But I Was First

"Zhou Tianyuan, I need to talk to you about something."

Bai Mo returned to the classroom and placed a registration form on his desk. On the way over, he had run into Zhao Qingying and had already given her one.

Zhou Tianyuan picked up the form in confusion and examined it, then looked at Bai Mo in surprise.

"You're sure you want me? I know about this tournament too. One of my cousins took part before, but he only came in second."

"What, an opportunity's been delivered right to your door and you're still going to be polite about it? Zhao Qingying agreed without a second thought." As Bai Mo spoke, he reached to take the registration form back.

"Fine~, with our relationship, you actually didn't come to me first."

Zhou Tianyuan pulled the form behind his back. Imitating the way Bai Mo usually teased him, he put on a teary-eyed expression and said:

"Obviously... obviously, I was here first~"

With Zhou Tianyuan's delicate, androgynous appearance, he really did look rather pitiful.

Even the girls sitting behind him were stunned by how striking he looked. For a moment, they even began doubting themselves, feeling that they were somehow less attractive than a guy.

Bai Mo was equally speechless. He simply stared at Zhou Tianyuan with a calm expression.

He showed no sign of being moved by the performance at all, so the two guys locked eyes intensely.

Only after drawing the attention of the girls around them did Zhou Tianyuan finally give up the act. His expression turned serious again, returning to his usual scholarly demeanor.

Only then did Bai Mo leisurely say, "Tianyuan, I have plenty of virtues, like being studious, hardworking, diligent, and having a sense of honor. I don't insist on learning all this weird nonsense."

Zhou Tianyuan's mouth twitched. Knowing he was no match for Bai Mo verbally and that his skin was nowhere near as thick, he pretended not to hear and took out a pen to start filling it in.

"So the team is just you, me, and Zhao Qingying?"

Bai Mo waved the remaining form in his hand. "There's one more spot. I haven't decided who to give it to yet."

"Actually, every Modu High School Tournament ultimately comes down to a contest between Mid-Level Mages. Beginner Mages run out of Magic Energy after casting only a few spells." Zhou Tianyuan glanced at Bai Mo. "You already know Mid-Level Magic?"

"You seem to know a lot about this tournament. I've never even heard of it." Bai Mo did not answer, instead asking, "Also, have there ever been high school students who knew Mid-Level Magic and won the championship?"

"I heard it from my cousin. And don't tell me you think you're the only genius around? Besides, you're just a slacker, and you aren't even your family's main focus."

Zhou Tianyuan rolled his eyes and reminded him:

"Every tournament has at least one or two people who have mastered Mid-Level Magic, and sometimes three or four. There are usually around ten mages with Mid-Level cultivation."

But the more he spoke, the more he noticed that Bai Mo did not seem nervous at all. Instead, he was looking at him with disdain. Then he heard the guy say:

"Don't worry. If others can use Mid-Level Magic, then I definitely can too. You're the one who hasn't even reached the third tier yet—you're nothing. I only recruited you guys to make up the numbers."

Zhou Tianyuan had nothing to say. He truly could not refute that, so he could only mutter gloomily:

"I offered my heart to the bright moon, yet the bright moon shone upon the gutter."

"Tsk~"

Bai Mo could not be bothered with him. Although teammates were not that important, what if they proved unexpectedly useful when the time came?

So he still had to choose carefully. When he had given Zhao Qingying the registration form earlier, she had said that she was already at the third tier. He just did not know whether she could make another breakthrough in such a short time.

But Zhao Qingying only had the Wind Element. Her role was to help her teammates evade attacks. He had just read the tournament rules on the back of the registration form, and magic artifacts were not allowed.

As for Zhou Tianyuan, who was in charge of defense, Bai Mo himself could occasionally fill that role as well.

Therefore, Bai Mo decided to find one more person responsible for offense.

Someone appeared in his mind.

A few months ago, she had taken second place in the field training evaluation. Her talent was probably even greater than Zhou Tianyuan's.

After being tempered by Jingan Stone Temple and cultivating for several months, she should have reached the third tier by now, right? Perfect—her element was the Lightning Element.

The foremost of all elements. She fit the requirements perfectly.

In Class Two's classroom, Mei Qian held a form and looked at the school's prominent figure standing before her. She answered decisively.

This was an opportunity. She believed no one would refuse it.

"I agree. How many teammates are there?"

"Three including me." Bai Mo nodded. "Teacher Su will contact us for training when the time comes."

In the study, Patriarch Bai looked at the three-million invoice on his desk and fell into thought. Then he raised a hand and silently approved the request.

In his room, Bai Mo used his still slightly damp hand to tear open another guidance scroll.

He closed his eyes, and his mind entered the Dimensional Plane.

An hour later, he opened his eyes. The dense moon-white radiance in them slowly faded, and Bai Mo sighed.

He glanced at the nine guidance scrolls Uncle Shi had sent over today that remained on the desk and decided to try again tomorrow.

With a thought, he tossed the torn scroll into the trash can.

Come to think of it, only in the past few days had he realized that, for some reason, every time he traveled through the planes, his Mental Power increased slightly.

That slight increase was far greater than the gains from his usual diligent training.

Even when the duration was extended, the increase was only that much. If the time was reduced, there might not be any increase at all.

And that duration was fifty minutes.

Thus, he had one more reason to roam the Dimensional Planes every day.

Ten days later, Patriarch Bai once again saw a three-million reimbursement claim on his desk. He shook his head and approved it with a wave of his hand.

Then he picked up his phone, tapped at it for a moment, and set it down.

After a full day of classes and some training with several teammates, Bai Mo returned home.

He signed for the ten Summoning Guidance Scrolls he had ordered from Uncle Shi Yu a few days ago.

"Bzz, bzz."

His phone vibrated. Bai Mo picked it up and checked it.

There were two messages. The first was from Nine Provinces Bank.

Four million yuan has been deposited into your bank account xxxxx6065.

Bai Mo raised an eyebrow. This was the reimbursement for buying the Summoning Guidance Scrolls, but why was there an extra million?

He opened the later text message from Patriarch Bai.

The family's support for your Dimensional Summoning is ten million. If you still can't find a suitable one, then you'll have to rely on yourself.

Bai Mo's face fell. Ten million was actually no small sum, but how had he spent it so quickly? It had only been a few days.

Then he began to worry about another problem. He only had a little over thirteen million in savings now, and that would not last long either.

Should he stop spending money on pulls? This summon pool did not even have a guaranteed Monarch Level drop.

Still, the Summoning Guidance Scrolls had shown some results over the past few days. He could not find any Monarch Level single-element creature hatchlings, but he had found Commander-in-Chief Level ones.

But making money came first.

Bai Mo thought of a place, and a profession: the Hunter's Union, and Hunters.

Speaking of the Hunter's Union, the organization was extremely decentralized. There were only regional headquarters in each continent, and no one had ever heard of a global headquarters. Whenever major matters arose, they would simply put forward a representative.

Legend had it that there had once been a central headquarters, but it was later destroyed. The branch unions across the continents could not be bothered to establish another one, and each believed itself to be the rightful successor instead.

Back to the point, going out to hunt Demon Beasts could also help conceal his excessively rapid cultivation progress. At the Elementary Level, he could still claim it was due to family support.

But over the past few months, Bai Mo had felt that his Space Element nebula had expanded somewhat. His cultivation speed was far too fast. He had not bought any Space Element Cultivation Resources, yet his cultivation speed was nearly no different from when he cultivated at the Elementary Level.

On the other hand, there were pitifully few resources on the market that could help Intermediate Level Space Mages cultivate, and they were outrageously expensive.

He could no longer use family support as an excuse. After all, that was easy to verify. One check, and they would uncover something suspicious.

Though the chances were low, he had no desire to provoke those people from the Court of Inquisition, who shouted about justice while actually pursuing profit.

The next day, Bai Mo skipped class and went to the Hunter's Union hall in Modu.

"Alright, Teacher Su. Didn't I already ask you for a week off?"

Inside the hall, Bai Mo had one hand in his pocket and his eyes swept across the rows of missions on the large screen. Holding his phone, he spoke unhurriedly to his homeroom teacher, Su Ning, who was asking why he had not come to school.

"What? What am I going to do? I'm going to become a Hunter Mage."

"Alright, alright, I understand. I'll watch out for my safety. I definitely won't take missions that are too dangerous. Goodbye, Teacher."

Bai Mo hung up and continued looking through the missions.

At the very top of the board was a prominent A rank, the second-highest mission difficulty category. Below it were rows upon rows of missions.

Obtain three Crimson Spirit Snake King gallbladders. Reward: 3 million.

Crimson Spirit Snakes were pack-dwelling Demon Beasts. They carried fire venom and were extremely vengeful. Every nest of Crimson Spirit Snakes had a Commander Level Crimson Spirit Snake King.

The gallbladder of a Crimson Spirit Snake King had many uses, most of them related to the production of Fire Element potions.

The reward for this mission was substantial, but obtaining a Crimson Spirit Snake King's gallbladder meant wiping out an entire nest of Crimson Spirit Snake Demon Beasts.

How could an ordinary Intermediate Level mage like him possibly accomplish that? Bai Mo continued scrolling down.

Escort the Zhao Family convoy to Jiangzhou. Reward: 1 million.

There were actually highways in the wilderness, but the highways had no Safe Zones. Though they were built far from large Demon Beast habitats, Demon Beasts could still pass through or settle there.

As a result, many of them had been abandoned, though powerful factions still used some of these roads for transport.

Escort missions had therefore emerged, but such missions were too unpredictable and took too long.

Bai Mo dismissed it at a glance and continued downward.

His eyes immediately lit up.

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