The Flame Queen Possesses Him
"The Ancient Capital has fallen to an Undead uprising — the Xihong unit dispatched as a rescue and survey team, patrol officer Zhang Xiaohou included, has been completely annihilated!"
*Annihilated.*
The words struck Mo Fan like an ice sword driven straight into his heart. His body went rigid, cold to the bone — so cold that even his blood seemed to stop flowing.
The chill pierced to the very depths of his soul. His entire being plunged into a world of blinding white emptiness, absolute and suffocating, and for a long, long time he could not pull himself free.
He stood there in a daze. Nearby, the chief referee's voice rang out in a loud, formal announcement, calling the start of the match — but Mo Fan heard none of it. His mind was consumed entirely by those few words that had stabbed through every part of him.
*Zhang Xiaohou is dead?*
*He's really dead?*
*And which bastard was it who said that someone who majored in Wind Element and minored in Earth Element — that everyone could die except him??*
The arena was still a sea of roaring cheers. A clash between elite fighters needed no thunderous magic to set the students' blood boiling. Supporters on both sides held firm in their convictions, each ready to produce ample evidence for why their pick would come out on top.
Yet just as everyone waited in anticipation for this top-tier Pearl Academy showdown, one person's mind had long since gone somewhere else entirely.
"Referee, wait—" Bai Yulang had sensed something was wrong almost immediately, and hurried toward the chief referee. "Hold on—"
"What is it?" the referee asked, expression serious.
"Hmph. Chickening out at the last moment?" Dongfang Lie let out a cold laugh. "I've been waiting for this day."
By now, anyone with eyes could see that something was off. The moment a match was called, contestants were supposed to move to their respective positions — yet Mo Fan was still standing in the presentation area, motionless, staring at his phone with the look of someone who could barely hold the device steady.
"The start has already been called," Zhou Shuming said flatly. "Enough stalling. *Fight.*"
Zhou Shuming had no personal quarrel with Mo Fan. The problem was that the woman he'd set his sights on happened to share quarters with him. "Roommates," technically — but everyone knew how that kind of close proximity worked, dry tinder just waiting for a spark. It wasn't as though Zhou Shuming hadn't sent someone to warn Mo Fan off. But the Great Demon Lord Mo Fan hadn't given campus tyrant Zhou Shuming so much as a second glance.
As for Dongfang Lie — petty romantic jealousy was beneath him. What gnawed at him was something else entirely: why was everyone else breaking their necks over a single Nomination Right, while Mo Fan had already locked in three votes? What gave him that right?
The referee had called the match. As far as Dongfang Lie was concerned, that meant it had begun — and if he could defeat this so-called predetermined pick in a fair fight, right here on this stage, there was every reason he could earn a place on the National Academy Team himself. Besides, for someone like Mo Fan? One punch. That was all it would take from Dongfang Lie, #1 on the Fire Rankings.
"All that posturing," he said. "Even if you turn tail right now, you're still eating my fist."
His knuckles grazed the air and a surge of scorching grey-red flame ignited instantly, contained within a one-meter radius around him, the heat radiating outward in a controlled fury. His aura sharpened into something formidable — and pitiless.
No mercy. No decency.
Dongfang Lie couldn't care less whether his opponent was ready. The match had started. The referee had called it. Today, he was going to bleed out every last drop of resentment that had been building inside him — right here, right now.
He was going to show every person in this school that so-called predetermined picks crumbled to nothing in front of him.
**Whoooooosh——!!!!**
A Star Chart materialized beneath his feet, taking shape as a blazing fire formation. Wild tongues of flame surged upward like the hem of a burning skirt, making the savage, ferocious Dongfang Lie look all the more unstoppable.
"Damn it — I called a stop!" Bai Yulang saw the eruption of power and roared in outrage.
"Stay out of this." Dongfang Lie didn't even glance at him. His burning eyes were locked on Mo Fan, standing perfectly still at the center of the arena. "This is between him and me."
"You bastard — what the hell do you think you're doing?!" Bai Yulang screamed.
Dongfang Lie had lost his mind. It was plain to see that Mo Fan was in shock over something, his mind miles away from any fight — and he was *attacking him now?* If Mo Fan hadn't managed to equip his Armor Enchanted Gear in time, he could be turned to ash before he'd even come to his senses.
This wasn't frustration. This wasn't wounded pride. Dongfang Lie had come here with *killing intent.*
Even Zhou Shuming, standing just beside him, felt a jolt of alarm. He'd been stoking the fire between them, sure — but he'd never imagined Dongfang Lie's hatred for Mo Fan had grown to this scale. Could it be that among Mo Fan's three votes, one had actually belonged to Dongfang Lie?
His guess was right. Councillor Zhu Meng had once mobilized Hangzhou's Tribunal, and the Dongfang Clan — whose stronghold sat squarely in Hangzhou — maintained a deeply close relationship with Zhu Meng. Under normal circumstances, Zhu Meng's vote would have gone to Dongfang Lie without question.
Zhou Shuming's plan had been simple: stir up the powerful Dongfang Lie to vent his own petty frustrations by proxy.
What he'd never counted on was that even without his meddling, even without anyone whispering a word in his ear, Dongfang Lie would never have let Mo Fan walk away.
**Whoooooooooosh——!!**
The blaze surged to its peak. Dongfang Lie's Innate Talent made his Blazing Fist far more devastating than any other Mage's — and the moment the punch flew, nine coiling fire dragons came roaring forth.
Nine pillars, nine dragons. They swept across the full length of the arena, weaving and twisting around each other, their blazing forms like true primordial beasts. The destructive pressure they radiated made the arena — larger than a football field — shudder beneath their passing.
*The fourth level of Blazing Fist.*
In its lower tiers, the technique erupted, swept, and surged within fixed boundaries — nine anchored points of force. But the fourth level dissolved those boundaries entirely, reshaping the nine pillars into primordial fire dragons that crashed forward like a tidal wave of flame. The sheer force swallowed nearly half the arena whole, and it was coming straight for Mo Fan.
"Mo Fan!!"
"Mo Fan!!"
"*Move — get out of the way!!!*"
In the stands, Ai Tutu, Mu Nujiao, and Zhao Manyan shot to their feet simultaneously, screaming at the top of their lungs.
What was he *doing* — the flames were about to swallow him whole!
**Ting——!!**
The little Flame Queen had been perched on Mo Fan's shoulder all this time. The moment she saw the danger thundering toward them, she cried out frantically in his ear.
Mo Fan's eyes showed not a flicker of awareness — but that didn't mean he had truly lost touch with everything around him.
He'd heard the referee call the start. He'd heard Bai Yulang demand a pause. He'd felt Dongfang Lie's seething resentment. He'd even sensed the death-bringing dragons surging toward him.
He hadn't moved. He'd gone blank. Because he still couldn't accept the reality — and because at this moment, he had not a single scrap of desire to hold back, to play games, to toy with his opponent.
"**Get the hell away from me!!!!**"
Mo Fan roared, veins standing out along his neck — and in that single cry he poured out every ounce of fury and grief that the devastating news had torn open inside him. His voice crashed out like thunder given flesh.
The little Flame Queen understood instinctively. In the very instant Mo Fan's roar erupted, her delicate flame body hurled itself directly into his — merging with the power about to explode from within — possession complete.
**WHOOOOOOOOOOOOSH——!!!!!!**
Fire raged in all directions, wild and boundless, as if countless flame demons had taken roost in a single body at once. A more violent, more ferocious torrent of fire erupted from Mo Fan, shocking the entire arena into stunned silence — and that surging power was visibly greater than Dongfang Lie's by several degrees.