Chapter 369: Fighting the First Magical Girl!
Today, a comrade from the Bear Nation sent me a message.
He said this was the best summer since he enlisted.
He followed his commander, conquering cities and seizing territories.
He poured all his military merits into this grand ambition.
He earned bonuses that wouldn't be spent in centuries.
Tickets were discounted everywhere; a weekend trip to an island for a swim only required saving up a week's salary.
The day before yesterday, walking through the capital of the Bear Nation.
Everyone on the entire street stopped what they were doing.
They embraced and cheered together.
He told me he was very happy, feeling an illusion of the Incubator's Golden Age.
I thought this was just another ordinary day, but soon I realized.
This was actually the best day of my life.
A day like that would never come again.
Because the Wolf Nation attacked the Bear Nation's capital the very next day.
This fleeting golden dream was as short as a nap.
Many people asked around, "What happened?"
Only I knew.
After the Golden Age.
Came the Eclipse.
The Eclipse that heralds the end.
I leaped from the high-rise building, diving toward the Magical Girl charging from the Wolf Nation.
Using my own life to illuminate the final golden moment.
"Smack!"
Jiang Si glanced at the corpse that had splattered into a mess on the ground. Not even a dog would eat that.
Strange Tiger White Poverty bypassed the household body that had inexplicably jumped to its death and headed straight for the Bear Nation's capital.
In three consecutive days, with over sixty arena matches, the Bear Nation was crushed.
This National War was really a good thing, much more convenient than actual warfare.
If you really had two nations pull out their armies for war, no matter how fierce, it would take months to finish.
But in the National Fortune Arena, you didn't need to worry about all that. Just get up there and fight, then move on to the next match.
High efficiency, no need to overthink. After winning, the cities would be ceded immediately, and everyone, as if controlled by an unseen fate, wouldn't resist at all, becoming completely loyal to the victorious nation.
For the most part, except for the capital, every city had been a servant of three masters.
No need to worry about logistics, personnel, or management. Just get up there and fight.
Jiang Si finally understood why the National Fortune genre was so famous—it was absolutely perfect for him.
After fighting all the way to the capital, the National Fortune Arena was essentially useless.
After all, everything that could be won had been won, leaving only the capital as the final untouchable trump card.
When Jiang Si led his Holy Beast army to the front of the Bear Nation's Imperial Palace, there was almost no defensive force left inside or out.
All combat personnel had been exhausted in the arena battles.
Now, the only one left in the entire palace was the Bear Nation's Empress. She walked out of the palace with her personal guards, standing on the wall to face them. Her expression remained calm and composed, even tinged with anger.
"Jiang Keke! How dare you violate the rules and attack our Bear Nation capital! Heaven's Mandate has decreed that the Bear, Wolf, and Dog Nations shall fight the National Fortune Arena Match and are absolutely forbidden from attacking the capital!"
"Who made that rule?"
"This was a rule jointly established by the founding emperors of our three nations! Go back now, be good, go back quickly!"
"You're playing house."
Jiang Si finally understood why these three nations could come and go, always managing to recover.
While that one was gnawing on a tree, Jiang Si didn't plan to waste much time. He wanted to quickly flatten the Bear, Wolf, and Dog Nations, break through the Magic Kingdom, and then head up to the World Tree to take a look.
So he ordered, "Take down the entire Bear Nation Imperial Palace!"
The Empress on the city wall turned pale and bluffed, "How dare you! I... I am the Empress of the Bear Nation! If you so much as touch a hair on my head, I'll have the entire Bear Nation buried with me!"
"Then shave her head and kill her."
Jiang Si waved his hand impatiently, signaling his subordinates and Holy Beasts to charge forward and finish off this final nuisance.
The Empress's face completely crumbled in fear. "Jiang Keke! Do you truly dare to defy Heaven's Mandate? Aren't you afraid the court historians will record your betrayal for thousands of years, cursing you as a bastard who breaks promises..."
"Wow," Milkshake, standing behind Jiang Si, whispered to Blueberry, "She sounds like she's whining."
"That's right, that's right..."
"Wait!"
Suddenly, someone jumped out from the side gate of the palace, blocking everyone's path.
It was another girl who looked similar to the Bear Nation Queen. She was dressed very plainly, with a few withered blades of grass on the hem of her clothes, half a rice stalk tucked into her hair, a faint smile at the corner of her lips, and a smudge of dirt still on the tip of her nose.
In her hand, she held a military tally. She lifted her head with dignity, surveying the army below. Her voice was clear and cold as frost. "I am the true Empress of the Bear Nation."
"Kill her."
The true Empress's expression stiffened. Seeing that someone was actually coming to kill her, she immediately shouted:
"Wait a moment!"
Then she spoke in a deep voice, "My husband once ignored me, so I found an orphan girl who looked like me to take my place on the throne. I hid in the palace, living as the lowliest night-soil girl, watching the impostor wield my royal power to torment and make him regret..."
"Who asked you? Someone drag her out and kill her."
Behind Jiang Si, a swarm of Incubators and Holy Beasts stirred again. Blueberry and Milkshake behind him, their expressions changing drastically, stared at the city wall. "No wonder we suddenly smelled poop; it turns out it's substitute literature. Senior Xingxuan said the substitute plots in The Battle of Demons are all crap..."
"Wait!"
This time it was useless. Everyone just charged straight up.
The plainly dressed true Empress raised the military tally and shouted, "Holy Beasts of the Bear Nation, soldiers! Look at what this is!"
The Holy Beasts and Bear Nation soldiers following Jiang Si all changed color and stopped in their tracks. "That's the military tally!"
Among the soldiers, a group instantly turned pale. Their eyes struggled, and they rolled off their Holy Beasts one after another. The lead old general, tears streaming down his face, said, "It's... it's the Bear-man military tally of the Grand Ancestor! To see the tally is to see the Grand Ancestor!"
The true Empress let out a cold laugh. "That's right! The tally is here, just like the Grand Ancestor himself! Even if the path ahead is a mountain of blades and a sea of fire, you must obey. Even if you've become another nation's army because of the arena match, so what? Kneel quickly! Even the former Bear Nation elite, the 70,000 frontier defense army, the Crimson Flame Army, would obediently jump into a pit of death upon seeing this order, let alone you!"
Sure enough, all the Bear Nation troops behind her obediently dismounted from their Holy Beasts. The old general immediately knelt down, about to knock his head on the ground. "We have never harbored rebellious intentions. The Bear Nation army will never set foot within half a step of the palace..."
Before he could finish speaking, the old general Incubator's head flew up, along with the true Empress.
"What a load of nonsense."
Jiang Keke patted Strange Tiger White Poverty's rump. "Kill them, kill them all... forget it, I'll do it myself."
From outside the palace to inside, he cut through substitute literature, fake and real princesses, and even the story of the real princess being bullied in the horse stable.
Someone else shouted loudly that they would never forgive themselves, then committed suicide, staring fiercely at Jiang Si before dying, saying they would make Jiang Si live in fear forever.
Jiang Si held it together the whole way, only barely managing not to laugh. At this point, he let out a soft chuckle.
Immediately, someone behind shouted, "The young lady smiled! The young lady finally smiled!"
"Hurry up and find more people to commit suicide so the young lady can smile more!"
By the end, Jiang Si barely understood that this Bear Nation was the so-called female-oriented rule-breaking horror world.
Looking through Bear Nation history, massacring the 70,000 Crimson Flame border army was one of the more human-like things to happen.
An Alliance Leader with endless wealth would fight their way into the palace, only to force an apology from the Emperor; a border army would march to the palace gates, only to give up the coup because of the Emperor's promise, returning military power to him; with the fake and real princesses, the fake princess was actually found by the real princess, but ended up switching identities and ending up in the horse stable.
A shining moment for humanity's stars.
After completely clearing the Bear Nation capital, the fake Empress was also brought back.
"What the hell were you doing?"
Jiang Si flipped through the Bear Nation's books, looking for useful information. Among the Bear, Wolf, and Dog Nations, the Bear Nation was the largest, and most records were kept there.
The Bear, Wolf, and Dog Nations themselves were nothing special. Most of the Incubators were just bound remnants of Magical Girl souls or ordinary people.
At least in his eyes, these Incubators of the Magic Kingdom weren't the masterminds behind the scenes; they were just pawns being manipulated.
"Hehe, hahaha!"
While searching for clues, the fake Empress over there suddenly burst out laughing. Then she pounced forward, transforming back into an Incubator.
She circled around Keke's body, which Jiang Si was controlling, fluttering about incessantly, sometimes pressing close to an arm, sometimes weaving through strands of hair. Her cheerful voice sounded like she had pulled off a prank.
"Fooled you, fooled you."
"Didn't expect it to be me, did you? Keke really is a little dummy, hehe hehe."
Then, the Incubator landed on his shoulder.
Her tiny arms wrapped around Keke's neck, her cheek pressed close to his cheek.
Feeling that warmth, she murmured:
"Mommy has missed you so much, Keke..."
Jiang Si wasn't surprised.
It was as if he had already guessed. He just pressed down on her approaching head. "So I'm asking you, what the hell? Did you drink too much and mess up your head?"
"No way, there's no alcohol here. Keke, you have no idea. Before this, you couldn't find any alcohol in the Magic Kingdom. These Magical Girls and those Incubators don't touch a drop! How can they do this? It's elder abuse..."
"You're not that old."
"I'm already old. Mommy is almost... let me calculate, forty-something, almost fifty now. Tsk, without an Incubator transformation, I'm already old and haggard."
Jiang Si flipped through the contents, then stopped on an ancient text.
Mom came closer anyway, shaking Keke's shoulder. "Keke, I want a drink."
"Get lost."
"Wait, how did you end up like your brother? You haven't turned bad by learning from him as you grew up, have you?"
"It's from learning from you two that I turned bad."
Jiang Si opened the ancient text, then frowned.
He then looked at his mom. "Have you heard of the Magic Kingdom's deity?"
"No."
"Then what have you been doing here?"
"Arguing with your dad." Mom said matter-of-factly. "Your dad went to the Wolf Nation, so I finished off the Wolf Nation to make him come back and apologize to me."
"Can you two argue without messing with other people's countries?"
"Your dad started it. Sigh, if only your brother were here. If your brother were here, I'd make him judge. We agreed to buy a house in the Bear Nation, but your dad insisted the Wolf Nation was cheaper. I became queen and bought him a nice house, but he still wouldn't come back. He's sulking with me! Tell me, is it his fault? Is it his fault?"
The more Mom talked, the angrier she got. As an Incubator, her tiny little hand slammed hard onto the table.
"I'll talk to him later."
"Alright, though it's not as good as if your brother did it, you'll do."
Better not let Keke hear that.
Jiang Si asked again, "Why did you become queen here?"
"Ha! As soon as I saw this Bear Nation, I recognized it. This plot is exactly like the TV shows and novels I've read. So I kept giving favors to girls who looked impressive and seemed like heroines—like lending me money for drinks, then I'd repay the favor. You know, in worlds like this, repaying a favor leads to your family being destroyed. So I'd be ungrateful and bully those impressive girls hard. They'd send me all the way up to a high position. The original queen owed me a huge debt, and finally, she made me queen in her place to call it even..."
"You've figured this place out completely."
"Hehe, who do you think your mom is? A little fairy thinks she can outsmart an old-school working woman like me? After I became queen, I kept finding ways to get people to brew alcohol. I managed to get some, but haven't had a chance to taste it yet. Come have a little drink with me later..."
Watching his mom's triumphant expression, Jiang Si nodded and casually put down the ancient text in his hand. "Keke isn't sixteen yet..."
"Oh, just a little sip. Your brother doesn't need to know."
"Did you also give Keke those romance comics to read?"
"No way. I only recommended a few suitable for all ages. She read all the rest on her own... Who are you?!"
Mom finally snapped to, jumping up. "How dare you possess my girl's body! Evil spirit, begone! Begone!"
Jiang Si rapped her on the forehead with his knuckles. "Drink, drink, drink. Drinking all day, and you want to drag Keke into it too! Have you forgotten last time when you got drunk and left Keke outside the door? Did you drink your brains out?"
Suddenly realizing this was her son in front of her, Mom immediately shrank her neck. "I was just joking... How, how did you get here? And using Keke's body? Son, how did you end up hijacking your sister's body?"
"The Magic Kingdom opened its doors and swapped our Magical Girl bodies."
Jiang Si put away the ancient text and stood up. "I'm here to find a way to swap the souls back."
"Oh, so that's it! I was so scared! I knew you couldn't be that cruel, Jiang Si... Keke is your sister. Jiang Si, whatever you do, don't mess around."
"What are you always thinking about?"
Jiang Si walked out of the study. Outside, a river of blood had already flowed. Anyone who dared to resist had basically been killed.
Mom followed behind him, clearly still a bit uncomfortable. Finally, she jumped straight onto Jiang Si's shoulder.
Jiang Si mounted Strange Tiger White Poverty and flew straight back to the Wolf Nation.
When they returned to the Wolf Nation capital, it was also empty—they had cleared out the Wolf Nation capital first before going after the Bear Nation.
An Shiyu and Silver Lotus, who were tidying up furniture in the main hall, saw Jiang Si return and immediately crowded around him excitedly. "Jiang Si, Jiang Si, how did it go? The Bear Nation?"
"Taken."
"Did you find any clues?"
"Found a little."
Having said that, Jiang Si threw the Incubator from his shoulder onto the two of them.
Silver Lotus and An Shiyu both got a fright.
The Incubator smiled kindly at the two of them. "Hey there, you two young ladies. How are you? You're so pretty! And you look a bit familiar. Have we met somewhere before?"
The two girls exchanged a look.
They had actually harbored some reservations about Incubators the whole way. Now that this Incubator was trying to start a conversation, they immediately felt a sense of annoyance.
Silver Lotus immediately tossed the Incubator to Little An. "You take care of her."
Little An immediately tossed it back to Silver Lotus. "You take her, you take her."
Silver Lotus tossed it back. "Didn't you always want to help Jiang Si do something? You take her."
"You take her..."
The two tossed it back and forth like a kickball, spinning the Incubator until she was dizzy.
"Oh no, oh no! Jiang Si, save me! I'm getting a headache!"
Jiang Si stopped in his tracks, frowned, and looked at the two girls:
"I'm going to look for more information. You two take care of her for me. This is my mom. Be a little gentler. She's old."
Silver Lotus and An Shiyu, who had been tossing her back and forth, both froze.
Then they immediately started fighting over the Incubator. Silver Lotus held her tight, refusing to let go. "Ah, Auntie, I'll take care of you! I didn't know just now! I was tricked by an Incubator before. It destroyed my family. So I have some PTSD. I'm so sorry!"
Little An desperately tried to grab the Incubator. "Mom, we, we know each other! When I was little, on a trip, we met on a bus. My mom and dad and I all met you! Do you still remember me? I'm Little An, An Shiyu! I didn't recognize you just now. I also have a blood feud with the Evolved Ones! I'm sorry!"
"You two girls, slow down, slow down! You're going to tear me apart!"
Only after Jiang Si's mom yelled did Silver Lotus and Little An slow down. But each was still holding onto one arm and half of her body, refusing to let go. "Are you okay? Mom?"
"Geez, suddenly calling me 'Mom'... it still feels a bit strange."
Mom, with years of relationship experience, immediately caught on. "You two, do you both like my Jiang Si, huh?"
After a moment of silence, Silver Lotus blushed, but quickly nodded vigorously. "Mm, mm, I like him!"
"I, me too!" Little An wasn't about to back down. "I confessed to Jiang Si on the bus a long time ago! He saved me back then! I've liked Jiang Si for a very long time. I've always, always liked him..."
As she spoke, her voice grew softer and softer, her entire face as if it was about to be cooked.
Mom grinned widely. "It's good that you like him! It's even better that you both like him! Well then, I'll have to see if you two are suitable for my Jiang Si..."
An Shiyu and Silver Lotus immediately looked at Mom seriously, both sitting down on the ground.
"Then Mommy is going to give you two a mission, my lovely little girls."
"Okay, okay!"
"I'll definitely win!"
......
Jiang Si naturally had no interest in the trouble his mom and those two girls were cooking up.
He went back to the Wolf Nation's study to continue searching for relevant books.
The various histories of the Magic Kingdom, secret records of its interactions with the outside world, wild tales and gossip of Magical Girls that spread across countless worlds—an overwhelming flood of information spread out before him. Extracting useful information from it would be difficult—thankfully, web novel readers are best at finding important information in a sea of crap.
Skip, skip again.
Until he finally caught the key he was looking for.
On the other side, the Golden Calamity Dragon King, who had been gnawing on the tree, had already devoured most of the visible tree roots.
But when it looked up, there were still more tree roots stretching out of sight in the distance.
At this rate, even for it, this would take hundreds or thousands of years.
And.
The Golden Calamity Dragon King looked back. The gnawed roots had grown back again.
Endless.
It looked for the Incubator from before, wanting to ask about some things, but found that it had disappeared.
The Golden Calamity Dragon King raised its head. Purple magical energy condensed in the air.
It channeled the Magical Girl Shion's power into its breath. The magical energy condensing before the dragon's mouth grew more and more massive, until it surpassed its entire draconic body.
A magic array was set up ahead.
Like calling a function, when this breath of Shion's magical energy passed through the magic array, it became mixed with Polluted Magic and the dregs' polluted magic!
The three powers merged, with a golden curse mixed in.
The Omniscient Domain had calculated a system crash among countless possibilities.
The dragon breath engulfed all the Incubators, continuing to spray upward. The Golden Calamity Dragon King maintained its spraying dragon breath as it flew upward, leveling everything around it!
The World Tree was tattered and torn under its breath, withering at an accelerated pace. Everything in the new world also vanished at an accelerated rate.
Until the breath was stopped by something. Only then did the Golden Calamity Dragon King finally halt.
Before it was a massive crystal.
Buried in the center of the World Tree, entwined by countless vines and tree roots, the universe swirling around her, decaying worlds hanging everywhere around her, pale dregs constantly flowing from within her body.
Holy, eerie, pitch-black.
Several completely conflicting powers and impressions merged perfectly within that figure.
A perfect Magical Girl, a perfect Witch, a perfect Disaster Beast, a perfect...
Even the Golden Calamity Dragon King stared at that figure, lost in thought. For the first time, it couldn't see what the being in front of it was.
A chaotic mess of things was jumbled together, almost maddening, yet indescribably harmonious, possessed of a rigorous order.
The Golden Calamity Dragon King bit down. Its dragon fangs sank into the crystal a little, trying to pierce into the girl inside.
Magical energy continuously assaulted the crystal.
Yet the crystal remained unscathed.
Until the girl inside slowly opened her eyes.
Empty, yet holding a thousand universes, as if she could see both the past and the future, they stared silently at the Golden Calamity Dragon King's draconic pupils.
"Hello there."
She spoke, her voice a bit youthful and immature for a girl.
Possessing an innocent naivety about the ways of the world.
"Are you looking for me?"
As the Golden Calamity Dragon King gathered its Shion breath, about to blast it directly at her head at close range...
She simply reached out and gently stroked its scales. "There, there, don't be mad. Stop screaming, alright?"
The Golden Calamity Dragon King's power instantly collapsed!
The transformed Jiang Si stared coldly down at the girl in the crystal.
"You seem to know me?" the girl tilted her head, smiling cutely. "Did you find the clues I left in the Magic Kingdom?"
"You mean the deity those Incubators worship?"
"That's right, that's right! That one. I left it out there for so long, and no one paid any attention."
"The first Magical Girl."
Jiang Si punched into the crystal. His right hand slowly spread over her face. "The so-called deity of the Magical Girls."
"That's me."
The girl stuck out her little tongue and gently licked Jiang Si's finger.
Jiang Si's entire finger dissolved into a puff of black mist.
From any perspective, it had nothing to do with Magical Girls.
"You can also call me... the Fallen Magical Girl?"