"I already gave it my all. Look, I even drained all my magic power. Besides, doesn't collapsing early prove your shooting was accurate?" Tang Xi said, lying flat on the ground with an air of "if I'm useless enough, no one can make use of me."
"How about this? I'll give you a special reward: if you can defeat me in a one-on-one fight, I'll give you back your freedom. How does that sound?" Li Xuan decided to give Tang Xi a little hope. Otherwise, she probably would not be able to muster even a shred of motivation.
"Freedom? If I get out, I'll just have to work again... Forget it. That's still better than being a monster's firearm for the rest of my life... Fine, let's fight! Just don't go back on your word." Tang Xi sprang up from the ground and dusted off her butt.
"Of course not. Come at me!" Seeing a trace of fighting spirit finally return to her eyes, Li Xuan immediately assumed a stance and prepared to meet her attack.
Then, a dazzling pillar of white light greeted him.
"True Self Awakening: Floating White, Bearing the Brush!" Tang Xi shouted. The lock on her magic book shattered, and as its pages fluttered, a beam of light bloomed around her and shot straight into the heavens.
When the light faded, Tang Xi's outfit had changed. She now wore a white blouse with a bow on top, a khaki plaid skirt and white pantyhose below. Her simple braided hair had also become loose silver-white hair that floated in midair as though gravity did not exist.
"Sir, let us begin, for my freedom." As Tang Xi spoke, she took off her little brown leather shoes. Her white-stockinged feet planted firmly on the ground, as if they had taken root there.
She slowly walked toward Li Xuan, her steps light yet steady. The air of a complete slacker she had possessed moments ago had vanished, replaced by an elegant and carefree bearing.
"Holy shit, you really did have hidden power?" Li Xuan's mind went blank. Qi Mo had once said that usually only Grade A magical girls could undergo Awakening. Tang Xi's magic power was only Grade B, yet she could Awaken too?
Judging by how much Wu Yan had improved after Awakening, was he really about to get overturned this time?
"That's right. Awakening is really troublesome. If you hadn't used freedom as bait, I truly wouldn't have wanted to use this move." Tang Xi opened her now-unsealed magic book and let it float in the air. The rustling of its turning pages made Li Xuan's scalp tingle.
Just as Li Xuan was considering how Tang Xi would attack, she suddenly tossed the magic book into the sky and charged at him in a short sprint.
What Li Xuan faced next was not flashy, gorgeous magic, but merely a palm strike from a seemingly delicate and powerless girl.
Li Xuan instinctively extended a tentacle to block it. Yet the instant it touched her palm, Tang Xi abruptly changed direction, lunging into Li Xuan's arms as though she had lost her footing.
Damn it!
Li Xuan inwardly cursed. He had only been guarding against Tang Xi's magic, especially that unlocked magic book. He had not expected her to suddenly rush him and close the distance to point-blank range in an instant.
In that moment, a thought flashed through his mind: Could this woman have been waiting for this exact moment, deliberately surrendering to make him lower his guard? If so, her ability to carry out a plan was terrifyingly strong.
In a flash, Tang Xi ducked beneath the tentacle sweeping sideways at her. Then she planted both hands on the ground, sprang upward, wrapped her legs around Li Xuan's neck, clamped his wrists with both hands, and used her entire body weight to slam him to the floor.
"Triangle Choke, locked in!" Tang Xi viciously squeezed Li Xuan's neck between her white-stockinged thighs. Where the roots of her thighs crossed, they gripped him as tightly as a vise.
An ordinary person would probably have already passed out from lack of oxygen, but Li Xuan had Evil Energy protecting him. Aside from feeling slightly short of breath, he did not feel anything unusual.
But... was that it? After locking Li Xuan with her legs, Tang Xi did not seem to have any follow-up move. Though she had caught him off guard, this kind of technique that relied purely on physical ability was utterly unsuited to a Sealing Type, was it not? Even if Xu Rou used this move, she would probably be more threatening than Tang Xi.
Moreover, not only did this move pose no threat, it felt extremely pleasant to Li Xuan. His head and neck were caught between Tang Xi's full, powerful white-stockinged thighs. The dough-soft sensation of the girl's inner thighs made him feel as though he were floating in paradise. From such close proximity, he could effortlessly smell Tang Xi's faint body fragrance.
Tang Xi's hands had also pinned Li Xuan's right hand against her chest, allowing the end of his forearm to sink fully into the softness of her ample breasts. It felt so comfortable that he did not even want to break free. He only wanted to sleep in this soft dreamland.
"Excuse me, are you still alive?" After continuously applying force with her legs for five minutes, Tang Xi asked tiredly.
"It's working! It's working! Please put a little more force into your legs. My trapezius is still a little sore here." In order to enjoy Tang Xi's white-stockinged triangle choke a little longer, the dazed Li Xuan hurriedly replied.
"You're still awake? Then it was completely useless... Ah, I'm doomed. Farewell, my freedom! It looks like I'll have to serve as a monster's breeding ground in this dark, sunless place from now on, getting played with until I break bit by bit." Seeing that Li Xuan could still talk, Tang Xi dejectedly released him and sprawled flat on the ground.
Li Xuan froze. Was it really over just like that? When Wu Yan Awakened, she had pushed him into a complete panic. Even if her strength had not increased a hundredfold, it had at least increased fivefold or tenfold. But Tang Xi had not displayed any astonishing combat power after Awakening. Because her magic power had been exhausted, she even seemed weaker than before Awakening.
"No, did you really go all out? What about your Awakening? Your magic book? Why do you only know close combat? You should rename yourself Physical Girl." Li Xuan got up and fired off complaint after complaint.
"True Self Awakening is a special ability that magical girls only unleash when they are extremely focused on something. Abilities Awakened in battle can only be used for battle—though most Awakenings are related to combat, there are occasionally unorthodox Awakening abilities like mine."
Tang Xi had already been drained of her last bit of strength by Awakening, and even her voice had become soft and weak.
"So your Awakening ability is—"
"My Awakening, 'Floating White, Bearing the Brush,' possesses the ability to 'immerse oneself in a scene.' It lets me place myself within fictional worlds and gain an experience close to reality. It is completely useless in battle. That choke I used on you just now was a skill I taught myself.
"I originally planned to use the Awakening effects to scare you, then catch you off guard with that move and knock you unconscious. But a Sealing Type's physical ability is still too weak. If I were a Battle Type, I might have had a chance." Tang Xi answered frankly.
"If you were a Battle Type, I wouldn't have let you get close so easily. So there really are useless Awakenings like that. No wonder you didn't use it when the monsters surrounded and attacked you before." As Li Xuan spoke, he got up and pulled Tang Xi's legs apart.
"Ah, is this moment finally here? Mr. Monster, could I trouble you to bring me my laptop? I want to record my thoughts right now." Tang Xi requested.
"That wasn't included in the terms of your surrender." Li Xuan had been worked up by the white-stockinged legs choking him just now. Why would he care about her request? He pounced in front of Tang Xi, grabbed with both hands, and tore her white pantyhose into crotchless stockings.
Through the tear in the white stockings, the girl's private area was exposed before Li Xuan's eyes.
She wore an off-white silk satin panty, very similar to Lilika's, though fuller than the loli's. Its smooth feel made Li Xuan reluctant to let go.
Tang Xi's body trembled, and she instinctively covered her face. Though her attitude was frivolous and she believed she had mentally prepared herself to lose her chastity, when the moment truly arrived, she could not help but feel flustered.
"So smooth. There's practically no resistance when I touch it. It's just like the frictionless surface in theoretical physics." As Li Xuan marveled, an idea suddenly came to him.
"Wu Yan!" Li Xuan called out loudly.
"Master, I'm here. Bing Rui has already been tied up with tentacles. Her magic power has been drained dry, but she's still struggling nonstop," Wu Yan said as she flew down from the top of the tower.
"Very good. Now go to the café and ask Li Sijie for a sufficiently long hemp rope. Tell her to tie knots of an appropriate size at regular intervals, and say that the boss wants it," Li Xuan ordered.
"Huh? Are you going to tie me up? I already said I won't resist." Tang Xi said nervously.
"Tie you up? That would be letting you off too easily. Keep yourself in your Awakened form and don't move. You'll have plenty of fun soon enough." Li Xuan smiled wickedly.
"Don't. Maintaining Awakening isn't difficult, since my Awakening doesn't consume much stamina anyway. But if you go too far, then in a fit of rage, I'll..." Tang Xi said worriedly.
"Then what?" Li Xuan asked with a laugh.
"In a fit of rage... I'll just get angry for a bit. I'm really not a combatant, so please spare me. If you don't trust me, you can use those freakish tentacles of yours to tie me together with Bing Rui, but remember to give me my computer. I still need it." Tang Xi pleaded.
"Too late. What were you thinking when you surrendered?" Li Xuan grinned viciously and used a tentacle to pry open her mouth, pouring down a serving of Fallen Blood.
"Ugh... It tastes so strange. What did you make me drink? Don't tell me it's the legendary Youmu's Sock Tea?" Tang Xi asked anxiously.
"Enough with the Touhou chef nonsense. Are you trying to steal even the market share of the porridge bar?" Li Xuan demanded.
"My body feels so hot. This can't be that legendary computer component, can it?" Tang Xi said, clutching her burning stomach.
Li Xuan sneered. It seemed Tang Xi had not yet realized the seriousness of the situation.
Just then, a portal suddenly opened beside Li Xuan. Wu Yan jumped through it carrying a huge coil of hemp rope and a large bottle.
"Master, I brought the rope. Sister Li told me to give you this bottle and said you should soak the rope in the liquid inside before using it, so it won't hurt anyone's skin," Wu Yan said, panting.
Li Xuan took the rope and saw that it was evenly tied with many knots of moderate size, with a slightly larger knot every so often. The thickness of the hemp rope had also been selected perfectly. He was instantly delighted. "Li Sijie really understands what I mean. Wu Yan, soak the rope. Make sure it's evenly coated."
"Master, what exactly is this for? Why did Sister Li have such a wicked smile when she gave it to me?" Wu Yan asked as she opened the bottle and soaked the hemp rope section by section.
"Have you ever played Chinese jump rope?" Li Xuan suddenly asked a seemingly unrelated question.
"I played it when I was little. Are we going to use this rope to play Chinese jump rope? Wouldn't an elastic rope be better for that?" Wu Yan asked doubtfully.
"This will be more interesting than Chinese jump rope. Once you finish soaking the hemp rope, bring everyone here, including Qi Mo and the two captives—I want you all to enjoy a good show." Li Xuan smiled maliciously.
A few minutes later, the four magical girls in Li Xuan's camp—Xu Rou, Wu Yan, Qi Mo, and Tan Xiang—had all arrived. Bing Rui and Alulu had also been brought out. Since Bing Rui had not fully surrendered yet, she alone was carried over while bound in tentacles.
Qi Mo, who had just been summoned to the Delusive Badlands, was busy treating Tan Xiang. Meanwhile, sharp-eyed Wu Yan had already noticed some changes in the area.
During the time she had gone to gather everyone, Li Xuan had moved in two stone pillars and tied the ends of the rope to them, stretching a hemp rope taut. Because it had been thoroughly soaked in Li Sijie's specially prepared liquid, the rope's surface was extremely wet, even dripping with moisture.
However, the rough texture of the hemp rope itself had not been affected. If anything, soaking in the liquid had made it even clearer.
"Demon, what are you going to do to Senior Sister? If you have the guts, let me go and we'll have another proper fight! I definitely won't lose to that idiot who only knows how to set things on fire again!" Bing Rui struggled desperately, but with her magic power drained dry, it was all in vain.
"Yes, what am I going to do? Miss Tang Xi, do you know?" Li Xuan summoned a Slime to plug Bing Rui's mouth, then looked toward Tang Xi with a wicked smile.
Tang Xi, meanwhile, was staring at the taut hemp rope with a deathly pale face. She had clearly already guessed something.
"Mr. Monster, you aren't... planning to make me walk across that rope, are you?" Tang Xi asked in a trembling voice.
"Correct answer. Then please proceed!" Li Xuan gave her a thumbs-up and made a gesture inviting her into the trap.
"Ahhh, this... Can I not do it?" Tang Xi's legs went weak at the sight of the rope's rough surface. She clung to the stone pillar, barely able to stand.
"No. If you refuse to get on it, I'll switch to dry hemp rope later and have someone hold you up while you walk across it," Li Xuan threatened.
"Sister Qi Mo, why is she so scared? Isn't she just walking across a rope with her feet? The rope is a little slippery, but at most she'd fall down. It isn't high enough to hurt her," Alulu asked curiously.
"What Master means may be different from what you think... You should play a game first. Children shouldn't watch this." Qi Mo handed her the handheld console she had brought with her.
"What child? She saw everything a few days ago, and it was her mother's." Wu Yan said disdainfully.
"Yan, how can you curse at people? Your grades are already bad enough. Do you have to let your character deteriorate too?" Xu Rou frowned.
"I was only stating the facts. The little movie she watched that day was her mother's—" Before Wu Yan could finish, Qi Mo sealed a zipper across her mouth. She immediately could not utter another word.
"Watch your mouth. She's such a small child." Qi Mo covered Alulu's ears and shot Wu Yan a glare.
While the three bickered, Tang Xi had already been reluctantly driven onto the hemp rope by Li Xuan. Her legs straddled it, and the tips of her feet could just barely touch the ground, but her heels could not land.
Tang Xi stretched onto her tiptoes as hard as if she were wearing invisible high heels, trying to leave a slight gap between the lower edge of her satin panty and the rope. But if she wanted to walk on it, it was impossible to maintain that height the entire time.
"Mr. Monster, isn't your calculation a little too precise? Did you measure my body dimensions while I was asleep?" Tang Xi asked Li Xuan resentfully.
"No. This was just the result of visual estimation. These eyes of mine can determine the thickness of stockings from ten meters away, with an error margin of no more than 5D." Li Xuan said proudly.
"That's far too accurate..." Tang Xi desperately balanced on her toes, the muscles in her legs tightening. She seemed to have practiced some martial arts, and her legs were very strong, so she could still hold on for now.
"Then take a couple of steps." Li Xuan smiled and summoned the ugly Breeding Uncle he had created earlier, having it stand behind Tang Xi to supervise her.
Tang Xi shuddered at the sight of the ugly monster behind her. Walking on the rope had to be better than being violated by something that hideous, she thought. So she gritted her teeth and forced herself to take a step.
Sure enough, she could not maintain the fully tiptoed posture once she began walking. No matter how hard Tang Xi tried to raise her white-stockinged feet, the height Li Xuan had designed ensured that she still suffered the rough friction of the rope's surface. Meanwhile, Li Sijie had selected exactly the right thickness, allowing the hemp rope to fit precisely into the gap.
Since she would be rubbed even while standing on tiptoe, why not just give up? Tang Xi tried letting her heels touch the ground. The hemp rope bent downward beneath her body weight, but because both ends were fixed by Evil Energy, it could only bend so far. It was nowhere near enough to let both of Tang Xi's feet touch the ground. Worse, the lowered pressure from her hips caused the rope to sink even deeper, making every step require her to endure several times more friction.
Tang Xi had no choice but to rise onto her tiptoes again and walk forward in tiny steps. Yet the true torment had not even begun. After covering some distance, Tang Xi finally reached the first knot.
The knot, carefully tied by Li Sijie's own deft hands, formed a regular polyhedron. Its size and shape were exquisitely considered, somewhat resembling a twenty-sided die used in tabletop games, though its angles were softer. Combined with the height personally calibrated by Li Xuan, it blocked Tang Xi in front of the knot even when she strained desperately onto her tiptoes.
Only one path lay before Tang Xi now: rise onto her tiptoes with all her strength, then force the most delicate part of herself over the knot.
"What a master chef..." Tang Xi hesitated in front of the knot for a moment, then finally clenched her teeth, held her breath, and stepped forward.
The huge, rough lump rolled over Tang Xi's body, creating a pressure entirely incomparable to the flat stretches from before. It pressed far deeper than the rope itself had, too. Though the difference looked like only a few centimeters, to Tang Xi it felt like scaling the heavens.
Thinking of her junior sister, who admired her, being forced to watch below, Tang Xi struggled to hold back any sound. Fortunately, her satin panty provided a certain degree of lubrication, making her passage somewhat easier than she had expected.
However, more than a dozen knots still waited ahead of Tang Xi. Just thinking of the sensation of crossing the knot made her legs tremble.
"Hurry up. What are you dawdling for? If you don't move, I'll increase the height," Li Xuan urged.
"Don't..." Tang Xi knew that if the height increased any further, she absolutely would not be able to take it. She could only force her body to continue forward.
One, two, three... By the time Tang Xi had crossed all seventeen knots, glistening liquid had thoroughly soaked her white stockings and flowed all the way down to her raised toes.
"I... I finished walking... Mr. Monster, you can let me go now, right?" Tang Xi asked between heavy breaths.
"Excellent. Tang Xi Cable Car's trial run was a success. Clap clap!" Li Xuan applauded, then used his tentacles to lift Tang Xi and place her on the ground.
"It's finally over..." The moment she was set down, Tang Xi collapsed like a puddle of mud. Her legs continued to tremble uncontrollably.
"Next comes the official run! Ta-da-da-daa!" Li Xuan had no intention of giving Tang Xi time to rest. He took the Sword in the Stone he had given Alulu as a toy a few days earlier, cut open Tang Xi's pantyhose from the waist, sliced through the satin panty inside, and pulled it out through the tear in her stockings.
"What are you doing?" Tang Xi felt a chill beneath her and hurriedly covered herself. The sudden emptiness of what she wore instantly made her feel unsafe, and there were so many spectators around her—even the junior sister her master had instructed her to care for was among them.
"Of course, it's the second round. The rope-walking game has only just begun. I'm sure that after your training just now, you're already very familiar with it." Li Xuan spoke cruelly as he used tentacles to suspend Tang Xi in the air and placed her back on the rough hemp rope.
"No, I really can't take it anymore. My legs were already weak enough when I was wearing something. If you won't let me wear anything now, aren't you trying to kill me?" Tang Xi said despairingly.
"Games need rules. You may give up, or you may lie down and do nothing. But if you fail to completely cross this hemp rope within the allotted time, I'll give Bing Rui to that ugly monster as a reward—I'm sure it likes lively beauties very much." Li Xuan said cruelly.
Hearing Li Xuan suddenly mention her, Bing Rui began trembling all over in fright. She looked toward the monster standing by the stone pillars, fiddling with its ugly body parts, then hurriedly turned her head away, afraid she might imagine something terrible.
Tang Xi looked at Bing Rui with a pale face. She had originally been inclined to just give up. In her eyes, beauty and ugliness were merely outward shells; even if it was disgusting, she could close her eyes and endure it. But when she thought that her junior sister, whom her master had entrusted her to care for, might be violated by such an ugly monster, she could not help feeling guilty—after all, if she had not simply surrendered, perhaps the two of them working together might have had even the slightest chance to escape the monsters' clutches.
Bing Rui also looked at Tang Xi with terrified eyes. Unlike Tang Xi, who had seen through worldly concerns, Bing Rui was a girl who cared deeply about beauty and often admired herself in the mirror. She valued her image and appearance immensely. If she were defiled by a monster ugly beyond all measure, it would be worse than death for her.
Though she could not approve of Tang Xi's surrender to the monsters, she also knew that the two of them had truly been driven into a desperate situation at the time. Even if they struggled with all their strength, their hope was as slim as Sanguosha reaching the top spot on a positive review ranking. Thus, on a personal level, she did not resent Tang Xi, much less want her to suffer such torture because of her.
Unfortunately, Bing Rui's mouth was still plugged with a tentacle, so she could only make muffled whimpering sounds.
Tang Xi saw all of this. She looked at Bing Rui, then at the hemp rope before her, and finally let out a long sigh toward the sky. "Junior Sister, failing to protect you before was my dereliction of duty. At least this time, let me protect you once with my body! I'll walk this hemp rope! As they say, if I do not enter hell, then who—ahhh!!!"
Before Tang Xi could finish her heroic declaration, Li Xuan viciously lashed her butt with a tentacle. Then he pointed toward the stone pillar at the far end. "Watch the time. I started timing you a long time ago."
Tang Xi cried out and looked at Li Xuan. At some point, he had placed an hourglass on the stone pillar ahead. Sand was rushing down in a steady stream, and a small pile had already accumulated in its lower half.
"Stop hitting me. I'll walk." Tang Xi felt a wave of dread as she looked at the long hemp rope in front of her, but guilt toward Bing Rui still drove her to force her body forward.
Before you continue