“I tinkered a bit with her core Magic. She’s basically my subordinate now.” Luo Shuangyue’s gaze fell on the Monster Girl’s chest.
On the fair, flat White Plain, a deep purple butterfly mark had already appeared.
This signified that the Monster Girl had accepted that portion of Luo Shuangyue’s Magic, and truly become her subordinate.
“I just think that forcibly altering someone’s perception like this… isn’t really right….”
As soon as she finished speaking, Xia Mo sealed her lips once more.
Not right? Xia Mo would just use her actions to show Luo Shuangyue she didn’t care about such things.
Come on, the one you tampered with was a Demon! No matter how kind or saintly Xia Mo might be, she would never feel sympathy for a Demon.
If Luo Shuangyue hadn’t said that the Monster Girl was still useful, Xia Mo would have grabbed the cannon and blasted the girl’s head off long ago.
Showing mercy to Demons was cruelty to her own family and friends.
As a Magical Girl who had survived countless battles, Xia Mo understood this well.
So Luo Shuangyue’s actions? She really saw nothing wrong with it.
The only thing that bothered her was Luo Shuangyue’s stammering and refusal to be honest after the fact, afraid she’d upset Xia Mo.
That’s why Xia Mo would use the most direct way to show Luo Shuangyue her trust.
After another stretch of time that was both long and fleeting, Luo Shuangyue was finally convinced by Xia Mo and obediently promised never to hide things like this from her again.
Her trust in Xia Mo had been far too lacking, to think that something like this could affect their relationship.
Her heart was insincere—she deserved punishment.
The punishment just now was what she deserved; it definitely wasn’t Xia Mo acting like a rascal on purpose.
“That’s better.” Xia Mo squeezed Luo Shuangyue’s cheeks hard, eyes narrowing in satisfaction.
“By the way, how do you feel now that you’ve become a Demon? Does it feel the same as before?” With the important matters settled, it was time for a more playful topic.
Having already slept half the night, Xia Mo was still energetic, and those two back-to-back incidents had thoroughly shaken off any sleepiness.
She figured this quiet, deep night was a good time to ask about Luo Shuangyue’s current condition.
After all, over the past few days, Xia Mo had noticed some unsettling changes.
It seemed Luo Shuangyue was gradually losing her “humanity.”
“Feelings?” Luo Shuangyue’s expression became conflicted.
“Honestly, this body is pretty nice. I can block out any sensations that would harm me, and only accept the ones that benefit me.”
“If you punched a hole through my stomach, I actually wouldn’t feel anything. But Magic is different. It does more than just physical damage—it hurts on the mental level, too.”
Only after becoming a Demon did Luo Shuangyue realize why Demons could almost ignore physical attacks.
Take the sharpest blade and slash at water—does the water take any damage?
Of course not!
Only Magic can fight Magic.
“If you’re talking about just now, ahem, I could still feel it. Because all the data from my old human body is stored in my head. I can easily replicate part of my original body to experience those sensations.”
She pointed at her head, indicating she hadn’t lost all sensation.
In fact, she had already reconstructed a human sensory system for herself.
But unlike humans, who can’t consciously control their senses, she could adjust any detail of her body at will.
Such fine-tuning was easy and quite useful.
Whenever she needed specific senses, she could amplify that sense severalfold.
And when a particular sensation became a burden, she could immediately sever its connection.
Adaptability was her main feature.
“So you’re saying… you could make yourself a lot more sensitive?” Xia Mo’s eyes gleamed.
Suddenly, a slightly daring thought crossed her mind.
“What are you thinking? There are people nearby!” Luo Shuangyue shuddered reflexively, eyes filled with alarm.
“I just want to see if we can use Telepathy Magic now.” Xia Mo’s smile grew ever more radiant.…I really don’t think this is a good idea.”
“But I think it’s great.”
At dawn the next day, Taya woke from a blissful night’s sleep, her first instinct being to howl at the sky.
But as she opened her mouth and took a deep breath, she remembered she still had companions beside her, who probably didn’t appreciate her morning cries.
So, the kind-hearted Miss Taya closed her mouth and turned her gaze to the side.
Hmm… huh? Was this how things were before she fell asleep last night?
She remembered Xia Mo and the Monster Girl sleeping apart, and Luo Shuangyue sitting up on watch.
So what happened?
The Monster Girl lay flat on her back at Luo Shuangyue’s feet, her dark eyes staring blankly at the sky like a salted fish who’d lost her dreams.
Meanwhile, Xia Mo was clinging to Luo Shuangyue, both lying on the ground breathing evenly in deep sleep.
No, actually, only Xia Mo was asleep.
Luo Shuangyue had the same empty look as the Monster Girl, her silver-red eyes gazing soullessly at the sky, face devoid of all worldly desire.
Taya scooted a bit closer, noticing that the scent of flowers was even stronger here.
Strange, what on earth happened while she was asleep?
Her approach startled the dazed Monster Girl.
Yesterday, this girl had refused to cooperate, but today she seemed like a different person.
As soon as she saw Taya approach, she sprang up, leaping between Taya and Luo Shuangyue, baring her teeth and growling to block Taya from coming closer.
Like a loyal watchdog.
Unfortunately, this “watchdog” was facing a dragon.
Taya wasn’t afraid in the slightest, now that the Monster Girl had lost all combat power.
“Xiaozi, Taya is my friend. There’s no need to be so wary.” Luo Shuangyue’s voice came from behind the Monster Girl, slightly hoarse.
Hearing this, the Monster Girl—whom Luo Shuangyue had nicknamed Xiaozi after her birthplace—reluctantly stepped aside.
Taya didn’t hold a grudge against Xiaozi. The child was so simple-hearted, she’d probably already forgotten the awkwardness by the time she moved out of the way.
“She’s still asleep? And why are you two clinging to each other like that?” Taya asked, puzzled, as she approached Luo Shuangyue.
“Let her rest a while. We don’t really have any plans right now, so let’s stay here for a few days and recover,” Luo Shuangyue replied, coughing awkwardly.
Why was Xia Mo sleeping so soundly? That wasn’t an easy question to answer.
Without transforming, Xia Mo’s tolerance for certain… stimulations was much lower than Luo Shuangyue’s.
And last night’s Telepathy experiment had gone extremely well.
Xia Mo and Luo Shuangyue had proven, with practical action, that a Magical Girl and a Demon Emperor could also establish a link for shared sensations.
As for whether one side might pass out from overstimulation afterward—that was another matter entirely.
Last night’s “battle” went something like this: Xia Mo held the advantage, Xia Mo pressed the attack, Xia Mo was about to win!
Then, all of a sudden—let’s congratulate Luo Shuangyue for taking the victory!
As for what Luo Shuangyue actually did—nothing at all. There was nothing she could do at that level of sensitivity.
By the time she snapped out of it, Xia Mo had already fainted.
Honestly, this kind of “game” was too much for ordinary people.
Better to do it less in the future.
Not to mention, out here in the wilds, some playful banter was fine, but if their clothes got too messy, cleanup would be a pain.
Take Xia Mo, for instance—her clothes were probably quite soaked by now.
Luckily, she could just transform and refresh her state, so it wasn’t a big issue.
“Stay here? All right.” Taya sat down again and nodded.
Then she suddenly seemed to remember something important and shook her head hard. “No, that won’t do!” This time her tone was resolute.
“Why?” Luo Shuangyue was curious—it was her first time seeing Taya so adamant.
What could make this usually easygoing girl object?
“My rations are almost gone. Without food, I’ll starve!” Taya told Luo Shuangyue seriously.
“There’s nothing to hunt here. I need to go hunting.”
“Uh…” Luo Shuangyue blinked.
She didn’t need to eat, and Xia Mo could use Magic instead of food, so neither of them had eaten in days.
It hadn’t even crossed her mind.
From her perspective, Taya was a being with Magic as well—shouldn’t she be able to endure hunger the same way?
Seeing Luo Shuangyue’s confusion, Taya scratched her head and explained that using Magic to replace food was a last resort for life in their world.
Normally, everyone preferred to hunt and find their own food.
“But Taya, do you know where there’s anything to hunt around here?”
“No idea.”
This world had no maps or anything, and the Sea of Flowers was a completely unfamiliar region to Taya. How could she know where to find prey?
“Want to make do with her?” Luo Shuangyue gestured to Xiaozi.
Look at this tender little thing—perfect for a big bad dragon’s palate, isn’t she?
Taya immediately looked horrified, shaking her head so fast it almost left an afterimage. “The Holy Sovereign says monsters are poisonous! If you eat them, you’ll turn into one too!”
“That’s pretty much the same as back where we’re from…”
Shifting slightly, Luo Shuangyue realized she couldn’t shake off the Xia Mo draped over her, so she had no choice but to stay lying down to continue her talk with Taya.
“I need to wait for Xia Mo to wake up first. Taya, why don’t you scout the area a bit? Afterward, you can pick our direction—how about that?”
Luo Shuangyue was completely unfamiliar with this place; her leading would be pure guesswork.
So why not let the local, Taya, lead the way? At least that way, the chances of getting lost would be a little less.
“Alright!” Taya had no objections. She immediately got up and dashed off into the distance.
Watching the dragon girl disappear into the Sea of Flowers, Luo Shuangyue suddenly felt a sense of unease in her heart.
It felt as if… something terrifying was slowly drawing closer.
“Strange, is it just my imagination?”
“The descent point is right ahead, but I can’t sense her presence… strange.”
Dark currents of energy seeped from the magic circle, slowly coalescing into a girl with long, pale hair.
She wore a tattered coat, and her jet-black eyes swept over the ruined patch of the Sea of Flowers, her expression tinged with confusion.
But her earlier senses hadn’t been wrong—a sizable Black Calamity had indeed broken out here.
So, where was the kin born from the Black Calamity?
Where would a newly born kin, as blank as a sheet of paper, run off to?
She should have stayed here, mindlessly destroying everything, right?
Landing gently on the blackened White Plain, the girl bent down, pinched up a bit of soil saturated with magic, and put it in her mouth.
“Not bad power. With some training, she’d be an excellent warrior. But where did she go?”
Standing up, she closed her eyes, trying to sense the lingering traces of Magic in the area—hoping to track the fledgling kin’s trail.
The scent was faint—nearly a full day had passed. She’d left here in a hurry. Which direction…?
The girl opened her eyes again, pursuing the trail of magic in the direction she sensed.
She wasn’t particularly fast; the magic traces in the air were faint.
She needed to distinguish them carefully to extract the information she sought from this chaotic environment.
But as she tracked, her brow furrowed ever tighter.
Something was off—why was there another Magic scent here?
She was tracking a faint trace, but in the Sea of Flowers nearby, there lingered yet another magic presence.
The one she tracked was clear, the path straight. But the other? It twisted and turned, like a ball of yarn tangled by a cat.
Glancing once more at the patch of Sea of Flowers, now stripped bare of petals, the girl couldn’t help a rather impolite thought.
Could the owner of this other magic be… a glutton?
Did they really have to gnaw through such a huge stretch of flowers?
The blossoms here weren’t precious treasures that could instantly boost one’s power—just ordinary flowers.
Whoosh—
A breeze swept through. Amidst the now-vanished violet field, an oddly out-of-place figure appeared.
Snow-white. Tiny.
The girl locked eyes with a white-haired figure standing far away.
Golden slit pupils stared back at her, shining with terror.
Wasn’t this supposed to be a no-man’s-land? Hadn’t those cowards given up on this place entirely? Could it be that the cowards who’d hidden in their shells were plotting a counterattack?
But even if they wanted to counterattack, they wouldn’t start here—this was the very heart of the no-man’s-land, so far from the Sanctuary that you couldn’t even describe the distance with numbers.
“In any case, I can’t let her go!” A cold light flashed in the girl’s eyes—anyone daring to appear here was her enemy.
And enemies—must die.
Black starlight gathered in her palm as she leapt skyward, the starry light transforming into a spear in her hands.
With a flick, she hurled it at the frantically fleeing figure.
“Go die for me!”