Chapter 58 Four-Leaf Clover
Ji Ma gradually mastered the technique of fighting with her new powers and became increasingly proficient.
The beast herd grew more troublesome. The lead beast, with a tuft of white fur, discovered Ji Ma’s fatal weakness. Although Ji Ma was as swift as the wind and seasoned, her lethality was limited. She never took the initiative to target the horned beasts, only striking at the weakest lesser horned beasts, then retreating down the hillside to disperse the horned beasts and the greater horned beasts, watching them warily while Ji Ma flew around.
Ji Ma attempted a few attacks, all in vain, but she felt increasingly exhilarated.
“That’s more like it. The difficulty of practice should gradually increase for progress to occur.” She landed on a pine tree to rest, staring at the herd of beasts. “No one is infallible.”
Mistakes lead to openings. With mobility and initiative, having the initiative allows one to seize openings to kill the opponent.
After resting, Ji Ma once again circled above the wounded beasts.
She seized several openings, killing several lesser horned beasts and centaur beasts.
Diving once more, she lost track of how many times she had dived; fatigue accumulated in both her mind and body. The tip of her “branch spear” punctured the lower back of a lesser horned beast, and the spear drank its blood. A wave of exhilarating power flowed through the spear, soothing her sore muscles. Ji Ma felt invigorated, her heart filled with a desire for slaughter.
She flicked her golden eyes back and saw a horned beast dully chasing her from behind. According to past “habits,” Ji Ma would normally satisfy herself with a kill, gliding forward to gain height and continue seeking opportunities. But this time, she wanted to kill more.
Behind the horned beast, there was a wounded lesser horned beast with a long wound on its shoulder. Ji Ma remembered that this was the regret left from a failed attack. Furthermore, the painful power obtained from the kill would dissipate after some time, and Ji Ma was reluctant to let it slip away.
Ji Ma decisively invested all her “painful power” into herself, executed a complete 180-degree turn, and her speed suddenly surged, darting like a shadow over the heads of the beastmen, slamming into the wounded lesser horned beast.
In just two or three seconds, the speed and quick turn were beyond explanation by aerodynamics.
Most of the beastmen barely reacted, including the wounded lesser horned beast.
Ji Ma thrust the spear, but she was too hasty, and the strike only grazed the lesser horned beast’s neck. Just as annoyance began to rise in her heart, the lesser horned beast’s neck snapped, and it dropped dead on the spot. A new surge of painful power flooded into her body.
The system description of the skills didn’t mention this, or if it did, it was hard to understand: attacking with painful power causes lethal effects against critically injured opponents.
Ji Ma used the same trick again, applying “painful power” to enhance her speed. She was moving so quickly and nimbly that the entire herd of beasts found it difficult to deal with her. She once again dashed beside a wounded lesser horned beast and stabbed it in the chest with her spear.
She called out, “Triple kill!”
This time, the accumulation of painful power was greater. She fixed her next target on a lightly injured horned beast, aimed for its side, her speed still not decreased, and surged past with residual force, pouring painful power into her weapon.
The spear tip pierced deeply under the horned beast’s ribs; Ji Ma couldn’t pull it out immediately as she collided with the beast, but she was extraordinarily agile, folding her wings and pushing off the horned beast’s body with her legs, using the power from the blood-drinking “branch spear” to easily pull out the spear and soar into the sky once more.
All that remained for the herd was a fallen horned beast. The arrows were scattered, and the silhouettes pursuing Ji Ma could only strike down a few unlucky beastmen.
I did it! One horned beast, quadruple kill!
Ji Ma’s heart raced with excitement, the risky strike earlier was far easier than she had anticipated.
At that moment, an injured greater horned beast came into her view. Ji Ma had sharp dynamic vision; she glanced and saw the body not covered by armor, riddled with arrows, a fresh wound on its arm.
Let’s make it a five-kill.
Ji Ma, bold with high skill, immediately turned and charged from behind the greater horned beast, unleashing all her painful power and striking fiercely at its back.
But as she got closer, she found that a large greater horned beast was actually lying on the ground, staring at her. It let out a loud roar, like a fierce tiger pouncing, rising to throw the nearby beastmen aside and swing its axe directly at Ji Ma, revealing a tuft of white fur on its chin.
This was an ambush. The cunning lead beast had actually harmed the greater horned beast himself to use it as bait, laying on the ground to wait for the right moment.
Ji Ma’s eyes widened. As the axe blade descended toward her slender waist, an ordinary person would have been paralyzed with fear and waited for death. But Ji Ma remained calm, suddenly activating her “extraordinary charm,” while shifting her body to the side.
“Crack!”
A wave of intense pain shot through her right wing, nearly causing Ji Ma to faint. She gripped her spear tightly, colliding with the towering greater horned beast’s back. Her forehead struck against its back armor, her vision darkening for a moment. Ji Ma instinctively clenched the spear body to avoid falling into the herd of beasts.
A painful roar erupted from the greater horned beast below her, followed by the sounds of swords and screams closing in from all directions.
As Ji Ma regained her vision and lifted her head, a knife and an axe swept past her arm. Thanks to the protection of a “force field armor” akin to chainmail, she emerged unharmed.
“Get out of the way!”
The lesser horned beast in front of her was suddenly shoved aside, and the lead beast, adorned in a tuft of white fur, raised its axe, its four-leaf clover necklace swinging, as both hands chopped down towards Ji Ma.
The axe blade, as thick as a fist, struck Ji Ma. The soldiers watching from a distance on the wooden wall gasped, witnessing the beauty about to be cleaved in two.
A puff of white smoke rose, and the lead beast waved away the smoke, revealing a poorly made puppet stuck to the axe blade, namely “puppet substitution technique.”
Ji Ma was transported twenty meters away, near the edge of the herd.
“Make way! Make way!”
Ji Ma’s face turned pale as she pushed the lesser horned beast in front of her while smiling at the beastmen.
A lesser horned beast pulled out its knife, facing her. Ji Ma smiled and pointed at the horns on her head, “Hey, I’m also a beastman; beastmen don’t fight against beastmen.”
Only three lesser horned beasts believed her words. The other two swung their knives toward her, their blades missed and struck a hapless lesser horned beast instead.
With a rumble, the ground trembled as the greater horned beasts charged over.
Worse still, one lesser horned beast grabbed Ji Ma by the calf.
“Get off! You rogue! Brute!”
Ji Ma screamed, turning to draw a small knife and stab it into the beast’s eye socket.
She pushed back the lesser horned beasts behind her as a group of greater horned beasts surged toward Ji Ma alongside the tufted lead beast.
“You lot hold this slippery eel!” The lead beast said, just as Ji Ma pulled her foot free from the grasping lesser horned beast, it swung its axe at her.
Everyone watched as Ji Ma was about to be crushed beneath the hooves of the greater horned beasts when a silver bow, radiating icy energy, whirled and struck the lead beast.
“Bang!” The sound resembled shattering ice, and a spray of icy water erupted, thick frost enveloping the horned beasts. The beastmen were left shivering with their skin coated in a layer of solid ice.
The lead beast, using all its strength, struggled for less than a second before the thick ice shattered around it. The frigid water left it trembling, curling into a small ball. It did not have time to worry about anything else, advancing toward Ji Ma’s location, sweeping aside the frost, but Ji Ma’s figure was nowhere to be seen, only a few lesser horned beasts were struggling with the ice covering their bodies.
“Where did she go?” The lead beast shouted at them.
The lesser horned beasts began to shiver even more violently.
“Quick, bring the war hounds!” The lead beast shouted, “She’s injured and can’t fly; she can’t get far.”
…
…
“That really hurts.”
Using a single wing, the invisible Ji Ma jumped onto the wooden wall, revealing herself.
George hurried over, seeing Ji Ma with her wings shrunk and hanging limply at her sides.
The bones in her wings had been severed, only held by a palm-sized flap of skin, looking horrifying to behold.
George said, “Quick, go find a priest to amputate it. Don’t move; I’ll help you stop the bleeding first.”
“Save your magic; my wings can regenerate.” Ji Ma replied, “Help me get my wings up; align the wound.”
George moved cautiously to grasp Ji Ma’s wing, reattaching the severed part.
Ji Ma was in so much pain that she nearly cried out, but as the surrounding soldiers looked at her with admiration, she couldn’t help but think of the legendary warrior Guan Yu, who scraped his bones to heal, so she forced a smile and said, “Did you see me get that five-kill earlier? I managed to take down a greater horned beast. Beastmen are weaker than I imagined; I still have three or four life-saving skills left. That lead beast must be starving, given its level.”
“You’re lying again.” George observed the area where Ji Ma’s wing was severed; flesh was growing out and connecting, her flesh wings healing on their own, causing him to breathe a sigh of relief. “At least Eve Frostleaf covered your retreat.”
“I should thank her; her shot was right on target.” Ji Ma said, “Can you loosen your iron grip? My wing is about to heal.”
“Don’t you need spell treatment?”
“Let’s save that for the ambush later.” Ji Ma stretched her injured wing; it was slightly painful, but the pain was fading. “Trolls don’t heal this fast.”
Eve Frostleaf stood on the gate, two silver bows hanging from her waist, her profile cold and expressionless, only focusing on the distant beastmen.
Ji Ma approached and greeted, “Thank you for your silver bow.”
Given Eve Frostleaf’s beauty and long legs, Ji Ma had intended to exaggerate her gratitude. She wanted to say: I was hanging by a thread, almost dead, thanks to you for your precise shot; otherwise, I would have become beastmen’s food today.
However, recalling that Eve was still burdened by her curse, unable to draw her bow and shoot was a constant thorn in this elf’s heart.
So she said, “If it weren’t for Sister Frostleaf, I’d probably be beastmen food.”
Eve Frostleaf didn’t look at Ji Ma, merely replying with an “mm,” as she spoke very little to anyone other than George.
Ji Ma didn’t care about her cold demeanor and suddenly went up to hug her from behind, rubbing her hands against her thigh.
Eve Frostleaf was startled, her long ears perked up, stunned by the sudden affectionate gesture from her rival. Nearby men witnessing this scene had blood rushing to their heads.
Before Eve could react, Ji Ma released her and laughed, “Thanks, good sister.”
With that, Ji Ma took off running, leaving behind a bewildered elf.
Eve Frostleaf watched Ji Ma’s departing figure, suddenly feeling a pang of guilt. Although the succubus Ji Ma was both manipulative and cunning, she felt no jealousy at all; instead, it was herself who harbored jealousy, ignoring her and responding coldly, while Ji Ma had reciprocated with a warm embrace.
She couldn’t have imagined that Ji Ma simply wanted to take advantage of her.
“Miss Ji Ma.”
Not far away, an elven maid quietly pulled Ji Ma to a secluded spot and asked, “I just heard you call Lady Frostleaf a good sister?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Didn’t we agree on this?” The elven maid lowered her voice. “We’re cooperating to sever the ill-matched relationship between Lady Frostleaf and George. Are you really going to share a man with Lady Frostleaf? Marry him together?”
Ji Ma initially wanted to refute that she had no intention to marry, but then she thought that perhaps she was merely a vessel for the true demon king’s resurrection. Even if George found out, he would surely stand firmly by her side.
It seemed that the matter of marriage was worth considering?
Ji Ma said, “Of course not, but how should I put it, your lady did save my life. I was just thanking her.”
“Well then.”
“In the end, our interests align.”
Ji Ma patted the elven maid’s shoulder; the latter instinctively shrank away, and Ji Ma realized that in the eyes of female elves, the image of succubi was very bad. Male elves, too, but men are all lustful.
If it weren’t for the elven maid being responsible and loyal to the elven queen, trying to break up Eve Frostleaf and George, she wouldn’t have sought Ji Ma out.
“That was just a step to gain Eve Frostleaf’s favor.” Ji Ma said deceitfully, “Your information isn’t very accurate; if what you said were true, Eve Frostleaf would have already kicked me out.”
“How would I know so much, and there are some things I didn’t explain clearly.”
“Understanding the opponent is key to victory.” Ji Ma said, “Find a time to write down all the information about Eve Frostleaf on a piece of paper for me. If there’s anything unclear, I’ll come ask you.”
“Okay.” The elven maid replied, “Just pass me the note discreetly.”
Most likely, she would pretend it was casual, leaking the note I wrote to Eve Frostleaf… Who doesn’t know that high elves are adept at palace intrigue?
Ji Ma smiled, “Alright. By the way, have you seen the middle-aged woman? The one whose couple we saved on the way?”
“She? She’s with her son, tending to the wounded.”
“Oh.” Ji Ma asked again, “I haven’t paid much attention normally, do you think she really treats that goat-horned child as her son?”
“She truly does treat him as her son.” The elven maid replied, “The emotions of short-lived races are always so fervent that it’s hard to comprehend.”
“Okay, I understand.”
After Ji Ma said this, she didn’t immediately go find the middle-aged woman but began calling out, “Little Li! Little Li!”
“Meow.”
An orange cat ran out from under a wooden house, meowing around Ji Ma. Ji Ma picked up Lianxi the cat and went to a secluded spot, sitting on a tree stump, looking around to ensure there was no one else, then extended her right wing.
“It hurts, it hurts, it’s clearly starting to heal; why does it still hurt so much?” Ji Ma carefully reached out to touch the wound.
The place where the broken bone reconnected had already grown tender flesh. It was itchy and painful to the touch, likely because the nerves were healing.
Ji Ma recalled the axe blow from the lead beast of tufted white and seemingly heard the sound of bones breaking.
Her gaze filled with resentment, she muttered, “He should die painfully, regretting ever being born.”
Ji Ma initially wanted to create a new text to document her grievances, but reconsidered that this vendetta could be avenged soon, so she was too lazy to create a new file.
Instead, she prepared to verify a hypothesis of hers.
Opening her personal system, she checked the logs and found the entry from the day she encountered the middle-aged couple. She opened the text and searched for “four-leaf clover,” scrolling down to this segment:
“… I and that big idiot George followed the wheel tracks to find the overturned carriage, inside there were two survivors. The craftsmanship of the carriage was good, it would cost a lot to obtain, and there was a four-leaf clover emblem on the carriage. At a glance, I knew it wasn’t a noble’s emblem; it was likely from some wealthy merchant in a city.”
Four-leaf clover…
I wasn’t mistaken; it really has a connection.
Ji Ma silently noted it down. She considered herself an ordinary person good at forgetting, and her only excellent trait was developing a good habit of relying on tools.
Next, she created a new text titled “Summary of Pain Demoness Abilities” and began her routine exploration and summary of her abilities.
“… In summary, the pain demoness enhances my frontline combat capabilities; my role is to harvest low-health enemies…”
“I can also use painful power to inflict a vulnerability effect on the enemy (still in doubt).”
“What exactly does this mean, ‘the pain you inflict on the opponent will also cause them mental harm?’ I feel like the physical pain I inflict on others doesn’t seem to hurt their minds; more practice is needed.”
“It feels like this level of power doesn’t interact with the previous level; it can’t be chained. It’s usually not like this.”
After finishing her summary, Ji Ma didn’t close it but pondered a crucial question: what is the method for digesting potions?
The pain demoness, by its very name, should inflict pain on others; the greater the pain, the faster the potion digests.
The pain of being killed outright is not just painful; it’s extreme pain, so there should be prompts.
Ji Ma opened the information bar and was met with only one line: “DM: Congratulations on leveling up to Platinum, named Pain Demoness.”
Guess wrong?
Annoying; advancing from Platinum to the next level is too difficult, the requirements for promotion keep getting trickier. At this rate, when can I gain the confidence and strength to obtain extraordinary materials, or even face the “Demon King Ji Ma?”
Ji Ma squeezed Lianxi the cat’s pink paw, suppressing her irritation, and a new idea sprouted in her mind.
If killing fulfills the upgrade requirements, then it wouldn’t be called a pain demoness but a killing demoness. This kind of pain should lean more towards the mental aspect.
What mental pain?
I’m a succubus, capable of stirring desire in others, easily gaining their affection, and playing with their emotions.
Heartbreak? Quite possible.
Ji Ma suddenly thought of some heroes and legends toyed with by succubi, discarded; they came from different races, identities, and statuses, but the one thing they had in common was that they all met very miserable fates. Many regretted their actions, having killed their own family they vowed to protect, or slaughtered their own cities, unable to forget their love for succubi after moments of regret.
Let’s experiment with George.
Ji Ma quickly dismissed this thought, knowing that she still needed him. This guy lacks the skills of a lap dog; he might suddenly go berserk, and I’d likely end up in deep trouble on the spot.
It might not necessarily be heartbreak; tormenting the mind should work as well. I can use the lead beast of tufted white outside as an experiment, using his background to torment him—if he truly is the child of the middle-aged woman.
If it’s true, that could lead to an upgrade. It could also complete the task of the lake-side whore. The blessing she granted was hardly useful. Lastly, it could help the army break free, aiding the next step of the plan.
Ji Ma happily clapped her hands, stood up, and walked toward George and Eve Frostleaf.
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A five-thousand-word chapter; rounding it up could even be considered a double update.
