By the time Li Yi arrived at Jiang Keke's home, the sky had already grown somewhat dark.
Jiang Keke's home was fairly large, with an enclosed little courtyard. The courtyard was nicely finished and covered by a rain canopy. Easy-to-grow mulberry trees stood on either side outside the gate; one was nearly dead, and the other was nearly dead too.
As she approached the courtyard gate, Li Yi was still wondering how to start the conversation. She had never been very good at visiting other people's homes, and this time she had come alone without even bringing a gift. Coupled with Jiang Si's icy attitude, it left her somewhat worried about how awkward things might get.
Before she could knock, she heard dull thuds coming from the courtyard, as though something heavy was smashing into the ground.
Li Yi's heart immediately sank, and she grabbed her Miracle Seed.
Those sounds clearly weren't normal. Could the Witch Association have already sneaked inside?
Faintly, she heard Keke's rapid breathing, weary and strained, as though she had just been through a fierce battle.
She gently pushed the courtyard gate and found it unlocked, further confirming her suspicion.
Never mind that today was Saturday-even if there had been extra classes, school would have ended long before now. Who would leave their gate unlatched this late?
How brazen of the Witch Association, daring to break into a magical girl's home! Utterly lawless! They clearly had no regard for the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau!
Anger rising in her chest, Li Yi flung open the gate and charged inside, transforming with her Miracle Seed in hand. "Don't be afraid, Keke! I'm here to help!"
In the somewhat cramped courtyard, the bicycle leaning against the wall was instantly blown over by her entrance, and fallen leaves flew up along with it.
Pink light illuminated the entire little courtyard. Moments later, the transformed Yinlian froze, wand in hand and expression stern. Across the courtyard, Keke stared blankly at her, both hands gripping a hundred-kilogram dumbbell she hadn't managed to lift.
Apart from the two of them, there was nobody in the courtyard...
For a moment, the atmosphere was rather awkward.
"Wh-what's wrong? Did something happen, Captain Yinlian?"
Quickly undoing her transformation, Li Yi went over to pick up the bicycle and gave a couple of dry laughs. "I heard noises in your courtyard and thought someone from the Witch Association had broken in... The Disaster Countermeasures Bureau detected Witch Association activity today. It's not just me being jumpy."
As she explained, Keke caught on and immediately found it rather funny.
Li Yi asked again, "But what were you doing, making all that noise...?"
Keke immediately stopped finding it funny and let go of the dumbbell. "Nothing. I was just exercising."
She had been locked in a struggle with this dumbbell since last night.
Keke finally understood what Jiang Si meant by that phrase he was always saying: being unable to set one's thoughts at ease.
Although she could indeed lift it after transforming, the fact that she couldn't lift it once she undid her transformation kept nagging at her.
So today, after finishing her homework and eating, she had nothing else to do and started trying again in the courtyard.
She was already a magical girl. She refused to lose to Jiang Si...
But the more she tried, the more she understood that the human body had limits-and just how terrifying Jiang Si was.
He simply wasn't human.
His physical strength approached that of a transformed magical girl. It was inconceivable.
"What's there to train with a dumbbell?" Li Yi muttered. To cover her embarrassment, she casually grabbed the dumbbell as though nothing had happened. "For magical girls, even without transforming, our strength still increases. This much weight shouldn't..."
She pulled hard. It didn't budge.
Instead, Li Yi nearly strained herself.
The girl's expression grew serious. She grabbed the dumbbell with both hands and tried again.
It still didn't move at all.
Li Yi looked up at Keke, and Keke looked innocently back at her. Silence fell for a moment.
"Wait, is this a dumbbell meant for humans?"
"Jiang Si uses it for his daily workouts..."
Li Yi was speechless. Recalling that miserable cripple, she said, "Then I suppose that's not so strange."
Her competitive spirit stirred, she secretly borrowed a little magic from her seed. This time, using all her strength in both hands, Li Yi finally hauled the dumbbell up. "It's a little-a little heavy, but for a magical girl, it's not... impossible..."
Beside her, Keke could naturally guess she had used magic, but didn't expose her. She merely poked Li Yi's forehead. "Weightlifting can easily stunt your growth, Captain."
Li Yi immediately dropped the dumbbell, which landed with a tremendous, muffled thud.
Dusting off her hands, Li Yi stretched her arms and casually changed the subject. "It's so late. Why haven't you shut the gate?"
"Jiang Si isn't back yet."
Li Yi froze, her expression turning anxious. "Oh no! It's this late already. Could the Witch Association have captured him?"
"Surely not?"
Keke was somewhat uncertain too. "He often comes home late."
"What does he do out so late instead of coming home?"
"Exercise, or run errands to earn some pocket money." Keke took out her phone and checked the time. "It's only eight now. Usually, he gets back before ten. Let's wait until ten and see if he comes back."
"No. The Witch Association has already started moving today, and he even fought someone under their control at noon! We can't sit around waiting until ten."
Li Yi immediately stood up. "We have to go find him!"
"Jiang Si fought someone controlled by the Witch Association at noon?" After following her captain outside, Keke shut and locked the gate as she asked, "What do you mean? The Witch Association controlled an ordinary person to fight him?"
"Yes. The Witch Association can strengthen ordinary people with Grief Seeds. It's extremely dangerous!"
"Oh," Keke said, then instinctively asked, "Was he hurt?"
"No." Li Yi's expression became rather peculiar. "Your brother nearly beat the man to death."
"Huh?"
Even knowing how frighteningly strong Jiang Si was, Jiang Keke hadn't expected him to be able to defeat someone strengthened by the Witch Association.
She had always felt that after she became a magical girl, this side of the world was beyond Jiang Si's reach. No matter how much he trained, no matter how formidable his flesh became, he couldn't possibly rival supernatural beings like magical girls and the Witch Association.
She had even thought that losing this time would probably leave Jiang Si dejected for a while. After all, so much time spent training couldn't compare with someone obtaining a seed.
Instead, Li Yi told her that Jiang Si had nearly beaten his opponent to death.
So training really did work?
"But that was only an ordinary person the Witch Association casually strengthened. If they seriously go after your brother, he'll definitely be in danger. We have to hurry! Those Witch Association people have never shied away from killing!"
Following close behind Li Yi and listening to her words, she looked at her Miracle Seed and bit her lip, her thoughts somewhat jumbled.
Keke hated Jiang Si.
From their parents' funeral back then through the three years that followed, that loathing had never diminished in the slightest.
She couldn't forgive Jiang Si, and Jiang Si never cared about her forgiveness. He didn't even care about her at all.
All these years, as siblings, as family, they had lived like strangers, and she didn't think anything needed to change.
But.
Jiang Si might die at the Witch Association's hands.
Her only family would die-and because of her.
If she hadn't become a magical girl, the Witch Association wouldn't have targeted Jiang Si, and his life wouldn't be in danger.
She used to wish Jiang Si would just die.
But when Jiang Si truly might die, a trace of fear welled up in her heart.
At the very least, he couldn't die because of her.
That was what Keke thought.
If that happened, their parents would be sad if they knew.
Holding her seed as she ran, she began to be enveloped in red magic stronger than ever before.
Jiang Si had traveled the road home from the Azure Cloud Sect countless times. He knew the way even with his eyes closed.
But today, when he ended up in dead ends twice in a row, he knew something was wrong.
There was no way he would take the wrong turn twice.
A ghost wall.
In his previous life, he had also investigated quite a few strange incidents. After all, Jiang Si knew plenty of cultivation stories that began with encounters with ghosts and monsters.
Ghost walls were among the most famous. Generally speaking, encountering a ghost wall meant striking it lucky; many legendary stories began with one.
Countless people started out encountering a ghost wall and ended up battling Heavenly Lords and Great Emperors.
Although he no longer needed to seek out these Anomalies in pursuit of the Great Dao, encountering one now still left him somewhat gratified.
At least it proved that his approach back then hadn't been a waste of time or the wrong path. It had merely ended in failure.
He reached out and touched the wall. Its texture was no different from an ordinary wall.
A concrete wall was far sturdier than a brick wall.
It was indeed ideal for a ghost wall. Of course, if Jiang Si were making one, he would probably choose something like steel plates.
Holding his breath and focusing, he abruptly opened his eyes, tightened his abdomen, exhaled, and unleashed a ferocious punch!
Terrifying strength punched a hole straight through the concrete wall!
He didn't stop, hammering the concrete wall again and again until he smashed a gap in the ghost wall large enough for a person to pass through!
A ghost wall, a ghost wall-as the name implied, it was a wall you could break open as long as you were as strong as a ghost or monster.
Nothing more than that.
Pushing aside rubble, Jiang Si passed through the wall and surveyed his surroundings.
Sure enough, this wasn't anywhere he knew.
He should be on the outskirts.
The highway was deserted, with poplar trees planted here and there on either side. A roadside sign read: Highway No. 6.
If he remembered correctly, this road was east of BH City, far from the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau to the west.
He rubbed his fist. There were traces of blood on it.
This was the biggest problem with having no magic.
Even though his physical abilities were already terrifying, and his defenses were far beyond anything an ordinary person could match.
Compared with magical girls, he still injured himself easily.
This was also the greatest difficulty Jiang Si had always faced in advancing his physical body: gaining the same continuous magical protection as a magical girl without relying on a seed's power.
Then he would no longer need to transform.
"Heh-heh. You really are a monster."
He raised his head. Beneath the moon, some ten meters above the ground, a woman in black robes gave a hoarse laugh in the night wind. "That was solid concrete. The Witch Association has conducted so many magical contamination experiments, yet we've never seen a human like you. No wonder that fellow lost. Heh-heh-heh, I've found something good."
Jiang Si rotated his wrist. Punching through concrete had left it somewhat uncomfortable, but it wasn't a major problem.
Bending down, he picked up a fairly large stone and hefted it. After confirming it was heavy enough, he looked up at the woman overhead. "Not 'heh-heh-heh.' It should be 'kekeke.'"
Even Du Juan was baffled by Jiang Si's inexplicable remark. "'Kekeke'? What's that supposed to be?"
"A truly terrifying villain only laughs 'kekeke.' That's how you create a sense of menace."
Jiang Si shook his head, sounding somewhat disappointed. "Trash. You don't even have that much common sense, yet you dare come out and play gangster."
"The Witch Association isn't some villainous organization, nor are we gangsters."
After instinctively retorting, Du Juan wondered why she was following this lunatic's logic.
She had finished gathering her magic anyway, so she immediately waved her hand.
The ground beneath Jiang Si's feet began turning into a pitch-black mire, seeking to swallow him.
Since he was a precious experimental subject, Du Juan not only intended to capture Jiang Si alive, but also had to ensure her power wouldn't contaminate him.
Otherwise, it would affect the experiment. Anyone who had conducted experiments knew that even a single variable could be devastating.
That was why she had gone to such lengths to create a ghost wall and trap him inside, then slowly saturate the ground with magic to swallow him completely.
Seeing this, Jiang Si casually tossed the stone he had picked up into the air.
Du Juan thought he intended to knock her down with it and immediately braced herself.
She knew he could jump six meters, so she had deliberately maintained an altitude of around ten meters. As a veteran with ample experience fighting ordinary humans, Du Juan knew all too well their weakness when facing supernatural beings like them.
If they couldn't touch her, they could never threaten her.
Throwing stones, a move only children would use, couldn't possibly work on her either. Still, just in case-she had always been cautious-she prepared to knock the stone away.
But the stone wasn't thrown very high. It nearly ran out of momentum while still five or six meters below her.
So she gave a sinister smile. "Boy, did tearing down a concrete wall use up all your strength?"
The next second, before the magic swallowed him, Jiang Si stomped hard on the ground. The air currents even scattered the surrounding magic!
He jumped.
No, rather than jumping, it was more like he flew!
Du Juan had never seen an ordinary person who could jump so high!
Soon, however, at around seven meters, his momentum still slowed, and he began to fall.
One meter higher than the six she had expected. Had Du Juan not been cautious and left three meters to spare, he really would have reached her.
"You..."
Before she could finish, the falling Jiang Si suddenly stepped on the very stone he had thrown.
He soared upward once more!
He even rose above Du Juan's head!
For the first time, Du Juan understood how ordinary people felt when facing her.
This made no sense at all...
But there was no time to think further. Jiang Si was too fast-so fast that Du Juan only managed to raise her arms to block.
A terrifying axe kick had already come crashing down on her head!
Beneath the moonlight, the Witch Association member plunged like a meteor into the shattered concrete rubble below!
At the same time, Jiang Si seized his moment and grabbed a branch of a nearby poplar, even snapping the arm-thick branch off.
Only after cushioning his fall did he land with tremendous force.
The enormous impact still cracked the ground beneath him.
Straightening up, he tapped his toes against the ground, slowly restoring feeling to his numb soles.
He felt utterly exhilarated.
He had only just broken through, and someone had already come along for him to test his skills on, letting him unleash his strength to the fullest. It was like learning the art of dragon-slaying only to find a dragon right before him.
This advancement had brought considerable improvements in strength, speed, reflexes, and every other aspect.
His body, tempered by two layers of magic, had once again surpassed common sense.
Even Jiang Si himself found it somewhat stunning.
Next time, he could try tempering it with three layers of magic...
Du Juan crawled out of the rubble, her face covered in blood. She clawed at the broken stones beside her, her features twisted hideously. "Good, good, good! What a fine job you've done!"
"Kekeke."
He let out the laugh that should have come from her, trying to provide her with a voice-over, then cupped his hands. "Just luck."
Then Jiang Si saw her take out a seed.
The rotten, pitch-black seed gave off a dark glow, and power so dense it resembled ink enveloped Du Juan's entire body.
She growled under her breath:
"Fall into pitch-black purgatory and wail!"
"Transform!"