Tribute Fee

Tribute Fee

The next morning, Xiao Ling woke from his sleep.

He went to a seat in the living room and began reading books related to alchemy.

The others came downstairs one after another and exchanged greetings.

After the last person, Lin Yan, arrived, Lin Xiuyai spoke up. "Let's settle the matter of our faction today, so we won't have trouble later."

Xiao Ling nodded noncommittally and said, "I'll leave recruiting members and managing the faction to you. I'll only be responsible for refining pills for you. Faction members can get discounts when they come to me for pills—it can count as one of the benefits of joining."

"Don't worry. I'll handle these matters seriously. I'll treat it as training my own abilities," Lin Xiuyai replied.

"Alright, I'll leave it to you. I'm going out for a walk and can test the effects of the Heavenly Flame Qi Refining Tower while I'm at it." After speaking, Xiao Ling waved to everyone and left the dormitory.

Outside the building was a tree-lined avenue, with the residences of the other freshmen from this year on both sides. Han Yue and Xiao Xun'er shared a room, right next door to Xiao Ling's group's dormitory.

Of course, compared to Xiao Ling's small building, the other residences were somewhat more rudimentary. It seemed that not everyone received such treatment.

There was not a single freshman on the road at the moment. The Fire Energy Hunt Competition had probably exhausted them badly, so none of them had gotten up so early.

Xiao Ling walked toward the two girls' dormitory and looked it over briefly. He found Han Yue already practicing a Dou Technique in the courtyard, while Xiao Xun'er was probably still asleep, as he did not see her. Seeing this, Xiao Ling did not intend to disturb Han Yue's training and wandered elsewhere on his own.

Nearly fifteen minutes later, Xiao Ling, who had been walking at an unhurried pace, slowed down and looked toward the end of the road. A group of people had actually blocked the exit.

Xiao Ling frowned at the sight, guessing that they were Senior Students collecting Tribute Fees.

When he reached the avenue's exit, Xiao Ling had no intention of paying them any attention and headed toward an unblocked direction.

Just then, seven or eight Senior Students wearing tower-shaped badges on their chests surrounded him, their faces fierce and menacing.

Xiao Ling had not wanted to waste time, but these people had actually taken him for an easy target. With a grip of his hand, a long spear appeared in it. He said in an unfriendly tone, "Don't waste my time, or you'll regret it."

A rather burly man in black looked exceptionally arrogant as he spoke disdainfully to Xiao Ling. "Kid, hand over your Fire Energy Card, or you'll suffer for it." As he spoke, he raised a fist and punched at Xiao Ling.

Xiao Ling shifted slightly and easily dodged the man's punch. He then swung his spear backward, knocking him to the ground. Activating the Absorption Palm, he pulled the man back in front of him and lifted him by the neck with one hand.

Seeing this, the others circulated their Dou Qi and prepared to gang up on Xiao Ling.

Just then, a Senior Student rushed over from the distance and shouted at them, "All of you, stop!"

He then smiled at Xiao Ling. "That guy was talking nonsense. Junior Student Xiao Ling, you may go. You lot, hurry up and clear the way."

Xiao Ling nodded slightly. He did not want to waste time on such trivial matters, so he said coldly, "What you do to rob others has nothing to do with me. Just don't waste my time or my friends' time, or don't blame me if I show no restraint next time."

Watching Xiao Ling's departing back, the burly man in black pried his companion's hand away and asked in confusion, "Why did you let that kid leave? Didn't Brother Li Zhengyu say that every freshman's Tribute Fee had to be collected? Although he entered the Inner Academy at such a young age and has decent talent, his strength shouldn't be high. He must have barely made it in. Why should a few Da Dou Shi like us be afraid of him?"

The young man who had just arrived rolled his eyes at those words and said sternly, "Barely made it in? You weren't there yesterday. You didn't see Xiao Ling lead five people and rob all the Senior Students of their Fire Energy. Otherwise, you wouldn't be saying that."

"Really? How is that possible?" The man in black found it hard to believe. The Senior Students in the Fire Energy Hunt Competition included Dou Ling experts, who ranked in the middle to upper levels of the entire Inner Academy. Yet they had all been robbed by a child who looked more than ten years younger than them, leading just a few people? He could not accept it.

The man shook his head. "That's not all. Xiao Ling is only ten years old this year, yet he is already a Da Dou Shi and a peak fourth-tier Alchemist. Talent like that is beyond comparison with people like us. Now do you understand why I stopped you from making another move?"

"His friends are also very strong and talented. There's no need for us to provoke them. From Xiao Ling's attitude, he probably has no intention of getting involved with the other freshmen, so we can just collect from them."

"Got it." The black-clothed youth was rendered speechless.

The other Senior Students, who had not known Xiao Ling's circumstances, also marked him down as someone not to be provoked.

Xiao Ling did not care much about such a minor incident.

He knew a little about Tribute Fees. They were paid by freshmen to Senior Student factions.

This was probably one of the unspoken rules of Jia Nan Academy's Inner Academy.

The academy had not established this tradition. It merely encouraged competition, while this sort of thing was an unspoken rule that had emerged on its own under that encouragement.

Xiao Ling had long noticed that, for some reason, Senior Students from both the Outer Academy and Inner Academy liked to teach freshmen a lesson.

After each batch of freshmen had been taught a lesson by the Senior Students, they would target the following freshmen once they became Senior Students themselves in order to balance their mentality. The cycle continued endlessly.

Xiao Ling did not care about such things and had no intention of getting involved. Nor would he, like Xiao Yan in the original work, create a faction to clean up after the freshmen. Every time his subordinates were bullied, they would come looking for Xiao Yan to seek revenge. It was simply a waste of time and effort, with no benefit to show for it.

Xiao Ling's group intended to establish their own faction only to make cultivation more convenient. In the future, whenever they needed something, they could simply arrange for their subordinates to search for it. Gathering information would also be much easier.

No longer thinking about these trivial matters, Xiao Ling took out the Inner Academy map he had obtained from Elder Su yesterday. After confirming the location of the Heavenly Flame Qi Refining Tower, he sped off in the direction indicated by the map.

The Inner Academy's area was indeed as enormous as Xiao Ling had expected.

He raced at full speed for nearly half an hour, yet still had not reached the boundaries of the Inner Academy.

Along the way, Xiao Ling gained a more tangible sense of the Inner Academy's atmosphere.

On the way to the Heavenly Flame Qi Refining Tower, he often saw students fighting openly in public. Many spectators gathered around these circles, clearly accustomed to the sight. Some particularly talkative people would watch while shouting out the occasional openings exposed by the two fighters. As a result, the two people in the circle grew increasingly alarmed as they fought, until in the end, both could only withdraw with gloomy faces.

Xiao Ling could not help but sigh. The Inner Academy's atmosphere really is fierce. Although frequent sparring matches like this aren't forbidden in the Outer Academy, unless people have a grudge, few would seek others out to spar. After Lin Yan comes to the Inner Academy, he should be able to spar to his heart's content.

After running for another twenty-odd minutes, Xiao Ling swept his gaze around and discovered in surprise that, for some reason, more and more people were converging onto this northbound road. Each pushed their speed to the limit. Xiao Ling could only see figures flashing continuously through the woods on both sides, accompanied by the whistling sounds of wind being torn apart.

Seeing this, Xiao Ling roughly understood that the Heavenly Flame Qi Refining Tower must be close. He increased his speed and charged forward.