A Demon’s Paradise - Volume 1 Chapter 19 Creation

Xia Moyin picked up the chalk and began drawing on the floor with great detail, making no mistakes. She was setting up an array, a high level one.

She had bought this house to have some privacy but the problem of the spirit power being detected still remained. The array she was drawing right now trapped in spirit power, not letting it disperse or leak out. Otherwise, all of her work would be for nothing.

She concentrated hard, drawing out the array around the cauldron. Beads of sweat appeared on her forehead, giving evidence of how difficult it was. Her cultivation from her last life would have made creating this a piece of cake, but currently she had none. She was doing this relying purely on her mental power.

If another array master could see her now, they would probably keel over from fright. The array she was drawing was a ninth level spirit sealing array, one of the most difficult on the continent! And she was doing it with a piece of chalk!

One must know, making array isn’t just drawing a design on something and hoping it works. Array designs don’t even show up in the visible spectrum unless it has enough ‘fuel’ to support it. They require precise calculations and preparations, along with lots of power to make them work. Most array masters use high level materials or sometimes even their own blood to make it work, but she was using a piece of chalk! To compensate for the lack of high level materials, she had to pour in twice the amount of power!

A few minutes later the array was done, creating a soft azure design glowing around the cauldron. Xia Moyin picked up the low level materials she’d bought the previous day and set them on the edges of the array.

Despite what most will tell you, high level arrays don’t require high level materials to work. In fact, they actually hinder the spirit power from flowing. It had to do with how spirit power can interfere with itself, much like how fluctuations do[1]. To use high level materials would require even more power to obtain the same result.

[1: I edited an earlier chapter so it explains how it works.]

As soon as she put them down, the array turned a fierce scarlet, glowing balefully. The tub of Heavenly Spirit Water crackled as the casks of Buzzing Fire shifted ominously, the spirit power in them going into a frenzy.

Xia Moyin glanced at them briefly before picking up the Spirit Beast cores she had taken from the Imperial Treasury, along with the Cosmos Sacks she had picked up along the way. There was a small mortar & pestle next to them that she placed a few inside. Spirit Beast cores were only about the size of her pinkie finger, but the mortar & pestle really wasn’t that big.

She picked up the pestle and applied pressure to start grinding them into a powder. Surprisingly, the moment she put a bit of force on it, the core shattered, dissolving into a pile of glittering powder. This made grinding a hundred of them into a piece of cake, and after a few minutes work, the mortar was filled with Spirit Beast core remains.

She poured the powder into a seperate bowl to set aside before going to work on the three Cosmos Sacks. It was a bit more difficult to grind them into to perfect size. They were made of cloth afterall, plus the enchantment put on them to hold items was a bit hard to break. It made it extremely resistant to wear and tear, along with making it very troublesome to make it small enough for it to dissolve.

Her hands gripped the pestle as she strained her arms to grind the cloth into the stone mortar. The instant that she opened the Cosmos Sack from an orifice other than the one that it was designed, the entire thing turned into a blackish-purple, small stars seeming to spill out of the hole. It looked as if a tiny galaxy was contained into the bag and had spread out to the entire thing.

Xia Moyin didn’t stop, and the Cosmos Sack eventually turned into a shining purple puddle of powder. She repeated the process with the other two, casually throwing in an extra Cosmos Sack at the end and making the count up to four. She did have extra materials afterall. After pouring it into a spare bowl she walked over to the Heavenly Spirit Water and Buzzing Fire.

She opened up both of them, quickly bringing them up to the pot. The recipe only called for a liter of heavenly spirit power and ten bottles of Buzzing Fire, but she had extra.

Her gaze sharpened as she moved quickly, directly pouring them into the cauldron and monitoring the situation with her mental power. The two liquids frothed and bubbled, turning the originally red and clear coloring an ominous black, bright flashes of lighting appearing under the surface. They violently repelled each other, boiling and releasing spirit power in waves as the cauldron quaked, becoming their battleground.

Xia Moyin stirred the cauldron with a large ladle that had appeared in her hand at some time in between, activating the array, a red half-sphere manifesting around her.

If someone had walked in at that moment, they probably would have thought she was creating an evil potion or summoning a demon, especially when you consider that she was still wearing the Moon Silk Robe with the hood up.

She picked up the ground Spirit Beast cores and Cosmos Sacks, slowly pouring them in, one after another, stirring all the while. As more was introduced in, the perpetually turbulent cauldron settled down, spirit power pervading the liquid as it turned a rosy pink. The entire thing smelled of sweet fruit and, instead of blood essence, vanilla. It was a very weird smell coming from essence and alcohol.

According to the recipe, there was only one ingredient left…

Xia Moyin’s eyes trailed to her wrist.

A few drops of Demon blood.

She unleashed her claws immediately, setting them against the skin of her wrist and directly cutting her flesh.

There was a small pinprick of pain, but in less than a second it was gone as her body started healing the wound. It happened so fast that not a single drop of blood was able to leak out. About five seconds later it had disappeared completely, not even a scab or scar indicating it’s position.

“….”

Xia Moyin tried again, making the cut a bit deeper this time. Though she did get one drop of blood, the same thing happened as before.

She did it again, and again, and again, repeating the process until she finally got enough blood to constitute ten drops. When she looked at the blood in the bowl, she discovered that her blood wasn’t red. It was violet instead.

She looked over it for a moment, noting this fact into her mind. After a few seconds, however, she poured it into the cauldron as well.

As it dispersed into the pink mixture, a change came over the liquid. Black fog manifested over it, the color darkening and changing into a plum red. The scent became stronger, a slight spiciness pervading the air.

Xia Moyin stirred one more time, making sure everything was mixed well before putting the lid back on and sealing it temporarily. Although she didn’t know much about fermenting things, she did know how that it took time, and she was happy to give it.

She stepped out of the circle of the array, the red halo dimming slightly and a wave of exhaustion crashing into her. Her body collapsed as her eyes rolled back into her head, her mind going out like a light.

The mental power she expended during this entire process was not little. Although it felt like only fifteen minutes to her, it had in fact been three hours, and the high level of concentration and focus she had obtained had pushed her body past it’s limits, especially since she hadn’t cultivated yet.

She laid on the floor of the loft, sound asleep, the cauldron glowing softly behind her.