In the end, the shock wristband on Xueyu’s arm still wouldn’t come off.

Lingcai returned to the Little Moon Sage with a face like frost, while Xueyu’s silhouette followed far behind like a timid shadow.

Fear surged first, action second; to keep wild fantasies from sprouting like vines, Xueyu didn’t dare step even half a pace closer.

Hearing Lingcai return, the Little Moon Sage opened one eye like a sliver of moonlight. “Did you get Xueyu’s wristband open?”

Lingcai’s mouth drooped, her tone dark as stormclouds. “Forget it. It’s safer on her. Otherwise one day my purity’s gone with the wind.”

“Interesting,” the Little Moon Sage murmured, words falling soft as dew, then she closed her eyes again.

Lingcai blinked, stunned, thoughts scattering like startled sparrows. “What? What’s interesting?”

The Little Moon Sage propped her chin, thought like a pond going still, then spoke. “For example, this.”

As she spoke, she sneaked a finger toward Lingcai’s side, and poked with a dragonfly’s touch.

“Eep!”

Hit by the ambush, Lingcai clutched her belly and sprang back like a cat from cold water, cheeks flaring pink like peach blossoms. “Don’t do that, Grandmaster! I—I’ll really get mad!”

The Little Moon Sage withdrew her finger as unhurried as drifting clouds, as if she’d foreseen the ripple. “So isn’t it interesting? Your Alchemy didn’t just make someone look like a girl. It tilted the mind, the attitude, the way of speaking, the tone, every little gesture, all like a true girl. Then tell me, what grants a human their gender—the soul, or the body?”

Understanding seeped in like evening mist, and Lingcai’s heart tightened before her thoughts moved. Since becoming a girl, parts of her nature had shifted like sandbars in a river, especially her vigilance when others touched her body.

So, the soul in this body—was it still the original me, or just an ordinary girl who inherited my memories like a lantern passed on?

The Little Moon Sage added softly, her voice the edge of a blade in silk. “This brushes against ethics. Once anything tangles with ethics, it turns into a thorn thicket. This art will become a forbidden art. Treasure it.”

The unease rose first, then the retort burst out like a spark. “No. If I’ve truly become a girl, why do I still love my fiancée? Why do I still want to marry her?”

The Little Moon Sage smiled, light as moon on water. “Who told you girls can’t wish to marry girls?”

No way… right?

Heat rushed up Lingcai’s face like a sunrise, and she pressed her cool hands to her cheeks, trying to snow it down.

Had she gone from iron straight to a super yuri maniac, a wildfire of lesbian zeal?

The Little Moon Sage patted her shoulder, a willow branch gentling the current. “Relax. You’re not a Xueyu-level yuri fiend. It’s just that the one you love happens to be a girl. Whether you’re a man or a woman, you’d love her.”

“So, from that, I think human love splits like a river into two channels—appearance and soul,” the Little Moon Sage continued, voice steady as a bell. “And a bold idea is sprouting in my heart. It might steer human society toward a more ideal shore.”

Ah—worthy of a Great Sage. Even her depth of thinking is a night sky I can’t measure.

Aside from studying how to return to her old self, Lingcai had never studied her mind, which felt like an unopened book.

“What… idea?” Lingcai asked, testing the water with her toes.

“My idea is…”

She smiled for a heartbeat, then spoke with the bright certainty of dawn, in a half-joking, full-throated voice. “Let’s just turn all humankind into adorable girls! We’ll call it the Universal Maidenization Plan! Since a genius like you created this Alchemy, we should let it bloom across the world!”

What kind of nonsense—

Seeing her half-joking air, Lingcai didn’t take it as gospel, and she let the joke ride like a kite on wind. “Then, before that, shouldn’t you develop parthenogenesis? Otherwise, when that world arrives and no one bears children, humanity goes extinct.”

The Little Moon Sage paused, as if a pebble had broken the pond, then tapped her finger in thought like dripping rain. “Good point. Next research direction is set. First, parthenogenesis. Then an alchemical engine that broadcasts the effect like radiation, so it sweeps the world…”

She’s saying it like it’s real?

Lingcai stifled a laugh, mischief glinting like sunlight on blades. “Too pricey, right? Better make a super-bacterium, pack the reaction inside, and let it infect people. Person to person, lowest cost, universal maidenization.”

Smack!

The Little Moon Sage clapped Lingcai’s shoulder, then yanked her close and clasped both her hands like a vow under starlight. “You… truly are a genius! When the utopia arrives, you’ll be the god of the new world!”

She isn’t taking all of that seriously… is she?

Worry pricked first, then Lingcai soothed herself like patting a skittish horse. Impossible, impossible. She’s joking.

“Being a god? I’ll pass… I can’t accept that… haha…”

Her laugh came dry as autumn leaves, because she faintly felt the truth in the Sage’s moon-bright eyes.

Words said in open earnest may not be true, but half-jokes often hide a hooked line.

“New world~ new world~” the Little Moon Sage even hummed, light as a breeze through bamboo.

She won’t actually do it… right?

Lingcai shook her head, thoughts scattering like dandelion fluff. It’s too hard. Even the Great Sage of Seven Colors and Luminaries might not pull that moon from the lake. She’s probably just mouthing off.

Just mouthing off.

But Lingcai didn’t notice a trembling hand creeping from behind like a pale spider, reaching toward the wheelchair.

“Uwah!” She jolted, heart hopping like a frightened hare. It was Xueyu, gritting through shocks and tears, crawling with hands and knees like a soldier in the rain.

Xueyu trembled, gasping with a voice like torn paper. “...That proposal… can you… count me in… the one… turning all humans… into beautiful girls… huff-heh-heh…”

Give me a break.

Lingcai shot Xueyu a look as flat as a frozen lake.

Just watching you twitch under the current, I know your thoughts are mud, not jade.

Seeing Xueyu incorrigible, the Little Moon Sage donned an angel’s smile with thorns, and tapped her own lips, a cherry-red tease toward Xueyu. “Then I’ll be in your care, Sister Xue. When the new world arrives, if you wish, I can ma-rry-you.”

Sizzle and crackle—like cicadas and stormfire.

Lingcai smelled roast meat on the wind, and turned. Xueyu lay charred from head to toe by the shock wristband, stiff as a burnt log and out cold.

Thud. She hit the floor.

Lingcai stared at the Little Moon Sage, eyes wide as twin moons. “Didn’t you say the current stays within safe limits?!”

The Sage’s calm wavered, her head tilting away like a guilty cloud. “Ahem… maybe… her lust exceeded the wristband’s control limit. Anyway… not my fault…”

It’s fine, it’s a gag tale; people don’t die from things like this, like rubber swords in a festival.

“Big deal!!” Lingcai roared, her voice cracking like thunder over the plain.