Chapter Six: That Truly Was a Delight

What does "Budding Great Perfection" mean? Why does Great Perfection have the prefix "half-step"? Bing Tang could never quite understand the principle behind it all, but she knew one thing for certain: Jiang Si knew so much. He always used mysterious terms she had never heard before. Though she didn’t understand them, she found it impressive.

She trusted everything Jiang Si said without question. Over three years, she rarely asked what his words meant. If it was useful, he would explain it later; if not, she simply wouldn’t hear about it again. Jiang Si often used one-off terms.

By the time she finished copying her homework, Jiang Si had already completed his warm-up exercises.

“Time for real combat.”

Indeed, training could make one feel stronger, but for Jiang Si, only training that could be applied in real combat was effective. Just like the essence of learning is to develop one’s own method, knowledge from high school or university often becomes useless in society, but learning methods never become obsolete.

If one cannot see through the essence and becomes addicted to training itself, it’s putting the cart before the horse—lulling oneself to sleep in the comfort zone. Jiang Si had once gone through such a confusing period but no longer allowed superficial strength to deceive him.

If training could not be translated into real strength, it was utterly meaningless. After every session, once he felt genuinely stronger, he had to validate it through actual combat.

“Dongjun.”

“I told you, just call me Bing Tang…”

A slight pout, but she obediently took out her magical seed. The clear blue seed looked like an ice sculpture. As she grasped it, an icy blue power blossomed, coldness spreading wildly. Bing Tang’s gaze grew resolute.

In a voice too faint to hear, she murmured a spell. Ice condensed into a gigantic dragon, bursting forth from the seed in her hand, covering the entire cave with frost.

“The Primordial Dragon Descends!”

The enormous ice dragon bit down from above, swallowing Bing Tang whole!

The girl was frozen inside an ice block shaped like a dragon until she gently pushed it with her hand. The surrounding ice shattered into sparkling fragments and dispersed, revealing Bing Tang transformed back into the blue magical girl who had dispelled the disaster beast at the bus stop that morning.

Magical Girl Dongjun.

For three years, Jiang Si had hidden his identity by personally handling most of the disaster beasts. His strength was undeniable—he had already stepped halfway into the realm of flourishing power. Even the current Disaster Control Bureau had no good way to deal with him and still hadn’t located him.

Though Jiang Si thought this was more due to the bureau’s incompetence.

“Why is the spell so quiet? Didn’t you eat breakfast this morning?”

Faced with Jiang Si’s sudden question, Bing Tang tugged at her icy, crystalline magical girl dress. “Of course it’s too embarrassing to say…”

It was actually quite cool.

Jiang Si had helped her come up with the transformation incantation, but she was unwilling to say it aloud. He urged, “Never mind, just hurry up and release that disaster beast from this morning.”

Taking a deep breath, the blue magical girl extended her right hand clad in a white glove, the lace at her wrist resembling strings of ice crystals.

“Clumsy work, Part One: Inferior Reflection in the Mirror.”

Frost quickly condensed from her hand, forming the large-eyed disaster beast from that morning’s bus stop scene. The icy body was somewhat stiff, and even a slight movement caused shards of ice to fall.

Bing Tang exhaled a puff of white mist. For her, long-term manipulation of cold ice caused her body temperature to drop significantly. Magical girls below the flourishing stage always had such limitations.

“By the way, besides the four major stages, the Disaster Control Bureau actually has specific data classifications that divide a magical girl’s abilities into six detailed values, including strength, mana, reflexes, speed…”

“Data streams are garbage.”

Seeing Jiang Si charging at the large-eyed disaster beast, Bing Tang nervously remarked, “This disaster beast’s stats are overall higher than your physical body…”

Before she finished, a fierce side kick struck the big-eyed monster like a blade or an axe, shattering the ice crystals instantly.

Bing Tang’s eyes widened.

Even though this was the first reflection she constructed, its strength was undeniable. Statistically, it should have been at least one level above Jiang Si’s untransformed state.

“Who cares about data size in battle?”

Jiang Si’s disdainful comment snapped Bing Tang back to reality, and she nodded earnestly.

“Yeah, it all comes down to actual combat. But your physical body is getting stronger and stronger. Some magical girls probably can’t even match you now. It’s incredible.”

“Just average.”

Jiang Si wasn’t being modest. This body was far behind his transformed magical girl strength. Transformations had their limits and made one a target. If possible, he wanted to elevate his physical strength, reflexes, and speed into the realm of a magical girl.

Transformation should be a last resort, not the norm for combat.

Xiao Yan wouldn’t unleash his Flame Lotus right away; Tang San wouldn’t use his Blue Silver Claw immediately.

But unfortunately, Jiang Si’s physical strength was improving too slowly, so he had to take it step by step.

After stretching a little, Jiang Si was about to turn back to continue training when he noticed the shattered ice on the ground reforming into the large-eyed disaster beast.

“Not over yet. The special thing about that big-eyed disaster beast is its regeneration.”

Seeing Bing Tang smirk mischievously, Jiang Si snorted coldly. Just as he was about to shatter the ice beast again, a red light from its eye locked onto him, instantly paralyzing him.

Slowly, it rose into the air and increased the distance. Power gathered around it; the massive crimson energy in its eyeball grew more concentrated, aiming directly at Jiang Si.

No matter how much he trained, his strong body couldn’t jump that high. That height required flight, which Jiang Si’s body couldn’t achieve yet.

At the moment the red energy burst forth, a violet flame quietly rose.

A flash of a graceful figure streaked by, and the ice crystal disaster beast was instantly engulfed in purple flames, burning fiercely!

Almost crashing to the ground, Jiang Si’s feet dug into the earth, a scorching purple seed in his hand. He blew on it, and the flames ahead vanished instantly.

Was that a momentary transformation? Or no transformation at all, just tapping into the seed’s magic?

Bing Tang found herself utterly unable to keep up with Jiang Si’s speed. What saddened her more was missing the chance to see Jiang Si’s adorable transformed form.

The magical girl who had once saved her—now it was not easy to catch a glimpse of him.

“Looks like more training is needed.”

Without knowing how she arrived at this conclusion, Jiang Si had already put away the seed and slipped into a passionate training state.

Bing Tang reverted back, rubbed her hands, blew warm air onto her palms, then glanced at her phone.

“Lingling, who’s undercover in the Disaster Control Bureau, sent a message.”

Jiang Si, doing push-ups, casually asked, “What’s the message?”

“The bureau detected several birth singularities of disaster beasts, but they’re short-handed and plan to temporarily abandon some…”

Bing Tang froze as she looked at her phone, then picked up her collection device and checked again.

“There’s one birth singularity at your sister’s middle school…”