Yes, I did all of this!

"In short, it's best to avoid fighting Neville if necessary. Right now, the most important enemy is the Poison Vine."

Xia Yan summarized, and finally looked at Duanmu Mo and Yu Zhi: "Apart from these, I have nothing else to say."

Yu Zhi gently shook her head, and Duanmu Mo also spread his hands: "I'll go investigate the situation of the poisonous vines myself. Maybe I can get some useful information."

“In that case, I’ll head back.” Xia Yan nodded and said to Yu Zhi, “Just in case, I’ll try out the method of destroying the seeds during the next training session. You should also learn it to deal with the Poison Vine’s actions.”

Seeing that the discussion was coming to an end, Xia Yan stood up, picked up the doll, and decided not to linger any longer.

To avoid the firm being attacked as well, Xia Yan didn't dare to stay long, leaving only Duanmu Mo and Yu Zhi sitting on the sofa.

"...Take care."

Watching Xia Yan close the door, Duanmu Mo yawned and put his legs on the sofa.

After a moment of silence, Yuzhi finally had a chance to ask a question:

"Mr. Duanmu... Aunt Ge Cheng, will she be saved?"

She herself lacked confidence in making the request; she simply felt an urgent desire to do so.

"Believe in your own strength, believe in the strength of your companions, that's enough," Duanmu Mo said calmly. "You should also go back and get some rest. Only by adjusting your body and mindset can you face the battles to come."

Have you adjusted your mindset?

Yuzhi took a deep breath, nodded vigorously, and, recalling Mrs. Katsuragi's face, stood up and said firmly:

"I definitely will!"

"I look forward to hearing news of your victory."

Duanmu Morang stood up and watched Yu Zhi leave.

He smiled and waved goodbye before closing the door and sitting down at his desk.

Duanmu Mo watched Yu Zhi walk away from the window before turning his gaze away.

Now, it's time to get down to business.

He raised his hand, and a card appeared between his fingers.

This card with the vampire monster printed on it is finally going to come in handy now that Duanmu Mo has "made a fortune".

He could sense that this vampire monster possessed many abilities that were useless in combat but very interesting.

With a mysterious smile, Duanmu Mo took out the energy card, silently looking forward to their next battle.

. . . . . .

"..."

—It is unknown when the poisonous vines will appear next, but daily life must go on. Yuzhi sat at her desk eating her lunch and occasionally looked at her books to review.

At Yuzhi School, during after-school break time, some students go to the cafeteria for meals, while many others bring their own lunchboxes.

Despite her immense anxiety, she knew she had to remain calm like Xia Yan in order to better prepare for the battles to come.

"Phew... Calm down, calm down."

Realizing her thoughts were getting a bit jumbled up again, Yuzhi closed her eyes and muttered to herself, appearing somewhat rambling.

As she took a deep breath, a figure sat down opposite her.

Hui Zi sat down in front of her, opened a loaf of bread, and looked at her with a grin.

"Keiko... Is this all you're having for lunch?" Seeing that Natsume Keiko seemed to have something to say, Yuzhi put aside her anxiety and asked with a gentle smile.

"It's okay, it's okay, I'll eat some more after school." Huizi said as she took out her phone while taking a bite of bread.

"But I remember, wasn't the food street near the school destroyed?"

As someone involved in the destruction of that street, Yuzhi also felt somewhat guilty towards the people at the school.

After all, it's the place where students like to relax after school, and Huizi is a regular there.

I thought I would hear Huizi sighing with regret after she started school, but to my surprise, she cheered up after a short while.

"Who said there's only one street near the school?"

Sipping her milk with delight, Huizi said with a happy expression, "There's another street nearby where many shops have launched discounts and new products these past few days. I'm planning to go there with my friends after school! Yuzhi, do you want to come along?"

"I won't..."

It's probably a way to attract new customers. After all, the destruction of that food street left too many students with nowhere to play, so other businesses would naturally seize the opportunity to attract those customers there.

There's no need to hide this blatant scheme; after all, for these students, it doesn't matter where they go as long as there's somewhere to have fun.

"If you keep doing this, you'll miss out on a lot of interesting things!"

Hui Zi said with a smile, glanced around, and whispered, "You might not believe it, but when I went to the food street during my vacation, I ran into Senior Xia Yan!"

Upon hearing this, Yu Zhi was taken aback: "You're there too?"

"also?"

"Oh no... I mean, I didn't expect you to be there when that street was destroyed." Yuzhi hurriedly waved her hand and asked with concern, "Are you alright?"

"It's alright, it's alright, take a look at this!"

Hui Zi remained as carefree as ever, showing Yu Zhi the photos on her phone.

The photo shows Hui Zi and Xia Yan together, but Xia Yan looks very unhappy, which clearly indicates that this was not her own choice.

"Isn't Xia Yan's outfit cool?"

"Yes, it really is very beautiful."

Yu Zhi nodded in agreement. Xia Yan was indeed very beautiful, possessing both a cool and androgynous charm and a youthful allure.

"We originally planned to invite her out, but who knew her boyfriend would show up instead!"

"Huh?"

Yu Zhi was stunned, unable to understand her words for the time being.

Hui Zi, caught up in her excitement, failed to notice Yu Zhi's dazed expression and continued:

"Thinking about it now, it seems that Senior Xia Yan had a hard time refusing us, so—he! rode his motorcycle over to refuse us for her, and even took her into the arcade!"

Hui Zi swiped the screen, and on the phone, Yu Zhi saw Duanmu Mo and Xia Yan standing in front of a game console, holding toy guns.

The angle is a bit strange; it looks like it was taken secretly.

"This...this doesn't seem to be her boyfriend." Yuzhi's heart immediately panicked, and she quickly voiced her doubts.

"Huh? That's impossible~" Huizi waved her hand with a smile: "You didn't see how these two were laughing and joking, they're so close~"

"But...but Senior Xia Yan is still just a student, isn't saying that to her is a form of slander..."

Hearing Yuzhi's words, Huizi still stuck to her own ideas and even came up with a new discovery: "But didn't she drop out of school? Hey! I think her dropping out of school might be related to this man."

"How could that be—and even if Senior Xia Yan dropped out of school, isn't she still a minor!"

“You’re almost an adult.” Huizi looked at Yuzhi helplessly. “And Yuzhi, don’t you know? In this day and age, let alone not being an adult, in some places, people are even dating before they’re ten years old.”

"..."

Yuzhi had indeed seen such news, but she still felt it was too precocious. More importantly, an idea was nagging at her, making her want to deny what had been said.

But what could she say? That she knew this man, that she had stayed at his house for a night, and that she knew he definitely didn't have a girlfriend?

If that's the case, given Hui Zi's personality, her story would spread throughout the entire school in less than half a day, and her parents would call to question her that very day.

"Could it be..." Huizi remembered Yuzhi asking her about Xia Yan last time and asked, "You've met Senior Xia Yan?"

"Hmm..." Yu Zhi glanced to the side, concealing her true feelings, and said, "We're just acquaintances."

In reality, if Duanmu Mo hadn't made the arrangements, she and Xia Yan would have only exchanged a few words. And after she transformed into Xi Ri... their relationship was even worse at first. She only became a little more amiable after Yu Zhi demonstrated her strength—but only a little.

As for the relationship between Xia Yan and Duanmu Mo, it was something she didn't know and didn't want to find out.

"I see..." Hearing this, Huizi sighed, looking at her phone: "I've been imagining this scenario for so long~"

"..." Yu Zhi didn't know what to say, so she could only put on a smiling expression, but her brows were slightly furrowed, showing a conflicted look.

Hui Zi looked regretful: "But since Xia Yan and this man are just friends, I'd better not publicize it too much, so as not to cause unnecessary trouble for Senior Xia Yan."

She finished her bread in a few bites and left her seat: "It was definitely the right thing to tell Yuzhi beforehand. Bye-bye!"

"Okay, goodbye..."

Watching her rush out of the classroom, Yuzhi lowered her hand and turned to look out the window.

Suddenly, she sighed deeply, not even knowing why she was sighing.

...For the rest of the day, she didn't listen to a single class.

Chapter 50: The History of Kamishiro City

"call......"

—While Yuzhi was talking to Huizi, Xia Yan gradually woke up from her bed on the other side.

When I opened my eyes, I was in a familiar but dark room, with the messy floor piled with all sorts of things that I couldn't tell were household items or garbage.

If you look closely, you'll find that there are no electrical appliances in the furniture, as if electricity doesn't exist in this apartment at all.

Xia Yan got out of bed silently, washed up, and then opened the window while eating breakfast.

Outside the window, all was deathly still, far from any sign of human habitation.

If you look closely, you can also see cracks in the ground near the apartment, making it immediately clear where this place is.

Magical girls or monsters vandalized the area around this apartment, and for various reasons, no one was willing to repair it, so the apartment was eventually abandoned.

Now, only Xia Yan still lives here.

For ordinary people, without electrical appliances, there would be no air conditioning or television, and no way to preserve food with a refrigerator. Such a life would be no different from that of primitive people.

But Xia Yan had grown accustomed to this kind of life. At least compared to her childhood, this was still a decent home...

While quietly eating her breakfast bread, Xia Yan suddenly noticed something and looked at the necklace on her wrist.

Around the gem used for transformation, there were some sparkling beads. The beads that set off the gem were not particularly dazzling, but at this moment they shimmered with an inexplicable light.

Holding the bead in her other hand, Xia Yan sat on the bed and closed her eyes.

Soon, she felt a light envelop her, and then she opened her eyes.