“By the way, those berserk variant fiends are still under investigation. We haven’t gotten any results yet. Just be careful whenever you encounter variant fiends from now on. Don’t get careless just because they seem like low-level ones.”
With those words, Huang Yi ended the conversation.
Nothing from this meeting was recorded on any electronic device. Even Huang Yi was wary of phones, so of course Jin Luan and Huan Hong didn’t say anything about it in the Gold, Silver, and Red Sisters’ group chat.
The next day, Saturday, Huan Hong headed out to the gym to train her body again.
15 kilometers run √
100 squats √
100 push-ups √
100 sit-ups √
100 pull-ups ×
100kg weightlifting ×
She still didn’t manage to complete all her goals today. Her body was beginning to show a bit of muscle, and her abs had some definition, but it still wasn’t enough.
With such a small improvement, it was nowhere near enough to go up against Lvyie, and she wasn’t even sure if a magical girl’s body would actually benefit from these gains.
Jin Luan was also training as usual today. After finishing up some chores assigned by her family, she transformed and flew out alone.
Along the way, she carried out Huang Yi’s request, made a pass over the Eastern Union, sensed no magical aura, and then left, flying toward the border.
After arriving at the boundary, she ignored the soldiers’ attempts to stop her and flew straight into the variant fiend zone outside the city.
As soon as she left the city, she felt a mild discomfort, both psychological and physical. The rate at which her magic was consumed seemed a bit different, though she couldn’t yet tell if it was real or just her imagination.
It wasn’t her first time outside the city; her body was gradually adapting.
She kept her senses focused the entire time, deliberately working to hone her perception skills, even if it meant using extra magic for it.
Unfortunately, though her perception had temporarily improved a little, it was still stuck at a not-too-near, not-too-far range—nowhere close to Yin Lin’s level.
Jin Luan felt dejected. In some respects, she was beaten by both Yin Lin and Lvyie, which only pushed her into a state of determined self-improvement.
Looking at all the variant fiends outside the city, she drew her blade.
The slaughter began!
With a swing of her blade, the head of a low-level variant fiend rolled.
She had just arrived and was already using Enchantment Magic and Instant Step. Even a Flat Slash, when combined with these, dealt huge extra damage to the variant fiends.
A low-level fiend that could trade blows with Huan Hong for a few minutes couldn’t last more than a few seconds in Jin Luan’s hands.
She was working hard, too, injecting more magic into her Enchantment Magic—just like Yin Lin kept compressing magic into her magic cannon.
When casting magic, you could inject any unit of magic, even just one unit, but it wouldn’t necessarily activate, and even if it did, the effect would be weak.
Most of the time, injecting 100% magic power into a spell was enough; trying to add more met with massive resistance.
Not only did the rate of injection slow to a crawl, but it also consumed huge amounts of extra magic—a trade-off that usually wasn’t worth it.
Recently, Jin Luan had been training exactly this. Even after her Enchantment Magic was at 100% magic injection, she forced in a little more, reaching 120%.
The spell’s power did increase a little, but the magic cost was enormous.
She didn’t care about magic consumption now, and kept training like this.
When two mid-level variant fiends closed in to surround her, she quickly ascended into the sky, avoiding their pincer attack.
Never let yourself be lulled by Yin Lin’s overwhelming strength into thinking mid-level fiends are easy prey.
Jin Luan could handle one mid-level fiend alone, but fighting two at once was very difficult.
She continued her search from high in the air and soon spotted another low-level variant fiend wandering about for food.
Once again, she descended from the sky, blade in hand.
This time, she didn’t use Instant Step—just fell freely, swinging her blade as she dropped.
The low-level fiend reacted, but didn’t dodge, instead meeting Jin Luan’s attack with a punch aimed at the sky.
Jin Luan lost her nerve after all, shifting into flight mode and aborting the strike, while the fiend’s attack missed as well.
That last swing might not have killed the fiend, but its attack would definitely have injured her.
What she wanted was to defeat fiends without a scratch, not to gamble her life against an endless horde.
She scanned her surroundings and saw the other fiends were still a bit away—she had about ten seconds of breathing room.
Jin Luan still didn’t use Instant Step. She dropped lower again, planning to rely on skill this time.
The fiend below struck first, leaping over ten meters into the air, left hand guarding its head, right fist punching at her.
Jin Luan’s flight skills were sharp; she narrowly dodged the blow.
She managed to swing her blade at the fiend’s back, inflicting a shallow wound.
Once the creature hit the ground, blood spurted out and it howled in pain at Jin Luan above.
Jin Luan pressed the attack, landing and using her legs to move swiftly into range, slashing at the fiend from up close.
The fiend guarded its head with one hand, and with the other tried to swat at her, still fighting desperately.
Jin Luan retreated again, stepping back and following with a Flat Slash—dodging its attack while cutting off half its hand.
The thing wailed like a child, its voice even louder as it roared to call for its fellows.
Jin Luan ascended to safety again; the two mid-level fiends had already arrived, making it too risky to attack further.
They took turns leaping at her, trying to bring her down, forcing Jin Luan to keep dodging until she was eighty meters up and finally safe.
Watching those savage fiends, Jin Luan confirmed one thing: the fiends in the variant fiend zone outside the city seemed to have some sort of extra buff, making them even fiercer.
Today, Jin Luan deliberately calmed herself to sense these changes and determined that it wasn’t just her imagination. Magic consumption really did increase while outside the city.
She used to think it was some high-ranking fiend’s spell making magical girls burn through their magic faster, but now it seemed that wasn’t the case.
Was there something in Yiri City that protected magical girls? Once you left the city, did you lose that protection?
For the first time, Jin Luan began to doubt.
She snapped back to attention, hearing the fiends below jabbering in some incomprehensible language—there were no linguists here.
If only Yin Lin were around; with just a half-powered magic cannon, she could wipe out these fiends.
Jin Luan could only stare, not daring to attack.
She noticed the fiends huddling together with no intention of leaving, so she gave up on this spot and flew away.
The three fiends on the ground kept following her wherever she went.
She could only pick up speed to shake them off, then searched another area for low-level fiends.
Meanwhile, she observed the terrain calmly from above.
Within dozens of kilometers outside the city, there were no trees or anything to block the view. No flowers, no grass—humans had long since flattened everything.
The kind of scene you see in anime, with grass and trees left so the enemy could use them as cover to sneak up under the city walls, would never happen here.
Even stealth and ambush had been considered; there were plenty of sensors outside the city watching everything.
On the flat ground ran a dirt road, though it had long since fallen into disuse.
Ever since sea and air transport technology advanced, land transport had steadily declined.
Yiri City no longer needed people to risk their lives running goods overland like in the old days.
Jin Luan looked out over the desolate area outside the city, and an unrealistic image floated through her mind.
The world outside the city bustling with people, skyscrapers everywhere. Asphalt roads connecting all the cities, so that people could travel wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted, without fearing the threat of variant fiends.
If only such a world truly existed.
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