Chapter 106: The Butcher Shop, Meow?

The next morning, after Xiaoxi left, Ye Xinglan also followed closely behind and headed toward the Old Town.

Last night, she surprisingly didn’t cling to Xiaoxi or pester her to sleep together as she usually did.

Ye Xinglan was mainly afraid she wouldn’t be able to control herself at night—if she woke up halfway through the night and found Xiaoxi pinned beneath her, being drained dry, that wouldn’t be good at all.

Ye Xinglan had already made up her mind: no matter what, she had to solve the problem of her magic power absorption today.

She didn’t want to accidentally harm Xiaoxi, and that little frame of hers really didn’t look like it could withstand Ye Xinglan’s draining.

Ye Xinglan glanced around. It was obvious that the Old Town’s infrastructure was quite poor.

To put it nicely, it was full of life and had the feel of childhood.

To put it bluntly, every street was lined with old, dilapidated buildings.

She found the location given by the seller.

This entire street was clearly an old marketplace, with discarded fruit peels and vegetable leaves scattered across the ground.

At this hour, the vegetable vendors who had set up stalls earlier had already packed up, leaving only the shopkeepers on either side of the street open for business.

Ye Xinglan found a meat vendor, whose owner had set up a stall right at the entrance of his shop.

The owner was a stout, middle-aged man with a broad face full of rugged flesh, a huge belly that looked to weigh at least 200 jin, and that big gut alone seemed to weigh a good hundred jin.

At that moment, the owner was smoking a cigarette and chopping meat, the cleaver hitting the chopping board with loud bangs. Each chop made his gut and the entire stall shake.

Seeing Ye Xinglan approach the meat stall, the owner didn’t even bother to lift an eyelid. “Little girl, buying meat?”

“Not buying meat. I want to buy blood.”

Ye Xinglan instinctively frowned and held her breath. Although the chopping board was covered in raw meat, the bloody smell here was too strong.

“I have animal blood here too—pig’s blood, duck’s blood. Little girl, what kind of blood do you want?”

“I’m not buying animal blood. I want to buy something else.”

Magic power, being invisible and intangible, naturally needed a carrier, and the most common carrier was blood.

Both monsters and magical girls had magic power in their blood.

The owner finally lifted his eyelids and glanced at Ye Xinglan. “Little girl, you’re not trying to pick a fight, are you? I run a butcher shop. Besides animal blood, what other blood could I possibly sell?”

“Something more special. Do you have that here? I called ahead to make a reservation.”

“Get lost, crazy girl. If you want to act nuts, go somewhere else. Don’t waste my time here, or I’ll beat you up!”

The owner theatrically raised his bone-cleaving knife, his rugged face scrunched into a menacing scowl.

But Ye Xinglan remained unmoved, simply standing there and watching him quietly.

After a few seconds of silence, the owner suddenly changed his expression to a smile. “Ah, so you’re a reserved customer. Little girl, why didn’t you say so earlier? The blood you want has already been prepared. Let’s talk inside.”

He slammed the cleaver heavily onto the chopping board, then casually wiped his greasy hands on the apron hanging over his gut.

After glancing around to make sure no one else was nearby, he beckoned Ye Xinglan to follow him into the shop.

It was clearly daytime now, but the light inside the shop was abysmal.

The windows were boarded up with wooden planks, and after the owner pulled down the shutter, the interior became even darker.

The dim room was filled with an unpleasant stench, making Ye Xinglan exhale with some frustration. She wasn’t particularly germophobic, but this environment was genuinely unbearable.

The owner rubbed his hands with a smile. “Cut me some slack, will you? Things have been tense lately. We in the business have to be a bit more cautious. Better safe than sorry.”

He walked to the corner of the shop and knocked on the floor. Soon, the floor was pushed open from below, revealing a pitch-black passage.

“Come on, little girl. Let’s go down and have a proper talk.”

The owner made a “please” gesture, his face fattened into a grin.

Without hesitation, Ye Xinglan followed the stairs down. Behind her, the butcher’s expression twisted into something sinister, his gaze on Ye Xinglan like he was appraising a piece of merchandise.

This little girl really was a bold one. She didn’t even bat an eye at such a suspicious place. Looks like this time he was going to profit.

On the streets of the Old Town.

Xiaoxi and Shandie walked arm in arm, each holding a cup of milk tea. The way these two close friends strolled together was strange enough on its own, but coming from them, it felt downright odd.

Though both were wearing civilian clothes, they were actually still in their transformed states. This was a trick Xiaoxi often used, especially during covert missions.

Magical girls were great in many ways, but their transformed outfits were so distinctive they easily gave away their identities.

Xiaoxi looked around the streets of Old Town and said with some nostalgia, “This side of Old Town really has a lot of life to it. If I had known, I would’ve rented a place around here.”

Shandie glanced at Xiaoxi. “Naturally, it’s not as nice as your New City District. I thought someone like you wouldn’t look down on a place like this.”

“Why would you think that?” Xiaoxi felt misunderstood. “If I hadn’t impulsively rented a place in the busy district back then, I wouldn’t have almost ended up sleeping on the streets recently!”

Xiaoxi’s heart ached. When she first arrived in Xiahai City to start over, she was full of passion. Back then, she wanted to completely leave her life as a magical girl behind and start fresh.

She had a lot of confidence, maybe due to her past success as a magical girl.

She thought that with hard work, she could find a well-paying job, so she didn’t hesitate to rent a place in the bustling New City District, unwilling to sacrifice her quality of life and wanting convenient commutes.

But after several rounds of rejected job applications, her confidence vanished, and Xiaoxi started to regret it.

She thought it would have been better to rent in Old Town, where rent was much cheaper. A monthly rent of 3,000 yuan on Southern Avenue could cover two or three months’ rent in Old Town!

But every cloud has a silver lining. If she hadn’t rented that place on Southern Avenue, she never would have had the chance to live with Ye Xinglan.

“I thought you weren’t the type to lack money…”

“What do you mean? Do I look like I’m rich?”

Xiaoxi’s eyes widened instantly. She was used to being gossiped about online—rumors about the Eternal Star circulated endlessly—but she didn’t care.

But if anyone suggested she was rich, Xiaoxi couldn’t take it.

You can insult me for being poor—I don’t care, because that’s true. But say I’m rich, and I’ll lose it. That’s pure fabrication!

Shandie didn’t know why she had that impression. She honestly didn’t know Xiaoxi very well.

“I don’t have any problem with Old Town’s environment. When I was little, my family lived in a neighborhood just as rundown as this.”

Xiaoxi suddenly started talking about her past. “At that time, my little sister had just moved in with us. The house was small, but our family was happy together. It was warm.”

“Mom always told me that I was the only ‘man’ in the family… ahem! Basically, my mom meant that as the older sister, I had to learn to take care of my little sister like a man would!”

“Time really flies,” Xiaoxi said with feeling. “I never thought that little brat would become a magical girl one day. I never imagined I’d have the chance to be on the same squad with my little sister.”

“Wait, Little Red Riding Hood is your sister? You two don’t seem that… close.”

Shandie paused for a moment before realizing the sister Xiaoxi mentioned was Little Red Riding Hood.

After all, besides them two, the squad only had Muxingge and Little Red Riding Hood, so Xiaoxi couldn’t be Muxingge’s sister.

Xiaoxi put up a “shh” gesture. “Because Little Red Riding Hood doesn’t know my true identity. I’m not really interested in being a magical girl. I only joined the Association to secretly protect that brat.”

“So, Shandie—” Xiaoxi patted Shandie’s shoulder earnestly, “I hope you’ll change your target.”

“I can’t control who you go after, but I don’t want you to hurt Little Red Riding Hood. Sometimes that brat’s pretty innocent. I think you should understand how an older sister feels about protecting her little sister, right?”

Shandie suddenly understood. That explained why Sirius, who was always strict about personal information, was telling her so much. The truth was revealed.

Shandie didn’t respond immediately. She was deep in thought… Sirius saying she wasn’t interested in being a magical girl was a clear statement—implying she wasn’t on the Association’s side and had no reason to protect its interests.

Her sole purpose was protecting Little Red Riding Hood… In other words, Sirius was hinting that no matter what the Association was scheming behind the scenes, as long as Shandie didn’t harm Little Red Riding Hood, they could coexist peacefully.

“…Alright, deal.”

Shandie hadn’t fully dropped her guard. What was Sirius’s background? She not only saw through Shandie’s plans but remained indifferent?

Still, agreeing to Xiaoxi’s conditions now was the best move. Shandie decided to have Black Rose investigate her background later.

Xiaoxi nodded in satisfaction. She knew Shandie wouldn’t suddenly take a liking to Xiaokeke in such a short time. As long as she talked it through, things could be resolved.

Shandie also breathed a sigh of relief. She initially thought Miss L had assigned both her and Xiaoxi to operate in Old Town as a test.

But it seemed Xiaoxi hadn’t reported her activities to the Association’s upper echelons.

Shandie herself was from Old Town and worked nearby. Geographically, the Black Market’s residential areas basically overlapped with Old Town, located underground beneath it.

Old Town was originally one of the areas well protected during the Great Chaos Era.

During the height of the Chaos, monsters ran rampant and the city suffered heavy damage. The Underground Shelter Zone was built in these well-preserved regions.

After the Great Chaos ended, the city was in ruins. The New City District was mostly rebuilt post-Chaos—streets like East, West, South, and North Avenue in Xiahai City were established then.

Its infrastructure was far better than Old Town’s, which caused significant population loss there in recent years.

“Attention all units! The Butcher’s location has been confirmed. It’s a pork shop. The capture will begin in five minutes. Everyone stay at your designated positions and be alert!”

Miss L’s stern voice came through the communicator. Xiaoxi and Shandie stopped chatting. There were more magical girls on standby in Old Town besides them.

Because of the Butcher’s special abilities, most of the Association’s magical girls were lurking in Old Town to prevent him from changing appearance and escaping.

“A butcher shop?” Shandie frowned. “Usually a fugitive would hide somewhere properly. Even if he can alter his appearance, running a shop and dealing with so many strangers every day would just increase the risk of exposure. Could he be short on money after running away?”

“A desperate monster dealing with monsters like that doesn’t run out of money,” Xiaoxi said lightly. “The fact that he’s not hiding but running a business means it’s probably not about making money. He’s just continuing his old line of work.”

Thinking about the Butcher’s deeds, Shandie’s expression changed. “So the meat he’s selling…”

“What are you thinking? Just kidnapping people and selling their meat doesn’t make money. Monsters are valuable.”

Xiaoxi knew very well that the value of monsters was mainly in human experimentation and magic power research—utterly inhumane work the Divine Summon Order often engaged in during the Great Chaos Era.

That butcher shop was just a front. He probably used various methods to lure monsters inside, and the monsters he kidnapped would disappear without a trace.