A vast snowfield stretched endlessly. Above, leaden clouds hung heavy, sifting down fine, fragmented snow. Through the swirling mist of snow, a towering dark silhouette rose majestically from the earth. The Monan High Wall, over a thousand meters tall, stood sentinel at the southern border of the Pangyu Kingdom. On the snow-covered ground, a trail of messy footprints snaked forward, each impression half a foot deep.
Xia Naxin, wrapped in his cloak, gazed at the Monan High Wall, exhaling a plume of white breath.
“Gu Yueqingtang…”
He murmured the target’s name. As he grazed his lower abdomen, where his magic circuit throbbed faintly, a muffled groan escaped his throat. That remnant female soul, separated by the high wall, was emitting a faint resonance.
Fate, it seemed, had a cruel sense of humor. He had barely escaped at dawn, only to now drag his injured body back in haste.
However, given Xia Naxin’s abilities, infiltrating the Pangyu Kingdom was hardly a challenge.
Yet, as his gaze swept over the newly deployed barrier on the border wall, he couldn’t help but feel a hint of difficulty. Evidently, the border magic girls of the fortress had learned their lesson. Before dawn, the Witch faction had infiltrated the Monan Fortress from the Inner World, leading to its paralysis and subsequent ‘change of hands’.
Monan had been thrown into utter chaos.
****
A short while later, within the Inner World.
“Finally, I’ve arrived…”
Xia Naxin’s spirit body floated in the air, his gaze fixed on the high wall above. From his current perspective, the Monan High Wall had transformed into a ‘matrix’ of cascading data streams, a digital wall.
A billion lines of ethereal blue light converged, outlining the fortress. Most notably, a flowing membrane of light formed a barrier specifically designed to ward off external spirit entities.
However, Xia Naxin had his own methods. Since it was a barrier, it must possess a standard for distinguishing friend from foe. What Xia Naxin needed to do was simple.
With a shift of his consciousness, he prepared to assimilate himself into the same ‘material’ as the barrier, allowing him to merge with it as effortlessly as a drop of water vanishing into the ocean. What difference did it make what kind of water he was originally?
“Detecting and analyzing…”
The next moment, Xia Naxin raised his vaguely cupped hand, and ripples of data flowed across the surface of his spirit body. He was perceiving the barrier’s core algorithm:
It was a filter composed of a dual mechanism: ‘identity authentication’ and ‘magic resonance’. He merely needed to attune his own spirit body’s frequency to match that of the barrier.
Immediately, Xia Naxin’s outline gradually blurred, dissolving into countless shimmering light particles. He focused intently, beginning to sense for the contingency he had left within the fortress—the wisp of soul belonging to her female form, residing within Gu Yueqingtang.
He captured Gu Yueqingtang’s identity authentication, magic resonance, and various other frequency details.
“Found it.”
Now, all he had to do was replicate it. After all, within the Inner World, Xia Naxin was, to a limited extent, a creator capable of modifying himself.
Immediately thereafter, upon touching the light membrane, Xia Naxin’s spirit body began rewriting its own code. He intended to assimilate himself into the same ‘material’ as the barrier.
His unique soul characteristics gradually faded, replaced by the identical fluctuating frequency of the barrier’s light membrane. Even the soul aura circulating on his body surface and the color of the barrier itself became indistinguishable.
The detection system, consequently, experienced a brief stutter. After recognizing his forged dual authentication markers, the light membrane silently parted, creating a narrow slit.
Seeing this, Xia Naxin’s spirit body slipped into the barrier like a phantom, the light membrane swiftly sealing behind him. With that, the infiltration was a success.
****
Immediately thereafter, Xia Naxin sped through the Inner World, heading directly for the Monan Fortress. In the distance, he spotted the solitary, towering fortress.
Before long, Xia Naxin arrived at a snowfield scarred by countless shell craters, the Monan Fortress now within arm’s reach. He once again infiltrated it with effortless ease.
Unlike his previous attempt, this time, the detection systems, under the influence of his falsified spirit frequency, were rendered useless. Those alert lines and detection networks, composed of data streams, instead twisted and formed welcoming arches for him.
Xia Naxin, sensing Gu Yueqingtang’s soul resonance, made his way into the border city area.
****
A short while later, within an office in the border city, the smell of tobacco mixed with pungent perfume assailed the senses. An overweight middle-aged woman sat on a sofa, legs crossed, a slender lady’s cigarette dangling from her lips.
Her curly hair was fixed into a stiff arc with hair gel, and a black mole on her slack cheek resembled a maggot in decaying flesh. Kneeling before her on a blanket was the adorable young girl, Gu Yueqingtang, with her airy bangs.
This middle-aged woman’s physique was easily half a body taller and a full body wider than Gu Yueqingtang.
“Aunt Qian, I want to apply to use the mental connection device~ You see, my voice has an unseasonably soft, trembling lilt at the end, as if pleading and worried.”
Upon hearing this, the middle-aged woman exhaled a smoke ring, her plump fingers drumming on the coffee table. Her gaze rested on Gu Yueqingtang’s lips.
“Oh? Applying outside of wartime? Do you not know that intermediate magic girls aren’t eligible to apply for its use without special circumstances?”
At this, Gu Yueqingtang let out a soft gasp. She had hoped to enter the mental world once more. She couldn’t explain why, but she always felt a subconscious voice telling her to return to the mental world as if it were her home.
“Hehehe~ However, little Qingtang, you know the rules, don’t you~”
As she spoke, the middle-aged woman spread her legs, causing the sofa to groan under the strain. At the same time, within the Inner World, Xia Naxin noticed the surveillance camera in the corner was covered in a thin layer of dust, clearly indicating it had been out of use for a long time. It seemed this middle-aged woman had engaged in quite a few unsavory ‘unspoken rules’ within this office.
Seeing this, Gu Yueqingtang turned her face away with a hint of disgust. It was that sickening, detestable ‘unspoken rule’ again. All she wanted was to use the equipment once.
‘Hmph, what a disgusting, fat woman, only thinking of lust!’
However, all of this was for ‘resources’; she had no choice but to endure the humiliation. Just as Gu Yueqingtang was about to lean closer, a figure materialized behind the middle-aged woman.
Gu Yueqingtang was stunned. When she finally reacted and tried to scream, the cry caught in her throat. ‘What’s happening? Why won’t ‘I’ let myself scream?’
The newcomer was none other than Xia Naxin. He raised his hand and brought it down, delivering a hand chop to the middle-aged woman’s cervical spine. A ‘crunch’ of bone echoed; it was unclear if it had broken, but it no longer mattered.
He detected a greasy scent lingering in the room, albeit marinated in shampoo fragrance. The woman’s massive body toppled over, an unextinguished cigarette still hanging from the corner of her mouth.
A spark landed on the wool rug, sending up a wisp of smoke. But for some reason, as Gu Yueqingtang looked at Xia Naxin, she felt a strange mix of unfamiliarity and familiarity.
“You’re… a man?”
She gasped in astonishment, but before she could finish speaking, Xia Naxin lunged forward, his hands gripping Gu Yueqingtang’s temples.
“My apologies~ I have an urgent matter, to retrieve something.”
He intended to reclaim that remnant female soul. Gu Yueqingtang let out a muffled groan as the remnant female soul, hidden deep within the girl’s essence, transformed into a pale stream of light and flowed into his palms. Unexpectedly, it was incredibly smooth.
Soon, when Xia Naxin released her, Gu Yueqingtang slumped backward. Xia Naxin, unable to wait, immediately sensed the proportion of his male soul and female soul within his body. Indeed, the female portion was clearly greater. The scales of his soul’s weight had tipped.
Thus, Xia Naxin immediately used ‘Inner World Reflection of Reality’ on himself, allowing the female soul to directly manifest onto his male body. This was his second attempt at autonomous gender transformation.
Subsequently, Xia Naxin once again exhibited a two-faced appearance—male and female features, and bodies, flickering in alternation. However, this time, the female form appeared with greater frequency.
As time passed, the flickering frequency gradually slowed. Eventually, the male form vaguely faded away, and the female outline became increasingly clear. With that, Xia Naxin observed his gradually disappearing male characteristics. Surely, she had transformed back into a woman now?
Xia Naxin sensed that a disadvantaged, residual portion of his male soul still existed within her body. Without a word, she commanded it to undergo soul self-consumption, to ‘decompose’ and ‘disintegrate’ itself, becoming nourishment for her female form. In short, it no longer had a reason to exist.
She had no desire to ever be a man again. Ultimately, this portion of the male soul faded, leaving only one thing behind, which Xia Naxin found utterly repulsive.
‘What is this~ No, why did this thing remain?’
Xia Naxin desired a perfect female body, not a female body equipped with this untimely protrusion. However, Xia Naxin gradually grasped the ‘trick’. She discovered that she seemed capable of ‘disassembly’ and ‘assembly’ at will.
Therefore, without a second thought, she directly erased this male characteristic, becoming a perfect woman. After all, keeping it was useless. Oh, no, perhaps there might be an opportunity to scare Silvia with it in the future. She would surely be utterly shocked and lose her composure.
Outside the window, the snow fell heavier and heavier. Xia Naxin stepped on the cigarette dropped by the middle-aged woman. Gu Yueqingtang, fallen to the ground and unresponsive, had suffered the pain of having her dominant personality extracted and her soul torn; she wouldn’t regain consciousness so quickly.
After all, who would believe that an intermediate magic girl, subjected to unspoken rules, harbored a wisp of a witch’s remnant soul within her? And even if she did, who would expect a demon man to brazenly waltz into the office?
But then again—
This time, Xia Naxin would return as a woman. And Ling Qinghe was about to realize what true vengeance, originating from the soul, truly meant. She intended to drag Ling Qinghe’s soul into the Inner World, using various tools and positions to thoroughly discipline her. Or, at the very least, she would take revenge on Ling Cheyin, ensuring at least a hundred ‘defeats’.
“Silvia, wait for me, hold on…”
Xia Naxin had an ominous premonition. What if she returned too late? No, it couldn’t be. Silvia was Zhennu Yibai, a pure maiden. How could a pure maiden lose her thoughts? Those were reserved for her.
‘Yes, it must be Xia Naxin overthinking things… It’s inevitable to be emotional after just transforming back into a woman.’