Regarding the combination technique of the Jinyin Hong San Jiemei—the three golden, silver, and red sisters—Chen Jiayuan chatted with great enthusiasm, talking nonstop all by herself.
Xia Shiyao walked over to the edge of the open-air bath, right beside Yin Lin.
Looking at the small head she had poking out, Xia Shiyao said, “Stand up. Let me take a look.”
She had noticed some things during the day but hadn’t found a good moment to ask.
Yin Lin still refused to show herself, staying hidden in the water and shaking her little head to decline.
“Be good. Stand up and let me see.”
Xia Shiyao’s tone softened a bit.
Yin Lin still wouldn’t listen and tried to swim away.
Xia Shiyao grabbed her by the hair and pulled her back.
She then lifted her by the underarms.
Yin Lin hurriedly covered her chest with one hand and her illusory limb—her private part—with the other.
This time, though, Xia Shiyao wasn’t trying to look at her three points.
Instead, she was examining the patches of bruised, purplish skin.
They were marks left from yesterday’s battle.
To cause injuries like these, her magic shield had to have been broken first.
Seeing these wounds made it clear just how fierce yesterday’s fight had been—a battle that had threatened her life and had already shattered her magic shield.
Xia Shiyao gently pressed on the injured spots.
Yin Lin merely furrowed her brow slightly, with no further reaction—no crying or fussing.
For an old man like her on the inside, injuries of this level were nothing at all.
The moment Xia Shiyao let go, she dove right back into the water to hide.
Over on the other side, Chen Jiayuan was still rambling away: “All in all, we at least need a set of highly efficient tactics.”
Noticing no one was listening to her, she immediately shouted, “Hey, you two! Stop being all lovey-dovey over there. Time to talk business!”
Xia Shiyao snapped back to attention.
“Say it again. What ideas do you have?”
Chen Jiayuan was a little annoyed but still repeated herself: “We all know that someday we’ll run into an enemy that one person alone can’t handle. Didn’t the two of us already encounter that before?”
Xia Shiyao understood what she meant.
Before Yin Lin had debuted, just Jin and Hong had faced powerful foes they couldn’t deal with.
Only after adding Yin Lin did that problem ease up.
Chen Jiayuan continued, “To handle enemies that a single superhero can’t solve alone, we need to form a team. Let’s call it the Avengers League.”
That line actually made both Xia Shiyao and Yin Lin burst out laughing.
Chen Jiayuan quickly corrected herself.
“Just kidding. What I mean is, we at least need a proper tactic. My initial plan is for me and Jin Luan to handle stalling and buying time, letting Yin Lin charge up, then have her fire the decisive shot to take down the enemy. We can call it… the RNG tactic.”
It wasn’t a hard concept to grasp—it was basically a replica of what Greenfield had done yesterday.
Greenfield could single-handedly trap an elite high-level aberrant, while Huan Hong and Jin Luan couldn’t manage that on their own.
Capturing and restraining was Greenfield’s specialty; it was literally how she made her living.
How could Huan Hong and Jin Luan possibly match her signature skill?
Therefore, they needed Huan Hong and Jin Luan working together to see if they could reach even close to Greenfield’s level.
That way, when facing a strong enemy in a serious assault, they might actually have a chance of winning—at the very least, it would be far better than their current every-person-for-themselves approach.
After hearing her out, Yin Lin gave a casual nod.
She didn’t really mind.
If she could stay in the back charging up while others bought her time and kept her from getting hit, of course she was fine with it.
Xia Shiyao, however, remained deep in thought, apparently not fully on board with the tactic.
After all, neither Huan Hong nor Jin Luan were really the type of magical girls suited to stalling enemies.
Jin Luan was clearly attack-oriented; that knife of hers wasn’t made for delaying.
Every strike was a thunderous, lethal blow aimed to kill.
As for Huan Hong, her staff did have some capacity to hold enemies off, but that was mostly because her damage output was relatively low—so her attacks against foes ended up looking like stalling rather than because she inherently possessed strong delaying abilities.
“For now, we can give it a try. Let’s practice in that direction,” Xia Shiyao finally agreed.
Perhaps she wasn’t agreeing because she wanted to take down strong enemies, but simply because she wanted to protect Yin Lin.
Seeing the tactic get approved and accepted, Chen Jiayuan looked very pleased and promptly proposed another one.
Since Yin Lin’s attack and defense were both maxed out, if they could build a two-protect-one tactic around her offense, couldn’t they do something similar for her defense?
For example, a one-protect-two setup where Yin Lin takes the front line to tank damage and draw enemy attention, while Huan Hong and Jin Luan look for openings to ambush the strong foe.
Before she could even finish explaining, this clearly T1 tactic was shot down by two votes from Xia Shiyao and Yin Lin.
After chatting a few more minutes, the other two finally left, leaving Yin Lin alone to soak in the bath.
The peace lasted only a few minutes before Xia Shiyao returned, carrying some topical medicine.
She waited until Yin Lin came ashore to apply it.
Little Xia deliberately squeezed the ointment onto her own hands—her plan was clearly well thought out—and used both hands to rub it onto Yin Lin’s injured skin.
Naturally, this included plenty of intentional kneading and squeezing; her little hands weren’t exactly behaving.
She only settled down after getting elbowed by Yin Lin.
Next came bedtime.
Back at the training grounds, hair dried.
Chen Jiayuan had already fallen asleep, sprawled out in a starfish pose in her pajamas—zero grace whatsoever.
Xia Shiyao slept in the middle, separating Chen Jiayuan, and clung tightly to Yin Lin, her chest pressing against Yin Lin’s back.
Time passed slowly.
About half an hour later, Xia Shiyao’s breathing became even and steady.
Yin Lin carefully lifted the arms wrapped around her, trying to slip out.
This triggered an unconscious reflex—Xia Shiyao not only tightened her arms but also threw her legs over, clamping down with both limbs.
Yin Lin had to move even more cautiously.
It took a full ten minutes, but she finally escaped Xia Shiyao’s hold, substituting a pillow for her to continue hugging.
She took her wand, then tiptoed out of the training grounds.
Once outside, she took off into the air, leaving Miaoyin Villa behind.
In about an hour, she had acquired a full set of clothes.
All black, covering her entire body.
She deliberately wore ultra-high platform shoes with waterproof soles, maliciously boosting her height.
Her silver hair was tucked securely inside a hat—very thoroughly, so even intense movement wouldn’t dislodge it.
On top of that, she added a robber-style balaclava to conceal her face.
Her wand received some camouflage too: an outer protective case slipped over it.
When flying, it looked quite eerie—like she was riding a floating box—though certain parts remained exposed to allow direct body contact for casting.
With everything ready, she headed toward Yinmiao Temple.
This trip might turn out to be fruitless; she was only investigating based on rumors, after all.
A treasure that glowed and gave off heat on its own—if it wasn’t a radiant stone, then didn’t that make it possibly a creation artifact?
Her desire to investigate hadn’t originally been that strong, but after visiting Yinmiao Temple once, the feeling that this place definitely hid some secret had only grown stronger.
Flying high above Yinmiao Temple, she observed the temple’s layout from an aerial view and quickly spotted the rear courtyard known as the forbidden zone.
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