10 Chapter 10

(AN: We have hit one of the biggest achievements of mankind. Better than the moon landing, better than the advancement of technology, and certainly better than the creation of the UN. For legal reasons, this is just a joke. Anyways, it is the highly acclaimed step of reaching 69k views. Thank you all, and I know I can probably give myself one out of five stars on my update review. This is not me trying to make the chapter longer with unnecessary information. Okay, sarcasm aside. Thanks. :)

(POV of Mo Fan; He is back. A quick recap of Mo Fan's side.)

Mo Fan and Xiaohou arrived very early at the school, however, not to go to their Annual Magic Exam, but they waited in front of the school gates.

Until Mu Bai showed up, Mo Fan just casually talked with Xiaohou. His eyes glowed, and his face showed a maniacal smile when he saw Mu Bai. From Mo Fan's perspective, he observed Mu Bai's left hand unconsciously going in and out of his left jacket pocket; Mo Fan knew where the Shadow Stone was.

'Rule #1: Never let a pickpocketer know where the valuables are.' Mo Fan prepared himself.

After diverting his attention with a couple of jokes and misdirection, Mo Fan 'borrowed' the Shadow Stone from Mu Bai.

~

When Mu Ningxue was revealed, Mo Fan watched her with sincere eyes, and his heartfelt acute pain and naturally sped up. 'It's been a while…' In his past life, he was ignored by her many times and it took a long time before she had opened herself. Even after she opened herself, he was still ignored and cast away multiple times; however, it never stopped his feelings for her.

From her icy eyes, Mo Fan knew that those hide a hardworking and fragile girl. She both loves and hates her family and her status; it is both a curse and a blessing to be born in a renowned and influential family in this competitive world.

Mo Fan sighed mentally for her, but he swore to make her life much easier this time. As he snapped back to reality, he recognized the road blocker between the relationship between Ningxue and him.

Mo Fan had almost forgotten the feud between him and Mu Zhouyun. All the early past life memories of Mo Fan's life in Bo City flooded into his brain. Mo Fan decided it was best to anger Mu Zhouyun again because he would destroy Yu Ang and get the benefit of going to the Underground Spring Water.

'It is time to mess around with the old cuck-blocker.' Mo Fan smirked as he stared at Mu Zhouyun.

Apparently, Mo Fan's smirk set a fire on Mu Bai. This started the boiling wildfire between the two sides.

With all the speakers finished their spiel, the headmaster directed them to move forward with testing.

"The Annual Examination will now officially begin! All students have three attempts, and everyone just has to place their hands on the Appraisal Stone then focus on entering the meditative state in which the Appraisal Stone would emit radiance depending on everyone's stardust. We, examiners, would give a grade according to the radiance. A grade of D would be an immediate expulsion, and a grade of A would be the standard to enter the Elite Class. That's all!" said one of the older examiners.

There were eight different testing grounds for each of the eight classes; thus, each class separated and followed their teacher to the corresponding testing grounds. The exam went as an examiner called a random student to go up and test the student's cultivation.

"Mr. Xue, I'm sorry; I may be expelled from the school," A seemingly weak girl said with her face filled with tears. Her nervous and worried little appearance attracted pity from the surrounding classmates.

"How could that be? You've always done your best. Don't be so pessimistic."

"But I'm stupid. Even if I were to do my best in cultivating every day, my stardust still seems so weak," The girl named Zuo HeYu said.

A boy near her chimed in."Hey, don't be afraid; even if you don't meet the requirement, there's still me. As long as there's a Mage in the family then we'll be fine," the dorm head of Mo Fan's dorm, Lu Jianhua, patted his chest as he spoke to He Yu.

"Stop talking crap; you don't even know if you'll get kicked out yourself!"

"Are you joking? Wait till this daddy places my hands on it; the radiance will blind your titanium alloyed dog eyes!" Lu Jianhua said with pride and arrogance. With a flick of a switch, he turned to walk to Heyu. "Look, you might be stupid, but you have been hardworking trying your best. I believe you will get all A's."

He Yu tried to steer herself, knowing that she might not have to go first. 'There are 48 students here, and there is only about 2% chance that I have to go first.' She thought.

"First, Student He Yu!"

Her face immediately darkened and turned pale. As she walked up to the Appraisal Stone, it was very obvious that she had the face of [Why am I here? Just to suffer.]

"You may begin," the bald examiner said.

"Good luck He Yu! Your teacher and your fellow classmates believe in you," Xue Musheng encouraged.

"Don't worry if you don't do well; I will take care of you," the nutjob of a dorm head, Jian Hua said.

Even though she was very nervous and shy, she calmed herself before taking the test.

The black Star Appraisal Stone gradually emitted some radiance from within. In the beginning, it looked like the early sunrise. Following He Yu's intense focus, the radiance gradually spread around the Star Appraisal Stone, causing the radiance to fill the surroundings.

"A!"

"A!"

"A!"

At this moment, the three examinees practically announced the results simultaneously.

"Classmate, it's done. Your final result is an A!" the bald examiner said without an expression on his face.

He Yu opened her eyes; she looked as though she was unable to believe it, before she excitedly said, "Re… really? I got an A?"

She hopped up and down in the excitement that she realized that she scored a grade of A.

Meanwhile, people were either jealous or annoyed that she just got an A.

"WTF?! That's the standard for entering the Elite Class!" (Jianhua.)

"I was sympathetic to her that she might get expelled before the test because she was sitting there wailing endlessly. We really thought she was drifting on the borderline of being expelled, but as the final results came out, she freaking got an A!" (Lu Xiaobing.)

"Lying Bitch; what typical magic studying bitch. I'll never believe her again." (Jianhua.)

"Jianhua, did you predict and cheer her on saying that she will get all A's? What happened to congratulate your own classmates?" Chen Bao brought up a good point. Sun Xiang chuckled, who has been listening to all the lament and jealousy over a simple A grade.

Sun Xiang mocked Jianhua. "Even if you don't meet the requirement, there's still me. As long as there's a Mage in the family then we'll be fine. If you get all A's, that is when you can say that. LOL"

Jianhua both annoyed and flamed in embarrassment, responded. "Well, I just tried cheering her up, but I never thought she would actually do it."

Xue Musheng wore a worried expression at first, but as soon as he saw her radiance, he smiled. After all the grades were summed up, all thirty classes will be ranked in the average grade. If he was able to place his class in the top three, he was able to get some raise as a hardworking teacher. It was all for the money.

"Can you take the next part of the test?" the bald examiner asked.

"No, I can only control six stars right now." He Yu honestly answered, but she wondered if that was the right answer.

"Next, Zhang Xiaohou," the examiner announced the next name.

Zhang Xiaohou couldn't help but be surprised. He didn't think that he would be showing off his hard work so early.

"Brother Fan, I'm going to do my best!" Zhang Xiaohou said to Mo Fan.

"Do your best, but don't forget our bet!" Mo Fan said. Mo Fan and Xiaohou bet each other that the loser with the lowest rank would buy each other three Baozi.

"You shouldn't be advising other people; hearing it makes me wanna puke," without fail, Zhao Kunsan followed, saying this.

Mo Fan was a little ticked off by how much Zhao Kunsan listened and interjected on people's conversations. Anyways, he ignored his existence.

Xiaohou walked up to the grounds in an air of calmness. He was told by Mo Fan controlling his breathing and practice focusing would help him achieve the most accurate and best measurement.

Closing his eyes, Zhang Xiaohou adjusted his breathing and slowly entered a meditative state. A few slashes of cyan wind appeared around the Appraisal Stone, and the radiance overflowed with Xiaohou's Wind Element. The examiners around Xiaohou felt the airwaves changing rapidly as it was going to start a wind storm, and it was their first time seeing this. Compared to He Yu's radiance it was like a dim light bulb against a floodlight.

"S+! "

"S! "

"S! "

The three examiners immediately announced their grades, and all of them were 'S's!'

Many of the Class Eight students were shocked by the results, but they were also entranced by the display. The wind from the radiance caused Xiaohou's clothes to flutter around, and from others' perspectives, they saw something special.

"I thought A was the highest grade that you can get! How did he get S?" He Yu was confused.

"There would be only a few people who were able to grade S, so not many people know." A boy nearby explained.

"Holy Shit! Who would have thought Xiaohou's cultivation would be so amazing! I only knew him to be mediocre, but I guess we were wrong!"

"Bro! My dad said that he would purchase me a car if I got A+! If I came back home with an S, my dad would give me his whole retirement plan. How did this man do it?"

"This is the first student getting all S! Very well done Zhang Xiaohou!" Mu Xuesheng complimented him with a warm smile. On the inside, he was jumping up and down. With this, he was basically able to secure Best Class and his raise!

Mo Fan had a smug look on his face, and he turned toward Zhao Kunsan and Mu Bai. It was satisfying to watch them! "Hey Mu Bai, maybe you paid too much attention to me! You should have been watching out for Xiaohou, and your Number 1 spot might not be yours anymore." Mo Fan was a fan of picking the right moment to demoralize his opponents.

Mu Bai, already paranoid about losing the Shadow Stone, finally realized that Mo Fan's little monkey got one of the best possible scores. Sweating and trying to get some control, Mu Bai took a minute before responding with a weak comeback. "Hmph, who cares about your little monkey who follows around you!"

"Well, if my little monkey is that strong, then how strong am I? That is the question that you should be worrying about!" Mo Fan chuckled with his smug.

Mu Bai straightened himself after hearing Mo Fan. It was something that he hasn't thought about. "There is no way that Mo Fan would be stronger than the idiotic monkey! Fuck!" Mu Bai cursed under his breath.

Meanwhile, Zhao Kunsan was extensively cleaning his eyes at Xiaohou's performance, lost without any grounds to come back.

"Student, your final result would be sorted..." the bald examiner was about to announce the final results.

"Teacher, I will be doing the next part of the test." Xiaohou excitedly said with confidence. Xiaohou thought. 'It was amazing being in the spotlight and hearing the Oohs and Aahs. Just like Brother Mo Fan mentioned, once you are in the zone, you don't ever want to get out of it.'

The bald examiner nodded.

Both Xue Musheng and Tangyue smiled in delight. Especially Xue Musheng, he knew that Mu Bai was a prodigy that should get the top score, but at the sight of Xiaohou getting a top score, he nearly creamed thinking of all the bonuses at the end of the school year.

The examination consisted of two parts. The first part was the Stardust test. The majority of the students only needed to complete this part to continue to study magic at Magic High, but if you were able to cast magic, you would be placed in the Elite Class and have the luxury of Star Magic Tool. However, only about 100 out of 1000 students would be able to cast magic.

Xiaohou turned toward open space on the stage; casting magic really excited him because he had been practicing so hard with Mo Fan. He was able to finish his stars in around 6 seconds.

(AN: Some starting magic spells are not attacking moves. Water Barrier is a defense spell, and Wind Trail is a mobility spell, so Xiaohou can't attack the puppet yet.)

"Wind Trail, Swift Current."

The stars glowed very brightly with passion, and the wind around Xiaohou's body increased. It made people's clothes near him flutter. Xiaohou zipped around with the available space on the stage. His demonstration of control of his magic was on par with 2 years of experience in casting Wind Magic.

Wind magic is hard to control to a certain degree due to students not being used to accelerating and zooming around tight spaces. However, Xiaohou showed his acumen in it. It seemed easy on stage, but Xiaohou cried in his thought 'I am at this level, but at what cost. I was forced by Brother Fan with his accurate fireballs; I nearly died.'

As the wind picked up dancing papers from examiners, Xiaohou quickly stopped his magic to calm and helped to gather them back.

Examiners were shocked. They haven't seen this kind of talent in controlling the speed of Wind Element; moreover, Xiaohou's speed in casting magic was extraordinary. Many talented beginners would cast their magic in 7 to 9 seconds.

"Student, your stardust is S, and your Activation is A-!"

The students were mesmerized by the magic. It was some of the student's first time experiencing magic.