Belief

The aura of Magical Girl Leng Xuan was completely different from that of Ye Huasheng and Lilia.

If those two carried the unique naivete and immaturity of young girls, she exuded the air of a seasoned veteran.

Her voice carried an unquestionable authority.

Bai Hai stared at her, mentally calculating the extent of her power, while the chief also stared at her, feeling that this magical girl was incredibly familiar.

ROAR—!

But in the next moment, a terrifying and menacing roar echoed from the depths of the autopsy center.

Then, everyone saw the shadow of the cold building seem to come alive, rippling like water—only then did they all finally understand the source of the faint, unsettling feeling they’d had all along!

The Anomaly had been hiding right under their noses the entire time!

Bai Hai looked closely and realized it wasn’t a shadow, but a thin layer of mist, or rather, a gas.

It had a black yet transparent quality, clinging to the edges of the building’s shadow.

If it hadn’t moved on its own, it would have been impossible to see with the naked eye.

“This thing… it really is!”

Magical Girl Leng Xuan watched the mist gradually coalesce into a solid form, biting her lip.

When her Source Blood had first warned her, the scene in her vision had seemed very familiar.

It was the enemy she had faced back in Yungu City when she was just a rookie magical girl—it really hadn’t died!

The black gas gathered quickly in the air, forming a giant black bat.

Its crimson eyes flickered ominously as its huge, fleshy wings slowly unfurled.

Sunlight pierced through the holes in its wings and fell upon the girls, feeling exceptionally cold.

A tangible malice hung over everyone’s heads.

“A spider this morning, a bat this afternoon.
Why are the Anomalies in this city getting weirder and weirder!”

Ye Huasheng was the first to act.

Her magic wand gathered powerful magic, ready to be hurled at the enemy.

Bai Hai’s eye twitched seeing his idiot sister’s actions, and he almost cursed out loud—

The people here hadn’t evacuated yet.

If a fight broke out now, many of them would die!

Just as Ye Huasheng was about to fire her magic blast, Leng Xuan reached out and stopped her.

A powerful surge of her own magic directly dispelled the spell, which, though seemingly powerful, was actually exceedingly simple.

“You fool, this is not the place to fight!”

“Besides, magic like that could never defeat this Anomaly!”

In that instant, the black bat flapped its wings, and its enormous body transformed into a black shadow, fleeing into the distance!

It actually ran away!

“It’s all your fault, you let it get away!”

Seeing this, Ye Huasheng grew anxious and was about to give chase, but Leng Xuan stopped her again, pointing to the autopsy center in the distance.

“This is not an enemy you can handle.
There are many corpses in that building about to reanimate.
You and Lilia restrain them.
Do not, under any circumstances, try to bombard them with magic.
You must control them.
If they get out into the city, it will cause mass chaos!”

“What?
How did you know…”

Leng Xuan clearly had no intention of answering Ye Huasheng’s question.

A faint light flashed on her pale-blue magic wand, transforming it into a simple, ancient-style three-chi longsword.

Potent magic enveloped the sharp blade, emitting a low hum.

Leng Xuan herself became like a sword, lunging with unstoppable sharpness in the direction the bat had fled, vanishing in an instant.

“Wait!”

Almost at the same time, Liu Xiaoxiao, who was behind Bai Hai, saw the Anomaly and the magical girl leave.

She also shouted and immediately rushed to her police car.

She was so fast that neither Bai Hai nor the chief had time to stop her before she started the engine and chased after the fading light!

A strange silence suddenly fell over the scene.

Everyone, including Bai Hai, was left bewildered by the abrupt turn of events.

Ye Huasheng’s disgruntled shout broke the deathly silence.

“What is even happening!”

“I think Lin… Leng Xuan must have her reasons.
Maybe she’s seen this Anomaly before,” Lilia whispered to Ye Huasheng.

To this, Ye Huasheng could only nod.

She had no choice.

The person was long gone, so saying anything was useless.

ROAR—!

Suddenly, a series of unsettling roars came from inside the autopsy center.

Everyone’s attention was drawn to it.

Clearly, the giant black bat wasn’t the only threat here.

Bai Hai, however, gave the chief a strange look.

He recalled what the magical girl named Leng Xuan had said before she left, that there were many corpses inside about to reanimate…
The chief had said the same thing.

Combining this with what Liu Xiaoxiao had said earlier about “Yungu City’s Anomaly No. 35,” he suddenly felt that there might be some very complex entanglements here.

“All units, check your equipment immediately!
Enter the autopsy center in squads and restrain all the corpses inside just like before!”

The chief reacted instantly, issuing a series of orders.

He quickly put on a set of gear himself, preparing to go in personally.

“Hey, didn’t you hear me?
I told you to evacuate!
The things inside are Anomalies, not something you ordinary people can handle!”

Ye Huasheng was already annoyed that Leng Xuan had left them here.

When she turned her head and saw the police officers gearing up to charge in, she was startled.

She quickly rushed over to the chief, who was clearly the leader, and shouted.

“We’ll clean up everything inside.”

“Thank you for your kind intentions.”

The chief looked at the magical girl before him and suddenly bowed slightly in respect.

“On behalf of myself, I would like to express my gratitude for your continuous battles against Anomalies for the sake of our city and its people.”

“Ahaha, it’s really nothing…”

Hearing this, Ye Huasheng immediately puffed up with pride, letting out a smug laugh.

Lilia, standing beside her, covered her face with her hand, too embarrassed to watch.

“However, we also have our own responsibilities.
Our duty is to fight Anomalies to ensure the safety of the public until the Urban Security Bureau arrives.
More importantly… the corpses inside that are about to reanimate are our comrades.”

“This is our responsibility.”

The chief’s words were forceful and resonant, carrying an equally unquestionable authority.

It left Ye Huasheng speechless.

She opened her mouth, but could only mumble in the end, “Do you have any idea you’re going to your deaths?”

“That’s because everyone here is fighting for their convictions.
As a magical girl, can you not understand that?”

At that moment, a voice that sounded particularly familiar to Ye Huasheng spoke up.

She looked toward the source of the voice in confusion, and the magical girl was completely stunned!

Someone who shouldn’t be here had appeared!

“If you cannot understand their convictions, then at least show them some respect.

You magical girls aren’t the only ones in this world fighting Anomalies.”

Bai Hai glanced at Ye Huasheng, trying his best to act like he didn’t know her, and walked right past her to the chief.

“Chief, my apologies.
I couldn’t stop her.”

“…It’s alright.
I know.
She must be unwilling to let it go.”

The chief sighed deeply.

“As it turns out, she was right.”

Hearing this, Bai Hai became even more certain that this master-apprentice pair had an unusual connection to the so-called Yungu City’s Anomaly No. 35.

“Wait… don’t ignore me!”

This was the second time Ye Huasheng had been left standing there.

She forcefully interrupted the conversation between the two men, looking at her cheap older brother with a puzzled expression.

“And you, what are you doing here?”

Bai Hai shot a glance at Ye Huasheng.

Liu Xiaoxiao was dense, but his sister was just plain thoughtless.

He put on a stern face and said, “What, do you know me?”

“Huh?”

Ye Huasheng was stunned again.

Girls as thoughtless as her were all the same.

They spoke without thinking, and when called out, their brains would short-circuit because it took too much effort to come up with a cover story.

After a long moment, she put her hands on her hips and said:

“We met yesterday!
I was the one who saved you!
If it weren’t for me, you and your car would have been eaten by No. 213!”

“Oh, well, thank you so much for that.”

“It’s good that you’re grateful!
But what’s with your attitude?”

Ye Huasheng looked at Bai Hai, thinking she finally had a chance to properly lecture him.

“As the one who was saved, I don’t expect your gratitude, but you could at least show some approval for us, right?”

“What?
Did you become a magical girl for the approval of others?”

However, Bai Hai’s single sentence choked Ye Huasheng, leaving her speechless, her face flushing red.

Then, Bai Hai’s next words struck again:

“Also, when you say ‘saved,’ are you referring to how the aftershock of your battle nearly blew us to kingdom come?”

“…Huh?”

Ye Huasheng froze, about to retort instinctively, but then she suddenly remembered that something like that did happen.

At the time, she was busy fighting, and since the two of them weren’t hurt, she hadn’t paid them any mind.

“I wouldn’t have brought it up, but as a magical girl, you pay no attention to your surroundings when you fight.
All you know is how to bombard things wildly with magic.
Your fighting technique is laughable.
That includes just now.
If you hadn’t been stopped, do you know how many people would have died?
Where is your brain?
Can you please think a little more about the people around you, and not just yourself.”

Bai Hai’s words were like sharp thorns, stabbing one by one into the girl’s young heart.

What was worse was that every thorn hit a vital spot, sharp and precise.

Ye Huasheng couldn’t refute any of it.

“I don’t know why you became a magical girl, or what you’re fighting for.
But if you plan to win others’ approval with a performance like that, if you treat innocent lives as props for your own self-fulfillment, then you should just give up on being a magical girl and go back to school.”

After speaking, Bai Hai couldn’t be bothered with her anymore.

He walked straight toward the autopsy center, planning to go in and investigate with the police.

Ye Huasheng finally snapped out of her shock.

She had intended to scold someone else, but ended up getting a lecture herself.

This made her very unhappy, but she didn’t know how to retort, so she could only mumble under her breath:

“Why are you being so serious about it?”

“Actually, I think your brother is right.”

However, Lilia came over just in time to land another blow.

“Whose side are you on!”