Chapter 206: Hundred Momentum Forming Weapons

Tang Changpu did not immediately accept Purple Diamond's invitation.

The words spoken by the other party were simply too shocking; betraying the Realm sounded utterly unreliable. Even if Tang Changpu turned a deaf ear to worldly affairs, she felt there was no feasibility in it.

Moreover, no matter how you looked at it, she was a Flower-Card Magical Girl with official duties; as long as she honestly went to the Material Realm to kill a few high-tier Remnant Beasts, or went to the Inter-Realm to fight the rebels and rack up some merit, theoretically there was still a possibility of retaining her identity. Although this possibility was not great, it was enough for her to refuse to go mad with the other party.

If she agreed to Purple Diamond and chose to betray the Realm, even if she followed a Gem Scepter to do it, the outcome would most likely be nine deaths for one life. Whether it was the Garden, the Wang Ting, or the remaining four Gem Scepters, none would allow traitors to appear in the Realm; the consequences would be far more severe than forced retirement.

Tang Changpu cherished her life, because she had not yet completed her pursuit of the Martial Dao; she did not want to risk her life.

But Tang Changpu was also very persistent; if she retired here and lost her magic, she was afraid she would not be able to continue perfecting the Martial Dao in this lifetime.

Purple Diamond saw her inner conflict and hesitation, so she said: "If your reason cannot make a decision for yourself, then let us fight. I will not use the powers of the Gem Scepter, only my own abilities as a Magical Girl; as long as you win, I will unconditionally assist your research; as long as I win, you will come with me."

"Boss, do you actually think I have a chance to win?" Tang Changpu felt the other party was joking.

"If your 'martial arts' cannot defeat even me without using powers, then staying in the Realm is just a waste of time; it is better to go with me to explore new possibilities."

Purple Diamond showed her a gentle smile: "Don't you want to try? With me, this 'Apex Magical Girl', as your opponent, verify exactly how far your martial arts can go."

Tang Changpu was convinced by her.

She accepted the other party's conditions, and the two conducted a private duel.

Purple Diamond kept her promise; she did not use powers. But Purple Diamond did not fully keep her promise, because she used some power that did not belong to "traditionally defined" Magical Girl abilities—some Remnant Beast magic.

It was this Remnant Beast magic that became the final weight to change the scale of victory, allowing her to defeat Tang Changpu who had unleashed her full skills.

However, Purple Diamond did not directly coerce Tang Changpu into joining her; instead, she took her to greet some people.

These were Magical Girls, like Tang Changpu herself, facing the risk of forced retirement.

This group of Magical Girls either lacked combat power or had been injured and disabled in battle; most were ordinary people unable to execute high-difficulty combat missions and possessing no research talent.

In the Realm, such Magical Girls were few, but not few.

Among them, some were unwilling to give up the eternal youth of a Magical Girl's appearance, some were unwilling to give up the power of magic, but there were also many who simply still wanted to be Magical Girls.

Every Magical Girl, at least at the moment of selection, had a pure and kind heart, and even after the wear and tear of time, many still maintained this original intention.

Perhaps there was a bit of selfishness, but they simply wanted to continue being Magical Girls in a simple way, wanting to contribute their own strength to this world.

They would also feel fear and worry about the matter of "betraying the Realm," but they were willing to risk everything for their beliefs.

After that, Tang Changpu became the Kite.

She followed Purple Diamond, participated in planning and executing a large-scale defection, and escaped the Realm with these Magical Girls who were either injured and disabled or lacked combat power.

She witnessed Purple Diamond, upon leaving the Realm, change her name to "Bai Lang," and gather all the escaping Magical Girls together, calling themselves "Claw Marks," claiming they would build a home for everyone.

She fused the Remnant Beast's magic, underwent years of secluded cultivation, and advanced her research on "Qi" and "Momentum," thereby leaping to become a top-ranking cadre within Claw Marks.

Everything seemed just as Bai Lang had promised; even while using Remnant Beast magic, Claw Marks still maintained certain behavioral principles, not degenerating into the Black Ash Dawn group of Remnant Beasts wearing human skins. Moreover, since they were building a "home," Claw Marks would naturally accept more defectors from the Realm.

Whether they also faced the crisis of forced retirement or were simply dissatisfied with the Realm's system, as long as they shared similar interests, they could become members of Claw Marks.

Claw Marks thus gradually grew in the Material Realm and the Inter-Realm; more and more Magical Girls joined the ranks of Claw Marks, and at their peak, there were even hundreds of people.

Change began from this moment.

With the increase in numbers, many different voices began to appear within Claw Marks; at the very beginning, perhaps they were just noise, but at some unknown point, this noise drowned out the original melody and became Claw Marks' new stance.

— "Break the Realm's dictatorship and liberate more Magical Girls."

At some unknown point, those Magical Girls who had escaped the Realm with nine deaths for one life just to build a new home together became the minority; their stance became unimportant. Those later Magical Girls, holding less awe for the Realm and more resentment, began a direct confrontation with the Realm.

When the stance became a consensus, this confrontation was highly effective; Claw Marks even seized control of several cities from the Realm, showing a strong trend of establishing themselves as kings.

But at that time, the flourishing Claw Marks, already gazing toward the future, forgot one thing—direct confrontation involves bloodshed.

This trend became history about twelve years ago, following a crackdown by the Realm.

It was not the warm-hearted civil war between colleagues as before; the Gardeners from the Garden descended upon the Material Realm with their shears, turning all confidence into fear.

A large number of Claw Marks' Magical Girls lost their lives in that crackdown, and many more did not die but were arrested by the Realm and taken back.

The cadres of Claw Marks at that time instantly lost half their number; apart from the Red Kite who had always been stationed at the base, the leader Bai Lang, the deputy leader Black Cat, and the other two who happened to be in the Inter-Realm, the other five cadres all perished.

In fact, although the Gardeners were powerful, they should not have caused such heavy damage to Claw Marks; the reason it turned into a result like a massacre was simple—Claw Marks at that time, all Flower-level members, could no longer use Full Bloom.

Having left the Realm, changed allegiance, and dyed the background of their magic with Remnant Beasts, the ultimate form of a Magical Girl naturally became a rootless duckweed; although they were still Magical Girls, the power they could master stopped at the Mirage Realm. The power of the Mirage Realm might be enough against ordinary enemies, but facing the Gardeners' shears, they were as powerless as infants.

This painful lesson caused Claw Marks' policy to undergo another drastic change; the surviving Magical Girls, while inheriting the dying will of their colleagues, began to become increasingly extreme.

Above the extreme, the sinful fruit that originally should not have existed came into being accordingly.

Using Remnant Beast magic as the background and Magical Girl abilities as the fulcrum, Claw Marks began to explore a new path; they tried to use Remnant Beast magic to reach Full Bloom once again.

And after unremitting efforts, this attempt was rewarded; they mastered a form that simulated Full Bloom, causing their abilities to receive a massive short-term enhancement—its name was Beast Heart Liberation, abbreviated as Heart Liberation.

Beast Heart Liberation, as the name suggests, just as members of Black Ash Dawn could use the Beast's Viscera to transform into Remnant Beasts, Beast Heart Liberation was to completely abandon the Magical Girl's magic, allow the power of Remnant Beasts to erode the entire body, and then use magic of a single background color to imitate Full Bloom, thereby achieving an effect similar to Full Bloom.

Of course, it was only an approximation of Full Bloom; although Beast Heart Liberation and the original Full Bloom of Magical Girls often had many similarities, they would also undergo mutations due to the background of Remnant Beasts.

For instance, the Kite; her form during Full Bloom was named "Hundred Weapons Riding Momentum," a Full Bloom born from combining her own application of "Momentum." After transforming into Heart Liberation, her form name became "Hundred Momentum Forming Weapons."

The original Full Bloom form was achieved through constant combat; as long as one could gain a tiny advantage in battle, one could accumulate a trace of "Momentum" for oneself, and when "Momentum" accumulated to a critical point, it could transform into "Great Momentum," bringing Tang Changpu a victory as crushing as breaking withered wood.

Although it was not an immediate effect, for Tang Changpu who had mastered martial arts and was quite skilled in maneuvering during duels, it was a very fitting ability. It could accumulate every tiny advantage gradually into an irresistible victory.

If the enemy went all out from the start, then Tang Changpu only needed to block the assault; in a long war of attrition, she would definitely accumulate the step to victory; if the enemy chose to hide their skills at the beginning, then after Tang Changpu accumulated enough Momentum, even if they revealed their true skills, they could no longer create any waves.

This meant that unless the enemy knocked down Tang Changpu directly in the early stage of the battle, the opponent would only become stronger the longer they fought, until finally becoming invincible.

Such steady and solid play, hailed as the orthodox Full Bloom, after Tang Changpu became the Kite, its transformed Heart Liberation produced a completely different effect.

Senior Cuique had already deeply experienced this effect.

She did not know exactly what effect this "Beast Heart Liberation" ability had, but it did not hinder her from producing an intuitive feeling during the battle.

That was—overwhelmingly powerful to the point of despair.

The Kite's original magic armor, that mass of pitch-black liquid metal, also changed form with Heart Liberation; at some unknown time, it had become black mist spreading everywhere, enveloping the entire Fang Ting City Squad and the Bai An City Squad within it.

It was precisely this mist, carrying a huge pressure as if it were solid, that made all the Magical Girls present feel unable to exert their full strength.

Senior Cuique and the other two could continue to use their magic armor relying on their relatively solid magic foundation, but the performance of the other few newcomers could only be described as wretched; even Bai Ji, the most senior among them, could not use her magic armor and could only wretchedly dodge within the mist.

Yes, they even had to dodge, because the Kite's attacks had never stopped.

Although she herself was engaged in combat with Senior Cuique and others, and relying on her extremely high speed, was pressing three people down by herself, the newcomers did not thereby get a chance to catch their breath. Because shadows of Yuan would occasionally emerge from the black mist, launching attacks against them using different weapons.

Just as Yuan herself had said, everyone only needed to "focus on facing her right in front of them." Because almost everyone had a Yuan constantly attacking right before them.

"What's wrong? If you just keep defending, the chance of victory will never come, you know?"

Pulling a Tang Dao out of the black mist, Yuan casually swung it at Senior Cuique from the side; the Tang Dao passed directly through the barrier of threads, nearly striking Senior Cuique's chest, but was blocked by Hong Siyu's technique from the side.

She did not stop her hand's motion; the Tang Dao, blocked by the technique, merely deflected slightly, rebounding the technique Hong Siyu had launched right back at her, and then continued to swing at Senior Cuique before her.

In this process, she seemed to have performed many movements, but in fact she had merely flicked the blade once in an instant; the entire process was so fast that everyone could not react before they were already facing a checkmate situation.

The path of the blade swinging at Senior Cuique was unobstructed all the way, and the technique rebounded at Hong Siyu also struck straight at her face.

At this critical moment, Senior Cuique twitched her little finger.

Almost at the same time, the threads she had prepared beforehand connected behind herself and Hong Siyu, yanking the two people violently away from their spots like puppets on strings, narrowly dodging Yuan's attack.

Dealing with an enemy as thorny as Yuan left no room for her not to be cautious; throughout the battle, she must leave a backup move everywhere.

In fact, this was not the first time she had used this tactic in this battle; previously, she had already used this method several times to save three people from injury.

Because the presence of the threads was very concealed, and exerting force did not require large movements, even if her own speed could not catch up with the opponent, she could still take such a shortcut to dodge the opponent's attacks.

Only this time, merely pulling the threads, Senior Cuique already had a bad premonition in her heart.

"The trajectory is too easy to guess, you know."

Yuan's voice came from behind her.

No one felt surprised by this; even Senior Cuique herself was clear that an opponent could not have no defense against a move used several times already.

In fact, at this very moment, another thread end was still attached to her sleeve; as long as she twitched it, she could change direction again in the air and fly away from the side.

But what she still did not expect was that Yuan was standing on the angle bisector.

Neither left nor right, standing in a position where she could attack her immediately whether she changed direction or not.

The pulling direction of the threads was fixed, and the speed pushed by mana was not that fast, so Senior Cuique at this moment could no longer change her trajectory further; the only thing she could think of was to reduce the strength of her pulling the threads, so that she would not continue to accelerate and fly forward.

— "Senior!" She could hear Hong Siyu's short cry of alarm, and could also hear the shrieks of the girls nearby.

But this was already of no help.

Rrrrip.

The sound of clothes tearing, along with silver-blue light points flying up; the Tang Dao in Yuan's hand pierced through Senior Cuique's chest from front to back.