Immediately after, Silvia stopped precisely on the boundary line of the yin and yang fish, the very curve where the two forces met.
At this point, Ling Qinghe and Ling Cheyin approached, embracing their elder sister from behind. They were both intensely curious about Silvia’s gender transformation process.
This was their first time witnessing such a gender-altering spell.
Ling Qinghe spread her hands, and two orbs of magical energy—one black, one white—materialized in her palms. She sent them flying towards the yang fish and the yin fish respectively.
This was the reverse sequence.
To make the two fish of the Taiji diagram spin in reverse, Silvia, currently embodying male yang energy, would transform into the ultimate female yin.
“Taiji reverse birth, Two Forms inverted!” she cried out softly.
Sure enough, the Taiji diagram beneath Silvia’s feet began to move. The Primordial Taiji birthed the Two Forms, and as it spun, the Two Forms would give rise to the Four Symbols.
At this moment, Silvia felt as if his very bones were being reshaped. His facial features softened, his Adam’s apple gradually receded, and his hands began to shrink.
Yet, a slight swelling sensation bloomed in his left breast, while the right remained flat.
He heard Xia Naxin’s gasp of surprise, only to realize his own gaze was slowly aligning with hers, his height diminishing as if growing in reverse.
His body, too, exhibited a strange asymmetry on both sides.
Half-male, half-female?
****
The Taiji diagram continued to spin.
However, the problem was that it had not yet reached the stage where the Four Symbols birthed the Eight Trigrams. In other words, was there insufficient power?
Strange… the Four Symbols had manifested, yet the Eight Trigrams struggled to form.
Ling Qinghe stared at the Four Symbols totems on the edge of the formation. The Yin, Yang, Firm, and Gentle symbols were only half-lit.
The rotation speed of the yin and yang fish had fallen by thirty percent below expectations.
Seeing this, Xia Naxin visibly tensed, her neck retracting slightly as she prayed internally for no accidents to occur.
Inside the formation, Silvia looked at her already prominent left breast, finding it peculiar that only half had developed.
Furthermore, she felt the magical energy within her body dissipating in a visible, misty concentration from various parts of her being.
The yin and yang fish were devouring her magic, accelerating their rotation slightly, but still not reaching the required speed.
“Increase your magic output quickly!”
Upon hearing this, Silvia no longer held back. A dense, silver magical energy exploded and condensed around her body, even forming an ethereal cloak.
But this immense magical output was ultimately… useless?
The speed remained unchanged.
She realized that the consumption rate of these yin and yang fish had a threshold. They only consumed in small mouthfuls, like a gluttonous yet lazy beast.
No, this was a limitation inherent to the formation itself!
No matter how hard she tried, the consumption rate of the yin and yang fish did not significantly increase. In other words, they could only swallow so much magic at a time.
It was like a small cup that could never hold the ocean’s water, or a low-displacement car that wouldn’t go much faster no matter how much gas it was given.
Seeing this, Ling Qinghe frowned, her expression changing as she murmured, “As expected, an accident has occurred…”
At that moment, Xia Naxin grew visibly anxious.
“What should we do, then?”
However, Ling Qinghe remained unhurried, her tone carrying an ‘inopportune’ calmness. “Wait… after all, the yin and yang fish eat slowly. Slow means steady, and this also represents stability, like boiling a frog in warm water.”
“Yes, as long as Silvia can hold on…”
But as they waited, Silvia clutched her mouth, beginning to cough violently. She coughed up blood!
Ling Qinghe, kneeling on the ground, observed Silvia’s waist and abdomen. The masculine features were blurring, yet not entirely receding.
‘This is bad,’ Silvia thought. ‘I’m experiencing the flaw I had when I was a woman—prone to magical紊乱. I’m no longer completely a man.’
Moreover, her magic level was regressing! Silvia’s magical cloak began to fade, her magic level rapidly plummeting while continuously draining.
“What’s happening? Her magic is in chaos!”
Xia Naxin’s voice trembled, a sudden unease gripping her heart. Her pupils reflected the wavering figure of her beloved.
“Has an accident truly happened…”
“If we stop now, he will become a neither-male-nor-female ‘monster.’ Should we continue, or…”
Ling Qinghe smiled, turning to the woman beside her.
‘But someone will choose the latter for him, right?’
Suddenly, Ling Qinghe leaned close to Xia Naxin’s ear.
“Continue.”
Xia Naxin didn’t hesitate.
‘I still have magic. For Via, I am willing to give everything.’
Ling Qinghe then stepped back half a pace, admiring Xia Naxin’s ‘resolute’ expression. Things were becoming increasingly interesting.
Inside the formation, Silvia was already half-male, half-female. She knew that the gender transformation magic absolutely could not be interrupted now.
A hoarse, whimpering sound, somewhere between a man’s and a woman’s, escaped her throat.
‘I can’t stop…’ she murmured to herself, the taste of blood welling up in her throat.
Now, she finally understood what Ling Qinghe had meant by ‘worse than death.’
‘So, this is what it means to be neither male nor female?! This won’t do. If I were to become such an existence, then I… I wouldn’t want to live. I truly wouldn’t want to live; it would be more agonizing than death itself.’
Silvia continued to maintain her magic output, feeding the yin and yang fish, but it felt like pouring into a bottomless pit, offering no hope. At the same time, she was still coughing up blood, even bleeding from all seven orifices.
However, her will to transform back into a woman was incredibly strong; this much magical backlash wouldn’t break her.
Outside the Taiji formation, Xia Naxin walked to its edge. Following Ling Qinghe’s instructions, she first helped Silvia feed the ‘fish’ from outside the array.
Ling Qinghe pointed to the slightly weaker yang fish. “Quickly, assist the yang fish…”
Hearing Ling Qinghe’s urgent tone, Xia Naxin felt the gravity of the situation intensify. Without a second thought, she released her soul magic and mental power.
Suddenly, an idea struck her: she wanted to use her mental power to stimulate this ‘yang fish,’ perhaps to make it feel hunger or something similar. This might make it ‘eat faster.’
Unfortunately, the situation took an unexpected turn.
Xia Naxin discovered that the magic she was injecting into the yang fish was subtly pulling back at her, like a tug-of-war.
Moreover, the more she tried to ‘exert force’ and increase her magic output, the stronger the reciprocal ‘pulling force’ became.
At this, Xia Naxin recalled the profound essence of Taiji: using softness to overcome hardness, small strength triumphing over great strength, and power without force managing force itself.
The harder she ‘resisted,’ the stronger the pull became, causing her to involuntarily lean forward and stumble a few steps before stopping.
Xia Naxin knew that if this continued, she would eventually be dragged into the Taiji diagram by the yin fish!
To stop, she would have to cease her magic output, but what about Via? Silvia’s condition was not optimistic; her face was pale, and her magical cloak was almost gone. She couldn’t stop now.
In desperation, Xia Naxin cried out, “Ling Qinghe, quickly come and help me!”
In response, Ling Qinghe merely let out a cold laugh. “Coming~”
Somehow, hearing footsteps behind her sent a chill down Xia Naxin’s spine.
****
Immediately after, Ling Qinghe took advantage of Xia Naxin’s unpreparedness, her boot tip poised to press against Xia Naxin’s lower back.
Yet, at that moment, Ling Qinghe felt a momentary ‘hesitation,’ but she still succeeded. With a single kick, she sent Xia Naxin… flying into the Taiji diagram!
Xia Naxin felt a bone-chilling force against her lower back. She slammed directly into Silvia.
At this, Silvia, Ling Cheyin, and even Xia Naxin, who hadn’t fully processed what had happened, were all utterly incredulous at Ling Qinghe’s actions.
Silvia, especially, froze for a moment. Her eyes held confusion, anger, astonishment, and a trace of sorrow.
Having been betrayed by Ling Qinghe before, she was the first to snap back to reality, roaring furiously, “Ling Qinghe, you motherf**ker, you… you’re pulling this betrayal stunt again?!”
The crude words, mixed with frothy blood, spewed forth, carrying both the clear tones of a maiden and the low rumble of a youth.
****
In her heart, Silvia condemned Ling Qinghe, obliterating the last vestiges of trust she had held for her.
This woman was too adept at backstabbing.
A witch’s promise was more poisonous than a scorpion’s sting.