Mo Fan vs. Mu Ningxue

"Ningxue, what are you talking about? I didn't quite catch that — do you actually know that guy?" Lu Zhenghe asked, his smile sitting only on the surface of his face.

The students watching from other schools were just as confused. Mo Fan had been completely bound — what could hiding his strength possibly accomplish now?

"Right, the fight's as good as over... wait." Mingcong squinted. "Why do I see crimson?"

Crimson.

A vivid, deep-red glow was already seeping through the snow-white cocoon of Ice Lock — and it burned far hotter than blood.

*Crack. Crack. CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK.*

Hairline fractures spread across the iron-hard chains of ice. At first they were barely visible — but as the crimson energy raged hotter inside, the cracks multiplied and spread.

**SNAP.**

All at once, the Ice Lock could no longer contain what was raging within. Every last chain shattered.

The moment the frost chains broke, the fierce rose-red flame that had been smothered inside came surging out like a geyser, flooding across the ice in an unbroken torrent.

*Whoooooosh.*

Fire roared. Countless tongues of flame tore into the shattered remnants of the Ice Lock.

From within that blazing curtain of rose-red, a silhouette began to emerge.

The fire that had melted every last chain came from him. Flames of deep crimson clung to his entire body — he walked out like a king of fire striding from a sea of molten rock, radiant with scorching heat, savage enough to turn everything in his path to cinders.

Waves of heat rolled outward, pushing back Mu Ningxue's frost domain. The domain still held dominion over the rest of the battlefield, but in that single patch of ground? Not one flake of frost could form. Every crystal had been vaporized into white steam.

As the figure in the flames came into focus, no one wanted to believe what they were seeing.

"This... is this Mo Fan??" Zhao Manyan, Zheng Bingxiao, Teacher Gu Han, and Teacher Qiu Yuhua all stood frozen in disbelief.

The Imperial Capital Academy contingent was equally wide-eyed.

Unless their memories were wrong, this Mo Fan had already demonstrated Lightning Element and Summoning Element abilities. So why was he commanding fire now — and fire this outrageously dominant?

Song Xia's fire had been thoroughly suppressed by Mu Ningxue's Ice Element domain and Spirit Grade ice seed. She couldn't draw out the true power of her Fire Element at all. But the flames wreathing Mo Fan showed no fear whatsoever of Mu Ningxue's noble bloodline ice seed.

That was Spirit Grade fire.

"Thr— three— three elements! Mo Fan has three elements!!" came a cry from somewhere in the crowd.

The entire arena erupted.

A Mage could only command three elements upon reaching the high tier — yet this student was clearly nowhere near that level, and here he stood with three full elements. Could this actually be the legendary natural-born Dual Elements?

A natural-born Dual Element mage crushed every other enviable talent flat.

The flames blazed high. Mo Fan strode out across a carpet of fire, stepping through the shattered remnants of the Ice Lock. However impossible it seemed, the crowd had no choice but to accept what stood before them: a three-element Mage.

Against the backdrop of the proud, rose-red Spirit Grade flame, Mo Fan's fire-lit face wore a faint and dangerous edge. His ember-bright eyes fixed on the cold and imperious Mu Ningxue, and his grin spread wider with every step.

"Thought you'd go easy on your sweetheart. Didn't expect you to come out swinging that hard." Mo Fan rolled his shoulders, knocking the last ice fragments off his body and dissolving them all into wisps of white vapor.

Mu Ningxue was used to Mo Fan's unfiltered mouth. She didn't bother rising to the bait — she simply began regathering a veil of cold ice, bracing against the arrogant advance of Mo Fan's Rose Flame. Her ice constitution made fire deeply unpleasant to be near.

"Sw— sweetheart??" Lu Zhenghe, standing nearby, looked like someone had knocked all the sense clean out of him.

For him, those two words were probably the cruelest blow of the day. Only he truly knew how sincere his feelings for Mu Ningxue were.

Mu Ningxue didn't spare the situation an explanation. She could already feel the aggressive pressure of Mo Fan's Spirit Grade flame bearing down on her — if she didn't act soon, she wasn't confident she'd come through this unscathed.

"I know you're testing my strength," Mo Fan said, still grinning. "And fair enough — if you can push yourself that hard, how could I, as a man, show up empty-handed? You want to see what I'm really capable of? Then I'd be happy to oblige."

The grin widened until it consumed his entire face — then the flames consumed that too, swallowing him whole.

He let out a single sharp cry — a king's command to an army. The surging inferno obeyed instantly, compressing all at once into rings of fire coiled around his wrists, pulsing in time with his heartbeat, flaring and dimming with each beat of the flame halos.

Song Xia, standing behind him, could feel the raw dominance of the Rose Flame washing over her. Her own Ordinary Fire would kneel before it without a fight.

All the flame pulled inward. What remained was a single figure standing tall — and one right fist wreathed in fire.

Rose Flame. Blazing Fist. *Earthstrike.*

Each name louder than the last. Each wave of fire higher than the one before. Mo Fan drove that fist into the ground without hesitation.

Molten energy flooded in. In an instant, a breathtaking Earthstrike flower tore open the earth's surface with a thunderous, scorching bloom.

Fire tongues danced like petals of living flame. A column of fire shot skyward — hot enough to evaporate anything in its path. Molten lava splashed outward, expanding the Earthstrike's reach still further in a spectacle that hit the eye like a hammer.

Of the four Imperial Capital Academy members, three were swallowed whole by the Earthstrike flower — everyone except Lu Zhenghe, whose element was Summoning.

Mingcong and Xiaofeng scrambled in pure disarray. They had never imagined Mo Fan's fire could reach this level of dominance. Xiaofeng's second element was Earth, and in the chaos he threw up an Earth defensive spell.

But his Stone Wall came too late. Before it could fully enclose him, the Earthstrike fire had already consumed it.

To save his own life, Xiaofeng had no choice but to activate his Enchanted Gear.

Mingcong fared no better. The Rose Flame-enhanced Blazing Fist Earthstrike combination was already more than enough to flatten someone at his level — and with the Rose Flame multiplying its destructive power, the blast burned straight through his Enchanted Gear as well.

Fortunately there were teachers on each side whose sole purpose was to protect the students. The moment things turned critical, they intervened — and Mingcong, barely conscious from the fire assault, was pulled to safety just in time.

The Earthstrike flower had swept over Mu Ningxue as well. Lu Yiming saw her in danger and moved to step in — only to find she was already riding the Wind Trail, drifting to the very edge of the Earthstrike's reach with effortless grace.

Even the fringe of an Earthstrike flower was nothing to take lightly. But the ice veil she had gathered just moments earlier now proved its worth exactly when it mattered most, intercepting every jet of molten lava that came spraying her way.