The Name "Demon Lord"

In the dense forest, scattered sunlight filtered down through gaps in the leaves, only tiny specks of light falling upon the ground carpeted with dead leaves, making the entire woodland seem somewhat dim.

"Creak, creak, creak..."

The forest was unusually quiet at this moment. The only sounds came from several people walking, their feet crunching over dead branches and fallen leaves.

"Everyone heard what Elder Su said just now. In this so-called 'Fire Energy Hunt Competition,' the earlier you arrive, the richer the reward. But if we travel together, how are we supposed to divide the reward?" Liu Lingfeng was the first to speak. His gaze swept over everyone before he spoke in a deliberately casual tone.

Upon hearing Liu Lingfeng's words, everyone looked thoughtful. They all came to a halt, and the atmosphere between them became strange.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" Wang Shan said bluntly when he saw everyone else fall silent.

"Hehe, what else could he mean? Naturally, he means we should split up, so we can compete for the final reward," Shui Rou'er said with a gentle smile. Though she seemed to be answering Wang Shan, she was actually ruthlessly laying bare the problem between them.

After watching everyone think it over and reveal expressions of wanting to leave, Liu Xi knew that their little group had already fallen apart. He sighed inwardly. Though he knew certain things, there was no point saying them now—their hearts were no longer united. Besides, they were all geniuses and did not fear the threat posed by the senior students.

Of course, Liu Xi was not determined to team up with them in the first place, nor could he be bothered to waste more breath. Smiling calmly, he said, "Since you've all made up your minds, I won't stop you. See you in the Inner Court."

"Hahaha, alright. See you in the Inner Court!"

"Liu Xi, I won't lose to you this time."

"The reward will definitely be mine. I'm leaving first."

After the others went their separate ways, Liu Xi headed straight toward the Inner Court. Before he had gone far, he spotted two groups of people. One group consisted of this year's new students. Though the five of them seemed to be together, they were constantly arguing.

On the trees not far ahead of them stood five figures as well. The five young men watched the new students below with mocking expressions, like cats watching mice.

Liu Xi shook his head at the sight. Powerful enemies surrounded them from without while they argued endlessly within. These new students were in trouble. Liu Xi did not step forward, instead remaining hidden to observe.

"Oh? You lot are quite relaxed. You still have the leisure to argue at a time like this?" A senior student standing in the tree could not help teasing the new students below, who were still bickering. The arguing new students stiffened and immediately looked around warily.

They looked up and saw five young men standing on the branches overhead. Each of them wore a badge on his chest bearing the image of a tower.

"You're here to rob us of that so-called 'fire energy,' aren't you?" one tall young man among the five new students sneered. Being among the top fifty of Jia Nan Academy's Outer Court, he was naturally no weakling. He did not fear these young men, who were around his age, all that much.

"Smart." On the branch, a young man with a scar across his face smiled. Then, still smiling, he said, "Since you already know our purpose, there's no need for nonsense. Hand over your fire energy and spare yourselves a beating. How about it?"

"In your dreams!" A skinny young man curled his lip. But just as his words fell, a figure flashed before him. The next instant, someone appeared in front of him and delivered a heavy kick to his stomach. His body flew backward and slammed into a tree trunk. He spat out a mouthful of blood, struggled a few times, but still failed to get back up.

"Damn it, get them!" Seeing the other side make a move, the tall young man flew into a rage and shouted as he prepared to strike back.

However, the moment his shout ended, a series of dull impacts sounded behind him. He hurriedly turned around, only to see his other three companions already sent rolling into a heap. Beside them stood three young men with their arms folded, their faces full of disdain.

"Kid, no matter how well you did in the Outer Court, now that you've entered the Inner Court, if you're a dragon, you coil up; if you're a tiger, you lie low." A smiling voice suddenly sounded beside the tall young man's ear. A shadow flashed over, and before he could react, a fist smashed viciously into his face, knocking him to the ground with blood spilling from his mouth.

"If you don't want to keep getting beaten, hand over your Fire Crystal Cards yourself." The young man with the scar on his face cracked his knuckles and spoke indifferently.

Hearing him, the five new students could only grit their teeth. Deciding that it was wiser not to fight an unwinnable battle, they took out their Fire Crystal Cards.

Taking the cards from the five of them, a heated look flashed across the young man's face. With a wave of his hand, he tossed four of them to his four companions. He flipped his hand over and took out a pale-blue Fire Crystal Card. The number on it was clearly 53. With an excited look on his face, he pressed the two Fire Crystal Cards tightly together. Before long, the number on his Fire Crystal Card rose to 56, while only 2 remained on the other card.

He then tossed the Fire Crystal Card with only two points left back to them. Seeing the indignant look on the young man before him, he laughed and said, "Kid, this is what happens when you don't band together in the Inner Court. It's a necessary lesson before entering the Inner Court, and us seniors are teaching it to you for free."

"Let's go! It wasn't easy to get this opportunity. We can't waste all our time on them." Seeing that the Scar-faced Youth was still lecturing them, one of his companions reminded him.

The Scar-faced Youth said no more and left with his four companions to continue searching for new students. The five new students left behind glared at one another resentfully before completely going their separate ways as well. Once the show was over, Liu Xi emerged with a calm expression and followed after the senior students.

As the Scar-faced Youth and his companions continued searching for fresh prey, he suddenly said, "Come to think of it, why do I feel like it's getting colder and colder?"

"Since earlier, I've also felt the temperature around us continuously dropping," another skinny young man said in confusion.

Growing wary, they hurriedly stopped to search for the cause. Before long, they saw Liu Xi walking toward them.

Feeling the cold, sinister aura coming from Liu Xi, the Scar-faced Youth grinned viciously. "So it's you. One of the top five in this selection competition. No wonder you dared to pursue us alone."

"In that case, we'll give you a proper lesson on how to survive in the Inner Court, great genius." As he spoke, the five of them vaguely formed a circle around Liu Xi.

"The Inner Court does indeed hide dragons and crouching tigers, but you people aren't qualified to teach me a lesson." Liu Xi looked at those surrounding him and smiled contemptuously with his handsome face.

"Arrogant. Let us teach you how to respect your seniors!" a skinny young man standing to Liu Xi's front left shouted harshly.

As he spoke, the group charged Liu Xi at the same time. Their coordination was indeed quite good, and their attacks faintly sealed off every possible path of retreat.

Seeing his escape routes blocked, Liu Xi's lips curled into a cold smile. With a flick of his hand, Crimson Flame appeared in his palm. The surrounding temperature immediately plummeted as all heat was seized by Crimson Flame.

The Scar-faced Youth was the first to collide with Liu Xi. To his astonishment, when his attack landed on Liu Xi, Liu Xi's body directly turned into a streak of deep-blue light. There was no sensation of striking a solid body at all.

The stream of light slipped past his attack, flashed before the skinny young man, and re-formed into Liu Xi. The skinny young man met Liu Xi's gaze and only had time to catch the cold smile on his face before Liu Xi sent him flying with a punch wreathed in Crimson Flame. After hitting the ground, he clutched his body and trembled nonstop. Crimson Flame had not erupted, so upon contact, it had directly stolen nearly half the heat from the skinny young man's body.

After dealing with the skinny young man, the others behind Liu Xi were just about to strike him when his expression remained unchanged and his body turned into a streak of light once more, vanishing.

The stream of light flashed behind another young man and turned back into Liu Xi, who dispatched him just as easily with a single move.

Afterward, Liu Xi's body turned into a streak of light again and vanished. The remaining three all watched their surroundings warily, afraid that Liu Xi would suddenly appear and attack them.

But it was completely useless. They could not find Liu Xi's figure at all, nor did they know how he could suddenly appear beside them. Liu Xi once again flashed to their sides with ease and took down two more. Only the Scar-faced Youth remained.

The Scar-faced Youth lowered his head and looked at his four teammates lying on the ground, trembling without end. Then he raised his head and stared around him, shouting fiercely despite his inner fear, "What kind of strange trick did you use? If you've got the guts, come out!"

"Come out? Haven't I always been right in front of you? What you believe to be real has long since ceased to be truly real." Liu Xi's calm voice came from all directions.

The Scar-faced Youth looked around in terror, yet he could not find Liu Xi anywhere. He shouted sharply, "What do you mean?"

"Still don't understand? From the instant you encountered me, you had already completely fallen into my illusion. What you see is what I want you to see. What you hear is what I want you to hear. From that moment on, you had already lost." Liu Xi's voice once more came from every direction.

In the real world, while Liu Xi was wasting words on the Scar-faced Youth, he was recovering the Dou Qi he had expended in the earlier violent burst. Once his Dou Qi had recovered, Liu Xi calmly walked toward the last Scar-faced Youth, holding Crimson Flame in his hand.

In the Scar-faced Youth's eyes, a streak of light flashed before him in an instant and became Liu Xi. Before he could react, Liu Xi calmly pressed a palm against his chest. The flames erupted, directly burning him into a severely injured state.

Once the five had completely lost the ability to resist, everything around them seemed to shatter like a mirror, and only then did Liu Xi reveal himself.

Liu Xi walked up to them, looking down from above as he smiled gently. "Hand over your Fire Crystal Cards now. Save yourselves some physical suffering."

Their faces instantly turned panicked and ashen. At a complete loss, they asked, "How did you know about the Fire Crystal Cards?"

"I saw every bit of what you did when you robbed the other new students of their Fire Energy," Liu Xi replied with a teasing grin.

Then, beneath the five men's miserable, tearful expressions, Liu Xi took their Fire Crystal Cards. Looking at the five pale-blue cards in his hand, his eyes burned with excitement. He took out his own black Fire Crystal Card and transferred most of their Fire Energy onto it.

Liu Xi watched the number on his Fire Crystal Card jump from 5 to 213. That was enough for him to cultivate in the Heavenly Flame Refining Qi Tower for more than half a year. Sure enough, a man could not grow rich without a windfall!

Liu Xi tossed the Senior Students' Fire Crystal Cards back in front of them and comforted them, "Stop looking so miserable. I still left each of you with ten days' worth of Fire Energy. Sigh, I'm far too kind!"

The Scar-faced Youth stared at the man before him, who had stolen most of their Fire Energy and still shamelessly called himself kind. He gritted his teeth in hatred, yet did not dare show the slightest hint of it on his face.

Having gotten what he wanted, Liu Xi patted his backside and left. However, the Scar-faced Youth soon spread word of how Liu Xi had robbed the Senior Students of their Fire Energy.

In the Scar-faced Youth's version of events, Liu Xi was vile in temperament, bizarre in his methods, and so wickedly strange that he seemed almost demonic. Since no one knew his name, he was ultimately given the title—Demon Lord.