Chapter 6: That is indeed a joyful thing

"What is meant by 'Sprouting Great Perfection'?"

"Why is there a 'half-step' prefix to Great Perfection?"

Bing Tang could never figure out the logic behind this, but she knew one thing for certain.

That was that Jiang Si knew an incredible amount.

He could always utter magical terms she had never heard before; even though she didn't understand them, she thought they were very impressive.

She believed everything he said without question. Over the past three years, she had reached a point where she almost never asked him what something meant.

If it was useful, he would explain it later; if it wasn't, she simply wouldn't hear about it again.

Jiang Si also used quite a few "one-time use" vocabulary words.

By the time she finished copying the homework, Jiang Si had already completed his warm-up exercises.

"Time for combat practice."

It was true that training could allow one to feel their own improvement.

But for Jiang Si, training was only effective if it could be applied in actual combat.

It was much like how the essence of learning is actually cultivating one's own method of learning.

Most of the knowledge from high school and university becomes useless in society, but learning methods are never obsolete.

If one cannot see through to the essence and instead becomes obsessed with the training itself, it is a case of putting the cart before the horse—paralyzing oneself within a comfort zone.

He had once gone through such a period of confusion, but by now, he would no longer be deceived by the superficial appearance of becoming stronger.

If one cannot translate their training into actual combat strength, it is utterly meaningless.

Every time he finished a training session and felt a tangible increase in strength, he had to verify it through combat.

"Dongjun."

"I told you, just call me Bing Tang..."

She complained softly, yet she still obediently produced her magic seed.

The pale blue seed looked like it was carved from ice.

As she grasped the seed, an ice-blue power began to bloom, and a chilling frost spread wildly. Bing Tang's gaze gradually grew firm.

In a voice too low to be heard, she whispered an incantation.

Ice condensed into a massive dragon, which burst forth from the seed in her hand, its colossal body covering the entire cave dwelling in frost.

"Advent of the Primordial Dragon!"

The massive ice dragon lunged from above, swallowing Bing Tang in a single bite!

The girl was frozen within an ice formation shaped like a dragon, until she reached out and gave it a gentle push.

The surrounding ice shattered into specks of starlight and dissipated, and Bing Tang had transformed into the blue magical girl who had eliminated the Calamity Beast in front of the bus this morning.

Magical Girl Dongjun.

For the past three years, to hide her identity, Jiang Si had left most of the Calamity Beast disposals to her.

Her strength went without saying; she was already halfway to the "Blooming" stage.

Even the current Calamity Strategy Bureau had no good way to deal with her, and they still couldn't even find her.

Though Jiang Si felt this was simply because the Bureau was too incompetent.

"Why is your incantation so quiet? Did you skip breakfast?"

Facing Jiang Si's abrupt question, Bing Tang tugged at her ice-crystal-like magical girl skirt. "It's because it's too embarrassing to say out loud..."

*It's actually quite cool, isn't it?*

It was Jiang Si who had helped her come up with the transformation incantation, but since she was unwilling to say it, there was nothing he could do. He simply urged, "Never mind, hurry up and release that Calamity Beast from this morning."

Taking a deep breath, the blue magical girl extended her right hand, which was clad in a white glove, the lace at her wrist resembling strings of ice crystals.

"Mediocre Work, Part One: A Clumsy Reflection in the Mirror."

The frost emanating from her hand rapidly condensed, forming the shape of the large-eyed Calamity Beast from this morning's bus incident.

The frost body was somewhat stiff; even a slight movement would cause shards of ice to fall.

Bing Tang exhaled a cloud of white mist. For her, manipulating ice for long periods caused her own body temperature to drop significantly.

Magical girls who had not yet reached the Blooming stage always faced various limitations.

"By the way, besides the four major stages, the Calamity Strategy Bureau actually uses specific data classifications. They divide a magical girl's abilities into six specific values, including Strength, Magic Power, Reaction, Speed..."

"Data-driven types are trash."

Seeing Jiang Si charging toward the large-eyed beast, Bing Tang said nervously, "This beast's data is comprehensively higher than your physical body..."

Before she could finish, a sharp side kick, as heavy as an axe, slammed violently into the large-eyed monster!

The ice crystals instantly shattered across the ground.

Bing Tang's eyes widened.

Even if it was her first time constructing a reflection, the strength of her frost magic was unquestionable.

But based on the data, it should have been one level higher than Jiang Si's strength when he wasn't transformed.

"In a fight, who cares about comparing data?"

Jiang Si's disdainful comment snapped Bing Tang back to reality, and she nodded in deep agreement.

"True, in the end, it all comes down to actual combat. But your physical body is truly getting stronger and stronger; I'm afraid some magical girls won't even be your match anymore. It's incredible."

"It's alright."

Jiang Si wasn't being modest; his current body was still far from the strength he possessed after transforming into a magical girl.

Transforming into a magical girl had limitations and made him an easy target.

If possible, he wanted to push his physical strength, reaction, and speed into the realm of a magical girl.

Transforming into a magical girl should be his final trump card, not his standard mode of combat.

Xiao Yan wouldn't start with the Flame Lotus, and Tang San wouldn't start with Blue Silver Entanglement.

But unfortunately, he couldn't do that yet. The speed at which his physical body was strengthening was too slow; he could only take it one step at a time.

Just as Jiang Si was about to turn back to continue his training after a brief stretch, he found that the shattered ice on the ground had re-condensed into the large-eyed Calamity Beast.

"It's not over yet. The most special thing about that large-eyed beast is its regenerative ability."

Looking at the smirking Bing Tang, Jiang Si merely gave a cold snort.

Just as he was about to approach and smash the eye again, the red light in the beast's eye shone down upon him, instantly rendering him unable to move.

He was then slowly lifted into the air, creating distance.

The surrounding energy converged; the massive crimson power within the eyeball intensified its gaze, locking onto Jiang Si.

No matter how much he trained, a powerful physical body could not jump that high.

That height required flight, and his physical body could not yet perform "void-stepping."

At the moment the large eye's crimson energy erupted, a flicker of purple flame quietly rose.

A fleeting, graceful figure caused the ice-crystal beast in the air to be instantly swallowed by raging purple flames!

Jiang Si, who had practically slammed into the ground, had his feet embedded in the earth. Holding a scalding purple seed, he blew a breath of air.

The burning flames in front of him vanished instantly.

A momentary transformation? Or was there no transformation at all? Did he simply use the magic power within the seed?

Bing Tang realized she couldn't keep up with Jiang Si's speed at all.

Of course, what disappointed her even more was that she hadn't seen what a cute magical girl Jiang Si looked like after transforming.

That magical girl who had saved her back then—it wasn't easy to see her now.

"It seems I need more training."

Without anyone knowing how he reached that conclusion, Jiang Si had already put away the seed and returned to his state of frenzied training.

Bing Tang deactivated her transformation, rubbed her hands together, blew on them to warm them up, and then checked her phone.

"Lingling, who is undercover at the Calamity Strategy Bureau, sent a message."

Jiang Si, who was doing push-ups over there, asked casually, "What message?"

"The Bureau detected several birth singularities of Calamity Beasts, but they are short-handed and plan to temporarily abandon a few of them..."

Looking at her phone, Bing Tang suddenly froze, then picked it up to look again.

"One of the birth singularities is at your sister's junior high school..."

(End of Chapter)