Chapter 41: The Rule Anomaly and the Key

The Guardian of Stars Base, East Asia Branch, Director’s Office.

The heavy wooden door silently closed behind Ouyang Na, sealing off the outside world’s clamor.

She walked directly to the spacious desk, placing the pitifully thin assessment report on Jin gently before her brother, Ouyang Shuo, who was engrossed in reviewing documents.

Ouyang Shuo, the supreme head of the East Asia Branch, possessed a demeanor as steady as a mountain.

He set down his electronic pen and picked up the report, his gaze swiftly scanning its contents. When he read ‘Mana Reserve: Approximately equal to 1.2 standard Shadow Beast cubs’ and the overall conclusion ‘Threat Level: Harmless,’ a rare and distinct flicker of surprise crossed his usually impassive face.

He lifted his eyes, looking at his solemn-faced sister. “This is the person Xia Yue, Lin Wan, and even the newcomer Yu Niannian, were willing to protect—even defying regulations and directly confronting the ‘Abyssal Weaver’ for them? The ‘Witch’ suspected of being involved with Violette?” His tone carried both a need for confirmation and a hint of disbelief.

“Yes, Brother,” Ouyang Na affirmed, her voice tinged with confusion and a touch of frustration. “Every test was performed, and you’ve seen the results. She’s incredibly weak, even weaker than the lowest-tier magic-energy creatures. I truly can’t comprehend what Xia Yue and the others see in her. Is it truly just because of… so-called ‘friendship’?” Even as she uttered the word, it felt absurd to her; in a world where power reigned supreme, such connections were often fragile.

Ouyang Shuo did not reply immediately. His long fingers gently tapped the desktop as his gaze returned to the report, specifically lingering on the lines ‘Slight Dark Attribute Tendency’ and ‘Lacks Known Witch Standard Characteristics.’ He fell into deep thought.

A moment later, he spoke slowly, his voice low and imbued with a certain insight. “Nana, you believe this matter isn’t simple because her weakness doesn’t align with the attention she’s garnered, correct?”

“Isn’t that so?” Ouyang Na frowned. “An individual incapable of even stable mana release can sway the hearts of three excellent members, potentially even subtly influencing a high-level Witch battle. That, in itself, defies all logic.”

“Logic…” Ouyang Shuo repeated softly, a meaningful curve gracing his lips. “Sometimes, our preconceived notions blind us. You perceive her as weak based on our conventional mana assessment system. But have you forgotten… what, precisely, is a Witch?”

Ouyang Na paused, taken aback. “Witches? They are wielders of dark and chaotic power, a potential threat to order, entities we must monitor and guard against…”

“That is merely the surface, Nana, a textbook definition,” Ouyang Shuo interrupted, his eyes deepening. “Recall the organization’s top-secret archives, those ancient and obscure records. Is the true source of a Witch’s power truly just quantifiable energy like ‘darkness,’ ‘shadow,’ or ‘negative emotions’?”

He rose from his seat and walked to the massive floor-to-ceiling window, gazing out at the base’s orderly scene as if contemplating something far deeper.

“No, those are just superficial manifestations, the ‘attributes’ that power displays,” Ouyang Shuo’s voice carried a sense of historical retrospection. “Their true essence lies in being ‘touchers’ and users of rules. Their power originates from the dark side of the world’s rules, the opposing pole to the fundamental laws that govern this existence. Chaos, shadow, darkness… these are merely the external forms that rule-based power assumes under different individuals and interpretations.”

He turned, his gaze sharply fixed on Ouyang Na. “Magical Girls wield bright, orderly, and materialized energy. Witches, however, command the abstract ‘power of concepts,’ which is far closer to the fundamental rules. This explains the existence of formidable beings like Violette, the ‘Abyssal Weaver,’ who pursue forbidden knowledge and manipulate the essence of shadows. Every Witch can only communicate with the source and use magic after mastering a rule. She undoubtedly used magic through its source, and though it was only marble-sized, she is undeniably a Witch. Logically, such a weak being should not gain the recognition of the rules, yet she succeeded.”

Ouyang Na’s pupils constricted slightly; she seemed to have grasped something crucial. “Brother, are you implying that Jin’s ‘weakness’ might only be apparent under our conventional mana detection standards? That her true uniqueness isn’t in the ‘quantity’ of her mana, but in her ability to invoke some ‘rule’—one we cannot directly observe—with an extremely minimal ‘cost’?”

“This is precisely where my suspicions lie,” Ouyang Shuo said, returning to the desk and tapping the ‘harmless’ report with his fingertip. “An individual with such meager mana can provoke an ancient being like Violette to call her a ‘traitor’ and a ‘fire-stealer.’ She can command the fierce loyalty of three proud young women like Xia Yue and her companions. Furthermore, she may have, in some manner, influenced the battle you reported…”

He paused, his tone grave. “If my conjecture is correct, then what she possesses might not be potent destructive power, but rather a more rare and fundamental… rule affinity or interference ability. This capability might be utterly useless in everyday life, perhaps even unnoticed by her, yet in specific situations, with particular subjects, or when certain unknown ‘conditions’ are met, it could manifest in ways we cannot comprehend.”

Ouyang Na drew a sharp breath. If her brother’s hypothesis proved true, then Jin’s value and danger could not be measured by that laughable assessment report at all!

An entity capable of directly or indirectly interfering with ‘rules,’ even by the slightest margin, held immeasurable potential impact!

“Then… what should we do? Continue to observe?” Ouyang Na asked, her tone now completely altered.

“Mm,” Ouyang Shuo nodded. “Maintain the original judgment; give her that ‘harmless’ pass for now. Keeping her close to Xia Yue and the others might better encourage her to reveal her unique qualities. Intensify surveillance, not just for mana fluctuations, but also to record all abnormal incidents connected to her, especially those involving causality, probability, or deviations in energy trajectories—situations difficult to explain with common sense.”

His gaze deepened. “Protect her, but also… watch her closely. Until we truly uncover the secrets she harbors, she is both an extraordinarily valuable research specimen and potentially a bomb… whose detonation method we have yet to discover.”

Ouyang Na nodded gravely, understanding her brother’s meaning. Jin’s ‘weakness,’ perhaps, was precisely her greatest complexity.

The air within Ouyang Shuo’s office seemed to grow even heavier from their preceding discussion.

Just as Ouyang Na was processing her brother’s astonishing conjecture about ‘rule interference,’ a soft yet undeniable pure white radiance suddenly illuminated the office.

This light was not blinding, yet it possessed a soul-cleansing purity and majesty, instantly dispelling the lingering gloom in the room from their discussion of Witches.

Within the light, specks of starlight slowly coalesced as if imbued with life.

Ouyang Shuo and Ouyang Na stiffened almost simultaneously, quickly rising and bowing slightly in deference.

To appear so silently and directly in the Director’s office, possessing such unique energy characteristics, was a feat achievable by only a handful within the entire Guardian of Stars organization.

The starlight ultimately coalesced into a tall, slender, and graceful figure.

It was a girl who appeared to be around sixteen or seventeen, clad in a simple yet sacred pure white battle skirt-armor, upon which runes flowed as if woven from moonlight.

She possessed long, silver hair that reached her waist, each strand seeming to emit a cool, lunar glow, cascading smoothly like a waterfall.

Her face was flawlessly perfect, unlike that of a mortal, bearing a tranquility and indifference that transcended her apparent age.

Most striking were her eyes—forged as if from the purest gold, clear and translucent. Deep within them, a slowly rotating cosmic expanse seemed to dwell, and wherever her gaze fell, even the rules of space appeared to become more stable and orderly.

An innate majesty emanated from her, not purposefully cultivated, but stemming from her very existence resonating with a higher order.

Emotion was almost entirely absent from her face; only an eternal, unwavering adherence to rules and power remained.

“Director Shuo, Supervisor Ouyang,” the girl spoke, her voice ethereal and pleasant, yet carrying an inherent sense of detachment, as if from a distant starry sky. “I sensed residual ripples of abnormal rule perturbation here, as well as… a discussion concerning a unique individual.”

Her gaze calmly swept over Ouyang Shuo and Ouyang Na, finally resting on the assessment report about Jin on the desk. Within those golden eyes, the swirling stars seemed to subtly quicken their pace.

“Esteemed Shen Xiyue,” Ouyang Shuo responded respectfully.

The being before them was none other than Shen Xiyue, a legendary figure within the Guardian of Stars, codenamed ‘Scales of Judgment.’

She was an embodiment of light, an agent of the rules of order, her power unfathomable. It was said she had long since touched the very source of fundamental laws.

She rarely made an appearance, but whenever she did, it typically signified an event involving the rule-level that could impact the world’s balance.

Ouyang Na immediately reported, “Esteemed Shen Xiyue, we are discussing an individual named Jin. Her mana level is extremely low, and she was rated as ‘harmless.’ However, a series of events surrounding her, especially the weak interference that might involve the rule level, has drawn our attention.” She then briefly explained the previous battle’s anomalies, the unusual protectiveness of Xia Yue and the others, and Ouyang Shuo’s conjecture about ‘rule affinity.’

Shen Xiyue listened silently, her face devoid of any expression, as if merely receiving a stream of data unrelated to herself.

It wasn’t until Ouyang Na mentioned ‘triggering rule-level changes with minimal cost’ that a subtle ripple, named ‘interest,’ finally stirred in her golden eyes, which seemed to hold swirling stars.

She extended a slender, perfect finger and gently tapped the air. The report on the desk, without any breeze, flipped open to the page detailing Jin’s mana attributes and mental power assessment.

“Mana reserve, below baseline. Mental power, mediocre,” Shen Xiyue’s voice remained ethereal and indifferent, as if stating an objective fact. “Under conventional understanding, she lacks the ‘power’ foundation to leverage rules.”

Her gaze seemed to pierce through the paper, seeing the restless girl currently ‘watched over’ by three Magical Girls somewhere within the base.

“However,” she shifted her focus, and within her golden eyes, the starry trajectories began to trace intricate patterns, “rules do not always require brute force to move. Sometimes, a tiny, perfectly placed ‘variable,’ intervening at the correct ‘node,’ can trigger a chain reaction far exceeding the accumulation of raw power.”

She lifted her eyes, looking at Ouyang Shuo and Ouyang Na. “Your conjecture that she possesses ‘rule affinity or interference ability’ is correct in direction, but you may have underestimated its true nature.”

Shen Xiyue slowly walked to the window, standing beside Ouyang Shuo as they both gazed outside.

Her very presence rendered the surrounding air incredibly ‘stable,’ as if all chaos were forcibly brought into the orbit of order.

“Light and darkness, order and chaos, are the fundamental rules that constitute the world, like two sides of a coin,” she calmly elucidated. “Magical Girls wield the power of light and order, while Witches touch upon the rules of darkness and chaos. Yet beneath this macroscopic opposition lies countless subtle, interwoven threads of rules.”

Her gaze seemed to drift toward Jin’s location, her tone acquiring a faint, almost analytical quality.

“This Jin… she may not possess great power herself, but she could be an exceedingly rare ‘rule singularity,’ or rather, a living ‘rule loophole.’ Her very existence, her emotions, her will, even her unconscious actions, might, under certain specific conditions, become that ‘initial variable’ that causes the threads of rules to tremble.”

“Violette called her a ‘fire-stealer’… ‘fire’ can also be seen as a symbol of rule authority. The unusual protectiveness of Xia Yue and the others… perhaps it doesn’t stem from emotion, but from their instincts perceiving that ‘specialness’ tightly linked to rules within her, unconsciously drawn and influenced by it.”

Shen Xiyue turned, and in her golden eyes, which perceived rules, her interest became even more pronounced.

“An individual who is incredibly fragile herself, yet potentially possesses the ability to leverage rules… most interesting,” she said in her indifferent tone, uttering words that would send shivers down anyone’s spine. “She is a key, a key that might unlock the door to unknown rules. She could also be… an ‘unstable factor’ that needs strict monitoring to prevent her from unconsciously triggering an uncontrollable rule collapse.”

She looked at Ouyang Shuo, her tone carrying an undeniable resolve.

“Everything concerning Jin is to be placed under the highest observation sequence. I will personally oversee it.”

“Without alarming her, gather as much data related to her as possible, especially any events involving causality, probability, or abnormal energy trajectories.”

“As for Xia Yue, Lin Wan, and Yu Niannian…” Shen Xiyue paused slightly. “Their ‘supervision’ mission will continue. Their closeness might, in itself, be an important ‘observational condition.'”

A chill ran through Ouyang Shuo and Ouyang Na. Even the esteemed Shen Xiyue had personally expressed concern, even using terms like ‘rule singularity’ and ‘unstable factor.’ Jin’s importance—or rather, her danger—likely far surpassed their initial estimations.

Shen Xiyue’s figure began to slowly dissipate into specks of starlight, as silently as she had arrived. Before fully vanishing, her ethereal voice left one final instruction.

“Protect this ‘key.’ Until I understand her true nature, do not let her… break, or fall into the wrong hands.”

The starlight completely vanished, and the office returned to its normal state, yet the sense of majesty stemming from the rule-level lingered for a long time.

Ouyang Na looked at her brother, finding Ouyang Shuo’s brow deeply furrowed, his gaze profound.