The Opponent — Dongfang Lie!

Fighting every day, showing off every day, coming home to cultivate, flirting with the academy's finest — life didn't get much sweeter than this.

Mo Fan had given Mu Nujiao some perfectly sound advice. Whether she acted on it was no longer his problem — as a man, saying what needed to be said was enough.

That said, living under the same roof gave him a decent read on her character. Mu Nujiao was not the type to accept being behind. He just hoped she wouldn't let a temporary setback drive her into pledging everything to her clan in a desperate bid to catch up. Climbing out of a hole like that later would be next to impossible.

Her situation reminded him of the conversation he'd had with Mu Ningxue in that crumbling church at Jinlin Desolate City. It was clear Mu Ningxue had taken out a sizable loan from her clan as well — nothing else could explain how terrifyingly fast her cultivation was advancing...

*Sigh. I just hope she didn't borrow too much. When the time comes to buy her freedom back, who knows what the price is going to be.*

Xinxia, on the other hand, was so much simpler. He'd paid her tuition and given her a generous sum for living expenses, yet she'd barely touched any of it. Her ability to earn extra income through Healing Element work was frankly alarming — the bank card he'd originally loaded for her spending had probably grown far beyond its starting balance by now. When he'd brought her over a couple of months ago, she'd gone and bought a stack of imported formula for the little Flame Queen out of her own pocket. The girl practically ran the household.

Speaking of money...

Mo Fan felt drained.

Raising the little Flame Queen had burned through nearly all his savings.

All he had left at this point was a single Terror Demon Seed — his last emergency reserve. There was nothing for it: he'd have to sell it. The proceeds would go toward a Shadow Element Spirit Seed, with whatever remained spent on Spirit Seed Fragments.

He did the math on what was left in his accounts, then factored in the reality that the more women in his life, the more places the money seemed to go. Mo Fan decided he couldn't afford to lounge around any longer and called Lingling.

"Hey, kid. Any jobs?"

"There's a trip coming up. You in?"

"How many days?"

"Three, give or take."

"That works. My nomination match isn't for another five days. How much does it pay?"

"Good money — but there'll be a lot of Demon-Beasts."

"That's fine. I need Spirit Essence anyway."

Spirit Essence was exactly what he needed. Without quite noticing, Mo Fan had already strengthened the twenty-ninth Star Mote in his Fire Element Star Nebula. The Blazing Fist was more than halfway to its fourth tier, so the moment he heard the job involved hunting Demon-Beasts in bulk, he was more than willing.

White mist drifted through Magic City in the morning light, mingling with its fashionable smog until the skyscrapers rose above the clouds like towers of some distant paradise.

Pearl Academy was equally swallowed by the morning fog — so thick you could barely see your hand in front of your face.

Mo Fan had always had a terrible sense of direction. The few familiar landmarks he navigated by had vanished into the haze, leaving him with absolutely no idea where he was on the sprawling campus.

"Damn it — I smashed my phone when I took that commission, and now I can't reach anyone..." He wandered aimlessly through the grounds, grumbling the whole way.

After finally stumbling onto the match venue, he'd come dangerously close to being late again. His new teammates had been sweating, half-convinced they'd drawn another no-show.

"Quite the crowd today," Mo Fan said, looking around. The venue was noticeably larger than usual, the seats nearly full, and there were more referees on hand than a standard match would call for.

"Our opponents are strong," Bai Yulang told him.

After the first three rounds, the brackets had been redrawn, and by some coincidence Mo Fan and Bai Yulang had ended up on the same team. This Bai Yulang was the same opponent Gu Jian's group had faced in their second match — formidable, by all accounts. It stood to reason that Mo Fan's luck couldn't be bad enough to keep drawing low-ranked opponents match after match.

They'd already fought two matches together, both resounding victories — routs, really. The teamwork had clicked from the start.

Today was the third match. This time, though, they'd clearly run into a real challenge.

"Who are we up against?" Mo Fan asked.

Bai Yulang didn't bother going through the list. He said just one name: "Dongfang Lie."

The mist chose that moment to thin, and Mo Fan finally got a clear look at the figure seated in the opposing team's rest area — a young man with a rakish, devil-may-care grin. He wasn't particularly tall, and if his name hadn't carried such weight, anyone seeing him for the first time would have pegged him as an idle, pampered young master with too much time on his hands. But it was unmistakably Dongfang Lie.

Mo Fan had known of him for a while. Back when he'd first set foot in Fire Hall, Wei Rong had made a point of singling the man out in front of that entire packed lecture hall.

The Fire Rankings were always in flux, yet Dongfang Lie had held the top spot without interruption. That alone was proof enough of his standing as the undisputed number one in Fire Hall.

Fortunately, Mo Fan's teammates this time were collectively strong enough that the match wasn't entirely without hope.

"No wonder there's such a crowd — this is a proper headliner," Mo Fan said, scanning the stands. He could pick out several ranked powerhouses who had turned up in person to watch.

The caliber of the match was exceptional on both sides. Nearly every member of both teams ranked in the top three to five of their respective elements — a genuine clash of the academy's true elite. Matches at that level naturally drew other top-ranked students who wanted to size up the competition firsthand; and once the strong arrived, everyone else followed. The stands filled steadily.

"Rest up — it starts soon," said Bai Yulang, filling his role as team captain by reminding his teammates to stay sharp.

The other two had gone quiet and grave, bracing themselves for something monumental.

Mo Fan, true to form, pulled out his phone without much ceremony — Lingling was calling.

"Mo Fan, I'm doing a remote transfer of your old phone's data into your new one right now. Don't power off," Lingling said.

"I'm about to start a match," Mo Fan said.

"It won't take long. Your old data card is nearly dead — the transfer has to happen now. And your phone has Hunter certification points on it. Lose those and it'll affect your rank evaluation... I had a look. A little more effort and you'll qualify to advance to Hunter Master. That opens the door to bigger commissions."

"Fair enough," Mo Fan said, nodding.

Once the match started, the phone would obviously need to go down. For now he kept it in hand until the transfer finished — he could put it away the moment the referee called start.

"Oh — there's a message on your phone that looks fairly important. Check it when you get a chance," Lingling added.

"What's it about?" Mo Fan asked.

"I didn't read the whole thing. Looked like it's about Zhang Xiaohou. Browse through it once the transfer's done."

"Got it."

The reminder brought it back to him — that Monkey, who used to check in every so often with updates on his mission, hadn't called in a very long time. Mo Fan had no idea how things were going on that end. Had it been a month already? Maybe more?