Actually, Feng Ling was even more afraid than Lian Ge of losing her identity as a Magical Girl.
Initially forced into becoming a Magical Girl, she was filled with indignation and certainly wasn’t going to take it lying down.
But she also knew that a small impatience could ruin everything, so she worked diligently for a few months as a Magical Girl, seriously fought monsters, actively attended team meetings, and was almost never late.
Of course, she also didn’t forget to develop her fan economy, saving up some retirement funds for herself.
Estimating that her performance score with Qia Bi was high enough, she began her retirement plan.
Then she pretended to lose her Star Crystal and submitted a retirement application.
There were indeed many precedents of Magical Girls retiring due to losing their Star Crystals—after all, a lot of them were minors, and a good number were careless.
Some simply lost it, not to mention theft.
According to Feng Ling’s research, these people all successfully retired, and the Association didn’t give them any trouble, so theoretically it was a viable path.
Besides, trying wouldn’t pose any risk.
After turning back into Jiang Zhu and contacting Qia Bi, he immediately put on an act of extreme remorse, faking a plea for Qia Bi to give him another Star Crystal.
“Lord Qia Bi, I know I complained a lot about this Magical Girl job before. I was young and foolish… I’ll do anything to be a Magical Girl again.”
Qia Bi replied just as he expected: “Each person can only bind one Star Crystal. There’s no way to give you another one. But don’t worry, I won’t make things difficult for your retirement.”
With his plan a success, Jiang Zhu temporarily ended his career as a Magical Girl.
Jiang Zhu gleefully opened a job-hunting app and started sending out resumes.
This time, without Qia Bi interfering, interview invitations poured in like snowflakes.
Employers praised his resume to the skies, saying things like, “Mr. Jiang, you’re very impressive. The offer will be in your email in a couple of days.”
But just as Jiang Zhu was daydreaming about a bright future, the offers never came.
He called to ask, and they hemmed and hawed, unable to give a clear reason—exactly like before he signed up with Qia Bi.
Furious, Jiang Zhu went to Qia Bi again, asking why it was still persecuting him when he couldn’t even be a Magical Girl anymore.
But Qia Bi only said, in the most harmless tone, “It’s fine. I’ll help you apply for welfare. Seven hundred a month—you won’t starve.”
Jiang Zhu had no way to deal with it.
He suspected Qia Bi might have sensed that the Star Crystal wasn’t actually destroyed and was deliberately tormenting him… but Jiang Zhu didn’t dare risk testing its limits.
He didn’t dare crush the Star Crystal and go for broke, so he had to back down.
A month after retiring, he slunk back to Qia Bi, saying he’d found the lost Star Crystal at his hometown and asked if he could be reinstated.
Qia Bi said, “Of course you can,” and Jiang Zhu slunk back to being a Magical Girl.
So, if Lian Ge died, she died.
After retiring and returning to normal life, she could find any job—maybe even with a higher salary than the current five-thousand subsidy.
But that wasn’t the case for her.
If she died, Qia Bi might set her up for good, and she’d have to live off welfare.
Besides, without Lian Ge, Feng Ling could focus on developing her fan economy and make a killing in the Magical Girl field.
No matter how you looked at it, it was a win-win.
So no matter what, Feng Ling should have just walked away.
But… even so, Feng Ling still rushed forward instinctively.
Even she couldn’t explain what her mindset was—it was simply that her body acted before her mind.
It was only when she had already charged in front of the Demon Beast, her palm pressed against its translucent surface, feeling the cold touch from her hand, that she realized what she’d done.
‘Well, since I’m already here… I might as well use it.’
Even though she only realized she was going to fight when her palm touched the Demon Beast, she had actually been thinking of a way to defeat it.
On the surface, Feng Ling was also on the losing end of the attribute disadvantage.
Her attack options were far more limited than Lian Ge’s—just Wind Blades, air currents, those physical attacks that barely tickled this Demon Beast.
Also, she couldn’t control water-element objects directly with Magic Power like Lian Ge could.
Even if she stood face-to-face and output her maximum Magic Power, it wouldn’t cause any real damage to the liquid mass in front of her.
But… that was only on the surface.
The concept granted to Feng Ling was indeed only “Wind,” but she had developed that concept quite deeply.
For her, defeat meant unemployment.
She was weak to begin with, so if she didn’t develop new abilities, it would be bad if she ran into something unexpected.
The ability Feng Ling planned to use was the concept of “Flow,” which she had extracted from the concept of “Wind.”
Any fluid movement from a high-potential area to a low-potential area could be defined as flow.
Water flowing from high to low was flow.
Heat transferring from a hot object to a cold one was flow.
Even energy converting from one form to another could be seen as flow.
And Magic Power naturally had that property of flow.
Feng Ling pressed her palm firmly against the Demon Beast’s main body.
At this distance, Magic Power could flow freely between them.
Now she could directly use the concept of “Flow” to influence the Magic Power inside the Demon Beast—making its Magic Power flow into her.
A fluorescent blue light flared up from the Demon Beast.
The light spread across its translucent body, then, as if finding an exit, surged along Feng Ling’s pale arm toward her.
Feng Ling’s entire body also began to glow with fluorescent blue light.
It spread from the absorbing arm all over her, making her shine brilliantly.
Magic Power was the foundation of a Demon Beast’s existence.
After being granted a concept, it was this Magic Power that allowed those concepts to operate—giving life to liquid water, granting murderous intent to invisible fluids.
Once the Magic Power was gone, the Demon Beast just became an ordinary object in reality.
‘With such a powerful mechanism, no wonder Qia Bi wouldn’t let me go.’
Feng Ling thought this, but she sighed helplessly.
She had worked so hard to keep this hidden from Qia Bi all this time, only to end up using it.
Until the last wisp of blue light completely drained from the Demon Beast’s body.
The transparent liquid mass that had been flailing moments ago now lost all the power sustaining its existence.
Its form collapsed instantly, crashing onto the ground with a splash, becoming a puddle of water that soaked the road.
Only then did Feng Ling belatedly think to come up with an excuse for herself…
Otherwise, taking such a huge risk would just be stupid.
‘If I had really lost, then such a big favor would mean I could live off her for the rest of my life. That wouldn’t be a bad deal either.’
Feng Ling quickly fabricated an excuse to convince herself.