Chapter 37: The Belated Arrival of Yuehua, and a Glimmer of Hope

After Corona vanquished the worm-beast, Zijing arrived at the scene with the emergency response team.
She had wanted to join Corona in battling the Tier-Seven beast, but as a Tier-Seven Crystal-rank magical girl, her mobility couldn’t match Corona’s Tier-Nine Sublime-rank speed.

Meanwhile, retired magical girls and civilian mages, noticing the emergency team heading from the suburbs to the abandoned real estate site in the city’s south—and the massive commotion there—followed the team’s tail to offer help.

By the time they arrived, the battle was over.
But the traces of combat and the sight of a mage and two magical girls lying in the rubble showed how brutal it had been.

Sharp-eyed individuals spotted a figure floating among the impaled mage and the two fallen magical girls—none other than the pinnacle of the magical girl world, the tallest mountain, the longest river: Magical Girl Corona.

The crowd erupted in cheers, crediting Corona with resolving the crisis.

“Lady Corona is amazing!”

“Lady Corona saved Tongzhou City!”

“Lady Corona, I adore you!”

Corona seemed deaf to their cheers, focused on severing the final steel rebar pinning Lu Ming.
She cradled Lu Ming like a baby in her arms.

“Sleep, sleep, my darling,” Corona softly sang a lullaby, gently rocking her.

Though the Sun’s authority included a small healing aspect, it could only mend wounds, not replenish the blood Lu Ming desperately needed.
Hastily closing her wounds now would divert her body’s energy to them, likely snuffing out the faint breath keeping her alive.

“Urgh…” Lu Ming’s fading consciousness instinctively responded to Corona’s voice.

Hearing Lu Ming’s faint reply, Corona stopped singing, lips pressed tight, eyes wide, as if holding back tears to avoid showing weakness in public.

As the beacon of magical girls, an unyielding monument and the ultimate slayer of beasts, Corona could not cry in front of others.

Zijing, sensing something was wrong, quickly directed a few response team members to usher the civilian volunteers away from the site.
She then led a few others, carrying three stretchers, toward Corona.

Zijing assessed the fallen magical girls: Jin Yan had severe fractures but wasn’t in mortal danger; Polaris had no broken bones but likely suffered intense shock, with blood from her nose and mouth now crusted—also not life-threatening.

But looking at Corona and Lu Ming in her arms, Zijing felt a pang of regret.
Lu Ming, a colleague she’d worked with for less than a week, had met such a sudden end.

What a pity.
In this era, there were no mages or magical girls skilled in healing magic.
The last master of healing, capable of reviving the dead and mending bones—Magical Girl Yuzhi—had perished on Descent Day.

While alchemical potions could help, they couldn’t compensate for blood loss.

There might be a way to transfuse blood to Lu Ming, but it was unlikely.
The subtle magical conflicts in blood fusion would be enough to overwhelm Lu Ming, and finding a compatible blood source for a grand mage was like searching for a needle in a haystack.

…………

After entering the Inner Plains Province, Yuehua sensed the buffer array she’d placed on Lu Yue being triggered—a spell set to protect Lu Xin from crashing during flights due to her fear of heights.

Then, she felt the same heart-wrenching sensation she’d experienced in the White Tower.
Without hesitation, Yuehua activated a spatial leap, teleporting toward the location where Lu Yue’s array had been triggered.

…

Zzt~ Zzt~
The sound of electricity crackling in the air made Zijing’s hair stand on end.
It was the telltale sign of a spatial rift opening, usually heralding a beast’s arrival—since those skilled in spatial magic were exceedingly rare.

Worse, this rift’s prelude hadn’t triggered any alarms, heightening Zijing’s tension.
Her teeth bit her lip, and cold sweat beaded on her forehead.

A human-sized spatial rift opened before Zijing.
She instantly assumed a combat stance, while the team members carrying stretchers carefully set them down, ready for battle.

Buzz~

A slender leg in high heels with a garter ring stepped out of the rift, followed by a body clad in a ceremonial dress-like light armor, and finally a head with silver hair and blue eyes.

An unfamiliar magical girl, Zijing thought, lowering her guard and signaling her team to stand down.

“Excuse me, senior, who are you?” Zijing asked the stranger, who was checking Polaris and Jin Yan’s injuries.

“Just an old relic, retired for seventeen years,” the silver-haired, blue-eyed magical girl replied casually.

After confirming Lu Yue and her friend had no serious injuries—just needing rest—Yuehua breathed a sigh of relief.

Then she noticed Corona.
Though she’d seen Corona’s silhouette upon arriving, her concern for her daughter had driven her to check Lu Yue first.

Yuehua quickly approached Corona, and the figure in her arms came into view.

It was Lu Ming.
Yuehua’s pupils contracted.
She knelt beside Corona, reaching to touch Lu Ming’s dust-covered face.
Her most prized student, dead like this.
Yuehua clutched her chest, overwhelmed by pain—so intense she could barely breathe, tears streaming down her face.
Another emotion stirred; perhaps Yuehua had long seen Lu Ming as her own child.

“Little Moon…” Corona said, stunned.

“My child is dead.”
Her brief words carried a heavy weight.

Corona forced a strained smile, guiding Yuehua’s hand to Lu Ming’s face.
Yuehua followed, touching Lu Ming’s cheek, still warm with the remnants of life, though the body beneath held no vitality.

Watching Yuehua’s cautious touch, Corona recalled Lu Ming as a tiny newborn.

That day, alone at home after giving birth, Corona had carefully held the crying infant, umbilical cord cut, feeding her the first sip of milk.

Perhaps she was unfortunate—Lu Ming’s father had vanished before her birth.
But she was also fortunate to have her little family, incomplete as it was.

Raising baby Lu Ming was exhausting, preventing Corona from taking missions.
But as Lu Ming grew, she became sensible, easing Corona’s burdens.
Though proud of her daughter’s excellence, Corona worried about Lu Ming’s premature maturity.

Later, Lu Ming had found her Little Moon for her.

Lu Ming, my child, my pride, my lucky star.

As Corona sank into her memories, Yuehua suddenly recalled the object her mother had given her when she left the White Tower.

She retrieved the glowing red crystal from her storage ring and said to Corona:

“Lu Ming still has a glimmer of hope, Captain.”