In the forest, Xiao Yao played with a black card in his hand. The number five was clearly displayed on it, representing five points of Fire Energy.
The most basic use for Fire Energy in the Inner Academy was to cultivate in the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower.
The amount of Fire Energy consumed varied depending on the floor of the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower.
The Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower was an excellent place to cultivate, and students who trained there advanced rapidly.
For cultivators, strength was of vital importance.
Any place where they could improve their strength was of tremendous value.
Naturally, Fire Energy had become highly valuable, and many transactions in the Inner Academy were even conducted using it.
Xiao Yao did not know how effective cultivating his Yang-Attribute Dou Qi in the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower would be.
If it had no effect, he might not go there to cultivate.
But Fire Energy could also be used to buy things, so naturally, the more he had, the better.
With his current strength, however, it would be difficult for him to fight his way through the entire Fire Energy Hunting Competition.
Besides the ordinary teams of veteran students, the Fire Energy Hunting Competition also had two elite teams, both of them extremely powerful.
Generally speaking, the ordinary teams consisted of veteran students who had entered the Inner Academy the previous year.
The two elite teams, on the other hand, consisted of students from earlier cohorts. They had cultivated in the Inner Academy for longer and were even more formidable.
The two teams had obvious distinguishing features: one wore all black, while the other wore all white. As such, they were also known as the Black Fiend Team and the White Fiend Team.
The members of these two teams were generally a whole level stronger, and their captains were most likely hovering around the Dou Ling level, or might even have truly stepped into it.
With Xiao Yao's current strength, dealing with a true Dou Ling expert would be no easy task.
But Xiao Yao had a trump card, after all.
It was that fourth-tier Magic Core.
Xiao Yao had nearly finished infusing the fourth-tier Magic Core.
Even if it was not quite in a state he was satisfied with, the power of its explosion would still be enough to easily kill a Dou Ling.
Xiao Yao even felt that using a genuine fourth-tier Magic Core to blow up veteran students who were close to the Dou Ling level or had just entered it was a bit like using an ox cleaver to kill a chicken.
"Junior Xiao Yao!"
Just as Xiao Yao was strolling along deep in thought, a voice suddenly called out behind him.
Xiao Yao turned around and saw the four people who had teamed up with him.
"What is it?"
"Junior Xiao Yao, we wanted to ask what your plans are," Han Yue said, speaking first.
Xiao Yao smiled. "I've reached a bottleneck in my cultivation. I want to find somewhere to cultivate for a while and see if I can break through."
Xiao Yao was not lying. His cultivation was indeed close to a breakthrough, and after cultivating for a while, reaching Four-Star Da Dou Shi would be no problem.
Han Yue and the others were somewhat dumbfounded when they heard this.
Xiao Yao was actually about to break through again. Wasn't that far too fast?
Han Yue looked at Xiao Yao and found it somewhat unreal. Not only did he surpass her in combat strength, but his cultivation realm was also about to catch up with hers.
Was this a true genius... no, a monster?
Han Yue and the others exchanged glances. Since Xiao Yao had chosen to break through, they could hardly stop him.
"In that case, shall we go our separate ways?"
One of them asked.
Xiao Yao nodded, but considering how much they had been through together, he still spoke up.
"We've been a team, after all, so let me offer you a word of advice: be careful, and it's best if you stick together."
"Those veteran teams are all quite strong. Even though you placed in the top five of the selection competition, you could still suffer a major setback."
Han Yue and the others nodded solemnly.
As the first-place finisher in the selection competition, Xiao Yao's words naturally carried a great deal of weight.
Xiao Yao stood where he was, watching the four of them leave.
His desire to go into seclusion and break through was one reason. The other was that if he wanted to obtain a large amount of Fire Energy, he could not remain on a team.
Being on a team meant splitting the Fire Energy equally with the others.
Even if he obtained several hundred points of Fire Energy, dividing them among several people would leave him with only a few dozen. That would hardly be worth it.
The Fire Energy Hunting Competition lasted long enough for him to find a place to break through, then rob the veteran students of their Fire Energy.
With his mind made up, Xiao Yao's figure flashed, and he vanished from the spot.
Before long, Xiao Yao came to a stop on the trunk of a towering tree.
He waved his sleeve and cleared away the leaves above the trunk. Sunlight spilled over him, warm and pleasant.
Xiao Yao sat cross-legged on the trunk and began absorbing Sun Power.
After his cultivation method had been developed to High Xuan Tier, the speed at which he absorbed Sun Power and refined it into Dou Qi had also increased considerably.
Even so, Xiao Yao felt that, at the current level of his cultivation method, he still could not fully refine the solar energy he drew in.
Even Xiao Yao was somewhat surprised. The solar energy drawn in at ten percent analysis could not be fully refined even by a High Xuan Tier cultivation method.
Did it take an Earth Tier Cultivation Method to refine it completely?
But so much Sun Power still went unrefined, and Xiao Yao felt it was a terrible waste.
While cultivating, Xiao Yao recalled his previous experiences creating cultivation methods and opened up an entirely new system of branch meridians in his arm.
This new branch-meridian system did not connect to the circulation route of his Sun True Scripture, but operated independently.
Its function was simple: it allowed solar energy to enter through his hand and flow back out through it.
A Dou Qi circulation route like this would be completely useless to anyone else.
It was equivalent to a sieve, letting the energy of heaven and earth pass through the sieve in one's hand. Beyond that, it served no purpose.
A proper Dou Qi circulation route, on the other hand, would ultimately refine the energy of heaven and earth into Dou Qi and store it in the Dou Qi Vortex within the body.
But it was extremely useful to Xiao Yao, because solar energy only needed to pass through his body for him to gain considerable control over it.
Then, by infusing that Sun Power into a Magic Core, he could turn it into a Sun Magic Core!
After opening up this new meridian system, Xiao Yao could cultivate his Dou Qi and infuse Magic Cores without neglecting either.
The solar energy he drew in was steadily refined into Dou Qi.
The remaining solar energy, which he could not fully refine, merely passed through the meridians in his hand and was infused into the Magic Core, turning it into a Sun Magic Core.
Xiao Yao named this newly opened branch meridian the Infusion Branch Meridian.
The next day, beneath the sunlight, the Dou Qi within Xiao Yao surged, as if it were battering against some invisible bottleneck.
As time passed, a sound like a water bottle breaking seemed to ring out within Xiao Yao. Immediately afterward, his presence soared!
I've broken through!
Sensing the much more abundant Dou Qi within his Dou Qi, Xiao Yao smiled.
Just then, he also felt a sluggish sensation from the Infusion Branch Meridian in his hand.
He looked down and saw the Magic Core radiating a brilliant golden light, so bright that merely looking at it felt dazzling.
It's done!
The fourth-tier Magic Core had also been fully infused. Two joys had arrived at once!