Chapter 55: Interception

At Investigator Guan’s command, the magical girls immediately ran to the roadside, out of sight of the regular officers. In the blink of an eye, they entered transformation mode—and rose smoothly into the air, flying at treetop height.

Meanwhile, Investigator Guan returned to the helicopter. The roar of its engines conveniently masked the faint hum of magical energy as Ke Xin and the others ascended.

“Princess, we’ve pulled the GPS signal from the police convoy’s vehicles and are syncing it to your transformation devices.”

The technician’s voice came through Ke Xin’s earpiece. A moment later, a notification flashed on her holo-visors: Data Sync Complete. She shifted her gaze to the incoming feed, mentally selecting it, and a simplified 3D map projected before her eyes. Several bright yellow dots—moving quickly along the winding mountain road—represented the police vehicles.

“Received. We’re en route to the interception point,” Ke Xin replied at once.

She wasn’t sure why the technician had addressed her specifically—there were more senior magical girls on the team—but there wasn’t time to question it.

“By the way,” Qi Si suddenly asked, “how exactly are we supposed to stop them once we get there?”

Her question made the entire communication channel go silent.

“…That’s actually a good point,” Bai Xihan said, scratching her head with a confused look. After a moment’s thought, her brows relaxed and she grinned. “I’m sure Ke Xin already has a plan, right? Hehe.”

“Me?”

Ke Xin glanced sideways and saw Bai Xihan’s trademark silly smile.

So she’s already given up thinking, huh? Ke Xin wasn’t even surprised. Ever since they met, Bai Xihan had always left her with that exact impression.

What did shock her, though, was learning that Bai Xihan was actually the leader of a small squad. She could hardly imagine what her teammates must be like.

Suppressing a sigh, Ke Xin asked the two more senior magical girls instead, “Red Lotus, Blue Star—what do you two think?”

Red Lotus was the codename of Yan Luofei. Despite her pink hair and the adorable look of a classic “sweet-type” magical girl—like the kind whose attacks should be heart-shaped blasts of love—her specialty was all-out fire magic. Whenever collateral damage wasn’t a concern, she unleashed massive pink fireballs of explosive destruction.

Compared to Ke Xin’s modest mana blasts, Red Lotus’s magic was spectacular.

Blue Star, on the other hand, was Yuan Lingfeng. With her bright blue hair and a glowing star ornament above her head, she excelled in fast, agile assaults that hit with pinpoint precision.

The two of them—and another senior magical girl, Yellow Flash—made up a three-person squad whose record spoke for itself.

“I’d advise not asking her for input,” Blue Star said first.

“Why’s that?”

“Because she’ll probably just suggest we blow up the entire road.” Blue Star mimed an explosion with her hands—and even added a sound effect the mic thankfully didn’t pick up.

“I would not!”

Red Lotus couldn’t take the slander any longer and shouted loud enough to make Ke Xin flinch.

“You literally did that last ti—mmpf—”

Before Blue Star could finish, her words were abruptly muffled. Ke Xin looked back to see Red Lotus pressing a hand firmly over her teammate’s mouth.

“Looks like there’s a story there,” Qi Si remarked innocently, not even pretending to filter her thoughts.

“There’s no such thing!”

Red Lotus’s denial came far too quickly.

“Oh? No?” Qi Si said, clearly not believing a word.

“Anyway, let’s stay focused,” Ke Xin interjected before things spiraled further. “We’re in a mountain area—one wrong move and we’ll be knocking down century-old trees.”

“Still…” she murmured, eyeing the map again, “blowing up part of the road could work.”

The plan wasn’t without merit. There was a narrow bridge along the police convoy’s route—perfect for an interception. Blowing it would cut the road completely, and given the current time, it wouldn’t endanger anyone else.

Besides, considering what was happening in the village, blocking access made perfect sense. It would prevent others from stumbling into the danger zone before the Corpse Mother threat was neutralized.

“That’d make the road authority very unhappy,” Bai Xihan said softly.

“I think they’ve got bigger things to worry about right now.”

In this era, an entire village suddenly going dark was no small matter. The families of those villagers would soon notice something was wrong. Ke Xin could only imagine how much effort the Special Search Bureau was putting into suppressing public panic. Somehow, the story hadn’t yet made national news.

Even if they managed to resolve the Corpse Mother incident, explaining the sheer number of deaths would be a nightmare. No one knew how long the Bureau’s information lockdown could hold.

But that wasn’t Ke Xin’s concern. Her duty was simple—carry out the mission and eliminate the threats that endangered humanity.

“So,” Red Lotus asked after finally releasing Blue Star, “where exactly do you want me to blow up?”

Blue Star shot her a glare. “I said there’s nothing like that!” Then she clammed up, crossing her arms.

“We’re almost at the coordinates,” Ke Xin announced. “Let’s land.”

They descended onto a long, relatively straight stretch of mountain road. The five girls touched down lightly on the asphalt. From a distance, the sound of approaching engines echoed between the cliffs.

“So… we’re just going to stand in the middle of the road like this?” Qi Si asked, glancing nervously around.

They were lined up shoulder to shoulder, completely blocking the narrow two-lane path. Any car trying to pass would have to ram straight through them—which, given their active magic shields, would probably end with a totaled car and a trip to the morgue.

“The terrain’s tight,” Ke Xin explained. “Standing here gives them time to brake after they come around that bend.”

“Should we manifest our weapons?”

“That might cause misunderstandings. We’re not here to fight—just to stop them. For now, switch our combat suits to the Bureau uniform disguise.”

Every Special Search Bureau magical girl’s weapon had a base gun form—capable of firing regular bullets or mana rounds. Each one customized the appearance to her taste, but from a distance, a gun was still a gun.

They didn’t need to look like bandits blocking the road. Then again, who in their right mind would try to rob police cars?

As Ke Xin finished that thought, the engine noise grew louder. A moment later, a police SUV appeared from around the bend.

Blue Star stepped forward and motioned for the driver to pull over—an audacious gesture, given who she was signaling.

And yet, the local police convoy actually complied, pulling to the side of the road. From the passenger seat of the lead vehicle, a familiar figure emerged.

“You again? What do you think you’re doing? Obstructing official duty?!”

Deputy Director Chen flung open the door before the car had even stopped and stormed toward them, voice rising in irritation.

“Apologies, Director Chen,” Blue Star said evenly, unbothered by his aggression. “We’re also on official assignment.” She calmly displayed her Special Search Bureau credentials.

Ke Xin couldn’t help admiring her composure—she herself wasn’t nearly that good at confrontation.

But Chen didn’t even glance at the ID. “Step aside. You people are always stealing credit for cases that aren’t yours. Isn’t this going too far?”

“Director Chen, we’re doing this for your team’s safety.”

“If you really cared about safety, you wouldn’t send a bunch of kids! I don’t buy that there’s anything dangerous in that village. My officers are already inside—we’d have met up by now if you hadn’t stopped us!”

Seeing that reasoning wasn’t working, Qi Si leaned close to Ke Xin and whispered, “Should we… get a bit more forceful?”

“That’s probably not a good idea. And doesn’t it strike you as odd? If the village is that far gone, there’s no way the officers who entered first are still fine.”

Ke Xin had seen it herself—people torn apart by the Corpse Mother’s puppets. No amount of sidearm firepower could have stopped that.

And yet Chen’s “report” claimed his men had merely found something suspicious? None of it made sense.

“Investigator Guan,” Ke Xin radioed, “should we physically block them from proceeding?”

Given the situation, she was ready to call in support. With the magical girls’ power, it wouldn’t be difficult—just messy. And heavy use of mana might alert the Corpse Mother to their presence.

Without a solid operational plan yet in place, provoking it into fleeing would make containment much harder.

“Higher command should have already issued an order to them,” Guan’s calm voice came over the channel. “Even the most stubborn officers should stop once they’ve seen it. There’s likely something else going on here. Find out what.”

“Understood.”

Blue Star straightened, addressing Chen again. “Director Chen, I suggest you check for any recent directives from your superiors.”

“What directives?” one of the officers behind him muttered, pulling out his phone. Moments later, he read aloud a message—an official notice transferring full authority over the case to the Special Search Bureau, signed by the Federal Minister of Public Security.

That took the wind right out of Chen’s sails. His tone softened considerably, and he stopped shouting.

“Ranks really do crush people,” Qi Si muttered. Then, hearing another vehicle approach, she quickly turned. A patrol car was slowly rolling toward them before stopping a few meters away.

Ke Xin’s gaze sharpened. So the report about police sighting the missing persons hadn’t been fabricated after all.

“Director Chen!”

Two uniformed officers jumped out and hurried toward him.

Qi Si and Ke Xin exchanged a brief look—and immediately understood each other.

“Freeze!”

Qi Si summoned her weapon—a modified M1014 shotgun—and leveled it at the two approaching officers.

The situation instantly turned volatile. Other officers in the convoy drew their sidearms, aiming at Blue Star and the others.

Red Lotus wasn’t about to be left out—her weapon materialized in her hands, and she quietly activated her mana shield, invisible to normal eyes.

Ke Xin sighed inwardly. Things were getting complicated—but since it had come to this, she might as well see it through.

“Xiaobai,” she said, “check their condition.”

“On it.”

Ke Xin didn’t believe for a second that the two officers returning from Yunqi Village were unscathed. Even if they looked normal, they could easily be Corpse Mother puppets.

Bai Xihan, the most skilled spell user among them, was perfect for the task.

But the results surprised everyone. After several scanning incantations, she found nothing abnormal—only faint traces of residual mana clinging to their clothes.

She triple-checked, then looked helplessly back at Ke Xin and shook her head.

“I see… Let them go, then.”

Keeping them detained would just escalate things again. Ke Xin stepped aside, giving the police room to pass.

Still, she immediately reported her findings and suspicions to headquarters.

If those two were truly normal, that meant the Corpse Mother hadn’t attacked them—or worse, had disguised its puppets so well that even the police couldn’t tell the difference.

That level of mimicry meant it now understood human behavior in chilling detail.

A monster capable of that… no wonder the Bureau rated the Corpse Mother’s threat level so high.

Director Chen seemed to have lost interest in arguing. He turned on his heel, ordered his men back into their cars, and the convoy soon retreated down the mountain road, leaving only the five magical girls behind.

“Let’s get out of here too,” Qi Si said, shivering slightly. “This place gives me the creeps.”

“Agreed.”

The others nodded. With Guan’s permission, the magical girls took off once more, soaring toward the training base.

The investigation from here would be handled by the Intelligence Division—experts far better suited to digging into the disturbing details they’d just uncovered.