# Chapter 147: Enrollment Chaos (Part One)
Jiang Yunming was thoroughly pleased with Mo Fan. He had initially worried that a mage whose first-awakened element was Summoning might find himself in a hopeless position — especially since, for students without means, Summoning Element was practically a dead-end path. Training a summoner required the school to invest enormous resources, and taking on such a student felt like a burden to the Summoning Department.
But an Intermediate-Level Mage was a different matter entirely.
An Intermediate-Level Mage already had real strength to stand on, along with the personal means to invest heavily in a summoned creature — to raise it, pour resources into it, and push it toward genuine power.
"You're from Bo City?" Dean Xiao removed his glasses slowly, his gaze resting on Mo Fan.
It had only been upon confirming the acceptance that Dean Xiao noticed this student's file listed Bo City as his place of registration.
Bo City had suffered a catastrophe the whole country knew about. The government extended special consideration to examinees from there, and Pearl Academy had taken in one Bo City student this cycle — though judged against candidates from across the nation, this particular examinee wasn't especially remarkable...
"Yes," Mo Fan said, nodding.
"Good. I see no trace of post-disaster timidity in you." Dean Xiao smiled faintly and said nothing more.
Mo Fan shrugged. "Can I go move into the dormitory now?"
"You may."
Xinxia had enrolled at Zhejiang Academy. Mo Jiaxing was tied up with work. Mo Fan had nowhere else to be — he might as well settle in at school early and get some studying done.
He had no luggage worth mentioning. Mo Fan went straight to registration and moved in...
Once Mo Fan had gone, Summoning Department Head Jiang Yunming glanced at Dean Xiao.
"That's quite an interesting student. See that he's well cultivated." Dean Xiao said with a smile.
Jiang Yunming wasn't sure he fully grasped the dean's meaning, but Dean Xiao had already risen slowly from his seat and was walking away with his hands clasped behind his back.
"The dean's cultivation runs very deep. Perhaps he sensed something hidden in that student." The female examiner said, watching Dean Xiao's retreating figure.
"Hidden? I don't see how. It's simply that Dean Xiao has a compassionate heart — he takes a special interest in examinees strong enough to survive a disaster." The bald-headed examiner replied.
The semester began on September 1st — as standard an opening day as they come.
By then, Mo Fan had already been living in the dormitory for roughly two months, long enough to form a general picture of how Pearl Academy operated.
Pearl Academy was, in fact, divided into two campuses. The Pearl Youth Campus housed the incoming first-years alongside older students who had yet to break through to Intermediate level. The Pearl Main Campus, by contrast, was a place only those who had crossed that threshold were permitted to enter.
The Main Campus was, needless to say, the true heart of Pearl Academy. It drew outstanding young mages from every corner of the country, and was accordingly a place of ferocious competition.
The Youth Campus operated on comparatively equal footing, gathering each new cohort of first-years alongside veteran students still striving to reach Intermediate-Level Mage.
Early one morning, Mo Fan had barely dragged himself out of bed to brush his teeth when an exceptionally handsome young man walked through the door.
Hair with a gentle wave to it, worn at medium length. A face like something pulled straight from a fairy tale — the textbook prince. A clean, simple white athletic set. Mo Fan stood there with a mouthful of toothpaste foam, studied his first roommate to arrive, and delivered his silent verdict: *Damn. This guy almost managed to be better-looking than me.*
"Hey, I thought I'd be the first one here. Allow me to introduce myself — I'm Zhao Manyan, Light Element." Zhao Manyan's smile was warm and easy, the kind that made him look immediately approachable.
"'M Mwo Fwahn," Mo Fan offered around the foam.
"Finish brushing first. I'll get my things sorted... it's a bit grimy in here." Zhao Manyan claimed the bed across from Mo Fan — the one beside the balcony, with a clear line of sight to the courtyard outside and, just across the way, the girls' dormitory building that fairly radiated promise.
Once Mo Fan had finished washing up, the two fell into easy conversation.
"You're in Summoning Element? So what that senior student told me was right — our room really is a mixed-element dorm." Zhao Manyan said, looking resigned.
A standard dorm slept six. Ordinarily the school placed students of the same element together, which made practical sense. But not every element had a headcount neatly divisible by six, and mixed rooms were the inevitable result.
"Mo Fan, I set up lunch with that senior student, so I'm heading out." Zhao Manyan tossed his hair in a practiced sweep and left with easy confidence.
"..."
Two more students arrived not long after Zhao Manyan's departure. Whether out of shyness or simple aloofness, neither of them greeted Mo Fan, who had been there the longest. They made their beds in silence and kept entirely to themselves.
By afternoon, a tall, lean young man with red-dyed hair appeared in the doorway. He made no effort to disguise his Fire Element affiliation — the instant he stepped inside, he swept the entire room with the measured gaze of someone inspecting their new domain.
"Whose bed is this?" The red-haired young man pointed.
"Mine," Mo Fan said, stepping in from the balcony.
"What element are you?"
"Summoning Element."
"Oh... oh..." A beat of silence. He clearly hadn't expected Mo Fan to be one of the vanishingly rare Summoning Element mages.
Even the two silent roommates looked up involuntarily.
"And this one — what element?" He pointed to Zhao Manyan's spot.
"Light Element," Mo Fan said.
The red-haired young man gave a short nod, then crossed the room in a few long strides and dropped his enormous backpack onto Zhao Manyan's bed with a heavy thud. He swept Zhao Manyan's things to the side without ceremony, smirking as he did it. "Fire Element now. Name's Lu Yunzheng."
Mo Fan stared at the scattered pile of Zhao Manyan's belongings for a long moment.
This Lu Yunzheng had some nerve — just brazenly seizing someone else's bed like it belonged to him.
After dinner, Mo Fan received a text: report to his homeroom for assembly. An orientation meeting, by the sounds of it.
He arrived at the designated classroom, already painting a mental picture of row after row of lively, radiant female classmates — and found the spacious room completely, utterly empty.
*Am I early?*
Mo Fan waited, bored out of his mind, in the hollow classroom.
Minutes ticked past. The meeting time arrived. Mo Fan remained the sole living presence in the room, and unease began to creep in. *Did I get the wrong classroom??*
He was just about to stand when Jiang Yunming walked through the door.
Jiang Yunming was about to speak when a rapid clatter of footsteps erupted from the corridor, and six young men came rushing in together.
They moved as one — clearly all from the same dormitory.
"Good, everyone's here." Jiang Yunming scanned the seven seated figures and said it without fanfare.
**DUANG!!**
Mo Fan's jaw came within a hair's breadth of hitting the desk.
*What the hell — everyone's here?!*
*Seven people. The entire new intake is seven people?*
*Just the right cast size for the Seven Gourd Brothers — what a coincidence!*