Perfect Release — Fire Burst!

Zhou Min, the fiercely competitive Fire Element girl, stared at the overflowing light with every inch of her face written in disbelief.

The student she had always looked down on, always dismissed as unmotivated — he was actually... *actually stronger than Mu Bai??*

Had she been wrong about him all along?

All the shock, all the disbelief, all the astonishment and bewilderment — none of it came close to the expression on Mu Bai's face, which looked as though it had been carved up by a thousand blades.

That expression could no longer even be called an expression. It was a writhing, twitching mass of contorted flesh, trembling in place.

What in the world could be more earth-shattering than watching the person you despised most pull off a reversal like this?

Zhao Kunsan, the eternal sycophant, rubbed his eyes over and over — yet the overflow of light remained. Every trace of his earlier swagger, every drop of the sneering arrogance he had leveled at Mo Fan, had completely evaporated, leaving behind nothing but a ridiculous fool standing out among the crowd like a sore thumb.

"S!"

"S!"

"S!"

Final score: "S!"

The school's highest assessment tier was S, but everyone could tell that Mo Fan's Stardust magical energy was probably a few notches above even Mu Bai's.

"Mo Fan, would you like to continue with the assessment?"

"Of course!" Mo Fan smiled slightly.

*When have I not been waiting for this day! Damn — if the world hadn't changed, I should have been performing at this level from the moment I entered high school. At least things worked out in the end.*

Release — naturally Mo Fan would take it.

After all that grueling practice, wasn't magic meant for exactly this? To stand before the world and shine so brilliantly it left everyone speechless?

"Fire Burst!"

The entire sequence was impossibly smooth. As Mo Fan spoke the incantation, his bearing became solemn and assured.

Waves of scorching heat radiated wildly from Mo Fan at the center, washing over the faces of hundreds of onlookers with a vivid, searing intensity.

The Fire Element Star Trail materialized rapidly around Mo Fan as he completed the arrangement of the Star Motes...

Blazing crimson to the eye — fire that seized the heart.

A cluster of flames surged up from Mo Fan's half-clenched fist like a restless beast straining at its leash.

"Go!"

With a sweep of his arm, the fireball streaked across the examination ground in a dazzling crimson arc and drove itself unerringly into the humanoid wooden dummy.

"Rise!"

He thrust his hand high. After barely a second of stillness, the flames erupted across the dummy in a furious surge.

Crimson, burning fiercer and fiercer — within seconds, the roaring blaze had swallowed the dummy whole.

Firelight played across Mo Fan's cheek. He was smiling — smiling with soaring, unshakable confidence.

This was Fire Burst. True mastery over the power of fire. Beyond any words.

When it was all over, Mo Fan turned around.

Every single person stood there slack-jawed.

Teachers, students, administrators — still reeling from Mo Fan's S-grade Stardust result, they had immediately watched him complete Fire Burst with perfect, unhesitating fluency.

Not a single pause, not the slightest hitch — and he had even finished faster than Mu Bai.

At the basic tier, Fire Element was already more volatile than Ice Element, so when Mo Fan completed Fire Burst, the crowd's reaction was ten times more explosive than it had been for Mu Bai's Ice Vine — not only because of Mo Fan's extraordinary reversal, but because Fire Element's raw presence simply hit harder.

"Score it." Mo Fan glanced at the stunned examiners and spoke with effortless composure.

"A!"

"B!"

"A!"

The Release scores landed instantly.

As expected, Mo Fan's marks still came out higher than Mu Bai's.

Mu Bai, who had already been reduced to a seething wreck by sheer rage, now truly breathed his last.

*How? This wasn't how the script was supposed to go!!*

Both scores — higher than Mu Bai in both.

"Is this seriously the Mo Fan we know??"

"The greatest comeback in school history — zero to genius in a heartbeat, I'm completely blinded!!" Xu Qinglin cried out.

Their homeroom teacher Xue Musheng was grinning so wide his face had gone lopsided.

He didn't care about whatever feud existed between Mu Bai and Mo Fan. His class had just produced a student with an S Stardust score and the highest Release grade in the school — barring any surprises, that made Mo Fan number one overall.

From dead last straight to first place — there could be nothing more staggering. It felt like a dream.

First place aside, Mu Bai should comfortably hold second.

Which meant both first and second place were from his class. This was starting to smell like a pay raise and a promotion.

"Truly worthy of the Mu Clan — Brother Mu Zhuoyun, you've really opened the eyes of small operations like ours. If I recall correctly, this Mo Fan is only the son of your estate's driver. That's what a great clan does: even incidentally, you've nurtured a student who stands out across all of Bo City!" said Deng Kai of the Hunters' Alliance.

Mu Zhuoyun looked at him.

Deng Kai held a senior position in the Hunters' Alliance and also served as a School Board Director at Tianlan Magic High School — the most accomplished and formidable of all the current directors.

With Director Deng Kai offering such praise, the other directors were full of admiration as well.

You couldn't argue with this. Even a driver's son could turn out this exceptional — holding his own against the carefully cultivated talent each of them had painstakingly raised.

Mu Zhuoyun slowly pulled himself back from his astonishment.

He truly hadn't expected this Mo Fan to have genuine ability. Now, hearing praise from the circles around him, he felt an unexpected flush of pride wash over his face.

His mood lifting, Mu Zhuoyun's thoughts began to move.

Among the clan's younger generation, Mu Ningxue had always been the one holding the banner — but the other direct and collateral descendants still needed to be properly developed if the clan's power was to be consolidated.

As it happened, Fire Element Mages were precisely what the Mu Clan lacked.

Even though this boy had once done something that made him furious beyond measure, that was all youthful foolishness. It had been years now, and there was no use pursuing old grudges. If anything, perhaps it was time to offer some incentive and bring this boy into the Mu Clan's service.

Letting him anywhere near Mu Ningxue was absolutely out of the question — but he could be assigned to his eldest son Mu Jiangming, cultivated into a capable Fire Element retainer. That wouldn't be a bad outcome at all.

Talent should be welcomed.

Mu Zhuoyun stroked his beard, a glimmer of appreciation entering his eyes. Seeing Mo Fan step off the examination ground, he called out: "Mo Fan, come here."

Mo Fan glanced at Mu Zhuoyun, unsure what this old schemer wanted with him.

With a measure of curiosity, Mo Fan walked toward the cluster of officials. His eyes drifted involuntarily to Mu Ningxue.

*Good lord — after all these years, how has this girl grown so... so devastatingly stunning?*

"Ahem." Mu Zhuoyun cleared his throat.

Mu Ningxue shifted her gaze away.

Mo Fan reined in his own.

"You called for me?" Mo Fan tilted his head back and looked up at the broad-shouldered, imposing Mu Zhuoyun.

Before others, Mu Zhuoyun carried the aura of a king — many juniors wouldn't dare breathe too loudly in his presence.

Mo Fan was another matter entirely. Apart from the one commendable act of fathering a beautiful daughter, this man radiated old-scoundrel energy from head to toe.