"Rua!"
Amid the sound of the password, Miss Top Courtesan stepped into the Witches' Coven.
The Wish-Making Ritual was still being activated day and night; magic-laden waves of sound surged into her eardrums, while honey-thick, crystalline orange juice gathered into a lake, and rolling heat waves and a sweet, bloody odor rushed against her face.
With a somewhat heart-aching motion, she fished out the pre-cut Mana Crystals, and watching her Witch Points climb to 100,001, Li Fei puffed out her cheeks and spat out a bit of national profanity:
"Damn it all."
The purchasing-power ratio of Witch Points to gold coins was roughly 6:1, but if you used resources like Mana Crystals to convert in reverse into Witch Points, the ratio became 7:1—a real rip-off.
Exchanging small sums in the past had been one thing, but this time the amount was rather large, and the moment she thought of the loss it incurred, Miss Top Courtesan's very heart and liver trembled.
She heaved a sigh and, gazing up at the low-hanging firmament, said:
"I want to....customize a Sequence 7 witch class."
Ahh~
The words had barely left her mouth before her Witch Points plunged like a waterfall, while the mountain of flesh heaved all the more violently. Within Li Fei's skull, too, there rose a faint, intangible feminine murmur—ambiguous and bewitching, stirring the imagination—yet it could not soothe the heartache of a heart that had spent seventy thousand gold coins in one breath.
She didn't have to wait long. A pink tentacle drooped down and lightly touched the spot between Miss Top Courtesan's brows.
A new segment of information appeared in her mind.
[Witch of Pleasure]
Secret Medicine Formula: Serpent-woman scales of Sequence 7 or higher, 10g of deep-sea shattered diamond, 30g of Purple Demon Vine sap, ♀ orange juice with Charisma of at least 150.....
Ascension Ritual: Have a thousand people create whole-hearted, whole-bodied pleasure for the one being promoted.
"Ahh, this...it's getting more and more criminal."
Li Fei blanked for a moment, then couldn't help covering her face, apologizing in advance: "Sister Zhihua, I'm sorry."
And at the corner of her mouth, she couldn't help revealing a sorrowful smile.
From the Ascension Ritual alone, Miss Top Courtesan could already taste the true essence of the Witch of Pleasure.
It was not about bringing pleasure to others, but about others bringing pleasure to herself.
Truly worthy of being a class tailor-made for Miss Top Courtesan—a fit beyond perfection.
What's being referred to here is her style of conduct—a certain Miss Li was no Pillow Princess!
As for how to create pleasure, there were many methods, but given the "whole-bodied and whole-hearted" qualifier, plus the matter of efficiency, the only method Li Fei could think of was one and only one.
"Strive to advance to Sequence 7 within a month!"
Miss Top Courtesan privately set herself a little goal, and at the same time, brimming with drive, raised her arm and pumped her fist, cheering herself on.
Her motivation and enthusiasm for cultivation were more abundant than ever before.
After finishing the class exchange, Li Fei did not rush to set off and leave, but instead stayed put, carefully examining all the commissions within the Witches' Coven.
The Sequence 7 [Witch of Pleasure] Ascension Ritual was already in hand; the Sequence 5 [Succubus Witch] had been obtained through the system's lottery draw; but the class customization fees for Sequence 6 and Sequence 4 still had to be sorted out on her own.
Although Mama Nicole held a clue suspected to concern a remnant of the Lady of Sinking's body, distant water couldn't quench a near thirst, and topping up Witch Points with cash was simply too much of a rip-off, so Li Fei still intended to earn some Witch Points herself as much as possible.
But after she examined the commission task list from start to finish, the result was not quite to her satisfaction.
The high-difficulty commissions, the Sequence 8 Miss Witch of Depravity couldn't complete; the low-difficulty ones, those meager rewards were no better than a drop in the bucket.
In the end, Li Fei's gaze locked onto a commission she had noticed early on, displayed in purple text.
Commission Content: The whereabouts of Adrian Gavin.
Adrian Gavin, male, 107 years old, once served as a bishop in Light Town...now his whereabouts are unknown.
Reward: A face-to-face meeting.
Commissioner: Gneia.
Having learned of Lady Gneia's grief-stricken past, Miss Top Courtesan knew very well just how bone-deep, unforgettable a hatred lay buried in her heart.
This mature, charming, graceful and willowy big-big-big-sister witch, for the sake of revenge, had forcibly endured the chaotic, intense instincts of a witch, letting the searing flames scorch her heart.
Li Fei could be certain that, so long as she completed this commission, the Sequence 6 fee problem would be readily solved.
"Adrian..."
Li Fei silently recited all the information in the commission three times over, committing every single word firmly to memory.
Taking her schedule into account, Li Fei planned to wait a day or two before carrying out the full-scale [Witch of Pleasure] Ascension Ritual.
She didn't even linger long in the lounge. After bidding farewell to her sisters, she carried off the fruit she'd swiped from the shop, along with two sets of [Witch Sickness Suppression Ritual · Sequence 8 · Kong Wanying Edition] materials she'd bought from her sisters with goldsmith vouchers, and flew home on her broom before midnight.
"Sister Ling'er, still not asleep?"
The moment she came through the door, the young madam rubbed her forehead against Su Ling'er's forehead, greeting her affectionately.
"Can't sleep..."
Su Ling'er's toes curled, her voice as faint as a mosquito's hum.
—At your age, living together with a fish-sinking, goose-felling beauty like me, it'd be a wonder if you could sleep.
A smug little thought flashed through her heart. The young madam winked at her and said cheerfully:
"I'll come find you in a bit."
After swiftly demolishing the late-night snack Ram had prepared and spending a few minutes nuzzling with the fairies and exchanging goodnights, her white silk-stockinged feet set off, pattering across the soft carpet back to her boudoir.
The bedroom had been fitted with a new carpet, hand-woven from black-striped tiger fur, the waterproof kind—after all, getting it soaked through all the time was no good.
Considering the expense, the young madam couldn't yet bring herself to replace every carpet in the house.
With practiced ease, she opened the lower compartment of the cabinet, reached her hand in among the folded clothes, and twisted a mechanism.
Amid the faint, barely audible sound of the mechanism working, the bookcase slid to the right, revealing a door embedded in the wall.
"Open sesame."
Reciting the password activated the spell ritual, and the tightly locked door parted to both sides. Inside was a hidden compartment two meters tall, one and a half meters wide, and one meter deep, holding her more valuable or private items, such as her notebook and the potions Lady Zhihua had gifted her.
Such a design of course couldn't keep out a truly formidable thief; it was mainly to convey how much the young madam valued the things inside, so as to avoid a tragedy like "Lady Zhihua idly flips open the mysterious notebook, and by the time Miss Top Courtesan gets off work, the cozy villa has become the scene of a wife-murder case."
Li Fei's gaze swept past the potions and notebook, coming to rest on other items, including consecutive-draw rewards she hadn't yet put to use, property deeds, and the [Pandora's Box] and [Beauty's Blood] she'd won from the charity gambling king Lannister.
Of course, combat-related equipment couldn't possibly be kept in here. Following the principle of staying alert in times of peace, Li Fei kept the Blade of Joy, the Gem of True Sight, the Black-and-White Pendant, and the like by her bedside, ready to be taken up at any moment; and Li Fei's target was one of the four lottery rewards lying quietly in the hidden compartment.
Natural Spring Water, the Black Gauze Metal formula, the Shroud of Fate fragment, and the Backstabber's Dagger.
Li Fei took out that unremarkable-looking piece of black cloth.
[Shroud of Fate (Fragment)]
Description: Write down your desire in fresh blood, and Fate will give you guidance.
Uses (3/3)
Advancing to Sequence 7 and consolidating her realm were, for Li Fei, merely a matter of time—the resources had already been amply gathered.
So, over at least the next several months, she had to prepare for her assault on the middle Sequences.
For Li Fei, there were three biggest hurdles to the middle Sequences.
One was her stretched-thin potential points, which required seeking out new avenues for scraping up experience.
When she'd dined with Kalida today, the other party had let slip in casual chatter the news that "owing to the Mettis family's inaction on the Viranean ecological engineering project, City Hall will terminate the partnership at the end of this month and demand that they pay compensation."
Miss Top Courtesan was not one to push her luck. She knew in her heart that once someone else took over, the leeks of Viranean could no longer be harvested; and adding in the blame she'd shouldered over the ordnance and the wolf den, she already owed Kalida a very large debt of gratitude.
Second, she needed a large amount of Witch Points to customize the Sequence 6 class.
Third, the Fourth Heaven of Furnace Battle-Qi, priced at 999,999 Wealth Points—rounding up, that was one million.
Clearly, all three of these problems were thorny, and she hoped the Shroud of Fate could bring her a breakthrough, otherwise she'd only be able to consider the Dark Gold-grade spatial-coordinate reward.
After briefly choosing between the Darknight and the silver needle, Li Fei expressionlessly snatched up the dagger, rubbed the middle finger of her right hand against the blade's edge, and drew a thin line of blood.
She pinched both sides of her middle finger, and the blood welled forth, quickly soaking her fingertip.
Using her finger as a brush and blood as ink, Li Fei neatly and properly wrote a few words upon the Shroud of Fate.
The whereabouts of Adrian Gavin.
As long as she could find this fellow, Miss Top Courtesan might be able to leap in one stroke from a drinking-companion girl to a madam proprietress—and from then on, even when redeeming soy milk during the Wish-Making Ritual, she could ask for two bowls, drinking one and pouring out the other.
The eerie strip of cloth seemed to come alive, beginning to wriggle and absorb the crimson witch's blood.
A moment later, the length of the black cloth strip had shrunk by a third, and a set of words surfaced upon it.
It was another person's name:
Benjamin Collin.
Li Fei: ?
The young madam knit her brows deeply.
Lady Gneia's commission had at least provided some basic information—so how could this lousy strip of cloth fob me off with another name?
A Gold-grade reward—that was on par with Dragon's Strength!
And this is the result?
The young madam closed her eyes, calmed her indignant mood with a few rounds of deep breathing, and began to think seriously, drawing inferences by combining the known intelligence.
After Lady Gneia had achieved success in her cultivation, she had once launched an assassination attempt on Adrian, but unfortunately let him escape. From then on, that bishop had vanished without a trace, never to be heard from again.
Perhaps, to avoid being targeted for revenge again, Adrian had chosen to live in anonymity...and Benjamin Collin was his new identity.
Thinking of it this way, the clue still had value.
Besides, the [Shroud of Fate] was, whatever else, a Gold-grade reward, and a consumable at that; and considering further the word "Fate" in the item's name...perhaps, on some future day, that Mr. Benjamin Collin would cross paths with her. Otherwise, this lousy strip of cloth ought to at least reveal some clue like a location, shouldn't it?
No longer dwelling excessively on this piece of intelligence, Li Fei, after firmly committing the name Benjamin Collin to memory, without the slightest pause wrote new content upon the Shroud of Fate:
"Furnace Battle-Qi"
Although the system had inconceivable abilities, the vast majority of items in the shop could be obtained through other avenues!
The mysterious black cloth strip once again wriggled and shortened, and after Li Fei's blood had been thoroughly absorbed, a line of scarlet text emerged.
This time, Fate's feedback was more complete, with a time, a place, and a name—which to some degree verified Li Fei's earlier conjecture.
Although Li Fei still couldn't be satisfied with this result, when she saw the name "Leona," she nonetheless curved up the corner of her mouth.
What surfaced in her mind was the dazzling bright-red long hair, the high heels and trailing skirt hem, the elegance with rose-like dangerous edge—and the Secret Garden that this daughter of the Mercenary Guild's president had gifted to her.
"In short, there's no substantial reward, huh..."
After composing her emotions, Li Fei sighed, put the remaining one-third of the cloth strip back into the hidden compartment, then took out her notebook and wrote down, without omitting a single word, the intelligence she'd just glimpsed from Fate. Finally she lit a cigarette, and amid the tapping sound of her index finger lightly rapping the desk, she sorted through tonight's gains and reckoned out her plans for what came next.
—Lady Gneia's bounty, that would have to be left to fate.
—Mama Nicole's request, no point even thinking about it before Sequence 4...though the dual enrollment and Gold-grade student status should be cashed in before long.
——What I need to do...is advance to Sequence 7 and digest all the resources; explore the Dark Gold-grade spatial coordinates; and finally go meet with Lady Leona, to seek the opportunity regarding "Furnace Battle-Qi".
During this period she also had to work hard at scrounging up money and experience.
By the time the cigarette butt was stubbed out and let off a wisp of mint-scented blue smoke, Li Fei already had a clear and complete plan.
"That's enough of the worrisome matters; next it's time to do something fun."
The young madam curved up the corner of her mouth, changed into a cool and daring black spaghetti-strap nightdress, and pulled on a pair of provocative, semi-transparent black stockings, the lace trim at the stocking tops snapping crisply against the skin of her fair, lustrous thighs.
A simple yet thrilling enough combination.
She pushed the door open, and before long she and Su Ling'er were back in the boudoir hand in hand.
"What...what are you doing?"
Su Ling'er, in a pale-yellow nightdress, watched red-faced as the young madam fiddled with the strange, peculiar materials.
Li Fei glanced back, licked her lips, smiled without answering, and earnestly completed every step of the ritual, terrified that each set of materials—worth eight thousand gold coins apiece—might be wasted.
Next, she took out the pineapple she'd brought home from work, washed it, sliced it, and arranged it on plates—handing one plate to Su Ling'er while she herself held the other, polishing off all the pineapple mouthful by mouthful, as though gnawing on a chocolate bar.
The clueless Su Ling'er also obediently sampled the sweet-and-sour fruit.
Meanwhile, the young madam had already begun trimming her nails, her expression focused and gentle, buffing every single nail meticulously until they reflected a tender-pink, lustrous sheen under the lamplight.
Su Ling'er understood, her face flushing red as an apple, shrinking at the foot of the bed and trembling.
Thump.
Li Fei casually tossed the Mana Crystals left over from selling the [Horn of Focus] into the energy-supply core at the southeast corner of the ritual, and as the [Witch Sickness Suppression Ritual] was activated, the young madam glanced back with a smile, tucked one side of her black hair behind her ear, rose to her feet unhurriedly, and walked at a leisurely pace toward the Su Ling'er who didn't dare look at her.
The morning sunlight shone into the bedroom through the curtains.
The boudoir still retained Qin Zhihua's scent, yet the one at the young madam's pillow was, in the end, no longer Miss Qin, but rather her most intimate maidservant.
Su Ling'er, propping her cheek on one hand, curiously traced with her fingertip the bizarre, exquisite patterns on Li Fei's abdomen.
"That tickles.."
Li Fei twisted her waist, letting out a coquettish hum.
"Don't you have class today? You're about to be late."
Su Ling'er grabbed a lock of Li Fei's long hair, brushing it back and forth across her face, and reminded her with these words.
As the saying goes, awkward the first time, familiar the second. With wholehearted ardor, Li Fei had, on the second day of Lady Zhihua's "business trip," smoothly melted away Su Ling'er's apprehensive, anxious, self-conscious and bashful mindset.
And after quickly growing accustomed to this matter of magpie-nest usurping and insubordination, Su Ling'er once again recovered her former bright, lovely, and charming appearance, and grew more intimate and natural when conversing with the young madam.
"Mm-hmm, I requested a day off—I've got other things to attend to today."
Li Fei opened her eyes, glistening with moisture, and said coquettishly: "Sister Ling'er, I'm thirsty."
Su Ling'er rose as bidden to serve the young madam tea and water, and incidentally poured herself a cup as well, to moisten her somewhat parched throat.
"Sister Ling'er...how does the taste of being a young mistress suit you?"
The teasing, breathy voice that suddenly drifted into her ear instantly turned Su Ling'er's face red again. Her hand trembled, she nearly choked, and she coughed lightly again and again.
After hurriedly and clumsily wiping away the spilled water, Su Ling'er glanced back, about to speak—but the sight of the peerlessly gorgeous young madam, with that smiling, radiant, captivating look in her brows and eyes, reflected into her twin pupils, left Su Ling'er in a daze, utterly forgetting what she'd originally meant to say.
"Miss Qin, I'm sorry...but the young madam, she really is..."
Bearing guilt and apology, Miss Qin's personal maidservant once again committed an act of overstepping.
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