The Battle-Hungry Wolf

In the dead of night, Mo Fan did what he always did — climbed to the rooftop terrace of one of the academic buildings to Meditate.

Summoning Element Meditation was essentially an endless feeding process: channeling all of one's Summoning Element Magical Energy from the Stardust as nourishment for the Summoned Beast. Creatures that absorbed a Mage's Summoning Element Magical Energy grew in strength far more quickly than they would on their own.

Mo Fan's Magical Energy recovery was exceptional. The Loach Pendant's double cultivation speed bonus meant his Magical Energy recharged at twice the normal rate as well. On top of that, his Summoning Element Stardust had already reached the third tier, which meant the energy he could supply to his Gloom Wolf Beast was considerable.

Over the two-plus months he'd been at school, Mo Fan had poured every drop of his Summoning Element Magical Energy into feeding the Gloom Wolf Beast every single day — yet he couldn't detect any obvious change in the creature.

**"Aaooo~~~~"**

While Mo Fan was deep in Meditation, a howl suddenly reached him through the spirit imprint — that unique link binding him to his Gloom Wolf Beast. There was a challenging edge to it, as if the beast was goading something.

"That creature's fighting again?" Mo Fan muttered, surprise flickering through him.

Summoned Beasts couldn't linger permanently in the mortal plane. Back in the Summoned Beast Plane where they truly lived, survival was no less brutal a struggle. On that barren, desolate expanse of land, every creature fought tooth and claw just to stay alive, locked in endless battle against one another. More than a few times, Mo Fan had summoned the Gloom Wolf Beast only to find it already covered in wounds.

Those encounters had reshaped how Mo Fan understood Summoned Beasts entirely. He had assumed they were always on standby — call them, and they'd show up ready to fight. The reality was that every creature summoned from the Dimensional plane had its own life. The arrangement between Summoned Beasts and Mages was simply this: the Mage provided Magical Energy and certain enhancements, and the creature agreed to answer the call and fight when needed.

In the two-plus months Mo Fan had devoted to his own cultivation, the Gloom Wolf Beast had fought no fewer than ten times. Its pattern was simple: heal up, then go pick a fight with something.

Honestly, Mo Fan was genuinely worried the beast might get itself killed in the Summoned Beast Plane one day. If that happened, he'd have to spirit-brand a new Gloom Wolf Beast from scratch — an exhausting ordeal — and all those months of feeding Magical Energy would be wasted.

There was nothing a Mage could do to help a Summoned Beast mid-battle on the other plane. All Mo Fan could do was keep up his Meditation, so that the moment a fight ended he could push Magical Energy through to the beast — energy that served not just as cultivation fuel, but as an accelerant for healing.

At some point — he had lost track of the time — the fight finally ended.

The spirit imprint had gone desperately faint. Mo Fan knew exactly what that meant: his Gloom Wolf Beast was clinging to life.

"Damn it — don't you dare die on me," Mo Fan breathed, ice shooting down his spine.

*Never seen a Summoned Beast this belligerent.* It had a perfectly good Mage keeping it fed — couldn't it just find somewhere safe and be a nice, peaceful wolf?

Mo Fan didn't dare dwell on it. He frantically pushed Magical Energy through the spirit imprint, pouring everything he had toward his Gloom Wolf Beast, praying it would drag the creature back from the edge.

The Summoning Element Magical Energy — shimmering with a soft moonlit glow — was exhausted in no time. The small mercy was that the Gloom Wolf Beast's presence in the imprint had begun, however faintly, to strengthen again.

"I'll summon you here and bring you to the school infirmary," Mo Fan communicated through the imprint. "There are Healing Element instructors there who can treat you."

He was certain the beast had taken grievous wounds — the kind that could still be fatal if left untreated. He was already aligning his seven Summoning Element Star Motes to form the summoning when the spirit imprint pushed back. The Gloom Wolf Beast was refusing.

"Brother Wolf, if you try to heal on your own, how long is that going to take?" Mo Fan said, anxiety sharpening his voice. "If something comes after you in that state, you're done for."

Before long, the Gloom Wolf Beast sent a mental impression back through the imprint — it had found somewhere safe to hide.

Mo Fan didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

*How did I end up bonded to such an insufferably proud beast?* Half-dead, and it was still refusing help, sitting there stubbornly waiting for its wounds to close on their own.

He spent the entire night on edge, dreading the worst. Only when dawn broke did the Gloom Wolf Beast's presence in the imprint finally settle into something calmer. Mo Fan channeled what little Magical Energy had recovered — barely a trickle — and pushed it all to the beast. The Gloom Wolf Beast had fallen into a deep, heavy sleep; it wouldn't be waking for some time.

"Still alive. That's what matters." Mo Fan let out a long, slow breath.

"So much for the Beast-Refining Blood. In that condition, there's no way it can fight."

The Gloom Wolf Beast's injuries this time were too severe. Recovery, if it came at all, would take a very long time.

Which meant he had no choice but to forfeit the Beast Battle.

The day of the freshman welcome event finally arrived — the single grandest occasion on the Pearl Youth Campus calendar.

The upperclassmen who had been at Pearl Academy for some time weren't about to miss a show where the newcomers made fools of themselves. Meanwhile, more than a few of those new students — each quietly confident in their own abilities — were waiting for their chance to seize the spotlight.

Every one of them had been the pride of their home region, perhaps. But at Pearl Academy, it was easy to drown in a sea of magical talent.

"So — have you gotten the full picture? The Summoned Beasts of all seven Summoning Element students?" In the cafeteria, four or five male students had clustered together, heads bent as if deliberating matters of national importance.

"Pretty much," said the shrewdest-looking one among them. "The guy named Hai Dafu has a White Armor Battle Sting — combat power on par with a full-grown Demon-Beast. Zheng Bingxiao's got a Stone Demon Warrior; enormous strength, enormous defense. And then there's a Bone-Eating Demon..."

"A Bone-Eating Demon?" one of the others exclaimed. "That thing is seriously dangerous!"

"Then leave it alone," said the apparent leader. "There are still plenty of easier ones to go after."

"There's also a Summoning Element student named Mo Fan," the sharp-eyed one added. "I still haven't managed to find out what his Summoned Beast is. He rooms separately from the other six, which doesn't help."

"Doesn't matter. We pick the easy targets. The school gives out big rewards to whoever defeats one of the Summoned Beasts."

"Exactly — why else would we put in all this effort scouting the opposition?"

"Rewards?" Li Junwei's voice turned flat. "I couldn't care less about that. What I care about is that Lightning Element guy having the nerve to compete with me for Qin Xiao Mian."

"That's you all over, Li Junwei — always going for the sweet, gentle type," another laughed. "Me, I've got my eye on Mu Nujiao."

"Are you kidding? Who *doesn't* like Mu Nujiao? Half the school nearly got nosebleeds from staring at her on enrollment day."

"Exactly — she's practically a goddess."