Battle Through the Heavens

“Xiao Yan, this ‘Pan Gate’ has just been established and you have already run away. In the many years that I was part of the Law Enforcement Unit, this is the first time that I have seen such an irresponsible leader…” Wu Hao complained helplessly to Xiao Yan who was swiftly walking in front of him on this spacious road. After this fellow had confirmed the name of the faction earlier, he had thrown the matter of settling the new students to Xun Er and Hu Jia before finding an excuse to slip away.

“They will be able to get it done properly. I only created the effect of gathering people’s hearts. Now that I have already pulled people in, I can naturally rely on those two to settle the troublesome matters. It would not be too late for us to show ourselves and take responsibility if someone were to create trouble.” Xiao Yan slowed his footsteps and laughed toward Wu Hao. After which, he turned his head and eyed the spacious road around him. At this time, there would be some older students from the Inner Academy rushing past on the road. However, there were not many people who gave much attention to Xiao Yan and Wu Hao. Clearly, not all of the older students had heard the name of the leader of this batch of new students.

Wu Hao helplessly shook his head. He then lifted it, looked at the the road, which extended in all directions, and asked, “Where are you planning to go?”

“Let’s go to the north to take a look…” Xiao Yan’s finger slowly rubbed the black ring as he lifted his chin to the north. After listening to what Yao Lao had said last night, he might be able to obtain some clues about the ‘Heavenly Flame’ if he were to search in that general area. The current Xiao Yan felt impatient when it came to searching for the ‘Heavenly Flame’ in order to enable himself to swiftly raise his strength. Hence, he did not want to delay for even a moment.

“North?” Wu Hao was stunned momentarily before he nodded his head indifferently. In any case, they had come out to familiarize themselves with the school grounds. It didn’t matter where they went.

“Let’s go.” Xiao Yan waved his hand. His feet abruptly stomped on the ground. Following an energy explosion, his entire body emitted a ‘xiu’ sound as he shot away. The speed of his body caused some of the older students coming and going to display surprise in their eyes.

“This fellow…” Wu Hao shook his head. Some blood-colored Dou Qi suddenly surfaced on his legs. As the Dou Qi fluctuated slightly, Wu Hao’s body also became slightly illusory. Immediately, his body quivered and actually bizarrely disappeared from that spot. When he next appeared, he was already ten meters away. In a few flashes, he swiftly gave chase after Xiao Yan.

From the Agility Dou Qi that both Xiao Yan and Wu Hao displayed, it was undoubtedly that the latter appeared a little more ethereal. If he were to fight with others, this kind of agility would cause his opponent to have a headache.

“What a strange Agility Dou Technique….” The older students coming and going watched a bloody shadow, which disappeared from their sight, and could not help but voice their praises.

The size of the Inner Academy was so large that it was a little beyond Xiao Yan’s and Wu Hao’s expectations. The two of them expended their energy and ran wildly for nearly half an hour. However, they still did not reached the boundaries of the Inner Academy. Along the way, they were frequently able to see some battle circles where people sparred and had heated fights. There were quite a number of people watching around them. Some people, who were more talkative, would shout out the openings that were exposed by the two fighters as they watched. In the end, it caused the two people fighting to feel more alarmed the more they fought. In the end, they could only withdraw their hands and pull back with faces filled with melancholy.

“Those who can enter the Inner Academy of the Jia Nan Academy are indeed not ordinary people. This kind of in depth sight is sufficient to cause those Outer Academy students to be unable to match.” Xiao Yan sighed when he withdrew his gaze from a certain battle circle.

“Most of the students here have undergone various refining. If any random one of them were placed in an empire within the continent, it is likely that they would be treated as a genius. The eyesight of these people is not surprising.” Wu Hao smiled and continued, “However, the atmosphere here is indeed quite fierce. They would immediately start a fight on the spot to settle any disagreements.”

Xiao Yan smiled and nodded. His gaze swept around and was a little stunned to discover that for some unknown reason, there was an increasing number of people clustering over on this road headed north. Each of them unleashed their speed to the maximum. Hence, Xiao Yan and Wu Hao only saw human figures repeatedly rushing past the trees by the sides of the road as well as the ‘hu hu’ rushing wind sound.

“It looks like they are all hurrying north? What exactly is over there?” Wu Hao had similarly realized the increase in the number of students as he asked in surprise.

“Hei, We will know once we go over and take a look.” Xiao Yan smiled. His feet stepped off the ground as his body once again shot out. Finally, Wu Hao followed closely, like the maggots in a bone.

The quick traveling this time around lasted for another twenty plus minutes before Xiao Yan’s and Wu Hao’s speed gradually slowed. A large black mass, consisting of many students who had come to a stop, appeared in front of them at this moment.

“Why are there so many people?” Xiao Yan could not help but be stunned as he watched this black mass of people that were like ants.

“I don’t know…” Wu Hao was also unfamiliar with this place. Hence, he could only helplessly shake his head.

Xiao Yan fondled his chin with his hand. He took one look at the surroundings before swiftly arriving under a huge tree. He spoke to Wu Hao, “Let’s go up and take a look…” Once he said this, Xiao Yan leaped onto a tree branch without waiting for Wu Hao’s reply. His body was like an agile monkey as he climbed up the tree in an extremely agile manner. In merely dozens of seconds, his body appeared on top of a large tree with a single leap.

Xiao Yan watched the scene below from a high vantage point as he stood on the top of the tree. His gaze floated past the black mass of the human crowd and directly swept over to the front. Immediately, his face was startled. His mouth also slightly opened, “This is…?”

A depressed area appeared within Xiao Yan’s sight. Within that depression was an extremely large black tower deeply buried underground, revealing only the tip of the tower and a dark entrance.

The tower was buried in the ground?

This kind of extremely strange scene caused the astonishment on Xiao Yan’s face to become increasingly dense. It was a long while later before he gradually recovered and muttered, “Don’t tell me that this is the so-called ‘Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower?’ It is really unexpected… is it actually buried underground. Can one go in and train in there?”

Xiao Yan’s gaze swept in the details across the single layer of the tower that was above the ground. He suddenly knit his eyebrows as he discovered that the space surrounding the body of the tower appeared to be faintly twisted and had some wrinkles. He had seen this kind of defense at the Outer Academy’s ‘Book Collection Hall’…

“Good lord, they actually specially placed this level of defense…”

According to what Deputy Headmaster Hu Gan had explained last time, Xiao Yan clearly knew that in order to set up this kind of defense that twisted space, one would need to have at least the strength of a Dou Zun…

“Dou Zun…” Xiao Yan laughed bitterly and shook his head. A strong person of this class was really too frightening. They were actually able to use space, something which was ethereal and invisible, to do whatever they pleased. Just what kind of terrifying realm was Dou Sheng, or even Dou Di which was above both of them?

“Chi…”

Just as Xiao Yan was repeatedly marveling the frightening strength of an elite Dou Zun, a large rushing wind sound appeared not far behind him. He turned his head and was a little shocked to realize that dozens of human figures flashed over from far away. The speed of these people was extremely fast. In less than ten seconds, the human figures steadily and orderly appeared on the branches of a few large trees beside Xiao Yan.

“These people are quite strong…” Upon inspecting these human figures at close proximity, Xiao Yan realized that theses dozens of human figures all wore a badge, similar to a leaf, on their chests. It appeared that these people all belonged to the same faction.

“Ah, there are indeed many factions within the Inner Academy. Our ‘Pan Gate’ has only just been created…” Xiao Yan laughed bitterly and shook his head. His gaze stared at those human figures only to realize that they had already rushed down by themselves after observing the scene below. The large group of people dived down from high up in the air before they directly charged to the front of the large group of black mass in an extremely rude and unreasonable manner.

This action of forcefully cutting queue clearly caused everyone to be angry. However, when people saw the leaf-shaped badge on their chests, they could only angrily swallow the words that reached their mouths.

“I think that this faction should have quite a great amount of strength within the Inner Academy…” Xiao Yan watched everyone’s reaction with his eyes as he softly muttered. Immediately, he moved along the tree trunk and swiftly leaped down.

When his legs landed on the ground, Wu Hao, who had not stood beside him, hurriedly met up with him. He asked, “Have you checked it out clearly?”

“This place seems to be the ‘Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower.’” Xiao Yan patted his hands and immediately squeezed toward the crowd. He smiled and said, “Let’s go, let us see just what use this ‘Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower’ has. It can actually allow people to train with such great speed.”

“This is the ‘Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower?’” Wu Hao’s expression was slightly joyful when he heard this. He hurriedly followed Xiao Yan and did his best to squeeze into the human crowd. Clearly, he was also very interested in this thing.

When Xiao Yan and Wu Hao reached the limit of the human flow after some difficult squeezing, they could no longer squeeze forward. The reason was not that the people in front had been squeezed until it was packed. On the contrary, there was an extremely spacious empty ground in front of them. A couple of dozens of meters, on the opposite side of the empty ground, was that mysterious black tower deeply buried in the ground.

At this moment, the spacious ground was divided into a couple of areas in an extremely orderly manner. There were a large group of people seated with their eyes shut within each area. Xiao Yan’s gaze swept over these human figures. He realized that the people he had seen on the treetops were among them.

“These people should belong to some of the stronger factions within the Inner Academy. They are rather overbearing. They need not to wait in line and can directly occupy the best positions. Tsk tsk, no wonder Atai said that in the Inner Academy, one must build or join some strong factions in order to obtain the best training conditions.” Wu Hao said in a soft voice.

“It is indeed a little over-bearing…” Xiao Yan nodded a little. He deeply observed the various factions, whose members were seated cross-legged with their eyes closed. He did not come into the limelight and walk into that circle. He understood that currently, ‘Pan Gate’ did not possess that kind of qualifications. Once he advanced to the ‘Dou Ling’ class, he might perhaps be able to stand among them. However, for now, it was better to keep a low profile.

“Dong!”

Just as Xiao Yan and Wu Hao were softly discussing, an ancient gong sounded mightily in this area. Following the sounding of the gong, the noisiness came to an abrupt halt.

“Open the tower!”

As the gong sounded, an old voice appeared to be transmitted out from within the tower.

Not long after the old voice sounded, one could see that the dark, black door, which was tightly shut, began to slowly creak open. A faint hot aura seeped out from it, causing the temperature of this area to be raised slightly.

Xiao Yan’s eyes suddenly shrunk as he sensed the temperature difference. His hand had also tightened at this moment.

“Enter the tower!”

The old voice sounded once again. Immediately, all of the people in the empty ground with their eyes closed suddenly opened them. They abruptly stood up. One could only hear the sound of rushing wind as the numerous human figures shot explosively toward the tower entrance from all directions.

“Go, let’s go in as well.”

Xiao Yan restrained his heart, which had suddenly become agitated. He waved his hand at Wu Hao and led the way into the empty ground. After which, they swiftly walked toward the mysterious black tower buried deep underground.

As they narrowed the distance between them and the tower, Xiao Yan finally truly sensed the enormous size of this black tower. This was merely just a level that was exposed above the surface. Yet, it was actually equivalent to a two or three story building. The corner of an iceberg was like this. It was difficult to imagine just how majestic the body of the tower, that was hidden underground, was.

Xiao Yan’s footsteps paused a couple of meters in front of the black tower. He gave way to others and stood off to the side, weighing this black tower, which appeared a little ancient, in great detail. He did not know what material was used to build the tower, but it faintly emitted a heaviness and… icy-coldness?

“What a strange place. The interior of the tower is clearly filled with a fiery heat, but they used a material that contains coldness to build the body of the tower? This… how strange.” Xiao Yan shook his head slightly. He had some doubts. Completely opposite effects were coexisting in the same place. This kind of implementation usually only existed when suppressing something.

“Let’s go, Xiao Yan.” Wu Hao urged as he pulled Xiao Yan, whose eyes was staring intently at the black tower.

“Yes.” Xiao Yan smiled and nodded. He turned his head and eyed the black front door. For some unknown reason something within his body moved slightly.

As they moved closer and closer to the main entrance of the black tower, the pounding of Xiao Yan’s heart became increasingly intense. A moment later, as he stood in front of the main entrance, his palms were actually filled with perspiration.

Xiao Yan stood in front of the main door and inhaled a deep breath of air. He suppressed the emotions in his heart and clenched his teeth. His heart was unruly as he lifted his feet and immediately stepped heavily into the darkness behind the main entrance.

The light in front of him suddenly darkened. An instant later, Xiao Yan sensed that his feet were stepping on the surface of a tough rock. However, his heart did not have the time to relax after his feet stepped on firm ground when his expression suddenly changed drastically. A delicate and handsome face suddenly became as red as burning charcoal. This scene… was extremely strange!