Draining the Fallen Heart Flame and Breaking Through to Dou Wang!

"Stop!"

A booming voice rang throughout the elders' courtyard.

Boom!

In an instant, the space around them seemed to be bound, and a terrifying surge of Dou Qi sent them all staggering back.

Elders Liu and Hao immediately recognized the Dou Qi as the First Elder's.

The four who had been forced apart looked up at the sky, where Su Qian was slowly descending with two Inner Academy elders.

"What are you doing?!"

The moment Elder Hao saw the situation, he guessed that the two most likely knew the First Elder, and that perhaps he had let them both in.

When Su Qian asked, Liu Ying immediately stepped forward and shouted, "First Elder, these two sneaked into our Inner Academy's resource storehouse. After I discovered them, they even attacked us!"

Hearing this, Su Qian frowned slightly and looked at Zi Yan and Sun Qi with some confusion.

"What happened with you two?"

Although Zi Yan was a magical beast, she was also fiercely loyal.

She pulled Sun Qi behind her and puffed out her small chest. "I did it, so I'll take responsibility."

"I ate all the medicinal ingredients in there, and I was the one who brought Sun Qi in. If there's a problem, come to me. Don't give Sun Qi any trouble!"

That left Su Qian at a loss. He hadn't expected the little girl to be so loyal.

But... she had run in here to steal food?

Seeing this, Sun Qi immediately stepped forward to explain.

"Elder Su, Zi Yan and I came in to look for food."

"As soon as you brought us to the academy, you ran off on your own. We were both still hungry, so when Zi Yan smelled food here, she brought me in."

The elders around them finally understood. After all that, the First Elder had brought the two of them back.

Just then, Elder Hao suddenly noticed something they had overlooked.

"Wait, how did you two get in?!"

Zi Yan tipped up her nose, her expression utterly casual. "We walked straight in, of course."

"What else? Would we have crawled in?"

Elder Hao was dumbfounded, and even Su Qian and the other elders looked confused.

What did she mean, she had walked straight in?

"Elder Liu, did we turn off the array when we went out today?" Elder Hao hurriedly asked Liu Ying.

Elder Liu shook his head. "Are you joking? We've been elders at the academy for how many years now? How could we make such a low-level mistake?"

"No! Doesn't the elders' courtyard have a spatial array? How did a Dou Wang like you break through it?!"

Everyone turned to Zi Yan, curious as well as shocked.

Zi Yan tilted her head. "I just walked in like this."

With that, she casually demonstrated how she had torn the spatial array apart with her hands.

The array that enveloped the entire elders' courtyard was torn open by a light tug from Zi Yan, leaving a gap as tall as a person.

"Shattering space! A Dou Zong expert!"

"Th-th-this... how is this possible?!"

Just then, Sun Qi stepped forward to explain. "That's Zi Yan's innate divine ability. She's a magical beast, so isn't it perfectly normal for her to have a bloodline divine ability?"

The elders all turned to Su Qian, hoping he would explain.

But Su Qian didn't know how to explain it either. He had never seen Zi Yan's true form, so how could he know about her innate divine ability?

In the end, Elder Hao took stock of the resource storehouse and found that only some low-level medicinal ingredients were missing, so he let the matter of Zi Yan go.

He merely told the two that if they were hungry in the future, they could come to the elders' courtyard and ask for food.

The elders were overjoyed to have recruited two monstrous talents into the academy, but they realized that, apart from the academy head, there seemed to be no one in the academy who could teach them.

Zi Yan's realm was too high, and she did nothing but eat, drink, and fight.

Sun Qi's comprehension was simply too heaven-defying. On top of that, he had received two and a half years of compulsory education at Starfall Pavilion. He could master techniques that baffled many Inner Academy elders after seeing them once.

Sometimes, Inner Academy elders even came to him for advice.

So the Inner Academy elders simply gave Sun Qi access to the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower afterward, letting him advance his realm inside.

With nothing to do, Zi Yan went and tricked the older Inner Academy students, then gave them all a beating.

A complaint was lodged with the elders' courtyard, and afterward, Su Qian simply made her stay there, refusing to let her go out and wreak havoc on the Inner Academy disciples.

In the blink of an eye, another three months passed. By then, Sun Qi had been at Jia Nan Academy for almost a full year.

That day, on the lowest floor of the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower, Sun Qi sat cross-legged in the innermost cultivation room.

[Ding!]

[Congratulations to the host on breaking through to the fifth realm. Rewards obtained: Phoenix-Winged Purple-Gold Crown, Golden Chainmail Armor, Lotus-Thread Cloud-Stepping Boots, Fiery Golden Eyes!]

[Daily missions have been refreshed!]

[Mission one: hunt down and kill Han Feng in the Black-Corner Region.]

[Clue: Han Feng has already subdued the Sea Heart Flame and become a Dou Wang expert, entering the upper circles of the Black-Corner Region. He is known as Medicine King Han Feng.]

[Mission reward: Thousand-Li Tracking Technique!]

[Mission two: kill one of the Black-Corner Region's ten strongest experts.]

[Mission reward: Great Clone Universally Beneficial Divine Technique!]

[Mission three: become one of the Black-Corner Region's ten strongest experts.]

[Mission reward: Finger-Grinding and Spell-Chanting (chant a spell to immobilize another person in real time)]

Sun Qi had broken through to Dou Wang!

Nearby, Inner Academy disciples who were about to enter the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower to cultivate had barely taken two steps when they saw a beam of golden light shoot into the sky from within the tower.

"Look! Something seems to be coming out of the tower!"

"What's happening? Could the Heavenly Flame be running wild?! Hurry and notify the Inner Academy elders to come suppress it!"

At the same time, the elders in the elders' courtyard all sensed the disturbance coming from the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower.

Su Qian, who was meditating in the courtyard, abruptly opened his eyes.

Gazing at the pillar of light rising into the sky in the distance, he murmured, "This presence feels somewhat familiar."

Before long, the Inner Academy elders gathered near the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower.

"What's going on? Why doesn't this presence feel like the Fallen Heart Flame's?"

"Obviously. The Fallen Heart Flame's presence is much stronger than this!"

Just as everyone was considering entering the tower to investigate, a streak of purple light flew rapidly toward them from the horizon.

"Sun Qi!!!"

Zi Yan's voice carried throughout the Inner Academy. When the students saw her appear, they fled in all directions, terrified that this little fiend would catch them, throw them onto the fighting platform, and give them a brutal beating.

Hearing Zi Yan's shout, the elders finally remembered that there seemed to be someone in seclusion at the bottom of the tower.

"Wait! Sun Qi? That Dou Ling kid the First Elder brought back before?!"

"With a presence like this, could he have broken through to Dou Wang?!"

The elders had barely finished speaking when a golden figure flew out of the tower and landed steadily before everyone.

"Dou Qi Wings!"

"Th-th-this! He really is a Dou Wang! You really broke through to Dou Wang!"

The elders stared at Sun Qi in disbelief. The Sun Qi before them now felt like a stranger.

Though they hadn't been very familiar with Sun Qi to begin with.

"Huh? The smell is right, but are you really Sun Qi?"