(Correlated with the manhua's chapter 12)

The short mock battles against the judges were always the most interesting events at the examination and members of the audience even had with them snacks from concession stands sprinkled throughout the building. A few students and teachers even brought with them bells, whistles, and banners to support their favorite students when they fought. One of them being Zhou Kun San.

"Go Young Master Mu Bai! You can do this!"

Mu Bai appreciated having someone cheer for him, but the situation did not allow him to pay Zhou Kun San much attention. The wind mage he faced was at least intermediate stage and had much more combat prowess than him, forcing Mu Bai to put his all into the fight.

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The ice vine spell Mu Bai cast was a basic offensive spell which sent ice shooting along the ground to its target. However, Mu Bai didn't use it offensively, instead allowing the ice to build up into a large boulder in front of him to absorb the damage from the judge's wind blades. Instead of being sliced apart, the ice chunks thoroughly exploded, sending hundreds of thousands of ice particles into the air, clouding Mu Bai.

"Ooooh, smart! Using my attack to make cover for yourself." The judge was impressed by Mu Bai's quick thinking and watched as the ice fog expanded, covering almost half of the stage. The judge could easily have used a gust of wind to scatter the fog, but he was supposed to go easy on the students, allowing them to fight for a little while to show off. Thus, instead of getting rid of the ice fog, the judge performed a technique which boosted his speed, then dodged a series of icicles which rushed at him from his left.

"Nice, Mu Bai! But you forgot one thing." The judge chuckled when he saw Mu Bai through the hole in the fog his ice spell created. "I can hide in the fog, too!"

Mu Bai smiled from behind his cover as he felt the judge dive into the thousands of ice particles hanging in the air on his side of the arena.

"This is my chance!"

To the judge's surprise, the ice fog around him dissipated slightly, spreading out just enough so that he and Mu Bai could make out each other's outlines.

"Ice vine!" Mu bai shouted, casting the spell multiple times. From around Mu Bai, several vines of ice snaked their way toward the judge, camouflaging slightly in the ice particle cloud.

"Crud!" The judge thought. "That was pretty smart!"

Mu Bai had slight control over his cloud of ice particles and used that fact to his utmost advantage. Knowing the judge was going easy on him and wouldn't disperse the fog, he waited until the judge jumped into it, at which point he spread the particles out just enough so that he could see the judge and his ice vines would be more difficult to make out within the cloud. Effectively giving himself the most advantage he could in an attempt to strike the judge with magic.

The crowds watching the fight cheered at the amazing display of magic, rooting for Mu Bai to land a hit on the judge even if the chances of that happening were small.

Within the ice particle cloud, the judge stayed calm, shooting wind blades at the incoming ice vines and shattering them. However, he misjudged the position of one of the ice vines, which forced him to dodge. Ice built up into a jagged spike in the spot where the judge previously stood, generating another cheer from the audience of students.

Due to time constraints, the judge could not allow the mock battle to persist for too long, otherwise, they'd take time away from the other students that needed their magical energy scored. Soon after Mu Bai's ice particle fog completely dissipated, the judge ended the fight, overwhelming Mu Bai with wind attacks and pus.h.i.+ng him off the stage.

"You see that?!" Up in their seats, Zhou Kun San gloated to Mo Fan and Xiao Hou. "That is the strength of Young Master Mu Bai!"

Mo Fan looked down at Mu Bai, who, despite losing, smiled widely at his accomplishment of surprising the judge so many times. The sight of Mu Bai smiling happily didn't irk Mo Fan or anything like that. No, Mu Bai might have been an arrogant p.r.i.c.k who looked down on him, but Mo Fan knew that he'd gain nothing by seeing Mu Bai as his enemy when he'd never been actively attacked by Mu Bai. After all, he'd surpa.s.s Mu Bai and leave him in the dust eventually.

"Next—Mo Fan." One of the judges called.

"Just focus on getting partic.i.p.ation point. HA HA HA!" Zhou Kun San discouraged Mo Fan.

"Brother Fan, you got this! Get lost, Zhou Kun San!"

Making his way down the stairs of the stadium, Mo Fan encountered Mu Bai heading to his seat. Of course, Mu Bai had something to say.

"How unfortunate, for a loser like you to be tested after me." Mu Bai put no effort in masking his disdain Mo Fan as he spoke. "However, there's o need for you to feel too much pressure. You've almost reached the end of your line, after all. Just treat this as a formality. Heh."

Unfortunately for Mu Bai, Mo Fan didn't give a single s.h.i.+t about his insults and simply ignored him. When he reached the examination orb which sat beside the booth of mages in charge of the examination, one of the magicians told him to begin whenever he was ready.

At the same time, in the Mu family's private booth, Mu Ningxue's expression stayed placid while Mu He smiled, looking forward to the next event.

*"This is where my cla.s.smates learn that they underestimated me. Here I go!"*

Mo Fan placed his hands on the examination orb and filled it with his fire aspect magical energy, making sure to keep his lightning affinity as quiet as possible. Although he'd contemplated showing off his dual elements, Mo Fan ultimately decided the wisest choice was to keep that detail a secret in the case that he ever had to seriously fight anyone. A beginner magician using two elements would surprise anyone!

*"Huh? Why did it…what happened?"*

The orb under Mo Fan's hands flickered with red light slightly before dimming until no light was released at all. Immediately, whispers broke out in the stands, discussing the situation. The orb had never simply flickered a tiny bit before not releasing any light at all. Surely, they thought, Mo Fan had some capabilities. But if that were the case, why'd the orb stay lifeless? Most a.s.sumed that Mo Fan really didn't have any magical capabilities.

*"This isn't possible! I can summon the fire elemental star cl.u.s.ter and have aligned the seven stars! My magical energy is also of high quality! This...o...b..has to have some kind of defect!"*

Disappointed, the examination judge said, "Zero of ten. You failed."

Frustrated, Mo Fan yelled, "Examiner! There's something wrong with the orb! I've already aligned all my stars!"

Knitting his eyebrows, the examiner thought that Mo Fan was being desperate. "That's impossible. The orb barely showed a response. If you'd really aligned your stars and were able to cast magic, we'd have seen the orb release a ton of light."

"Please leave the stage. Next—"

Interrupting the examiner, Mo Fan raised an arm above his head and shouted, "Incinerate!"