Chapter 204: Beast Heart Liberation

When Senior Cuique arrived at the location where Yuan was, Yuan was leisurely waiting there, having already been there for a while.

She did not stand waiting beneath the Stone Tower; instead, she had advanced a certain distance and intercepted the group from Fang Ting before they even reached the mountain peak.

This mountain forest is rarely visited by people, so the trees are tall and dense. A thick black curtain shrouds the surroundings, and the mighty ancient trees emit low moans as they are brushed by the night wind. Yet all sounds are ultimately swallowed by the accumulated snow, leaving only dead silence.

Behind her lay a small path, winding and twisting, swallowed by the night, its outline barely discernible, seeming to lead straight to the mountain peak. In the distance, the mountain ranges were hidden in dense darkness, appearing as one with heaven and earth, impossible to distinguish.

And Yuan stood there quietly. Fluffy snow occasionally sprinkled down from the tree canopy, dusting her shoulders and staining her black robe with patches of white.

The arrival of Cuique and Chaoyan was no surprise to her; after all, she had already fought these two, and she had roughly figured out their respective moves. Therefore, excluding the several obviously much younger children behind her, the most eye-catching figure was the one clad entirely in golden yellow.

"So this must be the new friends who arrived in this city earlier."

Her eyes bright as she looked at Margaret, she laughed loudly: "I thought we might have the chance to sit down and have a proper talk, but I didn't expect our first meeting to be in such a scene; that is rather a pity."

"If you think it's a pity, then don't choose to cause trouble specifically during festivals and holidays, okay?"

Having arrived here directly in the form of a Magical Girl, the current Asou Madoka, or rather Margaret, wore a smile that didn't reach her eyes: "We had just gotten the hot pot broth boiling, put in the specially purchased premium beef, and were ready to enjoy a wonderful New Year's Eve dinner. Then suddenly we got a call saying we had to come to this bird-doesn't-land place to fight. Guess how I'm feeling right now?"

"What, did you bring beef to boil?" Yuan stroked her chin and speculated.

"How could that be? Of course we left the half-boiled hot pot behind and ran here."

Hong Siyu's expression was naturally far from kind either; she replied in a bad mood: "And even if we had brought it, it would have gone cold by now and wouldn't taste good at all."

"Cold doesn't matter much; it's all meat anyway," Yuan refuted with a serious face: "The meat is already cooked, the ingredients are already coated; temperature is just a trivial detail."

— "No need to stall for time; we don't intend to argue with you over such meaningless topics."

This time it was Cuique who spoke, cutting straight to the point: "Where is the ritual location you mentioned?"

"So anxious?" Yuan clearly still intended to chat a while longer, but seeing that the opposing group all looked unfriendly, she quite tactfully pointed behind her: "Just walk straight up the mountain. Before you reach the peak, there is a relatively large open space; you will see it."

Hearing her words, Cuique intended to move forward without a second thought, but before she could even use her flight ability, Yuan suddenly blocked her with her Magic Armor.

In response, Cuique reacted very swiftly, using silk threads to slow Yuan's attack, then leveraging the momentum to jump aside, intending to bypass her laterally. But Yuan's Magic Armor seemed to have eyes of its own, blocking Cuique's path once again.

The two exchanged glances; Cuique's face was expressionless, while Yuan smiled with open-mindedness.

Although neither said anything more, each read the other's will from the other's gaze.

— Cuique only wanted to confirm whether the "ritual" Yuan mentioned actually existed and had little interest in Yuan herself as a human roadblock; whereas Yuan intended only to settle the battle right here, with no intention whatsoever of letting Cuique and the others pass.

"You plan to block nine people by yourself?" Cuique looked at the other as if looking at a madman: "Or is the so-called 'ritual' you mentioned actually non-existent, just a ruse to lure us here to play a martial arts game with you?"

"One against nine? I didn't expect your numbers to be so high; you've basically come out in full force. But since you're here, let me try it out, shall I?"

Even though facing an unfavorable situation in numbers, Yuan still showed no sense of urgency, speaking calmly: "As for the ritual, as long as you can defeat me here, you will naturally confirm whether it is real."

"... If there is even a sliver of possibility, I actually hope this is just a lie." Looking at the Yuan before her, a trace of complexity appeared in Cuique's usually unchanging expression, but it vanished quickly: "Because if it truly exists, it means you and our Fang Ting City have become true mortal enemies."

"Mortal enemies? That sounds like quite a serious word."

Yuan's calm and unhurried smile remained, but her words lost a bit of mockery and gained a bit of seriousness: "Then, although it is inappropriate for me to say this, Cornflower, do you perhaps have some misunderstanding about me?"

She reached out and withdrew the Magic Armor blocking Cuique's path: "Is it that my actions haven't been cruel enough, making you think the things I say are just jokes? Or is it because I haven't completely crushed you yet, making you think that if everyone comes together, they can defeat me here?"

"Then let me tell you: the matter of the ritual is undoubtedly real. It is right behind me. If you cannot stop it within the next two hours, it will trigger a massive magical turbulence. Not only will it completely destroy this mountain and the city's outer defense network, but it will also spread magical fluctuations that attract Remnant Beasts."

"And once this step is reached, in the time that follows, a massive Beast Disaster will erupt near this breach. Its scale may not be inferior to the one twenty years ago. Without the defense network, the city will be as powerless as a newborn infant. You should know what will happen, right?"

"Now, do you know what you should do? From the very beginning, we have been thorough and complete enemies. I never make jokes that are harmful to myself against my enemies. Would you?"

Yuan's answer was very direct, even somewhat cold.

Undoubtedly, no matter what she had thought or wanted to do before, from this moment on, she had killed all those possibilities.

Now, standing here, blocking everyone, was merely an executive from Claw Marks.

So Cuique closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and when she opened them again, her gaze held only indifference.

"We will stop this so-called ritual."

She spoke, her voice icy: "If you insist on blocking the way, then we will defeat you, and then stop it."

"Very determined."

Yuan laughed twice: "However, let me remind you, you actually have three choices: First, after fighting me and witnessing the gap in our strength, you obediently admit defeat and then go with me along with that little girl in green clothes behind you."

"Second, skip the complicated steps in between, and as a protection for your teammates, come with me right now. Naturally, I will stop this ritual."

"Third, defeat me completely right here. This time, I will commit all my strength, and I will not hold back in any way as I did last time."

She loosely clenched one hand, raised her arm, and assumed a posture as if offering a toast: "Choose, and this will determine the safety of the city behind you."

Cuique did not answer.

She merely crouched slightly, the Magic Armor in her hand shimmering with the light of surging magic.

Beside her, Hong Siyu, Margaret, and the new generation of Magical Girls all demonstrated their stance with their combat postures.

Their magic varied in strength, color, nature, and even underlying hue, but at this moment, they all shone solely for the city behind them.

"Very good."

Yuan nodded, looking immensely gratified: "Yes, a true Magical Girl should be like this, facing all difficulties with a heart as clear and resilient as crystal... Then I too should give you the highest degree of respect, the respect of a mere martial artist like myself."

"Rejoice, for my so-called 'no longer holding back' means offering my entirety. You need not worry that I am hiding any ultimate moves; you only need to focus on facing me. At the very start of the battle, I will reveal my 'Ultimate'."

She pressed one hand against her heart; the veins on her arm turned into abnormal purple protrusions, and purple-black magic flowed like a roaring tide, all surging toward her heart: "Are you ready? To face the world's first, and perhaps last, 'Ultimate of Martial Arts'."

Everything belonging to Yuan seemed to be melting.

The pitch-black Magic Armor seemed to turn into ink mixed with water, taking on a loose and grayish form; the surging magic, like a substantial liquid, gathered into rivers; and the "person" before everyone, the very existence of Yuan herself, seemed to gradually collapse like a melting candle, becoming inhuman in form.

Thump, thump, thump.

Only the sound of the heartbeat grew louder and louder, like a thunderclap, like a mountain collapse, like an earthquake, as if the entire mountain was drumming for this, forming a violent tremor.

And then, the "Beast" raised its head from the dark waves.

— "Yuan, Beast Heart Liberation, Hundred Martial Arts Form a Force."

It proclaimed thus.

As this voice fell, the scenery around seemed to shatter completely like a piece of glass smashed to pieces, as if space itself had turned to dust, leaving only heart-pounding pitch blackness.

And within that pitch blackness, a human figure emerged.

That was Yuan, or rather, some kind of entity that had previously been Yuan.

If one looked only at her facial features, she bore a striking resemblance to the Yuan who had once existed here, yet her physique appeared taller and more elongated, as if her entire proportions had been stretched.

Her jet-black hair had now turned entirely gray-white, tied into a single long braid behind her; the Daoist robe she once wore had been replaced by a magnificent crimson feathered garment. Yet this attire gave no impression of gentleness—whether the countless hidden weapons densely pinned along her waist, the sharp, feather-like streamers along her lapels and hem, or the bizarre, unsettlingly intricate patterns embroidered across the fabric, all conveyed an unmistakable ferocity.

Most striking were her eyes: her sclera had turned completely black, and the yin-yang-like double pupils that once existed there had vanished, leaving only a pair of birdlike pupils with white outer rings. Crimson floral patterns extended from her corners toward her temples, forming half a painted face.

Yuan's transformation into this new form was highly complex, yet it took no long—less than a dozen seconds passed before the change was complete, yet among the magical girls present, only the three leaders had fully witnessed the process.

Those standing behind, any magical girl who had not reached the Lei rank, were crushed by immense pressure, struggling to breathe.

This pressure was not physical; if one must define it, it seemed a mental ability that rendered even slightly weaker magical girls nearly incapable of facing Yuan directly. Merely resisting this pressure had already drained the girls of vast amounts of energy.

If the pressure faced by those at the rear was so overwhelming, the three at the front could not possibly be unaffected.

In fact, Senior Cuique felt as if her skull had been struck with a blunt instrument—her vision blurred; Hong Siyu coughed repeatedly, her breathing rapid and shallow; only Marguerite seemed largely unaffected, though she frowned, clearly still uncomfortable.

"Is this… some kind of Fan Kai?" Ultimately, it was Marguerite who spoke first.

As a Hua-level magical girl, she had undoubtedly mastered her own Fan Kai form, and having advanced to Hua level for many years with extensive combat experience, she was naturally the most familiar with Fan Kai among those present.

Through the magical energy fluctuations Yuan had just revealed, and the pattern of her physical transformation, she deduced—this appeared to be a form closely akin to Fan Kai.

—"Fan Kai? If you wish to understand it that way, there's nothing wrong with it."

The Yuan who had stood motionless until now finally spoke, yet her body remained utterly still, like a statue: "But since every magical girl who becomes a Claw Mark loses her Fan Kai, strictly speaking, Beast Heart Liberation is merely a substitute for Fan Kai."

"A substitute?" Marguerite had clearly never heard such a concept before.

"Yes. Unable to draw upon a magical girl's own magic to fully unleash one's abilities, one must instead rely on the residual beast's magic to achieve it."

Yuan tilted her head slightly, yet her body remained motionless: "In martial terms, perhaps one might call it 'reversing the cultivation method, going mad from deviant qi'? But for us Claw Marks, going mad is not a misfortune—it brings more benefits."

"I can see that."

Marguerite nodded, seemingly agreeing with her words: "Then why have you been standing still since earlier? Is there something wrong with this form?"

"Ah, you mean this?"

Yuan lowered her head slightly, scanning her own body, then raised her gaze and smiled faintly at Marguerite.

And then, everyone saw Yuan's figure vanish suddenly.

Simultaneously came a strike as swift as lightning—arriving at Marguerite's side the very instant her words ended.

In the blink of an eye, Marguerite had no time to summon magic; she could only instinctively lean back, watching helplessly as a strand of black magical energy brushed past her face.

"Sorry, I'm a bit rusty."

Beside her, Yuan stood again as motionless as a statue, smiling: "My speed in this form is too fast—if I don't hold back, even the slightest movement might send me flying too far."