Chapter 135 Confidence
Playing a puzzle…?
Looking at the teleportation fragments collected by You Ji, Luo Shuangyue’s expression became quite complex.
This isn’t a proper puzzle at all! If it were a puzzle, this would be the most difficult puzzle game in the world!
“Do you need me to miniaturize them? It might be easier for you to put together,” You Ji said, stacking the collected fragments into a massive pile.
“Not for now, being a bit larger allows me to see what’s inside more clearly. And, You Ji, please help me!” Luo Shuangyue was almost on her knees, grabbing You Ji’s hand and shouting desperately.
There was no way she could complete such a thing on her own!
You want to ask You Lian? Does that little fellow look very smart?
So the only one Luo Shuangyue could turn to for help was You Ji.
“Sigh, you just make more trouble for me.” Faced with Luo Shuangyue’s plea, You Ji let out a helpless sigh, not refusing Luo Shuangyue’s request.
As long as Luo Shuangyue spoke up, even if she was unwilling in her heart, she had to agree to Luo Shuangyue’s request.
At the beginning, she could still think of herself as a magical beast, throwing a little tantrum and not answering Luo Shuangyue’s questions, but as time passed, she gradually realized her identity.
She wasn’t that magical beast; she was a new consciousness born from the memory of that magical beast within Luo Shuangyue’s consciousness realm.
The reason for her existence was simply that at that time, Luo Shuangyue couldn’t fully accept such an immense amount of royal-class magical beast’s memories, much like those fragments of teleportation that fell from the sky.
You Ji and these fragments were both products of Luo Shuangyue’s self-protection mechanism, but You Ji seemed to be a bit more humanized.
But fundamentally, You Ji wasn’t a real life form; she was more like a Q&A machine designed to provide information regarding that unfortunate royal-class magical beast.
After realizing this reality, You Ji’s attitude towards Luo Shuangyue changed slightly; normally, she didn’t show a good face to Luo Shuangyue, but when Luo Shuangyue made a request, she wouldn’t defy it.
Putting on a grumpy face was necessary, but work still needed to be done. Perhaps this was what it meant to be “mouth grumbling while being honest.”
“Come over and lend a hand; let’s organize these things first and see if there are any missing pieces.”
…
“Her health is good, and her spirit is very lively; aside from her mental energy being nearly exhausted, there’s nothing wrong. A little rest should be fine.” Moving her hand away from Luo Shuangyue’s forehead, the Soul Guide cast a questioning glance at Qidian, “You’re also a senior; how could you just let the Dark Butterfly make her faint like that?”
Under the Soul Guide’s stare, Qidian instantly revealed an innocent expression. How could she have thought that Luo Shuangyue would faint while eating?
Before Luo Shuangyue passed out, her sensing of Luo Shuangyue revealed no signs of exhaustion; her mental energy was abundant, almost endless.
But in the end, after finishing that last bite, Luo Shuangyue closed her eyes and tilted her head, as if something had suddenly drained her mental energy.
The speed at which her mental energy dropped couldn’t even be described as fast; from Qidian’s perspective, it was as if Luo Shuangyue’s mental energy plummeted from about ninety percent to one percent in an instant.
In an instant!
If this decline in mental energy were gradual, she would have certainly stopped Luo Shuangyue to rest before exhaustion hit, but Luo Shuangyue didn’t give her that chance.
“I’m telling you, her mental energy dropped like that; how was I supposed to react?” Qidian gestured, desperately defending herself.
This time it really wasn’t her fault!
Although she was occasionally unreliable, she generally considered herself a dependable person; there was no way she could just stand by and watch a junior exhaust themselves to the point of fainting.
The family members of the patient standing nearby were completely uninterested in the quarrel between the two blooming level magical girls; their attention was entirely focused on Luo Shuangyue.
When the Soul Guide concluded that Luo Shuangyue would wake up soon without any aftereffects, Xia Mo sighed in relief, and her heart that had been in her throat finally settled back down.
Meanwhile, Luo Shuangxing was staring intently at the thick stack of sealing cards that looked like a small mountain next to the hospital bed, lost in thought.
She certainly knew where these cards came from; this thick pile was the result of her sister’s efforts today, and it would be quite unusual if her sister weren’t dizzy after that.
With so many cards, even Luo Shuangxing herself would need a good ten to fifteen days to accumulate such a stack, while Luo Shuangyue had concentrated the consumption of that time into just a day. Even if Luo Shuangyue’s mental energy was higher than that of an average magical girl, she couldn’t withstand such a terrifying drain.
“She’s so careless!” Approaching the bed where the unconscious Luo Shuangyue lay, looking at her sister, whose brows and eyes were relaxed as she slept, Luo Shuangxing quietly complained.
From a certain perspective, her sister was indeed a very worrying person.
Although Luo Shuangyue usually appeared mature and responsible like a reliable adult, she occasionally showed signs of immaturity, like now.
“She was chatting and laughing with me right up until she fainted, completely not showing any sign of strain!” Qidian continued to pass the blame.
“She has cast so many spells; didn’t you consider the possibility that her mental energy might be insufficient?” The Soul Guide pressed on Qidian.
“She’s a genius; each magical girl has a different total of mental energy. How was I supposed to know if this consumption was significant for her?”
The individual differences between magical girls are extremely vast; even among those at the initial bloom level, their mental energy can differ by dozens or even hundreds of times, and Luo Shuangyue is a widely recognized prodigy, so Qidian thought it was normal for Luo Shuangyue to release so many spells at once.
Faced with Qidian’s explanation, the Soul Guide was somewhat annoyed but helplessly realized that she didn’t have a strong reason to continue holding Qidian accountable.
This time, Qidian was indeed not at much fault; you could say she didn’t care about Luo Shuangyue, but there really was nothing concerning about Luo Shuangyue before she fainted.
Who would have thought that a little genius who was happily gobbling down food one moment would faint the next?
Later, when Qidian rushed back to the moonbase, holding Luo Shuangyue, the urgency and panic on her face weren’t fake; this blooming level magical girl was also deeply worried about whether something was wrong with Luo Shuangyue.
Until it was concluded that Luo Shuangyue was fine, she maintained a guilty expression, and only after the Soul Guide reached that conclusion did she start bickering with her.
This probably counts as her little self-reassurance, right?
…
The Big-Eyed Demon Lord was currently feeling a bit distressed.
Distress was an emotion that had rarely appeared in its not particularly long life.
However, it vaguely remembered that before it arrived in this world, it seemed to be troubled by something every day at a certain place.
What was it troubled by? It seemed to be… finding ways to avoid white things?
Shaking off the chaotic thoughts from its mind, the Demon Lord gazed once more at the several giant teleportation gates that had risen in the distance, feeling the emotion of distress flowing within it again.
The invasion plan faced a slight obstacle, as two of the star gates had already been destroyed; its enemies this time might have some decent strength.
At least they were stronger than the elves.
When facing its massive army, elf legions had never managed to put up any decent resistance, let alone destroy its star gates.
Yet this doesn’t mean anything; although two star gates had already been destroyed, the Demon Lord felt that the advantage in the war still lay in its hands.
It commanded an endless army of magical beasts, and once it occupied the elf’s star region, it would treat those places as breeding grounds for its subordinates, hatching the magical beasts it required.
This interference gave the Demon Lord’s army a truly military appearance, but it also brought a small problem.
In this star region, only one demon lord had been born, and that was it.
Perhaps over the past few years, there could have been other demon lords born in this star region, but under the oppressive rule of the Big-Eyed Demon Lord, the chances of other demon lords being born were almost zero.
Even if there were, they would be mercilessly killed in the early stages of gestation by the current Demon Lord.
This starry sky needed no second master.
It was confident, confident that its army could sweep away all strong enemies in the starry sky; the civilizations in this starry sky were far fewer than everyone imagined. The elves had entered the starlit sea for millions of years, yet had still found no place teeming with life.
This led the demon lord, who had destroyed the elves, to believe that the elves must be the strongest opponents in this star region. Even if there were other enemies nearby, their strength would surely be far inferior to that of the elves.
It didn’t even need to take action itself; it could simply send one of its main corps to sweep away that small civilization it had discovered.
The spearhead forces dispatched to that starry sky had already sent back reports; it was merely a civilization that hadn’t even stepped out of its mother planet’s infancy. In front of it, the great demon lord who had destroyed the elves could crush it with one hand like a small insect.
If it weren’t for the teleportation gate still needing to be successfully built, it would have already ordered its entire army to attack, using unstoppable, terrifying power to bring the darkest, most despairing destruction to that tiny planet.
“There isn’t much time left for you; I will be coming to find you soon!”
…
Luo Shuangyue slowly opened her eyes.
The aftereffects of mental energy depletion combined with the prolonged puzzle-solving experience had left her only realizing she had awakened nearly half a minute after opening her eyes.
She blinked, and the blurry purple figure gradually became clear.
“Xia Mo?”
Then, she found herself being hugged into a warm, soft embrace that also carried a faint floral scent.
“You’ve been unconscious for two days!” Xia Mo’s voice trembled slightly as she held Luo Shuangyue.
Two days already? Luo Shuangyue’s gaze was still a bit clear as she was gradually regaining her senses.
Finally, after five full minutes of waking up and being half-forced to drink a bag of nutrient solution by Xia Mo, Luo Shuangyue finally got most of her brain functions back online.
She recalled the miserable experience of puzzling over blocks with no day or night in her consciousness space and remembered how, every time she wanted to rest, a black vine would swing towards her behind.
This was simply hell!
“Haha, has it really been two days?” She chuckled awkwardly.
She didn’t expect that a meal could knock her out for a full two days.
“So, don’t you think you should give me an explanation? What exactly happened?” After venting the anxiety that had built up over the past two days, Xia Mo finally began to demand an explanation.
Releasing her hold on Luo Shuangyue, she gazed at Luo Shuangyue with a fiery stare, as if just one lie from Luo Shuangyue would incinerate her to ashes.
Feeling Xia Mo’s piercing gaze, Luo Shuangyue immediately shrank her neck and weakly expressed that she also didn’t know why she suddenly fainted.
“Although I did cast a lot of spells, right before I fainted, I felt very good mentally,” Luo Shuangyue mustered her courage to explain what had happened.
She spoke about how things started with eating and transitioned to playing puzzle games in her mind. After her sincere discourse, Xia Mo temporarily accepted her explanation.
“To use so much magic in a short period, if you don’t exhaust your mental energy, who does?” Xia Mo said, poking Luo Shuangyue’s forehead a couple of times in exasperation.
“I thought it was my extraordinary talent! If I had known my mental energy was running low, I definitely wouldn’t have acted like that.”
Luo Shuangyue quickly defended herself; it was her first time experiencing this, as her mana usually ran out before her mental energy did, so she had never known where her limit was in terms of mental energy.
This was her first encounter with such a limit, and having gained experience, she probably wouldn’t make such a mistake next time… hopefully?
Well, Luo Shuangyue felt that faced with a similar situation, she would definitely fall into that pit again.
After all, predicting and avoiding mental energy depletion without any warning was absurd. This was surely a pit she would fall into every time.
“I hope so. So how are you feeling now? Should I call Senior Soul Guide to come check on you?”
“No need, no need. I just feel a little dizzy; with one more day of rest, I should be fine.” Luo Shuangyue shook her head, then seriously said to Xia Mo, “And, I deciphered the construction method of the magical beasts’ teleportation gate!”
Her time spent as a black slave in the consciousness realm wasn’t without results; Luo Shuangyue had cracked the teleportation gate construction method alongside You Ji… although You Ji was the main force.
You Ji, this peculiar being who possessed all the memories of the Demon Lord, easily understood the construction method of this teleportation gate and, combined with the starlight magic power that Luo Shuangyue had stolen, performed some magical modifications on it.
Successfully transforming this obviously evil teleportation gate into one very characteristic of magical girls.
