"Other people's Secret Gardens are just so much nicer…"
Li Fei stepped barefoot out of the Fairy Ring and took the clothes the blue-haired fairy held out to her, her tone thick with envy.
A Secret Garden had to be developed step by step — it required fairies, materials, and knowledge, and especially a Fairy Ring capable of boosting Fortune, which needed a proper ritual to construct.
Li Fei's own Secret Garden had only just been taken over from its wild state; it was at a rough "bare-bones" level. The one open to all of Loxibrook — offering paid access to its Fairy Ring services — was firmly "fully developed," already capable of producing Lucky Four-Leaf Clovers on a stable, consistent basis.
Once she'd finished dressing, Li Fei glanced at the blue-haired fairy nuzzling against her shoulder, and a sudden idea struck her.
The loyalty granted by Summoning Magic was absolute.
But the power of the Witch's disease to enthrall was equally absolute.
Which raised an interesting question:
If someone else's fairy caught my Witch's disease, whose side would she choose?
If she could lure a whole crop of fairies — fairies loaded with construction talent and governance experience — into her own Secret Garden… wouldn't her Secret Garden's development speed just skyrocket?
After all, poaching experienced help beats building from scratch any day.
Li Fei cast a scheming look at the blue-haired fairy snuggling affectionately against her, and suppressed her inner ambitions — for now.
She had a gacha session today. Better accumulate a little good karma first…
After pressing a farewell kiss to each of her fairies' foreheads amid their reluctant goodbyes, Li Fei mounted her flying broomstick and quickly located the same stretch of lawn from her last draw. The scenery was as charming as ever.
She glanced at her System Panel. With the Lucky Fountain, Rainbow Altar, and Fairy Ring all active, her Fortune had climbed into double digits. The Mind-Clearing Pill that Lady Zhihua had refined from Wisdom Fruit proved genuinely effective too — the triple Meditation state's buff was fully maxed in a short time. Combined with the Sock Garter and the Fairy Honeytongue, her Charisma had broken past four hundred.
Charisma: 422
Morality: -25
Fortune: 11 (8)
"Vocate filios truncatis."
A light flick of her staff, and the verdant Children of the Forest materialized, followed immediately by a Fortune Spell landing on Li Fei.
"The bundle pack really is handy," Li Fei remarked appreciatively, then fished out a small vial of golden liquid.
[Enhanced Lucky Potion]
Item Rating: Blazing Sun
Effect: Grants Fortune +20 for 60 minutes upon consumption; permanently increases Fortune by 1 point. Note: The permanent increase can only take effect once.
Glug glug glug!
The instant the potion went down, Li Fei felt the world shift.
The breeze was soft, the sunlight warm and gentle — as though the entire heavens and earth existed solely to dote on her.
Fortune: 33 (9)
— I am the illegitimate daughter of Lady Luck herself.
The thought flashed through her mind and was gone.
The Enhanced Lucky Potion had a generous duration, so Li Fei, never one to skip ceremony, used the Lucky Fountain water from her canteen to wash her hands and pat her face a few times before finally opening the Gacha Panel.
Thanks to her fairies grinding monsters diligently every single night, she'd levelled up to Level 20, giving her a full fifteen draws.
The plump spinning wheel was a riot of color: not a speck of white remained. Less than a quarter was green, over half was silver, roughly twenty percent was gold, and a sliver of dark gold gleamed at the edge.
"Let's warm up with one pull first," Li Fei said, lighting a cigarette and affecting the calmest tone she could manage.
The words had barely left her lips before the wheel began spinning, different colors weaving into a dazzling blur.
When it stopped, a hazy silver glow materialized.
[Obtained: True Sight Gem.]
[True Sight Gem]
Item Rating: Dawn
Attribute: Can dispel stealth skills of Advanced rank and below within a hundred meters.
"A great start."
Li Fei turned the glittering green gem over in her fingers, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.
With this, she'd never have to worry about a scouting-type Transcendent sneaking up on her again!
She pocketed the gem, took a long drag, and her gaze sharpened.
"System, give me a ten-pull!"
The Fortune wheel spun like a watermill, pausing every three seconds before spinning again, over and over.
[Obtained: 1 Potential Point.]
[Obtained: Heartbreaker.]
[Obtained: Order-Alignment Knowledge Book — Curse-Type Spell — Tier 5 — Humanoid Creature Enthrallment.]
[Obtained: 10,000 Wealth Points.]
[Obtained: Spell-Type Ability: Partial Transformation — Succubus Empress (Abdomen).]
[Obtained: Spell-Type Ability: Partial Transformation — Succubus Empress (Lips).]
[Obtained: 1 Strength Point.]
[Obtained: Mythic-grade Equipment — Black-and-White Pendant (Unique) (Unawakened).]
[Obtained: Natural Spring Water (100g).]
[Obtained: Metalcraft Formula: Black Veil.]
Two greens, four silvers, three golds, one dark gold — that Mythic-grade piece of equipment made Li Fei suck in a sharp breath.
Operating on the principle of "save the best for last," she resisted the urge to inspect the dark gold reward and turned her attention to the two green prizes first.
Wealth Points +10,000, and [Heartbreaker].
The former made Li Fei realize that the Gacha Panel could apparently also reward stat points and Wealth Points; the latter was a bit of a conversation piece.
It was a pair of vivid red high heels — exquisitely crafted, with a lustrous sheen like red jadeite, radiating an elegant yet lethal allure.
[Heartbreaker]
Item Rating: New Moon
Attributes: Charisma +5, Strength +5, Agility +10, Movement Speed +15%.
Enchantment Effect: Heartbreaker (Lv1)
Heartbreaker (Lv1): Kick damage +20%; bonus is doubled if the kick lands on the heart.
Stat-wise, this item was quite impressive — there'd be no need to rush replacing it even after advancing to the mid-Sequences. The design was striking too, reminding Li Fei of Leona — a woman equally elegant and threaded through with dangerous edges.
Moreover, compared to the Full Moon-grade [Blade of Joy], the advantage here was that New Moon-grade equipment could be used in the exchange tournament…
It was just that fighting in high heels…
Li Fei rubbed her head and shifted her attention to the four silver prizes.
Strength +1 — excellent; so the gacha could pull stat points too.
Metalcraft Formula: Black Veil — should have decent commercial value.
Natural Spring Water (100g) — great stuff for accelerating plant growth. Hey System, did you swipe Old Demon Han's Sky-Holding Vase or something?
Humanoid Creature Enthrallment — hiss…
[Humanoid Creature Enthrallment] (Lv1)
Spell Effect: Casts an enthrallment on a humanoid target, plunging them into a state of confusion, impulsiveness, and heightened sensitivity — they may even follow your commands. The exact effect depends on the caster's Intelligence and Charisma attributes, as well as the target's Sequence level, resistances, and willpower.
Duration: 10 minutes
Mana Cost: 200
Cooldown: None
A Tier 5 spell with low mana cost and no cooldown — the fit with this courtesan lady was extremely high, since Charisma and Intelligence had always been her strong suits. Paired with the lower-tier [Female Humanoid Creature Enthrallment] and the same-tier [Female Creature Enthrallment] the effect would be even better; throw in spells like [Witch's Eye] and [Bewitching Gaze] on top of that… heh heh, perhaps this courtesan lady could single-handedly develop an entirely new class by herself.
Of course, if she couldn't win the fight, it was best not to use this spell at all — the consequences of losing after deploying it would be dire.
Li Fei consumed the knowledge book without a second's hesitation and planned to test its effects that evening.
On to the three gold prizes.
A Potential Point — very good!
[Partial Transformation — Succubus Empress (Abdomen)]
Description: The source of the Succubus Empress's magical power.
Upon activation, the waist and abdomen transform into the Succubus Empress form: Agility +50, Charisma +30, Constitution +20, Strength +10 in that region; the spine becomes supple, increasing the explosive power, endurance, injury recovery, flexibility, sensitivity, and perspiration rate of the waist and abdomen.
Grants Charm Markings; Charm Markings can store extra mana, increase casting speed, spell effectiveness, and spell penetration; the denser the Charm Markings, the greater the amplification.
The process of acquiring Charm Markings is not suitable for description.
Consumes 1 Mana per second.
Note: Can be combined with Partial Transformation — Succubus Empress (Tail), (Horn), (Lips), (Heart), (Wings), (Hooves), (Eyes), and (Claws) to form the superior ability: Full Transformation — Succubus Empress.
[Partial Transformation — Succubus Empress (Lips)]
Description: The Succubus Empress's authority to rule her kin.
Upon activation, the lips, teeth, tongue, neck, and collarbone transform into the Succubus Empress form: Dominion +5, Incantation Chanting Speed +100%, transformed area flexibility +300%, mental-type spell effectiveness +50%, bite force +100%, teeth physical penetration +20%; targets that are touched gain increased sensitivity; lies become more enthralling; can draw on indescribable sustenance to restore stamina and heal injuries; grants [Succubus's Kiss].
Consumes 1 Mana per second.
Note: Can be combined with Partial Transformation — Succubus Empress (Tail), (Horn), (Abdomen), (Heart), (Wings), (Hooves), (Eyes), and (Claws) to form the superior ability: Full Transformation — Succubus Empress.
Succubus's Kiss:
Description: From the collarbone to the philtrum — Agility +50, Constitution +50, Charisma +50, Strength +10; additionally increases sensitivity, salivation rate, and perspiration rate in that region; can secrete various "saliva compounds."
Good lord!
Li Fei was so startled she nearly dropped her cigarette, instinctively hunching her shoulders.
To begin with, the neck was already a weak point for this courtesan lady — with the Sensitivity Aura active, it was a weak point within a weak point.
And the [Partial Transformation — Succubus Empress (Lips)] jacked up the sensitivity of everything from the collarbone up to just below the nose — at a guess, even the lightest graze would register like a critical hit.
She stared at it with furrowed brows for quite a long while before she managed to switch back to practical thinking.
She had to admit — these two spell-type abilities were extraordinarily powerful, and their synergy with her own kit was off the charts.
Given her Charisma score, which was already approaching "Tomie" levels and creeping further into indescribable territory with every passing day, if this were combined with the [Humanoid Creature Enthrallment] she'd just learned, the [Depravity] ability she'd gained at Sequence 8, and a few more enthralling spells on top of that… never mind a "fountain" class. This was practically a "waterfall" class.
Furthermore, the enhancement to her waist and core strength meant that when she swung her upper limbs she could unleash significantly greater force; and the massive boost to her oral attributes, teeth penetration, and bite force — combined with the saliva compounds — meant that in the future, when enemies got in close, she might want to seriously consider biting them as a legitimate attack option, alongside sword strikes and kicks.
On top of all that, she'd heard that the Succubus Empress was a legendary being — suspected to be of a high Sequence — the once-in-an-age sovereign of the succubus lineage.
Which meant that if she could ever assemble the complete [Full Transformation — Succubus Empress], she might directly gain high-Sequence combat power — and get an entire kin group serving her for free!
"Phew… tonight I'll have to find a lucky volunteer to properly test the transformation and [Humanoid Creature Enthrallment] effects."
Li Fei stubbed out her cigarette, muttering under her breath: "Though, when you add in the Stone Skin defense and the Sensitivity Aura, System's prizes have never really been what you'd call decent…"
She let out a long breath and finally turned her gaze to the dark gold reward.
It was an unassuming-looking pendant — the chain a deep dark gold, strange to the touch, neither quite metal nor quite wood, with a certain give to it.
The charm itself was a palm-sized circular mirror, stark black and white, split by an S-curve arc — not unlike a taijitu yin-yang fish, except without the two small dots representing the fish's eyes.
[Black-and-White Pendant (Unique) (Unawakened)]
Item Rating: Mythic
Attributes:
1. Can block one targeted spell every 60 seconds.
2. ???
Note: Can be combined with [???] and [???] to form a Mythic-grade set.
Powerful. Even in its [Unawakened] state, with not a single stat bonus to speak of, it was overwhelmingly powerful.
Blocking one targeted spell every 60 seconds sounded like a deceptively simple description — but there was no restriction on the spell's tier!
That meant even if a high-Sequence spell-type master charged up their casting with "Enhanced Cast," "Ultimate Cast," "Sacred Cast," or "Explosive Cast" enchantments and launched a "Hand of Death" at her — she could negate it completely, no damage taken!
Li Fei had seen other spell-immunity Transcendent Items in the shop — things like the [Magic Shield Pendant] and the [Lincoln Ring] — with eye-watering price tags, but all of them had recharge times far exceeding 60 seconds, often requiring pre-charging on top of that, and every one of them had a cap on the tier of spell they could negate. She herself owned a [Guardian Mage Robe] that could automatically block three attacks every 24 hours — but that thing's ceiling was Tier 4 spells.
"That (Unique) suffix… the more I think about it, the more unsettling it feels… whatever."
Without a moment's hesitation, Li Fei yanked off her [Intellect Pendant], swapped on the Black-and-White Pendant, and tucked the charm away against her chest.
As for the other two mysterious pieces of gear and the Mythic-grade set… forget it. Not worth the headache. Just go home and sleep.
"Keep going."
Li Fei couldn't help but light another cigarette. Through the drifting haze of smoke, her mood settled somewhat.
[Obtained: Shroud of Fate (Fragment).]
A golden flash!
"No wonder my left eye wouldn't stop twitching… but what even is this thing?"
Li Fei cradled the pitch-black cloth in both hands and squinted at the panel description.
[Shroud of Fate (Fragment)]
Description: Write your desire in blood, and Fate will give you guidance.
Uses: (3/3)
"Emm… I'll research this later. System, keep it going!"
The wheel spun one more time. Three seconds later, Li Fei's brow arched.
"Twenty percent odds and this much gold keeps dropping? Beautiful girls really do have better luck."
[Obtained: Class Secret Potion Formula and Ritual Knowledge (Succubus Witch).]
[Succubus Witch]
Advancement Requirements: ♀; must have mastered one piece of advanced Transcendent knowledge; …
Secret Potion Formula: Serpent-woman scales of Sequence 5 or above; …
Note: We can custom-design a class for you three full Sequences ahead of schedule. Can the Witch Coven do that?
"The succubus content is getting a little intense," Li Fei said with affected calm. "System, your tastes are showing."
But inside, she was screaming:
From now on — the Witch Coven. Go more often. Go constantly!
Let System and the Witch Coven compete for her patronage. Let them fight!
"Continue!"
Silver. Not bad.
[Obtained: Traitor's Dagger.]
[Traitor's Dagger]
Description: Can nullify a spell contract once.
— Handy item. Used well, it could yield returns no worse than a gold prize.
Li Fei made her silent assessment.
She fished out her canteen, took a swig of Lucky Fountain water, breathed slowly and deeply a few times, then swept her hair back behind her ears and set her expression with utmost gravity.
"Last pull."
"System — show me exactly where your limits are!"
The wheel rolled and spun.
"Summon a phoenix, summon a demon, a Potential Point…"
The courtesan lady spent about a second praying before she suddenly caught herself.
It's just a prayer — why not aim bigger?
Go for the thing she wanted most.
Without much hesitation at all, a name surfaced in her mind — something notorious, more infamous than Bai Mengtian, more reviled than the Witch Coven, something universally condemned.
Anyone who'd ever been online would know just how terrifying that forbidden spell was. Its range might be limited, but the effects it produced could only be described as depraved beyond all reason — enough to warp human cognition and send morality tumbling into the abyss.
"Hypnosis, hypnosis, hypnosis…"
The courtesan lady whispered the forbidden spell's name over and over.
And amid the frantic pounding of her heartbeat, dark gold light flooded the courtesan lady's eyes.
____
________________________________________
🌸 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... 😉