Jiang Lingwei felt as if a mouthful of old complaints was lodged in her throat, unsure where to spit them out.
Wrong, child, you’ve got it all wrong.
Besides, the generational order is all mixed up. Opal is Jiang Yao’s daughter, and Jiang Yao is her own daughter. That would make Opal her granddaughter. But Wenya is supposed to be her peer…
(Not right, not right, not right.)
Jiang Lingwei’s mind was a tangled mess.
(This kid has been led astray! Isn’t she from Sister Xiaoquan’s family?)
At this moment, Jiang Lingwei withdrew the impression she had earlier when she glanced at the child and thought she seemed the quiet type.
Now, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t figure out where Opal got the idea that she was Jiang Yao’s daughter.
(Alright, alright, no matter what kind of personality you have, at least I acknowledge this faint hint of madness.)
(She deliberately inherited a little bit of that crazy gene, so I’d know you’re Sister Xiaoquan’s daughter, huh.)
That said, although she didn’t know what this kid was thinking, she was definitely not a magical girl before.
White.
—At least not until yesterday.
Crossing her arms, Jiang Lingwei shot a sharp look at the nearby little figure.
“Ah… uh… well…”
Xiaobai looked very restrained, twisting and fidgeting as she spoke.
“Don’t look at me like that, it makes me shy…”
“Who told you to be shy or not shy!”
Jiang Lingwei really wanted to kick this guy out.
Earlier, Jiang Lingwei had been sensing Jiang Yao’s position while leading Qishi closer to that area.
The entire city was in chaos. Qishi’s side was in contact with the Magical Girl Management Bureau, only to receive the same answer—no reinforcements could be provided.
Jiang Yao over there didn’t even know if she could handle the situation, yet Xiaobai was flying around in the sky with a newborn magical girl without any concern.
Weren’t they afraid of being ambushed and knocked down by some monster?
If it weren’t for the fact that they had already mostly finished their tasks, this kind of accident was very likely to happen.
Beifeng once told her that fighting in the city was actually similar to fighting in a forest—using different obstacles and buildings to hide oneself, and once you strike, you must do so with all your might to aim for a one-hit kill.
If there are multiple magical girls, unless the situation truly demands everyone’s full engagement, at least one magical girl must always be on alert to watch the surroundings.
In such cases, the worst thing is to recklessly fly around and expose yourself.
Looking at Xiaobai, who still didn’t know what she had done wrong, Jiang Lingwei felt both annoyed and amused.
She recalled the scene when she asked Beifeng:
“So, Sister Beifeng, how did you know to do it this way?”
“The old master said so.”
At that time, when she was a rookie learning the ropes, Beifeng sat at the table, making special bullets for her magical armor with magic for backup.
After Jiang Lingwei’s question, Beifeng looked as if she was thinking, “Does it seem unbelievable?”
She ran her hand through her silver-white long hair.
“Don’t make that face.”
After saying that, Beifeng looked toward the old man lying on the table, who was munching on three bags of chips and clutching a soda bottle while dozing off, his white beard trembling slightly, and said:
“The forest is just a metaphor he used. When he taught me, the old master said everything he could think of, but he’s still learning about our world—after all, buildings are buildings, forests are forests.”
“So in the coming days, I will teach you everything the old master told me. But don’t memorize or trust it blindly. Sometimes you still need to make judgments based on the situation and tactics.”
At that time, Beifeng’s mouth curved upward slightly for a rare smile:
“After all, even the old master leads by example and is still learning himself.”
Then came the sound of the old man turning over in his sleep and spilling soda everywhere, causing the freshly cleaned 【Tianpin】 to scream in frustration.
The memory ended, and Jiang Lingwei pursed her lips, grabbing the struggling little ball with one hand as if rolling a bowling ball.
“After today, I’ll find a chance to give you some extra lessons, got it?”
“Ah… ah?”
Xiaobai was confused, but the expression on this pink-haired ancient magical girl’s face was no joke.
“Extra lessons? About what?”
“How to be a fairy.”
“Ah?!”
“Ah what?”
Jiang Lingwei felt like a parent who discovered the teacher was incompetent but couldn’t change the instructor—full of frustration, almost nine-tenths dissatisfied.
She put on a stern face and held the plump little ball in front of her eyes:
“Any objections?”
“No, no!”
Xiaobai wiggled her body gently, raised her paws in surrender, and wisely said, “I’ve always thought that as a fairy, I need more training. It’s great that someone is finally teaching me.”
“Good.”
She released her fingers, watching Xiaobai flop onto the ground with a “plop.”
Jiang Lingwei sighed.
She had the old master as a guide and Beifeng as the captain back then—it was so good.
Everyone was generally reliable.
Now, if the old master were replaced by Xiaobai, that dark great calamity would probably have broken out back then, and there wouldn’t have been any later events at all.
【You guys are lively over there. In such a short time, another magical girl has appeared?】
At this moment, Wenya Quan’s voice came through the earpiece, her tone relatively relaxed because the demons and monsters in the city had mostly been cleared out.
Except for a small number of people who truly couldn’t be helped, most civilians had taken shelter in evacuation centers in time.
Judging from the small defensive magic arrays carved by magical girls from other cities around the shelters and the surrounding surveillance, the dark enemies hadn’t found those places.
Only one leech demon had shown similar movements but had already been dealt with in advance by Jiang Lingwei and the others.
With that, Wenya’s constant high-intensity use of surveillance and command could finally catch a breath, even allowing her to joke.
【What? I remember Crystal is your daughter, right? Where did this one come from? This is hilarious, hahaha.】
“I suggest you don’t laugh.”
(Because if you knew the truth, it would be your turn to be laughed at.)
Jiang Lingwei thought silently.
(Opal too—although I don’t know how she got to that conclusion, it’s easy to clear the misunderstanding by letting her meet Jiang Yao.)
(But how do I explain this to Sister Xiaoquan…)
(Nah, I’ll respect the person involved. If Opal wants to tell her mother, she can. I can’t interfere.)
Jiang Lingwei rubbed her face and said into the still-laughing earpiece Wenya Quan:
“Stop laughing, stop laughing. Since things are mostly handled, it’s time to reunite with… Crystal. Also, I feel like this matter isn’t that simple. That dark fairy earlier seemed to be heading your way. And the sudden glowing of Mie—are you okay over there?”
【I’m fine. Nothing unusual here.】
Wenya paused and added:
【Mie’s condition is the same as before, glowing steadily again. But this time it’s better—not flying around wildly indoors. You might want to pay attention to anything related to Yunxia.】
“Mm.”
Jiang Lingwei nodded and turned to beckon everyone to follow her.
As they weaved through the buildings, her hand unconsciously clenched tightly.
Jiang Lingwei felt the pressure mounting.
Jiang Yao was a rookie, Lin Yu was a pure newbie who just joined, Qishi worked in construction—prying someone with a crowbar hurt, but it wasn’t really damaging. Their combat abilities weren’t strong.
Xiaobai, as a fairy, was even more unreliable.
The magical girl who once supported everyone now had to take on the leadership role.
(Sister Beifeng.)
Magical Girl Aurora silently prayed:
(Give me a little more wisdom.)
《Taixuan·Shì》: “Ci wu, xia yan ru shui, shi yi Tianpin.”
Tianpin — referring to the great ocean.