Definitely a D

Beyond the wilderness, the sky stretched out remarkably clear. Moonlight poured silver and pure across the forest — dancing tree-shadows in every direction, a stream gleaming softly below.

On the bank lay scattered clothing, each piece fragrant and varied: different colors, fashionable cuts — sheer gauze, fine lace, snug-fitting, soft and loose...

Under the moonlight, in the stream, the young women moved like spirits of the night, bathing their pale and flawless skin in the cool water, jet-black hair cascading freely down their backs. The scene was staggeringly beautiful — breathtaking in a way that defied description. Their occasional soft laughter drifted through the silence, filling the quiet forest with something almost magical.

The stream ran crystalline and unhurried. Cool, but in the most refreshing way.

"Tired of living!"

The words came sharp and cold from somewhere in the trees — and a dark shape shot away at blinding speed.

"Ahh!! Ahh!!"

Zhao Mingyue, Bai Tingting, Mu Nujiao, Jingjing, and the others snapped to their senses at once. They plunged their bodies beneath the surface in a rush of splashing water, wide eyes sweeping the surrounding trees in a panic.

"What happened? What happened?" Song Xia, who had been standing guard on the bank, hurried over.

"Someone was there."

"There was a ripple of Shadow Element energy!"

"Who here uses the Shadow Element?"

"Peng Liang — it has to be Peng Liang!!"

Back at the campfire, the men were still swapping stories — which was, to put it plainly, an elaborate competition in shameless bragging. The mood shifted quickly when the girls appeared, faces cold enough to frost glass, eyes cutting straight through every man in sight.

"Who was it just now?!" Song Xia wasn't one for subtlety. She pointed straight at the group and demanded an answer.

"Who else could it be? There's only one person in this entire group with Shadow Element ability..." Jingjing turned a scorching glare on Peng Liang.

Peng Liang went pale. He scrambled to his feet. "It wasn't like that — I went into the forest, yes, but I never even got close to the stream. You spotted me before I got anywhere near it. I swear I didn't see anything."

Zhao Manyan gave a measured cough. "Peng Liang," he said, with the solemn gravity of a man delivering moral judgment, "I never thought you were this kind of person. Honestly, being your classmate right now feels like something of a disgrace."

"Zhao Manyan, you—!" A surge of white-hot betrayal shot through Peng Liang.

Every single one of these men had goaded him into going, practically shoved him into the forest — and now, the moment the girls started asking questions, they had all transformed into paragons of virtue.

Peng Liang swallowed it. He took the fall.

He'd admit to having had impure thoughts. But he would go to his grave insisting he hadn't actually seen anything — because he genuinely, truly had not made it to the stream.

"Forget it. Song Xia was standing guard the whole time. He probably just wandered around nearby."

"Hmph. Shameless."

"A beast in human clothing."

"Hypocrite!!"

The girls huffed back to their tents. Around the campfire, the men nodded vigorously, throwing Peng Liang completely under the bus to the very last brick.

Peng Liang felt as though his life had ended here. He could have wept, but the tears refused to come.

The incident faded quickly. As the night deepened and people settled in to sleep, the group began rotating watch duties.

"Mo Fan, where did you slip off to earlier?" Mo Fan and Zhao Manyan had drawn first watch. Zhao Manyan had been turning something over in his mind, and now he finally asked.

"I'm a naturally cautious person. Just had a look around the area," Mo Fan replied, utterly straight-faced.

"Oh, is that so..." Zhao Manyan raised an eyebrow, his tone leisurely. "If I'm not mistaken, you happen to have some kind of Shadow Element Enchanted Gear, don't you."

"Ahem — ahem—"

*Busted.* Mo Fan cringed. He'd been so certain he'd played it flawlessly, and this fellow degenerate had seen straight through him in a single breath.

"So? Who had the best figure??" Zhao Manyan's eyes lit up. He hadn't seen anything himself, but a vivid description from Mo Fan would do just fine for his imagination.

"I can tell you with complete certainty," Mo Fan said, "that Mu Nujiao is definitely a D."

"No way. Seriously? With her figure, a C would already be a lethal weapon. If she's actually a D..." Zhao Manyan exhaled a noise of reverent disbelief. "Damn..."

"And there's something you'd never guess."

"What? Come on, tell me!" Zhao Manyan was practically vibrating.

"The biggest is Bai Tingting."

"She's been hiding all of that this whole time? That actually fits her main element perfectly!!"

"What about Mu Ningxue? Her figure must be absolutely incredible — just from that flawless, ice-pale skin of hers, you can tell she's something else entirely."

"Didn't see her. Her sensing ability is way stronger than I expected. Lucky for me that Peng Liang was there to take the fall."

Outside the tents, a figure slipped into the trees at speed, radiating unmistakable urgency.

Zhao Manyan heard the rustling from his patrol route and called out — and was told it was just someone getting up to use the bathroom in the night.

But after finishing, the figure didn't return to the tent immediately. In the darkness, those eyes swept sideways to confirm that Zhao Manyan had moved on to another section of the perimeter — then the figure darted behind a nearby tree.

**Beep. Beep—**

From within a sleeve, the figure drew out a small pen-shaped object emitting faint pulses of light. With quick, practiced movements, it was pressed into the earth and buried.

Done, the figure affected a drowsy yawn and shuffled back to the tent, settling back down as though nothing had happened at all.

The night grew deeper still. The campfire had died to ash. Six tents — each large enough for three — stood quietly on the grass. Even the insects and birds had fallen silent. Everything was perfectly still.

Zhao Manyan circled the perimeter on patrol. Mo Fan kept watch from above.

High in the treetops, Mo Fan sprawled lazily in the fork of a tall tree, wedged comfortably between a pair of diverging trunks. With his Shadow Element ability, active scanning wasn't necessary — any unusual movement in the vicinity would be caught at once by the reach of his shadows.

*Collected so many Remnant Souls back there... I wonder if there are enough to condense a Spirit Essence.*

He had been the last to leave the tunnel, and not by chance. He'd swept up every Remnant Soul left behind by the slain Cave Demon-Slaves.

Now, above the sacred river flowing within the Loach Pendant, over a hundred pale green lights drifted and flickered — perfectly still, giving no visible sign of progress.

*Not enough?*

*A hundred-odd Remnant Souls, and still not enough to produce a single Spirit Essence?*

*Wait — it's starting!*

A flicker of excitement went through Mo Fan. The collected Remnant Souls were finally stirring. White vapor rising from the sacred river began drawing them together.

Clustered within that pale mist, they collided — flickers of dim light smashing into one another. Each collision ended in a merger, the combined glow a touch brighter than either component.

Over a hundred became just over fifty. Then the fifty-odd began colliding again...

The cycle continued. Mo Fan had drifted into idle speculation — wondering vaguely what would happen if the total number of Remnant Souls were odd — when something unexpected occurred. One of the larger, brighter Remnant Souls suddenly began consuming the others. One by one, it devoured the remaining seven or eight refined ones whole.

When the last was gone, the murky green glow of that swollen soul began to shed itself, layer by layer, peeling away — until what remained shone with the clean, gentle radiance of a firefly on a summer night.

*A Spirit Essence!! I've refined another Spirit Essence!!* Joy rang through Mo Fan like a struck bell.

He didn't hesitate. He directed the Servant-class Spirit Essence straight toward the second Star Mote of his Lightning Element, channeling its power in as a direct enhancement.

*Only five more, and my Lightning Seal will break into the fourth level. A fourth-level Lightning Seal — I can barely imagine what it's capable of. There probably aren't many Mages in the world who have one. Tsk tsk... I really can't wait.*