When he opened his eyes, it was already morning.
Rubbing his eyes, Jiang Si raised the seed in his hand.
Sunlight filtered through the curtains, making the purple seed look crystalline and translucent, like a gemstone.
Reining in his satisfaction, Jiang Si got out of bed and glanced at the homework beside his desk.
It still wasn't finished. He needed to get there early to catch up.
High school homework kept piling up, causing considerable trouble for his pursuit of the Dao.
He got up, packed his homework into his schoolbag, changed, and washed up. When he went downstairs, he saw his younger sister already eating.
Simple scrambled eggs, along with steamed buns left over from last night.
"Keke, your teacher called yesterday and said your math grades have dropped."
"Study hard," he reminded her as he washed up.
Jiang Keke. Keke was her childhood nickname. Their parents had originally planned to give her a formal name later, but the accident three years ago had left them forever unable to name her, so the nickname Keke had stayed with her ever since.
"Mm."
Her attitude was extremely cold.
Ever since Jiang Si had skipped their parents' funeral three years ago, his relationship with his sister had remained like this.
Jiang Si had never considered improving their relationship, and Jiang Keke was hardly willing to say another word to him either.
Although they had lived together for several years, they were little different from strangers.
Their relatives had naturally considered adopting Jiang Keke-but no one wanted to adopt such a heartless, ungrateful child as Jiang Si.
He had shown no feeling over his parents' deaths. Never mind crying, there hadn't even been a trace of sadness. No one wanted to raise a child like that.
Although many people wanted to adopt Jiang Keke, she refused to leave the house their parents had left behind.
And so, back and forth, the two of them had spent three years like this.
His sister had entered middle school, and he had entered high school.
"The parent-teacher meeting..."
"I won't trouble you."
Before he could finish, she had already refused.
He had attended two parent-teacher meetings for her.
Their parents had died young, after all, so it was perfectly normal for an older brother to attend his sister's parent-teacher meetings. It was just that he wasn't much older than she was, which inevitably drew some laughs at those meetings.
He had heard that her schoolmates made fun of her after every parent-teacher meeting. Apparently, she didn't want him going this time.
Their relatives could help, but sometimes it was better not to draw on those connections if they could avoid it.
After all, the more they relied on them, the stronger the other party's grounds for adopting Jiang Keke would become, until she could no longer refuse.
Jiang Si didn't care whether someone else adopted her. As far as he was concerned, his sister being adopted would be a good thing.
Ever since becoming a magical girl, he had had plenty to research. Jiang Keke's presence was ultimately something of an inconvenience.
For Jiang Si, his pursuit of the Dao always came first.
Because those parents had raised him, he didn't mind looking after this younger sister. But if she chose to leave, things would be a little more convenient for him.
Having finished washing up, he had only just sat at the table when Keke stood, took her half-finished piece of bread, grabbed the schoolbag beside her, and headed outside.
It was as if being near him gave her an allergic reaction.
Jiang Si was already used to it. He made do with yesterday's leftover steamed buns and some cold side dishes, then grabbed his schoolbag and left as well.
Although he could fly after transforming into a magical girl, it was an identity he needed to keep hidden, and he didn't want to expose it.
Calamity Beasts had become increasingly frequent in Beihai over the past few years. Restrictions on memories of magical girls had finally been relaxed, and related memories were no longer erased. Discussions about magical girls could now be heard even by the roadside.
If he transformed carelessly, he would soon be recognized, then his location would easily be pinned down, and after that, his identity...
Webnovel protagonists never exposed their secrets lightly.
Not even to family.
It was the morning rush for work and school. Although Jiang Si had arrived quite early, it was still ridiculously crowded. Once he stepped inside, he lost control of his movements and could only be pushed forward by the crowd. He caught hold of a pole by the window and finally steadied himself amid the tide of people.
The smell of breakfast lingered. The students chattered away so early in the morning, full of energy. The morning sunlight, not yet harsh, dispelled the lingering chill of last night. Its warmth made Jiang Si yawn, and a little drowsiness welled up again.
In the past, every detail of this ordinary life had left him restless and unbearably frustrated.
Now, with a magical girl's power in his hands and the Great Dao close before his eyes, he could finally feel peace and tranquility toward it all.
Not bad.
As he thought this and prepared to doze until he reached his destination, the sunlight suddenly vanished.
An enormous shadow fell over them.
Then the bus, packed with students and office workers, began shaking violently.
Students screamed and office workers shouted, some making phone calls.
The morning's relative peace was shattered.
Jiang Si looked up. A terrifying eyeball had appeared above the bus, whipping up fierce winds that rocked it.
A Calamity Beast.
He had seen plenty over these three years and dealt with quite a few as well. Perhaps because Beihai had gained more magical girls, Calamity Beasts had begun appearing more frequently too.
It might have formed from the accumulated resentment of not wanting to go to school or work.
These things were just that troublesome. Wherever there was resentment, they would inexplicably come into being.
Amid the surrounding clamor, someone seemed to have started crying. He touched his purple seed.
Just as the eyeball stirred up even stronger winds, about to lift the entire bus, a speck of ice-blue light abruptly pierced the somewhat distorted eyeball.
Blood flowed like tears. The ice-blue speck rapidly spread through the entire eyeball, blooming into dazzling color. When the light faded, the eyeball was revealed encased in layers of ice crystals, completely frozen.
A magical girl then lightly set foot atop the eyeball.
Amid cheers from the bus, she struck the ice beneath her feet hard with her wand. The Calamity Beast, terrifying to ordinary people, easily broke into shards of ice that scattered through the air.
Light ribbons swept through the air as the blue magical girl flew backward through the ice crystals, beautiful and elegant as a fairy. Before disappearing, she even waved toward the bus with a smile, as if greeting them. Her lips moved slightly, but there was no telling what she said.
Jiang Si looked away and released the magical seed in his hand.
At least he didn't have to figure out how to get off the bus to transform.
Once the magical girl was gone, even more discussion erupted inside the bus.
"Her again! The blue magical girl!"
"Codename Winter Lord. An independent magical girl. Her pupils are shaped like six-petaled ice flowers. Her abilities are low temperatures and ice manipulation..."
"You remember all that in such detail."
"She's an unofficial magical girl, after all. I heard the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau has been looking for her."
"I wonder if they'll fight..."
She counted as something of a minor celebrity.
The bus swayed and continued forward.
When they reached the school, Jiang Si was squeezed off the bus along with the crowd.
Although boarding had been crowded, after they got off and the students split up at the forks in the road, there were far fewer people.
The magical girl's appearance had prompted a little discussion, but that soon passed.
Calamity Beasts had appeared frequently in Beihai these past few years. Since the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau moved in, regular magical girls had been assigned to oversee the area.
Magical girls themselves weren't actually that uncommon. Wherever there were Calamity Beasts, magical girls would appear.
The reason she drew so much discussion was that Winter Lord was an independent magical girl outside the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau, leaving her relationship with the bureau somewhat unclear.
Although she herself eliminated Calamity Beasts and protected citizens, her discord with the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau kept everyone discussing whether they would fight. Two factions had even formed among the public.
But no one knew where the blue magical girl came from. Even the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau couldn't uncover her identity. Those who dared support someone of unknown identity were ultimately a minority.
And not long after that blue magical girl disappeared.
Unnoticed by anyone, in a secluded spot near the school gate, a girl wearing a white knitted top and a navy-blue pleated skirt emerged from a hidden path. The people around her seemed unable to see her.
Only when she reached the roadside, hugging a schoolbag with a toy bear hanging from it, and fragments of ice fell from her body did some students notice her and enthusiastically come over to greet her. The girl merely smiled politely.
Then she looked toward the bus stop, scanning it expectantly as though searching for someone.
Yet after waiting a long while, she still hadn't seen the person she wanted to see.
Only when the next bus arrived and more and more students appeared did she stamp her foot. "Skipping class again!"
Jiang Si had never said he was going to school.
Back then, without supernatural powers, he could only compromise and obediently go to school to prepare for the future.
Now that he had supernatural powers, if he still had to compromise and go to school, wouldn't he have become a magical girl for nothing?
His studies had become an obstacle to his search for the Great Dao and cultivation toward immortality. In that case, they should be discarded.
Going to school was meant to help him find a direction and goal in life, and gain the ability to achieve them.
But Jiang Si was already walking his own path. His life no longer needed school as an essential tool.
Much less homework.
"Jiang Si!"
He glanced back. A girl hugging her schoolbag was jogging after him, the toy bear on her bag swinging. "Wait for me!"
Jiang Si ignored her, but she ran quite fast and soon reached his side, following his every step. After catching her breath a little, she said, as though complaining quietly, "Why are you ignoring me?"
"You looked busy."
"I wasn't." As she spoke, she straightened her slightly disheveled hair, then tilted her head a little, her ice-blue, droplet-shaped earrings gleaming. "I did pretty well just now, didn't I?"
"Mm."
Bingtang, sixteen years old, a high school girl, and Jiang Si's deskmate.
A girl Jiang Si had saved in passing three years ago when he learned to transform.
Magical girls possessed the power to erase ordinary people's memories. Simply covering the other person's brain with magic could make an ordinary person lose memories related to magical girls and Calamity Beasts.
Originally, Jiang Si had intended to erase her memories and conceal his identity.
But when she turned her head, she saw a blue magical girl staring blankly at her.
Faced with the despair brought by a Calamity Beast, Bingtang had naturally transformed.
The two had stared at each other in the rain for a long time.
Although it wasn't enough to warrant killing her to silence her-at the time, Jiang Si hadn't understood his own strength very well either, and who knew whether he could win if they actually fought-he still had to keep an eye on her to ensure she didn't reveal his identity.
Through their repeated dealings, this magical girl known as Winter Lord had now become something of a friend, and the only person who knew his identity. Together, they had founded a magical girl organization independent of the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau.
After all, webnovel protagonists needed their own organizations and subordinates.
"The Disaster Countermeasures Bureau issued another warning yesterday, telling me to either voluntarily join them or withdraw from BH City."
As they walked, Bingtang shook her head helplessly. "They're the ones who came later."
The Disaster Countermeasures Bureau's response was always a beat behind. When a Calamity Beast first appeared in BH City after more than a decade, the bureau had only sent some officials to observe BH City, without stationing any magical girls there.
Three years ago, Jiang Si and Bingtang had been the ones eliminating the Calamity Beasts here, and they had established a dedicated organization.
It wasn't until the following year that the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau noticed the abnormal frequency of Calamity Beast appearances, dispatched magical girls, and finally reopened a bureau branch in BH City.
This year, they had begun pressuring Winter Lord, wanting her to join them.
"Just ignore them."
After that casual reply, Jiang Si and Bingtang arrived at an abandoned factory.
It wasn't far from the school. In fact, standing on the factory's second floor, they could see the school buildings.
Reaching a gap in the concrete ground, Jiang Si tapped the ground with his toe.
He took out the purple seed and placed it on the ground. Densely packed patterns flowed from the seed and spread outward, forming an intricate magic circle.
Then the magic circle dispersed, and a door appeared in the ground.
The two opened the door and stepped inside, following the stairs downward until they reached the end, deep underground, where they saw a plaque.
Illusory Moon Cave Abode!
The antique wooden plaque brimmed with immortal charm. Making a plaque like this had taken Jiang Si quite a bit of effort.
He was very satisfied with the current result.
The clear sound of a spirit spring rang out at the cave entrance. This was a water circulation system that had cost two thousand to install, making the entrance look as though it had a water curtain.
Inside, the cave abode twisted and turned, its walls covered in vines-all fake. Real ones were too expensive and hard to keep alive.
An antique stone statue of a spirit beast stood to one side. The problem was that it looked like a goofy husky.
Bingtang had arranged that.
Heaven have mercy, it wasn't until a few years ago that Jiang Si learned this world had no webnovels. Its entire entertainment industry had developed completely differently from his original world. Songs, novels, even comics and films were utterly unfamiliar.
As a result, many things Jiang Si considered common knowledge sounded like incomprehensible heavenly scripture to Bingtang.
He had said he wanted to buy a stone spirit beast statue to give the cave abode more immortal aura.
Bingtang had brought back a stone husky statue instead. Apparently, it was quite expensive-an artwork.
On a green jade table made by painting a stone, two cigarettes burned.
That more or less simulated the feeling of immortal mist lingering in the air.
With money, he could make the place look more convincing, but it was already pretty good. At the very least, Jiang Si was satisfied. He wasn't in much of a hurry.
Besides that, the most conspicuous things in the cave abode were the various pieces of exercise equipment.
Dumbbells, barbells, a squat rack, a bench press rack, a punching bag, resistance bands, push-up bars...
Jiang Si tossed aside his schoolbag and began working out.
He had done this every day for the past few years, never slacking off. Bingtang was already used to it.
She simply took Jiang Si's schoolbag while he exercised. "Did you finish your homework?"
"No."
"I'll do it for you."
Jiang Si said nothing and simply kept exercising.
Before becoming a magical girl, his physical strength had stagnated no matter how much he trained.
After gaining the power to transform into a magical girl, his training had become effective again. Although the gains were tiny, he could clearly sense that every workout made his strength and body more powerful, and his upper limit kept rising.
However, the results of his training wouldn't show outwardly.
"After becoming a magical girl, a girl's body will only gradually mature with time. It won't change due to external causes. This is also to better protect magical girls..."
That was what the mascot had said.
Although it now spent most of its time sound asleep and never came out, it had at least properly taught Jiang Si the basics of being a magical girl.
Having no outward changes was a good thing for Jiang Si, too.
After all, it was highly deceptive.
As long as he could grow stronger, there was no reason to give up doing so.
A true webnovel protagonist would only become a hexagonal warrior, powerful in every respect with no blind spots.
Physical toughness was indispensable.
"Did you find the ranking system for magical girls?"
Bingtang, who was helping Jiang Si copy homework, took out a phone. "Found it. The Disaster Countermeasures Bureau's specific classification only has four ranks: Bud, New Sprout, Full Blossom, and Full Bloom."
"Just four?"
"Yeah."
Jiang Si shook his head. "What garbage. They're an official agency, yet they don't even have a more detailed ranking system. Vague rankings should've been phased out ages ago."
With that, he suddenly delivered a side kick, smashing the punching bag apart with a crash!
"For example, my current physical toughness doesn't measure up to a genuine peak Bud magical girl's, but an early-stage Bud magical girl is no match for me."
Jiang Si clenched his fists.
"My current rank has no place at all in the official rankings. I can only be classified as Bud, but in reality, I'm at half-step Bud great perfection."