Chapter 84
Chapter 84
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 84 – Lan Qi’s Affinity with the Demonic Race2024-05-22 Author: Poor Xixi
As the clock of the Demon Academy struck five o’clock in the morning, time itself seemed to slow, as if quietly awaiting some transformation.
The faintest strands of dawn crept softly into the botanical garden through the window edges, sprinkling down through the gaps between the leaves.
Misty light diffused in all directions, and the entire shadow world of the demons began to dissipate like rising bubbles.
Lan Qi finally closed the ancient book in his hands.
The very next moment, the weathered tome—steeped in the aura of ages—dissolved together with the demon-realm experimental botanical garden around them.
In the blink of an eye, Lan Qi and Huperion found themselves standing inside a transparent chamber wrapped in eternal starlight, where sparse glimmers of stars flickered around them, providing just enough brightness to see.
This was a liminal space, straddling reality and the shadow world.
Not far away, a narrow crack had appeared on the transparent barrier, spilling out tranquil, flowing strands of violet light— a miniature Void Gate.
Once they stepped through it, they should return to the real world.
The shadow world’s “results,” however, had yet to appear.
Though true shadow worlds never fail to conclude like artificial ones might, Lan Qi had heard that when too many irregularities occur during a challenge—skipping over mechanisms or breaking patterns—the resolution may take longer.
Who knew how long this one would take?
Lan Qi smiled, lifting his head toward Huperion, ready to strike up a conversation.
He recalled she’d been speaking earlier, but he’d been too absorbed in the last passages of that book to respond.
Then he noticed something strange in her expression.
“Huperion, what’s wrong?” Lan Qi asked softly, puzzled.“Oh, wait—is it because that man said you were a half-blood demon?”
It struck him suddenly: Huperion had been fine before. But the instant that criminal, swallowed by demons in his last moments, revealed her half-demon heritage, her state had shifted.
“…Mm.”
Meeting Lan Qi’s gentle gaze, Huperion felt her tightly wound heart loosen, if only a little.
At this moment she was certain—she did not want to lose Lan Qi as a friend.
But what came next was something she had never expected.
“My goodness—you have demon blood?”
Lan Qi’s eyes shone with unhidden admiration as he stared at her.
Huperion was stunned.
Never before had anyone learned of her heritage and responded not with disgust—but with genuine… approval?
“You really don’t hate demons? You just spent an entire day alongside one!” she asked in disbelief.
She had never met anyone in this world with such warmth toward demons. Even her own father had loathed them at first, only softening after meeting her mother.
“Uh…”
Lan Qi paused, resting his chin in thought. His eyes carried a distant look, recalling the leadership circle he’d once formed back in the Purgatory Corridor Academy.
“…”
Huperion was speechless.
Forget it—this guy was practically a demon among demons. That he would get along with them wasn’t strange at all.
She thought back on everything he had done in the Demon Academy.
And at last… she let go of her unease.
“…My mother was a great demon from the northern lands. She disguised herself as a common girl and fell in love with my father, Duke Migaya Aransal. And so, I was born.”
Her gaze lowered as memories churned in her eyes.
She never knew whether her father had been aware of her mother’s identity all along, or whether he had simply chosen to feign ignorance.
But when she, a half-demon child, came into the world, the truth could no longer be hidden. Her mother soon departed the capital of Hedon in silence…
Even now, Huperion remembered the sorrow in her father’s expression. Though he knew the truth, his greatest wish was always to bring her mother back.
To Huperion, her father had been the one rare man in the royal capital who bore no hatred for demons.
And now… perhaps there was another.
Lan Qi scratched his head.
This sounded awfully familiar.
Another great demon from the north? Could she be related to Talia?
“I honestly feel like every demon I’ve met has been wonderful. Why does everyone hate them so much?” Lan Qi asked, genuinely confused.
To him, the world’s prejudice against demons felt far too heavy—when he’d never seen any real harm from them.
“…Or maybe you’re just too kindhearted,” Huperion muttered.
If anyone else had uttered such a statement in human lands, they would have been mocked as naive or cursed as a bleeding-heart saint. But since the words came from Lan Qi—well, demons really did seem like harmless rabbits around him.
“This is exactly why, even as a duke’s daughter, I’ve been shunned by everyone in Ikerite. Since the war decades ago, people are convinced demons and humans cannot coexist. Even with only half their blood, I am still despised.”
Her voice carried the release of long-buried pain, finally finding someone she could tell.
Lan Qi, new to the northern capital after leaving the southern borderlands, had barely begun his second day of classes—it was natural he had yet to learn of her heritage or the city’s deep-seated hatred.
But eventually, he would.
“So, you’re saying… even knowing you carry demon blood, they still address you as a duke’s daughter?”
Lan Qi tilted his lips into a gentle smile.
Huperion blinked, meeting the warm green glow in his eyes.
She was at a loss for words.
How could something so tragic—being despised for her bloodline—sound, when spoken by him, almost like a blessing?
“You really are…”
Her helpless gaze lingered on him, equal parts exasperation and surrender.
“Just like last time, with Vivian—you say things that leave people unable to respond.”
Though it sounded like a complaint, in the end her lips curved into a smile.
Not a mask, not the false expression honed in this fourth-level shadow world—but the genuine smile of a girl, born from her heart.
vChapter 85 – Lan Qi’s Spoils of War2024-06-15 Author: Poor Xixi
Starlight shimmered like distant dust, scattered across the deep, pitch-black liminal space.
The two of them still waited quietly for the shadow world’s settlement and clearance rewards.
“By the way, since Huperion, you’re… what I’d call an ‘officially recognized demon’…”
Lan Qi muttered thoughtfully.
“What do you mean?”
Huperion didn’t take his words as mockery. From his tone, it seemed he was already cooking up some other idea.
“Honestly, compared to human magical scripts, I personally enjoy studying demon scripts more. In the future, I might craft some demon-magic-related items—but the problem is their sales channels.”
The moment he said this, Huperion understood.
Though the laws of the Hedon Kingdom did not prohibit the circulation of other-race magical cards, if one wanted to trade them through official institutions or legitimate shops, special types like these required strict source registration.
If every time the source read “Created by Lan Qi”—
Even if some believed him, it would still attract unwanted scrutiny: suspicion of “smuggling,” “illicit origins,” or even accusations that he was secretly sheltering a demon to help him craft magic tools.
“So what you want… is for me to act as your agent, right?”
Huperion asked directly.
She didn’t believe Lan Qi would ever gamble his life like her father, hiding demons in defiance of the kingdom. But if his trade constantly raised red flags and provoked endless inspections from higher authorities, his business would always remain crippled.
Yet as the openly acknowledged half-demon duke’s daughter, tolerated by the Hedon Kingdom itself, if she and Lan Qi opened a company together under the Aransal family name, then even if demon-magic cards circulated on the market, it would not arouse suspicion.
“Exactly! Let’s build a company—make it big, make it strong!”
Lan Qi nodded, his eyes blazing with entrepreneurial spirit.
With Huperion as the grand figurehead, maybe one day he could even rope Talia in as well.
That old hag probably dreamed of getting a legitimate business license.
“No problem. So it turns out my demon heritage actually has a positive use after all.”
As they plotted their business empire, the tranquil and surreal space around them suddenly shifted. Task information surfaced in midair, glowing in pure white halos that burned vividly against the darkness. Lines of text began to scroll:
【Shadow World: Purgatory Corridor Academy – Cleared.】【Calculation complete. Generating evaluation…】【Since challengers Lan Qi & Huperion entered as a team, evaluation will be based on group results.】【This exploration cleared: 80 ordinary classrooms, 40 advanced classrooms, 15 ultra-hard classrooms, 20 non-clearable facilities, 1 Headmaster’s Office.】【Achievements unlocked by the team:】
【Achievement summary complete. Evaluation generated.】
【After a day of study, you have become not only an outstanding graduate of this academy, but also its headmaster. Your results deviate not only from the human path, but even from the demonic path…】
【Overall Evaluation: SSS】【Rank Increase: Lan Qi → Tier 2 to Tier 3; Huperion → Tier 3 to Tier 4.】
At the instant the rewards settled, divine clarity struck them both, their ranks breaking through immediately.
Lan Qi even realized that though he had just stepped into Tier 3, Tier 4 was already within sight.
“I… I actually reached Tier 4?”
Huperion murmured in disbelief.
Only that very morning she had been resigned to wasting her first year, unable to challenge shadow worlds.
Now, on her second day at school, before the sun had even risen—she stood at the level of a second-year student.
It felt less real than a dream.
“Guess this means the two of us are going to have to run high-intensity shadow world raids from now on, huh?”
Lan Qi grinned.
Through this demonic shadow world, Huperion had fully transformed from a melee mage into a stealthy, corpse-looting demon rogue—complete with resistance to sound-based magic and the acting skills of a stage queen.
“Mm. Two months from now, let’s go together.”
She nodded firmly.
The cooldown for a Tier 4 shadow world was two months. Once it reset, they’d dive right in again.
At this moment, she felt that perhaps meeting Lan Qi was the goddess’s way of rewarding her—granting her a blessing uniquely suited for someone of demon blood.
【Reward Settlement: “Infernal Sound” (Tier 3 Epic Summon Card), “Polymorph: Demon” (Tier 2 Rare Spell Card), “Polymorph: Human” (Tier 2 Rare Spell Card).】
Three glowing spheres appeared before them like newborn stars, each haloed in a different light.
Two drifted toward Lan Qi, one toward Huperion—apparently distributed according to contribution.
“Epic…?”
Lan Qi frowned at the orange-glowing orb.
The last time he had touched an epic, it had taken an epic-grade material 【Ballad of Mercy】, Talia the demon master-crafter’s workmanship, and his own hand as chief artist to create the Tier 1 card 【Poet of Great Love】—which had left him with a 75,000-pound debt.
And now, after only twelve hours of dreamlike experience, he had received another epic?And not just Tier 1—but a natural Tier 3 Epic.
Even Huperion stared, wide-eyed, at the orange sphere.
Natural magic cards often carried ancient principles linked to the shadow world, not of the present era.
Thus, they were generally far more valuable than manmade epics of equal tier.
Of course, this likely stemmed from their outrageous SSS score. Had it been only B or A, a rare-quality natural card would’ve been lucky enough.
Though she had once seen her father, Duke Migaya Aransal, wield an orange Epic, this was the first time Huperion had ever watched a natural Epic card manifest before her own eyes.
【Infernal Sound】
(To be continued—another chapter follows today, triple release)