Chapter 172: The Answer
The small alchemy room fell silent, with twinkling stars visible in the night sky outside.
The flower spirit with waist-length black hair fluttered its wings and landed on a extinguished lampstand, swinging its two red-and-white little legs. Its molten gold eyes glimmered as it tilted its head to look at the contemplative Ji Ma and said:
“Time is running out, you have less than three minutes.”
“If you don’t want to be skewered by a fork and roasted, you better shut up.”
The flower spirit fell silent.
Ji Ma continued to think, forcibly suppressing her unwillingness and shame, calmly analyzing her feelings for George.
She forced herself to recall her feelings when she was with George. That strange and complex emotion surged from her memories, as tangled as a ball of yarn.
Ji Ma began to unravel, first pulling out a thick layer of emotion named hatred from the yarn, making the ball shrink by half. Ji Ma sighed in relief; she still remembered her hatred.
She pulled again and extracted another layer of emotion called ambition, leaving behind a fiery desire, a raw sexual longing for George.
Ji Ma’s face flushed slightly, her lips pressed tightly together as she glared at it and withdrew this fiery spark.
She told herself that this nauseating desire was due to the nature of succubi. It is well-known that every succubus is a perfect sex addict, developing impulses and desires towards somewhat strong and familiar tool-people who can barely be called friends, which is perfectly normal.
Yes, a very good lie. Almost fooled herself. If the above were true, then why was she still risking exposure, specifically feeding on George’s desires? She should have been enjoying it by now.
Ji Ma gave a self-mocking smile. Whether it was pride, believing that only a strong person like George, who could defeat her, deserved her desires, or some other reason.
George was special to her.
Admitting this made her feel uncomfortable, angry, and wanting to shout loudly:
“How is that possible! I am clearly the Demon King, and he is just a holy warrior who deserves to be cut into a thousand pieces!”
But she pushed through, snapping her fingers and dispelling the spark.
The yarn should be completely unraveled by now, right? At most, she felt desire for George; she had experienced desire for many bodies before, and it wasn’t a big deal. It was just a pure physical relationship, which wouldn’t affect anything and couldn’t prove anything.
Even straight men sometimes imagine themselves as the women from adult films, moaning comfortably.
But what she didn’t expect was that as the spark fell away, there was still something deep inside the ball of yarn.
It was a tiny, diamond-like shine of love. Even though it was as minuscule as dust, its gleaming brightness pierced Ji Ma’s heart with pain.
Her eyes widened, she instinctively denied it: “No!!”
In the blink of an eye, that diamond disappeared. Everything just now seemed like an illusion.
Ji Ma realized that her heart was pounding violently, and an old wound on her heart was faintly aching. She clutched her chest, soothing her startled heart.
That was close; if love really existed. No matter how small, it would mean that she had shifted from being heterosexual to bisexual. She had ultimately succumbed to the bridge effect.
Ji Ma admitted that she felt safe around George. This sense of safety stemmed from George’s promise-keeping, honesty, and kindness, but she understood very well that George was promise-keeping, honest, and kind to everyone. She was not the special one to him.
The flower spirit fluttered its three pairs of colorful wings, flying in front of Ji Ma, saying:
“You should think it through.”
“I understand, the ‘Deceiver’ must anchor themselves to their true self to maintain stability; otherwise, they might be deceived by their own lies.” Ji Ma said, “Just like a snake being killed by its own venom, one must use truth against lies.”
The flower spirit yawned:
“You can continue to stall for time; you know what the next round is.”
“I know where the limits of loss of control lie.” Ji Ma looked up and down at the flower spirit, seemingly pondering what seasoning to use to complement roasting the flower spirit, “I think cumin would be nice.”
The flower spirit smiled ingratiatingly, saying:
“Please hurry up and answer.”
Ji Ma spoke: “Yes, I now have a tiny bit of love for George.”
The flower spirit froze, angrily flapping its wings and jumping up, shouting:
“That’s not right!”
It buzzed around Ji Ma’s head like a fly, flying back and forth, exclaiming:
“Do you still remember you’re the Demon King? You actually feel love for the man who stabbed a sword into your chest and made you wear thirty green hats?!”
“Slap!”
Ji Ma caught it with one hand and forcefully slammed the flower spirit onto the table, her voice low:
“If you keep picking at my wounds, I’ll…”
As she spoke, she pulled a dagger from her waist, pressing the flower spirit down using one hand while the sharp blade rested against the flower spirit’s belly, saying, “I’ll cut you open, remove your innards, pull out your hair and wings, and roast them over the coals while sprinkling cumin.”
The flower spirit’s three pairs of wings huddled together in fear as it said:
“Don’t! Let me go; you’ve said your truth, and that’s enough.”
Ji Ma released her grip, and the flower spirit suddenly lunged at her mouth. Ji Ma instinctively closed her lips, but when the flower spirit touched her lips, it vanished without a trace.
The alchemy room returned to silence, as if nothing had happened.
As for the flower spirit, Ji Ma had various speculations. It might have been her illusion, or perhaps the extraordinary substance combined with part of her soul to become the flower spirit, tempting her to detach from her true self.
After all, extraordinary substances have characteristics of being alive.
Before she could finish guessing, her limbs and joints suddenly itched and ached, an overwhelming sense of hunger flooded over her.
It was time to grow again.
Ji Ma quickly opened the food box she had prepared in advance, revealing a fragrant vinegar sea fish weighing a full four pounds. Ji Ma, famished, grabbed it bare-handed, dug in, and began to gnaw. The sea fish had few bones, and the soft fish meat overflowed with sour and sweet juice as it filled her mouth.
Ji Ma barely had time to savor the texture of the fish before chewing a few times and swallowing it whole. In less than a minute, the entire fish was gone, devoured. While she licked the remaining meat off the blue fish bones, she grabbed a blood sausage, stuffed it into her mouth, and bit it into two pieces, chewing a few times before the crushed meat lodged in her throat.
Choked…
Ji Ma, with her greasy little hands, quickly grabbed a ceramic jar filled with milk. The originally hot milk had now cooled, covered with a thin cream layer. Ji Ma didn’t rush to drink it; instead, she pinched the cream with her fingers, tasted the sticky milkiness, and then, holding the jar, tilted her head back to drink the milk until not a drop was left.
The milk dispersed the bits of meat stuck in her throat; she burped, her eyes squinting with happiness as she set down the jar, preparing to tackle the roasted grass chicken.
Yet, the sense of hunger vanished, and the itching and aching in her limbs receded like a tide.
Was this all?
Ji Ma looked down, her white-silk-clad calves sticking out from under her skirt, looking as they did before she grew up, with no sensation of the white stockings constricting her.
It was drastically different from the last time she grew; that time she could say she had progressed from an elementary student to a middle school student, but now?
The only visible change was in her chest, which finally had a sense of protrusion. If before growth it was like a raw egg smashed against her chest, now it was as if the raw egg had stood upright.
Ji Ma self-mockingly said, “It looks like I can finally wear a bra now, such a big growth.”
But her height seemed to have increased a bit; otherwise, her limbs and joints wouldn’t itch and ache that way.
A two-meter-long wooden ruler leaned against the swaying wall, with a red line marked at the pitiable height of one hundred forty-nine centimeters, representing Ji Ma’s previous height. She absolutely hated being short; when she measured George, who was about one hundred eighty centimeters tall, she had to look up at him as if he were a giant.
This time, she should be able to break through the pathetic mark of one hundred fifty centimeters.
Yet Ji Ma suppressed her curiosity about measuring her height. She first went to the washbasin she had prepared earlier, carefully washing her greasy hands with a wet towel and soap, then called upon the personal information system in her mind.
“DM: Congratulations, you have advanced to ‘Deceiver.'”
It was real, everything was real.
A huge weight lifted from Ji Ma’s heart; anything could be fake, but the system couldn’t be fake. At the same time, she felt a sense of unreality, as if fairy tale-like happy endings truly existed in reality. The bad guys were all dead, and no good people had died; they even saved Shalin City.
Aha, she was now a silver-tier strong one.
Ji Ma felt joyful and began checking her extraordinary abilities.
“Lies: As long as they can somewhat make sense, your lies possess a supernatural persuasive power. If someone believes your lie and spreads it, it will turn into a rumor; the more people believe it or the stronger the believers are, the more likely your rumor will come true.”
Looking at it from another angle, isn’t this power similar to saying word becomes law? Convincing a group of fools that she has a dedicated princess elf maid doll, and the next morning there would be elf maids in her bed, licking her toes and waking her up?
Ji Ma could hardly wait to find a group of fools to con; she restrained her excitement and continued reading.
“Chameleon: Blend into the environment by changing your body color.”
Ji Ma felt a bit disappointed; compared to the previous extraordinary ability, this one seemed plain and rudimentary. The contrast was like a tank carrying a knight, engaging in a sword fight.
Changing body color?
Does that mean to activate this ability, she has to be naked? At most, she would need to stick a few band-aids on exposed areas.
Perhaps that’s why some succubi wear so little fabric that it’s no more than the size of two palms.
In any case, this ability could only be considered disguise; invisibility would have been better.
Ji Ma wanted to test her chameleon ability. She picked up a mirror and tilted it toward herself, revealing a youthful face with a hint of innocence, looking pure and naive, like a spoiled little lady who had not yet experienced much of the world.
Ji Ma activated her chameleon ability, feeling somewhat awkward at first. She saw her exposed arms start to change color to match the floor, the color spreading not just across her skin but extending to her clothing, her whole arm becoming “transparent.” After more than ten seconds passed, Ji Ma disappeared from the mirror.
Moreover, while in chameleon mode, Ji Ma felt that she didn’t need to breathe. There was not a single sound of breathing.
After canceling her chameleon state, the mirror displayed the devilish smile of the succubus girl, her corners of her mouth slightly upturned, her face flushed with excitement.
Ji Ma continued to the next ability, which was quite simple.
“Charm: I love you very much, and I’m sure you love me too, poor thing… causing the other party to fall into infatuation with you.”
This was a signature skill of succubi. Ji Ma knew well that the charm of a succubus was not as simple as described.
She had witnessed it firsthand: in an intense battle, a demon who had just raised a knife against a succubus one moment, in the next moment, due to the succubus’s full-powered charm, stabbed themselves in the chest, unable to forgive themselves for having acted against a succubus.
Not only in battle; the effectiveness of charm varied with the amount of magical power used.
Having finished reading all the abilities obtained from her advancement.
Ji Ma hummed off-key, measured her height, one hundred fifty-one centimeters, finally surpassing one hundred fifty. She felt joyful and put away the ruler, only to suddenly feel a wave of fatigue wash over her. She left the alchemy room, returned to the captain’s cabin, and provocatively stepped over the sleeping George on the ground, climbed into bed, and fell into a dream alone.
