Selfie!

The old warehouse had clearly been slated for demolition — roughly the size of a classroom, its floor cluttered with junk. A chill hung in the air, emanating from thick chains of Ice Lock that bound a leopard-sized creature in the center of the space.

The beast was blanketed in dense, shaggy fur that obscured even its eyes, and its long tail flickered with an eerie fluorescence in the dark.

"Keep a close watch. Once the night deepens a bit more, we move it to the drop point — then the mission's as good as done." Shen Mingxiao directed his teammates.

"I'm dead on my feet. That thing nearly got away from us." Luo Song patted his considerable belly. "I need a rest."

"Leave those three here to keep guard," Shen Mingxiao said to the remaining members.

He and Luo Song had done the lion's share of the work in capturing the Shadow Demon-Beast; the other three had largely coasted to victory. Naturally, the unglamorous task of standing watch fell to them.

The three raised no complaints and settled in, steeling themselves for an all-nighter.

Luo Song and Shen Mingxiao slung their arms around each other's shoulders and headed to a Hong Kong restaurant, where they ate their fill, then wandered back toward their quarters with easy conversation.

"Little brother Luo, don't you worry." Shen Mingxiao clapped him on the shoulder with a grin. "Once we're inside the Three-Step Tower, you won't need my connections to deal with your target — we can handle him ourselves. Ha. It's laughable, really. If I hadn't started the term a little late, how could some country bumpkin have ever had the chance to strut around making a name for himself?"

"Exactly." Luo Song broke into a wide grin. "Pearl Academy was always meant to be our stage. With both our families working together, what do we have to fear from the Bai Clan or the Mu Family?"

Full and satisfied, the two were swaying comfortably toward bed when their phones went off.

Shen Mingxiao glanced at the screen — his older brother, Shen Lin. He answered with an easy smile. "Brother, calling to check on progress? Don't worry. After you pulled those strings with the Hunters' Alliance, there's no way I'd let you down. We've already secured the Shadow Demon-Beast."

"Is that so." Shen Lin's voice was flat. "Then explain to me why I'm hearing that in half an hour, someone called Mo Fan is going to walk a Shadow Demon-Beast straight to the Beast-Taming Cage."

"Impossible. We have the Shadow Demon-Beast under control right now. He must be bluffing." Shen Mingxiao scoffed.

"Let me call and check," Luo Song said, unease flickering in his eyes.

He dialed the three teammates left behind to guard the warehouse. Nothing. He tried again — silence. All three lines were dead.

Shen Mingxiao and Luo Song looked at each other.

*We're done for.*

They sprinted back to the old warehouse. The doors hung wide open. No Shadow Demon-Beast — only their three teammates, unconscious on the ground.

"That scheming rat — he hijacked our cargo! Let's go, we're making him pay!" Shen Mingxiao's fury erupted.

All that effort to catch the Shadow Demon-Beast, and someone had simply lifted it from under their noses. For someone as proud as Shen Mingxiao, it was a humiliation he could not stomach.

Luo Song was seething. *Mo Fan. Always Mo Fan. Three times now this bastard has come after me. This time, there's no walking away from it.*

The Beast-Taming Cage at Pearl Academy was a facility reserved for Summoning Element students — a place to contain Summoned Beasts that became erratic or dangerous.

It sat at the outermost edge of the Blue District, close to the foot of an old mountain, a remote spot that rarely saw visitors.

The moment news spread that Mo Fan had obtained the Shadow Demon-Beast, every student who had been spinning their wheels without a lead instantly snapped to attention. They poured into the area early, fanning out to find hiding spots.

The absurdity of it was that too many people had the same idea. There were only so many viable places to conceal yourself, and the result was something like several strangers — each sneaking in separately for some clandestine errand — cramming themselves shoulder-to-shoulder into the same closet, then being forced to exchange an awkward nod.

"I swear I'll drown that bastard until he swells up like a corpse — he tipped off the entire school!" Shen Mingxiao was nearly beside himself.

All his effort to obtain the Shadow Demon-Beast, and now Mo Fan had broadcast it to the world, letting a mob of freeloaders come scrambling to claim a share of his prize.

No matter how capable Shen Mingxiao was, he could not go up against close to a thousand students.

"Mu Nujiao-jie, did Mo Fan actually get the Shadow Demon-Beast?" Ai Tutu whispered from their perch on the rooftop.

"You saw the same photo I did," Mu Nujiao replied.

"I know, but — is he out of his mind? He captures the Shadow Demon-Beast, fine. But why did he take a *selfie* and post it to his social feed?!" Ai Tutu said.

She had been halfway out of her clothes and ready for bed when she'd opened her feed and nearly dropped her phone. A selfie — unmistakably Mo Fan — with a Gloom Wolf Beast holding a Shadow Demon-Beast pinned right beside him.

*Good lord, this man has completely lost it. Who catches a Shadow Demon-Beast and doesn't keep their head down? You sneak it quietly to the Beast-Taming Cage — that's what any sane person does. But not Mo Fan. He had to go and broadcast it to the world. Truly a breed apart.*

"You think he's doing this on purpose to mess with everyone?"

"Whether he is or not, we'll find out soon enough."

The two fell quiet, their eyes sweeping across the cramped space that somehow held nearly a thousand people.

Every last one of them had come because of the same news.

"A Gloom Wolf Beast — I see a Gloom Wolf Beast!"

"The Shadow Demon-Beast too, being dragged along behind it!"

"My god — that madman actually showed up!"

The quiet corner of campus erupted all at once. One question rang through almost every mind: *Was there something seriously wrong with Mo Fan's head?*

Mo Fan arrived right on schedule.

He walked straight down an asphalt path lined on both sides with maple trees, steady and unhurried.

Along the way, students doing a poor job of hiding stood frozen, mouths open — none of them quite able to believe the demon king had truly strolled in with the Shadow Demon-Beast in tow.

At the end of the path lay a plaza built around a fountain. Rising from the water were several statues of Summoned Beasts, their stone surfaces long colonized by water moss — worn, ancient things that gave the place a weathered grandeur.

Behind the statues, Bai Cangfeng and his team crouched in hiding, watching Mo Fan's steady approach, trading stunned glances among themselves.

On the other side of the fountain, up in the branches of a large tree, the refined-looking Jia Wenqing and a senior named Fu Tianming sat wide-eyed, barely able to trust what they were seeing.

Mo Fan kept walking. Some of the crowd, patience wearing thin, began to edge forward and close in around him.

But no one made the first move.

Everyone knew the demon king's strength was extraordinary. With this many people present, whoever struck first was the one who'd suffer for it.