"It sounds like a distant topic, I think we don't need to think about it right now, right?"
Xia Liang smiled helplessly, "Well... but if you really want me to say, it would probably be Bai Mei."
Bai Ji was somewhat surprised, "Are you planning to let that child lead the team?"
"It's hard to explain 'why' for this kind of question."
Xia Liang shook her head and whispered, "It's just that, in my personal opinion, if one of the three of us has to be the leader, then it definitely won't be me. Among the remaining two, Bai Mei seems more likely for now."
"Because the Patrol Envoy thinks highly of her?" Bai Ji was puzzled.
"Of course not." Xia Liang chuckled as she reminded, "And, you just said you didn't plan on sowing discord."
"Ah, sorry." Bai Ji also realized her faux pas, so she immediately apologized.
The two of them fell silent for a moment, just focusing on the patterns on the stone tower.
After a while, just as they were nearing the end of their work, the Blue Moon that had been hanging in the sky suddenly seemed to be struck by something and faded significantly.
Before the two could react to this change, in the nearby forest where a fierce confrontation was ongoing, the black color mixed with other Magic Power also suddenly dissipated.
As if prearranged, both battlefronts underwent simultaneous changes of occupation. It was as if giving the two of them a silent nudge.
"Looks like we need to hurry up." Bai Ji began to speak slowly.
"Yes, let's finish as quickly as we can." Xia Liang echoed.
Both of them continued to focus on their work, deliberately not talking further, as if the earlier topic had never existed.
Just as Xia Liang had observed from a distance, the battle between the Emerald Sparrow trio and Yuan had indeed entered its final stages.
The judgment was first made by Margaret.
She was able to make this judgment because just now, after a prolonged battle, she keenly noticed that the cup in Yuan's hand now contained only a serving of red-black liquid.
The stratified appearance that had been persistent in Yuan's cup had gradually vanished unnoticed with each hit it took.
If the previous assumptions were correct, it could be essentially seen that Yuan's Beast Heart Liberation had become ineffective.
Everyone present was not surprised by this outcome; after all, the moment Yuan failed to dodge an attack for the first time, the battle had turned into a contest of stamina. As long as the Emerald Sparrows could keep hitting Yuan without losing their own strength, Yuan would continue to weaken until eventually losing all buff from the Beast Heart Liberation, reverting to ordinary combat capabilities.
It was an overt scheme, but Yuan had no choice but to engage in the fight.
For her, the goal of the battle had always been to defeat Cornflower.
Destroying the city's defenses, bringing in a beast disaster to Fangting, none of that mattered; they were merely means to force the opponents to come out and engage. The important tasks given to her by White Wolf were—the Source of Beasts, Cornflower, Bai Jingxuan.
Bringing back these three targets was of utmost importance.
As long as she could defeat Cornflower head-on, then even if the stone tower was destroyed, it wouldn't matter, no, on the contrary, if she could accomplish her own goals, it would be better if the tower was destroyed.
Yuan understood White Wolf very well.
She knew that when White Wolf said, "Threaten Cornflower by slaughtering the citizens of Fangting City," the emphasis was never on "slaughtering the citizens of Fangting City." As long as she completed her mission, whether the "slaughtering" was carried out was completely insignificant.
White Wolf cared about only two things: first, whether Yuan had completed the goals she had set; and second, whether Yuan remembered the details she had emphasized.
As for the former, there's no need to elaborate. As for the latter, if everything went smoothly, even if the stone tower was destroyed, it would be fine. When she went back to report to White Wolf and was asked, "Did you do it her way?", she could bring Semi over to prove that she had indeed tried her best with the task of the stone tower, only to be thwarted in the end.
Indeed, Yuan didn't want to engage in needless slaughter.
Whether being criticized by comrades for being soft-hearted, or scolded by enemies as hypocritical, no matter what others said, she simply did not want to.
A martial artist must adhere to principles, and one core principle is that one should not bully the weak due to one's own strength.
Her master had taught her this, and she had never forgotten it.
She also knew that once she chose to follow White Wolf in rebellion and join the Claw Marks, the so-called principles ceased to exist. But even so, like a drowning person clinging to the last straw, she refused to let go.
Therefore, she came up with this plan that seemed to evade accountability—using the destruction of Fangting City's protection as bait to force the local Magical Girls to come out and fight, then take the opportunity to defeat them and flee with the captives.
In this process, if she won, then she could quickly decide the battle and escape with the "spoils" before the device blew up, leaving the remaining Magical Girls enough time to deal with the stone tower.
If she lost, then the outcome goes without saying—the stone tower would undoubtedly be dismantled by the Fangting City team, still resulting in no damage.
Thus, if Yuan wanted to achieve the goal that best suited her interests in the entire plan, there was naturally only one option left: