This time, the reason they could come to an agreement wasn’t because of any bet, and even less because of any Magical Girl’s responsibility.
She was thick-skinned enough that, even if she lost, she wouldn’t admit it, nor would she acknowledge any so-called Magical Girl’s responsibility.
The real reason they could settle things was because of the incredibly alluring secrets laid out before her.
She had to admit, her curiosity was hooked by those astounding secrets.
Contract Goddess’s Secret;
World Tree’s Secret;
Alpha and Beta World’s Secret;
Magical Girl’s Secret;
The secret of diamonds.
There were just too many secrets. The deeper she got, the more she found herself drawn in.
That was why she had covered her ears earlier, not wanting to listen.
The more you hear, the deeper you sink—how true.
Leaving that illusory space, her soul was pulled back into Yin Lin’s body, and she woke up.
Her back ached a bit, and her muscles still felt a little numb.
She picked up the Double Staff lying beside her, cancelled her transformation, and turned back into Song Wuli.
Her whole body hurt even more now. After being smashed hard by Diamond, even her cervical spine was acting up; her neck ached terribly, and even a slight turn of her head sent sharp pain shooting through her.
She got dressed, looked around, and saw Diamond standing on the wall.
“You ungrateful thing, just wait and see how I’ll deal with you.”
Old Song looked at the dumplings scattered on the ground and continued, “No midnight snack for me tonight—all your fault.”
She walked out of the alley and, seeing Diamond crouched on the wall, first pretended to ignore it. When she got close, she suddenly swung her Magic Wand, bringing it down hard toward Diamond.
But Diamond was on guard and nimbly dodged out of the way.
“I want to apologize to you, Yin,” Diamond took the initiative to say.
“Apologize for what?” Song Wuli was still chasing it and took another swing at it.
Diamond dodged again—it was afraid of pain and didn’t want to get hit.
“I kept something from you and carried out the Goddess’s plan.”
“And?” Song Wuli swept the Magic Wand over again, even faked an attack this time, successfully tricking Diamond into dodging, and then landed a solid whack on its head.
Bang~ a sound rang out.
Diamond rubbed its little head and replied, “That hurt.”
Song Wuli: “So you do know what pain is?”
She gave it a little lesson, then picked it up and headed home.
Truth be told, she was still a bit angry.
To put it harshly, what happened just now could be considered a betrayal.
Diamond seemed to sense it had gone too far earlier and explained on the way, “The Goddess said that if we did this, you wouldn’t get hurt.”
Song Wuli didn’t say anything. After being ambushed by this little thing, a barrier had sprung up between them.
The next day at work, she even made a special trip to the hospital at noon for a checkup to see if anything was wrong.
The same old problems: a bit of osteoporosis, slightly high blood sugar, rhinitis, and some minor cervical issues.
The doctor advised her to avoid sitting for long periods, move around more, not stay up late, and avoid spicy foods.
Song Wuli looked at the doctor, and the doctor looked back at her. They stared at each other for a few seconds.
Old Song asked, “What does this have to do with spicy food?”
The doctor was startled and replied, “Sorry, just a force of habit.”
She went back to work in the afternoon, and finally started on her side job that evening.
Diamond came along this time, too.
It was their second official collaboration.
The first was when she first transformed; now it was the second.
Their cooperation was simple, just like a classic magical girl duo.
The Magical Girl handles offense and taking the lead, while the contract beast is in charge of commentary from the back.
Flying high above the clouds, she discussed the plan with Diamond in midair.
Yin Lin: “What kind of plan did you get from that Contract Goddess b*tch?”
Diamond: “What’s a b*tch?”
Yin Lin changed the topic: “Never mind that, did you get the plan?”
Diamond: “The Goddess said the plan is to listen to you. By the way, what’s a b*tch?”
Yin Lin: “She trusts me that much? Considering how well she knows me, does she think I can win this time?”
Diamond: “The Goddess must have her reasons. So, what’s a b*tch?”
Yin Lin: “It’s a compliment. It means she’s clever and quick-witted.”
Diamond: “Yin is a btch too. I’ve watched everything you’ve done these days—very btch.”
Damn! For a moment, she couldn’t tell if Diamond was being sincere or just messing with her.
She dodged the topic again and started talking about the plan.
Yin Lin’s plan was simple: use herself as bait, flying at a height that was neither too high nor too low.
There were two reasons for this. First, it would let Magical Girls or aberrations on the ground sense her magical power and discover her location.
Second, it was to test how strong the aberrations’ senses really were—a little probe.
And a third reason: to test her own value, and to see just how determined Lightning Man was to kill her.
After explaining, she lowered her flight altitude and raised her Magic Shield.
She went back below the clouds. This should be within the range where aberrations could sense her. Not certain, but worth a try.
Flying slowly through the air, she played the role of bait.
She circled for half an hour, flying about 40 kilometers over the city, but nothing happened.
So she made a bigger commotion, landed on a tall building, and started charging up a magic cannon on the rooftop.
Charging up to 30% was enough—any more and she might accidentally fire it off.
At this point, the magic gathered around her was enormous. It was invisible to the naked eye, but anyone with magical sense would feel like she was a shining lightbulb—impossible to miss.
She paused the charge, took off, and continued flying on her Double Staff.
After flying for another ten minutes or so, her phone started vibrating. She checked—it was Jin Luan calling.
She hung up and didn’t answer.
Jin Luan kept calling, nonstop.
Yin Lin simply blocked her number.
A couple minutes later, a call came from an unknown number. No need to guess—it was Jin Luan again.
She had no choice but to turn off her phone.
It seemed Jin Luan already knew what was going on here, which was why she was so desperate to call. Since she knew, then come over—don’t just watch from afar.
Turning off her phone was exactly in line with the Contract Goddess’s plan—to lure Jin Luan over.
Since Jin Luan refused to support Yin Lin’s bait plan, she’d just force her to participate.
While she paused to deal with her phone, suddenly, a surge of powerful magic erupted from the ground far away.
“Careful! Yin!” Diamond suddenly shouted.
Yin Lin had already sensed it, too.
It was all too familiar—this massive magic appeared out of nowhere, with no warning at all.
Because the distance was fairly far, this time Yin Lin sensed it in time and immediately dodged.
Whatever that magic was, it was best to evade first and ask questions later.
She had just dodged a tiny bit when a thick sniper beam grazed past, striking the Magic Shield.
The shield held for a fraction of a second, buying her a bit more time to dodge.
The shield shattered, and the sniper beam scraped her shoulder, tearing off a corner of her Magical Girl uniform and leaving a gash on her shoulder, bleeding.
“Yin? Are you alright?” Diamond asked worriedly.
“I’m fine, not dead.” She quickly raised a second Magic Shield.
Diamond: “The other side used some kind of Camouflage Magic Power—you couldn’t sense the magic while they were charging up. That shot must have been charging for a long time, a carefully planned ambush. Only a high-level aberration could fire a shot like that; it must be the same one. It must be very weak now—probably used up most of its magic on that shot.”
Yin Lin: “Got it.”
She immediately rode her Double Staff toward the direction where the magic cannon had fired.
Besides the high-level aberration, Lightning Man was probably nearby too, or maybe controlling everything from somewhere else.
She wanted to meet Lightning Man, and Lightning Man probably wanted to see her so badly he was drooling for it.
This was truly a mutual pursuit.