Tribute Fee

The next morning, Xiao Ling woke from his sleep.

He came to a seat in the living room and began reading books related to Alchemy.

The others gradually came downstairs as well, exchanging greetings.

Once the last person, Lin Yan, had arrived, Lin Xiuyai spoke up. "Let's settle the matter of our faction today, so we don't run into trouble later."

Xiao Ling nodded noncommittally. "Recruiting members and managing the faction will be up to you. I'll only be responsible for refining pills for you. Faction members can get a discount 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. It'll be good practice for my abilities," Lin Xiuyai replied.

"Fine, I'll leave it to you. I'm going out for a walk myself and see what the Heavenly Flame Refining Qi Tower is like." After saying that, Xiao Ling waved to everyone and left the dormitory.

Outside the building was a tree-lined avenue. On both sides stood the residences of the other new students from this year. Han Yue and Xiao Xun'er shared a room, right beside Xiao Ling's group's dormitory.

Of course, compared to Xiao Ling's small building, the other houses were somewhat more basic. It seemed this sort of treatment was not something everyone received.

There was not a single new student in sight on the road. The Fire Energy Hunt Competition had probably worn them out badly, so none of them had gotten up this early.

Xiao Ling headed toward the two girls' dormitory and casually looked around. He found Han Yue already practicing a Dou Technique in the courtyard, while Xiao Xun'er was likely still asleep, as he did not see her. Seeing this, Xiao Ling did not intend to disturb Han Yue's training and instead wandered elsewhere.

Nearly fifteen minutes later, the slowly walking Xiao Ling eased his pace and looked toward the end of the road. A group of people had appeared there, blocking the exit.

At the sight, Xiao Ling frowned. He guessed they were senior students collecting Tribute Fees.

When he reached the avenue's exit, Xiao Ling had no intention of dealing with them. He chose a direction that was not blocked and walked over.

At that moment, seven or eight senior students with tower-shaped badges on their chests surrounded him. Their faces were fierce and menacing.

Xiao Ling had not wanted to waste time, but seeing that these people actually took him for an easy target, he clenched his hand and a long spear appeared within it. He said coldly, "Don't waste my time, or you'll regret it."

A rather burly man in black sneered arrogantly at 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. With a backhand sweep of his spear, he knocked him to the ground. Then he activated the Suction Palm, pulling the man back before him and lifting him by the throat with one hand.

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

Just then, a senior student hurried over from the distance and shouted at them, "You lot, stop right now!"

He then smiled at Xiao Ling. "That guy was talking nonsense. Junior 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 in a cold tone, "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 stop holding back in the future."

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 every new student's Tribute Fee had to be collected? Though this guy entered the Inner Academy at such a young age and has decent talent, his strength shouldn't be that 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 him and replied sternly, "Barely made it in? You weren't there yesterday. You didn't see Xiao Ling lead five people and rob every last bit of the senior students' Fire Energy. Otherwise, you wouldn't be saying that."

"Really? How is that possible?" The man in black found it hard to believe. There were Dou Ling experts among the senior students in the Fire Energy Hunt Competition—people who ranked in the upper-middle tier of the entire Inner Academy. Yet they had all been robbed by a child who looked more than ten years younger than them, along with a few companions? He could hardly accept it.

That person shook his head. "It's true. Xiao Ling in particular is only ten years old this year, yet he's already a Da Dou Shi and a peak fourth-tier alchemist. That kind of talent is beyond anything people like us can compare to. Now do you understand why I didn't let you keep fighting?"

"And his friends are all exceptionally talented and strong too. There's no need for us to provoke them. From Xiao Ling's attitude, he probably has no intention of meddling in the affairs of other new students. We can just collect from the rest."

"Got it," the man in black said, speechless.

The other senior students who had not known about Xiao Ling also placed him firmly among those they could not afford to provoke.

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

He knew a little about Tribute Fees. They were paid by new students to senior student factions.

This was likely an unwritten rule of the Jia Nan Academy Inner Academy.

This tradition was not mandated by the academy. The academy merely encouraged competition, while this sort of practice was an unwritten rule that had formed 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 new students a lesson.

After each batch of new students was put in its place by the senior students, they would, in order to balance their own feelings, do the same to the next batch once they became senior students. Thus, the cycle repeated itself.

Xiao Ling did not care about such matters and had no intention of interfering. Nor would he be like Xiao Yan in the original story, creating a faction to clean up after the new students. Every time his subordinates were bullied, they would come to Xiao Yan to seek justice. It was a complete waste of time, with plenty of effort but little reward.

Xiao Ling's group planned to establish their own faction simply to make cultivation more convenient. If they needed something in the future, they could send their subordinates to look for it, and gathering information would be more convenient as well.

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

As Xiao Ling had expected, the Inner Academy covered an enormous area.

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

Along the way, Xiao Ling gained an even more vivid sense of the Inner Academy's atmosphere.

On the road to the Heavenly Flame Refining Qi Tower, he often saw students fighting openly in public. Many spectators would gather around these circles, clearly accustomed to such scenes. Some particularly talkative onlookers would even shout out the occasional openings exposed by the two fighters. As a result, the two people in the circle became more and more alarmed as they fought, until they could only withdraw with gloomy expressions.

Xiao Ling could not help sighing. "The Inner Academy really does have a fierce atmosphere. Such frequent sparring matches aren't forbidden in the Outer Academy either, but unless there's a grudge, few people 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 minutes or so, Xiao Ling looked around and discovered in surprise that, for some reason, more and more people were crowding onto this northbound road. Each of them pushed their speed to the limit. Xiao Ling saw figures flashing continuously through the trees on both sides, accompanied by bursts of whistling wind.

Seeing this, Xiao Ling roughly understood that they were about to reach the Heavenly Flame Refining Qi Tower. He immediately increased his speed and charged forward.