As the two left the expressway, the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau and the police arrived one after another.
Ziyuan glanced at the crowded gathering from afar.
After obtaining the magic crystal, the two had left the expressway. Now they were watching the situation there from a hillside in the city with a good view.
"Don't we need to clean up the traces of magic?"
"Don't worry. Susan's there."
Winter Lord stood beside her, typing rapidly on her phone. "You don't need to worry about her professional competence. She's one of the best outer sect disciples. She has connections to handle things not just in the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau, but in other departments too."
"What are you sending?"
Winter Lord immediately handed over her phone.
The phone was pink, with a waterdrop charm hanging from it, and its interface was just as flashy. Although she usually seemed mature and carried considerable authority within the Azure Cloud Sect,
at heart, she was actually a high school girl who liked all sorts of flashy accessories.
The decorations stuck to the phone's screen even left Ziyuan a little baffled about how to operate it, so Winter Lord came over and tapped a chat app for her. "How did you back out? Looks like you accidentally tapped something just now. Here."
Winter Lord had specifically had her family's company develop the chat app. Supposedly, its servers were abroad to prevent the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau from monitoring it.
Azure Cloud Sect Internal Work Chat Group (no off-topic chatting).
Winter Lord: "@everyone, attention, disciples. The Witch Association beat us to stealing three Miracle Seeds from the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau. The Miracle Seeds are an important objective for the sect master. Please make investigating the Witch Association's movements your top priority for the time being."
Lady Ziyuan's Number One Fan: "Understood."
Sect Workaholic: "Understood."
I Want a Vacation: "Understood."
Rose: "Can I take your position if I get the Miracle Seeds, Winter Lord?"
Looking at the long string of acknowledgments below, Ziyuan naturally noticed the most conspicuous one. "Who's Rose?"
"That red magical girl from before." Winter Lord sighed. "The one the Witch Association captured. You rescued her when you wiped out one of their small branches. She's always trying to take my position in the sect and become your right-hand woman."
"Oh. I forgot."
As far as Ziyuan was concerned, she was basically there to hunt Calamity Beasts for magic crystals. Occasionally, she encountered people in league with the Calamity Beasts and killed them along the way. As for whether they belonged to the Witch Association, she had never paid attention.
"But her abilities are well suited to reconnaissance. She'll probably be angling for credit again this time. Apart from a promotion and getting closer to you, she doesn't want anything. It really is a headache."
Despite saying that, Winter Lord didn't look troubled at all. Instead, her face was full of smiles, and she seemed quite relaxed. "But she's also especially useful. Just say it's something you need, and she's more enthusiastic than anyone. Unlike Blue Flower, who slacks off every day and still wants a raise..."
Ziyuan paid little attention to the sect's internal affairs. As long as it helped her cultivate, nothing else mattered.
She browsed through the group's chat history some more. Indeed, there were almost no messages unrelated to work.
"Would you like to send a message too?"
"Not interested."
"Give them a little encouragement." Beside her, Winter Lord carefully admired Ziyuan's face. No matter how many times she saw it, it always left her stunned by its beauty. "Everyone in the sect respects you. If you give them some encouragement and rally them, Ziyuan, they'll definitely work even harder on their missions."
After thinking it over, she decided there was no harm in it. Yet just as she was about to type, the phone shut down.
Ziyuan froze, then instinctively shook the phone with both hands. "Dead battery?"
"Uh, it probably lost charge again on the way." With a wry smile, Winter Lord took the phone back and pulled another one out of the small bag she carried.
Ziyuan inadvertently caught sight of roughly a dozen nearly identical phones inside...
The whims of the rich?
"You know how my ability works. It lowers the temperature of the air around me, and my body temperature stays very low after transforming too. Apple phones lose charge, and their batteries last even less in low temperatures..."
So you bought a dozen of them? What a simple, brute-force solution.
Ziyuan took the newly powered-on phone and noticed something seemed wrong with the group chat.
"Speculation on Ziyuan's measurements and outfit coordination..."
Something was off. She checked the group name: Ziyuan Fan Tea Party.
"What kind of group is this?"
"Ah, ah, ah! Wrong one, wrong one!" Winter Lord immediately snatched the phone back in a panic and exited the chat. "The sect disciples made this group themselves. It has nothing to do with me. I was worried they might be disrespectful to you, so I secretly joined on an alt to see what they were talking about..."
Every phone has a different number, huh.
As for that group just now, Ziyuan didn't particularly care. The Magical Girl Idol Project had always been mainstream, so having fans was normal.
She didn't identify all that strongly with the identity of Ziyuan, either. People discussing Ziyuan didn't make her feel much of anything.
She just thought they had far too much free time. Their workload probably wasn't full enough, and competition in the Azure Cloud Sect wasn't fierce enough...
Only after switching groups did Winter Lord hand the phone back. Ziyuan couldn't be bothered to look. With some effort, she used her two little hands to type "Keep it up" on the screen and sent it. However, since it was Winter Lord's alt account, no one responded.
Casually returning it to Winter Lord, Ziyuan continued, "Didn't you receive any information about the Witch Association's operation this time?"
Winter Lord explained in the group that Ziyuan had used her account to send "Keep it up."
Once the group became lively again, Winter Lord nodded in satisfaction, put away her phone, and replied, "The Witch Association's movements are hard to uncover. Even the disciples who've infiltrated them often can't provide intelligence in time. But there are a few things we can confirm at present."
"First, Witch Association members have infiltrated the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau, in positions with access to the Miracle Seeds. The bureau's recruitment is very strict. Anyone with a questionable background absolutely couldn't pass their interview, so their inside agent probably joined with a clean background, like Susan, and was then turned by the Witch Association."
Winter Lord raised a second finger. "Second, they can create B-rank Calamity Beasts. We've always known the Witch Association could make Calamity Beasts, but we couldn't determine exactly what rank. Now that we know they can make B-rank ones, capturing their leader and seizing that ability as soon as possible is very important. The Azure Cloud Sect is desperately short of Grief Seeds from B-rank Calamity Beasts."
At this, Ziyuan's expression shifted slightly.
Mass-producing Grief Seeds from B-rank Calamity Beasts sounded tempting enough all on its own.
Although the way magical girls advanced in rank was rather abstract, it was mostly related to their disposition and will.
But as everyone knew, quantitative change led to qualitative change.
With enough magic, advancement was only a matter of time.
Power itself brought a strong will and a resilient disposition.
"Unfortunately, we don't know where the Witch Association has hidden the three Miracle Seeds. The B-rank Calamity Beast that charged out this time was only there to attract attention. The actual Witch Association members probably already left with the Miracle Seeds."
Winter Lord tilted her head back slightly, raising her chin with a hint of pride. "They dared steal what belongs to our Azure Cloud Sect. We'll make them regret it!"
Ziyuan lifted her head slightly to look at Winter Lord's expression. "Then I'll leave it to you. Susan said Hyacinth is very likely someone the Witch Association turned. Keep an eye on her movements for me and report to me at any time."
"No problem."
As Ziyuan spoke, she was about to undo her transformation, but Winter Lord hurriedly caught her wrist. "Wait."
"What is it?" Ziyuan looked around. "There's no one nearby, right?"
Let me look a little longer...
She certainly couldn't say that aloud. Winter Lord thought for a moment, then said, "There isn't. I just wanted to say a nail salon opened on South Street. They have a promotion going on. Want to go together?"
Ziyuan looked at her as though she were an idiot. "I'm a man."
"Just get them done in your magical girl form. Transforming won't remove them." Winter Lord showed off the blue manicure on her hands. "Look, pretty, right? But I've taken a fancy to another set and want to switch."
The pale blue wasn't particularly vivid. It looked like frost flowers and was indeed quite pretty.
Yet the Azure Cloud Sect's sect master only shook her head. "I don't get manicures."
"That's fine. You can just come with me. Have a look first. You don't have to get anything done. You can go another time if you're interested."
"No. I have classes this afternoon."
"You've already skipped so many classes... All right, after class works too."
"I haven't finished today's training plan either. Find someone else."
Watching Jiang Si undo his transformation and leave without a care, Winter Lord stamped her foot behind him.
"You stupid blockhead!"
Inside a pitch-black room, a crystal flickered with a cold white light.
Having removed her glasses, she stroked the crystal. Pitch-black magic spilled from her hands and flowed into it.
Before long, several people wearing black robes appeared within the crystal.
Gatherings of Witch Association members were always this gloomy and pitiful.
"Did you get the Miracle Seeds?"
"Yes, but I can't get them out for now. The Disaster Countermeasures Bureau is keeping a very close watch."
"You can't get them out?"
The tall woman on the left revealed a somewhat hideous face, its scars writhing like maggots, and roared hoarsely, "We lost a B-rank Calamity Beast! And a core member! After paying such a price, you're telling us you can't get them out? What use are you?"
"Du Juan!"
The member in the middle, who clearly held a slightly higher position, rebuked her. "No one could have expected the Azure Cloud Sect to intervene at a time like this. And both of their senior figures, Winter Lord and Ziyuan, were there. It had nothing to do with Oleander. The result would have been the same whoever went."
Although the woman on the left still looked unwilling to accept it, she closed her mouth.
The small figure on the right gave a clear laugh. She was a young girl. "Jackal was killed while trying to discuss cooperation with the Azure Cloud Sect. Everyone should understand now, right? Cooperation with the Azure Cloud Sect isn't an option. They're very arrogant, even more arrogant than the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau."
The woman on the left nodded, her expression easing. "Yes. Given sufficient benefits, even the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau is willing to cooperate with us."
Then she added, "The important question is, why were they able to reach Jackal? Fused Calamity Beasts have both magic contamination and magic detection abilities. Even if Jackal couldn't win, Jackal should have been able to escape."
"What if that Ziyuan herself has also been contaminated by a Calamity Beast?"
"Nonsense! How could a magical girl maintain that form after being contaminated by a Calamity Beast? How many experiments have we done..."
"Shut up." The leader in the middle finally interrupted their argument. "I didn't bring you here to discuss that now. Whether the Azure Cloud Sect has ways to deal with us can be discussed later. What matters now is the Miracle Seeds. Oleander, I need to know when you can get them out."
With both hands pressed against the crystal, Oleander finally spoke. "About three days. The Disaster Countermeasures Bureau will remain on alert for three days. Once Susan lets her guard down after that, there'll be an opportunity to take the seeds out."
"Three days? That's a little long. Could anything go wrong?"
"I put the Miracle Seeds back in the secure room for now. They won't suspect the Miracle Seeds are actually still inside."
"You really do have brains." After praising her, their captain asked worriedly, "You said before that the Azure Cloud Sect might have an inside agent in the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau. Have you found them? Compared with the bureau, the Azure Cloud Sect's people are more dangerous."
"Not yet. At present, the bureau only has one newcomer, Jiang Keke, whose background is completely clean. The Azure Cloud Sect couldn't possibly plant a magical girl at a time like this, either. It would be too conspicuous. As for everyone else, they're all familiar faces who joined the bureau long ago. It's hard to confirm."
"Understood." The captain gave a sinister laugh. "Just like you. No one would ever have expected you to join our Witch Association."
Oleander neither agreed nor disagreed, merely rubbing the crystal.
Just as she was about to end the conversation, she suddenly remembered something. "Right, there's something I forgot to report. When Jiang Keke came today, she brought her older brother along. Her brother seemed a little strange."
"How so?"
Although the other two members had already lost interest in talking, as captain, the leader still asked as a formality, "Was there anything special about him?"
"Back on the platform, he jumped six meters in one leap." Oleander thought for a moment, then added, "He also nearly fell off the clouds. Susan suspected him of being a member of our Witch Association."
"Generally speaking, blood relatives of magical girls can withstand absorbing some of their magic. Some exceptionally gifted people use this to improve their physical capabilities." The captain rubbed their chin. "You should have a deep personal understanding of that. But falling off the clouds suggests he probably wasn't given magic by his younger sister. Rather, he was contaminated by a Calamity Beast's magic."
"He said he just happened to run into a Calamity Beast on the way."
"You believe that?" The captain scoffed. "No one understands the state of Calamity Beast magic contamination better than we do. But rather than magic contamination, he might also be becoming a vessel for the birth of a Calamity Beast. That would explain the contaminated magic."
People whose negative emotions reached a certain intensity would nourish Calamity Beasts.
And the birth of a Calamity Beast required not only emotions and magic, but also a physical entity.
Usually, an animal served as the vessel. Cats, bats, dogs-anything would do. Occasionally, it could even be a plant.
The forms of these Calamity Beasts were thus influenced by their vessels, with most taking animal shapes.
When negative emotions reached a certain intensity, some people themselves became vessels for Calamity Beasts. Although exceedingly rare, once born, such a beast would be extraordinarily powerful.
Every Calamity Beast born from a human vessel had caused an enormous disaster.
After learning this information from the Witch Association, Oleander couldn't help marveling that even the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau knew less about Calamity Beasts than the association did.
They truly understood Calamity Beasts far too well. It even made her suspect that the original source of Calamity Beasts might have been the Witch Association.
"Oh? So that new magical girl's older brother has a very good chance of turning into a Calamity Beast?" The woman on the left finally became interested. "Turning a magical girl's relative into a Calamity Beast would be wonderful. I can hardly wait to see those pretentious little girls fall apart!"
"Then I'll leave this to you, Du Juan. Go capture him."
The captain laughed coldly. "Even if he can't turn into a Calamity Beast, we can use him to threaten and control this fledgling magical girl. While she's still inexperienced, we might even be able to make her join our Witch Association."
"Leave it to me!"
Oleander's lips moved, but in the end, she said nothing. With a regretful sigh for Jiang Keke, she switched off the crystal.
The room sank into pitch darkness.
Then someone suddenly opened the door and turned on the light, instantly flooding the room with brightness.
"Sis, why didn't you turn on the light?"
"It sets the mood. And saves electricity."