Fifth on the Talent Rankings

**Shock!**

Liu Yilin didn't even have time to summon his defensive Enchanted Gear before the surging electric force went wild inside his body — like countless deep-sea electric eels crawling across every inch of him, slithering through his mouth and down his throat, spreading through his organs until every last one of them felt the scorching bite of the current.

He couldn't even scream. His whole body went deathly pale, his face convulsing violently.

He stared up at Mo Fan, and behind the pain in his eyes, bewilderment still burned. *How had he appeared behind me without a sound? Why was he shrouded in shadow? Why had Dongfang Ming — considered unbeatable among Intermediate-Level Mages — been finished off in under fifteen minutes?*

"See?" Mo Fan looked down at the collapsed Liu Yilin and gave him a casual kick. "I keep my promises. Every time I see you, I beat you up."

Liu Yilin couldn't move a muscle. The kick landed beside his cheek, pressing a size-42 shoe print into the dirt right next to his face — the sole caked with something that smelled absolutely foul. Having that filth smeared near him felt like being shoved face-first against a cesspit.

*Humiliation.*

*Absolute, unbearable humiliation.*

Liu Yilin's hatred for Mo Fan had reached depths where skinning him alive wouldn't begin to satisfy it.

Mo Fan had never cared about making enemies. He didn't even lose sleep over the Black Church's dogs — why would he worry about a university student like Liu Yilin?

"If you think this is the greatest humiliation of your life," Mo Fan said pleasantly, "rest easy — it isn't. As long as you dare come looking for revenge, you'll realize this time was nothing. Truth be told, I have no idea what my shoe picked up. There's a poultry farm right under Bai Town's Barrier wall, and I was running so fast I never got a chance to clean it off. But your face is so clean and pale — it worked out perfectly." With that declaration of gleeful depravity, Mo Fan flicked his sleeve and walked away.

With Liu Yilin dealt with, Tang Yue launched her counterattack.

A High-Level Mage was a High-Level Mage. Her Star Chart took shape at a speed that left everyone else far behind.

Crimson flames blazed into a ring of fire around Teacher Tang Yue. The ring suddenly contracted, all of it condensing onto her right arm.

"Blazing Fist — Nine Palaces!"

The third-tier Blazing Fist was executed with fluid, practiced speed. Torrents of liquid magma erupted from that single punch.

In the darkness, nine pillars of fire blazed with blinding brilliance, arranged in a Nine Palaces formation. The spaces between each pillar were choked with roiling fireballs, and liquid magma rained down across the meadow like a downpour — within moments, that entire stretch of grassland had been reduced to black scorched earth.

In the charred ruins, Liu Zhongming and his companion suffered terribly. Their defensive Enchanted Gear couldn't hold against the ferocious heat and the overwhelming force of those pillars. Had Tang Yue not held back, both men might well have been roasted alive inside the Nine Palaces.

Tang Yue's hair was pinned up. Firelight flickered across her pale cheeks, and there was unmistakable weariness in her face.

She let the Nine Palaces flames die away. Calm returned to the meadow. All four — Trainee and Reserve Tribunal Agents alike — had been dealt with. What worried her most now, however, were the Palace Guards.

"We need to move. They're close." Tang Yue glanced at the Totem Pearl inside the bag and turned to Mo Fan.

"Yeah."

The Swift Star Wolf was injured, which meant their only option was Shadow Fade into the mountain.

Bai Mountain loomed just ahead. Under cover of darkness, they became two black shadows hugging the steep cliff face, vanishing into the depths of that bare, rocky peak.

Not long after, the Palace Guards arrived at the scene — each mounted on a blue bird with wings spanning ten meters.

Wu Pinjing took one look at the four Tribunal Agents groaning on the ground and his expression went cold.

"Didn't I tell you to just keep them contained?!" one of the Palace Guards barked furiously.

"I... I thought their strength was nothing special..." Dongfang Ming forced himself upright through the grinding agony in his bones, his face a picture of defeat.

"Dongfang Ming, do you seriously think you're something?" Tribunal Agent Ah Li Jin snapped. "Tang Yue is a High-Level Mage. Did you actually believe you could match her?"

Dongfang Ming was under Ah Li Jin's command — all four of them had been summoned by him. They'd originally located Tang Yue and Mo Fan's trail, which should have earned them first credit. Now they could look forward to being dragged back to the Tribunal for punishment.

"He was beaten by the other one — the young man," Liu Zhongming said with a cold snort.

He wasn't taking the blame for this. He had followed orders to the letter. It was Dongfang Ming's arrogance that had driven him into a direct confrontation — that was his own doing.

"Isn't that kid only an Intermediate-Level Mage?" Ah Li Jin demanded.

The question only deepened Dongfang Ming's humiliation. He had nothing to say.

Wu Pinjing glanced over the battered, disheveled Trainee and Reserve Tribunal Agents and let out a cold laugh. "You think the young man at Tang Yue's side is some nobody?"

Wu Pinjing had naturally pulled Mo Fan's file. Whether it was the Bo City disaster or the Black Church massacre in Magic City, this person had a hand in both. How could someone with that history be ordinary?

"He's fifth on the talent rankings — born with Dual Elements, the strongest among Pearl Academy's new intake. Both of the Black Church's operations being foiled had everything to do with him. In terms of talent, he's more than an entire tier above any of you. In terms of backing — do you really think Pearl Academy would lose to your Zhejiang Interior Bureau? And in terms of strength —" the words came out like a blade — "you couldn't even last fifteen minutes in front of him. The so-called Fire Element Noble Clan — the Dongfang family — if arrogance is all you have, you can stop dreaming about ever stepping foot in the Tribunal." Tribunal Agent Ah Li Jin was seething.

Even if Dongfang Ming had been brought down by Tang Yue, that would have been at least understandable. But he had lost to Mo Fan — someone at the exact same Intermediate-Level Mage tier as himself.

Ah Li Jin had told Dongfang Ming more than once that there's always someone better. The man's arrogance had made him deaf to it. This time he had committed a serious blunder, and even Ah Li Jin — veteran Tribunal Agent that he was — couldn't shield him from the consequences.

"All of you — go back and recover. And stop calling yourselves Tribunal Agents." Guard Captain Wu Pinjing's voice was ice-cold as he dismissed the four.

Not one of them dared so much as breathe. Even veteran Tribunal Agent Ah Li Jin didn't dare plead on their behalf.

Offending a Guard Captain was one thing. But if Councillor Zhu Meng added his own censure on top of that, they'd have no future left in the Magic Association.

"Next time I see him, I'll pay it back tenfold," Dongfang Ming said through gritted teeth.

What consumed him had nothing to do with Councillor Zhu Meng. What consumed him was the simple, burning fact that he had lost to Mo Fan — a peer from the same generation.

As for Liu Yilin, he too had fully intended to seek revenge. But when he heard that even Dongfang Ming had been utterly crushed, cold fear crept into his chest.

Liu Yilin knew he was nowhere near Dongfang Ming's level. If even Dongfang Ming had been wrecked, what possible grounds did he have to go looking for Mo Fan?