Chapter 91: Lilith's Origins

Chapter 91: The Origin of Lilith

The black cat was Lilia’s only companion.

Lilia refused to let go of the feline, stepping forward, desperate to reclaim it.

Suddenly, the burly man hurled the cat aside and lunged at her.

Lilia leapt, clutching the cat to her chest as she tried to flee.

In desperation, the brute no longer cared about damaging his “cargo”—he swung his axe with brutal force.

Boom!

Lilia collapsed onto the ground, the black cat in her arms reduced to a mangled mess by the axe.

A deep, bone-revealing gash split open across her chest.

“Cough… cough… Baozi… don’t die…”

Her vision blurred. As the towering figure loomed closer, Lilia whispered faintly,

“I… don’t want to die yet…”

The man stared down at her, frustration twisting his face as he glared at the ruined cat in her arms.

“Damn it! This cursed beast ruined everything—black cats are ill omens, just as I thought!”

Then, the black cat in Lilia’s embrace began to melt—dissolving into a pool of shadow.

The darkness seeped into her body. Under the surge of shadow energy, the wound on her chest began to knit itself shut, flesh reforming at unnatural speed.

Pshhh, pshhh, pshhh!

“Aaagh!”

The hulking man screamed as razor-sharp shadowy spikes erupted from the ground beneath him, piercing through his torso like spears.

Clang—the axe dropped to the earth.

The blood of the black cat smeared upon its blade turned into droplets of darkness, flowing back into Lilia like returning tides.

Lilia rose to her feet, radiating thick waves of shadow.

She cast a glance toward where Li Wei hid, as if sensing something.

Shadows surged upward like reverse currents, swallowing her form whole.

Puff!

The shadows shattered, scattering like broken glass.

Lilia was gone.

Li Wei stepped out from the darkness, his expression grave.

“What exactly was that black cat called Baozi?”

“And that final look—did she see me?”

Having witnessed it all, he now sensed the connection between Lilia and Lilith.

Yet more riddles emerged.

And one crucial question lingered—was this dream even real?

What if Lilith had already detected his intrusion and crafted this entire dream as deception? Then the danger would be immense.

“Best to exit the dream first. Tomorrow, I’ll find a chance to meet Lilith in reality—confirm whether she truly is Lilia.”

After Lilia vanished, Li Wei could no longer locate her within the dream.

Without her presence, seizing memory fragments became impossible.

He left the dream.

Puff!

The moment he stepped out of the dream bubble, he saw it explode behind him, vanishing into the mist of the dreamscape.

“Has Lilith awakened?”

Li Wei returned to his safehouse.

He continued practicing spells, grinding relentlessly to master *Mage Hand*.

At dawn, before exiting the dream, he checked his progress.

[Mage Hand (Zero-tier Mastery)] 1342/4000

[Crystal Meditation Method (First-tier)] 900/10000

[Fireball (First-tier Mastery)] 3066/10000

[Invisible Armor (First-tier Mastery)] 321/10000

[Great Dreamwalking Art (Zero-tier)] 9850/10000

[Shadow Tendril Surgery (First-tier Initiate)] 400/1000

[Ice Arrow (Zero-tier Proficiency)] 420/2000

[Stone Breath Method (Initiate)] 654/1000

With no nightmares to hunt, the Great Dreamwalking Art advanced slowly.

After over half a month of grinding, it neared breakthrough to first tier.

Fireball and Invisible Armor had seen some theoretical refinement, but progress remained sluggish.

Theory took far longer than mere repetition for skill advancement.

Only the Crystal Meditation Method had accelerated—thanks to magical elixirs.

But such aid wasn’t sustainable.

At Li Wei’s current rate of consumption, one vial of low-grade elixir lasted barely eight days.

Now, more than half of his supply was already gone.

Once depleted, his cultivation speed would plummet.

Day after day, Li Wei schemed how to safely sell the rock wyvern’s core for coin.

Yet no opportunity had presented itself.

The storm hadn’t fully passed—hunters still scoured the land for the wyvern’s core.

He’d even seen bounties posted at the Adventurer’s Guild seeking the very same relic.

He decided to wait until the chaos subsided before making his move.

If necessary, he could wait until the fifteenth of July, selling it discreetly at the Mage Exchange in Feihua City.

By then, a single rock wyvern core would hardly draw attention.

Reaching second tier wasn’t imminent anyway.

Even with elixirs, it would take months—plenty of time.

Li Wei sought out Guze.

"Professor Guze, do you know where Lilith usually goes?" Li Wei asked.

Guze pondered for a moment, then replied, "I'm not sure about other places, but she’s always quite punctual when it comes to meals in the cafeteria."

Li Wei felt an overwhelming urge to comment on that statement, yet couldn’t find the words.

With just those few words, he was nearly certain—Lilith and Liliya were one and the same.

"Alright then, I won’t disturb your cultivation. I’ll take my leave."

Guze had only recently ascended to full mage status.

Through accumulated merits, he’d exchanged for the Crystal Meditation Technique.

Having just learned it, he now devoted himself daily to practice, striving to grow stronger.

As Li Wei walked through the Mage Tower, he realized he hadn’t seen Rohta in days.

He wondered whether, after becoming a full mage, Rohta still bothered refining his Chain Fireball spell.

Most likely, Li Wei guessed, he had given up.

The benefits granted by supernatural traits far outweighed any improvements made to ordinary spell frameworks.

Rather than laboring over spell models, it made more sense to learn spells aligned with one’s innate supernatural nature.

At noon, Li Wei arrived early at the cafeteria.

Cloaked in invisibility, he sat quietly in a shadowed corner.

When the meal service began, the first person to walk in was Lilith.

She wore the official mage robes issued by the tower.

The instant Li Wei saw her, he knew—Lilith and Liliya were indeed the same.

Yet their demeanors were utterly different.

One aloof and proud, the other naive and endearing.

Still, their shared obsession with food remained unmistakably identical.

Curious, Li Wei glanced at the top of Lilith’s head—her cat ears were gone.

He wondered how she managed to conceal them.

Lilith was unusually sensitive to gazes. As she ate, she instinctively glanced toward Li Wei’s hiding spot.

Seeing no one, her eyes narrowed slightly, sharpening like blades.

By the time others flooded into the cafeteria, Lilith had already finished and left.

Li Wei reappeared in a secluded corner, ate his meal, and exited.

No sooner had he stepped outside than a figure materialized behind him.

"Why have you been watching me?"

Shadows peeled away—Lilith stood in the alcove, confronting him.

Li Wei turned to face her.

She remained cold, expression unreadable.

To his mild surprise, she didn’t seem to recognize him.

Could it be that Lilith and Liliya weren’t the same after all?

Merely lookalikes?

"I don’t know what you’re talking about," Li Wei said, shaking his head. "I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before."

Her gaze remained icy, piercing into his eyes as if seeking truth within his soul.

After a long silence, Lilith turned without a word and walked away.

(End of Chapter)