Sisyphus trampled death and offended the gods, so Zeus punished him by making him push a great boulder to the summit of Mount Olympus.
But the gods had laid a Curse on the boulder. Whenever it came within arm's reach of the peak, it rolled back down to the foot of the mountain, and Sisyphus's heart fell with it.
The heavy stone rose and fell, over and over, without end, grinding down Sisyphus's spirit and will again and again. It wore away the rest of his life in futile labor, and the gods considered this the cruelest punishment of all.
But what if you set a counter at the foot of the mountain? Every meter the boulder moved, the number on the counter would tick up, and whenever it crossed a certain threshold, the counter would chime "Level up!"… Then the punishment would become a game.
What if, on top of that, Sisyphus's body and soul evolved and transformed in every way with each level? Then the most vicious punishment the gods had racked their brains to devise would turn into a stroke of fortune called the [System].
Li Fei lay in bed watching her experience points jump up, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. It was a full half hour before she got up, still looking as if she hadn't had enough.
In her view, leaving the big pile of gold and silver in the national treasury instead of hauling it back to Loxibrook was the most correct investment decision she'd ever made.
After all, putting a performance-based review system into practice meant paying out bonuses! Only by throwing real gold and silver at them, plus the Commander's show of force, could she make that gang of arrogant, hard-bitten soldiers at the Demon Suppression Bureau turn over a new leaf and slay demons day and night.
"I wonder how long this speed can last…"
Li Fei muttered under her breath, a little anxious about losing it.
She knew full well that her experience gain would inevitably slow down over time.
First, people's fighting spirit and enthusiasm wear out. Give it enough time, and even if the bonuses stayed the same, the Bureau's drive would inevitably flag.
Second, the number of demons around any big town was limited. Once the nearest ones were wiped out, the Bureau's working radius would stretch farther. That meant venturing deep into the wilderness, where even a single supply run took ages and the risks were no longer comparable.
Third, there was the matter of the demons' cultivation base. Once all the weak ones were written into Li Fei's merit ledger, the Bureau would keep well away from the tough bones that remained. Let them fight downhill battles, slaughtering harmless enemies and then collecting rewards and dividing gold by the big scale afterward, and they'd have no complaints at all. But order them to earn blood money, and they'd sooner go back to bullying men and women.
On top of that, killing people to establish authority only cowed them for a while. Give it enough time and hearts would inevitably waver, each person nursing schemes of their own.
"From now on, I'll try to go back for a day or two every month."
In the end, Li Fei made up her mind.
With the court footing the bill, at least she had no worries about her own travel costs. For the trip out, she'd used a [Spatial Wonderstone] to trigger [Displacement Crossing Ritual]. The one-way fare for two humans and two demons was fifty-seven thousand, and she still owed it, having never gotten around to paying it off.
For the return trip, she'd used [Aileen's Torch Leap Ritual], which was cheaper but far less convenient. The former only needed a complete set of coordinates to cross planes, while the latter required lighting at least two torches in advance to act as nodes before it could span the space between them.
Fortunately, setting up a torch node cost only a few dozen gold coins in materials, and the torch would burn in the snow for at least two years at a temperature no hotter than "ordinary people find it hot to the touch." It needed no attention in the meantime, so it wasn't much trouble to use. Still, the torch was only a simple but indispensable part of the ritual, and when she actually wanted to activate [Aileen's Torch Leap Ritual], other materials had to be sacrificed too.
Before heading to the Demon-Sealing Continent, Li Fei had lit a ritual torch in her own fireplace. That was why the whole party had tumbled out of the hearth one after another like dumplings dropped into a pot when they came back.
Incidentally, the ritual's inventor, Aileen, was a female dragon whose lifelong passion was glittering gold and jewels, with shiny yellow gold chief among them. Nearly every spell and ritual system she created used gold as its material, and she sold the rights to use and spread them at high prices, which is how they became so widespread.
After all, gold was a material that could be gathered on the vast majority of planes, unlike Mana Crystals, which were scarce. And while buying knowledge from her was expensive, the knowledge itself was usually worth the price, delivering about the same effect as comparable knowledge at the lowest possible cost.
Take [Aileen's Torch Leap Ritual]: once the torch nodes were set, the cost of each space crossing was a full fifty percent lower than [Displacement Crossing Ritual]!
Naturally, before returning to Loxibrook, Li Fei had also lit torch nodes in the Great Song, which meant she'd hardly need Spatial Wonderstones anymore. And just in case, she'd set up five torches at different locations in one go!
Anyway, with [Aileen's Torch Leap Ritual], a round trip still wasn't cheap, but as long as she kept the headcount and frequency under control, it wouldn't put too much strain on the treasury.
After weighing her schedule against the costs, Li Fei decided to find time every month to visit the Demon-Sealing Continent and see her wife and daughter. Of course, she'd have to hide it from Lady Zhihua. Hehe.
Besides that, it was also necessary to kill off a batch of restless troublemakers now and then to stabilize things and fill the treasury. Otherwise, the moment the performance bonuses fell into arrears, Li Fei's merit-making machine would go on strike too.
"My hands are getting fuller by the day: the Secret Garden, the mines, the apothecary, the foundation, the Great Song… Oh, and advancing through the mid Sequences and training Furnace Battle-Qi… And I'm still a student! At this rate, where will I find the time to go entertain customers at the tavern?"
Once she'd settled her plans, Li Fei stood up lazily, muttering to herself: "I need to train up Miss Assistant as soon as possible."
She picked a forest-girl style long dress from the wardrobe at random, strolled leisurely down the corridor, and knocked on Qiao'er's door.
"Ah!"
After a soft little gasp, the quiet girl's flustered, darting gaze and flushed cheeks let the young madam realize that she'd picked out a dress but forgotten to put it on.
*
"Not having a spatial ring is such a pain. Hauling several tons of gold is no joke."
Li Fei wiped sweat from her forehead that wasn't there and heaved a sigh.
The Demon-Sealing Continent might have Saint-level fighters, but every skill point had gone into slaying demons. Their supporting technology in medicine, potions, forging, rituals and the rest lagged far behind. Even Li Fei could pass as a miracle doctor there, so their overall medical standards hardly needed mentioning.
And storage equipment, which was forever scarce, precious and in short supply even in Loxibrook, was worth a fortune on the Demon-Sealing Continent.
The mighty Great Song, a thousand years old as a nation, had only a single ancestral Qiankun Pouch, and its capacity wasn't large. The Commander, whose Morality Value toward her own people stood at a lofty -1, didn't have the nerve to mooch it off her wife and daughter.
"I'm the one hauling the gold…"
Just as Li Fei was voicing her poverty, a smoky, throaty, mature-woman voice came from beneath her, full of dissatisfaction.
It was a tall, slender skeletal ghost horse. Her bones gleamed white as jade, two crimson ghost fires flickered in her eye sockets, and a layer of black smoke coiled around her whole body, rising into the sky like a beacon fire.
Every time her hooves kissed the ground, they left behind a burning kiss-mark shaped like a maple leaf, strung together in a continuous line.
Admittedly, this tamed wild mare was a bit of a rookie at only Sequence 7, but in looks she was no whit inferior to legendary creatures like unicorns and nightmares. Riding her through the streets turned every head.
But while Li Fei was satisfied, Lady Skeletal Ghost Horse had other opinions.
She was carrying Li Fei, Qiao'er and five tons of gold, and she also had to put up with the occasional flattery. She dared be angry but didn't dare say so.
"Thank you for your hard work, Lady Wuzhui."
Li Fei stroked her forehead and said with a beaming smile: "Or shall I carry it?"
She had originally wanted to give the skeletal ghost horse a stage name like Grass Wonder, Mihono Bourbon, Sodai-chan or Symboli Rudolf, but the lady would rather die than comply, so in the end Li Fei just called her Wuzhui.
"No need."
Lady Wuzhui shuddered, briefly recalling the terror of being dominated by the [Edging Torture Method].
"Don't worry, I'll find you a secret technique for taking human form as soon as I can, and a chance to advance to the Innate realm… In return, just let me ride you for three years. After that, stay or go as you please."
Li Fei spun honeyed words and drew pie in the sky to coax Lady Wuzhui along.
Faced with the lure of the Innate realm, Wuzhui was naturally a little tempted. Apart from cuddling with the horse girls in the dreams Li Fei created, she devoted herself entirely to foraging, cultivating and sleeping, and she didn't even have a concept of horse-hop dancing. And one thing had always puzzled this smoky-voiced mature beauty: why was this enchantress so keen on making her take human form?
Wuzhui had once put the question to Li Fei, who only smiled meaningfully.
"You'll understand when the time comes. I'll teach you something more fun than cultivation."
Lady Wuzhui still didn't understand, but she didn't dare ask more.
"You're underdressed, aren't you?"
Li Fei took Qiao'er's slightly cool hand again and said softly: "Our immortal city may be springlike all year round, but the temperature still changes from season to season."
Held in Li Fei's arms, feeling her warmth, Qiao'er felt her loneliness and gloom slowly settle and thicken inside her.
Since Qin Zhihua's return, Qiao'er had heard with her own ears Li Fei's all-night singing, her voice going from ringing to hollow and brittle, then hoarse and weak, and finally dissolving into tearful self-criticism and pleading for mercy… The mire in her heart had been churning almost every moment since.
It was fine tea, with the beauty of layered green mountains and rising rosy clouds, and a fragrance that soothed the heart. But the person drinking it wasn't her.
"We're here."
Li Fei swung down from the horse and helped Qiao'er down too, pointing to a solemn, stately building nearby: "This is City Hall. It's about the same as a government office. Since you're going to be my assistant, you'll have to deal with the people in here a lot."
As she spoke, she lifted five tons of gold in one hand, steady as a rock, and flashed a dazzling smile: "Come on. Time to see the real 'immortal realm.'"
*
The five tons of gold became forty-five Goldsmith Notes with a face value of ten thousand each, plus some small-denomination notes and gold coins.
By the rules, exchanging gold for coins or Goldsmith Notes was supposed to incur a handling fee.
But for an outstanding young capitalist and household-name Philanthropist like Li Fei, City Hall had even waived the taxes, let alone a handling fee.
In addition, Li Fei took the opportunity to get a batch of discarded military equipment for the female ghosts, made specifically for spirits' use. The batch was perfect in every way except that it wouldn't be produced until tomorrow night.
Qiao'er watched the mustached official chatting and laughing with Li Fei, and the eight big characters hanging behind him, "Enforce the Law Impartially, Serve the People," and felt a little dazed.
But this was only the beginning. After the official saw them out, Qiao'er followed Li Fei to the Sparkfire Charity Organization's office.
Yusura and several Black Gold members welcomed the Philanthropist on her inspection and also briefed her assistant on the work.
Yusura hid nothing from the person Li Fei had brought personally. In a kindly tone, she laid out the cold, dark workings concealed beneath that universally admired signboard.
The beautiful, enchanting abyss revealed its deeper nature to Qiao'er.
Only when they'd walked out of the office and a stranger approached to thank them did Qiao'er awaken as if from a dream.
"Miss Philanthropist, thank you so much… If it weren't for you people, my granddaughter would…"
A white-haired old man thanked Li Fei over and over, even trying to kneel to her.
Li Fei held the old man up with all her strength and said with a smile:
"Old sir, I only did a small, insignificant thing… If you want to thank someone, thank the kind-hearted people who donated to us."
Beside the old man, a little girl who looked just recovered from a serious illness said in a milky voice:
"When I grow up, I want to work at the Sparkfire Charity Organization too and help even more people who need help."
"Sure thing, big sister will be waiting for you."
Li Fei stepped forward and linked pinkies with her. Passersby stopped one after another to gaze and heap on praise, and some even reached for their purses on the spot to donate to the Sparkfire Organization.
A newspaper reporter who happened to be passing recorded the heartwarming scene. It would no doubt appear in the reports of every paper, large and small, tomorrow.
Only when they reached a deserted spot did Li Fei, leading Lady Wuzhui, suddenly speak up:
"Now you know why the organization's expenses include a performance budget, right?"
"Though Yusura has gotten a bit lax lately. I've seen that old actor more than once… I'll have to remind her next time."
"Anyway, the assistant's main job is to watch over the Sparkfire Charity Organization for me and handle some day-to-day work, contacting me right away if anything major comes up. On top of that, you'd have to make a few trips to City Hall every month to pay off the mortgage on time and handle some necessary paperwork…"
Li Fei paused. She didn't turn around, but her tone grew even gentler:
"Are you confident you can do this work? You can refuse and just be my personal assistant. What I promised you still stands. I'll submit the application and arrange the cultivation matters for you."
"No need to answer right away. Think it over and give me your answer… Anyway, don't let yourself regret it."
Qiao'er bit her lip, stopped in her tracks, and gazed at Li Fei's back.
Today Li Fei wore a pale green slip dress, its thin straps resting on her slender, jade-smooth shoulders. Her glossy black hair was soft as silk, and when the wind stirred it, it gave off a fresh scent of tea. As her hem swayed, her fair, lovely ankles flashed in and out of view, and the crisp, pleasing rhythm of her silver high-heeled sandals tapping the ground landed on Qiao'er's heart with every step.
Yet it was this woman, fresh and elegant as an orchid in a hidden valley, who had handed Qiao'er an invitation from the abyss.
"Why me?"
Qiao'er asked.
"Because you're smart and reliable, you don't have a decent source of income right now, and you'll need resources when you set foot on the extraordinary path."
Li Fei glanced back with a smile: "And the most important reason of all: I trust you, Qiao'er."
That smile hit Qiao'er's chest like a bullet, and the mire instantly swallowed the girl's trembling, shrinking heart.
So she accepted that invitation. It came from the abyss, but it was stamped with a sweet kiss mark:
"I… can try."
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