Dou Wang!

In just three days, Han Yue had gone from an obscure, "ordinary" Inner Academy student to an expert ranked sixteenth on the Strong Ranking.

And because she was one of the few women in the top twenty, her fame swiftly swept through the entire Inner Academy, with countless people talking about her.

As everyone learned more about this prodigious young woman, more and more details became common knowledge.

What did they mean, she had entered the Inner Academy less than a year ago?

What did they mean, her boyfriend was a Tier 6 Alchemist?

What did they mean, she had founded a faction, and its name was even made from their two names...

Wait!

A faction founded by a Tier 6 Alchemist?

At that, quite a few senior students in the Inner Academy began wavering, wondering whether they should "jump ship."

That was a faction with a Tier 6 Alchemist at its helm. If they ever needed a high-grade medicinal pill to save their lives, having someone they could turn to was surely better than having no one!

While the senior students agonized over their decisions, this year's new students entered the Inner Academy after being robbed of all their fire energy.

Upon learning that [Baiyue]'s leader was a Tier 6 Alchemist, the new students who had received invitations chose to join on the spot, without a moment's hesitation.

When Han Yue emerged after cultivating on the sixth floor for a month, the faction's new students had just joined, so she went over to make an appearance.

She offered the new students some encouragement, then brought out high-grade medicinal pills unique to [Baiyue], such as Mind-Cleansing Pills and Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pills, as rewards.

In addition, every new student received a monthly allowance of five days' worth of fire energy.

Combined with what the academy provided, every member of their faction had a guaranteed minimum of ten days' worth each month.

Interestingly, Han Yue also spotted two girls she had known in the Outer Academy.

Their strength had fallen a little short last year, so they had not been able to enter with Han Yue and the others. This year, their cultivation had improved considerably, allowing them to catch up.

"Xiao Ying, Xiao Xing."

"Big Sis!"

"Big Sis, I missed you so much!"

When Han Yue greeted them with a smile, the two girls ran over, grinning, and began pouring out their grievances.

The main issue was this year's Fire Energy Hunting Competition. Without a powerful ally to cling to, not only had they failed to keep their fire energy, they had even been beaten up. They had suffered terribly...

"Honestly, we just had rotten luck. If Junior Sister Xun'er had entered with us, we might not have gotten robbed. What awful luck."

"It's fine. We have Big Sis now! From now on, we'll be the ones bullying everyone else!"

As she listened to the two girls recount their experiences, Han Yue paid out of her own pocket, transferring a hundred days' worth of fire energy to each of them.

It could be considered compensation for her earliest backers.

"Cultivate diligently in the Inner Academy from now on, and take your duties seriously. I'll find an opportunity to promote you."

"Yes, Deputy Leader!"

With the serious business finished, it was time for the decidedly less serious business.

Grinning, the two girls pulled Han Yue down to sit with them and curiously probed the progress of her relationship with Wu Bai:

"Big Sis, how far have you and Brother-in-Law gotten? Have you done that yet?"

"What?"

Han Yue froze for a moment, failing to understand what the two girls meant.

Only when she saw them make a gesture with their hands did she understand what these two filthy-minded girls were talking about.

"Shoo, shoo! Children shouldn't pry into grown-ups' affairs."

Leaving the two filthy-minded girls clutching the tops of their heads, Han Yue turned and left.

With the arrival of another intake of new students, ripples stirred through the Inner Academy once again.

But no matter how those ripples rose and fell, they could not affect the figure on the ninth floor of the Heavenly Flame Qi Refining Tower.

Day after day passed. As Han Yue's cultivation reached Nine-Star Dou Ling, her position on the Strong Ranking also rose to eleventh.

[Baiyue]'s reputation grew ever louder, and with benefits far superior to everyone else's, its newly joined students were quickly beginning to stand out.

Everything was moving in a favorable direction.

On the ninth floor of the Heavenly Flame Qi Refining Tower, fire-attribute energy was incredibly dense. The fiery-red energy could clearly be seen pouring into a figure who swallowed it like a whale.

A searing mass of heart flame projection refined and compressed this pure fire-attribute energy.

After this process repeated several times, the scorching energy traveled through the meridians throughout his body.

Even the tiniest meridians had this scorching energy flowing through them.

While the profound cultivation technique cultivated his Dou Qi, it also tempered every minute part of his body, clearing away the obstacles to advancing to Dou Wang.

But this progress was extremely slow, as though it were a stripped-down version of the heart flame origin.

Regardless, his aura was steadily strengthening. That was an indisputable fact.

An unknown amount of time passed before the figure's increasingly blazing aura finally crossed that threshold.

Inside his vortex, the bare, fractured Dou Crystal shattered completely, and immeasurable blue-white Dou Qi surged into his crystalline meridians.

Finally, that Dou Qi slowly vanished along those meridians.

No, it had not vanished. It had seeped into every part of his body.

His amber eyes opened. He rose to his feet and willed it:

Whoom!

A pair of magnificent blue-white flame wings, roughly ten feet long, unfurled from his back, lifting Wu Bai off the ground and freeing him from gravity's shackles.

Wu Bai smiled faintly and clenched his fists.

He pulled out his purple crystal card. The stone door had only opened halfway when a streak of light shot out.

The academy lay peaceful in the night, a bright crescent moon hanging high above and casting patches of shadow across the ground.

A thick bank of clouds briefly obscured the moonlight, plunging the entire Inner Academy into darkness.

The clouds drifted past, and moonlight dispelled the darkness once more.

Only now, a figure had flown out of that darkness.

Under the moonlight, the figure grew increasingly transparent until he vanished into its glow.

A second later, that same figure stepped out of a shadow a hundred meters away.

"As expected, only after reaching Dou Wang can one begin to reveal the mysteries of high-grade Dou Techniques. Before that, all one learns is skin-deep."

After moving around for a while, Wu Bai gained an initial familiarity with his newfound strength as a Dou Wang.

To adapt completely, he would need to stretch himself a little more.

With that thought, Wu Bai glanced up at the night sky, and his figure vanished from the Inner Academy.

Compared with daytime, the Magical Beast Forest was far more dangerous at night. But in Wu Bai's eyes, there was no difference between its nights and days.

With soul perception at the level of a Tier 7 Alchemist, he could "see" even an ant with perfect clarity.

His figure moved like a ghost, sometimes vanishing into shadows, sometimes disappearing beneath the moonlight.

A hundred li was merely a moment's journey.

"Awoooo!!!"

A gigantic wolf-shaped magical beast stood on high ground, howling at the moon.

Seeing it, Wu Bai stopped, concealed his aura, and approached without a sound.

When roughly a hundred meters remained between them, Wu Bai pressed his palms together.

Beneath the moonlight, liquid suddenly sprayed a great distance from one side of the enormous beast's head.

Whoosh!

An ear-piercing sonic boom rang out, and the gigantic figure a hundred meters away slowly collapsed.

A tiny figure landed atop the enormous beast's head, felt around for a fifth-tier magic core, and swiftly vanished.

Watching his disciple act with such crisp efficiency, the Yellow Springs Demon Saint was somewhat speechless.