Grace leaned back against the edge of the bathing pool, biting her lip and staring blankly at the ceiling, her blue-green eyes gone hazy beneath the billowing steam.
The water in front of her gurgled with bubbles like a pot at a rolling boil, steaming her cold-white skin red. Beads of sweat dripped from her delicate, sharply sculpted, faintly exotic features and burst the bubbles below.
Splash—
Li Fei, who'd been practicing breath-holding dives, surfaced, shook the water from her long hair, and asked, brimming with delight:
"How long?"
"One minute fifty-seven seconds."
"You did one fifty-eight just now, so I win!"
Li Fei flashed a V sign, her eyes curving into crescents. But Miss Grace had clearly stayed under a second longer, so how had Young Madam ended up the winner?
Letting her soaking hair plaster itself to her cheeks, Li Fei rested her head on that pale, slender shoulder and said sweetly:
"Looks like your trip to [Remish] went smoothly. Mid-Sequence is within reach."
"Mm. I unlocked the next stage of my Legacy."
Through the damp strands of hair, Miss Grace traced Li Fei's profile with the pad of her finger.
"Couldn't you at least tell me a little about the local customs while you're at it?"
Li Fei slapped Miss Grace's fingertip away, swept her black hair aside, then grabbed Grace's hand and pressed it against her own face. "Are you any good at conversation, you dummy?" she scolded.
"It's… very dry there. The sun is fierce."
Miss Grace gave her assessment honestly. "But the grilled meat was excellent."
"No wonder you're a bit fired up."
Li Fei pursed her lips as if savoring some flavor.
Grace silently clapped a hand over her mouth to stop her from going on.
Li Fei, though, craned her neck and looked her over from every angle, as if searching for something. Faced with Miss Poker Face's puzzled stare, she said with perfect conviction:
"Where are the tan lines?"
"There aren't any…"
"Huh?"
Disappointment spread across Li Fei's face.
She did prefer girls who were fragrant, soft and fair, but if Miss Poker Face were to turn wheat-brown once in a while, with strap marks and… tan lines left on her skin, she'd surely be especially delicious.
"If there's a chance in the future…"
Grace promised.
"Okay!"
Li Fei's smile grew even brighter. She'd meant to toss out a few more flirty remarks, but a loud splash drenched her like a drowned chicken.
Lady Su Ling'er had slipped and fallen face-first into the pool.
And it turned out that even a Sequence 7 witch who could hold her breath for half an hour would still swallow water when caught off guard.
"Ah, sorry. The shop's been busy these past few days, and my legs are weak…"
Su Ling'er's eyes held the weariness of a veteran wage slave.
Ever since she'd taken over the apothecary, the little treasury filled by her profit share had only grown fatter, but the work was truly exhausting. The other two mistresses were both tied up with their own jobs and couldn't give her much help.
Li Fei puffed out her cheeks, ready to complain, then realized that wouldn't be ladylike enough. Instead she asked with concern:
"Sister Ling'er, you didn't hurt yourself, did you?"
Su Ling'er froze.
From what she knew of Li Fei, when Young Madam was this relaxed and content she'd either switch into a sickly-sweet doting-wife mode, a lazy hibernation mode, or, now and then, a chirpy, lively mode.
But whichever one it was, Young Madam always came across as rather childish and never very magnanimous. Once Bai Mengtian had accidentally pressed down on her hair, and the two of them had wrestled until they broke the bed, only calming down when Eldest Miss Qin returned. Eldest Miss Qin had then contacted her new friend, Lady Kalida, who'd collected Bai Mengtian and taken her home.
What had gotten into her today?
Li Fei, meanwhile, was still nestled against her like a little bird, and she asked sweetly:
"Sister Ling'er, did you miss me all this time?"
"Of course."
Su Ling'er's racing heart slowly settled. It seemed Young Madam really had matured and grown steadier after her trip…
"Then… do you want to kiss little old me?"
Young Madam breathed the words out like orchid perfume.
"…Mm."
Su Ling'er's face flushed red.
"Hmph. So you just lust after my body, not me as a person."
Li Fei's expression turned cold in an instant.
"Actually, I didn't want to that much…"
Su Ling'er corrected herself at once.
"Hmph. So I really don't attract you anymore."
Li Fei's gaze turned reproachful.
Su Ling'er: …
In the end, Lady Su Ling'er produced a deep and thorough self-criticism and reflection before Young Madam would bloom into a smile again.
"Oh, right, Sister Ling'er! Grace and I were just having a diving contest. Want to join us?"
Li Fei licked her lips, looking sweet and bewitching.
—Eldest Miss is still working hard, so how could I…
Su Ling'er had meant to refuse.
But Young Madam's allure had made another astonishing leap during her trip. That face, already beautiful enough to topple nations, now carried a soul-snatching, demonic charm. For Su Ling'er at least, once she met those sparkling eyes for more than three seconds, her thoughts were all but certain to be swallowed up by the scent of tea…
"Why so quiet?"
"I was thinking that Eldest Miss is still at work, and I feel terribly ashamed."
"So, are you in or not?"
"In."
…
Moonlight draped a hazy silver veil over Loxibrook.
The great Miss Top Courtesan arrived at her faithful Golden Tangerine Tavern.
Since word had been sent ahead, the sisters were holding a team-building event for the first time in three months to welcome Miss Top Courtesan home. There were no customers in the tavern tonight.
"Sisters, drink up tonight, and put it all on my tab!"
Li Fei cracked open a can of fruit-flavored alcoholic drink and downed it in big gulps. Then she waved over Eva and Qiao'er, who had tagged along, and followed Lady Gnaea toward the wine cellar.
Click, click, click…
The commotion faded behind them, making the rhythmic, pleasing clack of purple high heels on the floor ring ever clearer in Li Fei's ears.
The graceful, swaying figure ahead filled Miss Top Courtesan's whole field of vision. A swaying purple dress outlined a full, ripe, pear-shaped figure, and long, shapely legs were wrapped tight in not-quite-sheer black stockings. A purple silk ribbon coiled around the right leg like the serpent in the Garden of Eden that tempted people to eat the forbidden fruit, giving off a beauty of mystery and the Forbidden.
Beneath the chestnut hair pinned up in a coil, the porcelain-white nape of her neck was soft and flawless, dazzling even in the dim light.
Miss Top Courtesan walked quietly behind Lady Gnaea, keeping an ambiguous distance close enough to feel each other's body heat, using that faint warmth to melt away a little of her longing.
But as time passed, the unhurried symphony of heels grew tighter and quicker. Lady Gnaea had picked up her pace of her own accord, breaking their wordless understanding.
Of course, in Li Fei's eyes, Lady Gnaea's mature, bewitching allure was as strong as ever. But to Lady Gnaea, Miss Top Courtesan's scent of tea had grown richer still, challenging her limits with every passing second, and her suppressed witch instincts stirred, scorching her insides like magma.
Yet the ever-understanding Miss Top Courtesan chose this moment to deliberately bump into her, baby bump first, and whispered against her ear:
"Sister Genaya, why are you avoiding me?"
"Mm…"
Genaya turned her face away, took out her pipe, and drew a deep breath from it. The burning heat left her along with the curling smoke, and only then did she look at Li Fei, still shaken.
Miss Top Courtesan had no idea that for other people, a steadily climbing Charm was a matter of gradual quantitative change. For Lady Gnaea, who walked a tightrope every day, every extra point of Charm could be the last straw that broke the camel's back.
In truth, the joy of their reunion and an allure stronger than ever were already like a flower in full bloom with poison running through it. Merely sharing each other's breath and warmth in silence had set Lady Gnaea's heart surging. That sudden cuddle and whisper just now had nearly shattered her composure, and the consequences would have been catastrophic. A high-Sequence witch would at worst take down the Sword of Damocles she herself had hung over her own head, but a low-Sequence Witch of Bliss with her puny frame, facing a flood of Frenzy bursting its banks… she'd probably…
She'd have to ask Tingbao or Lady Maria to resurrect her.
Thunk!
The pipe rapped against Li Fei's forehead. Miss Top Courtesan, who had no idea she'd just walked right up to death's door, clutched her brow, wronged.
On Lady Gnaea's plump, round oval face appeared a look of helplessness completely at odds with her usual languid composure:
"If your charm keeps growing this recklessly… I'm afraid I'll have to keep my distance from you until I've fulfilled my wish."
"Eheh."
Li Fei tilted her head, tapped her forehead lightly with a loosely curled right hand, and stuck out the pink tip of her tongue, trying to coax her way out of trouble.
"Honestly, you little ancestor…"
Genaya grumbled, and her words carried a country accent that hadn't surfaced in years.
She froze, lowered her eyelids, and took another pull on her pipe.
—Is my charm really this high now?
This time even Li Fei realized how serious the problem was.
Miss Top Courtesan knew perfectly well that, however mature, noble and mysterious Lady Gnaea looked now, like a bewitching mist or a ruined statue of the Holy Mother that no one could quite read and no one could quite let go of, she had been a farmwoman before becoming a witch. Autumn's bounty had fed her heavy, ripe figure, and the rich soil had shaped her frank and simple nature. But Lady Gnaea had buried those years long ago, with hatred for a coffin and obsession for nails, then hung it in her heart to plug the desires that surged ceaselessly in her veins. Those desires had condensed into magma, and their searing heat lashed her onward.
Yet somehow, it seemed, perhaps, the coffin in Lady Gnaea's heart had been pried loose by Miss Top Courtesan, and wisps of tea fragrance had slipped inside, squeezing out a little of something called "the past"…
She exhaled her smoke, and Lady Gnaea regained her usual calm. Her gaze swept over Qiao'er and Eva, and the corners of her mouth curved up:
"Welcome to our family, two new sisters."
Li Fei applauded softly, playing along.
Right after returning from the Demon-Sealing Continent, Li Fei had sent Eva to the Golden Tangerine Tavern to deliver a list of witches in Miss Top Courtesan's name, naming the new recruits she recommended.
For a Witches' Coven that could only lie low for now, fresh blood was especially crucial. But witches weren't merely some Forbidden class, some evil faction, or some chaotic Legacy. They were also a tightly knit people.
No witch ever commits Betrayal against the clan, and no witch is ever cast out by it. That was true in the past, it was true now, and it would be true in the future.
To maintain that, every newly made witch had to receive the [Witch's Blessing]. It was the most basic dignity, ensuring that a witch would never suffer humiliation even in death.
Legend even said that sisters who burned out their souls with the [Witch's Blessing] would leave their own brand in some unknown dimension. On the day the Lady of Sinking awakened, She would reverse the river of time and trample the laws of fate to rouse her slumbering sisters.
But the [Witch's Blessing] could only be cast by a high-Sequence witch, and that was more or less a burden for them.
Which meant the number and quality of high-Sequence witches determined the size of the witch clan.
Until high-Sequence witches were numerous enough to cast the [Witch's Blessing] on every ♀ across the endless planes whose Charm exceeded 100, or until the witch clan faced no more threats, converting new witches would necessarily involve a certain amount of screening.
The fewer high-Sequence witches there were, the fewer Blessing slots, so they could only raise the screening standards and choose the best candidates. Only when high-Sequence witches grew numerous would the standards relax and let more newborn witches emerge.
And precisely because of those strict selection standards, there was a head-count bounty for recommending a newcomer and successfully converting her. Of everyone on Miss Top Courtesan's list, only Qiao'er and Eva had passed.
Frankly, the result gave Li Fei a bit of a headache.
Apart from Qiao'er, whom she planned to groom as a witch assistant, everyone else on the list had already caught Witch Sickness. The rejected ones included not only little sprite Sasha but also a batch of female ghosts who'd been so dizzy from cuddling, with a tiny dash of wishful thinking on top, that they hadn't set up a [Witch Sickness Suppression Consciousness]…
As everyone knew, there were currently only two ways to cure Witch Sickness at the root:
A sufficiently thorough death, or becoming a witch.
Even extreme tricks like killing yourself first and then turning into an undead creature didn't work.
And since these Witch Sickness patients couldn't join the clan, until Li Fei advanced to high Sequence and personally cast the Blessing on them, they could only relieve their symptoms with injections of Witch Sickness suppressant.
Normally Li Fei would never refuse, but if their Witch Sickness flared up while she was in seclusion, in battle, or otherwise unable to be in two places at once, the problem would get very thorny.
Fortunately, suppressant extracted from the carrier herself worked best. Suppressants produced by other witches were somewhat less effective, but still usable…
With that thought, Li Fei patted Eva on the shoulder, her eyes full of encouragement and pride for her daughter.
Miss Assistant would most likely be unwilling to help with extracting suppressant. Had it not been for such a promising, good daughter, Miss Top Courtesan would probably have had to ask other sisters for help. And once she asked outsiders for something like that, the lightest consequence would be getting branded a scumbag, and the heaviest, a collective push to make her swallow a Serpent-woman scale. Miss Top Courtesan's good name would probably be ruined for good.
"Rua!"
At the sound of the password, they arrived at the folded plane where part of the Lady of Sinking lay buried.
In the center of a crystalline, viscous tangerine lake, a vast snow-white mountain of flesh still churned day and night. Strands of hair tangled endlessly with strands of hair, and waves of sound, some hoarse, some seductive, rose and fell in turn, stirring the honey-like tangerine lake into ripples. Even the air was thick with a sweet, fleshy scent, composing a picture at once vivid and decaying, radiant and sickly.
Lady Gnaea had long since grown used to it. Li Fei was perfectly at ease, Eva was itching to leap in, and Qiao'er… Qiao'er was thoroughly shaken.
The quiet, delicate girl stood rigid on the spot. Only when a gust of hot wind carried over a fragrance sweet to the point of rot did she wake as if from a dream and ask:
"This is… ?"
"This is our sect's sacrificial rite."
Li Fei smiled lightly.
Qiao'er: …
Was this the immortal sect that countless seekers of the Dao had yearned for through the ages?!
Was this the great freedom and great ease of the immortals?
Qiao'er suddenly felt that her earlier decision might have been a little hasty.
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