Chapter Five: Harmony Between Master and Student

Before today, if anyone had shown Shining Yu such a transparent crystal and called it Magic Ash, she would have thought they were joking.

White Magic Ash was already the purest form available; even if the purity increased, it would only cause a slight increase in the number of clumps, with the largest clumps rarely reaching a centimeter in diameter.

Until now, her imagination of the ultimate Magic Ash was a solid lump of powder, like a large chunk of lime.

Seeing that octahedral crystal, Shining Yu's first reaction was to suspect Fulán was fooling her with a piece of crystal or glass.

But why would Fulán bring such an absurd item to fake Magic Ash? Even jokes have their limits. Their earlier conversation proved he wasn’t clueless about Magic Ash, so he wouldn’t make such a meaningless joke.

Moreover, although her ability wasn’t yet strong enough to sense its magical power directly, her intuition told her this was genuine Magic Ash.

“You can verify it right here,” Fulán said generously, holding out his hand.

Shining Yu took the crystal. Compared to a beast, the crystal wasn’t large—only about the length of a finger joint.

The usual yield of Magic Ash was far more than this. Was this a loss during the refining process?

She walked into the refining room and sat at a relatively clean table, placing a piece of paper beneath, then picked up a small knife to scrape some off.

Yet she hesitated—this thing was so transparent that scratching it felt like destroying a work of art.

But what the heck, if he could make one, he could make another. With that thought, Shining Yu started scraping.

She scraped a small pile of powder, expecting white ice-like flakes, but the powder was also transparent, as if the refraction of light had failed.

This unusual phenomenon made Shining Yu somewhat excited; she was about seventy to eighty percent convinced.

She gathered the powder with the knife, folded the paper, and tilted her head back to swallow it like dry snack crumbs left in a bag.

Seeing this hearty method, Fulán asked, “Aren’t you choking without water?”

“Try to get me a glass of water here,” Shining Yu pointed at the table cluttered with unknown bottled liquids and coughed lightly.

Halfway through, she suddenly froze; her eyes flickered with faint blue light, and thin veins around her eye sockets glowed a subtle blue.

“It’s too pure! This is way too pure!” she exclaimed in disbelief, pinching the crystal and examining it again under the light.

As a mage, she wouldn’t experience the usual symptoms other people got from ingesting Magic Ash. But this time’s replenishment was vastly different from before.

That tiny bit of powder provided magical energy that, by equal mass, was more than twice—perhaps over three times—the potency of her homemade Magic Ash.

The main difference was the intensity; only on rare occasions when she impulsively absorbed a large handful of Magic Ash in one gulp did she feel this way—like her mind was soaking in mint ice cream.

“How can it be this pure? How did you do it? Teach me, Teacher Fulán! I must learn this, teach me quickly!”

Fulán looked at her with a mix of laughter and resignation. She had never shown such enthusiasm in tutoring sessions before.

He cleared his throat and poured cold water on her enthusiasm: “I can’t teach you. This stuff can’t be sold externally.”

“Why not? With such top-quality goods, we’d be rich for sure!”

Without realizing it, Shining Yu had started using “we.”

“Have you ever seen Magic Ash in this form before?”

“...No, I’ve never even heard of it,” Shining Yu tilted her head in puzzlement. “Are you worried others won’t recognize it? Anyone can verify this is genuine with one test—it can’t be any purer.”

Fulán shook his head. “That’s exactly the problem. Its appearance far exceeds market standards; releasing it recklessly would attract too much attention—very dangerous. Also, such a sudden leap wouldn’t be conducive to making money.”

Shining Yu quickly understood his meaning. “So that’s why you want to improve my product... You want to squeeze toothpaste, gradually raising the price.”

“Exactly.”

Shining Yu smiled slyly. “Clever, Teacher Fulán. Didn’t expect you to be a shrewd businessman.”

Fulán forced a slight smile. If he really had the knack for scheming, he wouldn’t have ended up like this.

His primary concern was still safety.

---

He didn’t know what other chefs could achieve, but for him, refining a magic beast into such a crystal was not difficult.

By inserting an artificial interruption during the magical energy extraction process, the pure magical energy naturally separates from the beast’s body tissue. Concentrating his will to gather the dissipating energy then naturally forms such a crystal.

Compared to the complex refining process mages undergo, his method was more direct. Eliminating blood and flesh impurities and magical energy loss made such purity reasonable.

He believed any magical girl with some understanding of Magic Ash refining could achieve this, as magic was instinctive to them.

Mages require casting materials, long meditation training, incantations, and gestures for self-suggestion to solidify muscle-memory-like spell circuits that resonate with their internal magic to cast spells.

But magical girls need only a simple thought to do everything, and their magic capacity far surpasses ordinary mages.

Yet, whether from Fulán’s surveys on foreign websites or the information Shining Yu provided, it was clear no such purity of Magic Ash existed on the market.

Had no magical girl ever ventured into the Magic Ash industry?

Rather than entertain the unrealistic idea that she was the first in the business, Fulán preferred to believe other reasons led magical girls to keep a low profile.

If so, he certainly wouldn’t be the first foolish bird to show his face.

While he pondered anxiously, Shining Yu was already eager: “No time to waste, let’s start improving it now, Teacher Fulán!”

He rubbed his forehead helplessly. “Before that, could you stop calling me that?”

“Huh? Why?”

“It’s not… respectful enough.”

“Huh?” Shining Yu glared at him. “We were friends before, that’s why I called you that. I don’t call other teachers that!”

“I know, I know, sorry...” Fulán sighed. “It’s just that I’m no longer your teacher, and I’m getting on in years. Calling me that outside isn’t good.”

“Isn’t good? That’s ridiculous... So what should I call you?”

Fulán was stumped; he hadn’t considered this. What should young people his age call him? Old Fu? No, only his disrespectful son called him that...

While he was troubled, the girl smirked and said mischievously, “Uncle Fu?”

He felt embarrassed. Age-wise it wasn’t wrong, but it sounded strange coming from her.

Rubbing his forehead again, he relented. “Let’s just stick to Teacher Fu. ‘Teacher’ is broadly acceptable now...”

“That’s better. Stop worrying so much. You’re teaching me Magic Ash refining, so you really are my teacher.”

“Agreed. Now, show me your formula.”

“All right, Teacher Fulán!” Shining Yu laughed at his expression. “You only said not to call you that outside.”

Fulán gave up, aching, and spread his hands.

Shining Yu didn’t bring out a notebook. She tore a piece of paper and began writing casually.

Apparently for secrecy, she left no records except in her mind—perhaps also to make destroying evidence easier.

Fulán looked at her with new respect: “I wish you had this kind of memory when memorizing vocabulary.”

“Wasn’t it you who said rote memorization is useless? Using and remembering is most efficient,” she replied.

She handed him the densely filled page.

Looking at the messy handwriting, Fulán refrained from commenting. He struggled to decipher it while matching it to the magical knowledge he’d just crammed.

He wasn’t lying when he said he only knew a little magic.

His knowledge of Magic Ash was learned last night before bed and this morning while helping his son with homework. Plus, he had scattered knowledge from dealing with the Magic Bureau before—pure theory, no practice, as he had no magic in normal circumstances.

This also confirmed Shining Yu was being hunted because of producing and selling Magic Ash, not the worse scenario—that she was a hidden magical girl.

---

He had noticed upon entering—the bottles and jars and faint traces of magic circles on the floor in the refining room proved she followed the mage’s approach.

Though he learned it recently, Fulán wasn’t just pretending with the notes.

His talent for magic control let him quickly grasp the rules that mages could only infer from phenomena and easily see how many detours they took in their blind exploration.

Shining Yu’s formula was partly accidental but could be greatly improved with minor corrections.

However, unable to experiment himself, he needed his student’s help to verify his ideas.

He studied the notes intently for nearly half an hour, silent.

Shining Yu gave up her chair and sat on a wooden box, playing with her phone quietly, waiting without complaint.

After reviewing the magic circles on the back of the notes again, Fulán finally returned the paper and said, “That’s all for today. I have some ideas now. I’ll organize them after going home. Staying here too long isn’t good.”

Shining Yu agreed. “We should go. If we stay later, the strolling old ladies will head home to cook dinner, and it’ll get crowded, making it harder to leave. You don’t need to give me back that paper—take it with you.”

Fulán was surprised. “Not destroy it?”

“Burning means rewriting, which is a hassle. You keep it. We’re partners now; if we can’t trust each other on something this small, what kind of partnership is that?”

Still, Fulán found a lighter and burned the notes. “It’s fine. I’ve memorized it.”

All these things followed the same principles; he only needed to remember all modifications differing from the public version.

“The new formula requires red phosphorus and mercury. Buy this amount each tomorrow and bring them. Also, some miscellaneous items.”

He wrote a note for Shining Yu. Their line of work had reliable channels, much safer than him buying on his own.

Shining Yu gladly accepted the task. “Consider it done.”

After putting away the note, she seemed to recall something. “By the way, Teacher Fulán, how did you know I was refining Magic Ash that night?”

“I didn’t know for sure. When I met you earlier, it was just a casual question.”

Fulán spoke honestly. “You might be a chef, or caught selling en route, or an escaped mage, or even a magical girl. But if you’re on the Magic Bureau’s radar, it’s definitely magic-related.”

“What if you guessed wrong? Would you still choose me as a partner?”

“Of course not. I wouldn’t drag a student down the wrong path.”

Shining Yu blinked and concluded, “In other words, if the student’s already gone astray, you can cooperate with a clear conscience.”

Fulán lowered his head, the red letters from the wall flashing through his mind: “How much more do you need to earn?”

“Don’t ask, okay?”

Though she was once and still his teacher, her words carried a hint of warning.

“Teacher Fulán, I’m no longer a thirteen-year-old child. Don’t ask me, and I won’t ask you.”

Looking at this somewhat unfamiliar yet unchanged girl, Fulán was filled with emotion.

And what about you? he asked himself. Have you really reached the point where you must take such risks?

Perhaps, like her, it’s not just for the money...

Indeed, they both knew exactly what they were doing.

So Fulán cast aside meaningless worries, arranged a meeting time with Shining Yu for the next day, and left the garage.

After he left, Shining Yu looked deeply at the ground, then went to the table to carefully weigh and record the weight of each bottle of material.

Outside the residential area, Fulán found a hidden spot. When no one was watching, he took a paper package from his pocket and emptied the mixed contents into a drainage ditch.