Choice

Standing at the entrance of the Heavenly Flame Training Qi Tower, Xiao Yan took a deep breath. With a heart full of unease and anticipation, he gritted his teeth, steeled himself, lifted his foot, and then stepped heavily into the darkness beyond the doors.

In an instant, Xiao Yan's expression changed drastically. His handsome face turned charcoal-red in the blink of an eye. The sight was utterly bizarre!

!!!

"What's going on!" Xiao Yan's heart trembled with alarm. He discovered that a wisp of colorless heart flame had suddenly emerged inside his body and was burning him!

Some Inner Academy students inside the Heavenly Flame Training Qi Tower who were preparing to leave saw Xiao Yan frozen at the entrance, faint white mist rising from his body in waves, accompanied by a sizzling sound like roasting meat. They all revealed disdainful sneers.

"Heh, another dumb rookie who ran into the Heavenly Flame Training Qi Tower without asking about anything first."

"The early bird gets the worm, right? Always thinking he's something special."

"But this really is strange. Didn't the Inner Academy exam finish last month? Why is this new student only entering the Heavenly Flame Training Qi Tower now?"

"Who knows? Maybe his fire energy got robbed clean by some older students."

The older students in the flame tower paid Xiao Yan no attention at all. Nor did they want to meddle. Most of them only showed mocking, gloating looks.

At this moment, Xiao Yan had no attention to spare for the outside world, because this colorless, formless heart flame had suddenly appeared inside his body, and it was even around his Qi vortex. Even though Xiao Yan's Flame Control was not bad and he was a second-tier alchemist, he still could not control this heart flame.

Xiao Yan was now desperately preventing the heart flame from approaching his Qi vortex. Once the heart flame burned his Qi vortex, he would be crippled!

"No, that's not right! Elder Liu and Ruo Lin Mentor are right beside me. If there were something wrong with this heart flame, they would definitely step in to save me!"

"Could this heart flame be the reason the Heavenly Flame Training Qi Tower accelerates cultivation?!"

Xiao Yan's mind worked rapidly. Once he calmed down, he immediately understood what was going on.

The reason the Heavenly Flame Training Qi Tower could accelerate cultivation was precisely because of this invisible, formless heart flame! Xiao Yan took a deep breath. Although no one had taught him what to do inside the Heavenly Flame Training Qi Tower, from a few scattered remarks, he could roughly guess some of it.

"Since the Heavenly Flame Training Qi Tower is a place that accelerates cultivation, then what I should be doing now is cultivating inside the Heavenly Flame Training Qi Tower. That's the proper path."

Xiao Yan steadied his mind and began circulating the Flame Mantra to absorb the surrounding fire-attribute energy. This was the Heavenly Flame Training Qi Tower, where fire-attribute energy was especially abundant, making Xiao Yan's cultivation twice as effective with half the effort.

With a slight movement of his mind, Xiao Yan endured the intense pain of being burned by the flame. Waves of yellow Dou Qi circulated through his Meridians and began gathering toward his Qi vortex like all rivers flowing into the sea.

Just as Xiao Yan's Dou Qi condensed into a stream and was about to merge into the Qi vortex, the invisible heart flame suddenly expanded, burning through the gathered Dou Qi once.

"Huh? The Dou Qi became purer!"

Xiao Yan discovered in astonishment that the originally rather thick stream of Dou Qi had actually shrunk by nearly half after being burned by the invisible flame! All the impurities had been burned away, leaving behind incomparably pure fire-attribute Dou Qi.

It had saved Xiao Yan the step of purifying the impurities inside his Qi vortex! Xiao Yan could not help feeling overjoyed. Normally, cultivation required not only circulating a Cultivation Method to absorb external energy and convert it into Dou Qi, but after it merged into the Qi vortex, one also had to further condense the Qi vortex and expel impurities. Only when the Qi vortex was refined over and over until it finally underwent a qualitative change could one advance from Dou Zhe to Dou Shi.

And now, with this heart flame, half the steps were directly removed. No wonder cultivation speed increased! However, after refining the Dou Qi once, the heart flame quickly shrank.

Xiao Yan did not continue walking deeper in to draw out more heart flame, because he knew his purpose was not to cultivate. Moreover, one could not cultivate in the Heavenly Flame Training Qi Tower indefinitely. Staying here meant enduring the sensation of one's body being burned at every moment. With Xiao Yan's physical strength, he could still hold on for another ten minutes or so, but that was of little use.

"To suddenly produce a colorless, formless heart flame inside the body... this should be the Fallen Heart Flame, ranked fourteenth on the Heavenly Flame Ranking."

After figuring this out, Xiao Yan circulated the few strands of Bone Chiling Flame inside his body. A wave of icy cold quickly dispelled the heat within him.

Xiao Yan slowly opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of white air. A trace of greed appeared in his eyes as he looked toward the deepest part of the Heavenly Flame Training Qi Tower. He could basically confirm that there had to be a Heavenly Flame inside the Heavenly Flame Training Qi Tower.

But with his current strength, even if he knew there was a Heavenly Flame here, there was nothing he could do. The Fallen Heart Flame, ranked fourteenth, was still too powerful. It was not something he could obtain.

After thinking it through, Xiao Yan no longer felt the slightest attachment. Without any hesitation, he turned and walked out of the black tower.

Seeing Xiao Yan turn around and leave after not even lasting a full minute, Ruo Lin Mentor and Elder Liu were both stunned for a moment.

Hold on a little longer! You're way too fast, aren't you? Not even a minute!? How are you supposed to give Xun Er happiness like this! Ruo Lin Mentor comforted him, "It's all right. You're still only at Dou Zhe strength. Ordinary Dou Zhe basically can't come in here. Once you truly have the strength to enter the Inner Academy, you'll definitely be able to last longer."

Xiao Yan smiled. He knew Ruo Lin Mentor had misunderstood. However, Xiao Yan was not the sort of person who loved showing off or cared desperately about face, so he did not explain too much. His purpose in coming to the Heavenly Flame Training Qi Tower was not to accelerate his cultivation, but only to confirm whether there was a Heavenly Flame here.

After Xiao Yan left, Elder Liu suddenly remembered something. "Huh? That brat recovered his consciousness by himself the first time he entered the Heavenly Flame Training Qi Tower?"

"Forget it. The heart flame at the entrance was probably too weak. It didn't draw out much at all."

Late at night, all was quiet. The moon was like a silver plate, and stars filled the sky. Xiao Yan sat alone on a hillside in the forest of the Outer Academy, lying on the quiet grass with a blade of grass held in his mouth. He chewed lightly, letting that faint bitterness spread through his mouth.

Back in Wutan City, whenever Xiao Yan had something on his mind, he would watch the moon and stars from the slope of the Back Mountain.

"Xiao Yan Gege is in such a leisurely mood, watching the stars and admiring the moon?"

Like a purple butterfly, Xun Er's graceful figure traced an alluring arc as she nimbly leaped onto the mountaintop. Her clear, lively voice reached Xiao Yan's ears.

Xiao Yan looked at the Maiden, who was growing ever more lovely and charming, and smiled faintly. "Finished with Secluded Cultivation?"

Xun Er did not mind the grass being dirty. She slowly sat down beside Xiao Yan, cute dimples appearing on her pretty cheeks as she smiled softly. "Does Xiao Yan Gege have something on his mind?"

Xiao Yan shrugged. Looking at the pure white moon in the sky, he said calmly, "Xun Er, do you think I'm strong?"

Xun Er was slightly startled. She furrowed her brows and thought for a while before saying, "Xiao Yan Gege is already an Eight-Star Dou Zhe at sixteen, and your strength is even enough to rival the students of the Mystic Rank Class. In Jia Nan Academy, it would be hard to find anyone your age who can stand shoulder to shoulder with you."

"What if it's the entire Dou Qi Continent?" Xiao Yan looked at Xun Er seriously, his gaze like that of a wise man seeking an answer.

Xun Er thought for quite a while. In the end, she sighed softly and shook her head without hiding anything.

"Even Jia Nan Academy, founded by a Ban Sheng expert and standing unshaken in the Black-Corner Region for countless years, cannot be considered a top-tier faction when placed across the entire Dou Qi Continent." Although Xun Er did not answer directly, the answer was already there.

"I thought so. After all, the Dou Qi Continent is so vast."