Challenge

"This maid's name is Weixi Modo Talos Boethiah Hircine Mehrunes Meridia—" "Skip the name introduction." "I was born in Strawberry Town of the Thorn Flower Dynasty. My father was named Modo Talos Boethiah Hircine—" "Skip your life background." "I studied at—" "Enough!" In the living room on the first floor of the villa, Yaxiu, Igola, Harvey, Rose, and Feili surrounded Weixi, who had changed into a maid uniform. She showed not the slightest awareness of being a prisoner. A contemptuous smile curled at the corners of her lips, and she stared at the cult leader with an intensely provocative look. "You're the one who told me to tell everything," she said leisurely. "Then I obviously have to start from the moment I was born for it to count as 'everything.'" "If you think I've done something wrong, Master, you're free to punish me. Hammers, chainsaws, bamboo skewers, candles, a whip soaked in brine... A little maid only becomes obedient through Master's discipline, you know~" Rose immediately raised her hand. "The soundproof room and props are already prepared. Yaxiu, you may begin at any time!" "The props are ready too?" Feili's eyes went wide. Rose nodded matter-of-factly. "Of course. Those are all very commonly used tools. Surely every household keeps them on hand?" "All right, Rose, stop talking. If you keep going, Feili's going to call the police." Yaxiu rubbed his forehead and said to the blonde college girl, "We're playing a role-playing game. Rose is playing an omnipotent butler who can grant any wish. Don't take her words seriously." "Correction: at the very least, I cannot grant wholesome wishes," Rose stated. "Wishes found in the Criminal Code, however, pose no problem at all." Feili wanted to say something more, but Yaxiu pulled her aside. Once he was sure Rose was out of earshot, he lowered his voice. "Feili, you're special." "Huh?" Seeing Yaxiu so close, Feili had no idea where to look, her heart racing. "Our power is a 'mysterious phenomenon' that cannot be discovered by ordinary people," Yaxiu explained. "Otherwise, we would lose our power immediately. But only people like you can not only look at us, but also use our power without being constrained by those mysterious shackles." "Rose is just an ordinary person. She doesn't believe in mysterious powers at all, and in fact, I can't prove it to her either, or I'd instantly lose my power. She thinks we're playing a role-playing game, so in front of her, we pretend to be players with different personas." "Why am I special?" Feili asked. "Because I'm... a 'demon'? Am I actually not human?" "'Demon' is just a noun. You don't need to read too much into it. It doesn't define your personality, nor does it define your race." Yaxiu jerked his thumb toward Weixi behind him. "If we're being technical, that one back there is the real demon." "Just treat it as a hidden identity. At all other times, you're just ordinary Feili. Only when you run into people like us do you become a demon who can protect herself." "Then what are you?" Feili asked curiously. "Like little fairies in fairy tales that lose their magic if they're discovered?" "We are sorcerers." "Like the sorcerers in *Blood Moon Trial*?" "Pretty much. We're the good sorcerers, Weixi is a bad sorcerer, and right now there are many other bad sorcerers in Jiashi. They've come to kill someone, but in order to unleash their power, they all need the help of a demon." Yaxiu looked at her seriously. "That's why I hope you can become my companion—both to borrow your power and to protect you from those other bad sorcerers." Feili listened in a daze, then suddenly glanced around. "What are you looking for?" "I'm checking to see if there are hidden cameras... Never mind." Feili cradled her cheeks, murmuring, "I think I need a little time to digest this movie-like plot." "No problem." Seeing Yaxiu return from his private chat with Feili, Weixi giggled. "Master, do you need your maid's help? I can train this little lamb into your shape, turning her into a compliant darling who caters to your every whim. Believe me, you won't find a better shepherd in the Nation of Stars than me." Yaxiu couldn't be bothered with her. He introduced the others to Feili. "These two are sorcerers like me. This is Harvey, a necromancer who manipulates corpses, and this is Igola, a mind sorcerer who plays with people's minds." Then Yaxiu turned to his two companions. "This is Feili. She's a demon." Igola and Harvey had been wondering why Yaxiu had brought back a cowering blonde college girl who was clearly an ordinary person. Hearing his introduction, they both froze. In other words, on this trip you not only turned the Spectre Prophet into a slave maid, but you also abducted the strongest trump card of the Nation of Stars—a demon? At this point, even if Yaxiu claimed he had picked up health insurance and a gym membership along the way, they wouldn't be surprised. Just how many surprises were you keeping hidden from everyone? Feili blinked. She looked at Igola and Harvey. The deceiver offered an elegant, polite smile, while the necromancer gave a slight nod. *Wait... a necromancer who defiles corpses;* *A mind sorcerer who toys with human hearts;* *Yaxiu, whose power she had witnessed firsthand—an utterly shameless, invisible swordsman;* *And Rose, that dark wishing well...* A chill ran down Feili's spine. Looking up at the spacious villa, she suddenly felt as if she had stepped straight into a villain's den of evil. "Now that we've met Miss Feili," Igola said, turning his gaze toward Weixi, "shouldn't you explain, Yaxiu... what is going on with Her Excellency the Spectre Prophet?" "I can't go into too much detail." Yaxiu noticed Weixi pricking up her ears as well. "All you need to know is that she has become a maid who will unconditionally obey my orders. Aside from her thoughts, I can control her every action." Rose's interest was piqued. "Can you teach me how you did it? Did you dig up some leverage, or did you threaten her family?" Yaxiu answered truthfully, "It was a magical item." "Understood." Rose nodded knowingly. "This role-playing game of yours really pushes the envelope." Igola blinked, sorting through his thoughts before asking earnestly, "Do you mean to say that this former demigod sorcerer, the Spectre Prophet, has become your slave—unable to resist, ready to cater to your every demand, free for you to vent your desires upon, forced to swallow her humiliation and submit even though she could overpower you?" "Don't make it sound so disgusting." Yaxiu spread his hands. "For now, I merely plan to squeeze out every drop of value from her, and once we return to reality, make her do ten thousand years of community service." "Why send her out for community service?" Igola's eyes widened. "Isn't keeping her for our own use much better?! This is a demigod, and a prophecy demigod at that!" "I'm actually quite short on assistants." Harvey looked at Weixi. "Is the Spectre Prophet proficient in the necromancy faction?" "Not particularly," Weixi replied with a smile. "Back then, I failed to step into the divine realm and only reached the Legendary tier. After so many years, I wonder how far the necromancy faction has developed." "I think she could become my collaborator," Harvey said. "Though more likely, I would end up being her assistant." Igola's eyes lit up. "Then what about the Spectre Prophet's mind faction...?" "As a faction closely linked to the soul faction, it naturally reached the Legendary tier as well, and back then, I stood infinitely close to the divine realm," Weixi remarked casually. "Your aptitude is quite good. Reaching the Sanctuary tier in the mind faction at your age and having the preliminary form of a 'mind diffusion force field' is commendable. But you haven't had many chances to interact with mind sorcerers of the same tier, have you? Your techniques are far too clumsy, and the traces of your force field are far too conspicuous. You need more theoretical guidance." "'Mind diffusion force field'?" the deceiver murmured. "So it wasn't an illusion... I really can use mental imagery to warp reality to a limited extent..." "Warp? How shallow. The supreme achievement of the mind faction is to replace reality with illusion, to make the false genuine—where what you perceive is what you see, and where what you envision is where you are," Weixi lectured. "You've also sensed the limitations of the mind faction, haven't you? You inherited a couple of soul-refining techniques from my Spectre Inheritance, hoping to cultivate your soul to better master the mind. The logic is sound, but unfortunately, the inheritance was too fragmented. Who knows how many years it would take you to scale the Legendary realm..." Noticing the gazes of both the deceiver and the necromancer turning scorching hot, Yaxiu clapped his hands expressionlessly. "Friends, I don't mind you gaining the knowledge you want from Weixi—so long as you are confident you won't end up being manipulated by her instead." Igola and Harvey sobered up immediately. It was no wonder they had gotten carried away. Yaxiu's ability to control Weixi was simply too unbelievable. It was like a slave becoming the master of an empress, a beggar becoming the boss of a tycoon, a Lalafell riding on someone's head—this was the Spectre Prophet, a demigod sorcerer famed throughout the Void Realm! Come to think of it, throughout their journey, they had never encountered a high-ranking sorcerer on their side! In the Gospel, they had run into several Sanctuary sorcerers, but without exception, all were in the opposing camp, with only Qinna being relatively neutral toward Yaxiu. In Senluo, their companion Crow Cull wasn't a sorcerer, Gwen was only a two-wing, and only Chikala was a Sanctuary sorcerer—yet the orc specialized in fire arts, which didn't overlap with anyone else's factions. Ever since their prison escape, they had been in a state of self-study guided by sheer instinct. They had no time, no place, and no mentors to learn from. If academy sorcerers suffered from too much theory and too little practice, the two of them were the exact opposite: they had practiced so much that traces of their battles were scattered across four nations! Only Yaxiu was a bit better off—not because he had mentors like the Sword Princess, the Witch, and Weise, but because he was too lazy to study. The appearance of the Spectre Prophet was equivalent to having an instructor proficient in every faction. Never mind mind and necromancy; even if they switched to the soul faction right now, they would face no bottlenecks, and their achievements would likely be even higher! A mere Spectre Inheritance had driven thousands of Sanctuary sorcerers to slaughter each other, to say nothing of a living Spectre Prophet! Yet the attitude between Yaxiu and Weixi brought them back down to earth: this was merely a mirage. The Spectre Prophet would never teach them obediently. The more time you spent with her, the easier it was to become her prisoner. For a soul demigod, even without sorcery spirits, so long as communication was possible, she could chisel a crack of betrayal into anyone's soul. "If Master restricts me to only sharing theoretical knowledge, this maid can hardly do anything harmful," Weixi said with a chuckle. "Besides, you are all remarkably gifted prodigies. It is our tradition as sorcerers to exchange knowledge and nurture the next generation. I genuinely want to teach you how to climb to higher heights." "If the prodigies you slaughtered ahead of time could hear those words, they'd probably jump out of Hell in sheer rage," Yaxiu said coldly. "Not even the punctuation marks that come out of your mouth can be trusted." "Doesn't that make things awkward?" Weixi's smile grew sweeter. "You don't trust me, yet you want information. What should we do? How about you punish me? Punish me until you can trust me, Master~" "Harvey," Yaxiu said, "draft a suicide-prevention protocol covering every possible death she could or couldn't think of. Above all, she must not be allowed to commit suicide. She has a backup soul phylactery in reality; dying will free her from my control." Feili asked blankly, "Can't you just order her not to kill herself?" "Why do you think she keeps egging me on to punish her?" Yaxiu explained. "If I pick up a fruit knife, she'll probably slip and throw herself right onto the blade. I can order her not to commit suicide, but I can't order her not to suffer an accidental death, because accidents are beyond our control." "I don't have the confidence to compete with the Spectre Prophet over who knows more ways to die," Harvey said, pulling out a notepad and scribbling. "Though if it's a method even I can't think of, it must be a fascinating death. If she dies..." "I will support you with every resource available to resurrect her." The necromancer stopped abruptly, staring straight at Yaxiu. "You supported me in retrieving the thousand-year-old bones before, and now you're giving me the Spectre Prophet's corpse..." The dark-skinned, curly-haired man pondered for a moment before drawing a conclusion: "Do you fancy me?" "In return, I demand that for the rest of your life, you never mention livor mortis, coffins, or any corpse-related trivia in front of the Sword Princess, especially at the dining table," Yaxiu said. "And you are strictly forbidden from gifting us coffins." Harvey considered it, then shook his head. "No, that's a bad deal for me. What you're offering right now is only enough to make me give up coffins as presents." Fearing he might change his mind, Yaxiu snapped, "Deal." "Sword Princess..." Weixi turned the name over in her mouth, as if branding it into her memory. "Is she the person you love? I'll remember that." Feili's eyelid twitched, and she couldn't help perking up her ears. Yaxiu stared quietly at the demon maid. "Do you think that's enough to provoke my anger?" "I merely wish to remember my future mistress. There's no need to get so upset, is there?" Weixi tilted her head. "And Igola, Harvey... I will remember everyone Master values, everyone you like, everyone you care about. After all, that is a maid's 'duty.'" Weixi did not fear pain; she yearned for death. Torture was merely an opportunity for her to engineer an accidental demise. Yaxiu knew perfectly well that she was exhausting every trick to stoke his fury, ideally provoking him into killing her directly. He had no intention of falling for such obvious bait. Turning to Igola, he said: "You see her attitude. Even if I can restrict her from lying, she can still tell plenty of truths designed to mislead us. Compile a confession command to at least make her spit out information on the Four Pillar Cult and the Nation of Stars." "No need to go through all that trouble. I can tell you right now," Weixi said in a lighthearted tone. "My ties with the Four Pillar Cult began in the summer of the year 653 of the Thorn Flower Dynasty..." "Get lost and go scrub the toilet!" "As you wish." The demon maid accepted the cleaning chore cheerfully, laughing. "I stand by my words... Kill me, or you'll regret it." Once Weixi left, Igola glanced at Yaxiu. "We can minimize our contact with the Spectre Prophet to avoid risks, but can you really avoid being manipulated by her? You lost your temper after just a few words from her." Yaxiu dropped his cold facade and let out a sigh. "As long as she isn't helpful, lock her up until we leave. Make it a rule that at least two people must be present whenever someone meets with her, and forbid her from acting alone... That should keep things under control." "Still, as long as we interact with the Spectre Prophet, there will always be risks," Yaxiu said heavily. "But compared to killing her and letting her reincarnate... I accept the challenge." As he spoke, Yaxiu couldn't help looking at Feili again. If only the demon maid were Feili. Valuable though Weixi was, she was like a double-edged sword smeared with poison—likely to wound them before striking any enemy. ... In the bathroom, Weixi absentmindedly wrung out a rag and wiped the cracks between the wall tiles. Touching her neck, she could still faintly sense that ethereal, nearly imperceptible chain. Whenever she attempted to rebel, the chain would shift from phantom to solid, seizing control of her body to forcefully execute the command. *Could this chain... really have been forged by me for myself?* While a normal person would never entertain such a thought, Weixi was a reincarnator who had experienced a Second Cycle. To her, the notion of 'being sabotaged by herself from another timeline' was by no means unthinkable. The reason she had been able to hunt down those prodigies so effortlessly in her second life was precisely because they had exposed the weaknesses of their schemes during her first. If she really had forged this chain, why had it ended up in Yaxiu's hands? Come to think of it, even based on Weixi's limited knowledge of Yaxiu, the man seemed almost absurdly legendary: creating the Dream-Awakening God in the Dream Heaven, soaring over Ruby Mountain to inherit the Thousand Wishes Kingdom of Heaven, and now possessing a chain capable of dominating her... It sounded completely like a Second Cycle player. Yet through their interactions, Weixi was certain he lacked memories of a previous life. That was impossible to fake. If he were truly a mastermind capable of orchestrating Dream Heaven, the Thousand Wishes Kingdom of Heaven, and subjugating the Spectre Prophet with surgical precision, the rot emanating from the depths of his soul would be something Weixi could smell without even using her nose. But the Yaxiu she saw seemed... untouched by the brutality of fate. To actually lose his composure over a few petty threats... Someone like him was disgustingly naive. Regardless, Yaxiu undoubtedly harbored an enormous secret. Although Weixi could reincarnate from her phylactery, it would take at least ten years to recover. Despite her nonchalant tone, a decade was enough to thoroughly dismantle her original resurrection plans, and whether she could retrieve her soul fragments from Hell would come down entirely to luck. As for how good her luck was—putting aside being forced to resurrect early, and putting aside the near-total failure of her plot to seize the Senluo gods—cleaning a bathroom right now spoke for itself. She now had an irresistible master, yet she also seemed to be drawing close to an unimaginable treasure. "Yaxiu Heath..." Weixi savored the name, as if chewing it up to swallow down. "I accept the challenge."