Chapter 355: Each Person’s Progress, [Virtuous King]

Sacred Hall, Tower of Mirrors.

This illusory tower, built by the Pure White Emperor’s own hands with the Morpheus system, created nightmares that tormented countless cute idols who cried for credits over three months.

Although the first ten challenges were protected for beginners, reducing pain to only 10%, for someone who grew up in peaceful times, even a 1% reduction would still be shocking, resembling real death.

The only good news was that the AI recording the Pure White Witch’s battle data acted quickly; even if it crushed the skull, there wouldn’t be time to connect to the pain nerves. The only sensation felt would be a flash of darkness, then watching oneself from a third-person perspective being “defeated,” which was quite gentle.

Therefore, for an idol who hasn’t yet “lit the lamp” and knows nothing of the Patronus Magic’s form, relying only on the essence of life that shifts towards idealistic beings, completing this task is simply about casting a few spells, watching a “cutscene,” and exiting the Tower of Mirrors.

This “speedrun” approach has its pros and cons.

The good thing is that it doesn’t discourage most idols; in fact, because it is quick and painless, discussions on the Ley Line forum grew about replaying the Tower of Mirrors just to enjoy more views of Honey Qing in black stockings.

The downside is that there isn’t much progress to be made, making it only a way to earn some credits.

However, the Tower of Mirrors was never meant for most people; 90% of its computing power is used to assist those who truly need it, specifically the captain-level witches who come to challenge it.

For ordinary magical girls, the Tower of Mirrors serves as an item to help them debut early while allowing them to practice the sensation of being defeated in real battles, learning magic, and nurturing an inflated sense of power.

Liang Xiaoxiao is the type of person who is caught in the middle. She has the determination to grow stronger and is willing to challenge the towering Pure White Emperor with all her might.

Unlike the captain-level witches who have also been taught by Chu Yuanqing, her talent is too weak. Even though the Blood Throat Gene gives her abilities like bullet time, muscle control, mental enhancement, multitasking, and control over disaster aura, it still isn’t enough.

In fact, if she forgets about the disaster aura part, the rest could be replaced by the extrasensory perception of magical girls, and it might even evolve beyond that as she grows.

The first puzzle piece carefully chosen by Chu Yuanqing is only enough for her to stand on equal ground with the magical girls for a little while; if she wants to catch up to or surpass these unreasonable beings, she needs to collect more puzzle pieces.

Specifically, the 79 types of Disaster Beast Genes selected by the others.

“Time magic is now active, zero power is initiated. The soul remains, corrupt disaster aura, and excess flesh have been eliminated. The Disaster Gene is refined and will be officially injected into the spinal cord in 10 seconds for the 18th transplant experiment.”

Chalkiness Tower, a laboratory built by Delia, where the best alchemists in the empire conduct their research, is a tightly sealed space echoing with Sophon’s whispers.

The girl lies in the glowing incubation chamber, her slender body is bare, her long gray hair flows like silk, and the translucent cocoon wraps around her skin, covering her toned midsection and slowly seeping in.

This process is fascinating, as though empty bubbles are being pressed inside, or like a nanotech scalpel silently cutting into her skin, moving between the cells, intending to pull her whole body apart.

——Time Cocoon.

In the world of the Golden Sea, time magic is the power of the world’s consciousness. Only those who receive many blessings and favors from it can gain the ability to control time.

It can be said that, before the appearance of the Divine Emperor, no human had ever been born as a time-controlling Magician. It is his kindness that made the consciousness of the Golden Sea favor the Tower Master of Chalkiness Tower throughout the ages, preserving the inheritance of time magic.

As the Holy Sophon, which has achieved symbiosis with the Golden Sea and represents a union of the world and all living beings, naturally holds powers over time far greater than those of Delia, the Tower Master.

Now, the silk thread merging with the other body is recording and fixing the limbs, blood, cells, and everything else in time, to prepare for the possibility of a gene collapse, or to restore it to its original state after discarding this Disaster Beast Gene.

As the countdown of 10 seconds ended, the silk thread fully merged.

Thus, the Disaster Gene surged in with branches piercing through flesh and blood.

An hour later, the human form in the chamber shattered into a puddle of mud. Just as the Time Cocoon was about to begin its reversal, a strong activation instantly wove a complete skeleton, restoring the original appearance in a thrilling and shocking process.

“Record: 19th experiment, duration 67 minutes and 19 seconds, officially merged with Disaster Beast Gene. Please have the subject proceed to the training ground for testing and comparison with actual combat data.”

The magic essence in the warehouse flowed away like a tide.

The girl felt as if she had just woken from a dream. She stood on the cold ground, still lost in the painful illusions of genetic merging, with swirling patterns in her eyes, as if filled with a captivating power, blending strange colors.

“Finally… I succeeded.”

Liang Xiaoxiao murmured to herself as she controlled the grayish-white armor like fabric, forming a fierce armor that covered her skin and curves. She walked out of this nightmare place that had tormented her for three months, changed her clothes, and headed straight to the Tower of Mirrors to begin the challenge mode.

Three minutes later, a dreamy silver blade cut through the armor on her neck, and in the brief moment it touched her flesh, it transformed into magic that seeped inside and solidified into real silver, making her exit in a very shocking way.

The girl’s nightgown and hair were soaked with cold sweat. She looked at her trembling hands. Her delicate face showed no fear of being killed; instead, it was filled with intense joy, even a wild excitement.

“Teacher, for the 879th time, I finally touched the hem of your clothes.”

“You are right; only by gathering more puzzle pieces can one have the right to hold power and reach… the realm of the Martial God, as elusive as smoke.”

— Grade B Disaster, Replica Labyrinth.

This maze-like giant disaster beast had recently taken over a city at the edge of the empire and was frozen and sealed by Chalkiness Tower Master Delia using time magic, stored as a specimen in the tower. With the help of Holy Sophon and alchemists from the entire empire, a strand of its gene was extracted.

After a month of unsuccessful training and watching videos of other captain-level witches challenging their teacher in battle, Liang Xiaoxiao decided to choose the highly difficult Disaster Gene, ranked in the top tier.

To accomplish this, she put in a tremendous effort for a total of 19 tries.

In the first ten attempts, her mind completely broke down midway, causing her body to go out of control and turn into a massive mountain of flesh resembling the maze, nearly flooding the entire lab. Each time, she barely saved her life with the help of Time Cocoon’s time rewind.

After her first failure, she completely lost her mind for a week, entering a state of numbness and lockdown. With the care of Lin Baor and her teammates, she gradually regained herself.

After that, Liang Xiaoxiao spent a few days adjusting her mindset, resolved to continue trying.

One could say that although only three months had passed, she felt like she had lived through years. While other magical girls could easily make several times or even dozens of times more progress by just studying, going to class, and occasionally performing, Liang Xiaoxiao struggled to merge with the Disaster Gene.

Besides feeling that Holy Glory grew stronger each time she performed, she hadn’t learned any spells, and training at the Tower of Mirrors was just torture, preventing her from even reaching the basic level that Chu Yuanqing had mentioned.

But now…

“I saw it.”

“Just as the teacher said, whether it’s disaster aura or magic, they are both a kind of special energy.”

Liang Xiaoxiao whispered softly, remembering what the other person had said that day.

Magic is a miracle of the mind, while disaster aura is a puzzle that combines life’s genes.

If she wanted to step away from the path of a knight, she had to fill in the genes of the disaster aura and then limit her body within the framework of mental life, restraining herself.

For this, the Martial God Technique is a necessary path.

Liang Xiaoxiao didn’t believe she could learn something like that.

Rather, just becoming a Martial God is already an incredible feat.

In hell mode, the Pure White Emperor was like a heavenly being, merging with oneself and transcending all things, stepping into a realm of no self and no thoughts, where a mortal touches the perfection of God’s Domain.

The captain-level witch could not hold on for long even with [Blooming Flowers]; it was already beyond the standard, to the point that no one could understand it.

Liang Xiaoxiao’s current goal is to comprehend the Perfection Realm.

Even if she understands just a little bit, she will undoubtedly become ten or a hundred times stronger than she is now.

The Replica Labyrinth, with the fusion ability from this Grade B gene, greatly enhances dynamic vision, understanding, analysis speed, and even partial copying powers related to concepts.

This ability is merged in those eyes that spiral against the current, similar to the magical eyes used in alchemy, which inscribe spells onto puppet eyeballs.

The difference is that its ability far exceeds the limits of the empire’s alchemy in this area, possessing the power to see through, copy, understand, record, and recreate genes, flesh, memories, subconsciousness, and souls!

Liang Xiaoxiao could live half as long in Simple Mode, thanks to the combat boost provided by these eyes. She felt this joy because she finally understood some of her teacher’s seemingly ordinary but actually extremely complex techniques.

In other words, the pure white shadow in Simple Mode would become her best mentor with the help of this new ability.

“If I die about ten more times, I should be able to try to recreate some of my teacher’s sword techniques. But before that, I’ll check out Martial God mode and test the limits of these eyes.”

Liang Xiaoxiao thought for a moment, took a little break, and when the “no gaming” time of the Tower of Mirrors was over, she used the permission given by Chu Yuanqing to enter Martial God mode.

But…

As soon as she stepped in, everything went dark and she felt dizzy, instantly pulling back out.

“I can’t, I need to set the Martial God illusion’s desire to attack to the lowest level, or I won’t even have the right to see my teacher.”

Liang Xiaoxiao’s head ached badly, a wave of tiredness came from deep within her soul, and the Holy Glory of the Seed of Light brought a coolness that helped her feel a little better. She rubbed her forehead and closed her eyes to rest.

After half an hour, she set the Martial God illusion’s desire to attack to the lowest level, added the requirement for guided combat, and with a serious mindset of exploration, stepped inside. After 37 seconds, she died again and returned to reality.

“I can’t replicate. If I try, the amount of information would be so huge that my eyes would explode, causing the fused replication genes to collapse as well.”

Liang Xiaoxiao concluded that it wasn’t strange; the Replica Labyrinth is a Grade B Disaster. Before she fused this gene, she only had the initial E-class Disaster Gene and a Grade D gene that came from Blood Throat.

This time, crossing two stages of fusion and staying within the range of Holy Glory was purely because she “communicated and negotiated” with the other party during the process, establishing rules for coexistence, which made the replication gene limit itself back to Grade C, or even lower.

Without building a good big data framework and trying to copy the Perfection Realm, it will naturally overload, forcing it back to Grade B’s peak ability, which would lead to the body not being able to handle it, Holy Glory becoming unbalanced, and the genes collapsing entirely.

Liang Xiaoxiao tries this simply to test her limits, to understand her future capabilities, and to prevent herself from getting confused when learning during real battles.

At this moment, she suddenly realized the role and value of the Mirror Tree; if she couldn’t recklessly explore inside it, she would have to slowly discover and become familiar with the data.

Now, being able to experience it intensely in the tree saves so much time.

“The Tower of Mirrors is truly a magnificent creation. Could the teacher who made it really have alchemy that surpasses human limits, just like the emperor’s setting?”

Liang Xiaoxiao thought to herself, and after resting for a little while, like a child who has just received a new toy, filled with excitement, she activated Simple Mode, faced Chu Yuanqing’s illusion, and began to officially learn.

This time, she would definitely not let her teacher down.

Meanwhile, the other magical girls staying in the Ideal State also changed in their own ways over the three months of growth.

Elise broke free from the aftereffects of her regression, her injuries fully healed, returning to the peak period of the Dragon Witch, and recently prepared to challenge the Tower of Mirrors a few more times before going back to the real world to see Sister Ellie.

Kirimi Miyuki became increasingly skilled in developing the [Perfect Rule], leading to the first branch skill of Patronus Magic.

——[Idol Realm].

——Effect 1: Corrects, optimizes, and advances everything about being an idol, such as dance, singing, smiles, and charm, providing specialized effects for the stage.

——Effect 2: Any elements that interfere, disturb, or affect the idol’s stage will be viewed as “anti-fans,” creating a conceptual protective field whose strength is directly related to belief, idol power, magic, and the surrounding brilliance.

——Effect 3: An idol should be perfect, and even more so as a magical girl. Therefore, magic can also receive the bonus of Effect 1 and additional splendid corrections (maintaining elegance under pressure).

Well, it is called a new branch, but most of it is just a summary of the abilities previously shown by Patronus Magic, similar in nature to Liuli’s [Divine Control].

Xie Qingxuan’s situation, however, is a bit different. Her branch of [Royal Power] is called [Virtuous King], and its abilities are as follows.

——Effect 1: Your commands can interfere with the partial forms of matter and energy.

——Effect 2: Using a personality model for prediction, it creates a corresponding magical girl as a knight, based on the other person’s brilliance, to join your legion and fight for you.

The first ability aside, the second one materializes both meditation and personality puzzles, resulting in a special magic that is hard to evaluate.

Interestingly, the only knight that Xie Qingxuan can currently create is the little idol that was taken during the teammate battle and then shone again.

This includes past teammates — Fan Qiuling, as well as the late Chu Qiushuang, but in her memory, both of them still seem to be in a state where their dancing and singing were not as good as hers, and they didn’t know any magic.

Therefore, the two knights summoned have only little use.

Well, maybe I can have two decent backup dancers and form a dance group myself.

Chu Yuanqing suspects that Little Xuan’s magic, true to its name, needs to take the king’s path; to get others’ shine, you either have to seize it or conquer them on stage; in short, you have to win.

Moreover, those who go to seize and win can’t be too weak, or rather, they at least need to have some potential; otherwise, if summoned, they wouldn’t even be classified as super soldiers and wouldn’t drop any coins when facing the enemy, wasting magic power for nothing.

Of course, there is another solution, called voluntary gifting.

Charlotte, Tang Liuli, Kirimi Miyuki, Chu Wang Shu, including Chu Yuanqing, all voluntarily shared a bit of shine with Honey Xuan after learning about the effect of the “Virtuous King,” demonstrating their unique magical traits and powers.

This is like unlocking several SSR cards in one breath; there’s no need to worry about using the Virtuous King without any knights left.

In a way, this kind of action is the true path of the Virtuous King.

Unfortunately, the stronger the knights created, the more magical power and time it takes. Right now, Honey Xuan hasn’t created even one, making everyone quite eager to see the final result.

On Tang Liuli’s side, there isn’t much to say; she managed to unlock two branches of Spirit Power thanks to a group of magical girls.

Currently, Divine Control has been gradually unlocked in March.

However, the transformation that can defeat the bishop, the Mask, is still far from being ready; considering its power, it probably won’t be usable until it’s fully opened.

Charlotte’s progress remains a bit mysterious.

The cute girl hasn’t yet discovered what her Patronus Magic is, leading a busy life of studying magic, quietly reviewing her university coursework, and occasionally acting as a judge while going out on missions.

On the other side, the other magical girls are also making progress.

The most obvious point is that everyone, in the rich environment of magic essence and the supernatural world, has strengthened their understanding of being a magical girl, greatly increasing the rate of change in their life forms.

At this stage, the vast majority of children have completed the “Lighting Up” and become real magical girls.

As for “Fully Blooming,” even if they are constantly pouring Magic Potion, achieving the right mindset, obsession, wishes, emotions, and a series of abstract elements is still very difficult. So far, only Tang Liuli, Kirimi Miyuki, and Xie Qingxuan have reached “Fully Blooming,” and the others have not shown any similar signs.

But I believe that when the training truly ends, in the following three months, there will gradually be exceptionally talented children who will officially reach “Fully Blooming” and become the precious living forces of the Countermeasures Bureau.

Time passes in this kind of environment.

While the outside world is full of change and turmoil, the situation inside the Ideal State remains calm. The 15 days outside have quickly passed, and the training in the Intracastral Sea has officially welcomed its 150-day halfway point.