Demoness Potion

"Look into my eyes."

"Look!"

Lu Mingfei's low voice rang out, carrying a hint of command that brooked no defiance, like a sleeping lion that had just awakened and begun lecturing the subjects within its territory.

"Pfft—!" Su Lin took one look and failed to hold it in.

"Sorry, pfft, hahahaha!"

Before him was a round creature, its swollen face squeezing a pair of golden eyes so tightly that one would have trouble finding them without looking carefully.

"Don't you feel even a shred of guilt?!"

The pressure released from the golden eyes of this ball—no, Lu Mingfei—was enough to make a half-blood tremble in fear.

"Are you even human?"

"But you can't blame me entirely." Su Lin's laughter came in trembling bursts, his shoulders shaking uncontrollably. "I brought you here to find your sense of qi. Once you found it and passed through two cycles, you stopped."

"What normal person keeps sitting in one spot and absorbing qi without even learning an introductory cultivation method?"

Zhongli shook his head from the side. The moment he entered, he had seen a round lump of flesh.

Yet Lu Mingfei himself had not noticed at all and was still continuing to absorb qi.

Su Lin took out his phone and snapped a picture, ignoring Lu Mingfei's resentful little eyes.

"I messaged you. I said you could come to Rong City to hang out with us if you had nothing to do, but you sat here meditating and cultivating for an entire day."

"How was I supposed to know cultivation would be this addictive?"

Lu Mingfei truly could not be blamed. When living beings drew spiritual energy into their bodies, it was like someone who had gone without food and water for a long time, constantly wanting to satisfy an instinctive craving.

It was the satisfaction of parched earth finally receiving rain after a long drought.

When Su Lin had first sensed the qi of heaven and earth, he had been just like Lu Mingfei. The only difference was that he had possessed a method for refining that qi.

"Can I go back to how I looked before?" Lu Mingfei asked dejectedly.

"Of course. You just need to refine all this qi." Zhongli pulled out a bamboo scroll from a wooden rack. "Then Lu Mingfei is in your hands."

"No problem."

Zhongli nodded and walked deeper into the room. After the many bookshelves shifted and rearranged themselves several times, he vanished from sight.

"How long until I change back?" Lu Mingfei asked.

He did not want to return to his own world looking like this. Otherwise, he would have to find another world willing to take him in for a few months. It was not as if he could claim that he had gotten bloated from using the bathroom.

"At worst, a few days. If you're quick, you'll be back to normal overnight." Su Lin patted Lu Mingfei's belly.

"That's good, that's good..."

Lu Mingfei let out a long breath and finally relaxed.

"When Zhongli held up a mirror for me earlier, I thought my whole body was about to explode."

Su Lin wrapped a ball of spiritual energy around Lu Mingfei. With a flick of his finger, Lu Mingfei floated into the air, while a strand of golden light turned into threads and wound around him as though he were holding a balloon by its string.

"It won't be that easy for you to explode. You already have the body of a half-blood, and you ate so many spiritual fruits earlier."

Click.

"If you don't refine it, this spiritual energy will stay in your body for two weeks at most before dispersing on its own."

Click, click.

"I've put up with you for a long time!" Lu Mingfei roared from behind him. "Can you stop pointing the camera at yourself to take selfies?!"

After leaving Wangshu Pavilion, Su Lin glanced at the mountain forest. Several areas within it gave off cultivation fluctuations, greedily swallowing the spiritual energy around them.

He went in the opposite direction, found a quiet place, and casually made a few arrangements.

"This will do." Su Lin patted Lu Mingfei and set him down.

"You stay here and cultivate properly, kid."

It would not have made a difference indoors, but since it was his first time cultivating, being close to nature would let him more directly sense the changes in the surrounding spiritual energy.

"You haven't forgotten anything else to tell me this time, right?" Lu Mingfei asked worriedly.

"No."

Su Lin waved a hand and left without looking back.

Though it was nearly the next day, Lu Mingfei did not feel tired in the slightest. All he wanted to do now was cultivate.

Following the circulation route in his mind, the spiritual energy accumulated within his body began to peel away from his flesh and blood like unraveling silk from a cocoon, integrating into his body in a more refined manner.

Countless points of light appeared among the surrounding trees, grass, and even the Aether...

Gradually, Lu Mingfei once again lost himself in this cultivation that elevated the very level of his life.

Cultivation makes me happy...

The ancients truly did not deceive me!

The next afternoon.

Klein returned from Rong City with a cup of milk tea and several skewers of fried snacks. He found Su Lin lying bored in a grandmaster's chair, scrolling through videos on his phone.

"Ah, you're back." Su Lin greeted him.

"You didn't go cultivate?" Klein had seen no activity at all in the chat group and had assumed everyone had gone off to cultivate.

After sleeping until he woke naturally, he had wandered around the city for a while. Following lunch, he bought some snacks and thought he would take a walk up Water Mirror Peak to aid his digestion.

Since arriving yesterday, he had not yet properly taken in the scenery of this floating Aether island.

It was time to switch away from Backlund's industrial style and its vaguely European and American classical aesthetic.

"Cultivate in the morning or at night, you'll cultivate sooner or later. Refine in the morning or at night, you'll refine sooner or later." Su Lin did not stand on ceremony, taking a fried starch sausage from the plastic bag Klein carried. It was evenly coated in a sauce mixed with red chili oil and spices.

"Not used to living here?" Su Lin asked.

As the administrator of Water Mirror Peak, he knew whenever someone entered or exited through the portal.

"Yeah, I think I'm more used to living in the city," Klein said.

"Is that so?"

Su Lin thought for a moment and took a rectangular jade pillar from his system inventory. Several unfamiliar beasts had been carved into its surface.

"Take it."

Klein accepted the jade carving and asked, "What is this?"

"It can resist mental corruption to a certain extent."

The sect had left behind few resources, and this was one of them.

"What do you want?" Klein nodded. He did indeed need this item.

"A Demoness..."

"..."

"A Demoness potion."

"What Sequence?"

"One that can turn a man into a Demoness."

Klein felt as though his Faceless disguise had nearly slipped.

"I just want to collect something interesting," Su Lin explained. "Most Sealed Artifacts in your world have side effects. How about getting me a vial of Sequence 7 potion instead? I'll keep it as a collectible."

"I'm afraid that wouldn't be enough." Klein looked at the jade carving in his hand and said.

The item's value far exceeded that of a Sequence 7 potion.

"It's fine." Su Lin took the plastic bag from Klein, picked out another skewer of pork belly, and said, "After all, I can't say exactly how useful this thing will be."

With all the strange rule-based and conceptual abilities in the world of Lord of Mysteries, it was still unknown just how much use this item could have.

Its grade was not an issue. It counted as a fairly excellent defensive artifact.

"Then thank you."

(End of this chapter.)