Unstoppable!

**BOOM!**

The fractured earth shattered completely. The Thunderbolt was swift and merciless — lacking the showy purple arcs scattered across the sky that Lightning Seal produced, but far more destructive than any of those theatrics. Without his defensive Enchanted Gear, Bai Cangfeng would have been reduced to paste.

At last, a golden radiance blazed to life, wrapping swiftly around Bai Cangfeng's entire body.

Bai Cangfeng, snapping out of his stunned panic, had also summoned his guardian Armor Enchanted Gear — but Teacher Gu Han's Light Element guardian skill had already beaten him to it by a beat.

Thrown flat against the ground by the Thunderbolt's shockwave, Bai Cangfeng found that the true destructive force had been absorbed by the Light Element skill and his own Armor Enchanted Gear. He wasn't gravely hurt — but his body trembled and went numb in the aftermath, the shock slow to leave his bones.

"Bastard! I'll kill you, you bastard!" Bai Cangfeng lurched to his feet, practically spitting fire from his eyes.

The teacher hadn't even given the signal to begin. How had this guy already struck?

And not with anything cautious — he'd gone straight to an Intermediate-Level Lightning spell the moment they faced each other. When Bai Cangfeng had entered the arena, he'd been considering whether his opponent could Release Intermediate-Level magic like himself. He hadn't expected it to go down like this.

"You're eliminated." Gu Han exhaled in relief and addressed Bai Cangfeng directly.

"On what grounds? I have my own Armor Enchanted Gear — I didn't need your interference. This is on you!" Bai Cangfeng snapped.

"In that moment, if I'd held back, you would very likely have been killed outright. When the opponent completed his Intermediate-Level spell, you showed absolutely no intention of activating your Enchanted Gear," Gu Han replied coolly.

"That's nonsense. With my reaction speed—" Bai Cangfeng's fury had nowhere to go.

Eliminated without throwing a single attack?

True, he hadn't anticipated Mo Fan opening with an Intermediate-Level Lightning spell the instant they faced off. It had caught him completely off guard. But that didn't mean he couldn't have activated his Armor Enchanted Gear in time.

"Show some respect for your elders. Get out." Gu Han didn't waste another word. With a casual flick of his hand, he traced a Wind Element Star Chart in the air before him.

A fierce wind erupted from nowhere, sending his robes snapping and rippling wildly.

The air inside the entire iron-cage barrier seemed to be sucked into a vacuum. Standing at the very center of the swirling pressure vortex, Teacher Gu Han looked like something out of a storm — a figure possessed by wind itself, his bearing dark and imperious and altogether terrifying...

Bai Cangfeng stared, struck dumb. In the end, all he could do was sweep a cold glare between Mo Fan and Gu Han, give the barrier a furious kick, and storm out of the arena.

The rage consuming Bai Cangfeng was immense. He'd been knocked out without landing a single blow.

One thing gnawed at him above all else — he genuinely believed his Armor Enchanted Gear could have withstood that strike. But the meddlesome teacher had stepped in first.

Once a teacher intervened, the challenger was declared eliminated, no exceptions. How could Bai Cangfeng not be eaten alive by his own fury?

"Teacher Gu Han is an absolute savage!"

"What a hot-tempered teacher... but never mind that — that Thunderbolt just now!"

"Intermediate-Level Lightning magic. I cannot believe this. I *main* Lightning Element and I haven't even crossed into Intermediate level — yet this Summoning Element guy is out here Releasing Intermediate-Level Lightning spells?! Why don't the rest of us just give up?!"

Uproar crashed through the Lightning Element department's seating section.

The appearance of that Thunderbolt had struck every freshman's mind like lightning from a clear blue sky. For a long moment, none of them could bring themselves to accept what they'd witnessed.

An Intermediate-Level Mage — one who could already Release Intermediate-Level Lightning magic, at that.

This guy was actually the same as Luo Song.

Luo Song had Ice Element, and his Ice Lock was already monstrous. But with Lightning Element standing as the paramount force among all elements, that utterly pitiless Thunderbolt was probably even more devastating.

Just as Bai Cangfeng had failed to anticipate Mo Fan striking without warning, the entire freshman class had shared the same bewilderment — and then Mo Fan's furious bolt came crashing down, detonating an enormous wave of shock through every person in the arena.

Only now did they finally understand why this Summoning Element Mage had the audacity to stand here and challenge every freshman across every department. He wasn't simply a Mage who happened to possess an Ascension Phase Summoned Beast. He was also a staggeringly powerful Intermediate-Level Lightning Mage.

His primary element was Lightning. Summoning was just his secondary.

"Mo Fan's combat ability... an Intermediate-Level Lightning Mage. Even if Bai Cangfeng hadn't been blown off the stage so humiliatingly, I don't think he'd have beaten Mo Fan anyway. Intermediate-Level Lightning is simple, brutal, and merciless!" Hai Dafu's jaw had not closed once.

The other Summoning Element students had mentally prostrated themselves before Mo Fan the instant the Thunderbolt landed — Wang Liting most of all, his expression cycling through emotions too fast to track.

Looking at the young man still standing tall inside the iron-cage barrier, then at the sight of almost no one daring to step forward and challenge him — even those who resented him couldn't help but feel a flicker of genuine, involuntary respect.

"A few are going to throw themselves in anyway."

"Can't help it. If no one challenges, Mo Fan wins by default."

"Still needs one hundred and eighty-nine more."

"Another two groups going up. What's the point? One of them is just like Zhuang Lifeng — awakened a second element, but can't Release Intermediate-Level magic, so they're no match for Mo Fan."

"Holy hell — are we actually going to take every department's resources?!" Hai Dafu suddenly realized it, and his face erupted into delirious joy.

"Brother, we'll probably only get what was originally ours. All the seized resources belong to Mo Fan alone, you know."

Jiang Yunming gave a faint nod. There was no reason Mo Fan would share the plundered resources with anyone else in the department.

"One hundred and ninety-nine!" Dean Xiao called out in a carrying voice to the entire freshman class. One slot remained.

"Let me say something first: anyone who has not reached Intermediate level and cannot Release Intermediate-Level magic should not go up there. Having backbone and courage is admirable — but throwing an egg at a stone is simply foolish."

Department head Zhou Zhenghua couldn't hold himself back any longer.

His words fell over the arena, and silence followed.

Luo Song clenched his fists, quietly eating his regret. He'd entered the arena too early. If he'd waited until now, he would have spent every piece of Enchanted Gear he owned to bring Mo Fan down. Every cultivation resource from every department, all concentrated in a single person — that was more than even the wealthiest noble clan could offer at once.

If Mo Fan walked away with all of it, the distance between them would become a chasm.

*Damn it. Are there really no other Intermediate-Level Mages at Pearl Academy?*

Impossible. There had to be more than just a handful. Some had clearly decided not to act — for students from the most powerful families, the school's publicly distributed cultivation resources didn't offer much benefit to those already at Intermediate level anyway.

But could they truly swallow this and stay silent?

An Intermediate-Level Lightning Mage was formidable, sure. But this kid clearly had no notable Enchanted Gear. What was there actually to be afraid of?

"Someone's stepping forward."

The voice came from somewhere in the stands. The quiet arena stirred instantly, every eye swinging to the new challenger.

What met their gaze stopped them cold.

She was a woman. Her face was breathtaking — the kind of beauty that silenced a room. Her figure was graceful in a way that made something ache. It wasn't just the courage it had taken to stand up when the entire school had gone silent; it was that her very presence carried the air of someone who could sweep through all before her — peerless and apart from the world, a singular existence that made everything around her feel lesser by comparison.

"Mu Nujiao!"

Someone called out her name almost immediately.