Battle Against All Elements

The air seemed to freeze solid.

The expressions on the faces of more than ten thousand teachers and students across the entire academy froze right along with it.

Was this some kind of joke?

This guy... had he completely lost his mind?!

Dean Xiao had just said it himself — in all the years Pearl Academy had stood, no one had ever managed to do it. What gave this nobody from the Summoning Element the nerve to be this arrogant? What gave him the right to write off four or five thousand freshmen like they were beneath his notice?

The Blue District had plenty of upperclassmen mixed in as well — Mages who had been on campus for three or four years — and even they stood there slack-jawed, staring at this newcomer who had, on his very first day, declared war on the entire freshman body. For a long moment, not one of them could wrap their heads around it.

Sure, anyone could talk big. But look at the state of the Summoning Element first — they hadn't even broken a fifty-kill count. And now he was telling them he'd take down two hundred?

One person, against one hundred and fifty challengers?

An Ascension Phase Gloom Wolf Beast was certainly formidable — far stronger than an ordinary Demon-Beast — but taking down one hundred and fifty challengers drawn from every single element among five thousand freshmen? That was simply not possible.

"What the hell — does he have to be that arrogant? Even I wouldn't dare say something like that!" Luo Song's face had gone thunderous.

Today was supposed to be his day — Luo Song's day. After the Beast Battle, countless people would have been looking up to him.

Then Mo Fan opens his mouth with one sentence challenging every element in the building, and suddenly everything Luo Song had done today looked like a supporting act.

If he could go back into that arena for a second round, Luo Song would be the first in line to settle things with Mo Fan once and for all.

"To hell with this — I can't stand self-important pricks like him. One Ascension Phase Gloom Wolf Beast, big deal. Brothers, let's all go in together and wipe him out." The hotheads were already on their feet, itching to charge straight into the iron-cage barrier.

"He has absolutely no idea what he's gotten himself into." A few of the more calculating students let quiet smirks flicker across their faces. Pearl Academy was a place where real talent ran deep and stayed hidden. One Intermediate-Level Mage — Luo Song — had already stepped forward today, which meant Luo Song was almost certainly not the only student who had reached the Intermediate level.

Pearl Academy's freshman intake had produced Intermediate-Level Mages in previous years as well. Types like that would never lower themselves to enter a routine Beast Battle — but now that this Summoning Element student had thrown down this gauntlet, did he honestly think the hidden powerhouses would sit quietly and watch some clown strut around the stage?

Mo Fan stood in the center of the arena. From every section of the stadium, the curses came crashing down.

With over ten thousand people packed into this hall, wherever his gaze landed, it met hundreds of glaring faces at once. The noise rolled in from all sides like walls of rolling thunder — a visceral, bone-deep experience unlike anything he had felt before.

But he had made his decision. He was going to see it through.

Tang Yue had been right: for someone like Mo Fan, born with Dual Elements, without a mountain of resources to prop him up, he would always be split in too many directions to master any of them.

Without the Loach Pendant baptized by the Earth Sacred Spring, there was no way he could give proper attention to all four of his elements.

Even with that extraordinary treasure in his hands, Mo Fan still felt utterly broke.

Take the Gloom Wolf Beast right now — the creature had reached the Ascension Phase. A Summoned Beast powerful enough to push into Battle-General-class: could he really just stand there and watch it stay stuck at this threshold?

If not, then he needed enough resources to actually carry it through to Battle-General-class, and one measly vial of Beast-Refining Blood wasn't anywhere near enough.

This move looked reckless, he knew.

But when an opportunity like this was sitting right in front of him — a chance to sweep the cultivation resources of four thousand freshmen into his own hands in a single stroke — could he really let it drift past without even trying?

If he lost, people would curse him out more. Curses never killed anyone. Let them talk.

If he won, he'd be swimming in it.

Even the scions of the great clans and powerful factions probably never got to amass this many resources in one go.

"Gloom Wolf, you love a good fight more than anything... Today, the two of us are going to have a proper one."

*Come on, then. All of you. Bring everything you've got.*

Mo Fan swept his gaze across the packed, roaring arena.

*The feeling of ten thousand pairs of eyes all fixed on you at once... honestly? Not bad at all.*

"I'm going up there and beating him until his own mother doesn't recognize him!"

"I'll boil that Gloom Wolf Beast of his into soup — what the hell! In front of me, Long Aotian, there's actually someone who dares to be more arrogant, more reckless, more damn shameless than I am!"

"My whole life, I've made it my personal mission to put every posturing show-off in their place!"

The challenger entrance was suddenly packed to bursting.

Mo Fan's declaration had set the anger of all five thousand freshmen alight at once.

Some of them might have been wary of the Ascension Phase Gloom Wolf Beast before, but right now every last one of them wanted to charge in and fight — because if they didn't, people would think their element had nothing worth offering.

Five challengers stormed through the entrance almost immediately.

Their faces were twisted with fury. They had clearly had enough.

They'd seen people fight over resources before, but nobody had ever had the nerve to try to claim every freshman's resources on the very first day of school. This guy had a death wish.

"Hmph — it's just an Ascension Phase Gloom Wolf Beast. It's not even Battle-General-cl—HOLY—!" Long Aotian hadn't finished his sentence before the Gloom Wolf Beast erupted into a blur of terrifying speed and swatted him clean across the arena.

The man had a defensive Enchanted Gear on his wrist that softened the worst of it, but the sheer force still sent him skidding five or six meters across the floor, where he lay without getting up.

His companions stared, mouths hanging open.

From the stands, the Gloom Wolf Beast's speed had looked manageable enough. Actually standing in front of it was a completely different matter — it was more than twice as fast as it appeared.

*A bunch of fools charging in on blind anger,* Mo Fan thought, watching them, quiet amusement rising in him.

*I'm an Intermediate-Level Mage — that's what gives me the standing to gamble like this. Compared to Li Junwei's team, you lot are completely amateur. And you have the nerve to come out here and embarrass yourselves?*

The Gloom Wolf Beast had no interest in conversation. It simply chased the remaining challengers around the arena. If Mo Fan hadn't deliberately reined it in, the five of them would have been lucky to walk away with their lives intact, never mind all their limbs.

One group dispatched, and the next arrived almost immediately.

Mo Fan stood his ground, unmoved.

Against hotheads acting on pure emotion, the Gloom Wolf Beast had more than enough to handle them with ease.

But Mo Fan had no intention of believing that Pearl Academy was entirely made up of this caliber of challenger. He would wait — wait right here until the real powerhouses stepped out of the shadows.