Coming Out of Seclusion! Lord Xiao and the Fire Golden Lotus?

As the fallen leaves scattered across the academy, it donned a new coat of silver and white, and two months passed in the blink of an eye.

The Strong Ranking Tournament, as the most intense and eye-catching large-scale event in the Inner Academy, is also the highest-level competition in the entire Jia Nan Academy.

The entry requirements for this Strong Ranking Tournament are extremely stringent. Among the many students in the Inner Academy, only those students with formidable strength who are ranked on the Strong Ranking List are qualified to participate.

Those who can stand out in such a competition are all exceptional individuals, geniuses with truly amazing talents!

It is said that the top ten in the annual Strong Ranking Tournament have all made a name for themselves on the continent. Even the least successful among them are at least at the level of Dou Wang, dominating their respective regions.

Of course, it's really rare to see someone do so poorly.

After all, the top ten on the Strong Ranking List usually represent those who, before graduation, possess at least the strength of Eight-Star Dou Ling. After receiving the unique reward of the Origin Heart Flame Body Tempering for the top ten, they are almost certain to break through to the Dou Wang rank.

A large portion of these students, after years of training, will rise to the Dou Emperor, and some will even reach the Dou Zong level.

Over the years, Jia Nan Academy has cultivated many students, which is why Jia Nan Academy has earned the reputation of being the number one academy on the Dou Qi Continent.

After all, the Heavenly Burning Qi Refining Tower alone is a unique training ground that no academy in other regions can replicate.

Furthermore, watching the Strong Ranking Tournament is, in a sense, like witnessing the birth of a future powerhouse who will dominate the world. Watching their battles can also be of great help to one's own cultivation.

Therefore, the other students in the Inner Academy also greatly admired this Strong Ranking Tournament.

After all, they were already geniuses to most cultivators, and the students on the Strong Ranking List, especially the top ten, were the geniuses among geniuses. In addition, this year, many powerful "new students" suddenly arrived, which made the students even more excited.

Two months ago, those "new students" directly defeated the top six experts on the Inner Academy's Strong Ranking List in the Arena, leading to a reshuffling of the Inner Academy's power structure.

It is said that these people all possess the strength of Dou Wang. If they were to fight, Dou Emperor- level elder would likely be needed as a referee to ensure the safety of both sides!

In addition, another active figure appeared in the Inner Academy. Although she only fought three times in the Arena and looked like a little girl, she defeated her opponent with a single punch in each battle. Her strength was unfathomable, and it was said that she also had the strength of Dou Wang. She even claimed that she would take the number one spot on the Strong Ranking List!

Battles between Dou Wang expert are not so easy to see. Although the competition has not yet started, the atmosphere is already tense. Whether it is Zi Yan who has vowed to take first place, or the senior students who were deprived of their rankings before, or the top six on the Strong Ranking List who are about to graduate and have been training hard for three months to try to "avenge their grievances", all of these things are highly anticipated.

Therefore, as the start time of the Strong Ranking Tournament drew closer, the atmosphere in the Inner Academy became increasingly heated, and almost every topic revolved around the Strong Ranking Tournament.

Furthermore, as the deadline approached, the students ranked in the bottom thirty of the Strong Ranking List were constantly changing. The students who usually kept a low profile and focused on hard work were all unleashing their full potential during this period, frantically trying to break through the Strong Ranking List, which held extremely high value in the hearts of the Inner Academy students!

Meanwhile, there were some people who were engrossed in their cultivation. They only knew that Xiao Yan was a freshman and that his current record was that he had defeated Lin Zhan, Dou Ling expert who was not ranked high on the Strong Ranking List, when he entered the academy. So they searched everywhere for Xiao Yan's whereabouts, trying to obtain his ranking.

Unfortunately, not only them, but even Gu Qingyang and the others had never been able to find Xiao Yan's whereabouts. The only one who knew that Xiao Yan was on the seventh floor, Huo Zhi, couldn't wait for Xiao Yan to cultivate properly and improve his strength.

After all, the future of the Dou Qi Continent depends entirely on Xiao Yan!

Unfortunately, I didn't have many opportunities to spend time with Xiao Yan...

Ugh, that damned Hun Tian Di!

As the intense atmosphere in the Inner Academy was about to reach its climax with the start of the Strong Ranking Tournament, in a training room reserved for elders within the core area of the seventh floor of the Heavenly Burning Qi Refining Tower, as the violent energy within gradually subsided, Xiao Yan, who was sitting cross-legged in the center of the training room, slowly opened his eyes.

"Call!"

A scorching breath escaped his mouth, and the light in his eyes flickered like a tangible flame before receding into a deep, unfathomable depth.

Xiao Yan slowly stood up, and crackling sounds resounded from within his body, like the thunderous roar of tigers and leopards, deep and heavy, yet carrying a sense of oppression.

Clenching his fist and feeling the immense power within his body, Xiao Yan's lips curled up slightly.

The Quenching Body has reached the Great Accomplishment Stage.

Now, with his pure physical strength, he can directly shatter the attacks condensed by Dou Wang expert using Dou Qi!

In other words, aside from lacking some of the innate abilities of magical beasts, his ability to breathe Heavenly Flames and punch a Dou Wang makes him essentially equivalent to a Fifth Tier magical beast!

In addition, the mastery of the Quenching Body brought Xiao Yan another benefit.

The side effects of using the first transformation of the Heavenly Fire Three Profound Transformations with the fused Green Lotus Myriad Beast Fire are now completely negligible.

After that, if the Bone Spirit Cold Flame is used for the second transformation, the resulting damage will be within a relatively controllable range.

As for using the Myriad Beast Spirit Fire first, followed by the Green Lotus Core Flame to perform the first two transformations of the Heavenly Fire Three Profound Transformations, the damage they cause can also be ignored.

This is undoubtedly excellent news.

Furthermore, after three months of cultivation, with the help of the seventh layer of Heart Fire, Xiao Yan has reached the level of Four-Star Dou Ling.

Using his two Heavenly Flames would allow Xiao Yan to temporarily raise his strength to the level of Nine-Star Dou Ling.

Combined with his formidable physique and powerful soul force, he was confident that he would not fear any opponent below the level of Dou Emperor.

It's time to emerge from seclusion and see the true strength of the Ancient Clan's prodigies!

But...

Xiao Yan took out a jade bottle, poured out a pill, and swallowed it.

He then waved his hand, and his Dou Qi spirit swept out, expelling the air from the room to the outside.

After three months of cultivation, I have completely refined the remaining medicinal power of the Earth Core Body Tempering Milk into every cell of my body.

However, the cultivation room had been closed for two months, causing the aroma of the Earth Core Body Tempering Milk to accumulate inside. Xiao Yan's body had also become somewhat marinated. Although it no longer had the special fragrance of the Earth Core Body Tempering Milk, it still had a faint medicinal aroma. Fortunately, the pills that Shi Xuanxuan had given him before were quite effective.

After changing into a neat black outfit, Xiao Yan pushed open the door of the cultivation room and walked out of the tower. Elder Su's figure flashed over.

Elder Su has been wearing a hat and shaved his beard for the past two months, making him look much younger than his previous aged appearance.

Of course, this was not something he wanted to do.

Two months ago, a sudden outburst of Heart Fire occurred inside the tower. After Elder Su finished dealing with the matter, he encountered Huo Zhi, who had not yet left, or more accurately, had just come up from the seventh floor, on the sixth floor.

Then he remembered that Xiao Yan might still be inside the tower.

When we went down to the seventh floor, we found out...

Good heavens, he's really still cultivating!

He originally intended to tell Xiao Yan to go outside the tower and rest for two days until his Heart Fire completely subsided before returning to cultivate.

Unexpectedly, Xiao Yan was engrossed in cultivation and had no time to pay attention to him. Instead, Elder Su's attempt to awaken Xiao Yan from his cultivation state triggered the automatic protection of the Heavenly Flames within Xiao Yan's body.

Although Elder Su dodged quickly, he was still completely burned.

Not a single hair was left.

From then on, he had to wear a hat to cover his shiny head.

But seeing that Xiao Yan didn't seem to be in any trouble, and was even quite energetic, Elder Su wasn't too angry. After arranging for Xiao Yan to enter a better cultivation room, he left with peace of mind.

Elder Su!

Seeing Elder Su wearing a hat, Xiao Yan awkwardly cupped his hands in greeting.

He woke up after the Heavenly Flames automatically protected its master.

Then he saw Elder Su's head burned to a bald spot.

I really feel bad about it.

I'll refine some pills for Elder Su later...

After three months of cultivating Dou Qi and Dou Technique, I'm getting a bit tired of it. I'll try practicing Alchemy to change things up.

"Tsk, looks like you've had quite a haul!"

Seeing Xiao Yan's radiant appearance and the faint sense of pressure emanating from Xiao Yan, Elder Su was startled, but smiled and joked.

"Hmm, it's alright."

Although Xiao Yan had the ambition to become the top student in the Inner Academy, he didn't want to celebrate halfway through and start planting flags for himself prematurely, so he humbly smiled and said...

"Oh, with your strength, you'll surely achieve a good ranking in the Strong Ranking Tournament this time. You know, over the years, very few students have qualified to participate in the Strong Ranking Tournament within half a year of entering the Inner Academy. Especially considering that your energy has been diverted to Alchemy, and you're ridiculously young, if you can just make it into the top thirty of the Strong Ranking List this time, it will be a complete reshaping of the academy's records!"

Although Elder Su knew that Xiao Yan possessed Heavenly Flames, which would be of great use to the academy in the future, Xiao Yan was still young, so he naturally wouldn't put too much pressure on him.

"Hmm, it should be able to go a little higher."

Xiao Yan smiled, too embarrassed to say that he wanted to ascend to the heavens in one step.

"Uh..." Upon hearing this, Elder Su subconsciously raised his hand, intending to stroke his beard, but found nothing. He could only touch his chin and click his tongue in amazement, "It seems your improvement far exceeds my expectations..."

"It might be a bit big."

Xiao Yan nodded.

"Sigh, as expected of the most talented student in the history of the Jia Nan Academy. I'm even more looking forward to your performance in the Strong Ranking Tournament. Keep it up, Xiao Yan!"

Upon hearing this, Elder Su shook his head, suddenly deciding he didn't want to continue the conversation.

In all his years of life, this was the first time he had ever seen someone as talented as Xiao Yan.

After talking to Xiao Yan for a while, he felt like all his years of cultivation had been for nothing.

It's so painful...

After leaving the Heavenly Burning Qi Refining Tower, Xiao Yan returned to the Student Union.

With the Strong Ranking Tournament approaching, all the women stopped cultivating and gathered in the small attic.

Although Xiao Yan is a hands-off leader, he has many capable assistants, so the Student Union has developed quite well in the past three months.

They are already among the top three forces in the Inner Academy.

The other two in the top three were naturally the Azure Cloud Society and the Iron Mountain Gang, led by the two unlucky guys who were originally ranked second and third, Li Da and Xu Kun.

"I wonder when Brother Xiao Yan will emerge from seclusion. The Strong Ranking Tournament is just around the corner..."

From the living room on the first floor, Xun'er's slightly worried voice rang out.

He'll be out in time.

Xiao Yi Xian always had extremely strong faith in Xiao Yan.

"Don't worry, we can just not participate. It's just a ranking. We can just let him go to the Arena and fight Gu Qingyang one-on-one later."

Hun Li Li said casually.

"Although I have a lot of confidence in Senior Xiao Yan's strength, I went to watch Gu Qingyang compete against the number one on the Strong Ranking List in the Arena. He didn't even use his full strength, yet he easily defeated Hu Qingqing was number one on the Strong Ranking List."

Upon hearing this, Han Yue spoke with a somewhat serious tone.

"The Strong Ranking List sounds like it belongs to a woman..."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Yan, standing outside the door, seemed to be deep in thought.

"Now that you're back, why don't you go inside?"

A familiar, deep voice came from behind. Turning around, I saw Shi Xuanxuan, with her wheat-colored skin, impressive figure, and shoulder-length curly short hair, her eyes burning with a look that seemed to say, "Come on, come inside with me."

"Senior Sister Shi?"

Xiao Yan hadn't heard any footsteps approaching, so he subconsciously looked up.

Um?

The window is open?

No, jumping again?

"It seems your cultivation has been quite effective these past three months; your physical body is probably much stronger than mine now..."

After looking Xiao Yan up and down, Shi Xuanxuan smiled and said...

"It's alright. I'll go in first and say hello to Xun'er. I'll go to my senior's place later to temper your Dou Qi?"

Xiao Yan said with a smile.

"Okay, go ahead, come to my room tonight."

Shi Xuanxuan really didn't treat Xiao Yan like an outsider at all. After casually agreeing, she lightly leaped back into the room through the window...

"Well!"

Xiao Yan was somewhat helpless upon seeing this scene.

She jumped down just to talk about something so trivial; this Senior Sister Shi's personality is really quite strange.

However, the next moment, a wooden pole fell from upstairs, hitting Xiao Yan precisely on the head before landing on the ground with a thud.

Xiao Yan raised his head and saw Huo Zhi, who wore a red veil, a red dress, and a red gauze draped over her shoulders, revealing her fair and delicate shoulders, and whose eyes were like Huo Zhi.

She nodded apologetically to Xiao Yan, then reached out and grabbed the wooden bar supporting the window, holding it open.

This woman... she did it on purpose...

However, the sound of the wooden pole falling undoubtedly attracted the attention of those inside the house. Therefore, Xiao Yan didn't have time to argue with Huo Zhi and immediately pushed open the door and went inside.

"I'm back!"

Xiao Yan chuckled and called out.