Chapter 28: The Armored Transport

The night sky over Silver Lake seemed as if it were a stage made expressly for magical girls—stars and moonlight shimmering enchantingly. Shortly after Xia Qing and her companions arrived, one ambulance after another, accompanied by black SWAT vehicles, pulled up at the Silver Lake barbecue stand in Guancheng District. Within minutes, most of the patrons of the barbecue stand were taken away in the ambulances.

The four most severely injured thugs opened their eyes, only to find themselves surrounded by a fierce group of black-clad special agents. They were trapped without escape, eyes cold and hard, as icy shackles were snapped onto their wrists. Being handcuffed and ushered into a prison transport, their emotions were complex. The good news was that the madwoman had seemingly abandoned them completely. Though they faced imprisonment, it was better than being grabbed at any moment by that lunatic to be fed to the disaster beasts. The bad news was that she had not removed the magical runes etched on their bodies when she left, which meant they could lose control at any time and transform into abyssal demons.

As the vehicle moved along, no one noticed that atop the roof had been tied a pair of pale yellow, round, puffy balloon ears. They looked like decorations and drew quite a few curious glances along the way. The vehicle’s speed was neither fast nor slow, but the ears remained steady, swaying gently from side to side with every brake and acceleration, never falling off.

After a while, the vehicle reached a sparsely populated area, and the round ears finally changed. They transformed into a glob of yellow, viscous, transparent liquid. A pair of large, glossy eyes blinked with intelligence. “Sister Aquarius, the orders from the princes are so many, I feel like I’m growing a brain!” Nearby, the other half of the ears slowly took shape, becoming a slightly larger slime. Its rounded eyes flickered with hesitation as it spoke uncertainly, “Prince Evening Mist’s order is to save people, while Prince Phantom Butterfly’s order is to kill. Putting them together, it should mean...” Suddenly, a pink, brain-like object appeared inside the slime’s body. “I get it! It means we save them first, then kill them!” “Sister Aquarius, you really are brilliant,” the smaller slime’s eyes turned into shining stars, looking up admiringly.

“Of course. Back then, who did Prince Evening Mist cherish the most?” The larger slime, hearing its junior’s words, immediately agreed that this was the correct interpretation and grew eager. “Then what about the other humans?” “They all must be transformed. Prince Phantom Butterfly once said: ‘Make the enemies fewer, and the family more.’” “Understood, Sister Aquarius.”

The pale moonlight bathed the earth.

---

The personnel on duty in their seats yawned as they looked at the suspects sitting in the chairs, anger welling up inside. These damned social scum were idle all day long. The gruesome dismemberment case from before was still fresh in memory; the city of Leaf Autumn had only been calm for a few days before they stirred up trouble again, even becoming traitors, working for the notorious villainous witch to disrupt social order among the crowds.

As if that wasn’t enough, they even helped the villainous witch capture magical girls, causing two girls, about the same age as their own daughters, to undergo psychological treatment to remove the abyssal influence from their magical cores. It would be a long time before they could recover from the psychological trauma.

“What are you sleeping for? You’re about to go to prison! How can you sleep now!” Thinking this, Gao Ren, the security bureau agent, kicked the four comfortably dozing men hard. What a joke—his team couldn’t sleep, yet these despicable criminals dared to.

The tall leader of the group received the hardest kick. His gaze toward Gao Ren was filled with suppressed fury. A tiger fallen to the plains is tormented by dogs. If it weren’t for their magic runes inexplicably failing, no ordinary human special agent could dare act so tyrannically in front of them.

But when their eyes shifted toward the window, their expressions suddenly changed to fear, and their voices trembled, “Officer, look outside—something’s not right.” Gao Ren didn’t want to hear a word of it. He’d seen enough of those movie scenes where the moment the cop turned their head, the criminals would snatch guns, kill, and hijack vehicles.

Though this was Summer Nation, and such things were rare, with so many people, there might be one or two unstable ones. Watching too many movies made them think they were the heroes inside them.

“Behave. Don’t think of any tricks.” Gao Ren kicked the tall man again, his tone sharp with vigilance and impatience.

Yet soon, Gao Ren was forced to believe them.

Moonlight spilled silver, illuminating the shadows inside the vehicle. Somehow, their motorhome had transformed into a convertible. The mischievous moonlight remained enchanting, the starry sky still brilliant. The air was thick with a strange, sweet fragrance that intoxicated and relaxed.

Logically, when encountering such odd circumstances, Gao Ren and the others should have immediately called headquarters for backup. Yet their state grew increasingly strange, their eyes vacant.

---

The anger and fatigue from waking at dawn vanished, replaced only by endless relaxation, comfort, and weakness.

“Nerve gas!”

By the time Gao Ren reacted, his body was already completely out of control.

In contrast, the four young thugs showed no sign of being affected.

Gao Ren understood immediately—they had been attacked.

He bit his tongue sharply, blood flooding his mouth. The sharp pain restored some control over his body, and he pressed the emergency alarm button. But within seconds, he lost control again.

The tall man noticed the guards’ strange behavior and grew excited. “Brothers, cheer up! Lady Witch has sent help to rescue us.”

“Big brother, didn’t you say even if we rot in prison till death, we wouldn’t work for them anymore?” The buzz-cut man, holding his nose still bleeding, muttered.

The tall man’s face darkened as he slapped the buzz-cut man hard on the head. “You’re talking nonsense! I said even if we get fine food and beauties attending to us every day, it’s not as comfortable as being Lord Viper’s dog!”

“Enough talk. Lord Viper’s rescue is here. Let’s go.”

The smaller yellow slime watched the four escape, looking mournful. “Sister Aquarius, you’re so mean, you always eat the good stuff without me.”

As the figures vanished into the distance, the slime began its work, transforming into numerous thin, elongated, sticky, transparent yellow snakes that slowly slithered into the ears of the present agents.

In his sleep, Gao Ren felt a sudden pain in his ear. The next moment, his mind seemed bathed in warm, comforting sunlight, beginning to melt and merge...

On the desolate highway, empty and silent, all traces of humanity vanished.

The only remnants were the slime left on the road and a faint blue rainbow light slowly approaching from the horizon.