Impersonating Another
The Nomination Battle!
Pearl Academy held ten nomination slots in total. After the nominations were decided, candidates would still go through roughly two more rounds of selection before the final roster was confirmed.
The nomination battle itself was straightforward: gather the top twenty students from each element's rankings and pit them against one another in round after round of matches.
What made it interesting was that this wasn't a one-on-one competition. The academy had opted for a randomly shuffled 4v4 format.
Each participating student would be paired with three other participants to form a temporary squad, and that squad would compete in three matches against other squads.
Wins and losses did affect whether a student earned a nomination, but a loss wasn't a death sentence.
After all, the academy's General Rankings weren't purely determined by inter-element matchups, and there was a natural counter-system among elements. On top of that, since everyone was an Intermediate-Level Mage with access to only two elements, students with defensive or Healing Elements would never crack the top rankings under a pure combat scoring system — yet those same elements were absolutely critical to any team of Mages.
That was precisely why the nomination battle had been structured as four against four. Each match was overseen by three judges who collectively held eight points to distribute. Win or lose, any student who performed brilliantly would receive high marks.
The highest scorers would be nominated, with the final ten candidates confirmed by an academy-level administrator.
A nomination meant one vote.
Securing a World Academy spot generally required four votes in total. The other three could come from any number of places — Noble Clan backing, association endorsement, military approval... It all came down to each candidate's strength and appeal.
Mo Fan already had three votes, though all three had been gifted by others, with a fair amount of luck thrown in...
Which was exactly why earning this nomination mattered so much to him.
And the team brawl format had him buzzing with excitement.
One-on-one duels were fun enough, but when it was just magic flying back and forth, it mostly came down to who had the higher cultivation and the better gear.
Team battles were a different story — that was where real skill made the difference. Using your magic at precisely the right moment could flip an entire situation on its head.
Just like their fight at the Shamang River, working alongside Zhang Xiaohou and Zhao Manyan — *now that* had been a fight worth having.
Since the World Academy competition was clearly a team event, it only made sense that the nominations would test team combat ability as well.
Ai Tutu had practically become Mo Fan's shadow. She loved excitement above all else, and her instincts told her that sticking close to Mo Fan was a guaranteed good time — so she'd enthusiastically signed him up for the competition and drawn his lot for him.
Mo Fan spent his days in cultivation, ears shut to the outside world. Yet through Ai Tutu's nonstop, rosy-cheeked chatter, he somehow ended up knowing things like which Noble Clan scion had swept the security guard's granddaughter off her feet at the school gate.
Ai Tutu was clearly bored out of her mind, because she threw herself into Mo Fan's nomination campaign with remarkable dedication.
The moment the lottery results were out, she logged onto the school forum.
The draws themselves were private, but most people would post their assigned team publicly afterward and arrange a meet-up before the first match — even if no one planned to actually practice together, at least they'd know what elements each teammate had.
Acting as Mo Fan's personal secretary, she spotted someone rallying their team on the forum and immediately dolled herself up to go meet the teammates.
The meeting was set at the sports field. By the time Ai Tutu arrived — dressed in a way that made her considerable assets impossible to ignore — the other three had already been waiting for some time.
"Are you from Team 11?" one of the male students asked.
"Oh! I know you — you're Gu Jian, the Lightning faculty's most famous heartthrob!" Ai Tutu's eyes lit up the moment she spotted him.
The one called Gu Jian went slightly rigid. He looked her up and down.
Beautiful women, generously built women — he'd seen plenty of both. Women held no interest for him right now. His mind was consumed entirely with one thing: earning his nomination. A woman could strip naked and climb under his covers and he'd still stay focused on his cultivation without a second glance.
His first impression of Ai Tutu wasn't favorable. He was worried she'd be deadweight — losing the first match would reflect badly on the whole team. Sure, wins and losses weren't officially scored, but *winning* was the only way to prove just how exceptional he was.
"Now that we're all here, let's go over each other's elements," Gu Jian said, already wearing the air of a self-appointed team captain.
"Well, actually..." Ai Tutu was only here standing in for Mo Fan, who had gone into seclusion at the Three-Step Tower. She really ought to explain.
But Gu Jian's brow immediately furrowed. "Are you with Team 11 or not? If you're in the wrong place, stop wasting our time — we need to train."
"...Right, yes — I'm in the right place," Ai Tutu said quickly.
She'd actually heard of Gu Jian before all this. Not long ago, her eldest aunt had played matchmaker for the Gu family, arranging for Ai Tutu to "meet" one of the Gu sons over the New Year holiday...
"Meeting" being the polite word for a blind date.
This sort of arrangement was entirely normal in Noble Clan circles. Ai Tutu was of marriageable age, and since she showed little dedication to cultivation and spent her days chasing fun, her family had long been eager to marry her off and finally settle her down.
As it happened, Gu Jian was exactly the candidate her family had set their sights on. It hadn't even occurred to Ai Tutu that Mo Fan would end up on the same team as the man who might very well become her fiancé.
He was genuinely striking — powerful, clearly talented, and a standout of the Lightning faculty. All things considered, he ticked Ai Tutu's boxes rather well. A thought spun through her mind: she'd hold off on revealing that she was here as someone else's stand-in. Better to use this chance to get a proper read on what Gu Jian was actually like.
"So what are your elements?" Gu Jian asked.
"Plant Element as my main, Light Element as secondary," Ai Tutu answered without missing a beat.
"Not bad. We've got enough destructive power as it is." Gu Jian's expression eased a fraction.
"Then let's get started on training. Some preparation is always better than none."
"Agreed — let's work well together!"
Ai Tutu beamed and echoed the sentiment.
Mo Fan, deep in cultivation inside the Three-Step Tower, had absolutely no idea that Ai Tutu would pull something like this.
And even after he eventually left the Tower, Ai Tutu never breathed a word about the competition. Unbeknownst to him, that insufferable woman had committed full-on identity fraud — all in the name of hooking herself a man.
Then again, Mo Fan really should have known better than to leave anything in the hands of a woman whose head was stuffed with nothing but papayas. Disaster was the only possible outcome.
Ai Tutu's brains and bust were quite clearly in inverse proportion — and as if that weren't enough, she thrived on chaos and was capable of absolutely anything.
"Swift Star Wolf, what are you running for?! You're a wolf — where's your fighting spirit?!"
"Awoooo~~~~~!" Swift Star Wolf let out a pitiful howl and bolted to the furthest corner of the training arena — the one patch still mercifully free of flames.
The entire arena was engulfed in fire. Above the roaring blaze floated a small girl who looked like a porcelain doll, her delicate little body made entirely of living flame. She laughed with a sound as bright and clear as silver bells — but to Swift Star Wolf, that laughter was the cackling of a tiny fire demon heralding total annihilation.
"Swift Star Wolf, fight like you mean it, get in there — ah, *ah*! Little Flame Queen, why are you burning your wolf uncle? Why are you going after *dad*?!"
"Stop, stop! You're supposed to be fighting *him*, not possessing *me*! Damn it — Swift Star Wolf, get back here! She's not trying to inhabit you, so what are you running from?! Dimensional Summoning — hah! Think you can actually escape?!"