Lightning Seal — Furious Strike!

"Mo Fan, you brought this on yourself with your own stupidity. Your father is down on his knees before my godfather, in front of everyone — I'd say that's a far worse fate than kowtowing yourself, wouldn't you?" Yu'ang watched without a shred of sympathy, and laughed again.

"He's just returning the courtesy. My dad's a simple, honest man — figured this was the more sincere way to show respect." Mo Fan turned around, his eyes ice-cold as they fixed on Yu'ang's still-laughing face.

"You won't shed a tear until you see the coffin, will you? Fine. I'll turn you into an ice statue first — and then you can slowly savor what it feels like to never hold your head up in Bo City again." Yu'ang said, contempt flickering in his eyes.

The Ice Element Star Trails linked rapidly within Yu'ang's gaze. With the Ice Silkworm Armor wrapped around his body, he didn't even need to worry about Mo Fan's Fire Burst interrupting his casting — even accounting for the fact that Mo Fan cast faster than he did.

On the other side of the arena, Mo Fan's eyes had gone cold beyond measure.

If Mu Zhuoyun had shown even the slightest inclination to back down, Mo Fan would have been willing to let the matter rest. But the sheer, entitled arrogance of this godfather-and-son pair — the absolute certainty that the world owed them everything — had pushed Mo Fan past any point of return.

He was certain: if he didn't win this duel, he would be forced to watch his aging father grind his own forehead bloody against the stone floor, all on behalf of a son they called a fool.

*But am I really the fool here?*

Today, he would show every last person present exactly what it meant when a single spark sets the prairie ablaze.

"'Background is also a form of strength'?" Mo Fan couldn't help but laugh — a wild, unrestrained smile spreading across his face.

The next instant, that smile cut off entirely. What replaced it was an arrogance the world had never seen from him before.

"Then my heaven-sent talent is equally a form of strength."

*You really think I, Mo Fan, have already lost?*

*Then taste the fury of my thunder.*

His black pupils flared wide — and within those irises, dark as the boundless cosmos, violet starlight blazed in savage, uncontained brilliance.

Lightning.

The foremost of all Elements.

It was wrath. It was dominion. It was destruction.

These laughable chains of class — he would shatter them utterly with this single bolt of raging thunder.

The Star Motes had always shared some deep connection with their master's heart. And the very nature of Lightning as an element granted its wielder an unbending, untamable ferocity — one that would never diminish, no matter how low they were pushed or how dire the circumstances.

Not for lowly station.

Not for being cornered.

Every one of his Lightning Star Motes obeyed him as they never had before — because in this moment, Mo Fan's inner state aligned with the nature of the Lightning Element as it never had before.

The violet Star Trails completed themselves in a single seamless motion the instant his fury ignited within, as if the Stars themselves were desperate to pour every last drop of their power into the one who had called upon them.

The Star Trail manifests!

And the magic suffused with the most mysterious force between heaven and earth formed with breathtaking, effortless perfection.

***Crackle — crackle — crackle — crackle — crackle—***

Violet arcs of electricity surged forth — commanding, savage — coiling willingly around Mo Fan's body as they never had before, waiting only for his command.

Mo Fan raised his head. His gaze itself seemed to crackle with lightning.

"Lightning Seal!"

"Furious Strike!"

Within the lightning's glare, Mo Fan raised one hand high. As his palm clenched into a fist, the howling, twisting brands of thunder and electricity transformed into soldiers of the tempest, screaming with fury as they hammered toward where Yu'ang stood.

**Crack!!**

As the multiple violet Lightning Seals struck home, they merged into a single far more powerful surge of electricity, crashing viciously into a completely unprepared Yu'ang.

Yu'ang was still in the middle of casting his Ice Vine — but the next instant he was enveloped by those blazing, terrifying arcs of electricity. The shock that tore through him was beyond any description.

Furious Strike was ferociously brutal. Every blow that landed sent waves of searing pain radiating through the body — but worse still, the Lightning Seals burrowed deep inside, delivering devastating electrical charges to muscle and bone alike. Even the Ice Silkworm Armor, for all its protection, could not fully block this all-penetrating lightning surge.

Yu'ang's body was no longer his own. He stood there convulsing violently, every trace of arrogance stripped from his face — replaced by nothing but wide-eyed confusion and sheer, stunned disbelief.

*Why?*

*Why?!*

*Lightning — this is unmistakably Lightning Seal. Why — how — can a Fire Element Basic-Level Mage Release a Lightning Element skill?*

The Ice Silkworm Armor was helpless before the Lightning Seal. At last, Yu'ang let out a wretched, broken cry, and his entire body crumpled slowly to the ground, wreathed in coiling violet lightning.

This time, he would not be getting back up. A level-three Lightning Seal was even more overwhelming than Fire Burst; and while the Ice Silkworm Armor could counter Fire Element techniques, there was simply no way it could defend against the terrifying penetration of a level-three Lightning Seal.

Thunder's roar still echoed in every ear — but across the entire estate, there was absolute silence.

Every person present had frozen solid the moment Mo Fan Released the Lightning Seal. It hadn't struck any of them — yet the impact was more devastating than a bolt from a clear sky detonating directly inside their skulls.

What had they just witnessed?

Lightning Seal?

*That — that was Lightning Seal?!*

A Fire Element Basic-Level Mage — *and they were supposed to believe he could cast Lightning Seal?!*

Yu'ang was already blasted flat on the ground, but the crowd had half-forgotten about him. The scene unfolding before their eyes — utterly inexplicable by any normal standard — was driving them nearly out of their minds.

And how could it not? Every mage in this world could only master one element at the Basic Level — a second element became possible only upon reaching Intermediate Level. Yet here stood a student who hadn't even finished his final year of high school, and he possessed two elements?

Fire Element and Lightning Element!

"He… he… could he be an Intermediate-Level Mage? No — impossible, absolutely impossible! No one in this world, no matter how fast they cultivate, could advance from Basic Level to Intermediate Level in just three years. Absolutely no one!" Mu Zhuoyun was the first to spring to his feet, barely able to trust his own eyes.

No less dumbfounded were Principal Zhu, Deng Kai, Yang Zuohe, and Zhankong — mages who had long since ascended into far higher realms — yet even they could not believe the sight before them.

A level-three Lightning Seal. That was unmistakably a level-three Lightning Seal.

But how could a Fire Element student cast a Lightning Element skill?

Could it be some special piece of Enchanted Gear?

No — no. The brilliant violet Star Trails that had blazed around Mo Fan moments ago proved beyond any doubt that this was his own power. There was no way this had anything to do with Enchanted Gear.

And Xu Zhaoting — the only Lightning Element mage in the entire gathering — had simply gone blank.

*Wasn't that exactly the level I'd been desperately striving toward? Level-three Lightning Seal — that was a goal I'd be chasing for years to come! So why had Mo Fan just done it — when Mo Fan is supposed to be a Fire Element mage, for crying out loud!*

He was shattered. Xu Zhaoting's entire world had shattered. A level he — an actual Lightning Element mage — had not yet reached, and a Fire Element mage had just cleared it without breaking a sweat.

*I… I just can't go on living!*