Magical Girls? There Was No Going Back!

I refuse to believe anyone hasn't been to this vegetarian meat restaurant!???

Vegetarian? Vegetarian? It was insanely delicious! Absolutely the best!

Who the hell invented this!!???

It was seriously, seriously delicious! They made vegetables? into the shape of meat? with the flavor of meat! And it didn't cost you any virtue!

One bite and you fell in love! Two bites and you got addicted!! Delicious enough to chop off your toes!??

"It seemed to be in the suburbs. If Lady Yun Ye wanted to eat there... we could go tonight," Tan Xiang said cautiously.

"Why tonight? The location says it isn't far. Let's go now. We haven't even had breakfast yet," Yun Ye said doubtfully.

"Huh? But... but we're still on a mission?" Tan Xiang said in disbelief.

"But my ass! This is vegetarian meat! Boundless virtue, okay! I couldn't find a single vegetarian meat place this good in all of Flower River City! And the blogger said the vegetarian pork knuckle was only available for Wednesday breakfast. If we get there late, we'll have to wait another week!"

Perhaps not expecting Tan Xiang to question her decision, Yun Ye's voice became especially shrill, and her expression turned sharp and mean. Li Xuan had no choice but to turn down the volume another few notches. While he was at it, he lowered the camera angle to admire Tan Xiang's slim, graceful body lines beneath her tightly wrapped latex suit.

"Yes, yes, yes... let's go, then." Tan Xiang felt thoroughly stifled, and her tone inevitably turned somewhat negative. Fortunately, Yun Ye was too excited to notice and simply followed the location on her phone, flying straight toward the restaurant.

Li Xuan was dumbfounded by the whole thing. Magical girls and monsters were supposed to be locked in a fight to the death, weren't they? Could they really be this willful? They could just stop fighting their target midway and go eat instead?

Still, this gave Li Xuan extra time to prepare. He pushed Wu Yan out from under the table and shouted at Xu Rou, who was currently ravaging Qi Mo, "Ladies! Move out! Prepare a welcome gift for the two ladies who are on a high!"

The three sisters, who had had nothing to do for days, immediately cheered. In an instant, four evil auras surged forth. While the Church duo was ordering, the four of them had already reached the warehouse.

"Qi Mo, set up a barrier here! Wu Yan, store your flames in this jar! Xu Rou, move... move that pile of bricks to the entrance." Li Xuan frantically summoned monsters with Fallen Blood while directing the magical girls here and there.

"Why am I the only one moving bricks?! I can use magic too, okay? Even though I can only fire one shot a day, and only at night..." Xu Rou pouted in dissatisfaction.

Li Xuan could not help laughing. "Who made you the Battle Type? Look at those noble mages... Holy shit! Yan! Why did you set the monsters I summoned on fire? Xiao Rou, it's time for you to shine. Didn't you eat half a watermelon this morning? Hurry up and piss on it to put the fire out!"

While Li Xuan was frantically setting up the trap, the entire tableful of vegetarian meat Yun Ye had ordered was served. The internet blogger had not exaggerated. Every dish on the table had perfect color, aroma, and flavor. It looked like meat, smelled like meat, and tasted like meat. Yet upon closer inspection, there was no meat texture at all; everything was made from ingredients like tofu.

"Waaah, save me! It smells so good! This restaurant is truly overflowing with virtue. The authorities should pass laws to promote vegetarian meat like this nationwide, so no one will ever be tempted by delicious smells to hurt poor little animals again! Why wasn't something this good at reducing the sins of the world popularized sooner?" Yun Ye proclaimed grandly while stuffing herself, occasionally making loud munching noises. Plates and bowls kept clattering against chopsticks, producing enormous noise that made the surrounding diners frown.

After wolfing everything down, Yun Ye finished all the food in front of her without leaving Tan Xiang a single bite.

When they saw her let out a satisfied burp, put down her chopsticks, and press her palms together, the surrounding diners all breathed a sigh of relief—at least they would no longer have to suffer the noise.

"Wow, that was so delicious! Waiter, call out your chef. I want to reward him with a sweet hug!" Yun Ye said, tapping her plate with her chopsticks.

"Miss... I'm truly sorry, but the kitchen is currently..." Seeing that Yun Ye did not look easy to deal with, the waiter dared not neglect her and hurried forward with an ingratiating smile to explain.

"Who are you calling miss? You shifty-eyed little rat, with no dignity at all. Is that how you treat your customers? Get your manager! I'm filing a complaint!" Yun Ye raised her brows and glared at the thin waiter.

The waiter shuddered. "Please don't, ma'am..."

"Ma'am? Do you even know what counts as a compliment and what counts as an insult? You think you can just call people that?"

"Sorry, auntie..."

"Do I look that old?"

"Sorry... this... lady... It's lunchtime right now, and the chef is busy, so it isn't convenient for him to meet you. How about this? I'll pass along your message and let him know how you feel. Would that be okay?"

"Who the fuck are you calling a lady? I'm giving this place a bad review!" Yun Ye swung her greasy plate and hurled it at the waiter. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and ducked. A crisp crash of shattering porcelain immediately rang out behind him.

Seeing this, the restaurant's female manager rushed over and tightly restrained Yun Ye. "Miss! Fairy sister~ He's a temporary worker and doesn't know any better. I'll call the chef out right away. Getting angry is bad for your skin. Would you like a sip of tea to soothe your throat? Table Five gets a complimentary pot of Biluochun!"

"Hmph. In the end, women still understand women." Yun Ye's anger turned to delight. She sat down and continued waiting while drinking tea.

Before long, a plump middle-aged man who looked greasy all over was pushed out of the kitchen by the manager, holding a spatula and staring blankly at Yun Ye.

"You're the chef who made these dishes?" Seeing that the chef was a fat middle-aged man, Yun Ye immediately disliked him by half, and the thought of giving him a hug vanished at once. Still, she was very curious about how he made vegetables taste like meat, so she asked:

"Chef, how did you make these dishes? The shapes are one thing, but how did you make them taste so much like meat? Is there some secret recipe?"

The chef had looked nervous, but when he heard that she was asking about the dishes, he immediately relaxed. "Ah, what secret recipe could there be? It's nothing rare. Everywhere you'd use cooking oil, use lard instead. Everywhere you'd use water, use properly prepared chicken broth. Then add some spoonworm powder to enhance the flavor, along with other seasonings..."

Upon hearing the chef's words, Yun Ye's face turned green. She stood up and stared straight at him, staring until his scalp tingled and he unconsciously backed away several steps.

"Who are you? These dishes were all made with animal fat and meat broth? They aren't vegetarian at all! You're deceiving consumers! You used the guise of vegetarian food to trick kind vegetarians like us into eating such filthy things. You deserve to go to the eighteenth level of hell. You deserve to die!" Yun Ye advanced step by step, pointing at the chef's nose. Her voice grew sharper and more excited with every word. The fat chef, over six feet tall, was actually forced into a corner by her presence.

"Uh, miss, our restaurant never said it was fully vegetarian. Everyone knows... Look, it's all written on the ingredient list on the menu..." The chef nervously pointed to the menu that had been knocked to the floor, so frightened that his hometown accent slipped out.

"What a sin! What a sin! Every one of you deserves the death penalty! You've ruined an entire month's worth of my virtue!" Yun Ye screamed hysterically.

"Yun Ye! Calm down! You can't hurt ordinary people..."

Tan Xiang was about to persuade her when Yun Ye had already taken out a scripture and begun chanting. In an instant, a wild gale swept through the restaurant, blowing every movable thing on the tables—bowls, plates, spoons, and chopsticks—onto the floor, smashing them into shards of porcelain and scattered food scraps.

"Yun Ye, it really was written on the menu..." Tan Xiang picked up the menu and tried to defend the chef, only to immediately receive a resounding slap.

Iron Pot Stewed Magical Girl

While Yun Ye was causing a scene in the restaurant, Li Xuan had already finished setting up the trap with the three girls. Extremely satisfied with the result, he raised both hands and shouted:

"Okay! Girls! All eyes on me! Look at me, look at me! Dinner's on me tonight. Eat whatever you want!"

"Yay! I want sausage!"

"I want bananas!!"

"I want geoduck!!"

"?? Why are they all stick-shaped things?" Li Xuan asked in confusion.

"Because we're going to eat Master!" the three magical girls said as they pounced on Li Xuan in perfect unison.

"Girls! Sisters! We have important business! Important business!!! Let me up first, and tonight we can play however you want!" Li Xuan hurriedly begged for mercy. However, the three magical girls did not seem inclined to let him off. With a crack, even the belt on Li Xuan's pants was torn off.

Seeing that his public provisions were in danger, Li Xuan hurriedly resorted to his tried-and-true tactic of playing them against each other. "Qi Mo! Help me pull Xu Rou away, and tonight I'll let you two sleep under the same blanket! Wu Yan, when Tan Xiang gets here later, you can fight to your heart's content! Go get ready!"

Qi Mo immediately turned to pull at Xu Rou's hind leg. Wu Yan also became excited upon hearing she could fight and ran straight to an open area to sit down and prepare. Li Xuan then shoved away Xu Rou, who had been clinging to him the tightest, finally regaining his freedom.

"Whew. Demonfallen girls really are great, but they're a little too loyal to their instincts. They can lose control easily sometimes." Li Xuan let out a long breath and checked the Hunting Radar, discovering that Tan Xiang and Yun Ye were already heading this way.

"Quick, quick, quick! Get into position and hide!" Seeing this, Li Xuan hurriedly ordered the three girls to cancel their transformations and hide far away. He himself simply slipped more than ten kilometers away to observe the battlefield—not because he was scared, but because all the Evil Energy in his body had been used to create monsters, leaving him with no strength to fight.

Before long, two magical girls—one tall and one short, one thin and one plump—flew over.

"It's here! Tan Xiang, there are lots of monster reactions below. This must be the enemy's nest. Hurry up and destroy them all!" Yun Ye ordered, pointing at the warehouse beneath them.

"But... the three Demonfallen magical girls might be in there too. If we hurt them..."

"After Demonfall, they're monsters. Why hesitate to kill monsters? Burn them! Burn them hard!" Yun Ye glared as she berated Tan Xiang, as if she wanted to vent all the anger she had bottled up at the vegetarian meat restaurant.

"Yes!" Tan Xiang had been pushed around for so long that she also had a pent-up frustration with nowhere to vent. But now, she could only vent it on the monsters.

She slowly closed her eyes, as though gathering something. When she opened them again, they had turned a chilling crimson red, while her lustrous silver hair had become withered white.

At the same time, powerful magic manifested around her. Even though the three sisters from Clear Lotus City were lying in ambush far away, they could clearly feel that heart-palpitating pressure.

However, that was not what Li Xuan cared about.

"Holy shit! White hair and red eyes! That kind of creature really exists!!!" Li Xuan was so excited that his heart itched. He wished he could rush over immediately and force Fallen Blood down her throat, but remembering that he only had a tiny bit of Evil Energy left, he could only forcibly restrain himself.

"Great Magic Blaze!" Tan Xiang, having gathered her magic, shouted angrily and threw the golden wheel on her wrist toward the center of the sky. The wheel hovered where the sun should have been and burst into raging flames, making the already clear daylight several degrees brighter. The spinning fire wheel in the sky seemed as though it wanted to replace the sun itself. The flames burned from the sky to the ground, incinerating everything in their path. The sight of those surging flames was like the end of the world.

Witnessing such astonishing destructive power, the three magical girls lying in ambush nearby were terrified. Their earlier thought of confronting her head-on had completely vanished. The feeling in their hearts was like arranging an after-school fight, only to discover they had challenged Godzilla.

"Can an enemy like this really be defeated?" Even Wu Yan, who loved fighting the most, could not help doubting it inwardly.

After the flames receded, the entire warehouse and a vast stretch of the surrounding factory district had been burned beyond recognition. Yet the ground where the abandoned warehouse had stood was covered in a white substance over ten meters in diameter, like an eggshell protecting something within.

"Yun Ye... this thing isn't afraid of fire. I saw similar monsters when I first arrived. It's like... it was made specifically to counter me." Looking at the completely unharmed white "eggshell," Tan Xiang could not help feeling uneasy.

"If it isn't afraid of fire, smash it! Aren't you Battle Type? You can do more than just throw fire around, can't you? Besides, if the enemy prepared something on this level, doesn't that prove this is an important location? It might even be their nest!" Yun Ye urged.

"Yes..." Tan Xiang took a deep breath, spun seven and a half times in midair, then brought down one leg in an elegant yet fierce diving-style split kick. (Note: not the Philippines.)

However, just as her leg was about to touch the white shell, it suddenly blossomed open like a flower, exposing a layer of sticky substance inside.

"A gelatinous monster?" Tan Xiang was startled, but it was too late to retract her leg. That powerful kick, carrying the force of her spin, was like firing an armor-piercing shell into a swamp. She passed directly through the Slime lake and sank into the eggshell.

The eggshell promptly closed, wrapping Tan Xiang tightly inside. Tan Xiang felt as though she were diving in jelly. Slime immediately flooded her nose and ears, completely obstructing her breathing. She struggled desperately, but the Slime's sticky texture left her unable to exert force. Even if she tore apart its core, the dead Slime would still cling to her, doing nothing to help her escape.

"I have no choice but to do it again... Calamity Blaze!" The terror of suffocation robbed Tan Xiang of her reason, and she directly used Great Magic inside the eggshell.

"It's here! Iron pot stewed magical girl!" Li Xuan clenched his fists excitedly, watching Tan Xiang inside the eggshell through the Hunting Radar with both heartache and anticipation.

Apocalyptic flames ignited from the wheel, instantly cooking and boiling the Slime inside. However, the shell composed of fire-resistant monsters could withstand the searing heat and would not burn easily. The temperature that could turn an entire area into scorched earth in moments could only build up within the eggshell, causing a violent boil like detonating explosives inside a sealed iron sphere.

"Wuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!" Tan Xiang's expression was agonized. With nowhere to hide, she could only take the full force of power that normally could affect an area several kilometers wide. Although she had used magic to resist most of the heat, her entire face was still red like a boiled shrimp. And since she was immersed in boiling Slime, every cry of pain she made only allowed more boiling Slime to pour into her mouth.

Three Against One and Still Got Counter-Killed—Do You Even Know How to Play?

The intense pain instead stimulated Tan Xiang's survival instinct. She desperately swung her arms, swimming through an ocean as viscous as glue. She swam all the way to the edge of the eggshell and, before suffocating, hurled the golden wheel, smashing a crack into the fire-resistant shell.

The high pressure inside immediately burst through the crack, nearly spraying Tan Xiang out. Yet the moment she breathed fresh air, Tan Xiang reacted swiftly. She spun in midair to stabilize herself, then threw the wheel at lightning speed and smashed the eggshell to pieces.

"Yun Ye, I'm injured... heal me." After breaking the eggshell, Tan Xiang revealed a pained expression. Clearly, taking the full force of a Great Magic had left her seriously hurt.

"The number of times the scripture can be used each day is limited. Endure it for now. Once we clear out the remaining enemies, I'll heal you all at once." Yun Ye spoke impatiently, seemingly having completely forgotten how she had used the scripture's power to wreck a restaurant in retaliation earlier.

"Yes..." Tan Xiang turned around helplessly. This time, she had learned her lesson. She only used the wheel to clear a path, slowly cleaning up the debris scattered after the eggshell broke apart.

There were still many monsters hiding beneath the eggshell. Though they were all weak enemies, their numbers were considerable. Tan Xiang cleared them out while keeping watch on her surroundings. Suddenly, she heard a muffled boom. Dozens of somewhat stronger monsters erupted from the ground dozens of meters away, escorting a humanoid monster as it fled into the distance.

Without a second thought, Tan Xiang threw a fire wheel at them. Unexpectedly, the monsters neither dodged nor avoided it. More than ten clustered together and used their bodies as shields against Tan Xiang's attack, only to buy the humanoid monster a little time to escape.

"A humanoid monster! And so many monsters are willing to die protecting it! It must be the target! Chase it! Don't let her get away!" Yun Ye cried out.

"Yes!" Tan Xiang rushed forward, catching up to the humanoid monster at astonishing speed like a runaway schoolgirl. However, a golden barrier suddenly blocked her path.

Tan Xiang looked up and saw three magical girls floating in the sky, dressed in red, yellow, and blue. Their outfits were bolder and sexier than usual, and the aura around them was not magic, but dark Evil Energy.

"You're the three fallen magical girls? You really are loyal to your master! Tan Xiang, kill them all!" Yun Ye shouted.

"Sorry, please don't stop me!" Tan Xiang said as she swung the wheel at Qi Mo. Though she was injured, this seemingly casual strike still shattered Qi Mo's barrier. Xu Rou charged forward wielding her giant axe, only to be kicked away. Wu Yan's Judgment was casually neutralized by a single fire wheel. The three C-rank magical girls strengthened by the Dark Pact could not even last five minutes against Tan Xiang before they were defeated.

"Tan Xiang! What are you doing?! I told you to kill them all! Can't you hear me?" Yun Ye screamed hysterically from behind.

"They still have their sense of self. They haven't completely become monsters. I believe there's still a way to save them!" After defeating the three magical girls, Tan Xiang flashed forward and, amid the surrounding monsters, grabbed the humanoid monster by the neck.

But the moment she touched it, Tan Xiang immediately sensed something was wrong. The humanoid monster had no features. Its neck was soft and limp, as though it had no cervical bones at all, and it felt like a lump of flesh. Before she could process it further, the humanoid monster's originally slender body began to swell like an inflating balloon. By the time Tan Xiang realized something was wrong, it had already exploded with a loud bang. Its power was far weaker than a Great Magic, but at such close range, it still left Tan Xiang dizzy and disoriented.

"We won! Now I can finally get promoted! Trash is trash. Even after Demonfall, you're still trash. Three against one and you still got counter-killed—do you even know how to play?" Yun Ye arrogantly mocked the three defeated magical girls from afar.

"Mas—ter—! Damn magical girls, you actually forced Master to self-destruct! We'll definitely avenge him!" The three magical girls let out heartbreaking wails, threw out a few threats, and hurriedly retreated.

"Cough, cough..." Tan Xiang did not pursue them. She spat out a mouthful of blood and slowly descended to the ground. It seemed that victory had not come as easily as it appeared.

"Tan Xiang, well done, well done! Now we've taken out the enemy's leader!" Yun Ye excitedly followed her over and patted Tan Xiang's shoulder hard.

"Lady Yun Ye, there may be more to this. The way it felt when I grabbed that monster just now..."

"Never mind that. I'll heal you now." Yun Ye took out the scripture and chanted an indistinct incantation. A ray of light descended from the heavens, slowly healing the burns on Tan Xiang's body.

"All right, next we'll spend all the money in one go and have a blast. Tomorrow night, we'll go back and report to the Archdeacon!" Yun Ye turned to leave after saying that.

"Lady Yun Ye, I still have fire poison in my body." Tan Xiang hurriedly reminded her.

"Oh, right. You really are troublesome." Yun Ye helplessly reached out and pressed a hand against Tan Xiang's head. "Purification!"

A holy light flashed, and Tan Xiang's expression finally changed from pain to calm. However, she still looked rather weak and could only sit on the ruins to rest.

"Time to go shopping!" After casting Purification magic, Yun Ye put away the scripture and flew toward the city, completely ignoring Tan Xiang, who was still resting where she was.

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

The three magical girls had returned to Li Xuan. He patted each of their heads as a reward. "You did well. Although Tan Xiang sensed something unusual, Yun Ye seems to have believed that the humanoid bomb I made was my real body."

"Master, that girl still seems weak. Should we strike while she's vulnerable? She doesn't seem as strong as we imagined. Her bursts are powerful, but she seems to have a period of weakness afterward. She isn't as lasting as Master." Xu Rou asked eagerly.

Seeing Xu Rou's vicious expression, Li Xuan could not help feeling a headache coming on. Before Demonfall, Xu Rou had been the most orderly and kindhearted of the three sisters. Yet after falling, she had become the most scheming. Did magical girls have some sort of good-and-evil stat, with Demonfall simply crudely putting a minus sign in front of it?

"No. Tan Xiang's explosive power is too terrifying. In that last fight, she saw that you still retained your reason, so she didn't go for the kill. She may be weak now, but... you three will obediently come home with me. Don't entertain any more thoughts of facing her head-on." Li Xuan shook his head.

"But Master, they think they've dealt with you, so they'll probably leave Clear Lotus City. If we don't strike now..." Qi Mo said worriedly.

"Don't worry. Tan Xiang is a very polite girl. She only just became friends with Xu Rou, so she won't leave without saying goodbye." Li Xuan smiled confidently, wrapped his arms around the three magical girls, and returned home to continue his debauched life.

What Kind of Play Do You Want Today?

Early the next morning, just as Li Xuan had expected, Tan Xiang came to the shop. She looked exhausted, clearly not having fully recovered from yesterday's fierce battle.

"You came so early. Have a seat first. I'll go get the maid outfit I prepared for you." Li Xuan welcomed her with a kind smile.