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Huo Ling listened to the silence on the other end of the line and did not urge his mother.

After a while, Bai Xiaolan's trembling voice sounded. "Son... what did you say?"

"Mom, I've broken through and become a Black Iron-rank mage!"

Huo Ling repeated himself.

"You... aren't joking?!" Bai Xiaolan's tone was full of disbelief.

"Mm!" Huo Ling answered with a single decisive word.

"Ah!~"

Bai Xiaolan let out an excited scream, the tremendous noise carrying through the phone.

She jumped to her feet, unable to put her excitement into words.

After hanging up, her coworkers hurried over to ask.

"Sister Bai, what happened? What's got you so happy?"

A middle-aged woman sitting beside Bai Xiaolan leaned closer and asked.

"Our Huo Ling has become a Black Iron-rank mage!!!"

"What!"

"That's incredible!"

"I told you long ago that your Huo Ling was a smart child! Sister Bai, you'll be enjoying the good life from now on!"

Her coworkers gathered around, chattering all at once as they discussed it and offered their congratulations.

"What!!! You broke through to Black Iron?" Teacher Xia cried out over the phone, his voice cracking from the shout.

"Yes, Teacher. I was lucky enough to break through successfully."

After returning to Blue Star, Huo Ling sent his teacher, Xia Yang, the news of his breakthrough.

He was preparing to exchange for first-rank spells next, and in any case, there was no way he could keep his breakthrough hidden.

He had not expected that the moment he sent the message, Teacher Xia would call him.

"Come to my office."

Soon after, Huo Ling arrived at Xia Yang's office.

Looking at the boy before him, Xia Yang had never imagined that Huo Ling would be the first in the class to break through and become a Black Iron mage.

As for Dantai Yishuang, she did not count. She had already broken through before enrolling.

"Not bad, not bad!"

Xia Yang said "not bad" several times in a row.

"Come, register first."

Xia Yang had not forgotten the important matter. On Blue Star, every professional who broke through to the Black Iron rank had to be registered.

"I never expected you to be the first one in the class to break through without a word," Xia Yang said with a smile after the registration was complete, still sounding as if he could not believe it.

"It's thanks to your excellent teaching, Teacher," Huo Ling said with a smile.

A sedan chair needed everyone to lift it; Huo Ling understood how the world worked.

"Now that you've advanced to become a Black Iron mage, which school of spells do you plan to specialize in?"

Xia Yang pulled Huo Ling over to sit down, brewed a cup of tea, and asked.

"I plan to specialize in necromancy spells." Huo Ling accepted the tea.

A caster's spells were as vast as the sea. The major categories alone included many schools: abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion, necromancy, and transmutation.

Basically speaking, a mage's spells encompassed the abilities of every other kind of professional.

Yet among these many schools of magic, each school was divided into several subschools, and each subschool contained all manner of spells, specializations, and metamagic techniques.

All of this required casters to spend enormous amounts of time researching and studying. A caster might devote an entire lifetime to deeply studying only one school of magic, while merely gaining a slight grasp of the others.

A person's energy was limited. To obtain greater returns from limited time and effort, specializing in one school of magic was undoubtedly the best choice.

Huo Ling's meditation method was Breath of Darkness, and the secret art he had used to break through to the Black Iron rank this time was also a necromancy secret art.

Thus, continuing down the path of necromancy was the best choice for him.

At most, he could use potential points to master a few particularly useful spells from other schools.

"Mm, I've looked over your file. Based on the physical affinity test, necromancy really is quite suitable for you."

After hearing this, Xia Yang nodded as well.

"Are you interested in becoming my junior fellow disciple?" Xia Yang looked at the student before him with satisfaction, then asked.

"Junior fellow disciple? Teacher Xia, you mean...?" Huo Ling did not understand.

"My teacher is Professor He Wenhan from the university. He is a Gold-rank mage who specializes in necromancy. As his student, I should originally have studied necromancy as well."

"But later, my bloodline awakened, and studying evocation spells offered greater prospects for development. To avoid wasting my talent, my teacher had me study evocation instead."

"You have good talent, and you want to continue delving into necromancy. Perhaps you would make a good student for my teacher, and he has always wanted to take on a few more talented students. Isn't that a perfect match?"

Xia Yang smiled slightly as he explained.

"If Professor He is willing, I could not ask for more." Huo Ling could find no reason to refuse.

"Alright. Teacher hasn't been at the university lately; he's in the Spirit Realm. When he returns next month, I'll take you to formally become his disciple." Seeing Huo Ling agree, Xia Yang nodded in satisfaction.

The two chatted for a while longer before Huo Ling took his leave.

After Huo Ling left, Xia Yang took out his phone, typed up a message, and sent it to the class group chat.

"Congratulations to Huo Ling of Class 13, Cohort 23, for becoming a Black Iron-rank mage!"

Not long after this pinned message was sent, the other students in the class began posting all kinds of congratulations and celebratory stickers in the group.

A simple message directly caused a huge uproar in Class 13, Cohort 23.

In another small class group without any teachers, messages kept popping up.

Wen Yinglang: @Huo Ling?

Shi Wenxuan: @Huo Ling?

Fang Lingqing: @Huo Ling?

...Dantai Yishuang: @Huo Ling?

One classmate after another tagged Huo Ling in the group, and the notification chimes rang without end.

Shi Wenxuan: "Old Huo, that's not cool. Didn't you say you weren't feeling well and were taking two days off to rest? You secretly went and broke through instead, huh?"

Wen Yinglang: Holy shit, Old Huo is awesome!

Fang Lingqing: Treat us, treat us!

Shi Wenxuan: You have to treat us, or this isn't over! Learning to deceive your brothers' feelings at such a young age!

Huo Ling: Same old place tonight. Let's all get together.

Wen Yinglang: Sure! We're definitely going to fleece you hard tonight.

Wu Dongling: Just wait until you go bankrupt!!!

Huo Ling: @Dantai Yishuang Is the class monitor coming too?

Dantai Yishuang: Okay.

The other students in the class had gotten together a few times since school started, but their class monitor, Dantai Yishuang, had always been rather aloof and had never joined them.

Huo Ling invited her casually today, but unexpectedly, she agreed.

Next, Huo Ling took a photo of his updated student card in his hand, added a caption, and posted it to his social feed.

"I've been at Southern Heaven University for a month now, and through my own efforts, I've finally become a Black Iron-rank mage. A journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one's feet. I'll work even harder in the future."

To return home only after becoming rich was like walking through the night in brocade robes. He might as well show off a little on his social feed first.

With such a great opportunity to show off, if he did not make a proper display of it on his social feed, it would be far too wasteful. Even Heaven would not be able to stand it.

Not long after the post went up, the number of likes shot up, and rows upon rows of congratulatory comments flooded in.

Beep beep beep.

His phone began ringing nonstop as well. They were congratulatory calls from relatives, friends, classmates, and teachers from school.