Keke becoming a magical girl had little impact on Jiang Si's life.
After returning from the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau, their daily routines remained unchanged. They went to school as usual and took care of their own food, clothing, housing, and transportation.
But Hyacinth had probably heard about his visit to her from Yinlian.
That evening, after he finished eating and was about to leave, Keke headed into the kitchen to cook her own meal. As they passed each other, she suddenly spoke without warning.
"Don't stick your nose into things."
In truth, he hadn't been sticking his nose into anything.
Not inclined to explain, Jiang Si returned to his room and began sensing the magic within himself.
After absorbing the magic of a B-rank Calamity Beast, his power surged more vigorously and vastly than before, but it remained within the framework of Full Blossom.
In Jiang Si's view, the so-called Bud and New Sprout stages were actually Foundation Establishment.
Both realms involved continually increasing one's total magic and familiarizing oneself with how it circulated. Given enough time to accumulate experience, any magical girl could advance from Bud to New Sprout.
All he could say was that becoming a magical girl was equivalent to a kind of power-bestowing initiation, suddenly elevating a mortal to Early Foundation Establishment.
Except that obtaining a Foundation Establishment body required transforming.
And during Foundation Establishment, whether at Bud or New Sprout, they were merely drawing magic from their Miracle Seeds.
Until they stepped into Full Blossom.
Jiang Si called this the Golden Core Stage. Only upon reaching Full Blossom did magical girls truly begin controlling their Miracle Seeds, even reshaping them and making them bloom.
The only problem was that the Miracle Seed existed outside the body rather than inside it, which was somewhat abnormal for a golden core.
But that was fine. Jiang Si called it an external core.
He remembered that plenty of cultivation novels included such crooked, unorthodox methods, using an external core to force one's way into the Golden Core Stage.
As he continued growing stronger, the so-called external core would sooner or later become an internal core, or help him forge an internal core anew.
Although, when he explained this theory to Bingtang, the girl who had been steeped in his cultivation knowledge for three years still found it a little far-fetched.
But Jiang Si felt he had found the pattern...
After Golden Core came Nascent Soul, meaning Full Bloom after Full Blossom. Presumably, this required breaking the seed open completely, turning it into a human form or something else.
So, to break through to Full Bloom, he had to complete a transformation of the Miracle Seed's shape.
Over the past six months, Jiang Si had tried many methods, but no matter how much magic he absorbed, it was difficult to produce any change in the Miracle Seed's shape.
Perhaps it required some outside assistance, or an insight of his own.
Besides searching for Miracle Seeds, the Azure Cloud Sect's plan to merge magical girls' powers was still progressing. However, insufficient research into changes in magic's fundamental properties had slowed its progress. For now, both needed time.
Breakthroughs ultimately couldn't be rushed. More haste, less speed.
From his previous life to the present, patience was the one thing Jiang Si had never lacked. He could carve a way through a dead end, let alone now, with a grand road to heaven laid so clearly before him. It was only a question of walking faster or slower. What was there to rush?
Sooner or later, he would reach the end, reach the very peak!
He tried circulating his magic through one complete cycle inside his physical body, and once again, it silently dispersed.
But he could feel that some magic had still seeped into his flesh and blood.
Little by little, it would add up. Sooner or later, he would achieve bodily sanctification.
Filled with hope, he was nearing the end of his relaxed, pleasant cultivation session when he heard a clang downstairs, along with his younger sister's cry of pain.
His cultivation was almost finished anyway, and he was about to go to bed. Jiang Si opened his door and glanced downstairs.
Keke had fallen to the floor. The dumbbell he usually trained with had struck the base of the television cabinet opposite her.
The dumbbell wasn't expensive. He had made it himself, and the iron weights on either end weren't particularly even. After all, bringing the Azure Cloud Sect's exercise equipment home wasn't convenient, so he had made quite a few simple pieces of equipment to make do with.
In fact, Jiang Si had stopped using the barbell downstairs six months ago, since it no longer did anything to improve his strength.
He had intended to add some more weight a while back, but the old welder said it would cost a hundred yuan, including the extra iron weights.
The older he got, the more of a swindler he became.
It had sat untouched in a corner of the living room for ages and was already rather grubby, with even a little rust.
The air had been humid lately, too.
Keke looked up at him, then started running. Wearing those battered slippers that left her toes poking out, she pattered over to the television and moved the barbell into the corner.
"What are you doing?"
"Exercising after dinner."
"Don't you hate exercising more than anything?"
"None of your business." As Jiang Keke spoke, she pressed a hand to her lower back.
She had probably strained it just now.
Jiang Si casually pulled some medicated plasters his parents had bought years ago out of the cabinet under the television. They were specifically for bruises and sprains.
In fact, they had been bought for him, because his parents had feared he would hurt himself when he trained like a madman back then.
But he had never used a single one.
Perfect mastery of his own body-how to train to his limits without injuring himself.
For anyone hoping to enter the Dao through body cultivation, this was the most important lesson they had to master.
One injury would take ten days to half a month to heal, doing immeasurable damage to his training. Efficiency-minded Jiang Si would never allow that.
"I'm going to be a magical girl. I have to get a little stronger." Jiang Keke looked at the medicated plasters Jiang Si had tossed beside her feet, her tone still icy. "Don't you have any equipment a human can use?"
"One hundred and five kilograms. Within the range of an ordinary person."
"What kind of livestock are these ordinary people of yours?" Picking up the plasters, Keke supported herself against the wall and slowly returned to her room. "I'll find something else to use tomorrow."
After returning to her room, she waited inside for a while until she heard her older brother go back to his room.
Only then did Keke open her door again and tiptoe out.
Looking at that heavy black lump of iron, a hint of ferocity appeared on her face. "I refuse to believe it!"
She took out her Miracle Seed and transformed, keeping her voice as low as possible.
Fiery red light blossomed during the transformation, bathing the living room in red.
She hurriedly reined in her magic, suppressing the escaping power to a minimum, then glanced upstairs. Only after confirming that Jiang Si hadn't noticed anything did she continue.
She reached out and grabbed the lump of iron again.
With a fierce heave, she lifted the barbell.
Nothing to it...
That was what she had wanted to say, but with her magic suppressed, even using a magical girl's body, she could feel the astonishing weight and strain of lifting this great lump of iron.
Keke had seen Jiang Si exercise with it before, lifting it up and down effortlessly, even holding it one-handed and reading while he went through the motions.
Wasn't he a monster?
Even if someone suddenly told her that her only remaining blood relative was actually a Calamity Beast, Keke wouldn't doubt it.
But perhaps she was simply too weak...
As a newly born Bud magical girl, both her magic reserves and the precision of her control were very poor.
After parting with Teacher Ziyuan, she had gone for tests with Yinlian, and the results had been far from encouraging.
Among newly born magical girls, she counted as relatively weak.
Yinlian had comforted her, saying that Larkspur's initial abilities hadn't been particularly outstanding either, yet she had still become one of the very best magical girls.
But Keke had never thought she was someone that impressive.
If she wasn't outstanding, she would remain that way. There would be no reversal, no chance of stunning everyone with a single brilliant feat.
But she had to grow stronger.
If she couldn't grow stronger, she might never see Teacher Ziyuan again, and she wouldn't be able to catch up to her and become good friends.
At the thought of becoming friends with Teacher Ziyuan, Keke's heart instantly warmed again.
Drawing on her magic and controlling it precisely, she began truly training her abilities with the help of this pitch-black lump of iron.
Early the next morning, Jiang Si came down from his bedroom and saw the dented floor and the slightly deformed barbell.
Of course he had sensed Keke transforming into a magical girl last night. That idiot had no idea how to control the power spilling out of her. It would have been impossible not to notice.
For the first time, Jiang Si felt rather tempted to ask her:
Why had she spent an entire night without sleeping, insisting on constantly tormenting the barbell with magic?
Even if she wanted to practice controlling her magic, there was no need to keep fiddling with it in the middle of the night.
The sound of the barbell hitting the floor had jolted him awake several times throughout the night.
When Jiang Si came out, Keke also emerged from her room, dark circles under her eyes. She glanced at the mess she had made of the floor and turned her head away. "Last night, I accidentally..."
Accidentally, all night long.
"Go to Second Uncle's this afternoon and ask him to help repair the floor. Second Uncle owed our family a hundred and sixty thousand yuan. He won't charge us to patch up a floor."
"Mm."
Keke nodded. "Sorry."
"Go into the yard next time."
"Got it."
Coldness was one thing, arguments another. When she made a mistake, Jiang Keke would still honestly admit she was wrong.
Judging by that, his little sister's rebellious phase had never been particularly severe.
With his schoolbag on his back, he casually grabbed a leftover steamed bun from the kitchen, stuffed in some vegetables left over from last night, and headed for school.
Today was Saturday, so Keke, as a middle school student, naturally didn't have school.
But Jiang Si was a second-year high school student, and his school held extra classes on Saturdays.
Jiang Si skipped classes most of the time, but never the Saturday extra classes.
Because there were very few people at school on Saturdays. Only second-year students came to class-the third-years would be taking their college entrance exams soon, so they had no extra classes on Saturdays.
That made it easy to encounter students on their own, giving the thugs from outside school an opportunity.
No. 4 Middle School was also in a remote location. When these thugs came around to throw their weight around on Saturdays, even the school had trouble catching them.
They were Jiang Si's handiest opponents for actual combat practice.
Although they were a little weak, he could still clearly feel his progress in actual combat.
Punching bags that fought back weren't easy to find.
Besides, there was no math among this morning's extra classes, so he planned to attend.
It wasn't that Jiang Si couldn't understand math. He simply knew high school mathematics inside out, and studying it further wouldn't raise his score.
Besides, mathematics wasn't dragging down his total score.
So attending math class was purely a waste of time.
Of his high school subjects, Chinese and English were actually the ones he had forgotten the most. Even if he had memorized those things before, it was easy to forget them all after not looking at them for a long time.
He was still fine with math, physics, and even chemistry. With some review, he could mostly recover his old feel for solving problems.
He wasn't sensitive to textual memorization, but formulas and equations were things he had always found difficult to forget once he remembered them.
He needed to ensure a passable score, at least enough to get into a first-tier university, because first-tier universities in Beihai offered programs researching the fundamental properties of magical girls' magic. Their research was quite advanced, with corresponding high-level papers and reports.
Far more efficient than the girls fumbling around on their own.
Second-tier universities wouldn't do. The theoretical level of magical girl programs at BH City's second-tier universities was basically garbage.
As for junior colleges, junior college students in BH City weren't qualified to research magical girls.
So Jiang Si's goal was to keep his total score at the first-tier threshold, enter a university with relatively advanced research into magical girls, and study their powers and related knowledge in depth.
The materials the Azure Cloud Sect could obtain were all too superficial. To learn about cutting-edge scientific and theoretical research into magical girls, he had to get into a university and look for it himself, because many studies were sealed off directly by the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau upon completion and never made public.
And Bingtang's connections were rather stretched thin when it came to universities.
For one thing, her family had little contact with university personnel. For another, none of the Azure Cloud Sect's disciples were old enough to attend university yet-yes, even Susan, their mole, was a high school student, though she had currently dropped out to focus on her work at the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau.
Jiang Si looked up at No. 4 Middle School in the distance, his thoughts already drifting to university.
He planned to try taking the college entrance exam at the end of his second year. Waiting another year was a little too long for him.
"No money? You're dressed so nicely. How could you have no money? Don't be so nervous. Just think of it as making friends. We'll treat you sometime..."
A familiar voice came from nearby.
They were actually still some distance from school. These thugs didn't dare get too close, but there were always relatively secluded stretches along the route to school. Once someone was late and took a chance on a shortcut...
They could easily be caught by these thugs.
Jiang Si didn't know the boy surrounded by the three thugs, nor did he need to.
He walked straight toward the three thugs.
"Limp."
Limp referred to the leader of the three. He walked with a limp.
Jiang Si had broken his leg with a kick, and it still hadn't healed.
He was thin, with hardly any flesh on his face, like a monkey. Yet the vicious gloom between his brows frightened anyone who saw him.
This kid had been locked up before. He had attacked someone with a blade and chopped off an entire arm.
That was also why he had made a name for himself on the streets. He was ruthless enough.
In fact, around No. 4 Middle School, his gang had originally been the largest, with a sizable territory and over a dozen lackeys following him every day.
Among his peers, he was undoubtedly a terrifying presence.
Hearing someone call him Limp, he turned, barely able to conceal the viciousness on his face. "You fucking looking to die?"
But when he turned and saw Jiang Si, he froze for a moment.
The viciousness in his eyes instantly vanished, leaving them somewhat clear.
The other two lackeys beside him immediately released the No. 4 Middle School student they were holding. The student instantly sprinted toward school, but no one paid him any attention.
They all bowed and scraped, smiling at Jiang Si and even offering him a cigarette. "Brother Jiang! What brings you to school today, Brother Jiang?"
"Extra classes."
Jiang Si glanced at Limp. "Come on."
Of all the thugs, Limp had the most guts.
No matter how many times Jiang Si beat him, he refused to submit and still dared to fight him.
So this was always the first thing Jiang Si said when he sought him out.
"Let's fight."
Limp instinctively took a step back, his throat bobbing.
He had fought Jiang Si three times.
Every time, he had been beaten miserably and lost all face.
He had gone from having a dozen or so followers to having only two still willing to run around with him.
He glanced back at his last two brothers and quietly lowered his head. "We're done fighting."
Smack, smack, smack!
Three crisp reports rang out, and a palm print appeared on each of their faces.
Jiang Si slapped all three of them, then dusted off his hands. "Fine, one slap each, then. No. 4 Middle School is my turf, and all its students are under my protection. Come here looking for trouble again..."
He lowered his voice. "And I'll beat you to death."
Only such blunt threats worked on thugs like these.
Of course, if there were no consequences to bear, beating one of them to death outright would have been even more effective.
This was not some personal hobby of Jiang Si's, stepping in to uphold justice whenever he saw injustice on the road.
Rather, it was something he had agreed on with the principal.
As long as he kept the nearby thugs from bothering No. 4 Middle School's students on their way to and from school, the school would be lenient about his skipping classes.
In the end, after provoking Jiang Si, the thug had been beaten until he cried for his father and mother and had a finger broken, finally letting the principal vent his pent-up anger and put his mind at ease.
So the principal had simply made an agreement with Jiang Si: as long as Jiang Si beat the nearby thugs until they no longer dared to provoke No. 4 Middle School's students, he could skip classes however he liked.
Few people at school knew about this agreement, though. Jiang Si's teachers had gone to the principal countless times to ask him to make Jiang Si withdraw, only for the principal to fob them off by saying they had to teach every student well...
After that threat, the other two lackeys both went pale and said with sheepish smiles, "We wouldn't dare, we wouldn't dare."
Limp's face was ashen, flushing red and then turning white as he touched his burning, freshly slapped cheek.
The slap had been so hard it left him dazed, as though a great sheet of red-hot iron had smacked him across the face.
It burned fiercely.
Once Jiang Si left, his last two lackeys spoke apologetically. "Sorry, boss. I've got something to take care of at home, so I'll be going."
"My mom and dad gave me a beating last time and told me to stop being a thug. They found me a job, so I probably won't be able to hang around with you anymore, boss."
Each found an excuse and walked away without even waiting for his reply.
Limp stood there for a long time before walking deeper into the alley, his eyes red-rimmed. He picked up a brick beside him and smashed it hard against the wall!
Then he frantically kicked it several times in succession.
"How pathetic."
A somewhat hoarse woman's voice suddenly came from beside him, making Limp jump. An old woman in a black robe walked out of the alley wall...
Out of the wall?
Limp rubbed his eyes and found that she really had come out of the wall.
"When an ordinary person encounters a monster like that, one who draws on a magical girl's power, of course there's no way to fight back. It's not that you're too weak, or that you haven't worked hard enough. It's that the two of you started from different places. Very unfair, isn't it?"
Limp stared at him, his gaze repeatedly going blank, then nodded. "Unfair..."
The woman took a seed out of her robes.
A pitch-black seed, filled with lamentation and resentment, emanating an ominous aura.
"As long as you gain power, the power to defeat him, you can take back everything you lost. You can even trample him beneath your feet and wash away all your past humiliation. The price is just a little pain. Do you want it?"
Limp hesitated for an instant, then Jiang Si's face surfaced in his mind again. His gaze instantly turned fanatical. "I do, I do! I do!!"
"Take it."
The witch watched the seed plant itself in his forehead and begin to sprout, then bared her teeth in a grin. "A half-finished product, but it'll do. Go bring Jiang Si to me."