A Demon’s Paradise - Volume 1 Chapter 7 Xia Moyin Fell In Love

Xia Moyin ignored her feelings for a moment, closing her eyes once more and looking to the technique left behind by her parents.

It seemed to be some sort of unorthodox cultivation technique, unlike any that she had seen in either of her lives. Most techniques were hundreds of pages long, with diagrams and stories of different people’s experiences with it and a whole lot of complex steps to it that usually take months, if not years, to comprehend.

If you wrote this one down, the entire thing could fit on one side of a piece of paper. Instead of showing a path for spirit power or a cultivation pose, or complex steps with extensive descriptions, it was a recipe with a few vague instructions. It didn’t even have a name.

In totality, all it said was:

…..

-One Hundred spirit beast cores (The higher quality the better)

-One liter of Heavenly Spirit water (The quality doesn’t matter)

-Ten bottles of Buzzing Fire (At least 300 years old)

-Drops of blood from a Demon (The higher quality the better) (The more the better)

-Three Cosmos Sacks (The quality doesn’t matter)

-A container that can be sealed (The quality doesn’t matter)

*Grind all the items into a powder then mix, including the Cosmos Sacks.

*Pour the now liquid formula into the the container and let ferment for three days.

*Cultivate in its presence.

+Only consumable to the Demon Race. If not of the Demon Race, DO NOT DRINK, EAT, OR OTHERWISE CONSUME+

….

That was it. A list of ingredients, some vague instructions and a warning label. At least it was something.

‘Heavenly Spirit Water? Buzzing Fire? What?’

Even after going through all of the memories and info in her head, she was still drawing a massive blank over those two things.

She recognized Cosmos Sacks, and she already had a body full of Demon blood. ‘A container that can be sealed’ could just be thermos, or a wine gourd or something like that. The hundred spirit beast cores would be easy to find, though finding a high quality one would be a bit difficult, she at least knew where to start. But she’d never heard of ‘Buzzing Fire’ or ‘Heavenly Spirit water’, much less where to find any good ones.

Xia Moyin opened her eyes, groaning in frustration and rubbing her temples. She’d had a sliver of hope when she realized her physique had been restored, but this made it shrink to the size of a atom. She didn’t even know where to start and she was too tired to think about it deeply.

Despite her passing out long enough for the sun to go down, she didn’t feel as though she had slept at all, in fact, she felt more tired than she did before she went to sleep.

She stood up and shuffled to the bed, sighing heavily. All the fatigue from the past day seemed to hit her all at once as she slumped onto the bed, her mind shutting down and falling asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.

…..

About twelve hours later, around two o’clock in the afternoon, Xia Moyin had already left the inn and was wandering around the city. She had disguised herself as a man, using the Killer Lizard mask to look like an above average scholar.

The city she had woken up was the capital of the Moon Empire, the same empire that Xia Jun was the prime minister over. The Moon Empire was on the northern continent and the covered the western side of it, curved over the edge like a crescent moon, hence its name. The capital was in the central part of the empire, about two hundred kilometers from the coast.

She was on the west side of the city, where the marketplaces and most of the guilds were. General housing was in the south, for both the commoners and the nobles, and the government buildings were in the east with the palace and subsequent buildings taking up the entire northern part of the city.

Xia Moyin was on her way to the east side of the city, to look into the imperial library. As per its name, it was a library that housed almost all of the knowledge acc.u.mulated by the imperial family, including cultivation techniques, national history, encyclopedias, and everything else that could be written down. However, it wasn’t open to the general public without paying a large fee that most commoners couldn’t afford. Thankfully, she had her ways, and there were about ten newly broke nobles to thank for it.

The season was in mid winter, the coldest this kingdom would get in this region. Piles of snow lined the streets and her breath froze the moment she exhaled. Despite this, however, there was a practical sea of people, stretching as far as she could see.

Tall buildings lined the streets, enclosing large markets and restaurants, creating rivers of people as the aura of activity permeated the city. Everyone seemed to be out and about, buying, selling, yelling, laughing, talking, and everything in-between. The streets were clean but worn, eroded by thousands of people walking over it everyday.

The street she was walking down was wide and full of people, bustling from one place to another. There were hundreds of vendors lining the roads, yelling out sales to their prospective customers, the smell of street food permeating the air. Large carriages dotted the street, housing rich nobles and slowly plodding through the streets, obviously impeded by the tide of people.

The feeling of hustle and bustle was so similar to modern day earth that she couldn’t help but zone out for a moment, thinking of the past. A thin film of tears covered her eyes as she looked back on her past life. It only lasted a moment but she felt a sharp stab of pain, deep in her heart, full of grief. A feeling of great sadness overtook her and she seemed to deflate for a moment, her entire body turning gray for an instant.

The moment passed when someone bumped into her, telling her to keep moving. She was in the middle of the street after all, and was blocking other people’s way. She blinked, snapping out of her reverie, pushing her thoughts to the side and moving on her way, much to the appreciation of the person behind her

…

Xia Moyin looked the building in front of her up and down, slightly surprised by its appearance. She was expecting about five stories of drab grey stone with barely anyone entering or leaving. Instead, she got hundreds of stories of black marble, people bustling about it like bees.

There were thousands of people, nobles and commoners alike, walking in and out, holding books, reading books, checking out books and some were even writing books. Outside there were tables with people reading, students practicing the techniques they had just checked out, and hundreds of cafes and private spots to read. It was both quiet and loud at the same time, the voices of people chatting quietly infusing a sort of buzz to the courtyard. Despite being mid winter, and the rest of the kingdom was freezing, the Imperial Library was pleasantly warm, a spell put on it to maintain a steady temperature.

A large set of stairs led up to the entrance, giving it the same aura a university might have, slightly imposing but scholarly. Large gilded doors nearly twenty meters high greeted her at the entrance, people going in and out constantly.

When she walked in, she froze and gasped, her face blushing slightly as her eyes lit up.

“Wow”

The inside of the imperial library was in a circular shape, rising higher and higher for what seemed like forever. Huge windows covered the ceiling and were sprinkled across the walls, giving a perfect view of the city. Small areas specifically made for people to sit down and read in dotted the different floors, stuffed full of couches, chairs, and pillows, giving it a homey feel.

Those were all well and good, but what really took her breath away was all the books. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of books lined the walls and sat on shelves, permeating the air with the smell of old paper and ink. Wide walkways crisscrossed the room, connecting the different levels and genres together. Books, thin and thick, new and old, sat on the shelves, practically asking to be picked up and read. They were all in pristine shape, not a dog-eared page or cracked spine in sight.

It was awe-inspiring to behold, and for the first time in either of her lives, Xia Moyin fell in love.

Her eyes widened and sparkled brightly, a wide smile making her disguised features brighten up as she looked around, drinking in everything. The books, the people, the books.

She was in heaven

‘So many books, so little time….’