As far as Li Fei knew, the smaller a Folded Space, the more fragile its ecosystem. To ensure a stable output of resources — or to create ideal combat conditions for students — the Magic Academy had no choice but to perform periodic maintenance on these pocket dimensions.
For instance, when a Folded Space's native population was on the verge of being wiped out by students, a fresh batch of replacements would be shipped in — not unlike the Moonlight Wolf Den outside the city walls.
But the poor souls dumped into an unfamiliar space had to spend every ounce of their strength just surviving its brutal conditions. Who had time to write textbooks or educate the next generation?
Over time, the descendants of these transplants would forget their ancestors' homeland, history, and culture. Once everything their forebears had carried from the Continent of Enlos was ground away by the years, their bloodlines devolved into natives — civilization, utterly extinguished.
But there were always exceptions.
Like the half-orc standing before her now, who spoke the Common Tongue.
"You know where we come from," Li Fei said, one brow arching upward as she studied the ancient yet sharp-eyed half-orc, her tone carrying genuine curiosity.
"That's correct," Yusura replied calmly. "Outsiders, why don't you sit down and talk? I'd like to make a deal with you."
Kenan, who had been educated since childhood and could follow the Common Tongue, spoke up urgently: "Father! They provoked us, killed our clansmen, started a war—"
"Kenan. Have you forgotten what I told you?"
Yusura shot his son a sidelong glance. The mild warmth that normally colored his voice had gone flat and cold — enough to make the towering, powerfully-built Kenan catch his breath and clamp his mouth shut.
His father had warned him long ago: if outsiders ever came, do not provoke them. If they attack, you may flee or resist — but never insult or kill them, or the tribe would face total annihilation.
"It seems you understand us rather well," Li Fei remarked, her curiosity mild but genuine.
"Our tribe has some rare materials and ores," Yusura said, a kindly smile spreading across his weathered face. "I'd like to trade them for a promise."
"What promise?"
"Let our people leave this place."
"Heh," Li Fei snorted.
"Even just a portion of them," Yusura continued, unhurried and composed.
Grace glanced at Li Fei. Li Fei narrowed her eyes, turning the proposition over in her mind.
Before entering the Folded Space, Nicole had briefed them both on a number of ground rules.
One of them: students were strictly forbidden from removing natives from a Folded Space without authorization. Violators would see the native killed on the spot, and the student penalized depending on severity.
The only legitimate path was to apply to the Academy in advance, receive approval, and pay the corresponding credits — only then could a Transcendent creature be extracted from a Folded Space.
For Li Fei, however, this rule clearly had some room for negotiation. Given the particular nature of her arrangement with the Dean — a mutually beneficial understanding between the Academy's top courtesan and its esteemed principal — so long as she didn't commit any cardinal blunders, like having her identity as a Witch exposed, there was no problem that couldn't be quietly talked through behind closed doors. After all, it wouldn't be the first or second time the latter had leveraged the Academy's official resources to… sponsor a beautiful, financially disadvantaged female student.
Which meant Yusura's proposed deal was, for Li Fei, essentially a no-cost transaction.
"What do you think?" Li Fei asked, soliciting Grace's opinion.
"I don't trust them," the poker-faced young woman said flatly.
"Hmm…"
Li Fei made a show of mulling it over, then called out to Yusura in a clear voice: "I have to say — your proposal is fair and reasonable."
She paused, the corner of her mouth curling upward.
"But I'm going to refuse."
A no-cost transaction — lovely in theory.
But Li Fei preferred a win-win scenario where after she turned them into experience points, their wealth still belonged to her. That way, she got to win twice.
"What a regrettable choice," Yusura said, spreading his hands in resignation. "Then please leave our tribe."
Even as he spoke, half-orcs bearing weapons were converging from every corner of the settlement, forming a dense, airtight wall of bodies — the pressure of it was visceral.
The half-orcs, their hides matted with grey-black fur, ugly and ferocious, unleashed guttural snarls at the two human women. Foul-smelling saliva dripped from their filthy tusks, enough to set any spine crawling.
Li Fei paid the snarling mob no attention. She turned to Grace, utterly composed: "Now we're finally getting somewhere… Good. I'm pleased."
"I'd much rather fight warriors in a real battle than slaughter civilians who can't fight back."
"Grace! Ready?"
"Yes."
"Move."
The moment Grace gave her nod, Li Fei issued a low command and lunged without warning toward the aged half-orc.
With the Blade of Joy's agility bonus amplifying her every movement, Li Fei executed the Cloud Dragon Fold and became a blurred streak — crossing over ten meters in a heartbeat, driving straight for the enemy chieftain.
The short-haired girl, never one to let her guard slip, drew her longbow at the same instant, aiming for Yusura — clearly sharing the same idea as Li Fei.
But the old half-orc had maintained a distance of over a hundred paces from Li Fei from the moment he appeared until the moment negotiations broke down. When Li Fei exploded into her charge, he reacted with a speed utterly at odds with his decrepit body — in a flash, he seized Kenan before the young warrior could even register what was happening, vanished into the cover of the massed half-orc warriors, and let out a long howl, signaling the attack.
"ROAR!"
The front ranks of half-orcs bellowed and surged forward in a tide, crude but heavy weapons raised, charging at Li Fei.
"Nimble old thing," Li Fei remarked with a cold smile, her expression fearless as she plunged into the half-orcs.
A single arrow shot past her and struck first — a burst of brilliant orange magical radiance exploded outward, and over a dozen half-orcs tumbled to the ground. The lucky ones died on the spot; the less fortunate wailed with grievous wounds before being crushed under a stampede of mud-caked feet.
"GRAAAH!"
Within moments, the first half-orc reached Li Fei.
It raised both hands high, swinging a crude stone axe lashed to a wooden shaft — a rough-and-ready war maul, cheap and primitive, but capable of delivering a punishing blow. With a dull, howling battle cry, it brought the weapon crashing down at her head.
"Too slow."
Li Fei sidestepped before the maul even landed. Her sword sliced through half its neck in a single, effortless motion, splitting the throat along with it.
Li Fei now had nearly 80 points in Agility. Her dynamic visual acuity and neural reflex speed likely already surpassed that of a Sequence 8 warrior, and in her hand she held a sword with IV-grade sharpness — cutting down a Sequence 9 half-orc in one pass was no more taxing than swatting a fly.
[You have slain a Boar-Orc. +10 EXP.]
[You have slain a Boar-Orc. +10 EXP.]
Half-orcs fell one after another, and the experience notifications ticked steadily upward.
To Li Fei's eyes, the half-orcs moved like elderly park-goers doing slow-motion tai chi. Their flesh crumbled before the Blade of Joy like tofu — only when the blade bit into bone or enemy steel did her palm register any resistance at all.
She strolled forward as if on a leisurely walk, her sword always claiming a life before any half-orc's weapon could reach her. The rare ones who managed to swing before dying were avoided with trivial ease — easier than the simplest difficulty setting on a rhythm game.
As the two sides clashed, the scene from the Secret Garden played itself out once again in this Folded Space. With an overwhelming advantage in stats, Li Fei cut through the press like a log riding a swift current — the dying half-orcs could slow her progress, but nothing could stop it.
In moments, she had carved a bloody path forward, bodies strewn in every direction on both sides.
"Not even a warm-up."
The cold thought surfaced in her mind. Li Fei's lips curved into a silent, contemptuous smirk.
Truth be told, she'd always harbored a question from before her transmigration — why had the great hero Guo Jing died at Xiangyang?
The way she figured it, a pinnacle master whose skill had reached the level of nature itself could just take a post-dinner stroll through the enemy camp every evening, practice a few rounds of the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms, use the officers as target dummies for best results — or at worst, aim a few strikes into the thickest clusters of soldiers and then walk away. At that rate, never mind breaking through the city walls — if the enemy army managed to hold on for a year and a half without routing, that was iron willpower.
Li Fei was mowing through enemies like a one-woman army, and her mind was already wandering — idly pondering how, without "breaking character," she might go about turning the elderly, the women, and the children into a bonus experience package as well.
Then, all at once, the way ahead opened up — and the shrieks and roars gradually died away.
"Running scared already? And this is supposed to be a battle to defend their home…"
The question had barely formed before it dissolved. Li Fei glanced sideways — and the smile on her lips slowly faded, her expression turning grave.
The half-orcs who had charged her first had mostly fallen; the survivors were scattering in all directions.
But they had only ever been cannon fodder, sent to test the waters.
Because deeper in the settlement, several hundred half-orcs — these ones bearing themselves with the hardened sharpness of soldiers — had formed themselves into ranked battle lines at some point without her noticing. They were advancing toward her at a measured, grinding pace, their killing intent blanketing the open ground.
These "regulars" couldn't quite be called perfectly drilled, but their pace was uniform. Spears leveled, their blades honed to a dark, blood-stained edge, they pressed forward under a thunderous, rhythmic chant of "HUH—HA," their massed presence bearing down like a collapsing mountain.
This time, Li Fei did not charge headlong in.
Still Sequence 9 half-orcs — but even a layman could grasp how vast the gap in combat power was between trained, disciplined regulars and a rabble that only knew how to mob rush.
And the Transcendent's instinct was sounding a constant, insistent alarm — her heart tightening, that unmistakable prickling sensation of danger crawling up her back.
"So this is what a Transcendent unit looks like," Li Fei said, gripping her sword, murderous intent plain in her eyes. "That old bastard actually knows what he's doing."
Not that she didn't genuinely crave a real fight.
She'd just said as much, out loud, barely a minute ago.
But if given the choice between a real fight and a slaughter, she would pick the slaughter every single time.
A brilliant arrow streaked out — Grace, silent as ever, launched her offensive against the battle line.
It was plain that in the days since returning from Viranean, she had crossed into Sequence 8. The overdrawn Fortune had left her in a diminished state, but even so, each arrow hit harder than anything she'd loosed back on Turtle Island.
The arrow punched clean through the tightly packed formation — but the gap was immediately sealed by half-orcs from the rear rank.
"Interesting," Li Fei murmured, quietly confirming the broomstick strapped to her back was within reach — her tactical escape option, always on standby — then let out a cold laugh.
"Let me see what you've got."
Before the words were even out, she lowered her center of gravity and charged straight at the dark wall of the advancing line.
"WA——"
She had barely taken a few steps when a low, rolling howl rose from behind the formation.
Then the sky went dark.
The second row of half-orcs reached for the stone axes at their belts, leaning back to wind up, and with a thundering roar, a dense hail of axes came spinning toward her with tremendous force.
This was a far more threatening attack than sending wave after wave of soldiers to die for nothing.
"Oh, HELL—"
Li Fei's pupils contracted. She threw herself into a violent backpedal, her sword whipping in a frenzy of strikes — most of the axes were deflected or smashed apart in a rapid series of sharp cracks, but one stone axe still found her, and while it drew no blood, it drained a full third of the Guardian Mage Robe's protective energy.
Grace also darted aside in the same instant, using the wooden stakes at the village entrance as cover and deftly clearing the enemy's ranged volley.
"Do you wish to continue?" Yusura's voice drifted from behind the formation, utterly free of emotion.
The half-orc battle line was still advancing. Every soldier had two stone axes hanging at the hip — what they'd thrown just now was only one axe from some of the soldiers.
Li Fei swept a calculating gaze over the axes still bristling at their belts, her eyes flickering.
In a single exchange, she had felt the difference between trained regulars and ordinary "field mobs" with bone-deep clarity.
The Moonlight Wolves of the Wolf Den, the sprites of the Secret Garden — no matter how many there were, Li Fei could cut through them in a solo rampage and leave nothing standing. But these half-orcs, armed with nothing more than crude stone and wood, having received training that was far from sophisticated, had already put her under genuine pressure.
What if their trainer and commander were a warlord who had truly mastered warfare-class Transcendent knowledge? What if you put sharper, sturdier weapons in their hands?
If the two of them had kept charging in with their heads down, they'd have likely left their lives here.
Having felt the combat power of a Transcendent unit firsthand, Li Fei finally understood why even high-Sequence powerhouses were always so invested in building their own factions.
Against scattered fighters, personal power was enough to run wild solo. But if a true warlord — one who had mastered advanced military knowledge and warfare-type skills — marshaled an army of mid- and low-Sequence Transcendents, even high-Sequence elites would have to tread carefully. Even mighty individuals could be ground down and destroyed by an encirclement they couldn't escape.
And if a high-tier creature like a Black Dragon or a Phoenix were coordinating the assault? Even a grandmaster-level existence, once surrounded, would come out of it skinned alive — or worse, cut down in the encirclement.
"I understand now."
Li Fei turned and held up a hand toward Grace, signaling her to stand down, then drew a deep breath and called out in a clear, carrying voice: "All right. Now you've earned the right to negotiate a deal."
"Father! They attacked us first — they've already killed so many of our clansmen!" Kenan pressed urgently. "Order the flying axes to cripple them and take them captive! Then everything they have will be—"
"Did you not see her speed just now? If she decided to retreat, what would you use to stop her?"
Yusura looked at his son with undisguised disappointment. "I understand — a female like that holds a tremendous appeal for you. But my child, I hope you never forget what your purpose is, and to think through the consequences before you make a decision."
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