Transform into a magical girl after getting off work

Then, the patterns that had been perfectly regular suddenly dispersed into a few monotonous lines.

Lin Xiaolu looked at the silken thread in her hands, feeling slightly downcast:

"...Ah, I failed."

"Yep, it's over."

Both of them sighed simultaneously.

Just as it appeared on the surface, Emerald Sparrow and Lin Xiaolu were actually playing the flipping rope game.

As a traditional game of the East China Continent, flipping the rope used to be a cherished childhood memory for most children there in earlier days.

Generally, there are two ways to play with the flipping rope: one involves a single person weaving various patterns with a rope, and the other requires interaction between two people. Naturally, the game that Emerald Sparrow and Lin Xiaolu had just practiced required two players.

A circular thin rope was pulled into a basic shape by one person using both hands, then another person would manipulate the shape by flipping and transforming it, repeating this process until one could no longer adjust the rope into a neat shape, or until the rope became knotted and fell apart in their hands.

The game that Lin Xiaolu and Emerald Sparrow had just played was even an advanced version of the childhood game, disregarding any set patterns or configurations and not considering how to facilitate a handover to a playmate. It simply followed the principles of "pattern symmetry" and "no dead knots," making the variations of the pattern utterly unpredictable and irregular.

Thus, Lin Xiaolu ended up losing the game after a long period of thought.

Lin Xiaolu still remembered that when she was very young, her mother used to play this game with her. At that time, she did not understand any strategies or game techniques, and she mostly enjoyed messing up the thread in her mother's hands. Her mother never forced her to play properly, and ultimately, Lin Xiaolu did not gain much understanding of the game.

She had never anticipated that one day she would encounter a situation where flipping rope would be central to her training.

If she had another chance, she would definitely have practiced flipping rope diligently from a young age—Lin Xiaolu even harbored such a thought, but unfortunately, there were no second chances.

The matter had begun with her asking Emerald Sparrow to teach her how to use the silken thread for combat.

Initially, Emerald Sparrow had merely guided her through some combat techniques by standard procedure, including deliberately slowing down movements to spar with Lin Xiaolu and breaking down the actions to explain how to handle various situations, demonstrating the versatility of the silken thread in real combat.

However, after just two days of teaching, once Emerald Sparrow felt that she had explained the most basic concepts clearly and let Lin Xiaolu practice using the silken thread on her own, problems arose.

Or rather, there were no real problems, as Lin Xiaolu inevitably made a fool of herself.

She would either trip over the silken threads she laid out while walking; or she would tie herself up while tightening the threads; or after laying out the threads, she forgot where her own ends were; or she could not control the thickness and movement of the threads, often damaging clothing and skin during action, and one time even nearly slicing off Emerald Sparrow's fingers.

After that incident, Emerald Sparrow took the initiative to halt the combat training and suggested the flipping rope as an alternative.

"Let's start with the basics; you need to grasp the spatial changes of the silken thread, you must at least be sensitive to the positional shifts within the space after pulling the thread,"

Emerald Sparrow explained the purpose of the flipping rope training like this: "When you face a real battle, no enemy will give you time to contemplate your thread-laying strategy, and you won't have the luxury of recalling the positions of your threads. Without such sensitivity, it's not the enemy but yourself who will leave you covered in wounds."

Lin Xiaolu had no objections, considering how embarrassed she felt about her own behavior during previous training. After that, the practical combat elements of the special training were replaced with the flipping rope game.

Every day, besides continuing to learn combat techniques, practising with Magic Armor, and studying Magic Power, Lin Xiaolu also studied how to master the flipping rope.

During the first few days, she could only manage to produce some predefined patterns in a regimented fashion; but as time passed, she eventually caught on to some tricks and could just about keep up with Emerald Sparrow's pace, able to handle some extremely complex patterns.

In the recent game of flipping rope, although Lin Xiaolu still ended up losing, she had actually lasted several rounds against Emerald Sparrow, a significant improvement from the beginning when she could not flip a single pattern correctly.

Although by Emerald Sparrow's standards, Lin Xiaolu's current skill level was still far from sufficient for combat using the silken thread, with continuous progress at this rate, there was quite some hope that she could initially learn to use the silken thread within a month.

Thus, she did not make any further requests.

The two of them continued practicing in several more rounds until Lin Xiaolu obviously showed that she could no longer keep up with the thinking, and Emerald Sparrow then ended the training.

It was around this time that Bai Jingxuan knocked on the training hall door.

"Teacher, Sister Xiaolu, dinner is ready."

She first peeked half her body into the hall, confirmed that both were present, then stepped inside.

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Considering that the team from Bai'an City had already stayed here for a considerable period over the New Year holidays, continuing to act merely as guests was not really appropriate, hence Fangting City headquarters had ultimately reestablished a household chore rotation schedule.