Taking Disciples, Ten-Thousandfold Returns: Starting from Battle Through the Heavens

Qin Hao had come to the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower not to cultivate inside it, but because this was where the Inner Academy students gathered most densely.

He had come to see whether there was anyone besides Zi Yan who met the system's standards for taking disciples.

Unfortunately, he was somewhat disappointed. He had wandered around the plaza by the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower for an entire morning and had practically run into every student on the Inner Academy's Strong Ranking, yet not a single one had triggered a response from the system.

It seems the plan of gaining cultivation returns by taking in disciples in large numbers won't work...

Qin Hao thought with some disappointment.

After learning about the system's functions, Qin Hao had originally come up with an idea: take in disciples on a massive scale.

According to the system's rules, whenever a disciple broke through in cultivation, he, as their master, would receive at least ten times the cultivation return.

That way, as long as he had enough disciples, his cultivation would soar like a rocket.

But now, it seemed he had been overthinking things. Clearly, not just anyone could meet the system's requirements for taking disciples. His idea of exploiting a loophole had been completely crushed.

And judging from this round of attempts, the standards were probably terrifyingly high.

Being admitted into Jia Nan Academy already made one an ordinary genius, while passing the selection to enter the Inner Academy meant one was an elite genius. Such talent would already rank among the finest on the Northwestern Continent.

Even in the Central Plains, the students of Jia Nan Academy's Inner Academy could absolutely be considered outstanding.

Yet now, apart from Zi Yan, not a single one met the requirements. That showed just how frightening the system's standards for taking disciples were.

So be it. In that case, I'll make a trip to the Outer Academy first!

After suppressing his disappointment, Qin Hao made up his mind. Next, he would visit the Outer Academy and see whether Xiao Yu was there, thereby confirming the current point in the timeline.

With that thought, he wasted no more words. With a thought, his Dou Qi instantly transformed into wings, and a pair of crimson-gold Dou Qi wings manifested behind him.

Qin Hao's physique possessed both fire and wood attributes, with fire as the primary one. Thus, even after switching to the Chaotic Heaven-Devouring Art, the attribute of the Dou Qi in his body had not changed and remained fire-attributed.

The difference lay in its quality. The Dou Qi condensed through the Chaotic Heaven-Devouring Art far surpassed his previous Dou Qi in purity.

Because of that, when the same amount of Dou Qi erupted, the power of this higher-quality Dou Qi was at least several times, perhaps even more than ten times, greater than before. That was clearly the true value of a cultivation technique beyond the Heaven Tier.

With a flap of the Dou Qi wings on his back, his body shot into the sky and headed directly toward the Outer Academy.

Although the Inner Academy belonged to Jia Nan Academy, it was still some distance from the Outer Academy in Canaan City, located in the Black-Corner Region. This was because the Inner Academy was actually situated within the Magic Beast Forest bordering the Black-Corner Region.

After a full hour, Qin Hao crossed the vast forest. In the distance, an enormous city appeared in his sight—it was none other than Canaan City, where Jia Nan Academy's Outer Academy was located.

Jia Nan Academy's Outer Academy was located in the heart of Canaan City. Qin Hao descended from the sky and arrived directly at the entrance of the Outer Academy.

Although he was a Dou Wang expert and an elder of the Inner Academy, he still could not simply descend into the Outer Academy. Everyone entering or leaving the Outer Academy had to register.

As an elder of the Inner Academy, Qin Hao possessed an Inner Academy elder's token, so he entered the Outer Academy without any trouble.

Since he had studied here for three years, he was naturally very familiar with everything here.

After entering the academy, Qin Hao did not ask anyone about Xiao Yu. Instead, he headed straight for the archives in the academy's academic affairs office, where records of all current academy personnel were kept.

Outsiders would naturally have no chance of viewing such records, but Qin Hao was an elder of the Inner Academy.

Moreover, the reason he gave was perfectly reasonable: he wanted to see whether there were any promising alchemist candidates in the academy.

Thus, he was easily granted permission to examine the records.

After reviewing the files of all the students, he found no one named Xiao Yu. That meant Xiao Yu had most likely not yet joined Jia Nan Academy. At the very least, it confirmed that the plot of the original story had not yet begun.

Perhaps Xiao Yan was still in the glorious period when he was hailed as a genius of the Xiao Clan, or perhaps he was already in his three-year period of silence. The exact timing would probably require Qin Hao to verify it himself.

But for him, knowing that the plot had not yet begun was already good news. As long as the plot had not started and Yao Chen had not yet awakened, everything would be much easier.

After awakening the system and learning of its abilities, Qin Hao had made up his mind to take Xiao Yan as his disciple. In a sense, this was the key to whether he could simply coast to victory.

Besides, having read the original work, he understood Xiao Yan's personality very well, and Xiao Yan's temperament suited him quite nicely.

As for whether Xiao Yan's talent could meet the system's standards, Qin Hao had not even considered the possibility that it could not. If the child of destiny of this world was not qualified, then perhaps no one could meet the system's requirements.

"Hm, this is..."

Just then, Qin Hao's gaze suddenly fell upon a file beside him.

This stack of files did not belong to academy students, but to academy instructors.

The reason Qin Hao reacted this way was because the name written in the instructor field of this file was Ruolin!

Having read the original work, he was naturally no stranger to that name. In the original story, Instructor Ruolin was not only Xiao Yu's instructor, but later also the instructor of Xiao Yan and Xiao Xun'er.

He remembered that when Instructor Ruolin first appeared in the original work, she had been a five-star Da Dou Shi. Yet the cultivation field in the file before him listed her as a two-star Da Dou Shi.

Furthermore, Qin Hao discovered from the file that she had only passed the Outer Academy instructor examination this year. That was why her file had been placed right at the top.

According to the records, she had only just passed the examination and had not yet taken on any students. There was still one month before Jia Nan Academy began this year's admissions.

Because Jia Nan Academy recruited over a very broad area, its admissions period lasted a full three months every year.

And instructors like Ruolin, who had just passed the examination, would clearly become leaders of this year's recruitment teams. According to Jia Nan Academy's usual practices, newly qualified Yellow Tier instructors like her would certainly be assigned to recruit in remote regions.

Could she be assigned to recruit students in the Jia Ma Empire this time...

A thought suddenly surfaced in Qin Hao's mind. If that was the case, then perhaps Xiao Yu of the Xiao Clan would be among this year's new students.

Forget it. When the time comes, I'll just accompany the recruitment team heading to the Jia Ma Empire!

Qin Hao thought to himself. The reason he chose to travel with Jia Nan Academy's recruitment team rather than head there alone was naturally to avoid trouble.

If he went to the Xiao Clan by himself, it would appear far too deliberate. After all, although the Xiao Clan had declined, its strongest member was only a Da Dou Shi.

Yet the Xiao Clan had the Ancient Clan's princess, a huge source of trouble. Given Qin Hao's current status, he clearly did not want to draw too much suspicion from her.

After putting aside his thoughts, Qin Hao left the archives and went to the office in charge of recruitment. Once he learned the departure time of the recruitment team responsible for the Jia Ma Empire, he left directly.

Afterward, Qin Hao began wandering around Jia Nan Academy, evidently hoping to find students who met the standards for taking disciples.

While reviewing those student files earlier, Qin Hao had also seen quite a few familiar names. They were the very people who appeared in the original story after Xiao Yan entered the Inner Academy, such as Liu Qing and Lin Xiuya.

At present, they were merely Outer Academy students, but they had already begun to stand out there. Before long, they would likely pass the examinations and enter the Inner Academy.

Qin Hao spent the entire afternoon wandering around the Outer Academy, but no pleasant surprise appeared. Just like in the Inner Academy that morning, he found no one who met the standards.

After his experience in the Inner Academy that morning, he was not particularly disappointed by the result.

Before nightfall, Qin Hao returned to the Inner Academy once more.

"Qin Hao, you're finally back? Where did you go today?"

As Qin Hao was returning to his residence, a little girl in red blocked his path. Who else could it be but Zi Yan?

"I went to Canaan City to take care of something. What is it? Do you need anything?"

Qin Hao asked.

"Nothing much. I came to check on your injuries, but I couldn't find you! Judging by the way you look, have your injuries recovered?"

Zi Yan looked Qin Hao up and down before speaking.

"Yeah, more or less."

Qin Hao did not hide anything and nodded.

"Seriously, I couldn't tell. You suffered such severe injuries, yet you recovered so quickly!"

Zi Yan said in surprise.

"Maybe my physique is simply better than average."

Qin Hao said indifferently, directly attributing his recovery to his physique. As for the cultivation technique he practiced, that was obviously something he could not reveal.

"Is that so? Perhaps."

Zi Yan nodded and said nothing further. After all, the Dou Qi Continent was a fantasy world. It was not strange for people with unusual traits to appear.

For example, people born with extraordinary strength were quite common in this world.

More precisely, anyone capable of cultivating into an expert in this world would, more or less, possess something unusual about them.

Thus, in Zi Yan's view, someone like Qin Hao recovering quickly after being injured was not particularly strange.

Preparing for Revenge! Purple Spirit Fruit Tree!

"That's great! Since your injuries have recovered, let's go get revenge on that mangy bird tomorrow! It dared to lay a hand on one of my people. This time, I'll make that mangy bird pay a terrible price!"

Zi Yan immediately revealed a delighted expression and spoke directly, her eyes gleaming with dangerous eagerness.

"Revenge... Fine. It is indeed time to settle this!"

Upon hearing Zi Yan's words, a cold glint flashed through Qin Hao's eyes. He did not refuse and nodded directly.

Although cultivating the Chaotic Heaven-Devouring Art had considerably increased his strength, it was nearly impossible for him to kill a magic beast like the Azure Shadow Eagle, which specialized in speed.

Thus, if he wanted to deal with the Azure Shadow Eagle, he truly needed Zi Yan's help. Zi Yan possessed the bloodline of the Ancient Void Dragon Dragon Emperor. Although her bloodline had not yet fully awakened, with her current spatial abilities, restraining a mere Azure Shadow Eagle would be effortless.

Once the Azure Shadow Eagle was dealt with, Qin Hao would truly have settled all karmic ties with the original owner of this body.

Furthermore, switching cultivation techniques this time had nearly drained all of Qin Hao's resources. He was also preparing to hunt a few magic beasts in the Magic Beast Forest to exchange for cultivation resources.

At the same time, he could test his current strength.

"Fine, it's settled then. I'll come find you tomorrow morning, and we'll set off together. I also discovered several treasures in the Magic Beast Forest recently, but a few annoying magic beasts are guarding them!

If I weren't worried that fighting them would damage those treasures, I would have already snatched them by force. Once the time comes, I'll lure them away while you seize the chance to act! This time, we're definitely pulling off something big!"

Zi Yan said with shining eyes.

"We'll see when the time comes."

How could Qin Hao fail to understand after hearing Zi Yan's words? This was clearly the main reason she was so eager to drag him into the Magic Beast Forest. Helping him get revenge was probably only incidental.

Early the next morning, Zi Yan came looking for him impatiently. Qin Hao could only hurriedly eat something before the two of them flew directly toward the depths of the academy's back mountain.

"Hm, Qin Hao, why do I feel like you're much faster than before after recovering this time? Did your cultivation break through? No, that can't be right. The Dou Qi fluctuations around you are clearly still at the level of a one-star Dou Wang."

Along the way, after sensing Qin Hao's flight speed with his Dou Qi wings, Zi Yan could not help speaking. Her gaze swept over him, and the curiosity in her eyes was impossible to conceal.

"It's nothing. I simply turned misfortune into fortune this time. Not only did I survive, but I also successfully gained entry into a powerful cultivation technique I had obtained before, so my strength improved somewhat."