novelraw Chapter 162: The Sense of Impact
Chapter 162: The Sense of Impact
"Ah, Senior Jincha is definitely Bibixi!"
Qingying sometimes wondered if the girl before her was really human.
Ever since they traveled to the Central Bureau together, she had harbored some doubts.
Even now, Qingying could hardly forget the scene she witnessed back then. She had gone to the Central Bureau's hospital to visit Senior and Iris, and the moment she entered the hospital, Xingxuan had dashed off to Iris's room in a flash.
When she chased into the room, she was met with a jaw-dropping spectacle—four halos layered and suspended above Iris like ascending steps to the sky, erupting with dazzling lights akin to a disco. The TV on the wall was playing the Bunny Dance and the little bunny music "Heaschenlied." Iris lay peacefully on the bed, looking serene, while Xingxuan stood leaning against the door beside the bed, striking a praying pose, murmuring words that seemed to mourn the deceased.
Then, suddenly, she threw her arms wide open and shouted:
"Re—vive—!"
"My—sen—ior—!"
Qingying immediately dragged her out, right under the shocked eyes of the other Magical Girls.
Considering that she was indeed caring for her close friend in her own unique way, Qingying wrestled with it for a long time and ultimately didn't hold her rudeness against her.After all, she was a mature, calm, steady, sharp, honest, indifferent-to-victory, hardworking, nostalgic, brave, and magnanimous Magical Girl.
It wasn't until she led Xingxuan to the senior's room, and as she took out the card the senior had gifted her, reminiscing about the senior, that Xingxuan exclaimed beside her in a shocked and envious voice, "Million-year soul ring!"
If other Magical Girls hadn't been there to hold her back at the time, she probably would have really given that girl a good beating.
She absolutely would have beaten her black and blue.
Even so, throughout this journey, Xingxuan had been so frightened by her angry demeanor that she didn't dare say much more.
Xingxuan was considered her junior. In truth, Qingying and Xingxuan weren't that familiar;
the Central Bureau had a huge influx of juniors every year.
At most, they had only met once before.
However, Xingxuan's reputation was indeed considerable, because her obsession with the Battle Demon Continent had once made her an oddball within the Central Bureau.
On ordinary days when they occasionally bumped into each other, this person was mostly a loner.
She would mutter things like "A soul master doesn't cultivate like this," "San cannot be insulted," "Searching the highest heavens and the deepest underworld, the Twenty-Four Bridges under the bright moon," and other phrases that sounded impressive but were hard to understand.
No one was willing to associate with such a crazy, eccentric person, and Xingxuan herself didn't actively seek out others either.
Except when discussing the Battle Demon Continent, most of the time Xingxuan preferred to read novels alone or mysteriously create stories of her own.
Even the usually thick-skinned Iris had once been scared off by Xingxuan.
On the way back to the Beihai Disaster Control Bureau, seeing Xingxuan's downcast appearance, Qingying's anger had mostly subsided. She thought about whether to ease the atmosphere—after all, both of them had defected from the Disaster Control Bureau to Beihai.
Now they had even carried out a mission together, helping the Azure Cloud Sect clear up the misunderstanding at the Disaster Control Bureau Central Bureau.
It was better to communicate more.
Who would have thought that as soon as she opened her mouth and mentioned Senior Jincha, Xingxuan immediately came back with that line.
Although Qingying didn't know who Bibixi was either, she knew the other party must be referring to a character from the Battle Demon Continent.
"Hmm, Bibixi doesn't seem quite right either. Senior Jincha doesn't seem to hold the greatest power in the Central Bureau. Well, maybe it's Wanrenyu?"
"But Senior Jincha doesn't know Senior Bai San at all, or maybe it's Fang Daoliu... Confusing, we're in the prequel timeline! It's normal for Bai San and Fang Rengyu not to know each other, but timeline disorder doesn't matter. Who even knows which came first, Battle Demon Continent 2 or Battle Demon 1!"
"Anyway, don't try to figure out the Battle Demon Continent stuff too clearly. Elric is still alive, you know."
"Hey, Senior Qingying, since we're both tool soul masters who defected from the Martial Soul Hall, let's get along well!"
She shouldn't have started a conversation with her!
Regretting her loose tongue a bit, Qingying subconsciously hugged the fluffy plush toy and sighed softly.
She had grown accustomed to having Little White around. Every time it came to moments like this, she would feel a bit lost.
Of course, she wouldn't truly regret it.
She was a mature, calm, steady, sharp, honest, indifferent-to-victory, hardworking, nostalgic, brave, magnanimous, and resolute Magical Girl.
But in life, when a presence that was always by your side suddenly disappears, there's always a period of adjustment.
Beside her, Xingxuan started chattering incessantly about the Battle Demon Continent again.
Stuff about how the Slime Seven Monsters would definitely defeat the Disaster Control Bureau and save the world in the future.
This girl's purpose in joining the Azure Cloud Sect was to become one of the Slime Seven Monsters.
"Senior Qingying also plans to become one of the Slime Seven Monsters, right? After all, besides Jiang Yuhao having a hundred thousand... Ah!" Xingxuan, caught up in her excitement, suddenly stopped, then smiled guiltily. "Sorry, Senior, I almost..."
Utterly baffling.
Ignoring Xingxuan, Qingying, holding her plush toy, couldn't help but think of her father again.
After leaving the Heart Image Remnant and telling Winter of the Azure Cloud Sect that she wanted to join the sect, she had gone home for a visit.
In just a few days, whether it was an illusion or something had happened, her father looked even more haggard, as if he had aged over a decade.
Originally, there was no need to tell her father many things.
After all, it was just a dead pet, just like her father said.
No matter what, a pet is just a pet. Saving Iris was already enough.
However, when her dad really hugged her, comforted her, asked her what had happened, if she had encountered any danger, if she had any grievances to tell him about, Qingying still couldn't hold back. She buried her face in her father's chest and sobbed uncontrollably.
She poured out everything she had experienced during this period to her dad in one go.
Including how Iris had gone Full Bloom to protect her, how Little White had harmed Iris in the end, and how she had personally killed Little White.
She said it all almost while crying, barely able to control her emotions.
Her old father, who once had a lion's heart in his eyes, listened silently, patted her head comfortingly, told her she did the right thing, and that her mother would be proud of her.
In a daze, Qingying cried until she fell asleep, and later her father carried her back to her bedroom.
That night was the most peaceful sleep Qingying had ever had. Her father kept watch outside her door all night, only leaving after she woke up to go downstairs and buy some breakfast.
For some reason, those steamed buns tasted exceptionally delicious that day.
Later, her father also confessed that the Disaster Control Bureau had already notified him long ago. Her father knew she had become a Magical Girl, but he just never knew how to communicate with her about it, or even whether he should let her continue.
But now, her father felt that her becoming a Magical Girl wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
If she liked it, she should do it. Do what she felt was right and made her happy.
If she encountered any setbacks or pain and didn't want to do it anymore, she could always come home anytime;
home would forever be her final retreat.
When she was finally leaving, her father bought her a new cat plush toy.
Now, Qingying carried this thing around as a substitute for Little White.
Sometimes when she felt lonely, she would hug her fluffy plush toy.
Looking at Beihai drawing closer, she also relaxed a little.
Although she had used the excuse of wanting to understand Full Bloom to join the Azure Cloud Sect, the truth was, after the incident with Little White, even if the Azure Cloud Sect didn't possess the secret of Full Bloom, she would have joined anyway.
Because the Azure Cloud Sect was a place not controlled by the Incubators. Senior Jincha had also spoken to her about this before.
The secret of Full Bloom had to be investigated after leaving the Disaster Control Bureau.
Of course, Qingying's primary task now was to pass the inner sect test.
Before being sent to the Central Bureau to explain that the Azure Cloud Sect did not intend to go to war with the Disaster Control Bureau, she had already failed twice...
Who could have imagined the Azure Cloud Sect's inner sect assessment would be so perverse?
Qingying was even worried that if she kept taking tests like this, whether she could pass this year was a huge question mark.
Thinking this, she glanced at the carefree Xingxuan sitting opposite her. "Did you pass the inner sect test?"
"Of course not."
She said it without any hesitation, not worried at all.
"Aren't you afraid you'll never pass the test in the future?"
"Ah, Senior, that's where you're mistaken." Xingxuan said confidently. "Generally speaking, the protagonist either passes the assessment with the highest score as the flamboyant number one, or barely scrapes by as the last-place straggler. Anyway, don't worry. Passing later means we are building a solid foundation, late bloomers, slow starters with stronger staying power!"
"What about those in the middle?"
"Cannon fodder... Or the cautious cultivation type, I don't like reading those."
Quite picky.
"What if you never pass?"
"Senior Qingying..." Xingxuan looked at Qingying pitifully. "Why say such a cruel thing..."
"That's just reality."
Although she didn't much like how this girl had treated the card her senior gifted her as a "million-year soul ring," being in the Azure Cloud Sect ultimately meant being alone. Having a companion who also came from the Disaster Control Bureau to look out for each other wasn't bad.
She could have originally come with Senior Jincha.
But Jincha said she should spend more time at the Central Bureau, tell other juniors about the details of the Azure Cloud Sect, so that everyone at the Central Bureau could interact better with the Azure Cloud Sect, and thus came to Beihai ahead of them.
She said she wanted to reach a new cooperation with the Azure Cloud Sect.
Although Qingying didn't know what it was, she could clearly sense that the atmosphere at the Disaster Control Bureau Central Bureau wasn't quite right lately.
Probably some terrifying enemy was about to appear;
otherwise, Senior Jincha wouldn't be in such a hurry to cooperate with the Azure Cloud Sect.
Most importantly, it seemed even the Incubators supported this matter.
Unfortunately, she was no longer a member of the Disaster Control Bureau and couldn't obtain more information.
Speaking of which, she wondered how Senior Jincha was doing in Beihai.
With Senior Jincha's status, she must have received a grand welcome.
Even the Azure Cloud Sect, facing Senior Jincha, couldn't possibly...
The next moment, Xingxuan beside her suddenly plummeted!
Qingying instinctively grabbed Xingxuan, quickly sensing something was wrong.
Why did Xingxuan cancel her transformation?
"Be careful!"
Although she hadn't figured out what was happening, Qingying immediately began to descend.
However, when they were still about seven or eight hundred meters from the ground, the Magical Outfit on her body forcibly vanished!
Her heart sank. Beside her, Xingxuan also started screaming!
"I don't want to be the first Magical Girl to die from falling!"
...
For a moment, she was speechless at this junior who had no idea what she was thinking.
The gale roared in her ears, the ground rapidly magnified. Even Qingying felt a surge of fear and panic.
However, upon noticing Xingxuan had canceled her Magical Outfit, Qingying had already mentally prepared herself quickly.
An independently manifested Magic Wand wouldn't disappear just because the transformation was canceled.
But Qingying was still hiding it!
"We're going to die!"
Don't panic! Hide it a little longer!
Until they were about to hit the ground, Qingying finally pulled out the Magic Wand she had been hiding—another half second later, and what she'd be hiding wouldn't be a wand, but a thick coffin board for the two of them.
[Stellar Mark Descends: The Crushing Land of Loss.]
Extreme gravity control!
Just around a hundred meters before impact, she altered gravity to slow their fall. For the final twenty meters, after decelerating to a bearable speed, Qingying quickly canceled the magic, hugged the already unconscious Xingxuan, rolled once on the ground, and immediately tumbled into the nearby bushes.
Suppressing her breathing, dispersing all her mana, she lay motionless in the grass.
Soon, a grayish-white figure appeared above.
A grayish-white... Magical Girl?
Her heart pounding, Qingying kept her voice low, watching as the grayish-white Magical Girl merely scanned the surroundings once before quickly leaving, not continuing to search for them.
Only after the other party disappeared did Qingying let out a long sigh of relief, flipping over to lie on the grass—only to discover one or two insects crawling all over her face.
Startled, she shuddered, transformed directly, and blasted them away with mana.
After patting Xingxuan awake, Qingying looked in the direction the other had left. "That person is heading towards Beihai!"
"What? What?"
"Forget it..." Qingying immediately took out her phone and called her contact in Beihai. "I'll contact the Azure Cloud Sect first..."
No connection?
Qingying was stunned for a moment, then called several employees of the Beihai Disaster Control Bureau in succession.
All calls failed!
Instantly, she remembered the first time Iris was trapped in Beihai.
"This is bad, something major is about to happen in Beihai! Quick, we need to hurry back and warn everyone!"
"What exactly is happening?!"
...
Keke was in a daze until the very end when she left.
Jiang Si had taught her the Buddha's Fury Lotus and the manipulation method for Polluted Magic again. It was unclear if she had taken it in.
It didn't matter too much;
after all, they lived together, so he could teach her again anytime.
For Jiang Si, seeing Li Yi regain her power as a Magical Girl and even advance to Blooming in one go made him feel somewhat threatened.
Undoubtedly, this threatened Keke's position within the Disaster Control Bureau.
Currently, although Keke held no official title in the Bureau, she was essentially the captain in practice.
There was no Magical Girl stronger than her in the entire Bureau, and no Magical Girl held greater authority than her.
But Silver Lotus was different. She already had a deep network of connections cultivated over many years within the Bureau. Coupled with her strength now overtaking Keke's on the surface, reaching the early Blooming stage with six revolutions, once she returned to the Bureau, the captain's leadership baton would undoubtedly return to Silver Lotus's hands.
Keke's chance at the captain position was probably hopeless.
Who could have imagined the Azure Cloud Sect's inner sect assessment would be so perverse?
Moreover, Keke was still too naive. She didn't know that colleagues in the workplace were often rivals. She was still playing the "you're good, I'm good, everyone's good" make-believe game with Silver Lotus. In a vote, that silly girl would probably be the first to side with Silver Lotus, which would instead embarrass those who supported her for captain.
The captain title could be pursued gradually later. Jiang Si believed that with Keke's ability, she would eventually replace Silver Lotus.
The most important thing was strength.
My Keke must be the strongest in the Disaster Control Bureau!
This was also the core idea behind Jiang Si's special training for Keke this time. No matter what, if she couldn't secure first place in a place like that, what would she do after leaving the Bureau?
The era of great contention was about to arrive. With the version update, soon Blooming would be as common as dogs, and even Full Bloom might be everywhere. If Keke stagnated and couldn't keep up with the version, it would be difficult for her to even protect herself in the future.
He couldn't watch over her every single moment.
So she had to surpass Silver Lotus early and become the strongest Magical Girl in the Beihai Disaster Control Bureau. Only then would she be worthy of being his, Jiang Si's, sister.
He somewhat understood why his mother in his previous life always urged him to study hard.
They all hoped their child could gain independent strength early, so they wouldn't have to worry too much later.
Watching Keke head home, Jiang Si sent her a message saying he'd be back a little later and that she should eat something and rest first.
Another purpose of today's special training for Keke was to understand the differences in Witch transformation.
Keke's Witch transformation this time gave him a lot of inspiration.
In many details, his own handling was indeed too rough, including the conversion of the Magical Girl's Pure Mana. Keke could even achieve seamless switching between the two types of mana.
Although Keke couldn't yet freely control the two types of mana at will, that was just a matter of time.
Control precision was a matter of brute-force practice;
as long as one was willing to practice, there would be progress. The only difference was the upper limit determined by individual talent.
But being able to switch between the two types of mana at any time was absolutely not something one could achieve through practice alone.
Even with the captain's help, corresponding talent was required. Jiang Si understood this better than anyone.
Perhaps Keke could be the first to explore the path forward for the future...
Regardless, he planned to strengthen the power of his own Witch transformation by following Keke's method.
He had basically figured out the process of Polluted Magic turning into residue: it was because his own negative emotions weren't intense enough.
Polluted Magic required intense negative emotions to maintain its properties without change, so it wouldn't rapidly turn into residue during medicinal conversion. But Jiang Si was long past being someone controlled by negative emotions.
Sadness, regret, pain, anger—as a true cultivator, he naturally could suppress all emotions, maintaining his composure at all times.
This, however, conversely created a huge disadvantage for him in the conversion of Polluted Magic.
But it wasn't a big problem. If he could suppress emotions, he could naturally amplify them too. Being able to release and restrain feelings at will was what it meant to have a perfected Dao Heart.
In an instant, a blurry face flashed in his mind. Then, Martial Ancestor Dao Transformation, activate!
That face instantly became clear and detestable!
Lin Langtian!
Boom!
The rage that erupted abruptly was reined in the next moment. Calm as clouds, the entire person seemed as if nothing had changed at all.
He had long since reached this realm as well.
The remaining issue was how to simulate Keke's Complete Witch transformation. Although Keke also had a transformation process towards a Disaster Beast, she ultimately still maintained her Witch form, constructing a Disaster Beast phantom using Polluted Magic.
He was slightly unclear about the technique involved in this. If he could figure out how this was achieved, perhaps he wouldn't need medicine to help maintain the Witch form.
Of course, besides this, he also planned to go to the Central Bureau once to try and obtain his own Mental Landscape from there.
As the path for his Primordial Spirit to anchor in his next step of Nascent Soul Transformation.
Mujin's Mental Landscape was ultimately an external object;
the limitations of borrowing it were still too great. To make it sprout and become a Space Spiritual Root required more research and practice. It could serve as a divine ability method but not as a Dao foundation.
Perhaps in the future, gathering five Dao Seeds could use the ritual of five divine abilities constructing the rules of the Great Dao to seek Full Bloom. Maybe he could even create a Dao foundation from the void, just like his current multi-colored mana.
As for now, he still needed to complete the Heavenly Tribulation system. When Bingtang and Yumo stepped into Blooming, it didn't trigger a Heavenly Tribulation.
It was probably because the two of them had too high precision in mana control, causing the system above not to detect the promotion fluctuation, thus unable to descend the tribulation lightning.
Thinking about it carefully, up to Blooming, it probably didn't require any Heavenly Tribulation.
In orthodox cultivation, it was only upon reaching a certain height that Heavenly Tribulation tempering was needed.
The Blooming level probably really wasn't enough to draw out a Heavenly Tribulation;
it's just a Golden Core. Is a Golden Core worth being struck by lightning?
At the very least, it needed to be at the Full Bloom level, right? But Full Bloom strength clearly far exceeded the Nascent Soul stage.
Jiang Si searched through the training database for a while and found conflicting information. He decisively gave up thinking.
When it came down to it, it was just that the realm levels were divided too sparsely! He'd call a meeting to redefine them as soon as Bai Mei returned.
It was absolutely not because debugging the Heavenly Tribulation system to search for those Magical Girls breaking through to Blooming was too troublesome that Jiang Si chose to do this.
Purely because he felt that nowadays Blooming was already as common as roadside weeds, unworthy of the Heavenly Tribulation system's lock-on.
Blooming Magical Girls were everywhere. If he really locked on, he'd have to watch thunderclouds falling from the sky every day...
That scenery wouldn't be bad either, quite fitting for the cultivation world vibe.
Only at the end of this train of thought did Jiang Si suddenly realize that if he didn't have this Blooming Heavenly Tribulation strike, the [Heavenly Tribulation] Dao Fruit imagery he had empty-proven might fail to achieve great creation in the future due to insufficient imagery.
Tribulations are hard to prove, heavenly numbers hard to complete?
He didn't have [City Wall Earth] right now to alter causes and change effects.
He ultimately decided to leave one bolt of lightning for Blooming. Only Seedling Magical Girls who could withstand this one [One-Nine Wind Tribulation Heart Demon Thunder] could be promoted to Blooming.
Otherwise, if you can't even withstand one-tenth of a Shion Puppet's strength, do you have the nerve to call yourself a Blooming Magical Girl?
Sigh, this cultivation downgrade is really wearing me out...
...
Just as Jiang Si, planning to return to the Main God Space to debug the Heavenly Tribulation system, looked up, he saw the city's patches of lights extinguishing one after another.
The sounds of car horns on the streets grew increasingly noisy and piercing. In the house next door, a balding middle-aged man cursed the residential property management and smashed a wine bottle against the window.
But not long after, as thick fog began to drift through Beihai, Jiang Si sighed.
So damn familiar.
The surrounding noise diminished along with the density of the fog until it completely vanished.
Beihai had once again become a silent city.
A series of low, muffled roars arose from the surroundings.
Jiang Si cracked his neck, just about to stretch his limbs, when he saw his younger sister slowly walking out of the darkness.
Hah, it's that same old trick, right?
Last time it was an illusion, but this time it's actually the real person, causing me to misjudge and end up killing my own sister...
Just as he was about to tell Keke to go home, he heard Keke look at him with an icy expression and say, "Why aren't you coming home, Dad."
After a long silence, Jiang Si asked, "What did you call me?"
"Dad."
Jiang Si backhanded Keke, sending her flying.
"Call me brother."