A Heaven-Defying Cultivation Speed

*Thank goodness he's all right.*

Ye Xinxia's heart finally settled.

"Xinxia, I've dealt with those guys. They won't come looking for trouble anymore." Mo Fan set the wheelchair down in front of her.

"I saw it just now... I saw lightning. It looked like Lightning Seal — the basic Lightning Element skill." Xinxia said.

The moment Mo Fan heard that, pride surged through him — but he said nothing, just watched her with those mischievous eyes.

Something felt off to Xinxia. She thought it over carefully, and a flicker of astonishment crossed her beautiful eyes.

"The one who Released Lightning Seal was... Brother Mo Fan??"

Mo Fan neither confirmed nor denied it. He just smiled like that.

"It really was you — Brother Mo Fan is a Mage now??" Xinxia said, barely daring to believe it.

"Ha! You're officially the first person to witness my true power!" On a sudden impulse, Mo Fan planted a kiss squarely on Xinxia's soft, fair cheek.

Xinxia hadn't expected that ambush at all. Her cheeks went deep pink in an instant — so pink the flush spread all the way down her neck.

Mo Fan caught himself and realized he'd gotten far too carried away. He hastily apologized: "Sorry, sorry — I was just so excited."

Xinxia's voice dropped to near-silence. "Then... then you really are a Mage already?"

Mo Fan nodded.

"Our teacher said Lightning Element awakening only happens in one out of a thousand people. At the basic tier, Lightning Element holds a huge advantage — it's considered the foremost among all the basic elemental disciplines." Xinxia spoke these words genuinely happy for him.

She was well aware of the family's circumstances. On top of that, her arrival as part of the household had placed a significant burden on Uncle Mo Jiaxing through no fault of his own. She had heard from her aunt that he had already sold the house — clearly things had grown quite desperate.

Both she and Mo Fan were still young. There was little they could do right now to ease Uncle Mo Jiaxing's burden. The only path forward was to study hard and become true Mages — that was the only thing that could pull this family back from the edge.

It seemed Brother Mo Fan had gotten there first. He had actually learned magic in such a short time...

Wait. That didn't add up.

Suddenly, Xinxia realized something. Those expressive eyes of hers settled on Mo Fan with a searching look.

Mo Fan kept his expression perfectly neutral. "What is it?"

"You awakened less than half a year ago. From everything I know, even the most talented students still need close to a year to complete a basic-tier Release." Xinxia said.

Mo Fan went still.

*That can't be right. Even the most gifted need a full year from awakening to Release??*

*Then... mastering the basic tier in under half a year — that's actually insane.*

The problem was, Mo Fan had had absolutely no idea.

As far as he had been concerned, that idiot Mu Bai had already controlled four or five Star Motes — wasn't it perfectly natural for him to be able to Release magic?

So why was Xinxia staring at him with that expression of total disbelief — the look people gave freaks?

*Could it be that learning a basic-tier skill in under half a year was genuinely that monstrous in this world??*

"When you say 'even the most talented need a year' — what level of talent are we actually talking about?" Mo Fan asked carefully.

*He definitely couldn't let her realize how much he still didn't know about this world.*

"Mu Ningxue is probably the most gifted student in all of Bo City — she can rival many genius-level students from the Imperial Capital. But even she took eight months from her awakening to mastering her first basic Ice Element skill." Xinxia said.

"Eight... eight months?" Mo Fan's mind went blank.

Mu Ningxue — who was she, exactly?

The only student in all of Bo City to be directly accepted by an Imperial Capital academy. The apple of the entire Mu Clan's eye. From childhood she had been immersed in her family's deep magical heritage, with cultivation resources that a commoner Mage could never hope to obtain in a lifetime.

And the reason she had been placed on that pedestal was inextricably linked to her staggering magical talent.

Even someone like her — a true daughter of heaven — had taken eight months from awakening to Releasing a basic-tier spell. So what did that make him, at five months???

*Oh, holy hell.*

*Oh, holy hell!!*

Something churned violently inside Mo Fan.

If Mu Ningxue's eight months was already considered earth-shattering — the achievement that earned her the title of once-in-a-generation prodigy — then his five months wasn't just impressive.

It was heaven-defying.

"Brother Mo Fan, you... did you learn something you shouldn't have...?" Xinxia's voice shrank to nearly nothing. "I heard from an old scholar that someone with this kind of cultivation speed could only be from the Black Church."

Certain forbidden arts of the Black Church could dramatically accelerate a Mage's cultivation speed. Xinxia simply could not imagine any other explanation for someone completing basic-tier magic in a mere five months — even knowing that her Brother Mo Fan had always been sharper than most.

"The Black Church? No way — it's, it's like this — oh, right. Actually, I didn't awaken on the day of the Opening Ceremony. I met this old man even earlier, before all that, and he told me: 'Young man, I can see that your constitution and natural talent are extraordinary — how about learning magic with me?' So I asked who he was, and he said he was a member of the Magic City's Magic Association and that he could awaken me ahead of time... Long story short, I didn't actually master it in just five months." Mo Fan rattled the explanation off at lightning speed.

Xinxia listened with a somewhat baffled expression.

But she smiled gently anyway. "So you were awakened early. Early awakening does come with cultivation side effects, but since it was someone from the Magic Association, it should be fine."

Seeing that Xinxia had finally stopped pressing him, Mo Fan let out a slow breath of relief.

*Damn. He really was some kind of freak. He needed to stop casually showing his hand before he had a better grasp of this world.*

"Is it really true that mastering it in five months could only mean the Black Church?" he couldn't resist asking, just once more, very quietly.

"Mm." Xinxia nodded seriously.

Mo Fan broke into a cold sweat.

Being too extraordinary had its own complications. He had actually been planning to surprise Xinxia with the revelation that he possessed the Fire Element — but given what he had just learned, it was better to hold that back until he had the full picture.

First order of business: go home and read up on things. Better to understand the situation fully before making any more moves. If he wasn't careful, he might actually end up being treated as a Black Church member for real.