Inside.
Watching Jiang Cheng carry Jiang Yao into the house, Jiang Lingwei stood behind, deeply conflicted.
Her turmoil wasn’t because of Jiang Cheng. Since he said they would start over, she would, for now, treat him like a brother she was somewhat fond of. Besides, Jiang Yao was involved, and she had already come up with a solution for the situation between Jiang Cheng and herself.
The real source of her conflict was Jiang Yao.
Jiang Lingwei was so troubled that, before she figured things out, she didn’t even know how to interact with the girl.
Her original plan was to keep their generation’s matters as secret as possible.
Walking through the living room, Jiang Lingwei recalled what Yunxia had said — or rather, the message she left — and what happened after the playback ended.
That world, like fiery clouds, was sucked into the Kunai like a whirlwind. The light faded, and [Ming] transformed into a cloud-like glimmer that vanished into her body.
At the same time, she felt the power inside her grow a little. Her previously precarious transformation duration seemed to have been sharply recharged, extending slightly.
After retrieving [Ming], not only did she hear Yunxia’s final words, but she also received part of the information.
This information included many things, most of which [Ming] had autonomously collected.
That wasn’t surprising, since Ming and Mie were used in tandem during Yunxia’s battles. Ming generally handled reconnaissance and analysis, usually piercing the target’s body to relay an overview of their magical attributes and strength.
It could also serve as a teleportation beacon. Using Yunxia’s unique magic, Mie could instantly bring itself to Ming’s location and execute the target.
It even had a built-in recording function… How was this discovered? One day, after a fight, Yunxia herself didn’t know what went wrong with her magic flow, but the Kunai suddenly started playing her loudly singing the “Hero’s Song” in her room.
At that moment, Jiang Lingwei listened to the Kunai emit Yunxia’s distinct, cool voice singing: “The great river flows eastward~ Stars in the sky follow the Big Dipper~!”
It sounded like Yunxia was quite happy when she sang it.
A rough yet exquisite subtle feeling instantly washed over her.
Afterward, Yunxia locked herself in her room for three days without letting anyone see her, only quietly being fed by others.
Just these features alone made this Ming a must-have treasure for home or travel — at least it could be used as a Bluetooth speaker, far better than Beifeng’s unchangeable Silverkill rifle.
Now, it seemed that even without Yunxia’s control, her magical gear faithfully fulfilled its functions; only the information recipient had changed to Jiang Lingwei.
Receiving these scattered bits of information, Jiang Lingwei roughly understood why a small city like Mudong could attract wave after wave of dark minions.
They were likely all after Yunxia’s Mie.
The magical girl’s gear in the past seemed to be viewed by these dark fairies as some kind of very special weapon.
Another point was that the passage of time seemed somewhat different. Regarding this, Ming collected only sparse information, since it wasn’t a true computer and lacked a built-in clock; it simply described that “a very long time has passed.”
This was a bit puzzling.
Jiang Lingwei couldn’t help but wonder how much time had passed over there while she was asleep here. How long had Jiang Cheng stayed on that side?
In any case, going forward, Jiang Lingwei had to beat the dark fairies to the punch and be the first to receive the power left behind by her companions — most likely their magical gear.
As for where this power came from or why it was scattered everywhere, she didn’t know.
She guessed it was the old man’s doing, or Beifeng’s, perhaps some new kind of magic they had created.
The intelligence was seriously insufficient. Something else must have happened during the time she was unconscious, but Yunxia’s message contained not a single hint about it.
For this, Jiang Lingwei could only humor herself with the thought:
(Maybe it’s because Sister Yunxia is socially anxious, so she didn’t leave much information.)
Back in her own reality, Jiang Lingwei didn’t know when the dark fairies had targeted Mie, but now she was certain she was being watched.
Only Jiang Yao and Lin Yu were registered magical girls in this city.
One was her own daughter; the other belonged to a companion.
Both were newbies who had become magical girls not long ago.
At this rate, sooner or later, she would have to bring them up to the high-level ranks.
Just look at this time — only one dark fairy, together with a few from surrounding cities, caused such a big disturbance. If it actually succeeded in a blood sacrifice or something worse, it would be a disaster.
(Thankfully, the one who came was my husband… Jiang Cheng!)
Although her daughter was also a magical girl and had even genuinely defeated a dark fairy once, in Jiang Lingwei’s eyes, she was still too weak.
She wanted to teach her as Aurora, but even Jiang Lingwei wasn’t confident.
Magical girls need to grow. Beifeng and others had taken in newcomers before.
But there were reasons. First, they simply had no choice.
The city was small, with only the old man as a fairy. Whether they grew stronger or not, they had to grow — the dark invasion didn’t care if you were a rookie.
Because everyone came later, and because the one most familiar with Beifeng — the Sun’s Corona — seldom spoke of the past and later died heroically, no one really knew much about Beifeng’s time as a magical girl before others were contracted by the old man.
However, judging from Beifeng’s role as a ranged magical girl wielding a large gun, who also mastered exquisite close combat skills, she must have had a hard time growing up — a mark left by forced growth.
Secondly, the old man was a reliable fairy. Whether with divination magic or prophecy magic, most of the time, he could predict where enemies would appear and their approximate strength.
They often found suitable enemies for newcomers to practice on.
Not only was the old man reliable, but the team also had no weak links. As the team grew, more seniors could cover for the juniors.
Right now, she had none of that. The only one who could fight was herself — a magical girl whose magic was constantly leaking.
What about Jiang Cheng?
She didn’t ask, but Jiang Lingwei didn’t think he was much stronger than herself.
At least it wasn’t the kind of situation where one-sided kills happened.
At this point, it was impossible not to let Jiang Cheng participate. After seeing her expression, Jiang Cheng must have noticed something, but he didn’t bluntly say it, so Jiang Lingwei had already assumed he was part of the team.
If he didn’t want to, she wouldn’t force him.
But Jiang Yao couldn’t be involved — it was too dangerous for her.
And that was where her conflict lay.
As a mother, she was already quite unfit and irresponsible, and now, with her husband back, was she going to run away?
Would that be fair to her child?
Forget all the grand words about friends from the past, justice, and honor. To her daughter, it would be like leaving her behind alone, just as she did during her unconsciousness.
When she lifted her head again, she was already in the kitchen.
Her hands absently picked up the frying pan.
From the stairs came the sounds of father and daughter going upstairs.
Regarding this, Jiang Lingwei and Jiang Cheng had communicated beforehand through qi, letting him explain it himself — saying they just ran into each other at the door or something.
Father and daughter hadn’t seen each other for a long time, and since both clearly understood the magical matters, their conversation would take some time.
“…“
Jiang Lingwei no longer wanted to dwell on how smoothly she slipped into an apron and began preparing dinner.
Touching the necklace on her neck, her mood felt heavy.
“The situation’s come this far… I’ll just make dinner first.”
She decided she’d call Sister Xiaoquan later.