After Xiao Ming and Su Qian discussed the exchange of the Fallen Heart Flame, the Elders of the Inner Academy became busy again.
Many Elders who were serving in the Outer Academy were called back to the Inner Academy, in order to use the Thousand Layer Sealing Formation to prevent the Fallen Heart Flame from escaping.
The Elders were not unhappy with the sudden call, as this was because the exchange of the Heavenly Flames was beneficial to them as well.
At least after Xiao Ming successfully exchanged the Heavenly Flame, the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower would not need to assign an Elder to guard the Tower at every level, and they would have a lot of free time.
Aside from the Inner Academy Elders, Inner Academy students were also affected, as many students who wanted to go to the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower to cultivate were told that the Tower would be closed for a period of time.
This caused many cultivation enthusiasts to lament for a while, but luckily, the closure of the Tower would not be for long and did not cause much commotion.
After making all the necessary preparations, Su Qian and the others officially began the operation to suppress the Fallen Heart Flame.
...
Today had been a busy day for the Inner Academy, as it was customary for the Inner Academy to hold a monthly event where all the students entered the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower to train. The Inner Academy students were very supportive of this event, as they did not need to pay any "fire energy" to enter the Tower to train that day, and today, it happened to be that day of the month.
However, when they saw the closed door of the Tower, they suddenly remembered that the Tower had been closed for the past two days. Naturally, this once-a-month event was also suspended.
Not many people were cursing at the loss of profits. Because of the Tower's closure, the academy gave each person three days of fire energy as compensation. Three days of fire energy may not seem like much, but it was better than nothing.
Many people chose to leave after seeing the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower closed. And at that moment, one after another, quite a few Elders appeared outside the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower.
Along with the increasing number of Elders, many quick-minded people guessed that something big was about to happen.
Therefore, many people stopped to see what was going on, and the crowd outside the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower grew larger and larger as a result.
After a long wait, suddenly a clamor was heard from the crowd. In the sky, five white-haired and white-bearded Elders flew up together.
When the Elders arrived, many of them flew directly towards the Tower, but the reason for the crowd's astonishment was that none of them wore wings on their backs. Wingless and still able to fly in the sky... the two words "Dou Ancestor" suddenly appeared in the students' minds.
"Oh my god! Since when do we have so many Dou Ancestors at Jia Nan Academy!?"
"A Dou Ancestor can be considered a powerhouse even in the entire Continent!"
"Wow, those are First Elder Su Qian, Deputy Headmaster Hu Gan, Outer Academy Elders Lei Yi and Wu Tianlang, and Elder Xiao Ming's Master, Elder Huo!" One of the more perceptive students in the crowd recognized the five individuals as they flew into view.
A man wearing an Alchemist robe beside him sighed, "I heard that Elder Huo is already a sixth-tier Alchemist. How great it would be if I could become his disciple, and thus become Elder Xiao Ming's brother's disciple. This way, 'some people' wouldn't dare to mess with us again."
As he spoke, the Alchemist's eyes strayed to the left, where there were seven or eight delicate figures, headed by a young woman dressed in a silver robe.
The woman's figure was tall and her cheeks were somewhat thin, but her face was of rare beauty. Her skin was as white as snow, her eyebrows were picturesque, and she had beautiful silver hair that reached her waist.
Although the appearance of the woman leading the group was very attractive, the tall beauty beside her with a pair of long, thick, snow-white legs, attracted the attention of many people.
The ice-cold woman listened to what the Alchemist said and gave him a sarcastic smile, causing the surrounding students to become slightly dazed.
She then said in a loud voice, "Your brother was harassing our faction member to exhaustion, and it was even you who got him a rare medicinal herb, clearly supporting his shameless act."
Xiao Yu, who was next to her, nodded at her words and added, "That lecher, Yao Huai, brought it on himself. He tried to do bad things to me and turned out to be expelled from the Academy by my cousin."
Under the accusation of the two women and the disgusted gaze of the crowd, the Alchemist felt ashamed and did not know how to defend himself.
It was true that he had wanted to help his brother when the latter asked him for help in conquering a beauty of his class, but he never imagined that his brother would go to the point of wanting to force the girl to go out with him and was even caught by Elder Xiao Ming himself, the person he admires most, while he was in the middle of the act.
When he heard the news, the first thing he did was to cut off the relationship with his cheap brother, and then he tried to apologize to Xiao Yu from his brother's side, but she never wanted to listen to him.
The moment Xiao Yu became a member of Moon Spirit, the whole faction of angry women started to suppress the Medicine Gang. There was no doubt that Xiao Yu was still the same old vengeful girl.
The Moon Spirit Faction, with Xiao Yi Xian's name, ranked number one in the Strong Ranking, as a backup, had grown frantically these past few months, and there was no faction that dared to antagonize them.
If it wasn't for Medicine Gang's great foundation, they would have disbanded long ago. Even so, from having a monopoly of over 90% of pills sold within the Inner Academy, it had now gone to only 65%, and sales were still dropping steadily. This was because many of their best Alchemists had decided to leave the faction.
The two women no longer paid any more attention to the Alchemist, and instead, began chatting amongst themselves. "Speaking of which, Sister Han Yue, the blood relationship between cousin Xiao Ming and I is actually not as close as circulated in the Academy rumors. We are only distant relatives, our bloodlines are already far apart."
Han Yue was surprised when Xiao Yu mentioned something unexpected and immediately reprimanded her, "Xiao Yu, what things are you thinking of to mention that all of a sudden?"
"This... I don't know," Xiao Yu replied, sticking her tongue out in embarrassment. She didn't know why she had brought up the topic either.
Although she had wild thoughts in her heart from time to time, she was also aware of her own abilities and the gap between her and Xiao Ming. So, she had long ago given up those thoughts and instead focused on becoming stronger so that Xiao Ming could rest easy in leaving the Xiao Family in good hands in the future.
After meeting Xiao Yi Xian for the first time in an accident with Yao Huai, they had become close friends and had gone out together many times. She was also the one who had told Han Yue about Xiao Yi Xian and prevented her from having a bad impression of Xiao Yi Xian because of the rumors that had been going around the Academy during the tournament.
She had even had a couple of intimate conversations with Xiao Yi Xian, where she had taught her all the "knowledge" she had heard from her good friend at the Outer Academy, Xue Ni.
Seeing Xiao Yu's playful behavior, Han Yue sighed helplessly and shook her head. But being honest with herself, she knew that deep inside, she was also a little touched when it came to Elder Xiao Ming.
After all, she had only heard good things about him from Xiao Yi Xian, Xiao Yu, and Qing Lin, apart from his own reputation within the Academy. It was impossible not to have a good impression of someone like that.
However, she also knew about Xiao Yi Xian and Qing Lin's affection for him, so she, as a friend of both of them, felt it was inappropriate to try to get close to him. Wouldn't that be trying to steal a friend's man? And it would even be to two friends...
So, she tried to bury her thoughts deep in her heart.
As she finished sighing, Han Yue turned to look somewhere in the sky and was immediately startled and unconsciously blurted out quite happily, "Elder Xiao Ming seems to be here!"
"Where?" Xiao Yu turned to look at the various figures of the Elders flying towards the Tower, until she noticed a small black dot approaching in the distance, and said in surprise. "How come you recognized him from so far away...? Don't tell me... hee hee"
Xiao Yu was surprised at first, but then seemed to think of something and turned to look at Han Yue with a mischievous smile on her face.
Han Yue knew she had messed up, her face flushed slightly, and she did the smartest thing she could think of at the moment, which was to pretend she hadn't heard her.
Seeing Han Yue's flushed face looking up at the sky as if she hadn't heard her a moment ago, made Xiao Yu feel like she had discovered a big secret, and just as she was about to start questioning her to make her confess, a loud cheer suddenly erupted in the crowd.
Floating overhead, a figure recognized by most Inner Academy Students flew past all the students before landing on the group of Dou Ancestors.
Among a group of white-haired and white-bearded Elders, this person's young appearance was quite striking, but no one dared to say that he was not qualified to be there; the person who arrived was Xiao Ming.
Xiao Ming first nodded to the cheering crowd outside before looking at Su Qian and the others.
"Master, First Elder, Deputy Headmaster, Grand Commander!"
"You seem to be very popular among the students!" Su Qian smiled and stroked his beard.
In response, Xiao Ming only nodded with a bitter smile and then handed Su Qian The Flame Gathering Cauldron that was already filled with Heart Flame Essence. During these two days, he was in seclusion doing this.
"It seems that all preparations are complete, The Fallen Heart Flame is now in a dormant state, you must go to the Tower first and attract it with a Heavenly Flame for a while, after it appears, the Elders will work together to suppress it, and when it's time, it will be your turn to devour it". Su Qian took the Flame Gathering Cauldron from Xiao Ming's hands and said.
"Devouring a Heavenly Flame is dangerous, remember to be careful". He was reminded by Elder Huo standing beside him.
"I will". Xiao Ming faintly nodded his head.
Hearing this, the group of Elders did not speak again, what needed to be said had already been said in the past few days and there was no need to repeat it again now.
Su Qian shifted his gaze and looked at the students gathered around the Tower, and a deep voice suddenly came out of his mouth.
"All students immediately move away from the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower to a radius of at least two hundred meters, otherwise, you will be responsible for the consequences!"
After repeating it twice, Su Qian stopped, and after waiting for a moment, Su Qian said to the dozens of Elders gathered, "Prepare the Thousand Layer Sealing Formation!"
After Xiao Ming and Su Qian discussed the exchange of the Fallen Heart Flame, the Elders of the Inner Academy became busy again.
Many Elders who were serving in the Outer Academy were called back to the Inner Academy, in order to use the Thousand Layer Sealing Formation to prevent the Fallen Heart Flame from escaping.
The Elders were not unhappy with the sudden call, as this was because the exchange of the Heavenly Flames was beneficial to them as well.
At least after Xiao Ming successfully exchanged the Heavenly Flame, the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower would not need to assign an Elder to guard the Tower at every level, and they would have a lot of free time.
Aside from the Inner Academy Elders, Inner Academy students were also affected, as many students who wanted to go to the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower to cultivate were told that the Tower would be closed for a period of time.
This caused many cultivation enthusiasts to lament for a while, but luckily, the closure of the Tower would not be for long and did not cause much commotion.
After making all the necessary preparations, Su Qian and the others officially began the operation to suppress the Fallen Heart Flame.
...
Today had been a busy day for the Inner Academy, as it was customary for the Inner Academy to hold a monthly event where all the students entered the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower to train. The Inner Academy students were very supportive of this event, as they did not need to pay any "fire energy" to enter the Tower to train that day, and today, it happened to be that day of the month.
However, when they saw the closed door of the Tower, they suddenly remembered that the Tower had been closed for the past two days. Naturally, this once-a-month event was also suspended.
Not many people were cursing at the loss of profits. Because of the Tower's closure, the academy gave each person three days of fire energy as compensation. Three days of fire energy may not seem like much, but it was better than nothing.
Many people chose to leave after seeing the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower closed. And at that moment, one after another, quite a few Elders appeared outside the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower.
Along with the increasing number of Elders, many quick-minded people guessed that something big was about to happen.
Therefore, many people stopped to see what was going on, and the crowd outside the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower grew larger and larger as a result.
After a long wait, suddenly a clamor was heard from the crowd. In the sky, five white-haired and white-bearded Elders flew up together.
When the Elders arrived, many of them flew directly towards the Tower, but the reason for the crowd's astonishment was that none of them wore wings on their backs. Wingless and still able to fly in the sky... the two words "Dou Ancestor" suddenly appeared in the students' minds.
"Oh my god! Since when do we have so many Dou Ancestors at Jia Nan Academy!?"
"A Dou Ancestor can be considered a powerhouse even in the entire Continent!"
"Wow, those are First Elder Su Qian, Deputy Headmaster Hu Gan, Outer Academy Elders Lei Yi and Wu Tianlang, and Elder Xiao Ming's Master, Elder Huo!" One of the more perceptive students in the crowd recognized the five individuals as they flew into view.
A man wearing an Alchemist robe beside him sighed, "I heard that Elder Huo is already a sixth-tier Alchemist. How great it would be if I could become his disciple, and thus become Elder Xiao Ming's brother's disciple. This way, 'some people' wouldn't dare to mess with us again."
As he spoke, the Alchemist's eyes strayed to the left, where there were seven or eight delicate figures, headed by a young woman dressed in a silver robe.
The woman's figure was tall and her cheeks were somewhat thin, but her face was of rare beauty. Her skin was as white as snow, her eyebrows were picturesque, and she had beautiful silver hair that reached her waist.
Although the appearance of the woman leading the group was very attractive, the tall beauty beside her with a pair of long, thick, snow-white legs, attracted the attention of many people.
The ice-cold woman listened to what the Alchemist said and gave him a sarcastic smile, causing the surrounding students to become slightly dazed.
She then said in a loud voice, "Your brother was harassing our faction member to exhaustion, and it was even you who got him a rare medicinal herb, clearly supporting his shameless act."
Xiao Yu, who was next to her, nodded at her words and added, "That lecher, Yao Huai, brought it on himself. He tried to do bad things to me and turned out to be expelled from the Academy by my cousin."
Under the accusation of the two women and the disgusted gaze of the crowd, the Alchemist felt ashamed and did not know how to defend himself.
It was true that he had wanted to help his brother when the latter asked him for help in conquering a beauty of his class, but he never imagined that his brother would go to the point of wanting to force the girl to go out with him and was even caught by Elder Xiao Ming himself, the person he admires most, while he was in the middle of the act.
When he heard the news, the first thing he did was to cut off the relationship with his cheap brother, and then he tried to apologize to Xiao Yu from his brother's side, but she never wanted to listen to him.
The moment Xiao Yu became a member of Moon Spirit, the whole faction of angry women started to suppress the Medicine Gang. There was no doubt that Xiao Yu was still the same old vengeful girl.
The Moon Spirit Faction, with Xiao Yi Xian's name, ranked number one in the Strong Ranking, as a backup, had grown frantically these past few months, and there was no faction that dared to antagonize them.
If it wasn't for Medicine Gang's great foundation, they would have disbanded long ago. Even so, from having a monopoly of over 90% of pills sold within the Inner Academy, it had now gone to only 65%, and sales were still dropping steadily. This was because many of their best Alchemists had decided to leave the faction.
The two women no longer paid any more attention to the Alchemist, and instead, began chatting amongst themselves. "Speaking of which, Sister Han Yue, the blood relationship between cousin Xiao Ming and I is actually not as close as circulated in the Academy rumors. We are only distant relatives, our bloodlines are already far apart."
Han Yue was surprised when Xiao Yu mentioned something unexpected and immediately reprimanded her, "Xiao Yu, what things are you thinking of to mention that all of a sudden?"
"This... I don't know," Xiao Yu replied, sticking her tongue out in embarrassment. She didn't know why she had brought up the topic either.
Although she had wild thoughts in her heart from time to time, she was also aware of her own abilities and the gap between her and Xiao Ming. So, she had long ago given up those thoughts and instead focused on becoming stronger so that Xiao Ming could rest easy in leaving the Xiao Family in good hands in the future.
After meeting Xiao Yi Xian for the first time in an accident with Yao Huai, they had become close friends and had gone out together many times. She was also the one who had told Han Yue about Xiao Yi Xian and prevented her from having a bad impression of Xiao Yi Xian because of the rumors that had been going around the Academy during the tournament.
She had even had a couple of intimate conversations with Xiao Yi Xian, where she had taught her all the "knowledge" she had heard from her good friend at the Outer Academy, Xue Ni.
Seeing Xiao Yu's playful behavior, Han Yue sighed helplessly and shook her head. But being honest with herself, she knew that deep inside, she was also a little touched when it came to Elder Xiao Ming.
After all, she had only heard good things about him from Xiao Yi Xian, Xiao Yu, and Qing Lin, apart from his own reputation within the Academy. It was impossible not to have a good impression of someone like that.
However, she also knew about Xiao Yi Xian and Qing Lin's affection for him, so she, as a friend of both of them, felt it was inappropriate to try to get close to him. Wouldn't that be trying to steal a friend's man? And it would even be to two friends...
So, she tried to bury her thoughts deep in her heart.
As she finished sighing, Han Yue turned to look somewhere in the sky and was immediately startled and unconsciously blurted out quite happily, "Elder Xiao Ming seems to be here!"
"Where?" Xiao Yu turned to look at the various figures of the Elders flying towards the Tower, until she noticed a small black dot approaching in the distance, and said in surprise. "How come you recognized him from so far away...? Don't tell me... hee hee"
Xiao Yu was surprised at first, but then seemed to think of something and turned to look at Han Yue with a mischievous smile on her face.
Han Yue knew she had messed up, her face flushed slightly, and she did the smartest thing she could think of at the moment, which was to pretend she hadn't heard her.
Seeing Han Yue's flushed face looking up at the sky as if she hadn't heard her a moment ago, made Xiao Yu feel like she had discovered a big secret, and just as she was about to start questioning her to make her confess, a loud cheer suddenly erupted in the crowd.
Floating overhead, a figure recognized by most Inner Academy Students flew past all the students before landing on the group of Dou Ancestors.
Among a group of white-haired and white-bearded Elders, this person's young appearance was quite striking, but no one dared to say that he was not qualified to be there; the person who arrived was Xiao Ming.
Xiao Ming first nodded to the cheering crowd outside before looking at Su Qian and the others.
"Master, First Elder, Deputy Headmaster, Grand Commander!"
"You seem to be very popular among the students!" Su Qian smiled and stroked his beard.
In response, Xiao Ming only nodded with a bitter smile and then handed Su Qian The Flame Gathering Cauldron that was already filled with Heart Flame Essence. During these two days, he was in seclusion doing this.
"It seems that all preparations are complete, The Fallen Heart Flame is now in a dormant state, you must go to the Tower first and attract it with a Heavenly Flame for a while, after it appears, the Elders will work together to suppress it, and when it's time, it will be your turn to devour it". Su Qian took the Flame Gathering Cauldron from Xiao Ming's hands and said.
"Devouring a Heavenly Flame is dangerous, remember to be careful". He was reminded by Elder Huo standing beside him.
"I will". Xiao Ming faintly nodded his head.
Hearing this, the group of Elders did not speak again, what needed to be said had already been said in the past few days and there was no need to repeat it again now.
Su Qian shifted his gaze and looked at the students gathered around the Tower, and a deep voice suddenly came out of his mouth.
"All students immediately move away from the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower to a radius of at least two hundred meters, otherwise, you will be responsible for the consequences!"
After repeating it twice, Su Qian stopped, and after waiting for a moment, Su Qian said to the dozens of Elders gathered, "Prepare the Thousand Layer Sealing Formation!"
