“Where are we going next?”
Shucao walked alone along the small path outside the village. The voice in her mind asked her.
“I want to find that so-called Blood Fiend Sect.”
Even though she had personally slain the ones responsible for destroying the village, they were only two Qi Refining cultivators from the Blood Fiend Sect.
As long as the root of all this remained, Shucao was determined to find them and demand answers with her own hands.
“However…”
As she spoke, Shucao looked down at the strange dress she was wearing.
Although it was undamaged, it had picked up a few stains.
The dress looked like it would hinder movement, but in reality it did not impede her at all.
It also provided ample defense and amplified her magic power conduction.
These were things Shucao had felt during the previous battle.
“I should go wash this outfit in the nearby river first.”
Since it was such a powerful garment, Shucao felt she had to take good care of it.
Besides, now that she had turned into a girl, she had no other female clothing that fit her current body.
However, the moment she thought about taking off the dress to wash it, Shucao’s face flushed with a deep red.
Although she had moved around in this body for a while earlier, her emotions had been running high at the time, allowing her to ignore the awkwardness of having a girl’s body.
But now, that sense of wrongness surged up again.
Even though she tried not to think about it, the idea of removing her clothes, of seeing her own naked body, made Shucao’s sense of shame swell.
“Hehe, after all, you’re still a sixteen-year-old boy~”
Sensing Shucao’s embarrassed emotions, the voice spoke with a giggle.
“Mm, I didn’t know I would turn into a girl, okay?”
Hearing the laughter in her head, Shucao hurriedly retorted.
“When Qiushui asked if I had seen myself earlier, I had no idea how to answer her.”
When facing Bai Qiushui, the intense shame had made Shucao completely unable to mention anything about Mo Yao or tell her she had turned into a girl. So she had simply said she hadn’t seen him.
“Hahahaha. By the way, you actually don’t need to wash the magical outfit. It’s constructed from magic power, after all. In fact, your entire magical girl body is made of magic power, so there won’t be any physical issues at all. All you have to do is cancel the transformation to refresh both your body and the outfit. Though you’ll still feel mentally tired.”
Hearing this, Shucao froze. She stared blankly ahead and muttered,
“Wait… you’re saying I can cancel the transformation?”
“That’s right. Canceling the transformation will return your body to its pre-transformation state—in other words, you can turn back into a boy.”
“Why didn’t you say that sooner?!”
“I forgot~”
Hearing the voice’s reply, Shucao squatted down, hugged her head with both hands, and said with a pale face,
“It’s over. I thought I couldn’t change back, so I didn’t tell Qiushui I was still alive. Now it looks like she thinks I’m dead. What am I supposed to do when I see her again? Aaaaaah!”
“Well, you didn’t actually say you were dead, so it’s more like your fate is unknown.”
“Unknown fate basically means dead!”
“Anyway, we can figure it out when you see her later. Let me tell you how to cancel the transformation first.”
Following the voice’s instructions, Shucao reverted to Mo Yao’s male form.
The instant he changed back, a wave of intense fatigue washed over him.
Unable to continue traveling in that state, Mo Yao simply leaned against a tree by the roadside and fell asleep.
When he opened his eyes, Mo Yao found himself back in the space where he had first transformed. This time, however, there were no glowing screens displaying images.
Instead, a black-haired woman in a pure white dress stood before him.
The woman looked a few years older than Mo Yao and was slightly shorter.
She had long, pitch-black hair with a silver cross-shaped accessory pinning the left side behind her ear.
Her pure white dress, adorned with delicate frills, reached her knees, revealing slender, fair calves.
Her bare feet, as white as jade, stepped lightly on the void.
The woman smiled gently at Mo Yao and spoke in a soft voice.
“This is the first time we’re meeting face to face like this. Hello.”
Hearing the voice, Mo Yao quickly realized this was the owner of the voice in his mind.
“Hello. May I ask who you are?”
“My name is An Qianhua. Mm, you could say I’m your senior—a senior magical girl.”
“Didn’t I tell you earlier that I would explain everything later? Since you’re asleep in the real world right now, we can talk properly here in your ‘Heart Realm.’”
“I see. What exactly is this ‘Heart Realm’?”
“The Heart Realm is a personal world that every magical girl possesses. Its core is the ‘Heart Seed’ you carry. As a magical girl grows, the Heart Seed grows with her, which also causes the Heart Realm to change.”
At this point, Mo Yao thought of the gem he had held during his transformation. Suddenly, the gem appeared in his hand out of thin air.
“Mm, let me start by telling you about magical girls.”
An Qianhua then explained everything to Mo Yao.
“I come from a world more advanced than yours. In that world, people can draw out their own ‘Heart Power’ and turn it into usable strength. These powers usually manifest as some kind of ability—controlling fire, strengthening the body, all sorts of things. The one common point is that drawing out Heart Power requires intense emotion as fuel.”
“Magical girls are the most special kind of Heart Power. When certain pure-hearted girls—at least in our world they are girls—draw out their Heart Power, it condenses into a Heart Seed that symbolizes ‘miracle.’ At the same time, they open their own Heart Realm. The sprouting and growth of the Heart Seed represents the growth of a magical girl, and the Heart Realm that grows alongside it gradually transforms from its initial form into something unique to her.”
“Besides the Heart Realm, the biggest trait of magical girls is that they can respond to ‘wishes.’ The stronger other people’s expectations toward a magical girl, the stronger her power becomes. Of course, her own wishes also have an effect.”
“And I am one of the very first magical girls—and the strongest. In other words, the great senior, the veteran!”
At this, An Qianhua proudly lifted her chin a little and patted her chest.
“Remember the glowing screens you saw when you transformed? Those were the emotional sources that drew out your Heart Power. The ones showing other magical girls were my memories.”
“In our world, there was an evil organization from outer space. You can think of them as… mm… heavenly demons! Their leader wanted to use negative Heart Power to rule the world, so we magical girls and other ability users fought against them.”
“I had an epic battle with their leader, the Extinction King. We fought from the ground all the way into outer space, even grinding away the Great Dao itself!”
“In the end we were both heavily wounded. My Heart Seed was shattered, and only this fragment of my soul remained inside it. During that final clash, we accidentally tore a small hole in space, so the fragments of my Heart Seed ended up in your world. You picked one up and wore it as a protective charm.”
“I had been sleeping inside it all this time. Then your intense emotions earlier awakened the Heart Seed, and I woke up. After sensing your emotions, I used my Heart Seed to guide out your Heart Power. Being the strongest magical girl, helping someone from another world awaken theirs was easy!”
“However, while guiding you I discovered you could actually become a magical girl. For some reason your Heart Power didn’t get stuck and directly formed a Heart Seed, so I used the fragments of my own Heart Seed as the core to create yours. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a boy able to transform into a magical girl. Perhaps it was the miracle born from your wish combined with my response to your wish.”
Looking at the talkative An Qianhua, Mo Yao suddenly asked,
“Um… why do you call yourself a remnant soul?”
“That? Our mutual destruction was to the point where I killed him and he killed me. But when I died, my Heart Seed managed to protect a small part of my soul, so I didn’t completely perish. The rest of my scattered soul probably entered the cycle of reincarnation. The biggest trait of this remnant soul is that I’ve lost the memories from before I became a magical girl. That’s why I call myself a remnant.”
“Then… do you want to go home?”
Hearing An Qianhua’s words, Mo Yao said suddenly,
“The demonic cultivators destroyed my village, so I have nowhere to return to. Every time I remember living in the village with Qiushui and the others, I feel pain and regret. You’ve been away from your world for a long time and are now only a remnant soul. I imagine you must feel sad too.”
An Qianhua smiled, then stepped straight forward and gave Mo Yao a playful noogie on the head.
“You little rascal, suddenly bringing up such a heavy topic? This great senior doesn’t need concern from a junior like you. However…”
An Qianhua paused, lowered her hand, and looked gently into Mo Yao’s dark eyes.
“When my Heart Seed came here, ten ‘Soul Gems’ should have come with it. If you can find them and become the strongest magical girl, you should be able to send me back.”
Then she turned around, hands clasped behind her back.
Her bare white feet lightly tapped the starlit void as she took two steps forward.
She tilted her head slightly, looked around at Mo Yao’s Heart Realm, then turned back to him and said,
“But before that, go do what you want to do. During this time, I’ll be your personal ‘old senior’ and guide you along the way. Oh, and I’m your senior, so don’t call me by my full name. Mm, just call me Sister Qianhua.”
Mo Yao was momentarily stunned, then said,
“Sister Qianhua… do you regret becoming like this?”
“What is there to regret?”
An Qianhua smiled, turned around, kept her hands behind her back, and leaned forward with a grin.
“I protected my homeland and the people I wanted to protect. I saved them from destruction. Even though I paid a price, isn’t this the best possible outcome?”
She turned away again, thought for a moment, and said,
“I remember a certain phrase… got it!”
Then she lifted her head and recited softly:
“Fate is decided in heaven, defeat written in destiny,
The immortal venerable may regret, but I do not.”