A New Teacher, Tang Yue

"You think Uncle will be alright, heading out into the mountains like that?" Mo Fan asked.

"Who knows? They've already issued a low-level alert outside the city, warning residents to stay out of the deep wilderness. He insisted a hunters' team had lost some supplies while tracking a One-Eyed Demon Wolf and that he had to personally deliver them. He's just a logistics man — how does he have the nerve to take on something that dangerous? And your father too. No matter how much I try to talk him out of it, he just won't listen," Mo Qing said.

"Dad went too?" Mo Fan's expression shifted immediately.

"Yes, said the pay was very good. Those two — even apprentice Mages won't touch that kind of work, and they go as ordinary people... If nothing happens, fine. But if they actually run into something out there, what are the rest of us supposed to do?" Mo Qing said.

"Auntie, don't worry too much. They've thought it through — it shouldn't be dangerous. They're only delivering to a designated waystation. The route from the city to the outer waystations is still within the Safe Zone," Ye Xinxia said from beside them.

"Even so, I'd rather those two just stayed in the city and handled purchasing like before. I can't stop worrying whenever they go outside the walls," Mo Qing muttered.

Listening to his aunt's complaints, Mo Fan felt something settle uneasily in his chest.

His father Mo Jiaxing hadn't come to visit him at school even once in the past six months. Now he understood — Mo Jiaxing had found another line of work: delivering supplies to the waystations used by Mages on patrol and hunting duty outside the city. Compared to his old job running procurement for wealthy households, this one came with real risk.

Mo Fan wasn't idle for a single day of winter break. After staying at his aunt's place for a few days, he returned to the library at Tianlan Magic High School.

The library held far too much knowledge he needed to fill in — not least what he'd overlooked about the Black Church.

After some research, he finally understood what the Black Church actually was.

They were something between a terrorist organization and a doomsday cult, routinely carrying out acts that threatened people's safety. In pursuit of their goals, they reportedly used living people as cultivation material. The kind of atrocity the state would show absolutely no mercy for.

For the entire month that followed, Mo Fan devoted himself to Meditation.

Having experienced firsthand how his Lightning Stardust could be nearly drained after just two Lightning Seal uses in a single day, he understood Meditation's importance more clearly than ever.

So for the whole month, no matter how tempting it was to Release the Fire Element's Fire Burst skill, Mo Fan stayed clear of his Fire Star Motes entirely. The foundation had to come first.

When he threw himself into Meditation and made it a daily habit, time moved with surprising speed.

Before he knew it, school was starting again.

In the library, Mo Fan brushed the cobwebs off himself and prepared to face a new semester of magic.

Full of energy, he strode into the classroom and settled into his usual seat in the back row.

Hm?

Something was off today.

He glanced at Zhang Xiaohou beside him and noticed his neighbor's expression wasn't right.

Under normal circumstances, Zhang Xiaohou's eyes had the look of a curious little monkey — bright and darting — and he'd always launch into a breathless account of everything he'd seen and done before class even started.

But today, his eyes were glassy, his mouth hanging faintly open, his face wearing a look of vacant, inexplicable rapture directed at the front of the room.

Mo Fan looked around. Xu Qinglin and Lu Xiaobin, both academic also-rans at the best of times, had the exact same glazed expression — like they'd been... possessed.

*Damn.* A spike of unease went through him. *Don't tell me Aunt Mo Qing was right — that there's an Evil-Eye Marsh Demon lurking inside the city, and these guys all got hit!*

"Good morning, everyone." A voice drifted across the room — mature, with a warm, bright note running beneath it. "Your magic practice teacher has fallen ill and will be resting at home for the time being. Starting today, I'll be taking over magic practice. My name is Tang Yue."

Mo Fan had grown so used to old Teacher Lian's slow, gravelly drawl that the sudden arrival of a woman's voice — rich, full, and effortlessly alluring — cut right through his morning fog.

He lifted his head.

His eyes went just as glassy as everyone else's.

*Oh, come on.* So much for an Evil-Eye Marsh Demon stealing souls. It was obvious — the gorgeous new teacher had swept away every hormone-raging teenage boy's soul in the room.

Teacher Tang Yue wore a perfectly standard black professional suit. Between the black blazer and the white blouse beneath it, a magnificent landscape pressed insistently outward, and Mo Fan genuinely doubted whether those small buttons could hold against such relentless tides. It was like a lone doorman pressing his entire back against a gate, barely containing the flood of spring overflowing on the other side.

Good lord. Absolutely catastrophic.

First period in the morning was already the most volatile time for teenage boys to begin with. Add a sight like this on top of it — most of them didn't stand a chance.

"Given that all of you awakened less than six months ago, and none of you can cast magic yet, I want you to understand this: mastering a powerful force doesn't mean you can wield it well. Fail to control your power properly, and you may find yourself playing with fire." Teacher Tang Yue snapped into lecture mode with practiced ease.

Her serious, professional manner had actually pulled quite a few of the top students back to their senses — until she turned to write several key points on the blackboard, and quiet nosebleeds broke out across the entire class.

*What a menace.* That silhouette, that posture... Mo Fan was convinced that every functional male in the room was picturing essentially the same image right now.

*Ahem.*

This was a hallowed place of learning. Such thoughts were entirely inappropriate. Mo Fan, for his part, was here purely for academic enrichment — utterly unlike these creatures governed by their baser instincts. On a completely unrelated note, he absolutely would not wear such tight trousers to magic practice class again. Not every organism could grow around an obstacle the way ivy does.

The entire morning block was magic practice. After the theory segment, Teacher Tang Yue led the class out to the training field to personally demonstrate the key elements of magic Release.

Mo Fan listened with unusual focus throughout — her points on the stages of Release resonated deeply with his own experience. What he couldn't quite stop thinking about, meanwhile, was how on earth the buttons on her blazer were still holding.

The school's training field was no ordinary sports ground.

It was a proper practice arena, partitioned by an invisible magical barrier Mo Fan didn't fully understand — one that absorbed any stray force that spilled outward, shielding students who had no defensive capabilities yet.

"Watch closely. Today I'll be demonstrating the Fire Element's basic-tier skill — Fire Burst!"

Tang Yue stepped to the center of the assembled students.

The class fanned out in a loose semicircle behind her. Whether all eyes were actually fixed on her opening stance was another matter entirely.

"Fire Element — it's a Fire Element skill, Mo Fan-ge..." Zhang Xiaohou nudged him from the side. "Wipe your drool. That's *your* element's skill! Who would've thought that someone who looks as gentle and gracious as Teacher Tang Yue would turn out to be a Fire Mage!"

"Oh — right!" Mo Fan snapped back to reality. "I was just about to start paying attention."