"I thought it was a speed bump..."
"It was in my blind spot. I couldn't see..."
"Tell that to the insurance company."
Those were the last few things Jiang Si heard before losing consciousness.
He had probably been run over and killed.
The reason he was so certain was that after waking up, Jiang Si discovered he had become smaller.
And the world had become unfamiliar, too.
He felt a little regretful.
He hadn't been trying to kill himself.
It was just that he had had nowhere left to retreat, and his body tempering had happened to reach a bottleneck.
Challenging a higher level and surpassing one's limits was the most common way to break through a bottleneck. Naturally, Jiang Si had drawn on the wisdom of his predecessors.
The facts proved that in his confrontation with the truck, he had indeed surpassed himself and forced it to a stop.
He might even have unlocked his genetic lock.
Unfortunately, he hadn't managed to stay alive. Had he survived, his body would probably have strengthened to a new stage.
Now everything had reset, and he had to start over. Naturally, he felt some regret.
But that was all. It had only been five years.
This time, he would start training as a child. A young body was more malleable, which would instead allow him to break through to an even higher level.
He began trying to train at the age of three.
He had achieved some results by seven, and by ten, he had caught up to the level he had reached before his death.
Even Jiang Si himself found his rate of growth unbelievable, as though some power were helping him grow stronger faster.
But this world didn't have any supernatural powers, either.
His parents were ordinary office workers, everyone around him was unremarkable, and the daily television news reported nothing but traffic accidents and current affairs.
Apart from the name of this city, Beihai, which he had never heard before, nothing had changed at all.
Jiang Si had long since grown used to it.
Although he had fantasized about having transmigrated to a world where he could cultivate immortality, he hadn't held out much hope. After discovering that the world wasn't very different, he had immediately abandoned that fantasy.
His parents in this life were fairly open-minded. Although he was obsessed with training and barely resembled a normal child, never socializing, crying or making a fuss, or playing with children his age, his parents had never shown any dissatisfaction.
They had asked why he didn't play with other children, but after Jiang Si said he didn't like to, they hadn't forced him.
Later, because Jiang Si always went his own way, his parents hardly asked about his affairs at all.
Life was steady and secure. The couple weren't wealthy, but their salaries weren't low. They bought an apartment in the city center when Jiang Si was four. Their timing was neither good nor bad; the price wasn't low, but two years later, it rose even higher.
When Jiang Si was five, he gained a younger sister. Although the couple occasionally argued, their relationship remained loving.
Compared with Jiang Si, who didn't like getting close to people, his younger sister was more normal. She frequently clung to their parents and depended heavily on them, so they doted on her all the more.
After all, they had finally managed to have a normal child.
Although Jiang Si wasn't particularly interested in his younger sister, he usually looked after her a little, if only to repay these parents for raising him.
As a result, for a while, his relationship with his sister was quite good.
Until that day.
When his parents, who were on vacation, excitedly announced that they were taking them on a trip, Jiang Si hadn't actually been very willing.
His body tempering had recently reached a bottleneck. After the training of his physical body reached a certain limit, further progress became all but impossible.
He was seeking a new breakthrough, and Jiang Si really wasn't in the mood to travel.
But the expectant looks on all three of their faces made it hard for him to spoil their fun.
In the end, he went along with their wishes and boarded the vehicle.
He was groggy throughout the journey. Lately, it wasn't just fatigue; the continued stagnation of his strength had also left his thoughts unsettled.
Perhaps he should seek some external stimulus to help him break through. Yet in this place that was almost indistinguishable from his previous life, where could he find some supernatural power to help him take his first step toward cultivating immortality?
His sister's chatter filled his ears. His mother snored softly, while his father held his sister and coaxed her, laughter sounding from time to time.
The vehicle was stuffy and hot, misting the windows with a layer of white fog. Leaning by the window, Jiang Si gazed at the ordinary buildings, ordinary pedestrians, and ordinary vehicles outside, sinking into thought.
Apart from the slightly different city names, he couldn't find anything in this world that differed from his previous life. Even that monster hanging from the building outside looked ordinary...
A monster?
Jiang Si jerked his head up.
The monster, which resembled some sort of parasitic plant, bared its fangs and brandished its claws. Countless tree roots covering its body spread down from the rooftop, swallowing the building completely, before still more roots plunged underground.
The first startled cry came from somewhere. Through the window, it sounded very distant.
The windows of the building infested by the monster shattered in a clattering cascade, engulfing the people below like a waterfall along with rocks, smoke, and dust.
Then panic began to spread. Vehicles in the distance were overturned by roots and smashed into other vehicles. Just ahead, someone flew into the air and was impaled by roots in midair.
"It's a Calamity Beast!"
Heat from a car exploding in the distance rushed into his face. Cracks spread across the window Jiang Si was leaning against, accompanied by a scorched smell.
Roots grew out from beneath the vehicle and pressed against the window, right at the tip of Jiang Si's nose.
That fresh scent of some sort of plant mingled with the smell of blood and coursed through his nose and mouth. Jiang Si seized a piece of it tightly and twisted it off.
Supernatural power...
Then someone abruptly pulled him backward.
"Watch out!"
The entire vehicle was overturned.
The world spun. That terrifying, overwhelming power far exceeded anything an ordinary person could imagine, throwing his vision and thoughts alike into chaos.
Jiang Si struggled to reach out and grab the people beside him, but in the end, he caught only his sister.
He didn't know how many times they rolled. He shielded his sister beneath him. Fortunately, he had trained this body to be strong enough that he could keep a safe space propped up for her throughout.
Otherwise, the rolling and crushing alone would have been enough to kill the little girl.
Glass sliced past his face, the pain carrying a slight burn. That sweet scent lingered cloyingly in his nose and mouth, refusing to dissipate. After turning over an unknown number of times, the vehicle finally stopped.
Smoke was everywhere. Coughing, Jiang Si kicked out the window and fell to the ground with his sister in his arms. Broken glass littered the ground. He braced himself against it with one hand, found a relatively safe spot, and laid his unconscious sister down.
Sobs and groans from inside the vehicle spread with the smoke. His hearing seemed to have been damaged; the sounds were muffled and indistinct, as though covered by a layer of cloth.
Jiang Si raised his head to look at the Calamity Beast.
For some reason, it had drawn in its roots, shrinking in size and curling up inside the building as though afraid of something.
He staggered over to the vehicle and wrenched the door open by brute force. The dead and injured spilled out. He pushed through the crowd, searching for the couple.
But he couldn't find them. When the vehicle flew into the air, some people had fallen out.
He turned to look at the wreckage-strewn road, then heard a whistling overhead.
It didn't sound like a plane or a bird.
Jiang Si looked up. A streak of blue rainbow light stopped in front of the building where the Calamity Beast was.
It was a girl wearing an ornate, puffed-out short skirt, dazzlingly beautiful, with a particularly eye-catching staff in her hand.
That was...
"A magical girl!"