A beautiful beam like a rainbow pierced the monster.
The vines that had seemed invincible finally stopped expanding. After retreating into the building, they even tried to flee.
But that blue rainbow of light chased after them, cutting off the monster's escape.
Jiang Si put his unconscious younger sister somewhere safe, tilted his head back to watch that light, and limped after it. Slowly, his steps quickened, until he was running like mad!
His heart pounded wildly, far more fiercely than it had when death was closing in!
But that light was too fast. His eyes could barely follow it, and even when he picked up speed, he could not catch up at all.
All he could see was light dancing through the air, weaving a beautiful cage that steadily compressed the space in which the monster could move.
The monster shrieked, swinging its enormous limbs and pounding against the cage the magical girl had woven around it, as though in its death throes.
Yet the terrifying vines melted into liquid the moment they touched the cage woven from radiance.
They could not shake that cage in the slightest.
Still, its tremendous strength shook the cage, and the building kept collapsing as it struggled. Rubble, rebar, and miscellaneous debris rained down in front of Jiang Si.
Despite his overwhelming desire to get closer, Jiang Si sensed the danger and stopped, bracing himself against a broken utility pole beside him.
Blood trickled down his forehead, and his right arm throbbed faintly. In fact, his left ankle had also been injured when the car rolled.
Yet Jiang Si showed no reaction. He simply raised his head and watched the girl floating through the air.
Such beautiful...
Power.
All his anguish, all his confusion, all his unease were dispelled by that blazing light.
Supernatural power.
Supernatural power that could let him step onto the Great Dao!
The first light of dawn he had ever seen in his life robbed Jiang Si of the ability to think for a moment. He merely reached out in a daze and took two steps forward.
He wanted to grasp that light.
But soon, the enormous Calamity Beast broke through the cage. Though it had already shrunk to a tenth of its original size, it was still like a natural disaster when it charged toward ordinary people.
Just as terrified cries rose from the crowd, a massive net of magic spread out overhead, wrapping around the Calamity Beast and hauling it upward.
Dozens of vines extended to the ground, winding tightly around nearby utility poles, trees, and parts of buildings.
And so Jiang Si watched as the magical girl wielded her wand and uprooted the Calamity Beast along with the trees, utility poles, and parts of buildings it had entangled!
Dirt, rubble, sparks leaping from electrical wires, and the liquid melting off the Calamity Beast's body beneath the magical net mingled in the air, carrying a stench of rotten eggs and feces.
Even another hundred years of hard training could never give me power like that...
As he thought this and tried to keep chasing after her, an ambulance arrived.
Some police officers from an unknown department also arrived, dressed in special combat uniforms. Without a word of explanation, they bundled him into a vehicle and transported them out of the disaster zone.
Only on the way did Jiang Si learn that his parents had been thrown out when the car rolled. By the time they were found, they were no longer breathing.
When he got out, he discovered that all the victims had been brought to a secluded convalescent home in Jianghai City.
Besides the police, there were some unusual caregivers in the convalescent home. They all seemed connected to magical girls, and Jiang Si overheard some of their discussions.
The accident had happened because Beihai apparently had not seen a Calamity Beast in nearly a dozen years.
The relevant departments had let their guard down. With Calamity Beasts appearing frequently in other regions, Beihai's magical girls had been transferred elsewhere, and even the agency monitoring Calamity Beast activity was barely staffed.
That was why the Calamity Beast had been around for so long today without being quickly suppressed.
Because Calamity Beasts were born from people's malicious thoughts, just as magical girls were born from people's wishes.
As long as people still remembered magical girls, the malicious thoughts they produced would nourish Calamity Beasts and could even bring them into being. Ordinary people therefore had their memories related to magical girls erased.
Of course, this applied only to cities where Calamity Beasts almost never appeared. In cities where they appeared frequently, there was no need.
That was why Jiang Si had barely heard anything about magical girls or Calamity Beasts.
Because Beihai was one of the rare cities that had gone over a decade without a Calamity Beast.
In cities without Calamity Beasts, erasing memories related to magical girls could effectively prevent Calamity Beasts from being born.
But accidents sometimes happened.
Like now, when an extremely unlikely event occurred: a Calamity Beast of unknown origin suddenly came into being.
In truth, even so, the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau had responded quickly enough. Before those vines could rampage for even three hours, a magical girl from the neighboring area had arrived.
Magical girls-the supernatural power Jiang Si had searched so desperately for.
Their existence corresponded to Calamity Beasts. If Calamity Beasts were embodiments of calamity and despair, then magical girls were embodiments of happiness and hope.
That was the official explanation.
Possessing extraordinary power far beyond that of humans, they were respected and worshipped by many.
Maybe I could use it to cultivate immortality, Jiang Si thought.
After arriving at the convalescent home, this left him almost unable to spare any concern for the dead. His parents were dead, after all, and the dead could not return to life. He could not summon much emotion either.
He simply kept gathering information about magical girls.
The convalescent home they were staying in was small, hidden deep in an alley that offered quiet amid the bustle of BH City. Once the old residence of a minor bureaucrat, it had several successive courtyards, whitewashed walls, and dark roof tiles, carrying an air of bygone times.
Jiang Si had passed by and come inside before when skipping class to train, but now it had been remodeled beyond recognition.
Many staff members who knew about magical girls had come to the convalescent home. It was clear they were all from outside the city.
Their attitudes were actually fairly friendly and approachable.
BH City was a major city, and regional discrimination was severe here. Most BH City residents looked down on outsiders.
Even if these people were connected to magical girls and held official positions, outsiders were still outsiders. That did not stop some BH City locals in the convalescent home from seeing them as filthy beggars.
So a child with a decent attitude like Jiang Si was quite well liked by the caregivers.
They were also generous about sharing information on magical girls with him.
After all, these things were no secret elsewhere.
"Magical girls are born in the darkest hours. They are the hope that bursts forth from girls in despair."
The nurse treating his younger sister told him, "When Calamity Beasts bring disasters of despair, they must seek the world's response with their most powerful wish."
"Girls who receive a Magic Seed can transform into magical girls."
"Only girls. There have never been any exceptions."
The sliver of hope that had just arisen was mercilessly shattered.
But Jiang Si was long accustomed to this. He simply continued searching for the possibility of a male transforming into a magical girl.
He had no other path left. He had tempered his body to its limits, and taking even one more step was as difficult as ascending to heaven.
The prospect of stepping onto the Great Dao by tempering his flesh was far too remote. This might be his best opportunity.
For a day or two straight, he asked every question he could. No matter how good his attitude was, that would still annoy people.
He only managed to record some basic knowledge about magical girls.
Anything further, such as the details of how magical girls came into being, their cultivation methods, ranks, or sources of power, was met with refusals to answer or brushed aside.
On the third day, the magical girl who had destroyed the Calamity Beast came to visit and offer comfort.
Dressed in a short, fluffy blue skirt and covered in ornate pendants, the girl also brought snacks and toys.
Children and adults surrounded her in the convalescent home's courtyard, as though she were a celebrity.
In this world, it seemed some magical girls worked as idols.
The magical girl comforted the adults and soothed children around her own age. Unlike her youthful appearance, her every gesture carried an air of maturity, and she soon hit it off with all the children in the convalescent home.
The magical girl changed positions with practiced ease, surrounding herself with a different group of children and adults each time to ensure she attended to everyone and neglected no one.
Jiang Si and his younger sister were naturally among them. When the magical girl changed positions for the fourth time, the two of them came to stand beside her.
Only up close did he realize that this magical girl shone even more brilliantly than she did from a distance, as though special-effect lighting illuminated her. She also gave off a faint, reassuring floral fragrance.
Her manner of speaking was unhurried and gentle, and she patiently answered the questions of the children around her.
Jiang Si had been wondering whether he might get a chance to speak to her, but his younger sister spoke first.
"Big sister, if you could've come a little earlier, Mom and Dad..."
The warm, cheerful atmosphere instantly became somewhat awkward.
Jiang Si pulled his younger sister back. "Sorry, she's just too upset. She doesn't mean to blame you. She's a child and doesn't know better. She didn't mean it."
He patted his sister's head, and she sniffled, lowered her head, and said, "I'm sorry."
Though his younger sister was still small, she was actually quite sensible. Those words had merely slipped out because a child could not control her emotions.
Fortunately, the magical girl did not get angry. She simply bent down, hugged Jiang Si's younger sister, and stroked her head.
"I'm the one who should apologize. If I could have arrived a little sooner, I wouldn't have let you suffer like this. I'm sorry, I'm really sorry..."
"Wah..."
And so his younger sister clung to the magical girl and wailed, while the magical girl actually began crying along with her.
Jiang Si stared, dumbfounded. Don't magical girls cultivate their Dao hearts...?
For a while, the scene became chaotic.
The magical girl cried along with the little girl, leaving the staff beside them at a loss. Everyone could only stand and watch.
It finally ended when his younger sister cried herself to sleep.
When he picked up his sister and left, the magical girl wiped away her tears and glanced around, seemingly puzzled.
She had caught the scent of a Calamity Beast.
But when she glanced at her wand, it gave no warning, so she dried her tears and continued offering comfort to the other fans without thinking much of it.
Jiang Si had intended to put his sister to bed to rest, then return to ask the magical girl herself some questions.
But when he returned, the magical girl was already nowhere to be seen.
Another two days passed after that, and the magical girl never came again.
The other people in the convalescent home also began deliberately avoiding Jiang Si, finding him too troublesome and not wanting to talk to him.
Once their injuries had mostly healed, the convalescent home's staff sent them home.
Only then did Jiang Si learn why the people at the convalescent home had been so unguarded with him, freely telling him about magical girls.
Because everyone who left had to undergo memory erasure.
As for how they erased his memories, Jiang Si could not remember that either. By the time he came to his senses, he was already home.
His parents' coffins stood in the main hall. Relatives crowded the house, chattering and chattering... Jiang Si was in no mood to listen.
The funeral proceedings were tedious and troublesome. He was pulled here and dragged there, but the moment anything ended, Jiang Si would immediately disappear.
Naturally, he could not cry, nor did he feel the slightest attachment to his parents. Whenever anyone detained him in conversation for too long, he barely concealed his impatience.
Gradually, plenty of gossip arose among his relatives, and their attitudes influenced his younger sister.
The day before the burial, his sister begged him to attend their parents' funeral with her.
But Jiang Si ignored her.
Later, when they were taken to the cemetery, his sister lay across a coffin and cried before it was lowered into the ground.
Jiang Si did not attend the funeral, nor did he even go to see his parents one last time.
It was raining that day. He merely glanced over from afar.
The pattering rain soaked the gravestones. The subdued sobbing of the gathered crowd drowned in the rain, leaving only a suffocating heaviness, as though those handfuls of wet earth were burying all the laughter and beauty in the world.
Gradually, only deathly silence remained.
He could not help remembering the past. The first time his mother in his previous life had gotten angry had also been on a rainy day. She had hurled a novel into his face.
"Wake up!"
His father had torn his books apart and stuffed the wastepaper into the stove.
They told him to study hard.
His parents had gone from anger to disappointment, and finally to indifference.
He could not resent his parents for failing to understand, because he knew it himself.
When he decided to walk this path, he was destined to be misunderstood.
He merely did his best to meet their demands, then continued forward.
He had searched through every ancient text and questioned every person who spoke of mystical things-religion, martial arts, qigong, and magic.
Every disappointment piled up into an ever-greater roar of waves.
"Wake up."
Jiang Si lifted his sleeve.
The rain washed over the blood on his arm.
Even with his memories erased, he had forcibly gouged words into his skin with his fingernails. They were blurry, but clear enough for him to read.
I want to become a magical girl.
The supernatural power of this world: magical girls.
As long as he could obtain this power, he could step onto the true path of immortal cultivation.
But only girls could become magical girls.
A dead end?
"I've faced far, far too many dead ends in this life."
He walked forward. Behind him, the coffins had been completely buried in the earth, and his younger sister's sharp, heart-rending cries tore through the curtain of rain.
Jiang Si reached out and lifted his face toward the sky.
The icy rain soaked him to the core.
"Haven't you heard? Heaven never bars every path."
He pulled out the portion of the Calamity Beast's roots he had stuffed inside his body. Nourished by immense negative emotions, it swelled and grew.
Despair from the Calamity Beast spread.
And with it, an intense wish that could devour everything in this world!
"As long as I want to walk, the path is beneath my feet!"
"I want to become a magical girl!"
His tightly clenched hand seemed to be reaching for something, seemed to have already grasped something.
Specks of starlight spilled between his fingers until they gathered into a dazzling rainbow!
A long, purple-and-gold Lolita-style dress, lace, ribbons, bow decorations, and ornate tall boots gently touched down on the muddy earth.
Long purple hair danced in the rain.
Like a flower in bloom.
The rainwater reflected a dainty face.
In an instant, she seized the swelling, twisting roots. Purple magic burned like flames, reducing them to nothing in the rain!
"From this day forth, I alone shall reign supreme through all eternity!"