While Su Xiaocheng was busy teasing the small fry in her arms, a pair of small hands nimbly slipped onto her body and grabbed her “conscience.”
“Huh? Xiaolu! You’re ambushing me again.”
Holding the small fry in her arms, Su Xiaocheng was momentarily at a disadvantage.
“Teacher An, Xiaoyuan, do you two want to join in?”
Seeing that the other two seemed a little left out, Su Xiaocheng extended an invitation to them as well.
“Huh?”
Understanding Su Xiaocheng’s intent, Lu Yinxi temporarily stopped her assault.
Working together with Su Xiaocheng, the two of them splashed lake water toward An Li and Lu Shiyuan.
Caught off guard, the pair got a face full of water.
“Alright, Xiaocheng, you don’t even respect your teacher anymore.”
An Li puffed up her cheeks and began fighting back.
“Heh, they’ve got quite a lot of energy.”
Desert Fox watched the playful group and leaned closer to Li Yanyan with a sigh.
Her tail silently coiled toward Li Yanyan, only to be nimbly dodged.
“That’s enough. You should show some restraint in front of the juniors.”
***
In the distance, the sky seemed to dim slightly.
A black shadow was moving rapidly, as if fleeing from something.
Two figures in black robes came to a stop.
Looking toward the small oasis in the distance, Envy said with hatred, “Let’s go. We can’t catch up anymore.”
“Hmm? Why not? With this one, we’d have almost enough witches.”
Wrath was quite dissatisfied.
These past few days they had nearly captured all the nearby witches.
Letting this one escape meant they would probably need another two days to find a replacement.
“Lady Lust didn’t give us much time. If we delay Lady’s plans, can you bear the responsibility?”
Envy snorted coldly and turned to leave. “If you want to keep chasing, go by yourself.”
Before departing, in order to prevent Wrath from going up and feeding herself to the enemy, Envy left one final warning.
“Don’t blame me for not reminding you — that group of magical girls is probably right up ahead.”
Wrath’s expression changed.
Because Envy had only become a Witch Deacon out of jealousy toward Lu Yinxi, she could sense Lu Yinxi’s presence from afar.
There was no need for her to lie about something like this.
The Witch Church did have methods to control witches, but those methods came with certain requirements.
The reason they had captured so many witches recently wasn’t primarily to make them fight.
Go fight magical girls right now?
She would definitely get beaten senseless.
Even after so many days, Wrath still couldn’t forget that punch from Li Yanyan.
Time to run.
It wasn’t like she couldn’t just go farther away and find new witches.
If this witch wanted to run toward the magical girls, then she was dead anyway.
***
“Hmm?”
Li Yanyan wiped the water droplets from her face and looked toward the distance.
“What’s wrong?” Desert Fox asked.
“There’s an unpleasant aura approaching. It should be a witch.”
“Huh? There’s a witch?”
The others who had been playing around also stopped.
Lu Yinxi closed her eyes and quietly focused her perception.
“It seems to be over there… but her aura feels somewhat weak.”
Not long after, a black shadow with somewhat chaotic magic fluctuations appeared in everyone’s line of sight.
It was unclear what this witch had gone through — her dress was tattered and torn, her eyes were dull and lifeless, and she looked like a fallen girl who had just been violated.
The group was about to transform and begin a righteous group beating when Li Yanyan stopped them in time.
“Judging by her magic fluctuations, she’s only A-rank. For some reason she also seems weakened. Xiaocheng, she’s yours.”
“Huh? Me?”
Su Xiaocheng was stunned.
“Should I put a protection on Big Sister first?”
Su Xiaowei asked worriedly.
“You can, but if Xiaocheng reaches the point where she needs protection, then consider it a combat failure.”
“What happens if I fail?” Su Xiaocheng asked weakly.
Li Yanyan smiled mysteriously.
“If you fail, it means your strength is still far from sufficient. You’ll need to undergo more intensive training afterward.”
“Training?”
“That’s right. What a coincidence — there happens to be a very durable sparring partner back at the base.”
Li Yanyan’s meaning was obvious.
Su Xiaocheng looked at the witch, her eyes filled with determination.
The sparring partner at the base? It had to be the bronze statue, right?
It was definitely her.
Of course she was durable!
Recalling the image of the bronze statue swinging a giant sword and chasing her all over the ground, Su Xiaocheng knew — today, she had to win.
“Transform!”
Pink-and-white magical attire covered the girl’s delicate figure.
Su Xiaocheng soared into the sky and confronted the witch from afar.
[Corruption Grasp]
Gray, decaying magic power condensed into a large hand that reached toward Su Xiaocheng.
“This attribute is completely countered by Xiaocheng,” Lu Yinxi commented.
Su Xiaocheng raised her shield.
As expected, when the witch’s magic hand grabbed the shield, it let out a sizzling sound.
The magic power within the hand was continuously burned away, turning into strands of black smoke that scattered.
“It seems… it’s not that big of a deal after all.”
Su Xiaocheng felt no pressure whatsoever.
This witch didn’t even seem comparable to the Flower Witch.
Cherry-pink magic bloomed, radiating brilliant light that pierced through every part of the magic hand.
Behind Su Xiaocheng, a pair of enormous wings formed from pure purification power spread open.
Countless magic feathers drifted down.
With a flap of the wings, countless purifying feathers shot toward the witch like a storm.
The witch tried her best to resist and dodge, but she inevitably took some of the attacks.
The magic feathers sliced across the witch’s body.
The purification power they carried continuously worsened her injuries, making her grow weaker and weaker.
“Hah!” Su Xiaocheng shouted.
The magic formula representing Aggregation activated.
The feathers the witch had dodged seemed to be summoned by something.
They all changed direction at once and struck the witch from every angle.
“Uuu…”
For some reason, the witch’s cry sounded somewhat pitiful and wronged.
However, this was not a reason for Su Xiaocheng to stop.
In front of her, a magic circle gradually took shape.
The moment the magic circle was completed, a magic beam three feet thick blasted forward.
It shattered all of the witch’s defenses like rotten wood and carried her sliding through the air for over a hundred meters before slamming her heavily into a sand dune, creating a massive explosion.
Scattered magic remnants mixed with flying sand and dust, momentarily blocking out the sky.
According to the “if there’s smoke, there’s no injury” law, the witch had stubbornly endured the enhanced magic beam.
However, Su Xiaocheng’s attack was not over yet.
Protecting her body with her wings, Su Xiaocheng flew high into the sky before diving straight toward the witch’s position at high speed.
“Boom!”
A tremendous explosion echoed through the sky.
[Melody · Wind]
Lu Yinxi summoned a breeze that dispersed the smoke and dust filling the explosion’s center.
Su Xiaocheng’s figure became visible.
The magic staff in her hand had pierced into the witch’s body like a spear.
Purification power continuously flowed into the witch’s body through the staff as a medium, pushing her into complete collapse.
The witch struggled desperately in her final moments.
A massive amount of magic power gushed out without regard for consumption, continuously battering the magic wings Su Xiaocheng used to protect herself.
In the end, the witch’s body disintegrated into countless fragments and vanished.
A Witch’s Heart fell to the ground, signaling the end of the battle.
Su Xiaocheng retrieved the Witch’s Heart and returned to the small oasis.
“Yanbao, what do you think?”
Desert Fox asked while barely holding back her laughter after watching the entire fight.
“In my opinion… this was all thanks to the matchup.”
Li Yanyan let out a long sigh and spoke her honest thoughts.