Two days remained before the exchange tournament.
Yet here was the Vice Dean of the War Academy — an angel, no less — serving as a sparring partner for three little mages, using the War Academy's own facilities to do it.
As the Balance Ritual blanketed the circular arena, the War Academy's budget bled away in a steady stream.
On the southern side of the arena, the three mages stood in a triangular formation. Li Fei held the center — the sharpest tip of the arrowhead — facing Chloe directly, who was clad in elegant silver armor.
The short staff Quietsong rested against Li Fei's left palm, the back of her hand facing outward. Fingers two through five curved naturally, while her thumb hooked lightly over the top of the staff. Her muscles stayed at a slight, controlled tension — a grip that was both stable and flexible.
In truth, ten days ago Li Fei had still been in the habit of gripping her staff with her knuckles.
That changed the night she'd invited Nicole to come spar.
The Dean had noticed the bad habit. She offered one correction. When it went unheeded, she smiled pleasantly — and with a single slash, sent the staff and the fingers that had been gripping it wrong tumbling to the ground together.
Li Fei's grip had been corrected without further discussion.
Now, Li Fei's right thumb was tucked beneath her index finger, balanced atop a gold coin.
Ding —
With a faint metallic ring, the coin was flicked into the air, tumbling and spinning as it fell.
The moment it hit the ground, all three mages scattered without hesitation, each beginning to chant, mana flickering and dancing with every quick, deliberate step.
This had been Bai Mengtian's advice:
"Standing around like a post while you slowly chant your spell? That's just asking to be a target."
"Keep moving! Cast fast!"
"A mage who can seize the initiative is a good mage."
Chloe moved too.
Her long legs strode forward, and the superhuman cadence and reach of her steps blurred her figure into a streak of silver-white light, closing the distance to all three of them in an instant.
Had they not broken formation immediately, Li Fei would have been in melee range before her first spell even finished casting.
Whoosh.
An arrow shimmering with dark mana streaked through the air, aimed straight at Chloe's throat — yet she didn't pause or flinch for even a fraction of a second. A single beat of her wings swatted the vicious projectile aside.
The arrow snapped in two — but the magical incendiary oil coating it detonated on impact, splashing across Chloe. Even with her power suppressed, even the angel couldn't entirely ignore a debuff spell capable of causing slowdown and amplifying fire damage.
"Fulgor!"
Lilith's spell went off at the same moment. Blinding light flooded every corner of the arena, washing the entire platform into a sea of white.
Li Fei had shut her eyes a beat early. Stepping back, she gave her wrist a smooth rotation, and a sphere of roiling Abyssal Lava surged outward in a wave of scorching heat, blasting straight at Chloe.
Incendiary oil. Flash-blind. Fireball. The spell combination the three mages had unleashed in perfect synchrony within a single breath was enough to kill a Sequence 8 Transcendent outright.
It was clear that after two weeks of brutal high-intensity training, backed by teaching resources almost absurdly lavish, this squad had undergone nothing short of a total transformation.
Their opponent, however, was Chloe. Even deliberately holding back to serve as a sparring partner, she was in a class entirely beyond any ordinary Sequence 8.
Fighting on pure combat instinct alone, she destroyed the Fireball's magical structure with a single sword stroke. Her near-surgical control of her own strength let her shrug off the incendiary oil's debuff entirely, and a few brisk steps brought her face-to-face with Li Fei.
Sensing the approach, Li Fei's gaze sharpened. She drew her sword without hesitation — the Battle-Qi vortex let out a low, thunderous roar at thirty-five rotations per second, and blazing Battle-Qi flooded through her meridians and into the fine-iron longsword. The orange-red sword aura made the overloaded blade hum faintly with strain.
But then came two crisp clinks, and a chill touched Li Fei's brow. She knew she'd lost.
An instant later, before Grace's Magic Arrow could even leave her fingers, she felt a light knock of knuckles against her forehead — her vital point had been struck. She quietly set down her black longbow, and the surging tide of mana within her subsided.
When the blinding light faded, the angel stood completely unscathed. The three mages had just suffered their seventeenth defeat of the evening.
Regrettably, there was no defeat cutscene.
"Ah, lost again."
Li Fei shrugged. "Any suggestions?"
"You need to be even faster," Chloe answered honestly.
Evidently, the angel's teaching ability was not quite on par with her official title. Unlike Melodia — a genuine Vice Dean candidate — Chloe had earned her position through sheer strength and striking looks. Her real function was to 'keep order' and 'serve as the face of the Academy.' Actual teaching was something she'd had relatively little practice with.
"Hmm... alright, let's try the next tactic. Grace, you go in first to pin her down, I'll use summoned creatures to buy more time, and then Lilith — buff me with as many enhancement spells as you can. Let me stack up all my buffs first and see if I can hold out a bit longer."
Li Fei took the gold coin Ram held out — Ram had been watching from the sidelines and handling logistics — shook herself off, and got ready for the next round.
...
Late that night, Li Fei lay draped along the edge of the family-sized bath, six-point-six meters in diameter. The thick white steam left everything slightly blurry at the edges.
Five people were soaking in the generously wide tub — two fairies, one blood-kin — and the atmosphere was pleasantly relaxed.
"Eva, you're going to be a mother soon," Li Fei murmured, rubbing Eva's round, soft little belly, her expression complicated.
Fairies had a gestation period of about a month. With two weeks of the training camp behind them, the Mother of Fairies was about to have her first granddaughter — which was a happy thing, if you set aside the fact that Li Fei was still over two months shy of her eighteenth birthday...
What gave her an even bigger headache was that she'd accidentally infected Eva with the Witch's disease a few days ago. Heaven only knew whether something like 'a blood-kin and a fairy giving birth to a little witch' was actually going to happen.
"Mm."
Eva ducked her head, looking somewhat dazed and anxious.
Although fairies born of Summoning Magic came into the world with innate knowledge, Eva's lived experience still only spanned a single month. Faced with a daughter who was about to enter the world, she couldn't help feeling at a loss.
That said, on the Continent of Enlos, this was perfectly normal — just as a female mouse could reproduce within a month or two, even wild fairies reached maturity in about three months. It didn't violate anyone's sense of 'morality.'
"I'll take good care of her."
Sofia — tall and slender, with the cool, ascetic air of a high-fashion model — now wore an expression of pure tenderness, her blood-crimson eyes shining with maternal warmth.
To be on hand for her expectant wife, the blood-kin constable had moved into Li Fei's villa a few days ago.
The rooms are just barely enough... but at this rate, the bath is still too small. Miscalculated, miscalculated — once there's money, I'm building a palace with a massive hot spring.
Li Fei offered Sofia a few gentle words of reassurance, then let her gaze drift to Lilith with a grin:
"We're all girls here — why are you still wearing a swimsuit in the bath? No need to be so formal~"
"I prefer it this way," Lilith replied.
She was wearing a white swimsuit — the only person in the bathroom with any clothes on.
"You know, if you're this shy, you're going to have a hard time finding a girlfriend," Li Fei teased in a languid drawl.
She ruffled Ram's short hair, then lazily 'swam' over to settle beside Qin Zhihua, wedging herself between her and Su Ling'er and resting her head on that porcelain-smooth shoulder. "Isn't that right, Zhihua-jie~"
Sharing a bath was great for team bonding — a group soak between girls was perfectly natural. What Li Fei had never expected, though, was that after finally convincing Lilith to join the squad's communal bath team-building session, Qin Zhihua had voluntarily joined in as well.
This was the same Qin Zhihua who, in the past, wouldn't have let an outsider so much as glimpse her feet.
More than that — Qin Zhihua had also become noticeably warmer and more at ease around certain people than before. She chatted and laughed, drawing together every ally worth having, and even the fairies had grown increasingly fond of her. Little by little, the Young Mistress's standing in the household hierarchy was being quietly hollowed out from underneath her.
"Don't listen to her nonsense," Qin Zhihua said pleasantly. "A girl as lovely as Lilith — there's no shortage of people with the sense to appreciate her."
"N-no such thing..."
Lilith sank a little lower, the bottom half of her face submerging beneath the water, blowing a trail of small bubbles.
Over this period, Qin Zhihua had not only been preparing the medicines Li Fei needed — she'd also gone out of her way to make up batches for Lilith and Grace as well. She looked after them in daily life too, showing a generosity, elegance, and quiet attentiveness that was impossible to fault.
And yet, that very graciousness — the sort that ought to have made anyone feel at ease — was precisely what left both guilty-consciences unable to fully accept it. They admired Qin Zhihua's poise and bearing wholeheartedly, while simultaneously squirming with a vague sense of having done something wrong. In her presence they were unusually well-behaved, speaking even more softly than usual. Lilith would occasionally bicker with the Young Mistress, but she had never once had a cross word with Qin Zhihua.
Putting herself in their position — if Lady Annie's wife had never left, and was kind to Li Fei besides — Li Fei figured she'd probably feel guilty and indebted too, and would have come up with some kind of win-win compensation: Your wife became mine, but if I give myself to you as a wife in return, doesn't that make us even?
The Young Mistress's smile grew all the brighter. She copied Lilith's posture and let half her head slip beneath the surface, quietly tasting a sip of the warm broth.
As expected — the more varied and high-quality the ingredients, the richer and more delicious the broth.
Under the lamplight, the Young Mistress — freshly out of the bath and draped in a white silk dressing gown — sat alone at the writing desk.
After enjoying the full run of bath, aromatherapy massage, and acupuncture-and-moxibustion treatments, every part of her felt impossibly light.
She sipped her coffee, pulled open the drawer, and lifted out a thick journal with both hands.
Respectable people don't keep diaries — but the Young Mistress, whose Morality score had hit a new low of -25, had the very wholesome habit of doing so.
She checked the date.
On the Continent of Enlos, the calendar likewise had four seasons. But each year held exactly three hundred and sixty days — each season exactly three months, each month exactly thirty days — precise and regular as a clock, as though some invisible hand were quietly orchestrating everything.
There were exceptions, however. Occasionally a 'Year of Mist' would occur, adding a three-hundred-and-sixty-first day to the year. The Years of Mist followed no fixed pattern: in the past four thousand years, there had been instances of two consecutive Years of Mist, and equally, stretches of an entire century without a single one.
As for what caused the Years of Mist — even Nicole refused to speak of it. When Li Fei had asked Bai Mengtian out of curiosity, the reply she got was: "You, a little newbie, trying to probe the origins of the Year of Mist? That's like some small-time nobody from Xiantai who thinks they can seize immortality in a single lifetime — what's the difference between you and that southern fool chasing immortal glory?"
Extremely offensive.
Li Fei curled up the corner of her mouth and idly turned the pages. The strange journey since her transmigration was still vivid in her mind.
September 1st, clear. First leveling experience.
September 3rd, sunny. First kill. Five of them.
September 5th, boiling hot. Ram's birthday.
September 9th, light rain. Off to Viranean for a holiday tomorrow~
September 18th, evening rain. Coming-of-age ceremony.
September 22nd, clear. Ram's coming-of-age ceremony.
September 25th. Grace's coming-of-age ceremony. No, wait — half a coming-of-age ceremony?
September 27th, clear. Anniversary with Teacher Annie.
...
October 1st, clear. First day of the training camp.
October 2nd, heavy rain. Sparring partner: Tingbao. Barely half an hour in and she wanted to drag me back to the Bai Mansion as a guest? Ha. But the gains were huge — the rush-the-initiative approach works really well.
P.S. The timber mill, mine, and apothecary have all been transferred into my name... In just over three months, starting from nothing, I, Li Fei, now have four properties under my name. Can any other transmigrator say the same?
October 3rd, overcast. Sparring partner: Melodia. Didn't expect it of a cheerful-looking blonde teacher-type, but her signature move turns out to be summoning a succubus? Teacher, I want to learn that!
October 4th, light rain. Sparring partner: Hathaway. I'm getting the distinct impression that woman genuinely has murderous intentions toward Grace and Lilith. Zhihua-jie's Weighty Qi Powder and Mind-Clearing Pill are both working great — especially the latter; even better than the Fruit of Wisdom.
October 5th, getting colder. Nicole. Damn, she hits hard! But the gains were enormous. Bought a Tier-I Chaos Magic spell bundle — and sure enough, quantity really does produce a qualitative shift. INT and Aptitude +1.
P.S. Communal bathing is definitely an essential part of training camp activities — but why did Zhihua-jie decide to join in? Broth was delicious, though.
October 6th, overcast. Maria. Come to think of it, Priestess-sis hasn't visited my shop in a while... but she definitely has something going on with Lilith! Ha — kids grow up so fast. Keeping secrets from their own stepmother now.
October 7th, clear. Irena. How does she get such variety out of the same low-level spells?
P.S. Zhihua-jie wasn't home! Finished the second half of Grace's coming-of-age ceremony.
...
October 9th, rainy. Yusura. Finally an opponent I could actually beat... Sword skill level up, +1. Stacking all the buffs before going in for melee really is the strongest tactic.
October 10th, raining again. Kalida invited me back to the Bai Mansion after sparring ended. Politely declined.
P.S. Zhihua-jie wasn't home. Haven't played hide-and-seek in a while... OH COME ON. When did Eva sneak in?! And she caught the Witch's disease... what the . I'm only Sequence 8 — how did I even roll that outcome?! Morality dropped to -25. But that's not important right now — need to find out fast if there's any way to cure the Witch's disease.
October 11th, clear. Beatrice. A true Summoner — her understanding of Summoning Magic runs deep; I learned a lot... but why does she start stuttering every time I bring up Fufu?
P.S. Found the cure for the Witch's disease. Lady Gneia told me: the only way to defeat the Witch's disease is to become a witch. Emmm... well, at least it's Eva. Once the child is born, I'll get it sorted... Sofia, I'm sorry!
Li Fei picked up her pen and wrote the newest entry:
October 15th, temperature dropped again. Chloe. The angel is delightfully straightforward — she just charged right in swinging and dismantled every single tactic we had... but she's still an excellent sparring target. I hereby declare this round of the training camp a complete success.
Thwap.
Li Fei closed the journal. The spell circuit Bai Mengtian had specially engraved on the cover activated, sealing it shut — no outsider could open it, and any attempt at brute force would destroy the notebook entirely.
She turned off the light, walked to the next room, and in the dark, found her way by feel into her own spot, sliding under the covers. Her hands reached through the thin edge of the blanket and quietly found the hands of her stepdaughter and the poker-faced Miss — one on each side.
"Good work this past half-month," Li Fei said, eyes closed, her voice warm with quiet satisfaction. "Everyone's come so far."
"....." Lilith was silent for a moment, then answered: "Thank you."
This past month, her stepmother's lack of moral restraint had been laid thoroughly bare — and it had left Lilith with no small amount of indignation on behalf of her mother, and on behalf of... well.
But she was equally clear-eyed about the other side of things. High-Sequence cultivators were heights that the vast majority of Transcendents would never reach in their entire lives. Without Li Fei pulling strings, she would never have received guidance from so many of the powerful.
"Some debts are too big for words," Li Fei said, scratching lightly at her palm. "Just give it your all at the exchange tournament."
"You didn't need to tell me that."
Lilith suddenly felt a vague, restless irritation — she even had the urge to pull her hand free.
The tournament's opening meant the end of the training camp.
"Oh, one more thing," Li Fei added. "I've set aside a bedroom for each of you — you can come stay here whenever you like."
"Zhihua-jie agreed, by the way."
"Goodnight."
Lilith's eyelashes gave the faintest flutter. She said stubbornly: "Who says I'd want to stay with you anyway..."
But the hand holding her stepmother's slowly, quietly relaxed its grip.
The next morning, Li Fei loaded up a thick stack of goldsmith notes, carefully tucked away a high-potency Lucky Potion, mounted her broom, and flew off in the direction of the Rainbow Altar.
Charisma had broken four hundred. The fortune-boosting effect of Enthrall Fate was maxed out.
It was time to shop and draw the gacha — to make the final preparations for the exchange tournament.
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