Chương 190: The Enraged Mirror Lord

Not long ago, inside an unfinished building.

Cold rain dripped down the broken window sill, splashing into tiny droplets on the dusty ground.

The magnificent floor mirror that had swallowed Xingxian's figure had now turned into a pile of shimmering glass shards, no longer revealing even a glimpse of the other space.

The silent figure standing beside the fragments no longer had the anger and anxiety it felt when it first discovered the clues had gone cold; instead, its eyes were filled with an unfathomable calm.

She slowly raised her hand, looking at the magic mark in her palm that emitted a pale purple light, her mind racing.

Judging from their brief but memorable interactions, Xingxian is indeed a proud person, but she would never let her emotions cloud her judgment and act rashly.

She could clearly see the calmness, rationality, and professionalism of that inspector.

Jiying firmly believes that since Xingxian dared to step into the trap alone even knowing it was a trap, she must possess the confidence and strength to handle most crises.

Her trump card as an inspector is definitely not that simple.

So, what I should do now is perhaps to choose to believe her.

I believe that Xingxian will be able to calmly resolve the crisis with her own strength, just like before, and then reappear before me in a victorious manner.

But—Ji Ying's fist clenched quietly at his side. That Void Realm Apostle named Jing Jue was too treacherous and cunning. What if—Xing Xian failed?

Trusting your companions is one thing, but to naively place all your hopes on them is incredibly foolish.

Ji Ying looked at the magic mark in his hand again, his eyes becoming even more profound.

She remembered the text message Xingxian had sent her before deciding to venture into the trap alone.

The magical marks left by the other party along the way were not only for easy tracking, but also, at a deeper level, a silent entrustment.

"If something really happens to me, I'll leave the rest to you, Xiaoying."

Ji Ying could almost picture the resolute determination and trust in the eyes of that proud inspector when he made that decision.

"What a guy—you can't let your guard down at all." Ji Ying muttered to himself, his tone tinged with helplessness, but more so with an inescapable sense of responsibility.

Now that I've made this judgment, I can't just sit here and wait passively.

To prevent the worst from happening, and to respond to that weighty entrustment, she needs to prepare in advance a plan—a performance that will force out that self-righteous coward hiding behind the mirror.

Back to the present, when Jiying saw the magic mark in her hand suddenly dim, she knew that the worst thing that she didn't want to see had happened.

Without the slightest hesitation, she immediately took out her phone from her pocket, edited a message in a very short time, and sent it out.

After doing all this, she put away her phone, looked up, and stared out the window at the city shrouded in torrential rain, her dark red eyes becoming sharper than ever before.

"Jing Jue—since you enjoy watching plays, then I will—prepare a grand enough performance for you."'

o

"I hope you like it."

Jiangchuan City, Headquarters of the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs, Director's Office.

Outside the window, the rain poured down, and dense raindrops pounded against the French windows, gathering into winding streaks of water.

Roland sat quietly behind his desk, his fingertips tapping rhythmically on the surface, making soft "tap, tap" sounds. The gentle smile that always graced his face was gone, replaced by seriousness and solemnity.

He is thinking.

He pondered the astonishing intelligence brought by Jiying, the "rat" lurking within the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs, and the precarious future of Jiangchuan City.

Just then, with two knocks, the office door was suddenly pushed open, and Secretary Qin Yue walked in quickly, her face showing obvious anxiety.

"Chief! Our wide-area energy monitoring equipment has just issued an alarm, detecting a violent energy conflict in an industrial park on the outskirts of the city!"

She handed the tablet computer to Roland with both hands. On the screen, a blue dot representing a magical girl was fiercely entangled with a red dot representing an unknown high-level ethereal energy reaction.

"According to the database matching, that blue dot is Ruri, a Stardust-level magical girl registered in the file."

And that mysterious enemy—based on analysis of the blurry images transmitted from the scene—was a humanoid being entirely black, resembling a heavily armored knight!

"Chief, should we immediately take the highest level of response? Should we raise the city alert level immediately and dispatch all standby combat personnel to provide support?"

Roland glanced at the two intertwined dots on the screen, but showed no surprise. He simply nodded and said in a calm tone, "Pass the word down to handle this according to the Level 3 standard procedure. Have the nearby field teams go to the scene immediately, evacuate any civilians who may be in the vicinity, and temporarily seal off that area."

He paused, then emphasized, "Remember, only conduct outermost blockades and evacuations; absolutely do not allow any combat personnel to approach the core area of the battle."

"Level 3 response?!" Qin Yue thought she had misheard, and an expression of disbelief appeared on her face.

Level 3 response is the standard procedure for the Bureau of Extraordinary Events when dealing with the lowest level of juvenile-level Void Beasts appearing in a small area. Right now, however, it is clearly a high-level battle that is extremely dangerous and even the observation equipment is issuing piercing alarms!

"Chief! This level of force is far from enough!" Qin Yue said anxiously.

"That black knight's energy reaction level is extremely high, while Miss Liuli—she's only a Stardust level!"

"Should we immediately send more people, or urgently contact other magical girls—"

"Don't worry, Xiaoyue." Roland waved his hand gently, interrupting Qin Yue.

He leaned back slowly in his chair, interlaced his fingers in front of his abdomen, and said with certainty, "Just do as I say. That magical girl informed me in advance before fighting the enemy."

"She told me that she had contacted her most reliable comrades and that they would do everything in their power to minimize the losses in the battle."

"So what we need to do now is to do a good job in logistics and—unconditionally trust them."

"This battle—will be over soon."

Looking at the director's confident and calm demeanor, Qin Yue, though filled with countless questions and worries, ultimately chose to remain silent out of absolute trust in the director who had led them through countless crises.

"—Yes, I understand." She nodded solemnly, turned and quickly left the office to issue the order that seemed somewhat absurd to her.

The office door was gently closed again, and the room returned to silence, with only the sound of rain pattering outside the window.

Roland slowly stood up, walked to the huge French windows, and "looked" at the city outside that was being ravaged by the torrential rain. He murmured in a voice only he could hear, "Miss Jiying—you must succeed."

"We must bring Lord Hoshino back safely."

Meanwhile, suburban industrial parks.

"boom-!!!"

A deafening roar echoed across the sky, accompanied by a blinding icy blue light, and a huge gap was instantly blasted open in the outer wall of a logistics warehouse.

Countless fragments of concrete, mixed with twisted steel bars, scattered and flew in the torrential rain, then crashed heavily onto the waterlogged ground, stirring up large splashes of muddy water.

Large raindrops pounded the ground, converging into a torrent of water that washed over the vast complex of buildings that had been evacuated and were now eerily silent.

In the chaotic rain-soaked landscape, churned by the aftershocks of the battle, two figures were colliding and separating at breakneck speed, each intersection sending up visible white shockwaves.

"Why aren't you making a move?! Are you underestimating me?!"

Liuli shouted, her icy voice filled with suppressed rage.

Her figure moved like a swift eagle in the rain, the ice blade in her hand drawing deadly arcs, each swing carrying a chilling coldness, as if freezing the surrounding rain and air together.

Countless sharp ice spikes gathered and spun around her, like a swarm of bees poised to pounce, and with a swing of her arm, they whistled and shot toward the tall, jet-black figure.

However, faced with such a fierce and relentless attack, the black knight known as "Silent Shadow" simply raised his left arm, which was covered with a hideous gauntlet, with composure.

"Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!"

The crisp sounds of impact echoed as the ice spikes, capable of easily piercing flesh, shattered like fragile glass the moment they touched the black arm armor, turning into countless ice crystals that melted into the rain upon landing, causing no real damage.

Ji Ying did not retreat a single step, nor did he even change his posture in the slightest.

He simply stood there quietly, letting Liuli's attacks fall on him. His jet-black heavy armor seemed to devour all attacks; neither sharp slashes nor razor-sharp ice spikes could leave a single mark on its surface.

Missing her first attack, Liuli immediately used the momentum to retreat, her petite figure nimbly weaving through the thick rain, leaving a clear trail behind her.

After creating some distance, she steadied herself, her icy blue eyes fixed on the silent figure before her, her chest rising and falling slightly with her rapid breathing.

Although she knew that all of this was just a performance to cooperate with Xiaoying, in order to force out the treacherous enemy hiding in the shadows.

Even so, when she unleashed all her most powerful attacks, yet couldn't even budge her opponent's defense in the slightest, a deep sense of resentment and frustration still welled up uncontrollably from the bottom of her heart.

—Xiaoying—even when she's holding back, she's still as powerful as a monster!

But—I will not give up, I will catch up with you sooner or later!

Liuli launched another attack. This time, she concentrated more magic power into the ice blade that her wand had transformed into. The icy blue light shone brightly, and the size of the ice blade in her hand instantly increased several times. With the force of splitting mountains and shattering rocks, she fiercely cleaved down towards Jiying's head.

"Boom—!"

Ji Ying did not dodge. Just as the giant blade was about to strike, he calmly raised his right hand, spread his five fingers, and precisely grabbed the blade of the ice blade.

The violent icy magic collided with the ethereal energy contained in Ji Ying's palm, unleashing a massive shockwave that pushed the surrounding rainwater away, creating a brief vacuum zone.

A car on the ground not far away was instantly blown away by the impact, rolled several times in the air, and then crashed heavily into the wall next to it, turning into a pile of twisted scrap metal!

"Why?! Why are you only defending and not attacking?!" Liuli gritted her teeth and tried her best to press down the ice blade, but the dark hand remained as still as a mountain.

Beneath the menacing helmet came a low, mocking laugh.

"If I get serious—" Ji Ying's voice was calm and deep, yet it seemed to carry an undeniable arrogance, "you—can't hold out for three seconds, little girl."

"You—!" Ruri's cheeks flushed slightly with anger.

"Is this—an insult to me?!"

"An insult?" Ji Ying seemed to have heard an amusing joke. He clenched his fist slightly, and the glass-like ice blade let out a mournful cry of being unable to bear the weight. Spiderweb-like cracks spread rapidly from his palm to the entire blade.

"No, I'm just stating a fact that we both know." Ji Ying gently pushed the broken ice blade away, then released it, letting Liu Li stagger backward because of the force.

He slowly raised his head, the red light shining through the gaps in his helmet appearing eerily in the rain. His tone was filled with utmost contempt and arrogance: "To use my full strength against an enemy of your caliber—that would be the greatest disgrace to myself."

"————You bastard!" Liuli let out a delicate shout filled with shame and indignation, and once again condensed an ice blade to rush towards the dark figure that appeared increasingly oppressive in the rain.

The rain intensified, and the battle, which appeared incredibly fierce but was actually a close call, continued without any sign of a victor in the short term.

All of this was seen by a mirror hidden atop a high-rise building hundreds of meters away.

The pure white smiling mask on the mirrored face had transformed into an incredibly smooth mirror, clearly reflecting the entire fierce battle unfolding in the rain below.

Meanwhile, inside that mirrored labyrinth on the verge of collapse.

Jingjue had just used his authority and expended a lot of virtual energy to barely temporarily reinforce this alien space, which had become extremely unstable due to the loss of an important anchor point.

He looked at Xingxian, who was still unconscious and pale on the ground not far away. The real expression hidden behind that smiling mask was full of displeasure and irritation.

"Tch—this inspector is really troublesome," he muttered to himself.

"If I hadn't made these arrangements in advance and used the image of the crescent moon as bait to trick her into revealing her trump card, the Time Magic Armor, I might not have been able to keep her here with just this puppet image."

But it doesn't matter anymore.

In the end, he was still the victor.

He slowly walked towards the unconscious Xingxian, his fingertips beginning to gather dark purple ethereal energy, preparing to proceed with the next step in processing this precious "trophy".

However, just as he was about to reach out to Xingxian, the space around Yijingjue distorted, and another mirror image exactly like him silently appeared.

The mask on the newly appeared mirror face has also turned into a smooth mirror, and what is reflected in the mirror is the "fierce battle" taking place in the industrial park that the previous mirror had observed from the top of the high-rise building.

In the scene, one of them is a martial arts fanatic who he had met once before, whom he disliked and feared, and who called himself "Silent Shadow".

The other one, however, was the Stardust-level magical girl who had always been on his radar.

He looked at the two figures in the mirror, who should not have appeared at the same time but were now entangled and fighting fiercely. His expression changed from initial astonishment to disbelief, and then to fury at realizing that his plan might have made a huge mistake.

The elegant composure and absolute confidence that had always been there, the ability to manipulate everything, vanished without a trace in an instant under the impact of anger at being provoked and fooled.

Jingjue clenched his fist tightly, his knuckles making a "crackling" sound from the excessive force.

A curse word, utterly out of character, was forced out from between his teeth: "What the hell is going on?!"