Stop Shattering Our Worldview

A purple magical girl?

Yinlian's heart sank.

The Azure Cloud Sect's true leader was a purple magical girl, while Winter Lord was merely its public-facing leader. That was the only information the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau had uncovered about the mysterious organization.

But no one knew what level the purple magical girl actually was.

Winter Lord was already approaching Full Blossom, roughly on par with her, a magical girl captain.

Although the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau's classifications included Full Bloom, in practice, its highest-level magical girls were at Full Blossom.

Full Bloom was almost never seen.

However, advancing to Full Blossom was not so easy. Generally, whenever a magical girl reached Full Blossom, whether she was officially affiliated or not-even an independent magical girl-the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau could detect it through certain abilities.

Yet the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau had detected no Full Blossom magical girls in Jianghai City.

Logically, the purple magical girl should, at most, have been around Winter Lord's level: a New Sprout approaching Full Blossom.

But even among New Sprouts, there were differences in strength. The Azure Cloud Sect placed considerable importance on power rankings, and if the purple magical girl stood above Winter Lord, she was probably stronger than Winter Lord as well.

The question was how much stronger...

But most importantly, why did Keke know her?

Keke, you could easily fail your political background check like this.

As that worry weighed on her, the two firebirds took flight again.

Yinlian quickly refocused. Whoever the purple magical girl was, dealing with the Calamity Beasts came first.

However, the two firebirds swiftly merged into one, then actually turned and sped toward the outskirts!

Yinlian had never imagined that a full-fledged B-rank Calamity Beast would flee.

Most Calamity Beasts were monsters driven solely by instinct, and that instinct was destruction. Generally, they had no such emotion as fear. Even against powerful enemies, they would fight to the death, utterly deranged.

Many fledgling magical girls lost despite having sufficient strength, frightened by the Calamity Beasts' vicious refusal to stop until one side was dead.

That was why rookie magical girls were generally better off with a senior guiding them. Independent magical girls suffered very high casualty rates in their first battles.

B-rank Calamity Beasts possessed a little intelligence. They could recognize differences in strength and even employ trickery, but overall, they were still like wild beasts, fighting to the death.

In all her years as a magical girl, she had genuinely never seen a B-rank Calamity Beast turn tail and flee...

And the firebird was simply too fast. In the blink of an eye, it had flown far away, almost beyond what the naked eye could track.

She immediately took out her phone to contact the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau. A B-rank Calamity Beast charging into the city would be a disaster. The bureau had to pinpoint its location immediately. There happened to be a magical girl on duty in that direction...

But before the call connected, the purple magical girl standing above them gave a gentle wave of her right hand.

Vast amounts of magic glittered, gradually gathering in her hand and forming an enormous bow.

The mysterious purple magical girl was not tall, about the same height as Yinlian before transforming, perhaps even a little shorter. Despite her indifferent expression, she actually looked rather cute, making it difficult to feel afraid of her.

The longbow formed from magic shimmered with flowing colors along its purple frame. The little girl holding that enormous bow and arrow made for a stark contrast.

Her right hand slowly drew an arrow out of thin air, also formed from gathered purple magic, its edges flickering like flames. As she nocked it, her long purple hair danced, as though she had become one with the bow and arrow.

As she drew the bowstring, a deep creaking sound could even be heard as power built.

The instant she released it, it was as though a brilliant sun had flashed into being, forcing everyone's eyes shut.

Surging magic spread outward, even blowing Keke away.

Yinlian hurriedly flew over and caught Keke before she could fall. When she looked up, the arrow tearing through the air had left a long purple scorch mark across the sky.

The firebird, already far in the distance, let out a long, piercing shriek!

Then crimson flames mingled with purple light fell from the sky, crashing onto the distant expressway.

Although the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau had already done its utmost to evacuate uninvolved people nearby.

The firebird had flown too fast, stretching the battlefront too far. There was no telling whether anyone remained on the expressway. Shot out of the sky, the B-rank Calamity Beast smashed an entire section of the expressway apart and submerged it in a sea of fire.

I wonder if anyone got caught in that... Hopefully, no one was there.

But more shocking to Yinlian than any of that was the other girl's strength.

The power of that arrow was something only a Full Blossom magical girl could produce!

Although the purple magical girl was secretive, she had not gone entirely without taking action over the past few years.

The Disaster Countermeasures Bureau alone had observed four or five instances. It had simply never managed to uncover her true identity, knowing only that she had close ties to Winter Lord and was very likely the true head of Winter Lord's organization, the Azure Cloud Sect.

According to their previous estimates, the purple magical girl should have been roughly as strong as Winter Lord-a New Sprout at the same level as Yinlian.

Going all out, she could approach Full Blossom.

But now, it seemed the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau's estimates had been completely wrong.

A casual attack from her had already reached Full Blossom. She was absolutely a genuine Full Blossom magical girl...

Why had she appeared at a time like this? What did she want? Would she attack them?

Holding Keke tightly, Yinlian tensed all over. More and more petals appeared. She dared not hold anything back, pouring out almost all her magic.

The vast numbers of petals could not only attack and defend, but even distort light, producing a degree of visual displacement.

Of course, the petals' effects did not stop there. Rather, her petals had originally possessed only one effect.

Using their floral fragrance to make opponents hallucinate, depriving them of the ability to fight.

The countless petals surrounding her appeared to be reinforcing her defenses, but were actually secreting nectar and fragrance continuously, striving to drag the other girl into a hallucination...

Yet the purple magical girl stepped forward, her petite figure stopping before the petals dancing through the air. Tilting her head, she extended a delicate index finger with an indifferent expression. Its nail was a faint, natural pink. She lightly touched the nail to a petal.

It sank into the petal's flesh.

Blazing, violent magic instantly swept through every petal!

They burned into a sea of purple fire!

The magical girl combat outfit on Yinlian's body was also instantly incinerated by that magic, forcing her out of her transformation.

"Run..."

That was all Yinlian managed to say in midair before she lost consciousness and fell helplessly.

This time, Keke hurriedly caught her captain, gripping her broom with her other hand to keep from falling. Yet her gaze still followed that purple figure.

"Teacher, Miss Shion," she stammered. "You're amazing."

Her mind was still reeling from that arrow.

As for Yinlian's petals being burned away, forcing her out of her magical girl form and rendering her unconscious, Keke only saw it as Yinlian attacking first and Miss Shion defending herself...

Shion glanced at her without taking it to heart, then turned to fly toward the firebird.

She had yet to retrieve the Grief Seed, otherwise known as a Magic Crystal.

B-rank Calamity Beasts were simply too rare.

In BH City, she had only encountered two B-rank Calamity Beasts in total. The last time she encountered one, she had only just reached New Sprout and had failed to hunt it down.

The magic of a B-rank Calamity Beast almost rivaled that of a New Sprout magical girl. It could be called exceedingly rare.

Such an enormous amount of magic would surely provide a substantial boost. She had to get it.

"Teacher! I joined the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau!"

Behind her, Keke closed her eyes and shouted with all her might, "I'm an official magical girl now!"

"I know."

She looked at her younger sister. "You don't need to notify me."

"I, I heard that you, Senior Shion, are an independent magical girl, and the head of the Azure Cloud Sect..."

As Keke spoke, her voice grew quieter. "Back then, why didn't you take me to the Azure Cloud Sect? You've been recruiting magical girls all along, haven't you?"

Ever since Yinlian had introduced the Azure Cloud Sect to her, this had puzzled Keke most.

The Azure Cloud Sect had constantly been competing with the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau for recruits. They, too, were frantically recruiting magical girls.

Then why had they not recruited her?

Back then, if Miss Shion had said the word, she would definitely have joined the Azure Cloud Sect.

But Miss Shion had left without mentioning it at all.

Was it because she was too busy? Or was it because Miss Shion did not want her to go to the Azure Cloud Sect and ruin her life?

She did not want to keep letting her imagination run wild, so she simply asked outright.

"Why didn't you take me with you?"

At that, the purple girl turned back.

Her appearance was as pretty as when they first met. Her delicate features formed a cute face, yet it carried a heart-racing authority and indifference. That stark contrast always left a deep impression.

What was more, Keke had personally experienced her gentleness and been saved by her.

"Because you're too weak."

Her tone was icy, and the words she spoke were unbearably cold as well. "Too weak, and your personality is weak, too. You're not suited to the Azure Cloud Sect. The Disaster Countermeasures Bureau suits you better."

"I, I'm not weak-willed."

Jiang Keke could not argue against being too weak, but she still stiffened her neck and protested the claim that she was weak-willed.

"Not weak-willed, yet you hide alone on the rooftop to eat."

Jiang Keke immediately flushed, momentarily at a loss for words.

Then she found herself wondering how the other girl knew.

Had she already been watching her before the Calamity Beast arrived? Or was Miss Shion a classmate from middle school?

Either way, she had been paying attention to her...

While her thoughts ran wild, Shion did not wait for her even a moment, turning and flying toward where the firebird had fallen.

So Jiang Keke shouted after her again, "I'll get stronger! Miss Shion!"

"I'll work hard to get stronger and catch up to you! When I do, when I do, please be my friend!"

Hearing the shouts behind her, Shion immediately found it rather strange.

Was Keke such a proactive girl?

In her memory, Keke had always been a quiet, rather passive girl.

Even though their relationship at home was terrible, most of her counterattacks had actually been reactions to Shion's own attitude.

Like a toad, she only hopped when poked. If left alone, she generally would not react.

So for her to actually take the initiative and ask to be Shion's friend this time was somewhat beyond her understanding.

The child must be growing up. She was already in her second year of middle school, after all.

As for having Keke join the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau, one reason was indeed that Keke was too weak.

The other was that, upon joining the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau, she would certainly enter the Magical Girl Combat Team, giving this side another source of information.

Although moles like Susan could obtain most of the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau's information, there was actually a great deal of information about magical girls that they could not access.

The Magical Girl Combat Team was relatively independent within the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau, and its movements were difficult to investigate. Having Keke there would make things a little easier.

There would also be no need to worry about getting too close after transforming and having her notice something amiss.

When she arrived where the firebird had fallen, there were two or three wrecked vehicles below that had already burned and exploded. The expressway had been blasted apart, but the damage had not spread too far.

The magic in that arrow had been very precisely concentrated, preventing the destruction from spreading to the surroundings. Most of the damage here had actually been caused by the Calamity Beast's self-detonation.

Following the magic, she searched until she found the firebird's remains, only to discover someone had beaten her to extracting the Grief Seed from its corpse.

A black cloak, ominous magic, withered skin beneath the cloak.

And that distinctive blood-red cross pattern on the forehead.

Standing on the firebird's corpse, she held the Grief Seed in her hands, cradling it with something like worship and reverence.

"This was a treasure we spent so long creating, Lady Shion."

Raising an eyebrow, Shion asked, "The Witch Association?"

A disciple of the Azure Cloud Sect had once fallen and joined the Witch Association, leaking some information about the sect.

So it was hardly surprising that the Witch Association knew her code name.

She had no intention of hiding the code name Shion, either.

"What an honor. To think a personage as important as the Azure Cloud Sect's sect master has heard of our Witch Association."

"The Witch Association has existed longer than the Azure Cloud Sect."

"Yet our influence falls far short of the Azure Cloud Sect, which you founded only a few years ago."

The hoarse voice sounded as though she were enduring immense pain. "Truly, the blue drawn from indigo surpasses the indigo itself. However, the Azure Cloud Sect is still nowhere near strong enough to oppose the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau. You must know how many powerful magical girls its headquarters has. The Azure Cloud Sect's strength still falls far short."

Seeing Shion fall silent, the Witch Association member raised the Grief Seed in her hand. "So, how about cooperating? The Witch Association has always respected your abilities. Not only did you reach Full Blossom so quickly, you also gathered so many utterly loyal magical girls. As long as you cooperate with us, we can provide you with more and stronger Calamity Beasts."

Then she lowered her voice. "We even have Miracle Seeds, enough to raise your power to Full Blossom!"

"The three you just stole from the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau?"

The Witch Association member looked a little surprised, then nodded. "As expected of Lady Shion. Nothing escapes you. Not just those three-we can obtain more. As long as you cooperate with us, we can give them all to you..."

Halfway through her words, Shion's finger lightly touched her forehead.

That withered face lifted, looking at her in apparent bewilderment.

How had a magical girl touched her? And how had she gotten close?

Had both her magic perception and contamination failed?

"No need for you to deliver them." Shion looked at her expressionlessly. "I'll take them myself. They were mine to begin with."

A fierce purple radiance instantly pierced the Witch Association member's skull. The withered woman fell backward onto the Calamity Beast, her head tilted up. The Grief Seed flew from her hand, and Shion casually caught it.

The magic was indeed delightfully rich.

She had just turned when an ice-blue streak of light landed beside her. Winter Lord hurried over, taking out a handkerchief, then lifted the finger she had just pressed against the Witch Association member's head and began carefully wiping it clean.

"You should have waited for me to handle it. Getting your finger dirty is hardly good. School was about to let out for me."

"..."

Then Winter Lord glanced at the Witch Association member's corpse on the ground and asked, "Is it all right to take the Witch Association's things through methods like this? Doesn't it rather clash with our Azure Cloud Sect's standing as the leader of the righteous path?"

"Listen, Winter Lord. In our cultivation world," Shion said seriously, with that cute face that was so difficult to find frightening, "there's no need to observe the jianghu's code of honor when dealing with crooked paths and evil ways."

Criminals robbing criminals was practically an everyday meal.

But to maintain the Azure Cloud Sect's image as the leader of the righteous path, Shion left those words unspoken.