Starting as a Magical Girl, I Alone Shall Rule for Eternity Chapter 34

"Sect Master asked us where people usually go on dates?"

In the Azure Cloud Sect's Illusory Moon Cavern Dwelling conference room—this conference room was next to the main hall and usually kept locked.

A curtain blocked the outside, and unless you looked carefully, you might not even notice there was a conference room here within the Illusory Moon Cavern Dwelling.

The conference room was converted from a former underground warehouse with considerable space. In the center stood a massive long table that could seat over a dozen people on either side.

At the far end of the long table stood an incense altar that the Sect Master had made herself.

Back then, carrying those pieces of wood, she would work on the incense altar every day after training. It took nearly half a month just to complete half of it. Bingtang couldn't stand watching any longer, so she gathered up the wood materials, took the blueprints, threw them to a factory, and had them make the incense altar and deliver it.

The incense altar displayed many spirit tablets, each engraved with names. Jiang Si said these were all predecessors of the Azure Cloud Sect.

Ghost Li, Xiao Yan, Tang San, Klein, Ye Fan...

Row after row of names—Bingtang didn't recognize a single one. The mix of Chinese and English made her somewhat confused about what backgrounds these Azure Cloud Sect predecessors actually had. What if these people weren't actually dead? Wouldn't it be inappropriate if they found out the Azure Cloud Sect had placed their spirit tablets...

The three girls sitting at the conference table—Four Leaf, Six Leaf, and Yumo—exchanged glances, but none of them spoke.

Then Six Leaf suddenly raised her hand, "I know, I know! Qinghua has definitely dated before!"

Not just Four Leaf and Yumo, even Bingtang was stunned, "How do you know that?"

"She told me lots of dating stories before!" Six Leaf said triumphantly, "She said she's dated several people, been to amusement parks, coffee shops, and also, also aquariums, zoos."

As she listened, Bingtang sighed, "Where would Beihai have a zoo? The aquarium and amusement park are in the west part of the city, taking one or two hours by car. With Qinghua's lazy habit of preferring to stay home all day, would she travel that far?"

"It was in a game."

Four Leaf said nonchalantly, "I saw her playing before."

Yumo hugged her rabbit and secretly laughed.

Bingtang then gave up on the idea of summoning Qinghua who was currently in confinement.

Besides, Qinghua was currently focused on creating Shion, so it was better not to disturb her for now.

Immediately, Bingtang also felt she was being somewhat foolish. Currently, Six Leaf was only in sixth grade of elementary school, and while Four Leaf and Yumo were in middle school, they were still quite young.

How could they have dating experience?

If they did, that would actually be concerning—early romance isn't a good thing. What if they got deceived by some wild boy from somewhere?

"Hasn't Bingtang-sama ever dated?"

The three girls looked over simultaneously. Bingtang turned her head away, "Of course I have."

"Wow, amazing! Who did Bingtang-sama date?" Six Leaf's eyes sparkled, "Was dating fun? What delicious food did you eat? Did you kiss?"

Four Leaf immediately pulled her sister back, "Six Leaf!"

Scolded by her sister, Six Leaf shrunk her neck and obediently sat back down.

Bingtang coughed, "Nothing particularly fun, just walking around, eating some desserts, holding hands."

The dating partner was of course Jiang Si.

Though it was actually hard to call it a date...

When the Azure Cloud Sect was first established, the two of them often went shopping together to buy decorations. Sometimes when it was crowded, Bingtang would hold Jiang Si's hand to avoid getting separated.

The desserts were of course bought by herself—Jiang Si didn't eat desserts, nor did he have money to buy them for her. Basically, each shopping trip never exceeded twenty minutes, with clear objectives—buy what they needed and leave immediately.

By common reasoning, it was hard to call this dating.

But for Bingtang, this was dating. She had never gone out with a boy since childhood. Going shopping with Jiang Si, eating together, even holding hands.

How could this not be dating?

And even if she really established a relationship with Jiang Si and went on a proper date, it would probably only reach this level anyway...

"So, so where exactly is better to go on a date?"

Yumo, who had been silent until now, finally spoke timidly, "Where did Bingtang-sama usually go on dates?"

If I knew, I wouldn't be asking you all.

Sighing, Bingtang finished cleaning the spirit tablets and sat at the front, "Generally just walking around shopping, not fixed to any particular place."

"That seems, a bit too casual?" Yumo lowered her head, the hood of her light green cloak covering her eyes, "Generally, generally speaking, people go to amusement parks, aquariums, eat some food, then, then go to hotels..."

"Wow, hotels." Four Leaf couldn't help exclaiming, "So bold."

Bingtang was also somewhat confused, "Do dates involve going to hotels?"

Yumo vigorously pulled at her hood, but the bit of face that showed was completely red, "In manga, it's always like this."

"What kind of manga are you reading?"

Four Leaf said quietly beside her, "Shoujo manga. Yumo often carries them in her schoolbag, I've seen them."

Bingtang rubbed her forehead, "If you really date someone in the future, you definitely shouldn't go to hotels, Yumo."

The girl immediately buried her entire face behind the rabbit plushie, "I, I definitely wouldn't."

Then Bingtang took out the map of Jianghai City and spread it on the conference table, "Anyway, let's first determine the streets. It should be in this area."

Bingtang picked up a pen and drew a line across East Street on the map, "East Street has many shops—whether it's bubble tea shops, coffee shops, or places to eat, all are fine. Plus there's an arcade. I've seen many couples playing double dance machines, claw machines, and recently popular virtual reality spaces—all very suitable for dating fun."

The three girls listened and nodded repeatedly. Four Leaf said softly, "And from this side of East Street, there's also a park. As a dating spot, it has very few people. If the Disaster Control Bureau comes looking, it would be easier to confront them."

When these words came out, Yumo and Bingtang simultaneously looked at her.

Four Leaf was stunned, somewhat confused, "What's wrong?"

The two girls averted their gazes. Bingtang coughed, "Nothing, just a bit surprised that Four Leaf thought so much about this. It makes sense."

Hearing Bingtang's praise, a smile appeared on Four Leaf's small face.

Although she appeared more steady and quiet than Six Leaf, Four Leaf was ultimately still a child. Being praised by Bingtang made it hard for her to hide her happiness.

"Let's go with Four Leaf's suggestion. The final location is set as the park. We can warn the Disaster Control Bureau here and perfectly conclude everything."

Clapping her hands, Bingtang looked around at the other three girls, "Any other questions?"

Seeing all three shaking their heads, Bingtang smiled lightly, "Good, then it's decided. I'll inform the Sect Master about the plan."

After picking up her phone and sending the route, Jiang Si immediately replied.

Bingtang stared at the message for a long while before Yumo quietly asked beside her, "What's wrong, Bingtang-sama?"

Rubbing her forehead, Bingtang showed a complicated expression, "Does anyone go to the gym for dates?"

The three girls looked at each other.

"Haven't heard of that."

"Haven't seen that..."

"How do you date at a gym? There's no good food there, right?"

With a bitter smile, Bingtang put down her phone, then said with some resentment, "The Sect Master says he wants to have a gym date."

"The gym is, is also quite good." Yumo immediately said, "It's lively."

"The Sect Master is truly unconventional..." Four Leaf sighed, "But if it's the Sect Master dating, it's indeed appropriate to choose such a place to avoid raising the Disaster Control Bureau's suspicions."

Hearing Four Leaf's words, Yumo immediately nodded.

Although somewhat reluctant, Bingtang still added a gym to the route.

"Then that's settled. After Qinghua finishes creating Shion, I'll go ahead to check the situation and confirm if there are any issues with the route. I'll also get used to Qinghua's puppet."

Actually, Bingtang had wanted Qinghua to make one for a long time.

Although Qinghua's ability wasn't very useful in combat, she could usually use other Magical Girls' magic power to create identical puppets, which was quite useful.

However, to make it perfect required a large amount of the other person's magic power to fill in details. Even if a perfect puppet was made, over time, the puppet would gradually deteriorate.

The longest maintenance time was about seventy-six hours, but this was under ideal conditions without any movement.

Once it starts moving, the magic collapse speed accelerates, and it would be good if the puppet could last a day without disappearing.

So although Bingtang really wanted Qinghua to make one, she knew it was somewhat meaningless. Having Jiang Si expend large amounts of magic power to create a fake body to accompany her was really too pitiful...

But since there's a legitimate reason this time, she couldn't miss the opportunity.

Plus she could use Shion's puppet body to date Jiang Si...

"Wait a moment, Bingtang-sama."

Unexpectedly, Yumo suddenly looked up, stopping her, and stood up, "The Sect Master never said that Bingtang-sama would be using the puppet, right?"

The conference room suddenly fell silent for a moment. Bingtang narrowed her eyes, "Oh? Do you have an opinion, Yumo?"

Although filled with pressure—if it were the usual Yumo, she would have shrunk into a ball by now—but currently, with courage from who knows where, she hugged the rabbit plushie tightly, closed her eyes firmly, not daring to look at Bingtang, "I, I also want to use the puppet to date the Sect Master!"

Before Bingtang could reply, Six Leaf suddenly jumped up raising her hand, "Me too, me too!"

Four Leaf sharply knocked her sister's forehead, making Six Leaf tearful, then pulled her back and pressed her to sit down, "Don't cause trouble!"

She didn't want to bring trouble upon herself...

Bingtang looked at Yumo, whose whole body was trembling slightly but still unwilling to back down, and smiled slightly, "Fine, then we'll compete fairly. Sect rules—for any disputes, choose one of the hundred cultivation arts to determine victory."

Thinking for a moment, Bingtang pointed to the somewhat dilapidated small pond outside, where some malnourished small fish swam, "Fishing for fortune in the fortune pond—whoever catches one first wins. How about that?"

Yumo immediately breathed a sigh of relief, secretly opened her eyes to glance at Bingtang, confirming that Bingtang-sama wasn't angry, then said with determined expression, "I will definitely win!"

...

In the dark night, in the woods of BH City's North Street.

A not particularly huge Disaster Beast had its body pierced through, its Grief Seed forcibly pulled out.

It now lay on the ground, its body gradually dissipating.

Jiang Si was washing his hands in a small stream nearby.

Now when dealing with these small D-class Disaster Beasts, transformation was basically unnecessary. Just borrowing a bit of magic power to break through the defense, then pulling out the Grief Seed could solve it.

Actually, even without borrowing magic power, he could suppress these low-level Disaster Beasts, but without magic power, it was too difficult to break through their defenses.

He had tried before—pummeling a C-class Disaster Beast for a full six hours, until Jiang Si himself became somewhat exhausted and even started to be counter-suppressed by the Disaster Beast, yet that Disaster Beast showed no signs of dying.

Only by using magic power to break through the defense could the Disaster Beast be completely killed.

No matter what, beings composed of magic power ultimately cannot be killed by physical bodies alone. Even heavy firepower couldn't kill Disaster Beasts, otherwise there wouldn't be a need to specifically have Magical Girls handle them.

After washing his hands, he looked at the Grief Seed pulled from the Disaster Beast.

The magic power was very minimal, but he hadn't come looking for Disaster Beasts with abundant magic power anyway.

Even in the middle of the night, if large Disaster Beasts appeared, whether from the Disaster Control Bureau or the Azure Cloud Sect's Magical Girls, they would quickly arrive at the scene to handle it. At that point, it would be difficult to handle without transformation.

Using the Miracle Seed's magic power, he drew out the contaminated magic power from the Grief Seed, then permeated it into his skin.

He closed his eyes, recalling that Witch Association member Dujuan.

She had permeated magic power into her flesh and blood, and very clearly used contaminated magic power to enhance her physical qualities, even gaining the ability to fly.

This meant that using contaminated magic power to strengthen the physical body was also a feasible path.

Previously, Witch Association members were either ordinary people beginning to Disaster Beast-ize, or some fallen Magical Girls. This was the first time he had seen a Witch Association member using their physical body to manipulate contaminated magic power.

Although it was clear there were various limitations, and their actual strength wasn't particularly strong—far inferior to the Magical Girl form.

But Jiang Si only needed this possibility.

The contaminated magic power moved around his finger as he tried, like Dujuan, to permeate the magic power into flesh, blood, even bone marrow and nerves.

However, his entire finger quickly began to mutate.

First swelling, then the flesh twisting in the contaminated magic power, the fingernail constantly being pried up by the magic power, torn open, ripping the flesh.

Purple flames instantly engulfed the entire finger.

After the flames dissipated, the entire finger was somewhat mangled, but the mutation had finally stopped. Then he took out gauze from his pocket and wrapped the injured finger.

Very regrettable—it seemed using Disaster Beast magic power to strengthen the physical body wasn't such a simple matter.

But this wasn't the first or second time. He had experimented many times before and already knew the feasibility wasn't high. This time, having seen the Witch Association's success, he became interested and came out to find a low-level Disaster Beast to experiment again.

Unfortunately, relying solely on his own wisdom, he couldn't successfully find a path of body tempering using contaminated magic power.

But it didn't matter. Jiang Si deeply understood that there were countless paths in this world, each vastly different, with mysteries and wonders that couldn't be easily comprehended in a short time.

One must know that even the naturally gifted protagonists in web novels—whether in formations, alchemy, beast taming, or talismans, these many side paths—all needed opportunities to obtain techniques or teacher guidance to comprehend and enter the door. It was rare to achieve understanding through self-enlightenment.

And the Witch Association was his great opportunity, capable of guiding him to comprehend how to use contaminated magic power.

Throwing away the Grief Seed that had shattered due to magic conflict, Jiang Si headed home.

Tomorrow he still needed to control the Shion puppet to fake a date. Even for him, he needed some rest and preparation to divide his attention.

Otherwise, it would be easy for the Disaster Control Bureau to notice something suspicious.