Why Is It Him?

"Today is your chance to show what you're made of. First, let's welcome today's seven stars — the freshmen of the Summoning Element!"

Dean Xiao kept his remarks brief, skipping the customary round of speeches from other administrators and cutting straight to the day's main event.

Perhaps some freshmen had arrived intending to keep a low profile — that classic first-year instinct to blend in and bide their time rather than charge headlong into a Beast Battle the moment they set foot on campus. But after that speech, most of them couldn't hold back any longer.

They had already beaten out every single competitor in their home districts to pass the Magic College Entrance Examination. So why on earth should they keep their tails tucked between their legs?

The rare resources this school had to offer wouldn't fall into anyone's lap just for sitting quietly in a corner. This institution ran on competition — fierce, relentless competition.

To the roar of the entire arena, the seven of them stepped out onto the high stage.

"Perhaps many of you are wondering: why should the Summoning Element steal the spotlight the moment they walk through our gates?"

"Simple — beat them, and you become today's real stars!" Dean Xiao called out.

The entire Battle Hall erupted. The freshmen especially couldn't contain themselves, every one of them itching to leap onto the stage and get to it.

"Wait — why is it *him*?"

In the reserved seating section for Earth Element students, a sweet-faced girl stared at the Summoning freshmen on the stage with wide, startled eyes.

"Xiao Mian, do you know someone up there?" Li Junwei, who had wedged himself into the seat beside her with practiced shamelessness, raised an eyebrow.

"I... not exactly." Qin Xiao Mian shook her head.

It was true — they couldn't really be called acquaintances. The last time that young man had come to her master's shop for his awakening, she doubted he'd even registered her face. She had just been a junior apprentice hovering somewhere in the background.

What staggered her was this: the young man that impossibly young Tribunal Agent had once referred to their shop was a first-year student here at Pearl Academy. Same as her.

"Master! Master!" Qin Xiao Mian fumbled for her phone and fired off a quick text to her teacher, the Awakening Specialist Guo Liyu.

"What is it, my dear student?" Guo Liyu replied almost immediately.

"I just ran into that young Intermediate-Level Mage who awakened at our place about a year ago — the one the Tribunal Agent referred to us..."

"Where? Aren't you at school right now??"

"Yes! And apparently so is he — he's a Pearl Academy freshman! And it looks like he enrolled in the Summoning Element!"

"You've got to be kidding me. He only awakened his Summoning Element a year ago, and he actually used *that* to test into Pearl Academy???" A torrent of exclamation marks followed from Guo Liyu's end.

"I know, right? He must be incredible!"

"Well then go introduce yourself! Maybe a little romance is in order — anyone with Tribunal connections has a future that's hard to imagine."

"Master, what are you even *saying*!!" Qin Xiao Mian's face went scarlet on the spot, her lips moving in flustered, wordless protest.

All of this was quietly observed by Li Junwei.

His gaze locked onto the one Summoning freshman among the seven about whom he still had no information. An icy expression settled over his face.

*Xiao Mian is mine. Anyone who dares compete with me, Li Junwei, is going to wish they hadn't.*

"It's him. Heh." Elsewhere in the Earth Element section, a heavyset young man's face darkened in an instant.

It was Luo Song.

He would never forget Mo Fan's face.

But today was not the time to make a move. Anyone who had already reached Intermediate level in their first year — just as he had — was bound to be a formidable opponent. Luo Song knew better than to rush things. He and Mo Fan would settle accounts slowly.

As for the Beast Battle itself, Luo Song had no interest in entering. If he actually wanted to flex his real strength, he could take down every last one of the Summoning Element's Summoned Beasts by himself.

Across the arena, in the Lightning Element seating section, a young man with sharply upright, spiky hair was staring at the seven Summoning freshmen at center stage with eyes that couldn't quite believe what they were seeing.

"Xu Zhaoting, what's wrong??" the girl sitting beside him asked.

"Xu Zhaoting." She nudged his arm a second time.

He finally snapped out of it — but the stunned blankness on his face hadn't cleared.

"What happened?" the girl asked, her voice softening with concern.

"Nothing... it's nothing. I just spotted an old classmate."

"An old classmate? You're telling me one of those seven Summoning freshmen went to school with you? Even so, you don't have to look like your soul just left your body."

"You don't know anything about his past," Xu Zhaoting said, a faint bitterness in his voice. "So you can't understand why I'd react this way."

The girl wasn't deterred. "Then tell me. The Summoning Element is special — at the Basic level, it might even be the strongest — but that doesn't mean they'll necessarily surpass us down the line. The Lightning Element has never feared any other element."

There was a small touch of quiet pride in her voice.

Xu Zhaoting shook his head. "Here's the thing — when I knew him, he wasn't a Summoning Element user."

"He wasn't Summoning? I don't under—" The girl cut herself off mid-sentence. The implication hit her, and her expression transformed into the same stunned disbelief Xu Zhaoting had worn moments earlier. "You... you mean... are you saying his primary element *isn't* Summoning? That he's... that he's an Intermediate-Level Mage in something else?!"

Xu Zhaoting gave a slow nod, his gaze drifting back to Mo Fan.

Honestly, there had been a time — not so long ago — when Xu Zhaoting had nursed a quiet resentment, convinced that he was the true standout of their year. That feeling was long gone. Whether it was Mo Fan's performance during Field Expeditions, the revelation of his Dual Elements at the Mu Clan, or the calm control he had shown when everything fell apart during the disaster — Mo Fan was operating on a level Xu Zhaoting simply couldn't reach.

And now Mo Fan had gotten into Pearl Academy as a Summoning student. Part of him had desperately wanted that figure on the stage to be someone else. But no matter how many times he looked, it was unmistakably Mo Fan — and Xu Zhaoting had no choice but to accept it.

"So... so what element was he before? I've heard that Intermediate-Level magic requires constructing an incredibly complex Star Chart. Even someone who breaks through to Intermediate early might not be able to Release Intermediate spells right away — he probably can't use Intermediate skills yet, can he?" the girl pressed.

Xu Zhaoting shook his head without answering.

He had no desire to say any more about Mo Fan. If Mo Fan had chosen to conceal his true element and present himself as a Summoning student, he had his reasons. Spelling it out without permission would be a disrespect to the person who had once helped save Bo City.

The girl sensed Xu Zhaoting wasn't going to open up about the past and let her voice drop. "You two have been apart for over a year anyway. If his Summoning is newly learned, he probably isn't all that strong yet."

"Yeah," Xu Zhaoting said with a single nod. "He probably isn't."