My ex-girlfriend is a magical girl junior?

Chapter 259 Ruby's Betrayal?

It is cold, clean, and full of inorganic beauty.

This is the deepest part of the headquarters building of a company renowned for its cutting-edge biotechnology in the suburbs of Jiangchuan City, inside a huge underground laboratory that is not even recorded on any architectural drawings.

The air was filled with the pungent smell of disinfectant mixed with some unknown chemical reagent. The silver-white alloy walls and floors reflected a cold, emotionless light under the cold white light strip on the ceiling.

Dozens of researchers, dressed in sterile white coats, were working methodically at their respective posts. Their faces were filled with an almost fanatical focus. The sound of typing on virtual keyboards was like dense raindrops, intertwining with the low hum of various instruments to create an unsettling symphony.

In the center of the laboratory stands a huge cylindrical transparent culture chamber, filled with a pale golden viscous nutrient solution, with countless tiny bubbles slowly rising from the bottom.

"Whoosh!"

The smooth innermost wall of the laboratory suddenly rippled like water, transforming into a huge, pitch-black mirror with intricate patterns carved along its edges.

The next moment, a tall, slender figure slowly walked out from within, with an elegant demeanor.

Jingjue calmly swept his gaze across the "workshop" that belonged to him, still holding the cat-shaped Eclipse in his arms, which was curled up and seemed to be asleep.

He casually placed the Corrosive Species on an unused metal workbench in the corner of the laboratory, as if discarding an old item, and then slowly walked towards the center of the laboratory.

"Lord Mirror, you're back." The middle-aged man with gold-rimmed glasses, "Doctor," who had appeared in the communication mirror earlier, had been waiting there for a long time.

Upon seeing Jingjue arrive, he immediately stepped forward and bowed deeply to him, his face filled with barely suppressed excitement and fervor.

"How's the experiment going?" Jingjue's voice was flat and emotionless.

"Very successful, Lord Mirror!" The Doctor excitedly pushed up his glasses and pointed to the huge incubation chamber not far away. "The new material you brought back a week ago was simply a miracle! It was a perfect creation!"

"Following your instructions, we cloned a prototype tissue using it, and in the tests just now, we discovered that this prototype exhibits near-perfect affinity and stability for virtual energy—this is truly unprecedented!"

"Compared to those failed products that would immediately die upon contact with even a trace of ethereal energy, this prototype is almost an existence from another dimension."

"It actively absorbs the trace amounts of virtual energy we introduce, and its own cell activity is greatly enhanced. It's simply—it's practically the perfect container born to hold virtual energy!"

The doctor's tone grew increasingly fervent. He looked at Mirror Lord and couldn't help but ask, "Lord Mirror Lord, please forgive my impertinence, but where did you obtain such perfect material?"

"If you can bring us some more, I am absolutely confident that I can create even more and more perfect body-building corpses for you!"

"By then, we won't need to risk being tracked down by the Bureau of Paranormal Affairs to find those inferior ordinary humans and induce them into unstable beast transformations!"

Upon hearing the doctor's question, Jingjue paused slightly and fell into a brief moment of confusion.

Involuntarily, the image of that petite figure surrounded by fine pink and gold lines appeared in his mind, along with those deep purple eyes that were exactly the same as those in his memory, eyes that seemed to see through everything.

—Yes—Why is that?

He was 100% certain that the blood sample came from the magical girl named "Starfrost" who had just caused him a crushing defeat.

His ability to successfully create a mirror image of the other party undoubtedly proves this point.

But—why?

Why does the clone created using the blood of Esmeralda, the legendary magical girl, exhibit such a near-perfect affinity for ethereal energy, which is diametrically opposed to magic?

This is completely illogical, and could even be described as subverting his understanding of the basic rules of this world.

"————Lord Mirror Lord?"

Noticing Mirror's silence, the Doctor immediately realized how presumptuous his actions had been. The fervor on his face vanished instantly, replaced by a deep-seated fear. Cold sweat quickly beaded on his forehead. He knelt down with a thud, his body trembling violently with terror, and stammered, "I'm so sorry, Lord Mirror! It was I—I misspoke in my excitement. Please—please forgive my rudeness!"

'

'

Upon hearing this, Jingjue snapped out of his reverie.

He glanced at the man who was already prostrate on the ground in front of him, chuckled softly, and decided to temporarily put aside those incomprehensible things.

Never mind, as long as the experiment succeeds, it doesn't matter whose material it comes from.

Rather, it's more accurate to say that he stumbled upon the blood of that legendary magical girl and even successfully created a perfect prototype using that blood—which proves that luck was ultimately on his side.

Thinking of this, Jingjue felt much better and didn't pursue the doctor's slip of the tongue any further.

He waved his hand and said in a slightly lazy tone, "Get up and focus on the experiment in front of you. As for that material—it's not as easy to obtain as you think."

"Even to me, that magical girl is an extremely troublesome enemy, so—you'd better keep your mouth shut from now on."

"Yes! Yes! I understand!" The doctor felt like he had been granted a pardon, and quickly got up from the ground, wiping away his cold sweat and nodding repeatedly.

He then cautiously inquired, "Then, Lord Mirror, should we proceed as planned and inject a higher concentration of illusory energy into the original body for further observation and data collection?"

"Observe?" Jingjue chuckled, a hint of impatience in his voice. "I don't have that much time to play this boring game with you guys."

"Observing and collecting data is too slow, and your ideas are too conservative."

He walked slowly to the huge cylindrical culture chamber in the center of the laboratory, gazing at the fleshy tissue that was quietly suspended in the pale golden nutrient solution, his eyes slightly dazed.

"Now that we've confirmed its perfection, let's get straight to the point and create this perfect prototype—"

Implant an energy core of erosion-level quality.

"Wh-what?!" The doctor was startled by Jingjue's audacious idea and hesitated before raising his objection.

"But, Lord Mirror, that's too risky! Although the original body has shown perfect affinity, it is still in its most primitive organizational state and probably cannot withstand the massive illusory energy impact of the erosion-level energy core."

"Such a precious body, what if it collapses because of this kind of action—"

"Hmm?" Jingjue let out a soft snort from his nose, slightly dissatisfied.

However, this soft hum seemed to contain immense pressure, causing the doctor's body to tremble violently, his face to drain of color instantly, and the words he was about to say were choked in his throat by fear.

"No—no! It was my oversight!" He immediately changed his tune, his voice becoming unusually shrill with fear. "Corrosion-grade energy cores—we still have a stockpile! I—I'll go activate the energy conversion device right away!"

"There's no need for that."

Jingjue raised his hand to stop him, then turned his gaze to the cat-shaped Eclipse in the corner—curled up on the experimental table, motionless.

Seemingly sensing its master's cold gaze, the Eclipse trembled violently. It slowly raised its head, its scarlet compound eyes filled with fear, struggle, and pleading.

Its survival instinct made it want to struggle and escape, and its body arched instinctively, letting out a threatening growl from its throat.

But the master-servant contract from the depths of its soul rendered its struggle futile; it couldn't even lift a claw and could only watch helplessly as that death-like figure slowly approached it.

Jingjue crouched down, reached out his hand, and moved as gently as if he were caressing a beloved work of art. But the next moment, his fingertips pierced the body of the Corruption Species without hesitation.

There was no bloodshed, no struggle.

With a faint mournful cry, a dark purple energy core, its light slightly dim but still radiating obvious ethereal energy fluctuations, was easily extracted from the body of the Corrupting World Species.

Having lost its energy core, the Eclipse's body instantly began to swell and twist, eventually reverting to its original form as a giant monster nearly three meters tall, before collapsing heavily to the ground and turning into a cold corpse.

"Find someone to haul it away and properly salvage it; every inch of its flesh and blood is still useful." Jingjue pinched the still-warm energy core between his index finger and thumb, and ordered the researchers behind him without turning his head.

He then held the energy core up to his eyes and examined it carefully, as if he were appraising a precious gem.

"What a pity," his voice carried a hint of feigned sympathy, "If it could have been raised a little longer, perhaps—"

I'll develop some feelings for you, and then I won't want to do this anymore.

"But now—" He turned his gaze to the huge petri dish in the center of the laboratory, "after being severely injured by that damned inspector, your potential—has reached its limit. Even with careful nurturing, you cannot cross the boundary between corruption and lordship."

"Since that's the case, let's make one last contribution to this even more precious original body."

"Then—let's begin."

As soon as he finished speaking, he tossed the energy core in his hand towards the incubation chamber as casually as if he were tossing a pebble.

The dark purple energy core drew a graceful arc in the air, and just as it was about to touch the thick tempered glass of the incubation chamber, the space in front of it suddenly seemed to turn into a calm water surface.

The energy core made no sound when it came into contact with it, and silently "sinked" in, penetrating the physical barrier and landing precisely on the fleshy mass of the substrate at the bottom of the culture chamber.

"boom-!!!!"

The moment it came into contact with the energy core, the mass of tissue began to pulsate and expand violently, like a powerful heart suddenly starting to beat.

At the same time, all the instruments in the laboratory instantly went off the charts, their pointers frantically pointing to the red zone that represented danger.

The piercing alarm sounded throughout the underground space, and the cold white light strip overhead began to flicker wildly, as if it might explode at any moment due to unstable voltage.

"ah--!"

"What the heck happened?!"

"The energy level is out of control! Hide!"

The researchers were thrown into a panic by the sudden chaos. Some scrambled to hide under the sturdy experimental table, while others crouched in despair, trembling and covering their heads with their hands.

Amidst this apocalyptic chaos, only Jingjue remained standing calmly with his hands behind his back.

Ignoring all the chaos and panic around him, he focused his gaze firmly on the center of the enormous incubation chamber, his eyes filled with anticipation and fervor.

Finally, after a violent reaction that lasted for several tens of seconds, all the energy was absorbed by the tissue, the anomalies subsided, the readings on the instruments returned to normal, the alarms stopped, and the lights returned to stability.

The people in the laboratory cautiously peeked out from their hiding places and turned their gazes toward the huge culture chamber.

The original fleshy mass of tissue and energy core had disappeared, replaced by a dark energy cluster that exuded a mysterious aura and floated quietly in the center of the incubation chamber.

Logically, all sounds should be blocked by the thick tempered glass, yet one could clearly hear the steady and powerful heartbeat coming from within the ball of light.

Although the readings on the instruments were no longer reliable and no tests had been conducted on the changes, simply looking at them evoked an extremely strong intuition in all of them—

Its essence has undergone a complete transformation.

The doctor climbed out from under the lab table, adjusted his slightly askew gold-rimmed glasses, walked over to Mirror Lord, looked at the mysterious ball of light, and asked uncertainly, "Lord Mirror Lord, is the plan complete already?"

"Completed? No, of course not."

Jingjue shook his head, a meaningful smile appearing on his face hidden behind the pure white mask. "There's one last step left before it can truly become perfect."

The doctor cautiously pressed further, "Then—what is this last step—?"

Jingjue did not answer the doctor's question, but slowly turned around and turned his gaze to the specially made black mirror that had been used when he made his entrance.

He bowed slightly, made a "please" gesture towards the empty mirror, and said in a voice with just the right amount of respect and expectation: "Please, Contract Spirit Master."

"As agreed upon between us, now—it's your turn to step onto the stage."

As soon as he finished speaking, the dark mirror rippled like water once again.

A creature, pure white in color, shaped like a house cat, and with a pair of translucent wings on its back, slowly emerged from the mirror.

It was none other than—the contracted spirit who should have been inseparable from Liuli—

Ruby.