Starting as a Magical Girl, I Alone Shall Rule for Eternity

When the moon climbed into the sky, peaceful Hulin City erupted into chaos,

the wail of police sirens echoing through the streets, shuttling back and forth.

An Shiyu watched as the Magical Girl efficiently summoned the government personnel involved.

Bearing what looked like credentials and authority from the Disaster Control Bureau, she saw some formerly haughty officials grovel and beam obsequiously before Xingxuan, even wearing ingratiating smiles.

A miracle brings not only power, but status and authority too...

People from the orphanage began leaving one after another. Sparrow was reluctant to go, hugging An Shiyu for a while, but in the end the adults led her onto the ambulance.

"Don't worry!"

Xingxuan patted her back again, "It will be fine. The Disaster Control Bureau will take over here soon. Those hateful Witch Association members won't be able to hurt you anymore. Everyone will be safe."

"Is, is that so?"

An Shiyu said softly, "Thank you for your help, senior."

"No need." Xingxuan said plainly, "I didn't do much. It was you who overcame despair, became a Magical Girl, and saved everyone. You should thank yourself. I came late and haven't really done anything yet."

"Actually it wasn't me, it was Jiang, Jiang Mo—"

She thought for a moment; calling him Jiang Si directly felt a bit off. He seemed to be hiding his identity.

Although she didn't know exactly what he was doing, he surely had his reasons, and she wouldn't spoil things for him.

Xingxuan froze for a moment and frowned, "Huh? Could it be that he's not with the Witch Association?"

An Shiyu replied gently, "Absolutely not, Senior Xingxuan, he saved us."

"Alright then."

Xingxuan scratched her head, "Still, he can't take my ten-thousand-year soul ring! That one took me a lot of effort to kill for!"

"What's a ten-thousand-year soul ring?"

Just as she was about to explain, a Disaster Beast's roar sounded in the distance, and Xingxuan's expression changed instantly!

"Bad news, a soul beast has appeared! We'll deal with the soul beast first, we'll talk on the way!"

As she took off into the air, Xingxuan suddenly realized, "You just sprouted, you can't fly yet, right? I'll carry you—"

But before she finished, An Shiyu had already unfurled wings.

Beautiful white wings, angelic, with bubble-like effects.

An Shiyu, holding her magic wand, asked blankly, "Shouldn't all Magical Girls be able to fly?"

"Well, normally you don't have wings. How did you do that—"

An Shiyu scratched her head sheepishly, "I used to imagine that after becoming a Magical Girl I'd have a pair of wings to fly. I never expected they would actually appear..."

"Okay then."

Xingxuan wasn't as surprised as she pretended to be.

The power that comes from a Magical Girl's belief is something even the Disaster Control Bureau understands.

But to believe you could fly right after becoming a Magical Girl...

The power of belief itself is a miracle, and miracles don't come easily.

Sensing limitless potential, Xingxuan couldn't help but marvel inwardly.

A super-rare beast spirit, white wings—could this be the legendary god-tier spirit, an Angel Spirit?

This one might become a titled beast fighter!

As a veteran soul-master who often visits major cities to guide girls through spirit awakening, she recognized An Shiyu's potential at a glance.

The two of them hurried along, Xingxuan drawing cards while inserting one into the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda, activating her first soul skill.

[Stellar Mark Descends: Ripples Sprung from the Milky Way]

Scattered meteors quickly pierced several nearby C-class Disaster Beasts.

An Shiyu hovered above, looking down at the screaming, fleeing crowds, and an unfamiliar surge of emotion welled in her chest.

She had once been one of them.

The night wind carried louder and louder noises across Hulin City—shouts, sirens, the sound of crumbling walls in places, rolling in succession.

But more often were the low, throaty roars of Disaster Beasts.

Police, firefighters, and troops poured into the city, dispersing onlookers, protecting citizens, and confronting the sudden flood of beasts.

Yet these Disaster Beasts did not directly attack people; they scurried about as if searching for something.

Xingxuan had been worried, but seeing that the beasts didn't go on a rampage eased her.

"Do you see those soul beasts down there?"

An Shiyu fell silent, unsure whether to nod.

After her memory returned, much knowledge returned with it.

She remembered the monster that had overturned their Sky Bus, and the blue-haired Magical Girl who had defeated the monster.

She remembered learning many things at the convalescent home; as a Magical Girl enthusiast she had asked many questions about them.

But upon leaving that place, those memories had naturally slipped away, including the memories of the monster and the Magical Girl.

Only upon becoming a Magical Girl today did many of those memories come back.

And the memories that returned felt especially clear,

as if they had just happened.

Yet Xingxuan spoke with such certainty that An Shiyu briefly wondered if her memory had glitched.

Wasn't that called a Disaster Beast?

Xingxuan waved casually; her magic pierced a weak nearby beast,

and then a blank card appeared in her hand. The beast's Grief Seed was sucked into the card.

The Polluted Magic was compressed within the card and finally coalesced into a form of magic.

Xingxuan traced a circle around the card with her right index finger, a pale white ring of light curling around it.

"This," she said while flying, "is called a soul skill. After a soul beast dies, you can collect it with a blank card. This thing here is called a soul ring. Soul skills are stored in soul rings, and we use our soul power to activate and use them..."

"But, senior—"

An Shiyu, now growing used to flying by wings, asked cautiously, "This soul ring, you made it just now, right?"

The air chilled with a bit of awkward stiffness.

Xingxuan coughed and pocketed the card, "...this is a necessary lesson. Soul skills have ranks. The lowest is the white soul ring from weak soul beasts, only ten-year rings. Above that are yellow rings from hundred-year beasts, purple rings from thousand-year beasts. The higher the ring's grade, the stronger the soul skill..."

"But..."

"You read it wrong!"

An Shiyu had no choice but to nod and say, "Oh."

"Anyway, a soul master can keep clearing soul beasts, taking their soul rings to practice soul skills, accumulating soul power, and keep leveling up!" Xingxuan glossed loudly, "Your level's low now. Start by killing a C-class soul beast to collect soul skills!"

"Ah, it really is a Disaster Beast—"

"No, slip of the tongue, slip of the tongue! Because you kept saying 'Disaster Beast, Disaster Beast,' it made me slip. What I meant to say was soul beast!"

An Shiyu smiled helplessly but still nodded, "Okay. Sorry, I made you misspeak, senior."

She didn't understand why Xingxuan insisted on calling Disaster Beasts 'soul beasts,' but it wasn't a big deal.

She looked at her own magic wand, puzzled, "But senior, I don't have cards or a slot to insert them. What should I do?"

"Oh, this, I remember now. You should be a god-tier or special-mutated spirit—then you don't need to absorb outside soul rings. After South China, many Magical Girls have been like this... Maybe only top-tier spirits can awaken into Magical Girls. These usually don't need to hunt soul beasts to get soul rings; they only need to accumulate soul power, break through, comprehend their inherited top-tier soul skills, or condense their origin power into a soul ring to ascend."

An Shiyu watched Xingxuan sweat nervously, and the other seemed to relax after saying it.

She wasn't just making that up...?

An Shiyu thought this but didn't expose her; she wouldn't embarrass Xingxuan.

"Then how do Magical Girls like us get stronger?"

"Train your abilities, continually refine your magic, keep defeating soul—Disaster Beasts to gain experience, and you can level up." Xingxuan inserted another card and, after taking out several beasts, continued, "As long as you fight soul beasts you can get stronger. When in doubt, fight a soul beast. Remember that!"

"Got it, senior."

An Shiyu drew a deep breath.

Fight, fight.

Beating her wings, she dropped altitude and confronted a Disaster Beast.

The beast lunged at her.

An Shiyu instinctively pressed on the beast's forehead.

The beast's terrifying force and surging Polluted Magic almost made her lose her grip.

But she didn't call for Xingxuan—Xingxuan was still busy finding something and defeating other beasts.

Having become a Magical Girl meant shouldering responsibility!

A fox mask image naturally surfaced in her mind.

She changed from pressing to grasping, let the beast bite her shoulder, grabbed the beast's cranium tightly, and heaved with force!

She pulled!

The beast's black magic splattered onto her wings, but it dissolved quickly.

An Shiyu steadied herself and looked at the split skull she had torn open in her hands, trembling a little.

Then she smiled broadly, joyfully looking up at Xingxuan, waving the two halves of the beast's skull, letting the Polluted Magic flutter down, "Senior, senior! I did it!"

Xingxuan blinked and almost fell from the sky!

"You, how are you fighting like that? Where's your magic power—"

"I couldn't use it," An Shiyu said honestly, "my mind told me to do this, so I did."

In truth, her first thought had been of Jiang Si.

In terms of fighting, Jiang Si had left a deep impression on her without inspiring fear.

On the contrary, deep inside she felt that when facing an enemy, you should act like that.

Only by doing this could you defeat them!

As a Magical Girl, her conviction alone made it happen.

Xingxuan paused and scanned the area.

Jiang the Demon Butcher had vanished without a trace, but the Disaster Beasts were still active, and because they were searching for something, Xingxuan decided to follow their trail...

She glanced back at An Shiyu, still tearing beasts apart everywhere.

"Wait, wait—"

She called out, and An Shiyu, who had just ripped the skulls of two beasts in half, held the halves and looked at her innocently, "What's up, senior?"

How did you adapt so fast...?

Fighting Disaster Beasts isn't that simple. Most new Magical Girls are inevitably fearful at first.

Even if long-distance magic barrages carry no psychological pressure, close-quarters combat with a Disaster Beast is a different matter.

Xingxuan's first close-quarters fight had been terrifying.

After all, they're hideous monsters that could wound you with one mistake—who wouldn't be scared?

But this new Magical Girl showed no psychological burden at all...

It wasn't that she tore through every beast effortlessly.

Xingxuan had seen her grapple with D-class beasts at close range; even when bitten by the neck or head, An Shiyu didn't care.

She held the beast's cranium and tore the head apart.

What fierce first hunting.

"Nothing much. I just wanted to ask about your second spirit," Xingxuan said.

Wiping her face, An Shiyu touched her neck, still tired.

When she was bitten earlier she thought she might die.

But after ripping the beast's skull open she hadn't been hurt.

So, Magical Girls really are powerful.

Hearing Xingxuan's question, she asked curiously, "What's a second spirit?"

The pale flying kitten that had been perched on Xingxuan's head like an ornament finally moved, "It's not a second spirit at all! It's a Magical Girl's best companion! An Incubator!"

Before it finished, Xingxuan yanked it off and swung it like a toy, "Anyway, it's that thing. The Incubator is the unified second spirit issued to all Magical Girls, a beast spirit. Although it can't host a soul ring initially, it contains our combat data and records, and later it can get ten-thousand-year soul rings... probably."

She was making it up again.

Though An Shiyu didn't quite understand, she checked herself and shook her head, "I don't have one."

The Incubator angrily yanked her hand away, "Let go! What are you doing? Show some respect! You lunatic!"

"In any case, my second spirit is unruly." Xingxuan sighed, "Actually, not having one is fine."

"Hey! What do you mean! Without my Incubator, you'd have been slaughtered by beasts long ago!"

"Anyway, once these soul beasts are dealt with, I'll take you to the Disaster Control Bureau to register..."

As she spoke, all the Disaster Beasts across the city suddenly froze.

Even Xingxuan sensed the danger at once; all the beasts seemed to be drawn by some force.

The countless Disaster Beasts in the city.

Beast-God Authority!

She had never seen a situation like this. Disaster Beasts do not normally cooperate; after all, their power is mutually consumable—devouring one another makes a beast stronger.

So naturally there are rarely many beasts in one place that don't immediately fight each other.

A unified march like this was unheard of!

Could the Witch Association's corrupted soul masters wield the Beast-God Authority?

The next moment, all the beasts in Hulin City charged forward!

Xingxuan immediately raised her wand to protect the citizens, but noticed that all the beasts avoided the crowds.

From rooftops, from streets, from sewers, flying, crawling, running—the vast throng surged toward the city center!

"Senior, what's going on?"

How would I know!

Xingxuan wanted to retort, but since the other had called her senior, it would be embarrassing to answer bluntly.

"Probably a little trick from the Witch Association."

Xingxuan put on a look of having expected it.

Anyway, anything involving Disaster Beasts must be the Witch Association's doing—blame them for everything.

In fact she had no idea what was happening.

Hulin City had never had trouble in all these years; the Disaster Control Bureau hadn't sent any alert.

Why had so many beasts suddenly appeared today? Luckily she arrived in time, or Hulin City would have been doomed.

While flying toward the beasts' gathering point, Xingxuan contacted the Disaster Control Bureau.

The opponent was probably not weak—at least soul king level or higher!

Damn corrupted soul masters!

An Shiyu, sweeping the area, suddenly said, "There seems to be someone on the tower."

Xingxuan then noticed two figures on a distant high tower. In the moonlight, on top of the central TV tower, stood a youth in a black windcoat flapping in the wind.

The tower lights stretched his shadow long.

Below him stood a glamorous woman with disheveled hair and bloodshot eyes.

Disaster Beasts coming from all over Hulin City charged at her.

Many beast corpses were already piled around her, and she had numerous wounds. The Polluted Magic from the beasts' corpses was visibly scattered around.

Xingxuan rushed over at once and, with one glance, quickly assessed the situation:

"A corrupted soul master capable of controlling this many soul beasts would be rare even within the Witch Association! Jiang the Demon Butcher, you still claim you're not Witch Association!"

"A normal person stopping soul beasts—could this woman be the Witch Association's target? Another innate, full-soul-power prodigy who hasn't awakened their spirit?!"

The nauseating stench of Polluted Magic hit her; as she got closer she noticed the woman under assault was already being invaded by Polluted Magic, which kept dripping into her wounds, leaving her near collapse.

"Impure qi entering the body!" Xingxuan was shocked. "Damn Jiang the Demon Butcher! He's trying to turn an innate full-soul-power talent into a corrupted soul master!"

Immediately four soul rings shot from the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda, the yellow ring shining bright, "Seven Treasures reveal glazed wonders, number two!"

[Stellar Mark Descends: Star Vortex Weaving the Solar Crown]

Countless condensed white orbs of magic fell like a meteor shower, bombarding the beasts surrounding the woman.

A few orbs formed a protective barrier around the woman to cushion the impact of the explosions and shield her.

Second soul skill, Butterfly God's Light!

"Don't be afraid, I'm here to save you!"

Red Crane looked up at the descending Magical Girl.

She had never thought the day would come when she would find Magical Girls so adorable and radiant.

After twenty years of careful accumulation had been wrecked in an instant, watching her treasured beasts—things she had spared and nurtured—get crushed and casually used by some mysterious person, Red Crane's heart bled!

She had even lost control over her beasts and had to slaughter those that hadn't lost control.

And who could she tell! No one would give her justice: my beasts of twenty years were stolen, get them back for me? Who would listen!

Red Crane felt more wronged than ever.

So when the shining Magical Girl appeared, her nose went sour and she began sobbing.

Kneeling pitifully on the ground, she reached out to the Magical Girl.

"You must, you must help me get justice, Magical Girl! Save my children!"

Watching Red Crane's ragged cries that nearly took her breath away, Xingxuan hardened her expression and looked up at the youth on the tower.

He stood with hands in his coat pockets, dozens of beasts proudly lined at his sides, their ferocity palpable from afar.

Behind him countless beasts roared and circled, even a huge serpent coiling around the TV tower, its head obediently at his feet!

Couple that with the suffocating stench of Polluted Magic—if this wasn't the Witch Association's big bad, what was?

Xingxuan had intended to warn An Shiyu, but when she turned, the girl was gone.

Now with the situation tense she couldn't look for her, so she faced the terrifying fox-masked youth directly.

Seeing the remaining beasts growl and approach under the second soul skill's assault, Xingxuan's gaze steeled and she drew another card!

"Don't think you can hurt everyone in front of me!"

The third soul ring on her wand lit up, "Seven Treasures reveal glazed wonders, number three! Third soul skill, Seven Treasures Blazing Wave!"

[Stellar Mark Descends: King of Purifying the World]

An even more blinding light exploded, illuminating the surroundings as if it were daytime!

Light! So much light!

Red Crane stared blankly at the shining figure before her, watching the beasts melt away under the light. Tears welled uncontrollably; even her body warmed beneath the power of the light.

Is this the glow of Magical Girls?

This light is so warm...

"Ahhhhhhhhh!"

A terrible scream suddenly tore across the sky, making Xingxuan clutch the Pagoda and nearly be flung away as she looked back.

Red Crane writhed on the ground like a drowning worm; as the Polluted Magic on her wounds dissipated, fierce black smoke began to spew from various places on her body.

Xingxuan realized something was wrong—she seemed to have injured Red Crane by mistake.

She quickly restricted her soul skill's direction toward Jiang the Demon Butcher and immediately said aloud:

"Don't be afraid, I'll heal you right away!"

Fourth soul skill!

Red Crane's cries became even more agonized.

Jiang Si straightened with immediate respect.

He hadn't expected anyone to be more cruel than him; he was only trying to buy time, but she was torturing the target bit by bit!

Who were these people, the Disaster Control Bureau's gang!?

The Saints of the Hall must not lose to them!

Xingxuan hurriedly stopped her healing, but it was too late.

Red Crane was already gasping shallowly, flesh red and black like a grilling shrimp sizzling on a rack, steam puffing from her as if from an incense burner freshly opened, hot, burning, choked with a strange aura.

Looking helplessly at the victim as white steam rose, Xingxuan immediately understood the reason and glared fiercely at the youth on the tower:

"This innate corrupted soul master of the Witch Association has already polluted this innate full-soul-power prodigy!"

But as an innate full-soul-power talent, he could resist Polluted Magic for a while and hadn't fallen completely—until now.

Feeling guilty, Xingxuan thought, "I'm sorry, I wanted to save you, but I didn't realize the Witch Association had already harmed you."

"I will avenge you!"

She glared viciously at the youth and drew a card, "You better explain what you're doing!"

The youth said nothing, drawing his right hand from his pocket to point at her and the woman behind her.

"Go ahead, Saints of the Hall."

A roar of ten thousand beasts!

Xingxuan inserted the card and looked up at the lofty youth.

The beast tide surged from behind the unmoving youth!

Blocking out the sky and covering the earth!