Xiao Yan stood once more before the pitch-black entrance of the Heavenly Flame Refining Qi Tower.
Unlike the curiosity and anticipation he had felt when touring it as a new student, his gaze beneath the black robe was now dark and grim.
He clutched a Fire Energy crystal card tightly in his hand, containing one hundred days' worth of Fire Energy.
He had just traded the large quantity of medicinal ingredients he had plundered, along with several pills of mediocre quality, for it in the Outer Academy's Trade Zone.
The number on the crystal card was stained with the blood and filth of the Black Corner Region, but he did not care in the slightest.
So long as he could grow stronger, the process did not matter. That was the creed he now firmly believed in.
After paying one day's worth of Fire Energy, Xiao Yan followed the sparse stream of people through the heavy black doors.
A scorching, stifling breath rushed over him, and the air carried a faint smell of sulfur.
One kind of invisible energy fluctuation could actually stir the restlessness buried deep within one's heart.
This was the invisible Heart Fire of the Falling Heart Flame.
The space inside the tower was far more expansive than it appeared from the outside. Rings of cultivation rooms were arranged along the inner walls of the tower.
The farther down one went, the higher the temperature, and the stronger the Heart Fire's body-tempering effect. However, the Fire Energy required also increased geometrically.
With the Fire Energy Xiao Yan had left, he could only choose a low-tier cultivation room near the edge of the first floor.
He pushed open the stone door. The cramped room contained only a cushion in the center, while simple energy-gathering runes were carved into the