The Calamity Egg did nothing after he swallowed it.
Not only could he feel no power, he even had the sense that the Calamity Egg was melting away.
After taking the Calamity Egg back out, Jiang Si picked up a knife and gently cut a small opening in his abdomen.
Then he tucked the tiny Calamity Egg inside.
Three years ago, this was how he had kept a Calamity Beast's tentacle, placing it inside his body to nourish it, and through it gained the ability to transform into a magical girl.
He still remembered that feeling: torrents of negative emotions seeping along his flesh and into his brain. Irritation, terror, anxiety...
Once those same negative emotions were drawn out of him, they would become nourishment for the Calamity Beast, and negative emotions from the people around him would nourish it just the same.
Using a human body to raise a Calamity Beast made it far too easy to lose control.
But Jiang Si had always been good at controlling his emotions, so even after many days, the Calamity Beast would not grow beyond his control.
Yet the moment he tucked this Calamity Egg into his flesh, Jiang Si noticed a difference.
There was no such flood of negative emotions spreading out. Even his own negative emotions were absorbed by the Calamity Egg, keeping his emotions healthy. After entering his flesh, it did not feel like a foreign object either, instead quickly merging with his flesh.
The Calamity Egg seemed to come alive, beginning to dart through the flesh inside his body. Jiang Si immediately caught it moving toward his heart.
Naturally, he would not give it the chance. Purple magic surged into his body, wrapping the Calamity Egg in layer upon layer.
Although his advancement to full bloom had failed, not only had his seed changed to a sprouting form, the nature of his magic had changed considerably too.
Shion was now roughly at the realm of peak full blossom great perfection. Her purple magic no longer had its former violence, instead becoming as gentle as water. After enveloping the Calamity Egg, it neither released heat to destroy it nor immediately vanished.
Instead, it clung thickly to the Calamity Egg's shell, slowly fusing it with his flesh.
Only after fixing the Calamity Egg in place near his ribs did the purple magic gradually disappear.
It could linger inside his body longer now too, but fundamentally, it was still the same as before, constantly dissipating within his physical body. It was just that the nature of his magic had changed somewhat, becoming a little more adhesive.
He could feel that the Calamity Egg fixed near his ribs still possessed vitality and was active quite frequently.
Even Jiang Si could not treat something like this as a nascent soul.
Putting aside how it was beyond his control, it had not been nurtured from his own golden core-his seed-either. It was a far cry from a so-called nascent soul.
Although Jiang Si rarely watched movies, he had read Terror Infinity. This thing was probably closer to a xenomorph egg.
With the Calamity Egg constantly active, he could not sleep either, so he simply picked up the dumbbells in his room. At around two hundred kilograms, they were barely enough for a warm-up. He planned to exercise until he was tired, then ignore the activity of the Calamity Egg inside him and sleep.
Unexpectedly, after he moved around a little and expended some stamina, the previously active Calamity Egg actually quieted down a bit.
Somewhat surprised, he began exercising even harder.
Jiang Si soon noticed something unusual: a faint power inside the Calamity Egg was flowing continuously into his flesh.
Although its strengthening effect was not particularly satisfactory, it kept his body vigorous and was reducing his fatigue.
And the Calamity Egg gradually became less active than before.
But whenever he stopped exercising, the Calamity Egg immediately became active, struggling inside him and trying to escape his body.
Jiang Si had more or less figured out this thing's characteristics.
Once it was fused into his body, as long as he exercised intensely, the Calamity Egg would involuntarily supply him with magic.
So that was it. Rather than a nascent soul, should it be classified as a second golden core?
I finally found it. An inner core of my own.
It was just difficult to use alongside his outer core, the Miracle Seed.
Noticing the Calamity Egg struggling more fiercely, Jiang Si stretched his body and smiled.
For Jiang Si, exercise was certainly interesting, but endless exercise without a goal could sometimes feel dull.
But now, this inner core had given him a pure goal.
There was not enough room to move freely indoors, so he came downstairs, intending to head into the courtyard.
Keke and Li Yi appeared to have finished eating, and the table had been cleaned thoroughly.
As he passed Keke's bedroom, he could faintly hear sobbing and the two girls' whispers, but Jiang Si had little interest in listening.
He opened the door and walked into the courtyard. A fine rain had started falling again over Beihai that night, the cold water pattering against his face, rather refreshing.
Nice weather.
Jiang Si liked this sort of weather. The rain was not heavy enough to get in the way, soaking his clothes and making the fabric cling uncomfortably to his skin, nor was it so light that he could barely feel it, as though the air was merely damp.
The fine rain was just right, cool droplets striking his forehead. It was the best weather for exercise.
Breathing deeply, he began warming up with squats in place.
Next came burpees, push-ups, and running in place, furiously venting his excess energy!
The Calamity Egg inside him soon began to wail, as though begging for mercy, no longer struggling at all.
But Jiang Si paid it no heed, simply continuing to exercise and wring energy out of the Calamity Egg.
Show me your limits, inner core!
"My sister loved magical girls ever since she was little."
Li Yi had already changed into a slightly childish set of pink pajamas.
Keke had worn them in elementary school, and they fit Li Yi perfectly...
Fortunately, after her parents passed away, Keke's attachment to old things had kept her from throwing away any of her childhood clothes.
Both girls were holding cups of the milk tea Keke had brought home yesterday.
"Back then, I didn't actually believe magical girls existed, but my sister always swore they had to be real. She always wanted to play magical girls with me and made magical girl dresses for me, and we'd fight monsters together. She came up with the code name Yinlian for me too."
After remaining silent and dazed all day, Li Yi finally began to open up, and Keke listened quietly beside her.
When her parents had passed away, she had gone through times like this too.
She had wanted to let it out, to find someone to tell about her past with her parents, to ease her pain.
But Jiang Si had not stayed by her side at all back then, and Keke could not confide in relatives she barely knew. In the end, all she could do was sit alone before her parents' photograph in the middle of the night, crying as she poured out her grievances and complained, until she was too exhausted from crying and fell asleep.
She did not want Yiyi to be like her, so she sat quietly beside her, hoping to ease her pain.
"Later, my sister couldn't become a magical girl no matter what, but I became one. Although she never told me, I knew she was disappointed and sad. Her little sister, who was worse than her at everything, became a magical girl, while she'd worked hard since childhood and still couldn't get a Miracle Seed. While I secretly rejoiced that I could catch up with her, I also knew it wasn't fair to her at all."
"There's no fair or unfair about it." Keke took Li Yi's empty cup and set it on the bedside table. "Magical girl selection is pretty random to begin with. It isn't something people can control."
"Mm."
Curled up with her arms around her legs, Li Yi rested her chin on her knees. "My sister never gave up on her dream of becoming a magical girl. I knew that. She often risked her life facing Calamity Beasts, hoping to get a Miracle Seed, but she never succeeded once. Instead, she nearly lost her life. That last time, when I saved her, she suddenly became really frightening and angrily demanded to know if I didn't want her to become a magical girl..."
A soft sigh escaped.
The Disaster Countermeasures Bureau had already issued a notice that Yinluo was a member of the Witch Association.
Both Li Yi and Keke knew about it.
Probably afraid that Li Yi would cause trouble and clash with the Azure Cloud Sect, the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau had notified her immediately and given her all the evidence.
Keke felt there had really been no need to rush. Yiyi had clearly been in no state to seek revenge at the time, and Keke believed she was not that reckless.
Although she was small and sometimes seemed innocent and cute, Yiyi really was a very competent captain of the Magical Girl Combat Team.
Still, she could understand the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau's thinking. It just hurt a little.
"I actually knew my sister couldn't accept it. She'd clearly put in the most effort, but got nothing in the end. Every time she watched me transform into a magical girl, she was both proud of me and unwilling to accept it. She always looked so lonely. I knew all of it."
Speaking slowly, Yiyi took out a seed from somewhere.
Keke looked at the seed and froze.
Yiyi's seed was pink. She had seen it before, and Yiyi's seed was only at the new sprout level.
She understood the magic reserves and properties of new sprout, because she herself was about to enter that stage.
But the seed before her was white, and was not Yiyi's own Miracle Seed.
The reserves and properties of the magic inside were also clearly far above new sprout. It should have been at the full blossom level...
"The Disaster Countermeasures Bureau has three ownerless Miracle Seeds."
Yiyi gazed absently at the Miracle Seed in her hand too. "I applied to the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau for a Miracle Seed. Although they refused, in the end, I still got one. I wanted to fight alongside my sister, to let her become a magical girl too, just like when we were little. We'd fight monsters together, together..."
At that point, Li Yi finally could not hold back her quiet sobs and buried her head in her knees.
"We were so close. Why did it turn out like this, Keke...?"
Keke hugged Yiyi, her own eyes reddening, at a loss for what to say.
After spending so many years with Jiang Si, she had no idea how to comfort anyone and could only cry with Yiyi.
Only after sobbing for a good while did Li Yi hold up the Miracle Seed and speak through her sniffles. "Back then, back then, the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau refused to give me a seed no matter what. But now, this one of mine is the only one left."
Keke was just about to say something when she heard Jiang Si coming downstairs.
Yiyi cried softly while Jiang Si quietly changed his shoes by the door, then pushed it open and walked out without pausing at all.
Familiar sounds, familiar circumstances, and a light rain still falling outside.
It was as though nothing had changed.
"My sister used to hate the Witch Association most of all, because they always hurt the magical girls she liked, and they even left Senior Susan, whom she used to admire, unable to transform. Every time she talked to me about the Witch Association and the Azure Cloud Sect, she looked like she hated them to the bone."
Pulled back to the present by Li Yi's quiet outpouring, Keke listened to her aggrieved voice, so unwilling to accept it.
"How could she be one of the Witch Association?"
So Keke said softly, "Maybe she was too anxious to become a magical girl and took the wrong path for a moment. Susan said she did transform in the end."
"Mm, I saw."
Yiyi said, "But that couldn't be called a magical girl at all. That was just a witch. How could she be satisfied with that? Just because of something like that, she faced Shion and was killed..."
Her voice grew increasingly strained and choked, until finally she could no longer speak.
Teacher Shion wouldn't indiscriminately kill innocent people.
In the end, Keke could not bring herself to say it.
Amid the faint crying, thunder roared outside. Thinking the rain was about to grow heavier, Keke turned to look.
It was Jiang Si exercising in the courtyard, looking utterly crazed...
No matter how many times she saw it, Keke always found it absurd, and wondrous.
Those painful, tormenting emotions never lingered around Jiang Si.
It was as though his world stood completely apart, incompatible with this one.
Every time she looked at him like this, it was like looking at someone from another world.
For the first time, Keke felt a little envious of Jiang Si.
"Maybe I should have challenged Shion back then."
Boom!
A tremendous, thunderous crash echoed outside the window.
Withdrawing her gaze, Keke pressed close to her friend and held her hand. "That would have been wrong."
"I actually guessed back then that Shion had a reason, because she'd never killed the wrong person. I also saw my sister's witch form with my own eyes. But I didn't think that much at the time. I just wanted to hold my sister and hoped she was still alive."
Pushing Keke away, Li Yi lay on her side on the bed. "Afterward, I kept thinking it would've been better if I'd fought Shion then. Although I wouldn't have been a match for her, although I would've been in the wrong, I could've said I couldn't stay rational because my sister had died. Everyone would've understood."
"Unlike now. I clearly can't forgive her. I can't forgive her for killing my sister with her own hands, for keeping me from seeing my sister one last time, for leaving me unable to know what my sister was really thinking, for leaving me unable to save her. But I also understand perfectly well that she was right. I can't even take revenge on her. Even hating her makes me seem ungrateful."
Keke faltered, and in the end, she only answered with something Jiang Si had once said:
"It'll get better with time..."
"I can't accept it. She's clearly the enemy who killed my sister, but she was right, and I can't do anything."
Yiyi turned to look at Keke. "If I still couldn't help seeking revenge on Shion in the end, would you help me, Keke?"
"I'd stop you." This time, Keke did not hesitate. "I absolutely wouldn't let you go!"
Another tremendous thunderclap sounded outside. Keke resisted the urge to turn and look.
Her mouth stretched silently, and Li Yi took out her own Miracle Seed with empty eyes.
The once-pink seed had turned pitch-black.
"Don't worry. I won't do that, because I already... can't transform anymore, Keke."
Outside the window, Jiang Si, who had exercised to his limit, took a deep breath.
The Calamity Egg had fallen completely dormant. He went back inside, took a shower, and settled down to sleep.
His physical strength had increased again. As long as he could maintain the Calamity Egg's supply of magic.
His physical body could finally step into early new sprout.