Nimbus 2000? Dismantle! Dismantle! Dismantle!

"Have you heard? Professor Binns went to Headmaster Dumbledore to demand his salary?"

"Really? Professor Binns has been teaching History of Magic at Hogwarts for hundreds of years, hasn't he?"

"Then how much salary does the school have to pay him?"

"Several hundred years of wages would have to come to tens of thousands of Galleons, at least."

Professor Binns's demand for unpaid wages became Hogwarts's hottest piece of news around Halloween, and the students all waited eagerly for further developments.

"Do ghosts even have anything they need to spend money on?" Harry asked Zhang San with a thoroughly puzzled expression, since Zhang San was also a ghost.

Zhang San shrugged. "They definitely didn't before, but that might not be the case from now on."

Ron leaned over curiously. "Why?"

"Because they need to use Galleons to buy food from me..." Zhang San muttered quietly. "The money the ghosts get their hands on all ends up in my pocket."

Harry and Ron were utterly shocked. "You're even squeezing money out of ghosts?"

"Making money isn't shameful... Mainly, when they come to me for food, it consumes my incense power. I'd feel bad if I didn't recover some of the cost." Zhang San looked deeply aggrieved.

Treating Hogwarts's ghosts to a meal or two was no problem, but Zhang San couldn't possibly use the incense power he had painstakingly accumulated to support them.

Hogwarts's ghosts were already souls with incomplete three souls and seven spirits. If they wanted to regain their senses for the long term, they could only rely on Zhang San's incense power. No one wanted to live muddleheadedly when they could live lucidly, so once the ghosts experienced the benefits of incense power, they clung to Zhang San completely.

In all of Hogwarts, only Zhang San could obtain incense power. This stuff was a special force born from China's divine path system, a conceptual product of faith and emotion.

Wizards who did not cultivate the divine path through incense power could not produce it, much less these thoroughly dead foreign ghosts at Hogwarts. Even if they found a group of people to conduct rituals for them, they would not be able to gather even a trace of incense power.

Thus, every ghost at Hogwarts could only become a leek for Zhang San to harvest at will. Zhang San's stance was clear: if they wanted incense offerings, they could either exchange Galleons for them or help him bring in incense power.

Professor Binns was the kind of ghost who wanted both and was equally forceful with both. First, he added a process of burning incense and worshipping Zhang San before History of Magic class. Then he went to Headmaster Dumbledore to demand his wages.

After deliberation, the Hogwarts Board of Governors decided to issue Professor Binns two hundred years of back pay, totaling an astonishing two hundred thousand Galleons. Yet Professor Binns handed all the money to Zhang San almost as soon as he received it.

Zhang San thus became the richest student at Hogwarts, while Harry Potter fell from the top spot to second place.

Two hundred thousand Galleons was an astronomical sum for anyone, and Zhang San had not expected Professor Binns to be so outrageously wealthy.

He promptly got Professor Binns a black-gold membership card for the little temple. With this card, Professor Binns could enjoy incense offerings at the little temple whenever he wished.

Ghosts were souls with incomplete spirits to begin with. How much incense power could one ghost possibly absorb? Hogwarts's ghosts had no way of cultivating through incense power. Simply absorbing it to maintain their sanity consumed very little incense power.

No matter how much Professor Binns could eat, there was a limit to the incense power he could consume. The two hundred thousand Galleons was enough for Zhang San to lift all restrictions and let Professor Binns indulge to his heart's content.

In truth, the incense power earned from the pre-class incense-burning ritual alone was enough to support Professor Binns. The extra two hundred thousand Galleons was pure profit.

Exclusive secret techniques really did make money fast!

With his wallet now full, Zhang San continued pouring money into the flying broom project. He no longer thought much of the junk brooms in the Room of Requirement. He had money now—he could just buy good brooms and dismantle them.

Flush with cash and feeling willful, Zhang San spent a fortune on a Nimbus 2000 for the research group to use as a reference. Dismantling old brooms alone would never reveal the technological gap. Having the newest, best, fastest broom as a control group would help the research group see the situation clearly and know both themselves and their enemy.

"Are we really going to dismantle it?" Ron asked with a conflicted expression, his lips pursed.

This was a Nimbus 2000! The best and most expensive flying broom on the market! This was two thousand Galleons with wings!

They were really just going to dismantle it?

According to the Nimbus Company's warranty policy, if a buyer performed any disassembly on a broom, the Nimbus Company would no longer provide any repair services for that broom.

In fact, Harry Potter's Nimbus 2000, which had broken during a Quidditch match, could have been returned to the factory for repairs. Something that expensive could not possibly be scrapped just because it broke, or not many people would buy one.

"Dismantle it! Dismantle it thoroughly! Dismantle it without restraint!" Zhang San said. "How are you supposed to study the magic attached to it if you don't take it apart? The magic isn't applied to the broom's surface. What the hell is the point of just looking at its appearance?"

"I... I can't bear to..." Ron's hands trembled.

Hermione shoved Ron aside. She was a purely rational research scholar. The Valkyrie did not care how expensive the thing was. Since Zhang San had told her to dismantle it, she would get to work.

"Finite Incantatem!" Hermione raised her wand and cast the spell on the Nimbus 2000, which had been preparing to make a run for it.

Under the flickering magical light, the flying broom that had been about to flee lay on the test bench like a dead fish.

To prevent buyers from dismantling their brooms, the Nimbus Company placed protective spells on all its products. Hermione had cast Finite Incantatem specifically to remove the protective spell and make disassembly easier.

Fred and George stood guard on either side of Hermione. If the broom in front of them made the slightest move, they would rush forward and pin it down.

Hermione's gaze was as cold as someone who had been gutting fish at RT-Mart for twenty years. She could no longer remember how many flying brooms she had dismantled. The process had become muscle memory.

Flying brooms that appeared seamless on the surface actually had joints. Taking one apart required extremely advanced manual skill. You could not develop that skill without dismantling at least dozens of brooms.

"Wow! What an intricate design!" Fred, the design specialist, exclaimed as he looked at the broom taken apart into components.

George nodded along. "The material combination is also extremely well considered. The oak, pearwood, and poplar blend balances speed and handling."

"My god... There are so many spells attached to this broom..." Ron was equally awestruck.

No wonder the Nimbus 2000 was so expensive. This was not something an ordinary person could replicate. Its technical threshold was simply far too high.

The flying broom technology research group had spent several months working diligently, and it had not been without results. The brooms they had crafted by hand already performed on par with the classic Cleansweep Seven.

Now, dismantling a Nimbus 2000 would allow the group members to learn better and imitate with clearer goals.

"This is multilayered three-dimensional enchantment-stacking technology... No wonder they can attach so much magic in such a small space." Ron pointed at a magical core component.

Zhang San asked, "Can you replicate it?"

"Of course not!" Ron said righteously. "I need to study it carefully..."

In any case, this Nimbus 2000 had died for a worthy cause. The two thousand Galleons in tuition had not been wasted. Besides, Professor Binns had paid for it, so Zhang San did not feel the slightest bit heartbroken.