Techniques and Dao

Chapter 215 Floral Dress
Under the blue sky, fluffy white clouds drift by.

The midday sun shines on you, bringing the warmth of early spring.

Sparrows foraged for food in flocks on the ground, while pigeons strolled around in twos and threes with their heads held high, completely ignoring the pedestrians passing by on the street.

This is the Champs-Élysées in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.

The Champs-Élysées is located on the central axis connecting the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe. It stretches for 1.8 kilometers and is also known as the Avenue of Triumph. It is one of the three major bustling central avenues in the world.

In the peaceful and harmonious atmosphere, the passersby were completely unaware of the undercurrents surging beneath the surface.

Jane walked briskly westward to Place Charles de Gaulle, where the famous Arc de Triomphe was located at the western end of the street.

Hua Sheng and the brown-haired, curly-haired Mie Ying Xiao Qi followed closely behind. After admiring the street scene at night last night, they returned here to experience the daytime bustle.

Although it has been less than 24 hours since I left this street, looking back on everything that happened feels like a long time has passed.

"Wait a minute! Why is this barbarian girl only thinking about herself? I can't walk anymore!"

Mieying suddenly slowed down and shouted.

After three consecutive days of travel, the young lady from the Immortal Spirit Family was inevitably feeling the strain.

Hua Sheng had no choice but to stop and look at Mie Ying with concern, saying, "Xiao Qi, it's already past noon. Although Master Ruo Kong and the others have arrived in Jinling, it's still dangerous. Look, even Jian, an outsider, is helping us; we can't hold ourselves back!"

"How annoying!" Mieying was furious that Hua Sheng was actually favoring the French girl. She simply stopped and said, "You're walking too fast! My stomach is starting to hurt."

As she spoke, she clutched her stomach, squatted down, and turned to look at the shop windows on the street.

Hua Sheng noticed Mie Ying's displeasure and wanted to offer some kind words of advice.

"If your stomach hurts, how about drinking something hot..."

Just as he was saying this, Hua Sheng suddenly realized that many girls especially dislike it when boys offer them hot water. He changed his mind and said, "How about... how about... how about we try some ice cream?"

Mieying turned her head and glared at him: "My stomach hurts and you still want me to eat ice? Hua Sheng, are you out of your mind because of jet lag?!"

Hua Sheng immediately realized that his words were inappropriate, so he walked to his side, patted Mie Ying's back, and said softly, "Why don't you find a place to sit down? I'll go to Klin Magic School with Jian by myself."

"No way! I don't want you to be alone with that barbarian woman!" Mieying's words were tinged with a hint of jealousy.

Hua Sheng gave a wry smile: "What are you thinking? That foreign woman doesn't have the elegance of our Miss Mie at all, and she's not my type at all."

Mieying narrowed his eyes, glanced at Huasheng, and snorted.

She twirled her brown hair in her hands and looked at the gleaming shop window in front of her, saying, "Hanamori, look, this looks like a Hermes bag... I told you last night that I'd come back for them sooner or later..."

Completely indifferent to these fancy things, Hua Sheng crossed his arms and said in a serious tone, "How come Miss Mie, who grew up in a fairyland, has been brainwashed by corrupt and decadent luxury consumption so soon after coming to the human world?"

"But..." Mieying pouted, "I just think they're pretty! Are they expensive? What does liking them have to do with price?"

Hua Sheng clapped his hands and replied, "Oh right, didn't Tai Shang Xiao Jun just message me saying he ran into HOPE in Paris and is using Xiao Cao Mei's credit card to buy things to inject a computer virus, thereby reducing global computing power? Why don't you go shopping with them?"

The Shadow Shaker shook his head like a rattle.

"Forget it! I'll go to the magic school with you. That female mage is ultimately unreliable. Although she helped us before, what if she turns against us when we get back to her own magic school? I'm afraid you won't be able to fight against her numbers! Let's bring our sisters to back you up!"

Hua Sheng felt a warmth in her heart and smiled, "You really have a lot of anxiety."

He pulled Mieying along, about to walk forward, when he noticed that Jane had already reached the Arc de Triomphe in the distance, her brows furrowed as she waved and urged them on from afar.

As soon as the two approached, Jane launched into a barrage of questions.

"What kind of time is this? How can you not even care about the safety of your own people!"

Hua Sheng quickly explained, "Let's slow down a bit, don't make a mountain out of a molehill, okay? Of course we're in a hurry, there are several groups of people working hard on both the eastern and western fronts! By the way, is the intelligence that the command center for the attack on the Dragon Vein is located in the 'Attack Campus' of the Demon School reliable?"

“I just called Abel and he said that this attack was personally commanded by Vice Principal Brian, and the location is the attacking campus inside the ‘inverted space’ under the Arc de Triomphe.”

“Abel?”

Hanako recalled the greasy, chubby guy with reddish-brown curly hair and freckles she had met when she first arrived in Paris, and replied, "I know who Abel is, but why should he tell you the truth?"

“Of course he’ll tell me the truth,” Jane said confidently, “because this guy has a crush on me.”

Hanamori immediately hissed, "You're being very... very green tea!"

Jane didn't understand what he was saying. She just walked to the arch of the Arc de Triomphe and touched something on the gray wall. She casually said, "What Green Tea? Tea? Right, you Easterners like to offer tea to your guests, right? I was being very polite to him. Is there a problem..." Mie Ying knew the meaning behind Hua Sheng's words and chuckled to himself.

Jane fumbled around for a while, then her hand stopped on a seemingly ordinary brick on the wall. She opened the Star Rainbow Codex, held it in her left hand, and pressed her right index finger against the brick.

Hua Sheng examined the brick closely for a long time but couldn't figure out what mechanism it had. He asked, "What's different?"

He replied simply, "Only a well-trained magician can recognize this as a magic stone brick, a mechanism leading to the Assault Campus."

"Take us there quickly, Green Tea!" Mie Ying said with a wicked grin.

“I’m not called Green Tea! And you two, stop grinning like that!” Jane glared at her. “First of all, this Attack Campus isn’t a place for jokes; it’s a place for studying dark magic! I used to think that Minister of Dark Magic, Madeline, was in charge of the hexagram magic circle, but it seems that the hexagram magic circle used to attack Jinling was handled by the Minister of Alchemy. If that’s the case, Minister Madeline might still be in the Attack Campus. If you run into her, be careful she doesn’t skin you alive!”

Hua Sheng immediately tensed up upon hearing this, while Mie Ying remained completely unconcerned.

"The entrances to the campus are separate for boys and girls. After entering, there are two entrances, one to the south and one to the north of the campus," Jian said, pointing to the other side of the archway. "Girls, this way. The boys' entrance is on the other side!"

Hua Sheng walked to the opposite side and touched the wall, but couldn't find Jian Shuo's magic stone brick at all. He asked in confusion, "Why is the campus entrance separated into men and women like the bathhouse?"

"This is too troublesome! Even if Hua Sheng finds the magic stone, he doesn't know magic, so he still won't be able to get in, right?" Mie Ying said.

“Yes! Unless he turns into a woman and joins us!” Jane replied. “That shouldn’t be a problem for your mysterious Eastern powers, right?”

Mie Ying nodded: "It's very easy! But I have something to say beforehand! Hua Sheng, you're not allowed to become a prettier young woman than me!"

She added before she could finish speaking, "As for your figure, you're not allowed to be better than me! If I don't like it, watch out..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but the tone of his voice sent a chill down Hua Sheng's spine.

Jane glanced at Hua Sheng and said, "Her meaning isn't very clear, so don't become too sexy. By the way, I have to remind you, the form you transform into should be your ideal type but too different from hers. You'd better figure that out yourself!"

"Hmph! Why are you so talkative!" Mieying stomped his foot.

Hua Sheng's hands immediately broke out in a cold sweat. Jian's words were indeed a very reasonable reminder. If he were to follow Yi Xiangzhi's transformation at will, Mie Ying might "skin him alive" even faster than that Ms. Ma.

Hua Sheng thought for a moment, then recited the command "Hurry, hurry, as the law commands," and transformed into a short, elderly woman with a short head, body, hands, and feet.

Jane shook her head: "That's a bit deliberate. Putting aside your appearance, you're older than many professors at the Magic School. Besides, we don't have any female Chinese professors at our Magic School. You'll just attract more attention if you act like this."

Mieying also said, "What do you mean? I said I can't be too pretty, and you've turned into a female version of Wu Dalang! Do you think I'm ugly?!"

Hua Sheng was already mentally planning her transformed appearance and figure, while Mie Ying urged, "Hurry, hurry! We're in a rush!"

So Hua Sheng began to perform a magic incantation again, chanting, "Hurry, hurry, as the law commands!" With a turn, she finally transformed into a graceful, short-haired girl.

“Hmm, your Eastern magic is indeed amazing. You look much better now!” Jane looked at Hua Sheng’s face and said, “There aren’t many Chinese students in the Magic School. If your nose were a little more upturned, you would look like a Frenchman, which would make you less noticeable.”

The girl version of Hanamori reached out and pinched her nose again, and her nose indeed turned up slightly, making her look like a girl of Eurasian descent.

Mieying stepped forward, stared at Hua Sheng for a moment, and rested her chin on her finger, saying, "I didn't realize you were such a pretty girl, Hua Sheng! But... why do you look so familiar to me? It's like I've seen you somewhere before..."

As she spoke, her eyes suddenly widened, and she pointed at Jane, saying, "Hey?! Hua Sheng, how come you look so much like Jane? You're just like Jane with short hair! Tell me! Did you transform into Jane?"

"No...no way!" Hua Sheng hurriedly waved his hand in denial, claiming that he had simply changed his appearance randomly, but unexpectedly, Mie Ying thought he looked similar to Jian.

"Are you kidding me?!" Mie Ying's eyes gleamed with anger.

Jane stared at Hua Sheng for a while, then shook her head and said, "I'm much prettier than him!"

Hua Sheng hurriedly nodded in agreement: "Yes, yes, yes! How could I possibly look like her? You probably don't see many French girls. If I don't raise my nose a little, you'll look just like any other French woman."

"Hmm... Is that really the case..." Mieying seemed to still have some doubts.

Now that Hanamori had transformed into a young girl, Jianbian prepared to take the two of them to the Attack Campus of Krillin Magic Academy. Just as she was about to cast a spell, she turned around and pointed at Hanamori's jeans, saying, "We're both wearing skirts, so why don't you turn into a skirt too?"

With that, Jane waved her hand, and Hua Sheng's trousers instantly transformed into a short skirt.

Hua Sheng quickly pressed down on the hem of her skirt with her hands, her face instantly breaking out in a sweat: "This, this, it's so short! It's too cool! Can it be a long skirt?"

Mieying chuckled as he looked at Huasheng in her skirt and said, "You're a real man at heart, why would you be afraid of showing too much skin!"

Hua Sheng gave an awkward, bitter smile.

"Isn't it precisely because I'm a man at heart that I feel like a pervert wearing this kind of short skirt!"

(End of this chapter)