My ex-girlfriend is a magical girl junior?

Chapter 242 Another Victory

Upon hearing Jingjue's malicious pronouncement, Jiying paused slightly.

He didn't loosen his grip on the other person's throat; instead, he threw him backward with even more force, slamming him heavily against a thick tree trunk that would require two people to hug.

"boom--!"

A dull thud was heard, the tree trunk shook violently, and countless leaves fell down.

The shadowy figure, its head covered by a hideous helmet, slowly approached. Two dark red lights burned in the gaps, as if trying to pierce through the pure white smiling mask before it.

"What did you just say?" His voice was icy, filled with suppressed rage. "Explain yourself clearly. What do you mean by 'it's too late'?"

"Cough—cough cough—" Jingjue's breathing became somewhat difficult because his throat was being choked, but he seemed completely unconcerned about his situation. Instead, he let out a burst of suppressed, joyful laughter because of the anxiety and worry he caught in Jiying's tone.

"Hehe—since you still have time to chat, why don't you take a guess? My dear—one of your kind?"

Like a hunter who has finally cornered his prey, he began to describe various possibilities in a tone full of wicked amusement: "Perhaps, all your lovely magical girl companions are still fine, and what I just said—was just empty talk."

"Or perhaps, they are caught in an unprecedented battle, desperately hoping—that some omnipotent hero will appear at the most critical moment to save them, just like in a fairy tale?"

"Or perhaps—" his voice suddenly turned incredibly sinister, "they've all been—torn to pieces by my lovely pets?"

He paused, his tone becoming even more seductive: "Oh, by the way, aren't you also interested in my 'cute dolls'? You know, those crescent moons I locked up."

"If you'd like, we can talk about their whereabouts. You've probably already guessed they're still alive, right?"

Ji Ying remained silent. His hand, covered in black armor, still gripped Jing Jue's throat tightly, but he made no further move.

The other hand, clenched into a fist, made a soft "crunching" sound due to excessive force, and the ethereal energy emanating from the body even became somewhat disordered, as if it was making some extremely difficult choice.

In Jingjue's view, the other party was clearly caught in a dilemma, his mind disturbed by the various possibilities he had put forward.

The feeling of watching a powerful opponent fall into a helpless situation filled him with an almost overflowing sense of pleasure.

"I'm sorry." Just as Jingjue was about to continue toying with the other party with words and enjoy his deeper pain, Jiying suddenly spoke up.

Her voice was surprisingly calm, without a trace of panic. "I don't have time to continue these boring topics with you, so—let's do it another time."

As soon as he finished speaking, the arm that was gripping Jingjue's throat tightened suddenly, and the hard metal knuckles dug deep into the other man's neck, as if he intended to crush it.

"Ugh—!" Jingjue's breathing became incredibly difficult, and the expression beneath his smiling mask twisted in pain.

But with his last ounce of strength, he managed to squeeze out a broken sentence from deep in his throat: "Yes—that's it—just—kill me—."

"And then—watch those innocent civilians—be drowned—by the flood!"

Ji Ying's movements suddenly froze, and the force on his arm immediately loosened, allowing Jing Jue to catch his breath.

His dark red eyes were fixed on the other person, his voice hoarse with excitement: "What did you do?!"

What did that last sentence mean?!

"Heh—hehe—"

Jingjue greedily inhaled the fresh air, then let out a smug laugh: "You must have noticed it before you entered this illusory bubble, right? There's a sizable reservoir at the edge of that forest outside, and the scenery there is truly beautiful."

"I think—it would be really interesting to add some more 'spectacular' elements to this beauty."

"If I had already planted a large number of high-powered remote-controlled explosives in the critical load-bearing structure of that reservoir dam before you arrived here—"

"Then, using my own authority," I hid the detonator for the explosives in a small mirror nearby.

"What are you planning to do?"

"By the way, to ensure everything goes perfectly, I also set up a mirror image of myself next to that mirror, specifically for monitoring and detonating the explosives."

"Once that tiny transmitter is removed from inside the mirror, all the explosives will detonate simultaneously. In other words, even if someone is lucky enough to discover the explosives beforehand, they absolutely cannot stop me."

"If you leave here right now to deal with that trouble—bang! The reservoir will explode."

"If you try to forcibly remove those explosives, or take them away from there—bang! The reservoir will still explode."

"If you try to bypass me and destroy that tiny transmitter—the result will still be—bang!"

"So—" Jingjue spread his hands, leaned close to Jiying's ear, and whispered in a tone full of malice and mockery, "What do you plan to choose, my dear—great hero?"

"Are you going to abandon your magical girl companions and rush to that problem you can't possibly solve, only to make a futile attempt?"

Or are you going to let me blow up that reservoir, watching helplessly as the towns downstream turn into a vast expanse of water, and let tens of thousands of innocent civilians perish because of your incompetence today?

"Or perhaps—" he paused, his voice filled with a morbid expectation, "that they would kneel at my feet, confess their sins, and beg me to spare those poor ants?"

"No matter what you choose, it's a wonderful drama for me! Let me enjoy it!"

Ji Ying clenched his fists, his dark red eyes burning with a fury that seemed capable of incinerating everything. He stepped forward, as if wanting to say something: "You—"

"Don't talk." Jingjue gently placed a finger to his lips, making a "shh" gesture. "Now is the time to choose, not the time to ask questions. Just choose."

"And didn't you just say that we—have nothing to talk about?"

He smugly watched Ji Ying struggle in agony, his heart filled with anticipation for what was to come.

At that very moment, a voice he could never have imagined suddenly rang in the ear of the mirror image he had left near the dam to monitor and detonate.

"I see, this is indeed a bit tricky."

97

"What?!"

Jingjue's body stiffened abruptly, his haughty composure vanishing instantly, replaced by uncontrollable shock and astonishment.

The next moment, he was horrified to discover that his connection with the mirror image left behind on the dam had been completely severed.

"What have you done?!" Mirror Lord shouted, losing his composure. "Why—why was your voice there?"

However, Ji Ying gripped Jing Jue's throat even tighter, preventing him from making a sound.

Then, he made the exact same "shh" gesture as before to the Void Apostle in front of him, who was now completely in chaos.

"Keep your voice down," he said with a hint of amusement, as if soothing a tantrum-throwing child. "I'm trying to figure out how to solve this. Your loud noise is bothering me."

"You—!" Jingjue wanted to say something, but his throat was tightly gripped, and he could only make meaningless hoarse sounds.

After a while, the silent figure in front of him suddenly let out a long sigh of relief, as if he had just completed a major task that had taken a lot of effort.

"Phew—finally it's over."

As he spoke, he casually tossed Jing Jue to the ground like trash.

Immediately afterwards, the black blade on the side of his arm guard popped out with a "clang," and the cold tip of the blade pressed against the other person's throat.

"Wait, you're just a shadow?!"

Jingjue stared blankly at the scene before him, instantly recalling how he had been deceived by the other party using a similar "shadow" technique in the Mirror Maze yesterday, which led to the patrol officer taking him away as a hostage!

He immediately realized that the silent shadow that had rushed directly into the void bubble from the beginning was not the real body, but just a shadow clone.

The reason the other party had acted so recklessly before was probably because—even if this shadow was destroyed, his real body would not suffer any real harm.

"Oh? You finally figured it out?" A mocking chuckle came from beneath the Shadowless's helmet.

"By the way, your judgment during the battle that I was slowed down because of insufficient energy was also because I needed to focus more on another aspect: investigating what other despicable methods you were hiding to hold me back."

"This process began the moment I guessed that your real purpose was to keep me here, and it only just ended."

"I must say, your methods are truly insidious."

The words had barely left his mouth—

"Boom—!!!!!"

No sooner had they finished speaking than a deafening explosion suddenly erupted from the distant horizon in the direction of the reservoir. The violent shockwave swept through the entire forest like a whirlwind, causing the branches of the trees around them to sway wildly.

Jingjue looked up in that direction, almost in a daze, and saw a huge mushroom cloud made of flames and smoke slowly rising in the clear sky.

He knew that it was the scene of all the explosives he had planted being detonated simultaneously high in the air, far away from the dam structure.

In the instant he lost his focus, another gust of wind arose.

Another figure of silence descended from the sky, landing heavily in front of him. The previous figure who had held a blade to his throat transformed into a silent shadow, quietly merging into the body of the newcomer.

"I know absolutely nothing about bomb disposal," the real Shadow said slowly, a hint of relaxed laughter in his voice. "I can't leave those dangerous explosives behind or just throw them anywhere, otherwise I won't be able to leave in peace."

"Fortunately—there are always some simple, crude, yet surprisingly effective methods, aren't there?"

"How did you know? How did you know?!" Jingjue suddenly screamed hysterically, no longer able to maintain his composure.

"My meticulous plan! My ingenious arrangements! How could you possibly have seen through it all?!"

He screamed hysterically, completely unable to accept that his prized wisdom had been defeated in such a utterly devastating way.

"Shouldn't you be facing this agonizing choice in front of me right now—whether to go back and save those damned magical girls, or stay here and deal with the explosives that could turn the downstream area into a vast ocean at any moment, so I can fully enjoy the pleasure of manipulating people's hearts?!"

Ji Ying looked at his opponent, who had completely broken down, with pity and gently shook his head.

"Given your insidious and wicked nature, if you intend to delay, you will definitely try to delay until I have no chance to salvage the situation."

"The fact that I was able to lure you out yesterday by pretending to fight with Ruri shows that you've planted spies in many corners of the city to provide you with a viewpoint," so it's highly likely that you're now able to roughly synchronize the situation with my companions."

"But you just said you've already achieved your goal, and it's too late for me" — that was just bluffing.

"I saw through your true purpose of stalling for time far too early, and my combat efficiency far exceeded your expectations. Both of these factors have given me a considerable margin of error."

"At least for this moment, their situation is definitely not irreversible."

"And it's only natural that after you've determined that you haven't achieved your goal, you're trying to make me anxious and flustered, thus causing me to lose my calm judgment."

"After all, in the process, you can use the lives of countless civilians downstream of the reservoir as a last resort to threaten me, and you can also take the opportunity to 'enjoy' my painful decision-making, can't you?"

"Unfortunately—" The pity in Jiying's voice grew stronger, "Your overly arrogant personality made you certain that I couldn't solve this problem, so—you proudly recounted all your arrangements."

"Although I suspected you would tamper with that reservoir, figuring out exactly how you did it, and where the key devices were placed—is still very difficult to find quickly without being detected by your spies."

"If you hadn't said it yourself, I wouldn't have been able to deal with those dangerous explosives so quickly. Maybe—you really would have managed to keep them here?"

"No matter how meticulous the plan or how ingenious the arrangement, it still needs people to execute it. You didn't have any trustworthy partners, so you had to do those things yourself. So, in the end, you failed because of your own arrogance."

"Aren't you afraid I'm telling the truth?!" Mirror Lord said through gritted teeth. "Can you be 100% sure those annoying magical girls won't encounter some irreversible accident?!"

"You keep saying you're on the side of magical girls, but you act so indifferent! In the end, you're nothing but a hypocrite."

"I already said, you have no trustworthy companions." Jiying shook his head again with pity. "Trusting companions" is something absolutely unimaginable for you, isn't it? So it's not surprising that you asked this question."

His voice became incredibly firm: "But I—am different."

"I believe in them. Even in the face of enormous difficulties, they will try their best to find a way out and they will persevere until the moment I go to support them."

At this point, Ji Xiang seemed to suddenly remember something and said softly, "We've talked so much without realizing it. Let's stop here for now."

"Hopefully next time, you won't hide behind the scenes and direct your own mirror image to create these pointless troubles again."

"However—that's probably impossible for you, isn't it?" He chuckled mockingly.

"I have to admit—you've won again this time." Mirror Lord glared fiercely at Silent Shadow, his voice filled with resentment and bitterness. "But next time—next time, I will make you pay the most terrible price!"

"Is using such classic lines to save face after defeat a common tactic among villains who like to create a persona?" Ji Ying shook his head helplessly. "Never mind, see you next time, you coward."

With that, he raised his fist, covered in black armor, high and slammed it down on the head of the Mirror Lord's clone, wanting to finally end this annoying mirror image clone.

Just before his fist struck, Jingjue's body stiffened abruptly, and then a violent explosion instantly engulfed the forest.

"boom!!!"

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