Chapter 9: Not a Meeting in a Dream, Neither Inevitable Nor Accidental

"Big sister, hello. I'd like a pudding milk tea, but hold the pudding. I'm on a diet."

The newly opened milk tea shop was cool inside, the fresh renovation still leaving a faint lingering smell of paint.

It was mid-afternoon, still class time, so naturally there weren't many people.

The clerk heard the voice, lowered her head, and only then saw a little girl straining on her tiptoes, yet only her pair of pretty eyes were visible above the counter. The clerk nearly lost her composure, but then spoke gently, "Little one, eating more pudding at this age helps you grow tall, you know."

The little girl's expression turned awkward. After a long pause, she mumbled, "...Then half the pudding. And I'm sixteen."

Behind the little girl, Jiang Keko followed in, staring woodenly at the tiny figure ahead...

That's right, this little girl was the pink Magical Girl who had seemed like a veteran soldier just moments ago.

Jiang Keko had expected someone... more serious.

"I'll have a lemonade." Jiang Keko rummaged in her pocket, found the discount coupon from before, and immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Her allowance wasn't much.

The little girl leaning on the counter tilted her head to look at her. "Lemonade tastes bad."

"But it's cheap."

The clerk smiled. "Being the big sister means you have to take care of your little sister."

"Not sisters." Jiang Keko denied it. "And she's older than me."

"Ahaha, really..." The clerk laughed awkwardly, embarrassed. "It'll be ready in a moment. Please wait."

This was a newly opened milk tea shop near schools. Competition on this street was fierce, so new shops usually offered steep discounts to poach customers.

Lemonade plus the previous discount coupon came to just eighty cents—the cheapest price on the whole street.

They didn't wait long before the pudding milk tea and lemonade were served. Watching her short senior have to tiptoe and reach up to take the milk tea, Jiang Keko casually helped carry both.

Sixteen years old and only this tall. Hopeless, really...

Thinking somewhat rudely, yet also marveling that a Magical Girl's transformation could actually increase height.

She had a certain understanding of Magical Girls, but details like this were definitely unknown to her.

The two found a secluded seat by the window and sat down. After putting down her schoolbag, Jiang Keko didn't rush to drink her lemonade. Instead, she watched the Magical Girl senior across from her.

Sitting on the stool, her feet didn't even touch the floor...

Her outfit was actually quite mature. A black high-neck top tucked into a super high-waisted black mini skirt, emphasizing a slender waist while also visually lengthening her leg proportion.

Though it was a drop in the bucket.

The skirt hem sat above the knees, paired with a pair of thick-soled lace-up Dr. Martens boots. It maintained a mature, cool style while adding height...

Too bad that blissful look of squinting eyes and sucking on the straw completely infantilized her, rendering the outfit's effect entirely void.

Noticing she was being stared at, Yinlian spoke up first, generously. "Jiang Keko-classmate, congratulations on becoming a Magical Girl."

Jiang Keko smiled bitterly. "Thanks, but I don't think this is anything worth congratulating..."

"Alright then." Yinlian's lazy, sloppy expression finally turned a few degrees more serious.

"Since that's the case, I'll be direct. Jiang Keko-classmate, do you want to join our Disaster Strategy Bureau?"

Jiang Keko weighed her words. "Can I not join?"

"Of course you can not join. But you'll still be under the Disaster Strategy Bureau's jurisdiction. Every transformation requires a written report and record. Leaving BH City requires even more complicated procedures..."

Though she had expected this somewhat, Jiang Keko still felt a pang of disappointment.

So she asked unwillingly, "Free Magical Girls are controlled too..."

Yinlian nodded very seriously. "Of course. Going solo has no future. Defeating Disaster Beasts yields no salary. And there are criminals eyeing Magical Girls' power. Without transforming, a Magical Girl is very fragile, vulnerable to sneak attacks—extremely dangerous. You need to consider this carefully."

"Aren't there Free Magical Girl organizations..."

"Listen." Yinlian's voice suddenly turned stern. "Those are illegal organizations! Once caught, you face prosecution and imprisonment. Don't go astray!"

Jiang Keko jumped in fright.

She knew the Disaster Strategy Bureau was very cautious about Magical Girls' power and maintained strict control, but this hostile attitude still exceeded her expectations.

"You know nothing about them. BH City's only illegal Magical Girl organization, the Azure Cloud Sect! Do you know what a vicious organization that is?"

Jiang Keko shrank her neck. Though short, when serious, her aura was very teacher-like. She rebutted softly, "But the Azure Cloud Sect hasn't harmed civilians, right? They've been fighting Disaster Beasts all along..."

"Fighting?" Yinlian sneered. "That's not fighting. That's hunting! They treat Disaster Beasts as their prey, snatching them from official Magical Girls, even attacking Magical Girls for it!"

"Benign market competition..."

Yinlian glared at her, and Jiang Keko didn't dare speak.

After taking a fierce sip of milk tea, this official Magical Girl continued: "The scariest thing about the Azure Cloud Sect isn't just that they hunt Disaster Beasts. They also *raise* them. Their members claim Disaster Beasts can be tamed into guardian spirit beasts for the sect—utterly absurd. A large gathering of Disaster Beasts, once out of control, would have unimaginable consequences."

"What are guardian spirit beasts?"

"How would I know." Yinlian huffed. "Anyway, they're a bunch of lunatics. The Disaster Strategy Bureau will eliminate them sooner or later. I'm not scaring you. A junior finally appears, and I can't let you stray. They don't just snatch Disaster Beasts; they also snatch Magical Girls' Miracle Seeds, taming Magical Girls into their tools."

"Oh, oh." Jiang Keko was stunned into a daze, rubbing her ice-cold lemonade. "The Disaster Strategy Bureau hasn't found any traces of the Az... Azure Cloud Sect yet?"

Sensing she had gotten a bit too worked up, making the atmosphere stiff, Yinlian softened her tone. "Not yet. The Azure Cloud Sect has hidden itself very well."

"Dongjun operates in the open, right? Is she hard to find?"

"Dongjun isn't the focus." Yinlian shook her head. "The Azure Cloud Sect's leader—oh, they call her the Sect Master—is a Purple Magical Girl. She might be the Azure Cloud Sect's only 'Full Bloom' level Magical Girl, but the Bureau can't confirm it. She is the existence the Disaster Strategy Bureau fears most. Not only is her power formidable, but her whereabouts are secretive..."

"Purple... Magical Girl?"

Jiang Keko murmured, immediately thinking of the one who taught her to transform today.

So she's the leader of the Free Magical Girl organization?

Amazing.

A sense of pride by association welled up in her heart.

"Purple Magical Girls are very dangerous." Yinlian's face darkened. "She has actually killed Magical Girls."

Jiang Keko froze, stammering, "Th-that's not... not possible, right? Killing a Magical Girl..."

"The Disaster Strategy Bureau has records. If you see a Purple Magical Girl, stay far away. But don't worry too much. She rarely appears. You generally won't run into her."

*But I really did meet her...*

Jiang Keko thought, but ultimately didn't say it.

Compared to this girl she was meeting for the first time, she was more willing to believe in Zi Xuan, who had saved her.

Definitely not a bad person.

...

The Seed of Grief.

Holding the black seed, still transformed, Jiang Si watched the black qi churning inside it under the sunlight.

As magic power passed through the Seed of Grief, the black qi melted, decomposed, turning into colorful light.

Jiang Si called this a Magic Crystal.

Though his first thought was "Monster Core," however he looked at it, Disaster Beasts resembled Magic Beasts more than Yao Beasts.

So in the end, he felt the Seed of Grief was closer to a Magic Crystal.

According to experience, Magic Crystals could be used for cultivation and as currency.

Too bad BH City had no Mercenary Guild offering bounties for Magic Crystals. Lacked a bit of flavor.

The early cultivation methods of the magic world differed from Xianxia, but in the end, they were all the same: comprehending laws, forging a Great Dao.

That's called "different paths, same destination."

Jiang Si had tried many cultivation methods. Pure physical training barely improved a Magical Girl's power, since the base power was already terrifying.

Meditation and enlightenment were somewhat premature and unsuited for his current level.

Absorbing Spiritual Qi—this world had very little Spiritual Qi to sense, but plenty of pollution. Magical Girls probably couldn't absorb Spiritual Qi anyway.

And being able to sense Spiritual Qi and start refining it meant having high Xianxia aptitude. Jiang Si obviously didn't have it, and becoming a Magical Girl didn't grant it either. Though post-transformation, he should count as having Spiritual Roots.

Since his magic power felt like fire, he guessed it was a Fire Spiritual Root.

As for other methods—Dou Qi, Fruit Positions, Sequences, Acting, Potions, etc.—those were even less possible.

Aside from Magical Girls, this world didn't have so many strange things. Of course, maybe he just hadn't encountered them yet, like how he hadn't encountered Magical Girls before.

The last method he found was absorbing Magic Crystals to accumulate magic power.

Extremely primitive yet universal. Whether magic or cultivation, basically all had similar methods.

Facts proved the ancients' wisdom was sound. Webnovels aren't made up; they have basis and theory.

The power in Magic Crystals came from Disaster Beasts, basically the same as Magical Girls, just slightly different in nature.

But for Jiang Si, it didn't matter. He absorbed them all the same.

Once fully absorbed into his body, that Magic Crystal—the so-called Seed of Grief—shattered like glass, scattering into fragments.

Jiang Si flicked a finger. A wisp of purple flame landed on the fragments, burning them to ash, scattering in the wind.

The power increase wasn't huge.

Around half a year ago, after absorbing Magic Crystals to break into the Full Bloom realm, the returns from absorbing Magic Crystals had diminishing returns.

Novels documented this too. Pure power accumulation has a limit.

Next would rely on self-comprehension, or fortuitous encounters with heaven-defying treasures to break through.

The purple flame gradually faded from his body. Detransformed, Jiang Si distinctly felt his vision was higher.

Height *decreasing* upon transformation was a bit hard to accept. In battle, a mere slight difference could be a fatal flaw.

To ensure neither body type revealed flaws, he had spent considerable time training to adapt.

The purple Miracle Seed landed in his hand. Jiang Si wiped it.

Originally swirling with pure purple flames, it was now stained with a bit of filth.

Speck-like black spots covered the surface of the Miracle Seed.

Absorbing Magic Crystals pollutes one's own magic power. To see this long-obsolete setting still existing...

Could only say this place might be a bit behind the times.

Jiang Si didn't take it to heart, casually putting it away.

So-called pollution could be purged by further advancement. No need to mind it.

Just a bit of wind and frost.

Returning to the factory, Bing Tang had already left. She was a model student; even skipping class, she'd only skip half a day.

Jiang Si continued training.

Having just absorbed the Magic Crystal's power, he wanted to test if he could extend the magic power's effects to his physical body.

Ever since becoming a Magical Girl three years ago, he discovered his physical limits had been unlocked.

Before, once training hit the limit, there was absolutely no way to increase his strength further.

But with the Magical Girl's power, he never encountered that bottleneck again.

Obviously the influence of the Magical Girl's power.

So if he could transfer the magic power from the Magic Crystal into this flesh body, perhaps he could achieve a greater breakthrough.

He tried lifting barbells and doing pull-ups.

Results weren't ideal.

To ordinary humans, magic power is unbearable. Large amounts infused directly cause death.

One of the Disaster Beasts' hazards is unconsciously radiating magic power. Staying near a Disaster Beast too long pollutes ordinary people, causing bodily functions to decline.

But tiny amounts of magic power can't even condense in a human body; they dissipate quickly.

He needed another way.

He'd heard that in the Disaster Strategy Bureau, there was a method of inheriting power via Miracle Seeds.

But once inheritance was used, the Miracle Seed's original owner would not only lose the power to transform, but even all memories related to Magical Girls would vanish. Quite cruel.

And directly snatching a Magical Girl's Miracle Seed was not only troublesome but against the Azure Cloud Sect's style. Webnovel protagonists generally have correct values, even if sometimes it's "three coffins at home lined up neatly," but Jiang Si wasn't the audience for indiscriminate slaughter.

In any case, snatching vacant Miracle Seeds from the Disaster Strategy Bureau was far more convenient than snatching from Magical Girls directly.

Bing Tang had been laying the groundwork for this for a long time. Results should show soon...

After training, he climbed down from the pull-up bar, wiped his sweat, checked the time. About time to go back.

A bird flew in from somewhere.

Looking closely, the bird was woven from threads. Flowing magic power lines formed a vivid little bird, finally perching on Jiang Si's shoulder.

"Sect Master."

The voice was sharp, like a bird's cry, but barely intelligible.

"The Disaster Strategy Bureau's people made contact with your sister. Intercept?"

Jiang Si washed his sweat under the water curtain in the Illusory Moon Cave Dwelling, shook his head. "Ignore her."

Joining the Disaster Strategy Bureau actually benefits us.

(End of Chapter)