The Aftermath of the Failed Prison Break and a Troubled Investigation

Aftermath.

Warden Hera submitted the report of the failed prison break attempt, encoded within encrypted magical runes.

The alarm lights at the Tanhua City Magical Girl Association branch continued to flash. The report, like a bombshell, swiftly traveled along the communication network to the headquarters in Meihua City.

****

Upon receiving the report, Kloxia rubbed her temples.

‘This Zhennu Yibai is, after all, the ‘Calamity-Designated One’ personally chosen by the Lily Flower Goddess Jialian. There must be no mishaps.’

‘Let them remain securely imprisoned until the ‘storm’ arrives…’

Kloxia issued instructions to the hovering light screen:

“Reply to the Tanhua City branch… ensure strict custody. Do not allow him to commit suicide.”

“Arrange a super-max cell for Zhennu Yibai, along with six psychological evaluations daily… If Zhennu Yibai’s mental state deteriorates significantly, dispatch a therapist for one-on-one counseling. Any means necessary, even personal sacrifice, is acceptable…”

She paused. A flicker of wariness crossed her eyes.

‘What if Zhennu Yibai secretly hoarded some magic and destroyed his own heart meridian? That would be the end of it.’

“One more thing: if any abnormal fluctuations in his heart meridian are detected, immediately administer a sedative… Remember, the psychological counseling team is to be on 24-hour standby.”

****

Meanwhile, in Tanhua City.

Ambulances and police cars lined the streets, their red and blue flashing lights casting an eerie, blood-blue glow over the alleys. Over a dozen female corpses lay strewn across the gloomy alleyway.

Ghastly bite marks tore at the flesh of their necks, while livid strangulation bruises stood out starkly against their pale skin. According to the caller, she had discovered over a dozen horribly mutilated female corpses in the alley, already emitting the stench of decay.

The putrid odor, mingled with the lingering scent of blood, permeated the cold wind. Even the low temperatures of winter could not conceal the accelerated decomposition of the bodies.

Reporters’ cameras broadcast the gruesome scene in real-time onto the light screens in thousands of homes. Instantly, the internet’s trending comment sections were flooded with panicked discussions of a ‘zombie killer.’

Indeed, the manner of death… did it not truly resemble the work of ‘zombies’ from a movie screen?

****

Meanwhile, the ‘culprit’ behind it all stood atop Chaoyang Mountain, where the accumulating snow rustled softly in the wind.

Lina, surprisingly, caught a whiff of Silvia’s scent here. It was emanating from a stone pavilion, and from the three young women there: Qiye, Weizhan, and Xincheng.

It seemed the four of them often gathered here.

After a moment, Lina gazed down from Chaoyang Mountain, taking in the entire panorama of Tanhua City.

She mused. ‘Where should I go now?’

‘Her ‘master’ and blood source, who had taken her in, was gone…’

Lina’s primary objective now was to find her fiancée, Kuganawa, whose whereabouts were unknown. Her secondary goal was to drink blood and recover her strength.

At present, she had likely regained a little over ten percent of her peak power. However, because she had primarily consumed the blood of mortals recently, her strength hadn’t recovered significantly. Her physique, intelligence, and emotional quotient, however, were certainly improving.

Lina still possessed the physique of a young girl, a noticeable difference from a mature woman. Just then, a shadowy magical phantom floated up from below the stone steps. Was this the magical phantom of the Great Witch Ling Qinghe?

Lina, of course, noticed this presence.

“Standing alone in the wind, Miss Lina, you seem quite unburdened, hmm… It appears you’ve made the world your home?”

Ling Qinghe’s voice was wrapped in a sweet, cloying tone, like decaying leaves.

Hearing this, Lina merely scoffed, disdaining such ‘cowardly’ women. Yet, upon seeing her reaction, the Great Witch Ling Qinghe’s magical phantom merely twisted into a distorted smile.

It continued:

“Miss Lina, why don’t we cooperate? You could join our Coven as a nominal member, help us gather resentment, and we’ll pay you in witch’s blood. What do you say?”

Having said this, the magical phantom conjured five bottles of blood out of thin air and offered them to her. As Lina took them, she caught a whiff of a delicate sweetness, stirring the unique bloodlust inherent to her vampiric nature.

While the scent couldn’t compare to Silvia’s, it was at least within the realm of enjoyable sustenance… enough to alleviate her immediate needs.

‘Enjoyable’ and ‘drinkable’ were two distinct concepts.

“Join us, and for every successful resentment collection, you’ll receive twenty bottles of witch’s blood at once…”

Ling Qinghe’s magical phantom drew closer, its hair transforming into black vines that writhed in the air.

“The Iris Feather Kingdom is rife with believers disillusioned by the ‘Virgin’ hoax; resentment is ripe for the taking…”

“Heh heh~ Then why don’t you go yourself?”

“Me? Given my nature, I prefer to remain behind the scenes…”

Ling Qinghe’s words were true; her ability to securely hold a professorship at Qinghe High School and avoid investigation spoke volumes about her caution.

****

Hearing this, Lina found it intriguing, but a thought quickly occurred to her: if she could just capture a witch to serve as a blood source, why would she need to bother with tasks?

“While your sincerity is considerable, sending a mere phantom isn’t enough; send a living person.”

Lina toyed with the blood bottles.

“If I recall correctly, Silvia mentioned you… Great Witch Ling Qinghe, you have a sister. Have her come and speak with me… Otherwise, I wouldn’t mind personally capturing a witch to be my blood source.”

The magical phantom, however, let out a piercing cackle, its tone suddenly turning serious:

“Miss Lina, I cannot possibly hand my sister over to you…”

“However~ since Zhennu Yibai is no longer here, her three juniors would make excellent candidates. Perhaps you…”

But Lina shook her head upon hearing this.

“Forget it, I’m not interested in them… They’re too disheartened; it would affect the taste of their blood…”

Ling Qinghe immediately understood that Lina was spouting nonsense. It was clear she was showing deference to Zhennu Yibai, choosing not to target the Three Primary Colors squad.

Ultimately, the Great Witch Ling Qinghe extended an invitation: Ling Qinghe herself would meet Lina at 8 PM, behind Acacia Plaza.

****

Meanwhile, inside a two-story villa.

A cold wind, laden with ice pellets, rattled against the floor-to-ceiling windows. As evening approached, it seemed poised to snow again.

In the bedroom, Xia Naxin curled up in velvet sheets, her knuckles clutching the pillow, tears leaving mottled streaks across her face.

She couldn’t comprehend why Silvia was a man… He had clearly been a woman before, and she had even checked his body!

In her memories, the delicate sensation of embracing ‘her’. Their intimate time together had lacked only two things: a first night and a first kiss.

Xia Naxin knew that at that time, the other person had absolutely no male characteristics! Yet all of this was utterly incompatible with the image of the silver-haired man reported in the news today.

Why, exactly?

As she pondered, Xia Naxin belatedly realized she had stopped crying. She simply couldn’t suddenly accept the shock of her ‘girlfriend’ being a man.

But now, she had retched and cried. The bitter sourness from vomiting still lingered in her mouth, and her cried-out eyes were swollen and painful.

Xia Naxin calmed down. She sat up, her gaze gradually clearing as she murmured:

“Perhaps, I can investigate him…”

Without delay, Xia Naxin grabbed the jacket tossed on her bedside and headed downstairs. The moment she started her car—

She thought of a few locations: One was the hospital, to check Silvia’s birth certificate… After all, a stub copy of the birth certificate would be kept there. The others were places like household registration offices. Silvia should have a household registration in Tanhua City, right…?

Once she had decided, she drove directly to Tanhua City People’s Hospital.

****

Upon arriving nearby, Xia Naxin closed her eyes, and her entire being vanished from ‘reality,’ entering the inner world. That is, she once again projected herself into reality as a soul entity.

Inside the hospital, within its network database, there was a representation in the inner world as well—countless floating golden orbs, each carrying a vast amount of information.

Xia Naxin navigated among the orbs, rapidly searching for information related to ‘Silvia.’ Soon, Xia Naxin discovered that Silvia’s birth certificate… indeed stated ‘female’?!

“Gender: Female”

These words were clearly visible. This discovery brought a surge of joy to Xia Naxin’s heart.

Her soul body trembled slightly, as surprise and doubt simultaneously flooded her mind. If the birth certificate indicated female, then why had he become a man?

Could the Iris Feather Kingdom be engaging in inhumane acts, secretly conducting terrifying gender-change experiments, with Silvia unfortunately becoming a test subject? Or perhaps someone had deliberately framed him?

‘Hmm,’ Xia Naxin thought, ‘it seems I’ll have to question Ling Qinghe; she must know something…’

Immediately after, Xia Naxin also tried to look up Silvia’s parents. The result? Only two names appeared.

One was Silvia Molly, the other Xuan Ling. As for contact information, address, and the like, they were all blank? Had they been blocked, deliberately erased by magic, or simply never filled in?

After several fruitless attempts, Xia Naxin sighed helplessly, having no choice but to temporarily abandon the investigation. Next, she needed to ask Ling Qinghe… What exactly had happened that night?

****

Returning to reality, Xia Naxin once again drove towards Qinghe High School. Once inside Qinghe High School, she headed straight for Ling Qinghe’s office.

Pushing open the door, she saw Ling Qinghe still reviewing documents. Hearing the sound, Ling Qinghe slowly raised her head. However, the gaze behind her glasses was inscrutable.

Ling Qinghe rarely left her office, except for teaching and holidays. Without any pleasantries, Xia Naxin immediately inquired about Zhennu Yibai.

However, Ling Qinghe herself didn’t fully understand what had happened to him. She only knew that before ambushing Zhennu Yibai, she had used a divination technique to foresee his fate.

She then began to recount that divination experience:

“Before I ambushed Zhennu Yibai, I performed a customary divination. As I wrote the four characters ‘Zhen Nu Yi Bai’ on a piece of white paper, the tip of my pen suddenly moved on its own, uncontrollably piercing the character for ‘Nu’ (女)… Subsequently, the characters for ‘Zhen Nan Yi Bai’ (贞男亦白) appeared…”

Ling Qinghe had been stunned at the time. This led to the later scene where Zhennu Yibai truly revealed his male form after his magic was blocked.

Hearing this, Xia Naxin’s heart sank abruptly, and she grew even more confused. She began to doubt the authenticity of the birth certificate.

‘Could that thing be fake…?’

‘So, Silvia, are you a man or a woman?’

Xia Naxin sighed. Just as she was about to leave, Ling Qinghe called out to her.

“The organization has assigned a new task. Are you interested?”

Hearing this, Xia Naxin paused, turning to look back.

She asked, puzzled:

“What task?”

Xia Naxin had never paid attention to the Coven’s affairs, never collected resentment; she was merely a nominal witch.

Hearing this, Ling Qinghe stood up, walked to the window, and gazed out at the light snow falling in the evening.

“Recently, the Zhennu Yibai incident has stirred up public opinion, and there’s also a ‘mystery person’ widely spreading rumors online, slandering the Magical Girl Association and inciting public unrest… So, the organization is planning to seize this opportunity to send more witches to infiltrate the Iris Feather Kingdom…”

After all, the Coven’s headquarters was not within the Iris Feather Kingdom, but abroad. Witches like Ling Qinghe, Ling Cheyin, and Xia Naxin had, years ago, crossed the Iris Feather Kingdom’s border through illegal means to blend in. Then, using their appearances and other factors, they obtained visas to reside in the Iris Feather Kingdom. Covertly, however, they acted on the Coven’s directives, collecting resentment within the Iris Feather Kingdom.

Hearing this, Xia Naxin frowned. She had promised Silvia… not to commit evil.

“I’m not intere—”

Before she could finish, Ling Qinghe interrupted her:

“You will be interested. Deep down… you actually want to rescue Zhennu Yibai, don’t you? Ah~ How easy would it be to simply rescue someone? The main issue is that the Iris Feather Kingdom won’t accept him… Zhennu Yibai has lost all his reputation. And I, as his girlfriend, even detested him back then; I must have completely broken his heart…”

Xia Naxin bit her lower lip. She had indeed been impulsive back then.

“Don’t worry, if you get involved, I can find a way to clear Zhennu Yibai’s name…”

“Huh~?”

Xia Naxin was dumbfounded. The promise Ling Qinghe had made was truly ‘shocking.’ She wondered if this was just another empty promise from Ling Qinghe. Ling Qinghe had certainly misled her more than once.

“Then what’s your plan? Could it be… you possess gender-change magic? Do you have a way to turn him back into a woman?”

After all, short of using gender-change magic to revert him to a woman, Xia Naxin truly couldn’t conceive of any other way to restore Silvia’s reputation. The problem was, current gender-change magic was highly immature, with an extremely high mortality rate.

Hearing this, Ling Qinghe, however, merely smiled expectantly.

“There are always ways, it just depends on whether you’re willing to trust me…”

“Alright then~”

Xia Naxin sighed, resigned. Ling Qinghe might as well have written ‘Believe it or not’ across her face. At most, Xia Naxin would make an exception, and for Silvia’s sake, work for the organization just this once.

“However, if it involves gender reassignment, I want to personally witness the progress… If there are any risks, the process must be terminated, or I must be informed beforehand.”

“Of course, and do you have any other requirements?”

****

After a while, Xia Naxin agreed, and the initial terms were settled.

Once Xia Naxin left, a meaningful smile spread across Ling Qinghe’s face. She retrieved a sealed letter from deep within her drawer, upon which was boldly written the Lily Flower Goddess Jialian’s prophecy regarding Zhennu Yibai—

It asserted that in the future… Zhennu Yibai would inevitably appear as a ‘hero.’

By then… heh heh~

Ling Qinghe gently stroked the letter, murmuring softly:

“Using an information asymmetry to achieve one’s goals, isn’t that the simplest and most effective method?”

She had an informant within the Magical Girl Association headquarters. Not only did she have a cooperative relationship with Lingguang Yixian, but the same applied to some beyond-special-grade individuals.

However, did Ling Qinghe truly have the confidence to clear Zhennu Yibai’s name? She did, but… she needed to experiment—

Specifically, whether the high mortality risk of gender-change magic was linked to the magic level of the individual undergoing the change.