Chapter 320: Alone Borrowing an Ancient Sage's Heart! |
"Jiang Si..."
The familiar voice made Jiang Si sigh. Looking at Su, whose appearance was beginning to change, he simply shook his head.
As half of her face began to transform into Lu Ya's features, Su stumbled and staggered to her feet. Her body, which had been shattered in the explosion earlier, had now mostly recovered as she walked toward him.
"Jiang Si."
He had no intention of acknowledging her. Just now, when this group of Incubators were stripping away Lu Ya's AI power, Jiang Si had roughly detected Lu Ya's approximate location.
No wonder the entire Chongxu had forbidden the awakening of Lu Ya's AI.
That woman had full authority over all of Chongxu. What the Incubators were doing was stripping Lu Ya's AI of its authority, trying to pour it all into Su's body.
Who would have thought these beasts understood the ancient technique of Power Transmission?
But as everyone knew, while the Power Transmission method was reliable and could instantly elevate an insignificant junior like this to the top level—
"Looking for love..."
The gentle tone shifted in pitch.
Just as that half of Lu Ya's face was about to confess her love, a hand suddenly grabbed it hard!
"I love—love love love your fucking head!"
Half the face bore a tender smile; the other half was a maniacal, almost insane fury and savage grin.
The remnants of Su, who hadn't completely disappeared yet, clenched her teeth.
"Look at how pathetic you are!"
She pulled at that half-face that didn't belong to her, tearing it off piece by piece!
Jiang Si nodded, not surprised at all.
Su La's half-face of fury and savagery gradually twisted into wild laughter, drowning out the other half's tenderness:
"Can't you just be free about it? Who cares if he's willing or not—tie him to the bed first, get a kid out of him, and be done with it! All this lovey-dovey crap just comes down to that one thing!"
Lu Ya couldn't say anything.
Because Su's powerful Personal Reality—her utterly unyielding self—was gradually expelling all of Lu Ya's data!
She had literally torn off her own half-face. Holding her blood-soaked face, Su tilted her head back, grinning through clenched teeth.
Because of the wound on her face, when she smiled, even her teeth were visible through the gash.
Savage. Ugly. Yet carrying a confidence and wildness that made people involuntarily stare.
"You just stay here and watch."
Holding a seed stained with blood, Su looked at Jiang Si, licking the wound on her face, her pupils like molten steel about to splatter in sheer hysteria.
"Once I get him into bed, you can just stand by and watch while I hold him. Then cry for me—cry beautifully, and maybe I'll let you hold our kid!" She even winked at Jiang Si. "Isn't that right, darling."
The entire Chongxu shook with her mocking, wild laughter, warping the space around her.
Invisible forces began crushing Su as if to grind her into dust!
"That's right, baby, harder!"
Her body was being compressed, mangled, blood spurting everywhere. An arm twisted by invisible force until even the white bones pierced through the skin, exposed to the air.
Yet Su didn't care at all. She just smiled with satisfaction and excitement, embracing Chongxu.
"Come on, kill me!"
The Miracle Seed in her hand shone brighter and brighter.
The Incubators were almost melting into her body. As they died one by one, all the surrounding cables began converging into her.
What was being transmitted wasn't just mana and authority.
There were also the voices of countless Chongxu residents.
Su La, who had been growing increasingly insane, finally quieted down amidst these voices.
These were the wishes deep in everyone's hearts—things never spoken aloud in Chongxu.
Even under endless rule indoctrination and the terror and pressure imposed from childhood,
there were desires that could never disappear—instinctual longings.
And those grievances, sorrows, pains, and distortions that could never be numbed or suppressed.
The powerful wishes born from these, the miracles that everyone pursued—
all transmitted through the cables into Su La's Personal Reality, making her twitch the corner of her mouth.
"Turns out there's a ton of this, huh. Heh. You repressed bastards just kept holding it in and never said a word, making me think I was actually crazy. This is more like it. Even if we're dogs, we're going to be free stray dogs, ready to bite anyone to death at any time—whether it's Chongxu or Saint Hall..."
Propping up her broken, battered body, she took a deep breath. The more authority she gained, the more insignificant Lu Ya's AI's influence on her became.
She finally understood why the Nightwatchmen were willing to take on so much loan debt for her.
"If you're scared, it's okay not to speak. If you don't dare, hiding is fine too."
Walking forward step by step, Jiang Si watched as the polluted magic that filled all of Chongxu was gradually dyed into a pure blood-red color by Su La's Personal Reality.
"Because I'm Chongxu's rock lead singer~ Do you know what heavy metal rock is, Jiang Si?"
"Phoenix Legend square dance music."
"Dammit, you always find some niche little song from the leftovers that I've never heard before. I really hate you niche enthusiasts." Su La pouted, but still explained: "So-called heavy metal rock isn't a cry of the soul."
"It's a full-body bite."
"By any means necessary. Ugly and embarrassing. Even if you have to roll in the mud, you still lunge forward." Su bared her teeth, finally giving a proper smile. "Biting the world into the shape you want it to be."
"That's a heavy metal stray dog."
"Isn't it the same thing? I'm representing all the people of Chongxu to start biting—I'm the heavy metal stray dog boss!"
The color of the Miracle Seed finally wrapped around Su's entire body.
Jiang Si finally got serious.
In principle, Chongxu shouldn't have been a place where Magical Girls could be born.
Whether it was Jialan or Sonora, they were essentially Magical Girls born elsewhere who came to Chongxu and obtained a portion of its authority.
As for those Magical Girl armed forces, they were even less worth mentioning—they were all fake entities disguised by artificial Magical Outfits, a bunch of pseudo-Magical Girls.
What thrived most here was corrupted magic power.
But strangely, all the people of Chongxu shared a remarkably unified wish.
There was no soil to give birth to a Magical Girl, yet there was a foundation for one—after all, a shared wish can birth incredible miracles.
But for so many years, no one could harness that shared wish.
Until Su La was born.
"Woof woof woof! Start biting! Bite you all to death!"
"Transform for me!"
Hearing Su La's transformation incantation, Jiang Si couldn't help but press his forehead.
This local Magical Girl from Chongxu was way too abstract...
Sure enough, Azure Cloud Sect was the traditionalist school of Magical Girls.
The blood-red mana radiating from the Miracle Seed quickly transformed into a Magical Outfit, covering Su La's entire body.
But it wasn't the fluttering skirts of the new world.
It was armor with a biological texture similar to dragon scales and unicorn chitin, slightly revealing the translucent enamel-like material with internal magical circuits, vaguely resembling electrical wiring. The joints were made of soft, woven optical fibers.
At the waist was a translucent battle skirt of light wings, and her face was covered with a holographic visor as thin as a cicada's wing.
The shaking of all of Chongxu had completely stopped.
It looked like high-tech armor, but also carried the mystery of Magical Girl outfits. She had to admit, just in terms of appearance, it was pretty cool.
Come to think of it, Su had probably never seen a real Magical Girl before. Her understanding of Magical Girls was limited to those Magical Girl armed forces. Since the Magical Outfit is a manifestation of self-perception, it wasn't strange for it to turn out like this...
Jiang Si looked at the Magical Girl who now held almost all of Chongxu's authority and power.
A Su whose mana intensity fluctuations would infinitely approach Full Bloom as long as she was in Chongxu's territory.
Finally, some interest stirred in him. He pushed back the priority of finding Lu Ya.
Fight first, talk later.
So he directly summoned Mu Shang. The mecha descended from the sky, landing on the earth!
After entering the cockpit, Jiang Si nodded at Su. "Come on, bite me to death."
Her long hair and the light-wing fragments from her armor's back hem fluttered as her center of gravity shifted, like a scarf woven from the trail of a shooting star.
The Magical Outfit sprayed mana like flames. Su tapped her fists together and flashed a brilliant smile, finally looking a bit like a proper Magical Girl.
"Here I come!"
She launched forward like a mana thruster propelling her, her speed so terrifyingly fast it was unbelievable!
Before the afterimage of her light-wing trail had even faded from view, Jiang Si's body was sent flying by a terrifyingly powerful force and a series of explosions!
Then, just as the mana cannon at the barrel began glowing with blood-red mana light, he was bombarded again!
The Mu Shang mecha was blown to pieces!
Time had desynchronized.
At first, Jiang Si thought it was a perception issue, but he quickly realized it wasn't his senses being disrupted.
It was simply that time was off, causing what he saw and what happened to be misaligned.
"Watch out! Su La has now obtained all of Chongxu's authority. Chongxu has the ability to adjust time—that's why the time here doesn't match the outside world..."
Sonora flapped her wings over and grabbed Jiang Si. "But our vampire clan has the ability to correct time misalignment. Just let me take a bite..."
This bat was here to scam a free meal again.
Jiang Si sneered, grabbed Sonora's hand, and performed a high-difficulty triple spin.
Hakimi windmill!
Sonora was flung aside.
Then, piloting the half-destroyed mecha, he simply tilted his head slightly and dodged a Mana Cannon.
Immediately after, countless Mana Cannons flickered above like stars, pouring down like a torrential rain!
Each one carried the power of time distortion. By the time you saw them, they had already hit.
Blood-red beams of light wove together into an impenetrable net of death, covering a hundred miles in every direction!
"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat—!"
Su La, who had started with a battle cry, watched as Jiang Si strolled leisurely through the rain as if taking a walk. Dragging his broken mecha, waves of air-tearing sonic booms crashed one after another, yet the enormous impact only ruffled the boy's hair and the corner of his clothes.
He moved calmly through the rain, and even the remaining half of the armor passed precisely through the gaps in the downpour!
"Hey, you know, you could actually take Saint Hall and leave Chongxu. There's no need for us to keep fighting, don't you think?"
Su felt that as a Magical Girl, she needed to use some persuasion.
Whether others agreed or not, she still considered herself a super Magical Girl.
A super cool girl carrying the hopes and miracles of everyone in Chongxu!
"After all, I kinda like you and your girlfriend. If it were the two of you, I wouldn't really mind a threesome... Except for Lady Lu Ya, of course—I want her to be stuck watching helplessly, hehe. Take Saint Hall and leave, and I'll give myself to you and your girlfriend as compensation. How about that, darling?"
As she spoke, Su gave another ambiguous wink.
The final cannonball hit Jiang Si precisely. The Mu Shang was completely wrecked. The boy crawled out of the steel, cracking his neck.
"Chongxu is mine."
"Who gave you permission to meddle with what's mine?"
Are you even human? You've only been here a few days!
Su couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Have you ever studied the people's view of history? What do you mean 'your Chongxu'? It's everyone's Chongxu. Everyone—get it?"
Man, this line of mine is totally super Magical Girl material!
While she was still patting herself on the back, Jiang Si had already shot toward her like a cannonball!
Energy wings quickly spread forward to form a barrier. Jiang Si's figure suddenly rose, and with another triple spin at a thirty-degree angle, he burst forward!
A terrifying kick slammed into the barrier!
Holy shit, a Thomas backflip spinning slash!
Wasn't that a move from our classic Chongxu online game *Mecha Storm*? That's plagiarism!
The entire barrier rippled like water surface.
Su La's pupils shrank slightly as she realized her barrier was about to shatter!
What the hell? How did this brute get stronger after losing the mecha?
The Mu Shang was an S-class super mecha that should have greatly enhanced reaction speed, strength, and overall ability!
How did it become a shackle for Jiang Si?
No time to think. That vicious kick was already heading straight for the holographic visor on her face!
Her body flew backward. Su carefully rubbed the holographic visor, relieved that it hadn't cracked from the kick. She subconsciously calculated how much this thing cost—if the kick had broken it, without insurance, repairing it would bankrupt her!
She'd have to get it insured later...
Her body crashed straight into an area full of power lines. Cables frantically wrapped around her. Just as Su was about to get up, Jiang Si grabbed the cables on his end.
Sparks of electricity crackled around both of them, but neither reacted. The wires had been reinforced by mana, becoming much tougher. Just as Su tried to break free, corrupted magic power suddenly flooded into the mecha, momentarily disrupting it.
Then, the boy yanked the cables hard!
The terrifying force caught Su completely off guard. After transforming into a Magical Girl, even without using mana, her strength stats should have been overwhelming!
Shaken, she felt her body fly through the air like a bowling ball before being hurled into a distant factory!
As the factory collapsed and the rubble buried Su, Jiang Si suddenly realized that the cables had also wrapped around his wrist.
A hand emerged from the factory ruins, grabbed the cables, and pulled hard, making Jiang Si stumble.
"Get over here!"
The immense force on both sides snapped the cables wildly, but the blood-red mana kept connecting them, preventing a complete break.
In the end, Su used her greater strength to drag Jiang Si over!
Her right hand's armor materialized a light sword, slicing off Jiang Si's right hand!
But the boy didn't care about his injury at all. Seizing the opportunity, he used his left hand to press down on her head, forcibly shoving it into the factory machinery! Amid violent grinding sounds, the machine collapsed, sending sparks flying. The flying debris cut Jiang Si's own cheek.
Something felt slightly off. Before Jiang Si could figure out what was happening, Su stabbed him in the thigh with her sword, pinning him in place!
When he tried to break free and counterattack, he found he had no strength left!
He grabbed the light sword but couldn't even pull it out!
"Give it up." Su La grinned as she leaned in, pinching the exhausted boy's chin.
"In Chongxu, no one can resist me. This is the power of the people. Of course, you could also say I'm bullying you with numbers, but you know, in our Magical Girl world, this is called righteous gang-beating. The people of Chongxu don't welcome you here."
"Leave, and I'll give you a tax-exempt gold card. You can take any Chongxu specialty goods across the border, even be a trader. The tab is picked up by the high-level ghosts you personally buried."
"If you don't leave, then I won't be polite anymore. You wouldn't mind a little loser play, would you?"
Even as she spoke like a pervert, she was actually carefully controlling Jiang Si's body's authority, even cutting off his ability to absorb Chongxu's mana.
Completely eliminating any possibility of Jiang Si fighting back.
The boy couldn't help but nod in praise. "As expected of a local Magical Girl from Chongxu. The [Gathering Public Gold] Fruit Position is truly profound and powerful."
As long as he stood on the soil of Chongxu, this Magical Girl before him could endlessly improve. She had just stepped into Full Bloom, but now her strength was already heading toward the peak of Full Bloom.
He recognized it at a glance—it was Mana Overdrive!
What a fine Full Bloom achieved through the loan-based [She Transforming at Will Defending Chongxu Great Art]!
If it weren't for the fact that she was still adapting to her power, his defeat would have been instantaneous.
A physical body was ultimately no match for a Full Bloom Magical Girl.
"Tsk, giving up just like that? At least let me steal a kiss..."
Before she could finish, Su La suddenly turned her head. The sky above Chongxu was warping, collapsing, and then black flames began seeping through. Deep purple, almost black mana arrows followed, piercing through Chongxu's dome!
Time desynchronization, spatial displacement, mana deletion, physical law authority alteration—
Multiple operations were launched simultaneously. But the mana arrow didn't budge an inch. It fell like a meteor, piercing through Su's chest!
Grabbing the arrow, Su La looked up. Through the hole that had been blasted in the sky, she could see the world outside.
On the other side of the hole was a delicate, flawless face, her pitch-black pupils coldly looking down at her.
Like a deity gazing in from the outside.
"Wow."
Even though she had seen it on a screen before, seeing it in person still made Su sigh.
"Wifey..."
Next to her, Sonora stumbled, nearly falling.
Then she glared viciously at Su, whose chest had been pierced.
Lady Shion was indeed amazing, but the fan circles forbade calling her "wifey"!
Anyone who dared would be subject to Sonora's justice, executed on the spot!
Such blasphemy was absolutely unforgivable!
But since she couldn't beat Su right now, Sonora could only glare, killing her with her eyes!
Jiang Si didn't care about what this lunatic said. After using Witch Shion to break through Chongxu from the outside, the entire Chongxu began to collapse.
As Witch Shion's power started pouring into Chongxu, the factory, sky, and ground all began to show the same snow screen effect as Sonora's.
Even though Su was trying her best to maintain all of Chongxu, as Witch Shion's power spread, eventually, the whole of Chongxu became transparent within the snow screen!
Then, with a flicker, the entire space began to mutate. Su La's expression finally turned serious. Just as she was pulling the space back toward Chongxu,
another arrow fell!
The power maintaining Chongxu finally dissipated, and the entire space instantly went pitch black.
Then, specks of light appeared.
Row after row of coffin-like pods came into view. In dense rows of pods, tens of thousands of Chongxu residents lay silently inside, various devices plugged into their heads.
The connectors on the back of their necks were especially large.
Those dense, thick cables all converged upward.
Jiang Si lifted his head and looked up.
At the very top was a huge glass tank.
The tank was filled with water, and inside was a heart.
It was still beating.
Jiang Si's pupils contracted slightly.
He had seen this heart before.
Last time, in the world bubble, he had seen Lu Ya's projection holding this heart.
Exactly the same, no difference at all.
That was... his heart.
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