The dazzling magic power light almost blinded Emerald Sparrow who was watching from the sidelines.
And this was just the beginning. After the chaos came a spatial distortion; following the spatial distortion was a Soul Ray; after the Soul Ray came a hypnotic curse; the curse was followed by a binding seal... An overwhelming array of spell techniques bombarded the small reception room without respite, quickly turning the surroundings into ruins in an instant.
However, Yuan's movements were also very swift, dodging through the spells nimbly and bonelessly, using all kinds of unimaginable postures. While avoiding various complex spell techniques, she burst out of the reception room and flew towards the outside of the Abnormal Strategy Bureau's building, racing at high speed through the sky.
Facing this situation, Hong Siyu clutched the notebook in her hand with an expression that was somewhat reserved, but her hands moved quickly. She rapidly flipped through the pages of the book; with just a light tap after turning each page, an unusually powerful spell technique would suddenly appear. Without chanting, without gestures, and even without the need for runes to be recorded, these spell techniques seemed to exist on their own, ready to be wielded effortlessly.
And Emerald Sparrow knew that this was the capability of Hong Siyu's magical artifact—"Memory".
The appearance of "Memory" was just like the ordinary-looking notebook held in Hong Siyu's hands, which at the time of acquisition had no special abilities—it only allowed the user to write text on it.
However, this did not mean it was a useless magical artifact; quite the contrary, Memory's ability actually held great potential: everything that the user recorded in the notebook pages could be manifested with magic power, provided the user had enough of it.
The so-called "things" included, but were not limited to, small objects from daily life such as stones, pencils, lipsticks, as well as extraordinary magic spell techniques. As long as they were recorded by Hong Siyu in Memory, they could be activated with magic power to achieve instant replication.
Of course, this replication was not without limits; the things replicated could never surpass the strength in the user's memory and records. And if the provided magic power was insufficient, it would even significantly compromise the fidelity of the replication. The result could be objects that only looked right but lacked their essence, or vice versa, or even just a pile of useless mud.
This meant that in the beginning, when Hong Siyu first acquired the magical artifact, she couldn't form any significant combat power: her magic power was too weak then to replicate anything of substance.
It wasn't until close to the time when Emerald Sparrow was about to retire that Memory underwent a transformation in Hong Siyu's hands.
With Hong Siyu's promotion to the rank of Leaf, acquiring the ability to learn and construct spell techniques, Memory became an incredibly powerful casting "cheat": with it, Hong Siyu's process of learning spell techniques was much simpler compared to other Magical Girls. While others went through an immensely cumbersome process to build and fixate their commonly used spell techniques, Hong Siyu just needed to record the spell techniques she learned and understood in the book to use them with proficiency and efficiency that far surpassed others.
Moreover, she could continuously optimize her spell techniques. Take the seemingly exaggerated Magical Barrier, for example; if today's use of the Magical Barrier required one percent less magic power, that could be updated in Memory to refresh the original record. If tomorrow's Magical Barrier was five percent thicker than before, that, too, could be updated in Memory... Over time, the spell techniques recorded in Memory by Hong Siyu were of exceptional standards, optimized to the fullest from every aspect.
Magical Girls who used high-powered spell techniques as routinely as regular Magic Power Beams had a common name in the kingdom: Artillery.
Hong Siyu, or Chaoyan, was one of the elites among "Artillery" Magical Girls.
In the ruins of the Abnormal Strategy Bureau's reception room, Hong Siyu's gaze firmly locked onto Yuan, observing her every move. Countless various spell techniques bloomed in the air like fireworks, offering an overwhelmingly suppressive firepower that bombarded relentless, causing the pedestrians on the ground to stop and watch in awe.
Even Yuan, who prided herself on her exceptional agility, found it hard to cope amidst the continuous barrage; not to mention she was also accompanied by Semi, the Black Cat Fairy, who was quite alarmed at this point.
"Think of something quick, you fool!"
It clung firmly to Yuan's shoulders, barely avoiding a spell technique in their flight, and a layer of its fur got scraped off: "Stop playing around! If this goes on, I'm done for!"
"Easy to say... but it's hard to get close,"
Yuan mumbled while repeatedly maneuvering through the air: "You know the level of my spell techniques, asking me to counter while closing the distance is just too much to ask."
"Then use the wonderland! Use your magic armor!"
Semi Meow Meow shouted, "Anyway, hurry up and deal with her! Be careful or I'll go back and tell the boss on you!"
"To deal with this kind of cannon lady, using my wonderland would be a bit boring."
Yuan dodged a curse that nearly grazed her forehead, and landed obliquely on the outside wall of the Abnormal Strategy Bureau's building. With a light push of her feet against the glass, she weaved through the encirclement of Magic Power Beams: "However, since the opponent has gotten serious, indeed I should also show some real strength in return."
After saying that, a string of inky black liquid metal spiraled up her arm. The dark metal flowed like ink, tracing patterns in the air with her fingertips before gradually solidifying.
This indeterminate-use liquid metal had always been circling around Yuan, but she had shown no intention of using it in combat, only occasionally using it to block attacks. Now, however, she seemed to finally be willing to demonstrate its purpose.
Twisting her body in mid-air, Yuan inverted herself, hanging as if frozen in the sky, her body facing towards the direction where Hong Siyu was.
She spread her arms, gradually drawing them apart, one in front of the other, and then, the ink-like black metal between her hands outlined a pitch-black bow.
"Bai Wu, draw the bow."
Her lips barely moved, and as if painted with ink, an arrow feather appeared on the bowstring of the black bow. The arrow, like a painting that turned real, solidifying on the bow, caused the surrounding temperature to seem as if it had dropped significantly.
Then, without a moment's hesitation, she released her grip, and the arrow shot out with a "whoosh," flying straight toward Hong Siyu's throat.
The distance between them may have seemed far, but was actually less than a hundred meters. None of the Spell Techniques in between were able to stop the arrow's assault, so in just an instant, the arrow had already reached Hong Siyu's front.
Though it was but a slender arrow, the ominous Magic Power enveloping its tip was not to be overlooked. From Emerald Sparrow's angle, the Magic Power on this arrow far exceeded the level of a bud, undoubtedly reaching that of a flower, with a terrifying intensity that was chilling.
If this arrow were to hit the Abnormal Strategy Bureau, not just the building of the bureau, but the entire district would be hard-pressed to have any survivors; and if it were to hit a person, even a Magical Girl, there wouldn't be any difficulty in destroying her essence and taking her life.
Emerald Sparrow knew all too well that up until retirement, Hong Siyu was only at the bud level, without a chance to catch this arrow. If it were to hit her, the outcome would be unquestionably fatal.
Realizing the lethality of the attack, Emerald Sparrow almost immediately summoned her magic armor, without hesitation placing it in front of Hong Siyu, while at the same time trying to pull her aside with her silk threads, to avoid the terrifying strike.
But before the silk could even touch Hong Siyu, she heard a somewhat gentle voice of assurance.
"It's okay, senior, she can't hurt me."
Within the amethyst magic barrier, Hong Siyu, holding her notebook, turned her face, her tranquil smile carrying a confidence that Emerald Sparrow had never seen before. She looked earnestly at Emerald Sparrow and seriously said, "I've said it, I've returned, so I definitely won't let you get hurt again."
Having said that, she looked up, her gaze meeting the incoming black arrow. With one hand, she closed the notebook and her lips slightly parted:
— "Chaoyan, blossom profusely, Sea of Memories."