Lord of Enigma

As the store manager of "Magical Girl", Mrs. Hudson's eye for beauty was indeed astonishing.

Despite the spectacles, Sally nevertheless became the focus of the whole clothing store when she walked out of the fitting room. All the noble young ladies from high society and daughters of the wealthy paled in comparison to Sally's beauty.

Just that Sally was still that same old Sally. All the astonished and appraising looks scared the young girl off.

But it was also precisely because she was dragging Tang Qi out of the store in such a panic that the young girl didn't notice the rather shocking price on the bill in his hands.

Other than Mrs. Hudson's astonishing eye for beauty, there was another reason why this clothing store whose main target audience was young girls and noble ladies was favored by the upper-class stratum of Moses City — its expensive service.

But in comparison to the Condor gold coins that weren't of much use to Tang Qi, the newly-obtained Mark of Misfortune on the back of his hand was what he truly needed.

Tang Qi's intense desire for strength made him terribly anxious to put it into use.

Fortunately, he was rational enough to suppress the urge to do so.

After leaving Central Avenue, he sent Sally, whose image had undergone a huge change, home.

He didn't go anywhere else. Instead, he returned to the little brick house in school at the fastest speed he could muster.

Tang Qi didn't look any different on the outside, but he was already fatigued to the extreme on the inside.

His clash with the Witch of Misfortune sub-personality took place in a special dimension created by the witch.

While he didn't expend any physical strength, the power of the furnace that he had accumulated over several days was completely exhausted. It seemed like the process of his comeback had been within Tang Qi's expectations all along — the poor witch sub-personality, running into the crafty and cheating Tang Qi the moment she emerged.

She possessed strong magic powers, yet she had to hold back because of her reservations, resulting in her being scammed by Tang Qi, a newbie who had only just stepped into the realm of the supernatural.

However, luck also played a part in this.

Because as long as any part of the plan went awry, even if Tang Qi managed to survive, he would also need to pay an enormous price.

Luckily, he won.

The Mark of Misfortune pretty much manifested into a shortcut right in front of Tang Qi.

And through his conversation with the Witch of Misfortune sub-personality, Tang Qi got to know that the Golden Furnace Meditation Method he was cultivating came from no simple background. In addition, this particular method that he came up with would need to burn the souls of those negative and evil monstrosities to produce fuel for his furnace form.

It was similarly approved by the Witch of Misfortune sub-personality.

This was equivalent to giving a semblance of insurance to Tang Qi. However, his cautious nature prevented him from using it immediately nonetheless, so he went home instead.

In the tiny living room on the first story, Tang Qi went straight to the kitchen and properly made himself two dishes and soup. After finishing the food, he felt a bit of mental strength coming back to him. However, he still didn't go into cultivation mode. Neither did he leave the house.

Instead, he went over to his workstation and followed the same steps as what he did previously.

He melted a piece of blue sea salt again.

The result was another 30 sea monster bullets.

After putting each bullet away properly, Tang Qi returned to his bedroom on the second story and sat cross-legged on the moon-patterned rug again. When the first ray of moonlight shone upon him, he entered a meditative state as per usual.

Boom~

The golden sun appeared. Perhaps due to Tang Qi exhausting his spiritual energy, the sun's rays were rather weak as compared to what they were before.

But in no time, when all the monstrosities that surged through the gaps were burned away, the sun's radiance turned strong and intense once more.

…

A night went by. By the time Tang Qi stepped into the main teaching building with books in his arms, the radiance in his eyes was enough proof that all the spiritual energy he had expended had been fully refilled. In fact, it was even more abundant than before. This matched very well with the notion that improvement would come after an intense battle.

Tang Qi had originally thought that he would see a very happening sight today.

After all, Sally's image in the Magical Girl store the previous night was such that even he, who had been bombarded by beauties on the Internet during his past life on Earth, couldn't help but marvel at. These visual creatures of Holy Thorns High School emanating hormones definitely wouldn't be able to keep their cool too.

But unfortunately, and also very surprisingly…

Sally was here, except she was still the same "Unlucky Sally".

Ordinary and unfashionable with messy blonde hair, sweatpants, a loose and baggy sweater, and even an additional knitted beanie that was already out of fashion.

Sally walked over to Tang Qi. In a very aggrieved and also very apologetic tone, she said, "I-it's my mom. She said that before my coming-of-age ceremony, I have to maintain this look. I kept that dress though. Let's return it after school."

"It's alright, Sally. I understand your mom's intentions. But you must keep that dress too. This won't affect our relationship."

Tang Qi quickly regained his senses and started to console Sally instead.

Forcing Sally to keep her unfashionable and ordinary appearance was obviously one of the only few ways Sally's mother could maintain a sense of security.

Perhaps she didn't wish for Sally to attract too much attention, thereby leading to the spread of misfortune.

Or perhaps, it was just to protect Sally.

Sally's mother definitely knew about the "Witch of Misfortune" too. However, she also chose to keep the truth from Sally, probably for the sake of waiting for the day the coming-of-age ceremony arrived. Other than causing Sally to fall into a constant state of anxiety, there was no other outcome to letting Sally know everything now.

Since Sally's mother had made her choice, Tang Qi, who had formidable enemies of his own outside, naturally wouldn't lay bare the truth either.

After consoling her, Tang Qi raised the "Monster Files" in his hand and distracted Sally. With a laugh, he said, "If you feel apologetic, then perhaps you can help me to take notes during class? You know I have other things that I'm busy with."

"No problem!"

Sally agreed right away.

…

After school, Tang Qi took the notes from Sally and bid farewell to her.

After watching the young girl walk towards her home, Tang Qi also turned and left the school.

However, he didn't return to the little brick house.

Instead, he walked over to the bus stop outside Thorns High. After a quick look at the road sign, he finally settled on a red bus that just arrived.

It happened to be evening time, one of the busiest periods of Moses City.

On his seat, Tang Qi quietly watched the scenery of this foreign yet familiar city through the windows.

This seemed to be a bus with a relatively longer route. Before long, it traveled through the humid and dirty Bronx district and headed towards the next large district.

At last, the red bus stopped at a bus stop that looked terribly old and worn down.

When the bus drove off, the form of a young man walked out of the bus stop.

Tang Qi walked out of the bus stop slowly. His hands were empty, as if he didn't have anything on him. He looked curiously at the sight in front of him.

This seemed to be a place that was bustling and prosperous once upon a time.

Old and timeworn buildings, factories that were once busy, grand bank buildings, a widely accessible marketplace… Although they looked mottled and shabby now, they were filled with the kind of ostentatious and fervent aura one would see in a city during its early flourishing days. Just that after they fell into decline, thanks to the passage of time, that aura had evolved into an artistic atmosphere that people couldn't help but marvel at.

Tang Qi knew what this place was. This was the Newton district.

Yes, it could be said that the Moses City of Exquisite Phoenix Prefecture had also once been glorious for a period of time.

And the point of origin of this glory was the Newton district.

This was a glory that was jointly created by adventurers, gold miners, pioneers, and bandits who started from zero. They were also some of the ones heavily credited with contributing to the mysterious, rustic, and coarse style of the Exquisite Phoenix Prefecture.

But now, this place had already turned into a district with an extremely low presence. Only some nostalgic residents, or communities like artists and the like, liked taking up residence here for inspiration or to reminisce about the past.

Because this was once a flourishing area, so even though it had already fallen into decline, the rent here wasn't cheap at all.

As such, even though it was spacious and stately here, there were far fewer people here than in the Bronx district.

This was also one of the reasons why Tang Qi had chosen this place for tonight. He wanted to use the Mark of Misfortune here.

To prevent scary accidents from happening during his first time using the mark, Tang Qi deliberately avoided the Bronx district where monstrosities converged and erupted due to an overly-dense population and widespread evil deeds.

"Hopefully, this doesn't disappoint."

Tang Qi murmured quietly in his mind as he gazed at the mark that was starting to vaguely show on the back of his hand.