Bewitching Minds (Part One)

"I have my ways." Mo Fan smiled with an air of mystery.

"It must be that those two survey points just happened to have no Demon-Beasts," Shen Mingxiao said.

Luo Song immediately bobbed his head in agreement. "Yeah, it's not like it's anything that special."

"Just because you're useless doesn't mean everyone else is," Mo Fan said bluntly.

Liao Mingxuan's face twitched, and his voice dropped to ice. "Are you calling us all a bunch of trash? Don't think having Dual Elements makes you something special. Let me tell you something, Mo Fan — you're nothing but a piece of garbage who got incredibly lucky. But luck doesn't last forever. One day, you won't be worth a damn!"

Mo Fan raised an eyebrow and looked at Liao Mingxuan with an expression caught between surprise and amused irritation.

*So he finally let it all out. The funny thing is — does this brainless idiot not realize just how nakedly his jealousy is showing?*

"You want to fight? I'm game, anytime. Stop barking."

"You think I'm afraid of you?!" Liao Mingxuan flared up.

The tension between the two ignited in an instant, catching everyone completely off guard.

Mu Nujiao saw things turning ugly and rushed to Mo Fan's side, grabbing his arm. "Don't lose your temper — finishing the mission is what matters. Whatever problems you have, settle them when we get back."

The words were meant to calm things down. Instead, they sent Liao Mingxuan over the edge entirely. Why were all these women so drawn to Mo Fan? Even Mu Ningxue — an ice queen like her — seemed to share some inexplicable, indescribable connection with this guy. An insufferable street rat who reeked of lowlife from head to toe, and just because luck had blessed him with decent talent, he thought he was the center of the universe. Liao Mingxuan had had absolutely enough of people like that.

"Come outside, right now! Whoever loses walks straight back to school!" he raged.

"I'll take you up on that." Mo Fan had never been one to let scum and petty people off the hook — coddle them and they only get worse. Besides, if he wound up beaten up, Bai Tingting was right there to patch him up.

"That is enough." Lu Zhenghe's voice cut through the room, ringing off the walls of the church.

He had already crossed the room to Liao Mingxuan and grabbed him by the arm.

Liao Mingxuan wrenched himself free and wheeled on Lu Zhenghe, jabbing a finger at him. "Who do you think you are? The boss around here? You're not the team leader. You're always bossing everyone around — what, does having a big brother in military command make you special? You walk around acting like you personally run the Imperial Capital Magic Academy, and now you're sticking your nose in my private fight? In front of Mu Ningxue you're a fawning lapdog, but with the rest of us you strut around playing lord and master!"

Those words drew blood. The room went quiet with a collective wince.

Lu Zhenghe's face cycled through shades of green and white. He'd only come over to break up the fight — and somehow Liao Mingxuan had turned on him like a man possessed.

And that last line cut straight to the bone. Lu Zhenghe had never felt more humiliated in his life.

"Have you completely lost it? Don't think I won't tie you up too!" he snapped, embarrassment curdling into fury.

"Go ahead and try. At least Mingcong had the guts to go after the woman he wanted with his own two hands. What about you, Lu Zhenghe? You can't open your mouth in front of Mu Ningxue. When did the great Lu military Noble Clan produce a spineless coward like you?!"

Lu Zhenghe was stunned into silence. Despite himself, his eyes drifted to Mu Ningxue — the woman he genuinely, deeply cared for.

Mu Ningxue's face was expressionless. Only a faint flicker of disgust for Liao Mingxuan passed through her eyes. She had always found him narrow-minded.

"Xu Dalong, Xiao Feng — he's lost it too. Tie him up," Lu Zhenghe said.

"And you two — you're really that happy to be his dogs?" Liao Mingxuan said.

Xu Dalong and Xiao Feng stared at him, utterly speechless. How had they gotten dragged into this?

Whatever the case, Liao Mingxuan's emotions had clearly spiraled beyond control. They bound him anyway, then stuffed a strip of cloth into his mouth to stop him from saying any more things that landed quite so precisely between the ribs.

"What on earth is going on? Mingcong suddenly goes after Bai Tingting, and now Liao Mingxuan and Lu Zhenghe are tearing each other apart?" Peng Liang sat hunched by the campfire, keeping his voice low.

"Who knows. Probably all the close calls — the psychological pressure has been building for everyone, and now the things they've kept buried are forcing their way out," Zhao Manyan said.

"The mission's more or less finished at this point."

"And if we don't complete the Field Expedition, the resources we get when we enter the Main Campus will be cut."

Where before everyone had gathered around the bonfire and traded lighter topics — or suffered through Peng Liang's groan-worthy jokes — now the group had splintered. People had drawn into clusters of familiar faces, the whole party fractured into several small, self-contained circles.

Mo Fan and Zhao Manyan were sitting together. Zhao Manyan raised an eyebrow and asked, grinning, exactly when Mo Fan had gotten Bai Tingting to fall for him. Mo Fan himself had no idea.

They'd barely exchanged a few lines when Mu Ningxue walked over, her presence as frosty as ever. She gave Zhao Manyan a measured look, then turned it on Mo Fan.

Zhao Manyan read the room immediately. "You two talk — I'll go check on Song Xia's injury." He slipped away with an easy smile.

Mo Fan watched Mu Ningxue with mild confusion.

She was, without question, beautiful. That flawless, exquisite face never grew tiresome to look at, and with her unusual silver-white hair drifting softly around her, she was breathtaking in a way that left people with only one honest description: like something out of a painting.

"Did you notice anything?" Mu Ningxue spoke first. There was a quiet, analytical sharpness in her eyes.

"Notice what?" Mo Fan asked, genuinely at a loss.

"Something is off."

"I think it's fairly normal, honestly. Everyone has a darker side. Mingcong is a lecher at heart — pressure just let it loose. Liao Mingxuan has always been petty — he just said what he really thinks for once." Mo Fan laced his hands behind his head, the picture of indifference.

"There's another one behaving strangely," Mu Ningxue said.

"There is?"

"Bai Tingting. You and she haven't reached that kind of closeness — and yet she threw herself at you in front of everyone. She doesn't strike me as that fragile a person."

"She's had a crush on me for a long time. Doesn't seem so strange. Besides, weren't you like that once? Out of nowhere, you told me you wanted to run away from home, and asked me to go with you." Mo Fan smiled.

"I didn't know any better back then," Mu Ningxue said flatly.

"But I said yes."

A shadow crossed Mu Ningxue's face. She knew that decision had brought serious consequences down on Mo Fan's family. "I'm sorry…"

"Don't apologize. Even if you came to me right now and said you wanted to leave the Mu Household — my answer would be the same." Mo Fan smiled. It was a simple, uncomplicated smile, without any of the bitterness or resentment one might have expected.

"We're both adults now. Don't joke about things like that," Mu Ningxue said. Her expression remained as undisturbed as a still, deep well — utterly unreadable, as always. Whatever had happened to her had made her treat everything this way: cold, untouched, sealed off from the world…

"I'm not joking. Back then, you wanted to escape your family's control, and you asked for my help. I agreed without a second thought. Do you know why?" Mo Fan looked into those ice-pale eyes of hers.