Chapter 23 – Magic Faker

"Enough — no more shouting. The assessment begins now. Anyone who makes noise without permission will be disqualified immediately!" The bald examiner's roar cut through every murmur on the field, and in an instant, every grudge and grievance dissolved.

"I'd love to see the look on Lady Mu Ningxue's face when she watches you get publicly expelled in front of the whole school," Mu Bai murmured, making no further effort to hide what he was after. He leaned close to Mo Fan's ear, his voice low and venomous. "I imagine she'll regret it — wondering how she could ever have wanted to run away with such a complete waste."

"Your breath stinks," Mo Fan said, raising a hand to block him. "I can't stand the smell of shit. Don't stand so close."

The corner of Mu Bai's mouth twitched.

*Fine. Let the little bastard enjoy his moment.*

Years ago, Mo Fan had slammed him face-first into the muddy grass right in front of Mu Ningxue and beaten him senseless — and ever since that day, Mu Bai had never been able to hold his head up in her presence. The humiliation still burned.

Today, Mu Bai intended to make Mo Fan's end far worse.

A public expulsion — the whole school watching — right in front of Mu Ningxue. In a world where magic meant everything, just how thoroughly would Mo Fan be mocked? How completely would he fall in Mu Ningxue's eyes? And when he crawled back to his father Mo Jiaxing — the man who had sold their house to put him through magic high school — what could he possibly say?

In any annual assessment, a few underperforming students being quietly dismissed was perfectly normal. A quiet dismissal didn't trigger a school-wide announcement — the school wasn't that inhumane.

But there was one exception. When a Mage's Stardust had shown virtually no growth at all, the school would make the announcement publicly.

Under normal circumstances, once a student awakened their Stardust, even the slowest mind, through daily Meditation, would see it gradually brighten as magical energy accumulated — unless the student was genuinely, extraordinarily lazy.

To punish such students for squandering an awakening slot and wasting a magic textbook — and to make it absolutely clear to the entire student body that cultivation was not a game, not something to coast through — the school would publicly announce the expulsion of any student whose progress fell below a set threshold.

Such a public announcement might not happen even once across an entire cohort. The school kept the policy purely to drive its worst offenders forward.

At the start of the semester, every class had undergone a rough preliminary check. Back then, Mo Fan's cultivation had been virtually nonexistent, and Xue Musheng had been this close to flagging him for the spot right then and there.

Now the semester was over, and the full annual assessment had arrived.

Predictably, Mo Fan's cultivation level sat dangerously close to that line.

To make absolutely sure, of course, Mu Bai and his uncle Mu He had also prepared a special gift for Mo Fan — one powerful enough to guarantee his fall and secure him the honor of a punishment the school hadn't invoked in three years.

Most conveniently, Mu Ningxue and Mu Zhuoyun were both present. They would witness every moment of it firsthand.

The thought made Mu Bai's mood soar.

*Today is both the day I shine and begin my rise — and the day that miserable bastard suffers his deepest humiliation. What a feeling. What a glorious feeling.*

The annual assessment officially began.

All thirty classes across the school proceeded simultaneously.

The process itself was simple: under the watchful eyes of the examiners and every student on the field, each test-taker stepped forward, placed their hand on the Star Sensing Stone, cleared their mind, and entered Meditation. The stone would then radiate light in direct proportion to the brightness of the test-taker's Stardust, allowing the examiners to gauge their cultivation level at a glance.

Each student had three attempts. Their strongest result would stand as their final score.

Naturally, the more focused the student, the more faithfully the Stone reflected their true Stardust.

Testing order was random. The first name drawn was He Yu — the very same He Yu who had been weeping buckets not moments before.

She was still visibly timid. Walking to the Star Sensing Stone under the gaze of her entire class, she shuffled forward with hesitant steps, looking every bit like someone who had already accepted her expulsion.

"You may begin," said the bald examiner.

"He Yu, do your best. Your teacher and your classmates are all rooting for you," said homeroom teacher Xue Musheng.

"Don't worry even if you don't do well — I'll take care of you," offered Lu Jianhua the dorm leader, apparently without thinking.

He Yu closed her eyes timidly and pressed her small hand against the massive black stone.

The entire class went quiet at once. Every gaze fixed on the first girl to step up to the test — they were more tense than she was.

Mo Fan couldn't quite explain it, but the moment He Yu touched the stone, something about her shifted. Her expression grew calm and focused. The nerves were still there — but beneath them, not a trace of panic.

A faint light stirred deep within the black Star Sensing Stone. At first it was nothing more than a thread of dawn light on the far horizon, distant and thin. Then, as He Yu's brow furrowed with concentration, the radiance began to spread — blooming steadily outward until it nearly filled the stone's entire surface.

"A!"

"A!"

"A!"

In the same instant, all three examiners called out their verdict.

"You may step back," said the lead examiner, expression unchanged. "Your final score is A."

He Yu opened her eyes. Her face broke into disbelieving, leaping joy. "R-really?! I got an A?! I got an A?!"

The image of a girl bouncing up and down shrieking *I got an A* was admittedly quite strange — but no one could deny that He Yu's result had left the entire class in stunned silence.

"I — holy crap. An A. That's elite-class material right there."

"This is insane. She was bawling her eyes out before the test. We all assumed she was on the verge of expulsion. She walks up there and pulls an A?!"

"Classic magic faker. Textbook mage-faker type. I am never believing a word she says again."

Even Lu Jianhua, Mo Fan's dorm leader, stood there with his jaw hanging open.

*So much for taking care of her.* He'd be lucky to scrape a B himself. He had wasted perfectly good worry on someone who just outscored him without breaking a sweat.

Homeroom teacher Xue Musheng's expression stiffened for a moment — he had been completely taken in by a student playing helpless. Still, a first result of A was nothing but good news for the class overall. All scores would be compiled and compared across all thirty classes, and he felt confident his class had a real shot at the top three. The only serious competition was Class Seven next door — with that Lightning kid Xu Zhaoting in their ranks, it was hard to say how far ahead they'd pull. He could only hope his own star student Mu Bai could hold his own.

"Next item — do you wish to continue?" the bald examiner asked He Yu.

He Yu quickly shook her head. "I've only mastered six Star Motes, so I'll skip that part."

"Understood. Your class placement will factor in evaluations from your subject teachers as well."

"Thank you, sir."

He Yu walked out with a spring in her step, eager to share the moment with her friends — only to find that every single one of them had quietly stepped back a full meter. She stood there, genuinely baffled.

*Did I do something wrong? My score is great...*

"Next — Zhang Xiaohou," the examiner called.

Zhang Xiaohou blinked. He hadn't expected his name so soon.

"I'm up, bro," he said to Mo Fan.

"Go for it. Clear your head and stay calm," Mo Fan said.

"Stop coaching people who didn't ask," Zhao Kunsan cut in, right on cue.

Mo Fan stared at him. Did Zhao Kunsan have some kind of auto-follow mode running, with a permanent chat-spam function attached? No matter where Mo Fan went, this guy always materialized out of nowhere to throw cold water on him.