...
{3rd Pov}
The very next moment, Mo Fan unleashed a Greater Fire Burst directly toward the face of the leading female student.
Fortunately, several teachers reacted almost instantly and intervened before the spell could fully connect.
Otherwise her face would have literally melted.
Watching from the audience, Astreo raised an eyebrow.
'I see... Fellow Daoist Mo Fan, it seems you too have begun walking the Dao of E-rated fists.'
He silently nodded to himself as though he had just witnessed a junior finally stepping onto the correct cultivation path.
Meanwhile, the entire stadium once again fell into complete shock.
Many students had barely recovered from the revelation of Mo Fan's Novice Tier 4 Lightning Magic.
Now he was casually throwing out Novice Tier 4 Fire Magic as well.
Some students were so overwhelmed by the consecutive revelations that they nearly fainted on the spot.
A few actually did.
Whether it was from shock, jealousy, or emotional damage was difficult to determine.
"Dual Element Awakener!"
"He has an Innate Talent!"
The realization spread through the stadium faster than wildfire, causing another wave of uproar among the audience.
At that moment, even Mu Nujiao, who had just stood up from her seat with the intention of joining the next match, quietly patted the back of her own chair...and calmly sat back down.
"Sister Jiaojiao..." Ai Tutu blinked several times in confusion before asking, "Weren't you planning to fight in the next match?"
She couldn't believe what she was seeing.
Her battle-maniac best friend, the same Mu Nujiao who would happily challenge powerful opponents whenever the opportunity presented itself had voluntarily sat back down.
Mu Nujiao remained silent for a moment before speaking in a perfectly calm voice.
"I enjoy fighting."
She paused.
"I don't enjoy volunteering to become today's barbecue."
"Also remember I major in the Plant Element, and my Wind Element is still only at the Novice Tier. Not to mention..." Mu Nujiao said as she pointed toward the flames still burning across the arena. "Just look at those flames."
"Their color..." Ai Tutu muttered, her eyes widening as she finally noticed the difference.
Mu Nujiao nodded.
"That's the effect of a Spirit Seed. Add in the fact that he's already mastered Novice Tier 4 Fire Magic, and I honestly don't have any confidence in winning against him."
Only then did Ai Tutu finally understand why even Mu Nujiao had chosen to back down.
It was simply common sense.
"Damn it! That Mo Fan is truly perverted!" Zhao Manyan clicked his tongue in annoyance.
To him, casually mastering two Novice Tier 4 elements while possessing a Spirit Seed and an Innate Talent was the cultivation equivalent of cheating.
Ai Tutu subconsciously turned toward the new voice.
Only then did she realize that the person sitting behind them wasn't the same student who had been there earlier. At some point, Zhao Manyan had somehow managed to exchange seats with the previous occupant without either of the girls noticing.
She stared at the unfamiliar young man with a puzzled expression.
"...Who are you?" Ai Tutu asked innocently.
The moment those words reached his ears, Zhao Manyan clutched his chest dramatically as though he had just suffered a fatal heart attack.
Critical hit.
Direct damage to the soul.
He had spent several minutes secretly moving closer, successfully infiltrated the seats behind two beauties without being noticed only for the first thing he heard to be:
"Who are you?"
It was at that moment Zhao Manyan realized his stealth skill had apparently become a little too effective.
Unlike the carefree Ai Tutu, Mu Nujiao had already recognized who the unfamiliar young man was.
"Tutu, he's the young master of the Zhao Family," she said calmly.
Ai Tutu blinked before a look of realization appeared on her face.
"Oh!"
That was it.
No apology.
No further questions.
Just a single, enlightened "Oh!"
Zhao Manyan silently endured another critical hit to his pride.
"My fair ladies," Zhao Manyan began with a gentlemanly smile, deciding to move past the emotional damage, "this Mo Fan is truly a demon. I think we should come up with a proper plan to defeat him."
As he spoke, several other Young Masters who had quietly changed their seats and gathered nearby nodded in agreement. Clearly, they had all reached the same conclusion.
"Oh!" Ai Tutu exclaimed again as she looked around in surprise. "There are even more Young Masters coming over!"
Only now did she realize that nearly every student sitting around them had somehow been replaced without her noticing.
"I called them," Zhao Manyan explained proudly. "We Young Masters have our own chat group. We've been discussing how to deal with Mo Fan."
The surrounding Young Masters all nodded with serious expressions.
This was no longer an ordinary freshman challenge, this was now a Young Masters emergency meeting.
At that very moment, while the rest of the stadium remained strangely silent and no new challengers stepped onto the arena, Astreo, who had been quietly observing everything from the audience, realized that his opportunity had finally arrived.
"Woah!" Ai Tutu's eyes sparkled with excitement. "I think we Young Misses should have our own chat group too!"
Mu Nujiao could only let out a long, defeated sigh.
"Tutu..."
That girl somehow managed to completely miss the point every single time.
"Wait! Who's that flying in the air?!" one of the Young Masters suddenly exclaimed.
The group's attention instantly shifted back toward the arena.
Only then did they notice a young man slowly descending from the sky, calmly hovering through the air as if such a thing were perfectly ordinary. His pace wasn't particularly fast, but the manner of his arrival was enough to attract the attention of the entire stadium.
A moment later...
He dropped straight onto the arena.
Thud!
The impact echoed throughout the stadium, causing many students to gasp in alarm.
For a brief second, several people even thought he had broken both of his legs.
However, as the dust settled, everyone quickly realized that the young man simply stood there as though nothing had happened.
There wasn't even the slightest sign of injury.
"Is... is that Advanced Tier Wind Magic?!" Zhao Manyan's eyes widened in disbelief.
Although he was well educated and nowhere near as magically illiterate as Mo Fan, he was still a notorious slacker. There were plenty of advanced applications of magic that he knew about only in theory.
"No," Mu Nujiao replied, her expression turning unusually serious as she stared at the newcomer. "That's Space Magic."
Her answer shocked everyone even more.
After all, Space Magic was an extremely rare element. Even many Advanced Mages had little hope of awakening it, much less someone who appeared to be only an Intermediate Mage... or perhaps even a Novice Mage.
Just possessing that element alone was enough to make countless people envious.
Meanwhile, inside the arena, Mo Fan's Young Master senses began screaming at full power.
The moment he recognized the person standing opposite him every instinct in his body immediately warned him.
A boss had appeared.
"Yo, Mo Fan. Long time no see," Astreo greeted casually with a relaxed smile, as though they had simply bumped into each other on the street instead of meeting in the middle of an arena.
Mo Fan instinctively clenched his fists before forcing himself to take a deep breath.
"Same to you, Astreo," he replied with a calm expression.
Meanwhile, inside his head...
'No...! My resources!'
He felt like crying.
Mo Fan had worked ridiculously hard over the past year. He had practically hunted magical beasts like a lunatic, risked his life countless times, and poured nearly every resource he obtained into strengthening himself. He had even managed to push two of his elements to Novice Tier 4, something almost unheard of among freshmen.
And all of that had originally been inspired by Astreo.
Whether it was the duel back in Bo City or everything that happened during the Bo City Disaster, Astreo had unknowingly become the benchmark Mo Fan chased after.
Unfortunately...
There was one tiny problem.
He still had absolutely no defense against Psychic Magic.
Originally, that hadn't bothered him too much. After all, once he learned how absurdly rare Psychic and Space Elements were among Novice and Intermediate Mages, he had relaxed considerably. What were the chances that someone possessing one of those elements would just happen to appear in this freshman challenge?
Surely fate couldn't be that cruel.
Apparently...It could.
Not only had a Psychic Mage appeared...
It was this madman.
'Even if I'm unlucky... why did I have to run into this guy of all people?!' Mo Fan screamed inwardly.
Deep inside, he had even given Astreo a very special nickname.
Women Beater Astreo.
The title originated from the duel back in Bo City, where Astreo had thoroughly defeated Mu Ningxue without showing much restraint.
Although, after a year of growth and gaining more combat experience himself, Mo Fan had come to realize that Astreo hadn't actually done anything wrong. It had been an official duel, and whether Astreo chose to hold back or fight seriously had always been entirely his own decision.
Logically, Mo Fan understood that but emotionally that was a completely different matter after all, as the self-proclaimed future husband of Mu Ningxue he still couldn't bring himself to like this guy.
"Are there any more students planning to challenge him?" the referee asked, his voice echoing throughout the arena.
Meanwhile, the students in the audience had already begun whispering among themselves, their attention no longer focused solely on Mo Fan.
Instead, everyone was trying to figure out one thing.
Just who the hell was this new guy who had casually flown down into the arena?
Back in the stadium seats, Mu Nujiao wore an unusually serious expression.
"Why is he here?" she muttered to herself. "I thought he would enroll at Imperial University."
"Oh!" Ai Tutu exclaimed excitedly. "So you know who he is, Sister Jiaojiao? He's so handsome! Especially those sword-like eyebrows!"
She looked at Astreo with sparkling eyes, sounding every bit like the little nymphomaniac she usually was.
Down in the arena, Astreo, who was in the middle of happily aura farming, almost twitched when he heard that comment coming from somewhere high up in the stadium.
Realistically speaking there was absolutely no way he should have been able to hear a conversation from that far away.
Not only was the distance enormous, but there were nearly a thousand students talking simultaneously. Under normal circumstances, distinguishing one particular conversation from all that noise would have been completely impossible.
Then again this wasn't someone else' realistic scenario.
It was his realistic scenario and if that was the case it would have been an unrealistic scenario Afterall as an Emperor and more importantly, a Psychic Emperor his mental prowess had already reached an absurd level.
If he truly wanted to, he could divide his attention equally among every single one of the thousand students present without suffering the slightest decline in concentration.
To each individual, it would feel as though Astreo was focusing entirely on them alone, despite simultaneously paying attention to everyone else.
That was just how monstrously powerful his mind had become.
'Sword-like eyebrows? Don't tell me she'll start describing me as having jade-like skin and peach-like lips next. If she dares turn me into some cardboard cutout of a cultivation protagonist, I won't hesitate to show her my jade-like cock and personally demonstrate what a Yin-Yang Union is,' he thought with an evil grin.
Meanwhile, standing opposite him, Mo Fan suddenly shuddered.
His Young Master senses were screaming at him that the guy standing in front of him was thinking about something incredibly evil.
Although he had absolutely no idea whether that evil was directed at him or someone else.
Meanwhile, after calling out several more times for additional challengers and receiving no response whatsoever, the referee finally let out a helpless sigh.
"Very well! Since no one else is coming down, this round will proceed with only a single challenger!"
A noticeably disappointed expression appeared on his face, as though he had just been robbed of witnessing an even greater spectacle.
'Why the hell do you look so disappointed that I only have one challenger?!' Mo Fan complained inwardly. 'If I, Mo Fan, could exchange this guy for any ten random students from the audience, I'd do it without thinking for even a second!'
To everyone else, facing only one opponent instead of five sounded like good news.
To Mo Fan...it felt like fate had personally decided to ruin his day.
His chance to show off was gone.
Completely gone alongside his sweet sweet magic cultivation resources.
"Very well, then let the match begi—"
Astreo suddenly raised his hand.
"No!"
"Nah!"
"Nein!"
The referee froze mid-sentence.
The entire stadium also fell into complete silence as everyone's attention shifted toward Astreo, their faces filled with confusion.
Without explaining himself, Astreo calmly walked past Mo Fan until he was standing directly in front of him.
Then he turned around and instead of facing Mo Fan, he faced the hundreds of students gathered on the opposite side of the arena.
"I've decided," Astreo announced in a perfectly calm tone. "I'm going to fight for the Summoning Department."
For a brief moment...
The entire stadium collectively stopped functioning.
Even Mo Fan stood there with a completely blank expression.
His brain had blue-screened.
"Damn it! Traitor!"
"Coward!"
"Shameless bastard!"
"You're one of us!"
The students immediately exploded into an uproar, countless insults flying toward Astreo from every direction.
Meanwhile, the teachers looked at one another with utterly bewildered expressions.
None of them could understand how this young man's brain actually worked.
Even if he genuinely wanted to fight on behalf of the Summoning Department that wasn't how the rules worked.
Unless he was officially a student of the Summoning Department, he had absolutely no right to represent them.
This wasn't something a person could simply decide on the spot.
It wasn't like changing teams in the middle of a football match just because you felt like it.
"Dean Xiao," Astreo called out, completely ignoring the barrage of curses directed at him before any of the other teachers had the chance to intervene.
"Go ahead, Student Astreo," Dean Xiao replied calmly as he stroked his beard, signaling for him to continue.
The moment Astreo's name was spoken aloud, however, many people in the audience raised their eyebrows.
"Astreo?"
"So he's a foreigner?"
Almost immediately, another wave of shouting erupted throughout the stadium, and this time many of the insults were directed at his foreign background rather than his actions.
Dean Xiao's expression instantly darkened.
The next second, his voice exploded across the entire stadium.
"SILENCE!"
His roar carried the pressure of an immensely powerful mage, instantly suppressing every other sound. The noisy stadium fell deathly quiet in less than a second.
No one dared to utter another word.
Dean Xiao slowly swept his gaze across the audience before speaking again.
"You are free to disagree with another student's actions. You may question their decisions or even criticize them if you believe they are in the wrong." His voice remained calm, yet every word carried unquestionable authority. "But I will not tolerate students insulting another person's ethnicity or background while standing in my university."
His gaze became even sharper.
"So what if he is a foreigner?"
"Are you trying to send a message to the entire world that we the great people of China are nothing more than a bunch of racists?"
His words struck the students far harder than any punishment could have.
One by one, they lowered their heads in embarrassment.
To be honest, most of them didn't even know how it had escalated so quickly. The moment Astreo's foreign name had been revealed, someone had started shouting insults, then another joined in, followed by dozens more, until the entire crowd had unconsciously followed along without thinking.
Now that Dean Xiao had called them out directly the atmosphere became awkward enough that many wished they could dig a hole in the ground and hide inside it.
"Woah... why was everyone cursing so much?" Ai Tutu asked with a shocked expression. "They were saying so many dirty words!"
"It's largely because of the propaganda that's been spreading over the past few years," Zhao Manyan explained with a shrug. "Ever since the Great Depletion, both certain factions within the government and many of the Magic Clans have developed increasingly negative sentiments toward foreigners."
He paused before continuing.
"On top of that, the Star Clan has been actively recruiting mages from China. That directly harms the interests of both the major Magic Clans and, to some extent, the government. As a result, various forms of anti-foreign propaganda have become more common over the years. Whether people consciously realize it or not, many have gradually been influenced by it."
"I... didn't know that," Ai Tutu admitted honestly, blinking in surprise.
She had never paid much attention to politics or the conflicts between major organizations. As far as she was concerned, life was much more interesting when it involved shopping, eating, or bothering Mu Nujiao.
Meanwhile, the other Young Masters sitting nearby couldn't help but twitch their eyebrows.
They all slowly turned to look at Zhao Manyan.
This idiot had just casually exposed the rather questionable practices that many of their own Magic Clans were involved in.
"I don't think it's wrong!" one of the Young Masters retorted immediately. "Do you even know how many students died during the Great Depletion? In the end, every other country simply pushed the blame onto China!"
Zhao Manyan merely rolled his eyes.
"The Star Clans mostly recruit students who have already been abandoned or overlooked by us," he replied with a shrug. "Since they have access to foreign resources and a much larger talent pool, they can afford to invest heavily in those students. They provide them with better cultivation resources, superior teachers, and opportunities that many of them would never receive here. In the end, they can even turn people we considered wastrels into genuinely talented mages."
"Aren't you trying a little too hard to justify their actions?" another Young Master snorted, clearly dissatisfied with Zhao Manyan's response.
Zhao Manyan simply shrugged again.
"I'm from the Zhao Clan. If we ran our business while being prejudiced against everyone, we wouldn't have survived this long."
His tone was matter-of-fact.
"In business, you're free to use all kinds of tricks and schemes if they benefit you. But openly showing contempt or disgust toward your customers and partners? That's one of the fastest ways to destroy your own reputation."
Besides, the Zhao Clan maintained a considerable number of business dealings with Star Industries.
He wasn't about to insult one of their largest commercial partners for no reason.
"Enough," Mu Nujiao interrupted before the argument could continue any further. "Dean Xiao and Astreo haven't finished their conversation yet. That's the important matter right now."
Her calm voice immediately redirected everyone's attention back toward the arena.
The Young Masters glanced at one another before quietly shutting their mouths.
After all, when their goddess personally told them to stop arguing the only reasonable response was silent obedience.
Dean Xiao, finally satisfied after silence had returned to the stadium, gave a small nod before looking back at Astreo.
"Continue speaking, Student Astreo."
"I am speaking," Astreo replied without the slightest hint of embarrassment. "I don't particularly care about the cultivation resources. However, I do care about fighting."
He casually gestured toward the thousands of students surrounding the arena.
"There is such a great opportunity to spar against talented students during this challenge. It would honestly be a waste if I didn't take advantage of it."
Dean Xiao listened quietly before raising an eyebrow.
"So... your point?"
Astreo smiled.
"How about this?"
He paused just long enough to build anticipation.
"I won't just fight the remaining students needed to reach the quota of two hundred defeated challengers."
Another pause.
"I'll also fight another three hundred students after that."
Silence.
Complete...
Absolute...
Silence.
For a brief moment, nobody in the stadium even remembered how to breathe.
Even the students who had been cursing Astreo just moments ago completely forgot what they had wanted to say.
Instead, they all stared at him as though they had just witnessed a patient escaping from the world's most secure mental asylum.
Even several teachers couldn't help rubbing their temples.
"Oh?" Dean Xiao asked in a calm, composed tone. "Are you sure about that?"
Outwardly, he appeared as tranquil as ever.
Inwardly he very much wanted to ask whether this student had escaped from a mental institution.
However, the moment he carefully observed the magical fluctuations surrounding Astreo, the thoughts in his mind came to an abrupt halt.
'Novice Tier 6... and Intermediate Tier 4 Psychic Magic?!'
The corners of his lips twitched ever so slightly.
As a Forbidden Curse Mage, he naturally possessed Novice Tier 5 mastery in all of his own elements. That placed him among the absolute peak of humanity.
And yet for the first time in many years Dean Xiao felt poor in front of someone else.
This brat had somehow received enough resources to cultivate his Psychic Element to Novice Tier 6 while simultaneously reaching Intermediate Tier 4.
"Yeah," Astreo answered without the slightest hesitation. "I'm pretty sure."
He then looked around the stadium before shrugging.
"But judging by everyone's expressions, I can already tell that they either think I'm a complete madman..."
His gaze swept across the audience.
"...or they simply don't want to participate in this challenge anymore."
The entire stadium almost nodded in perfect synchronization.
Because that was literally what every single one of them was thinking.
'You're insane.'
'Please seek professional help.'
'And preferably do it after this challenge is over.'
Those thoughts echoed silently throughout the minds of nearly everyone present.
"That is why I have a condition," Astreo said calmly. "If I lose, I will personally compensate every department with resources equal to ten times worth of their annual allocation. However, if no one accepts my challenge, then the cultivation resources allocated to every other department for this entire year should instead be awarded to the Summoning Department."
The moment those words left his mouth the entire stadium was thrown into complete disbelief.
A teacher could no longer hold himself back.
"Student Astreo!" he snapped angrily. "This arena is not a place for you to make absurd demands! Do you even understand the kind of nonsense you're spouting?!"
Astreo glanced at him before replying in a perfectly calm tone.
"Oi."
"I was talking to Dean Xiao."
"Not to you."
The teacher's face instantly turned bright red with anger.
Such an arrogant brat!
He had spent decades teaching at Pearl Magic University, yet this was the first time a freshman had dismissed him so casually in front of thousands of students.
Just as he was about to lose his temper...
"Calm down."
Dean Xiao's voice interrupted him.
The teacher immediately froze and unwillingly swallowed the words that had reached his mouth.
Dean Xiao then shifted his gaze toward Astreo.
Under the disbelieving eyes of every student and teacher present a faint smile slowly appeared on his face.
"Very well, Student Astreo."
"I accept your challenge as valid."
Silence.
The stadium fell quiet once again.
Even the teachers could only stare blankly at Dean Xiao.
They had expected him to reject the proposal immediately.
Instead, he had actually accepted it.
Although many of them still wanted to object, they ultimately remained silent.
After all, again who made this man Dean Xiao?
Meanwhile, Mo Fan couldn't understand why Astreo had proposed conditions that benefited him and the rest of the Summoning Department more than anyone else.
It simply didn't make any sense.
"Don't worry," Astreo said casually, as though he had read Mo Fan's thoughts. "I'm not interested in taking that little bit of cultivation resources."
Mo Fan's expression became even more complicated.
Rather than feeling relieved he somehow became even more worried.
Before he could say anything, Astreo stepped forward and casually placed both hands on Mo Fan's shoulders.
"I remember you telling me you were broke about a year ago," Astreo said with a grin. "Besides, if I hadn't proposed those conditions, do you honestly think anyone would still be willing to fight after the spectacle you've put on today?"
Mo Fan paused.
Thinking about it carefully Astreo was right.
After everything he had displayed his Swift Star Wolf, Dual Elements, Novice Tier 4 magic, and a Spirit Seed most students had already lost the desire to challenge him.
Without some kind of irresistible incentive, there was a very real possibility that no one else would voluntarily step onto the arena.
And if that happened the challenge would simply come to an awkward end.
Only after hearing Astreo's explanation did Mo Fan finally understand the reasoning behind those outrageous conditions.
Even so he still hesitated.
Mo Fan had never liked owing favors to other people.
Especially not favors this large.
He would rather owe someone money than owe them a debt of gratitude.
At least money could be repaid with interest.
"Let's consider it settled," Astreo said. "You can probably guess at least half of what I'm planning to do after I win. I only need you to promise me one thing."
Mo Fan listened attentively.
"Don't join in with whatever I'm about to do after winning. Also, don't let anyone interfere with it either. Of course..." Astreo glanced toward the massive audience. "By 'anyone,' I'm referring to the other students."
The moment he heard those conditions, Mo Fan's eyes lit up.
Perfect!
Now that Astreo had attached a condition to the favor, everything became much simpler.
As long as he fulfilled that one promise they would be even with no debt between them.
Not to mention, despite how hilariously one-sided the exchange was, he, Mo Fan, had always been a man who loved scamming peo—cough keeping his promises the most.
"You can trust in my poverty!" Mo Fan declared proudly without the slightest trace of shame.
Astreo simply nodded.
That sentence sounded far more convincing than any solemn oath.
Satisfied, Mo Fan stepped off the arena and returned to the sidelines, leaving the battlefield entirely to Astreo.
"Now..."
Astreo slowly turned around to face the near one thousand students gathered throughout the stadium.
A wide grin gradually spread across his face.
"Bring it on."
He leisurely cracked his neck before continuing.
"And come in groups of ten this time."
"So I can finish all of this before night."
His voice was amplified by the magical sound transmission array installed throughout both the stadium and the dueling arena, allowing every single person present to hear him with perfect clarity.
Silence.
Once again the entire audience was left utterly speechless.
He had just casually doubled the number of challengers per round as though the previous madness hadn't already been enough.
To be continued...