Xu Mang waited until the campus quieted before searching for Mo Fan. He found him behind the old gym, stubbornly trying to align the fourth lightning star for the twentieth time. Sparks burst in random directions. Mo Fan cursed and stomped the snow.
"Why is this harder than calculus!"
Xu Mang watched from the shadows. When Mo Fan tried again, Xu Mang focused on his pendant and released a faint, invisible pulse. It spread like a ripple, gently stabilizing the surrounding mana. The lightning stars in Mo Fan's inner world brightened without him noticing.
Mo Fan inhaled sharply. "Huh… that was faster than usual."
Xu Mang smirked softly. "Try again."
Mo Fan tried.
This time—click.
The fourth star aligned for a full second before fading.
Mo Fan jumped, yelling in triumph.
Xu Mang walked away silently, hands in his pockets. It was better this way. Mo Fan didn't need to know. Some growth felt sweeter when achieved by one's own effort, even if someone was quietly clearing the path.
The Frost Star Wolf peeked from Xu Mang's hood, tail flicking.
"Quiet support is enough," Xu Mang whispered. "He'll understand later."
As Xu Mang reached the courtyard, Lu Jun was waiting under the old banyan tree. His white tiger pendant glowed faintly, and his expression was strangely calm.
"You felt it too, didn't you," Lu Jun said softly.
Xu Mang nodded. "The city's atmosphere. The energy shifts. The monsters gathering outside the perimeter. It's the beginning."
"The Bo City disaster," Lu Jun said. No fear in his voice. Only certainty.
"You already know?" Xu Mang asked.
Lu Jun looked up at the pale moonlight. "My pendant shows… fragments. Instincts. Just enough to sense danger. But not enough to know why."
"It will be worse than anything the city can handle," Xu Mang said. "We need to prepare."
Lu Jun studied him more carefully. "You talk like someone who's already lived this once."
"I talk like someone who refuses to let things end badly," Xu Mang replied.
A quiet moment passed.
Then Lu Jun extended his hand.
"So we fight together."
Xu Mang clasped it. "Together."
The handshake felt strangely natural, like an old bond renewing itself. In that moment, the two boys became more than classmates. They became co-conspirators against fate.
Later that night, Xu Mang sat alone at the edge of the forest, drawing circles in the snow. The Frost Star Wolf curled beside him, its breath releasing tiny glittering shards of Extreme Dust. The pendant pulsed with a slow rhythm.
Xu Mang stared at the sky with narrowed eyes.
"We need everyone strong," he whispered.
Zhang Xiaohou came to mind first. Houzi's speed and loyalty were unmatched, but his mana control lagged behind. Xu Mang planned to teach him an advanced wind footwork method—one he had mimicked from a Summoning Plane beast. With practice, it would triple Houzi's mobility.
Mu Bai was next. His arrogance made him predictable. He needed real pressure, not praise. Xu Mang was already designing a situation that would force Mu Bai to confront his weaknesses head-on.
Then came Qin Yue'er.
She was chained by destiny. A walking lightning disaster whose life was never truly her own.
"She doesn't deserve that," Xu Mang said quietly. "And Zhan Kong doesn't deserve to break alone."
He already knew how to tear off her Lightning Death Mark. It required a high-level innate talent replacement—something Xu Mang could acquire with his innate talent usurping ability once awakened properly. It was still dormant, but the pendant's evolution was pushing him closer.
He exhaled. "Zhan Kong… I'll make you a Super Mage before Bo City falls. You won't die at the walls this time."
Throughout the months he'd been missing from school, Xu Mang had not been idle. The Summoning Plane had become familiar terrain to him. He knew its rivers, its lightning plains, its frozen valleys. He knew how to slip between cracks in its dimension without fully entering.
More importantly, he knew where the resources were.
Over time, he had gathered lightning essence, frost minerals, raw spirit crystals, broken soul fragments, and dozens of pure elemental drops. It was dangerous, exhausting work, and the pendant nearly shattered once, but the rewards were absurd.
His net worth now stood at 8.9 billion yuan.
Not counting the unappraised materials stored inside the pendant.
He tapped his pouch.
"I'll give Mo Fan one billion," he decided. "Not as charity. As investment."
Mo Fan needed resources to awaken his second star path quickly. He needed tools, seeds, and access to better cultivation grounds. Xu Mang was willing to pay for all of it if it meant building a reliable ally.
The Frost Star Wolf yawned and placed its head on Xu Mang's knee. Its crystal crown glowed faintly, sensing its master's thoughts.
Xu Mang scratched behind its ear.
"This time," he whispered, "we do everything right. No one gets left behind."
He closed his eyes, letting the cold air brush against his skin, the pendant warming slowly, the wolf purring with frost, and the night steadying his resolve.
Tomorrow, preparation would begin.
Silently.
Carefully.
And when the disaster finally came…
Xu Mang, Mo Fan, Lu Jun, Houzi, and even Mu Bai would be ready.
This time, Bo City would not fall.