Entering the Inner Academy

The Fire Energy Hunting Competition had ended...

After Xiao Yun forcefully defeated Xu Feng, captain of the White Fiend Team, he had been about to help Fang Wen and the other four when Elder Su, who had been watching the spectacle from beside the hillside, hurriedly appeared and stopped the battle from continuing.

"Enough, little ones. You have won this year's Fire Energy Hunting Competition. There's no need to keep fighting."

Elder Su's somewhat aged voice slowly echoed through the boulder-strewn area, bringing every fight to a halt.

The other members of the White Fiend Team opened their mouths slightly, as though they wanted to say something. But when they saw Xiao Yun standing nearby with his spear, they ultimately could not utter a word.

Elder Su swept his gaze over the surroundings and said solemnly, "As the winners of this Fire Energy Hunting Competition, every new student will receive ten days of Fire Energy. Xiao Yun, Wang Hongjing, Gongsun Sibao, Ye Zhengfan, and Fang Wen will additionally be awarded Azure Fire Crystal Cards, along with thirty days of Fire Energy!"

"Azure Fire Crystal Cards!"

Elder Su's announced reward caused an uproar on the hillside. Envious gazes fixed upon Xiao Yun and the other four in the clearing.

"In the Inner Academy, Fire Crystal Cards are divided into five colors from lowest to highest: black, blue, azure, red, and purple.

Black Crystal Cards are the lowest-grade cards and can only be used to cultivate on the first and second floors of the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower.

Blue Crystal Cards can be used to cultivate on the third and fourth floors. The others follow the same pattern upward."

"To upgrade a Fire Crystal Card, you must pay a certain amount of Fire Energy. Upgrading a Black Crystal Card to blue requires one hundred days of Fire Energy, while upgrading a Blue Crystal Card to azure requires two hundred days! Now that you've received Azure Fire Crystal Cards, you've effectively saved three hundred days of Fire Energy. That's no small amount."

Seeing the confusion on Fang Wen and the others' faces, Elder Su smiled and explained it to them.

Then, with a flick of his hand, five azure crystal cards appeared in it. He flicked his fingers, and the cards shot toward Xiao Yun's group before hovering in front of them.

"The rewards are already inside. Transfer the Fire Energy from your Black Crystal Cards, then return those cards to me."

Hearing this, Xiao Yun and the others hurriedly took the azure crystal cards. A moment later, they handed five emptied Black Crystal Cards back to Elder Su.

"Alright, you five wait here for a while. The rest of you old students, enter the forest and bring all the new students back!" Elder Su said with a smile as he accepted the black cards. With a wave of his hand, the old students on the hillside moved at once and all charged into the Dark Forest.

"Thanks to you, Captain, we were able to bring so many rewards into the Inner Academy," Fang Wen and the other three said happily as they gathered around Xiao Yun.

"We earned them ourselves. Without you, I couldn't have defeated the White Fiend Team alone."

Xiao Yun waved his hand, signaling for them not to dwell on it. Then he found a large boulder, sat cross-legged upon it, and began recovering.

Because Xiao Yun's group had eliminated all the old students, nearly none of the new students in the forest had their Fire Energy stolen, aside from a few unlucky ones. They made their way toward the finish line without obstruction.

Before long, the old students returned to the rocky hillside with all the new students.

Once Elder Su saw that all the new students had arrived, he gave a brief speech before leading everyone toward a flight of broken stone steps and slowly ascending the hillside.

The broken stone stairway was not particularly tall. In barely a minute or two, all the students reached the final step and stood atop the hillside. As they looked ahead, the sight before them made the new students slowly draw in a breath of cold air.

"Is this the Inner Academy?" voices filled with shock came from the new students on the hillside.

Beyond the hillside lay an enormous sunken basin. Its shape was as though a giant meteorite had fallen from the sky and smashed it into existence...

Towering buildings stood throughout the basin. Looking down from above, they could even see figures like fleas constantly leaping between the structures. The basin was unimaginably vast; even when their gazes stretched into the distance, they could see nothing but lofty buildings and lush forests.

No one could have imagined that such a remarkable place was hidden within Jia Nan Academy's boundless back mountains.

"Little ones, welcome to the core of Jia Nan Academy—the Inner Academy!" Elder Su clapped his hands as he looked at their astonished expressions and smiled.

"Since you have passed the Fire Energy Hunting Competition, all new students should follow me back to the Inner Academy. Once you're settled in, you'll become true students of the Inner Academy!"

With a wave of his hand, Elder Su turned into a blurry figure and flashed toward the basin below. All the new students immediately followed, diving down from the hillside.

Creak.

A wooden door was slowly pushed open, and sunlight streamed inside. In the bright light, tiny specks of dust could be seen dancing through the air.

The next moment, six shadows of varying lengths entered one after another. Elder Su, who led the group, swept his gaze across the small pavilion before him and smiled. "This will be the residence for you five from now on. You can arrange it however you like."

"Let me remind you: in the Inner Academy, unless you are exceptionally strong, life won't be easy if you rely on yourself alone. The Inner Academy respects strength above all else, and the old students have each divided up their own factions and territories. You'll see these things soon enough."

"So, having you live together is meant to help you form a team. During the hunting competition, you should have already seen the power of fighting as a team, right? One person's strength is difficult to compare with that of a group." Elder Su looked at the five with a smile. "If you aren't used to living with others, you may also join another faction. Those factions spend Fire Energy to rent their own territory, and their living conditions are far better than those of the new student residences."

"With your strength as the top five, I'm sure many factions will be fighting to recruit you..."

After chatting with them about the Inner Academy for a while, Elder Su rose and left, giving the space to Xiao Yun and the others.

"Tsk, tsk. Everything Vice Dean Hu Gan said was true. If you want to do well in the Inner Academy, either join a powerful faction or rely on your own fists."

"The strong prey on the weak, and only the fit survive. It's the same everywhere. The academy deliberately fosters this atmosphere so we can adapt to the laws of survival sooner. Only through conflict can true powerhouses emerge."

"Boss, are you going to establish a faction? If you do, I, Fang Wen, will be the first to join!"

"Establish a faction? No rush. Let's wait until I break through to the Dou Ling realm. A Da Dou Shi's cultivation is still too low."

"...Boss, you're incredible."

The four who had been chatting enthusiastically fell silent at Xiao Yun's humblebrag. After a long while, Fang Wen finally forced out a few words.

The strongest among them was only a Five-Star Da Dou Shi, yet Xiao Yun, who was so much younger than them, actually thought a Da Dou Shi's cultivation was too low. His indiscriminate attack left the four in the courtyard thoroughly devastated.

"What's wrong? Was I mistaken?"

Seeing the four staring at him, Xiao Yun asked in confusion.

"That may be true for a monstrous genius like you, but for most people, a Da Dou Shi is already a very powerful level," Fang Wen said bitterly. The other three nodded in agreement.

"Alright, I'm going to take a look at the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower. Does anyone want to come with me?" Seeing how wounded their pride looked, Xiao Yun scratched his head awkwardly and quickly changed the unpleasant subject.

"Not going, Boss. I still need to tidy up my room."

"Same here. Captain, you go on ahead."

Fang Wen and the others turned and walked into the small building. Their pride had been wounded so badly that they felt like they would explode if they looked at Xiao Yun any longer.

Pushing open the wooden door, Xiao Yun shrugged and headed toward the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower he had been yearning to see.

The Inner Academy was far larger than Xiao Yun had expected. He ran at full speed for nearly half an hour, yet still did not reach its boundaries. Along the way, he often saw heated groups of students sparring with one another.

The atmosphere here is quite fierce. They start fighting at the slightest disagreement, but that suits me perfectly! Xiao Yun thought. The battles during the Fire Energy Hunting Competition had made his Dou Qi more solid and raised his cultivation considerably. If he could often fight evenly matched opponents in the Inner Academy, he believed he would soon break through to the Dou Ling realm.

Suddenly, Xiao Yun swept his gaze around and discovered that more and more people were gathering along the road he traveled. Each one pushed their speed to the limit, while figures flashed through the woods and over the buildings on both sides amid continual rushing wind.

"Looks like I'm almost there." Other than the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower, Xiao Yun could not think of anything else in the Inner Academy capable of attracting so many students.

Dou Qi enveloped his legs, and Xiao Yun transformed into a crimson streak of light as he rapidly caught up to the figures ahead. Soon, he stopped behind a dense, dark mass of people.

He leaped onto a nearby tree branch and looked down at the scene below. His gaze passed over the packed crowd and went directly ahead. Before the crowd was a sunken stretch of terrain, and within it stood an enormous black tower buried deep underground, with only its spire and a single entrance level exposed above the surface.

So this is the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower. It even has a Space Lock protecting it. Is it sealing away the aura of the Falling Heart Flame? Standing on the branch, Xiao Yun pondered this. That made sense—without the Space Lock's protection, Han Feng, who was also in the Black-Corner Region, would have sensed the aura of the Heavenly Flame long ago.

At the same time, this seal could suppress the Falling Heart Flame's unrest and prevent it from breaking out of the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower.

As more and more figures arrived, some powerful students ignored the rules and directly swept past the crowd, cutting in ahead of everyone. Seeing this, Xiao Yun could not be bothered to go down and line up. Instead, he quietly stood on the branch and waited.