Chapter 131

The Magical Girl who passed away seven or eight years ago.

Tsukimiya Ran certainly had never met her; she was only nine years old back then.

But the name seemed familiar, as if she had heard it somewhere before—heard other Magical Girls and staff members at the Mutual Aid Society talking about her.

"She was the first Magical Girl I ever met, back in my first year in Tokyo, when I was about the same age as Rin."

Perhaps having seen through Tsukimiya Ran's thoughts, Qi Xing didn't turn around, but spoke directly to explain,

"She was the previous generation's strongest Magical Girl in Japan."

"And she was my friend."

These three short sentences were like a stone dropped into water, stirring up heavy ripples in Tsukimiya Ran's heart.

The previous generation's strongest Magical Girl in Japan was now reduced to nothing but this empty grave before them.

And Artemina, as one of her successors, now stood before this tombstone. It was probably hard to describe what she was feeling inside.

The sky above was appropriately gloomy, causing the surrounding air to fall silent.

"This year, in these last few months, my life has changed quite a bit."

Qi Xing sighed as he said this.

Between learning about the silver coin, discovering the deepest secrets of the universe, and finally getting married, the changes in Qi Xing's life over the last four months had come a bit too fast and a bit too intensely.

But no matter how his life changed, and regardless of whether he had learned the secrets of the universe—or rather, precisely because he had reaffirmed his inner desires—Qi Xing had come specifically to visit the grave of an old friend.

His original intention had always been simple.

If a world needed middle school students to turn into Magical Girls and fight tentacle monsters to be saved, that world should have been doomed long ago.

But if you really transmigrated to such a place, would you just cover your head, close your eyes, and hide under the protection of Magical Girls for the rest of your life…

—Or would you work hard, train to become the ultimate powerhouse, and beat this world into submission?

Ten years ago, when he first transmigrated here, Qi Xing hadn't immediately come to this conclusion. How could he have had such profound realization back then?

Fight the whole world? It was easy to say, but when faced with reality, very few people dared to stand up and oppose the world.

Qi Xing wasn't some sage born with innate knowledge and a mission to carry. That being the case, why did he develop such determination? What was it that once brought him that enlightenment and strength?

The answer was actually very simple.

Beating the world into submission was the final destination he had longed for from the very beginning.

He couldn't do it yet, but at least Qi Xing saw the way. He was proceeding step by step along a path that could truly reach the other shore—collecting silver coins and recovering the true power to dominate the world.

And the "beginning" of all his longings was just as important as the destination of the future.

Everything stemmed from that day all those years ago.

"Don't always feel like you owe me a favor just because I saved you, Artemina."

After a long silence, Qi Xing said,

"I'm just someone who, back when I was weak, was protected by a Magical Girl."

Because he had once been protected, he couldn't just stand by and watch children sacrifice themselves, bleed, and suffer trauma for his sake, and then turn a blind eye.

Nothing more than that.

Volume 4: Evil Arts in Magic City Tokyo: 125: Hero's Wish

Correction: There was an important detail in the previous chapter that I accidentally wrote wrong. It was supposed to be "Magical Girl Miaoshan," but I muddled it and wrote "Magical Girl Miaoyin." Although it has already been corrected in the previous chapter, I am stating it here as well.

At fourteen, just one month after transmigrating into this world, Qi Xing resolutely fled the cultivation family that this body originally belonged to.

To avoid the lunatics in the family who played with corpses from dragging him back, Qi Xing fled for his life almost overnight, heading south alone to the sea, and eventually escaping overseas.

He spent a rather dark year in the south.

In that first year, he realized just how absurd this absurd world could really be.

He learned to kill and learned to plunder treasures. He learned to snatch away other people's cultivation techniques and secret manuals, filtering through the belongings of his enemies for knowledge that suited him.

He learned how to craft magical artifacts, how to turn the artifacts of evil paths into his own, and use them to blast the next demoness to death.

Why not capture this demoness and rape her to lose his virginity?

Why did Qi Xing waste time until this year to lose his virginity? Certainly not because of a sense of justice, nor because of any high moral standing.

The Qi Xing of that time didn't have much of a sense of justice at all. The only reason he couldn't bring himself to touch those promiscuous demonesses… was probably because he was a germaphobe.

Disdain, disgust, and a need for cleanliness.

Precisely because everyone was having sex, and because everyone was indulging in desire, Qi Xing developed a rebellious streak and was even less willing.

The more he saw the depravity, the more he wanted to escape it all.

Killing, plundering, leveling up, until he fought his way from Southeast Asia to the South Seas, clashing with local mysterious sects, evil cultivation paths, and blood-curse priests. Until the various evil factions in the dark world of that land jointly issued a warrant for him, wanting to erase this troublesome brat.

Only then did Qi Xing finally stop, licking his wounds, and with the magical treasures and money snatched from blood, he set out on the path of escape once again.

This time, he smuggled himself into Japan. A change of map, and back to his old trade.

If this pattern had continued, Qi Xing's story would probably have become a cultivation story of killing, plundering, cultivating, leveling up, and changing maps.

It's not to say that such a choice was wrong—that was also a way of survival. It's just that such a life probably wasn't very conducive to mental health.

Until one evening, when Qi Xing was cornered by a group of assassins who had chased him from the South Seas for revenge.

At that time, his combat power was only at the level of a Jin Yong martial arts novel, relying on life-and-death struggles to barely survive. So he set a trap at the pier and used shipping containers to crush that team of assassins to death.

Dragging his wounded body, he stood in the pile of corpses crushed into pulp and blood. Just as Qi Xing was pondering his next move, wondering where to find a place to bandage himself, suddenly—she appeared.

A little girl who couldn't even be called a "young lady."

She was probably just a little over ten years old, yet she was draped in a pale pink dharma robe that looked like the flowing light of dawn; behind her appeared rows of golden arms, some holding lotuses, some supporting seals, some holding bells, or carrying lamps—each hand flowing with holy radiance, forming a golden wheel behind her like a Thousand-Armed Guanyin.

That was the first time Qi Xing saw a Magical Girl. Magical Girl Miaoshan.

She touched Qi Xing with that golden hand, healing his wounds, and even took the initiative to help him find a place to live where he could hide from the assassins' pursuit.

The previous generation's number one Magical Girl in Japan was just such a little girl.

"Artemina, your contract partner is the divine beast serving Artemis, the Goddess of the Moon and the Hunt, right?"

Tsukimiya Ran nodded obediently.

As mentioned before, Magical Girls are not formal mages who learn through study. They don't acquire magic through cultivation, but are granted power through contracts. And the sources of their power are generally divided into three categories: Fairies, Gods, and Giant Spirits.

Although not absolute, the strength of Magical Girls is basically ranked in this order.

Magical Girl Mint Bubble, who was almost stuffed into a cream puff last night, had signed a contract with a Fairy.

Artemina of the Moon, Soleia of the Sun, and (allegedly) the nine Magical Girls of the Lionheart Society are all Magical Girls who signed contracts with Gods.

As for the rarest "Giant Spirit" contract Magical Girls… some people might be puzzled here. Fairies and Gods are easy to understand, but why are there Giant Spirits? Weren't the Giant Spirits all sealed by Brother Jesus?

The answer actually lies in the seal itself. Only Giant Spirits sealed within the Dream of All Living Beings can form contracts with Magical Girls.

But how do sealed Giant Spirits sign contracts? Well, by dreaming, of course.

By coincidence, consciousness detaching—some little girls even do it while in a near-death coma—as long as they can enter the Dream of All Living Beings through these coincidences, and happen to meet the contract standards of a certain "Giant Spirit," they can connect with it and complete the contract.

Giant Spirits have no self-awareness; they are all AIs created by Sasa, and they only recognize "standards." As long as these little girls lost in the Dream of All Living Beings happen to meet their standards, a contract can be established.

Therefore, just like the apostles of the Silver Coin Messenger, Magical Girls who contract with Giant Spirits can even obtain a little bit of [Authority]—although compared to the real Giant Spirits, it is a shrunken version, but it is still Authority!

However, even the vast majority of people in the supernatural society don't know the secret of the Giant Spirits, don't know what these so-called Giant Spirits are about, and certainly don't realize that it is actually a form of [Authority].

They only think—and even the Magical Girls themselves think!—that it is just a gifted Magical Girl who happened to sign a contract with a very powerful God, which is why she possesses such exaggerated magic power.

They don't know that the gap between [Authority] and mundane magic is just like the gap between GM permissions and the skills of ordinary players in a game; they are simply not in the same dimension.

According to her own account—Magical Girl Miaoshan was a Magical Girl who, while in a coma on her sickbed, signed a contract with "Guanyin Bodhisattva" in a dream.

And the [Authority] she obtained was a power sufficient to shake the common sense of the world: [Restoration].

It is not just about healing wounds, but an Authority close to "time reversal," capable of restoring the target object directly to its "previous state."

Tsukimiya Ran was a bit surprised upon hearing this, and asked hesitantly: "…The previous generation's strongest Magical Girl was a support type?"

"No." Qi Xing shook his head, his tone revealing a touch of nostalgia, "Artemina, you still lack imagination."

"[Restoration] can be used to kill people."

So Magical Girl Miaoshan was very strong. In her prime, she was likely at the level of Qi Xing before the [Cruise Ship Incident], or the leader of the Order of the Holy Lance, which was enough to rank in the top ten of the righteous path in the human world.

However, using [Authority] as a human is destined to come with a price.

In her untransformed state, "Jinguji Komachi" was just a physically weak little girl who often needed to be hospitalized.

She would always quietly read books or watch anime alone, introverted and shy, yet she possessed a kind of toughness and free-spiritedness unique to her.

Generous and casual, yet her heart was firmer than most people's.

Although due to her frail health, many things she wanted to do couldn't be completed by herself, she never became despondent because of it, and always faced life with a cheerful attitude.

Especially when she saw someone in need of help—she never hesitated.

Even if she was unable to do much, she would try every possible way to extend a helping hand; she was a very gentle and helpful person.

"You will die very young if you keep doing this." The Qi Xing of that time advised her in a cold tone.

However, Komachi replied with a smile: "If my parents hadn't tried their best to keep me, I probably would have died in an incubator the moment I was born."

"If it weren't for the doctors who kept working hard to treat me and regulate my body, and if it weren't for the teachers, classmates, and friends from childhood to now who worried about me and took care of me—"

"Someone as weak as me might not have lived long enough to finish elementary school."

When she said this, her eyes were as bright as the morning light piercing through dark clouds.

"So, since I have obtained this power now—of course, I must give back to everyone."

Who does this "everyone" refer to?

It is not any specific person, nor is it the relatives or friends who once extended a helping hand.

In Jinguji Komachi's shining eyes, the "everyone" she saw was the whole world, everyone, all of "everyone."

I hope that all of "everyone" will be happy.

These are words that only a child would say.

To say such things in this absurd yellow world is just like those extremely pure and naive heroines at the beginning of an eroge RPG; it's practically suicidal.

Yet the Qi Xing of that time couldn't help but be attracted by that radiance.