Chapter 62: The Training Ground’s Primal Logic

They finally managed to shake off their pursuers.

As Su Qingyao cast one last glance behind her, Xu Yanqing was just then leading the entire team around the final bend.

At last, the trainees’ operational route had fully diverged from the public roads.

One might wonder why they hadn’t simply avoided the public roads from the very beginning.

The truth was, they didn’t want their pursuers to resort to even more perilous methods of tracking them.

Should anything go wrong, a fatality would be a grave matter. Even worse, a catastrophic accident scene would undoubtedly traumatize the children.

It was far better to string these stragglers along for a while.

Then, once the pursuers were too preoccupied to notice a change in course, they could be definitively shaken off.

All of this, of course, was merely a strategy to elude those peculiar individuals.

Su Qingyao gazed into the distance. Three consecutive sprints, broken only by brief rests, had pushed the panting Magical Girls to their absolute limits.

Xu Yanqing, of course, understood this perfectly.

Knowing they couldn’t push the children too severely, Xu Yanqing had meticulously planned the route according to the flight endurance of the weakest reserve members.

However, the margin for error was minimal.

After all, if the training proved too easy, it would fail to achieve its intended purpose.

Sometimes, these requirements simply sounded contradictory.

Su Qingyao sighed inwardly, a casual sound. Her magical senses, however, had already perceived their destination, far ahead of her physical sight.

As the designated location for “live combat” training, the site selection adhered to two primary requirements.

First, it could not be overly constricted, lest the Magical Girls be unable to unleash their full power or accidentally injure their teammates. Second, it absolutely had to possess a significant amount of natural magical energy.

The reason for the second point would soon become clear.

Xu Yanqing’s sharp whistle echoed from the very front of the formation, signaling that the initial long-distance flight had, thus far, concluded without incident.

Before landing, Su Qingyao quickly scanned her surroundings, confirming the absence of any immediate, disruptive anti-magic signatures.

“Hmm, it seems highly improbable they would have set up a direct ambush.”

Su Qingyao exhaled in a small sigh of relief. After all, this specific route was known only to the three team leaders—and perhaps Xiaohua, who was likely slacking off somewhere.

If, despite all precautions, those monsters had still managed to discover their plans in advance, Su Qingyao fully intended to storm the Magical Girl Tower and ascertain whether a spy was lurking within that fragment.

“Hoo…” The sound escaped the lips of the nearly exhausted Magical Girls.

A chorus of relieved sighs rippled through the group.

As a team leader, Xu Yanqing merely cast a swift glance, silently noting the reserve members who were on the verge of collapse from exhaustion.

Rest assured, she had no intention of making their lives difficult.

It was simply a matter of subtly adjusting their future “training metrics,” for both magic and flight capabilities remained paramount.

Beside her, Su Muxue, however, showed no flush of exertion, her heartbeat perfectly steady. Su Qingyao discerned not the slightest hint of discomfort on the girl’s face.

‘This… is quite remarkable,’ Su Qingyao mused.

Su Qingyao blinked her seemingly vacant eyes.

While the “characteristics” in Su Muxue’s eyes were identical to her own, Su Qingyao’s gaze clearly conveyed a spectrum of emotions.

‘It appears I’m almost indistinguishable from an ordinary person now,’ she thought.

“Muxue, aren’t you tired yet?”

Su Qingyao leaned down to address Su Muxue, who was in the midst of pulling Booboo from her waist pouch. Incidentally, this pouch was an integral part of the girl’s spiritual attire.

Consequently, its permanent resident, Booboo, had once been mistaken for a unique magical manifestation of Su Qingyao herself.

“No, not at all. Muxue feels her magic has only been depleted by—” Su Muxue paused, making an ‘OK’ gesture, though her index finger and thumb were separated by a noticeable gap:

“About this much!”

‘That truly is somewhat exaggerated,’ Su Qingyao thought.

Su Qingyao mentally performed a swift calculation and comparison, realizing that her daughter’s magical reserves were rapidly approaching the level Xu Yiyi possessed before ascending to Tier 3.5.

‘How terrifyingly potent!’

Su Qingyao narrowed her eyes in satisfaction, gently stroking Su Muxue’s head. ‘Truly my daughter, indeed.’

‘She has a tiny bit of my flair.’

While Su Qingyao believed Su Muxue’s inherent talent, whether exceptional or average, was secondary, any good news was always a source of prolonged joy for parents.

This was especially true for those who had only recently embraced parenthood.

Even before Su Qingyao’s hand fully retracted, the other reserve members were not simply standing idle.

All the Magical Girls began their descent, one after another, towards their designated destination. In essence, it was nothing more than a hastily constructed “ruin” adjacent to an open expanse.

Its temporary nature was evident, bearing the unmistakable marks of destruction left by the magical energy cannons of Xu Yanqing, Xu Yiyi, and Su Qingyao.

The ruins were designated as the observation point, while the open ground would, naturally, serve as the predetermined battleground.

The moment the reserve members touched down, they felt an immediate revitalization in the surrounding air. Even those whose magical energy was subtly depleted sensed their magic cores visibly rekindling their glow.

The concentration of ambient magical energy was not uniformly distributed.

Particularly when viewing the broader suburban area, one would discover several distinct “magical energy accumulation points.”

Ordinarily, these locations were hotbeds for the frequent spawning of magical beasts.

Today, however, an unusual quiet pervaded the area, precisely because any naturally occurring magical beasts had long since been culled by the regularly patrolling Peacekeepers.

Xu Yanqing, Su Qingyao, and Xu Yiyi systematically guided the young girls into various concealed positions within the ruins.

Though the structure appeared precariously unstable, it had, in fact, been successively reinforced by three Transcended individuals and was imbued with defensive magic arrays that could be activated at a moment’s notice.

“At least a Tier Five Transcended wouldn’t be able to breach this place.”

Such was Xu Yanqing’s assessment.

After tapping her magic staff against the structure, Su Qingyao concurred with her judgment.

Su Qingyao, with Su Muxue in tow, stepped onto the scattered rubble, eliciting a soft crunching sound.

Su Muxue lifted her head, her gaze drawn to a single fan blade on the ceiling, dangling precariously from a severed wire.

“It feels… quite spooky, doesn’t it?”

Su Muxue whispered her complaint, while, nestled in her arms, Booboo nodded in agreement:

“Woah, tangerine! This place looks like it was only recently destroyed, but it appears to be Your Excellency’s handiwork, no?”

Unconsciously, Su Muxue tightened her grip, squeezing the plush dog in her arms until it let out a faint, strangled gasp.

The dreary, abandoned office building, the half-collapsed rubble overhead, and the intermittent whispers that drifted from all directions—if those whispers weren’t merely girls exchanging gossip, the atmosphere would indeed be rather unsettling.

Su Muxue, however, was simply eager to test her agility, intending to leap over a small crack just a short distance away.

The little cat launched herself with a powerful spring, only to be effortlessly caught by Su Qingyao, who was walking mid-air just ahead, her hand circling Su Muxue’s slender waist.

“Don’t go bouncing around carelessly, it’s dangerous.”

With a sigh of resignation, Su Qingyao ruffled Su Muxue’s hair, then gently placed the pouting little girl back on the ground.

“But didn’t they all—so effortlessly—leap right over it?”

A tiny frown creased Su Muxue’s brow as she pointed towards Jiang Jiuli, who was gleefully scampering ahead by herself.

“Hmm…”

Caught off guard by the sudden question, Su Qingyao hesitated, fumbling for a moment before formulating her reply.

“Ah, well, you see—”

“If Mommy thinks it’s dangerous for you, then it simply *is* dangerous.”

‘Huh? What kind of logic is that?’ Su Muxue wondered.

Su Muxue froze, a vague sense dawning on her that she was encountering some primal, pre-apocalyptic maternal logic.