Chapter 14: The Mysterious Black-Haired Girl.

“No!!!”

Lin Xibai’s pupils contracted sharply. In that instant, the world seemed to fall into extreme slow motion.

She instinctively wanted to raise her hand and release the magic from her memory that could cover the entire street.

But her body delivered the heaviest blow at this moment.

Eighteen years.

For a full eighteen years away from the battlefield, she had long forgotten the combat instincts and muscle memory of being a magical girl.

Even though her brain instantly conceived several interception spells, her body was like a rusted machine, completely unable to keep up with her thoughts. It froze in place, unable to react.

She could only watch helplessly as the black shadows representing disaster rapidly enlarged in her field of vision.

Inside… inside were the colleague who had given her the only understanding when she was helpless.

And her family, the one she had endured humiliation and risked everything to protect!

If something happened to them here, then every trace of the life she had lived until now would become utterly meaningless!

Move, damn it! Move already!!!

Lin Xibai’s feet shuffled forward a few steps, but she knew deep down that everything was already too late.

At that exact moment, the pitch-black night sky was suddenly dyed with a blinding crimson without warning.

The two ape-like void beasts about to smash through the wooden door had their sharp screeches cut off abruptly.

They twisted their heads in terror, their blood-red eyes all turning toward the blood-red sky.

Above.

A massive fireball wrapped in pitch-black flames, like a meteor falling from hell, whistled through the air with a tearing shriek and crashed down from the sky.

“Explode!”

A clear yet vicious command exploded in the night sky.

The fireball struck one of the void beasts precisely. In that instant, the black flames acted like greedy snakes, instantly devouring the monster’s severed limbs. The violent shockwave made the wind chimes ring wildly.

Lin Xibai shielded her eyes with her hand against the scorching wind.

When she could see clearly again, her breathing froze.

At the top of a higher streetlamp, a girl stood quietly.

The dim yellowish streetlight outlined her figure clearly from behind. The black cloak behind her fluttered wildly in the heat waves.

Her waist-length black hair danced in the wind. She was frowning slightly. In her cold red pupils reflected undisguised disgust, yet the corners of her tightly pressed lips curved upward slightly, outlining a trace of wild arrogance.

“Let this flame burn everything away!”

“Gulp…”

Below, a sharp intake of breath was forcibly swallowed back in Lin Xibai’s throat.

She felt as if all the air around her had been sucked away. Her breathing stopped completely, and blood rushed to her head.

So familiar. That face!

It was the face she had thought about day and night, the one that had haunted her dreams during countless late nights of grading papers.

In that fleeting glance, the silhouette on the streetlamp, the fluttering black hair, the contours of those brows and eyes…

For a moment, the massive shock blanked her mind, even producing a ridiculous illusion. Had she seen… the ghost of her deceased wife?

“You… you’re not dead?”

She murmured tremblingly, even wanting to step forward to touch that illusory figure.

But the next instant, cold reason took over her body again. Lin Xibai forcibly stopped her steps, her fingertips digging deeply into her palms.

No.

No, no, no.

That wasn’t her wife.

Although the girl before her had an almost identical outline to the person in her memories, with exquisite and perfect features, flawless skin, and the cute, youthful charm of a young girl.

Her temperament was completely different.

The sharpness between her brows, along with a trace of world-weary ruthlessness, neutralized the soft cuteness of her appearance and gave her an unapproachable aura.

Moreover, with the experience of someone who had been through it all, Lin Xibai could almost certainly tell that this magical girl was definitely not old.

That decisive, no-nonsense fighting style, the pure and blazing hatred burning in her eyes, and even that slightly chuuni declaration…

It made her feel as if she were seeing her younger self from back then — freshly awakened as a magical girl, full of hot-blooded passion, believing she could sweep away all darkness with her own power.

“I won’t let you step even half a foot into the café.”

Before her words finished, the girl’s cold eyes locked onto the remaining three void beasts.

She brought her hands together in front of her chest. Rolling black flames gathered once more in her palms, compressed, and formed two even more solid fireballs that shot toward the three void beasts!

“Boom!”

“Boom!”

Two consecutive explosions lit up the dim street in a blinding white.

The screeches of the void beasts mixed with the roar of the blazing flames.

“Geez, how scary~”

Gu Ranying lightly leaped out from the aftershocks of the firelight. With a few jumps, she returned to Lin Xibai’s side and casually patted the dust off her pink dress.

“If you had reacted any slower, this pretty dress of mine would probably have been dragged into that black fire~”

She narrowed her pink eyes, looking at the black-haired girl who was dominating the battlefield. A trace of amusement flashed in her gaze as she asked intimately, “Xier, do you know her?”

“No… I don’t know her.”

Lin Xibai stared fixedly at that figure and slowly shook her head.

Although she had retired for many years, she would occasionally browse news on her phone while eating and pay attention to reports about Qingchuan City’s magical girls.

She had impressions of the few who were registered with headquarters and frequently appeared, both in appearance and abilities.

The black-flame-controlling girl before her was definitely not among them.

Foreign city support?

Not to mention the complicated procedures and coordination required for cross-regional operations, even if there was support, it was impossible for them to arrive within minutes of the incident.

Could it be…

Gu Ranying seemed to read Lin Xibai’s thoughts. She twirled a strand of pink hair by her ear in boredom and gently shook her head.

“She’s not one of the Flower Tower’s children. I don’t raise such fierce little kittens there.”

“Then it’s strange…”

Lin Xibai murmured to herself.

In her understanding, the world of magical girls seemed vast, but its structure was actually clear, with essentially two major destinations.

One was the United Headquarters.

It was a massive organization jointly established by high-level government officials from various countries and veteran magical girls. Its purpose was to protect the human world from void beast invasions while supervising magical girls themselves to prevent abuse of power.

It possessed a global intelligence network, cutting-edge equipment combining magic and technology, and a strict system of rules and promotions.

The other was the Flower Tower.

It was a utopia for magical girls, gathering girls like Gu Ranying who, due to trauma, could not integrate into reality and chose to leave ordinary society.

A black-haired girl like the one before them, belonging to neither headquarters nor the Flower Tower, wandering alone in the gaps of reality… and still possessing such powerful combat strength, was almost unimaginable.

Without the intelligence and resources of headquarters, or the protection of the Flower Tower, the survival difficulty for a lone magical girl facing magical erosion and void beast pursuits was obvious.

“You… hello.”

Lin Xibai hesitated for a moment, but still decided to step forward and initiate contact.