Magical Girls Exposed!

Fang Ming had not expected that his fighting style would instead prompt everyone to discuss his true identity, and he suddenly felt a little panicked.

But on second thought, the Sky Screen's story had already reached episode eight. Everything worth discussing had long been picked apart in the discussion threads. If anyone really could figure it out, they probably would not have waited until now.

That reassured him somewhat.

Though only a little.

As the story continued, there was more and more discussion online about Xiao Bai's identity. Even more information had been revealed today, and Fang Ming had no idea how long he could keep his own identity hidden.

If... the Sky Screen would not actively reveal the connection between himself and Xiao Bai, then Fang Ming would probably have to find a way to separate his identity from Xiao Bai's in reality.

But Fang Ming did not know any cloning magic. To separate their identities... he would probably need to think of another way.

"...Song Niandong..."

Fang Ming thought once more of the real fourth magical girl.

He wondered what Song Niandong's magic was. If she ultimately became an ally, perhaps Fang Ming could ask her for help.

[Xiao Bai swung her scythe as if she were performing a beautiful dance.

The dance was breathtaking, yet it concealed a danger that sent chills through the body.

Wherever the scythe passed, every attack from the Fish Monster Demon was Severed. Xiao Bai steadily drew closer to the fish monster, making the Fish Monster Demon feel immense pressure.

"Magical girls... truly... troublesome..."

As the Fish Monster Demon spoke, its fish eyes suddenly flashed red. Its webbed hands, similar to human hands, rose abruptly. Under the glow of the four Nightmare Seeds on its chest, a golden trident appeared in its grasp.

The trident that had once accompanied it had already been destroyed in the previous battle. This trident was clearly not its bonded weapon.

This was another weapon!

A man-made weapon!

"Good thing... I have... weapons..."

The Fish Monster Demon began spinning the golden trident in its hand.

As the trident turned, the surrounding currents became like subjects surrendering to the king of the sea, obediently allowing the Fish Monster Demon to control them.

They took the forms of all kinds of marine creatures. Countless sea creatures stood behind the Fish Monster Demon like its familiars.

Then, as it swung the trident again, they charged at the approaching Xiao Bai!

"Not good!" Yu Muqiu cried out.

Ignoring Xiao Bai's warning from earlier, she instinctively raised her wrist and drew out her magic wand.

She raised the wand high. A magic circle formed beneath her feet, countless pink motes appeared around her, and in an instant, they turned into innumerable beams that shot toward the charging "familiars" like lasers!

"Starlight—!"

As Yu Muqiu shouted the name of her move, the light bullets collided with the fish familiars.

Dull explosions spread through the water.

A grand battle between magic and familiars unfolded before everyone like a scene from a science-fiction film.]

Magical Girls Can Get Hurt Too

[Pink light shone brilliantly. It was Hope's Light, Yu Muqiu's specialty.

She turned countless Hope's Lights into light bullets, and countless light bullets into the sharpest needles, piercing the bodies of innumerable familiars.

This move was powerful, but its consumption was equally enormous.

Transforming a light cannon capable of unleashing powerful bombardment into tiny light bullets numbering in the thousands—yet covering roughly the same total area as the cannon—actually required the same amount of magic power.

Thus, this move consumed over half of Yu Muqiu's magic power.

But Yu Muqiu was not alone. Chen Xiaoxia, who had been flung away earlier, rallied once again and charged at the Fish Monster Demon.

This hot-blooded idiot, who seemed incapable of feeling exhaustion or frustration, roared even as she charged toward the Fish Monster Demon:

"Don't... look down on us!!!"

As though venting all the grievance she had suffered from Xiao Bai, the greatsword in Chen Xiaoxia's hand suddenly erupted with an immensely thick blue radiance beneath the glow of enhancement magic.

That blue light formed an even larger greatsword. The fluorescent blue blade, over ten meters long, came crashing down upon the Fish Monster Demon as if it intended to split the entire ocean in two!

The current parted. Every familiar touched by the enormous blue blade shattered instantly, becoming water and mixing with the surrounding sea as it swept to either side.

Xiao Bai watched the scene in surprise, seemingly not expecting Chen Xiaoxia to be capable of such a move.

But she was not surprised for long. As Chen Xiaoxia swung her giant blade and clashed head-on with the Fish Monster Demon, Xiao Bai raised her hand. At her command, Chains completely encircled this stretch of water, leaving the fish monster no chance to escape.

But just then, Xiao Bai keenly noticed that the fish monster had raised its trident again.

Was it going to repeat the same trick?

The scene of the Fish Monster Demon throwing its trident last time, blasting a huge hole through the Chains' defensive perimeter and escaping, flashed through Xiao Bai's mind.

Xiao Bai was about to reinforce the Chains' defenses when she suddenly realized something was wrong.

Because the direction the Fish Monster Demon was aiming its trident at was not the Chains' defensive perimeter, but Yu Muqiu!

"Not good!"

Sensing danger, Xiao Bai immediately rushed toward Yu Muqiu.

At the same time, the trident in the Fish Monster Demon's hand flew free.

Like a cannonball flying beneath the sea, the trident streaked toward Yu Muqiu at a speed too fast for the naked eye to follow, trailing a long wake behind it!

Thud!!

Chen Xiaoxia's giant sword smashed into the Fish Monster Demon, slamming it onto the ocean floor and stirring up murky sediment.

But the trident had already reached Yu Muqiu. Having just cast a large-scale spell and currently using magic power to breathe, Yu Muqiu could not dodge!

At that critical moment, a silver-haired figure in black stood before Yu Muqiu!

Splat—

The trident shattered the silver-haired figure's scythe and pierced her body.

Pearl-like droplets of blood clouded the water below and reflected in Yu Muqiu's pupils.

"Xiao Bai!!!!!"

As Yu Muqiu opened her mouth and let out a muffled cry amid rising bubbles, the image froze.

The scene cut to the ending theme.]

(Xiao Bai!!!!!)

(No!!! Hey!! Wasn't this supposed to be for kids!?)

(It's fine, don't be scared. Since Xiao Bai was still around later, she must have been okay back then. Right, no need to be scared...)

(Xiao Bai had better be okay!! Otherwise I'm mailing razor blades!!)

(...Where exactly are you mailing razor blades?)

The barrage went wild at the sight of Xiao Bai being injured.

But Xiao Bai herself, the injured party, was lying in her chair and rubbing her chin.

There was no need to be so anxious.

After all, Fang Ming had not actually been hurt back then.

That was right. Although the Sky Screen made it look as if the Fish Monster Demon had nearly killed Fang Ming, the Fish Monster Demon had really only destroyed the scythe in Fang Ming's hand.

The shattering of a personal weapon formed from magic power did hurt Fang Ming somewhat, but afterward, he sacrificed the proficiency of another skill, offered it up to restore his magic skill, and repaired the scythe.

So overall, aside from losing one "English LV2" skill, Fang Ming had suffered no other losses.

And that English LV2 had been recovered during this time. Though it was currently only LV1 again, it would soon catch up to its previous level.

Overall, it was the same as losing nothing.

As for the injury...

That had been Fang Ming's disguise.

Since Yu Muqiu had never truly recognized the danger of fighting Demons, he would show that danger directly before her.

After all, no matter how their previous battles went, Yu Muqiu and the other two had always emerged unscathed.

The greatest blow they had suffered was probably when the Speed Demon had knocked all three of them down in quick succession.

But even then, they had not been injured.

Thanks to their enhanced physical abilities after transforming, Yu Muqiu and the others had at most suffered blunt-force damage. They had never received a penetrating wound.

To put it more plainly, they had never actually seen their own blood, or the blood of their companions.

So Fang Ming had put on a small act this time.

The blood was certainly real, but the trident had not hurt Fang Ming as badly as it appeared.

He had not expected it to fool even the barrage comments.

"From this perspective, I really am a tsundere..."

Even Fang Ming could not help mocking himself.

First, he had constantly expressed how much he disliked Yu Muqiu and the others, always saying things like, "This is my territory," or, "The next time we meet, we'll be enemies."

Yet when danger truly came, he could sacrifice himself to save the protagonist...

Damn, what era of tsundere was this?

Was that really how he had been back then?

That could not be right!

Why had he never felt that way!?

Fang Ming pondered the question for a long while, but still could not figure it out.

As an observer, he could not empathize with the version of himself in the story, even though those were things he had once done.

The Sky Screen's broadcast had ended, and the barrage comments had disappeared, so Fang Ming could no longer see what they were discussing.

But that was fine. The discussion had merely moved elsewhere.

Skillfully pulling out his phone, he opened the website, entered the Magical Girl Xiao Bai discussion board, and opened the thread for episode eight.

Sure enough, in just a few minutes, the thread had already grown by over a thousand replies and was still climbing!

(Xiao Bai should be fine. She appeared just a few days ago, after all.)

(That may be true, but I'm still worried.)

(According to the official website, without revealing future plot details, we can confirm that there will be another major final battle later on, and Xiao Bai takes part in it. So even if she was injured, it probably wasn't too serious. Relax!)

(But Xiao Bai really is a cold-on-the-outside, warm-on-the-inside tsundere. She's always harsh toward Xiao Qiu and the others, but when it matters, she really takes the hit for them!)

(Hey, do you think it's possible that there used to be many magical girls like Xiao Bai, but... they all died?)

(Okay, great guess, but stop guessing now. Don't bring up something so heavy in a children's magical girl show!)

(...But that's the only way to explain why Xiao Bai hates Xiao Qiu and the others becoming magical girls so much. Xiao Bai has really seen danger!)

"...Their imaginations really are wild."

Fang Ming looked at the discussion board, which had once again begun veering off course, and could not help admiring the netizens' imagination.

But then again, who could have guessed that the seemingly mature magical girl Xiao Bai had actually become a magical girl later than Xiao Qiu and the others?

In fact, if not for his cheat, if not for sacrificing other skills to improve his magic power, Fang Ming would probably have been inferior even to Xiao Chun when she had first become a magical girl.

So based on the idea that the longer someone had been a magical girl, the stronger she was, it was only natural for people to suspect Xiao Bai was a veteran magical girl.

And if she was a veteran magical girl, she might have once had companions as well. So the netizens' speculation was not completely baseless.

After browsing the discussion board for a while, Fang Ming put down his phone, got up, and began packing.

Putting Song Niandong aside for the moment, he was about to move to Spring City. Even with a government-provided place to live, there were still things he needed to pack.

First, he should pay Yu Muqiu's uncle a visit.

The Yu Family's financial situation was actually quite ordinary.