Versatile Mage (Subtle Changes)

CHAPTER 29: A DIFFERENT MU NINGXUE

ORIGINAL Author: Chaos

SPINOFF Author: Vester

“I see.... You’ve made your decision then... Fine I get it. I won’t take away your pendant! But you have to promise me, that you will tell me first if you get into trouble with anyone! You got that?” Tang Yue said. 

She wasn’t keen on the idea of Mo Fan keeping the Pendant but it can’t be helped. He has made his decision, as a teacher she can only respect it and support him.

“Yes! Thank you very much, Ms. Tang Yue!” Mo Fan said while smiling like a kid.

He was genuinely happy that his teacher didn’t confiscate it! 

_Ms. Tang Yue is the best!_ Mo Fan praised her in his mind.

“Well then, it’s time I get going now.” Tang Yue got up to leave.

“Ah yes.” Mo Fan said as he nodded.

Truthfully he wanted to spend more time with her but he couldn’t do it, no matter what he would Tang Yue wouldn’t stay, because it was late at night. Well he has many chances to flirt with her in the future.

Tang Yue instead of moving towards the door, she went through the window and jumped and disappeared!

“Whoa! What was that?! A mage could do that! Can I also learn it?” Mo Fan was surprised at first but he quickly remembered that she had Shadow Element! 

She could move in shadows. No wonder Mo Fan couldn’t notice he was being followed.

Well time to sleep.

........

The annual examination had finally arrived, and for a lot of people, today was a nightmare. This was because there was a chance that they would be expelled from the school, and these people counted as the most tragic and most shameless who had to go back and meet their parents.

However, studying Magic was not a child’s game. Every Magic High’s system worked like this: if you were not suited to study Magic, then you would be expelled early, giving them another way so they wouldn’t continue to waste their time in the borderless Magic sea.

To those students who had been doing their best in cultivating, today was the day they could show their results. Particularly for those students who could already use their skills!

The stormy days had already passed. The morning’s weather was sunny, and the summer air was clear.

Mu Bai specifically wore a white t-shirt with plum embroidery and ironed trousers. His entire being gave off a low profile feeling, not wanting to show off his family background.

With his handsome exterior and his low profiled outfit that didn’t fail to show his elegance, he had already captured the affection of many girls.

However, with him being a legitimate member of the Mu Family, how could he fancy any of these common and vulgar women. His objective was a proud girl like Mu Ningxue….Of course, if Ms. Tang Yue were willing to give in, he would be willing as well, he would cleanse her from being defiled by that Dreg (Mo Fan).

Mu He had personally come to send Mu Bai to school in his black limousine this morning.

Mu He was the Supervisor and Chairman of Tian Lan Magic High; he personally arranged the annual examination today.

No matter what, Mu Bai was still his nephew. Mu He hoped for Mu Bai to give him some face in front of the other Supervisors.

Mu Bai suddenly thought of something; he turned over and whispered, “Uncle, I heard that Mu Ningxue is also coming to Tian Lan Magic High today?”

“Yeah, today is a very important day for Tian Lan Magic High. It just happens that Mu Ningxue started her summer break early from the Empire Institution. I discussed with the Family Head and had her, the flag of Bo City, come to Tian Lan Magic High to give you guys a lecture, take a look at the annual examinations this year, and have her evaluate the quality of the students,” Mu He said.

Seeing Mu Bai bursting with life, Mu He naturally knew what kind of ideas he had. He chuckled as he patted Mu Bai’s shoulders, “Don’t worry; when it’s your turn, I will have her watch with the Family Head. When the Family Head sees you working so hard, he might even distribute more cultivation resources to your family. You know how few disciples we have in our Family, and the outstanding ones are rarer. If the Family Head notices you, you are given a Stardust Magic Tool for two or three months, you’ll reap many benefits!”

“Star… stardust Magic Tool? Really? I have a chance to use a Stardust Magic Tool?” Mu Bai’s eyes radiated.

“Of course, do you know why we are different from common Mages? Superior genes? Family influence? No matter how good these are, they aren’t better than a Stardust Magic Tool! If you can become a Core disciple within the family, you have a chance to receive a Stardust Magic Tool; your cultivation will definitely be far higher than your peers in school!” Mu He said.

“Uncle, I…I will definitely do my best to show off!”

Cultivation being far higher than the peers in school!

Mu Bai began to boil up. No wonder why these disciples of the Family were frantically cultivating; it turns out it was for the Stardust Magic Tools.

Every Mage has a limited amount of time to cultivate. For students like these, five hours of meditation was their limit, and the remaining time was for studying theory and knowledge.

The Stardust Magic Tool was an item which every Magic cultivator yearns for the most.

Mu Bai didn’t know the principle behind the Stardust Magic Tool; however, he did know the Stardust Magic Tool could help cultivators to recover their energy more quickly and cut down the amount of fatigue.

Normally, after spending 5 hours of meditation, they could only do other things in the remaining 19 hours.

They were weary from meditating during the 19 hours. They could only pass this time through doing other things or sleeping.

For a lot of students who wanted to advance, 19 hours of fatigue was too long; while at the same time, they couldn’t do anything about it. When a person is putting their mind on a constant focus, they need to have an even longer period of relaxation. Otherwise, their mind would collapse.

Whereas the Stardust Magic Tool was a divine cultivation tool that was capable of cutting that fatigue time down.

With the meditation fatigue period cut down, that would mean the increase of the daily meditation time!

There may not be much of an effect with just a day or two. However, a month or two would make a small difference when it was compared to cultivators without a Stardust Magic Tool. If they were to practice with it for two or three months, then they would be in a completely different league compared to their peers.

The efficiency of meditation varies from people to people; there are fast and slow ones; so let’s not think about that for now. However, even if the efficiency was exceedingly slow, one could still be in the lead with the help of the Stardust Magic Tool. People who did their best and had talent would only do half the work for twice the effect!

“Uncle, you mentioned the Elite Class students would have the opportunity to use the Stardust Magic Tool; is this true?” Mu Bai asked with a slight excitement.

“That’s right; since this is a Magic school, naturally, there are also some few cultivation resources. However, the resources are very limited. There are so many students; thus, giving each student the chance to use it is not possible. Therefore, it’s necessary to have the annual examination and the Elite class. This way the students of the Elite class will have an opportunity to use the Stardust Magic Tool for a period. It won’t be a problem for you to enter the Elite class with your grades. When the time comes, I’ll pull some strings from behind the scenes and let you use the school’s Stardust Magic Tool for a little bit longer. For you, this is quite beneficial. The school is an equal place after all; it’s not possible for me to do too much. What would truly allow you to soar to the sky is to use the Stardust Magic Tool from our Mu Family; that is something a common Mage will never be able to obtain in their lifetime. That’s why you must treasure it,” Mu He sincerely said to Mu Bai.

“Don’t worry Uncle; I won’t disappoint you.”

“Saying that to me is useless; you need to prove yourself in front of Mu Ningxue and the Family Head!” Mu He patted Mu Bai’s shoulders as he said this.

Mu Bai nodded seriously; his heart couldn’t help but to give a cold laugh, _“Xu Zhaoting, so what if your cultivation is on par with mine. So what if you have the Lightning element. Behind me is the enormous Mu Family; you will never be able to contend against me!”_

“Oh right, how’s the situation with that kid called Mo Fan?” Mu He inadvertently thought of this as if he thought of a beggar he didn’t want to give money to. He asked without thinking, as though he had nothing to do.

“He’s trash; he will definitely be expelled from the school,” Mu Bai didn’t need to cover up his despise for Mo Fan.

Mu Bai really loathed Mo Fan.

When everyone was young, they actually grew up in this area together. However, Mo Fan would always have a group of people following him; he was like the Monkey King. However, what Mu Bai didn’t understand was the fact that the revered and matchless Mu Ningxue was actually blindly mixing with them, and their relations were very intimate.

What did he count for? He was like a wild monkey, running around the block and mountain areas every day with a whiff of attitude; yet, his poverty was fully revealed.

Did he know what true power was, family status? Did he know what it was to be called laughably poor to the point where people would always look down on him?

The son of a servant is just low. Without seeing it, he just didn’t know what vision was, what is called ‘Ambition.’ He just lived in his slum house, in that mud reeking street and took pleasure in working hard.

“Humph, I’ll sign him off. I’ll have an explanation for Mo Jia Xing as well. It’s not that I didn’t help; it’s just his idiot of a son wasn’t able to become a Mage, even when we gave him a chance to awaken. Sigh, people just aren’t tactful; they just have to spend massive amounts of money to give it a try. The thing is, you are a loser, how can you hope for your son to be an Genius? Being poor and useless is something that gets passed down through generations,” Mu He slowly said as he took a drag off his cigarette.

At this moment, Mu He’s eyes were half closed. He looked like a grand and graceful old fox; he even revealed his disdain and ridicule for poor people.

......

In the student dorms…

“Brother Fan, we should go; it’s the annual examination. It’d be bad if we’re late,” Zhang Xiaohou urged Mo Fan

“You go first; I’ll practice Control for a bit longer,” Mo Fan replied.

“Making a last-minute effort, huh?”

Mo Fan right now was a public enemy, many people wanted to crucify him and burn him because of Lu Xiaobing.

He had got in lots of fist fights against many people these 4 days.

But of course the winner was Mo Fan. They started using magic but Mo Fan didn’t and only used his fists. The students who hadn’t even faced against Magical beasts were trying to take on someone who has killed 160 of them? What a joke!

Mo Fan didn’t even need to cast magic on them. His reflexes had increased a lot after continuously slaying the Colossal Eyed Ape Rats. Those rat’s agility was even faster than his casting speed and their lasers were terrifying. Compared to them these sheltered students who were so full of themselves weren’t even a competition.

Mo Fan had already made a record of beating up 60 students in these 4 days. 

Tang Yue was not in a better condition as well. She was questioned by the school committee regarding the Photo, she was about to get transferred but she pulled some strings behind the scenes.

For the past four days, Mo Fan and Tang Yue didn’t speak to each other when they were in school but they regularly met each other outside, at Mo Fan’s Magic Practice ground. They became friends quickly because their age difference was not that much. She was 19 and he was 17 now.

Also Mo Fan right now was rich! By the time he got told about the Soul Essence, he quickly went to Wang Xiulin.

She was dumbfounded when she saw him holding 4 Soul Essences. She helped him sell them for Twenty Million RMB! 

He was finally Rich! He quickly sent 1 Million to his father and Five Hundred Thousand to his sister and Aunt.

Ye Xinxia was also busy studying about the Heal Element. She wanted to become a healer but the books were extremely costly and we’re almost non-existent in this rural area. She was making do with what she could find on the internet, when suddenly her account had Five Hundred Thousand RMB. She was dumbfounded and even went to return the money to the bank thinking they had made a mistake, but they showed her money transfer history. The number used for it was her brother’s. She quickly understood what had happened but also didn’t understand how he got this much money?

While the cute Xinxia was contemplating on it, Mo Fan was contemplating on which type of equipment to buy, while he was sitting in his dorm room. Even though it was the exam day, he was taking it easy since he knew his number was last. But he Aced his written tests, at the first semester.

“Hmm~ which type of Equipment should I buy?” Mo Fan said as he was listening to songs with his newest Apple I-Phone and Apple Headphones.

He was surprised when he noticed that the brand of Apple was famous and expensive even in this world.

“Oh shit! It’s almost time!” Mo Fan quickly got up as he looked at the time!

He had spent lazing around almost two hours while listening to songs and watching drama.

.......

All the First Year Five Hundred Students were assembled at the training grounds to conduct the Exams. 

The Third years had already left the school for their respective Universities. While the Second Years were taking it easy now that they were in the third year. They had came to watch the first year examination but we’re chased out by the teachers.

The examination wasn’t writing on a paper in the classroom. Although they did have examinations on Magic Theory, the points acquired from it weren’t much. The most important thing was the annual practical examination.

Frankly, it was just assessing the student’s cultivation state after a year and once more distributing them into classes.

Mo Fan was the last to arrive at the training grounds. He was still wearing his Headphones and Vibing to his songs. On normal days, everyone would be here to attend their Practical classes, but today, it was clear the grounds were set up differently. Other than the examiners’ table that was placed in a half arc, there was also a floating Star Appraisal Stone.

The Star Appraisal Stone looked a little similar to a black cobblestone the size of a watermelon. At the moment, it was placed in the very front of the training grounds with the help of a stone pillar.

The Star Appraisal Stone was the most important apparatus for the examination for the students.

The annual examination was really simple, just like the Opening Ceremony’s Awakening. The students only needed to place their hands on this massive Star Appraisal Stone, and the examiners would be able to determine the students’ cultivation from the past year from the light emitted by the Star Appraisal Stone.

It was like high school exams; a paper might determine the students’ fate. This world also had the same quota; either you continued studying and obtained a good opportunity in life, or you packed your things up and found a different path.

“Remember what I’ve told you before; the radiance intensity from the stardust represents the power of the magic capabilities within the stardust. Students of the eighth class, the time for you to showcase the efforts of this year has come; release the lights of your stardust!” the homeroom teacher, Xue Musheng’s face was filled with passion.

“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 the 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 He Yu said.

“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.

Soon enough, three examiners from the school finally arrived at the grounds.

The examiners were disciplinary teachers; the students were normally really scared of them.

“Alright, silence! The annual examination will be observed by a few school supervisors this time; we hope you will display the essence of a Mage today!” Xue Musheng reminded the students.

The examiners were to assess the ten classes of freshmen. The 500 people who wore the uniform of Tian Lan Magic High gave off a certain aura; it was a magnificent sight as they stood on the training grounds. They were arranged like blocks.

Before the assessment, naturally, the principal gave a speech. It was like this every year.

Following this, it was the school supervisors’ turn to express themselves.

When Mu He stepped onto the platform and passionately painted the beautiful picture of a Mages future for the students, Mo Fan, who was among the crowd of people, couldn’t help but to take a picture with his phone and edit the photo. 

He made Mu He look extremely funny as he uploaded it to the School’s Forum. 

The Notification sound rang throughout the students as they couldn’t help but burst out laughing at the photo. 

His speech which was filled with the lifetime expectations of the young students. However, It didn’t take long for it to turn into a comical one.

Mo Fan was very clear on Mu He’s morals and integrity. He couldn’t help but chuckle. 

When Mu He saw some students laughing, he couldn’t help but sneer at them but when he saw some teachers laughing as well while looking at him and then their phones, he found it strange. He took out his while he was saying his speech and opened the forum. He couldn’t help but choke while in the middle of his speech. But he quickly regained his composure.

_I swear whoever is behind this, I will skin him alive_ Mu He said as he looked at a student who was not listening to his speech as he was Vibing to his songs. 

The student noticed him and flipped his finger secretly with an extremely wide and innocent smiling Face.

This was done extremely smooth as if they were just greeting each other. 

“Cough! Cough!.... Ahem. Today is an extremely special day.” He literally felt like coughing blood because of this dreg.

I will fucking humiliate him today in the worst way possible. Mu He swore to himself. He couldn’t act like however he wants because he invited the Mu Family head here today.

“That is because we have invited the most distinguished female Maga of the Bo City. When she was 15 years old, the Empire Magic Institute made an exception and recruited her. I’m sure many of you have already heard of her legacy…That’s right; she is Mu Ningxue! Please, let us all warmly welcome her, who should be the same year as you but is a Magic Genius who has already been promoted to university!” Mu He said loudly.

As this was said, the entire Five Hundred or so people suddenly caused an uproar.

“Heavens, it’s Mu Ningxue! I heard when she awakened the Ice Element, the power from it directly caused the grounds to freeze into ice blocks.”

“Those are just rumours; I hold the most accurate info. I heard she only needed eight months to learn the primary spell of Ice element, Ice Spread.”

“Eight….eight months?! Heavens, I’ve already been in school for a year, and I have only been able to control five stars! How can the differences between people be so big?!”

“These aren’t even the important points, alright….the most important point is, she’s also a beauty! She’s good looking and talented; she’s the pride of Bo City!

In just a moment, the students of the school began to discuss this. From everyone’s reaction, one could tell they were not unfamiliar with Mu Ningxue.

They never imagined on the annual examination today; they would meet the legendary Magic Genius!

“Brother Fan, brother Fan, it’s Little Princess; it really is her! She actually came to our school.” Zhang Xiaohou was so excited he began to pull the sleeves of Mo Fan next to him. 

Mo Fan raised his head and gazed toward the platform. He had truly seen a beautiful figure quietly standing there like a proud lotus in the snow. The snow white, skin-tight dress caused her impressive body disposition to appear increasingly more detailed.

What really attracted the people’s attention wasn’t the girl’s fascinating body that emitted a sexual charm, but the stunning and long, peerless cyan hair.

Although the weather was warm and dry, the girl standing proudly on the platform was as like a Snow Fairy who wandered through the snow mountain before stepping onto the secular world. She was undoubtedly beautiful!

As the students and teachers saw this girl step up; they were all silently shocked.

They’ve heard stories of Mu Ningxue many times, but they had never seen her before. Who would’ve thought her entire being was an ice fairy in a girl form, whether it was her temperament, attire or her inherent graceful, cyan, long hair.

This is Mu Ningxue?

Even her bones were emitting a noble pride.

This most likely was the first time Mo Fan saw Mu Ningxue in about three years or so?

In the past, the group of children liked calling her Little Princess, and she was a princess in everyone’s heart. She lived in the castle in the mountains, wearing clothes and accessories that were prettier than normal girls by so many times, as well as her enchantingly cute appearance…

However, after three years, Mo Fan felt like he couldn’t recognize her at all.

_What Happened? Her hairs were Black in my world! And her face was so expressive before. She’s charming no doubt, but I don’t feel that excited seeing her_ Mo Fan thought as he was feeling confused.

Her change was colossal compared to Science world’s Mu Ningxue. She was proud but mellow as well. Even after what happened that day. He still met her few times, though she only apologizing to him while shedding tears. 

_This Mu Ningxue however doesn’t seem like the one I know._

The originally cheerful and approachable Mu Ningxue, in her prime, gave people an unapproachable feeling right now.

Was it because her temperament had changed, or was it due to her growth throughout the years? Or perhaps it was the colossal difference in status giving rise to the thoughts in his mind?

“Brother Fan, you should’ve eloped with Little Princess back then…..” Zhang Xiaohou looked at the manifestly superior Mu Ningxue as he exclaimed this.

“Did you hit the toilet door so hard you became stupid?”

“Eh, I said that without thinking it through.”

“Hmm~~ She has became Pretty but~ I still think Tang Yue and Wang Xiulin are more Mature and Beautiful. Meh she’s still growing, there’s room for more growth.” Mo Fan thought as he looked at her perplexed for a few seconds before staring at his phone again.

He was chatting with Wang Xiulin as she said he will have a surprise for him today.