novelraw Chapter 148: The Great Dao of Space is in My Hands!
Chapter 148: The Great Dao of Space is in My Hands!
On top of the tall building, Bingtang let out a long sigh.
Extending her surveillance ice crystals through the sect's disciples to cover the entire East China region, even stretching her abilities to South China, was ultimately a bit taxing for her.
Although she had broken through to the Blooming rank, and was even now at the Nine Revolutions Perfection stage, she was still a bit short of reaching the final Peak Great Perfection.
She had always held off on breaking through, hoping to complete this missing-corner Great Perfection during her Seedling period.
Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time.
Ten days had already passed since Jiang Si disappeared within the Heart Image Remnant. During these ten days, the news of Jiang Si's disappearance had spread like wildfire in the search for him.
Even ordinary people knew about it now. Even the elderly relatives of her company employees living in remote areas would chat with anyone they met, "Hey, do you know Jiang Si? What is Jiang Si?"
"Can't hear you?"
"What is Jiang Si?"
But no information could be found anywhere.They needed a method to enter the Mirror Kingdom, hoping Twins could succeed smoothly...
"Sister Bingtang."
A call pulled her back from her thoughts.
Sitting on the edge of the building roof, she pressed down her hair blown by the strong wind. Bingtang looked back, "Bai Mei, what's the situation?"
"We've already found that TV station spreading the news."
Bai Mei said in a low voice, "It was controlled by the Witch Association. The witch who controlled that station and declared war in the name of the Azure Cloud Sect has also been captured."
"Who's so bold?"
"Her name is Xilan."
Bingtang paused, then seemed somewhat helpless, "It's her."
"Mhm, that follower by the Sect Master's side after she infiltrated the Witch Association." Bai Mei's expression showed a hint of killing intent, "I wanted to kill her."
Then she took out her phone and played a recording.
The captured Xilan showed no fear, just loudly shouting, "Who dares kill me! Who dares kill me! I am Simo Tu's beloved general! Whoever kills me, Lord Simo Tu will definitely not let you off..."
A Magical Girl next to her hit Xilan on the head with her staff, knocking her out cold.
"But she kept saying she was Master's trusted aide."
Bingtang shook her head, "Such a noisy person."
"Yeah." Bai Mei continued, "Even though Master has never liked such boisterous people."
Yet she kept her by her side. She might actually be useful to Master.
"So I still wanted to ask you, should we kill her or not."
"No need. Find a place to lock her up and wait for the Sect Master to return to decide."
"Okay."
Bai Mei raised a finger, typing out a message word by word with one hand, while asking with the other, "Have we notified Sister Keke yet? It's not good to delay any further, right?"
"Already notified." Bingtang rubbed her temples as if somewhat helpless, "I originally just wanted to say he was temporarily missing, couldn't be found... but..."
But she couldn't quite control her emotions.
Especially when looking at Keke crying at the end, saying she had no family left.
Bingtang couldn't even bring herself to utter comforting lies.
Bai Mei also sat down beside Bingtang, looking down at the ant-like tiny figures below, the flashing traffic lights and huge billboards.
This high place overlooking everything was icy cold, and exceptionally lonely.
"You've been working hard lately, Sister Bingtang."
"Nothing worth mentioning." Bingtang didn't mind, "As discussed before, our response method towards the Disaster Control Bureau remains unchanged. The Witch Association pulled this stunt, misunderstandings are inevitable. If conflicts arise, have everyone avoid confrontation as much as possible. With the Sect Master absent, our relationship with the Disaster Control Bureau cannot deteriorate."
"Mhm, I know. I've already sent Qianjing and the others to speak with the Jiangming City Disaster Control Bureau. The Jiangming City Disaster Control Bureau received Master's favor, so they're helping clarify things this time too."
"As for other local Disaster Control Bureaus..." Bai Mei paused briefly, "Originally, I planned to just have Qingying explain."
Bingtang looked at the Azure Cloud Sect's chief senior disciple, noticing a trace of slight distress between her brows, "Hmm?"
"But that newly joined Magical Girl Xingxuan was originally from the Central Bureau." Bai Mei rubbed her forehead.
"As soon as she heard about this incident, she immediately volunteered, passionately declaring she must thwart the Martial Soul Hall's conspiracy, save Shrek Academy, and definitely secure a major supporting role position."
"You agreed to her?"
"She knelt down, hugged my leg, and said she wanted to become my true-transmission..." Bai Mei looked somewhat pleased, "I watched her fly away excitedly shouting things like 'This is the plot point for besieging Bai Ritian and his wife!', 'So I'm in the prequel story!', 'Must stop the Martial Soul Hall, must stop Bai San's birth!' and so on."
"So I had Qingying go with her."
"Mhm, that's fine. Continue putting pressure on the Witch Association side." Bingtang gently swung her pretty little leather shoes, kicking off debris and dust from the tall building.
Bai Mei tilted her head, "Why? Didn't you say Master isn't here..."
"We can't let them know the Sect Master isn't here." Bingtang said calmly, "Previously, the Azure Cloud Sect's attitude towards the Witch Association was absolute refusal to yield. It's the same now. Otherwise, when Shion's mana clearly appeared before but Shion didn't show up, it might make them suspicious. We must be forceful in searching for Jiang Si's whereabouts, can't show weakness."
"Mhm." Bai Mei asked again, "But even if we continue like this, we can't hide it for much longer..."
"I know." Bingtang said softly, "Four Leaf and Six Leaf have been exhausted during this period, blocking who knows how many Blooming-level probes and prophecies. But I've long been prepared for other things. When it truly becomes necessary—"
"—The identities of outer sect disciples are basically hidden. We can destroy the records here and cut ties with the Azure Cloud Sect." Bingtang fiddled with the ice block in front of her, which flickered with scenes from various places, allowing her to oversee the overall situation, "Inner sect disciples in groups of four can defect to local Disaster Control Bureaus at any time. Local Disaster Control Bureaus have long accepted political donations from the Ice Color Era Group. They can shelter Magical Girls without being investigated by the Central Bureau. As for you true-transmission disciples, if you want to leave, I've already arranged things for you in advance..."
"If Sister Jiegeng heard Sister Bingtang say this, she'd definitely get angry and fight you." Bai Mei whispered, "And me too, of course."
"Tch." Bingtang flicked Bai Mei's forehead with her finger, "Silly, it's just temporary disbandment. If you truly love the Azure Cloud Sect, once the Sect Master returns, everyone can rebuild it anytime. People are what matter most. As long as everyone is here, the Azure Cloud Sect won't disappear. Of course, I also don't think the situation will develop to that point."
Although the Witch Association suddenly impersonating the Azure Cloud Sect to declare war was somewhat unexpected, for Bingtang, it was just a bit more trouble.
Still within controllable range.
It's just that Jincha had hinted to her that above the Central Bureau, there were more powerful Magical Girls.
Although she didn't know if it was intimidation or something else, for Bingtang, it didn't matter, because she didn't plan to antagonize the Disaster Control Bureau for now.
As long as they could maintain the relationship with Jincha, the Central Bureau side shouldn't be a concern for the time being.
Everyone just needs to focus on finding Jiang Si. Bingtang can handle everything else...
Bai Mei reached out and tidied the disheveled hair at Bingtang's temples, "By the way, we've already found that Witch Association stronghold that Twins mentioned had contact with the Mirror Kingdom."
"Did you find any information?"
"Only learned about this 'Alice of the Mirror Kingdom' information."
"Alice of the Mirror Kingdom?"
"Mhm, she can transform to look exactly like someone from the real world, then replace the real-world person."
Bingtang paused upon hearing this, "Exactly the same? Replace the real-world person?"
Bai Mei looked puzzled, "What's wrong?"
"Our Azure Cloud Sect happens to have such a Magical Girl."
"Huh?"
Bingtang said in a low voice, "That girl your Master rescued from the Witch Association laboratory in Beihai, Magical Girl Yueji. We thought she was a Witch Association test subject."
"Is she Alice of the Mirror Kingdom..." Bai Mei paused, "Or a victim?"
"Don't know." Bingtang shook her head, "Maybe it's just a coincidence... I'll go ask."
As she spoke, she stood up. Bai Mei also stood up, "If she's not, Sister Bingtang..."
"It's nothing. We'll just keep searching."
Bingtang said nonchalantly:
"No matter where he is, I will find him. Even if he went to another world, I would cross worlds to catch him."
As she spoke, Bingtang raised her hands clad in light blue gloves and gently scratched the air a few times, like cat paws. Although the movements carried a hint of playfulness, her tone remained emotionless.
"According to your Master, I'm a haunting female ghost who will pester him relentlessly no matter what. Once I catch him, it'll be a fight to the death."
"I understand." Bai Mei's originally somewhat heavy mood relaxed a bit, "Bowing before the devil for three thousand years, looking back at the mortal world, I refuse to become an immortal!"
"Go away, go away!"
Seeing Bingtang finally smile, Bai Mei casually handed over an umbrella, "Sister Bingtang, for you."
Looking back, Bingtang shook her head, "Didn't I say I don't need it?"
"But, Bai Mei still likes Sister Bingtang holding an umbrella." Bai Mei stubbornly handed it over, "I just bought it new. Consider it a gift."
"You..."
With a somewhat helpless smile, Bingtang finally accepted the umbrella, "I might not use it."
"It's fine. Just keep it with you." Bai Mei finally smiled, "When Master returns, if he sees you without an umbrella, he might feel unaccustomed."
"He probably wouldn't notice."
"He would notice."
"Really?"
"Definitely."
Although the speed of constructing the Mental Landscape was a bit slow, she ultimately didn't lie to him.
An Shiyu... or perhaps Mujin? Jiang Si couldn't quite distinguish. Anyway, she had reconstructed the Mental Landscape.
The essence of a Mental Landscape is the power of a Magical Girl's heart. So even if destroyed, even if lost, as long as the power of the heart doesn't dry up, one can reconstruct their own Mental Landscape again.
However, Mujin was ultimately just a remnant soul. She actually couldn't reconstruct a Mental Landscape by herself, since she didn't even have a body, only a bit of residual consciousness left. So in reality, she reconstructed the Mental Landscape through An Shiyu.
An Shiyu's power as a Magical Girl was basically no different from Mujin's, so reconstructing the Mental Landscape wasn't difficult.
However, the requirement of fulfilling one's wish to construct a Mental Landscape reminded Jiang Si of those cultivation techniques in the cultivation world that required a perfectly calm mind to practice.
Such things have always been treasures.
He should consider getting one for himself too.
But compressing the Mental Landscape was a problem.
Mujin spent several full cycles of day and night, yet ultimately couldn't successfully compress the Heart Image Remnant.
"Are you sure the Mental Landscape can really be compressed?"
After being tormented for several consecutive days, Mujin finally broke down, "Are you sure this thing can really be compressed!"
"I've seen it with my own eyes. Absolutely no mistake."
"I really can't do it!" Mujin rolled on the grass, "This thing is just this big originally, how could it be compressed? You must have seen wrong!"
"It seems that Full Bloom Magical Girl's strength is above yours."
Jiang Si sighed, "There are differences even among Full Blooms."
Mujin "whooshed" up to her feet, "I can't pretend I didn't hear that! I've been a Full Bloom for almost a week, I hold sway over the entire Mirror Kingdom!"
"Time doesn't represent anything. Talent surpasses everything." Jiang Si sneered coldly, "In our cultivation world, million-year-old cultivation geezers are nothing but dull-witted lambs waiting to be slaughtered before prodigies. Even a certain Dao Lord who attained the Dao for 129,600 years could still be just talent and resources on another Dao Lord's chessboard!"
"I'm not that old either..."
Mujin manipulated the tiny Mental Landscape she had painstakingly created using An Shiyu's body.
Actually, it was only about the size of a water vat. After all, An Shiyu was only Sprout rank, plus Mujin's own current strength wasn't sufficient. Creating a Mental Landscape the size of a water vat was already quite impressive.
Asking to compress it further was really pushing it.
Jiang Si, who had been exercising, finally stopped, stretched his body, and looked back at Mujin fiddling with the Mental Landscape.
These past few days, besides pondering the Mental Landscape, it was just walking and chatting.
Although not particularly hard work, it was truly quite boring.
"Hey, isn't there a more intimate dating method that could make my heart surge? Maybe then I could compress it successfully..."
Jiang Si nodded, directly pushed her to the ground, then sat on top of Mujin, pinning her legs down.
Jiang Si's bold action startled Mujin.
He was all aloof and indifferent before, how did he suddenly turn beastly?
Could it be that after holding back for so many days, he finally stopped pretending?
After all, a lone man and woman trapped in such a place, losing control was quite normal.
However, when pinned down, Mujin still panicked a bit, "Wait, wait, I'm not ready yet..."
She was actually a bit hesitant about whether to call An Shiyu out.
She had already let An Shiyu accept the confession before, but Mujin herself hadn't felt anything yet.
But as long as An Shiyu was satisfied, she could reconstruct the Heart Image Remnant.
For this intimate contact, should she try it first, experience what it feels like, then switch back to An Shiyu?
A demon and an angel kept fighting in her heart.
It's fine, I've worked hard for so many years, what's wrong with enjoying myself a bit?
No, An Shiyu will get angry, so enjoy half first, then call An Shiyu!
Wait, why are you two, angel and demon, on the same side!
"Sit-ups, begin."
Mujin, who was still thinking about what level of refusal would be appropriate, stopped moving and widened her eyes:
"Sit-ups?"
"Otherwise, weighted push-ups work too." Jiang Si grabbed her hands and positioned her in a standard sit-up posture, "The posture is roughly like this..."
Looking blankly as Jiang Si really started teaching her the proper posture, Mujin collapsed, looking up at the sky.
"Having expectations of you really means my brain is broken..."
Mujin, letting Jiang Si manipulate her, honestly did a few sit-ups.
"Exercise itself can promote mana control. Maybe if you exercise more, you'll find the compression method."
"Oh."
Looking at the utterly lifeless Mujin, Jiang Si fell into deep thought.
Indeed, ordinary training had little effect on a Full Bloom Magical Girl.
Letting go of her hands, looking at Mujin lying motionless on the grass, Jiang Si shook his head, "Forget it, you rest first. After resting, we'll proceed to the final part of the date."
The emptiness in Mujin's eyes instantly brightened, and she immediately sat up, "The final part! It must be..."
"Combat."
Mujin lay back down again without any surprise, "I knew it, heh, I guessed it, I'm not disappointed at all."
"It's also part of training. Combat helps you find the trick to compressing the Mental Landscape."
"Heh, you transform into a Magical Girl, I can only use An Shiyu's power now, definitely can't beat you. If you want to bully me, just say it. I'll lie right here, do whatever you want."
"I won't transform."
"Heh, liar."
"I, Jiang Si, have never lied in my life."
"Really?"
"Really."
Mujin "whooshed" up, jumping to her feet, "Combat! I want combat! I'm going to beat you to death today, you stinking rock!"
Jiang Si nodded with satisfaction, "Good! That's the spirit! Improvement is fastest in life-and-death battles. Come on!"
"If I don't beat you to death today, my name isn't Mujin!"
Three minutes later.
"I surrender! I surrender!"
Lying in a large crater on the ground, Mujin raised a little white flag with tears in her eyes, "I knew it, you just wanted to bully me."
Of course, Mujin also never imagined that someone could actually fight a Magical Girl relying purely on physical body...
Mujin specifically kept sensing Jiang Si's mana. Whether he used Polluted Magic or Pure Mana, she would immediately judge Jiang Si as cheating by using mana.
But no, from start to finish, Jiang Si purely relied on his physical body to beat her senseless...
Never seen such an outrageous person!
No, he's not even human! Mujin finally understood why he remained expressionless facing two great beauties.
His physiological structure is simply non-human! How could a normal person kick a huge crater into the ground with one foot!
Punch through a Magical Girl's Magical Outfit, casually snap a Magical Girl's Magic Wand!
If you didn't know better, you'd think it was some Superman beating up a Magical Girl cosplayer at a comic convention.
He directly beat Mujin to the point of questioning her life.
In the middle, Mujin originally wanted to rely on her wings to create distance, attacking from high ground to cheat.
But this monster jumped over ten meters high! Directly dragged her down and slammed her onto the ground!
Reincarnation of a grasshopper spirit!
Also, he completely didn't know how to be gentle with women. Hitting a girl, and it was just training, yet every move aimed to kill, grabbing her ankle and slamming her into the ground!
Is this the final part of the date, the lovers' life-and-death battle?
Only the winner can emerge unscathed from the date, is that it?
How many girls can withstand your pestering like this, and you claim to have dating experience...
"Whew, not bad."
Over there, Jiang Si showed a somewhat satisfied expression, twisting his arms, "Got the blood flowing."
Using your lover as fitness equipment, they say.
Mujin shed tears of humiliation.
But, you know what? During the beating, Mujin actually did gain some new insights into mana compression.
Mainly because An Shiyu's body didn't belong to her, so her control over mana was quite clumsy before.
While getting beaten, desperately wanting to defend or counterattack actually caused her mana control to rise another level.
Plus, Jiang Si had been teaching her more detailed mana control methods during this period, so she really improved quite a bit.
Of course, Mujin felt it was mainly because she was naturally intelligent and talented...
With difficulty, she took out the Mental Landscape from beneath her, materialized it, and shrank it from water vat size to about the size of a soccer ball.
"Structural contraction has reached its limit here. Further compression, well, just physically impossible, unrelated to mana control."
"Still far from other Full Bloom Magical Girls."
"Everyone's Mental Landscape is different, some easy, some difficult. I really tried my best..."
"You've worked hard."
As Jiang Si said this, he took the soccer-ball-sized Mental Landscape.
Then, Mujin watched dumbfounded as the youth suddenly pressed both hands on either side of the Mental Landscape and squeezed down hard!
"Ahhhh!"
Mujin screamed as if she herself were being squeezed, "My Mental Landscape!"
Then she watched as the soccer-ball-sized Mental Landscape was forcibly compressed by him to the size of a ping pong ball!
Cracking sounds kept ringing out. The Mental Landscape seemed about to collapse, yet never did.
Until compressed to seed size, when Jiang Si released his hands, the interior remained completely intact!
Mujin's scream abruptly stopped. She was somewhat dumbfounded, "How... how didn't it shatter?"
"After watching you ponder for so many days, even a fool would learn."
Jiang Si chuckled dismissively, "The internal structure is just that. As long as you maintain the integrity of the internal mana structure, externally you can just compress it physically."
"How did you see that?"
"Guessed."
......
Mujin was already numb, no longer surprised by Jiang Si's miraculous operations... yeah right!
How did this guy see through the internal mana structure of the Heart Image Remnant at a glance? And how did he maintain the interior without collapse? Completely incomprehensible!
Magical Girls only experience miracles at the moment of transformation.
This guy creates miracles for himself every single moment?
Then she watched as Jiang Si casually sliced open his own abdomen. Under Mujin's numb gaze, he stuffed the Heart Image Remnant inside his body.
"What does this mean now?"
This time, Mujin was truly numb.
"A Dao Seed naturally goes inside the body." Jiang Si looked at her as if she were unreasonable, "Only inside the body is safest and most convenient."
"No... doesn't it feel uncomfortable having something stuffed inside your body?"
"You get used to it."
"...You don't have a bunch of things stuffed inside your body, do you? Also, An Shiyu, there's nothing to admire or worship about this, don't you learn it!"
Jiang Si ignored Mujin, instead focusing on sensing the Mental Landscape inside his body.
Activate the Mental Landscape through mana stimulation, then the spatial power that disperses will expand through the Mental Landscape...
Next, as long as he causes spatial fluctuations around through the Mental Landscape,
Jiang Si could clearly perceive the concept of "space."
Sure enough, as he thought, this was a Dao Seed! The Dao Seed of the Space Great Dao!
Although this Space Great Dao was still very tiny, given time, it might not be impossible to branch out and scatter leaves, transforming into a Space Spiritual Root, mastering the Space Great Dao!
If paired with a Time Great Dao then, overturning heaven and earth, reversing yin and yang, it might not be impossible to directly manifest the Qiankun Dragon Chant Moon God Statue!
And now, his perception of space was like switching from automatic transmission to manual, gaining an operating console.
Even, as long as he tore out a tiny crack in the fluctuating space around through the Mental Landscape...
He punched the crack!
Even with his hand protected by a large amount of mana, it was instantly torn bloody by the crack, flesh turned outward.
Yet the spatial crack only widened a tiny bit from the punch, barely noticeable.
"Hey! Are you crazy!" Mujin finally scrambled up, looking at the wound on his hand, somewhat panicked, "Spatial cracks aren't something humans can touch! You'll die!"
"Just insufficient cultivation, that's all."
Jiang Si chuckled dismissively, unconcerned, and took out the Miracle Seed.
Brilliant purple light instantly flooded the entire space!
"Using force to break through intricacy is the true Great Dao!"
A small but fierce fist slammed into the crack, punching out a huge hole!
The shattered space whipped up a violent wind. Shion grabbed the edges again, like breaking a biscuit, forcibly breaking apart the surrounding spatial cracks!
Rampant spatial fragments continuously scraped brilliant sparks off Shion's Magical Outfit, yet couldn't harm her in the slightest!
"Finally mastered, the spatial power that belongs to me!"
Mastering spatial power isn't like this!
This is forceful violation! Illegal!
Before Mujin could refute, Shion had already picked her up and jumped into the huge spatial crack.
"Let's go. Time to return."
Watching Shion charge recklessly all the way, forcibly smashing a path through the spatial turbulence, Mujin also completely let go.
"You actually remember the way back?"
"No, I don't."
"? Then where are you heading now?"
"Straight ahead."
"...Go back, I'm telling you!"
"Relax, I can already sense it. South!"
The mana around Shion wildly expanded, like a small meteor charging through the universe, "Right in front!"
"Where the hell is south, I ask you!! Break up!! An Shiyu, break up with him immediately!"