The window stood slightly ajar, and the breeze drifting into the room was lazy, too weak to nudge the gray braid off her shoulder.
A woman sat by the window, her mature, soft figure nearly melting into the gentle morning light. Even her spotless mage robe couldn't hide a body that was slender and delicate yet full of graceful curves.
Her azure eyes shimmered with a dazzling glow that made her elegant, intellectual face look even softer. She was like a doting mother dozing with a baby in her arms, positively brimming with wifely charm.
The scent of tea curled through the bright, spotless Dean's office. Everything was so peaceful and lovely—except that, sadly, what lay in this graceful, upright woman's lap was no sleeping infant or dozing kitten, but a vivacious, bewitching stunner. It made a scene that should have been poetic feel rather strange.
"Really, can't I have it all?"
Li Fei looped her arms around the gray-haired beauty's neck, her lips breathing warm, languid, ambiguous puffs of air against her ear, her eyes misted with a hazy sheen, sultry and alluring.
Don't get the wrong idea. Miss Top Courtesan wasn't someone who didn't know her place. Resources on the level of a Divine Scion or a Spell Altar weren't as simple as waiving a two-thousand-gold-coin tuition fee, and wanting them all was nothing but a pipe dream.
She was simply acting spoiled to strengthen their mother-daughter bond. What ill intent could a Spell Encyclopedia Lady who only wanted cuddles possibly have?
Taking that charm assault at point-blank range, with a whispered "Mom" in her ear on top of it, even Nicole's eyes went briefly hazy. She regained her calm quickly, though.
"Unfortunately, there's no gain without sacrifice," Nicole said pointedly.
"But I'm so pretty." Miss Top Courtesan planted a hand on her hip and shot back with perfect confidence.
Being pretty had no causal link to having it all, but if you were pretty enough, whatever you said was right.
"Just keep performing well. If you hold onto your current momentum, in a year or two you may earn back the qualification to visit a Divine Scion." Nicole deftly wrote out another blank check.
Miss Top Courtesan didn't seem to see through it. She put on the same dopey-cute look as Annesia, her eyes sparkling. "Eh? R-really?"
"Of course. But you'll have to perform to my satisfaction." Nicole tapped her own lips lightly with a fingertip.
"No kissing like before, okay? I have a girlfriend now~" Miss Top Courtesan ducked her head and twirled circles with her index finger, all bashful.
"No gain without sacrifice," Nicole repeated, her voice tinged with amusement.
"Th-then…" Miss Top Courtesan shyly covered Nicole's eyes with her palm.
*
Paperwork was dull and tedious. Even a Dean who cared deeply for her students inevitably grew weary after too long in the office.
On top of that, the Golden Tangerine Tavern's top girl had gotten more and more skilled at skipping work lately, and was very hard to book.
Fortunately, the considerate Miss Top Courtesan had come knocking on her own, swapping a private room for the Dean's office, and let the Dean relax in body and mind for the first time in ages.
"Thank you for the hospitality." Nicole dabbed her lips with a handkerchief and thanked her adoptive daughter politely.
"What brand of black tea is it this time? It smells wonderful." Having just finished her black tea sauna, Miss Top Courtesan sounded lazy and drowsy. She sat on the desk facing Lady Nicole, her slender bare feet, white tinged with pink, planted right on the woman's thighs.
"Confiscated from a witch hideout. Every sip means there's less." Nicole sighed in regret.
Her snow-tender toes curled. Li Fei feigned composure and turned to real business. "I really liked that birthday gift. Are there any other notes I could look at?"
"No problem." Nicole snapped her fingers without a care, and two notebooks floated up before Li Fei.
"Thanks, Mom." She took them happily and flipped through. They were the notes the Dean had left behind during her Sequence 9 and Sequence 8 stages.
The level couldn't be called high, yet Miss Top Courtesan couldn't put them down.
Only after reading the Archmage's notes with a four-digit Aptitude did she understand just how terrifying this refined, elegant woman was.
That Fireball, Summon Sprite and other such spells rose in level was nothing strange.
The absurd part was that her Abyssal Lava proficiency had jumped by 51,733!
Those were spell insights Nicole had written at the Sequence 7 level! Yet they had improved a sixth-tier spell at the Sequence 4 level by no small amount!
Even her Dragon's Strength proficiency had gone up by more than a thousand points.
Talk about a heifer kicking up its heels—this was bull-awesome to the heavens.
Factor in the age gap, and Li Fei briefly suspected that Nicole was the hidden final boss of Loxibrook and Tingbao was nothing but a puppet emperor…
What? Tingbao can pluck the stars and grab the moon? Then never mind.
Delighted beyond words, Li Fei tucked the notes into her spatial ring. Then she froze, and her eyes narrowed.
She had spotted a very serious problem.
Knowledge was precious, and knowledge gifted by Lady Nicole was a treasure that couldn't be bought for a thousand gold. And yet, whether as her mother or as her Dean, Nicole had an obligation to tutor Miss Top Courtesan.
In other words, spell notes were something she could get for free.
Realizing this, Li Fei puffed out her cheeks in displeasure, even though she already had more spatial rings than she could ever use, and Nicole's gifts had benefited her enormously.
Everyone else gave priceless, high-grade spatial rings, and you're giving me a handwritten tutoring book?
This was a matter of attitude!
Pat, pat, pat…
Those gleaming white feet swung up and down, her soft soles slapping Nicole's thighs again and again to voice Miss Top Courtesan's protest.
The Dean didn't mind the rude behavior in the slightest. Instead, she gently caught the feet and began kneading the soles.
Nicole's hands had lovely skin, porcelain-white and warm, no less delicate than those tender feet. The maternal tenderness she could feel so directly settled Miss Top Courtesan down, and she let out a contented sigh.
"Are you planning to ascend to Sequence 6 before going to Folded Space B-01?" Nicole asked. "Before you go, you could still visit three Spell Altars. There's time."
"No." Li Fei was frank. "I plan to make good use of the rules."
"Good." Nicole understood at once and voiced her approval. "You've never lacked ambition, and for a Transcendent, that's a virtue."
"Ehehe." Li Fei smiled sweetly and took a pile of antique books and a bark scroll out of her spatial ring. "Take a look at these for me?"
Both came from the Demon-Sealing Continent. The former was the Legacy of the Temple Keeper lineage, and the latter recorded the secret art of [Soul Gathering], which fused female ghosts into ghost giants.
As a plane whose ceiling was the Sequence 4 level, it held little knowledge that interested Li Fei. At present there were three things, mainly: the Investiture Ritual, the Soul-Burial Spirit-Nourishing Grand Array, and Soul-Stitching.
The [Soul-Burial Spirit-Nourishing Grand Array] had already been refined by Bai Mengtian, but you can't keep fleecing the same sheep. So Li Fei planned to hand the equally practical [Soul Gathering] to Mom Nicole to optimize. As for the Investiture Ritual, Tingbao had said it was hard to improve, but maybe Nicole would have a different approach?
The Dean raised her head with interest. All the books floated into the air and flipped their pages on their own with a rustle, while the bark scroll unrolled to reveal crimson, twisted script.
After a fairly short wait, Nicole's gaze suddenly turned to Li Fei, her pupils darker than usual. "It seems you've become a Saint in another plane."
"You can tell even that?" Li Fei was taken aback.
"[Luck] and [Ritual] are topics I've always followed, and the former has another name: Fortune." Nicole's voice was soft. "For example, in the past few months you've gone from an unlucky sod to a one-in-ten-thousand lucky child… Though the blood-red Fortune enveloping you is eerie and ominous, that doesn't matter. Luck is luck."
She paused, steered the conversation back on track, and reached a conclusion similar to Bai Mengtian's. "Mass-producing Saints is very difficult. That kind of sacrificial rite resembles an Ascension Ritual in many ways. You need real contributions before the plane's will will acknowledge you."
"However… the sacrificial rite prepared for the royal bloodline does leave some room to maneuver. It may be able to bring more people luck no less than that of the [Lucky Five-Leaf Clover]. Permanently."
Hearing this, Li Fei's eyes flared with dazzling light, as if she'd just seen a glittering mountain of gold.
"Don't celebrate too soon. This is only a conjecture. Whether it's feasible can only be known after observing on site, since rituals and their environments have always been inseparable." Nicole smiled faintly.
"How about we go right now?" Li Fei said eagerly.
"First, as a Dean, I have to do my job. Second, as a mage, I have several research projects I haven't finished. There are some holidays, but I have important business and will be away on a trip for a few days." Nicole stayed perfectly calm.
"Fine, fine. Then is there any room to optimize the [Soul Gathering] art?" Li Fei sighed in disappointment.
"There is, but I'll need samples."
Samples?
Faced with Nicole's request, Li Fei was stunned for a moment, then patted the Myriad Ghost Gourd at her waist and released several female ghosts, Xiao Lian among them.
"Where is this?"
"Sister Li Fei…"
Appearing suddenly in unfamiliar surroundings, the black-haired, snow-skinned female ghosts were all bewildered and startled.
Before they could even react, Nicole's gaze swept over them. It carried magic Runes, and in a single glance it saw through and analyzed the very essence of the female ghosts.
From Li Fei's point of view, it was nothing but an offhand glance.
But the female ghosts clearly felt specks of spiritual light bursting open in the depths of their souls, as if a deity on high had lowered her eyes, parted the clouds, and cast her great gaze down upon them.
That calm, aloof gaze was wrapped in the might of a higher being, noble and exalted, and it made their soul bodies tremble without end and stirred an urge to prostrate themselves in worship.
—This is a female immortal!
The female ghosts collapsed on the spot, and in their exchanged glances each saw the same terror.
At the ancestral temple, when they'd killed the monarch, they had all felt the Martial Saint's killing intent up close. It had been like raging waves, with enough might to raze a city, and the memory was still fresh. But compared to the wisps of [Essence] this gray-haired beauty let slip without even meaning to, Nie Yunyi's killing intent seemed utterly pale and faint. They were as different as a firefly and the bright moon.
They bowed their heads deeply so as not to offend the female immortal, though their hearts surged and churned.
For the beings of the Demon-Sealing Continent, the word "immortal" was far too heavy. It was enough to crush the ages. How many powerhouses who once dominated the world had knocked on the gate of immortality in vain and died with regret?
And now a true immortal was looking at them!
The female ghosts were thrilled and anxious, endlessly guessing at the female immortal's intentions.
"Done." The female immortal finally spoke two words, followed by an utterly familiar voice reaching their ears. "Sorry to trouble you, sisters. It's all right now. Go back and rest."
The female ghosts heaved sighs of relief, though they felt a little bereft. After some hesitation, they helped each other up and prepared to take their leave of Li Fei.
Then they glimpsed an unbelievable sight.
Li Fei was sitting on the desk, looking back at them.
And that peerless gray-haired female immortal was actually giving Li Fei a foot massage!
"You may not believe this, but your sister has some standing in the immortal realm too. I'm close with many immortal ladies, and calling me the Primordial Heavenly Worthy wouldn't be an exaggeration…"
Words they had once taken for idle jokes now rumbled in the female ghosts' minds like muffled thunder.
—So even female immortals can't resist a beauty trap…
After a brief daze, Xiao Lian was the first to react. She squeezed her sisters' hands and said meekly, "Then we younger sisters will withdraw first."
With that, they turned into wisps of green smoke and slipped back into the gourd.
"The purity is too low," Nicole said.
"Hm? Tell me more." Li Fei straightened her posture, stretched both hands flat on her thighs, and put on a docile look of eager listening.
"In essence, female ghosts are no different from specters." Nicole spoke patiently. "But as you know, within the Death faction, specters rank alongside skeletons and bloodkin as an indispensable part of undead-horde tactics. They have looks, intelligence and agility to rival sprites, and their strength is nothing to sneer at. With excellent physical resistance and the three great bloodline Innate Talents of Flight, invisibility and Curse, you'd be hard-pressed to find better cannon fodder among Sequence 7 combat units."
"Specters come from four main sources. First, Transcendent structures, such as the [Undead Converter] and the [Spectral Mound]. Second, the Transcendent knowledge [Soul Summoning]. Third, special environments, such as graveyards and battlefields, places thick with deathly qi."
"Generally speaking, the specters produced by the first two are very stable in quality. Of course, the stronger the mage using [Soul Summoning], the better the specters' overall caliber."
"But specters born in special environments vary wildly in ability… According to the records, the strongest specter to date was already high-Sequence the moment it came into the world, but that's a rare exception. In most cases, specters created by special environments are congenitally deficient. Yes, I'm talking about those female ghosts."
"Their auras are too mixed. Most of them are only at the Sequence 8 level, which shows that the environment they were born in wasn't ideal."
"Mm-hm!" Li Fei nodded repeatedly. "Then may I ask if the learned Dean has any way to make up for that?"
"Find an [Undead Converter] and let them soak in it like a bath to purify them. That's the most efficient method." Nicole was concise. "Necromancers can do it too, but it's delicate work and exhausting. If you try to purify a large number of female ghosts quickly by manpower… the cost is rather steep."
Steep cost?
Li Fei ruled out the second option without a moment's hesitation.
The first option was a hassle too. She was a pure-blooded little Nature-faction mage girl. Where was she supposed to find a Death faction specialty like an [Undead Converter]?
A bright idea struck her, and she said sweetly, "Mom… don't you think the atmosphere in our academy has gotten a bit slack lately?"
"I think we could assign the Death school seniors some after-class homework, like purifying female ghosts or something. Wouldn't that be more efficient than racking your brains to arrange teaching activities?"
"The academy saves on teaching funds, the students get training, and my problem gets solved. Isn't that a win-win?"
Lady Nicole was certainly well-traveled, but she had truly never seen operations like "in-school internships" or "school-enterprise partnerships." For a moment she was thrown by the line of thinking.
If she were the dean of the War Academy, she would probably have transferred Li Fei into a noble-department class without a second thought.
"A very good idea." Nicole affirmed Li Fei's thinking, the corners of her mouth lifting. "But if the purification is done that way, there will certainly be some attrition rate. Can you accept that?"
"Ah, this…"
Li Fei sank into deep conflict.
"Forget it."
In the end, after weighing the pros and cons, she reluctantly gave up the tempting proposal and decided to find some other way to get it for free later.
After all, these were female ghosts she'd painstakingly broken in herself, to the point her Great Dao was nearly rubbed red. Losing a batch just to save trouble would hurt, and their loyalty would surely drop too. It wasn't worth it.
"As for the secret art of [Soul Gathering], its biggest problem isn't efficiency but stability." Seeing Miss Top Courtesan's decision, Nicole nodded lightly and went back to playing the role of good teacher and caring mother, using mana to build a complex, precise three-dimensional model in the air.
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