provisions for her charge into the mid Sequence. Miss Top Courtesan, who had thrived like a fish in water in Loxibrook and had nearly forgotten how to write the word "danger," couldn't help feeling somewhat apprehensive at heart, yet this could not obstruct her will.
Having paid an advance visit during the day to blessed lands such as the Secret Garden and the Rainbow Altar, Li Fei lightly and softly picked up the prepared parcel and walked toward another room.
Time for the gacha draw.
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