A Sneaky One

The Great Elder of the Inner Courtyard Su Qian, had been waiting here for a long time, followed by a group of Inner Courtyard students.

Xiao Yan's gaze was instantly drawn to a little girl with purple hair, Netherworld he felt an inexplicable sense of closeness and even submission.

The little girl also noticed Xiao Yan, bared her teeth at Xiao Yan, and then stuck out her tongue playfully before Great Elder Su Qian grabbed her by the back of the neck.

After Zi Yan was ruthlessly suppressed by Su Qian, Xiao Yan finally noticed the luxurious lineup of this Fire Energy Hunting Competition – all veterans Dou Ling.

Moreover, they were clearly not ordinary Dou Ling; some of them were at the Dou Ling Peak.

With the addition of Zi Yan, a Dou Wang), Xiao Yan had reason to suspect that Su Qian, the sixth brother, had summoned the fifty people on the Inner Courtyard's Power Ranking.

"Alright, enough with the nonsense. Although you have passed the selection competition and qualified to enter the Inner Courtyard, it's not over yet..." Elder Su smiled, raised his hand, and a handful of chips appeared in his hand.

Su Qian casually tossed the chip out, and it shot out as if it had eyes, hovering in front of all the new students in the Inner Courtyard.

Xiao Yan looked at the cyan crystal in front of him and the number "three hundred" on it, his expression gradually becoming serious.

Looking around at the new students, only the first five had cyan chips with "300" written on them, while the rest had black chips with "5" written on them.

"Oh right, we can't use the power of Magical Beast." Su Qian said to Xiao Yan as if she had just remembered.

"... Understood." Xiao Yan put away the cyan crystal and began to think about how to deal with this Fire Energy Hunting Competition.

Of course, his main concern was how to deal with Zi Yan Xiao Yan; he didn't really care about the rest of the group.

After watching Xiao Yi Xian leave Xiao Lan and Qing Lin release the snakes, Su Qian shouted, "Fire Energy Hunting Competition, begin!"

Walking through the dense and quiet forest, Xiao Yan released his Soul Power and began searching for the senior students of the Inner Courtyard.

However, before Xiao Yan and his group of five had gone far, ten senior students surrounded them.

"Looks like this Fire Energy is quite valuable?" Xiao Yan murmured.

"What?" Gu Xun'er vaguely heard the word "valuable" and felt that Xiao Yan was about to trick her again.

"It's nothing. Some senior students are coming over, two teams in total. Let's stay hidden for now."

So the five of them rushed into the dense forest. Within two or three minutes, ten auras of Dou Ling simultaneously enveloped the area.

The group exchanged glances, and one of them stepped forward and said, "Junior students, don't hide. The elders have specifically pointed out your positions for us."

No sooner had the man finished speaking than he saw a blue-indigo figure hurtling towards him. Before he could react, he lost consciousness.

After deftly putting away the man's Storage Ring, Xiao Yan sighed and said, "I knew those old men had no good intentions."

The remaining nine people's expressions gradually became serious. The elders said that this person was Alchemist whose strength was basically achieved by taking medicine. His Dou Qi was quite weak compared to those of them who had entered the Heaven Burning Qi Refining Tower, and his combat power was not high.

But how did this one get killed in one move?

He's been on high alert the whole time!

"Junior, although you are a Dou Wang expert, there are many of us. As long as we hold you back first, and then defeat your teammates, then when nine of us gang up on you, you won't have much of a chance to win, right?"

Someone else stepped forward, but was glared at by Xiao Yan and silently retreated back into the crowd.

"... What do you want? That Fire Energy?" Xiao Yan stalled for time, asking knowingly.

The group exchanged glances, sensing an opportunity, so the man continued, "The elder said that if you still have more than one hundred days of Fire Energy in your Green Fire Crystal Card, all of us who participated in the Fire Energy Hunting Competition will have Heavenly Fire Energy deducted."

"Therefore, as long as you give each of the ten of us Heavenly Fire Energy and bring the line down to one hundred, we will retreat."

"Heh, what if I encounter other people?" Xiao Yan sneered.

"Well, I believe no senior student would want to go head-to-head with you. After all, holding back a Dou Wang can easily lead to injury, which in turn affects their own cultivation time."

Xiao Yan remained silent, seemingly deep in thought, but the Indigo Flame burning fiercely on his body prevented the nine from making any rash moves.

However, even though they didn't take any action, the communication between the group continued.

Have the other four people been found?

"They should be in the woods below. There's no poison in the air. They're probably setting a trap. Perhaps one of them is a freshman who has learned Mechanism Arts."

"If we're going to take action later, don't go down. Just destroy the forest below."

"Let him stall for time! With his entire body enveloped in such terrifying flames, I don't believe he can ignore the consumption of his Dou Qi."

"By the time he can't help but make a move, his Dou Qi should have been greatly depleted. At that point, if we destroy the setup of his four teammates, he might just surrender."

For a moment, both sides, each with their own ulterior motives, fell silent, the atmosphere eerily quiet.

A good ten minutes passed before Xiao Yan looked at one of them and said, "But I don't think you can hold me off."

"Let's do it!"

Without any hesitation, five of the remaining nine attacked Xiao Yan, while the remaining four unleashed ranged Dou Technique towards the forest below.

"Roar—" A deafening, terrifying roar erupted from Xiao Yan's throat, causing everyone to freeze in their tracks.

Taking advantage of the opening, Xiao Yan flapped his crystal wings and pounced on one of them, knocking him unconscious with a single palm strike and stealing his storage ring.

The four women, who had been lying in wait in the woods, suddenly unleashed their power, and almost instantly subdued the four men who were attacking the woods.

"It's poisonous! We didn't notice it before!"

Seeing their own team's dismal performance, someone finally realized what was happening, but by then it had gone from ten against five to four against five, and the four were poisoned.

Within minutes, all the senior students lost consciousness, and the ten Storage Rings were removed and gathered in Xiao Yan's hand.

"Ten senior members have been eliminated, leaving us with only forty opponents. Moreover, they have only revealed their undefendable sonic Dou Technique and poison. We don't need to worry about those cunning elders passing on information. It's not bad, is it?"

Xiao Yan didn't look at it in detail; he simply found a map of the forest and gave each person two Storage Rings.

"Um, stealing Fire Energy is still within the rules, but wouldn't it be a bit inappropriate to directly steal the Storage Ring?" Hu Jia asked hesitantly.

Xiao Yan's response was direct. "Don't give it to me."

"..."

Hu Jia finally put away the Storage Ring. Judging from her expression, she was both uneasy and a little excited.

Gu Xun'er fiddled with the Storage Ring in her hand, lost in thought.

Xiao Yi Xian and Qing Lin were very obedient; they did whatever Xiao Yan told them to do.

Xiao Yan looked at the map for a while to find his way, and then said, "Let's go, let's go straight to the end, there's bound to be something big there."