Magical Girls? There's No Going Back Now! Chapter 7

Three magical girls were locked in a fierce battle in midair. After falling, Xu Rou had become far stronger than before, and even against two opponents, she was not at a disadvantage in the slightest. Unfortunately, Li Xuan had drained all his Evil Energy creating Fallen Blood. Otherwise, if he had joined the battle, he could have easily collected two defeat CGs.

"Xu Rou, that's enough for today. Let's go." Seeing that neither side could gain the upper hand, Li Xuan decided to retreat. He already had such a powerful pawn as Xu Rou. Once his Evil Energy had recovered, getting the CGs of those two magical girls would be a trivial matter.

"Tch, if it's Master's order, then I have no choice. Congratulations on narrowly escaping with your lives." Xu Rou drove Wu Yan back with a swing of her axe, then turned and leaped to Li Xuan's side.

"Xiao Rou! Don't go!" Wu Yan hurried after them, only for Li Xuan to release a cloud of black mist that robbed her of her sight. By the time the mist dispersed, the two had already vanished.

It was already late at night, so Li Xuan took Xu Rou back to his home.

"I never expected Master to usually operate as a human. No wonder Qi Mo couldn't find you," Xu Rou said in surprise.

"It seems you really put some effort into finding me." Li Xuan smiled, scooped Xu Rou up, and tossed her onto the bed.

Although Xu Rou had already fallen, she was still somewhat bashful. Clutching the hem of her skirt between her legs, she asked shyly, "Master, what do you want to do by putting me on the bed?"

"What do I want to do? Do you even need to ask?" Li Xuan looked at her leaning against the headboard, stealing glances at him with an expression that seemed welcoming yet hesitant, like a wayward girl from an adult anime. Unable to restrain himself, he pounced.

The Witch of the Night Would Not Cry

Xu Rou cried out as Li Xuan pressed her beneath him.

Thinking of what was about to happen made Xu Rou's heart race and her breathing grow unsteady. She had long prepared herself for this, yet her face still wore a timid expression.

"Master, my clothes are still..."

"No need. I like this outfit on you." Li Xuan lowered his head between Xu Rou's earlobe and collarbone, kissing her soft, pale skin.

"You're awful. At least turn off the lights..."

"No. I want to see the expression on your face. Take your hands away." Li Xuan gave the order with all the authority of a master.

"Master is so mean..." Xu Rou lowered the hands covering her face, revealing her flushed cheeks. Li Xuan's orders were absolute to her; resisting them was impossible. Yet a girl's modesty still made her instinctively want to hide herself.

With the options of covering her face and turning off the lights removed, Xu Rou could only meet Li Xuan's burning gaze. That gaze seemed to ignite her body, making the flames in her heart spread from within to engulf her entire body.

She began to crave contact, crave embraces, crave kisses, and crave a deeper, fiercer possession.

Looking into Xu Rou's eyes, Li Xuan felt she resembled a clingy kitten on a winter night, utterly lacking the savage ferocity she had displayed in battle moments ago. Thinking of how the icy beauty who had once turned her weapon against him had become so docile and dependent, an intense sense of conquest rose within him.

Then Xu Rou received what she craved.

"Ahh... Master, everything Xu Rou has belongs to Master now..."

Looking at Xu Rou's coquettish eyes, Li Xuan could not help thinking of the other two magical girls, especially Qi Mo. If she learned that Xu Rou, whom she treasured so dearly, had already been thoroughly conquered by someone else inside and out, what would she think? Would she rage herself senseless, cry until the world went dark, or charge in recklessly?

"If this keeps up, I'm going to turn the system into an NTR simulator." Li Xuan laughed at himself. Out of habit, he took out his phone to check the time, only to discover 99+ private messages on a forum he frequented. Li Xuan jumped in alarm. Had he been hit by an online mob?

When he opened the private-message inbox, he breathed a sigh of relief, and a smile slowly curled across his lips. All 99+ messages had come from Qi Mo alone. He did not even need to open them to roughly guess what she had said.

The first several dozen messages were all colorful insults and threats. Qi Mo vented her emotions wildly through incoherent words, but the later messages gradually softened. She begged him to return Xu Rou and said she was willing to pay any price, even offering herself in exchange.

"Looks like Wu Yan's slap was for nothing. At this point, how could she still hold fantasies about monsters? She's really grasping at straws in desperation." Li Xuan sneered. Just as he was about to reply and lure her out alone, his expression suddenly turned grave.

Qi Mo had been fooled by him once, but her intelligence absolutely could not be underestimated. What if she was deliberately pretending to be emotionally shattered while actually laying a trap for him?

Li Xuan became increasingly convinced that he could not dismiss that possibility. Although he had the Hunting Radar, he could not monitor her twenty-four hours a day. Besides, the Hunting Radar could only mark three people. If she brought in reinforcements from elsewhere, he might suffer a serious loss.

With that thought, Li Xuan looked toward Xu Rou. She was hugging his pillow and sleeping soundly, the blush still lingering on her face. Her entire body was in an utterly relaxed state, and a sweet smile hung on her lips, as though she were still savoring the lingering afterglow.

If he wanted information, couldn't he just ask her?

"Stop sleeping! Get up!" Li Xuan said, smacking Xu Rou hard on the butt.

"Ah! That hurts, hurts! What are you doooing..." Xu Rou dragged out the words, pouting at Li Xuan in displeasure.

"Tell me, are there any other magical girls in this city besides the three of you?" Li Xuan asked.

Leaning against a pillow, Xu Rou rubbed her reddened butt as she answered, "Just the three of us. There aren't many monsters in this city, so there's no need for so many magical girls. We often go ten days or half a month without any work."

"What about nearby? Are there other magical girls? Do you keep in contact with each other?"

"Are you worried that Qi Mo and Wu Yan might call in reinforcements?" Xu Rou blinked her large eyes and smiled slyly.

"You're quite sharp for such a little thing. You actually guessed it. So tell me, could they find other magical girls to help them?" Li Xuan laughed.

"There are indeed some powerful magical girls around Clear Lotus City, but most of them belong to the Church and won't bother with us easily... Pah, I mean those magical girls without official posts." Xu Rou still seemed unaccustomed to her change in identity and instinctively classified herself among the magical girls.

"The Church? Magical girls are religious?" Li Xuan asked curiously.

"Of course. The magical girls' power is given by the 'World.' Isn't it natural to feel reverence toward the World?"

"That's not strange. Get back to the Church. A magical girl falling happened in Clear Lotus City. Will they intervene?"

"I don't know much about the Church. I only know it has existed for at least a hundred years. The Church's upper ranks divided the whole world into several defense zones, and each zone has magical girls assigned according to the number and strength of monsters. The three of us handling Clear Lotus City is considered tacitly approved by them. But Master doesn't need to worry too much about the Church. Their main task is stopping monsters from slaughtering people. As long as no vicious massacre occurs, they generally won't interfere," Xu Rou answered.

Hearing that, Li Xuan relaxed slightly. He kneaded Xu Rou's soft, dough-like pale butt and continued, "So you three are bottom-tier small fry? That's why you were stationed in such a peaceful newbie village."

"Mmm... You can't put it like that. Our magic power rank is C. Below us are the D-rank cannon fodder, mostly newcomers who have just become magical girls or little brats who haven't even grown all their teeth yet." Xu Rou let out a soft whimper and looked at Li Xuan aggrievedly.

"If there's C-rank, then there must be B-rank and A-rank, right? What's the strongest rank?" Seeing the pained look on her face, Li Xuan realized he had hit her too hard. After speaking, he took ice from the refrigerator, wrapped it in a towel, and applied it to her.

"There are B-ranks in the neighboring city. A-ranks are very rare. You probably only find them in places where monster activity is especially frequent. As for anything higher, I don't know. We can't reach that level," Xu Rou said, shaking her head.

"So, Qi Mo and the others can't get any powerful helpers?"

"More or less. Aside from people from the Church, there aren't any powerful magical girls nearby. As for those small fry, even if they really come, I'll use the power Master gave me to take them out one by one! And if there's really danger, I'll risk my life to protect Master!" Xu Rou looked gratefully at Li Xuan as he applied the ice, as if she had forgotten that he was the one who had smacked her in the first place.

"Hmph, you really know how to flatter people..." Li Xuan said as he picked up his phone and sent Qi Mo a message telling her to come alone to the clothing factory warehouse in three days. Then he blocked her.

Li Xuan had already made up his mind. If Qi Mo had really found reinforcements, he would use the next three days to create as many monsters as possible with Fallen Blood. But if she were foolish enough to come alone, he would conveniently obtain her defeat CG as well. Among the three, Qi Mo's transformed outfit was closest to that of a traditional magical girl, and Li Xuan had long been coveting that elegant yellow-rose-like dress.

Are Socks Really That Important to You?

The next day, Li Xuan slept until noon before waking. Xu Rou beside him was still sleeping soundly, completely defenseless and seemingly ready to be plucked at will.

Seeing her peach-blossom complexion, eyes full of springtime allure, and faintly bittersweet expression, like fruit on the verge of ripening, Li Xuan felt his interest rise again. He woke Xu Rou and shared another tender spell with her.

After taking a shower, Li Xuan wrapped himself in a bath towel and checked his phone. He found the work group flooded with messages welcoming a new employee. Only then did he remember that summer vacation had begun today, which meant it was Li Sijie's first day at work.

At the thought of Li Sijie putting on the maid outfit he had personally designed, Li Xuan could not help getting excited. He wished he could rush to the shop immediately and feast his eyes, so he quickly got dressed and told Xu Rou, who was still clinging to the bed and unable to get up, "I'm heading out. I might not be back until tonight. Don't go out today, and don't transform carelessly. Be good and wait for me to come back. There's food in the refrigerator if you get hungry."

"Mmm... Xiao Rou will wait obediently at home for Master." Xu Rou still seemed half asleep and only gave a vague reply.

After saying goodbye to Xu Rou, Li Xuan drove to the café at top speed. The moment he entered, he saw the manager teaching Li Sijie how to take orders. Li Sijie still had her hair tied up today and wore an ordinary sweatshirt with denim shorts. On her feet were flat sneakers paired with white ankle socks. Between the upper edge of her socks and the hem of her shorts was a stretch of captivating fair leg. Her outfit was far from revealing, but the full curve beneath her denim shorts was still pleasing to the eye.

But Li Xuan had come specifically to see the maid outfit today. He calmly walked over, and when the manager saw him, she hurriedly stopped what she was doing to greet him.

Li Xuan waved his hand and casually asked a few questions about work before abruptly changing the subject. "Why hasn't the new employee changed into her uniform yet?"

The manager explained, "Since there aren't many customers today, I planned to teach her more things and let her start working tomorrow, so I didn't have her change clothes."

Li Xuan frowned at that. "How can that do? A work uniform symbolizes attitude and guarantees an employee's image and bearing. As long as it's working hours, she needs to wear it properly. Take her to change right away, then bring her to see me in the break room."

The manager did not know why the usually easygoing owner had suddenly become so stern, but she could not argue with him. She took Li Sijie inside to change.

After a while, the manager brought Li Sijie, now dressed in the maid outfit, into the staff break room in the back.

Li Xuan looked up and saw Li Sijie standing openly beside the manager. Her tied-up hair had been loosened and fell behind her like a waterfall. She wore a lace-trimmed headband, and her long hair reached just to the edge of her hips. The seemingly well-covered area at her chest nevertheless gave glimpses of pale softness through the hollow lace design.

The ruffles of the apron had been designed in layered tiers that happened to cover Li Sijie's knees, while a large bow was tied behind her waist, combining beauty with practicality. Beneath the skirt, her long legs were wrapped in white thigh-high stockings. Although Li Xuan did not require his employees to wear matching stockings during the summer heat, Li Sijie had put them on anyway.

"Mm, the size fits perfectly. Your figure was practically made for this outfit." Li Xuan smiled, then turned to the manager. "Customers are coming to the front. Go help out. Leave the new employee's training to me."

The manager knowingly withdrew. Li Sijie could not help laughing softly when she saw this.

"What are you laughing at? How did today's training go? Can you take orders now?" Li Xuan asked.

"President Li, you just wanted to see me wearing this outfit. Why go through so many twists and turns? There's no one here now, so take a good look—but no touching." Li Sijie smiled and turned around, gently lifting her skirt to a height that fully revealed her thighs without exposing too much.

"Ahem, what are you talking about? I'm inspecting whether your attire fits the company image!" Li Xuan spoke with perfect righteousness, but his eyes had already drifted to the crisscrossed X-shaped straps on her back and her smooth, white-jade-like skin. Though not much skin seemed exposed from the back, lace panels made the fabric across her entire back and both sides appear faintly translucent. There were even cutouts under her arms in the name of summer coolness, so raising her arms would reveal everything at a glance.

Li Sijie had clearly grasped the essence of the design. Holding up her skirt, she spread her arms like butterfly wings, allowing Li Xuan to fully admire every detail of the outfit.

Li Xuan circled Li Sijie, admiring her closely. He was still not quite satisfied, but felt too embarrassed to keep staring so openly, so he tried to say something to ease the awkward atmosphere. "I remember hearing a rumor that there was a pervert at your school who specifically tied up girls. Was that true?"

"There really was. I was in my freshman year then. I heard the culprit specifically targeted girls with good figures. Not only were the knots extremely professional, but the person came and went like a ghost. Sometimes, a girl would leave class midway to use the restroom and never return. The teacher would send girls from her dorm to check, only for them to find her tied up in a restroom stall wearing a sexy swimsuit. Even her body hair had been trimmed."

Li Xuan could not help laughing. "You know so much detail. Don't tell me you were tied up too?"

Li Sijie shook her head. "Not me, but one of my dormmates fell victim. At night, she was still chatting with her boyfriend on the phone. The next morning, she was hanging from the dorm ceiling like a chandelier, suspended in a humiliating pose. I even took photos back then, but they got lost when I changed phones."

"Did they ever find out who did it?"

"Don't even mention it. The school said they would conduct an internal investigation, but in the end they found nothing. None of the girls who had been tied up could clearly describe what the culprit looked like."

"With such a huge incident, didn't anyone call the police?"

"The school wouldn't allow it. They said it would damage the school's image and suppressed the matter. The girls who had been tied up were all given graduate recommendation slots, so it was dropped. Back then, some people even deliberately had themselves tied up to get those slots, but their knots were too amateurish, and they were exposed as fakes immediately." Li Sijie laughed.

Li Xuan laughed along with her. "All right, we've chatted enough. Go talk to the manager about the job. If the thigh-high stockings feel too hot, you don't have to wear them."

Unexpectedly, Li Sijie shook her head. "President Li, socks are a must. Even if I weren't wearing clothes, I absolutely couldn't go without socks."

"Oh? Is there some special reason?" Li Xuan could not help becoming curious, and an alluring image of Li Sijie wearing nothing but socks immediately appeared in his mind.

"There is a reason, of course, but... it's a secret for now." Li Sijie blinked mysteriously, lowered her skirt, and left the break room.

If You're Only Good at Defense, Aren't You Basically Giving It Away?

During the three days he waited for Qi Mo to keep their appointment, Li Xuan lived a simple routine: at night, he indulged himself with Xu Rou at home; during the day, he teased Li Sijie at the café. Whenever his Evil Energy filled up, he would find a secluded place to create monsters and hide them.

Li Xuan did not know whether it was an illusion, but every time after indulging himself with Xu Rou, not only did he not feel tired, he felt more energetic than ever. Even his Evil Energy seemed to recover faster. Did the system have some hidden setting, or could dual cultivation really restore magical power?

The three days passed quickly. On the day of the appointment, Li Xuan kept the Hunting Radar active the entire time, closely monitoring Qi Mo and Wu Yan's movements, especially ensuring that Qi Mo had not contacted anyone.

By evening, Qi Mo had indeed come alone to the vicinity of the abandoned clothing factory warehouse. She waited quietly, her eyes filled with tension and guilt. Li Xuan waited for more than an hour, confirming that no one had approached the area and that Wu Yan had remained home without going out. Only then did he set off.

As he neared the place, Li Xuan deliberately adjusted his expression in his phone's camera, making sure he looked like a sufficiently evil villain before slowly approaching Qi Mo from behind.

"Hehehe, I didn't expect you to really come. You were already fooled once, yet you trust me that much?" Li Xuan laughed sinisterly.

"Do I have any other choice?" Qi Mo turned back with a desolate smile. "As long as you hide, Wu Yan and I have no way to find you. Even if we luckily did, there's no way we could beat you. This was all my mistake. I only hope I can trade myself to get Xu Rou back."

What a pity. Your Xu Rou can never go back!

Though he thought that to himself, Li Xuan still agreed with a cheerful smile. "Since you helped me once before, I'll agree to restore Xu Rou to normal. The price is that you must become a monster in her place."

"I'm willing! As long as Xiao Rou comes back, I'll do anything!" Qi Mo said hurriedly.

"Let's go." Li Xuan smiled and passed through the gate Wu Yan had blasted open, entering the abandoned underground warehouse.

Though she knew nothing good awaited her there, Qi Mo nervously followed. In truth, this warehouse had merely been the venue for a rope-art club Li Xuan had attended years ago, and it had long since fallen out of use. He chose it repeatedly because he wanted to mislead the magical girls into thinking his lair might be nearby.

"Give me the potion. I'll drink it now," Qi Mo said nervously.

"A potion? No, no, no. It's not time yet. Transform and fight me first." Li Xuan looked back at her.

"Transform? There's no need for that, is there? I really didn't come here to fight you. Seal-type magical girls like me don't have much combat ability to begin with. Coming to see you alone should already prove my sincerity." Qi Mo thought Li Xuan was testing whether she had hostile intentions and hurriedly clarified.

"This is part of the deal. Transform, now!" Li Xuan thought that given the system's rigid thinking, if he skipped the battle and went directly to the next part, it probably would not unlock a CG for him. To be safe, they needed to fight symbolically first.

"Yes..." Seeing that Li Xuan was serious, Qi Mo took out her badge and transformed before him.

This was the first time Li Xuan had watched a magical girl's transformation under relatively relaxed circumstances. Golden light radiated from Qi Mo's entire body as she floated into the air, knees slightly bent and arms wrapped around her shoulders, like a baby's pose in the womb.

Countless soft ribbons extended from the fig-leaf-shaped badge and wrapped around her body. The ribbons slowly wove themselves into the clothing and ornaments on Qi Mo's body, while the badge itself transformed into a bright yellow staff.

Perhaps it was only an illusion, but seal-type magical girls seemed to transform more slowly. An ordinary person's eyesight was enough to clearly follow the whole process.

Li Xuan freely admired Qi Mo's outfit. Her accessories were clearly more elaborate than Wu Yan's and Xu Rou's. A silk ribbon was tied in her hair, and she wore a soft leather collar around her neck. Small openings sat at the front and on both sides of the collar, each holding a silver metal chain. The three chains passed over the closed collar together and supported the yellow gemstone pendant at her chest.

Though her entire upper body was tightly covered, a modest window opened over her chest, with the lower half of the pendant resting perfectly in a deep V-shaped gap, creating a rather suggestive sight. Beneath her layered Lolita cake dress were, as expected, beautiful legs in flesh-colored stockings. Round-toed little leather shoes covered her feet, their toes touching together uneasily, as though expressing their owner's anxiety.

"I'm coming..." Embarrassed by his stare, Qi Mo raised her staff toward Li Xuan. The staff flashed and released a mass of colorful bubbles that filled the entire room in moments.

Li Xuan poked one of the bubbles. Instead of bursting, it drifted away like a balloon, yet it did not harm him in any way. Seeing that the bubbles posed no threat, Li Xuan directly extended his tentacles toward Qi Mo.

"Foam, embrace my body." Qi Mo chanted softly. The bubbles in the room instantly split into countless tiny bubbles that wrapped around her entire body. The tentacles could not grip those slippery bubbles and naturally slid away from Qi Mo one after another.

"Interesting." Li Xuan snapped his fingers and summoned slime-type monsters. The slimes did not care about bubbles. They immediately extended pseudopods and linked together into a huge slime coating that enveloped Qi Mo entirely.

"Foam, praise the righteous."

As Qi Mo chanted again, the tiny bubbles around her gathered into one large bubble, forcing the slime coating outward. Though she could not escape, the slimes were unable to harm her at all.

After several exchanges, Li Xuan finally understood. Qi Mo truly had little offensive ability, but her defense and control abilities far surpassed Xu Rou's and Wu Yan's. However, with no one to fight alongside her, blindly defending only delayed her defeat. Besides, for today's appointment, he had already prepared monsters specifically to deal with Qi Mo.

"It's about time. This farce should end now." Li Xuan snapped his fingers again. Numerous fleshy buds suddenly sprouted from the warehouse walls, growing at astonishing speed and moving ever closer to Qi Mo. Qi Mo hurriedly used bubbles to block them, but the instant the bubbles touched the buds, they shriveled at a visible rate. At the same time, Qi Mo felt the magic power inside her slowly draining away.

"These are improved tentacles that can absorb magical power. They absorb it slowly, though. If it were Wu Yan, she could probably burn them away in an instant. But you can only watch helplessly as you're eaten away bit by bit." Li Xuan laughed wildly.

"No... I'm afraid of bugs, help... don't!" As the bubble shrank, terror filled Qi Mo's eyes. The fleshy buds gathered from every direction and finally devoured all the magic power within her. They rapidly grew into a wall of flesh, pinning Qi Mo at the waist and separating her upper and lower body on opposite sides of the wall.