Jia Nan Academy (41k)

In a secluded courtyard, Yun Yun was telling Liu Yu about the Feather Pavilion's recent affairs.

After Liu Yu united the various factions into the Feather Pavilion, Yun Yun became its deputy pavilion master, managing its affairs on his behalf.

It had to be said that Yun Yun truly was "born to toil." She had escaped the Misty Cloud Sect, only to end up "working" for Liu Yu.

Besides Yun Yun, the deputy pavilion master, there were five Dou Emperor elders: Yuan Yi, Su Mei, Tie Wu, Old Man Yin Gu, and Hei Tian. Tie Wu had been the leader of the Mad Lion Gang, Old Man Yin Gu the sect master of the Heavenly Yin Sect, and Hei Tian the master of the Black Skull Tomb. Under Liu Yu's "invitation," they had all become members of the Feather Pavilion.

As for the remaining Dou Wangs, they all became the Feather Pavilion's Stewards.

After finishing her account of the Feather Pavilion's recent development, Yun Yun suddenly produced an old-fashioned red map.

"This is a map the Feather Pavilion obtained a few days ago. According to our appraiser, it seems to record traces of a heavenly flame," Yun Yun said softly.

"A heavenly flame?" Liu Yu was somewhat surprised.

After the Feather Pavilion was established, besides routinely collecting medicinal ingredients, one of its tasks was to search for traces of heavenly flames. He had not expected news so soon. Establishing a faction in the Black-Corner Region had indeed been a wise decision.

"We found this map in the treasury of a second-rate faction we recently subdued. Since it was a map, and because of the task you assigned, we took it to an appraiser. He really did discover something on it."

Yun Yun handed the map to Liu Yu and continued, "Originally, it was a yellow map with indistinct markings. But when the appraiser happened to burn it with a flame, its true appearance was revealed. According to its markings and records, there seem to be traces of a heavenly flame in a magical beast forest called the Skyfall Demon Forest, in the Eastern Region—the Eastern Continent."

"On the Eastern Continent?" Liu Yu studied the red map in his hands. It did indeed mark the Skyfall Demon Forest on the Eastern Continent as a place where a heavenly flame had appeared, though he had no idea whether it was genuine.

After some consideration, Liu Yu decided he could go and search. If he found no heavenly flame, he would simply treat it as a trip to enjoy another continent's scenery.

Having made his decision, Liu Yu planned to take care of another matter before setting out. As for bringing others, anyone weak would be nothing but a burden, while Yun Yun and the elders needed to manage the Feather Pavilion's affairs. The pavilion was currently developing at a rapid pace, and it needed Dou Emperor-level fighters stationed there.

Would the Feather Pavilion's development arouse the wariness of the dominant factions and prompt them to act? At least in the short term, it would not.

After all, the Feather Pavilion's current expansion had not infringed upon their interests. The second-rate factions it had subdued all lacked powerful backers. Moreover, its mysterious pavilion master was rumored to be a Grade Six Alchemist, enough to make them wary. Until they had investigated the situation thoroughly, those factions would never act rashly.

Furthermore, Liu Yu had already asked Yun Yun to invite the Snake-People Tribe's elders over from the Jia Ma Empire. With these multiple safeguards, even if the Black-Corner Region's factions "went crazy," the Feather Pavilion could handle them without him.

Peace Town.

A small town stood half-hidden between two towering mountains.

At that moment, a figure in the sky was steadily approaching the town. It was none other than Liu Yu.

Although Jia Nan Academy prohibited unauthorized flights within a hundred miles of its grounds, to Liu Yu, who possessed the Thousand Illusion Body, that rule was no more than an empty formality.

Never mind the academy's law enforcement team being utterly unable to detect him—even a Dou Zong would not notice his presence unless he deliberately exposed his aura.

Besides, he had come to Jia Nan Academy for the fallen heart flame. It was the very foundation of the academy's existence, and obtaining it through ordinary channels was impossible. Thus, he could only return to his old trade.

In Jia Nan Academy's boundless mountain hinterland, Liu Yu first crossed the magical beast forest connecting Canaan City and Peace Town, arriving in Canaan City, where the academy stood. He then entered the academy directly and headed toward the hidden Inner Academy.

Amid the endless mountains behind the academy, Liu Yu relied on his Spirit Realm soul as he flew over the vast sea of trees. At a bottomless mountain ravine, he sensed an unusual spatial fluctuation.

That wasn't easy. I finally found it. An attractive smile curved Liu Yu's lips.

It had taken him most of the day to reach the Inner Academy's entrance from Peace Town. Without his powerful Soul Power, finding the Inner Academy alone would have taken a considerable amount of time.

Sensing that spatial fluctuation, Liu Yu descended toward the opposite side of the ravine and landed in a clearing.

Looking at the space before him, Liu Yu willed his blood-colored wings of dou qi to disappear. Bloody light flickered behind him, and three pairs of enormous crimson wings, covered in strange patterns and runes, slowly unfurled from his back.

When unleashed at full power, the Blood Thunder Sky Wings could perform spatial jumps. They were also what gave Liu Yu the confidence to sneak into the Inner Academy.

The dou qi within him surged, pouring steadily into the Six Wings on his back. The Blood Six Wings began to beat gently, sending peculiar spatial ripples outward. With a flash of bloody light, Liu Yu vanished.

At that moment, at an identical forest entrance, a figure with Six Wings abruptly emerged from empty space, accompanied by faint traces of spatial fluctuations.

"I should be inside the Inner Academy now," Liu Yu murmured, looking at the forest ahead. The Blood Thunder Sky Wings' spatial jumping ability really was a cheat. It had even allowed him to experience the wonders of spatial power ahead of time while still in the dou huang realm. Now, once he crossed this forest, he would truly arrive at the Inner Academy.

His Blood Six Wings beat softly, and Liu Yu vanished again.

The Inner Academy lay within an immense sunken basin, shaped as though a gigantic meteor had fallen from the heavens and smashed it into the earth.

Towering buildings stood within the basin. From time to time, dark figures could be seen darting and leaping across them like fleas.

His gaze shifted slightly toward the basin's northern section, where the buildings were comparatively sparse and a vast open space could just be made out within. Most of the darting figures were also heading north.

Seeing this, Liu Yu immediately performed a spatial jump, slipping into the void in an instant. When he reappeared, he was already above a sunken stretch of terrain. Concealed within the void, he silently observed everything below.

What appeared before Liu Yu was an enormous black tower. It was buried deep underground, with only a section of its tip and a level containing a pitch-black entrance exposed above the surface.

In Liu Yu's perception, an invisible barrier surrounded the tower. A defense that distorted space like this required at least Dou Zun-level strength to establish.

The Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower could be called the Inner Academy's lifeblood, for the fallen heart flame was suppressed beneath it. The tower used subsidiary flames projected by the fallen heart flame to help students burn away the impurities in the dou qi they absorbed from outside. This spared them the step of purifying their dou qi, reduced the time required to accumulate it, and maximized their cultivation efficiency.

The fallen heart flame could truly be called a cultivation cheat!

Of course, its usefulness was much more limited for experts above Dou Emperor, though it still had some effect.

Watching the stream of people entering and leaving below, Liu Yu moved the Six Wings on his back and performed another spatial jump, entering the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower.

The sixth level of the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower.

The instant Liu Yu emerged from empty space, a cluster of invisible, formless fire suddenly appeared inside him. Yet the moment it appeared, it was devoured by the Mystic Lotus Ice Flame within his body.

Liu Yu naturally recognized this subsidiary flame of the fallen heart flame. But that was not what he wanted—he wanted a wisp of its essence.

Arriving at the center of the sixth level, Liu Yu turned his gaze toward the bottomless black shaft. At the same time, icy-blue flames began to well up in his red eyes. Within moments, his crimson pupils had turned icy blue.

As though sensing something, the space within the endless darkness below the opening began to distort slightly. Then, like an invisible fire python, the distorted space climbed toward the opening at a terrifying speed, accompanied by an exceptionally piercing hiss!

"Hiss..."

The strange sound spread from the pitch-black shaft like flashes of lightning. In an instant, the dim space below blazed with light, and the temperature soared. An ancient, terrifying aura slowly emerged from the black shaft, like lightning tearing apart the night as it broke free of that seemingly endless darkness.

At that moment, the empty space at the opening not far from Liu Yu became so violently distorted that it was on the verge of rupturing.

Yet the naked eye could not see what was causing the disturbance. The warped space, coupled with the hissing, made the entire sixth level of the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower seem eerie and sinister.

Liu Yu, however, could see a gigantic invisible fire python more than ten meters thick, its full length unknown!

Distorted flames enveloped the python's entire body. Its enormous mouth gaped open, and fangs as thick as Liu Yu's thigh radiated warped ripples. Invisible fire continually spurted from its huge triangular eyes.

Twisting its immense body slightly, the fire python fixed its triangular eyes on Liu Yu. Meanwhile, Liu Yu was suppressing the Mystic Lotus Ice Flame within him, which had sensed the provocation and become extremely agitated.

He knew the Mystic Lotus Ice Flame was furious right now. But hold your temper. It won't do to scare this python away. The python was the sentience born within the fallen heart flame and could be called a Fire Spirit. Its strength rivaled that of a Mid-Rank Dou Zong.

But Liu Yu's Mystic Lotus Ice Flame was a powerful heavenly flame comparable to those ranked eighth or ninth on the Heavenly Flame Ranking. Although its strength did not match that ranking and was only at the Dou Zong level, it was, after all, still a "youth," still growing. Only once it matured would it truly live up to that standing.

Even so, an enormous gulf existed between the essence of the fallen heart flame and that of his Mystic Lotus Ice Flame. Its aura alone could probably "scare the fallen heart flame to death"... (Fallen heart flame: ?)

After soothing the Mystic Lotus Ice Flame, Liu Yu took a jade bottle from his Storage Ring, poured out several Qi Cultivation Pills, and stuffed them all into his mouth without the slightest concern for appearances.

The Blood Thunder Sky Wings' spatial jump really was useful, but it consumed quite a bit of dou qi. With his current strength as a Seven-Star Dou Huang, he could probably use it somewhere between a dozen and twenty-odd times.

As for the fire python glaring and hissing at him, Liu Yu ignored it entirely. Once he recovered to peak condition, he would teach it a lesson.

At that moment, however, Liu Yu sensed someone approaching the sixth level of the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower.

He had jumped to the sixth level precisely because he had sensed Dou Emperors stationed on the lowest few levels, while the elder guarding this level was absent and no one else was there.

Liu Yu frowned slightly, instantly concealed his aura, and vanished.

At the entrance to the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower's sixth level, a young woman in a silver dress slowly walked in.

She was tall and slender, with a slightly lean face of a beauty rarely found in this world. Her skin was white as snow, her brows and eyes as lovely as a painting. Her waist-length hair was an uncommon silver. Together with her silver dress, it gave her an aloof air that kept others a thousand miles away, like someone to be admired from afar but never approached irreverently.

Hidden in the shadows, Liu Yu's expression shifted slightly. Our hair colors clash?!

After carefully studying the woman's hair, Liu Yu realized that her silver hair leaned toward gray, whereas his was pure silver... (Han Yue: ...)

At the opening, the enormous invisible fire python suddenly discovered that the person who had made it shudder had vanished. It could not help letting out an angry roar.

The space at the pitch-black opening suddenly rippled. Around the shaft, space twisted strangely, forming a spatial cage. When the python crashed into it with tremendous force, it merely sent a ripple through the cage and achieved nothing more.

Finding no hope of breaking through, the python grew increasingly frenzied. Invisible flames poured from its enormous mouth, blanketing the space around it. Flames capable of reducing a Dou Huang expert to ashes in an instant upon contact relentlessly scorched the spatial cage. Unfortunately, no matter how fiercely they burned, the cage remained firmly in place.

At that moment, Han Yue, who had entered the tower's sixth level, could not help showing surprise and uncertainty on her cool face.

The incessant hissing from the central opening, the warped space surrounding it, and the astonishing heat unlike anything she normally experienced filled her with intense unease. It felt as though some peerless monstrosity were staring ferociously at her from that pitch-black shaft!

Han Yue's instincts were not wrong. Within the black shaft, the fire python, with nowhere to vent its savage fury, slowly turned its enormous triangular eyes toward her.

As the situation felt increasingly eerie, Han Yue stopped hesitating and prepared to report it to an elder.

Yet just as Han Yue was about to turn around, her body abruptly froze. Her cool, beautiful face instantly flushed red, and wisps of pale white vapor seeped from her delicate body with sizzling sounds like roasting meat.

Han Yue was filled with horror. The invisible flame that had suddenly appeared inside her was completely different from the flames she normally used for cultivation. This wisp was much larger, and it was burning not only her body but her soul as well!

After raising its head and letting out a furious hiss, the fire python at the opening distorted space, became invisible, and burrowed back into the depths of the black shaft.

Within just a few breaths, Han Yue was exhausted in body and mind, her consciousness beginning to blur. She knelt on one knee, barely supporting herself with her delicate hand. Now, she resisted that wisp of invisible flame solely through her body's instinct to survive.

At that moment, a figure with six crimson wings silently appeared before Han Yue.

Thanks to Tianwu for the two monthly votes.

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