novelraw Chapter 197: Golden Elixir Kneels to Foundation Establishment, Unanimous Conquest!
Chapter 197: Golden Elixir Kneels to Foundation Establishment, Unanimous Conquest!
"Shion!"
The prince, who had been watching the match from afar, suddenly narrowed her pupils.
That terrifying mana and destructive force—this had to be that Magical Girl!
She bit the tip of her thumb, and a deep dread flickered in her blood-red eyes.
The more the Alice units of the Mirror Kingdom specifically developed counters and restraints, the more obvious how formidable the opponent was.
With both magic-piercing attacks and nullification abilities, the enemy also had troublesome attribute values.
The more data collected, the more feedback the Mirror Kingdom system returned, and the deeper the prince's fear grew.
Especially after recovering some data from the Heart Image Remnant, she didn’t dare underestimate that Magical Girl Shion at all.
Judging by the total burst energy output, even Mujin didn’t match Shion.
Mujin had been at the pinnacle of Magical Girls; even Mujin couldn’t rival that level of magic power.The prince couldn’t imagine the opponent’s true limits.
So the Alices being developed to counter Shion kept being revised.
By now the prince no longer planned to simply use Mirror Kingdom Alice tech against Shion.
As the Mirror Kingdom’s prince, she understood that faced with the legendary purple terror, Alice units were no match.
Impossible to win, hopeless to win.
No need to waste Mirror Kingdom resources.
Wait until we control Full Bloom’s power, then talk.
If we can’t find a way to counter such a monster, can our Full Bloom plan really succeed?
The prince tilted her head, looking at the older man with disdain and contempt, “You mean you have a way to counter her?”
The speaker was another old man from the old world, a long-time ally of the Mirror Kingdom.
Yet the prince’s attitude remained utterly disrespectful.
That arrogant self-radiance that never changed also irritated the old man inwardly,
but there was nothing he could do.
After all, in terms of technology, the Mirror Kingdom truly led the field.
Without Mirror Kingdom spatial tech, ordinary old-world people like them wouldn’t even be able to come out and look.
“We of course can’t compare to Your Highness the prince. We can’t directly counter the terrifying Shion,” the old man lowered his head humbly. “But, haven’t you always had a bargaining chip that can keep Shion in check?”
The prince didn’t hurry to ask who he meant.
She only smiled slightly. “The question is why restrain her? The plan is secret, and she’s leading Azure Cloud Sect to cooperate with the Disaster Control Bureau. How would she notice us? Act now and we only draw her attention.”
“I don’t mean that.”
The old man stared at the relentless purple thunder striking down.
The corner of his eye twitched.
He could feel that the opponent did not personally appear; the power was being delivered remotely.
And yet the destructive force remained terrifying.
“I only suggest someone who can actually counter Shion. You can’t always rely on her never discovering our plan.”
The old man’s eyes shone. “Right at the prince’s side there is one person who can minimize the risk, isn’t there?”
“Who do you mean?”
“Simo Tu.”
The old man said without hesitation. “You’ve been getting close to him recently...”
Desire!
The man who had not finished his sentence didn’t react until blood sprayed crazily over his face, and he cried out in agony.
“Ah!”
Then he fell heavily, clutching his bare shoulder and screaming in pain!
The prince’s cold gaze looked down indifferently at the struggling old man on the ground.
“Simo Tu is my fiancé.”
Her icy voice almost froze the blood spraying from his wound. “Do you want him dead?”
In this isolated space, an ordinary person without magic was entirely at her mercy.
To the prince, killing was trivial.
But since he still had some use, she only severed an arm and an ear; the spatial system automatically staunched the bleeding.
When the blood stopped spraying, the old man gasped for breath, drenched in sweat,
gasping like a drowning man, looking at the prince’s self-radiance with utter terror.
Arrogant, capricious, and ruthless in turning on someone.
This was the Mirror Kingdom prince’s reputation.
Once a worthless person offended her, the master’s hands moved with a speed that left people defenseless.
Yet this was perhaps the first time the prince had turned on someone for another person.
The old man’s heart trembled slightly.
After all, the prince cared only about herself and the Mirror Kingdom; others were mere tools.
So even though he knew of Simo Tu and that he had an alliance with the prince, the old man was unguarded when discussing how to use Simo Tu.
He hadn’t expected the prince to fall out with him over a man she’d only recently met.
After a long while, the old man calmed his breath and, gritting his teeth, continued, “I—I didn’t mean to get him killed.”
“I mean, if he cooperates with the Mirror Kingdom’s Alices, maybe he could hold off or even repel Shion.”
Gasping, the old man, drenched in sweat, steadied his voice. “Lord Simo Tu is strong, with plasticity and potential. If you two join forces, you might be Shion’s match. We only need Shion not to interfere with the Full Bloom plan, not a desperate fight...”
The prince fell silent for a moment.
Her original intention in recruiting Simo Tu had been the same: to have him block Shion for her.
But as more data came in, she felt Simo Tu might not be able to stop her, so she abandoned that idea.
She planned to have Simo Tu help steal Iris’s Miracle Seed instead.
Now the prince was simply afraid.
Afraid that Simo Tu might be cut down by Shion and never come back.
These trash talk lightly about danger, only to send her beloved to risk everything.
Why should it be him to die?
If anyone should die, it should be them.
But as the prince, she naturally couldn’t expose such thoughts.
Revealing weaknesses to these people wouldn’t be wise. Even if she doubted they could truly harm Simo Tu,
it’s best to avoid unnecessary risks and trouble for him.
“Whether Simo Tu handles Shion or not, I already have plans. I don’t need you to teach me.”
The old man bowed his head respectfully and said, “Yes...”
But in the prince’s mind, there was absolutely no plan to let Simo Tu take the risk.
Simo Tu only needed to get Iris’s Miracle Seed; she would handle the rest herself.
Boom!
The purple thunder struck again, this time destroying the entire forest’s magical arrays!
The prince’s pupils, glittering with purple light, narrowed as she inhaled deeply.
She compared the memory of Simo Tu’s Golden Calamity Dragon King.
Although the Golden Calamity Dragon King’s power was majestic and grand,
compared to this purple heavenly thunder it felt somewhat inferior.
Not a matter of scale, but of raw quality.
Simo Tu might not be Shion’s match.
Thinking this, the prince resolved: under no circumstances could she let Shion touch so much as a finger of Simo Tu!
.......
Shouye stood at the edge of the safety circle, shielding himself from the dispersing purple thunder.
Just a touch made his magical outfit waver.
Is this the force that destroyed the Curse Realm?
Shouye grabbed the purple bolt, the gray-white mana swallowing it before he crushed it!
He tilted his head back as the howling wind whipped his clothes and hair.
This was indeed power that could destroy the Curse Realm.
Pulling in the fury from his eyes, Shouye silently watched the purple thunder dissipate.
Not yet the time...
He had to win the championship. According to what that person had said, holding the title might grant a power,
perhaps even a promotion comparable to Full Bloom.
Then he could finally escape his present situation.
Right now, the only two who could cast Heart Image Domain and the Beihai Disaster Control Bureau’s Magical Girls were entangled, appearing roughly even.
For Shouye, that was good.
No need to expend effort to deal with the two most troublesome groups.
Only that Blooming Magical Girl known as Ruo Yun might be a bit tricky; she only had beside her a white Sprout Magical Girl with a cane who was blind.
Shouldn’t be hard to handle.
“Wow, so exaggerated. I’d think Full Bloom arrived,” one teammate gasped. “What kind of power is that?”
“Probably the legendary Shion,” Shouye replied to her companion. “Only she has that boundless purple magic, right?”
“Huh? Shion came over? I thought only the Beihai Disaster Control Bureau people were here.”
“Who knows?”
Shouye smiled and said nothing more. “Let them fight until both sides are injured, then we swoop in and profit.”
“How naughty, I like it!”
When the purple thunder faded, the Heart Image Domain had completely vanished.
Dozens of Blooming Magical Girls attacking the Beihai Disaster Control Bureau fell into disarray; only five or six remained.
Shouye watched a crimson Magical Girl slowly rise and felt his pupils shrink.
“Wow, that’s Magical Girl Ruri, right? She just promoted to Blooming? She was Seedling a moment ago!”
A sudden universal promotion, and—most importantly—Ruri, the primary target of the purple thunder, showed no trace of injury.
Instead, crimson aura burst from her body; mana was abundant and her momentum even more imposing!
Impossible.
Promotion shouldn’t auto-heal; even with a promotion, wounds wouldn’t simply vanish.
And this Ruri gave Shouye a deeply dangerous feeling.
Couldn’t wait any longer!
He had to act!
Just as he prepared to mask the gray-white dregs’ mana with pale blue glow to mimic Pure Mana and aim at Ruri,
a voice abruptly came from behind.
“Found you.”
He spun around. The girl who had been eavesdropping near the docks looked at him coldly.
His heart sank. At the moment she pulled the trigger, Shouye, unable to fully turn, transformed his bow into a long blade and cleaved the incoming mana bullet!
“Wah wah wah...” Shouye’s teammate panicked and screamed, “We were discovered, what do we do! What do we do!”
Seeing the flustered ally, Shouye lost hope—this was only a temporary team anyway.
He shifted the blade in his hands, reformed his longbow, “You really like tailing people, stalker miss.”
From the corner of his eye he locked onto the white Magical Girl beside the opponent—just one strike would do.
If she protected that Sprout, that would be his chance!
But Ruo Yun ignored him; four machine guns suddenly appeared above her head and poured out fire.
Big bro’s four-mounted dominator-grade M249, displaying peerless fury!
Shouye’s teammate almost burst into tears. “How can a Magical Girl use firearms! Give me magic!”
“Save me, Shouye!”
Shouye barely guarded and couldn’t comfort his teammate. Expecting a counterattack, he instead saw Ruo Yun toss down the machine guns, glance at the blind cane-wielding Sprout, and then, dropping into a near-half-kneel, say to the disabled Magical Girl:
“I’ll handle it myself.”
The white Magical Girl just nodded: “Okay.”
Shouye widened his eyes.
What the heck?
A Blooming kneels to a Sprout?
Dumbfounded by their actions and the unexpected disparity in status and power, he was a beat slow and took several bullets to the body.
Almost wiped out by the dominator machine gun’s rampage.
Before he could demand an explanation, Ruo Yun charged with a left-hand heavy cannon and a right-hand P90 in coordinated assault!
.....
Purple lightning spread across the arena; the stands roared.
Because Keke had just landed when the fight broke out, this battlefield was closest to the audience and took the brunt of the thunder.
But when more than twenty Magical Girls transformed together and controlled the purple thunder’s spread, the screams from the crowd turned to cheers.
Unlike East China, South China had heavy publicity, community festivities, and thanks to Mujin and her friend’s past deeds in the south, Southern Magical Girls enjoyed privileges and were regarded as superheroes by many who’d suffered from the Mirror Kingdom.
Now, as over twenty Magical Girls erected a magic barrier and blocked the overflowing purple thunder, the crowd waved banners and cheered, heating the atmosphere even more!
The leading Magical Girl turned, smiled, and responded to the cheers.
But her face tightened like liver when she turned back.
“Everyone, even for the sake of the crowd, do not yield!”
Betting the audience’s lives, they must hold the line!
The raw power of the purple thunder overflowed monstrously!
Over twenty Magical Girls fought desperately with barriers, yet their barrier mana felt unsteady!
This purple thunder did more than destroy, it assimilated mana!
In other words, if their control slipped, their barrier might be absorbed and explode back at them as purple thunder!
Under such extreme pressure, the twenty-plus Magical Girls almost exceeded their limits, pushing their mana control to levels they’d never dared before!
Until the purple thunder faded by itself, over ten of the twenty-plus Magical Girls immediately dispelled their transformations.
If not for a nearby teammate grabbing one, she’d have fallen into the crowd.
Jiang Si of course didn’t mind that his Heavenly Tribulation also tempered those around him.
The Tribulation system existed to help Magical Girls better control their mana.
Most Magical Girls have high potential; their problem is not whether they can, but whether they imagine to.
The Tribulation system forces them to imagine harder through crisis, letting them use their Personal Reality to better master and expand their mana.
That is the original purpose of Tribulation refinement.
“Ah, did you make it too dramatic, Jiang Si...” An Shiyu asked quietly.
She recognized the purple thunder as Shion’s work, but didn’t understand why Jiang Si stirred up so much noise.
Jiang Si ignored her and focused on Keke, who had finished her refinement and achieved an on-the-spot breakthrough.
When Keke’s crimson aura settled and her body unified, there was no doubt she was mid-stage Blooming—her robust mana, precise control, and overall presence met every undeniable criterion; even Jiang Si found nothing to fault.
But the critical point wasn’t that.
After the universal promotion, the key was Keke’s first sentence.
“Just now, having your Heart Image damaged by heavenly thunder was unfair to you.”
Keke spoke with no arrogance and no mockery, only earnestness and meticulousness:
“Open your Heart Image Domain again.”
“This time, inside your domain, I will personally crush you and your friends completely.”
Perfection.
A natural surge of pride, innate strength.
Much more natural and skilled in delivery than Bingtang.
Keke had no teacher guiding this; she grasped it on her own.
What is this? Talent!
Surrounded by enemies, a friend holding the line, and a last-minute breakthrough—
the most crucial moment was that line!
It signified her successful on-the-spot breakthrough, the inner-to-outer confidence and power that can change the tide—this is the essence of an in-battle breakthrough.
Keke managed it without prompting or coaching!
While Bingtang, clutching an elder’s lines, couldn’t spit out anything worthwhile when it mattered.
Talent gaps are despair-inducing.
Jiang Si, moved, caused the sky’s purple thunder to strike twice more as if fireworks celebrating Keke’s further rise!
But the celebratory thunder only scared the Magical Girls guarding the audience.
They hastily erected barriers and only breathed once the thunder failed to spread.
The big screen showed Keke’s confident, earnest speech again, provoking gasps and whispers.
“Cool, is this Beihai’s Magical Girl? So confident!”
“She must not have gone through society’s beatings, too young...”
“Young should be reckless! I support Magical Girl Ruri!”
“I want them wiped out in a bloodbath, send them flying, Magical Girl Ruri!”
“Go, Magical Girl Huayuan! Don’t lose to outsiders! Show them South China’s strength!”
The Magical Girl Huayuan was the one across from Keke who could use Heart Image Domain.
She seemed popular.
Looking at Keke now, she didn’t appear angry, only said earnestly, “Then sorry—when dealing with Beihai’s Magical Girls, we show no mercy.”
Good. The words alone showed the verdict.
The weak lay themselves down in advance, thinking loss costs nothing and victory is profit.
To others, that’s clownish.
True strong declare victory before the match starts.
They do not consider failure.
If they do fail, being mocked offers nothing but a push to improve.
“Heart Image, expand.”
Seeing Keke truly wait calmly for her opponent to reopen their Heart Image Domain—and with other Blooming Magical Girls gathered, this pulled almost every Magical Girl in the arena into the fray!
Mujin finally couldn’t hold back, “Isn’t our girl at a disadvantage? In-domain fighting at times like this—others will gang up! If only one can use Heart Image Domain, take her out and you win!”
“Don’t be mistaken,” Jiang Si said coldly, “only the weak use any means to win.”
“And now, they are the weak.”
At the center of the great forest, a closed domain nearly encompassed the entire field.
Clearly the other Magical Girls were supplying mana to Huayuan.
Otherwise one girl alone couldn’t expand her Heart Image Domain so wide.
An Shiyu clenched her fists nervously, palms sweating.
With Mujin’s guidance, she knew how advantageous a Heart Image Domain could be.
At the same level, a domain user can crush non-domain peers,
and only when levels greatly differ does the domain’s effect wane.
It’s rare to see a domain Magical Girl lose to a same-level opponent.
Moreover, so many other Magical Girls entered to assist; Keke facing so many inside another’s domain was extremely dangerous...
Crack.
When the Heart Image Domain began to fracture, the once-boisterous arena suddenly quieted.
Snap!
The cracks spread fast, until the top shattered completely!
A surging crimson flame, like a boundless sea, erupted from the windward edge of the Heart Image Domain!
A terrifying pillar of fire blasted skyward, threatening to pierce the heavens!
The apocalyptic volcanic blast stunned the audience.
Some viewers rose to flee.
But the eruption was incredibly fast.
In a blink, the Heart Image Domain collapsed; the constrained crimson flames unleashed like a dam-break tsunami, roaring irresistibly!
Blazing waves instantly swallowed the forest below, turning it into an ocean of fire!
The flames then surged outward in every direction!
Amid the panicked screams from the stands, the inferno devoured the entire arena!
Yet one person neither feared nor dodged!
Instead, amid the raging fire, he laughed and recited poetry loudly:
“All my life I hid my light, grand ambitions tucked in my heart.”
“Today the fire lotus rises, my imperial name startles immortal crowds!”
Others moved away from this mentally unhinged youth, only An Shiyu stayed, clapping for Jiang Si, eyes stringing with admiration and infatuation.
But most of the audience were too terrified by the towering flames to notice the odd couple.
Soon the cries turned into puzzled murmurs.
The terrifying sea of fire did not harm a single person; it avoided every spectator precisely, then tightened into delicate streams, its heat controlled to merely warmth.
An Shiyu reached out and touched the flames dumbly—scorching, yet within a safe range.
Onlookers cautiously touched the fire and then began to discuss excitedly.
Magical Girl Ruri could not only defeat powerful foes, she could interact with the crowd!
Everyone inhaled sharply.
On the field, dozens of Magical Girls lost their magical outfits and fell like rain into the flame ocean...
Only the crimson Magical Girl remained standing unbowed; the flames that had swept toward the stands shrank and nestled gently around her like tame animals.
After landing, the crimson girl tilted her head, gazed at the defeated opponents, mimicked her brother’s gesture with a slight bow, then inhaled and said:
“Lucky.”
A brief silence followed.
Then a deafening roar of praise and cheering filled the arena!
The big screen cycled through the Magical Girls and finally froze on Keke’s pretty face.
“Winner, Magical Girl Ruri!”