The Flower Witch, her aura weak and dispirited, fled White Tea Mountain in a sorry state and escaped straight into the wilderness.
“Huh? This magic fluctuation… Is that stripping magic?”
“Who are you?”
The Flower Witch looked toward the black-robed figure who had appeared out of nowhere.
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
A small, exquisite mirror appeared in the black-robed person’s hand.
The familiar stripping magic instantly robbed the already weakened Flower Witch of any ability to resist.
***
“Lu! Yin! Xi!”
Youzi glared at the mountain of pending documents piled on her desk, grinding her teeth in fury.
“Um, my massive concert in Kyoto is coming up soon. I need to head over right away.”
Lu Yinxi had somehow already retreated to the doorway.
“Xiaocheng, want me to take you along to have some fun?”
Before closing the door, Lu Yinxi poked her head back in and didn’t forget to invite Su Xiaocheng.
“I won’t go. I need to familiarize myself with how to use the Purification Seed these days.”
Su Xiaocheng declined the invitation.
“Alright then.”
Lu Yinxi looked slightly disappointed but didn’t press the matter.
After all, this was her first time holding a concert in Kyoto, and there were countless arrangements to handle.
She might not even have time to spend with Su Xiaocheng.
The Dawn Trial was approaching soon. Once the trial began, there might not be many chances for her to replenish magic power.
This time, Lu Yinxi was also trying to stockpile magic power in advance.
“Xiaowei, you should start preparing too. Xiaocheng probably won’t have the chance to accompany you during the trial. Once you leave Anning City, you won’t have any way to restore your magic power.”
Youzi waved her hand, signaling the two to leave.
Recently, too many things had happened in Anning City.
Coupled with Lu Yinxi’s half-abandonment of branch affairs, a considerable backlog of pending matters had piled up.
Now that her pollution issue had been resolved by Su Xiaocheng and she had been rehired, looking at the desk full of documents made her feel like resigning on the spot.
***
In the bedroom.
“Sister~ Hehehe~”
Su Xiaowei openly hugged Su Xiaocheng’s arm and took deep sniffs.
She now had the perfectly legitimate excuse of preparing for the Dawn Trial, and with Lu Yinxi away and no competitor present, she could already imagine the wonderful time ahead of having Su Xiaocheng all to herself.
“Xiaowei, shouldn’t you rest a bit?”
Su Xiaocheng studied the Purification Seed in her hands in a rather awkward posture.
“I don’t know why, meow, but it looks really delicious, meow.”
Xiaotuan held a large bag of spicy dried fish, yet his eyes kept drifting toward the Purification Seed.
“This… probably isn’t edible, right?”
Su Xiaocheng said uncertainly.
After expending the stored purifying power, the Purification Seed looked slightly dimmer in color, but it was nothing serious.
Su Xiaocheng could now input her own magic power to let the Purification Seed convert it into high-quality purifying power with extreme efficiency.
This allowed her to expend a small amount of magic power to multiply her magic power’s strength several times over.
Besides that, the Purification Seed could also serve as a container for storing purifying power.
This way, with some effort, Su Xiaocheng could achieve an effect similar to having a domain, though the storage efficiency was slightly lower than that of an inherent domain.
Considering the purifying power’s special attack attribute against Witches, Su Xiaocheng now possessed legitimate A-rank combat strength when facing them.
“Sister~” Su Xiaowei spoke in an overly sweet, syrupy voice.
“Xiaowei, stop that.”
Su Xiaocheng felt like her fingertips had a mind of their own.
“Shouldn’t we… go out for dinner?”
Checking the time, it was indeed dinner time.
“Alright. What do you want to eat, Xiaowei?” Su Xiaocheng put away the Purification Seed.
“I want to eat a loving dinner made by Sister herself~”
“It really has been a long time since I cooked.”
In the past, the two of them used to take turns cooking.
Now that they were living more comfortably, it had been quite a while since Su Xiaocheng last entered the kitchen.
She checked the refrigerator—there were no ingredients left.
“Let’s go buy some groceries first.” Su Xiaocheng prepared to head out.
“Yay! Sister, I want to eat your braised fish!”
***
Carrying bags full of ingredients, Su Xiaocheng and Su Xiaowei walked out of the supermarket.
“Excuse me, could you tell me how to get to Baihe Road?”
A gentle woman wearing a black dress with white patterns approached and asked for directions.
“Turn left at the intersection ahead, go straight down the road, then turn right and you’ll be there.”
Su Xiaocheng politely raised her hand to point the woman in the right direction.
Su Xiaowei smoothly took the fish from Su Xiaocheng’s hand.
“You sisters seem to have a really good relationship,” the woman said with a gentle smile.
“Eh? Is it that obvious?”
Su Xiaowei lowered her head, trying to hide the smile in her eyes.
“Yes. It’s finally nice to see a normal sisterly relationship.”
“Cough, it’s not that exaggerated, is it?” Su Xiaocheng felt her face heating up.
“It’s really enviable. You two are so close—you probably don’t want to be apart no matter where you go, right?” the woman said casually.
Both girls’ expressions dimmed slightly.
“Alright, I’ll be going now. I won’t disturb you sisters’ intimate moment. Let’s chat again next time.”
The woman left behind a rather strange remark and departed.
“Sister, do you know her?” Su Xiaowei asked in confusion.
Thinking about the woman’s parting words, Su Xiaocheng shook her head. “I don’t.”
“What a weird person. She doesn’t even know us, yet she said ‘let’s chat again next time.'” Su Xiaowei complained.
“Yeah.” Su Xiaocheng tried to recall the people she knew, wondering if she had failed to recognize someone.
But as she thought back, she realized she couldn’t clearly remember the woman’s face.
“Xiaowei, do you remember what she looked like?”
“Sister, we just saw her… She was…”
Su Xiaowei’s voice suddenly paused.
Somehow, the only thing left in her mind was a blurry figure in a black-and-white dress.
She had just seen the person moments ago, yet she couldn’t recall the woman’s face at all.
The two girls stared at each other.
***
At the southernmost end of the continent, a mature older sister wearing priestess robes with a clean white cloth covering her eyes knelt at the edge of an endless black sea.
Even though it should have been daytime, a crescent moon hung in the sky.
The cold moonlight shone on her, making her appear especially lonely.
“She really is a very interesting person.”
She withdrew her gaze from the distance and turned it back to the black sea before her.
“She received active recognition from that Miracle? It looks like it’s her.”
Staring at the black sea, her gaze seemed to pierce through the blindfold and the seawater, looking straight into the deepest part of the ocean.
“Time is running out. Let me give her one more push.”
She seemed to have made up her mind about something.
“Add one more person to the list for this trial. Also, contact ‘that side’ and tell them to prepare.”
The priestess sister spoke softly into the air, her tone leaving no room for argument.
“Isn’t this a bit too hasty? Logically, that seed should have died long ago.”
A tired voice sounded from the sky.
“We don’t have much time left. Besides, too many coincidences have already happened around her.”
The priestess sister insisted.
“…Do as you wish.”