Waves of blood surged skyward, vengeful souls howled, and boundless yin qi coiled into a vortex that poured backward into the black-haired woman's brow, tempering her soul, unleashing endless potential.
Blood-light gushed from Li Fei's eyes, her lush hair streaming toward the heavens as she received the baptism of the [Soul-Burial Spirit-Nourishing Grand Array - Seven].
Not until the sky gradually brightened did it all settle, the crimson river of blood turning to murky filth.
"What a bountiful harvest…"
The blood-light in Li Fei's eyes receded, her gaze clear once more, black and white distinct. She glanced at the system panel and giggled.
The [Soul-Burial Spirit-Nourishing Grand Array - Orchid] could temper one's origin and forge an undying demonic body—in short, a considerable batch of attribute points—and the Furnace Battle-Qi from the abyss would most likely be strengthened as well, granting an immediate boost to combat power.
But after tweaking the array a little, Li Fei had chosen the [Soul-Burial Spirit-Nourishing Grand Array - Seven] instead, whose effect was to unearth potential, refine the soul, awaken one's Innate Supernatural Power, and even push an existing Innate Supernatural Power toward further transformation.
Miss System provided very intuitive and precise feedback.
Aptitude: 7→10
Innate Talent:
2. Enthrall Fate:
The more beautiful, the more fortunate (every 100 points of Charm grants an additional 2 points of Luck)
(Upgradeable)
Her aptitude had risen further, reaching double digits for the first time.
Although this kind of feedback wasn't as immediate as a surge in combat power, an enhanced learning ability meant she could save on Wealth Points and potential points down the road, and even gradually shake off her reliance on Miss System—which mattered enormously to Li Fei.
Not to mention, raising aptitude was inherently far harder than improving the three dimensions of strength, body, and agility. Hardly any Transcendent would kill the goose that laid the golden eggs for a moment's power.
More than that, her second Innate Talent had also leveled up, bringing Li Fei even more good fortune.
If Bai Mengtian were to observe Li Fei now with the Qi Observation Art, she would find that her best friend no longer looked like the hapless wretch of the past. Instead, a layer of blood-colored fortune wreathed her whole body, murmuring ceaselessly, seeking to bewitch the will of heaven and twist fate.
On top of that, her Charm value had also risen—the "Sundome Interrogation Method" the Witch had worked out on her own was clearly a smidge (a hundred million points) unscrupulous, and the [Soul-Burial Spirit-Nourishing Grand Array] was far too sinful and ill-omened, dragging down the Morality Value of the ultimate beneficiary.
Morality: -34
Charm: 538 (536)
Luck: 20
And after this battle, Li Fei's level—dormant for many days—jumped all the way to Lv25, along with the family fortune Squire Wang had willingly offered up, plus the spoils seized from the Demon Suppression Bureau's forces and from various demons and monsters.
Even though the Tree Demon had all but exhausted its resources building that Forbidden grand array, what Li Fei pocketed was still a huge sum, including:
One hundred thousand taels of gold—for which she mainly had to thank Squire Wang's generosity—though it was a pity the Wang family held a large stock of fixed assets she had no time to haul away, and the Demon Suppression Bureau members hadn't carried much silver on their mission, or the figure might have multiplied several times over.
Materials worth about 150,000 Wealth Points, with the Sap of the Thousand-Year Tree Demon making up the bulk—after all, it was a Sequence 6-tier rarity that could permanently boost attributes. The two Demon King Crystal Cores the Tree Demon had handed over, one before and one after, were also fine goods worth five figures.
And over 70,000 Wealth Points' worth of equipment, among which Lü Zhengchun's and Xu Qianfu's inner armor, plus the former's [Demon-Slaying Sword] and the latter's [Calamity-Crossing Black Lotus], were all Full Moon-grade gear, valued at ten thousand gold and up. The rest of the assorted equipment could fetch a fair bit if sold off—but what Li Fei could actually use turned out to be the [Lesser Yin Pearl] and [Ghost-Rearing Gourd] scavenged from the Tree Demon's lair.
The only pity was that the iron chains forming the Demon-Sealing Grand Array were single-use items, and a great many consumables had been spent in the fight—three hapless wretches from the Demon Suppression Bureau had even been melted, gear and all, into slush by [Abyssal Lava], leaving the Demoness at a heavy loss.
All told, even without counting intangible assets like the Death-Devouring Demon King's legacy toward Wealth Points, Li Fei's total Wealth Points had climbed in just a few days to the astonishing figure of 411,682.
At such a money-grubbing pace, it was far faster than in strictly law-abiding Loxibrook.
Finally, Li Fei had also gathered a batch of female ghosts whose loyalty wasn't very high—they'd need plenty of breaking in.
"What a shame that dog of a Tree Demon already ate the Longevity Fruit…"
Li Fei, insatiably greedy, muttered with an air of indignant grievance.
The corpse was practically cold, yet it had gone and eaten that life-extending treasure. If that wasn't a criminal waste of good things, what was?
Unlike Li Fei—even with the Demon-Sealing Grand Array ruined, she'd still picked the iron chains back up, which could be fastened onto the female ghosts and also sold as scrap metal for money. Truly sustainable development.
"Time to head home."
Leaving the underground cavern that had nothing left to squeeze, Li Fei leaned back and flopped onto a soft palanquin, and eight female ghosts hoisted it up, swaying as they carried her off on the journey home.
Qiao'er hadn't slept a wink all night.
Last night thunder had rolled through the heavens, rain had poured down, and boundless killing energy had swept across all directions. Even a mortal could feel their own smallness and tremble.
The pads of her snow-tender fingers stroked back and forth over the smooth, hard cover of the Aquarium Grand Opening Commemorative Album, and Qiao'er felt a little worried for the Demoness's safety.
However cunning as a fox and unfathomable that Demoness was, she was in the end merely at the Heaven Realm, yet now she'd been dragged into a struggle at the level of demon kings and Innate-tier powers. One wrong step and she'd meet a fate of beauty perishing, body dead and Dao extinguished…
Qiao'er's heart stayed lodged in her throat, her thoughts restless.
"I hope everything's all right…"
She let out a long, wistful sigh and looked out the window once more—then her worried expression froze on her face.
Outside the window were female ghosts in white robes with jet-black hair, numbering over a hundred.
They hung their heads, long hair veiling their faces, giving off an ominous, ghastly aura. This should have been a blood-chilling sight.
Yet these female ghosts, bathed in the gentle morning light, stood in neat, orderly rows—some bearing the palanquin, some hauling goods—silent from beginning to end, looking meek and docile.
Qiao'er saw plainly that around the snow-white, slender ankles or necks of the female ghosts, iron chains were wound, jangling as they swayed.
And the Demoness who'd kept her up all night was now lounging comfortably in the palanquin, hands pillowed behind her head, with female ghosts feeding her water and fanning her—looking exactly like a bandit just back from a raid, arrogant, domineering, and thoroughly smug.
Plop.
The album, warmed by her body heat, slipped to the floor; Qiao'er bowed her head and covered her face, unable to bear the sight.
Li Fei coaxed them into taking turns catching up on sleep with the Moon Pillow, and only when the sun was high did the group make their way outside beneath the parasol to have a meal.
Thwack, thwack, thwack…
Several paper bags were tossed onto the table.
Li Fei wasn't surprised. She opened the bags to find braised beef, lotus-leaf chicken, a vegetable platter, and pastries.
"Hero Nie, how generous."
Li Fei thanked Nie Yunyi, who had appeared at her side at some unknown moment, then pushed a case of instant noodles over to him and waved a lavish hand. "Twelve flavors—take your pick."
"Then I won't stand on ceremony."
Since she'd returned his gift, Nie Yunyi didn't decline this time, grabbing two cups of instant noodles and tearing open the packaging.
Sasha brought him hot water, while Eva carried down a bottle of fine wine from upstairs.
This was the top-tier liquor from the Golden Tangerine Tavern, obtained by Miss Top Courtesan at a half-sold, half-gifted price. Though she'd quit drinking, she'd still brought a case along in case there were social needs.
"This wine…"
Studying the exquisite, distinctive bottle, Nie Yunyi raised an eyebrow.
The wondrously crafted vessel alone qualified as a work of art, and he noticed that the characters on the bottle, like those fabulously delicious noodles, were something he'd never seen or heard of.
He pulled out the cork, and a rich fragrance of wine hit his nose—even the fine wines bestowed by the palace paled greatly in comparison.
Clearly, the gap between Enlos and the Demon-Sealing Continent lay not only in the combat power of Transcendents; in productivity, technology, culture, and more, the difference was that of clouds and mud.
"Fine wine!"
Nie Yunyi praised, and without joining the table, simply sat on the ground, a mouthful of wine and a mouthful of noodles, paying no heed at all to a hero's image.
Still, the sight of a middle-aged swordsman in plain gray cloth enjoying fine wine alongside instant noodles was, frankly, a little bizarre.
"This…"
Qiao'er and Wang Yutong were rather ill at ease.
Nie Yunyi could be called a pillar of heaven for the Song Kingdom, a great hero revered by the masses—and here he was squatting to the side slurping noodles while they dined under the parasol…
"You three, eat up."
Li Fei, however, felt no such qualms. She deftly tore off drumsticks and handed one to each of them, then grabbed the lotus-leaf chicken and dug in—fresh, fragrant, tender and smooth, juices dripping as she pulled the meat away.
After the meal, Li Fei patted the ghost gourd; a few wisps of white smoke drifted out, forming into female ghosts who, under Eva's direction, cleared the table.
Watching the demure, obedient female ghosts, Qiao'er's expression was complicated.
Bloodthirsty, terrifying demons—when had they become so docile? How had she subdued these female ghosts in a single night?
"Skillful, truly skillful."
Nie Yunyi glanced over and clapped in admiration.
"It's nothing—I just happened to stumble upon one possibility for humans taming demons," Li Fei said modestly. "It may be a giant step for the harmonious coexistence of humans and demons, but it's only a small step for me."
Seeing the Demoness utter such world-shaking words, a sharp light flashed in Nie Yunyi's eyes.
"What do you mean by that?"
"The Six Paths are collapsing, the heavens falling and the earth tipping, all living beings hang in dire peril."
Li Fei grabbed a can of cola and tossed it to him, taking one for herself as well, and calmly voiced her grand ambition: "I cannot bear to see the multitudes laid to ruin, so I have come to this world, seeking to Propagate the Dao and Establish the Law, to set the Six Paths aright, and to rescue the common folk from the mire."
Snap.
Li Fei pulled the tab—just a light, crisp pop, yet in the ears of the others it rang like a great bronze bell, deafening and jolting them awake.
"Big words. Where do you come from?"
Nie Yunyi straightened up, still wearing that half-smile, yet vigor surged in his eyes.
"I come from the heavens."
"The heavens? That's where immortals dwell. Don't tell me you're a celestial maiden."
"Not yet, for the time being."
Faced with his teasing, probing tone, Li Fei's expression turned compassionate, as if all the world's beings lived within her eyes. "Until the scourge of demons is quelled, I vow not to become an immortal."
An immortal?!
Not to mention Wang Yutong, who was struck dumb—even Nie Yunyi was rocked by the staggering weight of information in those offhand words, a thousand thoughts flashing through his mind.
Once one crossed the three realms of Human, Earth, and Heaven, one could set one's sword toward the Innate; above the Innate lay the Heaven-Man Realm; and a Heaven-Man warrior could go a step further still, transcending into sainthood, with the power to level mountains and overturn seas.
And the Martial Saint was the very end of cultivation. From ancient times to now, whether demon or human, none had ever touched a higher, deeper realm.
Though more than one Martial Saint had reasoned that a road still lay ahead—cross it and one would leap the Dragon Gate like a carp, transforming from mortal to immortal—they had exhausted their life's efforts and still failed to attain the Dao, departing the world with lifelong regret.
There had even been a Demon Saint who, on the brink of the grave, slaughtered seven cities in a row and forged a Forbidden array formation in an attempt to ascend to the Demon-Immortal Realm—yet in the end still died, body and Dao extinguished.
As the ages rolled on and seas turned to mulberry fields, the world's cultivators had nearly despaired, regarding the Saint Realm as a grave. Even peerless prodigies and unrivaled demon saints would ultimately halt here, awaiting decay and extinction.
Yet by this Demoness's meaning, it seemed the road ahead was not severed? And she was even certain she could attain the Dao and become an immortal?
Too absurd. Too preposterous.
Nie Yunyi instinctively wanted to expose such a clumsy, childish lie, but once his lips parted, the words jammed in his throat.
The wondrous house that grew in the wind, the never-before-seen food, drink, and writing—all of it was utterly out of place in this world.
The techniques the Demoness cultivated within her were even more unfathomable, mysterious beyond measure. Relying on his profound cultivation base, Nie Yunyi could sense two powers slumbering inside her: one domineering and blazing, somewhere between True Qi and demonic arts yet wholly distinct from both; the other vast and boundless, bearing traces of the Daoist school yet forming a school all its own.
And the two sprites following at her side—frail as they were, Nie Yunyi somehow could not sense any grim demonic aura from them. Instead they radiated a pure, primal vitality, as if daughters of nature herself, born of heaven and nurtured by earth, favored by all things. The fabled auspicious beasts were no more than this—yet Nie Yunyi could swear that even combing through every ancient text, he'd never find a record of such creatures.
Not to mention, he had just gone in person to the cavern where the Tree Demon was buried.
The demon king and the Innate-tier power had all perished, yet this Demoness alone, by some inconceivable means, had brutally wiped out the entire field and survived to the end—as if aided by immortals and buddhas…
All of this pointed to the one word forever beyond the reach of living beings, yet the one that haunted their every dream—immortal!
If food and drink could still be faked, then the writing, the cultivation techniques, the house that changed size at will, the unprecedented creatures—all these things, even if the world's Martial Saints and great demon powers set aside old grudges to work in earnest, racking their brains for several sixty-year cycles, they likely still couldn't produce.
Having ruled out every possibility, Nie Yunyi discovered, to his horror, that this Demoness might truly have come from a celestial palace in the heavens!
"Are there truly immortals in the Ninth Heaven…"
Wang Yutong murmured to herself, looking utterly dazed.
Qiao'er said not a word, secretly staring at Nie Yunyi.
She loved to read, but chances to read were few; in knowledge and experience she surely couldn't compare to Hero Nie, who had roamed the world sword in hand and slain countless demons.
—And yet Hero Nie couldn't refute her…
Qiao'er glanced at Li Fei again, a storm of shock surging within her.
Nie Yunyi finally calmed, a piercing light glinting in his weathered eyes, as if to see through the human heart. "Even if you truly come from the immortal realm and can become an immortal… you'd still be a demon-immortal—what reason would you have to help my human race?"
"I was once human too."
Li Fei smiled faintly, her tail swaying, and once again dropped a stunning secret.
"You could cast off even your human body—yet you still care about the safety of the realm?" Nie Yunyi cut straight to the point.
"On the road to immortality, a hundred boats vie for the current, eagles strike the vast sky, fish glide through shallow depths—all creatures under the frosty heavens contend for freedom."
Li Fei's face didn't change. "Under the Heavenly Dao, all are treated alike—heretics and heterodox paths, the furred and horned, the moisture-born and egg-hatched, all may attain the Dao. That being so, why cling to a human body or a demon body? The three thousand great Daos lead to the same destination by different roads. So long as one can tell good from evil and not let one's original heart be worn away, what difference does it make which road one walks?"
"Demons are demons, humans are humans."
Nie Yunyi was deeply shaken, yet still could not accept Li Fei's reasoning.
"You could also understand it the other way around."
Li Fei snapped her fingers. "So long as the heart's direction is the same, why fuss over a mere shell of flesh? Though I bear a demon's body, my heart is bound to the rise and fall of the human race."
"Besides, Hero Nie, don't you yourself distinguish between good demons and bad demons?"
Nie Yunyi was silent for a moment, then pressed on in a low voice: "If you intend to quell the scourge of demons, then why kill the people of the Demon Suppression Bureau?"
"Those few had the faces of men and the hearts of beasts—how were they any different from demons?"
Li Fei sneered, righteous and confident. "To repel foreign threats, one must first secure the home front! If Hero Nie truly cared whether that pack of deranged fiends lived or died, you likely wouldn't be eating my noodles—you'd have raised your sword to avenge them instead."
Struck right on his inner wound, Nie Yunyi was left speechless.
As the previous commander, he knew all too well just how rotten the Demon Suppression Bureau, and indeed the entire court, had become.
Had killing them not left the court with no usable men, Nie Yunyi would have cleaned house himself before the demons ever made their move.
In the end, unable to turn the tide, Nie Yunyi had dejectedly stepped down, and ever since, with a single man and a single sword, had held the four seas in awe, keeping the demons wary and deterring them from acts too bloody and cruel.
But Li Fei shifted her tone and sighed softly: "Only, these are perilous times. By my strength alone, to save all beings from fire and flood, to prop up the great edifice as it topples—I fear my power falls short…"
Nie Yunyi stared at her for a moment, then suddenly smiled: "It seems, young lady, you're about to call in that promise I owe you?"
They had once wagered on whose hand the Thousand-Year Tree Demon would die by, the loser to grant the winner one request that didn't violate public morals and good order.
Nie Yunyi had come here not only to probe the Demoness's background but also to fulfill the wager—only he'd never imagined this Demoness might actually possess an immortal destiny!
It made Nie Yunyi immensely curious what sort of request she would make.
"That's right."
Li Fei finally laid her cards on the table, her gaze sincere. "The Demon Suppression Bureau is the very anchor-stone of the Song Dynasty, yet that Lu the Eunuch-Dog has hijacked this weapon of the state—deceiving the Emperor, purging all who differ, coercing the realm—stirring the wrath of heaven and the resentment of men, until the people can no longer make a living."
"Until this wretch falls, the long night will never break!"
"And so, I hope Hero Nie will come out of retirement and return to Lin'an…"
"The court doesn't suit me, and I'd make a poor Commander. Forcing myself into the position would only muddy the waters further—no good to the realm, and it might even drag in the innocent. That would truly weigh on my conscience."
Nie Yunyi shook his head with a sigh, the glint of blades and swords flashing in his eyes. "So, young lady, you'd best choose a different promise."
"Hero Nie misunderstands."
Li Fei gave a bashful smile. "What I mean is, I hope Hero Nie will come out of retirement and recommend me to be the Commander of the Demon Suppression Bureau."
?
Nie Yunyi froze.
Qiao'er cried out, covering her mouth; Wang Yutong stood dumbstruck as a wooden statue.
Even the female ghost clearing the table was thrown for a loop, the plate in her hands crashing to the floor with a clatter as she gazed at the Demoness whose jet-black tail swayed gently behind her.
We demons can go and be masters of the Demon Suppression Bureau too?
____
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