A Demon’s Paradise - Volume 1 Chapter 20 A Sip

When Xia Moyin woke up, it was already the night two days later, and there was only a few hours left until she could use the brew fermenting in the cauldron.

However, Xia Moyin did not know this.

She kept waiting for three days, thinking she had only passed out for a few hours. She did not leave her home, nor did she currently have a clock. Instead of taking it out after three days, she accidentally let it ferment for six, which would give some very….*interesting* after effects.

**

Xia Moyin walked into the third floor loft, studying the array she had drawn. It was three days after she had woken up and so far everything seemed to be going well. The cauldron, in the middle of the second day, had rocked side to side, the entire thing moving about as if a fight was breaking out inside of it. However, it calmed down after a few hours, the spirit power in it settling and mellowing out.

Now, it was finally ready, and she subconsciously rushed towards it. Along the way she picked up the gourd she had stolen from some store in the Imperial Capital, before pulling the lid off the cauldron.

Immediately dense spirit energy flowed out, accompanied by the thick scent of vanilla and fruit punch. A silvery fog rolled out onto the floor as small thunderclaps resounded out, following behind crackling electricity.

Xia Moyin’s face flushed as her pores opened, her body reacting to the strong spirit energy. Throughout the past four days she’d had been in the city, she had not had a single sliver of spirit power around her, and it had been glaringly obvious. She hadn’t cultivated at all since she had entered this world, and it was making her uncomfortable. The Spirit power spilling out of the cauldron and filling the space around her was a welcome feeling.

The ladle from before was dipped into the cauldron and brought out, revealing the now clear liquid. She hurriedly poured it into the gourd, making sure not to spill a single drop.

From the size of the gourd she had, it one spoonful should have been enough for it to be full, but it wasn’t. In fact, it wasn’t even half-full. She poured another ladleful in, and the water level didn’t rise at all.

Then she poured in another, and another, and another. She emptied out the entire cauldron, yet the water level didn’t rise past halfway.

“….”

Her mind worked fast and she rooted out the source immediately, ‘It must be because of the Cosmos Sacks….’ The Cosmos Sacks must have let it take up less space than what was usually necessary.

Xia Moyin noted this in her mind as she put the stopper into the gourd. Setting it aside for a moment, she went to the extra materials she had stacked up in the corner. The Cosmos Sacks would allow her to put more of the brew into the gourd than usual, so she might as well take advantage of it.

Two hours later and the exact same brew that she had done six days before was now fermenting in the cauldron, bubbling happily. She didn’t want the ingredients to just waste away in her loft for the rest of eternity, so she decided to just make some more to put it to use.

Since it was her second time making it, she wasn’t as exhausted and didn’t directly pass out from the ordeal, though her mind did have a bit of fatigue. She did not go to bed, instead going to the gourd she had set aside hours earlier. She felt a bit impatient. Afterall, she had gone through a lot of trouble to make it, plus it was one of the only things her parents left her.

When she opened it up, the unique smell it carried invaded her nostrils and put her at ease. It was a smell made of two things that usually didn’t go together, but in the end still smelled great, teasing at the senses.

Xia Moyin sat down and placed the gourd against her lips, tilting her head back and taking a long sip. She had no problem drinking directly from it, she had washed it thoroughly beforehand anyway.

It had a slightly dark yet sweet taste, like cherries dipped in dark chocolate. It wasn’t exactly sugary, but it did give her the same taste she got whenever she ate a lot of candy, as if it had turned into syrup and she had just drank it out of a bottle. A faint hint of vanilla coated her tongue as she swallowed, along with accompaniment from some unknown fruit. All in all, it wasn’t bad, in fact, it was very good, the best she’d ever had. Her previously blank face had a hint of surprize and approval on it as she savored the taste before swallowing.

When her head came back down, however, she revealed an expression that she had never shown before.

Her face was flushed a deep scarlet as her eyes were narrowed in a mask of pure bliss, a gruff sigh escaping her throat. Her lips were in a exaggerated pout and her pupils had dilated to the point that her irises were just a small border between it and the sclera[1]. Her vision was slightly hazy and distorted as colors flitted in and out of context, her mind foggy. A small hiccup jolted her entire body as her head weaved back and forth, a fit of giggles bubbling up from her lips.

[For those of you who don’t know and had to google it like me, the sclera is the white part of the eye. This is coming from google, so if it’s wrong blame it, not me >.