"Bastards! I'll grind your bones to dust and scatter your ashes!"
Su Qian roared in the sky, cradling the unconscious Purple-Haired Girl in his arms.
After sensing the jade pendant in the Inner Academy shatter-a pendant containing a wisp of his soul power-he had rushed over from Black Seal City without stopping.
Yet he had still arrived too late.
"Great Elder, Han Feng and the Gold and Silver Elders led a large group of Dou Huang experts from the Black-Corner Region into the Inner Academy. They even stole the fallen heart flame..."
The Inner Academy's elders flew over to Su Qian one after another, all in a wretched state.
"Well, well! What a fine Medicine Emperor! He actually lured the tiger away from its mountain!"
Su Qian's chest heaved.
Yesterday. Just yesterday.
Han Feng had still been attending the auction with him in Black Seal City. Who could have imagined that, overnight, he would storm the Inner Academy and steal its heavenly flame?
"After all these years, this is the first time anyone has come knocking at Jia Nan Academy's door to kill our people and steal our flame! The very first time!"
"Great Elder, by our rough estimate, dozens of students died, and two elders fell in battle. Everyone else was injured. As for Zi Yan, they joined forces and struck her together..."
"Zi Yan..." Su Qian gently laid Zi Yan down, uncontainable killing intent spilling from his eyes.
The Purple-Haired Girl in his arms was Zi Yan, whose monstrous strength had kept her firmly at the top of the Inner Academy's strong ranking for years.
Su Qian surveyed the scene. Although the academy had suffered casualties, it had not met with utter destruction.
After all, this group's target had always been the heavenly flame. Had they truly come to destroy Jia Nan Academy, never mind the Inner Academy's students-even these Dou Wang elders would probably have struggled to survive at the hands of the Gold and Silver Elders.
With strength comparable to a Dou Zong expert, the Gold and Silver Elders entering the Inner Academy had been like tigers plunging into a flock of sheep. No one could stop them.
"Zi Yan still has a faint heartbeat. We must find a way to treat her immediately!"
Su Qian muttered with a frown.
A little while later, Hu Gan and several other elders finally arrived, travel-worn from their hurried journey.
The Jiama Empire.
The Misty Cloud Sect's main hall.
"Teacher, what do you mean, finding me a husband is for my own good? As sect leader, I do not consent to this marriage selection."
A lightly made-up young woman walked slowly toward the somewhat dispirited old man at the head of the hall, her feet clad in cloud-patterned high heels edged with silver thread.
Her fitted brocade robe, gold trimmed with purple, outlined her tall, exquisite figure; her flowing dark hair was swept into the shape of a phoenix raising its head in a long cry; her face was serene and beautiful, like a clear spring deep in secluded mountains, inspiring awe at her noble status while inevitably stirring a trace of desire.
Cloudlike and immortal, she carried herself with restrained grace.
"Click, click, click!"
Her toes lightly touched the green jade floor, polished smooth as a mirror, producing soft, crisp taps. Pale green Dou Qi light flowed down her slender ankles, quietly dissipating whenever her heels landed. When she stood still, those slim silver heels hovered slightly like sword points, leaving only the balls of her feet against the floor and shaping her entire figure into a silhouette of consummate elegance.
"Yun'er, do you have no idea how old you are?" Yun Shan snapped.
Yun Yun: "?"
The air suddenly froze.
The clicking of her high heels also came to an abrupt halt.
Seeming to feel that his words had been a little harsh, Yun Shan gave a dry cough.
"All these years, you've had to cultivate and raise your realm while also handling the sect's affairs. You've worked hard, but a woman's marriage truly cannot be put off."
Yun Yun lowered her gaze to the aged, somewhat dispirited man before her. It was hard to imagine that he was the same Sect Leader Yun Shan who had once brimmed with vigor and sworn to restore the sect's glory.
It seemed her teacher had failed his breakthrough and did not have much time left.
Yun Yun turned her head slightly, concealing the melancholy in her eyes.
"Teacher, if this is your wish, then your disciple will obey."
"But any man who wishes to be my husband must defeat me fair and square on Misty Cloud Mountain!"
Seeing Yun Yun finally relent, Yun Shan hurriedly nodded. "Naturally! Yun'er's husband cannot possibly be some Dou Zhe. If word spread that a Dou Emperor had fallen for a Dou Zhe, and that Dou Emperor was Yun Yun, would our Misty Cloud Sect have any face left?"
At those words, Yun Yun's slender body stiffened.
Her gaze cleared, as though she had somehow broken the shackles of fate and escaped a certain restraint.
What a joke.
A Dou Emperor falling for a Dou Zhe, and that Dou Emperor being Yun Yun?
What greenhorn brat was indulging in such a grand daydream?
"Also, don't go to the Magical Beast Mountain Range. Stay and keep your teacher company for a while!"
"Mm!"
The Magical Beast Mountain Range.
Xiao Yan of the Xiao Clan, who was sitting cross-legged and diligently absorbing Dou Qi, suddenly shuddered and looked around in bewilderment.
"What's wrong, my disciple?" A soul body drifted out of the Storage Ring, looking at the youth with concern.
"Nothing. I just suddenly felt as though I'd lost a few opportunities... Like my luck isn't as good anymore!"
The illusory old man laughed. "Haha, my disciple, you're simply tired from cultivating. In all my life, I've never seen luck as strong as yours. Here, let your teacher give you a few medicinal formulas..."
Fan Tian stared in astonishment at the White-Clad Little Girl lying on the stretcher before him.
"You're saying her name is Zi Yan?"
"Mansion Lord Fan, there's absolutely no mistake. She's Zi Yan from our Jia Nan Academy!" an Inner Academy elder said breathlessly.
"She's that Zi Yan who ranks first on your Inner Academy's whatever-it's-called strong ranking?"
"That's right!"
"She's really the Zi Yan Great Elder Su Qian found deep in the mountains and brought back?"
"Mansion Lord Fan, there's only one Zi Yan at Jia Nan Academy, and she's right here. Please hurry and save her!"
The Inner Academy elder gave Fan Tian a detailed account of how Han Feng and the others had severely injured Zi Yan.
Fan Tian was inwardly startled, though his expression did not shift in the slightest. The ancient void dragon truly is formidable. With a mere Dou Wang-level body, she actually dared to take a Dou Zong-level strike head-on-and survived a combined blow from so many Dou Emperors!
He looked at the two Inner Academy elders, then at the curious faces of Dan Chen and Cao Ying, and made up his mind.
"Her injuries are too severe. I'm afraid saving her will be very difficult!"
The Inner Academy elder seemed to have expected this. He said slowly, "Before we came, the Great Elder told us that he was the one who brought this little girl to the Inner Academy. Now that she's nearly given her life for it, she can be considered to have repaid both him and Jia Nan Academy for raising her."
He suddenly raised his head and stared at Fan Tian's face.
"If Mansion Lord Fan can save her life, then she wasn't fated to die. Even if she follows you from now on, that would be her good fortune!"
Joy appeared on Fan Tian's face.
"You mean that?"
"I mean it!"
Fan Tian scooped Zi Yan up and headed straight for the rear courtyard.
"Ying'er, Chen'er, what are you standing around for? Hurry and take out your Seventh-Tier Healing Pills! And the Eighth-Tier Life-Saving Pills your teachers refined for you!"
Cao Ying: "You bastard, drop dead! Go ask your Blue-Haired Girlfriend for them!"
Dan Chen: "Bad big brother! You're tricking Chen'er out of her pills again. I'll stomp you to death tonight!"
The Inner Academy elder: "..."
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