The Fire Element Spirit Seed

Mo Fan had managed to wheedle three Lightning Element Star Chart Books and three Fire Element Star Chart Books out of Tang Yue, bringing his total stockpile to seven Intermediate-level magic cards. His confidence surged.

Basic-level magic was nothing compared to Intermediate-level — he only had to think back to the overwhelming, brutal force of that Blazing Fist to know that.

Tang Yue did offer one warning, however. Star Chart Books might be trivial to someone like her, but most mages who truly wanted to grow stronger knew better than to become overly dependent on training aids.

Star Chart Books were a crutch, nothing more. The more you relied on them, the harder your Star Motes became to Control.

Star Motes needed to maintain constant communication with their mage. Using a Star Chart Book was like handing your children off to strangers to raise — when the time came for them to listen, they simply wouldn't.

Tang Yue advised Mo Fan to stop using them entirely once this batch was spent. The side effects weren't worth the cost; and given his rate of progress, there was every reason to expect far greater heights ahead.

Star Chart Books in hand, Mo Fan disguised himself as an ordinary backpacker and fell into a discreet tail behind the suspect.

He had to admit, the man looked remarkably refined — even handsome. Hard to imagine someone like that doing the vile things he apparently had.

The suspect eventually wandered into a stretch of barren fields, lingering there as if examining something. The land had once been reasonably broad farmland; a few elderly farmers still sat beneath shade canopies, sighing to themselves. Their crops, ready for the autumn harvest, had been inexplicably scorched dry right before their eyes. How could they not grieve?

"Grandfather, do you remember when the water first dried up?" The cap-wearing man approached one of the old farmers, all courtesy and pleasant smiles.

"About ten days ago, I'd say. My grandkids ran off to splash around upstream — those little terrors, I told them a hundred times not to go swimming up there and get our crops drinking their bathwater — anyway, they came back and said the pool had gone shallow. Couldn't even swim in it anymore. I figure that must've been when the water started disappearing, like magic."

"I see. Thank you — I'll go have a look."

"Young man, I'd advise against it. Word is it's like an oven up there — blistering hot…"

"I'll be fine."

The cap man turned and headed upstream, following the farmer's directions toward the creek that had long since gone completely dry.

Mo Fan's problem became immediately apparent: if he followed now, the path ahead was deserted. The man would spot him in a heartbeat. He hung back, waited, then jogged over to the farmer and got the gist of their exchange.

*So he went upstream.* Mo Fan gave a quiet nod.

"No time to waste — let's go."

The voice drifted over from somewhere beside him, low and almost spectral. Mo Fan startled and spun around to find Tang Yue standing right there.

*Damn.* She could use shadow skills — did she have to be this impossibly hard to detect?!

"That man seems to be investigating the cause of the drought too," Mo Fan said.

"Mm. Let's move. Unless I'm wrong, this area is going to get a lot more crowded before long."

Mo Fan had no idea what she meant, but something told him this situation was a great deal more complicated than Tang Yue had initially let on.

They pressed on. The creek's source lay somewhere up in the hills, and as they climbed, the full extent of the devastation became clear. Not a trace of moisture remained along the entire length of the streambed; even the plants lining its banks had collapsed in wilted, browning swaths.

"This looks like one or two months of drought," Mo Fan muttered, eyes scanning the ruined landscape. "But why? If it were an actual disaster, it'd be all over the news — let me just check—" He glanced at his phone. "Are you kidding me? No signal? Whatever happened to rural coverage?!"

"It's probably unrelated to natural drought," Tang Yue said. "Hangzhou doesn't have dry seasons in July. Stay on that man's trail — we'll have answers soon."

Mo Fan nodded and opened his mouth to reply — then Tang Yue's pale, jade-smooth hand shot out and pressed firmly over his lips.

Before he could so much as blink, she had yanked him sideways and pulled him into the shadow of a nearby tree with practiced, fluid speed.

"Mask your presence," she breathed, her lips close enough to his ear that the warmth of her words reached him alongside a faint, intoxicating fragrance.

Good fortune had arrived without warning. Mo Fan hastily suppressed his presence as instructed, acutely aware that he was now pressed squarely against Tang Yue's absolutely impossible figure, the two of them crammed behind a single large trunk.

A warm breeze stirred through the canopy, leaves swaying in dappled light. Tucked against the bark like a pair of lovers stealing a moment in the forest, their outlines began to blur at the edges — dissolving slowly into the tree's shadow until they vanished entirely.

A dense, smothering darkness saturated the air around them. Mo Fan looked down and couldn't make out his own body; only by straining could he catch the faintest overlapping silhouette where they stood. Tang Yue left no shadow at all — as if she had simply ceased to exist. And yet all the evidence of her existence was very much present: that intoxicating fragrance, the warmth, the impossible softness pressed against him. Mo Fan's thoughts drifted pleasantly and made no effort to return.

Then footsteps broke through his private reverie — more than a few pairs of them, by the sound.

He snapped to attention and fixed his gaze on the far side of the dry creek. Through the trees, a group came into view. Their gear marked them unmistakably as Hunter-mages.

Hunter-mages spent their lives beyond the Safe Zone, in constant struggle against the wilderness and Demon-Beasts. Their equipment was always specialized, always distinctive — one look was all it took.

*Odd,* Mo Fan thought. *Has the government already posted a bounty? Did they actually call in Hunter-mages?*

"Trust me on this." The man at the front — whose hair was styled in a wild cowboy cut — spoke with easy confidence. "There's definitely a Fire Element Spirit Seed here. Those fools still think it's a drought. Pathetic. You all know what a Fire Element Spirit Seed fetches on the open market — if we move before anyone else catches on, we're set for life."

"Pan Xiong," growled a man with a scar carved across his face, "you better not be stringing us along. We passed up a paying bounty mission to come here. If we walk away empty-handed—"

"The way I see it," a bespectacled man interjected, "a Fire Element Spirit Seed is the most likely explanation. Natural drought couldn't strip a region dry this fast — and certainly not here. This is Jiangnan. Lush, wet Jiangnan. Right now it looks like the outer fringes of the northwest, practically desert."

"Right. Then let's move — lock down the Spirit Seed's location as fast as possible."

"Ha! We're going to be rich!"

"Pan Xiong — and we all know you're a Fire Element mage — don't you dare think about refining that Spirit Seed for yourself. None of us could survive those side effects. Best to sell it and split the take evenly. Are we clear?"