Lanqi followed Talia into the room and discovered it was her bedroom.
Talia switched on a floor lamp resting on the plush rug beside the bed. The white walls reflected its soft glow, instantly making the entire space feel bright and spacious.
Standing by the doorway, Lanqi could see an oak sideboard packed with sealed food containers. Beneath their clear lids lay all sorts of small pastries and desserts—cream puffs, crispy cheese tarts, mango pancakes—which seemed to be her sweet companions after breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even midnight snacks.
Lanqi had only glanced at them, but before a single thought could even cross his mind, he felt Talia's murderous glare.
"Don't stare."
It seemed she had never intended to let Lanqi see these sweets, which clashed so heavily with her personality.
Talia retrieved a small case from beneath the bed.
With the click of metal latches, she opened it to reveal a set of high-grade portable card-making tools. Next, Talia retrieved some card-making materials from a storage cabinet.
"Sit."
She pointed to the desk on one side of the bedroom, gesturing for Lanqi to take the chair.
Meanwhile, she sat on the other side of the long desk, perched on the edge of her bed.
"Next, I will craft basic Tier 1 semi-finished magic cards across various magic types. I will teach you a universal formula principle. You will only need to complete one very simple step, and then I will finalize it. From the discrepancy in the final completion rate, we will be able to determine your affinity with that type of magic."
Even as she spoke, Talia had already picked up some of the tools and set to work.
"Um, what if I accidentally blow up a card?"
Lanqi was already glancing around the room, apparently looking for firefighting equipment.
If he blew up Talia's bedroom, Lanqi had no idea what the consequences would be. Besides, the restaurant downstairs was open for business; he had to be considerate of others.
"Just try it."
Talia looked up and stared at Lanqi, her eyes shining as cold as a frozen moon.
Lanqi felt a chill run straight through his chest to his back. This time, Talia was dead serious.
"...I won't blow up any cards."
Lanqi promised with absolute conviction, his grip on the card-making tool tightening by half a degree.
Though Talia looked harsher than ever, Lanqi had always upheld the traditional virtue of respecting the elderly; toward a several-hundred-year-old lady, he would only ever speak gently.
Talia paid him no further mind for the moment, focusing on her preparations.
This was how demons treated apprentices: if she was going to teach, she would teach thoroughly.
Although Talia lacked teaching experience, she felt that treating Lanqi—a demon in human guise—like this couldn't possibly be wrong.
She had watched Lanqi craft cards ever since his very first attempt, so she naturally understood where his issues lay and how to train this considerably gifted youth into an outstanding card maker.
The young master's biggest problem was that—
Aside from his bizarre innate knack for detonating magic cards, his state of mind while crafting had always been far too relaxed—abnormally so.
While ordinary card makers could only envy a mindset devoid of all tension, maintaining it forever would trap Lanqi in another pitfall: he was too nonchalant, causing his success rate to languish indefinitely.
In Talia's view, Challenge and Skill were the primary factors influencing one's Crafting State. If the challenge was too high, a card maker would lack control over themselves and the magic card, leading to anxiety or frustration. Conversely, if the challenge was too low, the card maker would feel bored and lose interest, becoming overly careless during the process.
The optimal crafting state—Total Immersion—occurred primarily when challenge and crafting skill were in balance.
Because Lanqi always preferred a stress-free state where his skill and talent outweighed the challenge, it indirectly led to him treating card explosions as no big deal.
Therefore, Talia was going to train Lanqi the demon way: failure meant death—or worse than death—thereby ratcheting up the pressure to force Lanqi's crafting state into equilibrium.
Talia showed Lanqi the first semi-finished Mind card she had prepared.
"I have already inscribed the basic mind-influencing magical structure for you. You need to embed an auxiliary formula into the circle. This formula can be understood as a supplement or mana authentication, used to enhance targeting or friend-or-foe identification."
As Talia explained, she personally demonstrated how to complete it before his eyes.
"This card was a demonstration. Every card after this will be entirely up to you to complete."
Lanqi nodded solemnly.
Talia's patient, gentle explanation was entirely premised on his absolute adherence to instructions and orders.
If he slipped up in the slightest later, he figured he would truly be done for.
At the same time,
Lanqi gradually began to grasp the true essence of demonic pedagogy that he hadn't fully appreciated back at the Demon Academy:
Unlocking a student's potential on the razor's edge between life and death through overwhelming pressure.
If he ever needed to guide fellow students at his own academy or elsewhere in the future, he could certainly put this to good use.
Lanqi was confident that his headmaster skill set had grown even more well-rounded.
After that,
silence fell over the room.
They exchanged no more words, focusing solely on the work before them. Each attended to their own task, yet passing the cards back and forth carried a tacit, wordless harmony.
When fully engrossed in an activity, one loses awareness of time and surroundings, gaining profound satisfaction, enjoyment, and immersion.
Talia watched Lanqi from time to time, certain that his current crafting state was distinctly different from before.
It seemed she would need to keep a close eye on him during future lessons as well.
...
Outside the room, the sky shifted subtly.
The bright morning sky had at some point been washed in pale shades of orange and red, the clouds ignited like burning torches beneath the setting sun.
The horizon gradually shifted from azure to violet, then deepened into dark navy.
The sun slowly sank along the skyline until it finally slipped beneath the horizon, leaving behind the gathering twilight.
All the way until night fell, they continued crafting cards.
And now, in Talia's room,
accompanied by soft breathing,
Lanqi lay slumped over the desk in deep sleep, his face as innocent and unguarded as an infant's.
Whether from extreme focus or the crushing pressure from Talia that left him terrified to slack off, he hadn't even realized he had reached his limit. After finishing the final card's completion and handing it to Talia, his head had drooped, and he had collapsed onto the desk, fast asleep.
Talia looked at the stack of magic cards on the desk, which was also the test results:
Aside from Mind magic, Healing was also fairly good. Among all elemental magic, only Light was passable, though not particularly outstanding.
As for the other minor categories of magic, his affinities were mostly unpromising, just like the Curse and Poison affinities Talia had recognized at a glance.
Yet one single card, inscribed with a colorless runic seal, shone with a dazzling, distinctive brilliance.
Proof of an exceptional affinity.
After testing every categorized type of magic, Talia had indeed found the one and only magic type for which Lanqi possessed an extraordinary affinity.
Talia picked up the card, her expression complex.
"Why of all things is this bastard best suited for Sealing magic...?"
She glanced at Lanqi's naturally innocent sleeping face, sensing that his capacity for menace was bound to reach whole new heights after the registered card maker exam.
Chapter 91