Teammates Matter

Tang Yue's bright eyes settled on Mo Fan. As she probed his aura, her lips parted ever so slightly.

"Mo Fan, do you have the nerve to stand up?" Zhao Kunsan called out immediately. "A whole semester's gone by and you can't even Control a single Fire Star Mote — your Star Dust is so dim it's practically invisible. Stop joking around!"

There had been an end-of-semester assessment last term, measuring each student's cultivation progress. No one was surprised when Mo Fan's Fire Element Star Dust turned out to be barely distinguishable from what it had been on the day of his awakening. The whole class knew. It had nearly had Zhao Kunsan and Mu Bai laughing their teeth out.

A fool would always be a fool. Awakening Fire Element was worthless if you couldn't do anything with it. He'd never become a Mage in this lifetime.

"Your Fire Element talent is quite good," Teacher Tang Yue said, studying Mo Fan with a look of quiet regret. "So why is your cultivation this weak? Many people desperately want to become Fire Mages, and you already have advantages that most of them will never have. Not putting in the work really won't do."

"I understand, Teacher Tang Yue," Mo Fan said with a nod.

After sufficient Meditation, a mage's spiritual perception grew powerful enough to detect details imperceptible to ordinary people — including the auras of other mages. Through the relative strength of an aura, one could roughly gauge another mage's cultivation level.

Cultivation level couldn't be concealed. Mo Fan had known this for a while.

But there was one important catch: if he suppressed his Lightning Element and allowed only his Fire aura to surface, anyone probing him would only detect the Fire Element signature. They could judge his Fire cultivation, and nothing more — the second element would remain entirely invisible.

His Fire Element, in other words, was the perfect cover.

*Just started learning Fire, and a Fire teacher this powerful shows up right on cue. Looks like there might actually be a real shot at Releasing Fire Burst before the big assessment.* Mo Fan's confidence surged.

Hm?

Why was that girl staring at him with such a strange look?

Zhou Min, if he remembered right. Top of the class, and a Fire Element student.

He couldn't figure it out. He didn't think he'd done anything to offend her — so why the hostile glare?

Across the room, Zhou Min's brow furrowed. Noticing that the slacker called Mo Fan had turned to look back at her, she fixed him with a sharp, withering stare and looked away.

Zhou Min was unhappy. Very unhappy.

What gave this Mo Fan the right to have better Fire Element talent than her?

Homeroom teacher Xue Musheng had said Mo Fan was the strongest Fire talent in the class — visible flames at the awakening ceremony, no less. And now even the clearly accomplished Teacher Tang Yue was saying his talent was exceptional.

Fine. It wasn't worth getting worked up over someone who couldn't be bothered to use what he'd been given. The annual assessment would filter him out soon enough; at most he had half a year left to coast before getting shown the door.

What she genuinely couldn't comprehend was this: here was someone from a struggling family, someone whose household had scraped together every last coin to buy their child a place at Tianlan Magic High School — who then awakened Fire Element and still couldn't find it in himself to care. Just lazy and adrift as ever. Did he have any conscience at all?

Thanks to the busy mouths of Zhao Kunsan and Mu Bai, virtually the whole class already knew Mo Fan had bought his way in.

"I've already heard from your homeroom teacher, Mr. Xue, about the importance of the annual assessment," Tang Yue addressed the class. "First: students who fail to meet the standard will be asked to leave the school. Second: those who pass will be re-sorted by performance, and students placed in the elite track will receive additional support — giving them a significant edge when it comes to applying to Magic universities. So this semester, none of you have any excuse not to give it everything you've got."

"Teacher Tang Yue," a male student called out, "will you be teaching the elite class?"

"Barring any surprises — yes. Once I've finished up here, I'll be taking the practical course for the elite track." Tang Yue gave a small nod.

"Then I, Yang Guo— I mean, I, Huang Feifeng, will work twice as hard!"

"Teacher Tang Yue, I want to follow you wherever you go."

Tang Yue maintained her warm smile. She could see that her first lesson had gone rather well — the students' drive had been well and truly kindled.

"One more thing," she added. "Anyone who reaches the point of having full Control over all seven Star Motes is welcome to seek me out privately. I'll set aside personal time to give them additional coaching."

**AWOOOOO—!!!**

The classroom erupted in howls.

Seven Star Motes. In an instant, it became every student's singular ambition.

"I'm not far off — Teacher Tang Yue, just you wait for me—"

"Seriously? How many do you have?"

"Two."

"Get lost."

"Three! I'm crushing all you scrubs!" Huang Feifeng announced, chin tilted with pride.

"Three, and you're out here showing off? I'm almost at four. Do you people not realize how much harder it gets the further along you go?" Xu Qinglin shot back with open contempt.

"Right, that's hilarious. All of you are lightweights — Mu Bai is already at five Star Motes. Even if he takes it easy next semester, he'll hit seven with room to spare. He'll obviously be the first one to find Teacher Tang Yue." Zhao Kunsan sneered.

"No way — Mu Bai's really that far ahead??"

"Five... *five* Star Motes. How does someone even train like that? That's absurd."

"I heard the top Lightning student in Class Seven — the school's best — only has five as well."

As the admiring chatter swirled around him, Mu Bai felt himself beginning to float.

Not that he would let it show, naturally. Wearing a blissed-out, praise-drunk expression — the kind that lesser people couldn't hide — would be deeply uncool. Beneath him. To preserve the image of a composed, mature young man of good breeding, any such feelings had to remain firmly off his face.

Zhao Kunsan was a dim-witted, unreliable creature in almost every respect. But the man possessed one singular, almost preternatural gift: an unerring instinct for the exact moment his liege couldn't lower himself to speak yet desperately needed the room's attention — and the ability to materialize at precisely that moment with exactly the right words.

*It wasn't as though Mu Bai could jump out himself every time the class was swapping notes on "two Star Motes" and "three Star Motes" and gasping at "four" — and announce, "Your lord is already sitting on five." Too cheap. Beneath the dignity of a scion from a distinguished family. Having Zhao Kunsan deliver the announcement on his behalf was exactly right.*

*It showed off the achievement. And left the composure entirely intact.*

Life was like a game of League of Legends: being good yourself wasn't nearly enough — having teammates who actually knew how to play their role was just as important.