Strange Happenings in the Old District

For the rest of summer vacation, Mo Fan kept up his training without pause.

The City Demon-Hunting Squad wasn't a particularly demanding job — most of the time, members were left to manage their own schedules.

After completing two more bounty hunts alongside the squad, Mo Fan had fully shed the last of his rookie skin. When facing Demon-Beasts, he could Release his skills with steady composure.

Combat and cultivation worked hand in hand, and Mo Fan found that his Stardust was growing at an accelerating pace. As the Stardust grew, his Star Motes transformed along with it — and on the very first day of his senior year, Mo Fan's Lightning Element Star Motes completed their full evolution.

Brighter and more radiant than before, they could now channel greater lightning magic, and the skills they fueled would naturally change along with them.

*Next time I go out on a mission with the squad, they're definitely going to be shocked.* Mo Fan sat in class, in particularly high spirits.

Both his Lightning Seal and Fire Burst had now reached level two. His pace of improvement far outstripped his classmates. If he could push both skills to level three before graduation, that would be perfect.

Word had it that once Star Motes evolved to the third stage, a mage was drawing close to the threshold of Intermediate Level.

Mo Fan had no idea when he'd reach that point — but he was determined to use every means available to make himself stronger.

School life carried on as before, though after the Field Expedition, a subtle change had come over the students. With the magic college entrance examination looming, even the most carefree slackers were suddenly diligent, crowding the training grounds at all hours.

Mo Fan had stopped going to the training grounds entirely.

What was the point of hitting practice dummies? He'd turned those hollow drills into real combat — going face-to-face with Demon-Beasts. The gains were incomparably greater than swinging at wooden puppets on a schoolyard track.

"Fan Bro, have you noticed?" Zhang Xiaohou leaned close and lowered his voice. "Ever since the Field Expedition, Zhou Min — our stuck-up class president — has been treating you completely differently."

Mo Fan raised an eyebrow. "Has she?"

"Definitely. She even sneaks glances over here sometimes."

"Could be because I'm handsome."

"If you want to believe that, I won't stop you," Zhang Xiaohou said, "but if looks were the reason, she wouldn't have been cold to you at the start of the year. She's sharp-tongued with everyone — but with you, she's a totally different person. Sweet as the girl next door."

Mo Fan had morning classes, afternoon training, and still suited up in the evenings to keep the city safe. He had no bandwidth to puzzle through a girl's inner world. Besides, he'd always had the heroic spirit to rescue maidens in distress — and occasionally winning a heart or two along the way… wasn't that just par for the course?

"Look, look — she's coming over! Alright, Fan Bro, I'm making myself scarce." Zhang Xiaohou proved himself a decent wingman. Some friends were thick as bricks — they'd just plant themselves there and play the Light Mage, flooding the whole moment with light.

Mo Fan looked up to find Zhou Min really was walking his way.

She moved with a fidgety uncertainty, hesitating with each step — oddly endearing.

Zhou Min was genuinely good-looking: clean, sharp shoulder-length black hair, a delicate face that carried the quiet pride common to girls her age. Around boys she was usually cold and aloof, though the warmth beneath could never quite be hidden.

"Mo Fan…" she said, coming to a stop beside him, voice low. "Are you free tonight?"

Tonight?

*I'm supposed to reinforce my level-two Lightning Seal.*

*Zhou Min, Zhou Min — as class president, your focus should be entirely on your studies. How have you already gone soft on someone? We're seniors in crunch time. This year matters more than any other. Early romance helps nobody.*

And so Mo Fan nodded and said, "I'm free."

Zhou Min broke into a bright smile. "Wait for me after school. I have something important to tell you."

"No problem." Mo Fan nodded — and privately wondered whether he ought to have Zhang Xiaohou pick him up a box of condoms, just in case.

After school, a crush of students poured out through the school gates.

Zhou Min was as good as her word, waiting by the back entrance.

Mo Fan had barely opened his mouth when she leaned in with a conspiratorial air. "Mo Fan, I honestly don't know if I should be telling you this — but I can't think of anyone better to go to."

He blinked, at a loss.

"Here's the thing," she said. "My grandmother lives on Rongshu Street. It's an old neighborhood scheduled to be redeveloped into a new residential complex. During the summer, I was staying with her, and I kept hearing loud thumping from the nearby construction site — like a work crew was active. But I asked around, and everyone said the site doesn't operate at night. My grandmother keeps insisting there's something out there in the ruins. I've tried to get her to move away, but she refuses to leave. So I was hoping you'd come with me to take a look. I can't stop worrying about her alone out there. The nights genuinely feel dangerous."

When Zhou Min finished, Mo Fan went still.

Construction tremors?

Hadn't the cafeteria just done the tremor thing recently? Now it was a construction site? This whole city of Bo City was going to shake itself apart.

*Could it be another Giant-Eyed Ape-Rat?* he wondered.

"A Giant-Eyed Ape-Rat?" Zhou Min's mouth fell open. "But those are Demon-Beasts! Surely there can't be any of those inside Bo City."

She still hadn't fully recovered from their last encounter with one.

"It's not as strange as you'd think," Mo Fan said. "Word from the Hunters' Alliance is that Giant-Eyed Ape-Rats have been turning up all over the place lately — darting out of dark corners as if they've hit mating season."

If he were still cooped up at school like before, Mo Fan would have felt exactly as Zhou Min did — convinced the city was perfectly safe, that Demon-Beasts couldn't possibly exist within its walls.

But his time with the City Demon-Hunting Squad had given him a very different picture of the world.

*You've come to exactly the right person, Zhou Min.* His other job title was Bo City's urban enforcer — and since he dealt exclusively in Demon-Beasts within city limits, he was thoroughly qualified. No commission this time around, but earning a young lady's gratitude wasn't a bad trade. He'd go take a look.

When they arrived at Rongshu Street, everything was exactly as Zhou Min had described. The neighborhood had been reduced to something resembling the aftermath of a major earthquake.

Dust hung heavy across the demolished district. Temporary construction barriers lined every block. The ground was cratered and uneven. Half-demolished houses stood as gutted shells, ugly reminders of what had once been. Newer structures that had barely broken ground jutted up as hollow, unfinished frames — skeletal and abandoned.

From what Mo Fan had heard, the plan for Rongshu Street had been to transform the area into a new commercial district. The developers had run catastrophically short of funds, leaving behind this stretch of Bo City in limbo — stripped of its old bones, unable to grow new ones, a landscape of rubble and broken walls that even the local government wasn't sure how to handle.

Most residents had long since relocated. The occasional vagrant found temporary shelter in one of the more structurally dubious buildings. And then there were the holdouts — the elderly who simply refused to leave, like Zhou Min's grandmother.