“Um… Excuse me, are you President Xing Yao, sir?”
“That’s right. The one and only.”
Skaya’s facial muscles twitched slightly.
She stared in disbelief at the silver-haired youth with a mature aura standing before her, unable to believe her eyes.
In Skaya’s imagination, the legendary top titan of the magic world who had ruthlessly reformed the entire magic community—Xing Yao—should have been a domineering, imposing middle-aged man, or at the very least a benevolent, white-bearded elder with an extraordinary presence like the reclusive masters in anime.
Even in the worst case, he should have been an adult exuding a sharp, intimidating aura.
But what was with this silver-haired youth in front of her?
His behavior and mannerisms were completely those of a child!
And the magical girl standing beside him—was that Ying Guang?
It had to be Ying Guang, right?!
The famous magical girl superstar was actually a high-ranking member of the Magic Association!
Skaya was clearly struggling to process this. Her brain was on the verge of crashing.
Xing Yao would occasionally use certain secret techniques to revert to his youthful appearance.
This was something only internal Magic Association members or well-connected mages knew about.
An outsider like Skaya had never heard any rumors of the sort.
She elbowed Li Chi, who was talking beside her.
He looked at her in confusion before understanding from her questioning gaze.
However, Li Chi had zero intention of explaining it to her.
His little brother was currently in critical condition, at risk of running away from home at any moment.
Why would he waste time helping some unrelated girl who had followed him here?
Fortunately, during his conversation with Xing Yao, Li Chi finally received some good news.
“You brat are quite interesting. Hearing a spirit’s voice would turn you into a magical girl? If that were true, wouldn’t every experienced mage or magic user have become a magical girl by now?”
Hearing Xing Yao say this, Li Chi finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness. My little brother is safe after all. The worry had kept him on edge the entire way here.
As for the spirit that had suddenly appeared in his mind, according to Xing Yao, it was actually a very low-probability event.
Some mages, even after mastering magic power, found it extremely difficult to truly connect with their own spirits.
However, those spirits would occasionally “play dead” and suddenly stir due to high concentrations of mana.
This made perfect sense.
After all, there had been a full fifty magical girls on site earlier.
Just the aftershocks from them releasing their ultimate techniques would have contained an absurd amount of magical power.
Now that he knew his brother was fine, Li Chi turned his attention to Skaya, who had taken it upon herself to follow him.
She had already transformed upon entering the Magic Association’s doors and was now Magical Girl Black Crystal.
Black Crystal… Black Crystal…
The more Li Chi thought about the name, the more it sounded like the perfect fit for a villain!
He suddenly found this long, straight black-haired magical girl quite interesting.
How about I agree to her proposal first, then find a way to recruit her over?
The more Li Chi considered it, the more he felt this was a brilliant idea.
He even found himself looking at the magical girl—who had been unreasonably pestering him since the beginning—with much more favorable eyes.
Or maybe… I should try corrupting her?
As Dark Fang, a high-ranking executive of the Dark Organization, many wicked thoughts suddenly surfaced in Li Chi’s mind.
Of course, being naturally kind-hearted, the most extreme ideas he came up with were things like knocking her out with a club or taking her hostage.
As for truly extreme acts like murder or arson, he would never consider them, nor could he.
After all, Li Chi only wanted to recruit a new member for his organization.
He wasn’t trying to make everyone hate him.
If he actually did something that extreme, he would instantly become a public enemy to all factions.
At that point, the Dark Organization itself would clean house before the magical girls or Magic Association even needed to act.
If such a dangerous extremist really existed, White Lion and Black Dragon would spare no expense to make him disappear from this world.
At best, they would lock him up. In worse cases, they would grind his bones to dust.
Naturally, these were all just hypotheticals. They clearly didn’t apply to Li Chi, nor would they ever happen.
While Li Chi was thinking about how to recruit Black Crystal, the girl herself was enthusiastically chatting with the person she idolized.
“President Xing Yao! President Xing Yao! May I ask what exactly is going on with your current appearance? Did you change your form, or is this affecting our cognition?”
Seeing Black Crystal’s sparkling eyes full of extreme admiration, Xing Yao—who had just finished coaxing his granddaughter—couldn’t help but freeze for a moment.
Perhaps because he had been dealing with Ying Guang so much lately, he even saw traces of Ying Guang in Black Crystal.
“Is this a little fan of mine?”
He tried his best to put on a gentle, kind expression.
He really was quite exhausted from Ying Guang’s recent antics.
“You’re a new magical girl I haven’t met before. How familiar are you with shaping magic?”
Xing Yao was lying through his teeth. How could he possibly not know this magical girl?
Not only in Canghai City, but every active magical girl in the entire world was known to him.
Especially the girl before her.
In terms of seniority, she was a junior of juniors of juniors—her generation was so far down the line it was hard to count.
Black Crystal had learned about the Magic Association through senior magical girls.
She had never truly come into contact with this organization that held absolute authority and representation in the magic world.
As for that senior magical girl, she was ultimately just a magical girl herself.
Her relationship with the Magic Association was merely one of cooperation; she wasn’t actually a member under the Association.
This was Black Crystal’s first official interaction with someone from the Magic Association—and not just anyone, but the leader himself, a legendary figure in the magic world.
How could she not be excited?
“This? Actually, this isn’t magic.” Xing Yao pointed at his own face as he explained.
“It’s a talent skill, more of a superpower really. Its effect allows me to remain at the peak of all my stats for a very long time. As for when it wears off… I’m afraid it will still take a few more days.”
“So this isn’t your original appearance?”
“I wouldn’t put it that way. This is also one of my appearances, just from a different point in time.”
Black Crystal secretly sighed in relief. Good, my idol filter hasn’t completely shattered yet.
Afterward, Black Crystal continued bombarding Xing Yao with questions.
Her enthusiasm was so overwhelming that it nearly triggered Xing Yao’s magical-girl-related PTSD again.
He glanced toward Li Chi, who was still pondering how to corrupt Black Crystal.
During this period, thanks to Black Dragon’s introduction, he had spoken with this young man quite a bit.
Xing Yao had a favorable impression of him—strong abilities, decent potential, and mental fortitude that far surpassed those of the magical girls and ordinary Dark Organization executives.
More importantly, this boy seemed like he had been born specifically to deal with those annoying monsters.
The abilities he possessed were practically custom-made for exterminating anti-humans.
Although Xing Yao had learned of this young man through Black Dragon some time ago, they had never actually interacted until that unexpected encounter, when they had somehow gotten to know each other.
Receiving Xing Yao’s SOS signal, Li Chi placed a hand on Black Crystal’s shoulder.
“Alright, alright. The President is very busy. Since there’s nothing wrong with me, we’ll take our leave now. We can talk about that magic partner thing on the way.”
“Huh? But—” Black Crystal looked reluctant, but eventually gave in.
“Alright then. Goodbye, President Xing Yao, sir!”
After the long, straight black-haired magical girl waved at him and happily walked out with Li Chi, Xing Yao finally let out a long breath of relief.
He exchanged a glance with Li Chi and saw deep exhaustion in the boy’s eyes—along with Ying Guang standing nearby, holding a maid outfit in her hands with an eager, excited expression on her face.
Li Chi sucked in a sharp breath.
Making an old man wear a maid outfit?
Ying Guang really dares to go there! The image was too beautiful to imagine.
He looked at the troubled Xing Yao with an incredibly complicated expression.
“You’ve worked hard these past few days.”
“It’s nothing. Just playing with the child.”
“So… you’re really going to wear it?”
“I have to! Of course I’ll wear it! If my child likes it, then I’ll wear it! Besides… it’s not like it’s my first time…”
“You’ve actually worn one before?!”
Li Chi stared at Xing Yao in shock. He felt like he had just discovered some earth-shattering secret.
Xing Yao studied Li Chi’s face for a moment before his gaze settled.
“Kid, have you ever been mistaken for a girl by others when you’re outside?”
“Yeah. Your granddaughter.”
After receiving the affirmative answer, Xing Yao broke into a wide grin.
The smile was like a pie chart—three parts relief, three parts understanding, and four parts mischief.
In a place Li Chi couldn’t see, white magical power gathered behind Xing Yao, forming a chain.
“I just thought of something.”
“What is it?”
“Aren’t you an executor of our Magic Association right now?”
“Yeah, but it’s only in name.”
“You shouldn’t say that. Even if it’s only in name, you still occasionally need to handle tasks assigned by the Association.”
A sudden chill ran down Li Chi’s spine.
The intensity of this chill was comparable to the warning his body gave when anti-humans appeared. If it had been just a little stronger, he would have thought another anti-human had shown up.
His instincts screamed at him to turn and run, but he still wanted to hear what the President of the Magic Association had to say.
“True. So are you going to give me a mission now?”
It was probably just a dangerous mission. But what mission could possibly be as dangerous as dealing with anti-humans?
“Hehehe…”
At some point, Xing Yao had moved behind him.
He suddenly wrapped an arm around Li Chi’s shoulders, locking him in place as the previously formed chain wrapped tightly around him.
“Come on, help me entertain my granddaughter for a while. Think of it as sharing some of my burden… I’ll give you some compensation afterward.”
“Wait, wait, wait! I have a really bad feeling that I’m about to lose something important! What exactly are you two planning?! Tell me what you’re going to do first! I feel like something irreplaceable is about to be lost!!!”
Under Li Chi’s horrified gaze, Ying Guang’s wicked hands reached toward him.
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