Six wolves carried their passengers, racing southward.
This time there were no swarms of demons blocking the road, yet Squire Wang's eyes were dull and lifeless. Not until the child in its swaddling clothes let out another cry was his soul called back to him.
Squire Wang looked around as though waking from a dream and hurriedly shouted:
"Stop!"
They had gone only a few steps from the little grove when Squire Wang suddenly called for a halt, and the highly intelligent summoned units immediately stopped in their tracks.
Squire Wang rolled off the wolf, stumbling a few steps and nearly toppling over. But ignoring the death-sworn warrior who came to steady him, he stared fixedly at the gold ornaments scattered about in the bloody mud.
The dark-red blood had not yet fully dried, soaking the gold trinkets and reflecting an eerie glow.
Squire Wang handed the child to the death-sworn warrior and, heedless of the filth, his knees buckled and he knelt, picking up the overturned wooden box and carefully gathering the gold ornaments one by one.
"In less than ten years, my Wang family will be wealthy again... We won't shortchange our child."
Squire Wang made this promise, solemnly tucking the wooden box into his bundle. Then he wiped the blood from his hands before taking the child back into his arms and riding the wolf southward once more.
"What a bountiful harvest."
Li Fei had also finished tallying her gains, a sweet, radiant smile brimming on her face, like a farm girl at the autumn harvest gazing upon her abundant fruits.
Thanks to the vast metal resources supplied by the Folded Space, the Continent of Enlos had always followed the gold standard, and a standard gold coin weighed eleven grams.
To make his flight easier, Squire Wang had spent the night converting all his silver into gold. Of the three carts of treasure, gold alone amounted to nearly half a ton. Though its purity was slightly inferior to Loxibrook's gold coins, the difference was small, and it netted Li Fei over eighty thousand Wealth Points.
Antiques, paintings, and calligraphy were both valuable and worthless. The worth of such things came basically from their added value, and their prices fluctuated wildly. Perhaps collectors would throw a fortune at a porcelain bowl once used by an emperor, but if such a piece fell into the hands of a farmer ignorant of its origins, it wouldn't be strange to see it used to hold leftover scraps to feed the dog. Before Li Fei sold them at a high price, Miss System simply would not award any Wealth Points for them.
The same went for the various jade bracelets and agate necklaces—they weren't even worth as much as a tacky, gaudy gold ring.
Aside from that, rare materials like century-old ginseng were worth something, adding up to nearly ten thousand Wealth Points.
It was only the second day, and this trip into the Folded Space had already turned a profit—not to mention the considerable Experience Points and Charm Points credited to her account.
Of course, Li Fei's ambitions went far beyond this.
The Moonlight Wolves pulled the carts along, their fur absorbing the moonlight, appearing all the more vigorous in the night; above them, sprites circled, holding torches for light.
In the cleaned carriage, Miss Wang—who had been struck again and again by [Charm Humanoid Creature]—was in a lovestruck daze, having long since cast all her troubles behind her. She clung to Li Fei, pestering her with questions, and whenever she had nothing better to do she would shoot Qiao'er a fierce glare, wishing she could kick her out of the carriage.
Li Fei didn't much want to chat with her, because it was truly dull. Even at a time like this, she could still prattle on about rouge and face powder, showing off her knowledge of all sorts of luxury goods...
How she wished she could toss her into the Secret Garden and let the sprites gag her!①
Li Fei kept her patience, smiling and humoring Wang Yutong while flipping through a demon bestiary in her hands. It was quite interesting—like reading a Demon-Sealing Continent version of the Classic of Mountains and Seas.
Qiao'er was reading as well, sitting upright, appearing gentle and delicate, except that her eyes were instinctively narrowed and she held the book up very high—clearly she was nearsighted.
Evidently, this sixteen-year-old girl's usual study environment had been terrible. "Boring a hole through the wall to steal light" was a mere figure of speech to others, and to Li Fei a lie fabricated in the tabloids to build a persona, but to Qiao'er it was a genuine life experience—it would have been strange if she weren't nearsighted.
Yet even so, Li Fei did not remind her that reading in a carriage would worsen her eyesight. After all, in an extraordinary world, as long as the money was there, even late-stage cancer could be cured, let alone nearsightedness.
Besides, the worse the nearsightedness, the greater Li Fei's kindness in curing it—wasn't that so?
"We're here."
Sasha lifted the door curtain and reported the situation to Li Fei.
"Good work."
Li Fei nodded and in a couple of steps leapt out of the carriage, glancing at the Moonlight Wolves panting with their tongues out, and shook her head with a sigh.
When Tingbao went out, phoenixes pulled her carriage, and once home the phoenixes could even transform into beautiful young ladies... She herself couldn't even scrape together a nine-headed unicorn. If her sisters saw the ride of a dignified flower queen looking this plain...
Blah blah blah!
I'm a Philanthropist, after all, and I take pride in being thrifty and frugal...
Li Fei kept the smile on her face and surveyed her surroundings.
This was a deep forest, the withered trees looking lifeless under the dim moonlight, ghostly shadows swaying, and in the darkness there came faint, indistinct, eerie snarls of demons.
According to intelligence obtained from the Demon Suppression Bureau, the Tree Demon's hiding place was not far from Luyuan County to begin with, and with the Moonlight Wolves pulling the carts so diligently, they had already reached their destination.
Which raised the question: how were they to find the Tree Demon, or the people of the Demon Suppression Bureau?
"This place is so scary..."
Wang Yutong had sidled over at some point, seeking comfort in a coquettish voice.
With her black hair and blood-soaked clothes, her face looked utterly bloodless in the moonlight, like a female ghost.
"There's nothing to be afraid of."
Li Fei chuckled softly and stamped her foot hard, cracking the earth.
Her thick, lovely hair fluttering, she shot into the sky, leaping over ten meters, and in midair she leisurely shifted her waist to change direction, spinning a full seven hundred and twenty degrees during her hang time, taking in all the surrounding scenery with astonishing dynamic vision—yet she spotted nothing out of the ordinary.
Qiao'er, who had been silent the whole way, suddenly whispered a few words to the summoned sprites. Then five or six sprites clustered around her, chirping as they lifted her up into the air.
The nearsighted little maidservant squinted, observing carefully for a long while before coming back down, then pointed toward the northwest:
"There might be a demon on that mountain."
"Hm?"
Li Fei smiled. "Go on."
"The Essentials of Fortune and Misfortune of the Six Jia records that the terrain of that mountain is treacherous, with yin energy pooling there. Ordinary people who live there too long fall out of balance between yin and yang and meet with bloody calamity—but demons, for the most part, love to gather in places thick with yin energy."
Qiao'er answered honestly, "I don't understand feng shui very well; I'm only guessing."
"If you don't understand, then don't spout nonsense. Stop putting on airs..."
Wang Yutong muttered, thoroughly deserving of a smack.
"Let's go take a look. You two, get in the cart... Eva, Sasha, you go in too."
Li Fei bounced several yards into the air on the spot again, and after confirming the direction, snapped her fingers. Taking the lead, she drew her sword and strode toward that low mountain not far off.
Before long, the three people and two sprites had climbed the low mountain, stopping halfway up the slope.
It was a mass grave.
The pitted ground was barren of grass, and in the dry soil lay grim white bones, along with a toppled stone tablet whose inscription had long since been worn to illegibility by the years.
Under the ghastly pale moonlight, the place was eerily silent, a hair-raising atmosphere hanging over it.
Li Fei stood atop a grave mound, as if waiting for something.
Squelch, squelch, squelch...
An eerie sound suddenly came from behind her. Li Fei turned her head to see that a hunched, emaciated old man had appeared behind her at some point. Half the top of its head hung with sparse strands of hair, ashen and withered, while the other half was a deep pit, empty and hollow within.
Its thin arms were densely covered with age spots, and its chicken-claw-like left hand clutched a fistful of bloody entrails, bringing them to its mouth to gnaw, staining the lower half of its face scarlet.
Those cloudy old eyes carried a hair-raising smile as well, staring fixedly at Li Fei.
Squelch, squelch...
As the sticky sound drew nearer, the soil began to churn, arm after arm waving ceaselessly from deep underground, and a rising, falling chorus of low growls came forth.
Had she come to this place right after transmigrating, Li Fei would surely have been so frightened she'd have wet herself.
But as her strength grew, no matter how terrifying a supernatural horror novel might be, in the end it always became a power fantasy.
"Putting on an act for me, are you?"
Facing the horrifying scene of demons dancing in a frenzy, Li Fei bared a savage grin, her crimson battle qi surging and dyeing even the moonlight red, as though a demon king had descended upon the mortal world. Her ferocious, scorching aura swept out in all directions, as if to smelt all things.
Chloe had once warned Li Fei that her Furnace Battle-Qi most likely had a connection to the Abyss, carrying a domineering, greedy demonic nature, and had tactfully suggested that, if conditions allowed, it would be best to choose an orthodox battle qi manual, lest her temperament be affected.
Little did she know, Li Fei was the Abyss itself.
A faint whiff of sulfur spread, and beneath the overwhelming wave of heat, the Gravedigger Ghoul stopped smiling. Even the entrails in its hand no longer seemed appetizing, dropping to the ground with a splat.
"Run? Too late."
Li Fei sneered, her whole body's battle qi surging, and the crimson sword light roared as it engulfed the old ghoul that had turned to flee. As her Experience Points rose, the demon that had nourished itself on blood-food now became fodder for Li Fei instead.
The soil that had been churning endlessly grew quiet as well, and those ghastly, rotting arms silently withdrew back into the earth, the dead things that had sought to burst forth sinking once more into stillness.
"Don't go to sleep now—get up and party."
Crimson demonic flames burned in Li Fei's eyes, and just as she was about to dig them out for a chat, the master of this place was finally roused.
"Awoooo!"
A deafening roar came from the mountaintop, demonic energy rising like a beacon-fire straight up to the heavens.
Only a Heaven Realm demon could possess such a powerful, terrifying aura.
Farther off in the darkness, one aura after another—some eerie, some bloody, some cold and indifferent—awoke, secretly observing the disturbance in this place.
While lying dormant, neither the Heaven Realm demons nor Sequence 7 Li Fei could sense one another, but her openly burning battle qi in the black night was no different from casting a stone into a lake, sending out ripple upon ripple.
Rumble, rumble, rumble...
Amid footsteps like muffled thunder, the Heaven Realm demon, making no effort to hide its formidable aura, rapidly approached from the mountain's peak.
Wang Yutong, who had quietly poked her head out from the carriage curtain, shrank back at once, and even Qiao'er inside the carriage had turned somewhat pale.
They had personally tasted the terror brought by Earth Realm demons, but the monster charging down from the mountaintop gave off an even more savage, violent aura, one that made mortals feel an instinctive shudder and despair.
"Oh no, it's a Heaven Realm great demon... Can Li Fei even beat it?"
Wang Yutong curled up like a quail in the corner of the carriage, her teeth chattering.
Qiao'er's hands and feet were ice-cold, but she forced down the uncontrollable dread within her and nodded without a word.
She trusted that the demoness would not do something suicidal—besides, those two sprites were still poking their heads out to look.
Li Fei, meanwhile, stood where she was, gazing at that terrifying, enormous black shadow, magic power surging throughout her body.
"DracoPower."
Facing a Heaven Realm being for the first time since descending upon the Demon-Sealing Continent, Li Fei—though she had ample confidence in her own strength—still, quite unsportingly, buffed herself with Dragon's Strength just to be safe.
"Who's there!"
It was a Demon Boar over ten feet tall, its eyes scarlet, its hide densely covered with pitch-black, thick bristles that stood on end like steel needles.
Its towering, bloated demonic body was as heavy as a mountain, and with each step it took the ground shook and the soil cracked. Its huge black shadow fell across the ground, its oppressive presence suffocating.
Seeing Li Fei's appearance clearly, the Demon Boar was taken aback, and actually spoke in human tongue:
"You're a human?"
Li Fei sneered without answering, a pitch-black, demonic tail slipping out.
"Demoness, why have you set foot in my territory? Do you seek a bloody battle?"
The Demon Boar growled, its eyes brimming with murderous intent.
Demons would slaughter one another too, but the intelligent ones were unwilling to rashly start a war, because demons feared death as well.
"I opened this road, I planted these trees—filthy pig, how dare you defile my mountain? You're courting death!"
Under the moonlight, the woman in a dress whiter than snow actually knit her brows and cast a cold glare, letting out a dainty shout at the huge, savage demon-beast, and even advancing toward it of her own accord.
Hearing this, Wang Yutong—who had been praying nonstop in the carriage—trembled. She fearfully lifted the curtain, and upon seeing that colossal creature wreathed in rolling murderous aura, then glancing at Li Fei, whose figure was so absurdly small beside the pig demon, she nearly fainted from fright.
They were both Heaven Realm—why would Li Fei deliberately provoke a being that was so obviously more powerful and terrifying?
She didn't dare interject, lest she draw the demon's attention, so she could only glare viciously at Qiao'er through tearful eyes:
"This is all your fault, you ungrateful, heartless wench, leading us down a road to our deaths... Now we're done for!"
Qiao'er sighed soundlessly.
Outside the carriage, upon hearing such unreasonable provocation, the Demon Boar was stunned for a moment before it caught on.
"Bullshit! This turf has been mine for decades—since when did it become your mountain?"
It roared, its eyes nearly dripping blood.
"Since ancient times!"
Li Fei drew her sword, crimson battle qi raging in every direction, and slammed toward the Demon Boar like a falling meteor.
"Courting death!"
The Demon Boar could bear it no longer, the ferocity in its very bones fully ignited. It let out a violent bellow, gripping the handle of an axe with both hands, its bloated flesh suddenly tightening, as a demonic aura thick with the stench of blood shrouded the entire area.
The pitch-black great axe glimmered with bloody light, its handle as thick as a human thigh, its blade larger than a door panel. With a single swing, it carried the might to collapse the heavens and shatter the earth, whipping up hurricane after hurricane, as if wronged souls were sobbing and wailing within.
By comparison, the white-dressed demoness looked slender and petite, as though she could be cleaved to pieces with ease—yet she neither dodged nor flinched. Her crimson sword light hung upward in reverse, as if to pierce clean through the stars.
Boom!
The demonic aura and the crimson battle qi collided with a thunderous roar. The ground fractured, and the fierce wind sent sand and stones flying.
But before the blazing brilliance had faded, from the center where the terrifying auras entangled there erupted a heart-rending, gut-wrenching wail.
The tall, ferocious Demon Boar tumbled and flew backward, its heavy body smashing pit after pit into the ground. The loud, teeth-grating cracks of breaking bones rang out one after another, until at last it lay twitching on the earth, thick blood seeping from its mouth and nose, its arms twisted.
The white-dressed demoness, her gaze cold and clear, was completely unharmed. Her emerald longsword was like a spring of clear water, reflecting a ghostly light beneath the moon.
"Im-impossible..."
The Demon Boar struggled to raise its head, staring at the demoness in shock and fury, its face full of bitter unwillingness.
No matter how it tried, it could not fathom how the enormous strength it took such pride in had collapsed at a single touch before this tiny, frail demoness who looked as though she could be snapped in two with a light pinch.
"A Heaven Realm great demon, defeated this easily..."
After the commotion outside had died down, Qiao'er gently lifted the curtain, and the sight of the great demon lying in a pool of blood—struggling with all its might and roaring again and again—came into view, making Wang Yutong cover her mouth in a startled cry.
Qiao'er too gazed quietly at that figure in a dress whiter than snow, yet shrouded in red light—more bewitching than any demon, like a fairy descended into the mortal dust—and said nothing.
Though the outcome was already decided, the demoness showed no intention of stopping.
Carrying her sword, she walked unhurriedly toward the Demon Boar, the surging red light staining the moonlight, her lips curving into a bloodthirsty, teasing arc.
Her light footsteps—each one made the Demon Boar's heart clench abruptly, and in an instant the rage and venom in its eyes turned to fear.
She means to take my life!
"I—I was wrong, I shouldn't have barged into your mountain without permission..."
The Demon Boar pushed against the ground with its feet, heedless of the pain of its broken bones, laboriously dragging its bloated body to get away from that ravishingly beautiful demoness, cold sweat pouring down as it begged for mercy: "Please, spare my life."
The demoness didn't respond. As her lotus steps moved lightly, the red light spread inch by inch, and her wicked, ghostly smile made the Demon Boar go cold all over.
"As long as you let me go, I'll do anything you ask—I'm willing to be your servant..."
Under the terror of death, the Demon Boar cast aside all dignity and begged again and again.
The demoness giggled, seemingly delighted by its terrified, wretched state.
The Demon Boar finally despaired, letting out the wail of a piglet before the slaughter. Driven by its survival instinct, it flipped its enormous body over and forced its crooked, twisted arms to move, crawling desperately forward in a bid to seize a sliver of life.
"Do you want to live?"
The demoness bent down and poked the writhing, prostrate Demon Boar, her smile sweet, as ethereal and flawless as a goddess beneath the moon.
"Yes! Yes! I beg you..."
The Demon Boar turned its head, light rekindling in its eyes.
"But I don't want to let you live."
The demoness winked slyly, and her sword light swept across the thick neck, sending up a great spray of foul, reeking blood.
① A reference to the American series Orange Is the New Black, in which the talkative Suzanne is gagged by Natasha in the chapel.
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