Breaking Through the Shadow Stardust!
The Molting Demoness had taken burn injuries as well — she had fled in a panic, and chasing her now would be pointless.
After the man was sent to the hospital, the doctors found nothing out of the ordinary. Their only finding was that he was severely weakened, with marked signs of significant blood loss.
Mo Fan and Lingling kept watch through the night. Only after dawn broke and the man showed no further complications did they finally leave.
"Are you sure he won't molt again?" Mo Fan couldn't help asking as they walked out.
"Relax. I still can't pin down exactly what kind of creature this is — but I can say with confidence it won't emerge during daylight hours." Lingling replied.
*What are they, exactly? Human or Demon-Beast?* Mo Fan's mind was still clouded with doubt.
To call them Demon-Beasts — the man lying in that hospital bed was indistinguishable from any ordinary human being.
To call them human — he had seen with his own eyes how they shed their skin and became monsters that preyed on the living.
"I need to go back and look into it. But our commission is essentially complete — we can hand the loose ends to the City Demon-Hunting Squad." Lingling said.
The way she spoke, the City Demon-Hunting Squad might as well have been her personal staff. Mo Fan couldn't help but marvel at the genuine authority the title of Hunter Master carried.
"Nothing more for me here, then — I'll head back to school. The City Demon-Hunting Squad will look after the kid, right?" Mo Fan glanced at the little boy standing beside them, still absentmindedly sucking on his fingers.
The child was clearly terrified of Mo Fan — probably convinced he was about to drag him along for another free-fall off a skyscraper — and stared up at him with wide, tearful eyes.
"Mm. Go ahead and head back. Once the client transfers the commission fee, I'll send half to you." Lingling kept it brief. Despite looking so impossibly adorable you could squeeze water out of her, she pushed up her thick black-framed glasses with the thoroughly world-weary air of someone twice her age.
It was early morning by the time Mo Fan got back to school.
He collapsed into bed half-dead with exhaustion, unbothered by the hideous creatures he'd fought the night before.
Once upon a time, an encounter like that would have cost him nights of sleep.
But after his time with the Demon-Hunting Squad in Bo City — and after surviving the catastrophe that followed — things like this no longer left a mark.
When he finally opened his eyes, the sky outside was already dark.
If his stomach hadn't growled loudly enough to rattle him loose, he felt he could have slept straight through the night.
He hauled himself out of bed and made for the dining hall.
The place was nearly empty, the vast space cold and quiet under the overhead lights, with Mo Fan sitting alone at one end shoveling food into his mouth.
"Ahh — nothing beats a full stomach..." A long, satisfied belch, and he left the dining hall feeling entirely at peace with the world.
Azure Sky Hunting Firm lived up to its reputation for efficiency: the moment Mo Fan got back to his dormitory, a transfer notification for 150,000 yuan appeared on his phone.
Real, solid money. Mo Fan felt a genuine, unguarded thrill.
It was nowhere near the millions he'd eventually need, but it was a tangible source of income. Save it up piece by piece, and someday he'd have enough to buy a Spirit Grade Lightning Seed — and with it, another massive leap in strength.
In the days that followed, Lingling sent no messages.
Mo Fan didn't press the matter. He settled quietly into training.
His Shadow Element Stardust had changed noticeably — an outer layer now enveloped it in a shimmering halo that looked like threads of black silk.
He remembered clearly: when his Fire and Lightning Stardust were each nearing their breakthrough to Intermediate, the same phenomenon had appeared — that unmistakable look of magical light spinning itself into a cocoon.
*Well, well. Tonight's the night.*
A surge of anticipation shot through him. His Shadow Stardust had finally reached its tipping point — ready to shatter the small cage of the Stardust stage and open into an entirely new realm.
"Little loach, it all depends on you." Mo Fan reached up — a rare moment of ceremony — and lifted the Loach Pendant from his chest, pressing his lips to it in search of good luck.
He found a quiet spot, settled in, and sank into his Inner World. The assault on his Shadow cultivation's barrier had begun.
With his past breakthroughs behind him, Mo Fan now understood what it truly meant to build deep before striking — to charge through with one unbroken surge of will and no hesitation.
Rather than squandering even a thread of mental energy the way he once had, he began with a full round of Meditation, bringing himself to peak condition first.
No preliminary probing.
Any probing strike would just waste mental energy.
A Mage's reserves were finite. Even a small leak during a breakthrough attempt could tip the scales toward failure.
Inside his Inner World, it was as if a vast tide had gone out.
The beach lay bare. The slopes that the sea had covered for years were exposed — stretching away as nothing but mudflats, as though the ocean had simply withdrawn from the shore entirely.
Every great tsunami is preceded by an extraordinary withdrawal of the sea.
The receding tide was not the ocean retreating. It was the harbinger of the next great strike.
This was Mo Fan gathering himself. Building toward that strike.
He shaped his Mental Intent into a surging, unstoppable tsunami, aimed at the dam ahead — to shatter it in a single blow and claim far more ground than before.
*Come on. Break through!*
Mo Fan roared inside himself, and in that instant, all his mental energy became a colossal wave that had been building for ages — crashing without a shred of reserve against the dam that had caged his cultivation.
Mental Intent — torrential. Overwhelming. Unstoppable.
As an Intermediate-Level Mage, his Mental Intent was already far stronger than during those early breakthroughs — and this time, he had learned from every one of those past mistakes.
One unbroken surge. That was the only way to shatter a Stardust shell. He couldn't afford to go gently on his Shadow Stardust — he knew that much.
Sure enough, the Shadow Stardust resisted at first. A backlash of mental energy pushed back against him.
But how could he not have expected that?
Back when his Mental Intent was nothing like this powerful, he had clenched his teeth and driven through the backlash regardless. *Something this mild now? Not worth flinching over.*
With two full Star Nebulae already to his name, the backlash from a single Stardust posed no real threat.
He held on — just a moment longer — and with that relentless charge, sent the Shadow Stardust's dam shuddering on the verge of collapse.
The cocoon of light wrapped around the Stardust cracked apart.
As it broke open, new Shadow energy poured out like a beast starving for territory — devouring everything in its path, coiling and condensing into a domain entirely its own.
That tiny mote of dust could no longer contain the energy that had burst from its shell. It spread, it spun, it coiled — swiftly becoming a vast shadow Star Nebula, blooming like a vivid black rose across the infinite cosmos of his Inner World.
"Shadow Star Nebula!"
*Well done. Another element has reached the Intermediate level.* Mo Fan's satisfaction ran deep.
Every initial-stage barrier broken through meant another Intermediate skill added to his arsenal.
Fully mapping the Shadow Element's Star Chart would still take some time — but he had in his hands the Shadow Element Star Chart Book, a gift from his beloved Teacher Tang Yue.
Three Star Chart Books in total. That meant now that he had broken through to Intermediate Shadow, he could use Intermediate Shadow magic immediately.
Fire Burst. *Blazing Fist!*
Lightning Seal. *Thunderbolt!*
Shadow Fade. *Giant Shadow Nail!*
*Dimensional Summoning!*
*Seven skills. A man with seven skills entire. Who in this world can stop me now?*