Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

In a luxurious Western-style restaurant, Dongfang Lie slowly finished up his dessert, wiped his mouth, and said to the person opposite him, "Is that so, he lost the first battle?"

"Maybe we've been putting too much attention on him. It seems like the kid said to be a provisional candidate doesn't have anything up his sleeves," replied Zhou Shuming with a disdainful grin.

"I wasn't really bothered by him, but you, the woman you're interested in is staying in the same house as him, God knows what would happen between them," said Dongfang Lie.

Zhou Shuming's face turned dark as he glared at Dongfang Lie.

The two were concerned whether Mo Fan was able to secure the nomination, since it would determine if he was chosen for the World College Tournament.

However, the good news was, Mo Fan had lost in the first battle...

The losses would not be recorded on the score sheet, yet without winning, it was difficult to earn enough points.

Basically, they had overestimated the guy.

As Dongfang Lie had mentioned, if he were in a serious battle against the kid, he would easily defeat him in a few rounds.

"How about the next battle, who are his opponents?" asked Dongfang Lie.

"Bai Yulang from the Magic Association, as for the other three...nothing outstanding, but since they are in the top twenty, they won't be weak either."

"Bai Yulang, he's a tough opponent."

--------

The same night, on the same field...

The four students from Team Eleven who lost their first battle sat on the grass with unpleasant looks.

Their opponent team did not have anyone famous, yet they still lost the battle. As such, it was likely that none of them had earned lots of points from it.

Gu Jian had a gloomy look. He initially thought since his teammates were all in the top twenty in their Element School, they would be somewhat reliable. To his surprise, even though they were fairly strong in one-on-one duels, they were slow when fighting in a team, nothing but burdens to him.

He could easily suppress their opponents with a huge Lightning Spell. If they were any good, they would not have lost the battle.

Gu Jian felt rather hopeless when he recalled that he still needed to fight another two battles in the same team.

"Mo Fan, what's wrong with you? Why did you try to trap them with the Forest of Kun? That guy had the Shadow Element, how could you possibly trap him?" scolded Gu Jian.

Ai Tutu lowered her head, not daring to say a word.

She did bear a huge responsibility for the team's loss. If she had managed to trap the Water Magician with her Forest of Kun and prevented him from casting Rolling Wave, it would not have shattered their formation.

However, Ai Tutu cast it on a Shadow Magician...

The Plant Element was almost useless against the Shadow Element. A simple Fleeing Shadow was enough to dodge the Spell.

"Besides, I never know we also had a girl called Mo Fan in our school," said Liu Xing with a weird look.

"Are you talking about that Mo Fan who is said to be a provisional candidate? Hehe, I don't think the guy has anything to offer apart from being lucky. I'm glad he's not in our team… well, this girl Mo Fan… isn't any good either!" Li Jie showed no mercy either.

"Alright, that's enough. Just make sure there won't be any mistakes in the next battle," said Gu Jian.

The others did not comment on anything.

Ai Tutu also promised that she would not make any mistakes in the next battle.

------

Ai Tutu returned to the apartment in a bad mood. Her mouth did not stop murmuring.

She admitted that she was not strong. Her strength was still a certain distance away from the top twenty in every school, yet they could not simply blame it all on her!

"I'll surprise them tomorrow!" said Ai Tutu.

"Surprise who?" asked Mo Fan, walking in from the balcony with a chicken rib in his mouth.

He had only taken a single bite of the chicken rib, but the Flame Belle who had smelled it immediately ran into the room. Mo Fan tried to take another bite, but all he got was air. The Flame Belle had already taken the chicken rib away. She crouched in a little corner and began munching it, sounding like a little mouse biting its food.

"No… nothing, you must have heard it wrong, haha!" Ai Tutu did not dare tell Mo Fan the truth.

"You're acting strange. By the way, I heard that the Nomination Preliminaries have already started. When is my turn?"

"Oh, oh, your number is fairly behind," said Ai Tutu.

Mo Fan stared at Ai Tutu. Somehow, he felt like the girl was hiding something from him, yet she had always been strange since day one, so it was meaningless to ask any further.

------

The following day, Ai Tutu woke up fairly early.

Time had been running short. As a result, the institute had arranged two battles to take place simultaneously. As a result, the team had two battles in the morning, with almost no interval in between.

Similarly, their opponents would be fighting their battles consecutively, too. As such, the team would have to decide if they were going to go all out in the first battle, or preserving some energy to handle the second battle.

Ai Tutu purposely asked her family to prepare a Deathstrike Magic Equipment for her, so she could perform well today...

Mo Fan had woken up just as Ai Tutu left the apartment. From his room, he happened to see Ai Tutu leaving in her shoes. It was rare to see her not wearing her heels.

"It's obvious that she's prepared for a fight..." Mo Fan began to ponder with his jaw in his hand.

After a slight hesitation, Mo Fan decided to take a look. The woman had been acting too strange lately...

Mo Fan followed behind Ai Tutu, but somehow lost her on the way. The school was so huge that he had no clue where to look for her.

Most importantly, he had spent almost two years in Pearl Institute, yet he suddenly realized that he had lost his sense of direction. He was running in circles for quite some time, yet he still could not find his way.

Trees, paths, classrooms, laboratories, training grounds...where the Hell was he now?

"Ah, that's the library. I finally found a landmark," Mo Fan finally recognized a familiar structure after passing a small wood plot.

As Mo Fan arrived at the entrance of the library, he coincidentally stumbled into a woman whose black smooth hair had lots of little crystals dangling on it. She was holding a stack of books in her chest...

"Mo Fan?" the woman blurted out in confusion when she saw him.

"Ding Yumian, you're always at the library..." Mo Fan let out an awkward smile.

"Don't you have a duel today?" said Ding Yumian, blinking her eyes.

"Do I? Is it in the afternoon or at night?" asked Mo Fan, raising his brows.

Ding Yumian shook her head. She raised her head to take a glance at the clock on the wall and said, "It's happening now, oh, it already started ten minutes ago."

"..." Mo Fan smacked his lips. He was suddenly at a loss for words.

Ai Tutu!

That bitch!