131: Chapter 131 Magical girls are outdated!

"Rise."

The Empress's voice was not heavy, but every word felt like a gentle tap on everyone's eardrums.

It was not magical pressure, but a natural sense of control that came from someone who had long held a high position.

Su Bai breathed a sigh of relief.

The Empress's gaze fell upon him, scanning him up and down for two seconds.

"You are Su Bai."

"Yes."

"Younger than I imagined."

"...Thank you, Your Majesty."

Su Bai really didn't know how to respond.

In this kind of setting, saying "You are also very young" was clearly inappropriate, and saying "Not at all" was too fake.

He could only choose the safest response.

The corners of the Empress's mouth curved slightly.

The arc was extremely shallow, but Su Bai caught it.

"No need to be nervous. I summoned you today to bestow an award."

She raised her right hand.

Her sleeve slid down a bit, revealing a string of extremely fine golden dragon patterns on her wrist—not a tattoo, but a high-level Imperial Throne brand.

The brand glowed the moment she raised her hand, and immediately, the defensive formation patterns of the entire side hall hummed in unison.

"Card Creator Su Bai, with the Tier 1 Rainbow Card [Conceptual Armament: Incubator Kyubey], pioneered the independent combat system of the Magical Girl."

"First-month sales exceeded six billion, the casualty rate on the front lines dropped by eleven percentage points, and the lives of over thirty thousand front-line soldiers have been saved."

"This merit deserves a reward."

The Empress's voice echoed in the great hall.

"First: Su Bai is specially exempted from all audition and preliminary rounds of the National Competition."

"As a seeded player, you will be parachuted directly into the finals."

A faint commotion arose on both sides of the great hall.

The expressions on the faces of several young Card Creators instantly crumbled—they had all fought their way up round by round from auditions of hundreds, staying up late until they were going bald just for a spot in the preliminaries.

Now, a Tier 2 Card Creator didn't even have to fight in the elimination rounds and was directly sent to the finals?

But no one dared to object.

Because the Empress hadn't finished speaking.

"Second: Bestowal of the First-class Blessing · Imperial Dragon Pulse Baptism."

As soon as she finished speaking, the twelve golden pillars carved with coiled dragons on the dome of the great hall lit up simultaneously.

The defensive formation patterns carved on each pillar switched to blessing formation patterns in an instant, and the dragon-shaped phantoms emerging from the surface of the golden pillars all opened their eyes.

Twelve golden dragons detached from the pillars, circled in mid-air, and then dove toward Su Bai simultaneously.

Su Bai instinctively wanted to dodge.

But he couldn't move.

It wasn't that he was immobilized; it was that the power was so immense that his body gave up the thought of escaping on its own.

The moment the twelve golden dragons poured into his chest, his consciousness was dragged directly out of his brain.

Before him was a golden void.

Unlike the void composed of data streams from the system, what flowed in this void was the Dragon Pulse—the main magical vein that ran through thousands of miles deep beneath the Dragon Kingdom.

He felt something crawling up his spine, power pouring into every meridian like magma, his bones creaking, and his magic pool being forcibly expanded again and again and again.

Then he heard the system notification.

[External Law Blessing detected — First-class Blessing · Imperial Dragon Pulse Baptism]

[All attribute base values significantly increased]

[Strength + 500] [Speed + 500] [Mana + 500] [Health + 500] [Stamina + 500]

[Mental Power limit exceeds current rank threshold]

[Rank increased: 20 → 29]

[Note: Dragon Pulse Baptism comes with an Imperial Luck bonus. When fighting within the Dragon Kingdom, all attributes increase by an additional 15%.]

Su Bai opened his eyes.

The numbers on the system panel were still jumping.

Level 29, just a step away from Tier 3.

From Level 19 to Level 29, it took less than a month—normal professionals would take at least two or three years to walk this path.

He looked down at his hands, and between his distinct knuckles, he could faintly see wisps of golden dragon energy that had not yet dissipated.

[Su Bai, your magic pool capacity has nearly doubled since entering the hall.] Kyubey's voice rang in his mind.

[With the Sanctuary Blessing plus the Dragon Pulse Baptism, your panel is now roughly equivalent to a Level 35 combat professional. At the Tier 2 level, there is probably no one who can compete with you.]

Su Bai did not answer.

Because he noticed something even more dire—everyone on both sides of the hall was staring at him with eyes that looked like they wanted to eat him.

Five hundred points.

Five hundred points to every attribute.

This was equivalent to directly pushing the basic panel of a Tier 2 Card Creator to the level of a Tier 4 professional.

The geniuses of the Imperial Capital sitting on the right row held their own blessing records.

Some had received a second-class blessing when they entered, adding two hundred to all attributes; others had received a first-class blessing for creating an A-rank card, adding three hundred to all attributes.

Before Su Bai entered the hall, the first-class blessing was already the highest specification of imperial favor in their understanding.

Now, what Su Bai received was also a first-class blessing.

But anyone with a discerning eye could see that, even though it was the same "first-class," the twelve golden dragons the Empress had just activated were not in the same league as any previous blessing.

The Chief in the purple robe twitched his beard, and a flash of extremely complicated emotion crossed his turbid old eyes.

Envy, jealousy, unwillingness, all finally suppressed, turning into a dry nod.

"...The Emperor's grace is vast. Little friend Su Bai, you deserve this reward."

The corners of his mouth twitched slightly as he said this.

The expression management of the young Card Creators next to him was much worse.

The slicked-back-haired one bit his lip, his Card Creation pen nearly crushed in his hand.

There was a tall, thin person in the back row who looked down and sent a message to his companion; Su Bai caught a glimpse of only three words on the screen — "Why him."

After sending it, the tall, thin person deleted it instantly, looked up, and forced a smile that looked worse than crying.

The Empress turned a blind eye to all of this.

She sat back on the dragon throne behind the beaded curtain and took a sip of tea.

"Minister Su."

"Present."

"I have a question I would like to ask you in person."

A chill ran down Su Bai's spine.

When the Empress used the word "ask," it was probably equivalent to Li Haoran saying on the Monthly Exam stage, "Everyone can start discussing who will be in last place" — polite on the surface, but actually refusing to be denied.

The Empress set down her teacup.

"There is less than half a month left until the National Competition."

"With your parachuting into the finals this time, you must have prepared a shocking new system."

"I wonder, which tier of advancement for the Magical Girl is this system...?"

Here it comes.

Su Bai felt the eyes of the entire hall focus on him once again.

In those gazes were anticipation, speculation, and a few old men were already taking out their notebooks.

He was silent for two seconds.

Then he shook his head.

"It is not a Magical Girl."

The air in the hall stagnated for a moment.

"...Not one?" The purple-robed Chief frowned.

"Magical Girl is already outdated."

Out.

Dated.

These three words.

Each word felt like someone had thrown a flashbang into the center of the hall.

The teacup in the purple-robed Chief's hand hung in mid-air.

The slicked-back-haired Card Creator's mouth opened, closed, opened, and closed.

The tall, thin person in the back row dropped his Card Creation pen on the ground, the nib clicking against the golden brick floor twice before rolling into a corner.