On another part of the hillside stood a platform built from piled boulders. Two elderly men sat atop it—Elder Su and Elder Qing, whom Xiao Yao and the others had seen when they entered the forest. Several middle-aged men with steady auras sat around them as well. They were evidently administrators of the Inner Academy.
"Hehe, I heard this batch of new students is pretty arrogant? They even dared to rob the old students of their Fire Energy?"
On the hillside, countless gazes were fixed on the dark depths at the end of the forest as teasing voices passed among the crowd.
"Yeah. I heard from the old student teams that came out that there's a group led by someone named Xiao Yao among this year's new students. They seem quite strong. Apparently, he's already reached the Dou Ling class, yet he never used Dou Qi during the fights and still knocked those old students down."
"Hah, they're just making excuses for their failure. You actually believe a new student has reached the Dou Ling class? Those old students have cultivated in the Inner Academy for over a year, yet they lost to new students. Tsk, tsk!"
"Hehe, not necessarily. I distinctly heard those old students say that Elder Su required Xiao Yao to restrict both his cultivation and the flames in his hands. Tsk, tsk, it's truly unbelievable. He defeated those old students without using Dou Qi, and the strength of his team is genuinely impressive. They're practically no weaker than old students who have trained in the Inner Academy for a year."
"That really is formidable. By the way, Sha Tie from the Black Fiend Team led people into the forest too. I wonder whether they ran into those new students."
"Oh? Sha Tie went in too? Then