The Earth Sacred Spring

Time slipped by in a rush. Mo Fan poured his precious youth into cultivation and demon-hunting, and he never tired of either.

Before he knew it, his kill count with the City Demon-Hunting Squad had surpassed fifteen — a number that even seasoned veterans at the Hunters' Alliance would recognize as marking a genuinely experienced mage.

Meanwhile, at school, the Magic College Entrance Examination — that great waterfall every student dreamed of leaping through to rise to something greater — was drawing steadily closer.

"Your easy days are almost over, Mo Fan." Zhao Kunsan delivered this with barely concealed glee.

Graduation was approaching. And with it came the magic duel that had been witnessed and sealed by so many school officials.

One had to hand it to Mu Zhuoyun — the man was a cunning old fox. He had deliberately scheduled the duel to take place *before* the Magic College Entrance Examination.

Which meant that if Mo Fan suffered any kind of "accident" during the duel, it could very well throw off his performance on the exam itself.

"Brother Fan, speaking of which — I heard from some neighbors recently that Mu Zhuoyun is putting together a Coming-of-Age Ceremony for Yu'ang. Bo City has always taken these ceremonies seriously, and a major clan like the Mu family would make their important heir's ceremony as grand as possible." Zhang Xiaohou said.

"I know. They've invited half the city — prominent families filling every seat. Plenty of Bo City's well-connected figures got invitations. Big clans love this sort of thing." Mo Fan replied.

"But this puts you in a terrible spot! That old bastard is obviously using you as a stepping stone for that Yu'ang. Brother Fan, you're the top student at Tianlan Magic High School — if you lose in front of all those people, it's just free prestige for their clan patriarch. The best student out of fifteen hundred at Tianlan Magic High School, and he still can't beat one of their own clan-trained disciples? Principal Zhu would never be able to show his face."

Principal Zhu was the head of Tianlan Magic High School. He and Mu Zhuoyun had been long-standing rivals in Bo City.

Principal Zhu commanded enormous respect among the city's ordinary citizens. He had a genuine talent for connecting with common people, and many grassroots mages owed a great deal of their success to his support. Over the years, he had used the school as a platform to discover and cultivate countless talented mages with no family backing whatsoever.

Mu Zhuoyun, on the other hand, was the quintessential representative of the aristocratic magic families — wholly dedicated to grooming noble-born disciples. Through his clan's successive generations of exceptional young mages, Mu Zhuoyun had cemented his standing in Bo City into something that endured year after year without fading.

Every so often, a clash would break out between mages from common backgrounds and those from old bloodlines. The highlight of Mu Zhuoyun's year was watching his clan's young talents systematically tear apart the students produced by public schools like Tianlan. And when the dust settled, he would stroll over to Principal Zhu with a jovial smile, clap him on the shoulder with the full authority of an esteemed School Board Director, and say: "Still some room for improvement in your teaching quality, wouldn't you agree?"

Deng Kai and Principal Zhu stood entirely on the students' side. So when Mo Fan had confronted Mu Zhuoyun, even if he hadn't steered the conflict toward a duel with the clan's younger generation, they would have found a way to smooth things over regardless.

A student who had scored triple-S on his annual assessment was essentially a living treasure for their school. There was no way they would let Mu Zhuoyun — that local tyrant — grind him down.

Then word came in that Mo Fan had performed exceptionally during a critical Field Expedition, slaying a rampaging Summoned Beast under extreme circumstances. After that, Principal Zhu and Deng Kai treated him like something priceless.

Mo Fan might not have known it, but these two veteran Bo City mages — whose life's work was nurturing talent from nothing — had quietly kept a watchful eye on him all along.

A school was still a school, though; it could only bend the rules so far. They would have loved to provide Mo Fan with a Stardust Artifact to use at any and all times, but unlike the old clans, they couldn't play blatant favorites.

Just as preparations for Yu'ang's Coming-of-Age Ceremony were ramping up like a major city festival, Principal Zhu and Deng Kai finally ran out of patience and summoned Mo Fan to the principal's office.

Mo Fan had met Deng Kai before — he was the one who had stepped forward to defend him at the time. Grand Elder of Bo City's Hunters' Alliance, and by all accounts his strength exceeded even that of Yang Zuohe, the Intermediate-Level Mage.

Principal Zhu, Mo Fan was meeting for the first time. The old principal commanded extraordinary respect among students and parents alike, yet in practice he maintained a remarkably low profile — something of a semi-recluse. But when something truly mattered, he always came out to take charge.

"Mo Fan, there are things we need to discuss with you seriously." Deng Kai spoke first.

Mo Fan stood and listened carefully.

"In truth, every so often, Tianlan Magic High School students are pitted against disciples from the major clans in a formal competition. Each year we select our finest student — the one with the strongest real-world combat ability — to face Bo City's clan heirs. Originally, we had placed our hopes on Xu Zhaoting. As a rare Lightning Element mage, his odds in this kind of head-to-head contest are considerably stronger. But when you outperformed everyone at the annual assessment — and then went ahead and directly challenged the clan yourself — to keep Mu Zhuoyun from making your life difficult through back channels, we deliberately funneled the whole situation toward this competition that was already going to happen anyway." Deng Kai said, his tone deliberate.

"I understand... actually, what I mean to say is: thank you, both of you, for pulling me out of that mess." Mo Fan said.

"The truth is, we've already bought you two years. How much you've grown in that time — we have a rough sense. So the reckoning has arrived. You'll have to face the consequences of that impulsive moment, one way or another." Deng Kai shook his head with a resigned sigh.

He had gathered information from other sources: Yu'ang's cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds over the past two years, and that progress was compounded by the clan's intensive real-combat training program. Even with all of Mo Fan's cleverness, he might not have the upper hand. Everyone knew that slaying the Summoned Beast back then had involved no small amount of luck.

"Ah, Mo Fan." Principal Zhu's voice was thoughtful, weighted with long experience. "We all know the world isn't always fair. Some people are born with privilege baked into their bones; others start with nothing. But that's no excuse to curse fate and blame the world for it, or to lash out recklessly every time the injustice burns. That day, you may have voiced something many people feel — a resentment toward those who've had everything handed to them. But it also meant you were walking yourself right to the edge of a cliff. When your strength isn't yet enough to stand against an entire clan, swallowing your pride is no weakness."

Over the many years Principal Zhu had spent running this school, he had watched too many students full of blazing, unbending pride. Some of them had gone on to achieve extraordinary things, becoming mages worthy of genuine admiration. Others had simply faded — and after a certain point, no news ever came of them again.

Talent mattered. So did cultivation. But more than either, you needed the wisdom to read a situation — to know when to move and when to wait. The protection a school could offer lasted only a few years. Once you stepped out into the wider world, it was still the people at the top who set the rules.

"Thank you, both of you, for the guidance. I was out of line back then." Mo Fan nodded.

"We didn't call you here today purely to lecture you." Principal Zhu continued. "We also genuinely want you to win this duel. Because the winner will receive Bo City's one and only opportunity to train at the Earth Sacred Spring."

"The Earth Sacred Spring?!" Mo Fan's eyes lit up in an instant.