: Blessing

"Hallucination?"

Wu An wiped the sweat from his forehead, feeling an absurd sense of encountering a ghost in broad daylight.

She rubbed her eyes; the dog-like monster was still rummaging through the ruins.

The sound of the rolling waste, the dust kicked up by the tumbling, and the gradually expanding hill of waste...

Every feature tells her the truth. With such a commotion, not to mention a magical girl, even a passerby a little further away should have noticed it!

But now, whether it's passersby or magical girls, everyone ignores the big dog and the sounds it makes.

"Not a calamity beast?"

An absurd thought rose in Wu An's mind.

She moved a little closer.

"?!"

Then, the glassy calamity beast stopped moving, its massive head twisting in a strange posture, staring straight at her, and then... it laughed.

The dog is laughing... its expression is indistinguishable from a real person's, it looks incredibly eerie no matter how you look at it.

It sticks out its tongue, and a tiny thing on its glistening tongue is particularly eye-catching.

Wu An's heart sank to the bottom, and he immediately prepared to run away to the Bureau of Statistics to find Jin Yu.

But the next moment, the dog-monster's body swayed a few times and collapsed. Its huge form dissipated, leaving only a shriveled mongrel corpse and a... small gift box.

The one Zhu Huan gave her.

Wu An was immediately overcome with sorrow:

"Is this a warning... or does it mean something else...?"

Does Zhu Huan already know that she is no longer being controlled?

Or was she just being urged to give it away quickly—after all, Zhu Huan had told her to give it away as much as possible. Since it's a gift, there's always the possibility that someone might refuse it.

Wu An took a few deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down.

She slowly landed on the outskirts of the ruins, where many stray cats and dogs had gathered. As soon as they saw her, they ran away.

Wu An isn't very popular with animals, even after transforming.

The good thing is, she doesn't like animals either. They're practically mutually disgusted.

Wu An slowly approached, and only after confirming that there was nothing unusual around him and that the withered mongrel was definitely dead did he walk to the small gift box.

She could resist Zhu Huan's abilities, but being able to resist them didn't mean she wasn't wary of them.

Magical girls can use physical attacks as an example.

Wu An picked up the gift box and instantly felt many eyes focused on her.

She glanced back and saw that the cats and dogs were staring longingly at the box in her hand.

Seeing how drawn to them, Wu'an became even more certain of the evil nature of the thing in the box.

We can't hide it outside anymore, otherwise in a few days, they'll probably choose another cat or dog to sacrifice and dig the box out.

Should I buy a safe or something?

I don't think that will work either. I buried the box very deep before, but the contents of the box still affected the stray animals in the area. Replacing it with a safe wouldn't make much sense.

It can't be left in the wild, but keeping it in my own hands feels like a ticking time bomb.

"Handing it over to the General Affairs Bureau? That's not a good idea either."

Before Zhu Huan left, she had personally crafted two C-rank disaster beasts, but she had deliberately concealed this information to avoid trouble.

Getting involved with this kind of person will definitely trigger a major investigation by the Bureau of Statistics.

Can this disguise hold up?

"That damn woman... she really knows how to cause trouble."

Wu An cursed angrily, but soon found himself in a dilemma again.

"How about... we try to see if we can put it away..."

Black liquid began to emerge from Wu'an's body and gradually climbed onto the gift box.

Previously, Nan Shiyu had kept the "good luck" she received in this way.

Moreover, she can control the switch and try to see if she can put things away and "turn them off".

When the liquid came into contact with the box, the outer shell of the gift box melted away, revealing the gift inside.

An extremely beautiful butterfly hair clip, elegant in its workmanship without being extravagant, with a gold and red color scheme. At just one glance, Wu An felt that this item was a perfect match for Jin Yu.

It would be perfect as a gift... if it weren't for Zhu Huan giving it to me.

The liquid completely enveloped the hairpin, and Wu An tentatively retracted it into the seed of her heart.

In other words, the other party is skilled in psychological attacks; she would never dare to do this to anyone else.

Just as the hairpin was about to enter the seed of the heart, it was repelled by a repulsive force—it couldn't be taken in.

But the information was deciphered:

Special Item: Blessing

[Effect: The wearer will be favored by the unclaimed stars, increasing the success rate of full bloom; ? ? ? ; ? ? ]

[Brief Introduction: Wishing Miss Jin Yu a full bloom on her first day of marriage]

Wu An's expression grew increasingly strange; this hair clip called "Blessing" was undoubtedly a good thing.

It's the kind of incredibly powerful and rare item.

From Xiao Hei's words, Wu An could clearly see that Xiao Hei was extremely eager for the birth of the fully-fledged magical girl.

She was so eager that she would give her all to help anyone who showed any sign of making a big splash.

Full bloom is related to stars, and only six stars remain capable of supporting full bloom...

Sixth-order items are limited in number and are very rare.

But a question troubled Wu'an: what is the purpose of a fully blooming plant?

Jin Yu is a fifth-tier cultivator, yet she can crush C-rank disaster beasts like mosquitoes simply by releasing her magic. Wu An can hardly fathom the extent of her true strength.

Xiao Hei is most likely at max level; she can teleport items across the screen from an unknown distance... as if distance has no meaning for her.

With such powerful abilities, it seems entirely possible to hunt down all the calamity beasts, or even reduce their casualty rate to zero.

The power between the disaster beasts and the magical girls is completely unequal; even the highest-ranking A-class disaster beast is only equivalent to a fifth-rank one.

What kind of existence does the fully opened form have to fight against? For example, there might be hidden S-class calamity beasts above A-class—this is a very common setting.

But Changming City is already quite large, and it's rare to see even one A-level disaster beast all year round.

Jin Yu can slack off and joke around every day without any problems; if this is the case for the fifth rank, then the sixth rank should be the kind of person who is even more idle.

The only city that could possibly give birth to that S-class calamity beast, whose very existence is uncertain, is probably Hongdu in Jiangbei.

There will definitely be more than one fully bloomed flower, so why be so eager for one to be born?

Could it be related to "■■"?

Wu An didn't know, but she couldn't think of any other possibility.

The immediate problem is dealing with the [blessing].

Zhu Huan was definitely not a good person. If Jin Yu hadn't been there, the two C-level disaster beasts she conjured would have killed most people.

Even Zhu Huan was contributing to the birth of Man Kai. It would be a lie to say that the "good stuff" given by such a person wasn't a trap.

In the two "???" effects following "[Blessing]", there is no back door left by Zhu Huanliu that she ate.

"It's difficult to hide, impossible to destroy, and I certainly can't personally hand it over..."

"This is difficult..."

"Try [Devour]."

Wu An remembered that when she was at the second tier, she used [Devouring] to fight against a C-level disaster beast.

The fact that we won that battle is largely due to the [Devour] ability, if not 99%. At least half the credit goes to [Devour], and the remaining 60% goes to [the player]. The extra 10% is what Zhu Huan owes me for being an actor.

Black threads wrapped around [Blessing], and [Devour] was activated.

I wonder if there's any unclean magic in it.

[The magic power level is too high, and the difference in magic power rank is too great, making it impossible to absorb.]

"Can't it fit?"

That's true. After all, it's an item that can help you reach full potential. It would be unexpected if it could be easily devoured.

Meow~

Before they knew it, the stray cats and dogs had been drawn closer.

Wu An kicked away the cat that was rubbing against her calf.

"Meow!!"

Ignoring the wildcat that had activated its Spine Dragon mode, Wu An decided to put his things away first, so he covered them with "Blessing" using magic.

"Woof woof!!!"

"Meow~"

"Um?"

Wu An stopped moving and noticed that... the animals, which had been silent, suddenly became restless.