Magical Girl Fan Bingbing

After parting ways with Jiang Ran, Moonlight and Sirius flew non-stop toward the outskirts of Tianhai City.

The two streaks of light made several turns in the night, circling around to make sure they weren't being followed, before finally landing in a villa complex in a wealthy area halfway up a mountain.

This villa area is built against the mountain, with each villa occupying a considerable area. The landscaping is excellent, with neatly trimmed vines climbing the wrought iron fences. Various luxury cars with prices starting at seven figures are parked in the driveway in front of the villas. The residents are either business elites from Tianhai City or retired high-ranking officials.

The secret hideout of the Demonic Order is hidden within the mansions of these wealthy people.

The sign hanging outside says it's an art exchange club that regularly hosts various art exhibitions, wine tastings, and celebrity gatherings, inviting prominent figures from Tianhai City and having a considerable reputation in high society circles.

In places like this, even if the police patrol to the entrance, they will only give a polite salute and leave.

The villa was still brightly lit, and the sounds of music and laughter could be faintly heard from the banquet hall. However, Moonlight and Sirius did not even enter through the main gate, but went straight to the rockery in the backyard.

The two exchanged a glance, took a step forward in unison, and their bodies passed through an invisible transparent barrier without any hindrance, instantly shutting out the surrounding noise.

The true stronghold of the Demonic Cult does not exist in the real world.

It is located in a separate space created using spatial magic. From the outside, it looks like an ordinary villa backyard, but once you cross the barrier, the scene inside is completely different from the outside.

This is one of the trump cards that allows the Demonic Cultivation Society to secretly confront the Ten Councils. Without the guidance and authorization of insiders, even if outsiders search the entire villa from top to bottom, they will never find this hidden space independent of the main world.

Passing through the barrier, Moonlight and Sirius straightened their wind-blown appearance, concealed their presence, walked to a complex magic circle, raised their hands to infuse magic power, and activated a remote communication spell.

The pale purple magic circle instantly lit up with a dazzling light, and a blurry figure slowly coalesced in the center of the circle. Its appearance and figure were indistinct, but it was the guild master they had been talking about.

"President." Moonlight and Sirius immediately lowered their heads, their attitude extremely respectful, and reported the entire process of tonight's operation, including being forcibly shifted the blame by Jiang Ran, being dragged along, and the reactionary remarks that shocked the entire audience.

During the first half of the report, the blurry figure in the center of the magic circle remained completely still, as if he were listening to something trivial.

But when Moonlight uttered the code name "Disaster Lord" and described the opponent's strength in defeating the entire police squad in two moves, the figure clearly moved, and subtle ripples appeared in the magic around him, obviously showing interest.

"Release the magical recordings of the scene." The guild leader's voice came from the magic circle, carrying a mature and charming tone.

Moonlight retrieved the footage of tonight's events from its personal storage device and projected it onto the magic circle.

In the scene, a silver-haired magical girl wearing a fox mask lightly taps her toes, flips the ground, and summons a thunderbolt that knocks seven or eight elite police officers to the ground. The whole process is elegant and composed.

The president looked at it very carefully.

Especially during the few moments when Jiang Ran used her unique magic, the blurry figure even leaned forward slightly, as if trying to see more clearly.

After the video finished playing, the communication array remained silent for a long time.

Moonlight and Sirius lowered their heads, not daring to utter a sound.

"This disaster victim..."

The president finally spoke, but very slowly.

"There's a very familiar aura about her."

Moonlight paused slightly, "Familiar? Does the student council president know her?"

"I'm not sure." The president's tone carried a rare hint of uncertainty and something more complex. "It might just be my imagination."

She didn't explain further, and Moonlight wisely refrained from asking further questions.

Seeing that the chairman showed obvious interest in the disaster master, Moonlight took the opportunity to speak up: "Chairman, why don't you come to Tianhai City in person? With your status, your success rate in recruiting the disaster master will definitely be much higher than ours."

"I will go," the president replied more readily than expected. "However, there are still some things to finish up here, so I can't leave for the time being."

Her tone became serious.

"Before I arrive, you two must use whatever methods you have to bind the Calamity Lord to the Demonic Cult's war chariot. At the very least, you cannot allow her to harbor hostility towards us."

"clear."

……

Meanwhile, the lights were still on in the standalone office building of the Tianhai City Mosu Management and Law Enforcement Team.

Generally speaking, only provincial-level administrative units establish a Magic Element Management and Law Enforcement Team. However, Tianhai City, as the national economic and financial center and the core hub for resisting the invasion of magical beasts on the eastern coast, was specially approved by the ten councils to have a separate team structure, which is far superior to that of ordinary prefecture-level cities.

Although it's called a general team, the number of officially registered magical girls is far less than the number of people under Chu Ying's command.

After all, they don't need to participate in the daily work of the Municipal Public Security Bureau. Their core functions are simply to implement the strategic policies issued by the ten councils, supervise the work of subordinate departments, and coordinate the construction of the local magical girl team system.

Another is to serve as a high-level combat force to maintain stability.

What's even more unique is that the magical girl team system operates completely independently of the local government, reporting only to its superiors and the ten-seat council. Therefore, the headquarters' office is not located in the joint office building of the Municipal Public Security Bureau like Chu Ying's branch, but is built separately deep in the heavily guarded government district.

Chu Ying, carrying a thick bag of encrypted documents, hurriedly entered the headquarters building and went straight to the office of the headquarters commander, Liu Ye, on the top floor without any hindrance.

Pushing open the door, I found that the director was also not asleep.

Behind the large desk sat a little girl with short red hair, dressed in a uniform.

Director Liu Ye, the head of the Tianhai City Magic Element Management and Enforcement Team, is a petite girl who looks only twelve or thirteen years old. Her height is just slightly above the top of the desk, and the entire office is decorated with a special design to lower the height of the desk.

All the tables and chairs were custom-made. The bookshelves only reached waist height for an average person, and the coffee table and sofa were also shorter. There would never be a scene where the captain sat on a chair with his feet not touching the ground, which would be disrespectful to his dignity.

When Chu Ying entered, Liu Ye was hunched over her desk writing something, her small hand holding a fountain pen, her handwriting neat and tidy.

"You're here." Liu Ye didn't even look up. Her childish voice contrasted strangely with the calm and authoritative aura in the office. "Sit down first, let me finish approving this."

The two were old acquaintances. Chu Ying didn't stand on ceremony. She put the file bag on the coffee table, slumped onto the sofa, picked up the teapot, poured herself a cup of hot tea, and gulped it down. Only then did she finally recover from the exhaustion of staying up most of the night.

A few minutes later, Liu Ye put down her pen, jumped off the specially made office chair, and walked to the sofa opposite Chu Ying. Her small feet, clad in black leather shoes, landed on the soft carpet.

"Speak." Director Liu's style of doing things is very similar to Chu Ying's, or rather, Chu Ying learned it from her.

Chu Ying recounted the events of the evening from beginning to end.

Liu Ye listened quietly, occasionally picking up the mini teacup in front of her that looked like a child's water cup and taking a sip.

After Chu Ying finished speaking, Liu Ye put down her teacup, her expression unreadable.

"I've listened to the recording of the disaster victim's last few words."

Chu Ying's body tensed slightly.

"The Ten Councils are already paying attention to the matter of the Demonic Cultivation Society." Liu Ye put down the report in her hand, her tone tinged with helplessness. "But recently, the magical beasts in the North Sea have been behaving strangely, and the situation on the front lines is critical. The core combat power of the Ten Councils is all tied down, and they can't spare any manpower to support Tianhai for the time being. From now on, we can only rely on ourselves."

Chu Ying had already guessed the answer, but hearing it from Liu Ye's mouth still made her sigh inwardly.

"What about the disaster leader?" Chu Ying asked the most crucial question directly. "Her strength far exceeds our ability to deal with her. The force we deployed tonight was the maximum I could muster, and she was defeated in just two moves. Even if we send all the city bureau's employed magical girls next time, we might not be able to take her down."

Liu Ye didn't answer immediately. She held the teacup in her small hand and tapped the rim of the cup twice with her fingertips.

"Where did all those high-purity magic essences she created end up?"

"Based on the clues we have so far, it has not entered the black market," Chu Ying answered truthfully. "There is absolutely no magic crystal of that purity circulating in the market. Apart from a few samples that we seized from individual sellers, there has been no similar product appearing through any other channels."

"It didn't end up on the black market?" Liu Ye raised an eyebrow slightly. "Then who did she sell them to?"

"The investigation is still ongoing."

Liu Ye was silent for a few seconds before speaking, "If those magical elements haven't flowed into the black market and haven't caused widespread social chaos, then let's not rush into a head-on confrontation with her."

Chu Ying was taken aback. "You mean...?"

"Stability is the priority." Liu Ye put down her teacup and looked at Chu Ying with her calm eyes, which were completely at odds with her appearance. "Tianhai City can't afford any more trouble right now. If we push someone with the level of the Disaster Lord to the limit and he takes action in the city, the collateral damage alone will keep us busy for half a year."

"What's more, now there's the Demonic Cult." A hint of barely perceptible irritation appeared on Liu Ye's small face. "These are two time bombs. If they detonate at the same time, Tianhai City will truly become a battlefield."

She jumped off the sofa, walked to the window, and stood on tiptoe to look outside.

Outside the window is the brightly lit night view of Tianhai City, with countless neon lights flowing across the glass curtain walls of skyscrapers, where 30 million people are sleeping peacefully.

"Keep an eye on them, don't make a move." Liu Ye had her back to Chu Ying. "Once the ten council members are free to deal with it, neither the Disaster Lord nor the Demon Cultivation Society will be more than a big speed bump."

Chu Ying understood the meaning behind Liu Ye's words: the current strategy was to stall.

It's not that we don't want to catch them, but that we need to catch them slowly, gradually, and in a planned manner.

"I understand." Chu Ying stood up. "Should we continue investigating the relationship between the Disaster Lord and the Demonic Cultivation Association?"

"Of course we need to investigate." Liu Ye turned around. Although she was only a little over a meter tall standing by the window, the sharpness in her eyes was enough to make people afraid to look directly at her. "Are they in cahoots? How much of what the Disaster Lord said is true? If we don't figure these things out, we can't find the right solution."

"Just tell me if you need any support, and you can focus on your work."

Chu Ying nodded, turned and left the office.

Walking in the quiet corridor of the headquarters building, Chu Ying suddenly remembered what Jiang Ran had said to her on the school playground that day.

"Are some birds destined not to like being caged?" A hint of confusion appeared in Chu Ying's eyes, but it quickly disappeared.

She is the one guarding this cage, and outside the cage are millions of ordinary families in Tianhai City.

Chu Ying firmly believes that she is doing the right thing.

……

Jiang Li didn't get home until very late.

The sound of the key turning in the lock was particularly clear in the quiet hallway. She pushed open the door, but the living room was dark, and Jiang Ran was not there.

Jiang Li turned on the light, changed into slippers, and walked into the living room with one hand unconsciously resting on her lower abdomen.

Magical girls possess physical abilities far exceeding those of ordinary people, and their recovery speed is extremely fast. The Disaster Lord's two punches were not delivered with any force, and she was not injured at all.

But the feeling of a punch piercing her abdomen, instantly draining all her strength, and that embarrassing snort still left her feeling both fearful and ashamed.

Fortunately, when Senior Nuanyu and the other seniors were struck by lightning, their screams were a hundred times more embarrassing than hers. Since everyone was scared to death, it was as if no one was scared to death.

This was the only thing that brought her some comfort tonight.

Jiang Li took out her phone and sent a message to Jiang Ran: "Dad, where are you?"

After a while, Jiang Ran replied, "I'm out with clients. You go to sleep first."

Why are you spending the middle of the night with clients?

Jiang Li was about to question him about whether he had gone out to find other women to fool around with again, but her finger hovered above the screen, and the words she had typed were not sent.

A sudden inspiration flashed through her mind.

That magical girl called the Disaster Master just now, the way she attacked... it felt a bit like my dad's.

Jiang Li slowly withdrew her finger from the screen.

Originally, her mind was filled with the humiliation of being crushed and the frustration of failing to complete the mission, leaving her no energy to think about anything else.

But now that I've calmed down and reflected on it afterwards, I feel like something's not quite right.

She was all too familiar with the starting stance, the power generation techniques, the rhythm of changing moves, and even the composure with which she calmly observed every weakness of her opponent.

Jiang Li had been with her martial arts teacher, Jiang Ran, since she was a child. The moves she subconsciously used after transforming were learned from Jiang Ran.

The things the disaster master used were from the same source as what she had learned.

not only that.

He clearly had the power to instantly defeat everyone, yet he showed mercy to her alone, even the lightning deliberately avoided her; he could have knocked her unconscious in one move, but he only attacked her lower abdomen, dissipating her strength without causing any injury; he even stopped to ask her where she learned her moves, his tone not like that of a vicious criminal encountering a policeman, but rather like... a teacher testing his student.

But she had experienced similar feelings many times with Nuanyu, the kind of feeling where someone is clearly fierce and criticizing you, but you can still feel that they care about you.

"Could it be...?"

Jiang Li sat on the sofa in the living room, staring at the water glass that Jiang Ran often used on the coffee table. The doubts in her mind seemed to be connected by a thread.

My dad has been coming home very late lately.

My dad suddenly has money to buy a new car.

A mysterious woman driving a Maybach appeared next to my dad.

Jiang Li gripped her phone tightly, her gaze turning serious. She curled up on the living room sofa, clutching a cushion, her almond-shaped eyes wide open, staring intently at the doorway.

She made up her mind that even if she stayed up until dawn, she would wait for Jiang Ran to come back and ask him about this matter in person.