“Bang.”
After who knows how many attempts to compress her magic into a denser form, the purple sphere of magic in Jiang Yao’s hand exploded once again.
The young girl frowned in dissatisfaction and said, “Still no good, it’s still unstable.”
“That’s okay.”
Jiang Lingwei snapped a piece of chalk into segments and tossed them back and forth rhythmically.
“This was never something you could master quickly. As long as you have a method, take it slow. Try to find a way to apply this operation to all of your spells.”
“When the day comes that compressing magic is as instinctive as breathing, that’s when you’ve truly mastered it.”
(But Yao Yao probably won’t even need to get to that point.)
Jiang Lingwei thought silently to herself:
(If the battles aren’t that intense, just practicing alone will always be slow going.)
It’s just like swordsmanship—if you fight people every day, using it constantly, because if you don’t you’ll die, you’ll improve much faster than just training by yourself in the courtyard.
“It’s still not working…”
Jiang Yao hadn’t expected this to be so difficult.
Just now, when holding the tiny light sphere Aurora had given her, she had been able to channel her magic inside and feel the state of the light with ease.
Always a clever girl, Jiang Yao had been certain she’d learn quickly.
But now, trying to compress her own magic into that same dense, tight form was proving incredibly difficult.
Either she forced it too hard and the sphere exploded, or it was uneven and shattered, the light magic inside dissipating and unable to form a stable, compressed ball.
Suddenly, she looked up and asked, “Aurora, how long did it take you to learn this?”
“Huh? Me?” Jiang Lingwei pointed at herself. “It took me over a week just to get the basics…”
“So it’s really that hard, huh.”
Scratching her head, Jiang Yao started gathering another magic sphere.
Seeing that Aurora also needed that much time, Jiang Yao realized that although it was a fundamental skill, it wasn’t something you could just pick up easily.
She steeled herself to keep trying, determined to at least get a foothold today.
(Phew.)
Watching her daughter get back to work, Jiang Lingwei continued to toss her chalk pieces with an air of calm, but in truth, she let out a quiet sigh of relief.
She couldn’t let the child lose her confidence.
(The truth is, I managed to compress it successfully that very afternoon and went straight into live combat…)
(But my magic is a different attribute—better not tell Yao Yao about that.)
Still, this couldn’t go on forever. Since Jiang Yao hadn’t figured out the trick, she needed to find a way to help her.
After a brief thought, Jiang Lingwei said, “Oh right, Yao—”
She almost blurted out ‘Yao Yao’ as usual, but quickly corrected herself.
“Shuijing, can you remember how you defeated that dark fairy?”
“Hmm?”
The magic sphere in her hand scattered into sparks of light as Jiang Yao looked up. “Defeat that… You mean the one in the Anshui pipes?”
“That’s right,” Jiang Lingwei nodded. “I remember you used the ‘Crystal within Crystal’ technique, hiding the real, magic-filled crystal inside an outer shell so it slipped past the dark fairy’s senses and destroyed the construct from within. Right? How did you think of doing that at the time?”
“Uh…”
Jiang Yao thought for a moment, looking a little embarrassed as she replied, “Actually, I’d known about ‘crystal within crystal’ for a long time, but that was back when I first became a magical girl.”
She recalled, “After discovering I could make crystals, I started thinking, could I make little pendants or something?”
“Like this.”
She spoke shyly, “Back then, I thought, wouldn’t it be meaningful to make myself a crystal necklace or a hair ornament with my magic?”
At this, her voice trailed off.
Jiang Lingwei stayed silent, patiently waiting for her to continue.
The brief silence seemed to make Jiang Yao think her little secret had been seen through by the powerful Aurora.
Believing she couldn’t hide it, she quickly gave up and covered her face with her hands.
“Okay, I admit it, I just thought it looked pretty and cool back then… That’s why I kept trying…”
“That’s perfectly fine.”
Having long been bathed in the elegance of Wen Yaquan, who had never really recovered from her chuunibyou phase, Jiang Lingwei couldn’t quite understand why her daughter was so embarrassed, but still comforted her.
“If you have magic that can create things, it’s perfectly normal to have ideas like that.”
“Right…?”
Encouraged, Jiang Yao finally continued.
“Back then, I couldn’t get it right no matter how I tried—it always came out as a big lump with sharp edges.”
“I asked Xiaobai, and Xiaobai just made fun of me.”
She paused a moment before continuing.
“Out of options, I started following some science channels about crystals, hoping to find some theoretical clues.”
What she didn’t say was that she’d once really admired Xiaobai. Her imagination about fairies had led her to believe Xiaobai must be one of those mysterious and powerful helpers for magical girls.
But when she was frustrated, that little white ball who’d never taught her much, always hid behind her shoulder or cloak during a fight, and just shook its whiskers while snacking on the chips she’d bought and giggling at her distress…
Out of sheer annoyance, some kind of instinct hidden deep in her blood was triggered.
After that, Jiang Yao was thoroughly disillusioned about fairies, and Xiaobai became more of a soccer ball.
Anyway, fairies weren’t hurt by purely physical attacks—they actually bounced pretty well.
“It was then that I saw a program about ‘crystal within crystal,’ crystals formed inside other crystals.”
“And during that fight with the dark fairy, I really was out of ideas.”
Looking back on that time, Jiang Yao felt it had been dangerously close.
Even though she’d managed to win on her own and was glad for it, it really had been a close call.
“It was impossible to damage it from outside. To defeat it, I had to break through from within.”
She explained as she recalled.
“First, I ‘shook’ the construct from the outside, to make sure the dark fairy was inside.”
“That’s the first step. If it hadn’t been inside and was just remote-controlling it, then I’d really have to consider…”
Meeting Jiang Lingwei’s eyes, Jiang Yao hesitated a bit, then stammered, “That is… requesting reinforcements and running away with the people I know.”
“Because if that was the case, there really was nothing I could do. Even if I destroyed the construct, the fairy itself would be unharmed and could attack again anytime, so…”
“Don’t worry.”
Understanding the source of her hesitation, Jiang Lingwei nodded. “You did the right thing. In those situations, doing your best is enough. Usually, it takes several magical girls to deal with a dark fairy. I don’t know how things are now, but I bet it’s about the same.”
“For you to beat it alone—that’s something only effort and a bit of luck could achieve. Requesting support would have been the smarter choice.”
“Yeah.”
Jiang Yao agreed, obviously relieved, and went on.
“Once I was sure, I started my plan.”
“I focused on imagining a magical crystal getting inside. I didn’t think about much else—just kept telling myself, ‘It has to work, it has to work,’ and in the end, it did.”
“Exactly.”
Jiang Lingwei’s eyes lit up. “That’s it.”
She stepped down from the podium and grasped Jiang Yao’s arm, letting a gentle stream of magic flow through her armored spirit attire, tracing down her arm and into Jiang Yao’s left hand, where it gathered into a new compressed sphere of magic.
“This is the power of the ‘heart.'”
Jiang Lingwei spoke slowly.
“Human hearts are influenced by magic, but unlike the fairies, who are divided into light and darkness by this, we can influence magic right back.”
“No matter what your goal, strong willpower can create miracles at critical moments.”
“Of course, that doesn’t make it omnipotent—if it did, I could just wish for all the dark trash to leave Earth forever, and we wouldn’t have to struggle so much. If that were possible, every magical girl in the world could retire right now.”
“Haha…”
Swaddled in Aurora’s warmth, Jiang Yao couldn’t help but laugh at the joke, letting her mind wander.
If only it were really like that—how many troubles would just disappear…
“In that case, maybe you can try recalling the feeling from when you made ‘crystal within crystal,’ and try again.”
Jiang Lingwei continued, “It might just work out smoothly this time.”
“Okay!”
Jiang Yao nodded eagerly, feeling the warmth flowing through her and the structure of the new magic sphere in her palm, and went back to practicing.
And so, it continued until dawn, until after six o’clock.
“This time I did it!”
Jiang Yao looked at the compressed ball of light in her hand.
It wasn’t her first time succeeding, but just doing it once wasn’t enough—she needed to make it stable.
Only then would it be a true victory.
Now, she could steadily compress magic and release it.
She just wasn’t very proficient yet.
But the hardest first step was done; the rest was just a matter of practice, and that was nothing to worry about.
“Shuijing, you’re amazing!”
Jiang Lingwei applauded from the side. “Alright, you’ve got the basics down. Next, we’ll put it into practice during actual combat.”
“It’s still early, so I’ll teach you the rest tomorrow night. For now, let me send you home…”
As she spoke, she suddenly turned to look out the window.
On the blue horizon, a flock of little birds was calling out as they flew into the distance.
E
After a split second of thought, two layers of light shields appeared instantly, one encasing herself, the other Jiang Yao.
“Shuijing!”
Jiang Lingwei shouted, “Prepare for battle!”
“Bang!”
Before she’d finished speaking, a thick, pitch-black tentacle burst out from beneath the classroom floor!
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