Background Is Also a Form of Strength
"Tang — Tang Yue, Instructor, did you give Mo Fan private lessons? How is he this monstrous?!" Xu Zhaoting couldn't stop himself from blurting it out.
This time, Xu Zhaoting — Bo City's pride of the Lightning Element — was completely, utterly floored.
He himself had only mastered a level-two Lightning skill half a year ago, and he'd thought he was finally closing the gap. Then it turned out Mo Fan trained like he was strapped to a rocket — the guy had already learned a level-three Fire Element skill. If Tang Yue hadn't been tutoring him on the side, Xu Zhaoting simply couldn't fathom it.
"No. Everything he's done, he did on his own." Tang Yue shook her head.
She was the only person who knew Mo Fan possessed the Stardust Artifact. She had suspected his cultivation was further along than most people imagined — but she had never once expected him to have already mastered level-three Fire Burst.
As for Mo Fan's arch-rival Mu Bai, his face had passed through green and arrived at black.
Somewhere along the way, it felt like he couldn't even reach Mo Fan's ankles anymore. If that level-three Fire Burst ever came crashing down on his face, it would end him in an instant.
"Zhuo Yun... Zhuo Yun, Elder Brother..." Mu He sat rigid in his seat, his expression locked like a mask.
Mu Zhuoyun's chest was heaving in heavy, violent surges, his face a storm of fury — but beneath the fury was a shock far greater than the anger.
"I truly did underestimate him." In the end, those were the only words Mu Zhuoyun could force out.
Mu He's gaze drifted involuntarily toward Mo Jiaxing, sitting in one of the more out-of-the-way seats.
*Could this dense, hapless driver really be about to turn his entire life around? He scraped together everything he had, sent that boy Mo Fan off to a magic school, and somehow produced a genuine prodigy out of thin air?*
Level-three Fire Burst — look at all the resources Yu'ang had consumed just to work his way up to level-three Ice Vine.
In the guest area, most of the audience sat wide-eyed and slack-jawed.
Out in the arena, the wild, swirling blizzard gradually thinned and faded. One by one, people could make out the figure standing tall at the center of the frost — Mo Fan.
On Yu'ang's side of the arena, the Ice Dust Shield that had been summoned to protect him lay shattered completely, its fragments scattered across the ground like glittering dust. Yu'ang himself had been blasted four or five meters away; his immaculate white robes — fit for a prince — were scorched and torn beyond recognition. He lay crumpled in the snow with no trace left of the night's triumphant star.
As the last of the blizzard faded and warmth slowly crept back into his limbs, Mo Fan finally moved. He stepped forward, walking toward the figure lying on the ground.
*Did you really think you were the only one in this world who'd learned a level-three skill?*
*That's what you get for showing off. Boom.*
"Interesting. Ha — haha! Truly, truly interesting!" Then, without warning, the thoroughly blasted Yu'ang rose to his feet from the snow.
Mo Fan blinked. *This guy still has his wits about him?*
Logically speaking, while the Ice Dust Shield had absorbed most of the damage from Fire Burst: Blast, the concussive shockwave from the detonation was something no shield could fully contain. That force alone should have been enough to knock Yu'ang unconscious.
"No way — level-three Fire Burst wasn't enough to put him down?!"
"Is this guy made of iron?!"
Mu Zhuoyun let out a quiet, cold snort, inwardly cursing the near-miss: *Good thing I thought ahead and prepared that armor piece for Yu'ang. Otherwise, this deeply concealed little schemer would have had us completely blindsided.*
It had come so close. Mo Fan had nearly claimed victory right then and there. Fire Burst: Blast was effectively unstoppable at this tier — no peer-level opponent should have been able to endure it. And yet nobody had anticipated just how deviously cunning Mu Zhuoyun truly was.
"Boot Enchanted Gear, a shield, AND a full suit of armor — does it have to be this extravagant?!" The man from the Zhou Clan couldn't hold himself back.
Principal Zhu and Deng Kai stood there just as dumbfounded.
Armor-type Enchanted Gear was the most prized category of defensive Enchanted Gear. Unlike a shield — which only blocked in a narrow angle and failed entirely against certain types of attacks — armor Enchanted Gear could repel virtually any assault short of mental-type skills, wrapping around the body to provide full, three-hundred-and-sixty-degree protection. It was an extraordinary treasure.
"I forgot to mention," Mu Zhuoyun said, stroking his beard, addressing the guests in an unhurried tone. "As a birthday gift for my son's eighteenth year, I had this Ice Silkworm Armor specially prepared for him — as a safeguard against underhanded attacks from lesser men."
"Are you serious? What's even the point of this duel? He's decked out in Enchanted Gear from head to toe! If you've got the nerve, have both of them fight without any Enchanted Gear at all — this is absolutely shameless!" Zhou Min finally snapped, unable to swallow her fury a moment longer.
Xu Zhaoting, Wang Sanpang, and the rest of their classmates seethed with equal indignation.
Without all that gear, Yu'ang would already be lying in pieces at Mo Fan's feet. Level-three Fire Burst was supposed to be a lesson in humility — and it was, for everyone except the man who'd been wrapped in armor before the duel even started.
"Background is also a form of strength." Mu Zhuoyun didn't move so much as an eyebrow. He delivered the words with serene, impenetrable calm.
*He couldn't be bothered to waste words on these students. The Mu Clan has resources — so what? What right does some penniless little student have to think about challenging us?*
"What a pity... what a pity." Yang Zuohe shook his head with a long sigh. "This young man called Mo Fan — he has already proven himself exceptional. And in the end, it still came down to Enchanted Gear."
Many in the audience felt the sting of it on Mo Fan's behalf.
What he had shown today — level-three Fire Burst — was enough to place him above every peer in Bo City, enough to make the heirs of many noble families bow their heads in shame. And yet a duel was a duel. A loss was a loss. Just as Mu Zhuoyun had said: background was a form of strength. Most people didn't understand that truth until they stepped into the wider world.
"You really did pick yourself a good father." Mo Fan's gaze fixed on the glint of Ice Silkworm Armor visible beneath Yu'ang's torn robes, and a thread of cold anger took root in his chest.
Boot Enchanted Gear. Ice Dust Shield. And now a full suit of armor. Absolutely no path left for him.
Yu'ang was still smiling — a smile that made Mo Fan's skin crawl.
"Honestly, you weren't bad at all," Yu'ang said. "I thought you were just some attention-seeking clown who wanted to make a scene. Turns out you were deliberately hiding your true ability, waiting for this moment to come out swinging. What a shame — you were just a hair's breadth away. Just a hair's breadth. Haha, hahaha!" He laughed freely, without a care, entirely unconcerned about Mo Fan using Fire Burst: Blast a second time.
Standing at the edge of the arena, his heart a leaden weight, Deng Kai had reached his limit. He called out to Mo Fan: "Mo Fan, give it up. The Ice Silkworm Armor is specifically designed to counter Fire Element skills. Your Fire Burst: Blast won't be able to touch Yu'ang."
"Deng Kai's right." Yu'ang stood his ground in the Ice Silkworm Armor like a ruler looking down at a subject. "The next Ice Vine will turn you into an ice sculpture. Thawing you out afterward will be quite the inconvenience. Why not walk over to my foster father and kneel right now — consider it a small mercy I'm extending to an opponent who turned out to be somewhat worthy."
Yu'ang's gaze — how utterly insufferable in its arrogance.
That cunning, satisfied smile on Mu Zhuoyun's face — how utterly maddening.
Background was a form of strength?
Mo Fan wanted to laugh. But right now, the laughter wouldn't come.
He swept his gaze across the hall full of guests — across the distinguished, powerful faces of Bo City's establishment — and it seemed as though every single one of them had silently accepted Mu Zhuoyun's verdict. They watched him now with something that looked almost like sympathy.