Chapter 26: Fighting Monsters with Bare Hands

By the time Li Yi arrived at Jiang Keke's house, the sky had already begun to darken.

Jiang Keke's home was reasonably spacious, featuring a small, enclosed courtyard. The courtyard was well-kept, covered by a canopy, and flanked by two mulberry trees that were meant to be hardy; one was nearly dead, and the other was following suit.

As she reached the gate, Li Yi hesitated, wondering how to start the conversation. She had never been comfortable visiting others, especially when arriving uninvited and empty-handed. Coupled with Jiang Si’s cold demeanor, she worried the encounter might be awkward.

Before she could knock, she heard a dull "thud-thud" from inside the courtyard, like a heavy object hitting the ground. Li Yi’s heart sank, and she instinctively gripped her Seed of Miracle. The sound was clearly unnatural—could the Witch Council have already infiltrated the place? She faintly heard Keke’s ragged, exhausted breathing, as if she were in the middle of a brutal battle.

Pushing the gate, Li Yi found it unlocked, which only confirmed her fears. It was Saturday, and even with remedial classes, school would have been out hours ago. Who leaves their door unlocked this late? The audacity of the Witch Council! To break into a magical girl’s home in broad daylight—it was lawless! They clearly had no respect for the Disaster Management Bureau!

Furious, Li Yi kicked the gate open, gripped her Seed, and charged in while transforming. "Don't be afraid, Keke! I'm here to help!"

Her sudden entrance sent a gust of wind through the narrow courtyard, toppling a bicycle leaning against the wall and scattering dead leaves. A pink glow illuminated the small space. A moment later, the transformed Silver Lotus stood frozen, her magic staff held high, looking stern. Across the yard, Keke stood dumbfounded, clutching a hundred-kilogram dumbbell she hadn't been able to lift.

There was no one else in the yard.

The atmosphere turned awkward.

"W-what’s wrong? Did something happen, Captain Silver Lotus?"

Li Yi quickly reverted to her human form, hurried over to prop up the bicycle, and let out a dry laugh. "I heard a noise in your yard and thought the Witch Council had broken in... The Bureau detected their movements today, so it’s not like I’m just being sensitive."

As she explained, Keke realized what had happened and found it somewhat amusing.

Li Yi asked again, "But what are you doing, making such a racket?"

Keke’s smile vanished. She let go of the dumbbell. "Nothing. Just exercising." She had been wrestling with this dumbbell since last night. She finally understood what Jiang Si meant by "a lack of mental clarity." Although she could lift it while transformed, the fact that she couldn't lift it in her human form gnawed at her. So, after finishing her homework and dinner, she had returned to the yard to try again.

She was a magical girl now; she refused to lose to Jiang Si. But the more she tried, the more she realized that human bodies had limits—and just how terrifying Jiang Si really was. He wasn't human. His physical strength was nearing the level of a transformed magical girl; it was unfathomable.

"What kind of exercise is just one dumbbell?" Li Yi muttered. To hide her embarrassment, she tried to pick it up nonchalantly. "For a magical girl, even without transforming, your strength increases. This weight shouldn't be..."

She pulled with all her might. It didn't budge. She nearly pulled a muscle. The girl turned serious, grabbed the dumbbell with both hands, and heaved again. Nothing. Li Yi looked up at Keke, who stared back innocently. The silence stretched on.

"Is this even a dumbbell for humans?"
"It’s what Jiang Si uses for his daily training..."

Li Yi fell silent, recalling that miserable cripple. "Well, I suppose that makes sense."

Stung by a competitive streak, she secretly borrowed some magic from her Seed. This time, she managed to heave the dumbbell off the ground with both hands. "Although... although it is a bit heavy, it’s not like a magical girl can’t do it..."

Keke guessed she had used magic, but she didn't call her out. She just poked Li Yi’s forehead. "Weightlifting makes you short, Captain."

Li Yi immediately dropped the dumbbell, which hit the ground with a deafening thud. She clapped her hands, shook out her arms, and changed the subject. "It’s so late. Why didn't you lock the door?"

"Jiang Si isn't back yet."

Li Yi froze, her expression turning tense. "Oh no, it’s so late. Could he have been captured by the Witch Council?"

"You think?" Keke was uncertain. "He often comes home late."

"What could he be doing out so late?"

"Training, or running errands for pocket money." Keke checked her phone. "It’s only eight o'clock. He usually returns before ten. Let’s wait until then."

"No! The Witch Council is active today—he even fought someone controlled by them at noon! We can't just sit here until ten." Li Yi stood up. "We have to find him!"

"Jiang Si fought someone controlled by the Witch Council?" Keke followed her captain out, locking the gate behind her. "What does that mean? Are they using ordinary people to fight him?"

"Yes! The Witch Council uses Grief Seeds to enhance ordinary people. It’s extremely dangerous!"

Keke said, "Oh," then instinctively asked, "Was he hurt?"

"No," Li Yi said, her expression complex. "Your brother almost killed the guy."

"Huh?"

Even knowing Jiang Si was formidable, the fact that he could defeat someone enhanced by the Witch Council caught Jiang Keke off guard. She had always felt that since she became a magical girl, the world she inhabited was beyond Jiang Si’s reach. No matter how much he trained, she thought, his physical body could never be a match for the extraordinary powers of a magical girl or the Witch Council. She had even assumed this defeat would leave Jiang Si depressed—after all, what was the point of all that training compared to someone gaining a Seed?

And yet, Li Yi was telling her that Jiang Si had nearly killed his opponent.

So, training really was useful?

"But that was just an ordinary person they randomly enhanced. If they target your brother for real, it will be incredibly dangerous. We have to hurry! Those people from the Witch Council never hesitate to kill!"

Following closely behind Li Yi, Keke looked at her Seed of Miracle, biting her lip, her thoughts in chaos. Keke hated Jiang Si. That hatred hadn't faded one bit since their parents' funeral, nor throughout the three years they had lived together. She couldn't forgive him, and he had never cared about her forgiveness—or her, for that matter. As siblings and family, they had lived like strangers, and she hadn't felt the need for that to change.

But.

Jiang Si might die at the hands of the Witch Council. Her only family would die, and it would be because of her. If she hadn't become a magical girl, Jiang Si wouldn't be targeted, and he wouldn't be in danger. She used to wish he would die. But now that he truly might, a spark of fear surged in her heart.

At the very least, he shouldn't die because of her, Keke thought. Their parents would be sad.

As she ran, clutching her Seed, a red magical energy, more intense than ever, began to envelop her.

***

Jiang Si had walked the path from Qingyun Sect to his home countless times; he could walk it with his eyes closed. But today, after hitting a dead end twice, he knew something was wrong. He couldn't have taken the wrong turn twice.

A "Ghost Wall."

In his previous life, he had researched many supernatural phenomena. After all, the cultivation stories he knew started with encounters with ghosts. A "Ghost Wall" was the most famous—usually, running into one meant you were in for a stroke of luck; many legendary tales began with just such an encounter. Countless heroes who started by bumping into a Ghost Wall ended up fighting Heaven-Emperors.

Although he no longer needed to seek out such anomalies to pursue the Great Dao, he still felt a sense of relief. It proved that his previous path hadn't been a waste of time, just a failure in execution.

He touched the wall; it felt no different from an ordinary wall. A reinforced concrete wall was much tougher than brick. It was indeed the perfect material for a Ghost Wall. Of course, if it were up to him, he would have chosen steel plates.

He held his breath, focused his mind, suddenly opened his eyes, retracted his abdomen, exhaled, and struck out with a fist! With terrifying force, he punched a hole straight through the concrete! He didn't stop, continuing to hammer at the wall until he had smashed a hole large enough for a person to pass through.

A Ghost Wall—as the name implied, as long as one’s strength was as formidable as a ghost’s, the wall could be broken. Simple as that.

Climbing through the rubble, Jiang Si looked around. It was definitely not a place he recognized. He must have reached the outskirts. The road was empty, lined with scattered poplar trees, and a sign marked "Highway 6." If he remembered correctly, this road was on the east side of BH City, far from the Disaster Management Bureau in the west.

He rubbed his knuckles, which were slightly bloodied. That was the biggest problem with not having magic. Even though his physical fitness was terrifying and his defense far surpassed that of an ordinary person, he was still prone to injuring himself compared to a magical girl. This was the biggest dilemma in his physical cultivation: if he could possess the constant protection of magic without relying on a Seed, he wouldn't need to transform.

"Heh, you really are a monster."

Looking up, a woman in a black robe stood in the night air, about ten meters above the ground, laughing hoarsely. "That was solid concrete. In all the magic pollution experiments the Witch Council has conducted, we’ve never seen a human like you. No wonder that guy lost. Heh, heh, heh. I’ve found something good."

Jiang Si twisted his wrist; punching through concrete had been slightly uncomfortable, but it was minor. He bent down to pick up a decent-sized rock, weighed it, and looked up at the woman. "It shouldn't be 'heh, heh, heh.' It should be 'jie, jie, jie.'"

Du Juan was baffled by the nonsensical comment. "'Jie, jie, jie'? What is that?"

"A truly terrifying villain only laughs with 'jie, jie, jie.' That’s what creates pressure." Jiang Si shook his head with a touch of disappointment. "You’re trash. You don't even know the basics, and you dare to work in the underworld?"

"The Witch Council is not a villainous organization, nor are we the underworld." She retorted instinctively, then wondered why she was playing along with this lunatic’s logic. Her magical buildup was complete, and she waved her hand. The ground beneath Jiang Si began to turn into a black, muddy swamp, attempting to swallow him whole.

As a precious test subject, Du Juan didn't just want to capture Jiang Si alive; she had to ensure he wasn't corrupted by her power. Otherwise, it would ruin the experiment. Every variable was destructive. That was why she had gone to the trouble of setting up the Ghost Wall, trapping him, and slowly soaking the ground with magic to consume him.

Seeing this, Jiang Si tossed the rock he had picked up into the air. Du Juan thought he was trying to hit her and prepared to defend. She knew he could jump six meters, so she had maintained an altitude of ten. As a veteran with plenty of experience fighting humans, she knew their Achilles' heel: if they couldn't touch her, they couldn't threaten her.

Throwing a rock was a child’s move. It couldn't possibly work, but she was cautious by nature. She prepared to swat it away.

As it turned out, the rock wasn't thrown very high; it lost momentum five or six meters up. She laughed grimly. "Kid, out of strength after breaking a wall?"

The next second, before the magic could swallow him, Jiang Si stomped on the ground with such force that the shockwave dispersed the surrounding magic! He leaped into the air. No, it was more like he flew!

Du Juan had never seen a human jump so high! However, at seven meters, his momentum slowed, and he began to fall. He had gone a meter higher than expected. If she hadn't been cautious and left that extra three-meter buffer, he would have reached her.

"You..."

Before she could finish, she saw Jiang Si, while falling, suddenly step on the rock he had thrown. He surged upward again! He reached a height above Du Juan!

For the first time, Du Juan realized what it felt like to be a human facing her. This was completely irrational...

There was no time to think. Jiang Si was too fast—so fast that Du Juan only had time to raise her arms in a defensive posture. A terrifying leg-drop crashed down on her! Under the moonlight, the Witch Council member fell like a meteor into the concrete rubble below!

At the same time, Jiang Si seized the moment, grabbing a branch from a nearby poplar tree—the branch, thick as an arm, snapped under his weight. Using it to cushion his landing, he hit the ground hard. The impact cracked the earth.

He stood up and tapped his toes on the ground, letting the numbness fade from his feet. He felt exhilarated. He had just made a breakthrough and immediately had a test subject to practice on. It was like having a dragon appear right after learning how to slay one. This promotion had significantly improved his strength, speed, and reaction time. His body, tempered by a double dose of magic, had once again transcended common sense. Even Jiang Si was impressed.

Next time, he could try tempering it with three doses...

Du Juan crawled out of the rubble, covered in blood, her face twisted in a snarl. "Good, good, good! You’ve done well!"

"Jie, jie, jie."

He mimicked the laugh he thought she should have used, trying to provide the sound effect for her, then cupped his hands in a polite salute. "Just a stroke of luck."

Then, Jiang Si watched as his opponent pulled out a Seed. A rotten, jet-black Seed emitted a dark light. A power as thick as ink enveloped Du Juan’s entire body.

She hissed in a low voice:

"Wail in the dark purgatory!"

"Transform!"