Chapter 558: The Mystery of Heritage

The beautiful woman's radiant, smooth, and fair skin subtly revealed a delicate flush, like rouge applied to white jade, making her already stunning face even more enchanting.

She wore a flowing, ethereal white gown, inlaid with jade and gold threads, perfectly blending an otherworldly aura with nobility. It was as if an unattainable celestial fairy from the Nine Heavens had fallen to earth, transforming into a captivating mortal enchantress.

Her attire was not revealing, yet it was designed to perfection; the subtle, half-revealed quality filled observers with even greater imagination.

Her graceful, lithe figure, beautiful jade-like neck, slender, delicate waist, and fair skin appeared even more alluring and charming.

Her beautiful eyes were like a vast and serene starry sky, immense and peaceful, revealing no trace of emotion. Yet, her entire being exuded an undeniable charm, grace, and alluring femininity.

After one glance, Zu An's heart pounded and his breathing quickened. This woman was truly a bane to nations. She simply stood there with an air of pure innocence, without any provocative gestures, not even moving her eyes, yet her entire presence was utterly captivating and soul-stirring.

By now, he had realized this woman, born to be such a femme fatale, was Daji.

"Daji counts as a Valkyrie?"

Zu An was somewhat bewildered. He truly couldn't connect the most famous fox spirit in Chinese history with anything combat-related.

The only thing he could associate was that if matters in bed counted as combat power, she would undoubtedly be Tier 0.

However, upon carefully examining the information provided by the system, he realized he had misunderstood; this Daji could indeed fight.

Following the prompt, he focused on Daji, and with a thought, a menu page about Daji appeared in his mind. It naturally didn't display stats like attack power, defense, or health points; instead, it documented some of her abilities.

Daji specialized in using musical instrument-type weapons and could play the "Demonic Charm Melody" to cause low-cultivation or low-intellect targets to fall into confusion and lose their minds.

Additionally, she possessed the "Fox Allure" talent, which allowed her to briefly control male targets with lower cultivation than herself. Even if she encountered those with higher cultivation, they would be so stunned by her beauty that they couldn't bring themselves to strike hard.

She could also summon a nine-tailed fox to fight. As her cultivation level increased, the nine-tailed fox's tails would transform into flames. When all nine tails were composed of flames, the nine-tailed fox's combat power would reach its peak.

After reading this information in his mind, Zu An was utterly shocked. "Which world's Daji is this, to be so powerful?" he wondered.

He couldn't help but lean closer and say, "Hello, Miss... hero. I'm Zu An, you can call me Ah Zu from now on. Of course, I wouldn't mind if you called me Master either."

However, there was no response. The stunning woman before him simply gazed at him silently, with no hint of emotion in her eyes.

Zu An was startled. Her eyes were indeed beautiful, but he felt they lacked a certain spark, as if she were an inanimate object.

He moved to the side and noticed that her eyes did not follow his movement.

He suddenly recalled the introduction to the Valkyrie system: it seemed that the summoned Valkyries had all lost their past memories and souls, retaining only their combat instincts.

"Just human-shaped dolls?" Zu An fell into thought. It looked like they probably couldn't even speak.

Having watched so many films and TV shows in his previous life, he wasn't unfamiliar with such concepts. He supposed these Valkyries were similar to automatons, war puppets, or mechs.

Of course, Valkyries were much more aesthetically pleasing.

"Are they robots?" Zu An couldn't help but reach out and poke Daji's arm. The astonishingly elastic feel transmitted to his fingertips shocked him. She was actually real?

He was certain her skin was no different from a normal person's. The only difference was that their skin was even better than most normal people's.

"I wonder if other parts are also like a real person..." Zu An's expression was odd. In his previous life, countless people spent fortunes ordering realistic dolls online, but no matter how lifelike, they were still obviously fake. Yet, the one before him, apart from lacking a soul, was indistinguishable from a real person.

He couldn't help but inwardly complain. If this system fell into the hands of wicked individuals, wouldn't it completely turn these Valkyries into mere bed companions?

No, that's not right. There shouldn't be such a loophole.

He thought for a moment and decided to test it. He slowly reached out towards Daji's chest.

Sensing his hand approach, Daji's previously vacant eyes seemed to gain something inexplicable. She instantly darted back, followed by a crisp slap.

Zu An felt immensely grateful. If he hadn't retreated quickly enough, that slap wouldn't have landed on his hand, but his face.

Only then did he notice on Daji's page a section indicating: Favorability 0.

That was understandable. How could there be any favorability on their first meeting?

But how could this favorability be increased?

Then, if the favorability was maxed out, would he be able to do whatever he wished...?

*Cough, cough!*

Zu An's old face flushed at the thought. *Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey!* "I'm just researching this system, not harboring evil thoughts."

Knowing that nothing could happen with this Valkyrie, his somewhat chaotic mind gradually calmed down.

He directly issued a command to Daji before him, through his soul: "Attack me!"

Daji, whose eyes had been somewhat lifeless, suddenly looked up, a strange, enchanting light flickering in her eyes. She then charged towards him.

After a brief exchange, Zu An told her to stop. Daji stood still again, the light in her eyes gradually faded, and she reverted to her previous lifeless state.

Zu An pondered inwardly. From their recent exchange, Daji's combat skills were remarkably excellent, often even making him feel a little flustered.

But the biggest problem was her strength and speed were simply too weak, no different from an ordinary person, not even resembling a cultivator. There was a significant gap between her and the legendary formidable Valkyries. Summoning her wouldn't really help.

He studied her skill descriptions again and suddenly realized something, because many parts mentioned her own cultivation level.

Her current cultivation level was clearly that of an ordinary person. So what if she leveled up?

He noticed that Daji also had some formation patterns on her body at this time, very similar to his own.

Then presumably, she could be upgraded with vital energy fruits?

Currently, Zu An's cultivation required a massive number of vital energy fruits for each minor increase. He had already given up on the idea of relying on vital energy fruits for his own advancement.

But the rage point lottery often yielded vital energy fruits, and it would be too wasteful not to use them. Now, this Valkyrie system provided the perfect use for these otherwise useless vital energy fruits.

Zu An secretly prayed, wondering how many vital energy fruits this Valkyrie would need to fill her formation. If it was an astronomical number like what he needed, then there would truly be no way.

With a thought, he decided to try it first.

He hadn't used rage points for a lottery draw in a long time. Checking the backend, he had accumulated a total of 350,862 rage points, so he spent them all in one go.

A total of 3,508 draws. Fortunately, the system now provided a batch drawing function, otherwise, drawing one by one would have surely broken his hand.

Seeing the lottery results, Zu An couldn't help but curse, "What terrible luck!"

He knew this time he had more rage points than ever before; he had been hoping to draw some useful skills.

But he didn't draw a single skill!

However, strictly speaking, his luck wasn't entirely bad. Although he didn't draw any skills, the number of vital energy fruits he drew far exceeded the usual amount.

According to the probabilities he had previously deduced, he should roughly get 350 to 400 vital energy fruits, but this time, he drew a whopping 700!

Additionally, he drew 5 tiger tallies. Initially, when he saw the glowing cursor circle around the "servant" key during the draw, his heart almost leaped out of his chest, because the lottery cursor had never previously landed on these special buttons. He had thought he would draw something heaven-defying.

Who knew it was just 5 tiger tallies.

Zu An had originally intended to use these 5 tiger tallies to see if he could resonate with new Valkyries and summon a few more.

But he reconsidered. He probably used up all his good luck drawing Daji today, and drawing again would likely yield nothing.

Moreover, even if he did draw them, these Valkyries were no different from ordinary people when first drawn. They required resources to raise their cultivation, and currently, he didn't have enough resources, so drawing them would be a waste.

So he put away the 5 tiger tallies, planning to use them later.

Then he hesitated, holding the vital energy fruits. Should he strengthen himself or Daji?

He inwardly examined his own situation. He was already at fifth rank previously, with the first four formations lit up. "Huh, why is the fifth formation also lit up?" he wondered.

One must know that the fifth formation required a total of 2,178,309 vital energy fruits.

He reviewed his recent experiences. He figured it must have been from the series of life-and-death battles with the likes of Lord Rich and Mosquito Taoist, where he was constantly injured and constantly recovered, which finally lit up the fifth formation. Even the "Grand Primordial Scripture" seemed to have advanced considerably due to the continuous healing; he felt one step closer to the third layer.

It seemed that the "Phoenix Nirvana Scripture" truly advanced faster by taking hits. Relying on vital energy fruits would take forever.

He calculated that lighting up the sixth formation would require 3,524,578 vital energy fruits. The number he drew this time wasn't even enough for a fraction of that, which completely dispelled his idea of consuming vital energy fruits himself.

So he came before Daji, gazing at her exquisitely beautiful face, which combined both innocence and foxy charm, and issued the command: "Open your mouth."

Daji, for her part, was utterly compliant with these commands; her crimson lips parted slightly.

"Wider." Zu An couldn't help but sigh at how a beauty remained a beauty; even without a soul, her movements were still instinctively ladylike.

Daji diligently opened her mouth wide, and Zu An then slowly fed the vital energy fruits into her mouth. Fortunately, the vital energy fruits melted upon contact, requiring no swallowing.

"Am I feeding her?" As he popped the vital energy fruits one by one into her alluring, crimson lips, Zu An chuckled to himself. If he were to give her "Eighteen Degrees of Spring Breeze" right now, he wondered what the consequences would be...

However, he quickly composed himself and stopped thinking such random thoughts.

He didn't feed all 700 fruits at once. Instead, he did it in batches, while observing her cultivation changes.

Zu An silently calculated: 60 fruits brought Daji to the peak of first rank, 120 fruits to the peak of second rank. However, the speed slowed down afterward, and 700 fruits brought Daji to the peak of fourth rank, only a hair's breadth away from fifth rank.

Zu An watched with envy, jealousy, and even a touch of hatred. To reach fifth rank, he had endured countless hardships, and relying solely on vital energy fruits would have been impossible for him. Yet, this woman reached the peak of fourth rank so easily.

Although he hadn't found the exact conversion rate between her rank increase and vital energy fruits, judging from her breakthroughs to fourth rank, the demand for vital energy fruits seemed to increase linearly. Although the required number of fruits would increase with higher ranks, it would never reach the astronomical numbers he needed.

He roughly calculated that approximately 1,000 rage points yielded 1 vital energy fruit, meaning a few million rage points should be enough to raise Daji to ninth rank.

Although a few million rage points was a significant amount, it could eventually be accumulated.

Zu An felt a bit contemptuous of himself. For these beautiful girls, leveling up was so simple; why was it that for him, the amount of vital energy fruits needed to advance his cultivation was completely unattainable?

Suddenly, his heart stirred, because he seemed to sense a difference in the surrounding elemental energy.

He seemed to be able to feel traces of fire elements.

He casually waved his hand, and a layer of flame ignited on his palm. Startled, he quickly waved his hand, and the flames immediately extinguished.

He pondered for a moment, then continued to communicate with the surrounding fire elements. Suddenly, a ball of flame ignited on his hand again.

This time, having been prepared, he patiently observed the flame, feeling no threat whatsoever. Instead, he felt an unusual kinship with it. He casually experimented and found he could control the flame at will.

"Oh, how did you suddenly awaken fire element abilities?" At that moment, Mi Li's voice echoed in his soul.

Zu An was startled and couldn't help but retort, "Sister Queen, I have reason to believe you've been secretly peeking at me all this time. That's why you always appear so 'opportunely'."

Mi Li snorted, "Don't flatter yourself; who wants to peek at you?"

Immediately after, she materialized and gazed at the ball of flame in his hand, marveling at it.

At this moment, Pei Mianman was nearby, her eyes tightly closed, concentrating on refining the Lady Hao Owl Zun, so she naturally didn't notice what was happening around them.

"What's going on? Did you have another fortuitous encounter?" Mi Li asked curiously.

Zu An's mind stirred, and he summoned Daji. Anyway, she would often be out fighting in the future, and Mi Li would surely see her, so it would be better to reveal her now so they could all examine her together.

Seeing the stunning woman suddenly appear beside him, even the knowledgeable Mi Li was startled. "What's going on?" she asked, "Is there someone else residing within you?"

"Not exactly, uh..." Zu An thought for a long time, unsure how to explain Daji's existence. "You can think of her as my summoned creature."

"Summoned creature?" Mi Li's expression was odd. She had heard of summoning fierce beasts, spirits, or even dragons, but she had never seen anyone summon a delicate, stunning beauty.

Suddenly, Mi Li's face flushed slightly, and she spat, "As expected, you old pervert!"

Zu An: "..."

"Damn it, I'm innocent! What does this have to do with me? Blame the guy who created this system!"

"She has no consciousness?" After observing carefully for a while, Mi Li immediately spotted the problem.

Zu An nodded. "She has lost her soul and memories, retaining only her combat instincts."

"By your tone, it sounds like you know her former identity?" Mi Li asked curiously.

Zu An replied, "She is Daji."

"Daji?" Mi Li was startled. "The one from the Shang Dynasty?"

"How many other Dajis are there in the world?" Zu An said with a wry smile.

"No wonder she was called the 'thousand-year fox spirit'; she's truly a devastating beauty, even I, a woman, am moved by her," Mi Li exclaimed in wonder. "But can this delicate body fight? I've never heard of Daji being skilled in combat."

Zu An retorted, "You, the Great Qin Empress, possess such high cultivation; why shouldn't others be capable as well?"

Mi Li's pretty face flushed. What he said seemed to make some sense.

After pondering for a moment, she asked, "Is she a fire-element cultivator?"

Zu An was startled and nodded, "She should be."

Daji could summon a nine-tailed fox whose nine tails were all transformed from flames. What else could she be if not fire-element?

Mi Li had an "I knew it" expression. "That's right then. Based on my knowledge, summoners and their summoned creatures often share some abilities," she said. "It's likely through her that you're now able to communicate with the fire elements of heaven and earth."

She couldn't help but laugh. "I used to find it strange why you hadn't awakened any elemental abilities despite being at fifth rank. So this was the reason," she said. "If you can summon a few more beings like her in the future, and those individuals possess other elemental abilities, you might just become the first person in the world to master all elements."

She paused, her expression turning very strange. "I heard your parents died when you were young, and you were raised by your uncle?"

Zu An was startled, not knowing why she had changed the topic.

Nevertheless, he replied, "Actually, I still don't know if my parents are truly dead or just missing. I don't even know who they are."

Mi Li took a deep breath. "You don't need to wonder anymore. I know who your father is."

"Who is it?" Zu An was stunned.

Mi Li looked at him with a strange expression. "The Heavenly Dao is your father."

Zu An had a bewildered expression. "???"

Mi Li said through gritted teeth, "If the Heavenly Dao isn't your father, then why do you have so many uniquely favored encounters? Mastering all elemental abilities—do you know what kind of concept that is?"

Zu An: "..."

He also remembered asking about this before: most people in the world could only awaken one elemental ability, and perhaps a very few could cultivate two elements, which was already a once-in-a-millennium prodigy. If someone like him could use all elemental abilities...

Uh, it does seem a bit like cheating.

Mi Li's chest heaved erratically, clearly emotional at the moment. "We cultivators often toil our entire lives and can only use abilities of a single element," she said. "Yet you, fellow, can effortlessly use all elements. If I had encountered such a freak like you before, I would have chosen to nip you in the bud."

Zu An chuckled awkwardly. "It's not that exaggerated. Look, my leveling is quite slow, isn't it? It's much harder to advance than for normal people. Furthermore, summoning an existence like Daji requires a huge price. I can't possibly summon a second one in a short time. How can it be so easy to master all elements?"

Mi Li comfortably hummed in acknowledgment. "Hearing you say that, my mind is much more at ease. But then again, I wish you were as powerful as possible. That way, my safety would be ensured, and you could reconstruct my body sooner..."

Mid-sentence, she suddenly froze, turning to look at Daji beside them. "Did you just mention that her soul is missing?"

"Ah." Zu An instinctively nodded, but immediately reacted, "But she's my..."

He hadn't finished speaking when Mi Li, grinning, pounced towards Daji. "Don't be so stingy," she said, "I'll just borrow her body for a while; I'll give it back to you later."