Overdid It!

Wei Rong's gaze moved slowly from Zheng Jiahui to Dongfang Lie before he continued.

"What separates them is not superior talent, a more distinguished background, harder cultivation, or rarer encounters. It is the brutal outcome of 1,147 people with comparable conditions gathering together and clashing countless times. What they rely on is no longer raw power alone. Since you apparently think there are still plenty of people among them who aren't worth your time — fine. On the basis of that arrogant little speech, I am placing your score for this month at the 100th position on the rankings. I want you to feel firsthand what a Fire Element student ranked 100th endures every single day!" Wei Rong's voice was heavy.

Seeing the department head's dead-serious expression, Mo Fan smiled and said, "I was just annoyed by that remark you made earlier — the one that took a shot at me. No need to make this into such a standoff."

"Empty words are not tolerated in my Fire Hall. You think many of the students I've trained are worthless? Then let me make something very clear: what does that make someone who gets beaten by the worthless?!" Wei Rong had no intention of letting Mo Fan off the hook.

Things had already reached this point, and Mo Fan was out of good options. He just couldn't figure out what this chimpanzee of a department head intended by slotting him at rank 100.

Wei Rong didn't dwell on the matter any further. The outcome would sort itself out in a month.

He moved on to announcing the month's assessment rankings and the distribution of resources.

Mo Fan, as ever, had managed to infuriate the entire room — and was more or less satisfied with the spectacle he'd caused.

He reached forward and tapped the tough-looking woman in front of him — Huang Xingli — and asked, "Hey, do you think that chimpanzee got so rattled by me that he put me at rank 100? Because rank 100 looks like it comes with a pretty decent resource allocation."

Huang Xingli had already rolled her eyes. *This guy is a complete idiot.*

"Do you seriously think being high on the Fire Rankings is comfortable? Anyone at a lower rank can challenge you — endlessly. The higher you are, the more challenges come your way, and nobody is going to cut you any slack. Even if your Magical Energy is completely drained, if someone issues a challenge and you lose, your rank immediately goes to them. As a transfer student, if you'd had any sense, you could've quietly worked your way up little by little without drawing anyone's attention. But now you've painted a target on your back. At least eight hundred people want to beat you senseless — you can forget about having any kind of future at Pearl Academy. My advice? Get off campus the moment this meeting ends. Otherwise, you're going to end up in a very bad state."

Huang Xingli genuinely believed that what Mo Fan had just done was the most suicidal stunt in the entire school's history. Given that he'd be relentlessly pummeled for an entire month with no respite, she figured a warning was the least she could offer.

"What the — the Rankings Board works like *that*?! Unlimited challenges?! Am I going to be run through a non-stop gauntlet without a single break?!" Mo Fan stared in disbelief.

"You didn't even know the rules before opening your mouth like that. Not even the gods can save you now."

Mo Fan pressed his fingers against his temples, a dull throb building behind his eyes. *I really overdid the posturing this time.*

He'd only learned about the Rankings Board today, and had just discovered it operated on unlimited challenges. The thought of people jumping out to challenge him while he was sleeping, while he was eating, while he was out flirting with girls or window-shopping — this was absolutely unlivable.

Maybe he should pay Dean Xiao another visit and arrange a transfer to Lightning Element. Fire Element was clearly uninhabitable at this point.

His strength was real — but without going all out, he wasn't yet capable of steamrolling every practitioner at Pearl Academy.

The Main Campus had always been teeming with elite fighters. Only those at the mid-tier or above were even permitted to enter, and many had leveraged the campus's resources to cultivate their way to the peak of the mid-tier. Among them, no small number had already acquired Spirit Seeds.

Take Dongfang Ming, for instance. In terms of raw power, the man wasn't that far behind Mo Fan — and his Enchanted Gear was considerably more extravagant. He even had Wing Enchanted Gear, a genuine luxury item, and his Spirit Seed went without saying.

If there were people out there even stronger than Dongfang Ming, those were opponents that would give Mo Fan a real fight.

"If I'm at rank 100 — does that mean no one in the top 100 can challenge me?" Mo Fan quickly asked.

Those were the ones he actually had to worry about.

"Obviously. Who in their right mind challenges someone ranked below them? You win and you don't even gain any ranking — just a waste of precious Magical Energy," Huang Xingli said.

"Ah, so that's how it works. That's a bit of a relief." Mo Fan exhaled.

"Relief my ass — the arrogance on you has no limits. And another thing: do we even know each other? Why do you keep pestering me? Get away from me, you lunatic!!" Huang Xingli suddenly snapped to attention and rounded on him with exasperation.

Mo Fan chuckled to himself. *This tomboy's actually pretty entertaining.*

The moment the Fire Hall assembly ended, Mo Fan could already sense the explosive tension that had saturated the room.

Lucky he'd slipped out early. If he'd stayed even a moment longer, the glares directed at him could have reduced him to ash.

"Thought he was such a big shot — and there he goes, tucking his tail and running," Huang Xingli said with a cold snort, watching Mo Fan disappear.

"That name sounds a little familiar." Ding Yumian, seated nearby, murmured softly as she glanced in the direction Mo Fan had fled.

"You know him?" Huang Xingli looked at her in surprise. The Ding Yumian she knew couldn't even name the top ten heartthrobs on the Rankings Board — how on earth would she ever bother noticing some nobody's name?

Ding Yumian shook her head and said nothing more.

The moment Wei Rong stepped out, the entire hall erupted.

Clusters of students surged furiously toward the spot where Mo Fan had been sitting, every one of them rolling up their sleeves.

"Damn it — the bastard got away!!"

"When did he run?! What were you lot sitting next to him doing — couldn't you have kept an eye on him?!"

"We… we honestly had no idea when he slipped out."

"Hmph. Running won't save him. Just issue a formal challenge directly. He's ranked 100th now — nine out of ten of us are eligible to challenge him. Unless he's willing to surrender his resources without a fight, he has no choice but to face us!" Zhao Ji said, a cold smirk spreading across his face.

*Damn it all.* That 100th slot had been his — Zhao Ji's — until moments ago.

The gap in resources between rank 100 and rank 101 was enormous, and Mo Fan had shoved him down to 101 out of nowhere. The depths of Zhao Ji's resentment were hard to overstate.

"Qin Song, aren't you going to go teach that kid a lesson? Take him down and you'd at least earn some real prestige. There are too many elites in Fire Hall — if we don't make our presence known soon, who's even going to remember the Golden Fire Society exists?"

"Petty squabbles below rank 100 — not worth my time," said the one called Qin Song.

"Come to think of it, wasn't there some guy in the new students they called the Great Demon Lord? His name was Mo Fan too, apparently completely insufferable. Could this be the same person?"

"Didn't that Mo Fan die during his exchange program?"

"Probably not the same person anyway. That Mo Fan was Summoning Element."

"Fair enough."

"Free resources just sitting there — let's go grab them!"