Chapter 234
4. Chu Wangshu.
5. Kiriwake Yayoi.
Book 1: 223. I'm sorry, my death was necessary; who is the victim? (5K)
Early morning.
Chu Yuanqing's eyelashes draped over her eyelids as she indulged in a dream filled with lingering sweetness. The chemical reaction woven from the Magic Replenishment caused the gaps between her souls to shimmer with light, illuminating the walls deep within her spiritual realm.
It was a miraculous creation, pure white, mottled, red and black, filthy, and dazzling... stained with the colors of all living beings, encompassing all things in the universe. Its walls were so vast that they supported the heavens and the earth, and the few strands of power that overflowed from it were so magnificent that even the thirteen giant pillars that spanned the world could only become a part of it under the restraint of the Lingering Fire.
--The Wall of Sighs.
This blessing from an unknown lineage is one of the few Conceptual Level abilities she hasn't integrated into Laevateinn for defensive purposes. Furthermore, 17 years ago, it served as a vessel, absorbing all the authority outside the pendant and forging a miraculous creation that carries the ideals of countless people.
And opposite it, there was a sea as deep as an abyss and as vast as the sky.
"Splash, splash..."
These voices are like pronouncements of death, a surging tide called truth that constantly crashes against walls more majestic than glaciers.
"Rumble, rumble..."
Rumbling sounds emanated from the depths of the sea, and thirteen pillars, each imbued with a different aura, stood tall. They seemed to shake the weight of billions of hectares of seawater, and together with the erosion of the Sea of Truth, they launched an attack on [Pure White], only to repeatedly fail and return empty-handed, emitting sighs that echoed throughout the world.
The seawater flows against the sky, and an endless downpour begins.
Splash, splash.
This is the roar of the waves, and also the clamor of chains that steal power being dragged along the seabed.
No one would have imagined that the battlefield where [Pure White] suppressed the calamity was hidden in the spiritual realm of one person. This 17-year tug-of-war was so long that even the gods felt weary.
Chu Yuanqing slept peacefully, her soul bearing the weight of all the battle's turbulence.
The city wall, forged with all its might, is endlessly reborn through the Lingering Fire. Only when it occasionally breaks open and reveals cracks will the curse of the Sea of Truth overflow, causing memories to be stripped away and decay.
It is worth mentioning that the reason why Magic Replenishment can repair the soul, increase the rate of mana digestion, and soothe the pain of the curse is partly because the emotions generated in this process enter the spiritual realm in the form of mana.
Ultimately, they turned into firewood within the walls, allowing the gradually dimming Lingering Fire to burn with a brief but intense warmth.
Of course, that's not all.
The idealism of Magical Girl is, in essence, a kind of miracle.
After Xie Qingxuan, Tang Liuli, and Kiriwake Yayoi learned of each other's injuries, their prayers for each other's recovery during each Magic Replenishment would transform into Conceptual Level corrective power, attempting to correct the source of Chu Yuanqing's injury.
Yes, that is, the Sea of Truth.
However, these accumulated desires and magic are far too insignificant compared to the goal, so that a miracle remains a long way off.
These are all speculations based on our understanding of [Witch].
Tonight, Chu Yuanqing experienced the feeling of sleeping peacefully by a campfire, her body and mind warmed. She enjoyed a high-quality sleep she hadn't had in 17 years, and she didn't even notice the little things that happened when she occasionally ate magic and had indigestion, causing her to roll around and tremble.
Hmm, it's like I've been given sleeping pills by some dog.
The Pure White Witch frowned slightly. The Lingering Fire flowing backward from the spiritual realm gradually died down, and a deep, piercing coldness once again rang in her ears with the crashing of the waves, sweeping up waves of flesh-eating pain that made her eyelashes tremble involuntarily.
Chu Yuanqing's consciousness began to recover, and fragments of the past began to churn back and forth in the Lingering Fire and the waves colliding.
The overlapping images and the chaotic whispers seemed to be memories from different periods, scenes, and atmospheres intertwined, piecing together bizarre and fantastical images in my mind.
But it's not clear; everything seems blurred, leaving behind an unsettling blank space.
In the end, all that remained was the voice of the same person, uttering fragmented and disjointed words.
"This time, you'll forget me too, won't you?"
"I'm clearly a coward, why would the gods bestow such blessings upon someone like me? It's truly a twisted sense of humor."
"I feel so lonely. I think I... understand your pain too."
"Xiaoqing, I feel so bad."
"I'm sorry, but the death of that foolish Witch was necessary, and so was mine."
Overwhelmed by inexplicable sorrow, Chu Yuanqing nearly suffocated. Her delicate face was blank, and tears uncontrollably streamed from her open eyes, blurring the sunlight that dappled the pillow and creating shattered circles.
The Pure White Witch's heart clenched. She took a deep breath, as if swords were piercing through her heart and blood vessels, causing a pain that made her consciousness go blank.
Who was that? She should know; she shouldn't have forgotten.
Chu Yuanqing asked herself the same question once again. The lantern on her chest, in response to the intense emotional reaction, released the blazing light stored up by the other Little Idol. Even the Paper Crane Can lying in the rose bushes permanently burned 10 paper cranes, turning them into firewood to fuel the Lingering Fire.
At that moment, the flames blazed brightly for a fleeting instant, then vanished just as quickly, but they successfully wiped away some of the dust, bringing one piece of memory back into focus.
That familiar figure was leaning against the ruins left by the Disaster Tide.
The girl's pitiful face was covered in blood. The black trench coat, which was too big for her small body, wrapped her up like a quilt. Her dusty eyelashes drooped, and her emerald eyes had been unfocused for a long time.
The cuts on the wrist were deep enough to reveal the white bone. The blood on the surface had congealed, turning from red to black, like a scorching flame, which was particularly glaring.
The strange crystal, which looked as fragile as Liuli and exceptionally beautiful in the light, extended from the wound through the corpse, which was devoid of a single drop of blood, and encircled the entire half-collapsed building, creating a wondrous scene resembling still flowing water.
--Blood of Sighs.
This interpretation of blessing burst forth from consciousness, and the magnificent scene in the picture collapsed in the light. The lonely, light corpse, as light as a cicada's shed skin, also shattered, leaving no trace.
Chu Yuanqing sat up, looked down at her hands, and murmured blankly:
"Who is Liuli? Is the Blood of Sighs the same kind of blessing as the Wall of Sighs?"
"Why were your and Yayoi's deaths necessary? What exactly happened in the past?"
Chu Yuanqing took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and regained her composure. She quickly composed herself and sealed away all her doubts and emotions.
The victory in that Worldline was built on numerous sacrifices and tragedies. The reason why the reaction this time is so strong is simply because the revived memories are more important, and she has also become more emotional due to her transformation into Witch.
But all of that is in the past.
Chu Yuanqing knew that the only gift she could give back to all the victims was to protect this New Era that everyone had pioneered together, and to prevent the tragedy from happening again.
The Pure White Witch stood up and went to the bathroom. She combed her hair in front of the mirror, then touched the somewhat limp lantern with her fingertips as a gesture of comfort before brushing her teeth and washing her face.
Although becoming Magical Girl initially imbues one with the pure nature of magic, and theoretically one could "refresh their status" by changing Magic Armor, there's no need to forcibly change habits accumulated over many years.
10 minutes later,
After changing her clothes, Chu Yuanqing sat on the edge of the bed, holding the Paper Crane Can with a sense of loss. Her impulsive act had caused the number of paper cranes inside to drop from 1037 to 1027. As if comforting a lantern, she touched the gift from Little Sakura and politely apologized.
"But... the effect doesn't seem to have dropped much?"
Well, after yesterday's Magic Replenishment and evolution with the Golden Haired Doggy, Little Sakura's gift has received a major upgrade. Even after burning 10 paper cranes, it can now store 2.5 [lamp] mana units. The interest income from the mana bank has increased to 20%, and the rest have made slight improvements, but the changes are not significant.
Chu Yuanqing believed that as long as he made persistent progress, this gift would eventually become a powerful high-level piece of equipment!
The Pure White Witch tried to ignore the "hardship" of the process. She unfolded a paper crane to distract herself and also wanted to hear what little surprise awaited her.
Then, Little Sakura began to try her best to tell the lame jokes of the comedians from Dongliu in her ear.
Chu Yuanqing didn't get the joke, but she found it cute that Yayoi was trying so hard to make her happy even though she wasn't good at it. She felt healed by Yayoi and a smile appeared on her lips.
The girl opened her phone and looked at her Weibo account. Her followers had already reached 17.92 million and showed no signs of slowing down. Although "Flash Dance" was on hiatus, the previous episodes and live streams, as well as the various fan creations and edits that followed, continued to expand its reach.
Chu Yuanqing's total number of fans across the internet is actually much higher than that, it's just that many of her fans don't use Weibo. If she were to register and verify an account on Bilibili or Douyin, she could probably attract a lot more new fans.
Unfortunately, the Pure White Witch was incredibly dense in this regard; she hadn't considered this at all and foolishly believed she really had that many fans.
Seeing the increase in followers, Chu Yuanqing sighed inwardly. No wonder his magic power had been recovering faster and faster lately. He just wondered when he could water the Soul Flower more vigorously and raise his magic power level to [River].
At that time, one will be able to use the Forbidden Spell of the Holy Judgment Ten Strokes to subdue B-Class or even A-Class Calamity Beasts in their complete form.
Even though it's still weak, it's one step closer to [fully opened].
Chu Yuanqing was still looking forward to [Great Full Bloom] and [Sange]. The Destined Magic she obtained when she chose the Tu Mi was related to this, and she expected it to greatly enhance her value as [Lighthouse].
"The fans are all so kind."
The Pure White Witch looked at the Weibo she had made earlier. Not only was it still getting likes and comments, but the comments from her Little Yuan Xiao were also incredibly heartwarming. She couldn't help but sit on her bed and scroll through her phone for another ten minutes to reply to their messages.
Of course, venturing into the comments section is risky, because there are always some crazy Yuan Fan who say really weird things, like liking to lick her feet and legs, or even making horrifying remarks about sharing bathwater.
Although... although as the Pure White Witch, she was always very clean, and her bathwater was free of germs, this kind of thing still seems very strange, doesn't it?
Moreover, those short essays are quite frightening, giving people the illusion that they are cult leaders.
The most subtle thing is that if you analyze the components of each strand of willpower, the effects of this group of madmen are almost no less than those of the very positive Little Yuan Xiao, making her occasionally feel that her lantern is eating some "dirty stuff". Fortunately, the magic power transformed is all correct.
"Hmm, let's secretly check Xiao Shu's Weibo again."
Chu Yuanqing scrolled through Little Cotton-padded Jacket's Weibo for a while, happily liking all of them. She found that the child posted frequently and often interacted with fans, although the way she interacted was a bit strange.
If Charlotte liked to play hide-and-seek with her fans...
Her daughter likes to treat her fans as tools for doing homework, often posting math problems in the comments section and asking fans to teach her problem-solving strategies and related knowledge points. She does this with a serious yet somewhat innocent air, and it's hard to tell whether it's intentional or unintentional.
Chu Yuanqing's thought on this was that his daughter, who loved learning, deserved praise.
The Pure White Witch scrolled back to her Weibo page with satisfaction. After thinking it over, she decided to post something. She flipped through her photo album, took out photos from a few days ago, put together nine pictures, and posted them with an honest caption. "Clearing out my inventory."
Then, there was a ding-dong sound.
A barrage of message notifications rained down.
"This photo was taken while you were rollerblading hand in hand with Liuli? Qing Bao is skating so coolly!!!"
"Ha! The mighty God has once again bestowed blessings upon the world, my Qingmen..."
"Waaaaah, I want to hold Qing Bao's little hand too! It looks so useful!"
"I'm sorry, Qing Bao, I can't hold back anymore. My Michelle wants Coco today!"
"Mom, you'd better be talking about Mixue Ice Cream and Coco???"
"Qing Bao, is Yang Yang there???"
In an instant, all sorts of strange and unusual opinions emerged.
The lantern that had been listless in the snow-capped mountains also perked up as it was infused with concentrated spiritual energy.
Chu Yuanqing wisely closed Weibo. She decided she absolutely couldn't look at the comments section today, believing that after tomorrow, the lovely Little Yuan Xiao fans would push all the comments to the back. So she happily opened her social media app and sent Charlotte a "Good morning" message.
However, a voice reply was quickly received from the other party:
Good morning! How did you sleep last night, Xiao Qing?
"Let's do a surprise check. Have you been thinking about me in your dreams?"
Upon hearing this, Chu Yuanqing suddenly recalled her experience from yesterday. She felt extremely guilty, and her small hands were trembling as she typed. Trying hard to keep her expression in check, she whispered:
"I slept well, and I was thinking about you too."
Damn it, he was telling the truth, but why did he seem like such a scumbag!
The Pure White Witch tried hard to forget the visual impact of the image of a delicate branch bearing a large fruit lying in the bed, and the lingering, unforgettable doctor game that followed. She pursed her lips in shame, closed her eyes, and silently apologized to Charlotte.
After saying that,
Chu Yuanqing felt ashamed and began to apologize to the Golden Haired Doggy in her heart. She felt like a bad woman who didn't admit her mistakes after having her fun. She had done all that, even using a "lantern," but during the day she was still chatting with other girls and even regretted her intimate interactions with them.
At that moment, an overwhelming sense of morality tormented his mind and body, even surpassing the oppression of the curse on his soul.
On the other side, the Saintess lady, still in bed, lay sprawled on the hotel bed, wearing a thin, summery tank top. Her shapely, fleshy legs swayed up and down in a rather childlike manner, her hips and back particularly beautiful, her whole body exuding youthful and lively beauty.
The girl's beautiful blue hair cascaded over her shoulders. She tilted her head back, looking at the chat interface. Upon hearing the other person's reply, a smile easily curved her lips. Completely unaware of anything amiss, she happily whispered:
I miss you a little bit too.
Charlotte was halfway through her sentence when she quickly canceled the voice message with her fingertip just before sending it. Her pretty face turned bright red as she began to reflect on how unreserved she had been, but she still pretended to be calm and composed, replying with a happy cat emoji.
Chu Yuanqing stared at the meme, lost in thought.
Why are this cat's eyes green?!
The Pure White Witch recalled the death of Liuli in her memories, and her emotions were extremely complicated. She simply used going out for breakfast as an excuse to abruptly end her conversation with Charlotte and began to think for the first time about her relationship with the four girls.
Let's start with an assumption: if everyone confessed their feelings to her, would she still be able to completely reject any of them?
It might be okay now, but if the memories continue to resurface and they recall more of their past entanglements, they might not be able to be so heartless anymore.
It's terrible, but that's the truth.
Chu Yuanqing stared blankly at himself, beginning to doubt whether he could find a lot of stepmothers for his Little Cotton-padded Jacket.
But... let's put aside the old days, right? Current laws don't allow marrying four girls at once, do they?
No! How could she have thought of that? No matter how you look at it, it's just too... too indecent!