Chapter 178: Breaking Free from the Past
Two hundred meters away, Ji Ma on the rooftop finally gave up her mocking behavior of “pouting and taking a photo,” and happily left. She jumped down from the rooftop, a formless force gently supporting her descent.
As soon as she landed, Ji Ma snorted coldly, “Idiot.”
In front of the succubus, several segments of translucent Chinese characters hovered, indicating the new abilities acquired after fully mastering the power of the Pain Witch.
She had just made a breakthrough today. The green-hatted version of “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” spread among the populace had been tirelessly providing her with the power of pain; after all, in this era and society, information flows very slowly.
Many ignorant readers, upon obtaining the green-hatted version, had innocent smiles on their faces.
Naturally, after fully mastering the Pain Witch’s powers, Ji Ma’s ability to distort dreams had strengthened. Coupled with the sudden good news from Kaslan, who shared a windfall of three thousand gold coins with her, the typically suspicious Ji Ma certainly wouldn’t take it all at face value.
She was no fool. Could a cash grab scheme from Earth, applied in such a way, really explode into a profit of three thousand gold coins in just four short days?
Such a miraculous event definitely warranted some preliminary investigation.
Thus, Ji Ma immediately used her dream-distorting ability on Kaslan, guiding him to dream a memory about the letter George had written to him.
Upon seeing it, she exclaimed, “Oh, so it was George’s money.”
“Let that foolish, proud paladin self-soothe.”
People like him enjoyed that sort of thing. If it were pointed out, he probably wouldn’t like it as much.
However, George would eventually find out, especially if Kaslan realized he was dreaming a memory.
Ji Ma thought this as she jumped into the “entrance to the Dream Palace,” her figure vanishing into the mist.
A brief sensation of dizziness overwhelmed Ji Ma. When she regained her senses, she had returned to the real world.
Overhead was a starry sky, a dark curtain shrouding the wasteland. A roaring bonfire drove away the surrounding darkness, and the knights gathered around it, their laughter illuminating their armor as they struggled to affix the beastmen’s horns onto their helmets.
“Meow~~.”
A voice came from the nearby bushes.
Ji Ma bent down, picked up a heavy orange cat, spread her wings, and found a tree to sit on.
The bonfire also illuminated George’s empty tent.
She stared at the empty spot in front of the tent, recalling a few days ago when she had sat there next to him, helping him unbuckle the straps on his armor.
Ji Ma fell into reminiscence, propping her chin on one hand, too lazy to even look at the system text.
George is truly someone one can rely on.
As she stared at the bonfire, her golden eyes reflecting the flickering flames, the knights didn’t disturb Ji Ma. It was only when the bonfire began to die down that they stood up and went to rest.
With the firelight dimming and the dark red embers glowing in the ashes, Ji Ma was still in a daze.
Lianxi the cat sighed. Her owner looked so vacant, her eyes sorrowful, unaware of what perverted things that hypocritical George had done to her. How pitiful, meow meow.
Lianxi the cat nudged against Ji Ma like a dog.
Ji Ma snapped out of her daze and glanced down at Lianxi the cat on her lap. Lianxi turned around, exposing her soft, fluffy, white belly—her softest spot. She hoped to ease Ji Ma’s stress a bit.
Ji Ma scratched Lianxi’s belly, then began to focus on her tasks.
First, she opened the task area of her personal system.
The task area was empty, save for one task: “Legally Raise 10,000 Gold Coins.”
As expected, if one simply lay down without pursuing power, life becomes much easier and more enjoyable. Ji Ma thought, now I want to be happy; I just need to lie down without moving.
Ji Ma marked “Legally Raise 10,000 Gold Coins” as completed. She planned to go to Marin City tomorrow to redeem George’s armor; such trivial matters didn’t necessitate writing them down as tasks.
What to do next?
Ji Ma thought of George and the Demon King’s extraordinary substances.
The past must be completely wiped away, and I can always trust George.
Ji Ma decided to help George reclaim the Demon King’s extraordinary substances and return them to the Church. It would be best to persuade the Church to completely eradicate those substances, whether through purification or turning them into extraordinary items.
As long as they can wipe away the personal mark of the Demon King, Ji Ma.
The translucent Chinese characters hovering before the succubus shifted to the “Personal Information” section.
In the ability section, there was a line of text.
“Potion of Enchantment: You can encapsulate some extraordinary abilities into potions for future use. The difficulty of encapsulation and the strength of extraordinary abilities are related to the enchanted potions you possess. The potion also————————————”
The strikethrough remained in place.
The “Notes” section in the text area was still there.
Ji Ma “swiped” over them.
The extraordinary substances from the Demon King were undoubtedly a cloud of darkness looming over her head.
Ji Ma’s connection to it was too close, and the extraordinary substances of the Demon King were highly coveted. Besides its inherent value, it was also a potential key to finding fragments of the Demon King’s crown.
If a new Demon King were to arise, lifting their heads from the heap of false clues left by the Demon King, they would surely place their hopes on those extraordinary substances.
Who could be more intimately connected to the lost crown fragments than the Demon King?
And who could be more tightly intertwined with the extraordinary substances than the succubus Ji Ma?
The cloud of darkness from the past must be thoroughly shaken off.
Thinking this, she established a main task in the task area: “Break Free from the Past of Demon King Ji Ma.”
The content was:
“I don’t care whether I am the Demon King or not; in any case, the extraordinary substances of the Demon King are closely linked to me—shadows of the past. I only care about the present; I am Ji Ma.”
“Completely eliminate the mark of the Demon King from the extraordinary substances, preferably with George alongside, as he is someone I can trust.”
The task was successfully created, giving Ji Ma a new direction in life.
Since she aimed to break free from the past of Demon King Ji Ma, should this thing be destroyed?
Ji Ma took out the carefully preserved “Wishing Compass” from her dimensional space bag. This apparently ordinary compass could point towards what its owner desired.
Like divination, the closer the connection to the desired object, the higher the accuracy.
This was left behind by Demon King Ji Ma, the true key to finding the fragments of the Demon King’s crown.
Ji Ma merely sketched out the shape of the crown fragments in her mind, and the magical energy poured into the compass, causing the needle to point straight east.
Yet she suddenly felt a jolt, shoving the compass back.
How to deal with this was a significant issue. According to the original plan, taking it to find the crown fragments would lead to becoming the Demon King.
Surely, she would run into old acquaintances from the demon race, and this might even be one of Demon King Ji Ma’s traps, not to mention…
Only she could hold the compass and seek the crown fragments. How would she explain this to George later? How would she clarify her complicated relationship with Demon King Ji Ma?
She would inevitably fall into the “web” of the past, digging herself deeper.
Ji Ma felt a profound sense of fear welling up inside.
Then it would be better to just destroy it.
At this moment, the memory of joy in acquiring the crown fragments from the Demon King surged uncontrollably from her heart.
“Power, power, power…”
The crown fragments of the Demon King fulfilled wishes, abundant power surged through her body, causing her once troublesome opponents to die in despair beneath her assault.
Ji Ma’s nails dug into her palm, and her mind finally regained its cool.
How could she give up this key? Wouldn’t selling it for a hefty sum of gold be better?
Greedy Ji Ma ultimately couldn’t part with this extraordinary item.
“Meow?”
Lianxi the cat, sprawled with her belly up, looked at her owner curiously as she pulled the compass out and then shoved it back in. It must be a broken compass.
Ji Ma rubbed Lianxi the cat’s belly and continued sorting out her thoughts.
Next, the focus must be on those annoying beastmen and the self-destructive dark elves.
It was just the right time to experiment with my new power.
Ji Ma’s gaze landed on the system text.
“You have now fully mastered the power of the Pain Witch.”
“Dream Parasite (New): Now, even in reality, you can fully immerse yourself in someone else’s dream, parasitizing and hiding within it, unless the other party wakes up or you choose to leave.”
Wouldn’t that mean if I randomly found someone and hid in their dream, constantly shifting my real body before they wake up, I could never die? Or I could enter their dream, step into the dreamscape, and simply escape. Wouldn’t that essentially be teleporting to run away at any time and place?
This ability must consume considerable magic, Ji Ma speculated.
“Cursed Plague: Your malicious thoughts are rare to find in the world. Your curse power can bring even more terrifying despair to others. Now, even weak mediators can transmit your curse power, and can also absorb the power of pain to sustain themselves.”
It must be because of the green-hatted novel I wrote, which brought so much suffering to everyone like a plague.
Thinking of this, Ji Ma became happy. She defined this curse as a collective curse. The specifics still needed to be tested in real combat.
“Wail of the Witch: You use the power of pain and magic to emit a wail, attempting to kill all living beings around you. If the target has suffered pain caused by you, the pain within their body will resonate.”
This might be a skill for collective harvesting; I wonder if a speaker can increase the range. It shouldn’t be very effective against strong opponents unless I induce pain in them. Thus, I wouldn’t need to worry about friendly fire.
However, I wonder if enemies covering their ears or simply deafening themselves would be immune to this skill.
Aside from that, there was nothing more.
Ji Ma’s magical power was down to forty percent; she was also tired and lethargic, no longer excited like when she leveled up before. Hence, she wasn’t in a hurry to seek out beastmen as test subjects.
“Tonight’s beastmen nearby are really unfortunate,” Ji Ma sighed, “They’ve lost the opportunity to be my beautiful little test subjects.”
But it couldn’t be said there was no opportunity; after all, there was plenty of time tomorrow.
“Just thinking about the beastmen who might become my test subjects being delayed by a day made me feel a bit sorry for them.”
After saying this, Ji Ma felt a bit shy herself. She looked around and saw that no one had heard her words; the cat didn’t count, so she let out a sigh of relief.
She glanced at the current main task.
Given the current situation, to fight alongside George and deal with those extraordinary substances of the Demon King,
She would have to cut through the beastmen allied with the dark elves.
Ji Ma raised her right hand, her finger pointing toward the darkness far away: “As long as we kill all the beastmen in the forest, we should be free.”
With that, Ji Ma covered her mouth and broke into a shy smile.
In the distance, a pair of elegantly curved, snowy white ears twitched slightly.
