novelraw Chapter 269: Under Full Bloom, All Are Ants
Chapter 269: Under Full Bloom, All Are Ants
“Is Azure Cloud Sect really like that? They lend money to villains at usurious rates, use villain personnel for human experiments, and force Witch Association members to extract the Magical Girl Idol Project roles of their sect master just to stay alive once?”
“Of course. I have proof—Witch Mi personally decrypted it: the darkness of Azure Cloud Sect! The Witch Association’s videos about Azure Cloud are a huge hit now. Many members are commenting, crying about Azure Cloud’s evil. What they did goes far beyond that—plenty suffered in the old world. Watch this clip: ‘I will never forgive Azure Cloud Sect!’ It exposes their darkness in vivid detail....”
“Wow, really? So cool!”
“Huh?”
“Don’t you think it’s awesome? Making the bad guys look like victims, so only when someone stronger bullies them, the Witch Association people and those from the Day Realm show this weak, pitiful side, right? When they bully others, they’re vicious—not pitiful—scary and fierce. I saw it myself!”
“Who did you see?”
“Jade Fox! For the sake of her Black Mountain Realm she once bullied people so badly they committed suicide, and she even personally killed a Magical Girl!”
“How did you see that... and the disaster-human realm is also the old world, right?”
“Xiao Qi showed me. Every surviving person in the old world had blood on their hands, because that’s how they stayed alive. So, if you want to survive in the old world, you must be like Azure Cloud Sect—stronger, harsher!”
Ling Mei admired Shion, and longed to visit Azure Cloud Sect.“Coral, Coral, tell me, what’s Miss Shion like in daily life?”
“Why ask that? Just keep a cold face and don’t speak—that’s enough. Nobody really knows what Miss Shion does normally; just know what she does when she meets an enemy...”
“I want to know more about Miss Shion. I want to be cool and awesome like her. If I’m like her, even without copying Azure Cloud Sect, no one will dare bully our disaster-human realm!”
“No, your expression is too silly, and you’re overly cute. Although Shion is also quite pretty, the temperament gap is huge. You can’t intimidate people. And the gap in power is even bigger....”
“If I work hard, there will always be a way! One day I’ll be as strong as Miss Shion!”
“Then stop wobbling your body every time you get excited... Speaking of which, Ling Mei, why didn’t I hear about your disaster-human realm back in the old world?”
“Huh? Really? Our disaster-human realm was pretty well-known, right?”
“Hmm, strange...”
A flood of memories rushed in. After full bloom, her body felt alien.
Even her consciousness began to blur.
Only the faint presence of Xiao Qi whispered in her ear:
“You must protect the disaster-human realm with all your strength.”
“So even full bloom doesn’t matter. Don’t worry, I’ll stay with you, always, always.”
“We are, the best of friends.”
When the sun extinguished, Ling Mei finally glanced down at her magical outfit.
Though still somewhat dazed, she understood what happened.
You only wanted to protect the disaster-human realm, to step out and block the arrow that could wipe it out.
Before you could step out, you naturally reached Full Bloom.
You stared at the nearby youth, feeling an odd familiarity that you couldn’t quite place.
The enemy who wanted to obliterate the disaster-human realm.
Once that thought entered her mind, many other considerations vanished.
She stretched out her hand, aimed at the boy.
Green and yellow light interlaced, mana transformed into an unmatched burst of radiance.
A Full Bloom strike pierced heaven and earth!
....
Beihai.
Thousands of plants seemed to sense something and began to grow wildly.
Keke and Silver Lotus, who had been in a meeting at the Bureau, saw vines and plants creeping from outside into the Disaster Control Bureau itself!
Climbing ivy truly covered the mountain where the Beihai Disaster Control Bureau sat; within that isolated space, flowers kept opening above, and even giant trees were crazily growing down into the abyss, some reaching halfway up the mountain.
Then the building’s plaster began to peel off.
“Whose fertilizer factory leaked...”
Hearing Keke’s quiet question, Silver Lotus nearly fainted in anger. “What fertilizer? Is your fertilizer like gas leaking too?”
“But it really looks like something leaked.”
Keke opened the window and tapped a vine crawling on it with her magic wand.
To be honest, she didn’t like plants...
Since her parents died, Keke hated them so much that she killed the two trees by her door.
Now, with a gentle tap from her wand, the vines on the whole mountain instantly burst into flame. In that moment, the entire mountain, including the Disaster Control Bureau, seemed swallowed by a sea of fire!
Everyone jumped in shock; some Bureau staff screamed. The Incubator flew up from below and asked what happened.
But after Keke lowered her wand, all the flames outside vanished in an instant.
Aside from the flying ash, not a trace of heat remained.
Silver Lotus was stunned and glanced at her friend.
Although she knew Keke had stepped into mid-Blooming and thus ranked higher than herself, this move still surprised her.
Keke could now rival what Dandelion once did....
If she didn’t work harder, Keke would leave her far behind.
That thought passed through her mind and made her a little sour, but it faded quickly.
Because the outside plants were still spreading; they had to be dealt with first!
The two girls flew out of the Bureau and saw the crack that had appeared in the sky earlier.
It was now filled with all kinds of flowers and grasses, like a garden.
That garden continued to spread farther, drifting from South China to East China with no sign of stopping, spreading madly!
Before Keke and Silver Lotus could attack, someone pulled them back.
“Don’t go. That thing is dangerous!”
Qinghua immediately dissuaded them, then hurriedly controlled her puppets to other places to stabilize formations.
The garden’s spread was terrifying.
It only appeared briefly above Beihai before already covering the skies of all East China!
Qinghua activated the branch-division puppets of Azure Cloud Sect stationed across East China at once.
Since the last sect competition, Qinghua had distributed many puppets to the branches precisely for situations like this!
For a moment, the cities with branch divisions all activated a grand formation—the Nine-Bend Yellow River Three-Flower Immortal Formation!
They nearly held all of East China by themselves...
But the puppets were only in cities with Azure Cloud Sect branches. Paired with branch disciples, the formation could stall the garden’s spread and secure short-term safety for those cities.
Cities without branches were left unprotected.
Those places were already covered by proliferating vegetation—building plaster flaked, roads cracked, trapped residents began showing signs of accelerated aging.
The Bureau’s help requests flooded in, leaving Super Qinghua overwhelmed.
She had planned to stabilize some cities and then send puppets to help others, but the garden’s spread accelerated. Cities she’d stabilized were endangered again.
In a flustered scramble to redistribute puppets, the situation grew worse, and Qinghua, guarding her post alone, nearly broke down.
“I can’t! Even Super Qinghua can’t protect all of East China alone!”
Seeing other cities fall, Super Qinghua, who had rushed out of Illusory Moon Cavern Dwelling, nearly cried, “Boss, what are you doing? Come back!”
Not only were other cities collapsing, but the main array in Beihai itself began to crack!
Those bizarre plants were starting to break through the Nine-Bend Yellow River Three-Flower Immortal Formation!
Keke and Silver Lotus were still helping maintain the formation with the puppets.
“This is terrible, this is terrible, Qinghua’s going to die!”
Qinghua wailed, planning to join the two Magical Girls; if she had to die, she’d rather die together than disappoint Lady Bingtang and Sect Master.
But just as she tried to patch a crack in the array with her mana, a chill swept through the entire Nine-Bend Yellow River Three-Flower Immortal Formation!
All cracks were sealed by ice, and the creeping flowers and plants froze in place from the cold!
“Qinghua, Qinghua, how many times have I told you to stay calm? The Sect Master was right, you still need more experience.”
Hearing a familiar, reliable voice, Qinghua burst into crying relief. Although no tears came out, she sobbed and rushed at Bingtang, “Lady Bingtang, Qinghua almost couldn’t hold on! You nearly lost Qinghua!”
Bingtang held an umbrella and helplessly patted Qinghua’s head. “You did well. Thanks to your quick reaction, most East China cities were kept safe.”
“But, but—” Qinghua immediately worried again. “There are still places without Azure Cloud Sect branches, and my puppets—”
Before she could finish, through her puppets’ vision Qinghua saw wind scatter the plants and strange mana, even lightning striking the bushes and vines...
Elsewhere, Seven Leaf and Eight Leaf had activated Perception Obstruction to make the plants temporarily ‘forget’ to grow, guiding residents out of the garden’s encirclement to safety.
“I’ve already sent them to the most critical spots, and your puppet assignment needs adjustment.”
Bingtang glanced at Keke and Silver Lotus on the rooftop and spoke quietly, “Redistribute: Daoming City, Hualan City, Xihong City—leave only one puppet each. I’ve already set support positions and numbers for the puppets. Look here...”
Hearing Lady Bingtang’s orders, anxious Qinghua relaxed.
At times like this, aside from the Sect Master, perhaps no one could give the same sense of security as Bingtang!
Relaxed, Qinghua recalled another thing:
“What about Jiangming City? Senior Sister Bai Mei wouldn’t let me place puppets there. I wonder how it’s doing?”
Bingtang’s mouth twitched, then she opened an ice surface showing Jiangming’s condition.
Everything had crystallized; the garden could parasite and corrupt crystal but at a much slower pace.
“No need to worry for now.”
......
South China.
With Full Bloom mana spreading, resonating Magical Girls fell one by one.
Civilians who’d tried to help stopped in their tracks once they saw proximity caused accelerated aging.
Blackberry, who once led the fight, wasn’t here; the people of South China had let their wounded little hero leave rather than risk her.
Watching the garden consume South China’s skies, many felt despair.
In the end, must they abandon South China and leave their homeland?
Just as the strange Full Bloom mana threatened to cover all resonating Magical Girls, a clear sword qi flashed from afar and streaked through!
Grass and flowers about to touch the Magical Girls splattered and froze mid-spread.
Before people could rejoice, the mana surged again!
This time, terrifying sword qi fell from afar like a torrential downpour!
.....
In the spatial turbulence of a world bubble.
Hyacinth and Ruo Yun both fell silent for a moment.
Only Helen, who had awakened, raised her head and looked, “What’s happening...”
Her words cut off.
In the space above, countless plants and trees decorated the chaotic turbulence, making it look like a harmless beautiful garden.
The raging spatial storm became a gentle breeze inside that garden.
In their world bubble, a single petal fell, and any building that the petal touched seemed to age decades, becoming muddy and rusted as if many years had passed...
The three felt suffocated; Helen panicked as she discovered she was aging!
Ruo Yun and Hyacinth didn’t care about that; they stared upward:
“Sect Hall Envoy!”
The Saint Hall’s strongest Envoy was being struck by this Full Bloom blow, being swallowed by plants!
His fate looked grim!
....
Ling Mei withdrew her hand and breathed slightly.
Perhaps because she had just stepped into Full Bloom, her control over the power wasn’t yet perfect.
This strike leaked too much.
Much of the energy had escaped through the crack.
But she had still hit the youth who attacked the disaster-human realm.
Under that boundless radiance, thick trunks, vines, and those plants wildly overgrew in the domain of his mental landscape—seas dried, suns perished, mountains crumbled, heaven and earth desiccated into endless yellow sand.
The verdant plants of the mental landscape became counterattacking blades!
Flourishing branches became cages, lush leaves became edges, covering him.
In an instant, his mental landscape neared collapse!
Ling Mei slowly pulled back and looked at her disaster-human realm.
What next?
To swallow Beihai.
Yes—swallow Beihai, extract Beihai’s world root, and use that root to revive the disaster-human realm.
Then have the disaster-human realm replace Beihai and be embedded into the new world. That way, the disaster-human realm could live forever.
I can do it!
Wait—what about the others in Beihai? Soon many familiar voices made her waver again: her parents’ cries for help, friends’ mourning.
She must save the disaster-human realm...
“Ancient, there is a great arbor.”
A low whisper emerged from the now-calm void, interrupting her thoughts. Ling Mei turned.
A blood-splattered fist suddenly smashed out of the plant-and-vine prison!
“With eight thousand years for spring, eight thousand years for autumn, between a spring and an autumn—”
Wood shavings flew as the palm grabbed a nearby trunk and tore the plant cage open bit by bit, revealing a refined and wildly handsome face.
“—this is decay and flourishing!”
There, Jiang Si was already ragged, but his indifferent eyes still shone.
A blaze of fighting intent burned in his pupils!
“What a wonderful Decay-and-Flourish Radiance, an exquisite Yi-wood technique! Truly worthy of its name!”
The Decay-and-Flourish Scheme.
Among Azure Cloud’s ancestors, the turtle patriarch famed for clinging to the Way wielded the Decay-and-Flourish Scheme to sweep the world before he took the Tao fruit.
The Decay Radiance ignores most artifacts and spells, piercing enemy spirit and vitality, cutting three flowers, reducing life span
It’s a top-tier divine skill that trades life for life!
These plants weren’t merely pretty or physically binding; they contained tremendous, terrifying power!
Countless leaves around Jiang Si, blessed by Yi-wood divine power, sharpened like Lush Leaves and easily cut his well-trained flesh.
On contact, not only did blood flow but life force and mana would be absorbed!
Even Jiang Si’s flesh felt drained at the touch.
Yet with supreme physique and heavenly strength he tore through the Full Bloom prison!
He faced the newly Full-Bloomed adolescent Great Emperor, bloodlust roaring!
This battle would be Supreme Body versus Great Emperor!
He would test the Great Emperor’s power with his unparalleled body!
But when he stepped toward Magical Girl Ling Mei, it felt as if he bore millions of tons on him! He’d been made to carry one who had walked ten thousand leagues!
With that step, his mana and stamina shattered—almost gone!
He could barely move!
Since his body ascended to Peak Blooming, he’d never been in such a dire state.
Jiang Si realized: this is using Years to set Space.
The distance between him and Ling Mei was affected by Full Bloom rules; each step closer consumed years’ power—vitality, mana, strength, foundation, even lifespan!
The Decay-and-Flourish Dao meant a great enemy must not be approached!
A crushing fatigue and sense of aging spread through him; the invincible golden body that once smashed countless teenage supremes now felt like an old man, barely able to approach. His body was suppressed almost to deformity!
Opposite him stood a just-universalized Full Bloom Great Emperor!
Clever tactic!
Yet Jiang Si felt no fear; he let out a hearty roar, “So it should be!”
He forced himself forward another step!
This time cracks opened on his brow, quickly spreading across his body with blood spurting. From those fissures vines and flowers started to sprout and Full Bloom again.
Everything slipped away; soon Jiang Si’s flesh looked like wood rotted for ten thousand years!
In a daze he seemed to become an ancient arbor, taking root, sprouting and growing across the desolate mental landscape, experiencing cycles of seasons and ages until the mental image collapsed, leaving a towering divine tree rooted in the void!
Ling Mei merely clenched her hand toward the youth already being swallowed by foliage.
The plant that corroded flesh made one of his hands fall away,
But just one hand.
A golden curse dripped from his other hand; the boy’s cloudy pupils gradually cleared.
“When Yin and Yang are reversed and in chaos.”
“Wait!”
The Emperor couldn’t help interjecting. She normally disliked interfering with Jiang Si’s judgment, but the situation was clearly bad!
“The throne has reached its limit; transformation can’t sustain Golden Calamity Dragon King. It’ll be more dangerous....”
Jiang Si seemed not to hear and continued:
“Demonic Blood Liang Qingtian!”
The golden curse stubbornly covered him; as the plants decayed, the golden curse dimmed!
This showed the massive discrepancy in scale.
Because the throne’s condition was poor, the golden curse couldn’t fully expand to complete the transformation!
“No, your state is too poor! This will damage your body first!”
As the Emperor fretted, the youth spoke calmly:
“This time, I will transform successfully.”
The Emperor froze.
There was unquestionable determination in his tone.
Before she could say more, thirteen crimson-gold light spheres exploded within Jiang Si!
They orbited him wildly, shredding nearby plants, and the golden curse spread, wrapping his body!
When the Golden Calamity Dragon King reappeared, Jiang Si declared:
“This is Predetermined Fate!”
Anchoring the probability of a successful transformation, then amplifying it?
Yes. Even in half-transformed state he could manipulate probability. Though he couldn’t control everything, he could influence probabilities affecting his own events!
Forcing the transformation’s odds was harsh but it worked.
The Emperor exhaled slightly; worry in her chest eased.
Maybe after seeing Jiang Si personally strangle Lu Ya in the memory she took from Little Black Dragon, she’d been on edge and couldn’t calm herself like before. This absurd unrest was unfamiliar...
Before she could ponder more, Jiang Si moved!
Dragon breath cleaved a path, burning everything before him as the Golden Calamity Dragon King sprinted along his path of ascent in the Decay-and-Flourish Dao.
Three steps, four, five...!
Jiang Si fixed his state via probability control; golden light flooded him, and with Predetermined Fate he resisted Years, surging forward through the void.
Distance to Full Bloom shrank rapidly. Ling Mei remained composed as countless plants sprouted from the void, blocking the Golden Calamity Dragon King’s path.
Probability control failed against this enemy.
When a vine wrapped him and a branch pierced the dragon’s body, every probability fixed—
Ling Mei’s every action became inevitable!
“We can’t hold much longer!”
Under unseeable pale radiance, even with probabilities set, Jiang Si couldn’t stop the steady loss of power.
Each hit pierced him; the Golden Calamity Dragon King’s state fell, as if pulled into a mire. The sprint slowed.
Before reaching Ling Mei, Jiang Si was forced to halt again.
More importantly, the Golden Calamity Dragon King—and Jiang Si’s own lifespan—was being mercilessly cut!
The dragon’s scales rotted, and Jiang Si aged before them; a wasting set in!
Now, even opening his mental landscape and calculating all he wanted couldn’t restore the dragon’s state!
Another Full Bloom strike pushed the dragon to the brink!
As she planned to have Jiang Si abandon the dragon body so she could control it herself,
suddenly the decayed body, after heavy damage, showed a surge of life, faintly combating the rot.
“Do you know what the strongest Dao in Beihai’s Light... is?” Jiang Si asked abruptly.
“What?”
As the life surged over decay, the Emperor heard the answer.
“It is Variability.”
When all probabilities are destroyed and you can’t anchor a fixed probability—
“Predetermined Fate is incomplete—”
Jiang Si’s tone was resolute.
“—so change is born!”
In an instant, the formerly aging Golden Calamity Dragon King’s body erupted with vitality!
Mana, stamina, wounds—all recovered at once!
His golden scales regained brilliance, and even the aura of longevity strengthened!
The Emperor realized: before, she had used a method to select the best life and mana points across the Decay-and-Flourish years—this is Predetermined Fate!
Jiang Si, however, forced probability to seek impossible possibilities.
He hunted for the chance of sudden mutation.
For example, in this millisecond, an ancient dragon true blood might awaken within the dragon’s body, altering organs and physique and vastly increasing lifespan...
Any possible changing path, once possible, becomes inevitable!
That is Variability!
“You can do that? Holy—this is just talk!” Little Black Dragon, normally withdrawn and silent, finally blurted out, “Does he just say it and then it’s true?”
“Ignorant child, cultivation is profound and vast, not for you to understand lightly!”
Jiang Si said, then lashed his tail and fiercely cleaved the blocking branches and leaves, soaring once more!
“All things in the world have a thread of life! This is the Light Sea’s primary Dao!”
This time Decay Radiance from Full Bloom could no longer affect him. The Golden Calamity Dragon shone with blinding brilliance—red-gold boundless, like a boulder resistant to a torrent—no matter how Years eroded him, he stood unbowed!
Jiang Si laughed: “I throw myself into death to be born again. With Predetermined Fate I create Variability, imitating my Azure Cloud ancestor’s great enemy, the Ancient Sage!”
He flapped and charged before Ling Mei; steel-like claws slammed her body hard!
He forced her back a step!
This is Supreme Body perfected—challenging a Great Emperor!
Spanning three great realms upward, a perfected Supreme Body can match a Great Emperor!
In the world bubble below, an ecstatic Ruo Yun hugged Hyacinth and jumped cheering!
Who would’ve thought the Saint Hall Envoy could truly contend with Full Bloom!
Hyacinth also breathed easier.
But curiously, why not transform now?
Don’t keep us worried...
However, the next second,
the Golden Calamity Dragon King’s radiance abruptly vanished.
“Predetermined Fate consumed too much...”
There was only time for Jiang Si to explain that line when countless vines and branches pierced the Golden Calamity Dragon King and swallowed it; its once mighty aura vanished!
Ruo Yun’s earlier jubilation was strangled to death; silence fell....
When Jiang Si completely stilled, Ling Mei turned and looked under the crack again.
Mechanically she extended a hand; Decay-and-Flourish power spread down the fissure once more,
seizing root, stealing life, making the disaster-human realm real.
To save the disaster-human realm, she would replace Beihai’s existence itself with the disaster-human world bubble,
embedding it into the new world—this was the only way.
Turning an illusion into reality was something even Full Bloom sorcerers could do.
So she would embed the entire disaster-human realm into a new world and make the world bubble real under new laws.
Thus the Decay-and-Flourish force descended from the Full Bloom hand.
All Nine-Bend Yellow River Three-Flower Immortal Formations collapsed at once!
Beihai.
Bingtang pushed down Keke, Silver Lotus, and Qinghua with one hand, opened a massive mirror before her, and stood alone beneath the topmost crack, blocking the raging Decay-and-Flourish.
Residents below still suffered aging effects, but they had no strength to cry out.
Yumo, who could normally fly with the wind, and Four Leaf and Six Leaf stood at the forefront; their magical outfits began to shatter.
All of Qinghua’s puppets sprouted branches and moss, slowly becoming part of the Decay-and-Flourish, and Qinghua herself began to be affected.
“This is over, over, over—why didn’t I distribute more sect master puppets...” Qinghua wailed, hard-pressing against the assault.
Jiangming’s crystal quickly melted like ice; awakened Qianjing and Shui Ling trembled together, while trapped Jiangming citizens called in despair.
South China’s sword qi eventually could not keep up with Decay expansion and was gradually pushed back into South China!
Blackberry, who had left, reappeared with a Miracle Seed and the Incubator she hadn’t brought for a long time.
She intended to use Full Bloom to fight back.
Disaster Control Bureau Magical Girls rushed to disaster zones, but seeing the terrifying spread rate, many closed their eyes and sighed helplessly.
Ling Mei watched and listened and suddenly felt indescribable pain and sorrow.
Tears flowed continuously.
Her disaster-human realm had once been like this—giving everything to resist the enemy, yet in the end leaving nothing. If they failed, none of it mattered; no one would remember, everything would vanish...
Save the disaster-human realm—what about Beihai’s people? What about others?
As memories revived, Ling Mei suddenly sensed something and snapped her head around.
Even at Full Bloom, her heart skipped a beat on feeling that aura.
It stirred her awareness into sharper focus.
Still alive within the Decay-and-Flourish? Wasn’t there almost no aura earlier?
“His witch reagent was destroyed; he can’t transform into Witch Shion. The Golden Calamity Dragon King has already fallen; only Magical Girl Shion remains...”
A voice echoed in her mind, blurring her consciousness again.
Among the branches that had swallowed the Golden Calamity Dragon King, purple mana started to overflow.
Like a leaking faucet, drops fell one by one, then more and more, streaming out until it gushed!
Soon the Decay-turned plants and trees could no longer hold back that rampaging mana like a breached dam!
“Heaven and Earth are benevolent.”
Only now did a voice drift slowly from the Decay domain.
In the world bubble below,
Ruo Yun’s pupils widened; she slowly opened her mouth, “Wait... why...”
Hyacinth trembled with excitement, watching every detail of Ruo Yun’s face, unwilling to miss a thing.
Helen looked up, puzzled, “Ah? What’s happening? Who transformed?”
Purple mana roared out from the crack, rushing into Beihai and surging toward East China and South China!
Bingtang and the other true-transmissions supporting the weary regions lifted their heads. Seeing the purple sea of mana, they smiled in relief, some even giving up resistance outright.
“Finally you’re late, Sect Master...”
South China.
Senior Sister Bai Mei opened one eye, looked at the sky, and smiled. She sheathed her staff and sword.
Blackberry, who had intended to Full Bloom, paused as the returning purple mana appeared.
When the Incubator beside her urged, she shoved it back into the Miracle Seed.
It’s her again...
A mix of anticipation and unease filled her heart, but seeing that purple mana brought a sense of reassurance.
She turned and beamed at worried people, “It’s okay, everyone! The purple one came to save us again!”
North China.
In the Central Bureau, Jincha and Hongmian and many Disaster Control Bureau Magical Girls who’d been sighing stood up at once and cheered upon seeing the purple mana spread.
Residents who had been grieving quieted.
They stared dumbly at the purple flame above the sky, its vast sweep filling the world.
Like prayer and wish, trembling hands of the aged raised their dry pens!
“With the item as the dog.”
Following the last line of the transformation phrase, it rang through the heavens and filled every ear.
Then a grander, more stirring bell toll rang out!
Purple mana fell like rain, drenching the withered elderly bodies, making those thin limbs and arms gradually plump and healthy!
When all settled,
heaven and earth returned to their original state!