Tribute Fee

"That's what we were planning to do too, but Elder Su said he'll send a steward to deliver the Fire Energy for the hunting competition to us today, so we'd like to wait here for a bit."

Jiang Yanshu had changed into a red outfit today, which made her look less glamorous but more capable. She sat on the other side of Xiao Ming, right behind Jiayun. As she spoke, a faint fragrance wafted into Xiao Ming's nose.

"Oh, are you planning to go together?"

Xiao Ming was somewhat surprised to hear this. How come the two women seemed to have gotten along much better after just one night? Could it be that they had taken Elder Su's words to heart?

"The two of us plan to go together; it'll be good to have two people looking out for each other. As for Buck and the others, they probably have similar ideas, but they didn't say they wanted to wander around the Inner Academy with us."

"Never Buck and the others. So, do you want to wait for us to go together?" Jiang Yanshu explained with a smile, then asked in return.

Should we go with them?

Lowering his eyes, Xiao Ming finished the remaining tea in his cup in one gulp, placed the cup on the table, and stood up.

"Forget it, who knows when the person in charge of delivering the Fire Energy arrive? I'm leaving now."

As he spoke, Xiao Ming waved to them and slowly walked towards the gate.

Stepping out of the building, one finds a tree-lined avenue, with the residences of the other freshmen on either side.

Of course, compared to the small pavilion of Xiao Ming and his group of five, theirs was somewhat simple, suggesting that this kind of treatment was not something everyone could enjoy.

There wasn't a single freshman on the road at this time, presumably because the Fire Energy Hunting Competition had taken its toll on them, so they hadn't gotten up so early.

Xiao Ming didn't pay much attention to whether there were people on the street. He lightly touched the ground with his toes, and his figure transformed into a wisp of smoke, rushing towards the end of the road.

Nearly four or five minutes later, Xiao Ming, who had been moving at high speed, slowed down and looked up at the end of the road, where a group of people had appeared and blocked the intersection.

Seeing this, Xiao Ming frowned. When they reached the exit of the main road, Xiao Ming stopped and asked the seven or eight older students in front of him who wore Tower-shaped Badge on their chests:

"I don't understand what you mean by this?"

"Of course it's collecting tribute fees, you little brat, hurry up and finish..."

A seemingly simple-minded man in black shouted arrogantly at Xiao Ming, but his mouth was covered by his companion halfway through his shout.

"This guy is talking nonsense. Junior Xiao Ming, you should leave. You guys, get out of the way!"

"Oh, okay, okay."

The person speaking seemed to be the leader of the group, and at his command, several senior students hurriedly made way.

Hmm? Tribute fee?

Xiao Ming glanced at the senior student who had answered him. Although he only said half of his sentence, he still revealed an important piece of information: tribute fees.

Xiao Ming knew a little about the tribute fee; it was paid by the new students to the Senior Student Faction.

This could be considered a tradition of the Jia Nan Academy.

This tradition wasn't stipulated by the college; the college only encouraged competition. This kind of thing should be considered Unspoken Rule that arose spontaneously under the college's encouragement.

Xiao Ming had long noticed that, though he didn't know who started it, senior students from both the outer and inner academies liked to "train" the freshmen.

After each batch of freshmen are "trained" by the upperclassmen, in order to maintain their composure, they will also take action against the freshmen when they become upperclassmen themselves, and so on in a cycle.

When Xiao Ming was recruiting students for the Jia Nan Academy Outer Academy, he was left out in the sun for a while under the large tent.

At the time, since he had no personal interests at stake and didn't want to attract attention, he didn't say anything about resisting.

Even though Xiao Shan hesitated and wanted to show off his skills, Instructor Ge Hu didn't give him the chance.

But this tribute fee is different. If any senior student dares to ask him for the so-called tribute fee, Xiao Ming will definitely slap them in the face and show them who they can mess with and who they can't.

He dared to steal the Fire Energy from 50 senior students in the Fire Energy Hunting Competition; would he tolerate such an injustice?

Fortunately, these senior students were quite clever and did not ask him for tribute.

This made Xiao Ming nod, very satisfied with their attitude.

Without saying anything to the older students who were preparing to block the door, Xiao Ming lightly touched the ground with his toes and quickly passed through them, then strode away.

Watching Xiao Ming's retreating figure, the somewhat simple-minded man in black pried his companion's hands open and asked with great confusion.

"Why let that kid leave? Didn't Brother Lei Yun say that every new student's contribution fee must be collected? Although this guy is so young to be able to enter the Inner Academy, his talent is good, but his strength is probably not high either. He probably came in at the bottom. Why should we, a few Da Dou Shi, be afraid of him?"

"You came in at the bottom? That's because you weren't there yesterday and didn't see Xiao Ming beat Wu Tao and the others to a pulp. Otherwise, you wouldn't be saying things like that." The leader said speechlessly.

"He defeated Wu Tao?"

The man in black was incredulous upon hearing this. Wu Tao possessed the strength of Dou Ling) level cultivator, ranking in the upper-middle tier within the entire Inner Academy. How could he have been defeated by a child who looked more than ten years younger than them?

He found it hard to accept.

"Ha, he not only defeated Wu Tao, but also robbed all the Fire Energy from the teams participating in the Fire Energy Hunting Competition. His methods were truly ruthless. Now you know why I told you to make way for him earlier."

"I... I understand." The man in black was speechless with emotion.

This guy, Xiao Ming, can defeat Wu Tao, plus Wu Tao's teammates. No wonder we had to make way for him earlier.

If they don't make way, even all of them combined might not be enough to defeat them.

Other senior students who were unaware of Xiao Ming's situation also considered him someone not to be trifled with upon hearing this.

Xiao Ming, after leaving the freshman area, randomly grabbed an upperclassman to ask for directions. Although the upperclassman was a little surprised by his age, he still told him the exact location of the Heavenly Flame Refining Pagoda.

Having learned the exact location and recalling the scale of the Inner Academy he had seen on the hillside yesterday, Xiao Ming activated his Movement Dou Technique and headed north.

As Xiao Ming had expected, the Inner Academy was indeed very large.

He ran wildly for nearly half an hour, but still hadn't reached the boundary of the Inner Academy.

During this half-hour journey, Xiao Ming got a glimpse of the atmosphere of the Inner Academy.

Along the way, he actually saw more than twenty battles where people were sparring with each other.

Outside these circles, there were many onlookers, and being conspicuous had become commonplace.

This made Xiao Ming sigh with emotion, "The atmosphere in the Inner Academy is indeed very fierce. Although such frequent sparring is not prohibited in the Outer Academy, unless there is a grudge, very few people will seek out others to spar with."

After sighing for a moment, Xiao Ming quickened his pace.

After another ten minutes or so, Xiao Ming noticed that there were more and more people on his northbound road.

Those traveling in the same direction as him were all pushing their speed to the limit, with figures flashing past and the wind whistling through the trees on both sides.

Upon seeing this, Xiao Ming was overjoyed.

This Inner Academy is ridiculously large; even using his Dou Skill, it took him nearly fifty minutes to run there. Now he's finally arrived.