Get off work and become a magical girl

Chapter 223 Gladiolus

In Lu Hongdou's limited memories from her childhood, the most profound scene was exile.

The sky is full of yellow sand, the sun is scorching, and the exiles are confused about the road ahead.

Her hometown, a small border town in Donghuazhou, was destroyed in a disaster caused by wild beasts when she was 5 years old.

She didn't have a deep impression of the disaster itself. She only remembered that she was woken up by her parents one night, and then the three of them set out on a journey of exile. Even more unfortunately, she was separated from her parents while fleeing with them, and lost her way alone in the wilderness.

A 5-year-old child walking alone in the wilderness is no different from being dead. It is just the difference between dying earlier and later. But Lu Hongdou was lucky in this matter because she met an old man who happened to be walking in the wilderness.

Later, Lu Hongdou learned that the old man was no ordinary person, because he mastered a very unique skill, which he called martial arts.

Because of martial arts, the old man was able to travel through the wilderness alone; because of martial arts, the old man was able to avoid the dangers in the wilderness. Whenever the old man talked about martial arts, his aged face always glowed with light.

The old man took Lu Hongdou in and took her to another city, but they did not live in the city center. Instead, they settled in a mountain outside the city.

In the following years, Lu Hongdou called the old man "Master" and learned martial arts from him in the mountains.

Practicing martial arts is very hard, far more difficult than ordinary exercises.

But perhaps it was the experience of exile in the wilderness as a child that made her strong, or perhaps it was leaving her parents' company early that made her mature, Lu Hongdou persisted and practiced martial arts hard.

In the dog days of summer, she stood under the scorching sun; in the coldest days of winter, she danced with a sword in the freezing wind. She practiced with concentration and perseverance, and her efforts paid off.

A few years later, Lu Hongdou showed a strong talent for martial arts. At the age of fourteen, she had already learned all the skills mastered by the old man and became a gifted martial artist.

But just when she was full of ambition and wanted to ask the old man about the next step in martial arts, the old man's next words poured cold water on her.

——"Your current state is almost at the end."

"The end? What does that mean?" Lu Hongdou didn't understand what the old man was saying at all.

"That is to say, your martial arts training has basically reached its limit. What you can do from now on is nothing more than learning more techniques, accumulating more practical experience, or building a stronger body... You can continue to become stronger, but you can no longer achieve a qualitative breakthrough and it is impossible to reach a new level."

When he said these words, the old man was very calm: "Martial arts have their limits, and this limit is the limit of us as mortals. No matter how hard we practice, we will not be able to defeat those strange beasts in the end. Even for me, when I encounter strange beasts, I can only restrain my breath and avoid them."

"Why?" Lu Hongdou still didn't understand.

"There is no reason. Just like the cycle of seasons and the alternation of day and night, this is the law of the world and it has been like this since the beginning."

The old man's answer was very realistic, cold and powerless.

But Lu Hongdou still didn't believe it.

So, at the age of fourteen, she said goodbye to the old man who raised her, and chose to go down the mountain alone to find a way out for martial arts in this world.

This was also the first time that Lu Hongdou had stepped into a human city again since she was five years old.

At the beginning, she was naturally naive and completely unable to adapt to city life. Although the old man gave her a small sum of money before she left, the old man himself had never deliberately saved money, and the little money was barely enough to fill his stomach.

In the first step of pursuing the path of martial arts, Lu Hongdou lost to livelihood.

She lived with beggars in a damp alley, and barely made a living by begging and performing. However, because she was unwilling to humble herself and associate with the ruffians on the streets to do dirty things, she was always excluded and did not even have a good place to sleep, and had to sleep next to a garbage dump every day.

Life was very difficult, but Lu Hongdou didn't think there was anything wrong with her choice, because her master had always taught her since she was a child that people who practiced martial arts must abide by morality, and one of the core principles of morality is to protect the weak and not bully the weak.

Fortunately, Lu Hongdou was very adaptable and she quickly found her own rhythm in this embarrassing life. Relying on her martial arts, she occasionally caught thieves, helped some shops to watch over the place, and intimidated those ruffians. Gradually, she began to earn money and integrated into the life in the city.

After that, she began to explore the future path of martial arts. She continued to practice martial arts herself to see if there really was a so-called "limit"; at the same time, she asked around in the streets to find other martial artists.

I didn’t find any like-minded people, but I found some old friends instead.

——The remnant beast appeared.

This was the first time Yuan had encountered a crippled beast in real life since she was five years old, so she didn't realize what the monster in front of her was at first. It was not until the surrounding civilians began to scream and flee, and the usually bustling streets were in panic, that she realized that the one in front of her was a crippled beast, and also the "strange beast" in her master's words.

Can martial arts defeat monsters? Master’s answer to this question has always been “no”.

But Lu Hongdou didn't believe it. Rather, she always remembered that the monster was the culprit for her displacement when she was young, so she was unwilling to run away from her enemy.

So she charged at the strange beast in front of her alone, challenging it with the strongest skills she had mastered.

The outcome was a disastrous defeat.

After being beaten up by the strange beast like a sandbag, Lu Hongdou was covered in blood and had multiple fractures. She was pressed firmly on the rough ground by its thick claws, and the beast's mouthparts were already against her throat, about to penetrate the thin layer of skin and take away her last life.

At that critical moment, someone saved her.

The one who comes is the "Goddess of Heaven".

The so-called "celestial maidens" was a general term used by the people of Donghuazhou at that time to refer to this type of girls, because they seemed to be chosen by God to appear as heroes fighting against cruel beasts and protecting the safety of every household.

This time was no exception. At the moment when Lu Hongdou was on the verge of death, the goddess appeared and saved her. Then, in less than a minute, she killed the monster that almost killed Lu Hongdou.

The crowd cheered and praised the goddess who came to the rescue. Only Lu Hongdou, who was lying on the ground, fell into silence.

Not only was it because her injuries were too severe to speak, but also because her concept of martial arts was challenged for the first time.

The enemy, who could not be defeated by his own martial arts, was no match for the "Goddess of Heaven". So, what kind of power did the Goddess of Heaven use?
No one could tell her the answer.

Putting aside the fact that the people around didn't know, even the "Goddess" herself left directly after defeating the beast. Lu Hongdou had no doubt that even if she didn't leave, she probably wouldn't answer her question.

She could only carry this question with her and continue to pursue her own path of martial arts.

Three years passed since she started searching, and until Lu Hongdou was seventeen years old, she still hadn't found the answer she wanted.

However, as time went by, her daily training had little effect, and she finally understood what her master had said all those years ago - because she found that her martial arts could no longer make any qualitative progress.

She left the city and returned to the mountains, sorted out her experiences and thoughts over the years, and explained them to her master one by one. She felt regretful and even frustrated for her three years of useless work.

"When I discovered this fact, I actually felt the same as you."

After hearing her words, her master, the old man who looked very old at the moment, said, "I also don't believe this fact, so I thought of traveling all over Donghuazhou, crossing the wasteland, to find a way out for martial arts. I even went to many abandoned cities, hoping to find a more ancient history there."

"Master, have you found the answer?" Lu Hongdou was very curious. "No, because Donghuazhou's martial arts has never been a well-developed art. It has had many opportunities to flourish, but ultimately failed to survive."

The old man shook his head: "And the realm we have reached now is what the ancients called the 'acquired limit'. In other words, it is impossible to break this shackles by relying solely on acquired efforts."

"The ancients had no solution either?" Lu Hongdou's disappointment was evident in her words.

"There really is no way."

The old man's voice was calm: "But it's not that I don't have any guesses."

"Guess?" Lu Hongdou was very interested in this word.

"Yes, it's a conjecture. Although there is no way to actually realize it, there are many clues that prove that there is indeed a possibility for the continuation of martial arts."

The old man nodded and said, "We call this possibility 'momentum'."

"What does that mean? Do you want to rely on your aura to scare your opponent?"

"No, the so-called momentum is not just a word, but a general term for 'qi' and 'momentum'. The progress of martial arts in the physical body is restricted by the acquired limit, but if you master the power of qi and momentum, you may be able to go further..."

That day, the old man said a lot.

As if he was being chased by something, he told Lu Hongdou everything he had seen and heard during his years of wandering around Donghua Province, the historical materials he had collected, and his insights into martial arts. He stayed awake all night.

Lu Hongdou was not annoyed because she had a vague premonition of something.

She guessed that perhaps this would be the last time she would talk to her master in her life.

After a long talk all night, the old man was already exhausted. He was breathing weakly and leaning on the chair. His voice was as thin as a mosquito's hum, but he still insisted on holding Lu Hongdou's hand and told her his last words of advice.

——"Remember, everything for a martial artist begins with morality. Only with morality can martial arts be called the Way of Martial Arts. Without morality, there is no Way of Martial Arts..."

The next day, at the moment when the morning light illuminated the mountains, the old man closed his eyes forever.

Lu Hongdou didn't understand the last sentence he said, but that didn't stop her from remembering it.

Then, she chose to become a "celestial maiden".

Because in the conversation with the old man, she understood that she would not find a way out by just practicing martial arts. The best way was to learn from others and look for answers from other ways of power.

The process of becoming a "celestial being" was also extremely simple. She only needed to find the celestial being who had saved her, expressed her gratitude and admiration, and she got a chance to test her qualifications. After the test, she was found to have the talent to become a celestial being.

From then on, she seldom used the name "Lu Hongdou" and instead used her code name as a celestial being - Gladiolus.

In other words, "angels" are not actually called angels. The real name for these girls, which they themselves identify with, should actually be called "magical girls".

The martial artist Lu Hongdou became the magical girl Gladiolus.

Of course, becoming a magical girl does not mean that she gave up martial arts. On the contrary, because she became a magical girl, she became more and more obsessed with martial arts.

While other magical girls were studying the abilities of their magic suits, she was studying how to use the magic suits to combine her own martial arts.

While other magical girls were studying the uses of spells, she was studying how to use magic to open up her own acupoints and artificially create "Chi".

While other magical girls reached the peak of their abilities and studied how to use "Great Bloom" to maximize their combat effectiveness, Gladiolus studied the nature of "potential".

This kind of research cannot be separated from the power of magical girls and the support of magic, so Gladiolus eventually even gave up all life in the material world, entered the kingdom, and became a citizen of the magic kingdom.

As a result, she became withdrawn and isolated from social interactions; as a result, she became unkempt and had no place in her heart; as a result, she became paranoid, and "becoming stronger" was enough to replace everything.

After such continuous pursuit, gladiolus finally succeeded.

Not only did she successfully reproduce the "qi" and "momentum" in the theory, she even combined them with magic power to form her own school and became a leader in combat power.

But at the same time, gladiolus also failed.

Because she discovered that her "qi" and "momentum" were not so much martial arts as they were an application of magic using martial arts philosophy. This application was highly tied to the power of the magical girl. Once she lost her magic, she would also lose her "qi" and "momentum".

This was unacceptable to her.

The path forward in martial arts that she wanted must be pure and achievable by practicing martial arts alone. If one must rely on magic to complete the path forward in martial arts, then it is not martial arts at all, but just a branch of magical girls.

Unfortunately, even if they join the magic kingdom, the magical girls do not have unlimited magic powers. As their term of office becomes too long, or they become injured and lose their combat effectiveness, even magical girls who have joined the kingdom may be forced to retire.

Gladiolus is undoubtedly one of them.

Without her realizing it, she had wasted too much time on martial arts and therefore rarely undertook difficult tasks.

In other words, she contributed too little to the magical kingdom.

Taking advantage of the power of a magical girl but not hunting down the remaining beasts or fighting to protect the realm and the material world, a magical girl like her is likely to be forced to retire.

Once she is forced to retire, her "spirit", her "momentum", and everything she controls will be like a bubble and will no longer exist.

It was in this situation that one day, Gladiolus's boss, a magical girl codenamed Purple Diamond who was in charge of the Finance Department, found her.

"Dear Gladiolus, my most capable assistant, I have a way to help you master the magic of the remnant beast, which may be helpful to your research."

She came straight to the point and put forward her conditions to Gladiolus directly.

"...Boss, let's be frank, what do you want me to do?"

At this time, years of research and practice had long made Gladiolus forget her childhood hatred for the crippled beasts. It would be better to say that compared to her current dedication to martial arts, this hatred was no longer worth mentioning.

"I plan to break away from the state and form my own organization."

In response, Purple Diamond just smiled, like a girl confiding her secrets to a close friend, and whispered, "Go help those magical girls and fairies who are not accepted by the kingdom, and build a home for us outside the kingdom."

"Including magical girls like you who may be forced to retire next. As long as we unite, we can also avoid retirement and keep this power for ourselves."

"You'll come to help me, right?"

(End of this chapter)