Magical Girls? There's No Going Back!

"Did you just catch her true body? Didn't the file say her true body was in the dream?" Li Xuan asked curiously.

"It's simple. The file said, 'Immediately activate ?????? to suppress her.' Based on my understanding of Sealing Type magic, those six censored characters should be 'Dual Prohibition Barrier.'

This kind of barrier can interfere with both the mental and material realms at once. As long as the timing is precise enough, you can catch the true body—though fundamentally, she's still in the dream. What we saw just now was only an overlap caused by the dual barrier." Li Sijie explained.

"I didn't understand any of that, but giving that bastard a taste of pain is a good thing. That way, she can't just do whatever she wants because nobody can catch her." Li Xuan picked at his ear, opened a portal, and sent Li Sijie back to reality.

While Li Xuan and Li Sijie were busy building outside, Alulu, lying in her mother's arms, poked her head up in confusion. "Mom, what's going on outside? Why is it so noisy? It sounds like a construction site."

"Who knows? This room has already been sealed off, so I have no way of knowing what's happening outside either," Lilika said helplessly.

"Mom, tell me the truth. You didn't stage all this just to make me do my homework again, did you?" Alulu suddenly asked.

"How could that be? How big would Mom's heart have to be to drag herself into this just to put on an act?" Lilika said with a bitter smile.

Alulu thought that made sense. Then she remembered how much her mother had suffered for her and said guiltily, "Sorry, Mom. I shouldn't have doubted you. It's all your daughter's fault, making you..."

"It's all right, good girl. As long as you're safe and sound, nothing matters more. The owner here seems to treat you fairly well. After a while, Mom will find an opportunity and see if I can ask him to let you go." Lilika lovingly pressed her daughter's head against her chest.

"Mom, don't use a flat chest as a pillow. It kind of hurts..." Alulu felt her head bump against hard bones and quickly pulled free from her mother's embrace. Then she scooped up her much smaller mother in a head-pillow hold instead.

"What a naughty child, making fun of Mom..." Lilika was buried in her daughter's softness, unable to help feeling both embarrassed and annoyed.

"You're no better. You knew I was a magical girl all along, but you never said anything. You even hid your own identity from me," Alulu said disdainfully.

"Wasn't that for your sake... Listen, even though I said your safety matters more than anything, you still have to do your homework as usual. How are you doing with memorizing ancient poems? Classical Chinese has always been your weak point. Did you ask your teacher for any tips?" Lilika asked.

"Mom, you've missed me so much that you're confused. Hurry up and rest for a while. Don't talk yet." Seeing her mother bring up schoolwork, Alulu quickly smothered her with her chest to stop her from continuing.

The Happy Times Are About to Begin?

Early the next morning, Li Xuan went to the twelfth floor and kindly sent Ms. Lilika home. Then he gathered all the magical girls and instructed them not to go to the upper platform.

Although the magical girls were curious, since their master had spoken, they naturally did not dare disobey.

So Li Xuan brought Li Sijie up there every day and worked tirelessly at full throttle. Whenever they got tired, they returned downstairs to rest.

Whenever Li Sijie was absent, he went down to play arcade games with Tan Xiang, visited Bing Rui and Tang Xi, or randomly picked one or several magical girls for a happy impromptu party. Life was positively delightful.

The happy days passed one after another. Alulu's homework dwindled day by day, Tang Xi's novel miraculously found new inspiration, and even the introverted Tan Xiang gradually joined the circle of the three little ones through her relationship with Wu Yan. The four of them gathered to do homework together, looking warm and harmonious.

The only one who had not changed at all was Bing Rui. Ever since being captured, she had maintained a tough attitude. Even when Li Xuan threatened Tang Xi's life or forced Fallen Blood down her throat, she showed no intention of yielding.

"This is the first time I've seen such a hardheaded magical girl. Even Fallen Blood doesn't work on her?" Li Xuan looked at the Demonfall progress, which kept fluctuating around sixty percent, and could not help admiring her.

"Demon, kill me if you want. But if you want me to undergo Demonfall, that will never happen!" Bing Rui glared fiercely at Li Xuan with bloodshot eyes.

Bing Rui's resolute attitude reminded Li Xuan of Xu Rou. Back then, after accidentally drinking Fallen Blood, she had forcibly suppressed her body's Demonfall through sheer willpower. It was only after learning that her closest friend had betrayed her, causing her psychological defenses to collapse completely, that she fell into the abyss.

But Bing Rui did not have those conditions. Although she admired Tang Xi, their relationship was merely that of coworkers in a temporary partnership. They lacked the childhood-friend bond Xu Rou and Qi Mo had shared.

So even if Li Xuan finished inside Tang Xi right in front of Bing Rui, he could not possibly create a psychological blow stronger than the one Xu Rou had suffered back then.

Still, he had already captured her, so Li Xuan was not worried about where she could run. He merely instructed Tan Xiang to take good care of her daily needs.

Bing Rui's attitude toward Tan Xiang was far better than toward Li Xuan. She greatly admired this opponent with whom she had once fought to a draw, and she cooperated readily whether it was mealtime or cleaning.

After learning that Tan Xiang had once been a magical girl as well, Bing Rui even tried to persuade her to turn back from her wayward path—an offer Tan Xiang naturally refused without hesitation.

A week passed quickly. Li Xuan excitedly prepared five exquisite wineglasses, poured the successfully brewed Wine of Ecstasy into them, then released the well-behaved Tang Xi and called the five magical girls who had already undergone Demonfall over to taste it.

"Don't fight over it, don't fight over it! One cup each! Everyone gets one!" Li Xuan built a long table and benches out of stone, seated the five magical girls side by side, and distributed the cups one by one.

"Master, this is..." Qi Mo raised her wineglass and looked at the pale-blue liquid inside with confusion.

"This is Wine of Ecstasy. Drinking it will make you stronger. Hurry and drink up. The happy times are about to begin." Li Xuan smiled.

"Just drink it. Would Master really deceive us?" Wu Yan carelessly lifted her glass, tipped back her head, and drained it in one gulp.

The other four magical girls followed suit. Before long, all five felt a powerful surge of Evil Energy rapidly circulating within them. Tang Xi and Tan Xi felt only mild discomfort, but the three little ones from Clear Lotus City were already clutching their stomachs and writhing on the ground.

"Ahhh, Master, this is bad. My body feels swollen, like I'm about to explode... The energy keeps pouring out. I can't hold it in anymore... It's coming out!"

Wu Yan, who had drunk first, hugged herself and curled up on the ground, wailing for a while. Then light suddenly burst from her body, and she transformed directly despite having no desire to do so.

Soon after, Xu Rou and Qi Mo transformed as well. Seeing this, Tang Xi stepped forward voluntarily. "Master, it looks like they took in too much energy. Let me help suppress it."

Li Xuan nodded. It seemed the effects of this wine really were too powerful for Grade C magical girls. Just as people got nosebleeds from taking too many tonics, the three magical girls were suffering similar side effects.

"You three, attack me now! Don't think—pour out all your magic with everything you have!" Tang Xi transformed as she spoke, instantly creating more than a dozen layers of defensive barriers before herself.

Hearing that, the three magical girls hurriedly unleashed every kind of weapon and magic they had at Tang Xi. Grade C attacks should have had little effect on Tang Xi's defensive barriers, yet after only one round of attacks, three or four layers had been shattered outright.

"The energy in their bodies is rising rapidly. It's almost at Grade B levels already! That's terrifying. But I've grown a lot stronger too, so I should still be able to hold out... right?" Tang Xi's tone gradually became uncertain, because the red-eyed Xu Rou split two layers of barriers apart with a single axe blow.

"Judgment!" With Wu Yan's all-out strike, the remaining seven or eight layers of barriers were broken through at once. Seeing that things were going badly, Li Xuan hurriedly stepped in and blocked the attack with Evil Energy, then pulled Tang Xi behind him.

"They're way too strong..." Tang Xi said, still shaken as she rubbed her chest.

After venting a massive amount of Evil Energy, the three little ones finally calmed down. Looking again at the Evil Energy around them, Li Xuan found that they had already reached Grade B levels comparable to his own.

Tang Xi and Tan Xiang's Evil Energy had also increased considerably, but they were still far from reaching the next level. It appeared that even Advanced Wine of Ecstasy could not easily erase the gap between Grade B and Grade A.

"Master, we feel much better now. Thank you, Sister Tang Xi." Having returned to normal, the three little ones hurried forward to thank the badly startled Tang Xi.

"With this, we have a full five Grade B combatants on our side. Including me, that makes six." Li Xuan secretly rejoiced. This gave him much more confidence for any future action against the Church and Guardian Abbey.

"As expected of Master. In all my years at Guardian Abbey, I've never seen anyone's strength rise so quickly," Tang Xi said in amazement.

"Of course. Otherwise, how could I be your master?" Li Xuan said smugly.

"But if this wine works so well, why did you only prepare five cups? Aren't you going to drink some too, Master?" Tang Xi asked curiously.

"Hm? What's wrong with five? Why wouldn't five be enough?" Li Xuan froze, but quickly realized that when counting heads, he had only thought about the five people under his command. He had completely overlooked the fact that he counted as a person too. The first batch of upgrade wine had not included a share for himself!

"What nonsense are you talking about? Master naturally drank his long ago! Master is wise and mighty. How could he possibly fail to understand addition and subtraction within ten?"

Before Li Xuan could speak, Xu Rou answered Tang Xi's question for him. The other magical girls immediately showed expressions of realization as well.

"Cough, cough... Exactly. Did I need you to remind me? Go write for me already!" Li Xuan saw that the atmosphere left no room for him to admit his mistake, so he could only smack Tang Xi hard on the butt and send her to the wine cellar to write.

The Happy Times Have Ended!

"Damn, if you'd written like this earlier, wouldn't you have become popular already?" After reading Tang Xi's update for the day, Li Xuan slapped his thigh, only regretting that he had not captured her sooner.

During this time, he had obtained Tang Xi's account and announced that her original work would be cut short and rewritten from there. Though it initially caused a huge uproar, readers who saw the recent updates all declared that it was unexpectedly great. The bold decision to cut the original short even sent the work trending, bringing in a massive wave of traffic.

"Get back to work. Your desk goes here. It needs to be big, and there needs to be enough space underneath to fit a person," Li Sijie urged from beside him when she saw him absorbed in reading.

"Why leave so much space under the desk? Isn't enough room for two legs enough?" Li Xuan put away his phone and asked in confusion.

"How could that do? You have to leave enough room under an office desk in advance. It's the classic secretary-under-the-desk position." After saying that, Li Sijie suddenly remembered that she had just been made the principal's secretary a few days ago. Her face reddened at once, and she shut up.

"Right, right, how did I forget such basic common sense? And the partitions should use two-way glass. That way, if we catch magical girls who are close to each other, we can put one in the partition and let her watch as I pin the other one to the desk..." Li Xuan followed her train of thought and continued adding details.

The pleasant summer vacation was nearing its end, and the first phase of Li Xuan's Delusive Badlands project was also gradually approaching completion. Only some tedious interior decorating work remained. Spatial authority could not solve that part, and the construction waste he had picked up could not meet such refined needs.

So Li Xuan planned to design only his own office and the hall used for meetings. He would leave everywhere else unfinished for now, then decorate gradually according to future needs.

After finalizing the office design, Li Xuan checked the time and opened a portal to send Li Sijie back.

But this time, Li Sijie did not leave immediately. Instead, she took Li Xuan's hand and said, "President Li, summer vacation ends next week. I'm planning to return to school early and preview my junior-year courses. As for the work here..."

"It's fine. I can handle the remaining finishing work myself. As for the coffee shop, I'll have the manager settle your wages as soon as possible. You can just wear the maid outfit home too." As Li Xuan spoke, he suddenly thought of something. He teleported into the wine cellar, kicked Tang Xi, who was slacking off, then filled two glasses with newly brewed Wine of Ecstasy and brought them back.

"This is wine that can raise your energy limit. The effect probably won't be much for you, but let's have a drink to celebrate our cooperation." Li Xuan handed one glass to Li Sijie.

"President Li, I want the cup in your hand." Li Sijie examined the color of the wine and suddenly smiled slyly.

"What, are you worried I poisoned it?" Li Xuan laughed.

"You never know. I've always trusted your character—consistently despicable." Li Sijie raised her middle finger.

"But what if I do the opposite and predict that you'll want to switch, so I poison the one in my hand?"

"That makes sense. Then we'll each drink half and exchange them afterward. That way, the poison will be evenly mixed." Li Sijie smiled, tipped back her head, drank half the wine, and handed the remaining half to Li Xuan.

"Whatever you say. We'll call it a cross-cup drink, then." Li Xuan thought this girl was far too wary of him, but drinking half a leftover cup was no big deal. So he drank half of his own wine and gave the rest to Li Sijie, then tipped back his head and drank the half cup she had handed him.

Yet after the wine went down, Li Xuan was the one who felt unwell. His body suddenly felt badly swollen, and he clutched his stomach involuntarily. "...Ugh, something's wrong. You didn't drug me, did you?"

Before the words had even faded, Li Xuan felt a powerful energy erupt from within his body, only to be drawn toward the seal on his arm. But this time, the seal stopped working after absorbing only part of the energy. It even fed the energy it had already absorbed back into his body. Attacked from within and without, Li Xuan felt as though Tang Xi's legs were strangling him like that day—except this time, his entire body was being strangled.

"The seal is saturated! President Li, try releasing your animal instincts. That might let you learn Self-Release!" Li Sijie hurriedly reminded him.

"Aaaahhh!!!" Li Xuan tore open his shirt and roared. Evil Energy erupted from his entire body like a volcanic explosion, making the entire platform shake violently.

Li Xuan remembered what the three little ones had done when they advanced that day, so he frantically created Fallen Blood to consume the Evil Energy. At last, his body, which had been on the verge of exploding, found release.

However, the Evil Energy had been all sound and fury, signifying little. After its wild eruption, Li Xuan's body did not undergo any major change.

"This is... a failure?" Li Xuan looked at the blood sphere above his head, which was about the size of a basketball.

"It looks that way, but you needn't be discouraged. This kind of shortcut had a ninety percent chance of failing to begin with. Even with your talent, the chance is still around seventy percent," Li Sijie said, patting his shoulder to comfort him.

"Why is it still seventy percent?" Li Xuan asked unhappily.

"Seventy percent is the chance of failure. The only reason you have a thirty percent chance is because you're exceptionally gifted. Your animal instincts are several times stronger than other people's." Li Sijie curled her lip.

"All right. Looks like I saved all that up for nothing. Can I try again?" Li Xuan looked at the fragments of socks on the floor, torn apart by the energy surge.

"Of course. As long as I'm here, we can keep producing materials for seals without end." Li Sijie smiled, removed one white thigh-high stocking from her leg on the spot, and tied a new seal around Li Xuan's arm.

"Since the chance is thirty percent, three or four tries should generally be enough. I may not have time while I'm at school, but if you need me, you can come find me on weekends. Well then, see you later." After tightening the stocking, Li Sijie left the Delusive Badlands with a reluctant look in her eyes.

"It's about time I went back and checked on the business. I've left everything to the manager lately. I wonder how it's doing." Watching Li Sijie's departing figure, Li Xuan felt a little wistful. But he quickly pulled himself together, opened a portal, and arrived near the coffee shop.

The instant he returned to reality, Li Xuan's phone was flooded with notifications. He thought he had been doxxed over cutting short Tang Xi's original novel, but when he hurriedly checked, he found they were all messages from Lilika.

Without thinking much about it, he immediately called the adorable loli mom. She answered almost at once.

"Run! Get as far away as you can. You can't stay in this area anymore."

Lilika's nervous voice came through the phone.

"What happened?"

Hearing Lilika's panicked voice, Li Xuan could not help asking the same question Jeanne d'Arc did when transforming in Kamen Rider.

"This morning's news said Guardian Abbey and the Church have reached a compromise. Neither side will interfere in the magical girl disappearance cases in Clear Lotus City and Flower River," Lilika said.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Li Xuan asked in confusion.

"It couldn't be worse. The condition of Guardian Abbey's compromise is that the Church will step in and hire the infamous mercenaries known as the Witch Band to settle your crimes. My advice is to flee immediately. That may be your only chance of survival."

On the other end of the line, Lilika sounded utterly sincere, with no hint that she was exaggerating.

Witch Band

"Witch Band? Is it the kind of band I'm thinking of?" Li Xuan asked in confusion.

"That's right. They're a band, and also a mercenary squad made up of four Grade A magical girls," Lilika summarized.

"F-Four what??? Four Grade As?!" Li Xuan was so shocked that he nearly dropped his phone.

"That's right. All four are Grade A. Not only that, their methods are extremely crazy. They once leveled an entire neighborhood just to hunt down a magical creature. It's said they do not even care about their comrades' lives, so taking hostages probably won't work against them either," Lilika warned.

Li Xuan's heart sank. From Lilika's anxious tone, he knew this would not be as easy to handle as before.

"Ms. Lilika, I heard you were once a Grade A magical girl too. I'd like you to give me an intuitive description of just how strong Grade A is," Li Xuan said after forcing himself to calm down.

"That's hard to say. Magic level does not fully represent combat power. For each individual, you also have to consider combat skill, magical strength, and the gap between upper and lower limits can be huge. For example, unless there are special circumstances, a Grade A Prayer Type magical girl might not even be able to beat a Grade C Battle Type one," Lilika said awkwardly.

"What about using you at your peak as an example?"

"At my peak... Going by my instincts, I could probably wipe out the monster army you summoned that day within ten minutes," Lilika said after thinking for a moment.

"Ten minutes... Are they really that strong?"

Li Xuan frowned. Back then, he had relied on Bing Rui replenishing his magic and used Fallen Blood eleven times to create that monster army. Tang Xi had chosen to surrender after seeing it just once. While part of that was because she had given up on herself, she had also made that helpless choice after concluding that she could not win.

Yet in Lilika's eyes, such a massive monster army was merely cannon fodder that could be dealt with in ten minutes?

Sensing Li Xuan's silence, Lilika added, "I have been out of the field for over a decade, so my judgment may not be accurate. But there is one important point: I had not mastered Awakening back then, while at least one of the four witches in the band can use Awakening."

Li Xuan remained silent. Numerous plans had already surfaced in his mind: ambushes, poison, traps, sowing discord...

Every one of them seemed possible, but because of the immense disparity in strength, actually carrying them out would be like walking on thin ice. One small mistake could ruin everything.

"I understand. Then please send me whatever information you have on those four. I'll decide for myself how to respond," Li Xuan said after a long silence.

"I knew you'd say that. I'll organize it and send it to you right away, but there probably won't be much. They never cooperate with anyone outside their band, so outsiders rarely know much about them."