Chapter 13: Void Beast, Shadow of Intelligence.

“Feed me~”

Gu Ranying tilted her head, her pale pink eyes fixed unblinkingly on Lin Xibai.

She seemed to thoroughly enjoy this sense of control, especially watching this once untouchable first-generation magical girl forced to lower her head for the sake of those insignificant mortal attachments.

“You…!”

Lin Xibai glared at her fiercely. Her chest rose and fell slightly from suppressed anger.

But reason quickly overpowered useless emotion.

Arguing or refusing would only make things worse and waste time.

She took a deep breath, picked up the other girl’s spoon, mechanically scooped a rather large portion from the barely touched strawberry cake, deliberately turned her face away, and stiffly extended her arm to bring the spoon to Gu Ranying’s mouth. She refused to make eye contact the entire time.

It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter!

She chanted frantically in her heart.

The action, the taste, even Gu Ranying’s possibly smiling gaze—none of it mattered.

Just end this quickly.

She wished she could delete this torturous stretch of time right now and jump straight to tomorrow.

Her child would take the special medicine, his condition would stabilize, the disappearance case would be resolved smoothly, and the city would return to peace.

And she could properly and completely bid farewell to the identity of magical girl and everyone and everything connected to it.

Instead of being forced, like some little girl right now, to flirt intimately with a dangerous and obsessive stranger!

The cake gradually disappeared.

This dessert session, which felt like pure torture, finally approached its end.

Lin Xibai’s nerves, stretched to their limit, relaxed slightly as Gu Ranying’s expression showed temporary satisfaction.

At that moment, a sharp scream rang out from afar.

“Help, help! Someone… someone took my best friend!”

The orange cat that had been dozing at the cashier let out a meow and darted into the back kitchen.

“?!”

Lin Xibai’s entire body tensed reflexively. Her previously tired and scattered eyes instantly sharpened.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, night had completely fallen.

The bustle of rush hour had long faded. The old district’s streets looked cold and eerie under the dim lights.

This time of day… perfectly matched the time frames of the disappearance cases reported in the news!

Could it be that the mastermind behind the disappearance cases, which even magical girl headquarters found troublesome, had finally shown itself?!

Although the situation was hellish,

a trace of “finally” delight truly surfaced in her heart.

It was like someone delivering a pillow just as she was dozing off!

She had endured humiliation and accompanied Gu Ranying for what? Precisely to borrow her power to resolve Qingchuan City’s crisis in exchange for the special medicine.

She had been worrying about how to get this great deity from the Flower Tower to take action, and the trouble had come knocking on its own.

Action instinct instantly overpowered all embarrassment and personal feelings.

Without the slightest hesitation, Lin Xibai pulled out her phone. Her slender fingertips flew across the screen as she dialed the number Luo Xingli had given her.

“Observed signs of activity from the suspected mastermind behind the disappearance cases. Location is near the alleys by Cat Salt Café in the old district.”

Her voice was clear and rapid, completely different from the awkward white-haired loli from earlier. “Gu Ranying from the Flower Tower and I are on site. Immediately dispatch the extermination team and evacuate ordinary civilians from the area!”

After hanging up, she abruptly turned to Gu Ranying, who was watching her with a leisurely expression.

“We need to go now! You promised to help, right?”

“Of course, of course~”

Only then did Gu Ranying slowly stand up. She even stretched lazily, her slender waist curving gracefully, as if she were simply heading to an interesting banquet.

“After all, I always keep the promises I make to Xier.”

Time was tight. Lin Xibai couldn’t be bothered to argue about her attitude and completely cast aside the earlier embarrassment.

She pinched the hem of her skirt and quickly crossed the aisle, but stopped in front of the table that once held so much laughter and now seated the person she cared about most.

They had clearly been startled by the scream outside as well.

“Listen.”

Lin Xibai deliberately raised her voice, trying to cover up the deep concern coming from her soul.

She looked at Lin Yuan, then at Ye Zhining behind him, her tone stern.

“There may be void beasts wandering nearby, or even a witch. You and the shop owner stay inside obediently, lock the doors and windows. No matter what happens outside, absolutely, absolutely do not come out! Understand?”

This was the only warning she could give her son right now as a father.

“Tch, who wants your lecture.”

Lin Yuan snorted coldly. Not only did he not run away, he stood up straight and took a step forward, subtly shielding the worried-looking Ye Zhining behind him.

Then he looked toward the heavy darkness outside the window. A sharp, eager glint flashed across his delicate face as he responded stiffly to this nosy magical girl.

“Don’t order me around. I have the ability to protect the people I want to protect!”

Lin Yuan turned back to Ye Zhining and spoke gently, his tone carrying the stubbornness of someone trying to prove he had grown up.

“Teacher Ye, don’t worry. Even if a witch really comes, she will be… will be killed by a passing righteous magical girl. We’ll be fine.”

These words sounded extremely complicated to Lin Xibai.

Seeing her son, with his clearly slender body, still trying to protect others, she felt both the gratification of an old father and a heart-wrenching pain.

At the same time, she felt even deeper worry that he was in danger without realizing it.

“Mhm~”

Suddenly, a soft nasal sound perfectly broke the frozen atmosphere.

Ye Zhining stood up, smoothly taking over the conversation. Her slender fingers rested on Lin Yuan’s shoulder. There was no panic on her face; even her gentle smile remained completely unchanged.

“Xiao Lin, let’s move further inside. Leave this place… to the two professionals.”

As she spoke, she gently guided Lin Yuan toward the back kitchen deeper inside the café.

Seeing Lin Yuan follow Ye Zhining away from the dangerous front window area, the heart that had been stuck in Lin Xibai’s throat finally dropped halfway back into place.

With Ye Zhining there to watch over him, Lin Xibai felt somewhat reassured.

After quickly handling things on this side, Lin Xibai immediately turned and rushed toward the door.

In that short moment, the situation outside had already changed.

The terrified girl seemed to have been pulled into the shop by Gu Ranying. She was now curled up trembling in the corner of the porch.

At the end of the street, in the darkness, the thing chasing her was stepping on scattered paper scraps, silently fanning out to surround them.

Under the weak, yellowish light, the true appearance of those few monsters was finally revealed.

They were ape-like void beasts.

They had extremely long and disproportionate limbs, their bodies covered in sparse, dry-grass-like fur, and their eyes were blood-red.

In the blink of an eye, they leaped and shifted between walls and streetlamp poles, arriving in front of the café almost instantly. Their movements were agile and so fast they left afterimages.

However, based on experience, Lin Xibai judged that high-agility void beasts like these usually didn’t have very strong defense.

After seeing Gu Ranying and Lin Xibai, their blood-red eyes rolled in the darkness. They emitted short, meaningless hissing sounds at each other, as if communicating.

Intelligence…

Lin Xibai’s heart sank heavily.

No wonder they were so troublesome, coming and going without a trace.

She instantly understood why the disappearance cases had been so hard to track.

These creatures were not low-tier void beasts that acted purely on instinct.

“Gu Ranying, be careful!”

She urgently warned Gu Ranying. “They are third-tier void beasts, codenamed Shadow of Intellect. These things have evolved primitive intelligence and can think and plan their actions. Their danger level is far beyond the first two tiers.”

“Pfft~”

Gu Ranying let out a light, cheerful snort. She didn’t even turn her head, simply flicking her pink hair casually, her tone lazy. “There are only five of them. Not enough, not enough~”

At that moment, the five ape-like void beasts seemed to have finished their discussion. Three of them suddenly crouched low, while the remaining two locked their blood-red gazes directly onto the café behind Lin Xibai.

Lin Xibai instantly saw through their intention and cried out in alarm, “Bad! Gu Ranying, they’re splitting up—three to pin you down, the rest—”

Before she could finish, three void beasts had already turned into gray afterimages, pouncing at Gu Ranying from three extremely tricky angles, their claws slashing fiercely!

The pink-haired girl moved like flowing water—sidestepping, spinning, blocking—and effortlessly dodged all the attacks. She even casually left a shallow cut on one ape’s back, causing the void beast to howl in pain.

However, the other two apes, just as Lin Xibai had feared in the worst-case scenario, were completely unaffected by their companion’s injury. They used the gap created by their comrades and the moment Gu Ranying was occupied to turn into two blurry black shadows. They leaped over Lin Xibai’s head and charged straight toward the café’s not-very-sturdy wooden door!

Their goal was crystal clear: squeeze inside and hunt the defenseless ordinary people within!