In Full View of Everyone

"Mm... ha..."

With a yawn, Bai Mo finally gave in after meditating all night. He was a little sleepy and could barely make out what the international language teacher was rambling about.

The book in front of him looked more and more like a pillow the longer he stared at it.

Silently deciding not to do this again, he rested his head on that "pillow" beneath the international language teacher's stern gaze as the teacher stood beside him.

Campus life was fairly uneventful. Bai Mo had not encountered anything strange, nor did he plan to get involved in anything exciting.

Like Demon Beasts and the City Demon Hunting Squad. Of course, Modu was not Bocheng. The City Demon Hunting Squad required proof of being an advanced Hunter, so he could not participate yet.

Every day, he attended class, cultivated, went to the seaside to bask in the sun, visited anime conventions and concerts, bickered with his family, firmly defended his lawful right to eat, drink, and have fun, and incidentally used his cultivation progress to provoke them.

Whenever he got bored, he would strengthen his bonds with his classmates, always keeping his progress in controlling Star Dust one step ahead of second place. Then, while lamenting the leisurely life of the holidays...

He would show off a little, then spend most of his remaining time training his Mental Power.

What a dull, tedious, ordinary life for a high school magic student.

The only difference between magic high school and an ordinary middle school was that, besides politics, history, geography, international language, and mathematics, mage apprentices also had to learn far more about Demon Beasts.

As for chinese language? A basic grasp was enough. To the nation, every mage was a precious force against Demon Beasts. They should not be leading artistic or literary work.

Bai Mo did not think those subjects were unimportant. He simply studied them with the mindset that sixty points were enough.

The Modu Plain never lacked wind, nor was it ever short of rain.

But to the people living here, already accustomed to its climate, none of that was anything unusual.

The windy, rainy periods always passed quickly. Yet sometimes, when Bai Mo's way home was blocked by wind and rain, he found himself envying Water Magicians.

Walking through the rain without even needing an umbrella—how carefree was that?

Likewise, during the frigid winter that had already passed, he had envied Ice Magicians and Fire Magicians, who did not fear the cold.

And on this scorching summer day, as Bai Mo stood on the field waiting for the annual assessment to begin, he looked at several classmates who were perfectly refreshed, without a drop of sweat on them.

That feeling arose again.

His yearning for magic quietly accumulated through each ordinary day and night of wind and rain.

Over the past year or so, Bai Mo felt that aside from gaining a new identity and having to cultivate every day, his life had not changed much.

Even though he was about to step forward and display the results of a full school year of magical cultivation.

At that moment, one of his classmates was onstage undergoing a cultivation test.

Perhaps because he was an extra, Bai Mo could not remember his name.

The boy placed both hands on the Star Sense Stone, and it immediately lit up with a fairly strong glow.

Judging by the intensity of that light, the three Grade 2 homeroom teachers temporarily invited to serve as judges gave their evaluations.

"A, A, B."

Because of the secret nobody had known during last year's new student awakening ceremony, all the students in Class 1 Grade 1 had made remarkable cultivation progress.

Not one of them received an overall rating below B. Among all the Grade 1 classes, only Class 2 Grade 1 could match them.

"Next, magic release."

This extra classmate was a relatively rare Fire Magician. Having already mastered the Elementary Level Fire Element spell Fire Seed, he took a deep breath at those words.

Facing the one-time examiner, the puppet teacher, he began outlining his own Fire Element Star Orbit.

It was clear that this was his first time doing such a thing under public scrutiny, and he was still somewhat nervous.

But once he thought of how his idol could wear suspenders and play basketball in full view of everyone...

That nervousness immediately ceased to interfere with his already slow spell construction.

After all, he had practiced releasing magic for two and a half weeks!

About two minutes later, a brilliant scarlet red Star Orbit finally swept around him.

"Fire Seed—Scorch!"

At his call, scarlet red flames gathered in his palm. He flung them out, striking the puppet teacher.

The puppet was quickly set ablaze, turning into a pile of black charcoal after several breaths.

"B, B, B!"

The three examiners remained expressionless, their eyes unmoved as they gave their evaluations and called the next candidate onto the stage.

"Bai Mo."

Hearing his name, Bai Mo ended his thoughts.

He pulled out a plastic bag. It was his turn to show off!

Just now, he had been thinking about how to shock the judges during this assessment.

After all, this was Modu. There were plenty of geniuses, large and small, real and fake alike. Shocking them was far harder than Mo Fan in Bocheng using a Fire Seed to burn a puppet.

But Bai Mo was very confident. He intended to show them a little something.

And incidentally complete the achievement of shocking his parents! He never went back on his word.

He had not spent this past year cultivating for nothing!

"Hello, teachers. I'm Bai Mo."

Standing before the Star Sense Stone, he greeted the three judges, looking exactly like a trainee about to debut.

"Begin." The judge proceeded with the assessment as usual, without even a hint of coordination.

Bai Mo nodded and placed both hands against the Star Sense Stone, pouring Magic Energy into it. The stone instantly released a blinding white light, like a massive light bulb.

The Star Sense Stone was bright, and the examiners' eyes were bright as well. Then they gave their evaluations.

"S+, S+, S+."

"Next, magic release."

Bai Mo nodded again and calmly stopped ten meters in front of a brand-new puppet.

There was no warning, nor was there any movement to catch.

As he raised and extended his palm, dazzling silver light burst from his eyes, and an equally mysterious, brilliant Silver Star Orbit streaked through the air.

The spell was constructed so quickly that even the examiners froze for a moment, unable to tell whether it had taken one second or two.

In any case, it was fast!

"Mind Control!"

Bai Mo's sharp shout from the field drew their attention back to him.

They saw Bai Mo clench his outstretched hand toward the puppet ten meters away.

"Void Claw!"

Invisible ripples spread through the air. The puppet seemed to be compressed by some force, and within a single breath, it cracked into pieces!

Then those fragments continued to shatter, eventually turning into a pile of wood chips.

"This..." The three examiners looked at one another, each seeing the surprise in the others' eyes.

They had not expected this classmate to possess not only outstanding cultivation, but also such proficiency in releasing and controlling magic.

He was already comparable to some elite Hunters in the city.

One had to know that this was the Space Element. At the Elementary Level, its cultivation difficulty was nothing an ordinary elemental magic system could compare with.

"S+, S+, S+."

After giving their evaluations, they carefully looked over the student.

They decided to ask around about him once they returned.

At the same time, they thought, Now we'll have something to brag about to our friends when we get back.

The same thought crossed the minds of the surrounding students and teachers observing the assessment here.

But most students voiced it on the spot to friends who had not been paying attention.

"Qianqian, look! That handsome guy from Class 1 got an SS rating, and he's even a rare Space Element mage. He's so cool!"

Qianqian gave her lovestruck friend a speechless look, wiped away the tears at the corner of her mouth, and continued staring blankly at the handsome guy with an SS rating Qingqing had mentioned.

Turning his head to survey the area, Bai Mo was very satisfied with his performance.

There was only one thing he did not understand: why did his plan to crush every student in the school always go so smoothly?

Among so many students, was there not a single genius who wanted to step on him to become famous in one stroke? Not a single outstanding person who could suppress his brilliance?

There was no challenge at all. He had wanted someone to surpass him first, then he could overtake them and say, "Those I surpass can only watch my back. I'll give you time to catch up, until you disappear from sight."

How interesting would that have been?

Unfortunately, there was no one.

Even MacArthur could not be bothered to give it a like.

Always taking first place so easily, Bai Mo felt that this was the worst batch of students he had ever encountered.

Bai Mo had successfully forgotten the fact that he was a genius. Usually, he acted as though he were merely an ordinary person.

And it was perfectly normal for an ordinary person like him to work hard occasionally, right?

Would that not create the image of a hardworking overachiever?

By then, someone would surely think that they had simply mistaken all the times he wandered around and played whenever he had free time.

That guy had always been working hard. Look, he was even first in the grade.

That was the proof.

When the time came, if he really told them how leisurely his life was, it should be quite amusing.