The magic power imitating Chen Lianxue had disappeared.
Rose’s eyes shifted into vertical pupils as she connected her vision to a Calamity Crow she had hidden near the haunted house, seeing clearly everything Lu Yuan had done.
She saw Lu Yuan, like a black phantom, slaughtering through the clones.
The way Lu Yuan dodged the clones’ attacks felt exactly the same as when she had fought Rose at the subway station.
It was like prediction.
Rose watched the clones she had personally created being eliminated one by one.
Instead of anger, she couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh.
“Lu Yuan… she really does have a time-related Ability.”
Right now, in Rose’s mind, Lu Yuan’s threat level was probably on par with Su Li… no, maybe even higher than Su Li.
“Hey hey hey!” Si An waved her hand in front of Rose’s eyes. “What are you looking at so seriously?”
Rose closed her eyes and withdrew from the crow’s vision.
“None of your business.”
Next, all she needed to figure out was whether Lu Yuan’s Ability allowed her to rewind the past or foresee the future.
“Alright, alright, none of my business, but look at Su Li, huh? That’s on me.” Si An pointed down at the battlefield. “I’m exhausted from playing the violin, but she’s still fighting?”
Rose looked down to see the entire plaza frozen solid by Su Li.
She was moving swiftly across the ice like a professional ice skater, engaged in battle.
“She’s the General Manager of Tongmen City, not so easy to kill,” Rose said.
Though she spoke those words, she was quite surprised Su Li had lasted this long.
On the fully frozen plaza below, Su Li was clearly a bloody mess.
A penetrating wound ran through her shoulder, constantly bleeding.
She kept repeating the ice-freezing action to staunch the blood, but the wounds reopened from the fight, staining much of her body red.
She was like an ice wolf trapped in a quagmire—still graceful, but covered in blood.
What’s more, new wounds kept appearing on her body from the continuous fight.
Only a third of her strength remained.
Su Li gritted her teeth, knowing she couldn’t keep playing into her opponent’s rhythm.
She had to try that one move.
She raised her foot and stomped hard!
“Rumble—!”
The entire frozen plaza shook violently.
Countless massive, sharp ice spikes burst from the ice around her like suddenly blossoming icebergs, piercing through all the Calamity nearby in an instant!
The ice spikes stopped right in front of Rose, the jagged ice mountain as tall as a Ferris wheel.
This sudden eruption cleared a large area and temporarily created a blind spot in the field of vision.
And at the moment the spikes rose, Su Li’s figure vanished.
“Did she run?” Si An frowned.
“…” Rose was also puzzled.
She couldn’t sense Su Li’s magic power.
No magical girl could perfectly hide her magic power—that was impossible.
Where was she? Could she really have escaped?
Just as Rose was pondering, a cracking sound came from behind her.
Rose spun around sharply, and Su Li, covered in blood, had somehow appeared behind her.
Su Li stood on the ice mountain she had created and leapt up.
In an instant, only a few meters separated them.
Using the ice mountain to get close?!
Rose had suspected this possibility before but hadn’t paid much attention since she hadn’t sensed any magic power nearby.
How could Su Li hide her magic power while transformed? That was impossible!
Rose quickly stepped back, wanting to put distance between them.
Her Scythe was terrifyingly powerful at close range; close combat meant almost no chance to beat Su Li.
But… Su Li wasn’t holding her Scythe.
She was holding… a gun?!
Rose was momentarily stunned.
Only then did she notice Su Li wasn’t wearing her Combat Suit but a sweatshirt.
She wasn’t hiding her magic power—she had canceled her transformation entirely!
Su Li’s brows furrowed.
“Don’t even think about running.”
***
The intense pain gradually faded.
Lin Wan’s eyelashes twitched a few times as she struggled to open her eyes.
Her vision was blurry, and distant echoes of explosions and a little girl’s crying still lingered in her ears.
A burning pain in her back reminded her of everything that had happened before losing consciousness.
I… didn’t die?
Lin Wan found herself leaning against a piece of clothing on the roof of the haunted house.
The sky was already dark, but the commotion in the amusement park seemed to have calmed significantly.
She tried to sit up but the movement pulled at her wounds, forcing a painful gasp.
“Don’t move. Your injuries are severe.”
A familiar voice spoke calmly beside her, comforting and reassuring.
Lin Wan could never forget this voice.
“Lu Yuan?!”
She looked up in surprise to see Lu Yuan sitting not far from her.
In Lu Yuan’s arms was the unconscious Chen Lianxue.
Lianxue’s face was pale but her breathing steady—she appeared to be merely asleep.
Lin Wan was about to remind Lu Yuan about Chen Lianxue when she noticed the bomb collar on Lianxue’s neck had been removed.
In its place was a faint circle of red marks, proof it had once been there.
The collar was taken off?! Lianxue was saved?!
The overwhelming joy immediately chased away Lin Wan’s pain, and tears of happiness welled up.
“Lu Yuan! You… you found Lianxue?! The collar’s been removed?! That’s amazing! How did you—”
Her voice suddenly stopped.
Because she saw Lu Yuan’s expression clearly now.
Lu Yuan was indeed looking at her, but her eyes were distant and vacant, lacking the usual vitality.
Her face showed no triumphant joy but was instead shrouded in an indescribable weariness—not physical, but like the numbness left by the soul being worn down through endless torment.
Hearing Lin Wan’s question, Lu Yuan’s gaze focused briefly before drifting away again.
She lowered her head, looking at the peacefully sleeping Lianxue, then at the now useless, pitch-black bomb collar discarded at her feet.
Her lips moved slightly, voice barely above a whisper:
“Yeah… I figured it out.”
Figured it out?
Just like that?
Lin Wan’s ecstatic joy was doused by a wave of doubt.
She remembered the horror of that collar—just a slight scratch could trigger a fierce explosion.
Figured out? How? This wasn’t something to be casually experimented with!
Lu Yuan looked strange.
She didn’t look like a hero who had just solved an impossible problem and saved a comrade.
More like someone who had just struggled out of a never-ending nightmare, her soul still lingering in that void.
“Lu Yuan? Are you okay?” Lin Wan asked worriedly, trying to prop herself up and get closer.
“How did you find the real Lianxue? What was the password? What happened just now?”
Lu Yuan shook her head gently, avoiding Lin Wan’s questions.
She only said softly, “Nothing much, it’s all settled. Lin Wan, your injuries are severe—don’t move, conserve your strength.”
Her tone was frighteningly calm, as if everything that had happened was trivial.
Looking at her like this, Lin Wan’s questions all caught in her throat and wouldn’t come out.
Lu Yuan just silently held Chen Lianxue, sitting there.
She wasn’t particularly smart, nor did she come up with some groundbreaking solution, but she was stubborn enough.
She had unlimited chances to try and fail, so she kept trying.
Her luck was pretty good—she cracked the three-digit code on the 237th try.
Though that meant dying 237 times.
***
Lu Yuan set Chen Lianxue down and slowly stood up.
She had just sensed a familiar magic power near the Ferris wheel—Su Li should be there.
She had to go help Sister Su Li.
Lin Wan understood Lu Yuan’s intention and grabbed the hem of her clothes.
“Don’t go. You’re no match for them,” Lin Wan’s voice trembled. “Lu Yuan, if you go, you’ll die.”
Lu Yuan smiled gently.
She took Lin Wan’s hand, knelt on one knee, and lightly kissed the back of her hand.
Like a knight pledging a vow to a princess.
“Trust me, okay?” Lu Yuan gave a weary smile.
“I…” Lin Wan didn’t know what to say.
She didn’t want Lu Yuan to die, nor did she want Sister Su Li to die.
***
“I’m going too.”
“Do you think you can help if you go now?”
“But if you go…”
“No.”
Lu Yuan stood up, ready to leave.
Lin Wan just watched this time.
At this point, she could only trust Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan summoned the Black Spear in her hand, waved to Lin Wan in farewell, and then sped toward the Ferris wheel.
“Well… you get used to dying eventually.”
She murmured softly.