At the far end of a long waterway so choked with aquatic plants that the river surface was invisible, Li Fei finally laid eyes on the creature the half-orcs had named their eternal nemesis — the stone monster they swore to spend at least a century conquering.
A Sequence 5 Earth Elemental.
Most of its body was submerged in the earth, with only a cylindrical, clay-grey head jutting above the surface — two to three meters in diameter and taller than Li Fei herself.
It was obvious the half-orc tribe had absolutely no hope of defeating this Transcendent creature on individual merit alone. The Earth Elemental's sheer weight was enough to flatten any half-orc into a pancake without breaking a sweat.
Even Li Fei as she was right now would be completely helpless against its brute force.
Grrrumble…
With a grinding rumble like boulders colliding, one of those great round heads trundled toward the two special recruits.
This type of Transcendent creature preferred stillness over movement, and it didn't look particularly terrifying — in fact, there was something almost dopey and endearing about it, like a big dumb boulder with eyes.
But as it drew closer, a crushing, suffocating sense of helplessness welled up from the pit of Li Fei's stomach. It was exactly like watching a steamroller rumbling toward you while standing frozen on the pavement — an instinctive, bone-deep dread.
Ignorance is fearlessness, and the reverse holds just as true: ever since reaching Sequence 9, Li Fei's sharpened senses meant she felt the pressure from higher-Sequence beings far more acutely than before.
—That crafty old chief. All that talk about defeating the stone monsters, but what he's actually planning is to spend his tribe's lives buying time, then funnel his descendants through the portal while the chaos covers their escape...
Li Fei stared up at the dopey Earth Elemental, thoughts turning quietly over in her mind.
Four full Sequence ranks below it, with no Focus Aura, War Drum Aura, or any other legion-type tactical skill buffs — how were the half-orcs supposed to fight this thing with their bare hands?
If there were only a single Earth Elemental, ten thousand half-orcs throwing themselves at it without regard for their lives might gradually chip away at its body and scrape out a win. But there were seven or eight of these things, slumbering in a ring along a band of brown earth. No matter how hard the half-orcs threw themselves at this, they didn't stand a chance.
Li Fei unclipped her special recruit's brooch and met the Earth Elemental's pumpkin-sized gaze head-on, calling out in a clear voice:
"D-07."
Gur-gur…
The Earth Elemental silently retracted its head back into the earth, opening a path for the two of them.
Li Fei stepped forward without a word, not even glancing back at Grace.
The "kind-hearted and soft-hearted" Li Fei had brought Grace along on her broomstick, but hadn't exchanged so much as half a sentence with her the entire way.
This left the introverted Grace's expression carrying something beyond its usual detachment — a layer of bitter, world-weary misery had settled over her features, and her eyes had gone grey and dim. Which Li Fei found both thrilling and deeply satisfying.
To be honest, those last two hours had been… a lot to process.
The beginning had been fun enough. Li Fei had thrown herself into it — gasping "you're scaring me" and "not there" with tremendous gusto.
But after a while, it became something of an ordeal.
She'd desperately wanted to respond, but had to wrench her face away, lest her expression slip and give everything away.
She'd desperately wanted to be enthusiastic, but had to bite her tongue and pinch herself, enduring it all through sheer willpower.
Beyond all that, certain things Grace did had pushed well past the limits of Li Fei's comprehension. She'd noticed that women really seemed to have a thing about going for her throat…
"Ah—"
Lost in fond recollection, Li Fei nearly tripped over a rock. Grace instinctively shot out a hand to steady her.
"Thank…"
Li Fei caught herself halfway through, threw Grace a complicated look, pushed her hand away, and trudged forward with a glum expression.
Grace bit her lip. Li Fei's ashen profile carved guilt and heartache through her chest, yet she had no idea how to make it right. All she could do was follow behind in silence.
She assumed it was her own savage behavior that had wounded Li Fei's heart and deepened her soul injuries — she had no way of knowing that Li Fei always looked like this after a good cuddle session…
A short while later, the two crossed through the ring-shaped earthen band and arrived before a blue-grey portal, its frame shimmering with emerald light.
Beside the portal stood an ancient-looking tree, its bark ridged with deep furrows like the wrinkles on an old man's face. The trunk was oval-shaped, roughly the size of a human head, and the tangled patterns of bark formed an abstract, contorted face — like some gnarled old figure on the verge of death.
"So this is the Knowledge Tree… it's a bit of a sanity check just looking at it."
Li Fei muttered under her breath. Aside from the generator at the Witch Coven Folded Space, this thing was probably the most deeply uncomfortable object she'd ever laid eyes on.
Still, ugly as the Knowledge Tree was, the golden-orange fruit hanging from its branches were a different matter entirely. Li Fei did a rough count — there had to be fifty or sixty pieces of fruit up there.
The thought was tempting.
"If I took all this fruit… Nicole-mama would probably just give me a token slap on the wrist, right…"
"No — bad idea. The hidden costs are too high. I literally just asked her to waive Lilith's tuition the day before yesterday, and turning around to make another demand this soon would tank my image. I'd get slapped with labels like 'no sense of proportion' and 'bottomlessly greedy'..."
The tempting thought flickered through her mind and was firmly snuffed out. The top courtesan who knew the difference between eating well once and eating well always made a swift executive decision to think of something else.
Wolf dens, half-orc tribes — those Li Fei could drain dry in a single go without a second thought. But for people she intended to keep close for years to come, she had to mind her table manners and consider their feelings. Otherwise she'd have already taken Qin Zhihua's sachet for herself a long time ago.
Just as Li Fei was feeling a little wistful about it, Grace stepped lightly up the tree trunk and began moving through the branches with airy grace. In less than half a minute, she had selected the ten largest, most plump-looking fruits and plucked them one by one.
Thud.
Grace landed holding the fruit, bending her knees to absorb the impact with effortless elegance, then walked carefully up to Li Fei.
"For you."
"I have hands of my own."
Li Fei said coldly, then reached out two fingers to pluck five fruits from the pile, as though terrified of making contact with Grace.
"All of them are for you."
Grace added anxiously, her grey-blue eyes flickering with a desperate, pleading light.
Like a simple little girl offering a perfect test paper to a mother who'd spent her whole childhood drinking and hitting her — holding out that small, humble hope.
"Oh? Is this an apology gift?"
Li Fei curved her lips. "Then I suppose I should thank you."
Hearing Li Fei's tone soften even slightly, Grace could no longer hold on to her poker face. A smile broke through — the kind that was one breath away from dissolving into tears.
Then, in the next instant, the mother tore the test paper in half.
Smack, smack, smack—
The Knowledge Fruit rained down on Grace from all directions.
And right behind it came Li Fei's roar.
"What crime did I commit, that you would humiliate me like this?! You do something like that, and then you hand me compensation?! What do you think this is, paying for services rendered?!"
Li Fei bellowed: "I may work at the Golden Kumquat Tavern, but I have always held the line — I have never, not once, sold my dignity. Every coin I earn is clean money!"
Was it a little unreasonable? Perhaps.
But given that Grace had fully fallen for her, and had genuinely — if unintentionally — crossed a line, being unreasonable was entirely permitted.
"No… that's not what I meant…"
Grace shook her head again and again, and tears fell without her even noticing.
If Aurora's radiant smile was like crystalline sunlight reflected off a glacier, then Grace's tear-streaked face was a cascade of dominoes toppling, a cake warped and ruined by boiling water, a volcano smothered under white snow that then erupts in a tremendous gush of fire — the destruction of something beautiful, giving rise to a far more breathtaking and devastating sight.
Li Fei could look at it forever.
—Heaven rewards the persistent.
A little patience now, and I'll have exactly what I want.
Using the excuse of bending down to collect the Knowledge Fruit, Li Fei just barely managed to suppress the upward twitch at the corners of her mouth. By the time she straightened up, her face had rearranged itself into an expression of long-suffering martyrdom even more aggrieved than Grace's, and she stepped through the portal without looking back.
---
"Outstanding work."
The Dean, grey braids draped over her slender shoulders, personally brewed Li Fei a cup of black tea. "The time it took was a bit longer than projected… but among all the students who've entered Folded Space D-07, you came back with the most."
"Nicole-mama deserves half the credit~"
Li Fei gave her most winning smile. "If not for your guidance and support, how could things have gone so smoothly for me?"
"Oh?"
Nicole tapped a finger against her lips, her tone carrying a hint of playful mischief. "If I deserve half the credit, shouldn't I also get half the spoils?"
"There's an Eastern saying," interjected Irena from where she sat nearby, swinging her snow-white legs and swallowing a bite of biscuit, her smile just as sweet. "'Those present all get a share.'"
"Well, I…"
Li Fei puffed out her cheeks.
What exquisite ingredients. A pure, enchanting white-haired beauty, and a graceful, intellectual grey-haired woman — if only.
Unfortunately, in front of these two, Li Fei was always the one being played…
Lady Annie was so much nicer!
"First," Nicole continued, setting down her pen after signing a document, "the supplies you brought back will be inventoried and converted into credits, then split between you and Miss Grace at a 7-to-3 ratio. Second, in recognition of your performance in the Folded Space, the Academy will issue a formal commendation. And in addition to that—"
"Hold on — just a commendation? No tangible reward?"
Li Fei planted both hands on her hips, registering her dissatisfaction in no uncertain terms.
"A Folded Space is a critical educational resource provided for your practical combat training. In general, the Academy does not encourage behavior that… destroys the Folded Space ecosystem."
Whether it was imagination or not, Nicole's voice carried a distinct note of schadenfreude — the particular pleasure of someone who had built her happiness entirely on another's suffering. "So, no extra reward, I'm afraid. Li Fei-classmate~"
"The ecological destruction was entirely the work of Chief Yusura! I, Li Fei, am innocent — completely and utterly unconnected to that affair—"
Li Fei's eyes went wide as she attempted to brazen it out.
"Oh my, it seems I've wronged you, Li Fei-classmate."
Nicole gave a delicate, theatrical gasp of surprise, then picked up the extradition request form Li Fei had just filled out and shook it gently, her expression shifting to one of grave concern. "In that case, I really shouldn't carelessly release such a dangerous figure into Loxibrook… I'll need to subject him to a thorough mental-magic interrogation to determine his motive for poisoning his own people. Who knows — I might even turn up the mastermind behind it all…"
"That won't be necessary. I'll keep a close personal eye on him and make sure he stays within the law."
Li Fei's expression shifted rapidly. She stood up very straight and spoke with great moral conviction: "Please, keep the Academy's reward for classmates who deserve it more than I do. My performance wasn't good enough — there's still so much room for improvement. I couldn't possibly accept extra recognition in good conscience…"
"Very well, then. Let's move on to the next matter."
The mature, elegant smile returned to Nicole's face.
Unbelievable.
The top courtesan — outmaneuvered yet again — kept her smile firmly in place and quietly hid her tightly clenched little fist behind her back.
"Regarding the [Chaos Altar]: you may choose between a 'revenue share' arrangement and a full 'buyout.'"
"Under the revenue share, each time a student uses it, you receive 20 credits…"
"Only 20?"
Li Fei slapped Irena's thigh hard — payback for her earlier attempt to join in the shakedown — and once again registered her protest.
"First, the altar requires ongoing maintenance, and a continuous supply of offerings. Second, a first-tier altar alone likely wouldn't justify a student spending one of their precious Folded Space entry permits. To make the altar worthwhile, we'd also need to reconstruct the biome of the entire plane — and all of that comes with costs, does it not?"
Nicole spoke without hurry.
"Then I'll take the buyout."
Li Fei chose without a moment's hesitation.
Only Transcendents who had exhausted their potential would opt for long-term returns. The more gifted a Transcendent was, the more they favored high short-term payoffs — not because they were short-sighted, but because these heaven-blessed talents were utterly convinced that no long-term investment could outperform themselves. Pile up resources now, advance through the Sequences faster and safer — that would always yield greater returns than any scattershot investment.
"A wise choice."
Nicole nodded and laced her fingers together. "In that case, as the condition for the buyout…"
"I want all the remaining Knowledge Fruit."
Li Fei spread her five fingers wide, then closed them, stating her terms.
Her nightlife going forward was going to involve one prolonged, grueling campaign after another. Li Fei's "glass cannon" skill levels had been skyrocketing — but her Meditation progress had flatlined completely. Getting this batch of Knowledge Fruit would at least let her cap out "Basic Meditation." Work hard, play hard — but certain hobbies were simply non-negotiable.
"Hmm?"
Nicole's expression turned slightly pained. "The Knowledge Fruit is a shared educational resource. Even as Dean, I can't show too much favoritism…"
"Nicole-mama~"
Li Fei switched to a soft, wheedling tone and shuffled over in tiny steps, wrapping herself around Nicole's arm and swaying back and forth.
She knew nothing about negotiation tactics. She knew how to leverage her physical advantages.
When a breathtakingly beautiful girl gazes up at you with wide, liquid eyes, pressing her warmth against your arm, and sweetly voices a request that wasn't even that outrageous to begin with… unless you had prosthetic arms with no sense of touch, it was very hard to say no.
Of course, everything had to be calibrated — if you just took something without a word and presented it as a done deal, you'd only come across as cheap. But in a fair, reasonable, above-board negotiation, showing just a tiny bit of endearing greed and a little pout? Far from losing points, it made you adorable, and helped cement the relationship.
Students who fall below the "pleasing to the eye" threshold are advised not to attempt this technique.
"Well… in recognition of your exceptional performance, it's not entirely out of the question to make a slight adjustment to how educational resources are allocated… After all, the main Academy did just send down a new directive emphasizing flexible, humanized teaching practices."
The upright and selfless Dean reached a sound and responsible decision.
Mua.
Li Fei hugged Nicole's arm and kissed her on the cheek, then immediately pulled back — out of habit, she'd intended to leave her dangling, keep her appetite whetted. Nicole had always been the type who wouldn't scatter the hawks until the rabbit was in sight, which had repeatedly forced the top courtesan to break her own rule of "never throw yourself at someone right after extracting a favor." But this time there seemed to be an opening, and Li Fei planned to give Nicole a taste of her own seven-catch-and-release medicine.
Except Nicole refused to follow the script.
Her eyes curved into soft crescents, her expression warm and gentle, and with a sharp snap she caught the special recruit's wrist, tilted her chin up, and murmured in a slow, unhurried breath directly into her ear: "According to Folded Space management regulations… students returning from a foreign space are required to undergo a thorough physical examination."
"Otherwise, if someone were to bring back some strange and exotic pathogen from the other side, the consequences could be quite serious, you know."
The words were barely out of her mouth before Nicole snapped her fingers with a casual flick. The office doors and windows slammed shut in an instant, and an intricate, complex spell circuit flared and vanished, sealing off the interior from the outside world — to a degree that even Li Fei burning her soul to the limit and unleashing Abyssal Lava at full power might not be enough to blow through.
This sudden shift in atmosphere was not lost on Irena, who had been quietly tiptoeing toward the door. She froze in place, the little ahoge on top of her head standing straight up in alarm.
"Since you're already here, you might as well get examined too."
In a voice of gentle sweetness, a shimmer of magical luminescence spread through the room, and the grinning, cold-sweating grey-haired beauty was shrunk down to a tiny size right alongside Li Fei.
____
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