Why Is It You Again, Kid?

In the milk tea shop, Su Bai's gaze darkened.

Three people were skulking outside the souvenir shop.

Judging by the magic power they couldn't suppress, their leader was at the high Star Mark stage, with 1,400 points.

The skinny one was at the early Star Mark stage, with 700.

The burly man was at the ninth Sprout stage, with 500.

"All three together wouldn't take me more than a finger."

"Master! Dark magic power is seeping from the skinny one's fingertips. It's creeping through the cracks in the pavement toward the display platform."

Su Bai sensed a wisp of gray-black magic power slithering along the ground, winding past people's ankles and heading straight for the center of the platform.

Its target was Su Xiaoxiao.

"Dark magic. Soul Bewitchment." Su Bai watched the three men. "Once it touches her, she'll be like a drunk. She won't even be able to stand."

"Get her drunk in front of everyone, then carry her away on the pretext of taking her somewhere to rest." Kabi clicked his tongue. "That's filthy."

Su Bai said nothing.

He watched them for a long while, his eyes turning cold. Then he gently set his plastic straw on the table.

"Excuse me," he said to an employee as he stood, nodding toward the counter. "Mind if I go up to the roof for some air?"

"Huh? Oh, go ahead. The stairs are on your left."

On the milk tea shop's rooftop, the evening breeze made the bustle of the shopping street seem farther away.

Su Bai walked to the railing and looked down.

In the shadows of an alley behind the display platform, the narrow-faced man and the burly man stood on either side of the entrance. The skinny man stood between them, gray-black magic power seeping steadily from his fingertips into the ground.

That wisp of intoxicating smoke had crossed half the square. It was only three meters from Su Xiaoxiao's ankle.

"Master, how do you want to handle this?" Kabi asked. "Transform?"

"Transform?" Su Bai scoffed. "Why use my big move to squash three rats?"

He raised his hand, spread his fingers toward the alley, and slowly pressed down.

Tenfold gravity.

An invisible purple-gold gravitational field slammed into the shadows beside the souvenir shop.

The three men hit the concrete in unison before they could even scream. Their chests were pinned to the ground, and their bones creaked under the strain.

"Wh... what..." The narrow-faced man's eyes bulged, his face crushed out of shape. "Who... who is it..."

No one answered.

They didn't even know where the attack had come from.

Su Bai lifted his fingertips slightly.

Three threads of Purple-Gold Magic Power, too fine to make out with the naked eye, slipped from his fingers. Like snakes darting from their holes, they rode the night breeze into the alley and pierced the backs of the men's necks.

"On my turf, you went after my sister."

Standing in the rooftop's shadows, Su Bai gave a cold laugh.

"These three savages have lost their minds..."

The threads poured their power in.

The magic circuits inside all three men were forcibly reversed. Their magic power surged backward, crashing all the way into their source cores.

In the alley, all three convulsed at once. Foam spilled from their mouths, their eyes rolled back, and within seconds they went still.

They looked no different from three drunks who had passed out.

The wisp of gray-black magic power heading for the platform lost its master. Su Bai waved a hand and scattered it into a clean breeze.

On the platform, Su Xiaoxiao felt nothing more than a breeze brush past her ankle.

The stuffy air suddenly felt much fresher.

"Hm? A breeze? Nice!"

Oblivious, she pointed her cardboard Great Scythe at the sky and raised her voice even louder.

"Everyone! Let's shout today's slogan—"

"Guardian of the Stars! Magical Girl! Lady Ziwei—!"

"Lady Ziwei—!" A thousand people roared back from below the platform, their cheers rolling down half the street.

On the rooftop, Su Bai watched the figure bouncing around onstage and smiled.

"Master, are we done?"

"We're done." He turned toward the stairs. "I haven't finished my milk tea."

He had barely taken two steps.

Screech—!

The shrill sound of brakes came from the entrance to the pedestrian street.

Su Bai stopped, turned back, and leaned over the railing to look down.

A black command vehicle had pulled across the entrance. Its doors flew open, and fully armed agents filed out. Yellow police tape rattled as they stretched it across, sealing off the exit.

The hatch on top of the command vehicle opened. Liang Bing emerged in a black trench coat, gripping a magic detector.

She raised her head and swept her gaze over the packed square.

"Master..." Kabi's voice sounded uneasy. "The red light on that thing in her hand is flashing like crazy."

"I see it."

Su Bai watched the commotion below, his eyes narrowing slowly.

A sour stench filled the alley.

Three men lay sprawled beside the trash bins, foam at the corners of their mouths and their trouser legs soaked. They looked no different from three drunks who had passed out.

"Chief, that smell..." A young special agent covered his mouth and nose.

Liang Bing ignored him. She crouched and lifted the narrow-faced leader's eyelid. His pupil was dilated and didn't react to light.

She gripped his wrist and sent a thread of magic power through him, circling it once.

Her hand stopped.

Empty. His source core had shattered, his magic circuits severed inch by inch, with burn marks still visible along the breaks. All three men had been forced back into ordinary human beings. They would never gather another scrap of magic power in their lives.

"Chief, they're ours." Another special agent recognized the skinny man, his voice tightening. "Old Ghost from the Intelligence Department. All three of them were off duty today."

Three off-duty Intelligence Department agents had come in civilian clothes to lurk near the Fan Festival donation box. Someone had destroyed their cultivation and dumped them beside the trash bins.

Liang Bing stood and raised her detector. Its red light was still flashing. Sparse magic particles lingered on the screen, purple-gold and twinkling like stars.

The magic power monster hunters refined through the Breathing Method was murky and mixed. These particles were far too pure.

She had seen particles like these twice before: at the edge of the enormous pit at the overseas Heavy Industry Base, and on the windowsill of the Third Women's Dormitory.

Guardian of the Stars. Magical Girl.

More specifically, only one person in the entire city could do this—and dare to do it.

Ziwei.

"Chief, could Old Ghost and the others have found something, and that person..." The young special agent lowered his voice and made a gesture.

Liang Bing stared at the three limp bodies beside the trash bins. For a long time, she said nothing.

She knew what had happened. With an official bounty of one million on the table, the Golden Scale Society's secret offer could only be higher. She had heard the rumors that the Intelligence Department was privately investigating Ziwei's identity.

These three had probably followed the scent of money and run straight into a brick wall.

Knowing that didn't mean she could do anything about it.

Report it? That person had vaporized a Lord-Class Monster with a power reading of 3,100 in a single slash. Make an arrest? The Night Watch Squad had set up snipers on the athletic field, and she had sliced through a railing from three hundred meters away. That had been a warning.

And now three full-fledged agents had lost their cultivation and been dumped in a busy shopping district. Their attacker hadn't even shown her face.

Overbearing. Arrogant. She plainly had no regard for the Monster Hunting Bureau.

Yet Liang Bing couldn't even find anyone to vent her anger on.

Her grip tightened around the detector, then slowly loosened. Helplessness rose from her feet, impossible to suppress.

"Call the medical team." She turned toward the alley entrance. "Send the particle samples to the Technical Department. Find out everywhere these three went today and everyone they met."

A drink shop on the east side of the square had a promotion sign out: half price on a second lemonade.

Su Bai bought two and carried the plastic bag toward the display platform. Police tape had sealed off the area around the alley, and the crowd stood outside it, craning their necks for a look.

In front of the platform, Su Xiaoxiao was arguing with an agent, her face flushed.

"What gives you the right to shut down our event space? We have all the permits!"

"There's been an incident nearby. This is a routine investigation. Please cooperate."

"What incident? I didn't see anything! You're targeting the fan club!"

Su Bai walked over, grabbed the back of her collar, and pulled her away.

"Su Bai?!" Su Xiaoxiao's feet lifted half an inch off the ground as she flailed. "What are you doing? I'm defending the fan club's honor!"

"Quiet." Su Bai pressed a lemonade into her hand. "They've sealed off the alley, not your platform. Keep arguing and I'll carry you home."

Su Xiaoxiao was about to flare up, but she caught sight of someone emerging from the alley and fell silent.

Liang Bing stood beside the police tape, looking past the crowd at Su Bai.

An old hoodie, faded jeans, discounted lemonade in his hand, and not a trace of magic power on him. An utterly ordinary, hard-up male college student.

But this hard-up college student had appeared in the delivery records at the West District factory, in the sealed-off university classroom, and at the Huimin Supermarket crime scene.

Now he was here, too.

Liang Bing walked toward him.

"Su Bai." She stopped in front of him. "A word."

Su Bai blinked. "Officer Liang. What a coincidence."

"It isn't." Liang Bing pointed to the milk tea shop behind him. "Let's talk inside."