"Huh?"
Feeling the overwhelming pressure emanating from Hibiscus, Nan Zhiyi opened her mouth wide with sweat beading on her forehead. Just as she was about to back down and refuse, she saw a fist the size of a clay pot thundering toward her face.
At the critical moment, she had no choice but to kick the other's waist and use the reaction force to pull away, but regretted it the next second. If this were a real combat environment against such an enemy, they should be grabbing each other's collars and fighting—victory decided in an instant.
After breaking contact, time stop seamlessly activated. After a moment of disorientation, the silver-haired girl was nowhere to be seen.
Nan Zhiyi touched her chilled throat and got a handful of pen ink.
A serious voice came from behind: "You've seen it now. If you're enemies with Disaster Beasts, they go for vital points with every move. During battle, protect your neck like a boxer—leave other parts undefended, trust in regeneration. Don't worry, once you become a stronger magical girl later, even having your head cut off won't kill you."
"Your words aren't reassuring at all."
"Get used to it gradually."
"Why can you fly?"
Within the Small Universe domain, the magic user herself floated helplessly, occasionally brushing past ultra-small meteorites, looking rather comical like someone drowning.
"After mastering Three Awakenings, you can fly when transformed. Want to experience freely soaring through the air? Then hurry up and train."
"Hibiscus, I just discovered something: celestial bodies in the domain can be controlled by will."
Before she finished speaking, two small planets closed in on the Regalia girl from both sides, colliding with lightning speed and splashing fire rain meteors. Nan Zhiyi didn't hold back because she understood it wasn't necessary. Sure enough, the collision point was completely empty.
Time stop again.
"You're lying. It's not by will but by sight—or rather, precision drops drastically once out of sight."
The voice came from behind, so close it was like whispering in her ear, making Nan Zhiyi's ears turn red. She instinctively turned and threw a punch but hit nothing again. Once you lose track of a time magic user, you can't catch them, while they can approach you at any time. Too unfair. Both were supposedly the strongest of their respective series, so why did Sands of Time have such overwhelming suppression? The mechanism was truly cheating.
"It's too early to talk about contests now." Just as Hibiscus finished speaking, Nan Zhiyi suddenly disappeared, then she caught a spinning kick that was pulled back mid-force.
"So fast within the domain!" Even the user herself looked surprised.
"Remember, domain magic has two rules. First, it has two states: reality projection and full domain closure. The former enhances killing range, the latter provides comprehensive enhancement. Second, don't abuse it because it can be broken, and the cost is quite high when that happens. Figure out the rest yourself."
Before she finished speaking, Hibiscus burst with magic power impact, sending the girl flying with loud screams, then kicked her butt before she got halfway, sending her even farther.
"Never rely on magic alone. The highest-level battles ultimately come down to comparing base stats."
Nan Zhiyi's eyes sharpened as a meteorite followed her gaze and crashed toward the girl with a thunderous roar, but after the violent explosion, she was unharmed.
"Regalia is the most reliable armor and amplifier."
Hibiscus gestured at her worn gloves: "It has an endurance limit and can be destroyed. Complete destruction releases transformation, and repair time follows the same principle as physical regeneration."
Her voice gradually rose with passion surging in her chest. Even this instructional combat stirred strong resonance within her.
Magical girls couldn't work behind closed doors. Just as humans were social animals, not interacting with each other easily led to isolation. Similarly, ever since becoming a magical girl, Hibiscus had suppressed an urge to confide—wanting to discuss magic and exchange insights, hoping to find more of her own kind. Fortunately, she learned Jin Ruochu and Nan Zhiyi would awaken successively. Otherwise, like in the original work's long solitude under life pressure, psychological distortion was inevitable and understandable.
"Don't worry. Attacks from just Two Awakenings can't cause much damage to my transformed state. Come at me."
Before she finished speaking, Nan Zhiyi in front suddenly had a nosebleed. The girl wiped it with a questioning "Eh?"
Crack!
The vast starry background disappeared and they were back home.
Hibiscus quickly grabbed tissues to help stop the girl's nosebleed, explaining: "Magic consumption is high. Exceeding the threshold affects the physical body, as you can see. Don't worry about Small Universe characteristics now—there's Third Awakening capping the upper limit. That's enough for now. Rest up and collect yourself."
Then she sat on the floor and took out paper and pen to draw the magical girl fitness routine from memory with explanations, finally giving it to Nan Zhiyi for practice at home.
She'd basically hit a bottleneck with this method since it was essentially designed to help awakeners adapt faster, telling them that strengthening after the initial boost was a long-term process.
"You prepared so much!"
The more Nan Zhiyi encountered, the more she felt her childhood friend was omniscient about magical girls—truly the field's top expert authority. This knowledge would become increasingly valuable over time, enough to be called strategic value, even to organize an institution.
"I'll remember it. For safety, can we destroy this?"
"...If you think it's necessary."
Nan Zhiyi immediately tore up the notebook, instantly opening her domain to let the scraps enter a small sun and turn to dust.
"From a quick glance, I understand this method suits magical girls well, so we can't leave written records. Just teach me directly, but hold back a few points when teaching. Layer by layer censorship, like merchants splitting sales. Hibiscus, you need intellectual property awareness—protect your research results."
"Ah yes yes yes."
The girl nodded like a pecking chicken, unable to say it was copied from netizens and contained patterns gained from the original storyline's massive sacrifices.
"Have you ever thought you were chosen? Sands of Time represents power to rule the world—if you can control even time, what can't be accomplished? Hibiscus, we magical girls shouldn't just serve as tools against Disaster Beasts. This natural selection, mutual generation and restraint feels like lower animals in nature. We have responsibility to stop Disaster Beasts, but should seek some deserved benefits."
"For example, you're clearly the great hero who eliminated the Vanguard Disaster Beast, yet the Special Attack Forces stole credit. That's unfair. They're shameless—if they dare steal credit today, tomorrow they'll hypnotize themselves into thinking they're above magical girls. This arrogance will breed enslavement."
"Take the mercenary groups born from various nations' confrontation with Disaster Beasts. They clearly possess relic power with records of killing Great Catastrophe Disaster Beasts, yet increasingly turn a blind eye to non-massive trauma."
Nan Zhiyi's indignation flared—once Hibiscus was involved, she became fiery with no trace of quietness.
"Thanks for worrying about me, but train well first. Look at your current level—even guns could hurt you."
The girl scratched her head embarrassedly.
"There's also technique knowledge to teach you. Compared to magic, it focuses on convenience..."
Hibiscus began explaining related experience. This part came from system rewards—few things she knew more about than netizens, so hands-on teaching was guaranteed. First she had Nan Zhiyi learn Levitation Technique for defensive capability, then Healing Technique for minor ailments and disasters. Unexpectedly, the girl learned quite quickly with everything going smoothly.
Enviable academic talent—did it count in other fields too?