Chapter 90: Endless Deep Sea

(What is this, a minting error? How is this so useless?)

Just muttering this in her mind, Jiang Yao swiftly completed her transformation, bursting forth at top speed, finally saving her before Sha Chong could be taken down in one gulp.

This situation left Jiang Yao utterly speechless.

Everything was clearly planned—an insignificant small city, a senior magically guarding it—so how could enemies come to this small city, and the senior be so unreliable? (Frustrated)

An encounter like a small city facing a powerful enemy is practically impossible in any city. The forces of darkness don’t act without cost; they calculate their combat power carefully. If they get stuck in a small city, even if they drain the entire population, they can’t make up for their losses.

And yet? Jiang Yao had encountered this twice in just half a year since her debut!

There’s more.

Glancing sideways at the prone form of Sha Chong, Jiang Yao was on the verge of laughing out of frustration.

(What happened to that magical girl senior? Weren’t they supposed to be distinguished heroes who solved city-level crises?)

(How did they go down without even resisting?)

Having kept an eye on Sha Chong’s situation, she saw this magical girl senior taken down in a single move and hurried over to rescue.

No matter how weak the senior was, she was still a magical girl; if she could be saved, then she should be saved.

As for how Jiang Yao managed to slip away from Jiang Lingwei, whom she was with—this had to do with the general instruction at the Management Bureau.

One large section of the training covered how to quickly slip away and transform into a magical girl to fight the darkness when ordinary family or friends are around.

Xiaobai hadn’t told her these things before; Jiang Yao had learned it all herself at the Management Bureau!

She had thought she wouldn’t need to use it for a while. If nothing unexpected happened, Jiang Lingwei might just now be realizing she had disappeared and was anxiously searching.

(Sorry, Mom… But if you really are… then you should understand.)

Filled with apologies, Jiang Yao continued facing the enemy ahead.

“Step.”

“Hm?”

In the blink of an eye, a massive shadow appeared right before her.

T

(So fast!)

Jiang Yao had only glanced sideways at Sha Chong for no more than half a second, but the shark monster had accurately seized this moment and charged forward!

At such a moment, Jiang Yao couldn’t dodge; all she could do was—block!

“Count!”

The Paladin’s Sword instantly sprang free as Jiang Yao’s radiant magic surged, colliding head-on with the shark monster’s dark-infused punch!

“Clang!” The clash of fist and blade rang out like thunderous metal crashing.

Then, the Great Shark King’s small eyes flashed with murderous light:

“Gah!!!”

Like ceaseless crashing waves, before the first force faded, an even stronger, more terrifying power surged along the blade—

“Shark Overlord Fist!”

“Bang!”

The Paladin’s Sword was nearly knocked out of her hand, but Jiang Yao naturally wouldn’t give up her magical gear and instead gripped tighter.

The price for this was that she was also sent flying.

“Ah—”

Her arm first went numb, then seared with pain—agonizing, as if her bones had been shattered by the force.

Thrown onto the beach some ten meters away, Jiang Yao barely stood up, her sword slipping slightly in her grasp.

This should have terrified her, but before fear could take hold, Jiang Yao felt a strange familiarity.

(Alright, alright.)

The girl steeled herself, thinking optimistically:

(They’re throwing me into a high-level match again, though I wonder why this time.)

As for her injured arm, she already had a plan.

She stretched her hand forward, and instantly a layer of purple crystals sprouted inside and outside her armored suit, encasing her wounded arm.

“Crack crack—”

Within a second, Jiang Yao’s task was complete.

“Hm.”

Gripping her sword firmly again, Jiang Yao nodded in satisfaction.

Does it hurt? It still hurts a lot.

But it no longer hindered her from fighting.

With no time to properly heal, forcibly sealing and controlling her arm with crystals gave Jiang Yao the qualification to keep fighting!

“An expert?”

Seeing her fierce determination, the Great Shark King understood not to underestimate her and cautiously stopped.

Its past shark life experience and psychological combat strategy told it that an enemy with such strong willpower should not be extinguished lightly.

(What expert? Ouch ouch ouch! It hurts so much…)

Still just a girl, Jiang Yao was genuinely afraid of pain.

Even now, she was silently screaming inside from the agony in her arm.

Yet on the surface, she forced herself to hold firm, refusing to waver.

She couldn’t waver!

(Mom’s identity is still unclear. If I fall here, and Mom really is just an ordinary person…)

Jiang Yao dared not imagine the consequences.

So she could not retreat, not even a bit—she had reasons that forbade it.

She even had to defeat the Great Shark King right here.

“Hmph.”

The Great Shark King curled its lips and crossed its arms, coldly snorting and baring its sharp teeth:

“So what if you’re an expert?”

It didn’t continue attacking but instead tensed its entire body.

The concentrated dark magic solidified into waves of black mist swirling around it.

(What is it going to do?)

Jiang Yao didn’t dare advance recklessly, only flicking out a few crystals imbued with light magic.

“Whoosh—”

“Snap!”

Yet these attacks couldn’t even touch the Great Shark King’s body before being swallowed by the black mist.

“Hahaha, such attacks couldn’t kill even the deep-sea detritus-eating sea crawlers!”

“Fool, you’ve already given up your best chance!”

Seeing her strategy of pretending calm to intimidate work, the Great Shark King laughed wildly and pointed to the sky:

“Now it’s my turn! Witness my domain—the Endless Deep Sea!”

“Boom!”

A torrent of dark magic shot toward the sky, quickly blotting out the sun, with thunder flashing and lightning crackling.

The world dimmed, the ocean roared in wild waves as if ready to swallow all mankind.

On the beach, Sha Chong lay suffering and motionless, while not far off, someone watched with deep concern.

Both felt suffocated.

Air still existed, and they weren’t underwater.

But this suffocation was inescapable.

Not just suffocation, but pressure, cold, darkness… all the torments one would feel in the deep sea pressed down on them.

It was a magical domain!

That fat bear had prepared for a whole month in advance, picking the perfect spot to create this domain, yet now the Great Shark King had forcibly recreated it on the spot!

Inside its domain, all life felt as if thrown into the deep sea.

On the beach, some seabirds, feral cats, even land or semi-land insects that couldn’t escape were dying by the dozens.

Because they forgot how to breathe, suffocated and crushed to death by this deep-sea-like world!

And what about Jiang Yao, facing this absolutely terrifying dark domain opposite the Great Shark King?!

“Huh?”

Jiang Yao blinked.

Once again, the enemy mysteriously shouted something about a domain, but this time she felt nothing at all.

Jiang Lingwei gritted her teeth, barely enduring the magical domain that normally wouldn’t affect a magical girl like her.

“Yao Yao…”

“That’s not a simple enemy…”

At this moment, Jiang Lingwei deeply regretted her choice.

Why had she chosen the life of an ordinary person?

Sometimes, these things weren’t even hers to choose.