Bo City High School continued with its noisy rhythm as if the world were simple.
Students rushed between classes, backpacks thumping, voices rising like birds before rain.
Xu Mang walked through the courtyard with his usual calm stride, the morning light glancing off the bandage on his right arm.
Most students parted around him without thinking. Others whispered.
"That is the lightning kid who skipped half the term."
"Still alive somehow."
"Must have given up on cultivation already."
Xu Mang ignored it.
The pendant resting under his collar was warm today. It beat in a steady rhythm, like a slow drum guiding his steps. The egg inside his bag pulsed faintly. Every pulse felt like a breath.
He had returned only yesterday, yet the school was already shifting around him.
After the second class, Xue Musheng called roll again, pausing briefly at Xu Mang's name. The teacher glanced at him for a moment, then looked away.
During the break, the Principal stopped by the classroom to speak with Xue Musheng.
"He came back," the Principal muttered. "You should speak with him. He wasted three months of prime lightning cultivation. At this rate he will never reach control over even three stars."
"He is here now," Xue said quietly. "Let him find his place."
"Lightning mages must be pushed," the Principal insisted. "Otherwise talent becomes dust."
Xu Mang listened from the hallway, leaning against a pillar. He did not take offense. They were not wrong. They only saw the part of the story that existed on paper.
He slipped away before they could notice him.
His cultivation base was recovering faster than expected.
Night after night he had meditated under the trees outside the classroom windows, his right arm throbbing with the lingering echo of calamity lightning. Each time he breathed deeply, the seven lightning stars glowed with a little more clarity.
He could now touch them in seconds.
Guide them.
Hold them until they hummed together like a single golden thread.
The Summoning constellation remained hidden. A secret deeper than his bones. He did not try to force it open again. Not yet. His instincts told him that the unborn spirit in the shell was growing faster than a normal elemental creature should.
The pendant had something to do with that.
When he held the egg close at night, he could feel threads of Summoning mana drifting faintly into it as if the plane itself was feeding it through the pendant's link.
"You will be trouble," Xu Mang whispered to the shell once, watching its light flicker. "But the kind I chose."
During lunch, he observed quietly from the second floor walkway.
Mo Fan practiced star control behind the cafeteria, sparks bursting like firecrackers every time he got excited. Students gave him a wide circle of safety.
Zhaoting bragged loudly in the courtyard while trying to show off his lightning star control. He managed three stars before they slipped out of alignment, and he cursed loudly enough for several girls to flinch.
Mu Bai stood near the south wall demonstrating a perfect five star Ice Orbit for a group of teachers. Their praise made his chin rise higher with each compliment.
Zhang Xiaohou ran laps around the field again. Sweat. No complaints. No shortcuts.
Lu Jun sat beneath a banyan tree, reading quietly. His White Tiger Pendant gleamed softly in sunlight, giving him a calm aura that drew glances from passing students. No one knew what his real awakening was.
Xu Mang did.
Their destinies were beginning to diverge, each in their own lane of future greatness.
Yet none of them saw him.
Not really.
To them he was the Mu clan dropout who wasted lightning talent.
This was good.
Better to be unseen.
When night fell, Xu Mang returned to the same mountainside where he had been struck down weeks earlier.
He sat with his back against a stone and breathed in the scent of earth and pine.
The lightning stars in his spiritual world brightened instantly.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
He held them in a smooth line for the first time since the calamity. His arm hurt, but the pain grounded him. The stars shaped themselves into a faint orbit.
Activation was close.
Beneath the lightning constellation, the secret one pulsed once, like a heartbeat from deep water.
Not yet, he thought.
He focused.
Lightning filled his veins, swirling with a purity that surprised even him. He could feel its growth. Stable. Clean. Dangerous.
The shell near his knee glowed faintly. A small crack shimmered across its surface like a hairline of silver. The life inside shifted.
"Still too early," Xu Mang murmured softly. "Wait for me."
The shell stilled, almost as if listening.
The next day, during the afternoon break, Xue Musheng approached.
"Xu Mang."
Xu Mang straightened. "Teacher."
"You were gone for a long time." Xue Musheng's tone was not angry. It was curious. "Many students would have lost their path."
"I am catching up," Xu Mang replied quietly.
"I noticed you did not fall behind in the written lessons," Xue said. "But talent is not only written. You must be present to cultivate properly."
Xu Mang bowed his head. "I understand."
"You have lightning," Xue said. "One of the most explosive elements. Do not treat it casually. Your classmates are advancing. You must decide if you want to stand with them or behind them."
Xu Mang smiled slightly. "I know where I want to stand."
Xue Musheng misread the expression as humility and nodded approvingly.
"Good. Then show us soon."
When the teacher walked away, Xu Mang released a breath.
Standing with them.
Behind them.
In front of them.
The world would decide that later.
For now, he kept walking.
By the end of the week, his lightning stars blazed with enough clarity to attempt first tier activation.
He sat on the school rooftop after curfew, the wind cold against his face.
He connected the stars slowly.
Carefully.
This time they followed without struggle.
A faint golden spark flickered at his fingertips.
He held it as long as he could… then let it fade.
Not yet.
He did not want half formed power.
He wanted perfect control.
The Summoning constellation pulsed again in the depths of his mind, stronger now. The egg warmed beside him.
Everything was growing.
Everything was aligning.
Everything was waiting.
And Xu Mang, silent among the shadows of Bo City, prepared quietly for the day when none of them would ever mistake him for a dropout again.