Chương 233: A Monster Who Was Once Human

In the city center, at an empty construction site that has not yet officially started construction, and which is hidden behind a tall construction fence.

An invisible hemispherical magical barrier, like a giant dome, enveloped the area, cleverly isolating all sounds and sights from both inside and outside.

From the outside, the construction site appears calm, with only occasional dust rising.

However, inside this illusionary barrier, an extremely intense combat training exercise is in full swing.

"Liuli, your reaction is too slow! Faced with this kind of multi-angle, saturation attack, every second of hesitation is fatal. You must react quickly!"

Dressed in an elegant light purple combat suit, Xingxian hovered in mid-air. With a light tap of her fingertips, dozens of solid magic beams shot out at extremely tricky angles toward the dark blue figure below who was desperately dodging.

"I'm sorry, Xingxian!" Liuli gritted her teeth, her icy blue eyes flashing with an indomitable light.

She immediately regrouped her magic and used it to perform irregular, zigzagging maneuvers in the air at an even faster speed than before, trying to break free from the opponent's tight lock-on.

"And you, Yin Xue! Your partner is being completely overwhelmed, why don't you immediately step forward to provide cover for her and share the pressure?!"

Xingxian's sharp gaze quickly shifted to the other side, locking onto the emerald green figure attempting to find an opportunity to attack from the flank.

"Remember, you are a unit. Abandoning your comrades and acting alone is a cardinal sin on the battlefield!"

"Hmm—I understand!" Yin Xue replied somewhat reluctantly, but there was no sign of backing down in her eyes. Instead, she immediately adjusted her posture, with emerald green magical light surging around her.

She clasped her hands together, and magical vines extended from them, instantly forming a shield that rose from the ground, precisely blocking Liuli's side and intercepting the new wave of magical beams.

Meanwhile, another part of the vines extended towards the star string, attempting to restrict its movement in turn.

"Now, Xiaoli!"

"Um!"

Without hesitation, Liuli, now under cover, transformed into a streak of deep blue light and instantly rushed to Xingxian's side. The ice blade in her hand, carrying a chilling aura, pierced straight at his waist and abdomen.

However, Xingxian merely glanced at her indifferently, without even making any move to avoid her.

Just as Liuli's ice blade was about to touch her combat suit, several magical threads that had silently crept up beneath her suddenly tightened, binding her firmly in mid-air like a tough spider web.

"————What?" A look of astonishment flashed in Liuli's eyes.

"Too slow, Ruri." Xingxian's voice rang out again.

"Although your speed of advance is fast, your attack intentions are too obvious. From the moment you gathered your magic power, all your actions have been anticipated by me."

With a flick of her finger, a gentle burst of magical energy pushed Liuli away, releasing her from her restraints.

"And, Silver Snow!" Xingxian's gaze shifted to the other side again, her tone growing increasingly stern, "In order to dodge my attack, your flight path just now was far too close to the boundary of the training area!"

"Concentrate! In actual combat, what's the difference between not being able to strictly control your flight trajectory and intentionally exposing your back to an unknown enemy?!"

Before she could finish speaking, several silver threads made of magic shot out from Xingxian's fingertips, precisely wrapping around Yinxue's ankles, forcibly pulling her back from the edge of the area while she let out a short cry of surprise.

This one-on-two training session, led by Xingxian, has lasted for nearly half an hour.

Whether it's basic flight dodging skills or the ability to cooperate in combat, Xingxian demands an extremely strict, almost nitpicky standard from them.

Despite repeated setbacks, and even struggling to touch the hem of the other's clothes, neither Liuli nor Yinxue showed the slightest discouragement. Instead, their eyes burned with fierce fighting spirit. Relying on the amazing tacit understanding that they had cultivated as partners over a long period of time, they challenged this powerful "instructor" time and time again.

Liuli's ice wall will block attacks for Yinxue at the most critical moments, while Yinxue's vines can always cleverly change Xingxian's movement trajectory, creating fleeting blind spots for Liuli to attack.

Looking at his two companions, who were still inexperienced but full of potential and had a strong will, Xingxian's eyes couldn't help but flash with admiration.

After easily dodging the two's coordinated attack once again, Xingxian noticed that fine beads of sweat had appeared on their foreheads and their breathing had become somewhat rapid, indicating that the training was almost complete.

Continuing like this will only deplete their magic power and affect their condition in the afternoon.

She clapped her hands lightly, then said in a gentler tone, "Alright, that's enough for today's special training."

Upon hearing this, Liuli and Yinxue breathed a sigh of relief and slowly landed on the ground. The magical radiance on their bodies gradually dissipated, and their transformation was over.

Xingxian followed closely behind, first using her mind to control and retrieve the magical artifacts that enveloped the entire construction site, and then deactivated her transformation.

Almost the instant the transformation ended, Ye Zixuan's body swayed slightly. She subconsciously raised her hand to support her forehead, her fair cheeks showing a sickly pallor, and her bangs were soaked with sweat, clinging tightly to her skin.

"Zixuan, are you alright?!" Luo Bingli, who had been watching her closely, immediately stepped forward and took her arm with some concern.

"Don't push yourself too hard."

"I'm fine, Xiao Li."

Ye Zixuan waved her hand, a slightly weak but still gentle smile on her face: "That item is pre-stored with magic power, so it doesn't consume my own magic power when I use it. It's just that I need to spend some energy controlling it, which is why I feel a little tired."

"You were able to fight the two of us so easily while simultaneously controlling that other one—" Su Yuqing, standing to the side, stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

"You're amazing!"

Luo Bingli nodded in agreement, her eyes filled with surprise as she looked at Ye Zixuan.

"It's nothing. With systematic training, you can definitely do it too. In battle, finding opportunities to attack between maneuvering and defense also requires us to be distracted and pay attention to different things."

Ye Zixuan shook her head, then a hint of apology appeared on her face: "As for me—was I a little too strict during training just now? I'm sorry—"'

"This is nothing!" Su Yuqing immediately waved her hand casually.

"If you were any gentler, I would feel uncomfortable. This is how it should be during training."

Luo Bingli nodded in agreement and said earnestly, "Yuqing is right. In a real battle, the enemy won't be as kind as you in pointing out our mistakes."

"We really learned a lot from this battle, thank you, Zixuan."

Hearing their sincere words, Ye Zixuan felt a little embarrassed. She lowered her head slightly, and a faint blush rose to her ears.

Seeing this, Su Yuqing immediately stepped forward, patted her shoulder hard, and said with a smile, "Alright, alright, don't worry about such a small thing. It's time to eat, my stomach is growling!"

"Hmm." Ye Zixuan swayed again from the slap. She glanced at Su Yuqing with a helpless look, and finally nodded with a smile.

The three sat down on a nearby bench. Su Yuqing took out three lunch boxes from her backpack, handed two of them to Luo Bingli and Ye Zixuan respectively, and picked up the remaining one for herself.

She opened the lunchbox, stuffing octopus sausage into her mouth, and mumbled to Ye Zixuan, "I didn't know what you liked to eat, so I just grabbed a little something from the cafeteria for you. Even if you don't like it—don't complain!"

"No, I'm not that picky."

Upon hearing this, Ye Zixuan curiously lowered her head and opened the lunchbox in her hand. However, upon seeing the dishes inside, she was slightly taken aback and only managed to say half of what she was going to say.

What comes into view is a neatly arranged meal with a very reasonable balance of meat and vegetables. Although there are no particularly expensive ingredients, it is still incredibly plentiful.

From any perspective, this is definitely not something you can just "bring from the cafeteria"; it's clearly the most expensive and popular high-end meal in the cafeteria.

A warm feeling welled up in Ye Zixuan's heart. She looked up at Su Yuqing, who was pretending not to care and whose mouth was stuffed full. She didn't point it out, but just smiled and said softly, "Thank you."

Luo Bingli watched all of this from the side. She quietly ate her lunch, the smile on her lips never fading.

"Zixuan," Su Yuqing, who had been quietly eating a few bites of her meal, couldn't help but ask, "What do you think of Xiaoli and my abilities?"

Ye Zixuan swallowed the food in her mouth, pondered for a moment, and then gave her serious evaluation: "You still have a lot of inexperience in combat, and your reaction speed and the precision of your magic control need improvement. But—" She changed the subject, her face showing approval: "You two work together very well, and each of you has great potential."

"Xiao Li's close combat talent is outstanding, and Yu Qing, your healing and protective abilities are also rare and valuable support abilities within the kingdom."

"Hehe, right, right!" Su Yuqing immediately raised her chin proudly upon hearing the praise.

"With your compliment, I'm practically floating on air!"

Looking at her expression, Ye Zixuan said helplessly, "Are you selectively ignoring all the criticisms I gave you before?"

"Oh, of course I remember everything!" Su Yuqing smiled a little embarrassedly.

Ye Zixuan nodded in satisfaction, her expression turning serious again. She earnestly instructed, "That's precisely why you must strive to improve your strength."

"As we discussed last night, Xiaoying's potential may far exceed our imagination. As her companions, the three of us must strive to catch up with her."

"Of course!" Su Yuqing replied immediately without hesitation.

Luo Bingli nodded solemnly as well. She recalled the unfathomable and powerful aura that Ji Ying had exuded when he "acted" with her to lure Jing Jue out.

Even when she's just acting, she can deeply feel that power.

Firstly, we must become stronger.

After the meal, the three disposed of their lunchboxes and rested for a while on the bench.

Ye Zixuan took out her phone and glanced at it before speaking up, "It's getting late, let's go back to school. Lunch break is almost over, and you have classes this afternoon."

Luo Bingli responded, then asked with concern, "And what about you, Zixuan? Are you still planning to study in that abandoned school building this afternoon?"

"Okay." Ye Zixuan nodded.

"If nothing unexpected happens, I'll stay there until you all get out of school."

Su Yuqing then asked curiously, "Jing Jue's matter certainly can't be resolved in a day or two. Is it okay for you not to go to your school in the future?"

"I've taken a long leave of absence," Ye Zixuan replied simply and clearly.

"So how did you explain it to your family? Did you... get help from the Bureau of Extraterrestrial Intelligence?"

Upon hearing this question, Ye Zixuan's expression faltered slightly, and she fell into a brief silence.

After a moment, she gently shook her head and said calmly, "I have no intention of revealing my true identity to the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs. Anyway—you don't need to worry about this, it's okay."

She seemed unwilling to discuss the topic any further. She actively gathered her magic power, and a flash of silver-white light appeared on her body before she transformed back into the magical girl Hoshino.

"I see — then I won't ask."

Seeing that the other person was unwilling to say more, Su Yuqing sensibly did not continue to ask questions. She and Luo Bingli exchanged a glance and then transformed into magical girl forms.

Three streaks of light shot into the sky from the bench, flying towards Jiangchuan No. 1 Middle School.

However, just as they took off from the construction site and arrived over the city center...

Aaaaaaahh...

A piercing scream filled with terror and despair suddenly came from the commercial district not far below, instantly shattering the afternoon tranquility.

"What's going on?!" The three girls' expressions changed simultaneously.

They immediately stopped flying and hovered in mid-air, casting wary selfies toward the source of the disturbance.

Below, on the street, people were scattering and fleeing. In the center of the chaos, a dozen distorted figures were wantonly destroying everything around them and chasing after civilians who couldn't escape in time.

Their skin was a sickly bluish-gray, and their bodies were covered with irregular bone spurs and shells. Although they did not seem to have a uniform appearance, they all exuded a strong aura of ethereal energy.

"A Void Beast?!" Yin Xue exclaimed in shock.

"But how could this be? We didn't sense any fluctuations from the Void Realm at all!"

"Where did these guys come from?!"

"The Void Bubble needs to exist for a considerable period of time to meet the conditions for complete infiltration, allowing the Void Beasts to move freely without being restricted by the bubble's range. This situation is somewhat unimaginable."

Xingxian's expression was also extremely solemn. She raised her hand and summoned magical threads, suspending one of the "phantom beasts" that was about to tear a fleeing civilian to pieces with its claws in mid-air.

"Never mind that now! Saving lives is the priority!"

Seeing the horrific scene below, Liuli could no longer suppress her anxiety and anger.

With a sharp cry, she plunged headlong into the densest part of the monsters without hesitation, like a deep blue meteorite.

Seeing this, Xingxian immediately wanted to warn the other party to be careful, but before she could speak, her pupils suddenly contracted, and her gaze was fixed on the "virtual beast" that she had hoisted up and was still struggling.

The next moment, she mustered all her strength and let out a commanding roar at Liuli, who had already flown away: "Liuli, no! Stop right now—!!!"

Liuli, who was swooping down at an extremely fast speed with her ice blade raised high, was startled by the sudden roar and her body stiffened slightly.

Almost instinctively, she forcefully reversed her dive trajectory, simultaneously retracting the ice blade that was about to strike. The icy blue streak of light drew an arc in the air, narrowly missing the head of one of the monsters, and bringing with it a sharp gust of wind.

Liuli flew back to Xingxian's side, asking with some surprise and uncertainty, "What's wrong, Xingxian?! Why won't you let me attack them?!"

Xingxian took a deep breath, staring at the "virtual beast" that was still struggling in front of him, his hands clenched into fists, feeling his anger rising in his chest.

From the moment she discovered this incident, an inexplicable sense of unease lingered in her heart, making her extremely uneasy. This was also the direct reason why she did not directly kill the "virtual beast".

At the moment Liuli flew away, Xingxian also noticed that although Yiyi's body had been severely distorted, its outline still retained a clear human shape.

More importantly, on its wrinkled skin, there are several strips of fabric that are so inconspicuous because they are so similar in color to its skin.

This discovery, combined with the crucial anomaly that "no infiltration of the Void Realm occurred," instantly formed an incredibly terrifying and cruel truth in Xingxian's mind.

She gazed down at the rampaging "monsters" with an extremely heavy, angry, and sorrowful look.

After a long silence, she slowly closed her eyes, her voice hoarse as she revealed the cruel truth: "Those weren't Void Beasts, but—humans who had been transformed into Void Beasts—"