I Can Take Responsibility
The crash of shattering glass cut through the haze. Tang Yue's reason — battered as it was by the drug — clawed its way back in jagged fragments.
She shoved Mo Fan away and retreated to the far end of the seat, curling up there like a frightened kitten.
Mo Fan watched her wrestle herself back to rationality and let out a slow breath. Half of him felt deflated. The other half... *god, I am completely deflated.*
A desolate stretch of open country. A winding road. A speeding taxi. One driver whose soul had evacuated his body somewhere back on the highway. Two passengers in the rear seat enduring a psychological ordeal of immense proportions.
Out of some residual sense of decency, Mo Fan slid over to his own side and fixed his gaze out the window, conducting himself as though nothing whatsoever had just occurred.
A moment passed. A faint fragrance drifted toward him, and the cushion beside him dipped. Mo Fan turned — and found that the frightened kitten from moments ago had transformed, without warning, into a full-fanged demon cat. Tang Yue flung herself at him again, her crimson lips pressed furiously against his, arms and legs wrapped around him like an octopus, the very picture of someone who intended never to leave this warm embrace again.
Mo Fan had absolutely no idea how to respond.
Then, just as suddenly as she had lunged, Tang Yue shoved him away and fled back to the far end of the seat.
Mo Fan stared at her — this woman whose emotions were swinging like a wrecking ball — and felt something inside him simply collapse.
*Heavens, just kill me. You don't put a pure-hearted young man through something like this.*
*It's not that I'm unwilling to commit — can't you just make up your mind? All this back and forth... I was perfectly on track to being an upstanding man. Now look at the state I'm in!!*
That stretch of road was more harrowing than fighting through a demon-besieged district. By the time it ended, Mo Fan felt like a beautiful young man who had been lashed and tormented countless times by a she-devil, his tender soul riddled with permanent scars.
They reached the city eventually. Tang Yue bought the suppression medication she needed, and then his dream woman fled — white with shame, too mortified to meet anyone's eyes — leaving Mo Fan standing in the open air of an unfamiliar city, heart still pounding, completely adrift.
When he finally managed to collect himself, Mo Fan thought he might as well take a stroll around Hangzhou. He'd barely started when a threatening text arrived.
"If you breathe a single word of this to anyone, I will castrate you."
He texted back: "Actually, I'm perfectly willing to take responsibility."
Her reply came immediately: "A Tribunal Agent is permitted two accidental kills over the course of her career. Shall I spend one of them on you?" The brazen threat bled through every character — reading it, Mo Fan could practically picture those gorgeous, murderous eyes as she typed.
He replied: "I'm a man of deep conviction... Incidentally, Teacher Tang Yue, what a coincidence that you're in Hangzhou — I happen to be in Hangzhou too. We haven't crossed paths since we said goodbye in Bo City. Care to grab a coffee?"
In an apartment somewhere in Hangzhou's West Lake District, Tang Yue sat cradling her phone, cheeks still flushed an obstinate crimson. When she reached his last message — even as every instinct screamed at her to preserve what remained of her dignity, to treat this boy like a perfect stranger — she couldn't help it.
A laugh slipped out.
*Hmph.* A boy who still needed Star Chart Books just to Release Intermediate-Level magic, talking about taking responsibility. Those who wanted to pursue her needed to be at least High-Level Mages — and there was already a waiting list.
After a quick browse through a few bookshops in Hangzhou, Mo Fan caught a ride back to Shanghai — or more precisely, back to wherever he actually lived, which, depending on your frame of reference, could just as easily have been called the Hangzhou suburbs. The metro ride into the city center took over an hour; the high-speed rail to Hangzhou proper took about the same.
Mo Fan's original plan had been to spend two months in self-directed Meditation at home, then leverage his standing as an Intermediate-Level Mage to apply for direct admission to Pearl Academy.
After thinking it through more carefully at home, he revised his thinking.
The real priority was achieving Control over his Star Chart. Relying on Star Chart Books to complete Intermediate-Level magic was far too slow — and if he kept burning through them, the Star Motes would probably disown him entirely.
Going to university meant spending most of his time Controlling Star Motes and tracing Star Charts anyway. He might as well Meditate at home and master his abilities properly before making his entrance. On one hand, he'd be in a far better position to make an impression — and a person who loved making impressions as much as he did couldn't very well swagger around a prestigious school like Pearl Academy without the real ability to back it up. On the other hand, studying independently gave him the freedom to pursue whatever interested him.
Curse Element, for instance — his knowledge of it was embarrassingly thin. For all he knew, he could end up one day like those four members of the Dongfang Clan: dead without ever understanding why.
And there was still his second awakening to deal with. More capabilities now meant more insurance later.
Decision made: one year of independent cultivation. Then he would walk through the gates of Pearl Academy.
Teacher Tang Yue turned out to be as good as her word. Mo Fan had half expected her to cut off all contact after the taxi incident, but her conscience apparently wouldn't let her. She sent him a message telling him to go to the Shanghai Magic Association for his awakening, where someone would be waiting to guide him.
The Shanghai Magic Association was also known as the Eastern Magic Association — though the "Eastern" had nothing whatsoever to do with the Dongfang Clan. It was simply a reference to where the Association had set up shop: the Oriental Pearl Mage Tower.
When Mo Fan made his way through Lujiazui — where skyscrapers rose like swords thrust into the heavens — and arrived at the Oriental Pearl Mage Tower, his feelings were complicated.
In his original world, the Oriental Pearl Tower had been Shanghai's defining landmark, a tourist pilgrimage site photographed by every visitor who set foot in the city. Here, it was the bloody headquarters of the Magic Association.
The Magic Association was the world's foremost magical institution, composed primarily of adult mages and accomplished practitioners. Virtually every mage in the world was expected to abide by the Mage's Covenant it had established.
The Covenant had several prominent provisions. The first: no mage could deploy destructive magic above High-Level within city limits; even sub-High-Level destructive magic required justifiable cause.
The second: mages could not use magic against ordinary civilians. Violations were prosecuted as homicide.
The third: mages could engage in private duels. Injuries sustained were not actionable; deaths were prosecuted as homicide and handled by the Tribunal.
The Magic Association served as both police force and court for the mage community, its Covenant observed across the entire world. It was equally the global authority on mage-to-mage exchanges, competitions, commerce, and training. Only exceptionally accomplished adult mages were admitted to the Mage Association's ranks.
Within the Magic Association resided the Tribunal.
The Tribunal was the most strict and secretive body within it. Its Agents were, by all accounts, walking catastrophes in a fight.
Mo Fan had looked all of this up online afterward. Thinking back — if Chao He hadn't relied on every underhanded trick at his disposal, he likely would not have survived an open confrontation with Tribunal Agent Tang Yue. Even now, just recalling the sheer destructive power of her Blazing Fist: Nine Palaces sent a chill through him.
Tang Yue was barely past her early twenties, and she already fought at that level. And apparently, that was just the baseline standard for Tribunal membership. It said everything about the caliber of monsters the Tribunal must be harboring in its ranks.