French Girl / Tang Xi's Welcome Ceremony ...

Although she looked frail, the Evil Energy radiating from Tan Xiang was even stronger than Li Xuan's, only slightly weaker than Bing Rui's magic power.

"Those who stand in my way die! 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 immediately surged forth. Everything the mist touched froze, while droplets in the air rapidly congealed into ice chips and fell with a rustle.

This was the fastest-casting spell among the magic Bing Rui had mastered. Though its power was not ideal, 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.

Bing Rui was now certain that the girl blocking her path was Li Xuan's ultimate trump card. As long as she killed this girl, she could hurry over to support Tang Xi. Tang Xi was a Sealing Type magical girl, so she should have no problem holding out until help arrived. Once the two joined forces, they could fight even a Grade A monster. Then, she would make Li Xuan repay what he had done to her tenfold, a hundredfold!

"Mighty Dragon!" Bing Rui immediately unleashed her second grand magic, swinging the dragon's body with the blue tip of her spear. Perhaps her extreme fury had drawn out her potential; today, the charge-up was exceptionally fast, and it took only a dozen seconds to extend the dragon's body to its full length.

By then, Tan Xiang had only just recovered her mobility. She had merely an instant to act. Even if she cast a grand magic, she would never be able to withstand Mighty Dragon's impact.

I've won!

At that moment, Bing Rui was already convinced of her victory.

"Flame Realm."

Just as the enormous dragon head was about to slam into her face, Tan Xiang softly chanted.

In an instant, blazing flames ignited from within Tan Xiang's body and weapon. The inferno gilded her body in gold, making her shine as brilliantly as the noonday sun.

The ice dragon, charging with the force of a galloping horse, crashed into Tan Xiang's flame-wreathed body and immediately kicked up steam that filled the sky. As even its tail was completely vaporized by the heat, Bing Rui stared in shock at the lingering flames still burning on Tan Xiang's body.

"A spell cast instantly is actually stronger than one I had to charge. What kind of explosive power is that?" 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 can't win within ten minutes, then I'll be the one who dies." Tan Xiang deflected the thrusting spear with her Golden Wheel and turned to answer him.

"Alright. I'll be back in five minutes. Don't die." Li Xuan opened a portal and used the Delusive Badlands as a springboard to arrive directly before Tang Xi.

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

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

"You finally came. I've been waiting for you forever." Tang Xi complained the moment she saw Li Xuan.

"Oh? It seems Miss Tang Xi had already 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 little trick. These two spells are called 'Two Minds' and 'Three Hands.' They're quite useful when surrounded. For example, I can multitask like this—defend on one hand while talking to you on the other. That way, I won't slip up because you distract me." Tang Xi looked utterly relaxed. Though the monsters were numerous, they could only crowd together, and only a few in the front row could attack her. For the moment, they truly could do nothing to her.

"Haha, so you saw through my little trick of distracting you through conversation. Then let me rearrange my troops 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 all the monsters capable of ranged attacks lined up according to their attack ranges to ensure maximum firepower coverage.

"Hold it! When I said I'd been waiting for you forever, I didn't mean I wanted to fight!" Tang Xi hurriedly shouted.

"Huh? You don't want to fight? You aren't expecting me to let you go, are you?" Li Xuan said in disbelief.

French Girl

"Of course not. I mean I can surrender. Look, I definitely can't beat this many monsters, but they wouldn't listen to me at all, so I had no choice but to take some measures of self-defense. Now that you're here, can't I just surrender directly to you? You look like the communicative type. You're not going to kill me, right?"

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

For magical girls, canceling their transformation not only meant losing their powers as magical girls, but also completely exposing their true identities. To them, this 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 met so far had fought until the very end. Even after defeat, they still acted as though they would rather die together with him. Unless they were coerced or fed Fallen Blood, not one had submitted to him. Tang Xi suddenly pulling this made him wonder whether it was a trap.

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

Was she really surrendering?

"Don't be so suspicious. I do have conditions for surrendering. First, you have to swear not to kill me, and Bing Rui has to live too. Besides, I really can't beat this many monsters. Rather than take a beating and surrender afterward, I may as well surrender now." Tang Xi kept both hands raised and spoke as though it were only natural.

"May I ask, do you really have no psychological burden about surrendering like this?" Li Xuan asked politely.

"Nope. My teacher once said, 'Push when you're ahead, surrender when you're behind. How much sorrow can a man have? Like feeding kills under an enemy tower.' So this counts as honoring my teacher's teachings. Also, you need to bring my laptop with you. There are very important things on it." Tang Xi pointed toward a patch of ruins.

"Fine, I accept your terms of surrender. I swear upon the Flower River that I will never take either of your lives." Torn between laughter and tears, Li Xuan searched through the ruins, found her laptop, and kept it with him. Then he extended a tentacle and bound her up in one swift motion.

Most absurdly, the system immediately popped up 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 much more time than expected, so he did not open a portal and travel while enduring the headache Debuff. Instead, he directly grabbed Tang Xi with his tentacles and flew toward the battlefield at Autumn Mountain Park.

Heavy moisture like dark storm clouds hung over Autumn Mountain Park, so dense that it had even begun to rain. The pair of ice-and-fire figures were no longer in the air. Li Xuan felt a little uneasy. "Did those two idiots kill each other?"

Li Xuan hurriedly looked down and saw Tan Xiang and Bing Rui lying drenched on the ground, grabbing each other's hair and brawling. It seemed both of them had exhausted their energy. Tan Xiang wore a bodysuit and had short hair, so she could not be grabbed easily in close combat, giving her a slight advantage. But Bing Rui seemed stronger. For the moment, the battle was fiercely deadlocked, and it was impossible to tell who would win.

Yet from their limp bodies and ragged breathing, it was clear that both had nearly run out of strength. Even maintaining their transformations was already difficult.

"Master... I won, but the Fire Poison... is serious. Save me~" Seeing Li Xuan arrive, Tan Xiang stretched both hands toward him for help. Beside her, Bing Rui desperately stuck out her rear 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 had fallen onto the ground.

Soaked through by the rain, her blue skirt clung tightly to her thighs, revealing her figure as clearly as in the old photograph. Amid her bedraggled state was a charm like a lotus battered by wind and rain.

"Surrender. I'll be very gentle with prisoners." As Li Xuan spoke, he walked to Tan Xiang's side and used Fallen Blood together with finger massage to help her dispel the Fire Poison accumulated within her body.

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

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

"Just give it up, A-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 expected her to surrender to a monster.

Tang Xi spread her hands helplessly.

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

"You have hidden power?" Li Xuan asked, puzzled.

"There's no such thing." Tang Xi said, then suddenly revealed a sly smile. "Bing Rui refuses to surrender, but you already swore not to kill her. You wouldn't break your oath, would you?"

"That's hard to say. I'm a monster. You don't actually believe monsters keep promises, do you?" Li Xuan said, withdrawing his wet fingers amid Tan Xiang's moans.

"I do believe it. I've traveled everywhere since I was nine. Though I 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 everything I had, I'd only delay you for a little while longer." Tang Xi smiled slyly.

"Your luck with gambling is good. I rarely kill pretty girls." Li Xuan smiled. So she hadn't surrendered mindlessly after all—come to think of it, the three principles of magical girls are purity, justice, and mystery. None of them say they can't surrender.

"Master, that's enough. The poison has been dispelled. If this keeps going, I'm going to dehydrate..." Tan Xiang begged as water poured beneath her body.

"Sorry, I got so caught up talking that my hands didn't stop." Li Xuan quickly picked up Tan Xiang, casually grabbed the exhausted Bing Rui with his tentacles, opened a portal, and leaped into the Delusive Badlands.

Tang Xi's Welcome Ceremony

"Alulu, I've explained this problem seven times already. Is there anything you still don't understand?" Xu Rou smiled as she held a huge axe above Alulu's head with one hand and pointed to a question on the test paper with a ballpoint pen in the other.

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

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

As Alulu worked on the problems, she occasionally looked up at the massive axe hanging above her head, terrified that Xu Rou might slip and give her the treatment reserved for French royalty.

She had been locked in this stone chamber for a while now. At first, she had been terrified, but later Li Xuan sent over some of her belongings. Then the three older sisters responsible for guarding her brought in tables, chairs, bedding, and plenty of daily necessities, significantly improving her quality of life.

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

But the good times did not last. Qi Mo soon demanded that she start doing her summer homework and complete a certain amount every day, or her game console would be confiscated. Poor Alulu, an underachiever, was forced to work on problems in the dark stone chamber. There were simply too many questions she could not solve, and she did not even have a solid grasp of much of the basic knowledge. Her pace in solving problems was as slow as EA's servers.

Fortunately, Qi Mo was truly patient when explaining questions to her. Even when Alulu made the most basic mistakes, she never got impatient and would calmly guide her through the material again. She was far more responsible than the teachers at Alulu's aristocratic school. After getting familiar with her, Alulu discovered that Qi Mo had a good personality and gradually began making jokes with her. Sometimes, after finishing their work, the two would even play games together for a while.

But the good times did not last x2. As summer vacation passed day by day, Wu Yan, who realized she would not finish her homework, soon joined the fray. Qi Mo's number of students instantly doubled, and she could no longer patiently tend 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 poor students.

Then Alulu's nightmare began. Xu Rou's ability was not much worse than Qi Mo's, but her temper was far more irritable. If the same type of problem was repeatedly answered wrong several times, she would spank them. Even Wu Yan, who was also a guard, had been spanked until she was red and swollen. Alulu's delicate little backside went without saying.

"Wait, Teacher Xiao Rou, explain this one more slowly. I was thinking about what to eat tonight just now, so I lost track of your reasoning." Wu Yan raised her hand.

"Wu Yan, this is a middle school problem~ And it's considered one of the easier questions in the high school entrance exam question bank. Even Alulu can solve it now. I seriously wonder what you were doing throughout middle school." Xu Rou mocked her mercilessly.

"Dancing, spacing out, chewing my fingers." Wu Yan answered without a care.

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

"Qi Mo won't be here until this afternoon. She explains things much more carefully than you do. No wonder she can take first place while you can only stay below her." Wu Yan mocked her in return.

"Still better than winning in reverse..."

While the two were bickering, a black portal suddenly appeared in the stone chamber. Li Xuan jumped through while carrying Tan Xiang, with two unfamiliar magical girls wrapped 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 Xu Rou from the side to catch a little of the hugging atmosphere.

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

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

"Got it~" Wu Yan was already sick of doing problems. Hearing Li Xuan's order, she immediately rubbed her hands together 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 spot Qi Mo, 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 fill in this morning." Xu Rou replied.

"That's fine, but why are you holding an axe while tutoring homework?" Li Xuan asked curiously.

"Well... it's for helping Alulu sharpen her pencils... crunch, crunch~" Xu Rou hurriedly hid the axe behind her back and lied with a nervous expression.

"Alright, I know what you're planning. But when people are pushed too far, it's not like they can do anything—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 her.

"Fine..." Xu Rou turned back and glared at Alulu unhappily. Emboldened by having someone to rely on, Alulu grinned and gave Xu Rou the middle finger.

Seeing Alulu's cheeky grin, Li Xuan thought he could 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 allow things like spanking. A teacher can't have no authority at all."

"Master, with your word, I'm relieved!" Xu Rou smugly threw Alulu a flirtatious wink. Alulu hurriedly put away her middle finger and put on an obedient expression.

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

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

Opening portals within the Delusive Badlands did not consume much mental power, so Li Xuan treated it as a standard method of travel. The moment he landed, he set Tang Xi on the ground and summoned the monsters stored here, preparing for a major battle.

"The business you mean should be taking the chastity of magical girls like us, right? I won't resist. There's no need to make such a big show of it." Tang Xi said, looking at the monsters gradually approaching.

"Hmm... you can think of it as 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 guess it's understandable..." Tang Xi helplessly transformed, changing into the cool outfit of a sports bra and yoga pants, then summoned a third hand formed from energy behind her.

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

Secret Art: White-Silk Triangle Strangle!

Li Xuan ordered the surrounding monsters to swarm forward. Though Tang Xi of the Sealing Type did not possess great combat power, her magic level was still a full tier above his. To take her down safely, it was better to wear her down first. As for a one-on-one turning into a group of monsters ganging up on a weak girl, Li Xuan did not care at all.

"Just to be safe, may I ask: can I kill these monsters?" Tang Xi asked with a smile as she blocked the monsters' attacks with a barrier.

"No problem. They're just cannon fodder anyway." Li Xuan thought that if she attacked, it would only accelerate her magic consumption, conveniently reducing the pressure on him when he stepped in personally later.

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

"Grand Spell: Gravity Vortex—Duet—Double Casting."

Tang Xi held up the floating magic book with her three hands 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 ground by gravity, then gradually pulled toward the centers of the vortices, twisting and shattering under the tearing force of the four suction cores until they were ground to pieces.

In only a few minutes, Li Xuan's entire army of monsters stored in the Delusive Badlands had been 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 might have these monsters assault me later, so I got a little scared and killed them all. Don't be fooled by how easy I made it look. Duet casting is originally a way of stacking two spells together, and then I used Two Minds to double it again. That's the equivalent of using four grand spells in one go, so my magic power is basically depleted now." 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. She was merely maintaining the hollow shell of her transformation.

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

"Of course I mind. But a humanoid is better than a monster, right? 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 seen who's this much of a quitter." Li Xuan said, rubbing his forehead.

"I'm not giving up. I do my job properly when I'm working, but I think magical girl is just a profession. It's not worth risking my life over." Tang Xi replied.

Li Xuan frowned and calculated inwardly. Damn it. Looking at her pathetic attitude, she'll probably deliberately lose later. That dog system is so picky—what if it doesn't give me a defeat CG? I need to think of 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." Tang Xi lived up to expectations and 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.