Chapter 16. Pleasure
Black Crow, looking down from above, gazed upon the man before the divine seat with a look of surprise and extreme gravity.
He was the first and only one in history to bypass the terrifying Calamity Force Field and directly approach the divine seat.
“What do you want?” it asked, its beak opening and closing in confusion. “While I don’t know how you resisted the erosion of the Calamity Force Field, if you’re looking for some Evil Dragon treasure, I can tell you directly, there’s none here. And if you want to break the World Tree’s seal, I can also tell you that with your meager Spirit Pressure, it’s simply impossible.”
Xia Feng ignored the bird and instead looked up and down at the gray-haired woman sitting with her eyes closed nearby.
Now, how to absorb Calamity Force? Facing a humanoid sea of Calamity Spirit Fluid, he was momentarily unsure where to begin. Xia Feng glanced at the woman’s snow-white, slender neck adorned with star-blue gems and fell into thought. What if he licked it? Hmm, that seemed a bit perverted. And looking at the surface of her skin, there didn’t seem to be any Calamity Spirit Fluid lingering. He leaned closer to examine, only then noticing faint wisps of light gray airflow subtly flowing from between her red lips.
“Dong—Don-don-don!”
His heart began to race again, and Xia Feng’s black eyes widened as if sensing something. He directly reached out and lifted the gray-haired woman’s delicate jaw, forcing her red lips to part slightly. Immediately, wisps of dark, ink-like airflow gently drifted out from between her lips!
“Human, how dare you!” Black Crow didn’t expect this human to be so bold and shouted in shock and anger. But before it could react, Xia Feng’s eyes turned red with madness. He suddenly lowered his head, stopping half an inch from the gray-haired woman’s lips, and with a rapturous inhale—the solidified black mist flowed into Xia Feng’s mouth, wisp by wisp.
The scene was like a majestic empress, seated high on her throne, having her jaw held by a male fox spirit, who was then inhaling her yin energy. Xia Feng looked entranced, the pleasure softening his spine and nerves. He felt his whole body tremble, wanting more! More! But—
“Urgh!”
He stumbled back two steps, clutching his mouth tightly, his eyes wide. “Burp~~~” But he couldn’t hold it in. His chest rose, and he let out a burp. He was actually full?!
[Activity Remaining: 7 days 5 hours 02 minutes]
One inhale lasted seven days. It seemed he needed to find a way to do this every day! Although seven days wasn’t a lot, as long as he kept absorbing, even if Miss Evil Dragon was completely drained, he would essentially be immortal! Before, absorbing for half the day only yielded a few minutes or hours, which was extremely inefficient. This showed just how terrifyingly concentrated the Calamity Force within Miss Evil Dragon was.
“Burp~~”
His throat vibrated. He widened his eyes, covering his mouth, but the vanilla-scented cool breath still escaped from his nose and mouth. Thump-thump—his heart rapidly expanded and contracted. For some reason, he vaguely felt that as his activity increased, the Calamity Demon Heart was being repaired, and a mysterious power seemed about to erupt, granting him unprecedented strength— But this strange illusion vanished in an instant.
Xia Feng shook his head. Although a little confused, he was quite sure that as long as he accumulated a lot, a lot, a lot of activity, the Calamity Demon Heart would undergo a qualitative change and develop new abilities! Thinking of this, his gaze towards Miss Evil Dragon became even more fervent. It was a pity that his absorption of Calamity Force had a limit. If only there were no limit, then perhaps he could devour all the Calamity Force in the entire Nightmare Realm, annihilating the entire Nightmare Clan. He would be invincible.
The absorption of Calamity Force to enhance activity was determined by the amount of Calamity Force absorbed and the intensity of Spirit Pressure. His current Spirit Pressure strength was only First-stage, and he could only withstand a maximum of seven days’ worth at a time. To absorb again, he would have to wait until the next day. It was equivalent to a 24-hour cooldown period after using a big move.
That is to say, he still had to stay in this place until he absorbed enough activity before leaving the forbidden area. But this would be a huge waste of time. Moreover, according to the textbooks, with his current Spirit Pressure strength, his soul could only leave his body for a maximum of 24 hours; otherwise, there was the danger of his soul scattering. Therefore, he couldn’t stay in this place for a long time. This was quite troublesome; he needed to find a solution.
“How did you do it?”
Suddenly, a cold, clear female voice sounded behind him. Xia Feng was startled and quickly turned around, only to find Black Crow, which had flown behind him at some point, its deep, star-like gray eyes staring intently at him. Xia Feng smiled without answering. For this Black Crow to be here, it could only have one of two identities: either it was the guardian of the seal, or it was an accomplice sealed along with the Evil Dragon. Judging from the angry shout of “Human, how dare you!” from Black Crow earlier, the latter seemed more likely, and it was probably an subordinate of the Evil Dragon, or… a lover? However, Black Crow’s voice sounded like an aunt in her thirties? Well, anything was possible between same sexes.
“Human, I’ll ask you one last time: how did you do it?!”
“It seems this is very important to you,” Xia Feng said seriously. “Ms. Black Crow, I know you’re in a hurry, but please don’t be anxious. After all, everyone has their own secrets, and this is my secret, I…”
“If you speak more nonsense, this Seat will kill you!” Black Crow’s cold tone was filled with killing intent.
“…” Xia Feng spread his hands and pursed his lips, “Obviously, I can absorb Calamity Force, but there’s a daily limit.”
“I have eyes, get to the point! This Seat wants to know why you, as a human, can absorb such a terrifying concentration of Calamity Force?”
“Then you should just kill me,” Xia Feng tilted his head up, looking fearless. Seeing the human’s unconcerned demeanor, Black Crow narrowed its eyes. After staring for a moment, its killing intent dissipated. Its indifferent tone also changed, becoming teasing and lazy. It chuckled, “Very good, you have courage.” “In that case, human, let’s make a deal.”
“A deal?” Xia Feng asked, confused.
“That’s right.”
*Rustle, rustle* Black Crow flapped its wings and landed back on the branch, looking down and laughing, “I can see that you really need high-concentration Calamity Force, but you can’t stay here for long, can you?”
Xia Feng nodded. “So?”
“Do you see that spatial spirit formation?”
Xia Feng followed Black Crow’s gaze and noticed a blood-red dwarf platform about a meter in diameter not far away, inscribed with sacred and intricate patterns. “This is a spirit summoning spatial spirit formation made of Abyss Stone, named ‘Gate to the World.’ As long as you gather the summoning materials and engrave the formation, you can open this gate from anywhere in the world and enter this forbidden area. The required materials are very simple, five in total: Faded Ink, Elephant Seal Fish Blood, Boundless Stone, Dragon God’s Spirit Particle, and World Tree Bark Powder.”
Black Crow chattered on. Xia Feng roughly understood and pointed to the gray-haired woman on the divine seat. “So, you want me to be able to come here every day to absorb her Calamity Force?” He was surprised by such a windfall, but he was also somewhat puzzled about Black Crow’s motive.
“What, you don’t want to?”
“I’m willing, of course,” Xia Feng had a sudden thought and asked suspiciously, “But I have a question: isn’t this Calamity Force what’s being used to seal the Evil Dragon?” Speaking of which, he felt it was increasingly likely and his eyes widened. “You want me to break the seal?”
“Heh~ You’re thinking too much.” Black Crow scoffed disdainfully. “With your meager abilities, even if you absorbed for tens of thousands of years, you wouldn’t be able to exhaust all the Calamity Force on Her.”
“Then why…”
“While you can’t break the seal, it’s possible to awaken Her,” Black Crow’s tone deepened slightly. “Awaken the Evil Dragon?” Xia Feng frowned. Although he couldn’t arbitrarily assume what kind of dragon this Evil Dragon was, being sealed here meant that at least there was a fifty percent chance it wasn’t a good dragon. After pondering for a moment, he cleared his throat and said, “Um, Ms. Black Crow, you might not know, but the outside world’s reputation for Her is not very good; they call her the Evil Dragon. You might not know, but I value my reputation. If people find out I awakened the Evil Dragon, then—”
“You haven’t Spirit Unsealed yet, have you? This Seat has a way to make you Spirit Unseal 100%,” Black Crow said calmly.
“That’s not impossible!” Xia Feng immediately changed his tune, his black eyes sparkling. “Ms. Black Crow, you’re truly a good person! I’m willing to sacrifice my precious reputation to help you!”
Black Crow: “.”
The so-called Spirit Unsealing, or Soul Unsealing, refers to the fact that every soul contains mysterious spiritual energy. Only by liberating it through special methods to form a ‘Spirit Artifact’ can one use this spiritual energy from the soul. Everyone’s ‘Spirit Artifact’ is unique; even if he synchronized Mu Qingtong’s strength, his ‘Spirit Artifact’ would be different from hers. This might be the only way Mu Qingtong could widen the gap with him. Similarly, this was the only way he could surpass the World-Ending Witch.
Normally, to Spirit Unseal and summon one’s ‘Spirit Artifact,’ one could only sense and unseal it during intense emotional fluctuations or at the moment of death. And the probability of this ‘possibility’ was very subjective. Some Spirit Masters experienced hundreds of near-death crises without Spirit Unsealing, while others succeeded after their first. To summarize in two words: it depends on fate. Therefore, when Ms. Black Crow said she could help him achieve 100% Spirit Unsealing, he was naturally excited.
As for whether awakening an evil demonic dragon would be bad, well, with his flexible moral compass, he could feel it was bad one moment and excellent the next, extremely excellent! Besides, he genuinely needed the continuous supply of Calamity Force from Miss Evil Dragon. This was a completely risk-free profit transaction for him; he had no reason to refuse.
“This is a branch of the World Tree.” Black Crow bit off a branch and threw it down. “Grind it into powder when you use it. Use 1g each time you engrave the formation. As for the Faded Ink, Elephant Seal Fish Blood, and Boundless Stone, you’ll have to find those yourself. The usage is also 1g each.”
“What about the Dragon God’s Spirit Particle?” Xia Feng asked.
Black Crow looked at the divine seat. “Touch Her hair.”
Xia Feng followed her instruction and reached out. As Black Crow chanted a strange incantation, a strand of the divine seat woman’s cloud-gray hair disintegrated in Xia Feng’s hand, transforming into Spirit Particles that flowed into his forehead. It was at this moment that he was shocked to realize that the crazy urge to devour Miss Evil Dragon whole had completely vanished from his mind. He even felt a sense of anticlimax. Was this the so-called—sage time!
*Rustle, rustle* Black Crow flew down again and landed in front of Xia Feng, its deep eyes staring directly into his pupils. Its lazy tone was flat. “Little brat, don’t resist. This is the knowledge for engraving the ‘Gate to the World’ formation. Remember it.”
Xia Feng’s head throbbed. He instinctively clutched his head and bent over, breaking out in a cold sweat. So this was what it felt like to be forcibly injected with knowledge! So full, so swollen, so painful… After waiting for a while, he finally recovered. This was completely different from synchronizing with Mu Qingtong’s strength. When Mu Qingtong’s knowledge was poured into him, it was a pleasant and comfortable feeling. But Ms. Black Crow was very crude!
Xia Feng shook his head and looked up. “Alright, Ms. Black Crow, what’s the method for 100% Spirit Unsealing?”
“Oh, you mean that?” Black Crow fluttered back to the branch, its lazy female voice chuckling. “I’ll tell you next time you come in.”
“Huh?”
“How do I know if you have the ability to come back? What if you stand me up?” Black Crow’s eyes turned cold, and it snorted. “This Seat hates stand-ups the most. Little brat, you’d better not disappoint me.” Hearing her words, Xia Feng nodded in agreement. It was reasonable, and he had already gained a lot. There was no need to rush.
“Then that’s it, Ms. Black Crow. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be leaving now.”
“Mmm.” Black Crow closed its eyes.
But after a while, the black-haired young man turned back again, scratching his head awkwardly. “Ahem, um, how do I leave this place?”
Black Crow: “.”
“I really don’t understand how you got in here.” It was somewhat speechless. Everyone who had entered this divine forbidden land in the past was a top-tier powerhouse. Unlike this brat, who was so bad it was like picking one. Although those powerhouses had all died miserable deaths…
“Brat, come here.” Black Crow felt a bit weary. It didn’t know if entrusting its hopes to such a low-level Spirit Master was reliable. It flapped its wings and flew down from the branch again. Xia Feng walked closer as instructed. Black Crow touched his forehead with its beak, its lazy tone light and solemn. “Spirit Return!”
Xia Feng’s mind went blank. He felt the world spin, and vaguely heard Ms. Black Crow’s lazy, mature voice snort, “Brat, if you dare to play tricks on me, you’ll look good!”
Hoo—
Xia Feng’s eyes snapped open. He looked around in surprise. In the snow-swept world, giant trees lay scattered. Qi Xiao’s corpse was right beside him. “I’ve… returned to my main body?” he asked, raising his hands in surprise. “‘Spirit Return’? This Spirit Robe is not bad.” While thinking, he didn’t linger. He retraced his steps and quickly found the location of the black hole that had spat him out. This black hole was slowly shrinking. It was estimated that in a few more hours, it would be repaired and disappear. By then, it would truly be impossible to find the way back to the low-Calamity zone. He no longer hesitated and stepped directly into the black hole.
* * *
“How long has it been?” Uncle Wei walked to Zhao Jie’s side, looking at the grim forest covered in blood, and asked doubtfully.
Zhao Jie glanced at his watch and chuckled strangely. “Eight hours and nineteen minutes, Old Wei. It seems your cheap adopted son really has some skills to be able to fight my disciple for so long.”
Uncle Wei remained expressionless, looking up at the blood moon in the sky, unable to refute. After all, even Spirit Masters at the same stage could have significant differences due to various reasons. Even if Xia Feng was a genius, he had only just promoted to First-stage Spirit Master and hadn’t even learned a few Spirit Robes. Qi Xiao had been a First-stage Spirit Master for so many years; the number of Spirit Robes, Spirit Pressure strength, neural reflexes, and combat experience were all things Xia Feng couldn’t compare to. The gap was obvious. He genuinely couldn’t think of any way for Xia Feng to defeat Qi Xiao. The best outcome would be to fight Qi Xiao to a mutual destruction, resulting in both of them being severely injured. However, even that probability was very low. If it succeeded, he himself would be crippled.
“Old Wei, how about you transfer that one million to me first?” Zhao Jie patted Uncle Wei’s shoulder and chuckled, “Although the bet is one million, if you transfer it now, I’ll only charge you fifty thousand, what do you say?”
Uncle Wei, in his sharp suit, leaned on his cane and said calmly, “Don’t play these fancy games. Just wait and see the result.” After speaking, he closed his eyes to rest and remained silent.
“Heh~” Zhao Jie knew that Wei was a man who valued his reputation and was just putting on a brave face. He didn’t expose him, only sneered playfully, and it wouldn’t be too late to mock the lame man after Qi Xiao returned.
