Magical Girls? There's No Going Back!

Though she looked frail enough to be blown over by the wind, the Evil Energy radiating from Tan Xiang was even stronger than Li Xuan's, and only slightly weaker than the magic power surrounding Bing Rui.

"Death to anyone who blocks me! Grand Magic: Extreme Freeze!" Bing Rui could no longer worry about anything else. She pointed with the tip of her pink spear, and a frigid mist instantly surged forth. Everything the mist touched froze solid, while droplets in the air swiftly condensed into icy shards and fell with soft rattles.

This was the fastest-cast spell among the magic Bing Rui had mastered. Its power was not particularly impressive, but as long as it froze her opponent, she could follow up with other magic and finish them in one blow.

Because they were so close, Tan Xiang was caught off guard and frozen by the icy mist. Though she desperately circulated Evil Energy to thaw herself, she still could not immediately regain the ability to move.

At this point, Bing Rui was certain that the girl blocking her path was Li Xuan's ultimate trump card. As long as she killed the girl, she could rush over to support Tang Xi. Tang Xi was a Sealing Type magical girl, so holding out until rescue should not be a problem. Once the two joined forces, they would stand a chance even against a Grade A monster. As for what Li Xuan had done to her, she would make him repay it tenfold, a hundredfold!

"Mighty Dragon!" Bing Rui immediately unleashed her second grand magic, swinging the dragon's body with the tip of her blue spear. Perhaps her extreme fury had awakened her potential, because her charge-up was extraordinarily fast today. In just over ten seconds, the dragon's body had extended to its full length.

Only then did Tan Xiang regain her mobility. She had just a fleeting instant to act, and even if she unleashed grand magic, she absolutely could not withstand Mighty Dragon's impact.

I won!

At this moment, Bing Rui was utterly convinced of her victory.

"Flame Realm."

As the massive dragon head was about to crash into her face, Tan Xiang softly chanted.

In an instant, blazing flames ignited from within Tan Xiang's body and weapon. The fierce fire plated her in gold, making her shine as brightly as the midday sun.

The ice dragon, charging like a galloping horse, slammed into the flame-clad Tan Xiang and immediately sent steam soaring into the sky. As even its tail was completely vaporized by the heat, Bing Rui stared in shock at the lingering flames that had yet to die out on Tan Xiang's body.

"A spell cast instantly was actually stronger than one that needed charging... What terrifying explosive power." Bing Rui was stunned, but at this point, she could only grit her teeth and press on.

"Tan Xiang, how long will it take you to deal with her?" Li Xuan, who had been watching from the side, asked.

"Ten minutes. If I still can't win after ten minutes, then I'll be the one who dies." Tan Xiang used her Golden Wheel to deflect the stabbing spear, then turned to answer.

"Good. I'll be back in five minutes, so don't die." As Li Xuan spoke, he opened a portal and used the Delusive Badlands as a stepping stone to arrive directly before Tang Xi.

Tang Xi had already transformed. Wearing a tight sports bra and yoga pants, she used barriers and sealing magic to fend off the monsters' attacks. Besides her two arms, a white arm formed from magic floated behind her back, coordinating with her body to cast spells. Li Xuan also noticed that she seemed able to cast two spells at a time, unlike other magical girls, who could only use one at once.

"Good evening, Miss Tang Xi," Li Xuan greeted politely.

"You finally came. I've been waiting so painfully long for you," Tang Xi complained the moment she saw him.

"Oh? It seems Miss Tang Xi had long prepared to deal with me. What's with that arm of yours? And you seem to be able to use two kinds of magic at once?" Li Xuan asked with interest.

"Just a few trivial tricks. These two spells are called 'Two Minds' and 'Three Hands.' They're quite useful when surrounded. For example, I can split my attention like this—defending while talking to you—so I won't lose focus and make a mistake because of you." Tang Xi looked completely at ease. Though there were many monsters, they could only crowd together, and only the few in front could attack her. For the moment, they truly could do nothing to her.

"Haha, so you've seen through my trick of distracting you through conversation. Then let me rearrange my forces and break your defense!" Li Xuan waved his hand, and the monsters immediately dispersed according to his will. The melee monsters guarded the edge of the encirclement, while the others capable of ranged attacks arranged themselves by attack range to ensure maximum fire coverage.

"Wait a second! When I said I'd been waiting painfully long for you, I didn't mean I wanted to fight!" Tang Xi hurriedly shouted.

"Huh? You don't want to fight? Don't tell me you're expecting me to let you go?" Li Xuan said incredulously.

French Girl

"Of course not. I mean I can surrender. Look at all these monsters—I definitely can't beat them. But they wouldn't listen when I tried talking, so I had no choice but to take some proper defensive measures. Now that you're here, can't I just surrender directly to you? You look like the sort who can communicate, so surely you won't kill me?"

Tang Xi raised both hands and simply canceled her transformation, changing back into an oversized T-shirt that covered her whole body. Two long, pale legs extended beneath the hem. Since it was impossible to tell what she wore underneath, it instead gave off a mysterious allure that made one want to find out.

For magical girls, canceling their transformation not only meant losing their powers, but also completely exposing their true identities. To them, that was no different from suicide. From any angle, Tang Xi's actions did not look like resistance.

"No, wait, let me process this..." Li Xuan froze for a moment. Every magical girl he had encountered so far had fought until the very last second. Even after defeat, they still looked ready to drag him down with them. Unless they were coerced or force-fed Fallen Blood, not a single one had ever yielded to him. Tang Xi suddenly pulling this on him made him fear it might be a trap.

But unlike the situation with Qi Mo, Tang Xi really was completely defenseless now. She had even canceled her transformation. If he ordered the monsters to attack together, they could turn her into pulp in an instant!

Was she really surrendering?

"Don't be so doubtful. My surrender does come with conditions. You have to swear not to kill me, and Bing Rui has to live too. Besides, I really can't beat so many monsters. Rather than get beaten up and surrender afterward, I might as well surrender now." Tang Xi kept her hands raised as she spoke in a perfectly matter-of-fact tone.

"May I ask whether surrendering like this places no psychological burden on you at all?" Li Xuan asked politely.

"Nope. My teacher once said, 'Push when you're ahead, surrender when you're behind; how much sorrow can one have? Like diving under a tower to feed the enemy.' So this counts as obeying my teacher's teachings. Also, you need to take my laptop with you. There are important things in it." Tang Xi pointed toward a patch of ruins.

"Fine. I accept your surrender conditions. I swear upon the Flower River that I will never take either of your lives." Half amused and half exasperated, Li Xuan searched through the ruins, found her laptop, and kept it with him. Then he extended a tentacle and bound her in one swift motion.

Most absurdly, the system immediately gave him an achievement:

[Hidden Achievement Unlocked: French Girl]

[Trigger Condition: Accept the surrender of a magical girl]

[Experience +10]

[Current Experience: 75/100]

Tang Xi's surrender saved him far more time than expected, so instead of opening a portal and traveling while suffering from a headache debuff, he simply grabbed Tang Xi with his tentacles and flew toward the battlefield at Autumn Mountain Park.

The sky above Autumn Mountain Park was filled with water vapor as heavy as dark storm clouds, so heavy that it had begun to rain. The pair resembling forest-dwelling ice and fire figures were no longer in the air. Li Xuan felt a faint surge of panic. "Those two haven't perished together, have they?"

Li Xuan hurriedly looked down and saw Tan Xiang and Bing Rui lying soaked on the ground, tugging each other's hair as they fought. It seemed both had exhausted their energy. Tan Xiang wore a rubber suit and had short hair, making her harder to grab in close combat, giving her a slight advantage. But Bing Rui appeared stronger, and for a time the battle was fiercely deadlocked, with no clear winner.

Yet their limp bodies and heavy breathing made one thing clear: both seemed to have reached their limits. Even maintaining their transformed states was already difficult.

"Master... I won, but the fire poison... is very serious. Save me~" Seeing Li Xuan arrive, Tan Xiang stretched both hands toward him for help. Meanwhile, Bing Rui desperately stuck out her butt and tried to crawl away, only to be immediately pinned to the ground by Li Xuan's tentacles. Her beautiful pink hair was mercilessly smeared with mud, and the ice-crystal hair clip atop her head scattered onto the ground.

Soaked through by the rain, her blue dress clung tightly to her thighs, revealing her figure as clearly as in the old photograph. Amid her bedraggled state, she possessed the wistful beauty of ruined lotus leaves in the wind.

"Surrender. I'll treat prisoners very gently." As Li Xuan spoke, he walked over to Tan Xiang and used Fallen Blood together with his fingers' massage to help dispel the fire poison accumulating in her body.

"Dream on! Let me tell you this: magical girls may be killed, but never humiliated! If you think we're like those spineless cowards from the Church, you're gravely underestimating us. Everyone from Guardian Abbey has an unyielding backbone. There has never been a coward among us!" Bing Rui declared righteously.

"Is that so? Then why did I happen to meet one today?" Li Xuan said as he lifted Tang Xi, who was bound to his tentacles, before Bing Rui.

"Come on, Bing Rui, I started it—he promised not to kill us." Tang Xi said weakly.

"Senior Sister... how could you?" Bing Rui stared at Tang Xi in utter disbelief, her mouth hanging open for a long time. She clearly had never imagined that Tang Xi would surrender to a monster.

Tang Xi spread her hands helplessly.

At that moment, Bing Rui suddenly thought of a possibility and shouted, "Senior Sister, did you surrender to save my life? Please rest assured, from the moment Bing Rui became a magical girl, I was prepared to die in the line of duty. You don't need to care about me! Use your hidden power and fight him!"

"You still have hidden power?" Li Xuan asked in confusion.

"There isn't any such thing." Tang Xi spoke, then suddenly revealed a sly smile. "Bing Rui refuses to surrender, but you've already sworn not to kill her. You wouldn't break your oath, would you?"

"That's hard to say. I'm a monster. You wouldn't actually trust a monster to keep an agreement, would you?" Li Xuan said, pulling out his wet fingers amid Tan Xiang's moans.

"I do trust you. I've traveled everywhere since I was nine. Though I've accomplished nothing, I did learn how to judge people. Your eyes, expression, movements, voice, and tone when you swore—I saw and heard all of it. Of course, even if I lose this bet, I lose nothing. I don't have any chips in my hand anyway. Even if I resisted with all my strength, I would only delay you a little longer." Tang Xi smiled slyly.

"Your luck in gambling is quite good. I don't easily kill pretty girls." Li Xuan smiled, thinking that this girl had not surrendered mindlessly after all. Thinking carefully, the three principles of magical girls were purity, justice, and mystery. They really did not say they could not surrender.

"Master, that's about enough. The poison has already been dispelled. If this continues, I'm going to dehydrate..." Tan Xiang pleaded as water streamed from her body while she lay on the ground.

"Sorry, I got so focused on talking that my hands never stopped moving." Li Xuan hurriedly picked up Tan Xiang, casually grabbed the exhausted Bing Rui with his tentacles, opened a portal, and jumped into the Delusive Badlands.

Tang Xi's Welcome Ceremony

"Alulu, I've explained this problem seven times already. Could you tell me what you still don't understand?" Xu Rou smiled as she held a massive axe over Alulu's head with one hand and pointed at the problem on the test paper with a ballpoint pen in the other.

"I understand... I understand now! Teacher Xu Rou, I understand everything!" Alulu glanced nervously at the skull on the massive axe and replied to Xu Rou in a trembling voice.

"Good. Let's look at the next problem: the discriminant of the roots of the quadratic equation x?+3x-1=0..."

While working through the problems, Alulu occasionally looked up at the huge axe hanging above her head, terrified that one slip of Xu Rou's hand would grant her the treatment reserved for French royalty.

She had been locked in this stone room for a while. At first she had been terrified, but later Li Xuan sent over some of her luggage. After that, the three older sisters responsible for guarding her brought tables, chairs, bedding, and a great many daily necessities, greatly improving her quality of life.

Even her mother had sent her a letter to comfort her, telling her not to overthink things and to endure for the time being. Later, Li Xuan had even fulfilled his promise and given her a handheld game console. Though she could only play offline games, that was already a very good pastime for Alulu.

However, the good days did not last. Qi Mo soon demanded that she start doing her summer homework and complete a set amount every day, or else her game console would be confiscated. Poor Alulu, an underachieving student, was forced to work through problems in the dark stone chamber. There were simply too many questions she could not solve, and even much of her basic knowledge was shaky. Her speed at doing homework was as slow as EA's servers.

Fortunately, Qi Mo was truly patient when explaining problems to her. Even when Alulu made the most elementary mistakes, Qi Mo would calmly guide her through reviewing the material again. She was far more responsible than the teachers at Alulu's aristocratic school. After they became familiar with each other, Alulu discovered that Qi Mo had a very nice personality and gradually began joking with her. Sometimes, after finishing their homework, the two would even play games together for a while.

However, the good days did not last *2. As the summer vacation passed day by day, Wu Yan, who realized she would not be able to finish her homework, soon joined the fray. Qi Mo's tutoring workload instantly doubled, and she could no longer patiently attend to both of them in detail, leaving her physically and mentally exhausted.

So she brought in Xu Rou, whose grades were second only to hers. The two took turns teaching to meet the tutoring needs of the two struggling students.

Then Alulu's nightmare began. Xu Rou's ability was not much worse than Qi Mo's, but her temper was far more explosive. If they repeatedly got the same type of problem wrong a few times, she would smack their butts. Even Wu Yan, who was also a guard, had been spanked until she was red and swollen, so there was no need to mention Alulu's delicate little backside.

"Wait, Teacher Xiao Rou, explain this one more slowly. I was thinking about what to eat tonight just now, so I didn't follow your train of thought," Wu Yan raised her hand and said.

"Wu Yan, this is a middle school problem~ And it's even considered one of the easy ones in the high school entrance exam question bank. I really wonder what exactly you did throughout middle school." Xu Rou mocked her without mercy.

"Danced, stared blankly, chewed my fingers," Wu Yan answered nonchalantly.

"...Go bring Qi Mo back. Only she has enough patience to teach you two idiots."

"Qi Mo won't come until the afternoon. She explains things much more thoroughly than you do. No wonder she can take first place while you can only stay below her," Wu Yan retorted mockingly.

"Still better than winning first place from the bottom..."

As the two bickered, a black portal suddenly appeared in the stone room. Li Xuan leaped through while carrying Tan Xiang, with two unfamiliar magical girls coiled in his tentacles.

"Wow, Master is finally back!" Xu Rou immediately pounced on him, fighting Tan Xiang for the little remaining space in Li Xuan's embrace. Wu Yan was a step too late and could only rub against them from behind Xu Rou to get a little of the feeling of a hug.

"Master, are these two new companions? They don't look converted yet," Wu Yan said as she looked at the two girls wrapped in the tentacles.

"Not yet. Wu Yan, lock this one up on the eleventh floor first. There are tentacle monsters I arranged there that can continuously absorb her magic power—be careful, though. That thing can't tell friend from foe, so don't get caught in it yourself." Li Xuan said, setting down the exhausted Bing Rui.

"Got it~" Wu Yan was already sick of doing homework. Upon hearing Li Xuan's order, she immediately rubbed her hands together eagerly and carried Bing Rui down the stairs.

"Xu Rou, why are you tutoring Alulu? Where's Qi Mo?" Li Xuan looked around but did not see Qi Mo anywhere, so he asked.

"Qi Mo is resting at home. Tutoring both Wu Yan and Alulu takes a lot out of her, so she asked me to cover for her this morning," Xu Rou replied.

"That isn't a problem, but why are you holding an axe while tutoring?" Li Xuan asked curiously.

"Well... It's for conveniently sharpening Alulu's pencils... Crunch, crunch~" Xu Rou hurriedly hid the axe behind her back and lied with a nervous expression.

"Alright, I know what you're thinking. But when people are pushed too far, it doesn't mean they can do everything. For example, they still can't solve math problems. I need to handle something outside. Tutor them properly, and rein in that young lady temper of yours," Li Xuan warned.

"Fine..." Xu Rou turned back and glared unhappily at Alulu, who, thinking she now had someone to back her up, grinned and raised her middle finger at Xu Rou.

Seeing Alulu's flippant expression, Li Xuan thought he should not let her relax too much, so he patted Xu Rou's shoulder. "What I mean is, put the axe away. You absolutely can't kill anyone. But I still permit things like spanking. Teachers can't have no authority at all."

"Master, with those words, I'm relieved!" Xu Rou shot Alulu a smug wink. Alulu hurriedly put down her middle finger and adopted an obedient expression.

"This place of yours seems a little more interesting than I imagined." Tang Xi said from the tentacles.

"Sorry, I've been neglecting you. Let's go outside and handle the real business." Li Xuan temporarily left Tan Xiang and the laptop on the twelfth floor, then opened a portal and brought Tang Xi to the open space outside.

Opening portals within the Delusive Badlands did not consume much mental energy, so Li Xuan treated it as an ordinary means of travel. The moment he landed, he set Tang Xi down and summoned the monsters stored here, preparing for a major battle.

"By 'real business,' you mean taking the chastity of magical girls like us, right? I won't resist. There is no need to make such a huge fuss," Tang Xi said as she watched the approaching monsters.

"Mm... You can consider this a welcome ceremony. In any case, I require you to fight with everything you have until I defeat you. Don't worry, I won't take your life. At most, I'll humiliate you a little," Li Xuan explained.

"The rules here are really perverted. But considering you're a monster, I suppose it's understandable..." Tang Xi helplessly transformed, changing into the cool outfit of a sports bra and yoga pants, then summoned a third energy-made hand behind her back.

"I'm being called a pervert again... But once I get these thirty experience points, I can level up. Pervert it is..." Li Xuan glanced at his experience data and could only silently accept Tang Xi's assessment.

Secret Art: White-Silk Triangle Strangle!

Li Xuan ordered the surrounding monsters to swarm forward. Though Tang Xi, as a Sealing Type magical girl, did not have especially strong combat power, her magic level was still a tier above his. To take her down safely, it was better to wear her down first. As for what had been a one-on-one duel turning into a group of monsters ganging up on a delicate girl, Li Xuan did not care in the slightest.

"Just to be safe, may I ask: can these monsters be killed?" Tang Xi asked with a smiling expression as she used barriers to block the monsters' attacks.

"No problem. They're all just cannon fodder anyway." Li Xuan thought that if she attacked, it would only worsen her magic consumption, conveniently reducing the pressure on him when he entered the fight himself later.

"This is less than one-third of the monsters from before. Are you really planning to use them to test me?" Tang Xi smiled, then suddenly broke free from the monsters' restraint and flew into the air.

"Grand Magic: Gravity Vortex: Duet: Double Casting."

Tang Xi's three hands supported a floating magic book and aimed its front cover toward where the monsters had gathered. Four pitch-black gravity vortices gradually formed on the ground. The surrounding monsters were pressed to the earth by gravity, then slowly drawn toward the centers of the vortices. Torn apart by the pull of the four cores, they gradually twisted, shattered, and were crushed to pieces.

In just a few minutes, Li Xuan's army of monsters stored in the Delusive Badlands had been completely wiped out.

"Holy shit, wasn't the Sealing Type supposed to be bad at fighting? Aren't you ridiculously strong?" Li Xuan said in shock.

"To be honest, I was afraid you would have these monsters violate me later, so I got a little scared and killed them all. Don't be fooled by how easy it looked. Duet casting was originally a method of stacking two spells together, and then I used Two Minds to double it again. That was equivalent to using four grand magic spells at once, so my magic power is basically exhausted too," Tang Xi said helplessly.

Li Xuan carefully sensed the aura around Tang Xi and found that she was not lying. There was almost no trace of magic power left on her now. She was merely maintaining the empty shell of her transformation.

"So if I do it myself, you don't mind?" Li Xuan stepped forward and asked.

"Of course I mind, but a humanoid is better than a monster, isn't it? Chastity is important, but it can't be more important than my life." Tang Xi spread her hands.

"You... You're the first magical girl I've ever met who's given up this completely." Li Xuan said, pressing a hand to his forehead.

"I'm not giving up. I do my job properly when I'm working, but I think being a magical girl is just a profession. There's no need to stake my life on it," Tang Xi replied.

Li Xuan frowned and calculated inwardly. Damn it. Looking at her pathetic attitude, she's probably going to deliberately lose later. That damn system is so picky—what if it doesn't give me a defeat CG? I need to find a way to make her take this seriously.

"Alright, let's begin. I'm already lying down—by the way, do you have a pillow? I might be a little nervous." Living up to expectations, Tang Xi directly lay down on the ground.

"Hey, I haven't even fought you yet. Why are you already down? Didn't we agree you'd fight with everything you had?" Li Xuan complained.