Have You Lost Your Mind?

"The Mu Clan recently came into possession of some Fire Element cultivation resources. Unfortunately, nearly everyone in our compound practices Ice Element. Your Fire Element talent is exceptional, and your cultivation came as quite a surprise to us — so I intend to give you these resources. From now on, in addition to your regular classes, you'll be able to train alongside Mu Jiangming and the others." Mu Zhuoyun stroked his beard as he spoke.

He had said all of this in front of everyone, naturally.

In his view, it was an extraordinary act of generosity toward Mo Fan.

The peripheral branch members back at the compound bent over backwards to impress him, and he barely gave them a second glance. For someone like Mo Fan — who didn't even qualify as a proper Mu Clan member — to receive an opportunity like this was nothing short of a carp leaping through the Dragon Gate.

Every society had its exceptional cases of sudden ascension. As patriarch of the Mu Clan's Zhuoyun lineage, he couldn't afford to be so narrow-minded as to only favor those born within the clan.

"Elder Brother, this... this can't be right. Mu Bai's talent is actually better — he was probably nervous today and didn't perform at his best. And besides, he's already one of ours in the clan..." Mu He was completely stunned, stumbling over his words as he grasped for Mu Zhuoyun's attention.

As for Mu Bai, who had already been feeling as though he'd been run through with a thousand arrows — hearing this was like having his corpse dragged out and flogged all over again. There were simply no words for the devastation.

*Damn it.* That opportunity — official recognition as a core clan disciple — had been the one thing he wanted most.

Everything Mu Bai had schemed and sacrificed had been aimed at a single goal: shedding his label as a peripheral branch member and breaking into the true inner circle of the Mu Clan. Only then would he finally receive abundant cultivation resources. Only then would he stop being treated as a second-class dependent, living under another's roof on borrowed goodwill.

Bad enough that he hadn't gotten it. Fine. He could endure that.

But for it to go to the person he hated most in the entire world?

He was so furious he could have clawed his way back from the grave.

"The decision is made, Mu He. That's enough." Mu Zhuoyun waved his hand, smile still fixed in place as he turned his gaze to Mo Fan.

*What's the matter, boy — so overwhelmed by your own good fortune you've gone mute? Hurry up and show some gratitude.*

Mu Zhuoyun was quietly pleased with himself. Setting aside old grievances to bring a nobody into the Mu Clan's inner circle — he was clearly a magnanimous leader.

"Mo Fan, what are you just standing there for? Go on — thank Master Mu for his generosity," homeroom teacher Xue Musheng urged anxiously.

Zhang Xiaohou, Lu Xiaobin, and Xu Qinglin were practically eating their hearts out with envy.

Just moments ago, Mo Fan had been the kind of unremarkable nobody you'd lose in a crowd the second you let go of him. And now he was about to become the golden boy overnight.

Mo Fan stared at Mu Zhuoyun's warm, gracious smile. His own expression went through a series of slow, unreadable phases.

Then he came back to himself. He clicked his tongue.

After a long silence, he finally spoke.

"Have you lost your mind?"

"What did you say?" Confusion spread across Mu Zhuoyun's face. He wasn't quite sure he'd caught what the boy said.

"I said — have you lost your mind?" Mo Fan repeated himself, enunciating each word with deliberate care.

Everyone heard it clearly that time. And every single face fell into a state of pure, unfiltered chaos.

*What — what?!*

*Lost his mind?!*

*He just told Mu Zhuoyun he'd lost his mind!!*

*Good God, Mo Fan has actually gone insane!!*

Mu Zhuoyun had heard perfectly well this time. He blew out a sharp breath through his beard and said, with a low, dangerous edge: "Your next words had better be a very convincing explanation. Otherwise—"

"An explanation? Of course I have one."

Mo Fan nodded and began.

"Don't stand there playing the righteous lord when you spent three years crushing my family into the dirt. I'm not the kind of fool who lets you slap him and then weeps with gratitude when you toss him a candy. The things you said to me and my father back then — the way you talked to us like we were dogs you owned — maybe your memory is going, but mine is just fine. So let me make this absolutely clear, you old bastard: forget inviting me into your clan as a disciple. What the hell — even if you wrapped up Mu Ningxue with a full dowry and delivered her to my door on bended knee begging me to join the Mu Clan, I still wouldn't want it. Do you honestly think the entire world exists to orbit the Mu Clan? Did you actually expect me to fall at your feet in tearful gratitude? I cannot think of a single explanation for what you're doing today except that you have completely. Lost. Your. Mind."

The words poured out of him like a dam giving way — every ounce of rage and resentment Mo Fan had buried across years of silence, released in one clean, relentless torrent.

The principal, the head of discipline, School Board Director Deng Kai, Mu He, Mu Bai, Zhao Kunsan, homeroom teacher Xue Musheng, every student in Class Eight — and Mu Ningxue herself — stood frozen where they were.

As for Mu Zhuoyun, his expression had darkened past the point of description.

**Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack.**

His fury took physical form. The ground beneath his feet erupted in dense sheets of crystalline ice, and the cold rolled outward in waves, carrying with it every ounce of the rage swelling inside him.

Mu Zhuoyun was angry. Genuinely, terrifyingly angry.

He couldn't remember the last time anyone had dared speak to him this way. Calling him Bo City's uncrowned king would not be an exaggeration — the principals of magic schools, the senior figures of the Magic Association, Deng Kai of the Hunters' Alliance: all of them treated him with unfailing courtesy. The juniors in his own compound could barely breathe comfortably in his presence. Who in the world had given this feral, insolent little nobody the audacity to address him like this?!

His aura —

A terrifying, glacial aura.

With Mu Zhuoyun at its center, the sandy surface of the training ground — every grain of it — solidified into hard ice crystal within seconds.

The cold swept outward unchecked, plunging the blazing summer day into the dead of winter. The entire training ground became a vast, mirror-smooth plain of frozen earth.

The sight ripped screams from every student on the grounds.

The whole field had turned to ice in an instant — and Mu Zhuoyun hadn't even Released any magic. He had done it with sheer presence alone. What level of cultivation produced a power like that?

Compared to Mu Bai's modest Ice Vine from earlier, Mu Zhuoyun was a colossus. There was simply no comparison.

"Zhuoyun — get your emotions under control. This is a school. There are students here with no means of protecting themselves." School Board Director Deng Kai of the Hunters' Alliance stepped forward without warning, placing himself squarely between Mu Zhuoyun and Mo Fan.

Deng Kai's intervention dulled the edge of Mu Zhuoyun's terrible power somewhat — but the people surrounding them still found themselves struggling to draw breath under its crushing weight.

With Deng Kai now standing between them, Tang Yue — one of the few people in the crowd still capable of moving freely — came to a halt.

She would not allow Mu Zhuoyun to harm her student. Even if she wasn't certain she could match the Ice Element clan patriarch in a direct confrontation.