Journey to the Inner Academy

Four days later.

Since today was the day they would head to the Inner Academy, Xiao Qing woke early from cultivation. After making a few simple preparations, he headed alone to Vice Principal Hu Gan's study.

When Xiao Qing arrived outside Hu Gan's study, he saw that quite a few people were already gathered there.

They stood in groups of twos and threes, chatting and laughing quietly among themselves.

Xiao Qing's arrival caused the lively clearing to fall somewhat silent as they watched him with respectful gazes.

Xiao Qing walked straight through the crowd to the front of the clearing, utterly unfazed by the looks around him.

After waiting patiently for a while, the tightly shut door before them finally opened as the last student bound for the Inner Academy arrived. Hu Gan and three elderly men slowly emerged from within.

Hu Gan swept his gaze over everyone present. After confirming that no one was absent, he nodded in satisfaction.

"Looks like you're all already eager to get going. Since that's the case, this old man won't waste any more words."

"The Inner Academy is the core of Jia Nan Academy. Due to its secrecy, most Outer Academy instructors do not know its exact location. Therefore, we will be taking you to a certain place."

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone noticed the sunlight overhead being blocked as vast shadows fell over them.

The students looked up and saw ten enormous Griffin Beasts circling in the air, slowly descending toward a clearing not far away.

"All right, students, get on. Five per group," Hu Gan said with a smile, pointing toward the Griffin Beasts as they landed.

Upon hearing Hu Gan's words, the students in the clearing immediately turned and swarmed toward the Griffin Beasts. They leaped up one after another, landing steadily on their backs.

Once everyone had boarded the Griffin Beasts, Hu Gan and the three elderly men beside him moved, flashing into the air. A pair of dazzling Dou Qi wings condensed behind each of them.

"All right, let's go."

At Hu Gan's command, the ten Griffin Beasts below spread their wings and soared toward the academy's seemingly endless back mountains.

Hu Gan and the three elderly men formed a square formation, protecting the entire Griffin Beast convoy within it.

As they traveled through the sea of forest, the students on the Griffin Beasts looked around curiously, yet they still saw no trace of the Inner Academy.

From time to time, savage magical beasts attacked the group passing through the forest, but before they could approach, Hu Gan and the three elderly men blasted them into bloody mist.

Watching the blood rain down through the woods, Xiao Qing's expression remained unchanged. He was no longer the ordinary person from his previous life, and he could calmly face such a bloody sight.

As they ventured deeper, the number of magical beasts attacking the group gradually increased. However, they were still nothing before Hu Gan and the other four Dou Emperors.

They flew onward, accompanied by a trail of bloody mist.

Hu Gan and the other three were like sharp awls, forcibly carving a bloody path through the overwhelming tide of attacking magical beasts. The strength of Dou Emperors was truly terrifying.

After nearly an hour of such almost brutal slaughter, the Griffin Beasts finally began to slow down.

Were they there?

The students looked around, only to discover in confusion that apart from a bottomless ravine beneath them, the rest was still an endless expanse of greenery. Let alone the Inner Academy, there was not even a single person in sight.

"Land!"

Noticing their confusion, Hu Gan smiled and waved his hand without explaining further.

The ten Griffin Beasts beat their wings and descended toward the opposite side of the ravine below. Their landing stirred shadows and fierce winds, but they settled steadily onto the ground.

All the students promptly leaped from the Griffin Beasts' backs and scattered across the clearing, their eyes filled with bewilderment.

"Where's the Inner Academy?"

"Could it be nearby?"

The students whispered among themselves, all turning their eyes toward Hu Gan as they waited for his answer.

Feeling everyone's gaze, Hu Gan smiled faintly.

"The Inner Academy isn't so easy to enter."

Then, under everyone's watchful eyes, he walked a dozen or so steps forward before abruptly stopping. With a wave of his hand, a stream of energy shot from his palm toward the space ahead.

When the energy passed through a certain point in space, ripples like those on water spread out. The ripples rapidly fluctuated before finally forming a massive gate seven or eight zhang tall.

The appearance of the silver gate startled many students. They had not expected such mysteries to be hidden in this seemingly ordinary place.

The silver gate slowly opened before their eyes. Through it, they could see another dense forest beyond, seemingly no different from the woodland where they currently stood.

"Follow me."

Hu Gan waved to the students behind him and took the lead into the silver gate.

Several dozen students hurriedly followed.

After everyone, including the Griffin Beasts, had entered the silver gate, it slowly shut. A ring of silver energy ripples spread outward, and the silver gate gradually faded away until it completely vanished, as though it had never existed.

Passing through the silver gate, the students felt their minds blur for an instant before their feet touched solid ground again.

They looked ahead and saw that at the entrance to the forest, two elderly men and several burly middle-aged men had appeared at some point.

Behind them stood nearly twenty young people, each wearing a badge with a tower-shaped insignia on their chests.

"Hehe, Old Man Hu, you're always this punctual. Having you escort the new students is reassuring. How are this year's newcomers?"

One of the two elderly men looked at the large group entering and smiled at Hu Gan, who was leading them.

"I guarantee I'll give you all a surprise!" Hu Gan said with a mysterious smile.

Although Xiao Qing's circumstances were widely known throughout the Outer Academy, not many people in the Inner Academy knew about him.

After all, aside from the annual Inner Academy Selection Tournament, the Inner and Outer Academies had almost no contact in ordinary times.

Even if the students who had joined the Inner Academy over the past two years knew, they would not deliberately spread the news.

"Oh?"

Hearing this, the two elderly men immediately grew interested. For Old Man Hu to be so confident, it seemed the Outer Academy had produced quite an exceptional genius.

Thinking this, the two elderly men swept their gazes across the students before them, finally stopping on Xiao Qing, who stood at the very front of the group.

In their perception, Xiao Qing's cultivation was the highest among all the students. He was presumably the genius who made Old Man Hu so confident.

However, an Eight-Star Da Dou Shi...

The two elderly men exchanged a glance, and a trace of surprise flashed through both their eyes.

Although reaching the level of an Eight-Star Da Dou Shi in the Outer Academy was fairly impressive, it should not have made Old Man Hu so confident, should it?

After all, in the upcoming Fire Energy Hunting Competition, the captains of both Black and White Fiends teams were Dou Lings.