Chapter 4: The Unnatural Ingenuity of Bai Zhi

San City First Middle School stood proudly in the very heart of the city, a vibrant and bustling district that also happened to be Bai Zhi’s current place of study.

Despite constant complaints from students about traffic noise and other urban disturbances, San City First Middle School held a unique distinction: as the city’s sole key high school, it single-handedly inflated property values in its vicinity.

Moreover, the school’s origins could be traced back to the very inception of San City itself, cementing its status as an institution steeped in profound history.

Consequently, it was not merely that the school had chosen to erect its buildings on this prime, prosperous land; rather, its very presence had allowed the surrounding area to flourish, naturally evolving into the most vibrant district in all of San City.

Naturally, such elaborate details held no significance for Bai Zhi; she had always been utterly indifferent to them.

The crux of the matter, however, boiled down to a single, inconvenient truth: the school was nestled deep within the city, while Bai Zhi’s home lay more than thirty kilometers away, in the sprawling urban outskirts.

Her family did not own a car, and even if they had, Bai Zhi’s underage status would have precluded her from driving it legally on the roads.

The sole public bus serving her area appeared only once every forty-five minutes, and its driver—a steadfast anti-overwork advocate who favored slacking off over punctuality—rarely adhered to the schedule. Any rare instance of “on-time” arrival usually just signified it was precisely forty-five minutes behind schedule.

At precisely 7:13 AM, even with a generous allowance for travel, Bai Zhi would likely arrive at school just in time for lunch.

While most would already be concocting excuses for absence, Bai Zhi, with her characteristic ingenuity, possessed an emergency plan perfectly suited for such a predicament.

After quickly instructing Rena, who remained at home, on routine matters such as remembering to lock the door when leaving, Bai Zhi promptly burst out of the house.

Rena, watching Bai Zhi’s fleeting form disappear like the wind, sighed with a touch of helplessness, lamenting how her impetuous friend from another world became utterly scatterbrained whenever she rushed.

Lacking a key to the house, Rena knew that if she were to step outside now, her only recourse for re-entry would be to forcibly damage the front door.

Knowing that such an act would create an undesirable impression, and having no intention of leaving in the first place, Rena resolved to dutifully remain at Bai Zhi’s home for the day.

While the search for Malik was undoubtedly pressing, initiating action without any leads would be akin to searching for a needle in a vast ocean, and could even inadvertently compromise her own location.

Consequently, Rena resolved to proceed with greater caution. She intended to delve deeper into understanding this world’s intricacies and, while doing so, ascertain if the medium known as “news” might yield any clues pertaining to Malik.

After all, a dangerous individual like Malik would assuredly never remain quiescent, regardless of his location.

With her decision firmly made, she set about tidying the living room, which had been left in a slight disarray by Bai Zhi’s whirlwind departure.

Afterward, she settled back onto the sofa, redirecting her full attention to the morning news broadcast, which was drawing to a close.

Yet, a particular question had been persistently surfacing in Rena’s mind for some time now.

Throughout her recent fervent studies, she had assimilated a considerable amount of information regarding this contemporary world.

For example, extraordinary energies such as battle aura and magic, which were utterly commonplace in ‘Granzenias’, existed in this world solely as fantastical constructs of imagination.

The very land beneath her feet lacked the fundamental capacity to sustain supernatural powers, making an existence like Bai Zhi seem more like an anomaly, born from an improbable twist of fate.

Thus, Rena found herself perplexed as to why Bai Zhi, upon realizing she would be late for school, exhibited reactions virtually identical to those of any ordinary student.

After all, even considering the mere tip of the immense power Bai Zhi had previously revealed, she could have effortlessly disregarded all the immutable rules that bound ordinary people in this world.

To phrase it more candidly, despite the complete absence of any force capable of restraining her, Bai Zhi had not succumbed to her whims and acted with impunity; instead, she continued to abide by every rule that ordinary inhabitants of this world were expected to follow.

This behavior struck Rena as profoundly unnatural.

As a devout follower of the ‘Holy Light’, Rena understood all too well the depths to which humanity could descend when unconstrained by established rules.

‘Perhaps it’s merely some peculiar ‘quirk’?’

After a brief moment of contemplation, Rena could only arrive at this somewhat plausible conclusion.

Much like the legendary figures chronicled in the historical annals of ‘Granzenias’, individuals such as Bai Zhi were bound to possess certain eccentricities, however slight, that defied common understanding.

Her current inability to comprehend might simply stem from her own insufficient strength.

Having thus answered herself with a response that was hardly a true solution, Rena temporarily shelved the perplexing question and redirected her full attention to the ongoing news segment.

***

Meanwhile, in an expansive, vacant field—a common sight in Bai Zhi’s residential district—Bai Zhi stood with eyes closed, her posture one of intense concentration, as though bracing herself for a formidable adversary.

For reasons best left unsaid, an extraordinarily vast reservoir of magic coursed through her being.

While she had never precisely measured her total magical reserves, Bai Zhi had never once exhausted this immense power, not since the day she first acquired it.

Even a catastrophic incident two years prior had only managed to consume roughly half of her overall magical might.

Judging purely by the nature of her power, Bai Zhi would, in the other world, more closely align with the archetype of a ‘Mage’ within the ‘Mana’ system.

In actuality, however, Bai Zhi possessed absolutely no theoretical knowledge of magic, her mind a veritable blank slate on the subject.

Her sole method of wielding magic involved a crude and wasteful expulsion of the energy from her body, utterly devoid of any finesse or conservation.

Even with Rena’s current companionship, and despite having absorbed some magical theories from the other world, Bai Zhi’s approach to wielding magic had seen little to no significant alteration.

This was, of course, partly due to her ingrained habit of employing magic in the same manner she always had.

The other reason, however, was far more pragmatic—

She simply couldn’t fathom those intricate magical theories, which might as well have been ancient, undecipherable texts.

Fortunately, despite her complete lack of theoretical knowledge, Bai Zhi possessed an innate ability to reverse-engineer methods from desired outcomes, employing her familiar techniques to achieve the same results.

A prime example was her customary method of memory erasure.

This technique involved Bai Zhi subtly assaulting the memory-retaining regions of the human brain with her magic, then instantaneously restoring them at the very moment of disruption, thereby eradicating specific temporal segments of the target’s memories without inflicting any lasting harm.

While such an endeavor might sound like an utterly outlandish and audacious feat, Bai Zhi consistently managed to execute this rather perilous trial with unperturbed ease.

Indeed, any individual familiar with magic in ‘Granzenias’, upon witnessing Bai Zhi’s actions, would likely experience a surge in blood pressure and vehemently denounce her behavior as a blatant transgression against all established magical theory.

Now, Bai Zhi was preparing for a task that bore a striking resemblance to her previous unorthodox methods.

She recalled Rena mentioning that in ‘Granzenias’, certain ‘Mages’ employed a technique capable of instantaneously reinforcing their physical bodies.

While the duration of this particular technique was exceedingly brief, it was nevertheless sufficient to grant physically frail ‘Mages’ a measure of self-preservation when engaged in close quarters combat, preventing them from being instantly dispatched by a single strike.

Though she remained ignorant of the precise underlying principles, Bai Zhi believed she could replicate a similar outcome, inferring from the concept of “infusing magic to strengthen the body.”

She drew a deep breath, then slowly and steadily released the magic from within her, anchoring it to the surface of her skin.

Subsequently, she began to mentally visualize these magical energies deconstructing and then reassembling themselves into the contours of her limbs.

The surrounding atmosphere instantly grew heavy.

To an outside observer, Bai Zhi’s skin appeared to be coated in a shimmering, dark red film, emanating an unnerving sense of oppression that caused the ambient temperature to plummet by several degrees.

Then, propelled by an ineffable thought, this shimmering film abruptly dissolved into Bai Zhi’s very being.

Bai Zhi’s eyes snapped open. She remained oblivious to the peculiar transformation that had just enveloped her, perceiving only an extraordinary lightness in her body, as if an unending surge of power now coursed through her veins.

‘This is surprisingly effective! Excellent! With this, even if I only run, I should still make it in time!’

Bai Zhi jubilantly pumped her fist in celebration, then adopted a ready stance for sprinting.

If Rena were by her side, Bai Zhi would know that the technique she was currently employing, rather than the ‘Instant Body Reinforcement’ used by mages, bore a closer resemblance to the ‘Battle Aura Envelopment’ commonly utilized by high-ranking warriors or knights.

Naturally, Bai Zhi would also be unaware that this particular ability was incomparably more potent than a mere physical reinforcement technique.

To draw a comparison, it was like the difference between a sapling and a mighty oak.

Boom—

With a sound akin to a cannon firing, and a short cry of surprise from Bai Zhi, her figure vanished instantly, leaving only a scorched mark on the ground.