Yes, I did all of this!

Compared to my sister, will I likely stay here forever, rotting away...?

Beneath Shen Wuling's dark eyes, a wisp of gray gas appeared.

"—It seems you're in pretty good spirits, young lady."

A voice suddenly rang out, and Shen Wuling turned her gaze to the dark shadow rising by the wall, from which a figure emerged.

"Neville..."

Under Shenwuling's gaze, Neville sniffed, then fanned himself in front of his nose, showing a look of disgust.

"I just smelled something rotten and came here out of curiosity." Explaining his purpose, he picked up a flower from the bedside table, smelled it, and then put it down: "Ugh, even the flowers have been tainted by this smell."

"...In that case, what are you still doing here?" Shen Wuling said indifferently, her tone devoid of any emotion, as if she wouldn't care if Neville took out a knife and chopped her up at any moment.

"Because you are Shenwujian's precious test subject, I want to see how far you can go."

Neville took out a blank card and placed it on her head.

Watching the card merge into Shenwu Ling's body, he then leisurely withdrew.

"Alright, I've finished what I needed to do. Now it's up to you to do whatever you want. Goodbye~"

Chapter 227: Bracelet

. . . . . .

Yuzhi has been having the same dream lately.

A figure crackling with white lightning was engaged in combat with something clad in obsidian-like armor... something that resembled a beetle and had a bird's beak.

This chaotic, stitched monster, after a difficult victory, the figure looked around and saw a long-abandoned city, devastated and ravaged.

Countless people died in this battle, including magical girls who assisted her and ordinary people whose bodies were mutated after being caught up in the fighting. There was no joy of victory, and no one knew what the meaning of this battle was.

And whenever this happened, the figure would turn its head and stare at Yuzhi with empty yet resolute eyes, as if saying something without words.

Then the dream ended, and she woke up.

"Hmm..."

Yu Zhi opened her eyes, covered her head, and looked out the window.

It's noon now. After Shenwuyin regained her power, their stress has lessened considerably, and Yuzhi at least has time to take a nap.

During her afternoon nap, she can relax and relieve her tension; otherwise, it would be very difficult to stay on edge all the time.

She took a deep breath, pondering the dream, and took the bracelet out of her pocket, examining it carefully.

"Cangyi... what do you want to tell me?"

She muttered to herself, not expecting a reply, and then sighed.

Just as she was about to take it back, Yuzhi paused and looked at her wrist.

It's inconvenient to keep this bracelet in my pocket all the time, and Yuzhi doesn't feel any danger from it; instead, she feels a sense of familiarity with it. So, is it okay to put it on my wrist?

Yu Zhi thought to herself silently as she carefully put the pendant on her wrist.

Just like the previous test, there was no reaction. Yu Zhi breathed a sigh of relief and got out of bed with the bracelet on.

The room was empty except for the television news, which was still on.

It seems they're waiting for someone who loves watching the news, or maybe they want to be the first to notice when the weirdo causes trouble. In any case, the TV has been on all the time lately, unless there's a power outage or no signal.

I washed some grapes; I got these from the relief team. Faced with the disaster in Kazekawa City, not only the magical girls, but people from all over the world are extending a helping hand.

Not long after, a figure returned to the house. Xia Yan's face was covered in a fine layer of sweat, clearly indicating that she had just finished exercising.

"Welcome back, Senior Xia Yan."

Yu Zhi placed the grapes on the table, her gaze lingering on her shoulder: "How is the wound healing?"

"It's not fully recovered yet, so consider it as rehabilitation training."

Xia Yan glanced at her shoulder and shook her head.

Penetrating wounds are inherently difficult to heal, and even a magical girl's physique requires time. Not to mention, Xia Yan doesn't often transform to recover from her injuries in order to deal with the monsters that might appear at any time.

Recently, Xia Yan has also been using exercise as an excuse to go out and patrol the entire city so that she can catch up with any strange people who appear as soon as possible.

Hearing Xia Yan's words, Yu Zhi smiled helplessly and said, "Rehabilitation training... but it's most important to let your injuries heal."

Shen Wuyin had warned Xia Yan that this behavior would not only be ineffective in healing the wound, but would also cause the wound to tear again, which should have healed, but Xia Yan did not listen to her.

“Lingyin’s strength has already surpassed mine, and I don’t want to fall behind.” Xia Yan covered her shoulder and shook her head.

—It is now three days after everyone has dealt with Ara-no-Kage. After being able to transform, Rin-on showed even greater power than before, and forced the two monsters, Hei-gai and Hei-shi, to retreat in one fell swoop.

Even so, the two monsters were strengthened after the gate was opened, and Lingyin alone could not completely kill them.

Yu Zhi and Xia Yan are recovering from their injuries. As for the other magical girls... to put it bluntly, there is a significant power gap between Ling Yin and them. At most, they can deal with some simple monsters to save Shen Wu Yin from frequently transforming, but they are really not much help in high-intensity battles.

So after lying in bed for a day and a half, Xia Yan couldn't help but transform and go to participate in the battle. Seeing this, Yu Zhi also joined in.

"Senior Xia Yan, you're still too nervous. You need to rest at this important time."

Yu Zhi gently advised, "After all, the door has been opened, and our strength is also increasing, isn't it?"

"That's just us."

Xia Yan raised her other, uninjured arm, looked at the red gem in her wrist, felt the power within, and said in a deep voice:

“I’ve asked the other magical girls these past few days, and they have indeed felt their strength increasing, but the degree is very slight. Some of them have even stopped growing recently. So I think there are very few magical girls whose power is constantly increasing; it just happens to be a few of us.”

"is that so......"

Yu Zhi frowned slightly. If that were the case, it would mean that there was even less power left to help them.

Suddenly, she thought of something and looked up at Xia Yan: "By the way, Senior Xia Yan, I heard you say that in the past, magical girls also dealt with a large number of monsters with a small number of them. Is it possible that after the gate opens, the situation will gradually become the same as before?"

"I'm not entirely sure about that... but what's certain is that the ancient magical girls had a deeper purpose in sealing the monsters inside."

Xia Yan paused, picked up a bunch of grapes and ate them: "But right now, we don't need to think about things since we don't know the situation yet. It's a waste of energy to think about it. We might as well focus on the present."

"Too."

Yu Zhi paused for a moment, then nodded and said seriously:

"So, Senior Xia Yan, what's the situation with these strange people here? How's the evacuation of the ordinary people going?"

"The weirdos are getting stronger too, although they're not much different from the other magical girls, but their numbers are getting annoying. As for ordinary people... it's still the same. Moving the people out of a city is no easy task, not to mention that it hasn't even been a month since the Raiders went berserk."

Hearing Xia Yan's words, Yu Zhi sighed and nodded:

"Now all we can do is defeat the monster."

Xia Yan responded, saying, "While ordinary weirdos can be handled by other magical girls, the Gatekeeper and Neville can only be handled by us and Lingyin..."

"—Did I hear you talking about me?"

As Xia Yan was speaking, a voice rang out from the doorway. Shen Wuyin had returned home and was smiling at the two of them.

"Yin, you're back."

"Um,"

After taking off her coat and hanging it on the hanger, Shen Wuyin looked at the two of them and said:

What are you talking about?

"About who opened the door," Xia Yan said. "And you? Did you get any information when you went out?"

"Have."

Although she gave an affirmative answer, Shen Wuyin suppressed her smile at this moment: "This time I met with some magical girls to discuss the current situation and got some clues - the Gatekeeper does not intend to kill ordinary people at the moment."

"Can you confirm what their purpose is?" Xia Yan asked.

"I don't know, but after listening to them, I also realized that the person who opened the door didn't want to attack ordinary people, and even deliberately avoided them."

"..."

Listening to their discussion, Yu Zhi frowned slightly, suddenly recalling a scene she had recently dreamed about.

"...I have a guess. Could it be that the old crow is planning to turn everyone into monsters?"

"Oh?"

Upon hearing this, the two looked at Yuzhi: "What's your basis for this?"

"No, it's just a guess... or rather, a feeling?"

As Yu Zhi pondered, one hand unconsciously gripped the bracelet on her wrist, a gesture that naturally caught the attention of the two.

"This is Neville's? Why are you wearing this?"

"Um... to be precise, it's Cangyi's. It's been giving me some kind of hint lately, so its information shouldn't be wrong."

Yu Zhi felt a little guilty. Neville's things should be handled with care, but she wore them so openly on her wrist, which made her look like she wasn't afraid of being tricked.

"...Alright, last time you sensed from this bracelet that the people my father kidnapped were at sea. If you believe the feeling this bracelet gives you, then I won't say anything more."

Shen Wuyin withdrew her gaze and pointed to the gem on her wrist: "After all, Neville's things are quite useful as long as they're not in his hands."

"Then you can wear it, but I advise you to be careful. It wouldn't be good if Neville used it to do something to you."

Xia Yan only offered one reminder before shifting the topic to more important matters:

"Judging from the example of Hejia, the old man crow can indeed turn humans into monsters, and his strength should have increased after opening the gate. So if what Yuzhi said is true, then he is very likely planning something that will turn ordinary people into monsters on a large scale."

"But no matter what, what we need to do remains unchanged, which is to stop him."

Yu Zhi lowered her eyes for a moment, then frowned as she thought of the scene she saw in her dream and connected it with the present.

The city was dilapidated, and his companions and those he tried to save had all died in the battle. It was almost a pointless fight; even if they had won, it would have been a defeat.

This was a situation that Yuzhi desperately didn't want to see. She took a deep breath and looked at the two of them:

"Besides defeating monsters, we must also do our best to protect ordinary people. That's our duty as magical girls."

“That’s right.” Shen Wuyin became serious:

"The direction has been confirmed. Now let's all work together to rescue the trapped people."

"Ok!"

Chapter 228: Recovery and Change