Chapter 369: A Future Where Everyone Can Be Happy

This forced distortion of the mind concept broke through the salt crystal of the Unrestricted Technique·Butterfly Burial, no longer arrogantly devouring magic power, like soft and gentle rain falling from the clouds, gradually evaporating into ethereal smoke.

Xie Qing Yu slowly loosened her grip on the lantern, and the protective spell that shielded her teammates crumbled along with it. She stood in a daze, staring foolishly at the void where the Pure White Witch once lingered.

In that moment, her mind was filled with the image of those fiery and majestic golden eyes and the stunning scene that crushed all the dangers.

It was just one hit.

The terrifying Calamity God, which had made an entire group of magical girls powerless and was about to threaten the world, was struck down, losing any thought of resistance. In the rumble of black and white, swaying light, it crazily curled up and fled into the forbidden area, allowing most of the Solomon Islands to return to normal.

——Martial God Technique.

Xie Qing Yu did not know how to express her feelings upon seeing this scene. She remembered how, during that week in Salzburg, she had tasted the flavor of death many times while witnessing this peak skill that surpassed human and witch imagination.

Back then, she had once admired Teacher Chu’s fierce and terrifying nature during battle.

But compared to this punch aimed at the King of Salt, her past training experiences felt like a gentle breeze, still bearing the taste of tender hope when savored slowly.

The girl took a breath, relieved. She looked at the little butterfly in the lantern that was no longer trembling but lively and joyful, and then glanced back at her teammates, who still looked confused about what had just happened, filled with gratitude.

Thankfully, Teacher Chu arrived quickly. Otherwise, even with the sacrifice of Violet and using Full Power Mode, she was not sure she could protect her teammates while suppressing the King of Salt.

Xie Qing Yu comforted Ji Xintong and a few young girls, giving high-fives to the joyful little butterfly before continuing to look at the still-burning flames above the forbidden area, filled with longing as she remarked:

“Is this the deep Perfection Realm that the teacher spoke about?”

“With the true self, obsession, will, spirit, and soul, infinitely controlling, elevating, and integrating, polishing a thread of Light of the Soul, to leverage the vacuum zero-point energy and achieve the miracle of reorganizing atoms in the void.”

As Xie Qing Yu said this, her face showed a hint of regret.

Even during that week, Teacher Chu told her all the secrets, ideas, paths to rise, and methods of practice about the Martial God, and mentioned that for magical girls, the difficulty is countless times lower than for humans.

But so far, she hadn’t seen any hope of reaching the Perfection Realm; at most, she had improved the efficiency and control of magic energy particles.

And to reach such a great achievement without any magic energy, solely using human will, perhaps… only Teacher Chu could do that.

In this way, she might be more suitable to be called a Martial God than a magical girl.

Xie Qing Yu gathered her thoughts and clapped her hands saying:

“Alright, the crisis is resolved, let’s continue patrolling the aircraft carrier.”

The little butterfly happily flew to Ji Xintong’s head and said joyfully:

“For now, there shouldn’t be any crises. Everyone can relax and finish watching the movie we didn’t complete last time together.”

Ji Xintong’s tense feelings eased. She flew to the untouched part of the aircraft carrier deck, looking back at the bright blue sky, momentarily lost in thought, from a world on the brink of collapse to the serene blue sky and fluffy white clouds.

In such a crazy and absurd time, where it felt like humanity could drown in nothingness at any moment, when would it finally come to an end?

No one knew the answer.

But…

The girl glanced at her clumsy yet cute captain beside her, curled her lips into a smile, and showed a smile of survival after a disaster.

At least, their dreams of each other had not come to an end.

No matter what, they had to live to the fullest, fight to the death, struggle to the death, sing to the death, and happily live until the very last moment. This was the answer that Butterfly of the Underworld gave to this question.

…

The Supreme Council.

Esther looked at the virtual figures around the round table and sighed heavily:

“The crisis is over; she did it in less than 10 seconds.”

The room fell silent; they should be happy and celebrate.

The riot of the Calamity God was stopped, the forbidden zone collapsed inward, and there were no casualties among the magical girls—these were all good things.

But it came with a cost that must not be overlooked.

The leader of the Daxia Countermeasures Bureau said in a soft voice:

“Pure White was still trembling; her injuries were worse, and the 10 minutes of unconsciousness, along with the 9 seconds after she woke up, might make the situation even worse.”

“Our time, the time of humanity, will become more precious.”

“We need to speed up the planning for ‘Dazzling Stage’; even reducing the original nine performances to just six will not provide enough time. We do not have the luxury to push to the limit.”

Everyone present knew this, but trying to speed up the pace of ‘Dazzling Stage’ would inevitably raise another important question.

That is—speeding up the pace will lower the chances of the project succeeding.

‘Dazzling Stage,’ this talent show, was originally meant to cultivate many magical girls while helping them gain global level popularity as idols, so that in the final stage, they could shine the brightest and fulfill the mission of saving the world.

To put it simply, just like Chu Yuanqing’s rapid growth in followers also needed one episode after another as a buffer, to earn the love of the audience and convert them into fans, viewers had to invest their time.

Watching the show, viewing the little idol’s material, learning about her past, personality, and stage presence, then supporting her, voting, or even creating secondary content—this investment process is what breeds equal affection in people’s hearts.

That is why ‘Dazzling Stage’ planned to set up hundreds of bases worldwide, launch hundreds of programs for distribution, and promote heavily in the cities where they were located.

Because no one can please everyone’s likes, the amount of information a person can receive in a day is also limited.

So, it was important to define the scope, gather information at certain points, and use big data to find areas where small idols could gain fans, to maximize their overall shine.

The only exception was the “Lighthouse.”

Charlotte and Chu Yuanqing were two who were destined to shine globally, and their popularity naturally had to exceed that of the other idols.

These two climbed from having nothing to reaching hundreds of millions of fans in just under four months, but they were still far from the final goal.

Of course, the authorities could push them to gather billions of fans through information bombardment, but this would lead to a sharp decline in the fan growth of other idols, creating a loss instead of a gain.

Previously, providing them with higher-level promotional resources and following the usual way of using shows and stages to attract fans was the best solution.

However, if there was not enough time, everything would naturally become empty talk.

…

…

Sea City trembled with the intertwining of magic energy, creating strong shockwaves above the apartment, and dark gaps spread everywhere.

Charlotte quickly stepped out, glanced at the fragile person, pressed her lips together, and instantly erased the unstable space magic behind her, becoming blurred and moving back to the old building.

Chu Yuanqing took nine seconds to suppress four forbidden zones, but she used even less time to transport both sides to their respective areas.

This long-distance space movement was a serious strain for her, who had just given all her magic power to Chu Yuanqing.

If it weren’t for the magic storage item given by Little Sakura, which temporarily restored some of her magic, she might not have had the strength to teleport home.

But even though her mind and body were very tired, the moment she stepped through the front door,

Charlotte still gathered all her unusual traits, hid behind her daughter, materialized, poked the child’s cheek, smiled brightly with sparkling eyes, and said:

“Little Shu, we are back.”

Chu Wang Shu quickly turned her head and looked at her father, cradled in her mother’s arms like a small animal, quietly closing his eyes and falling asleep. She whispered with worry, “Daddy, have you fallen asleep again?”

Charlotte glanced down at the Pure White Witch’s sleeping face. She could sense that the overwhelming desire, shining like a great sun, had completely quieted, and the shining Light of the Soul felt like cold ashes after a fire had burned out.

Right now, Chu Yuanqing was weak to her limit, and even her lantern had shattered to complete darkness, returning to the dimness she had when she first transformed into a magical girl, clumsily absorbing the energy from the wishes.

The only good news was that the curse of the Sea of Truth had returned to a normal level of erosion, and the more intense parts were temporarily blocked by the Pure White outside her soul.

But the bad news was that, after this explosion, the other side would not be able to enter the Perfection Realm again anytime soon, nor could they use the Martial God Technique, and it was even uncertain if they could use magic at all.

Charlotte swallowed her worries and sadness. She affectionately bumped her head against her daughter’s forehead, like she was both showing off and feeling proud, smiling sweetly and revealing part of the truth.

“Of course, your daddy just knocked down four Calamity Gods in one go. He is completely drained and definitely needs to rest for a while.”

“But it’s alright, he’ll just feel a bit tired for a while and won’t be able to use magic. Little Shu has grown up and can take good care of daddy, right?”

Four Calamity Gods?

Chu Wang Shu felt a bit confused. Didn’t Mom and Dad just leave less than a minute ago?

But after hearing the last sentence, she didn’t have time to think; she nodded firmly, her little face serious, and said with great determination:

“I am very strong now, and I will definitely protect Dad!”

Although it may seem strange to say this, the birth of the sunflower, this Lantern Elf, allowed her to qualify for Full Power Mode early.

If it comes to a dire situation, the Son of Mankind blooming in Full Power Mode will give her the strength to protect Dad.

Charlotte smiled and said:

“Well, let’s let her rest well today then?”

Chu Wang Shu didn’t argue. She just followed her mom and helped return the other to the room. Then she stubbornly moved a chair, sat beside it reading, doing her homework, afraid that if she lost focus for a moment, Dad would disappear.

Charlotte found her daughter’s behavior somewhat funny, but mostly sad.

To this day, she has not found a way to fight the Sea of Truth and can only hope for a mysterious miracle; it seems that cherishing the present moment is the only thing she can do.

If she could, she would rather swap destinies with Chu Yuanqing.

At least for Little Shu, this would mean she was only missing a mother who never appeared in her life, rather than losing her father who had spent 17 years lovingly raising her.

Time passed, drawing closer to dusk.

Chu Yuanqing slowly began to wake up; she opened her eyes, and the color in her irises was dull, like frozen amber. Her lips were pale and delicate, making her beautiful face look fragile and weak, and even sitting up was incredibly difficult for her.

Because of this, when her lovely daughter excitedly jumped into her arms, it left her with no strength to respond, unable even to stretch out her arms to hold her; she could only exert herself to smile and softly say:

“I’m sorry for making you worry, sweetheart.”

Chu Wang Shu felt a pang in her heart; she pressed her lips together, forced out a smile, and understandingly shook her head.

“How could this be? Dad is pushing himself to save everyone and protect this world.”

Chu Wang Shu understood the story behind everything as the other person slept. If not for the 9 seconds when her parents disappeared, there would surely be sacrifices in the four areas of chaos.

Every fallen magical girl now makes the hope of the world dimmer.

If the suppression is not timely, allowing the power of the Calamity God to spill over, it could create even more tragedies.

Even as a daughter, she had the selfish desire to keep her family safe, but she still had to admit that from a bigger perspective, Dad’s decision to push himself was the “right” choice.

It was right to the point that…

Chu Wang Shu couldn’t bring herself to say anything selfish.

Charlotte sighed inwardly. She excitedly talked about dinner and sunflowers, saying they could go see the night view by the river together, fully experiencing the bustling Sea City, naturally changing the subject to avoid the heavy parts.

Chu Yuanqing forced herself to sit up and leaned against the pillow. Her delicate eyelashes fell like frost and snow as she tiredly and happily listened to the mother-daughter conversation, smiling in agreement. As her patience wore thin, the pain grew even stronger.

At one moment, she felt that her body and soul no longer belonged to her. Everything was like feathers drifting in the wind, scattered and lost, spinning wildly.

The sharp pain was like veins connecting the pieces of herself, making time feel like it was rushing and slowing down.

Chu Yuanqing felt that the emptiness in her memory was growing larger, her nerves and body becoming numb. Forcing herself to reach the peak of martial arts and re-capturing the Light of the Soul would only weaken her resistance to the curse afterward.

But just endure a little longer, just a little longer.

The future that everyone expects, loves, yearns for, and is willing to sacrifice everything for, will soon… very soon become a reality.