novelraw Chapter 235: The Strongest True-Transmission of the Era
Chapter 235: The Strongest True-Transmission of the Era
"The strongest in Azure Cloud Sect, excluding the Sect Master, is probably Lady Bingtang, right?"
"If we limit it to true-transmissions?"
"It depends on specifics, but it should be Senior Sister Bai Mei."
"Hmm, besides Senior Sister Bai Mei, it should be Qinghua..."
"Dandelion could be possible too."
"Maybe Thousand-Pinweed?"
"Nonsense!"
It was hard to describe Thousand-Pinweed's feelings when she first heard the Sect Master's final appraisal.
After all, all her effort up to now was for the Sect Master's recognition.
Being dismissed so decisively by the Sect Master still stung,although it only lasted a second.
Hearing the two words "nonsense" from the Sect Master's cute mouth was oddly charming.
If she made the Sect Master impatient because of her, it wasn't that bad.
And the Sect Master hadn't minded her past offenses at all.
Even though he could be petty in some matters, like not letting her spread Harry Potter, in other things he was broad-minded and really didn't care about a disciple's indiscretions.
Although later Thousand-Pinweed heard that the Sect Master had volunteered to ask everyone not to reveal his true identity, which made her feel bullied and ostracized for a while.
But again, that feeling only lasted a second.
After all, the Sect Master being basically a boy was still somewhat hard for Thousand-Pinweed to accept.
Whatever, the Sect Master is the Sect Master, and Jiang Si? Just pretend he doesn't exist.
Now Thousand-Pinweed wanted to defeat all the true-transmissions, become the strongest, and give the Sect Master a real shock.
Make him admit her!
And Harry Potter.
So the realm didn’t matter; what mattered was that Thousand-Pinweed didn't want to lose in front of the Sect Master and Lady Bingtang.
Originally the Disaster Control Bureau granted three quota slots.
From the start, everyone assumed two of those slots belonged to the Sect Master and Lady Bingtang.
So this time the Sect Master and Lady Bingtang didn't take the exam; they only needed to wait in the final trial's Mental Landscape.
Of course, at first Lady Bingtang didn't think this way deliberately; she wasn't withdrawing strategically.
She simply felt that since she was in the rear at Illusory Moon Cavern Dwelling, she temporarily didn't need a Mental Landscape.
The true-transmissions needed to go to the front to handle old-world enemies, they needed their Mental Landscapes more urgently, so she initially offered those two slots.
There would be many future opportunities anyway; every time the Disaster Control Bureau opened a Mental Landscape trial they would be given slots.
So she temporarily gave those spots to the true-transmissions.
But neither Thousand-Pinweed nor the others agreed.
Even Senior Sister Bai Mei, who was far away in Jiang Ming, actively sent a letter — though she could have called, Bai Mei insisted on using a flying sword to tell Lady Bingtang that she must participate in the Mental Landscape trial with the Sect Master, to secure Mental Landscapes.
This was both the true-transmissions' respect for Lady Bingtang and their responsibility to Azure Cloud Sect.
Fortunately, because the Sect Master, with near-prophetic efficiency, helped the Disaster Control Bureau eliminate internal traitors and the Dream Incubators, the Bureau relented and gave one more slot, increasing the seven true-transmissions' available spots.
In short, among the seven true-transmissions, even ignoring obvious Sect Master–Lady Bingtang supporters like Qinghua and Thousand-Pinweed, even shy ones like Yumo who also liked the Sect Master, all hoped Lady Bingtang would stay at the front to lead.
Only Lady Bingtang could stand beside the Sect Master.
They had to prevent opportunists like Yueji from grabbing the Vice-Sect Master spot.
Everyone knew that without Lady Bingtang, Azure Cloud Sect would very likely fall apart and lose its function, and once it lost function, the Sect Master would stop paying attention to the sect.
This idea was shared among inner sect disciples.
The Sect Master was their idol, like a distant corona, shining brilliantly; Lady Bingtang was the respected elder who gently supported and radiated like a bright moon, like a second mother.
The Sect Master would remain at Azure Cloud Sect only because Lady Bingtang maintained the sect’s operations and could assist him.
Therefore, Lady Bingtang must secure a Mental Landscape, at least so she would not appear insignificant in the Sect Master's eyes.
Well-versed in Harry Potter, Thousand-Pinweed naturally knew the Sect Master and Lady Bingtang were like Harry Potter and Hermione, supporting each other to form Dumbledore's Army.
Especially after learning the Sect Master's real identity was Jiang Si — though this confused Thousand-Pinweed slightly, it also made some gears mesh and deepened the Sect Master–Lady Bingtang pairing feeling.
I was reborn into a modern Harry Potter world.
I met my Harry Potter and Hermione; this life I will make them together.
Don't worry, fellow Potter fans, as a comrade I'll make up for everyone's regrets...
I'll craft the perfect ending!
But all that depends on me winning first.
In Azure Cloud Sect, only winners have a say.
Actually, Thousand-Pinweed knew her odds were high.
Jiegeng didn't come, Bai Mei wasn't present, another troublesome true-transmission was absent.
The only real trouble was Dandelion.
Her odds were practically infinite.
Qinghua only brought a puppet, which had almost no competitiveness... although that freeze attack was dangerous; this person had learned most of Lady Bingtang’s abilities.
Her mana control and property alteration were impressive.
She likely had an unofficial promotion to Lush Leaves by now...
Still, it wasn't a big issue.
In fact, Qinghua's all-out strike this time made her lose competitiveness; both she and Dandelion could see that.
Qinghua planned to condense all her mana into one strike to eliminate two opponents at once.
But since Thousand-Pinweed obtained Divine Sense, her perceptive abilities had risen another level.
She was probably not far from Flourishing Branches.
If earlier, Qinghua’s strike might have finished her,
but Thousand-Pinweed, now much stronger, detected part of it in advance and made a defense.
Even so, her mana circulation suffered.
Lady Bingtang’s freezing effect inflicted the greatest damage to mana and lasted a long time; without recovering mana circulation efficiency quickly, she would be at a severe disadvantage in the true-transmission duel.
However, a glance at Yumo showed that her mana circulation efficiency had similar problems.
And once the ice pillar was used up, Qinghua's puppet’s mana was no longer threatening.
Both agreed tacitly to eliminate Qinghua's puppet first and then continue.
"Super Qinghua's friendly reminder: the small-looking ones are the real trouble~"
Before being sent to the isolated assessment space, Qinghua's parting line had put Yumo and Thousand-Pinweed on alert.
Four Leaf and Six Leaf were missing.
As the two with the weakest front-line combat among the seven true-transmissions,
that never meant they were harmless.
On the contrary, in real combat situations those two could be the most troublesome opponents.
But here there was no space for their tactics, so neither Dandelion nor Thousand-Pinweed paid them much attention at first;
each assumed they could eliminate the other first and then win.
About the two slots — it didn't matter.
Although the seven true-transmissions seemed relaxed normally and behaved obediently before Lady Bingtang and the Sect Master,
their ambition and desire to win exceeded most people's.
Even Qinghua, who hadn't come from the start, had prepared a killing move to try to cheat her way to victory.
After all, at a place like Azure Cloud Sect, reaching true-transmission requires a ruthless competitive will.
Four Leaf and Six Leaf were no different.
Although some inner sect disciples whispered they may not suit true-transmission, the sisters never gave up, ceaselessly following the Sect Master's path to upgrade: Barrier Leaf, Unclear Confusion, all the way to Perception Obstruction.
Now, even if people called them support-role true-transmissions, no one doubted their status.
So whether Yumo or Thousand-Pinweed or Four Leaf and Six Leaf, their thinking was the same:
whether there are two slots or one, it doesn’t matter.
As long as they win at the end!
In the competition for the Great Dao, there's no second place!
When the space began to warp from heat, neither Yumo nor Thousand-Pinweed looked there immediately.
Both had sensed something sharp.
A big opportunity.
If the fight continued normally, both would likely enter a war of attrition, but neither Dandelion nor Thousand-Pinweed wanted that.
Now, as the seven-colored Buddha's Fury Lotus gradually formed, pressure on both increased.
Each exposed flaws.
Kill the opponent before the lotus arrives!
Gale and explosions flared at once, even pressing down the opposing lotus!
......
"Really terrifying."
"But it's fine, we have Sister Keke!"
The seven-colored Buddha's Fury Lotus was also Keke's first time using it; the actual control difficulty far exceeded her expectations.
The previous three-colored lotus had already made her feel unstable.
Now the seven-colored lotus — remember Dandelion once said five-color mana fusion is the minimum for Lush Leaves to reach the extreme condition of "Divine Art Perfection" — was clearly beyond Keke's control.
It could explode at any moment.
But only such power could threaten the two of them.
Keke wasn't acting on a whim.
Four Leaf and Six Leaf’s strange ability made other Magical Girls treat them like allies and desperately channel mana into them.
But Keke always knew those two were true-transmissions of Azure Cloud Sect, not close friends.
Her earlier promise to help had been offhand, but as the seven-colored lotus condensed,
Keke's thoughts shifted.
She looked up, glanced outside.
Teacher Shion was somehow on the roof, sitting at the edge; that smaller figure had one leg resting on the roof's concrete edge, the other leg swaying in the wind.
Teacher was watching me.
For a moment Keke's heart fluttered and her pulse quickened.
If, if I defeated all the true-transmissions here,
would Teacher praise me?
A slightly arrogant thought formed and wouldn't go away.
She wanted to win, to show Teacher her growth and strength...
to beat those Magical Girls who were very familiar with Teacher, to prove herself.
Yet the seven-colored lotus was just too much for her; it wavered and nearly blew apart in her hands.
"Isn't this a bit forced?"
"If it's dangerous we must send them out first..."
She heard Four Leaf and Six Leaf whisper with concern.
For a moment, anger rose in Keke's chest.
She didn't know why this anger came so suddenly and so intensely.
Her polluted mana churned wildly,
making the lotus even more unstable!
As she fretted about possibly disappointing Teacher,
she heard an unfamiliar voice:
"Do you want to become stronger?"
She froze, then quickly realized.
It was Dream Core.
From the panda girl who had given her Dream Core.
"Merge personal realities. Although my personal reality is incomplete, it will help you."
"Please let me also become a Magical Girl..."
A strange personal reality fused into hers.
Many memories and feelings poured in.
She saw the panda girl's bond with her sister and also the harm they caused other worlds.
She learned she was a World Ghost.
The panda girl's memories stirred Keke's personal reality briefly, then settled.
Keke only sighed with a complex emotion.
"Sorry......"
You shouldn't be apologizing to me, right?
Keke thought, then lifted her head. After merging that other's personal reality, her control over mana property change and fusion improved.
She finally successfully fused the seven-colored lotus!
"Wow, a breakthrough?"
"That's Lush Leaves!"
Four Leaf and Six Leaf cheered in Keke's ears, but Keke had no time to indulge.
She held the lotus, watching Thousand-Pinweed and Dandelion — the two had already turned half the world to scorched earth.
Gale-driven sandstorms, roaring flames, rivers, even magma spouting from the ground.
Two silhouettes flickered through the world, their speed so fast they were almost invisible.
They seemed capable of destroying the world.
But...
Keke raised the lotus, took a deep breath, glanced at Shion on the roof,
unable to see Teacher's face.
I can win.
She thought, then hurled the blooming lotus.
With Four Leaf and Six Leaf's assistance, the lotus locked onto the two precisely,
rapidly expanding!
.....
Both Dandelion and Thousand-Pinweed naturally noticed the rapidly enlarging lotus that could almost annihilate heaven and earth!
But neither reacted.
The bigger the crisis, the bigger the flaw, the greater the chance!
Time compressed into mere fractions of a second; the lotus’ expansion and explosive speed were terrifying,
yet in that instant the two exchanged multiple spells.
Yumo, allied with the wind, could shield most magic on this side; their duel became a pure attrition fight, which favored Thousand-Pinweed absolutely.
But winning by attrition is the thinking of the weak!
The heat intensified, the destructive shock grew, danger swelled in their hearts,
yet neither combatant would yield.
Mana collided tightly, lightning and explosions crackled, winds shifted direction.
When the lotus's first cluster of flames touched them,
the side that began defense later had the advantage!
Then Dandelion finally couldn't endure and took defensive action; a vacuum formed around her, wind almost isolating the space into a wind barrier.
Thousand-Pinweed, whose half arm had been swallowed by the Buddha's Fury Lotus, finally smiled.
If defense started a millisecond later, she gained one millisecond to attack first!
Victory lay within that millisecond!
"Sectumsempra"
A spell that had clashed countless times with Dandelion's wind blades, wearing down mana.
Dandelion reflexively unleashed a wind blade to intercept.
Inside the barrier Dandelion could not use other magic; suppressed by the lotus’s mana pressure, both had limited operations...
So it was Thousand-Pinweed’s victory.
Sectumsempra unusually cleaved through Dandelion's wind blade, and in Dandelion's widened eyes,
it severed her right arm!
The wind barrier vanished in the wake of Sectumsempra, leaving them to face the Buddha's Fury Lotus head-on!
Thousand-Pinweed had held back her last trump card.
Divine Sense.
Using Divine Sense to strengthen spells had been her recent research topic,
and its enhancement effect on Sectumsempra was outstanding.
By fusing Divine Sense with Sectumsempra, she could achieve a single strike like Senior Sister Bai Mei’s.
Divine Sense could replace Senior Sister Bai Mei's unmatched Sword Intent and charge forward unstoppable!
Clearly, Dandelion didn't know this secret.
Not even the Sect Master knew how far she had developed Divine Sense; our Potter-fandom imagination for magic far exceeded ordinary understanding...
"Got you..."
However, in the second before being swallowed by the Buddha's Fury Lotus, a faint sound sounded in Thousand-Pinweed's ear.
Her pupil shrank. She looked down: Dandelion's arm that had flown off was now firmly gripping her ankle.
There, Dandelion, before being consumed, had her hood blown open by gale,
her childish, cute face smeared with dust and blood, yet her black eyes looked at her serenely.
The little girl touched her cute rabbit hairpin and whispered:
"Wind-born thunder."
Thousand-Pinweed suddenly looked up. The sky had been stirred into a vortex by wind, lightning darting through it, converging into a black-and-white light sphere.
The hand that grabbed her ankle began to flash with lightning.
"Fall, Thousand-Pinweed."
Thick lightning roared and engulfed Thousand-Pinweed!
Then the Buddha's Fury Lotus fully consumed them both!
Seven-colored flames swallowed the world, exploding magma surged like waves across the land!
First the sky cracked.
Lightning weaving through the flames was extinguished; spatial rifts spread, making the sky shatter like glass.
As the sky's fragments fell, fissures tore open the ground; soon the earth began to break and collapse!
The dazzling seven-colored white light instantly blinded those outside the arena; the world constructed by seven colors now destroyed everything before it!
Nearby Magical Girls were blown away!
Susan grabbed An Shiyu and Iris, one each, to prevent injury. Others rushed to stop other flying participants; the whole field descended into chaos.
When Susan pulled them back, she noticed the Sect Master sitting on a nearby high building, watching the match intently.
When he noticed Susan looking, Shion also turned her head and glanced at her.
Susan's heart skipped; she felt excited and uneasy, but she waved back slightly.
The Sect Master nodded in response.
Some joy rose within her.
Then the huge gale, heat, and flashing lightning spread through the central plaza, dust billowing into the sky!
Susan, holding Iris and An Shiyu down, looked up.
Hongmian and Camellia both lay collapsed behind Keke. Silver Lotus, though still watching, looked dazed and had dispelled her transformation state.
Four Leaf and Six Leaf clutched Keke and moved to the plaza edge. The other Disaster Control Bureau Magical Girls were mostly unconscious; even Keke and the sisters were soot-streaked and battered — the blast had not been light.
"Keke..."
An Shiyu murmured beside them, "So powerful."
That Buddha's Fury Lotus had directly destroyed the isolated space!
Not only that, the aftershock almost blew away everyone in the Central Bureau plaza.
Its power was terrifying.
Many Magical Girls on the field looked at Keke with lingering fear.
No one expected this newcomer from Beihai to achieve such heights!
Many couldn't help comparing her to Shion back then.
"Almost comparable to my rival Shion's strike." Iris said gravely, "Keke, I didn't expect you've grown to this level, I must take you seriously..."
She said that and fainted.
The impact had been heavy; Iris, not transformed, even pulled by Susan, still hit her head hard and had a lump on her forehead.
An Shiyu bit her lip, looking at Keke.
They had similar lengths of time as Magical Girls, but An Shiyu was still only Sprout.
"Senior Mujin, I also want to become strong..."
Many Disaster Control Bureau Magical Girls were already itching to retaliate.
What seven true-transmissions? Aren't our Bureau's Magical Girls far superior?
Hmph, nothing left to say now, right?
Just as Azure Cloud Sect disciples were momentarily speechless,
the smoke rising centrally suddenly spiraled!
The surrounding wind blew unnaturally, dispersing the smoke.
Then, Thousand-Pinweed — with half an arm severed — and Thousand-Pinweed with half her magical outfit dissolved into view.
The Disaster Control Bureau Magical Girls, who had been discussing Keke, fell silent.
Azure Cloud Sect disciples burst into sharp cheers!
"Speak up! Who lost!"
Keke clearly could no longer continue, and the other Bureau Magical Girls were unconscious.
Though Dandelion and Thousand-Pinweed looked miserable, they still retained combat capacity.
Moreover, if their conflict hadn't been internal, the situation might not have been so dire...
But Thousand-Pinweed and Dandelion didn't care about outside opinions.
With half her magical outfit gone and charred, Thousand-Pinweed just held her forehead and sighed.
"Tough opponent."
"Mutual, mutual."
"But I won, you know; I still have Recovery to Original state."
"Go ahead and try."
Dandelion swayed up, lightning crackling above her hand; Thousand-Pinweed fell silent.
Indeed, she couldn't use Recovery to Original state anymore.
The lightning had not only injured but altered her mana's properties; once mana property changes, many spells malfunction.
Like that Daoist who trains "Jishui", the Dao base and Jishui's magics can't cast "Kangjin" methods unless one has a mixed-origin Dao fruit like the Azure Cloud ancestor Turtle Ancestor.
Otherwise, one must resort to heterodox replacements.
Especially her Harry Potter-inspired magic, which demands strict mana properties.
In short, for the moment, not only Recovery to Original state but most magics couldn't achieve their intended effects.
Like she had Divine Sense as a trump card.
Dandelion’s lightning art had changed mana properties, causing chaos, specifically targeting her Harry Potter magics and nullifying most of them.
Well done, Dandelion...
Thousand-Pinweed inhaled and condensed her last mana.
Dandelion simultaneously raised the lightning in her hand.
Crackling lightning spread; on the other side was Sectumsempra fused with Divine Sense.
Before collision, the girls below and the Central Bureau buildings already began to creak under strain and screamed!
But both only saw their own victory.
They unleashed their final strikes!
A violent explosion and mana storm began to spread!
Disaster Control Bureau Magical Girls clutched their heads and shouted:
"It's over! The Central Bureau's going to blow up again!"
The Central Bureau, peaceful for centuries, had once Azure Cloud Sect arrived, there was a near-daily risk of explosions!
An Shiyu whispered a low plea to Senior,
but Mujin didn't move at all,
as if the approaching storm did not exist!
Just as many Magical Girls closed their eyes and awaited the world-ending aftershock,
a warm purple flame flowed like a river and enveloped the Central Bureau.
When the raging lightning and mana storm touched the purple flame, they promptly calmed and then slowly vanished.
Before anyone could find the source of that towering purple mana, they saw the two true-transmissions at the plaza's center — though the ground had collapsed beneath them — still unresolved.
Even with mana nearly drained, they maintained their transformation and charged to entangle once more!
"Clack!"
Two crisp sounds echoed in the silent Central Bureau.
Unnoticed, the two girls Four Leaf and Six Leaf stood behind Dandelion and Thousand-Pinweed, each holding a magic wand, and simply tapped the back of Dandelion's and Thousand-Pinweed's heads.
The two true-transmission Magical Girls, who had moments ago nearly destroyed heaven and earth, were knocked to the ground by that physical attack.
Their transformations dissolved.
Four Leaf and Six Leaf walked together, happily high-fiving.
"Yay—!"
Then they clasped hands and waved together at the purple girl on the distant tall building.
"Sect Master! Sect Master! We won!"