Chapter 53: Light and Flimsy Falsehood

In the morning, an old-looking Wuling Hongguang was parked by the roadside, facing the gate of the old staff residential compound across the street, as inconspicuous as any ordinary vehicle.

It had not driven into the compound, as the excuse of moving furniture could not be used indefinitely.

Besides, moving things out from the inside this time might prompt even more questions from the security guard.

The guard was a retired elderly man who looked completely unthreatening, but leaving even a slightly deep impression on him could potentially develop into trouble later on.

Just like the family that had long since moved away to escape debts—nowadays, whenever someone frequently visited between the old house and the garage, no matter how careful they were, it would inevitably attract the attention of the neighbors.

Even if no one was willing to court trouble by making small talk with that family's daughter, gossip and sensational rumors would still circulate in casual conversations, and people would delve into this topic more deeply than others when asked by outsiders.

Yet today, none of them could actually catch a glimpse of Shi Ningyu.

She quietly passed through an invisible ripple and materialized beside the green belt near the bicycle sheds, as silently as she had arrived.

A faint illusion stretched across the entire row of bicycle sheds, making her movements very easy to overlook. Even if someone noticed her in advance and watched her closely with intent, their eyes would blur at the crucial moment, failing to catch which doorway she ultimately entered.

A similar camouflage was cast upon the cat carrier in her hand.

It looked much smaller than it actually was, appearing to outsiders merely as an ordinary handbag. However, magic could not alter its physical collision volume, which made Shi Ningyu's movements somewhat awkward.

She was not skilled in illusionist magic, but simple illusions were enough to deal with ordinary people. Unless another knowledgeable mage happened to be on the scene, no one would be able to detect anything amiss.

Carrying the cat carrier, Shi Ningyu safely returned to the vehicle and placed it in the rear compartment where the back seats had been removed.

The large cat carrier was crammed with several sphere-beasts, yet she had hauled it over with a single hand. In just two trips totaling seven sphere-beasts, she hadn't even broken a sweat.

"This magic array is simply too powerful!" Shi Ningyu casually dumped the sphere-beasts out and stroked the magic array at the bottom of the box. "It can actually alter gravity; if we made a few more, wouldn't it practically turn into an anti-gravity engine?"

In this regard, she was rather similar to Fu Linxing, occasionally coming up with whimsical ideas that left people both amused and bewildered, yet possessed a certain logic to them.

This time, however, Fu Lan did not simply laugh it off. Instead, he gave it serious thought: if one could overcome the difficulty of directly activating the array through magic ash, it might actually be possible.

Boarding a spacecraft driven by an anti-gravity magic array and heading toward the stars—why would I dream of such a thing?

He shook his head. While this idea was slightly more reliable than strapping a bunch of magical girls to the tail of a rocket as boosters, it still fell squarely into the realm of jokes.

Ultimately, he had applied this array to the cat carrier simply because transporting it otherwise would have been too difficult.

As for how a magic array belonging to none of the five major mage factions had been solidified by him, he no longer needed to invent excuses. By now, both he and Shi Ningyu had entered a tacit state of mutual understanding without spelling things out.

The car drove to the vicinity of a plot of land that had recently been cleared for demolition but was lagging behind schedule and had yet to be developed.

Few people passed through here, and parking by the roadside would lead others to assume they were related construction personnel, making it an ideal spot to get to work.

Due to a last-minute change in the number of sphere-beasts, the magic arrays Fu Lan had prepared in advance were insufficient. Shi Ningyu injected mana to activate the cat carrier and concocted a fresh batch of solution on the spot.

Looking at the various magic arrays inside the cat carrier, she joked, "Every time this thing starts up, it looks like an internet cafe computer case stuffed with light-pollution LED strips."

At this moment, Fu Lan reminded her, "By the way, when chanting the incantation to activate the purification array, make sure you don't reverse the second through fourth syllables."

"What happens if I reverse them?"

"Chances are someone might die... Anyway, just pay a bit of attention."

"Crap. I suddenly have the feeling of not knowing which foot to step forward with when walking. If you hadn't said anything, I probably wouldn't have chanted it backward..."

This run went smoothly, yielding over 800 grams of snow-grade magic ash.

Shi Ningyu was extremely satisfied with the improved formula. In its first official production run, the unit yield surpassed her previous best record.

Not only did it break records, but every single refinement was also exceptionally stable. In the past, she could only achieve a yield of magic ash from two sphere-beasts during her absolute best states, but now every single refinement guaranteed an output of over 100 grams from a single sphere-beast.

At this rate, a task that would have originally required thirty or forty sphere-beasts could now be settled with just sixteen or seventeen, and the purity was even higher.

"Is this what it feels like to be carried to victory by a master? It's absolute, pure enjoyment!" She hugged the bag filled with magic ash and said with a blissful expression.

Then, she suddenly remembered something, found a spot to level her mana balance, and pinched out a small bag, minimizing her finger contact area as if handling something filthy.

"I managed to get my hands on Old Ba's previous batch of goods, just in time to compare purities."

She first placed that bag of samples on one end of the balance, and then weighed an equal pinch from the newly refined goods to place on the other end.

The balance oscillated slightly for a moment before finally regaining equilibrium at a slight slant.

Their goods had won.

"Awesome! So awesome!" Shi Ningyu yelled excitedly. Seeing Fu Lan frantically shushing her, she remembered they were still by the roadside.

She clenched her fists in a silent cheer, and seeing no reaction from Fu Lan, she exaggeratedly pumped her fist again, shaking her head and making squeaking cheers.

Watching her double ponytails constantly slap against her own face in the commotion, Fu Lan finally couldn't hold it in anymore. He high-fived her and they both burst into suppressed laughter.

"You're too amazing, Teacher Xiaolan! I never expected us to overtake Old Ba so quickly." Shi Ningyu grinned uninhibitedly. "I really want to see the look on his face once this batch of goods hits the market!"

Work concluded, Fu Lan drove Shi Ningyu back to her apartment, parked the car at another location far away from both the apartment and the residential compound, and then returned alone.

Separating the execution locations of every single step was a basic survival skill for evading searches. There were only two of them, yet they paid far more attention to this than many small gangs did.

"Do it one more time, maybe twice at most, and this month's quota will be done. By then, after deducting the evenly split car purchase money and a portion of the bribery expenses, the cash in your hand should be around 90,000."

"No wait, given the quality of this batch, we've got to squeeze a bit more gold out of Old Tian!"

Shi Ningyu opened two cans of cola with the momentum of someone opening champagne at halftime, which Fu Lan felt was somewhat inauspicious.

Noticing his expression, she couldn't help asking, "Still think it's too little? There's no help for it; starting out always involves some necessary expenses, but it'll return to normal next month. We don't even have to pay for raw materials, saving a huge sum—it's worth the hardship.

"Also, stop dwelling on the money for the breeding technology. The past is in the past, look on the bright side."

Fu Lan shook his head. How could he possibly think it was too little, let alone blame Shi Ningyu for factoring the forged identity expenses back onto him? Even if she hadn't brought it up, he had intended to do so anyway.

Equivalent exchange—he had always believed in that principle. If Shi Ningyu stood on ceremony with him, that would only make him uncomfortable.

That wasn't what he had been thinking about just now, but naturally, the inauspicious thought in his head wasn't fit to be spoken aloud and ruin the mood.

He picked up a can of cola and clinked it against Shi Ningyu's: "I was just running through my head to see if there's any place where something could go wrong."

"Figures. I only need to focus on killing dogs, churning out goods, and running errands, while Teacher has to consider so many things," Shi Ningyu said half-jokingly and half-complaining, taking a large gulp of vanilla-flavored cola.

After hiding the newly refined magic ash, Shi Ningyu dug out the 300-plus grams refined last time, poured them onto the table, split them evenly down the middle using a bank card, and pushed half toward Fu Lan.

"Since we're using the new formula, these don't meet the standard anymore. Take half back for your own use."

Fu Lan looked at the magic ash pushed before him, and certain unbearable memories abruptly surged back. His body instantly tensed up, and a bead of cold sweat rolled down his forehead.

The living room... scattered silver hair... the magical girl slumped on the floor... the shocked son at the doorway...

He hurriedly said, "I... won't need it. You keep it for yourself; you're right at the stage where your mana is growing."

Shi Ningyu thought for a moment and took the magic ash back: "Fair enough."

The most direct and effective way for a mages to hone their craft was to drain their mana dry while training precise control, and then consume magic ash to rapidly replenish mana, thereby strengthening the body's adaptability to mana and raising their mana cap.

Shi Ningyu certainly wouldn't be polite about the magic ash returned to her.

As for whether she assumed he had already reached mastery in magic and no longer required frequent training, or if this was just another probe into whether he actually possessed magic at all, Fu Lan didn't want to delve too deeply.

To muddle through one day at a time—that was the only way a middle-aged man could avoid a breakdown.